The Ranch

First Place (3)

Once Maddox, Sinclair, and Phillip finish their speeches, the announcer takes over," Now it's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's time to announce our winners!" A blank holographic screen appears above them. Large enough for everyone to see.

"If your name is called, please come up to the stage to receive your reward." In this way, the winners can show their faces and brush their sense of existence, effectively raising their reputation.

"We'll be starting from third place with a monetary prize of three thousand kquil. Congratulations... Nolan, who managed to attain [7,015] points!"

There's a round of clapping as the name and number appears on screen for everyone to see. Someone from one of the outer tables stands up and dashed to the stage in a couple of seconds. Running might seem a little weird, but if they walked, it would take twenty minutes to reach the stage.

The third place winner, Nolan, looks a little dissatisfied as he comes on stage, but his frown disperses mostly when he receives the kquil. He remains on-stage while the announcer call out second place.

"With a prize of five-thousand, second place goes to...Elliot! With a grand total of [7,300] points!"

In the midst of loud clapping, a bang is heard, followed by clattering. Everyone turns to see a broken table and a very frustrated man. He only takes a couple of leaps to reach the stage before yelling," That's impossible! How could anyone get more points than me!?" The man seems to be denying reality. Looking closer, he has a green star pinned on his military uniform.

The other instructor in the audience look at the man with distain. Some of the higher ranking instructors shakes their heads with disappointment, like a parent dissatisfied with their child.

An unspoken rule of the instructors is giving soldiers the opportunities in festivals and tournaments. If instructors compete and put in all their effort, earlier generations wouldn't be able to grow and future generation would be stunted or might even regress.

Sherlock and Lucien glance between each other. Lucien works on his watch before sending something to Sherlock. Sherlock looks over it as he thinks about something.

The announcer shows a business smile while switching off his earpiece that's connected to the speakers. He looks at Elliot," Sir, if you continue to cause trouble, I'll have no choice but to remove you from the premises."

Elliot grunts in annoyance but eventually decides to wait it out and stands next to third place.

The announcer presses his earpiece,"Now lets announce first place. Winning by a gap of a single game, Lucien with [7,305] points!"

The crowd erupts in surprise by such a small gap. Some are happy by such a small gap, as it makes the green star instructor's defeat even more satisfying.

As it turned out, besides Alphonse's card, Lucien had the most money in his card so they ended up using his to claim all their points. They couldn't use Alphonse's in case anyone know the man and wanted to seek them out to take the card.

During their meal, they had decided to let Kai go up to the stage as their group's spokesperson. But as he was about to stand up, Sherlock holds him back," Let Tih go."

"What? Why? I thought we were gonna use this already-provided audience to bid the light staff off to the highest bidder." Kai glances at the mute Tih.

"...Then let Tih go with you. And be careful, that instructor is know for his violent tendencies." Sherlock glances at the man's clenched white fists.

Kai nods and pulls Tih up from his chair. The two get on stage, stares from every direction can be felt, but the subjects of the intense stares remain calm.

Phillip and Instructor Maddox look at Tih with surprise before it changes to amusement. Although one of the major gains of winning first place is reputation, the other big aspect is the prize and both Maddox and Phillip know that all the prizes were originally owned by Tih. In reality, Tih is just taking back what is already his, but to everyone else, two children just won a powerful weapon.

"Congratulations on winning the legendary laser staff, created by silver-star physicist Instructor Aurov." The announcer says before handing Tih a metal cylinder around half a foot long. It's a little to wide for Tih's small hand, as the tips of his fingers can barely touch.

"Let's give another round of applause for all thre-"

The announcer is cut off by green-starred Elliot," Wait a minute! You really want be to believe they won fairly?! They obviously had two people come on stage! Who knows how many people went around collecting points for them!"

The crowd quiets down, waiting for an interesting quarrel to go down so they can have new gossip to entertain themselves for a while.

The announcer glances at his boss's frown and tries to settle things quickly," Sir, the totals on screen are the accumulation of points on a single card. Even if multiple people played different games, that's a strategy they came up with and isn't against the rules.

At this point, the green-starred instructor is fuming. He's not getting want he wants from the announcer, so he turns his eyes towards the two children.

Phillip and Maddox stay on the side, but prepare themselves to intervene if the man turns violent against Tih or his friend.

"Admit it! You cheated right?! Do you know what happens to people who cheat others on this island you little newbies?!" The man seems almost anxious in his ramblings to prove himself right. Only he and his employer knows why.

He was hired to win the light staff in exchange for a large sum of money. He thought once he became an instructor, he would live a life of luxury and spent a huge amount in the Central Market as a celebration. It was a week later when he understood the truth. Money wouldn't come flowing in. Reputation would not be given just because he was a lowly green-star.

But it was too late, he was already in debt. An employer found him when he had completely given up and had given him a new lease on life. The employer would slowly pay off his debt while he worked for him, but if he ever failed an assignment, he would "no longer be of use". His potential disposal made him always give him his all during each mission.

By now, his debt is almost paid and he only need to finish this task to be free. His freedom in sight, he planned to finish this task by whatever means.

He even decided to cheat a little, paying a hacker to look at the scores five minutes before the end of the carnival and giving himself thirty points more than first place, making it impossible to surpass him in five minute. At least that's how it should of gone.