Battle Pod (III)

"Fine. I'll go down to Level 1, was it? But I'll be spotted by many members there and they'll ask questions..." Seunghyuk said and thought again then spoke but stopped again, like a train that moves and halts at frequent intervals, then Yumi got slightly annoyed when her patience was tested, "Obviously not! I mean, you should be able to eat free at the restaurant down at Level 4, they have private rooms! You will be eating with the Gold-ranked members, but currently, no one in the world except for me and the other members that went with Kim Seongwon to the Obelisk previously knows that you're the next leader. Therefore, here's my card, you can order anything you want but just don't...exceed $100...Wait that's pretty much impossible...the foods are capped at $100 at minimum...Hehe, well good luck!"

Seunghyuk stared at Yumi in exasperation as she leaves, then looked back down at Yumi's card, "Yumi doesn't have too much money left in this card, does she? I guess I can buy the cheapest meal there."

Seunghyuk immediately took the lift down to Level 4 and made his way to the restaurant discreetly, trying not to catch too much attention. It was easy not to as all the Gold-ranked members were busy working hard and not looking elsewhere, most have their rooms closed and shut out to the outside world completely. It was reasonable as Seunghyuk was having a really late breakfast that could already be counted as brunch. Seunghyuk blew out of his mouth tiredly as he walked up to the restaurant titled "The Gold Hold".

"Hello Sir, do you have a reservation?" The suited man stood behind the meticulously decorated granite counter, asking politely, and Seunghyuk merely shook his head, "No, I do not. Do you have any seats available?"

The man went through his reservation list and frowned immediately looking up, "I'm afraid all the seats are reserved beforehand. There's one room that's being used for meals right now, do you mind sharing a room and a table with...another diner?"

Seunghyuk thought deeply, he did not want other people to know about his identity or ask questions, but he currently had no other better choices and he rather not starve so he replied, "Well, I'm fine with it."

The man nodded as he dispatched another woman to inform the diner in the room that the room will be shared. Seunghyuk half-expected a commotion to be erupted, but things went on smoothly and he was ushered to the room. Seunghyuk watched as the doors slid open, revealing a black-haired male sitting at the table cutting open some steak, and judging by his manner of eating, he seemed to do it with practiced ease. Hence, Seunghyuk concluded he was a Gold-ranked member without needing his Eye of Detection.

"Pardon my intrusion," Seunghyuk excused himself politely as he entered, then sat at the chair opposite to the dining man, and when the female waitress exited the room leaving both Seunghyuk and the Gold-ranked member alone, Seunghyuk was questioned immediately, "Now that we're alone...Are you Yumi-noona's girlfriend?"

Seunghyuk's jaw almost dropped all the way to the table as he looked at the man's face of curiosity, "No. Obviously not, and how did you come to that conclusion?"

The man quickly wiped his mouth clean and then smiled, "Firstly, my name is Jeon Jisung, you can call me Jisung, I'm sure you're around my age as well so let's speak informally. Also, to answer your question, I am pretty certain that you're not a member in ConcCube, so Yumi-noona must have brought a boyfriend over. She was always drooling over good-looking males and since you're all handsome, I just jumped to that conclusion. So you're really not Yumi-noona's boyfriend?"

"No, Jisung, I'm not," Seunghyuk replied, still shocked that his first question would be that, and ordered his food via the device sitting beside him, "Well, since you've introduced yourself, I should do so too. I'm Choi Seunghyuk, just hit 20 yesterday. About my identity, you will know soon, probably about 2 days later."

"Then Yumi would announce that you would be marrying her," Jisung cut in and stated but Seunghyuk sighed and replied again, "I'm pretty sure I've confirmed that what you're saying isn't true."

Jisung stabbed his fork through the piece of steak on his plate and sent it to his mouth, biting through it as he talked, "Why sho (so) shechretif (secretive) orbort (about) your iderntorteu (identity)?"

"Swallow first before you talk, Jisung," Seunghyuk said and sighed, his food arriving as he slowly dug in when Jisung said, "You're only a year older than me and you're exhibiting "hyung" (a term a younger man calls another older man when they are close) energy already."

Seunghyuk was halfway through his food when Jisung finished and stood up, wiping his mouth clean with the serviette, "Well, Seunghyuk-hyung, I have to go now. I have to manage some important issues and prepare for my Battle Pod fight. See you soon, I hope not as Yumi-noona's boyfriend."

Jisung smiled and left, leaving an awkward Seunghyuk sitting there after being mistaken as Yumi's boyfriend just because he was a little good-looking. Then, Seunghyuk quickly finished his food paying with Yumi's card (although it exceeded $100) and rushed back up to the Battle Pod as he had to hone his skills even further.

"Let's go again..." Seunghyuk went into a state of sub-consciousness again and waited for his next match, "I wonder if I'll match with Jisung, he sounded really powerful..."

Well, unfortunately, Seunghyuk matched with another 4 filthy-mouthed bronze and silver members, and defeated them without even a word said out of annoyance. Seunghyuk did not even bother to use the Beginner Statpack he received for winning 5 times in total as he wanted to further sharpen his skills and experience.

"Okay, I need to "gear up" for my 10th match and make sure it's also a win," Seunghyuk said and used his Beginner Statpack, familiar binary codes and Ancient letters floated around on the System screen, "Wait, why do I understand more letters now?"

"Your Ancient Language Comprehension skill has been used multiple times and has been upgraded to 1 star out of 5 stars."

"Due to ??? Ring of ??? equipped, your Beginner Statpack was upgraded. You opened it and have received the following:

Strength stat point (3)

Agility stat point (3)

Defense stat point (3)

MP stat point (3)"

Seunghyuk sat down once again and let his body absorb the power brought about by the stat points then stood up a few minutes later and called out his Status Window. Seunghyuk was happy about his progress and he realised he had also levelled up when upgrading his overall stats.

Conqueror's Name: Choi Seunghyuk (Male) (Leader of Legendclad)

Conqueror's Level: 4 (raised by 1)

Strength: 14 (raised by 3)

Agility: 14 (raised by 3)

Defense: 14 (raised by 3)

MP: 14 (raised by 3)

Skills: Short-Fused Explosion (0 out of 5 stars)

Eye of Detection (1 out of 5 stars)

Heart of Cold Steel (2 out of 5 stars)

Ancient Language Comprehension (1 out of 5 stars)

Snake Of Ophiuchus (0 out of 5 stars)

Dancing With Fire (0 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, I'm sure I'm ready for the next battle," Seunghyuk breathed in and out, readying himself, because if he won the tenth match in a Battle Pod, he would receive not only another Beginner Statpack, but a 1-star Skill Mastery increase, and that would most likely increase with the help of his unknown ring, "Let's get this going."

Seunghyuk watched as another member materialised in front of him and he was slightly taken aback by the impeccable gear the member. Seunghyuk immediately used his Eye of Detection, which only earned him another big shock.

"Conqueror's Name: Jeon Jisung (Male)

Conqueror's Rank(Legendclad): Gold (Head of Gold-ranked Members)

Conqueror's Level: 4

Strength: 17

Agility: 20

Defense: 17

MP: 22

Skills: Blade Dance (3 out of 5 stars)

Horse of Three Kingdoms (3 out of 5 stars)

Reed Of Speed (2 out of 5 stars)

Aquarius's Water Jug(2 out of 5 stars)

One With The Surroundings(1 out of 5 stars)"

"Jeon Jisung?" Seunghyuk exclaimed in failure to keep his surprise a secret as he looked up and scanned Jisung's mystical items which earned him a reply, "Hmm? Do you happen to know me?"

Seunghyuk just nodded and smirked as he could feel Jisung's naturally built-in confidence in his own abilities, "Well, but I'm not going to tell you who I am."

"Why is everybody being so secretive today..." Jisung said as he tapped his beautiful blade in thought, "Well, let's make a small wager. If I win, you tell me who you are, deal?"

Seunghyuk smiled slightly and gave the wager a thought, "Well, I have nothing to lose, but nothing to gain either, so if I win, I'll contact you in real life and tell you my request, so technically, you don't have anything to lose either because either way you'll know who I am."

Jisung smirked in excitement as he readied his blade, "Well, so is it a deal?"

"Deal," Seunghyuk replied, and they both rushed towards the middle of the Battle ground with their blood boiling in exhilaration.

Author's Note:

This is the second chapter of the Double Update, and thank you for being considerate as I was sick, so here's your double update! Update schedule will return to normal of once a day, thank you!