Chapter 356 Arena challenge and records of Rio  

?"You ruined the whole event for everyone." Rebecca said looking at Rio who was busy eating his food.

Currently they were all sitting at a small restaurant which changed its scenery and themes according to seasons every 15 minutes.

Not just two of them, but on the large table were a lot of other students present too. Mostly the ones who played with them.

Becca had a look of annoyance on her face as she looked around and saw everyone in the restaurant looking at them trying to be sneaky.

A few first years were laughing and feeling proud over the fact that their class had defeated both third year and fourth year seniors openly. While others were still stressed and stuck over the 'accident' thinking the bullying now would be much worse.

Before waking up today, Becca had so many things planned for the day, so many places to visit, things to experience or memories to make, yet they all ended with Rio's impulsive fiasco.

The white haired panda had promised to follow her and accompany her throughout the day, yet she didn't even see him half the time.

If that wasn't bad enough, she along with everyone who played that game had to sit in the empty judgment hall and recount everything that happened in the game and answer dozens of weirdly stupid roundabout questions for a full many hours.

Wasting their precious time till the sun shifted from the early noon to late evening.

"It wasn't brother's fault, that fatty deserved it." Amy said in defense of her brother. "He used to call himself a monk, can you believe it? That guy was simply a big fat bully."

"Yeah, and your brother's a saint." Rebecca sneered and said sarcastically while looking at Rio, who just smiled back at her.

"I heard he was, in fact, quite an accomplished monk two years ago, who had practiced his silent zen to a high level, but it was your brother and his friends who broke his practice and ruined his career cultivation path." Amaya spoke up while looking at Amelia and then at Rio, who didn't respond or reply to clear his name.

Causing Amaya to suspect that the rumors were indeed really true.

During her little investigation, she heard that the fat monk was previously Rio and Bernhardt's roommate and they often bullied him for fun. Until 'Pandya' as they called him couldn't take it anymore and switched the room on his own.

She wanted to talk about this bullying point too, hoping to see Rio's reaction again, but Rebecca's words cut her off.

"What nonsense? That guy probably failed in his understanding and suffered a backlash on his own, and to hide his shame, he put the blame on others." She said, defending the same lazy panda herself this time, causing Amelia to chuckle slightly. "Can you girls not talk badly about a dead man? It's bad manners." Valtor, who was silent all this time couldn't take it anymore and spoke up.

His words, silencing both Amaya and Becca to give up on their next thoughts.

"Let's talk about something else," Amy said excitedly, changing the topic.

"Like what?" Ayla, who was sitting beside her asked subtly.

"Sparring," Rubina, who was sitting a little far away, said in a lively tone and then turned to Heath on the side. "You, dragon boy, why don't you fight with me from tomorrow?"

"Why?" Heath asked in confusion.

"What do you mean why? I saw in the match that you're good, so let's fight." Rubina replied, her battle hungry look bringing a different glint of light in her plain brownish eyes. "I may look mid, but I think I can handle you." She added, thinking carefully and nodding her head.

"I'd _ rather train by myself." Heath replied, thinking he should stay away from this battle hound in the future. Though he couldn't help but wonder in his heart 'Is she really on my level?'

"Humph, then _" After the rejection, Rubina turned her face at Qingyue, who was literally amazing in the match. The metal manipulation she hold is awesome.

But sadly before she even voiced her thoughts, the flat chested heroine glared at her and Rubina swallowed her words back. Sliding the shaking silver spoon a little away from her plate.

"Fine, then I'll just train with you, icy girl." Though surprised by the open rejections twice in row, Rubina didn't mind and turned her attention on Katherine instantly, who from beginning to end hadn't opened her mouth to speak one word yet.

"Humm" Hearing the weird nickname Katherine turned her face to look, but before she could say something, Rubina's next words cut her off.

"See, she even nodded her head." Rubina said, and afraid that even Katherine might reject her too, she further added "If anyone else is interested they can join too."

Katherine, who didn't even have time to respond just nodded her head to herself and then focused back on her food again. It's just training anyway.

Rio smiled seeing her reaction, wondering how far would these two training maniacs push each other when they start competing against each other.

"We can all just train together." Rebecca suggested, looking at everyone. "I mean in a way, except a few others who aren't here, the dozen of us are all at the top rankers level. So wouldn't it be more beneficial to train and spar against each other than training alone or competing against clones."

Everyone at the table was looking at her, thinking about what she proposed, but ignoring their eyes, Becca continued her pitch.

"Not to mention, I heard there's this group challenge arena mode in one of the training rooms, where we can select the difficulty and challenge different bosses."

"To clear a group battle arena, we'd need extreme coordination and teamwork. Not to mention, the difficulty there is like a dozen times harder than the VR monsters we've faced in matches before." Qingyue said seriously with a reprimanding tone.

Though she phrased it nicely, to Becca and Amy, who saw her mocking eyes, it sounded like this "Don't bite more than you can chew, bitches. Know your limits and don't overestimate yourself."

Well, how can the two girls take this insult silently, so the first to jump in this pit dug by Becca, was as always, her best friend Amy.

"Humph, what's so tough about it? We didn't ever train together before and we still defeated the fourth years today, didn't we? We can clear it, no problemo." She said and then mocked her back "But if you're too scared to lose, you can back out."

"Humph, ghosts will be scared of you." Qingyue said in anger. She hated this duo who always made her blood boil. Listening to their bickering, Becca smiled in her heart while thinking - three posts secured.

"Those rooms should be expensive, like very expensive." Moksh said talking about the huge amount of Merit Points those services would require in Zenith.

"Yeah, I doubt anyone can even afford that many points." Valtor agrred too. He had heard of this challenge room at the guild, so he didn't doubt or ask questions about it, just talked about price.

"Well, we can all divide and share the points for now." Becca said instantly as if already prepared for the question. "Those points are only a little scarce now anyway, after the first semester, all rankers would get tons of them for free every month, so no need in saving them."

Her words sounded with the guarantee that all of them can secure a ranker's status, but among the people present here, who would refuse it and give up his pride so openly anyway.

[Ayla, who was about to raise her hand, however hissed and looked down to see Amy kicking her feet and telling her to stay silent.]

"And besides, these training rooms maintain a record list from the past, if we can break the previously set records, we can not only leave our names behind, but also get ten times the points we spent earlier.

So that's like a big win-win."

With that bomb, Becca finally finished her pitch and turned her attention to everyone. Already aware of their decision after seeing the shining stars in their eyes.

times the points, just imagining that amount made many students willing to take the risk. I mean even if they lost a few times, they'd at least get learning experience. But if they won, then with that many points they can use a whole lot of other academy resources freely, be it training rooms, rare exercises and skills, or special guidance from an advanced staff - they can get everything.

And so just like that, one by one all agreed to the proposal.

Once that was done, Becca turned her attention to Rio, who just looked at her and shook his head, while thinking 'I shouldn't have boasted about that to her..'

[[[ 3 days ago, when Becca defeated a batch of golems faster than him during a training class, and proudly announced that the day where she can beat him isn't far behind. Rio absentmindedly replied that half the records in this academy are in his name, good luck breaking all of them.]]]

—---- and so here we are —----

'Sigh, when did my serious princess heroine turn into such a scheming villain.' Rio thought, wondering about how she pulled all these pitiful souls into the arena challenge and how they'd all only be left penniless if they try to break his, Dahlia, Lisa and Bernhardt's team record set there.

Unaware of his thoughts and seeing him sighing, Becca just laughed heartily and puffed out her chest in pride, as for planning about the challenge arena, 'Well, how tough can it even be.'

Qingyue, already aware of her 'fall' after seeing the smirking expressions on Amy and Becca, had a sour look on her face. But since she already agreed, she didn't back out and added something else.

"We can't challenge the arena anytime soon. We'd need to prepare and improve our teamwork first, so we don't just throw our points for waste."

Her words made others nod their heads too. After all, it's good to prepare to win first, instead of jumping in blindly and making a fool of themselves on the first try.

"Sure, sure, as you say." Amy said with a chuckle, trying hard to control her laughter after seeing Qingyue's face morphing in anger.

'God, why are they so hateful?' Qingyue cursed this annoying duo in her heart again.

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