Dimensional Descent

Orinik, who had planned on slipping away to go and tally his winning frowned. Eventually, he calmed. He really wanted to see what Leonel would dare to do. He had a lot of ammo on Leonel. Hardly anyone believed that he had really climbed to the 74th floor, and even if it wasn't true, he could easily weave a tale that said that Leonel had only relied on Aina to pass. On top of that, there were plenty of Sword Faction geniuses waiting for a chance to get revenge for what Velasko had done.

On top of that, with his information network, Orinik heard that Leonel also had a grudge with the Viror family genius due to what he had done to one of her younger sisters, not to mention the fact that Aina had knocked her off of the ranking.

As if that wasn't ammo enough, Orinik also heard of Leonel's clash with the archer genius of the Tarius family. News of his claiming the White Lion Bow was spreading slowly among relevant factions, but it was definitely a ticking time bomb waiting to burst.

None of that even mentioned the fact that Aina had rejected the third ranked Queen Beauty and that Vega was waiting for an opportunity to capitalize.

Rather than ammo, it was more accurate to say that Orinik had an entire artillery unit to take advantage of. He could hit Leonel's reputation, his livelihood, and even his life itself if he so chose, he just had to choose which button to press.

He had always been a cautious person. Even though he knew it was almost impossible for Leonel and Aina to survive, he had still covered all his bases. He had already been paying attention to Leonel because he knew that he had offended him, but he had dialed up all his effort a hundredfold.

If Leonel hadn't held a grudge before, Orinik knew he would be able to avoid it this time. And, judging by Leonel's earlier killing intent, it was clear they were already long past the point of no return.

So, when he faced Leonel this time, his sneer only deepened with each passing second. He knew that there was no point in trying to mend fences. In that case, he didn't have to lower his face at all. With this push, in a year or two, he might be able to become a Sector Ranked disciple. Even with their talent, Leonel and Aina were at least a decade if not further away from such a goal.

If they thought he was easy to deal with just because they cleared a Three Star Void Mission, they would find themselves sorely mistaken very soon.

"What did I forget, exactly?"

The crowd looked on with curiosity, sensing the tense atmosphere.

Many of them understood. Orinik had made quite the sum being the arbiter of this bet. They were already a bit dissatisfied by this, but it must be dialed up a hundredfold for Leonel and Aina whose life and death was treated like a game to bet on in the first place.

Even if they were unsatisfied, they could only accept that Orinik was luckier than they were. After all, he was the one who found out that this was happening before the rest of them did.

However, it seemed that Leonel was unwilling to swallow this loss. Either way, there was another show to watch, so why not bask in it?

"Quite a lot, actually. Are you aware that bets need an overseer and a guarantor?"

Leonel knew that there was no way that Orinik could cover the insurance for all these bets by himself. And, none of these students would be stupid enough to just hand over their hard earned Void Points without a guarantee that they would have their winnings paid out. That was the simple truth.

Orinik, hearing this question, only sneered deeper.

"Is that your question?"

"It's the first." Leonel responded, unhurried.

"You're naïve and overestimating yourself. I've already verified this bet through the Gold Standard Faction. In addition, according to the rules, guarantors are only needed depending on the betting line and the betting pool available.

"Because of the bets taken, both sides were covered and could account for one another. A guarantor wasn't needed."

Because of Orinik's style of advertising, the odds were split quite evenly. In fact, he placed the odds that Leonel and Aina would die and survive at equal. No matter which side won, the payouts would be manageable.

Although skewing heavily to one side would have netted him far more if he won, he was, by nature, a cautious person. And, in the end, he benefited from it.

"Ah, so you're aware of this as well. That's good. That means I have less to explain. So you should be aware of the restrictions on betting and rank, correct?"

"Of course I am." Orinik laughed. "Unfortunately for you, such restrictions don't exist because we are the same Rank."

"Are we?" Leonel asked lightly. "According to the rules, when holding a betting event, bids by those of a higher rank on a bet subject to the actions of a disciple of lower rank are heavily taxed. This tax isn't applied on the winnings themselves, but rather the betting odds. So, if a Sector Ranked disciple joined this bet where winning would give them a 1:10 outcome, for example, they would only receive half of that, giving them a 1:5 outcome instead. If you're two ranks above, the penalty is even harsher. You would only get 1:2 odds from an originally 1:10 payout.

"These taxes are in place so that higher ranked disciples are less likely to join and influence the matters of lesser ranks."

The more Leonel spoke, the more Orinik's brows furrowed. This was because Leonel's familiarity with the rules was far beyond his expectations.

He knew all of these things already, so why was he reciting these things back to him?

"It also happens to be, according to the rules, that when bets involve those outside of the Void Palace, or, according to the specific language in the codified law, Unranked individuals, the Faction that set up the bet is meant to pay a 50% tax on all earnings.

"In addition to this, it requires written consent of the unranked party.

"This rule, of course, is in place to ensure that Void Palace geniuses don't use the Human Domain like it's a board game to be toyed with as they please. After all, there are real lives on the line out there.

"So tell me, Orinik. Did you observe these practices?"