The Zentmeister Patriarch and the rest of the other Upper Echelon companies couldn’t believe what they just witnessed.

They spent a lot of money, research, and effort in order to create a food that the Werewolves would like. Yet, the Reborn company just came in and immediately got their attention just like that.

And this wasn’t even the first time that this happened. Just yesterday, they made sure to cater to the Knights and Swordsmen in order to sponsor them.

They thought they could capitalize on the exhibition match’s popularity in order to push their company to the top and subsequently defeat the Reborn company while they were weak.

But the exact opposite happened. Reborn still caught the majority of the customer base through only their innovative products.

At this point, the Zentmeister patriarch could only laugh to himself. It seemed that they’d truly underestimated the Reborn company in terms of their business acumen.

Most of them couldn’t help but admit that in terms of products, the Reborn company was probably on the same level as the Upper Echelons.

The Zentmeister Patriarch wanted to meet Michael. He’d only heard of the Reborn company’s leader through rumors, and all of them painted a vague picture of the man himself.

...

...

...

The second round of the exhibition tournament immediately started soon after the first finished.

The talent pool had been halved to only 20 competitors, all of whom had shown great power and skill in the sword.

However, there was a clear favorite amongst them all. And that was none other than Arthur, who had shown a power that was above and beyond the skill level of his competition. He seemed poised to take the grand prize home and become the Swordmistress’ only student.

Of course, Michael and the Rebornians still hoped for Jaku to at least show off his true talents.

But it seemed that the Dragonborn was more interested in sleeping than winning.

"You must win this competition," said Sheina to her brother. "If you don’t, you will tarnish the name and reputation of Lord Michael."

Jaku tried to drown out Sheina’s words by smushing his face into a pillow, but it didn’t work.

He just couldn’t get why he had to win this competition. He didn’t even need any guidance from the supposed Heavenly Swordmistress. She didn’t seem all that impressive, after all.

Thankfully, Jaku’s next match wouldn’t be until two hours later, so they had some time to kill.

And just then, Michael felt a tug at his shadow.

He looked down, seeing the vague shapes of the two Orc Chieftains at his feet. Their eyes were enough to tell him that they had something serious to tell him.

"What is it?"

"... bu to to... Boss Michael. We’ve recently been sensing some movement in the shadows."

"... rah ta ta... they’re the same ones as those cold zombies from back then."

Michael knew that the Ersatz would move eventually, so he’d been expecting this.

After sieging two of their Strongholds, it would be weird if they didn’t do some sort of retaliation.

Of course, he knew that they could trace that back to him. Katarina took the brunt of that, making sure to take responsibility for the attack.

But even still, he made some preparations. He sent some of his Mini Drones to patrol the shady areas of New Sparta along with the Shadow Orcs.

They’d already sussed out a few places where there could be a Stronghold hiding inside, but they restricted themselves by only surveying the area at a surface level.

Katarina already warned him not to dig around where he wasn’t supposed to.

But at least now, he was prepared when the Ersatz started moving.

"What’s happening?" he asked them.

"We have not seen their soldiers move, but we have seen the signs of the Stronghold Portals being used," Narito said.

Michael found this a little bit concerning. If he wasn’t in the company of Heavenly Knights and Mystic Masters, then he wouldn’t have stayed in the Colosseum at all.

"Are they planning to attack New Sparta?"

Sasuki shook his head. "No. That’s what’s strange, rah ta ta. They seem to be moving their soldiers out of New Sparta."

There could only be two possibilities for this. First, they were retreating. Second, they were planning something somewhere far away.

The first was unlikely. They were already knee deep into New Sparta. They took the chance and established Strongholds in this area despite knowing that Mystic Masters and Heavenly Knights resided in New Sparta.

And if they were going to escape, they wouldn’t do it where there were four Heavenly Knights present at the moment. They would have done it long ago.

So, this must mean that the Ersatz had plans for a different area.

But where?

Michael would have wanted to tail after them, but even the Shadow Orcs couldn’t find a trace of their presence. This was probably done by a Nascent Spirit cultivator.

"Is there any immediate danger?"

The two Orc Chiefs shook their heads. "It doesn’t seem so, Lord Michael. Their motive for this move isn’t a frontal attack."

The Ersatz were definitely planning something. Better to be safe than sorry, Michael thought.

"Deploy the Shadow Orcs in New Sparta. Give them all the resources that they need."

The two Orc Chiefs nodded and immediately disappeared into the darkness.

Despite the danger, Michael could feel the Orcs’ excitement. It had been a long time since they were deployed on a real mission.

Even though they’d just been a Maugnetic barely a month ago, they were still hungry to advance even more.

Fighting Ersatz seemed to be the best way to do that.

ChatJK6 immediately gave him the notification of thousands upon thousands of Shadow Orcs applying for missions one by one. There were even some infighting going on as they couldn’t decide which one of them got the opportunity to fight against the Ersatz.

Once that was done, he turned his attention back onto the Colosseum.

But on the back of his head, he couldn’t help but wonder. Where was Katarina?