The fact that Alexei played against Cyber Paw in the match meant that Key wouldn't be tired and could play against Sythe in the evening.
And, that's exactly what she intended to do.
As soon as they went out of the gaming arena, Key contacted Sythe to arrange a time for their match that evening.
"Good night, everyone," Key said before entering her room
"Good night," they replied and went to their respective rooms
Key opened her laptop as soon as she sat on the bed and logged into the game, she sent the solo invite to Sythe and within a few minutes, she and Sythe are now choosing their shinigami.
Sythe is a support player so the two of them used mage-types, Key chose Fiore while Sythe chose Pylae.
Key expected that Sythe will focus on developing his Pylae, so Key did the same but she developed while preying on Sythe's minions from the brim of the middle circle.
She then used Fiore's first skill to deal damage to Sythe and the latter had no choice but to attack Fiore because her shinigami will soon end up killing Sythe's shinigami without resistance from the other side, which Sythe doesn't want to happen.
He has pride, as both a player and a man, and he wouldn't want to be beaten by a girl in a field dominated by men.
They clashed in the middle circle and after several exchanges of attacks, Key controlled her shinigami to move away from Sythe and used Rubavita.
Although, solo matches forbid them from healing their damages, stealing their opponent's blood is allowed because it follows the game's 'damage dealing' logic, and both Pylae and Fiore have health-stealing as a skill though only Fiore can use it to replenish her health and the former can only use it to increase his attacks.
Fiore's distance from Pylae was enough for Key to drain her opponent's blood, and replenish hers back to a quarter less from full blood.
"One – zero," Key tallied in her mind
After replenishing hers back to full blood, Pylae's blood was drained and Key received her first kill in the match.
Like what she did in her solo match with Flack, she headed to target the opponent's tower while Sythe's Pylae is still resurrecting.
As soon as Pylae resurrected, Sythe attacked Key's Fiore as it ran back to the middle circle, his moves were very aggressive as he dealt damage after damage while evading and receiving damage from Key's shinigami.
"This bitch," Sythe couldn't help but grit his teeth
He is irritated by the fact that Key acted condescending to him during the time they negotiated the penalty for breaching their non-disclosure agreement.
He knows that he has the whole management behind him while the woman is obviously acting alone, and it irks him that even with the presence of the four million dollars worth of penalty, Key seems calm and nonchalant.
If only he could express his irritation with his team, he knows they're irritated with this female rookie.
That is exactly what Key wanted to happen.
Key knew that they are irritated with her and she's irritating them, even more, to break them and make them breach the contract themselves.
She's using the fact that all of them are irritated with her because she thinks that forcing someone to bottle up their thoughts and irritation in an environment where they know people can relate to and understand them is a good way to break them mentally.
"Two-zero," Key thought with a playful grin forming on her lips as she killed Sythe's shinigami after using Fiore's first skill as a feint so Pylae will not notice the incoming Rubavita.
Her shinigami's blood is refilled once again, although not back to full blood, Key is fine with playing a quarter less blooded shinigami, and she continued destroying the tower while killing Sythe's minions to level up and make her attack stronger.
When Sythe's Pylae resurrected, Key's Fiore remained in the middle of the circle, as if waiting for him to attack, and when he did, he used his Pylae's ultimate attack, Aferrare, so in turn, Key used her Fiore's Amaryllis that drained Sythe's shinigami to less than a quarter of its blood.
Key's Pylae, however, came out of the collision with only a little blood remaining and the damage from Sythe's first skill drained it.
While Key's Fiore is out of the map, Sythe used his Pylae to deal damage to Key's tower, and as soon as Fiore's shinigami resurrected, he ran back to the middle circle and used Pylae's second skill against Fiore as soon as she steps into the middle circle.
The damage drained less than half of Fiore's blood so Key retaliated by using her second skill, the health-stealing skill, that drained Sythe's remaining blood.
"Three-one," she tallied as she can start to feel her victory
She used her newly recharged ultimate skill and destroyed Sythe's tower.
Had Sythe resurrected a second earlier, then maybe, just maybe he wouldn't have been that late to defend his tower from Keychantel's attack, and he would've had a chance to turn it around.
However, the resurrection time was always the same, it won't matter how long they fought, Key would still use his absence to deal damage to his tower.
After her victory, Key sent a message to Sythe to ask him if he wants to have another match as if to mock his sound defeat.
And the reply he received from him is a cold three-word response; 'No longer interested.', but on the other line, Sythe is gritting his teeth while holding his phone tightly, he understood very well that Key sent that message to mock him.
"What's the matter, Sythe?" their coach asked him
"I lost the match," he replied in a foul mood
"You're playing this late?" Aspect asked and Sythe is about to answer when he received another message from Kashmiri
Kashmiri: Please keep our deal in mind, Sythe. It's 4M dollars after all.
Meanwhile, on Key's side, she's currently on a call with Sfentami, to be precise, she is viewing the security footage and listening to the conversation between Sythe and his coach.
When she heard Aspect's question, she sent him a message to remind him of the non-disclosure agreement and irk him.
What Key is doing is against the law, but then she wasn't planning on using any footage they'll see as evidence because it's illegally acquired evidence that can get them in trouble, so for now she'll just use the footages that Sfentami is showing her to intimidate the other party.
"Ah, yeah, but I lost. Weak teammates," they heard Sythe pretending to be nonchalant as he replied
[Not a good liar,] Key couldn't help but chuckle at what Sfentami said in German
"Hmm, indeed, not a good liar," Key agreed in German
[That concludes my report for today, primogenitrice-mere.] Sfentami said in German
"Good work as usual, Sfentami, good night," Key said in German in a sweet voice
[Thank you, mere, good night,] Sfentami said in German and Key hung up the call
After hanging up the call, Key contacted TL to wire the reward to Sfentami with a congratulatory message.
After making sure that the reward was wired to Sfentami's account, Key turned off her phone and lay on her bed.
She stared at the sky and memories began playing in her mind and no matter how hard she shake her head, memories continued to afflict her mind so she had to steel her heart to stop herself from feeling and connecting to these memories.
She closed her eyes, in hopes of falling asleep, but to no avail.
She stood up and checked her personal purse for her sleeping pills, but when she found the box of sleeping pills, all of the medicine mats are emptied, she also looked for the bottle but the clear glass bottle shattered her expectations.
She sighed and sat on the floor while holding the empty bottle, she can't help but feel frustrated with herself because she forgot to check, but she really needs it so she can't just 'suck it up' or anything like that.
She reached for her phone and looked for the nearest open pharmacy to buy sleeping pills, then, she went to the closet and took a black hoodie after seeing the address of the closest pharmacy.
She changed out of her satin black sleepwear into a pair of gray cotton pants and a white shirt, she badly needs her sleeping pills because the silence is afflicting her mind with memories she'd rather not recall.
She wore her hoodie and brought her phone and wallet by putting them in her hoodie's pockets.
She left without realizing that she left the empty bottle of her sleeping pills on her bed and that she dropped a medicine mat of her sleeping pill that stopped her door from closing shut.
She carefully descended the stairs to avoid waking anyone, and then she went out of the gaming base after wearing her black converse shoes.