The female knight clad in heavy armor—Xieyi Mayne—completed the “outfit equipped” miracle that only appeared in advertisements the instant she leaped out of the sports car.
In reality, putting on heavy armor required fastening buckles, securing straps, getting help from others, and most importantly, it was exhausting.
But in BHAO, exhaustion was probably a paid DLC, and the Student Council President had clearly purchased the lifetime membership long ago.
At the same time, the warhorse that appeared out of thin air also made its entrance with perfect timing.
Its snow-white mane was so clean it looked like an idealist that had never stepped in mud.
The dynamic painting formed by rider and horse swayed under the racetrack lights, as if someone had slapped the words “Justice” onto the audience’s retinas with a highlight filter.
The female knight’s body curves were nearly perfect.
Even when only showing her back to the audience, it was enough to trigger a wave of screams.
Honestly, at a time like this, I really wanted to remind everyone—you’re screaming for the Student Council President, not some limited idol debut skin.
But I knew better: rationality in the face of excitement was like a plastic bag—one light poke and it burst.
I had to admit—even though I harbored resentment toward this scheming girl, her figure and appearance could truly be described with the overly polite word “stunning.”
Especially when she mounted that snow-white warhorse, the seamless connection between rider and steed delivered a straightforward, almost brutal “refreshing beauty” that struck the admirers straight in the heart.
Ah, how did someone as perfect as the President end up as my childhood friend.
A cold sense of detachment spread through my self-mockery.
Rather than saying it was enviable that “Xieyi Mayne is my childhood friend,” I felt more regretful that I wished I had never had a “childhood friend” relationship—one that could suddenly turn sour one day and leave you falling even harder.
After all, without expectations there would be no disappointment; without memories, you wouldn’t be repeatedly forced to relive them at night.
She rode past me and FLAME STORM on her warhorse, casually sweeping her lance horizontally as if hanging the word “danger” around my neck like a necklace.
—So what should I do now?
The “decisive change” I had hoped for had indeed occurred: Xieyi Mayne had officially entered the arena as JUSTICE PIKE.
The problem was, this change hadn’t pulled me out of my desperate situation.
It had only gilded the walls of this dead end, making it look more like “the stage of fate.”
Should I seize the initiative and attack her first, or continue fighting FLAME STORM to the death?
“Uwah… so he chose the latter?”
While I was still struggling with “who to hit first to lose less,” the heat of fire magic mercilessly pressed toward my face again.
It felt like someone was forcing a bowl of hot soup down my throat and asking if I was moved.
“This guy… looks like he’s planning to fight me to the bitter end!”
I kicked off the ground with my back foot, using the recoil to conserve the mana cost of LIGHT WING.
In theory, this was a very smart move that might even make it into a sports textbook.
But in my current situation, no matter how “smart” I played, it couldn’t change the fact that I was being chased and burned.
The racetrack still had sufficient light sources.
For the Dawn Witch, this should have helped replenish “light source mana.”
However, LIGHT WING’s energy consumption was ridiculously fast—fast like all the short-lived good things in my life: the moment I felt a bit of hope, the next second came the ding of insufficient balance.
Before the decisive moment even arrived, more than half of my light source mana had already been consumed.
This battle truly gave me no room to breathe.
“You’re not treating me as an opponent? Then it looks like I’ll have to show you a move befitting a KING—only then will you get serious!”
Xieyi Mayne pulled the reins with one hand, making the white horse rear up on its front legs.
In her right hand, she raised that imposing lance.
The tip began gathering white light, a clear prelude to a powerful skill.
I definitely have to dodge this one, right?
Battle experience from before made me reflexively activate LIGHT WING and shoot into the air.
The next second, a thick, scorching beam of light swept past my back, swallowing the entire area behind me—including the unlucky FLAME STORM’s position.
The beam sliced through the racetrack as if it were paper, even making the air scream from the heat.
“It’s here! Niya-chan is too excited to put it into words right now! JUSTICE PIKE has just used her most commonly employed skill, SPIRAL LIGHT PIKE! Although this is supposedly just an ordinary skill for the Justice Pike, it requires a relatively long casting time and has enough power that even a graze can take off more than half of an enemy’s HP~”
“Hey, hey, hey… isn’t this a bit too unfair?”
Just an ordinary skill had this kind of power and area of effect.
Honestly, this had gone beyond “strong.”
This was throwing “fairness” into a blender, turning it into foam, and then serving it to everyone to drink.
“It’s basically on the level of a LAST SKILL, right?”
The originally smooth asphalt on the racetrack had been carved into a shallow trench by that single strike.
The scorched smell stung my nose as white smoke drifted above the trench like a mocking subtitle aimed at my life: See?
Even the ground is injured. What makes you think you shouldn’t be?
—Just the opening strike of the Reward Match was powerful enough to damage the duel arena itself.
Was this the true power of JUSTICE PIKE?
I lowered my body, trying to reduce my presence. But such behavior required the premise that “Xieyi Mayne doesn’t know Yae Yoruichi,” and that premise itself was a joke.
Of course she knew me. She simply chose not to treat me as “someone who deserves to be taken seriously.”
“I’m really happy, Yoruichi.”
Xieyi Mayne didn’t pay any attention to FLAME STORM’s condition.
Instead, she walked toward me.
Her tone was excessively gentle, like a blade coated in sugar frosting.
“After I learned you could use skills and even defeated a seeded player from the preliminary round, I couldn’t wait to congratulate you—but the Yoruichi in front of me right now feels so unfamiliar.”
Unfamiliar?
Hearing that word, I almost laughed out loud.
The one who was unfamiliar wasn’t me.
It was her face that had cleanly severed the past, the way she treated our relationship like a chat log she could delete at any time, then acted innocent like “Oh, where did it go?”
I gripped the PRISM STAFF tightly.
The pristine, dazzling staff shaped like a sword flashed in my hand, as if urging me: Stop talking. Act.
“No matter what—” When I spoke, a layer of bitterness pressed against my throat, “The one who told me not to follow you was you. The one who said someone as useless as me should be exiled sooner was also you. And now the one pretending to want to acknowledge my existence, waiting for me to let my guard down just to humiliate me again—is still you, Xieyi Mayne.”
The audience and Niya-chan probably couldn’t hear the dialogue inside the duel arena.
That meant I could finally spit out everything I had been swallowing.
Even if spitting it out wouldn’t change anything, at least I wouldn’t suffocate myself to death.
“The one who changed is you, Mayne. No matter how close we used to be, ever since the day you got your BHAO virtual character—you became like someone under a curse. You went crazy fighting others, crazily raising your Tier, and then kicked me out of your life as cleanly as throwing away an old piece of clothing.”
The bitterness in my mouth grew stronger.
It was the kind of bitterness that could only grow in contrast to past sweetness.
People who had never been happy didn’t suffer, because they didn’t know what loss felt like.
“Since you’ve already gotten what you wanted—why are you looking back? Xieyi Mayne, what exactly is your goal?”
She fell silent.
Meanwhile, the pre-cast preparation for my PRISM STAFF was complete.
Even if a single direct ray didn’t deal much damage—I wasn’t going to wait for the miracle of “her willingly explaining.”
Miracles had always only happened to other people.
“Since you don’t want to answer me—at least for the sake of our past as childhood friends, I’ll take the first hit!”
I swung the PRISM STAFF upward.
A brilliant, rainbow-colored straight beam burst from the tip.
Zzzzt—
The scorching multicolored rainbow light pierced through the heavy knight armor.
Success!
But reality immediately reminded me: momentum was not the same as damage.
That beam only shaved off an extremely thin layer of HP from above JUSTICE PIKE’s head.
It was like I had thrown a desperate punch, only to make her cloak flutter slightly.
“The first damage dealt to a KING has appeared! It’s still that UNKNOWN NAME WARRIOR who has given everyone so many surprises!”
The spectator stands instantly boiled over.
The heat felt like molten iron pouring into my ears.
“Hey, hey, this guy isn’t using some kind of cheat plugin, is he?!”
“I didn’t expect UNKNOWN NAME WARRIOR to be this strong. We really underestimated him before.”
“This Reward Match is getting interesting…”
***
Niya-chan was very good at stirring emotions.
She turned everything into a story, and I just happened to be standing in the center of that story, pretending to be the protagonist.
Guh… It looks like the battles that can truly prove myself are the ones against a KING.
I hoped that after this match, there would be fewer hateful gazes.
Though I also knew that when people hated you, even your breathing was wrong.
When they didn’t hate you, even your mistakes would be called cute. The world was just that unreasonable.
I forced a smile and used a backflip combined with LIGHT WING’s recoil to create distance.
However, in the next instant, a tearing pain exploded in my left shoulder. It felt like someone was hooking my nerves and yanking them out.
Ugh… Dammit.
The pain stole my judgment. I lost balance in mid-air and was knocked to the ground by the unexpected attack.
“You were so focused on attacking the KING that you forgot to watch out for the other enemy… That’s a mistake you really shouldn’t have made.”
Blue flames ignited on my left shoulder. It wasn’t the aftermath of Mayne’s attack, but FLAME STORM’s hidden technique.
The pain was sharp and persistent, as if reminding me: Don’t forget you’re the pitiful one being attacked from both sides.
My green HP bar instantly dropped to only a quarter, and it was still slowly decreasing due to the blue flame’s burning effect.
“Such high power… This attack—is this what a classic high-damage fire mage from RPGs looks like?”
The blue flames in the distance gave off an eerie glow.
That color didn’t look like fire; it looked more like a curse.
In other words, this was most likely FLAME STORM’s fifth skill.
In the lower-tier preliminary round, most underclassmen were around Tier 7. As a Tier 9 player, FLAME STORM definitely had one more skill slot than them.
I clenched my fists.
This blue flame skill had a long charge time, but its accuracy and power were both high. Relying on the “normal acceleration” of LIGHT WING to dodge it had too low a success rate.
“Has the situation against FLAME STORM already reached the point where I have no choice but to use the Night Witch’s power?”
The Dawn Witch was originally a form meant to compensate for the Night Witch’s lack of follow-up damage.
Using her alone as a virtual character… was indeed too forced. It was as ridiculous as trying to live solely on confidence.
Sorry, Yune… I don’t know what will happen if my identity is exposed, but it’s still better than getting expelled from Blue Sea Academy.
The blue fireball had already finished forming. If I dodged in advance, there might be a chance of success.
But I wasn’t going to leave my fate to probability. Probability had always only favored those who “were going to win anyway.”
FLAME STORM’s blue flames approached with tracking properties.
As I thought… I was right. The reason it could hit me at such close range before was definitely because of BHAO’s system guidance and semi-auto tracking.
Niya-chan’s voice rang in my ears like a funeral host:
“Oh my! FLAME STORM seems to have an astonishing fixation on UNKNOWN NAME WARRIOR! If he takes this attack, UNKNOWN NAME WARRIOR will be eliminated! So what will this nameless warrior who has given everyone endless surprises do now?”
I took a deep breath.
Then, as if treating the word “escape” like a life-saving straw, I issued the command:
“NIGHT DAWN!”
Under the cover of CHASE THE STARDUST, the white light vanished in an instant, immediately swallowed by dense darkness.
My body felt like it was being pressed into a two-dimensional sheet of paper.
The familiar shadow sensation enveloped me, as if returning to the place I was most skilled at—returning to the world where I could solve problems by “disappearing.”
“So… can this so-called guidance system still track a two-dimensional being?”
An inappropriate confidence crept onto my face.
The familiar feeling of becoming the Night Witch made me feel like a fish returning to water—of course, provided the water wasn’t boiling.
I raised my gaze and locked onto FLAME STORM not far away.
“Try my scythe—FLAME STORM.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.