“Mr. Mania, I don’t want to negligent your feelings, but I have to ask.” Madam Zoe shoved her microphone in Mastermania’s face and asked while glaring at Felix in irritation, “What was your first thought after your polite handshake was rejected in an ungentlemanly manner.”
From her aggressive actions and tone, it was clear that she was holding a grudge against Felix. Mastermania did not even mind the way she shoved the mic in his face.
He was too desperate for someone to get him out of this shit hole that Felix put him in without ruining his image. Zoe just did so by her question.
“Honestly, I was just slightly surprised, nothing more.” He smiled warmly as he clutched the mic like his dear life was relying on it and continued, “Mr. Landlord is entitled to reject my handshake. I don’t think that my face is big enough to gain everyone’s respect.” He bowed his head slightly at Felix’s direction and did the unexpected. “I apologize for putting you in such a difficult position Mr. Landlord.”
“Oh, My.” Madam Zoe exclaimed and tried to get back the mic from Mastermania to speak her mind, but the bastard was gripping on it tightly, not planning on letting go anytime soon.
And so, she left it and created another one quickly. The last thing she wanted was to create another embarrassing situation. Begging Felix publicly for an interview but still getting rejected was enough for her.
“I don’t think it was necessary to apologize Mr. Mania. No one was at fault in this situation. It was simply a misunderstanding. I assume that even Mr. Lord is thinking the same.”
Just as she faced Felix and wanted to ask him if he thought so as well, her mouth refused to let out the words.
‘F*cking bastard! I curse you and that stupid privacy option!!’
She turned around and continued to speak with Mr. Mania, not showing a single hint of embarrassment after her failure.
She then began asking him the usual basic questions. Such as the objective he planned to achieve in this game or his wish if he managed to ace it.
Mastermania responded to each of her questions eloquently, trying his best to rebuild his image. If it was not for fear to get beat up by the players, he wouldn’t mind hogging the mic for the entire duration of interviews.
Sadly, Madam Zoe quickly got bored with his genetic answers and coughed to interrupt him from his constant fans ass-kissing.
“Mind telling us how confident are you in winning the open wager?” She asked.
Without a single hesitation, Mastermania answered confidently, “If I wasn’t sure that this bet was in the bag, I wouldn’t have joined in the first place.” He smiled handsomely towards the camera and added, “I promise you my dear fans, that I will show you a new version of me.” He glared at Felix who had his hand on his face. Probably scratching his cheek in boredom, and said lastly, “You will love it.”
The spectators didn’t know if he was speaking to them or Landlord, as they clearly saw the weird way he was eyeing Landlord.
But they didn’t bother to think deeply about it, as no matter what he meant by it, they were still looking forward to his promise.
After so, he gave back the mic to Madam Zoe and went to socialize with other players. Zoe didn’t even bother to catch up to him as this was exactly what she wanted, for him to bounce and let her interview the darling of the Maganda tribe chief, Princess Bird.
However, before she left to seek her, she didn’t forget to show her displeasure to Felix over ruining such a fine piece of drama by his inactivity.
Felix didn’t even look at her as he was currently busy chatting with Asna about a new way to help him perform better during the game. Zoe humphed and left him alone, promising herself to give him a small duration of camera exposure inside the Maze.
‘You can only blame yourself for disregarding me like this.’
The spectators immediately began chanting little princess to encourage her after they saw that Zoe was struggling to keep the conversation afloat with the shy Princess Bird.
Every time she asked a question, Princess Bird starts stuttering and fiddling with her fingers, not able to express what she wanted to say properly.
The stupid spectators’ chants made it even worse, as her brain completely short-circuited after hearing her name resounding in the stadium. Zoe sighed and stopped giving her a hard time, not daring to offend her.
She moved to Charming Sky who she believed would not be a disappointment like Landlord or Princess Bird, based on her extrovert personality.
Unfortunately, Charming Sky turned to be an extreme extrovert, as she instantly turned the conversation into an erotic one, sending wolves’ howls and ear-piercing whistles in the stadium.
Depressed and crestfallen, Zoe decided to end the interviews and announce the beginning of the game. She truly ended up with the short stick after choosing those four as her main targets to interview.
One rejected her interview even after using her secret weapon. The second stole her mic and tried his best to hijack the conversation. The third, couldn’t even speak one sentence in public without stuttering a hundred times. The last, turned into a complete perv, who was natural in her sex life unlike her.
‘I hope you at least show me a good performance inside the maze.’
She wished silently while watching the players randomly teleport above the foggy Maze that was hidden to block everyone from seeing its paths and content.
“Begin the countdown!!!” She announced loudly the moment she saw that the players were standing in their position.
Felix and the rest of the players hovered 500 meters above the maze, each in a different position. Felix squinted in focus, preparing for the moment Zoe removes the fog. They only had 10 seconds of free fall to examine the paths and positions of the open chests.
A quite difficult task to achieve as only a selected few would be able to memories the complex paths of the maze leading to the exit using only 10 seconds. But Felix was not worried about this at all. He already had a way to overcome this issue.
“Clear the fog and drop!!” By the time the audience countdown hit zero, Zoe ordered with her hand raised above her head.
Immediately after, the fog withdrew rapidly towards the middle of the maze, resembling a tub sink, sucking all the water inside in a swirling manner.
The process took merely a few seconds before the maze magnificence was displayed in front of the players and spectators, who had yet to see it.
Even though the players were exposed to it inside the game hall, this and that were totally different things. Seeing its towering smooth metallic walls, forming thousands of different paths, gave the players a sense of beauty. Plus, the complex formations, colorful images, and calligraphic words made it even appear even better.
However, that sense of beauty was soon replaced with dread after they noticed that at least 99% of the paths were leading to dead ends, leaving only a few selected ways to reach the exit.
Just as they wanted to trace a path from the exit to their assumed random drop spot, Zoe sent them down rapidly, not caring about breaking their focus. She already told them that they had 10 seconds during the drop, not before it.
Felix’s slits shimmered with red light as he scanned the entire area he was about to land in. He merely gave a glance at the exit, and ignored it, as that was never his target, but the beasts and the open chests around him.
“One, two, three, four…”
He counted each beast he noticed, marking its position mentally and moving on to the next target. He spent the entire duration of the drop doing nothing but this.
Whoosh, BAAM!
He smashed into the metallic floor, sending an explosive wave of wind around him. Although the collision sounded pretty serious, Felix neither got hurt nor the floor got damaged. One had invulnerability during the drop and the other was too solid to be harmed by anyone participating in this game.
‘That was intense.’
Felix jumped a few times to check if his body was affected in one way or another from that landing. After a couple of attempts, he stopped and stretched his limbs while sizing up the towering walls surrounding him with a numb expression.
He was already familiar with them to the point he dreamed about them during the past few days in his training.
It was quite normal behavior after he spent a minimum of 14 hours each day practicing between those walls. He was already numb to their terrifying size that could leave anyone in a state of shock.
‘Asna use my memories and construct two paths, one leading to the exit and the other leading to the strongest beast I found in this area.’
Felix laid down his instructions while squinting at one spot on the wall, focusing deeply on it, like he was trying to penetrate its thickness and see what’s on the other side.
‘Alright! Leave it to me!!’ Excited and eager, Asna began reading his memories. She was extremely happy that she could join him and play as well.
That’s why the moment Felix requested her assistance before, she didn’t hesitate to accept. She was already bored of watching him have all the fun. So she couldn’t miss this chance of using her expertise to take a part in.
This was one of Felix’s hidden cards! Asna’s memory reading. For Felix who forgets what he ate in lunch constantly, Asna’s assistance was heaven sent.
As now he could focus on hunting the treasure chests and hidden compartments near him while leaving Asna to lead him in direction of the exit.
Although he was not planning in using it to win the game, he didn’t want to hunt beasts in the opposite direction of it.
It was a much better option to focus on chests on the exit way, so if he met with any players during his journey, he could eliminate them. Thus removing few variables that could affect his GP farming wager.
‘Felix I am done! The path to the exit, plus the one leading to the strongest beast are both at your first right. I will keep giving you directions on the way.’
As expected Asna didn’t even use a couple of seconds before she finished her layout. Felix didn’t respond to her as he was sweating bullets while continuously staring at the wall with his red shimmering slits.
Felix was currently using one of the passives that he unlocked after reaching 45% of integration.
Ultima Infrared Vision!
As the name suggests, the passive gave Felix an infrared vision just like a true serpent. However, since Felix was using the bloodline of the primogenitor, the infrared vision he unlocked was too strong for his eyes and brain to handle.
For normal infrared visions unlocked by other bloodlines, one could keep them active as long as their mental strength could handle the pressure of seeing everything in black and white besides things that emit heat.
On the other hand, Felix’s passive allowed him to do the same with an unhindered vision that could penetrate anything blocking his sight! Walls, buildings, and even ground, nothing that emits heat could escape his vision.
Plus, the range was unlimited!
He could see infrared objects even thousands of miles away. Unfortunately, that wasn’t happening any time soon or probably never will, as Felix’s trashy mental energy wasn’t enough to sustain such a heavy load.
Heck, right now he was struggling to push the limits of his mental energy to see hundreds of meters in front of him. Don’t even mention thousands.
So far, he managed to remove 5 walls, letting him gaze at tens of red auras with all kinds of shapes. Some belonged to beasts, while some belonged to humans.
Just as he tried to push into the 6th wall and see beyond it, his head got assaulted by a nasty headache, warning him that his feeble mental strength was about to give in.
Huff, Huff!
Felix closed his bloodshot eyes immediately after he began feeling his head aching. He breathed ruggedly as he took deep breaths in exhaustion. However, a satisfied smile was affixed on his face, clearly pleased with the results of his test.
Though he did the same test in the training room, Felix had nothing to lose to repeat it in the real game.
