Max narrowed his eyes and tried not to get angry at his enemies out of his disappointment. He watched as the man who started the tournament appeared from the darkness and confronted them.
"Concede? Are you sure about this? Is it your decision or your team's?" He asked while looking at them.
"Yes, we're sure." The representative of the team nodded, "We talked about this before, and we decided to retire. I don't want to lose, but I also don't want to embarrass myself more. The next match is simply... unbalanced. We don't think we stood a chance against group A's team."
Staring at them silently, the man in the suit muttered something into his communication device before nodding.
"Very well. This is unexpected for us too, so we will allow it." He said, raising his left hand and opening a screen that looked like a control panel. "Anything left to say?"
"There is nothing."
Once again, the man nodded and pressed the screen. At that moment, the five people in front of him were engulfed in a blue light and disappeared. At the same time, announcements rang from the speakers.
[Tier 2 Group B has conceded!]
[Players: Puppeteer, Breeze, Moxy, UloTai, and Snikki have advanced to the final on May 18th!]
[Congratulations!]
[Leave the Lobby? Y/N]
A screen popped up in front of Max, asking whether he would stay to watch the Tier 1 match or leave. He looked around and noticed Puppeteer disappeared without anyone noticing. It seemed like he had chosen to leave.
"I am disappointed." Max heaved a sigh and moved his hand toward 'Y.' "My excitement is just for nothing. I guess I will sleep for the day."
With that, he disappeared from the Lobby under everyone's gaze.
***
Max arrived at his private Lobby and entertained his viewers with a parkour show for a while before logging out. It hadn't been 2 hours since the tournament started, and the sun was still high in the sky.
After a while, he calmed down and got embarrassed. Why the heck did he do that? No matter how happy he was, it was just a little bit too... childish.
Moving on, he knew there were several factors that made his video blow up, such as BloodSucker's editing and his channel. The most influential factor must be the video he made about the tournament and posted on his Strike account yesterday.
After calming down, he checked it and realized the video had been shared more than 100 thousand times, and the view had passed more than a million. He groaned in frustration. Why did he choose to upload it on Strike and not PunchTube? That would be good money!
'Oh, right.'
Suddenly, he realized something. No, more specifically, Max forgot about something pretty important. Today was May 16th.
'I forgot to withdraw my money from Punch again...' He facepalmed and let out a long sigh. 'Fuck. Too many things were happening yesterday that I forgot to take my money!'
It was a disaster. Even if he withdrew it today, the money would only be sent at 30. This system was supposed to help the streamer so no one could hack their account and take the money. But when there was an incident like 'forgetting about something,' it became troublesome.
'Well, I still have around 23 grand left in my account. I will just accumulate it and get a nice surprise at the end of the month to motivate me for Roach Planet's competition.'
Unfortunately, not even he could turn back time. But he could learn from his mistake... Two mistakes. He set up an alarm for May 30th with a custom voice that he downloaded from a free website.
The voice was pretty simple, and he liked it. It was a talking bird with a loud voice.
"MONEY TIME! MONEY TIME! MONEY TIME!"
Hearing the voice once again, Max nodded in satisfaction. At that moment, his stomach grumbled. He looked at the time, and it showed around 2 PM.
He decided to eat outside instead of making his own lunch to celebrate his advancement to the final. And there was only one restaurant that he had in mind to celebrate his victory.
'Let's eat in Nina's restaurant. Today would be the last time I would be able to see her. She will depart for culinary school tomorrow, so at least I have to meet her and ease her worry if there is any.'
Without a doubt, he would definitely regret it if he couldn't meet her and have a meal together today.
After everything was ready, and he wore his usual black jacket, he exited his apartment with a smile on his face. He would relax today and do his best to forget Midnight Heist's disastrous tournament.
'Spicy noodles with a big serving of meat and an iced chocolate. That would be a perfect meal to celebrate this bitter victory.'