While the crowd roared in excitement, the players on the other side weren’t so happy with the development. “Wait! Shouldn’t he be disqualified? Their teams are not even here anymore!” Shouted Bruce toward the AI ref.
“We told you before, didn’t we?” The newly-born king answered with a confident grin. “We’re still Rex and Zain, just in another avatar; one that we happen to share at the same time. Ref, the rules still apply, right?”
“Indeed, it does,” confirmed AIDE. “As long as the players still maintain a stable logged-in connection, anything that happens within the games is acceptable. I’ve been monitoring challengers Rex and Zain’s signals to the virtual space, and there have been no signs of sudden disconnection or intentional tampering.”
“But…”
“Let it go, Bruce,” before the bull-headed warden could react once more, his superior had already put a stop to his actions with a stern grab of the shoulder. “Besides, it’s still two against one, remember? We have the overwhelming advantage here.”
“Be careful not to eat your own words, blondie,” Bitleo made a snide remark, still having the same grin on his face.
As the contestants returned to their respective bikes, Bitleo’s choice once again caused a stir among the teams and the commentary.
“It seems like challenger Rex and Zain, or should I say, Bitleo, is returning to the Crimson Arrow! We’ve already known what this machine could do, but I’d have to say it’s an all-out gamble, by forgoing all defenses to attempt a do-or-die attack!” AIDE exclaimed in shock.
“For someone having two different brains, you sure are stupid,” Jack further taunted. “That thing’s acceleration can only be sustained for, what, two seconds?”
“1.75 seconds, no more, no less,” the new challenger, meanwhile, showed a calm and confident expression. “We’ve counted.”
“Then why are you willingly using it again?”
“Well, isn’t that obvious? We only need that much time to wipe the floor with you guys.”
Bitleo’s challenging words struck a nerve in both wardens. With a vein popping on his forehead, Jack tried his best to form a smile, yet still gritting his teeth as if wanting to chew off the head of his opponent. “Let’s take it to the field, shall we?”
“Now… the match resumes! Kick-off!” AIDE’s whistle sounded once more, but it was just one surprise after another for the last few minutes in the stadium. Bitleo, a combination of Rex’s wits and Zain’s strength, riding the speed champion Crimson Arrow, was standing completely still as if he didn’t even hear the signal to start the game at all.
“Hello? Earth to weirdo!” Jack waved his hands at the statue-like young man as if checking if he was still alive or not. “The whistle was blown. The match is starting again.”
“I know,” Bitleo, meanwhile, only let out a shrug.
“Well, if you put it that way…” a devious grin formed on Jack’s mouth as he turned to his partner and gave a firm nod. Immediately, the two wardens hopped on their bikes and revved up their engines, accelerating towards the defenseless avatar at a blistering speed, up to the point of even creating a dust storm behind them.
In front of the deadly pincer that took out Rex, Bitleo let out a smile.
Y’know, sometimes standing still is better than moving around, a rather high-pitched male voice suddenly sounded deep within the shared consciousness of the two young men inside.
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“What was that?” Zain was the first to react. He was sure that this was his first time hearing his voice, but a surge of familiarity hit him like crashing waves.
“Wait, I know this…” Rex, meanwhile, could have recognized this voice from anywhere. It was the only one he could call family, the only one that took care of him when he was on the street, as well as the only one he had any recollection of before being thrown into jail. However, …
“Damn it! Why can’t I recall his name?” Rex shouted in frustration.
Soccer is the same, the voice once again sounded. You let your opponent advance, then blitz past them in an instant. Ain’t no feeling better than that, right?
“Are our memories syncing with one another?” Zain thought to himself as he saw his partner reacting much more strongly to the voice than he did. “Tch, this is not the time though!”
“Hey! Snap out of it! We still got a match to play!” Zain’s voice echoed through the empty void, and yet, it somehow managed to reach Rex just in the nick of time.
On the outside world, Bitleo finally opened his eyes, and with a twist of the handle, the Crimson Arrow blazed through the small window mere milliseconds before the pincer was successful, burning a straight line along the length of the field.
To the sheer shock and horror of everyone, in just a single second, Bitleo had scored a goal purely by dribbling.
“…G-GOOOOAAAALLLLL!” The commentator erupted in unadulterated adrenaline. “I cannot believe what I just saw anymore! A record has been made in this year’s Red-Black Course! Motorcycle football, a game that is notoriously hard for players to control and maneuver the ball, has just witnessed a dribble goal! This is an unprecedented record, created by an unprecedented player! This is the mark of a new king, and his name is Bitleo!”
“We told you, didn’t we?” Meanwhile, the young man had turned off his bike and moved it to his position again. “We only needed to take that long to beat you.”
“You’ve still only equalized, punk!” Bruce retorted with a face as red as lava. “There are still plenty of chances for us to score!”
Returning to the warden was a sickening silence, which only served to boil his blood even more. However, without a trigger to be unleashed anymore, Bruce had no choice but to swallow his rage and return to the kick-off line, waiting to vent his anger into the ball.
As the whistle was blown once more, the wardens, now with the ball on their bikes, rapidly advanced deep into Bitleo’s field.
Whoa, how did you do that? A different voice from the first one sounded inside Rex and Zain’s minds, but this time, both could tell who the owner of that voice was, albeit in their own thoughts.
“It’s… me?” Rex and Zain both sounded. The two surprisingly shared a similar tone, but for both to react so surely was a first.
Like it? You use your instep to flick the ball over when you do a sweeping kick. The opponent will never know what hit them.
“Use your instep…” Bitleo, meanwhile, revved up his engine and charged at the one currently with the ball, Jack.
“Do a sweeping kick…” leaning his bike sideways, Bitleo accelerated when his arm was almost parallel to the ground beneath him. The immense torque from the speeding bike ground the grass around him to bits.
“And flick!” As the words left his mouth, a perfect tailwhip was performed with his bike, grabbing the ball through the bike’s back end and forcing it over the front with the excess momentum.
Both the crowd and the wardens were left speechless after the complex trick Bitleo made. But his show was nowhere near over yet.
Wanna learn another trick? The voice sounded once again in their mind. But at this point, neither Rex nor Zain cared about finding out who that was anymore. In their head, and in turn, in Bitleo’s head, there was only one thing left: the sight of the opposing goal.
“Soccer Style: Reverse Full Moon!”
A complete 360 spin, but this time backwards, using the back of the bike to score. If it was a normal shot, it would have been done with the heel to increase the shot’s strength. And if one applied that kind of force to a bike that was the best in acceleration, the result was obvious.
The goal was shredded to pieces, to the point that even the iron bars were snapped in two before the extreme force behind the shot - as if the goal was cut down by a scythe rather than being destroyed by a mere soccer ball.
Before the wardens could fully recover from the lightning-paced turns of event, the third goal was already scored.
And another.
And another.
And another.
When the final whistle was blown, there wasn't even a net on the other side anymore.
“And that’s it, folks!” AIDE’s scream of joy signaled the end of Rex and Zain’s first perilous step. “With an overwhelming performance in the second half, ending the match with an unbelievable score of 10 to 2, challengers Rex and Zain, Team Evolution has done it! They’ve conquered the unconquerable, and made it to the second round of Red-Black Course!”