“Innnnteresting~,” Cynrik mused while setting his coffee mug down on the table in front of the couch and leaning forward.

“If what you said is true, then I guess I will have to show a few extra cards I didn’t want to; oh well, obtaining off of a single event will look good on paper for us.” Shrugging his shoulders and getting up, Cynrik shook his arms and crossed them before shooting a knowing glance at Brance.

Not much needed to be said between the two brothers, as if they could get 20 points off the Swarm event alone, then they would technically win their first round since the win condition in the early rounds is the first team to reach 20 points.

“Hold up, I forgot to mention; the instant win condition has changed due to the bonus point addition. Now, to secure a win without finishing all the events, you need to reach 30 points.” Cutting in and stopping Cynrik before his head got too big, Garrison dropped another bombshell.

“Uh, in theory, couldn’t we earn more than 30….” Still visibly uncomfortable, Kurza raised his hand as if in class and asked.

“Well, yeah, but it would be a moot point if we did that. Considering the way the grading scale works is the first team to get 30 points wins the match, we only need to…oh, that’s not a bad idea, new hire.” Smacking his forehead and cutting off his sentence early, realization dawned on Cynrik as he caught on to what Kurza was stating.

“If we broke the record in both Swarm, and either Search, Retrieve, Destroy, or Accuracy, then we would reach 35 points and instantly win Round One, on top of having an additional 5 points to carry over for Round two.” Walking over and patting Kurza’s shoulder for praise, Cynrik turned and faced Gabby and Melody.

“Do you guys think you can break the previous record in your event? Or should we push for breaking Romeoville’s Record?” He asked, causing the two girls to fall deep into thought.

“If we want to break the five-minute record of 1411 crushes, then we need to reach a combined 283 target crushes within 60 seconds. My best so far was only 141, and Melody’s was 84. We need to make up the 58-point difference, but I think we should be able.” After running the numbers and looking up the previous record, Gabby met Cynrik’s questioning gaze and answered.

“Hm, alright, we will keep it in our back pocket then. For now, Brance and I will push to break the Swarm record, and we need to see the map and how well Romeoville handles Search, Retrieve, Destroy. If they don’t somehow break their record, and the stars align, we will try and break it, even if we have to make some questionable decisions.” Nodding his head in affirmation, Cynrik walked to the kitchen and placed his dirty mug in the sink.

“You guys… I don’t know why I am even surprised at this point. Never have I heard someone talk about breaking NATIONAL RECORDS as if they were choosing an outfit to wear for the day.” Massaging his temples, Geralt once again examined the members of MyrkLys before giving up trying to rationalize this group of students.

“Cheer up, Headmaster; I have long since learned never to gamble against these guys. Just let me know ahead of time so that I can bet all my money on the outcome.”

“You are better off following me on this one; at least that way, you can earn back some of that deposit you lost due to Cynrik’s little experiment.” Slapping Geralt on the back hard enough to move the man, Garrison teased while flicking one of the metal panels hard enough to make a loud *THRUUM* sound.

“Tsk, every minute I spend around Cynrik and now you, Garrison, I can feel my brain cells slowly evaporating. We need to head out; double-check you have your gear.” Smacking away Garrison’s hand, making the large man chuckle, Geralt attempted to take control before spinning on his heels and storming off toward the door.

In response, every member of MyrkLys looked behind them at their Leader, who smirked, “You heard the man; let’s go.”

With that, everyone got to their feet as Cynrik unlocked the door and allowed everyone to exit. However, when he stepped into the hallway, Cynrik was sure to triple-check that nothing had infiltrated the Condo and set up the security systems since no one would stay behind.

—

The trek toward the Arena went smoothly, but even so, Cynrik and Brance still caught sight of more than a hundred beings hiding in wait. Of the on-lookers, Cynrik determined that two types of people were monitoring MyrkLys’ every move.

First was the people trying to scry or gather potentially unknown information about the group. To the brothers, this group was harmless, so Cynrik paid them almost no mind and settled on only monitoring them as they walked.

Now, the second group was the one that had Brance and Cynrik on high alert. The second type of person stuck out like a sore thumb because each of them was fully decked out in combat gear while hiding in opportunistic vantage points. It was clear they were biding their time and waiting for a potential opening to present itself so they could attack, kidnap, or injure one of the high-profile members of MyrkLys.

Upon making this observation, Cynrik tightened the faction’s formation, drawing a curious glance from Geralt. Still, he was quick to catch on to what was happening, so he casually looked around and, within a few seconds, could locate most of the people Cynrik was weary of.

Since the Condo was pretty close to the Arena, the walk only took about 10 minutes. However, those ten minutes were tense, as everyone knew what Cynrik’s subtle actions meant.

Luckily, either due to Geralt’s presence with the group or the lack of a suitable opportunity, none of the hidden assailants struck out, and MyrkLys arrived at the Arena unscathed.

After going through the bothersome check-in process, Geralt guided the team to meet with the Tier-1 and Tier-2 Teams. As one would expect, upon arriving, Cynrik separated MyrkLys from the other two groups, causing a bit of tension between them and the others, but this was brushed off by the Instructors and Chaperones and chalked up to nervousness.

Especially since all of MyrkLys had their Game faces on, thus, no one commented on the antisocial Tier-3 team. Once everyone was gathered, Geralt stepped up to address the students.

“Listen up, compared to yesterday, the Arena’s floor plan has been completely re-arranged. Gone is the open space, and now there are sectioned-off box areas where you will find two sets of seven Virtual Immersion capsules.”

“The capsules are color-coded, and I have already chosen we will be in the red colored ones, so when your time to compete arrives, I expect each of you to find a capsule quickly as possible and stand beside it professionally.”

“If you have a pet, or Beast companion, be sure you bring it in the capsule with you, as it needs to be scanned if you wish to use it during your event.”

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