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The next day (In-game time), the Shadow Ranking Cup resumed its second stage. And since the stage was already in the semi-finals round, all of the players wanted to watch their respective bets and favorites didn't have much trouble at choosing the matchups that they wanted to spectate.
At the same time, the tickets of the famous contestants were already been sold out just like yesterday. But as usual, Shin's fight was still underrated. Even if he had those flashy opponent-execution from his previous fights, those were still not enough for the die-hard fans of the other contenders.
Well, Shin actually didn't care about it anymore. He just wanted to end this stage to end so that he could advance for the next last and final stage. He didn't even put his opponents in his eyes anymore, especially now that he already experienced how powerful a monster like Faker was.
It didn't mean that he was underestimating his opponent too much, it just compared to Faker, his current opponents were not even close in terms of skills and techniques. Shin might have a tough time during that 'sparring match', but he was at least able to hold himself all the way until Faker suddenly burst with great power.
Right now, Shin was current in his usual in-game meditation while he was waiting for the next round to start. And based on the atmosphere that was surrounding him, he seemed to be too eager to start another fight; he really wanted to try out the new things that he picked up with sparring with Faker.
At the same time, Arthur and Leonard were not present in his room. Those two said that they needed to do something in the Real World, so they went offline and left Shin inside the room. What's more, they also felt that there was no need to watch Shin's next fight after seeing his performance during the sparring match. So, they just left off to do their own stuff.
After quite some time of waiting, the semi-finals round of the tournament's second stage finally started. And right after hearing that system notification, Shin immediately hit the accept button without further ado. Then he was teleported to the place where the next match was going to take place.
Swoosh!
A moment later, Shin appeared at the edge of the battle arena prepared for the current round. The arena wasn't much different from the previous plain gladiator-like arena. The only difference was the statue of a knight standing at the very center of the arena.
And one the things that put the little difference on this current round was the position of the two participants. Instead of standing in the middle of the arena with a few meters between each other, the two players were now standing at the edge of the battle arena opposite to each other.
The new setup seemed to be a little disadvantageous to Shin since he couldn't use his signature opening move anymore. Though, it didn't much affect the outcome of this battle from his perspective.
After taking a quick look at the surrounding, Shin turned his attention to his opponent at the other side of the battle arena. And since the latter was quite far from him, he couldn't read the basic information of this current opponent. But that didn't mean that couldn't see the figure of his opponent and the equipments that he was currently wearing. And from the looks of it, his opponent this time was a Specter Master Assassin.
"Eh!? He is going first, huh?" muttered Shin as he saw who was his opponent this time. "Ivan, the Broken Shadow, huh?"
Shin couldn't help but shook his head the moment he saw this. Then he raised his head once again to look at his opponent for another time while having a pitying expression on his face. "Well, too bad for him, I just met a real monster assassin before coming here."
When those words left his mouth, the countdown on the arena clock also hit zero at the same time to signify the start of the match.
After that, Ivan immediately entered stealth as he clearly understood that he needed to be wary of Shin's speed and swift attacking spree. He was planning to hide from his opponent's sight and stalked Shin from the shadows.
It was common for someone with a thief-related class to use this kind of strategy; it was a common thing. Unfortunately for him, he picked the wrong opponent to use this strategy onto. And since Shin's True Sight Skill was still activated, he could tell where Ivan was moving to; especially that there were actually very few people that could have a stealth ability that could bypass this ocular skill.
Moreover, Ivan couldn't see that Shin was wearing a mask to cover his face. Plus, there was also the hood of his cloak hanging on top of his head. So, it was close to impossible to notice that Shin was actually using an ocular skill.
Due to this, Ivan got too confident about his stealth and circled towards Shin without knowing that he was actually clowning about himself. And when he reached the 5-meter range away from Shin, Ivan also reached his ideal attacking range.
He was planning to make his move at this point of time but before he could even make his move, he suddenly saw Shin shaking his head as if he was ridiculing something. And even if he didn't know the reason behind that, Ivan couldn't help but become agitated as he could clearly feel that that ridiculing was actually directed to him.
Given that, he suddenly gritted his teeth in anger and immediately launched himself towards Shin while also swinging both of his daggers at the same time.
His speed was actually much faster compared to most of the players on their current level, and if he was actually ambushing someone else, then he would surely be able to catch his target completely off-guard while also killing them in the process.
But compared to Faker's speed, this guy was actually much slower instead. So, right before he could even reach Shin, the latter was able to clearly see his movement. He even looked like a snail from Shin's perspective.
Given that Shin was able to hold himself against Faker's insane speed and storm-like assaults, the reaction speed that he currently possessed was undoubtedly in a much higher level too. So, before Ivan could even reach him, Shin was actually making his move in advance.
Ivan was still in the middle of his launch when Shin suddenly appeared in front of him, crouching low with his signature sword-drawing stance. And right before Ivan could even react in time, Shin immediately pulled the [Yamato] for as fast as he could and swung it to his opponent.
Shing!
'Class Fighting Style: Quick Draw'
Instant kill!
Clack!
With a clicking sound, Shin put his sword back to its sheath as he stood up straight as if nothing had happened. And just like that, the battle ended with a similar fashion as the previous fights that Shin had.
Being added on the list of people that got one-shotted by Shin, Ivan couldn't even understand what actually just happened. He was as stunned as the very few audience watching on the spectator stand; all they knew was Ivan launching himself forward before dying right after an instant.
On the other hand, the experts watching the battle very closely knew more than that. But even if they saw that the battle ended with a similar fashion as before, they could also tell that there was something new this time.
They didn't know what it was as he couldn't point it out with just one look, but they were sure that there was a new flavor on Shin's battle style compared to before. And they became even more certain about their suspicion after Shin executed his opponent on the next round.
Shin inta-killed his opponent just like any other else that he had faced on this stage so far. But the way he used his sword-drawing style was completely different compared to before.
The only thing that these experts could point out for the time being was Shin not taking the opening move this time.; he was going to wait for his opponent to after him, before he was going to strike with an insane speed that was impossible to react into.
And due to how brutally Shin slaughtered his two opponents, Ivan and the other guy refused to have another battle against a monster like him for another time; they didn't want to become a laughingstock for another time. Given this, both of them forfeited their match and let Shin have the sole spot to advance to the third stage of the tournament.
With that, Shin was first person to advance for the final stage while his group became the fastest bracket to finish their selection.
At the same time, he also caught the interest of the experts that were watching his battles just now. And due to this, they immediately bought the tickets meant for the next battle that Shin was going to have.
They were all looking forward to the performance that Shin was going to make when he faced off against the famous players from the other groups of the tournament.
With this, they were all expecting to have a good match to watch on this upcoming final stage of the Shadow Ranking Cup.
And just like them, Shin was actually looking forward to fight these so-called favorites of the crowd; thought it was just the secondary reason of it. "I can now finally have my tickets sold to a bigger crowd."
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