4 Problems in the horizon.
...
-Fuuuh...-
"I can't help but feel nervous knowing that I'm about to have a fight..."
Tightening his fists, Farid prepared himself right away to lung at the fake Rayhan as soon as the system finished counting down.
He was still not completely used to fighting, thus, it was strange for him to know that he could have to fight against someone in just a few seconds. However, his determination to shorten the time of the fight was still unwavering... He wanted to speed up his collecting of status points, and the key to achieving that was right in front of him... He was not in a position to hesitate.
He had discovered a way for becoming stronger, and he was not going to waste it.
『Beginning battle』
『3...』
『2...』
『1...』
...
『Begin』
As if a light flashed through Farid's eyes at that moment, the strength in his fist increased and his leg kicked the ground, launching himself right away toward Rayhan's clone at a very rapid speed.
"Hyaaaa!!"
Letting out a roar to motivate himself, Farid raised his fist high into the air, and slammed it right in the Rayhan clone's face, not letting the latter react in the slightest.
As expected from the body of a kid, Rayhan's clone rapidly fell to the ground after not being able to handle the recoil from Farid's punch, and only tried launching a few punches before Farid once again sat on top of him and started plummeting him throwing punches at his face.
The battle had been way easier than the last time, as this time the fake Rayhan was barely even able to counterattack or fight back in the slightest.
After Farid pinned him down, the battle didn't last much either, it took only a few seconds before the fake Rayhan's consciousness flew away after taking several of Farid's punches directly to the face.
-Huff...-
"It was really easy this time... Does my increased strength really make so much difference?"
As Farid stood up and patted his clothes while sighing exhaustingly, he looked proudly at the unconscious body of Rayhan's clone, before he then turned to look at the screen with a raised eyebrow.
『New Record!!』
『You have successfully defeated your opponent in [32 seconds]』
『The system will now start collecting status points from [Human: Rayhan Shieda] every 32 seconds』
『You can re-try this fight at any moment you want and try to establish a new record to shorten the span for collecting status points for every fight.』
『Leaving the Battle-simulating stage』
In the blink of an eye, Farid's environment turned once again into the bathroom of the orphanage, and just as he was about to admire his new record on the status page, the door started being banged repeatedly with a violent force.
"Farid, you damn brat! You have been there a whole hour and I don't know what you are doing in there, but you better open the door right at this instant, or else you won't be having dinner tonight!!"
It was the caretaker...
"Shoot!"
Maybe having done that while being in the bathroom was a mistake.
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|Several days later...|
...
"And remember kids, don't wander away from me as you might get lost. A city is a place where many dangers lurk around..."
""Yes sister Elena!!""
In the middle of the street, all the kids from the orphanage were all surrounding Elena, who was touching their heads seemingly counting them all.
It was only when she touched the head of a kid with black hair, that she stopped and looked at the said kid with a troubled expression.
"Hey Farid, don't get too distracted, did you hear what I said?"
Farid, who had been looking at the air absentmindedly until then, turned to look at her and smiled innocently while replying to her. "Hmm? Yes, of course"
Seeing his completely confident tone, Elena couldn't help but feel skeptical and sigh helplessly.
'I don't think he heard me at all... He was probably focusing on that "screen" of his again... Damn, lately, he had been more and more concentrated on it, I had believed he had gotten over it, but I guess I was wrong... Just what changed?'
Farid, completely unconscious of Elena's pitying gaze, turned to look once again at the screen as a smile crept up to his face seeing the contents of his status.
How could he not be concentrated on it, when what he was about to do was so damn exciting?
During the past few days, he had been so busy at the orphanage that he had barely had any time to open his status properly without someone watching him. Furthermore, fearing that his body would undergo the same strange transformation that it went through the first time he upgraded his strength stat, he didn't want anyone to see such a thing and think that something was wrong with his body as well. Thus, he hasn't been able to increase his stats yet, and could only watch as his status points accumulated more and more as time passed. Heck, even setting up a new record in order to speed up the accumulation of status points during these days was impossible for him as well because of another problem!
A few days ago he had been reprimanded severely by Elena, who was angry at him for being inside the bathroom for a whole hour. However, what was more strange to him was that he was only inside the bathroom for around fifteen minutes... So why did Elena say that he was inside for a whole hour when it wasn't like that at all?
After that day, Farid discovered that whenever he entered the Battle-simulating stage, the time outside would pass several times faster than inside.
He was only inside the battle-simulating stage for around a minute... So it was easy to say that 1 minute inside it was equivalent to 1 hour in the outside world... Thus, finding a proper time for trying to set a new record was almost impossible for him, with the only time he could find being at night.
However, because of the exhaustion of his body at night, he was never able to surpass his previous record during the few nights that he attempted it. It was something discouraging, but there was nothing he could do.
However, today was the day when he could finally do what he wanted!
Just seeing the enormous number that his status points had reached was making him drool by imagining how strong he would become after today.
『Status points remaining: [349.8]』
The last time, when he increased his strength by 1 the fight against the fake Rayhan was so much easier, he couldn't imagine how easy it would become after today.
Using the poor mathematical abilities he had, he was sure that he could be able to increase his strength at least by 30 points today using all his status points.
He could probably be able to defeat the Fake Rayhan in just one punch after that, fastening a lot the speed of status points collection.
'Strength is the most important thing after all!! If I have super strength, there will be no one that will be able to defeat me!!' Farid made a fist pump while nodding to himself, as the other kids simply watched him from afar with strange expressions.
It was left to say, this kind of mentality would come to bite his ass later on... However, it would still be a learning experience for the little Farid.
"Remember well, when we enter the crowd I don't want any one of you to wander on his own! King cobra is going to make a public speech today, so I'm bringing each of you with me so that you can watch him. However, if anyone of you disobeys me, then you better pray for your life once I find you!"
""Y-yes sister Elena..."" The kids shuddered as they watched Elena "smile" at them. However, Farid, who was still focused on the system, didn't hear nor see her in the slightest, so he didn't quite get the message.
Soon, the group departed from where they were and started walking toward the central city square that was located right in front of the Alubarna's palace, where an enormous crowd was gathered waiting for the king to appear.
As they arrived, Elena turned once again to look at the kids, worried that one of them might have gotten left behind... However, as she did so, she noticed that a familiar face was missing from the group.
'Farid... That damn brat!!'
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|Inside the royal palace...|
...
"Cobra-sama, the people are already outside. It's time for you to greet them" Pell, one of the two royal guards of Arabasta, appeared in the middle of the throne room and kneeled respectfully before he spoke to the man sitting on the throne.
"I know... I will go there in a second... By the way, Pell... Do you know where Vivi is?" King Cobra, the current king of Arabasta nodded before he raised an eyebrow and asked Pell, who only looked at him with a confused face.
"Vivi-sama? She was playing in the gardens of the palace just a few minutes ago... Why do you ask, Cobra-sama?"
King Cobra only sighed, before he answered Pell with a tired expression.
"I just had a bad feeling..."
Just as Pell was about to comfort him, the doors of the throne opened abruptly and Igaram, the captain of the royal guard, entered with a frantic expression on his face.
"C-cobra sama... Vivi-sama had disappeared!!"
Hearing Igaram, King Cobra stayed silent for a few seconds, before he sighed and looked at Pell once again.
"I knew it... Pell, please look for her"
"Y-yes your majesty!"
Without waiting any longer, Pell left the room in a hurry, leaving only Igaram and King Cobra there.
"I just hope she doesn't cause trouble..." King Cobra said tiredly before he stood up and walked outside the room. He still had a speech to give, after all.
...
-To be continued...-
