The timer soon came to an end, turning to 0 as a bright flash occurred once again, and all of them were teleported. They found themselves in the middle of a giant arena, open on both sides. It was just plain ground. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a circular, rotating sphere appeared in the middle. A hologram was created right in the middle of the letter Z as it spoke. "Uh, match number 87, S499 vs. G645. Game: capture the flag. I'll assume you know the rules. Now the arena will shift into a new landscape soon, so prepare yourself. Again, best of luck.”

Suddenly, the ground started shaking as giant buildings started emerging from the ground, and the ground itself started moving and stretching. The buildings rose and then crumbled down, leaving behind a post-apocalyptic wasteland with rubble and flames across the whole arena. Jack sighed, knowing this would get hard.

Suddenly, a light shot down from the sky behind them, taking the shape of the flag, and the same happened on the other side. He knew where the flag was now, at least. He looked at Hana and Justin. Toki also put on a serious face as he stood with the flag while the three of them ran forward.

While they were running through the streets, from the corner of his eye, Jack saw something coming towards him. He dove just in time as a fireball flew above his head. He had no headgear; he would have been toast the moment it touched him.

‘Note to self: make headgear’ he thought as he saw where the fireball came from. Three dudes, one of whom had his hands covered in flames, stood across the street. It seems like they had the same strategy. Suddenly, before he had a chance to move, something grabbed him.

Chains made out of pure mana emerged from under the ground as he looked at his partners. Hana was also caught, and Justin was nowhere to be seen. “Great,” he said to himself as he sighed.

“You guys are idiots.” One of the guys with red hair spoke, “Give them a break; no one is used to magic and all this bullshit.” The third guy, who hadn't shown his skill yet, spoke.

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Jack sighed, looked at Hana, and nodded, as did she in response. Suddenly, Hana's body turned to smoke as she passed through the chains, the smoke extending in a straight line forward. Out of nowhere, the guy who threw a fireball was hit by a Hana's smoke punch to the face, knocking him back.

The third guy, who hadn't shown his skill, panicked and put up a barrier around himself and the chain guy. "Haha, you can't get inside this green-haired bitch; my barrier reflects all at-”

Before the man could even have a chance to finish his monologue, he was punched right in the face out of nowhere, knocking him and the barrier out. Dustin appeared right next to the unconscious man, becoming visible after a minute. He shook his hand after punching and sighed. “You speak too much.”

Finally, the one left was the chain guy, who was still holding Jack down. Jack sighed and activated his card. He got one of his hearts. He wasn't even sure how that was supposed to help. Wasn't he supposed to have good luck while gambling?. I guess you can never really trust luck.

Regardless, the third guy was beaten to sh*t by Hana and Dustin as he couldn't move while he was holding down someone with his chains. So the three moved towards the flag, which was being protected by the last guy, who was the weakest of the three. That man had no intention of getting beat up, so he just gave up the flag. At least someone here had a brain.

Dustin grabbed the flag as they just walked back home to their base.

[The 87th match of round 1 has concluded.

Winner: S499]

And before they knew it, all of them were teleported back to their own rooms with the button.

[3 hours until the next match, please ask if you have any questions or requests].

Dustin was going to say something, but Toki spoke first: “Where's the bathroom?” The room door opened, letting Toki go to his emergency room while Dustin spoke. “Can you rate our performance compared to others?”

[Not possible as of now.]

Jack was the one who spoke up instead. “Can we watch other people's matches? If we can show me the match of the guy with the paintbrush-like hair,

The system had no idea who Jack was talking about but somehow showed him the right person. What they saw wasn't a match; it was a single-sided ass whoopin. The other teammates were just sitting back and watching as the king took his stage and singlehandedly put all the others down, bringing back the flag without anyone's help.

“Sheesh…” Jack was a bit scared of that guy. It was better not to make an enemy out of him, at least not yet. Not like he wasn't confident in his own chances at victory against him, but it's better to have stronger people on your side.