Chapter 44: The First Match is Here!

"Haha! There's my fucking star!" Coach Scott loudly spoke with a wide smile on his face once he saw he enter the gym.

  His belly wobbled as he made his way over to her. Everyone else in the gym also locked their eyes on her. If this was the Zoey in the past, she would surely feel embarrassed right now. Well, she still feels embarrassed and wants to hide her face but compared to all the people in the crowd during the preliminaries of the YFTL, it wasn't that many people at all. She could tolerate something like this better. Especially since mostly everyone was looking at her with a smile.

  Did she usurp Ben's place as the gym's star from under him? Zoey secretly knew it was only a matter of time but didn't expect it to be this quick. She still hasn't even sparred with him yet. It looks like the YFTL is really amazing compared to the world of amateur boxing. Maybe if he went professional and fixed his personality a little bit, people would treat him like they're treating her.

"Are you ready for your fight, kid?" Coach asked.

"Who am I even fighting?" Zoey asked her own question.

"We'll talk on the way there." He patted her on the shoulder. "If you little slacking bastards want to come hurry up and get dressed and get out in the limo!" He soon yelled afterward.

"You can get dressed at the tournament, so you're fine." Coach told her.

"So, I should get in the limo then?"

"Yep, that's fine. The lazy smucks should be ready soon."

  Zoey knew she should spend the time in the limo studying the notebook filled with magical knowledge but studying really wasn't one of her strengths even with the Box. As far as Zoey could see it, her mental stat didn't give her results as obvious as her body stat did. So, instead of studying, Zoey started playing competitive games on her phone to raise her Gaming skill. She was surprised to find out that there were very big competitive markets for games on mobile. It wasn't anything close to the competitive market on computer or consoles but still very large.

  Console and computer competitive games could hold tournaments that gave out millions of dollars as the prize for winning! Some of the mobile games could reach this high as well but not nearly as often as the ones on console and computer. Knowing this, Zoey began to wonder something... Could she use her skills together?

  What if she tried teaching her brother how to play a game that often had tournaments with high payouts for winning till he was good enough to win on his own? Teaching and Gaming combined! Zoey would use her gaming skill to try and perfect or master a game before passing on her skills and maybe even teaching her brother to a higher height than she reached in the game. Then he could quickly grow in skills and popularity by being good at the game while streaming! What video game fans wouldn't enjoy watching someone with a kind and respectful personality along with being a total beast in the game!? As her brother rose in the online leaderboards or competitive scene, so would his viewers on his stream and with his increase in viewers, he would also get more subscribers and people who want to pay him for making such a good stream!

  Zoey was getting excited thinking about how she could help her brother fulfill his dream of being a famous streamer and getting paid to play video games. What boy his age wouldn't love to make money doing the thing they love? She didn't even think about using her skills to help her family and loved ones for some reason! So selfish! Zoey, you're so selfish!

  In her excitement of thinking of all the ways she could help her family and friends, she didn't take into account how much time she would need to spend to accomplish all of this. The things she was thinking about weren't things that could be done in a week or two. Especially when adding in preparing herself for her future opponents in the YFTL, the AMYM, school, hunting daemons, training her skills, studying the magic notebook, track practice and meets, and making time for her friends so she didn't lose them. Zoey felt like her brain would explode trying to juggle so many things at once.

  Zoey almost felt desperate enough to flip through Math Tips and Tricks to see if there was a magic spell in there that could duplicate a person so that she could be in more places than once but then she thought about Alexander and Lindsay. The two of them exclusively focused on ice magic and lightning magic. This made her wonder if a magjistar could only use one type of magji in their life and if she could choose one, she would be stuck with it to. Duplication magic sounded cool, but it wouldn't be something she wanted to be stuck with.

  If she was to choose her own magic, it would be something to compliment her Ultimate Boxing Style. Considering she didn't know all of the different kinds of magic out there, it wasn't like she could decide at this moment anyway. Maybe Lindsay put something about it in the notebooks. But right now, Zoey was playing top position in a ranked match and couldn't focus on much besides not getting ganked and outfarming her opponent in lane.

  Coach Scott was telling her about her opponent while everyone else was chatting with one another or asking her questions.

"He's a Muay Thai fighter. You know, elbows, kicks, knees, and strikes. But this Muay Thai fighter isn't the one you need to be worried about compared to the other one. Just watch out for his kicks, you should be able to handle his striking."

"Does he know any grappling?" Zoey asked, this was very important.

"None. The only thing you need to ready yourself for is his kicks." Coach reassured her.

"Have you told her about the new rules in the official tournament?" Zack brought up.

"Ah shit, I knew I was forgetting something." Coach cursed.

"New rules?" Zoey asked, this was probably more important than the grappling.

  If Zoey got disqualified for breaking the rules when she should've won, she'd be pissed beyond belief. She'd definitely be pissed at Coach for not telling her something as important as the god damn fucking rules! Zoey was very invested in this tournament for a multitude of reasons besides increasing her skills. Having it robbed away from her because she wasn't informed of something she should have been would be infuriating.

"Sorry kid. In the official tournament, there are now four rounds in total that are three minutes each round. After the three minutes are up, you will have to return to our corner. I'm sure you've seen some actual boxing matches about what we do in the corner. That's how it's going to be for you after each round." He explained

"Is there anything else?" Zoey made sure to ask.

"A lot more actually..." Zack sighed at Coach's bad memory at this moment.

  Zack told Zoey the rest of the rules that the Coach conveniently forgotten at the moment and she felt like she would've been fine even if she didn't know them. Most of them weren't really rules that a boxer like her could really break as she mostly uses her fists. Not her legs, knees, head, or fingers. Like a few of the rules said she couldn't stomp a grounded opponent, claw, pinch, or twist the flesh, and using abusive language.

  That last one was really important because Zoey had quite the potty mouth. She didn't believe she'd ever let anyone that she knew hear her curse as often as she does in her head. But it could happen. You never really know when you need to let out a good swear every now and then. Sometimes Zoey just felt like saying fuck ten times in a row. Or somedays calling everything she sees shit. Zoey liked cursing a lot more than a girl probably should.

"We're here. Let's get going." The limo stopped outside the YFTL building.

  Around the limo were swarms and swarms of people. This place was filled with even more people than the preliminaries! Were they all here for her match? It couldn't be! She wasn't that popular yet, was she? Zoey definitely had to read some of the comments on her fighting videos soon.

  Zoey couldn't believe that someone like her could become popular so easily. Did all it take to become liked and popular was being good at fighting? While Zoey definitely wouldn't call herself ugly, she didn't think she was like beautiful or super pretty or anything. Her socially awkward brain couldn't process anything as Coach basically had to drag her through the crowd.

  People snapping pictures of her, recording her, and even trying to ask her questions were all phased out as she basically froze up. It wasn't until they made it inside that she could finally breathe again. Only to hear the snickering and laughter of the guys from the gym. Zoey could feel her face heating up but she definitely wasn't going to say anything to embarrass herself any further.

"We're going to need to stay away from the cameras for a bit until you get more used to them." Coach couldn't help but say after seeing her face the people from the media like that.

"Okay." Zoey couldn't say anything to argue with him! Oh god did she not want to see any articles, pictures, and videos of herself after this...

  Coach took her to the waiting room as the YFTL were preparing the first match. He told her to shadowbox to get rid of any jitters she still had after she changed and she did as he said. Throwing out all her embarrassment from before out of her mind and focusing on fighting people she has fought in the past. Funnily enough, the person she chose to pick was actually that undefeated Japanese guy with the staff. After their match and when she got home, she actually looked him up online to see just how he became undefeated in the first place. It turns out, he really was a freaking prodigy! Every opponent he faced didn't stand a chance against him. Apparently, she lucked out that he underestimated her greatly. After watching several of his fights online, she could better picture his fighting style while shadowboxing.

  He was a damn fun opponent to face against. Haruto had her beat in reach and skill so far. Their speed was near each other with her having the advantage in mobility and power. Sadly, Haruto's fighting style was so unique that Zoey wouldn't be able to make much use shadowboxing against him to prepare for other types of fighters. But still, it was fun to fight against an opponent on the same skill level.

"And for our first fighter of the night, we have the undefeated boxing queen!!! Zoey Winters!!!" Zoey was surrounded by Coach and employees from the YFTL as she was escorted to the ring.

  Fans from the crowd were screaming their heads off as her theme song played in the background? An aggressive mood rousing song to play her in that made her seem like a bloodthirsty monster on the hunt for bigger and bigger prey. Zoey didn't exactly think that this song pictured who she was on the outside but damn did it picture her when she really got into the mood during a good fight. Did this mean that Coach knew about her true feelings about fighting? There's no way. First her dad and now Coach? No, no, no, no. Zoey couldn't accept this. She definitely wasn't someone able to be seen through so easily.

"Zoey has been on an unstoppable rampage ever since she debuted in the YFTL! Even though she's a girl, it seems that no boy has what it takes to stop her! She doesn't care about size! She doesn't care about fighting style! She doesn't give a damn what you look like! All this fighter cares about is pummeling her opponents into the next realm with her destructive fists! She's a talented killer that plans to destroy anyone that stands in her way!" The announcer continued to describe her as inhumanely as possible.

'You piece of shit. I'm a nice person! Stop making me out to be some kind of villain!' Zoey was conflicted.

  While she loved the praise and compliments flowing her way, she didn't really have the courage to play the villain like they were making her out to be. Couldn't she be a sweet respectful boxing queen instead? Throwing fists of loves and shit? What if she had to do an interview and everyone is expecting her to be really mean and nasty? Well, she is really mean and nasty on the inside sometimes but still. That isn't who she portrays herself to people that know her! Augh!