A Familiar Face

Kai gave Zero a look after he spoke. "You do? Why?"

"Do I need a reason?" Zero responded.

"For someone who seems like they rather fly below the radar....yeah, you do. A lot of civilians attend these, but there can be quite a few players too depending on who is fighting. A lot of chances to get on someone's hit list."

While what Kai said made some sense, Zero was getting tired of him thinking that he needed to be sheltered from every aspect. Zero needed Kai to be his partner, not his protector. 

"Same reason. We need to scout out who our biggest threats could be any chance we get." Zero retorted.

Kai looked as if he had a rebuttal, but decided against it for whatever reason. "Okay. Let's go then."

The pair walked through the entrance of the arena and saw plaques lined down the tunnel leading into the spectator entrance. Each one had the name of a in game champion and the list of players who have defeated them. Some had many more names than others - with a few near the end only having a handful of names.

The one at the very end didn't have a single name etched in it yet.

"Have you done any of these yet?" Zero asked.

"Nah, not yet. When I first got here a lot more players would come here since there were a lot more newbies. I didn't want to show off my system in front of so many curious eyes just yet."

They walked through the opening to the stadium seating and was met with a wave of excitement - people were on their feet screaming and chanting as the fight unfolded on the large stone stage in the middle of the arena.

"Whoa." Kai mouthed. 

Zero couldn't believe the amount of people packed in this place! As he scanned around the many faces, sure enough, he saw players dotted throughout the crowd based on their outfits as well as their focused faces on the fight.

"This player might just be the one!" One of the citizens near him said happily to his friend.

"She's gotten further than anyone else so far!!"

"I don't know, that last guy also got close but this champion is too good!

Zero's attention went from person to person as they made their commentary about the outcome of the match. That's when he looked to the center and saw quite a site. There was a large muscle bound man who stood at least 3x the size of the seemingly small girl in front of him.

"That is a human...right?" Zero asked as he looked at the boulder sized muscles of the champion. He had tendrils that could almost pass for hair falling down to his shoulders and veins that seemed to be ready to burst coursing throughout his naked torso.

"Who knows." Kai said, also seemingly in awe. "But I'm more interested in her."

Zero looked to the small figure of a girl, about their size honestly, who stood her ground before this beast of a person. She had fiery red hair in a loose ponytail behind her. She wore a black trench coat that closed off at the top with a crimson rope that covered her torso.

This must be the champion who didn't have any names under it, Zero thought. No wonder it's so crowded today.

"New champions tend to only be instated when they old ones take too many losses." Kai said. Zero didn't have a doubt in his mind that Kai wasn't lying about spending an entire week just learning about everything. 

There's a unison gasp within the crowd as the champion bolted forward and closing the distance between himself and the player within no time. 

"It can move that fast?" Zero said with astonishment. "You would think it's size would give her an advantage, but I don't think-"

Before Zero could even finish his sentence, the red headed player threw her arm into the air with dramatic flair.

"Star Collapse!" she shouted.

There was suddenly a ripple in the air around the middle of the hulking fighter and then it was like he was being forcibly sucked into an invisible black hole, before it imploded outwards in a burst of black energy. The champion was thrown backwards and skidded across the floor several feet.

The entire crowd fell deadly silent with shock.

The champion reached his arm around to where his chest was and found nothing but an open cavity. The attack had blown away 70% of his front torso - his broken rib cage being partly shown through his mess of a body.

Zero's eyes widened within the deep silence. 

"Is she-" Zero started, but he was instantly drowned out by the uproar of the crowd as they threw their arms up in the air. 

"I knew she could do it!!" An obvious fan chanted.

"She did it on her first try, amazing!!" Another chimed in. 

Zero just watched on as the player turned away from her decimated bloodied opponent and headed straight for the exit without even a look in the direction of her huge cheering squad.

Even Kai seemed unphased by the brutality. 

"Ready to get out of here? Unless you wanna stay for the next player." He asked.

"Let's go." Zero said. Why do I feel off suddenly? Also, what kind of system could even do something like that? He thought.

They exited the arena through the throng of people trying to catch a glimpse of the player when she comes out of the challengers gate. Before they could even round the corner out of the building, a murmur of excited noises caught their attention. A flash of red hair quickly walked through the crowds of fans lined on either side of the challenger exit as she made a beeline to get out of the building altogether. 

Zero moved aside so her and her trailing fans could pass by. As she got closer, he noticed that she had a long fresh cut along the side of her face and there were a few small bruises, showing that this wasn't exactly an easy fight on her side either.

As if feeling Zero's stare, she slightly turned her head as she passed and caught his gaze. 

In that brief 1 second exchange, something shivered right down Zero's spine and based on her small facial change, it was the same for her as well. 

"Wait a second...do I know her?" Zero whispered.