Absolute Shopping Addict

"Indeed, we"re stopping the match now."

This unexpected development caused the audience to rain down a chorus of boos; and in a matter of moments, the audience of awakeners began clapping, stomping their feet, and chanting.

"LET THEM FIGHT!"

"LET THEM FIGHT!"

"LET THEM FIGHT!"

Though a lot of evaluation matches ended in a tie due to both combatants being knocked out and/or killed, the final match has never ended in a draw.

And neither has the final match ended in a draw due to outside interference.

The crowd continued to chant, as they wanted to see how this battle would play out: the match that they had antic.i.p.ated seeing for the whole evaluation tournament had to end with a definite winner.

And now that it was clear that they"d end the match without one, the crowd began to continue chanting and clapping.

"Due to one of our sponsors stopping the match, we have deemed the result as a no-contest draw," the referee proclaimed calmly, paying no heed to the chants and jeers of the audience.

As soon as he heard the declaration, Damian dropped his head in shame.

I only managed a draw with someone who just finished the tutorial area. If this is how it"s going to be, I"ll never be able to walk around Nohas with my head held high.

Damian already saw how this would unfold: he"d be forever known as the ringer who could only scratch a draw with a novice awakener from the tutorial area.

The awakeners in Nohas would never let him live this down.

He wanted to voice his opposition to the outcome, but he had to keep silent, as this was his superiors giving the order – he had to follow.

"What kind of bulls.h.i.t is this?" Jake asked, still itching for a fight, as he both had no intention of following this decision, and he had a reason for winning the final match. "You"re going to walk in here and end this match on a whim – who do you think you are?"

His voice carried through the stadium, and the awakeners in the audience – those who weren"t joining the chants, anyway – shouted down their a.s.sent to Jake"s question.

"h.e.l.l yeah!"

"That"s right! This evaluation isn"t something you take over on a whim!"

"I didn"t like you guys from the beginning!"

From there, the chants quickly changed as the novice awakeners slowly grew angrier; they were robbed for the moment where a beginner would finally win against an already-established awakener in this evaluation.

"a.s.s-HOLE! a.s.s-HOLE! a.s.s-HOLE! a.s.s-HOLE!"

"I"m telling you, I need to end this fight, man!" Jake desperately told the referee, in the midst of the audience chanting louder and fiercer.

"If this match ends like this, I"m not only locked out of the Gold Label, but the Black Label, too…"

Despite Jake looking angry at the match, deep down inside, he was being overwhelmed with despair as circ.u.mstances outside his control have robbed him of his opportunity.

"Hey… hey! Look at me when I"m talking to you, you son-of-b.i.t.c.h!" Jake bellowed, taking the referee off-guard as novice awakeners are supposed to be afraid of ringers when they start revealing their power. "Resume the match! You think you can just stop this, just because those guys said so? I"ve been playing by your rules all this time, so let"s get this match finished properly!"

This man wasn"t intimidated despite his status; he"s even insisting that the fight go on, despite his disadvantage.

What Jake didn"t know was that his mere presence had already turned the evaluation and their tradition of "greeting" novice awakeners with powerful, already-established awakeners as ringers on its head already.

The final round should have been two ringers, but Jake made one of the ringers look like a novice awakener in the semifinal earlier.

Not only did a novice awakener make it to the final round, he was also holding his own against the other ringer, Damian.

Furthermore, based on Timothy"s a.n.a.lysis, Jake was the one closer to winning.

That would be a huge problem, not just for the division Damian is affiliated with, but for the entire social order of Nohas proper.

The practice of "greeting" would take a bigger hit than it already has; established awakeners would be discredited, and novice awakeners would start to want changes happen within Nohas, changes that would inevitably disadvantage Cheon-Ji-In.

This was why he had Director Lee intercede in the match and proclaim the fight a no-contest draw due to outside interference.

It was one of the ways he used his division"s power to influence others. The Nohas Union may have wanted to keep the fight going, but if Cheon-Ji-In imposed their will on the contest, there was nothing they could do about it.

The referee ended up being unable to accept Jake"s pleas.

Not only that, Cheon-Ji-In"s actions would end up being deemed correct by nearly all the other divisions, because due to the "greeting", novice awakeners would end up being more malleable within the division they end up in.

Every division had the same idea: they needed to overwhelm the spirits of the novice awakeners to make them easier to recruit and train.

"Didn"t you already hear me? It"s already decided – it is a no-contest draw!" the referee shot back, his own pride in play as he gave the order, and that giving into a novice awakener"s tantrum would only diminish his – and the Nohas Union"s – authority.

"You think this is some kind of joke, huh? Well, f.u.c.k you, I won"t do what you tell me!" Jake, noticing how things are going, gritted out.

He knew his demands wouldn"t be accepted, but there was more at stake here than the simple outcome of a match – he could not back down.

"If I take this on the chin, it"s over. My shopping will be over.

These guys may be big shots, but I can"t let that stop me. I can"t let all my efforts go to waste. I can"t be locked out of the Awakening Store; I"ve got to at least try!"

With a force borne of desperation, Jake decided to settle things by force, because if this is the outcome of the match, he may as very well have been killed, as his life would no longer have any meaning, with his access to the Awakening Store severely limited.

Jake was a man with nothing to lose as he began to channel his power once more.

"I have no reason to be afraid of them, I have nothing to lose."

He was about to make his move when a white ball of light flew from the stands and into the arena floor in a terrific crash, causing dust to fly up everywhere.

When the dust cleared, everyone could make out a man in white, an aura of power radiating from him.

"Enough!" Timothy bellowed, causing everyone in the stadium to stop.

Being in close quarters with someone of this power had frozen Jake on the spot – it was a power similar to Damian"s, only several times more potent.

It was something on a far different level than what he"d encountered.

He couldn"t even move his mouth to speak with the sheer force keeping him still.

"d.a.m.n it all!"

If he could look at himself from some distance away, it felt like he was being bound by the chains of his own armor.

And being made to be helpless like this only made Jake even angrier: he had to just shut up and take an injustice like this, all because he wasn"t strong enough to fight back.

He was doing his best to break free of the overwhelming pressure being brought upon him, to the point where the scratches on his match against Damian began to open up, sending rivulets of blood flowing down his body.

This is an absolute crock of s.h.i.t.

Harsh language was the only solace Jake could take in.

Only spitting out the cursing words was all Jake could do.

"This evaluation is officially over. Everyone, go home," Timothy declared, the sheer force of his aura getting the audience to comply. "Anyone wanting to start any funny business will be dealt with by me personally."

His mere presence was enough to get the audience to quiet down and begin leaving the stadium.

Some of the scouts in the VIP boxes thought the novice awakeners would start a riot, but their fears were unfounded as the audience was swiftly dismissed.

***

"It"s not supposed to end like this.

It"s not…

I won"t let it end like this, even if it costs me my life, because I"m a dead man walking already...!"

The audience had mostly left the stadium, but there was someone in the arena floor who was still banking on that last morsel of desperate hope that he could somehow still complete his task with a victory.

Jake Smithson was still straining against the invisible force holding him.

"This is the power of Ten Stars. Even a daredevil like you can"t do anything about it. Come join Cheon-Ji-In. I"ll let you have this power like me," Timothy said triumphantly, turning to Jake, continuing the tradition of crushing novices with his gesture.

The successor was expecting a reply, but what he saw in Jake"s eyes was nothing but sheer, unadulterated fury; as if he was trying to wipe him off the face of Nohas with nothing but his gaze alone.

"I don"t know why you"re risking your life for a match like this," he continued, not quite caring about why this upstart wanted the match to go on.

"Think about my offer."

He turned and left, and as soon as he did, the force that was holding Jake still suddenly dissipated.

The novice awakener nearly collapsed onto the sand, his breathing ragged as he gathered what was left of his power; the loathing and vengeance within him giving him a second wind.

"Looks like it"s over.

But I"m not the type of guy who accepts things when others say "it"s over".

It"s over for me.

No more Gold Label.

I"ll lose the Black Label, too.

You should have just killed me, you smarmy little Ten Star f.u.c.k.

Right now, when my way of getting stronger has been removed from me, you just wasted a golden opportunity to kill me.

Because right now, I"ve gone so far past rock bottom, I"ve seen the bas.e.m.e.nt.

I have absolutely nothing to lose now.

And I"m not going to let it end like this, with you walking away.

I"ll admit: I"m not the type who thinks about the future.

But with this s.h.i.t… I won"t have a future here.

I"m not going to stand still and take it on the chin like what you"ve been doing to others.

If you"re going to f.u.c.k me over…

…I might as well go out in a blaze of glory!"

Jake, with his mind completely made up, grabbed the Swiftstone with shaking hands, and readied to launch one strike that may be his last in this world.

"That just won"t do," a strange voice in Jake"s mind said. "Are you really trying to kill yourself?"

"Who"s that?" Jake asked back, looking around to find the source of the question. "It sounded like an old man."

He took a moment to look around the stadium for an old man, but found nothing.

"Whatever.

It"s useless at this point.

It"s an old man, though. So, I might as well dignify his question with a reply."

"Thanks," Jake replied in his thoughts, "but if I told you there was a lot more at stake for me than the match, would you let him leave like that, too? You wouldn"t understand, anyway."

With that out of the way, Jake made his move: gathering whatever power he had left and the certainty of death in this world due to his defeat, Jake channeled all his magic onto his sword and legs to spring forward and strike.

"Here"s what I think about your offer, you piece of s.h.i.t!" Jake shouted, and as the last few awakeners in the stadium looked on in shock, another one leaped off the stands and started making his way to the fight.

"Jake!" Liam cried out, trying to run at Jake to stop him, but too late to do so.

It was a hopeless gesture, with every dint of possibility standing against him.

What could he do against someone of such tremendous power?
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As if he had antic.i.p.ated this, Timothy turned back, a cruel smile on his face, set to blast this upstart into oblivion, but just before Jake struck, he stopped short.

"You didn"t answer my last question, young man," an old man said, the tip of his cane resting on Jake"s chest, holding him still. "Were you so desperate that you did not hear me ask for an explanation?"

He looked almost nondescript: short hair and a short beard, both whitened with age combined with the simple gray outfit he wore, but he radiated a firm and kind presence that stopped Jake in his tracks.

"What"s going on here... who are you?" Jake asked, also caught off-guard by the sudden entrant.

"You told me that I wouldn"t understand what was happening, why you"re doing this," the old man said, his kindly smile contrasting with the lack of effort he made in holding Jake at bay. "And you were also on the way to strike that man down when I asked you, and you didn"t hear this old man ask you why. How about you put down your sword, then let"s talk about it over some tea?"