Death... and me

Back in the elders' watching room, Fabio returned to check how they were doing. Well, it wasn't hard to read everyone's minds.

The Lukimira Sect had a total of four Divine Veins! Kayla even pondered if she should ask Fabio to allow her to sell one. After all, they were just too many! If she decided to sell, it would ease the mood in the room. What mood, you ask? The mood where everyone wanted to swallow Kayla's sect whole!

Suddenly, Kayla heard a voice from behind, asking her, "How is it? Your small sect will benefit a lot from these veins, right?"

Kayla almost jumped in fright as she didn't see how the guy appeared there at all. "Se-Senior Fabio!"

Fabio nodded as he continued, "You found a very interesting pair, I have to say. I'm looking forward to seeing how many more Divine Veins they can take away from the other organizations. Hahaha!"

Kayla and the others felt like crying after that. Fabio was obviously adding even more oil into the fire.

Fabio then passed a spatial ring over to her. Instantly, Kayla could tell that the spatial ring was of a much higher quality. Without a doubt, her four Divine Veins were inside. "Take good care of them."

Soon after, he departed to distribute the Divine Veins from the other powers. After all, Lukimira Sect wasn't the only organization to win them.

However, Kayla could totally see the ravenous eyes on the faces of the powers that didn't have them. Before, she was happy that Rean and Roan were obtaining the Divine Veins. But by now, she felt more like they were hot potatoes. Besides, Fabio didn't lower his voice at all when he said he was expecting more Divine Veins from the twins.

At some point, Kayla, Cynthia, Jusis, Wuxan, and everyone else from the Lukimira Sect began to think, 'Rean, Roan, that's enough! Please, there's no need for more Divine Veins. We don't want to be hated for all eternity!'

Sadly, that wouldn't happen. When Fabio returned to the participants' room, he opened the next spatial door. "Alright, the pause is over. The next test is...strategy!"

Poor Kayla, her wishes would not be fulfilled.

Rean looked at Roan, who got up once again, and said, "Well, this is just bullying already."

Roan glanced at Rean in response, asking him, "Do you want me to hold back?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "Do you even know how to hold back?"

Roan showed a rare smile after hearing that. "It's good that you understand."

Wamil and the others obviously heard that conversation. However, they didn't doubt anything anymore. "Is there even a need for us to be here? These two can totally carry the sect on their backs alone."

Once again, the participants of the assembly felt terrible. That's because every time one of the twins entered a competition, there was a huge chance they wouldn't win that contest.

The Strategy Test used a table game common in the Realm of Gods. In fact, it was quite similar to the game Roan played back in the Sasamil Empire. It was a war game with thousands of pieces for both sides. Just like in the Realm of Mortals, this one was used to test a person's commanding ability.

Roan didn't know the game at first, so he had to ask the elders there for the rule book. Hearing those words made the other participants sigh in relief.

Roan received the book, but he was also told to go to his gaming table since no one would wait for him to learn how to play. Eventually, the elder responsible for that test came forward to announce the rules. "I refuse to believe that anyone aiming to excel at strategy didn't know how the Realm Conquer War Game works. If you don't, then today, you're out of luck since this is exactly the game we will use to try out your commanding abilities."

The elder continued, "Other than the rules in the game, there is only one more rule. You must make a move within one minute. Otherwise, you will lose your turn, giving your opponent an advantage. Alright, that's all. You can start!"

Roan then looked at his opponent for a second before returning to the rulebook, telling his opponent, "You can start."

His opponent snorted in response, seeing Roan reading the rules. 'There's no way you will grasp the full extent of this game. I'm truly lucky today.' Still, to not give Roan time to learn, he made his move straight away. "Your time now."

Roan nodded but didn't move a single piece. Instead, he kept reading his book until finally...his turn was over. Yes, he didn't even bother to take his eyes away from the book.

His opponent felt like laughing out loud. However, he held back and made his move once again.

And just like that, Roan's opponent prepared his soldier in a way he could get rid of Roan as fast as possible. It wasn't before thirty turns later and after Roan lost more than half of his pieces that he finally closed the book and looked at the table. "Well, that should do for now. I'll get the hang of it during the next matches."

Roan's opponent was taken aback by his words. Roan was being utterly humiliated in the game since he never bothered to make a move. However, he talked as if the victory was already his! "Fuck you! There is no way you can turn this game in your favor anymore. Stop pretending to be some bigshot!"

Roan glanced at the guy with a confused expression in response, asking him, "Did I talk to you?"

That made the guy even angrier. "You asked for it!" He then changed his strategy into an even more offensive one, aiming to finish Roan in the next few turns. However...

"Sigh...although it wasn't enough to win, you did have a good advantage a few turns ago. Why would you give that up?" As Roan said that, the table's situation began to change quickly.

It didn't matter what the guy played, what strategy he used. Every time both sides encountered in the game, Roan would come out on top. Quickly, the pieces of Roan's opponent, which used to be double, decreased to around the same number. Not too long after, Roan's pieces were already dominating the entire table. Eventually, he took the head of the enemy's king, finishing the game.

"How can that be?" The guy couldn't believe his eyes. Even if one gave him ten years to study the game, he wouldn't have escaped that situation if he was in Roan's shoes. It felt more like Roan knew every single movement that he was doing several turns before he even thought about them.

Roan then looked at the table and narrowed his eyes, muttering, "Indeed, playing a new strategy game for the first time is quite hard. The number of mistakes I made was not small. Oh well, I'll get better as I go."

"Number... of mistakes?" The guy finally lost all confidence. If Roan won against him so thoroughly while making mistakes, then how faster would he have lost if Roan knew the game from the start?

The answer to that question came in the next round. Just to make sure, this guy stayed around to watch Roan's next match. During their match, the game was over in 412 turns. But this time...it only took Roan 78 turns to utterly annihilate his opponent. With that, the guy exclaimed inwardly, 'This guy is a monster!'