The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 552 : KISSES AND SECRETS (2)

When Alex came to, she was in a very dark cell in what appeared to be a prison where she could barely see the bars and smell the decaying, rancid air all around her.

The only clear thing was that, in front of her, there was a system notification screen.

ENEMIES MEET ACROSS BARS, YET THE SADIST WARDEN JUDGES THEM ALL!

IF YOU WANT TO BE CRUEL TO YOUR ENEMY, BE PREPARED TO BE CRUEL TO YOURSELF!

As soon as Alex finished reading the notification, the world lit up with a myriad of torches, revealing not only her narrow, dirty cell, but also the corridor across the bars and the cell on the other side.

There, a familiar young man was standing; apparently he had also just finished reading his notification.

“Sebastian!” Alex exclaimed in shock as she recognized her opponent. What kind of bad luck was this, facing this damn guy again? Why? WHY?

“Enemies really meet on a narrow road!” Sebastian, who had put Alex’s name as the guy he wanted to fight most, couldnʼt help but chuckle as he saw the face of his opponent. “Prepare to die fucker!” he spat as he took a sinister slim dagger out of nowhere and threw it from between the bars.

PING!

Alex immediately pulled her spear to parry, but the sensation of something hitting it never came.

The dagger seemed to have hit an invisible wall in the corridor between the two and fell to the floor, twirling a bit before stopping next to Sebastianʼs cell.

“Idiot… Didn’t you read the rules…” Alex couldn’t help but say. She really hated those guys who attacked immediately before thinking!

Sebastian frowned, rereading the rules. He just skipped over them earlier…. Damn it! He couldn’t attack directly?! Then…

OH! He quickly figured out how this game worked.

He looked around first, searching for the said warden, but the corridor was empty… Thinking a bit, he looked toward Alex, then, as a cruel smile spread across his face, he took another one of those daggers and slashed his arm diagonally. “Let’s try this…”

“Hsssss….. YOU….” Alex hissed as she pulled her sleeve. A nasty wound similar to that on Sebastian’s side had spread on her forearm!

“Ho…So it really works like that…” Sebastian said, contemplating a bit as he activated his eternal Healing skill, allowing his wound to start to close up at a visible rate. He looked at the opposite cell.

As expected. Alex’s wound didn’t heal!

“Shit…” She couldn’t help but swallow. Damn it! THIS WAS CHEATING! DAMN IT!

“It seems like… We are going to have a lot of fun today!” Sebastian said with a deep smile. Ever since meeting Alex for the first time, he felt that his usual good luck turned sour. Finally, it seemed like his good luck had returned! This was his chance to finally defeat this bastard! “Let’s try something else!” he said as he grabbed onto the bars with one hand, then used the other to strike his thigh with the dagger, not vertically but horizontally, immediately severing one of the hamstrings.

“Ahhhhhhhh……” Alex immediately leaned onto the wall as she screamed in pain after losing the strength in her leg. “You bastard…” she hissed as she looked at her opponent.

“We are just getting started…” Sebastian, who had a cruel smile, began moving the dagger in his own thigh, carving skin and arteries alike!

“Ah…………Nooooooooooooooo ………….. Stop…..” Alex fell to the ground as she held onto her thigh that began to bleed like crazy, screaming in pain.

“Make me…” Sebastian said as he activated his healing skill, allowing his thigh to heal, but leaving Alex’s looking like a tangled mess!.

“You…… FINE! TIME FOR PAYBACK!” Alex, with a cruel face, knew that she couldnʼt delay this any longer, or she would be in deep shit. So she took out a small dagger that was a gift from her wife, then, taking a deep breath, she shoved it directly into her own crotch….. Sure, cutting that bit of skin is going to hurt her a bit, but for the other guy….

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” an inhuman scream reverberated in the entire prison before the world swirled, turning from that prison cell back into the endless white emptiness.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

BATTLE ENDED

YOU HAVE BROKEN THE CIVILITY RULE AND MADE THE WARDEN UPSET.

YOU LOSE!

“WHAT?” Alex stood there grimacing in pain and read the notification with annoyance. “Civility my ass!” she spat angrily.

Well… Losing one time didn’t matter; at the very least, she survived that self-mutilating psycho. Hopefully, after that, Sebastian would learn his lesson, though, and stop bothering her in the future!

Sighing, she took a bandage and began to wrap her thigh, then she grabbed a golden healing pill and popped it in her mouth. This thing would take some time to work, but thankfully she had enough time until the next round.

***

“LEVI NO!” Martin, the patriarch of the von Zwei family, screamed grimly as he stood up, eyeing a still screen in the sky in absolute shock. “DAMN IT!”

It was of a familiar young woman in a black latex dress using an absurdly huge ax to cut him in half in what seemed to be an ancient, gloomy arena.

In the image, his two halves, which were surrounded by a myriad of sliced ghouls, were looking in shock at her as they were in the midst of splitting apart.

KEY NUMBER 0371 WINS

KEY NUMBER 0419 LOSES [ERADICATED]

The eradicated word meant one thing that needed no explanation…. Levi was dead for real! As for the culprit, it was none other than that bitch Rita went after escaping. The ones who broke into their clan and destroyed the servers back then were definitely related to the Von Weise family.

“DAMN THOSE VON WEISE… IF I DON’T ERADICATE THEIR ENTIRE CLAN I…”

“Martin, calm down… Don’t forget that we gave him the Clan’s Abyssal Gem before going in…” an elder to the side said. “Once the world’s ownership is decided, and the portal opens, we will only need to ask our friends to grab him for us…!”

“... A DEATH IS A DEATH… And revenge is a must…. “ Martin spat. “And whether my son managed to survive that hell until it was time is another matter on its own!” he added as he looked at the image. Now, he could only hope his other agents wouldn’t be so useless… WAit… “Isn’t that girl Diana?” he asked, noticing another screen where a familiar servant from his clan was on her knees, having just lost a fight to a boy no older than 13 who had his sword on her neck!

“Ah… Yes… After the Von Geldstadt wedding plan failed, she was ordered to stay low… What is she doing here?” the elder exclaimed.

“No idea… This day keeps getting stranger….”

***

“Is it me or are people being matched with their enemies here?” Iris asked, looking at many results. She wasn’t familiar with a lot of people, but she knew about Rita’s story.

“There might be some truth to that!” Theodore replied. Thankfully, Victor was not here, or that idiot would have defiantly had his ass kicked as quite a few people didnʼt like him, especially those women from the top clans.

“Look, big sis, Alice seemed to have also finished…. Was she the winner or the loser?” she asked with a blush as she looked at the image. In it, Alice was being surrounded by what looked like a huge centipede, and a young man was grabbing onto her body, pulling her into a kiss.

“Probably the loser… But it doesn’t matter!” Theodore sighed, looking at Yulian with complex eyes. Although he didn’t like this young man a lot when he met him at the wedding, seeing how he was managing to tame his daughter, he felt that he was ok!

“A lot of people seem to be getting defeated by a kiss today!” Iris chuckled and said. First Lily and then Alice…

“Well, it is better than a castration…” he didn’t continue as he noticed a newly appearing result showing two people, one of whom he recognized as Victorʼs servant, Alex, who had a dagger piercing down there…. The other was a familiar-looking boy who was screaming as he grabbed his own crotch and blood soaked his pants.

He really spoke too early. This damn tournament was probably going to go into history as the one with the most dick casualties!

With that thought, Theodore looked at Max. At least, his son’s name would be remembered for something!

“Look, itʼs Roy!” one of Theodore’s daughters, Roxy, who didn’t qualify in the previous round, suddenly said, making all the family members look toward where she was looking.

In the photo, a haggard Roy was hugging a girl in the midst of a field full of goblin corpses. There were a ton of them, forming mounds over mounds as far as the eye could see.

KEY NUMBER 0511 WINS

KEY NUMBER 0109 WINS

“Wah… They both won?” Iris asked in surprise.

“It seems this tournament also has cooperative games!” Theodore said. “Look, he even got the girl! That’s my son!” he chuckled.

“...” Hearing him, not only his mother Ann, but all the elders on the Balcony rolled their eyes at the same time. Is that what you are proud about?

Max, who sat on the other side, cursed silently in jealousy. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIM OUT THERE! DAMN IT!

“WAIT… Is that Caspian?” Iris suddenly exclaimed. She still remembered what that arrogant guy looked like!

Not only Theodore, but many on the Von Weise balcony turned to look as they all held grudges against that guy after the scandal at Victorʼs wedding; the elders felt his actions of stealing a Von Weise bride were an insult to their family’s honor.

Anyways, it took them a moment to find the relative image, but as they spotted it, they began hissing one by one.

Not only them; a hissing wave spread along all the blondies as everyone finally got to see it.

Caspian riding Caspian… From the way it looked, both of them were enjoying it.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD?

***

WOOOOOOOM

Tulip immediately went into defense as the world swirled around her before she appeared in a strange cave that seemed to be volcanic due to the hot air and the lava ponds around, which were the source of the eerie red light that illuminated this place.

Quickly, she began to look for her supposed opponent, but unlike the first battle where she was matched against one of her old rejected pursuers, this time she was alone. Only a strange system notification was visible in front of her.

THE BURNING TEMPLE OF ORVIC.

FOLLOW THE PATH TILL YOU CAN NO LONGER PROCEED. YOUR OPPONENT WILL BE COMING FROM THE OTHER SIDE

IF YOU FAIL TO REACH THE END IN 2 HOURS, YOU LOSE REGARDLESS.

THE ONE WHO DRINKS THE LAVA BLOOD WINS!

“Oh…” Tulip frowned. This was not a direct fight, but probably an endurance test. Well, she was not scared!

With that thought, she began to walk, following the Lava streams that seemed to be forming a river going down!

The cave’s ceiling seemed to be natural, but the path tilting slightly downwards under her feet was fully paved with strange black stones with a dedicated channel for the Lava. What was at this path’s end? She wondered.

At first, the path was easy, but as she went down, she began to notice it. The temperature kept getting higher and higher as her path spiraled downward, making her feel a bit annoyed. It was as if she was walking in a furnace!

Sighing, she quickly took out her umbrella and opened it. The zone around her cooled down almost immediately, as if it was severed from the world around. With a smirk, she continued to walk down, wondering who her opponent would be.

Could it be that Vic Volt bastard? After reading his name in the question’s player list, she had long realized that he must be the one behind that commentary earlier.

Although she was tempted at the time, she didn’t write this when answering. Her intuition that she always trusted told her that this tournament was not a good place to kick that bastard’s ass. Still, according to what her master told her, the tournament would definitely match her with people she knew. It was meant to test her after all….

“...” she sighed. If what her master told her was true, she really needed to do her best… The Destiny dungeon that would be opened to the survival of this place wasn’t only about who would be the emperor, but it involved the future of this entire world! If the candidates failed, it would give otherworldly invaders who had been eyeing this world the chance they always wanted!

Wondering about a million things, Tulip made her way down easily thanks to her skills and gear. Thankfully, unlike that first round where she could only use one rusty sword, she was allowed to use everything here, or it would have been problematic, as she kinda hated the heat.

Anyway, the path around her slowly ended as the closed cave opened into a huge lava lake where hundreds of lava streams poured in from all around.

Inspecting her surroundings, Tulip quickly found her target. It was a large platform in the middle of the lake where a huge alien-looking temple was built. To reach it, she had to tread over some broken stairway that would definitely fall into the lava below after every step!

Tulip quickly charted a path, then used her umbrella to skip over them, ignoring them as they fell into pieces, making a huge splash in the lava below after she stepped away.

Making sure not to let any of the Lava splashes touch her dress, she climbed over the scalding hot steps one after another until she reached the end high up and looked at the grand gate built there, carved out of stone.

It was open…

A bad feeling brewed in Tulip’s heart as she pushed the gate, and there inside, a strange beast with strange red, scalded skin was standing in front of the altar with a cup in his hand…

“JUICY!” the beast exclaimed as he looked at her with shocked, human-like round eyes.

“BASTARD, HOW DARE YOU CALL ME THAT NAME…. WAIT….. You… LIAM?” Tulip gasped in shock. This was no beast, but that fat pig Liam she met at the moon dungeon. His skin was all red and swollen, though, full of scars. “Did you swim here in the lava or something…” she asked as she further inspected his body before quickly looking at his face again as she realized that he was completely naked!

“I kinda fell, and found it didn’t hurt that much…” he said as he hid his crouch with one hand and used the other to put the goblet to his mouth.

“WAIT… STOP RIGHT THERE…. DROP THAT DAM GOBLET!” she screamed and ran toward him as she finally noticed what was in his hand.

“Hell no…” he quickly buttoned up and gobbled down the red liquid in the goblet, letting half of it fall into his bare chest.

“You….” She didn’t even reach him when the world twirled around her, and the next moment she was back at the white space.

OPPONENT BEAT YOU TO THE GOBLET AND DRANK THE LAVE BLOOD

YOU LOSE

”WHAT?”

TULIP VON KRONE

KEY NUMBER 0051

CONTESTANT NUMBER 766

WINS: 1

LOSES: 1

BATTLES: 2/10

“DAMN THAT BASTARD…. WHY IS HE HERE?” she asked angrily. Sadly, there was no one to answer her.

***

Victor who waited for more than an hour slowly opened his eyes as the timer reached zero, then that twirling feeling hit him again as the world turned black.

Here it comes!

WARNING

MEMORY MANIPULATION SKILL MEMORY STREAM, SS IS TRYING TO AFFECT YOU, DO YOU WANT TO ALLOW IT?

PLEASE SELECT

”>

! then the world continued to twirl to throw him at his next Match.”> Again? Victor naturally hit ! then the world continued to twirl to throw him at his next Match.