Black Online-Chapter 186: Beatdown

’This should work.’

Quinn nudged his glasses up his nose bridge, and he smiled as if he was thinking that the victory was already in his pocket.

For the duration of the last night, he was thinking hard about his approach for the first round and came up with a rather simple one.

’I will just try to take the map control by taking over the center. Whether he’ll try to destroy my tower or attack me, both will be futile if I control the map.’

Quinn thought with a smile on his face.

Then, he looked at the finalized roster of his team while the countdown for the start of the match was slowly ticking down.

***

[Quinn’s Team]

[Ranger - Skill: Arrow Rain]

[Ranger - Skill: Arrow Rain]

[Mage - Skill: Earth Wall]

***

[00:30...]

[00:29...]

[00:28...]

’28 seconds, and then the match will start.’

Quinn took a deep breath.

He looked at his opponent and saw that he was pretty calm for a rookie, but of course, it was possible that he was faking it.

"Have you already seen the prize money for this tournament?"

Quinn asked.

"...No, I forgot to check."

Fang Raon said.

"The first place will get 250,000 gold coins. The second place will get 150,000 gold coins. Third place will get 100,000 gold coins, and for fourth place, you’ll get 50,000 gold coins."

Quinn said.

While he himself didn’t think that he had much of a chance to get any of the prize money, he wanted to put some pressure on Fang Raon.

’I am sure that he is currently thinking ’Wow, that’s so much money. I can’t fail now!’ and it’ll put even more pressure on him, and I will use that to my advantage.

’However, since he is a rookie, there is no snowball chance in hell that he’ll get anywhere close to winning!’

Quinn thought with a smirk.

’Wow, that’s so much money.’

Fang Raon actually thought and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

’However, it doesn’t change anything. If I win any money, that’s good, but I can’t be foolish enough to have my hopes up too high. I am just a rookie, after all.’

[00:10...]

[00:09...]

’Nine seconds. Let’s do this.’

Fang Raon steeled his nerves and watched as the countdown slowly ticked down, and it soon reached zero.

In that moment, at every table in the Tournament Hall, the match started, and the players fell deadly silent.

The holographic battlefield appeared on the table, and the battlefield actually mimicked the outline of St. Bella Village!

Plenty of cottages. Open streets. Like a miniature town. It was completely different from the island battlefield.

’The battlefield is St. Bella Village, huh?’

Fang Raon thought.

In that moment, he activated the "Speed Man" skill on Warrior and dashed straight towards the center of the village.

His Mage and other Warrior followed behind, but they couldn’t keep up with the speedy Warrior, but that was alright.

In that moment, his gaze fell on Quinn’s soldiers, and he saw that he chose two Rangers and one Mage—just like he predicted.

’There are a lot of rooftops, so that’ll be excellent for Rangers.’

Fang Raon thought.

Meanwhile, Quinn looked very serious as he had his soldiers run towards the center of the map but realized that he wouldn’t reach it first.

’Rangers are the fastest class alongside Assassins, so I thought that I would be able to reach the center of the map first.

’However, that guy’s Warrior is so insanely quick. He must’ve chosen Speed Man skill!’

Quinn realized that it wasn’t possible for him to take control of the center of the map, so he changed his strategy.

’To the rooftops, go!’

The two Rangers jumped to the nearest cottage rooftops, and with their bows at the ready, they were prepared to rain hell from the sky.

’It looks like he has changed his plan. Let’s get to higher ground as well.’

Fang Raon controlled his soldiers, and they took control of the rooftop that was right in the middle of the battlefield.

’His Rangers are so far that they cannot attack my tower, and they’re slightly out of range of my soldiers as well. He has to approach us first if he wants to do something.’

Fang Raon thought.

He didn’t mind if Quinn just made his Rangers use Rain Arrow and made himself exhausted.

With each spell, he would exhaust his mental strength, and thus, he couldn’t just spam Rain Arrow till he killed everyone.

"Earth Wall."

Fang Raon controlled his Mage, and a thick-looking earth wall rose from the tiles of the rooftop and extended outward.

It was a thick barrier, designed to protect the soldiers from the possible rain of arrows that could come from the enemy.

’I don’t have to make a move. He is the one that has to make a move. He has two Warriors in his roster!’

Quinn thought with a serious look.

’I got Rangers, so I can attack from far, but he has to come to me if he wants to win. In close range, I won’t stand a chance against those Warriors.

’I can just wait. I don’t care how long it takes!’

Quinn thought.

However, for the games to not strech for an infinite amount of time, these tournament matches also had a time limit.

A time limit of 30 minutes.

The winner would be decided on how much damage was done to their opponent or to the tower.

So, Quinn was chilling, and if nothing happened before the last minute, he would do a quick last attack to do even one point of damage to Fang Raon’s tower so that he would win.

’I expected this.’

Fang Raon thought with a smile after seeing Quinn not planning to attack.

That was fine.

He expected that.

’I’ll attack then.’

Fang Raon controlled his strength-based Warrior, who suddenly grabbed the speedy Warrior from the back collar of his neck.

"Strength Man!"

In that moment.

The strong Warrior suddenly hurled the speedy Warrior across the air—he was flying through the air like a cannonball.

’What the hell?!’

Quinn watched as the Warrior flew straight at them, and he had never seen such strategy used before.

"Rain Arrow!"

He controlled his Rangers, and they pulled their bowstrings in intention to take down the Warrior before he landed.

But.

They were too slow.

Warrior landed at their rooftop—the sword was already in hand—and he then swung it through the air.

The sword’s sharp blade cut through the bows, through the arms of the Rangers, and sliced whatever body armor they were wearing.

"Ngh?!"

Quinn’s eyes shook.

His Rangers—now without arms and their bows—couldn’t do anything except watch as the sword came straight back at them.

With another swing, the two Rangers died.

"Earth Wall!"

Quinn controlled his Mage, who cast the Earth Wall to block off Warrior, but he just jumped over it and swung the sword.

This time around.

The sword swung down on Mage’s shoulder, leaving a deep gash in his body, and the grimoire fell out of his hand.

’Finish it!’

Fang Raon ordered.

In that moment, Warrior drove his sword through the body of Mage, and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I-It can’t be..."

Quinn turned limp in his chair and watched with a blank look as an interface notification appeared on the screen.

[Winner - Fang Raon!]

"Good match."

Fang Raon said.

"Y-You lied..."

Quinn whimpered and then angrily turned to Fang Raon, looking to be at the brink of tears.

"You aren’t a rookie, you goddamn liar!"

"Believe it or not, I actually am."

Fang Raon wryly smiled, stood up from the chair, and at that moment, a referee came over to note down the result.

"Take this to the desk at the front. Congratulations on passing on to the next round."

The referee ripped a page from his notebook and handed it to Fang Raon, who nodded and headed out.

Quinn covered his head with his hands and screamed before angrily logging out of the game for now.

’The front desk... the front desk... the front desk...’

Fang Raon walked out of the hall and found the front desk near the entrance—some young woman was sitting behind it.

"I was told to bring this."

He said, and placed the paper on the desk.

"Oh, your match already ended? That was quick. Yes, we take the results of the matches here and assign you to the next round!"

The young woman said with a smile, then took a look at the paper, and then moved to the board on the back.

The board had the entire tournament bracket on it, and then she moved one nametag—Fang Raon—out of the round of 256 and into the round of 128.

"The next round will start within an hour, so stay around the Tournament Hall, as the exact time will be announced once all matches are concluded."

The young woman said with a smile.

"Okay."

Fang Raon left the front desk and, at the same time, noticed that other matches were also starting to wrap up slowly.

Some matches were closer than others, but some were a complete beatdown.

"...Hehe, yes, exactly~ Mmh, correct."

At that moment, Fang Raon stopped in his tracks as he noticed two women talking near the entrance—he recognized both.

"...Yours ended quickly. I didn’t know you were that good~"

Lady Diana covered her mouth and giggled.

"I’ve played for fun before, but now I’ve decided to give the tournament a go. So far, so good."

Fang Anna said with a pretty smile on her face.

She seemed to be familiar with Lady Diana, as they were talking like they were old friends who knew each other.

’Shit...’

Fang Raon grimaced.

In that moment, Lady Diana looked over to him and noticed that he was looking over at them, and with a smile, she waved him over.

"Fang Raon~ Come join us!"

She said.

At that moment, Anna looked over with a smile, but for some strange reason, she acted like she didn’t know him.

"Ah, who is this?"