· The Essence of Games and the World!

"I lost. I lost, I say!"

At that moment, Izuna Hatsuse, who had collapsed in the game, slowly sat up. Her large eyes were brimming with tears, and her hands clenched tightly in her clothes. The moment she thought of the impact her loss would bring to the Eastern Federation, her face filled with regret and frustration.

"What was that just now?"

Inside the deathly silent game venue, Ino Hatsuse stared blankly at the screen before him, where Stephanie was holding up the "Love-Struck Gun" with a stunned look on her face. From beginning to end, he had never treated this former princess of the Human Race as a threat. In fact, after Blank had displayed power utterly mismatched with the Human Race in their battle with Izuna Hatsuse, he had completely ignored Stephanie's existence.

And yet now, it was this former princess of the Human Race, whom he had always ignored, who had actually managed to hit Izuna Hatsuse and seize victory!

"It—it worked?!"

"Ah! It worked! Nice one, Stephanie!"

Inside the game, Sora glanced at Izuna Hatsuse beside him, who had her head lowered and her body trembling nonstop, then raised his head and smiled lightly at Stephanie. From beginning to end, Sora and Shiro had been guiding everyone's attention onto themselves, making everyone unconsciously ignore Stephanie's existence.

Only by doing that could they make Ino Hatsuse, who was cheating with a god's-eye view, issue the wrong orders to Izuna Hatsuse. Even Sora and Shiro's full burst at the end had been for the sake of completely drawing everyone's attention!

"How could this be? Was that only part of their battle plan?"

Outside, when Ino Hatsuse heard the exchange between Sora and Stephanie, he instantly understood that everything had been completely under Sora and Shiro's control. Everything they