Parallel Memory

"Winner! Lisanna Lockser of Ace Academy!"

The referee announced the result.

Lisanna Lockser became a name that spread to every corner of the globe at that moment. In this gathering of genius, the one to emerge as the victor was the tiny little girl.

This tournament has many variables as Rank-B girl Ruelle, Zero who was ridiculously strong, and Omar Noel who was given the number 1 rank but that all didn't matter to most people, what mattered was the name of the winner.

Lisanna winning with such people was a testament to her intelligence, luck, talent, and power. She would be the target of many guilds after this tournament.

Her fame will increase from now on and may even exceed that of Professor Mia for a few weeks and many news channels will cover stories about her. Many guilds will extend their invitation to her. With her fame, it was easier for the guild to capitalize on her fame which will make her the most suitable choice for recruitment.

Ace Academy will also be in the limelight for quite a while. Well, it already was in the limelight due to Professor Mia but it will only increase due to Lisanna.

"Lisanna! Lisanna! Lisanna!"

The audience chanted her name over and over again. Some students and Professors from Ace Academy went over the stage and congratulated her.

They all felt proud of their school being ranked first again.

-CLICK! -CLICK!

This big event was filmed and reported by many news reporters. A lot of people took photos and wrote a lot of information for the newspaper, which will be published.

After some time, Nock Fletcher came over and said some words. He talked about how successful the event was and congratulated the participants for doing their best.

He congratulated Lisanna and gave her the prize, as well as the runner-up, Adamscat. This was just the tip of the iceberg, the real prize will be given to the academies later.

Lisanna got a Rank-A + sword as the prize. She seemed satisfied with that and it was also compatible with her. As I said, the prizes for the winners were good but not very precious. Rank-A + is definitely rare and very precious but nothing compared to the treasures of Ace Academy.

There will be a prize awarded to the participant by their school as well, which might even be better than the prize of the tournament. Well, that is only if you are from the Top-5 academies. I don't think that other schools can provide better rewards than what is given here.

With our academy retaining 1st place, I don't think that the rewards will be bad.

-CHEER!

"Ace Academy, the best school!"

"The undefeated school!"

"King of the tournament!" ...

The audience cheered and congratulated Ace Academy. Despite the news, prior to this tournament, about how Ace Academy was about to lose their crown, they still managed to hold it.

Many news channels had already started talking about the level of Ace Academy going down and to keep their news entertaining, they would also insult Ace Academy.

However, the champion was Ace Academy!

They could only admit their judgment and keep quiet about their previous statements. The Ace Academy has slapped them right in their face.

We returned to the hotel but it had become dark outside when we reached there. There had been too many reporters interviewing us.

Obviously, the main person that journalists were interested in was Lisanna but there were also others who took their time to interview other participants from Ace Academy. Surprisingly there were also reporters who asked me questions.

"Zero Elea, how do you feel about getting disqualified?"

This was what most journalists asked him. Everybody knows that Zero was the prime candidate for taking first place in this competition but was unfairly disqualified.

Many people had already filed complaints and The Authority also replied that they had punished the culprit but had refused to give more information about that.

The people could only accept that statement and seeing that the referee was changed, they could somewhat accept the result.

Anyway, even without Zero being the champion, many think that the credit for winning the championship should go to him for defeating Omar and other strong participants.

Zero would always answer that even with the unfair decision, their school still won and nothing mattered more than that.

People praised Zero for his maturity and his image improved among the masses. If it had been them, they knew that they would have complained and made trouble for the Tournament management team.

"What do you think about Arcane Academy getting suspended from the Tournament of Academies for five years?"

And there was also this question which was asked to him.

The punishment for Arcane Academy was also changed. They were suspended from the Tournament of Academies for 5 years and many of their resources were taken from them by The Authority.

One reason for doing this was obvious as they had Ruelle participate in this tournament under the pretext that she had failed in school. This excuse was not going to fly well with the Authority.

But the main reason was probably because the agent from The Authority suspected that Arcane Academy had connections with the Dark Guild. The evidence they collected enabled many of them to prove the connection between Arcane Academy and Ulv.

Although there was no concrete evidence that Arcane Academy was affiliated with Dark Guild, suspicion was high. Thus, they decided to take all the resources of Arcane Academy in order to reduce its influence and power.

Not getting to compete in the Tournament of Academies sounds like a light punishment compared to being taken all the resources but it was not. Without having the chance to appear in the Tournament of Academies, which student will join Arcane Academy?

Tournament of Academies was an opportunity for many students who would get the chance to show their talent and gain fame and various connections. And they would also lack the resources to properly train the students. Knowing that, which student will join Arcane Academy?

That means that for 5 years, there might not be any new students for Arcane Academy. That was simply killing the school.

The decline of Arcane Academy was certain. There might even be many investigations of their faculty and students.

Anyway, to that question, Zero will say that it was The Authority's decision and he could not comment on it as they might have their reason. Well, Zero already knew why they were punished though.

Equally, Hiro was also a popular candidate for those journalists. He was also surrounded by journalists as much as Zero was.

And other Ace Academy participants and professors were also not spared. In such a situation, it took quite a while before they made it to the hotel.

They were very exhausted when they reached the hotel.

-BRRING BRIING!

After taking a shower, Zero got a call from Sylvia.

"Hello?"

"Zero, come down."

???

Zero was confused but he listened to Sylvia and came down from his room. He had nothing to do anyway and was curious what Sylvia was up to.

In the entrance hall, Sylvia was standing with many students from other schools.

???

Zero didn't know what was going on but they seemed to be waiting for him, so he went to them.

"Let's go and play Edolas Super Brawl. This is our last chance to beat you."

Without waiting for Zero's reply, they dragged Zero to the entertainment room of the hotel.

While they were in the hotel, they played this game together. They wanted to play against Zero previously but he was hospitalized. Today was their last day in the hotel, which meant it was also their last chance to play with Zero.

They had to win against Zero.

Zero also didn't have a problem with them, so he went along with it. He had to remind them who was the invincible Zero.

Many people gathered around to watch the game. They had already made the order of their turn to play against Zero.

'Edolas Super Brawl! Commenced!"

The player who was first to play against Zero was Paul who is considered the strongest next to Zero. The player had determination in their eyes and was ready to defeat Zero.

-PAW! -POW! -POW!

'Perfect! Player 2 wins!'

'Perfect! Player 2 wins!'

'Finish! Player 2 wins!'

'Perfect! Player 2 wins!'

But the reality was harsh!

They were beaten left and right like some kind of punching bag. Against Zeros' infinite combos, they could do nothing but get beaten up.

However, their improvement was apparent as they could deal some damage to Zero unlike when he was completely invincible.

However, the most that they could manage was to reduce Zero's health to 75 percent, which was very far from being able to defeat him.

"Dammit! I can't believe that there is someone who is really unbeatable. I will defeat you!"

-PAW! -PAW! -POW!

'Perfect! Player 2 wins!'

"It is a hundred years too early for you to defeat me!"

Zero mocked.

"My turn. Look at my new combo!"

-PAW! -PAW! -POW!

'Perfect! Player 2 wins!'

"Maybe after you learn to block!"

Zero said.

Whether playing games or insulting opponents after winning, Zero does not hold back when playing games. He had to show off when he could. It was not like he was a pro gamer and with time, there would be people who would play better than him.

But until that time comes, he was going to show off!

With Zero defeating and mocking them, the final day of the Tournament of Academies finally came to an end!