Dark stepped onto the Duelist Platform with a measure of caution, then... stepped down three minutes later.
"Not bad luck."
Thinking this, a relaxed smile appeared on his face.
These two consecutive victories had not allowed him to surpass Matthew Birbom, who was ranked twelfth.
Nor had they widened the gap between him and Ai Luli Clarissa, who was ranked fourteenth, but at least they had stabilized his position once more.
He had checked the schedule. Ai Luli Clarissa had four matches in total this week. If she won all four, she would surpass him again and become thirteenth.
And he himself would fall back to fourteenth.
The contestant ranked fifteenth beneath him had applied for five matches in one go.
However, that contestant had suffered consecutive defeats in yesterday's two matches. Instead, he had temporarily fallen to sixteenth place and was already on the verge of elimination.
Clearly, many people had judged him to be a "soft target," which was why so many had challenged him.
The contestant who had risen to fifteenth as a result had powerful momentum and could not be underestimated.
As for those ranked sixteenth and below...
They were likely locked in fierce competition, chasing one another relentlessly.
Dark had calculated it carefully. His ranking was still relatively secure. So long as he did not suffer a string of disastrous losses, he should not fall out of the top sixteen.
However, making it into the top sixteen was only the first goal.
After advancing from the points stage into the main tournament, the Golden Cup would have a single-elimination round.
A total of eight contestants would be eliminated in that round, reducing the main tournament contestants directly from sixteen to eight. Only after that would the true double-elimination tournament begin.
If they did not want