The Great Freya Academy, Rio's Dorm Room.
Rio sat on the couch with a teacup in his hand. As he watched the TV, he ignored the thundering of the dark clouds outside.
Lightning struck several times and deafening thunder sounds came one after another, but Rio paid it no mind. It seems that even stormy weather can't make his expressionless face flinch even a little bit.
The News anchor started his reporting, while Rio sat on the couch in a relaxed manner. (Today is a national holiday in the human empire, today they celebrate the victory of the human empire in the fifty-year war against the 'Orcs' and also mourn for all the people whose lives were lost in this war.)
...
"As all our audience may already have noticed, the weather today is very unusual…" (John, the anchor.)
"A huge thunderstorm has been artificially created today over the whole human empire, to celebrate the national sacrificial day, this is also to celebrate the appearance of a new SS-ranker…" (John)
"The opposition points out and says that this is excessive and we should have used that money for helping the poor families, but the government disagrees…" (John)
"The president has given his well wishes to all the citizens of the human empire and has said "This storm and thunder represent the war cry of the rising human empire, with the birth of a new SS-ranker our nation has become safer and stronger." This was the exact statement of the president…" (John)
After telling all this John showed a bar graph on the screen behind him and said in a serious tone:
"In this data, we can see that the military spending this year has increased by 300% compared to the last year, this is an astronomical sum of money being spent on the military…" (John)
"The opposition party leaders questioned the government about where all this money is being spent, some great figures take this as a sign of a new war approaching us at a very fast speed…" (John)
"This has made many people question the fact that is it really necessary to waste money on creating a giant artificial thunderstorm, or is the government trying to kill all the poor people in the disguise of this thunderstorm…" (John)
The Anchor continued rambling about the extraordinary spending of the government on useless things instead of helping the people in need.
...
Eventually, the anchor showed the videos of several reporters rushing and blocking the four SS-rankers and trying to ask them questions about this thunderstorm.
"Ms. Raji, what are your thoughts on this matter?"
A daring reporter pushed everyone aside and questioned Raji who was sitting in her luxury car through the half-opened windscreen
Raji lowered the glass fully and replied in a vague tone.
"I can't tell people about the classified information, but all I will say is that there's no need to fear about the safety of humankind, with the addition of one more person in the ranks of the SS-rankers, our nation is stronger than it before was…" (Raji)
After saying that Raji put her branded sunglasses back on, the windscreen closed again and the car drove away in a hurry while being surrounded by many bodyguards and muscle cars.
...
The video ended and the Anchor appeared again on the screen of the TV.
"Only Ms. Raji has given a vague statement in this matter and the other three SS-rankers have refused to even see the reporters, which has made many people concerned…" (John)
"In the end, all is up to the common people to decide. What do you think about this sudden increase in military expenditure, tell us your thoughts on the official website of our channel…" (John)
Looking at all this Rio has only one thought in his mind.
'It seems that the 'Meeting of Gods' is about to arrive and the government is trying to show off the appearance of a new SS-ranker to the whole world…' (Rio)
Rio could only sigh at this matter.
'No matter the world, politics is always a complicated topic…' (Rio)
…
Then the anchor finally switched to another topic.
"Now we show you a scene of General Bismoil giving rewards to the group of winners of the recent 'Group survival test' conducted by the Great Freya academy…" (John)
Then the video of Link, Lenn, Ars, and Leo receiving a golden trophy from General Bismoil appeared on the TV, All four of them had a huge smile on their faces. General Bismoil praised them all personally and gave them each a free head-pat.
Then Link gave a small speech on how he felt upon receiving the reward, directly from the hands of a war veteran like General Bismoil. His Bright Red hair and pupils shined like gems and his face brimmed with unwavering confidence even when standing in front of hundreds of reporters and cameras.
Later Liam's group got the silver trophy and Lia's group got the bronze trophy. Each of them gave a small speech and motivated the youngsters who are aspiring to become future academy students.
All of their popularity received a huge boost after receiving great attention on the internet.
'It seems they didn't even take a single photo of mine… sigh~' (Rio)
Rio and his team were not able to survive the allotted time of one hour, thus they lost and didn't get any rewards at all. The only reason people even knew about Rio was because they saw him fighting Link and others in that last battle. (Even Meng's existence was edited and cut off from the videos released to the public.)
Rio's half face was shown for ten seconds on the TV when they showed the audience at the start of this video. (Even though Rio was sitting in the very front row, yet, he was barely even shown on the TV… Rio really has some extraordinary way of getting ignored by the sight of cameras…)
…
Later the anchor continued to praise Link's extraordinary talents and looks, Link was now certified as a guaranteed future SS-ranker all over the internet. (Actually, Link is also seen by many people as a celebrity nowadays, many famous magazine covers have a photo of Link on them. He has a whole dedicated fandom of himself. There are millions of fans in his fandom.)
But Rio just had a single thought about this matter.
'Hmm, it seems he recovered from his baldness, his face looked quite funny with the bald haircut, if his fans had seen him like that, they would have had a heart attack…' (Rio)
Just when Rio was about to shut down the TV, suddenly the anchor put his hand on his wristwatch and a sudden break appeared as if something major had happened and the Anchor went away to get the information about it.
This suddenly piqued Rio's interest, thus he didn't get up from the couch and stayed still, even though his teacup has already been emptied by now.
The ad break ended after a minute or two and the anchor appeared again.
"Just now we received shocking videos from our sources, the video show shocking scenes of the 'Group Survival Test', which were not released to the public before, but our reliable sources got those videos…" (John)
Then the video of Rio using that immense thunder beam appeared on the TV, the sound of the thunder produced by Rio's sword, made the outside weather look tamer in comparison.
The absolute devastation that was unleashed upon the area from that 360 degree swing of the thunder beam appeared and made everyone watching the TV shocked beyond words.
"Yes, we are informed by our sources that a student named 'Rio Flash' who is also famous among the netizens as 'Link's biggest Rival' has awakened the legendary power of 'Sword Intent', moreover his mastery over his 'Sword Intent' has reached a remarkable level…" (John)
Then the camera zoomed out and showed the aftermath of Rio's attack. The area which was originally covered by large trees was now converted into a barren land, where thunderbolts crawled everywhere like snakes.
"This attack eliminated six of the members from the opponent side…" (John)
The anchor repeatedly described the power of that attack and also, showed many other videos of Rio, beating the daylights out of the others.
Then the video showed the moment when Rio's sword turned into liquid all of a sudden.
"Look at this sudden change, I believe that student Rio's sword must have been a defective one, otherwise there was a great possibility that the winner of this test would have been this underestimated student Rio, the Dark Star." (John)
Later, all these videos made many people question who was stronger between Rio and Link.
This sudden appearance of videos about Rio's feats caused a major sensation on the internet and a war started in various forms about who is better among Link and Rio. Some argued that Rio's attacks couldn't even damage Link and some argued that Link's attacks didn't even land on Rio. (This event laid the foundation of a new fandom, the Dark Star fandom.)
…
Rio looked at all this with a bewildered look on his face and only one thing came out of his mouth.
"F*ck!" (Rio)
…
…
Author's Notes.
Yo! The continuous upload day 7 is here! Let's go!
Question of the day.
Which fandom would you join?
1.?Dark Star Fandom (Consists of people who like to be in shadows and prefer self over others.)
2.?Berserk Rex Fandom (Consists of mainly the fan-girls who see Link as their future hubby and a small portion of guys who see Link as their motivation icon.)
3.?The Golden Demon Fandom (Consists of nerds and filthy weebs who see Lia as their future waifu, the author is also a member of this fandom.)
4.?Other (Tell me in the comments.)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.