Waking up in the middle of the darkness fully awake, with limited vision and cold air breathing down his neck.
Sunz (Lucky me, waking up and aren’t tired… but what messed up time did I wake up at?) trying to reach for his phone while his movement is impaired by an arm over his neck.
Sunz (Grace! I hope you didn’t do this on purpose. My right hand is in my pocket while the arm is sandwiched between her chest. My left arm is free but has limited movement due to her hugging my neck.)
(Dark room, blanket over my body, and limited movement… I’m not going back to sleep!... Maybe I could.)
Sunz tried to wiggle his way out of this situation, but when he moved just a bit, Grace’s restraint tightened, and she pulled him closer to her body.
(Fuck! Bad move. The most important match of the tournament and here I am getting restrained in bed. I could tried to wake her up… nah.)
Minutes passed by which felt like hours for Sunz.
(I might go crazy if I stay here any longer… *sigh* let’s try that.)
Sunz summoned a lighting sword in his left hand and pointed it at the wall near his head, while his right hand clenched hard onto nothingness in his pocket.
(Let’s hope no cop shows up…)
With a loud *BANG* Sunz was shot out of the bed, released him from the restraint, and slammed himself into the wall.
Sunz quickly recovered from the minor injury: That works better than I thought, now to get my phone.
He dismissed his lightning sword and carefully navigated to his side of the bed, moving his hand aimlessly until he found his phone.
When he pressed the power button, the light from his phone revealed a tired and annoyed Grace holding up her pillow and smacking him on the head with very little force.
Grace: Why the FUCK were you trying to deafen me at this time!?
Sunz: I was trying to get out but you were restraining my body.
Grace: You have a mouth don’t you? You Moron! Fuck you! I’m too tired for this, going back to sleep.
“If you do this again, I’ll fire a gun near your ear to see if you enjoy it. Don’t tempt me, you Bitch! Bye!”
Grace slammed her face into the pillow and showed no sign of movement like nothing ever happened.
Sunz (My fault…) quickly rushed out of the room into the bright hotel hallway and locked the door before leaving.
Sunz: *yawn* now you're tired. Don’t toy with me, body. I don’t even want to check the time. I hope they have hot food down there.
Sunz making his way down to the dining room of the hotel. The atmosphere of the whole place is quieter than usual, which kind of creeps him out. Until he arrived at the dining hall, there were some people there enjoying their meal which eased him off the creepiness vibe.
Sunz grabbed some food to eat and then sat at one of the empty tables. While eating, he’s thinking of how he will deal with ONE.
(So… I have to kill ONE in order to win this tournament, as much as I hate to do it, it either me or him that will die… let’s just hope the clan won’t actually going to let me die.)
(Let’s not compare physical strength with him since out of everyone here, I am clearly the weakest one. But my only saving grace… hmp Grace. Is my variety of elements, which somehow that bastard also has access to.)
(I have such a great start but the second half was brutal. I defeated Yama with a heavy injury, the match against Grace was a lot better. I got floored by No-Name and won by cheating. Grimm was going easy on me or at most half of his true strength, I think…)
(I really have to step up my game in order to win this tournament.)
Lost in the middle of his thought, Sogae sat down at his table with her food.
…
Sogae: Why are you awake at this time, too nervous for the fight kid?
Sunz: !!! When did you get here?
Sogae: You a jumpy one, a few minutes ago.
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Sunz: Couldn’t you pick another table, there are plenty of empty ones.
Sogae: Just making sure that my guest is well rested for his important day. Judging by the fact that you did not slam your face into your food while lost thought, I’ll say you are well rested.
*eating her food*
Sunz: What about ONE, how is he doing? Not trying to kill anyone else after the first-round result?
Sogae: Right now don’t worry too much about him, just know that he is very eager to fight you.
Sunz: Well, I wish I was as excited as that murder hobo.
Sogae: So that was what on your mind. Don’t worry too much, you’ll probably find a way in desperate need.
Sunz: But is winning by pure luck will benefit me that much?
Sogae: Well, you won’t die and get to join the clan so, you benefit a lot.
Sunz: Sure, I get that much but I do not really benefit the clan that much.
Sogae: Everyone figures their use sooner or later.
Sunz: Well, I’m gonna head back to my room now. See you later.
Sogae: Yeah see you in a few hours.
*Sunz returns to his room*
When he enters the room, his hand automatically reaches for the light switch and turns on all of the lights in the room. After a few seconds, he remembered that Grace was sleeping, which forced his hand to turn off the light, but before he could turn them off, he saw that the room was empty.
Sunz (I guess she went back to her room for a better sleep.) standing in the middle of the room, thinking of what to do. (Well, I could train… but what can I do that will give me a significant edge???)
(Be honest with yourself, there is really nothing left to do except wait. You can watch the TV.)
Sunz gets comfy on the bed and then turns on the TV to watch a random K-drama show in full Korean.
After watching a few episodes of the random show, something occurred in Sunz’s mind.
(I can understand this show clearly, the translation in my mind has no abrupt cut. This is an amazing ability that won’t help me at all in combat, but will be amazing for my personal entertainment.)
Sunz muted the TV and pulled out his phone to watch something else.
*Hours later*
While watching stuff on his phone, he received a text message from Sogae.
Sogae: Picking you up in 30 minutes.
Sunz: Got it.
After sending the reply, he felt a hand out of nowhere grippling onto his arm which startled him and forced him to punch whatever was grippling his arm.
His punch was easily stopped by the unknown thing's hand which was Grace.
Sunz: Oh god, it’s just you. I thought I was being attacked by a creature.
Grace:… And your first action was to punch it, with your physically weak body. Not summoning your weapon and stabbing it.
Sunz: well, this is a bit new to me. Not getting assassinated that often so it hasn’t built up a muscle memory.
Grace: You don’t have any muscle to begin with.
Sunz: Fair point but if I did pull out my sword, it would have injured you.
Grace: You think I couldn’t dodge that simple attack from you?
Sunz: That’s right, you do have a better speed than me… Can we pause and get prepared? Because Sogae will be here in less than 30 minutes.
Grace: Yeah, sure. I’ll return in 10 minutes.
*After 15 minutes*
Grace returned to Sunz’s room after freshening up and wearing her new outfit with black as the main color and purple as the support color.
Sunz: You? Attending a funeral?
Grace: I tried my best to not make it look like that by not wearing its hat.
Sunz: I must say the color is very Korean.
Grace: Korean, how? Is there some context that I’m missing?
Sunz: Don’t think too much about it, back to the important stuff. When did you enter my room?
Grace: What are you talking about, I never left in the first place.
Sunz: Really? When I returned, you weren’t on the bed so I thought you went back to your room for a better sleep.
Grace: Of course, because of the stunt you did who wouldn’t want to leave. But I was too sleepy to even think about leaving.
Sunz: Then why didn’t I see you when I return?
Grace: Wow, so you weren’t actually ignoring me. *mumble* So what you were watching was genuine.
Sunz: Ignoring you? I thought you left.
Grace: Did you check the surroundings of the bed or did you just think Grace was not on the bed so it meant she gone?
Sunz:… yeah I did not check the surroundings.
Grace: Well, because of that you didn’t know I rolled off the bed and was sleeping on the floor.
Sunz: You rolled off the bed without taking the blanket with you and somehow that didn’t wake you up?
Grace: It happened frequently enough for me to get used to it… huh, I do get why you think I left. Usually, the blanket should go with you too.
Sunz: You just said you frequently fall off the bed, wouldn’t it give you head trauma?
Grace: It should have but nope, my body is totally normal.
Sunz: I wanna guess, you restraining me while sleeping. Was it to stop you from falling off the bed?
Grace: Oh. No. That is from another habit, because of how often I fall off the bed in the middle of the night, it usually ruins my roommate's sleep. So my friend Ame bought me two body pillows and it kinda stops me from falling off.
Sunz: What do you mean by kind off?
Grace: Well, they are pillows not really weighting that much so sometimes while restraining one of the two, I often brought it down with me, and like a coin flip I take the fall or it takes the fall.
Sunz: Should I be scared of you crushing my body in the future?
Grace: That’s for the future. Also, I should be the one asking that. Should I be worry that I’ll need a hearing aid before 30?
Sunz: Don’t worry it won’t happen again. I was trying to not wake you but I wake you up in the worst way possible.
Grace: *sigh* fine, next time just touch me like a normal person. I can fall back to sleep pretty fast.
Sunz: Got it.
Grace: So, enough about me. Who was the girl you’ve been watching for the last hours? You were quite focused on the video and she was speaking a foreign language that I doubt you understand.
Sunz: How long were you watching me?
Grace: Some hours. I woke up and heard an unfamiliar female voice speaking in a foreign language. Just to see you watching a fictional female streaming.
Sunz: And… you have a problem with that?
Grace: Oh no, my approach was out of curiosity, you are in no danger.
Sunz: Grace, are you internet illiterate?
Grace: I know the general stuff but not as much as a loner like you. But I guess I do understand why you like watching her. Her assets fit your preferences after all. *giggle*
Sunz: It’s hurt that you think that low of me.
*Knock*Knock*
Sogae: Sunz, you’re ready? Time to go.
Sunz yells at the door: We are, will be there in a bit.
Then he told Grace “We’ll continue this at another time.”
Grace: Oh we will *giggle*