Zain was the first to make a move after the “friendly” greeting. Swinging his arm forward, the young man jumped at his opponent like a true lion mauling its prey. To his surprise, however, Leo didn’t even bother to move an inch, even though with his skills, he definitely would be able to get himself out of harm’s way.

“What the…” Zain was shocked to see his hand being held back by Leo’s iron grip.

“You thought I’d dodge, did you?” Coming from behind the helmet was a taunting grin. “Too bad. That’s a move for pushovers.”

“Get real,” Zain gritted his teeth and tried to push his arm down, yet the resistance was evenly-matched. “Aren’t you desperately trying to protect your zone?”

It wasn’t specifically mentioned, but all contestants quietly knew another rule in mind. Naturally, just marking the grassland with your own color wasn’t enough, as was the case in regular painting. Colors could override one another if they came into contact, and it worked the same here. In this vast meadow, not only did one have to try and gain as large of an area as possible, but one had to also protect the area that they gained against other contestants.

Zain had noticed this detail when the goons approached him. When one of them touched their hand on one of his spots earlier, that part changed color from red to the same color that the nuisance had. When Leo approached him, he had planned to attack and steal his colored spot from the start, but the first-place competitor was smarter than he expected.

“Did you think that I’m at first just because I was faster than others?” Leo, meanwhile, still had plenty of strength left in him to give a retort. “I got to first place thanks to stealing from the unsuspected!”

As the last words left his mouth, Leo threw a punch towards Zain’s stomach with his remaining hand, but the effort was denied by the exact same maneuver as he did to his opponent.

“You might be able to block my attack, Contractor, but I’m still better at fighting than you,” this time, it was Zain who returned with a confident grin. “You can’t beat me in a match of strength!”

Zain then took a big step forward, attempting to push down Leo in his entirety. If the man would block his attempt at touching the ground, then he would knock down his opponent if he had to.

However, Leo was more than aware of his opponent’s intention. Utilizing Zain’s forward momentum, the man purposely fell on his back, seemingly unable to withstand Zain’s assault. But instead of falling completely, Leo managed to stay right on his heels, and instead did a slight turn to the side, intending for Zain to lose his balance and fall on his own instead.

Zain, however, sensed the danger right away. Immediately, the young man escaped Leo’s grip of his right hand, while his left hand let go of Leo’s arm. The tables had turned once again, as Zain regained his balance thanks to being free from his original restraint, and Leo, without anything to hold him back, fell to the ground.

Though Leo had attempted his strategy to succeed, the man had also made a quick plan in case he would fail. As he was about to touch the ground, the helmet man still remained calm enough to turn his palm upside-down, thus still managing to secure himself a small part of the blank meadow with his own color.

Or so Zain thought. In truth, the young man had also foreseen this situation happening, and by doing what he just did, he would cut down on his losses against his adversary. However, Zain lacked one critical piece of information – the kind that only the first place would notice.

Zain’s circle of impact was only around the size of his palm when he started. But unbeknownst to him, the circle would grow ever so slightly larger whenever his rank would increase. The difference was small, only around a millimeter in diameter. But a simple comparison could be made: if Zain were to achieve first place, his circle would have expanded by 20 centimeters – practically tripling his area.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Zain’s rank was 200 when he started, and everyone started with the same circle. Now, what would that be for the person who was at dead last, ranked 512 out of all contestants, when they started?

Then you’d get Leo.

With a circle as large as his entire body’s width, what was supposed to be a small loss for Zain turned into a huge advantage for Leo instead, bolstering his first rank even more.

“Tch,” Zain clicked his tongue in annoyance as soon as he saw Leo’s circle expand. “I knew the starting position had some kind of trick to it.”

“Too late to realize it now, Hero,” Leo replied by raising his hand still with his circle activated, taunting Zain even more. “But are you willing to face me, even though you know what you’re going up against?”

Before the question, Zain only let out a smile.

“You’re still smiling in this situation? I know you got guts, but you keep surprising me, Hero!”

“Against you? Don’t get me wrong,” Zain continued, stomping down the ground for a big push.

However, when Leo thought he would move forward, Zain dashed to the side.

He had learned this lesson before. In a battle, winning against your opponent didn’t necessarily mean that you’d won the game. And so, he picked the most rational choice he could think of.

“Who’d fight against you in this situation?” Zain let out a taunting laugh as he got further away from his opponent. “It’s top 16 to advance, remember?”

“And who’s to say I’m not going out to get you?” Leo let out an excited shout, running after Zain as fast as he could. Little did he realize, however, there was another person, or rather, two other people going after him.

“Go, Zain! We’ll help you hold on to the lead!” Mike shouted, desperately trying to keep up with the helmet man in front of him. Not far behind him was the gentle giant himself, Mitch, also trying his best to erase Leo’s tracks from before with his rank.

“Gettem, Zain! We got dis!” The man cried out, cheering for his friend as he kept on running with all his might.

Since Leo had a much bigger advantage when it came to area, it was fruitless for Zain to try and increase his zone by making curved patterns. Instead, the young man picked the simplest, and most effective strategy: running in a straight line, using his superior physicality to slowly but surely gain distance.

Leo knew this, but he had no counter-solution. In front of such a simple tactic, no scheme would work as he planned. But the man was not worried one bit. After all, he was still the undisputed first place, and this chase was only for his own amusement, rather than competing or even fulfilling his hidden agenda.

Eliminating him right now would spoil all the fun, right?

And so, the cat-and-mouse chase continued. The two didn’t notice it, but the situation was exactly the same as their first encounter and their first race against each other. The only difference was that this time, the positions were reversed: Leo now played the role of the cat who didn’t want to catch the mouse but still gave chase nonetheless, not to catch the mouse off-guard, but to use the situation to see something better from his prey.

Zain, meanwhile, kept on running for his life. Through his occasional turning behind, he realized that the distance from Leo had been slowly but surely increasing with each minute. But the distance had not made him complacent. Instead, it only added his respect (and weirdness) towards Leo as the helmet man was still going after him. Even if he knew that Leo was tasked to bring him down, this kind of dedication was not normal.

Damn it, I can’t seem to shake him away! The young man thought as he navigated through the meadow now filled with all kinds of colors. Nonetheless, he ran and ran, not noticing anything else aside from the sound of his hands hitting the ground.

Five minutes left.

Four.

Three.

Two.

“… And time!” As Zain was rushing with all his might, Bryan popped up on the giant screen in the middle once more. “Contestants, the first round is over!”

The declaration was a sudden break to Zain’s sprint, causing the young man to trip and roll for a short distance even after he had stopped. But all of it didn’t matter so much, as the dreaded running session had finally come to an end.

“Now, without further ado…” Bryan continued, shrinking the image of himself down away from the screen. “Let’s see our results!”

Unsurprisingly, Leo was first. But what surprised Zain the most was the fact that he was in second place when all he did was just run away from Leo and not even attack the other contestants.

“Looks like I win this round, Hero!” meanwhile, the man in question showed a triumphant laugh and raised his hand. “Better luck next time!”

“… Did you know about the rules regarding the increasing circle?”

“Even if I didn’t, there was no way for you to win that round,” Leo answered with a shake of the head.

“So you did know.”

“And?”

“What are you guys planning to do?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see for yourself,” giving out one last threat, Leo turned around and waved his hand to say goodbye, leaving the virtual world for now.