The gap between the two groups was minuscule, practically negligible.
Third-place Aburame Tengen was only around a hundred votes behind second place, so the difference was not that great. It could still be made up.
But things looked miserable for the rest. There was a gap of more than a thousand votes between third and fourth place—a sheer cliff.
Honestly, if the vote counts were made public, the fourth-place contestant's mentality would probably collapse on the spot.
The stage had more or less been dismantled, and Xinyu was finally able to catch her breath.
She went over to Ran and found that he had finished handling his work as well.
"Ran, is it over already? How did the rankings turn out?"
Ran handed the ranking sheet to Xinyu. "Take a look for yourself. It wasn't too far from what I expected."
Xinyu took it and gave it a quick scan. The corner of her mouth twitched slightly, but she quickly recovered. "It really is about what I expected. But isn't the gap between third and fourth place way too big?"
"Effort and reward are proportional. The effort you put in determines the reward you get."
"You know how hard Akeibi and the others trained every day."
Xinyu nodded at that. "You're right, but it's not really our place to comment on these things."
"Once the village's vote count comes out, we can announce the results. Lord Torikaze shouldn't have ended the livestream so early. He'll have to start it again soon."
Ran spoke nonchalantly. "That's no trouble for Lord Torikaze. But it would be worse if viewers throughout the Shinobi World had to watch the arena in this messy state."
The two chatted on and off like that, and much of the awkwardness from not having seen each other for