Avalon Rebirth by Mitchell T. Jacobs Page B

first than to look at the households of others.
    Still, he wanted to know more, if possible.
    “Do you know who the third member is?”
    “That's the other thing. No one seems to know who she is. She's never shown up in any of the tournaments. She's not a part of any of the raid groups. There's nothing notable about her,” Chad explained.
    “Can't say that's any different that what we're going through,” Darin said. “Our two recruits are unknowns too. You pretty much have to be looking for those types at the D-rank.”
    “Yeah, but some people might be willing to jump ship to fight alongside two former members of Silver Star.”
    Darin sighed. “You know what, I don't think I'd want anyone who's willing to ditch their teammates like that. Hits way too close to home, you know what I mean?”
    “Yeah, point taken. I'd say it wouldn't matter for your counterparts, but evidently that's not the case here. If she was someone who jumped ship from another team there'd at least be some information floating around about her.”
    “How long ago did this happen?”
    “The day after you guys lost your match. I just wanted to take some time to confirm it before I went and started spouting off about it all,” Chad explained. “And I don't know how you feel about it, but it just seemed suspicious to me. Like, if they were as surprised about the sanctions as you wouldn't it take a while for them to move on?”
    “They were the ones that threw the match. They had a two on one advantage guarding the pillar, and the other guy somehow got through. There's no way that could happen, unless they allowed it.”
    “So it's planned. That's not exactly comforting. And then there's a bunch of other suspicious stuff about the whole situation...”
    Darin glanced over at him. “What kind of stuff?”
    “This is all just speculation,” Chad said. “Probably just me spitballing and making a big deal about nothing, but here it goes. There's something funny going on. Almost everyone thinks the commission came down way too hard on you, even if you actually cheated. But still, it happened. And there's some speculation as to why.”
    “What is it?”
    “You guys were way too good,” Chad said. “I hate to admit it, but there weren't very many of us that could think of challenging you. That doesn't make for good drama or viewing, either. There's no suspense.”
    “I've never heard any complaints.”
    “Well no, it was fine for a while. People watched because it was fun to see you guys go to work, you know? How dominant you were. Of course, it's not so fun when you're the one being dominated, but hey, it is what it is.”
    “Yeah.”
    “But eventually that becomes boring. People just don't want to repeatedly watch something where the outcome's never in doubt. And it was getting to that point with you guys, sorry to say. A lot of people wanted things to change.”
    “So you're saying that the commission decided to punish us so harshly so they could get us out of the way and shake up the A-rank division,” he frowned. “That's...”
    “I know it's pretty outlandish, yeah. I might be making things up inside my head. Who knows.”
    “But if that actually is the case...”
    “You're never going to be able to prove it. This is their world with their rules, and they're not dumb enough to do something so obvious. They'll always be able to hide behind something to justify their actions.”
    “Yeah, I know. It's hard when the people in charge are your judge, jury and executioner.”
    “I think you just ended up on the wrong end of things. They wanted a way to shake up Avalon Online and breath some excitement back into the tournament scene, and your incident gave them a perfect excuse to do that.”
    “Nice to know that we're so highly regarded. Or that we were so much of a pain that they had to invent a way to get us out of the picture.”
    “Hah, you would say that, wouldn't you? Thankfully you've never announced it in public. I know