A man sat in his room working on a bunch of papers that were on the table in front of him.
There were other people in the room, but he was in charge here.
"This is all the pearls we got from the pro beast fights?" the man asked one of the people working on the sofa.
"Yes, boss," the person said.
"Including the earnings from the betting house?" the boss asked.
"Yes," the man said.
"Sigh, why is it so low then? Have people really stopped coming to watch the pro matches?" the boss asked.
"I think I know the problem, boss," one of the girls said.
"I know the problem too. I was just venting," the boss said. "These goddamn pros don't want to fight at all. Either that or they want to switch to the beast fewer matches."
"I can't even blame them, I guess," the boss said. "It does cost quite a bit of spiritual energy to summon beasts instead of just the beast's skill itself."
"At least there are newbies joining, but they too see the chasm and jump ship. Maybe we should end the beast scene for pros," the boss contemplated.
He looked at the file that had a picture of Ning and the others that successfully became a pro today.
He brought the file to check Ning's information and was hopeful when he saw Ning's rank was 5.
Just then, the door slammed open as someone barged in.
"Hey, you can't just—"
"Stop," the boss shouted at his staff who was speaking and looked at the man that had just walked in.
"Brother Barry, how many I help you?" the boss asked.
"My hairdresser ran away again," the man saw as he moved his fabulously fluffy hair around.
"Your… hairdresser, huh," the boss said. "You all, leave the room."
The staff paused for a second or two before standing up to leave the room.
The man named Barry closed the door and walked up to the boss. "Yes, she ran away. Goddamn bitch was so ungrateful," he said.
"What did you do?" the boss asked reluctantly. 'Hairdresser' was just a code they used for women that Barry would try to add to his harem.
While he did say Harem, due to Barry's relentless domestic abuse, the girls always ran away.
"Nothing really. She was being a bitch so I hit her a couple of times, that's all. Just because she lost some teeth, she decided to run away," Barry said. "I need another one to play with for a while."
The boss frowned. He could have most likely looked the other way if these were any women, but every single girl that Barry wanted was a pro that was a great attraction for money.
"Brother Barry, do you think you could maybe try to…"
"What? Try to stop beating them? If they're being a bitch, I will hit them. Is that so wrong? Or are you trying to say that's wrong?" he asked.
"I—"
"Be careful. If my feelings hurt, I might just leave this place. That would be so bad for the arena since I just registered for a fight coming Saturday," Barry said.
The boss frowned. Barry was the strongest fighter in the arena amongst all the pros, whether they fought with beasts or not. The arena was packed to the full whenever it was a high turn to fight.
He had a natural ability to put on a spectacle for even the most uninteresting of fights. As such, the crowd went mad for him whenever he was on stage.
If he was going to fight, then he alone would bring nearly a month's worth of pro-scene money.
He was one of the most valuable assets, so the boss couldn't get rid of him.
"I… I will see what I can do," the boss said reluctantly.
"Great, I will see you… what's that?" Barry asked.
"What? This? It's the newly promoted newbies. They just entered the pro scene today," the boss said.
"Ooh, such a cutie joined the pros?" Barry asked as he picked up the file that was in front of the boss.
"Sa… fander? No, Saphandra. She's quite pleasing to the eye," Barry said.
"Ye-yes she is," the boss said.
"She joined today huh? That means she hasn't chosen an opponent yet," Barry said. "Why don't you make sure she picks me for her next opponent?"
"That's… I…" the boss tried to refuse, but he didn't know what to say.
"What? Are you saying you won't? Aw, that breaks my heart. I might have to cancel my upcoming match then. Maybe I should move to another arena that would appreciate me more," Barry said.
"Fine, fine, I'll do it," the boss said.
"You're the best," Barry said and walked away from the room.
The boss slammed the table in anger and made the bunch of papers on top of it scatter around. "That damn bastard!" he said softly. "Goddammit, if he wasn't such a moneymaker, I would've killed him myself."
The staff returned one by one and got to work, but the boss's mood was way too ruined to care about the finances at the moment.
The Arena already lacked female fighters, and now he was going to have to force another one to destroy herself as well.
He left the room and went over to the registration area. A person worked on it and immediately got up to greet the boss that walked by.
"Sit down," the boss said. "The newly promoted came by to register yet?"
"2 of them did," the staff said. "The other two seem to want to take their time."
"Oh, 2 did? Which two, show me," the boss said.
The staff showed the register and the boss read through it. When he saw the names of the two people who registered, Saphandra was one of them surprisingly.
When his eyes moved to the right to see who the opponent was, he couldn't be more shocked.
Without any involvement of his own, the girl had chosen Barry to be her first opponent.
