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“Alright, that concludes the two days of the Preliminary Guild Rank Placement Tournament, thank you to all participants and viewers!!”

A girl wearing only pink made a curtsy to the camera in a room with a large round table.

Her name was Kirisu Sakura. She was an independent content creator who had been hired by Destiny Unchain Online to work as the official VR presenter for the event’s livestream.

She was mainly known for having a cheerful and crystal clear voice, and especially when it came to singing she would often receive comments that no average person could sing like that. There were many who believed she might be the daughter of some professional singer or songwriter too.

Her VR avatar had a soft and kind-looking face, with long hair of a soft pink color, making honor to her name. She wore an elegant long sleeved kimono with an intriguing floral pattern, though for some reason it also had a slit that started on the side of her hips. Overall she was a girl with fox ears that gave off strong traditional Japanese vibes.

“Today I’m joined by the three teams who got the highest positions in the tournament! Sadly Ernesta and Lueger from Nord Glacier were unable to make it…but regardless, I hope everyone in the audience can welcome them with some well deserved applause!”

Saying that, she invited the audience to clap.

Looking around for a bit with a cheerful smile, she nodded a few times. It seemed like she had gotten a satisfactory response.

“So…let’s start off with Crim, the leader of the guild Lua Cheia. Well…you’ve probably already seen many in the audience ask this question, and I think it’s natural to be curious about it…”

Crim tilted her head seeing that she was the first one being interviewed.

“Umm… Exactly what happened for your body to turn even cuter like this?”
“It’s just my metabolism.”
“H-Huh…”

Crim’s overly simple response only made the presenter feel even more confused.

It had not been too long since Crim had used Blaze Blood, which had consumed most of the blood she had, leading to her body shrinking. And surely enough, Freya had caught her almost immediately, and she had been sitting on Freya’s lap since then, being pampered to no end.

“Eheheheh, smol Crim is adorable isn’t she?”
“Umm, Freya…could I borrow her for a bit once the livestream ends?”
“Not in a million years!!”

Crim would not allow any foreign woman close to her, so she instantly rejected the idea, leaving Sakura with a desolate look as her hands were still closing and opening, wanting to touch Crim’s hair.

But Sakura’s professionalism quickly returned, and she shook off those desires and regained her composure.

“Moving on… So you’re the first person to defeat Sorleon, who was known as the strongest player until now. It was a really tense fight and I couldn’t stop sweating and clenching my fists while I watched too!”

“I appreciate the compliment. Truth be told, I doubted I’d be able to win as well, though I certainly longed to emerge victorious.”

“I see. While it’s true that your guild didn’t come out on top, as Nord Glacier’s last remaining member Cheval made a sneaky play in the end, do you have any thoughts about him now?” Kirisu Sakura asked another question and pointed the microphone at Crim.

Crim looked around for a bit, and when her eyes met Cheval’s he looked away awkwardly. “Do I have any thoughts…hmm, Ahem…” Making a brief pause to clear her throat, Crim continued talking.

“In a battlefield all is fair, so nothing he did warrants any condemnation. He took the mantle after his partner was incapacitated and finished the fight. I admit losing was frustrating, but he made the right choice, and he deserves to be recognized for it.”

Crim just shrugged, pointing out that those were the rules of the battle royale tournament, so there was nothing to hate him for.

“I see, that’s a rather mature and positive way to look at it… But how do you really feel?”
“If I see him on the battlefield again, he’ll be the first to die.”
“Alright, thank you so much for giving us your honest opinion!”

Crim’s voice was devoid of emotion as she replied, and the host Sakura nodded satisfied. But on the other side, where the recipient of that threat stood…

“I’m scared now…”
“Say, Cheval?”
“Hm? What is it, leader?”
“I have a few words for you later, got it?”
“Why are you on their side too?!”

Sorleon was smiling, but his eyes were dead serious, something which instilled fear in Cheval. It seemed like Sorleon was not amused by the fact that right after he accepted his defeat, Cheval had turned the fight over.

“…Well, that’s enough joking for now.”
“It definitely was a joke then, right?!”

Cheval really wanted to get an answer, but Sorleon completely ignored him and turned away, looking at Lycoris for some reason.

“Also, sorry to you, mechanical girl. Was it traumatizing that this guy decided to stay alive?”
“Huh..?”
“Hey, why did you have to put it that way?!”

While Lycoris was confused to be addressed like that all of a sudden, Cheval could not catch a rest still.

“Yeah, Cheval. I did everything I could to let you survive, but then instead of taking out Shao you throw the responsibility onto that little girl and then go steal someone else’s glory.”
“You too Reinhard?!”

Everyone was accusing him…though it was without malice, and more like a joke between friends as they were all part of the same guild. But then someone else joined the conversation.

Lan Canglong was also there, as they had finished third, though most of their members looked downcast as they had done little to gain that position. One of them, however, their leader Shao, was grinning happily like nothing had happened.

“Now now, don’t forget we’re in a live broadcast, it’s best if we calm down and…”
“””””You shut up!”””””

Everyone from Lua Cheia and Nord Glacier replied in unison (except for Freya who was too absorbed in pampering Crim).

Seeing that even Lycoris was dogpiling him, even though she was really timid and introverted, showed Shao just how much they disliked him, so he just shook his head and shrugged, not saying anything more.

“But well, everyone here in Nord Glacier is also grateful that you were able to shoot off his giggling a̲s̲s̲ at that time, thank you.”
“Yeah, I was a bit angry that you got him before I could, but your aim was incredible to take him down.”

Nord Glacier continued complimenting Lycoris. And then Lua Cheia chimed in as well…

“Crim already told you this, but it wasn’t your fault that we got second place, Reinhard just had a bit better luck than us in the end. If your sniping hadn’t finished off that cheeky brat, we probably wouldn’t even be second place now. You should be proud of yourself.”
“He could’ve easily gotten first place if you let him go. No one can deny that.”
“Thank you…everyone.”