Ch 49 – Victoria and V

"I challenge you, into a d-d-d-d-d-DUEL!" a man wearing an absurd outfit in front of him shouts, with his hair poking into the air colored red as if defying gravity itself while a piece of weird equipment was on his left arm, a set of cards set inside a container while a series of marks was on the nameless equipment where the card seems to be placed on.

Looking at him with a raised eyebrow, Braun shakes his head and glances at the place around him. A medieval fantasy-like area where houses and buildings made of wood were plotted around in crude places, paths made of dirt, people walking around with interesting appearances, and some were… more unappealing than the others.

Chuckling, he reminiscences what happened, how he arrived at this place, and why he is currently being challenged into a duel.

(Flashback)

A month has passed since he gained the Phoenix Company for himself and business was booming, in a mere month, he changed that company from a pharmaceutical into the wider health department. Hospitals, labs, food, he is slowly expanding his dominion over many facets of the economic world and he already plans to expand into technology in another week.

Sitting on his brown couch like always, Braun glances at the air in front of him while a holographic black and white chessboard flash in his vision, many pieces were already taken away by him as the opposing AI was pushed into the corner.

Moving the pieces through calculated algorithms and equations, a screen suddenly flashes right in his peripheral vision to show a man with a near-perfect appearance, having blue eyes, slick brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and a pair of cherry lips. Wearing a uniform belonging to Zenith Academy, he currently seats inside the cafeteria talking with a group of students eating with him with an amicable smile.

It was as if his presence was magnetic to them, his smile causes the girls to blush around him, his compliments made the boys around him smile proudly and straighten their backs, and his mere presence seems to make the place around them lively and beautiful.

"Have you ever thought what it would be like… if heaven was over earth?" Magnus said, his voice seemingly hypnotic as the students around him have the glow in their eyes diminish.

Nodding his head at Magneto's apparent success, Braun dismisses the screen and watches the round he was playing in chess against an AI smarter than anyone else in this world showing a giant text saying VICTORY in front of him.

'One more round then I'll start initiating my fight against the King of Body.' Braun thought, letting out a yawn while he mentally presses the restart button on the chess game.

Watching his white enemy moves their first pawn, he responds by sending his own and waits for the AI to move their second peace.

'If it were to use Sicilian, I could just respond by moving this pawn 2 up, but considering it would already know that, it would most likely use an unexpected opening to mess with my flow.' Braun thought, looking at the AI calculating countless probabilities in a spit second and moving their… horse?

Raising his eyebrows at that truly unexpected move even though he was using less than 1% of his brain power, he shrugs his shoulders and calmly responds by moving his bishop.

As the match continues to progress further and further while the time goes on, he watches the AI continuing to do moves that are truly illogical from the AI's point of view, he could see the AI was trying to fight him in many fonts, not just chess. From a mental battle, emotional battle, and even a spiritual battle through chess, whatever was fighting him, their battle has transcended past the boundaries of chess and became a battle of wits and intelligence.

"You're good, whoever you are. But if you think you can just defeat me with that, well… you're dearly wrong," Braun mutters, his eyes gleaming red and with rapid movements, he was placing premoves left and right like a flurry of arrows and spears.

From pawns, bishops, horses, rooks, king, and queens, everything on his side were given a role like warriors in war and he was the tactician and also the general, predicting the moves of his enemy with analyzing eyes and in 10 seconds, he watches the result show for itself.

[VICTORY]

Chuckling, the gleam in his eyes disappears while he lets out a groan from his mouth.

"I must say, you were quite the unexpected foe, but unfortunately, you're a few thousand years too early to challenge me," Braun said as he was about to dismiss the screen away to continue his other business, but unexpectedly, he watches the AI that was ordered to track down the man behind the screen utterly fail with no answers found.

Raising his eyebrow, he watches the screen in front of him flicker and change into a new one, a screen belonging to a typical messaging app.

[Hello!]

"So you're the guy huh? What do you want?" Braun asked, instantly cutting to the chase without waiting for a wild good chase.

[Sheesh, quite hasty are we. Well okay, have you ever wondered what it would be like… if you were to live in a world where everything is decided upon the basis of winning and losing. A simple world with a simple goal? Without the useless obstacles of life? Where anyone can reach the peak with enough effort, wits, and intelligence? Where natural talent is just another means to an end?]

"Go on," Braun said.

[A world where everyone is blessed with the power to win, to be victorious? A world where godhood is just one step away from the grasp of your heads? A world… decided by games?]

"If that was true… then I would have no need for it, considering life's already a game for me, why would I have to go to a new one?" Braun said, leaning his back to the couch as a small smirk formed on his face.

[But what if I tell you, that you could gain supernatural abilities in this new world?]

"Already have one," Braun said, raising his right index finger to the air and a small wisp of flame appeared at the tip of his finger.

[Pyrokinesis? No, I'm going to give you an ability beyond your wildest dreams!]

"Oh really? Well… tell me about it" Braun inquires.

[It's a surprise! You just need to enter my world to see it.] the screen adds, acting like the snake that entices Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge.

"Fuck you, let me just do some stuff before I follow your stupid trick," Braun said, standing up while his eyes glow crimson red for a split second, his mind connecting to countless others and easily ordering them what to do while he is gone for a good while.

Stretching his whole body from his legs to his back, and his arms, he lets out a grunt and looks at the screen once more.

"I'm going to kill you if you don't give me an overpowered ability," Braun said.

[Of course, of course. I wouldn't treat the one that bests me badly now would I?]

As the final message was sent, the floating screen in front of him elongates into his size and turns into static, the sound of buzzes emanating from the rectangular portal that appears in front of him.

"Oh, I guess you weren't kidding huh," Braun said, putting his right palm on the portal and feeling it meeting a weird membrane of sorts, the field of space-time creating a wormhole leading into another bubble of space, a subdimension he concludes.

[See, I told you it would be great.]

"Welp, this was sudden, but I guess it doesn't hurt exploring a new world," Braun said nonchalantly, but inside his mind, he already knew it was the interference of his cheat once more.

Pushing his hand through the weird membrane, he felt his right arm being hit by sunrays and fresh breezes.

'The portal… it seems to be made from the essence of victory, now this would be an interesting place to explore.' Braun mutters in his mind, his grin widening while he walks through the portal fully.

Blocking his eyes from the sudden flashes of sunlight, he felt his skin being under the bright sun and his eyes finally adjust to the light in a couple of seconds.

Opening the both of them, he was greeted by the magnificent sight of an open field of swaying green grass, the fresh breeze hitting his skin as the components of the atmosphere presented themselves to him.

'The oxygen concentration is a bit higher along with nitrogen but everything is almost similar to Earth. How intriguing, to think a crystalline entity could grow to this strength, perhaps it's already a few tens of thousands of years old already.' Braun thought in his mind as he glances down to see the paved path of dirt, a clear showing of this backward world, perhaps to appease many losers' isekai fantasy.

Looking into the distance, he sees the stone walls of a medieval kingdom, the open gates protected by two guards wearing metal armor and wielding iron spears, the insides of the kingdom clearly showing something belonging to the olden times but the residents within were stranger.

Some clearly belong to earth like him, and the others look like they are native to this world.

And from the people flying around or some surrounded by fairies, this clearly shows the existence of the supernatural and the interference of the crystal in this world.

But his gaze was soon disrupted by the flashing of a white translucent screen in his vision that shows a series of text.

[Deus Ex Machina – Level 1]

The knowledge of his new ability enters his mind like a parasite and his eyes close in response.

Taking a deep breath, his eyes shot wide open while a grin forms on his face, the secrets of this ability being shown to him like an open book that he kept to himself, he doesn't want to flaunt his trump cards now does he?

Glancing at the air in front of him, he watches motes of light soon gather into a humanoid being. A figure shorter than him by a few inches, his neck-long light orange hair covered by a bright orange beret. His petite figure draped in a light orange cloak that covers his white shirt and bright orange shorts, his feet covered in a pair of orange sandals. A smirk was showing on his thin, pink lips as his multicolored eyes having the symbol of hearts and diamonds on them respectively looks at him with joy.

[Welcome to the world of Victoria! A world where everything is decided upon by games! The rise and fall of nations depend on who wins and who loses! And you… are what we call a player! Given the power of V from yours truly, supernatural abilities that allow one to win with a distinct advantage. And considering I am the god of this world and you defeated me in a simple game of chess, then someone like you deserves a broken ability! Deus Ex Machina! Have fun exploring this world, and don't forget, always win!] the figure said, and just as he appeared, the figure disappeared leaving him alone once more in this new world.

'V, it seems like this world is truly a strange one, a farm perhaps?' Braun thought, walking up to the two guards, he smiles at them, and miraculously, both part ways as he enters the kingdom without a hitch.

Finding himself inside the Kingdom of Iyagon from the knowledge given by V to him, he quickly makes up a plan of getting a room for himself to stay in for the night and get some food, but it seems like his plans for the day when he was suddenly grabbed by the shoulder right behind him.

Turning his head around with a dull stare, he was greeted by the sight of a man with a below-average appearance, an appearance belonging to a definite loser of Earth who has entered this world through V, his theories of this becoming a farm growing stronger with just a single glance.

"What do you want?" Braun asked, his voice monotonous.

"I challenge you, into a d-d-d-d-d-DUEL!" the man shouts, the card disk on his left arm activating to show his card disk on full display.

Sighing, he activates his Deus Ex Machina ability and watches a crimson card disk appear in his left arm while a random deck was already inside through a flash of crimson light.

[Battle Start!]

AN: This is 2142 words, you're welcome.

Was this sudden? Yes. Was I getting bored and wanted to have a blast with the last arc of this volume? Definitely yes. Is Vol5 also going to be fast paced? Eh... It depends on how you perceive it.

Writing is hard, so send me some powerstones.

(June 13, 2022 – 191st day of writing)