Chapter 39: Jealousy Was Used, It Was Quite Effective

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It has been a few days after your last Aetherium Wars match. You and March has been training your trotter whenever you have time. Now, you are both in the elevator, waiting for it to reach the lower floor, and face your next challenger.

"Hmmph! Whoever we're about to face next, they better be ready, 'cause we're about to go all out again!" March said, trying to hype you and herself up.

Despite knowing who your opponent was going to be, you still appreciate March's energy, and tried to reciprocate it.

"That's right March, let's do this!" You let out a smile as you did so. March nodded with you in agreement.

As the elevator reached to the lower floor, you and March slowly walked towards the podium, where your next challenger stood, awaiting for your arrival. From the distance, you could see someone with a black jacket and silver curly hair, watching both you and March slowly walk towards them.

"Wait a second, is that..." March used her hands to cover the top of her eyes to try and see farther and clearer, but you already knew who it was, so you just continued walking.

"...Yup."

As you reached the big podium, you could slowly start to see the smug face of arrogance on your challenger's face. She then places one of her hands on her hips.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Astral Express crew. Here to challenge me to the semi-finals of the Aetherium Wars? Hmph. How cute." Silver Wolf said.

You let out a grunted face, but not of malice, but for the passion of competition. March wasn't quite ready for Silver Wolf's appearance, though.

"You're that hacker girl that works for the Stellaron Hunters, aren't you? What're you planning now, huh?" Naturally, March had some questions, but she wasn't exactly approaching this situation with a guarded heart.

Silver Wolf shrugs her shoulders and sighed. "Don't think about it too deeply, ice girl. I'm just here for the games." As she blew some gum from her mouth, the silence between the three of you were overshadowed by the screams and shouts of the crowd, cheering you on.

"That being said, let's not talk about work for now. What say we give everybody here the game of their lifetimes, huh?" Silver Wolf grinned.

You grinned in response. "You're on, Silver Wolf. But we're not gonna give up that easily, isn't that right, March?"

March looked at you, and let out a grin on her own. "...Yeah, let's do this!" Determination was filled in both you and March's eyes, as you participated in the semi-finals of the Aetherium Wars.

Although you and March were filled with determination, it takes more than that to actually win a game. As you start to make callouts for your monsters to defeat Silver Wolf's monsters, they all started to get knocked out, one by one. Even though some hits were thrown, they were considered miniscule compared to how much damage Silver Wolf's monsters were dealing, which made you and March a little bit discouraging after each monster defeat.

"Gahh!! Now Jimmy's down too! What do we do now??!" March was shaking your arm profusely, with a worried look on her face. Jimmy was one of the monsters that you've collected and trained, and had its name given to by March. 

"D-Don't worry, March. We can still win this! We still have one more monster left!" Even though you knew the odds were against you and you had no match against the greatest gamer of all time, you decided to hold up hope until the end.

When Silver Wolf saw the interaction that you had with March, there was a sour look on her face. Then, she proceeds to show almost no mercy in damaging your last monster, and the attacks felt much more brutal than before, almost as if it was personal now.

With the barrage of hits coming towards your last monster, it has finally dropped down to 10 Hp. It was going to be over after one more hit, and right now, it was Silver Wolf's turn to move. Silver Wolf let out a smug smile, almost as if she was already basking in her own victory.

"Hehe. Of course it's come to this. I'm the gaming goddess of our generation, after all." Silver Wolf said with a smug on her face, but it was a bit different this time, almost as if she's desperately trying to prove that she's better.

"Huuu.... We lost... should've known that we couldn't have beaten her..." March said, crying onto your shoulder. Naturally, you tried to comfort her while patting on her back with your other arm.

"There, there, March. We tried our best. I'm sure we'll win some other time." You said with a smile on your face, trying to comfort the crying girl on your shoulder.

As you were doing so, Silver Wolf who was in front of you on the stage with the battleground in the middle, saw the entire thing. For some reason, Silver Wolf could feel something welling up inside her, and it didn't feel good. She stood there for a little while, still looking at you comforting the pink haired girl, and suddenly retracted all of her Aetherium Monsters.

You, March, and everyone in the crowd who was cheering the entire time, suddenly went into silence. Then, Silver Wolf, with a quite angry face said: "I forfeit."

Of course, everyone was confused.

"...Huh? What do you mean?" you asked.

"I quit. I'm not playing anymore. You win." Silver Wolf said as she walked towards the exit of the podium in a fast pace, walking past between you and March, towards the elevator to the top floor.

As your 10 Hp monster was still standing at the battlefield, the announcer, trying to break the silence, announced you and March as the winner of this battle. The crowd continued to cheer, however, you and March stood very still, looking at Silver Wolf slowly entering the elevator and exiting the arena.

"...What's gotten into her?" you asked.

"....I don't know. Maybe she... suddenly remembered to do something important?" March answered with another question.

You thought about it for a second.

"I... don't know either."

Then, as the camera pointed towards you and March's faces, you both bowed and smiled at the crowd, relishing in the moment where you were the victors of the game, for now.



As the tournament's semi-finals and finals were all conducted on the same day, later that evening, you've finally beaten the secret boss: Pitch Dark Hook the Great, and every single participant stood by the podium of the arena, clapping and celebrating you and March's victory. However, as you scanned through the gathering of the clapping participants, you noticed that not all of them was there.

In the Stellaron Hunter's spaceship, inside a particular girl's bedroom, there was a silver haired girl, sitting in a corner, with her arms curled up around her legs. In front of her were a couple of broken Aetherium Coins; seems like she intentionally broke them out of rage. 

As Silver Wolf calmed down, she picked one of the broken coins up, and stared at it for a while.

"...Maybe I should just stick to Yenshin for now."

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