System's POV

"So, how did it go?" Vincent asked Zion. "Did you use the tips I gave you last night?"

"I did," Thirteen replied before drinking his hot chocolate.

The two young men were currently having an afternoon snack together inside a cafe.

"Then, what happened?" Vincent inquired, his face filled with expectation.

Thirteen recalled the events that happened the night before, all of which were certainly a first for him.

Erica and Sherry were both close to him and after what happened, he felt that the two of them had become closer to him more than ever.

However, he didn't show anything on his face as he answered the young man's question.

"Nothing happened," Thirteen answered, his face as calm as the water on the surface of a lake.

"Oh, come on, Zion." Vincent smirked. "I am the Saint of Love. All of my friends come to me for advice, and they all come back with the story of victory in their relationship. I gave you the top five tips in my arsenal, so it's impossible for them to not work."

What Vincent didn't tell Zion was that, since he already knew that Erica had a good impression of the teenage boy and seemed to genuinely like him, all he needed was a little push to seal the deal.

This was also why he didn't believe that nothing happened between Zion and Erica if the teenage boy truly followed his amazing tips on how to reach first base and beyond.

"Are you just feeling shy, so you're not admitting anything?" Vincent asked with a knowing smile on his face. "Don't worry. I promise that my lips are sealed. No soul will know what you tell me today. You can trust me."

The young man patted his chest as if his oath was unbreakable.

However, the teenage boy only smirked as he glanced at the table beside theirs, where a guy wearing glasses and a face mask was reading a newspaper.

A recording device was conveniently placed on his table, making Thirteen look at him in disdain.

The young man then shifted his attention to the table in front of them, where a lady who seemed to be in her mid-twenties was scrolling on her phone.

However, it was glaringly obvious that the camera of her phone was pointed in their direction, as if she was recording something she wasn't supposed to.

There were multiple other suspicious individuals inside the cafe, and they only appeared after he and Vincent sat down and took their orders.

Clearly, the paparazzi were in full effect, and all of them were just pretending to be customers while secretly listening to Vincent's and Thirteen's conversation.

Right now, the teenage boy was a hot potato, and any news related to him—no matter how big or small, would definitely be worth publishing!

Vincent followed Thirteen's gaze and quickly realized that they were currently under observation, making him curse the paparazzi internally.

Knowing that now was not the time to interrogate his friend, he decided to just chuckle bitterly and change the topic.

"So, who do you think will become the Champion of this tournament?" Vincent asked.

"Definitely not you," Thirteen answered in a heartbeat as if making his irritation known.

Vincent, whose face was thicker than the walls of a bunker, only smiled and made his thoughts known.

"In the first group, there's Clark and Terence," Vincent said. "There's really no suspense there, and I believe that the winner will be Clark. Read new chapters at empire

"In group two, there's me and your brother, Mikhail. I believe I have a fifty-fifty chance of winning if I fight seriously."

Thirteen nodded. "That's right."

He didn't reject the possibility of Vincent winning the match against his brother.

Hearing Thirteen agree with him, Vincent felt happy because he could tell that the teenage boy's answer wasn't that of sarcasm.

"Then, in the third group, we have Char and Shasha," Vincent stated. "I love your sister very much, but I believe that—oi! Why are you holding that bread knife?!"

"Waiter, can I get a sharper knife?" Thirteen asked. "Instead of a bread knife, can I have a steak knife? A kitchen knife is fine too."

The Paparazzi, who were busy recording things, couldn't help but think that they got a big scoop.

They were already making notes for the next article with the title, "Vincent Osborn, who loves Shasha Leventis, tried to bribe her brother and got stabbed by a steak knife!"

"L-Let's calm down, okay?" Vincent cautiously looked at the steak knife that was now in Zion's hand and tried his best to keep his smile from breaking. "I was just going to say that even though Shasha is the crowd's favorite, Char poses a serious threat to her.

"There's a possibility that the winner for Group 3 will be Char instead of your sister. Do you agree with my theory?"

"I do." Thirteen nodded. "There's a chance that Char will win against my sister."

"Wow. I thought that you were going to insist that your sister would win hands down."

"Shasha is strong, but she still has much to learn."

"Don't worry, brother-in-law. I'll teach her the ways on how to become a woma—aaah!"

Vincent hurriedly moved his hand resting on the table to the side just in time to evade the steak knife that was now deeply embedded in the location where his hand was earlier.

"Um? Did you say something?" Thirteen asked as he calmly pulled out the steak knife from the wooden table. "My hand slipped."

Vincent was very tempted to say, "you did that on purpose!" but he didn't have the courage to do that.

Tiona, who was coiled on Thirteen's neck, looked at Vincent before shaking her head helplessly.

If only she could speak human language, she would have already told the young man to stop courting death.

The Paparazzi once again made notes, feeling very happy about the material that they were gathering.

The majority of them couldn't wait to get back to their offices and start typing on their keyboard in preparation for the articles that would get published the next day.