Capture the Flag

"Boss, I'm sorry to have offended you!"

Marvin keeled down and begged for mercy. His teammates who have reached Advanced Ranking have been defeated and the bodies lied around everywhere.

"Oh? Do you want mercy? Then offer me something in exchange for your life!", Sun said.

He thought this guy looked pretty rich, so he must have some valuables or artifacts with him.

"Here is my spatial ring. Take everything you want. That's all I have!", Marvins voice trembles as he was speaking.

At first, he thought that Sun was easy to defeat, but it seemed that he was only suppressing his real strength. He had underestimated him which led to this result.

Even a group of Advanced Rank people couldn't kill him, then what was his Cultivation Rank? Master?

"Are buy trying to trick me?", Sun said and raised his voice a little bit. He looked like a real gangster robbing some weaklings.

There was only a sheet of paper. The content was written in some kind of ancient language. Since he couldn't read it, it was useless.

"No-o. I swear. This paper was found by an exploration group of my father. They are professionals and found this in an ancient ruin. This paper is written in the ancient language and should teach some kind of strange power. I don't know what is exactly is, but it can be sold for 5 million Erz.", Marvin said.

"He's not lying.", Sylvie said to Sun inside his mind.

"Okay. I'll spare you for today, but if you ever try anything funny with me again. You know what'll await you...", Sun made the 'slice-through-the-throat" gesture.

"Yes."

"Now get lost."

Marvin stood up and ran as quick as a rabbit hoping that Sun won't change his mind and chase him.

"Worthless Bastard.", Sun thought and made his way out of the forest.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Welcome to the second round of the NFT! Today, we have split the 250 participants into two teams. Red and Blue team. The teams will fight and try to bring the flag of the opposite team to their base. The winner team will be able to advance, so there will be only 125 participants left after today's event!"

After the announcer said that, the names of the participants showed up on a big screen inside the stadium.

The selection process is purely randomized, so it depended partly on luck if one wanted to advance to the next event.

Sun searched through the list of both teams and found his name on the blue team.

"OMG! I'm on the Kings team!"

Some guys and girls got excited after seeing the Kings team on their side.

Sun did not know who this 'King' was. The people around him were always talking about him and it was annoying to some degree.

"Dude, who is this King?", Sun asked a guy standing next to him.

"Where did you come from? You don't even know Zahl Howson?", the guy was surprised.

"Is he that famous?", Sun smiled wryly and asked again.

"Of course! He's the genius of our generation! The best among the best! Girls are swarming around him! He got Status, Money, and Girls - He's every man's idol!", that guy's eyes began to shine and he started to monologue about the greatness of the 'King'.

Sun looked at him as if he was a psychopath and distanced himself from the mass.

Sun thought that he must be some kind of relative to Edward since their surname is the same.

Zahl Howson was on the red side, so he was an enemy of him.

Speaking of 'King', Sun remembered that there was someone nicknamed 'Queen' here.

Sun was aware of 'the Icequeen'. He saw her on TV when he was young and fell in love with her like some kid falling for a character in a cartoon series.

The fact that Sun didn't know Zahl Howson was just because he never really paid attention to male matches.

He was always drawn to the female matches on TV. He was a healthy young boy after all.

"Charlotte Herla. Inheritress of the Herla Family.", Sun murmured to himself.

Sun checked her name and found her on his side.

"Good, she's on my team.", Sun thought.

"Participants. We will now relocate you to the destinated place. Be sure to get ready.", a supervisor called Waran of the second round.

In fact, there are about 20 supervisors to watch the match since this is a friendly showcase between families and not a life-death tournament.

"Remember. No killing - you can use whatever method or weapon you want. The objective is the flag of the enemy team.", Waran said.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Capture the Flag is a strategy game in this tournament. Both teams are transported to different locations within the great plains of Esperia near the Capital. The teams must bring the other teams flag to their base in order to win. Just getting the flag doesn't secure a win.

"I wonder how long they will need to realize that problem", Zan Fu said to himself in the VIP room.

"Oh, you mean the leader thing?", Sana commented.

"Yes."

...

Outside of the Capital. In the great plains.

"Guys! I'm Zahl Howson and I'm sure that every one of you is aware of that fact. I've learned and studied many books about war strategies and you all know that this game is based on strategy. So I'm requesting myself to be the leader of team red. Under my leadership, I'll be able to lead you all to glory and victory.", Zahl said.

He knew that if they don't have someone to control the team, the team will scatter around and everyone will do as they like in order to win.

But if he took the lead role, he'll organize teams for scouting, fighting, capturing and protecting.

This is a test of intelligence and he thought he figured out the intention of this battle.

"Oho, only twenty minutes have passed and we can observe group forming on the red side. This Howson kid does live up to his family name.", Zan said with a satisfied face.

"Of course. This kid is our best after all.", a representative of the Howson family said.

"Don't be rash. My daughter will be able to top your little prince charming.", Sana butted in.

"Let's observe further.", Honzo said and crossed his arms.

...

The blue team on the other side was unorganized and people shouted against each other.

Suddenly, a blonde girl wearing light armor came to the front.

"Blue team. I'm Charlotte Herla and I request myself to be the captain of the blue team. Any objections?"

"No Miss! We will follow you!", a bunch of guys shouted.

Despite so many people raving over her, her face stayed the same. Cold.

Sun found this ridiculous and wanted to leave.