Chapter 9 - Invitation

Chapter 9

~

A slightly more mature looking Nana proficiently navigated her way around the battlefield with the experience gained from countless attempts and innumerable hours spent in the coliseum as her deceptively half-lidded eyes sharply noted most of the attacks moving towards her general direction out of her peripheral vision.

Deftly dodging an arrow heading towards her shoulder just enough to slightly nick it instead of pierce through it and idly slipping a hammer smashing down in front of her, she suddenly jumped, landing of the back of a man encased in full plate armor and pushed off of him making him stumble and fall flat on his face.

As she was sailing through the air upside down a couple of meters off the ground Nana's now bored face looked out over the chaos happening below her impassively. The initial excitement she felt upon entering the coliseum had worn off a while ago due to a combination of her increasingly sturdy body also accompanying her into the game and her strength catching up to most of the fighters.

At this point she just entered the game purely because of the blood-soaked atmosphere clouding the arena with a sense of cloying oppression having gotten familiar to her the past few years, Nana somewhere during her many, many attempts starting to find it a bit liberating. It gave her an odd sense of unchained chaos that she found almost freeing in it's unconstrained nature to wreak havoc.

Immersing herself in the feeling of euphoric freedom gently enveloping her body in it's tender embrace like the wind carrying a bird high up into the blue skies, she used whatever was under her at the time, whether a person or weapon, to nimbly keep herself airborne with the occasional hiccup forcing her back to the ground now and then as she idly pondered on what she wanted to do next.

One of the reasons that she was starting to get bored and currently playing around, you don't often jump in combat since you have no control of yourself in the air, was that... the fighters never got stronger, at all. They were strong, yes. However, they were static. For example their physical strength that initially trumped hers, she had pretty much caught up on.

Though individual strength also wasn't the only reason fighting in the coliseum was so difficult there was also the random attacks chucked at the challengers due to the disorderly state of the battlefield.

Another reason being that most of them were much more, and better, equipped. Nana always starting with absolutely nothing barring a set of clothes. Even the fighters fashioned as malnourished farmers had some sort of weapon to use, even if it's just a pan, getting smacked by a pan often hurts more than a fist.

There was also the fact that she had never fought against a weapon before entering the coliseum which also played a large part in why she had such trouble acclimating in the beginning.

Though now that she had seen, and memorized, their unchanging techniques it was very easy for her to predict what their next moves would be which made her feel so. Utterly. Bored. It was even worse now that she's had a taste of actual excitement, it was creating a stark contrast between her first few attempts filled with exhiliration and vibrancy and the current dull, almost lifeless in her eyes, arena.

To summarise. Techniques? She had already seen most, if not all of them. Chaotic battlefield situation? She had gotten much better at keeping up her situational awareness while also indulging her curiosity simultaneously. Equipment? Wasn't really much she could do about that except working around them, she wasn't punching through steel anytime soon. Individual physical strength? Again, she was mostly caught up by now.

Everything that initially stumped her she had improved and now pretty much caught up on. Most of the injuries she was taking were, by now, 75% due to her occasionally spacing out in the middle of the battlefield and the other 25% needing her to be a superhuman in terms of physical strength to even have a chance to dodge.

Maybe she could try some of the other scenarios? She had stuck with the coliseum for the past two years because she wasn't interested in anything else, but maybe she could find some of them somewhat entertaining if she gave them a chance?

Eventually getting so bored that it started surpassing her feeling of liberation she idly snatched a dagger from the person beneath her before ruthlessly driving it through her eye and into her brain, her usual blank expression remained unchanged as she easily ignored the excrutiating pain insistently trying to burrow into her mind with a sharp, rusty drillbit. It was just routine by this point.

Emerging from the familiar darkness of 'death' she dismissively swiped the window to her side where it wouldn't block her vision.

[Game Over] - [Coliseum Chaos] - [Daredevil]

Time: 7 hours, 16 minutes and 46 seconds

Kills: 86

Looking up at the softly glowing orange hue slowly encroaching upon the previous star-dotted night sky Nana logged out accompanied by a swirl of blue pixels dancing around her as she disappeared from the game lobby.

Feeling her body instantly laying down instead of standing up and the soft bed beneath her, Nana slowly opened her eyes and blinked listlessly before slowly removing her vr visor and placing it on the stand next to her bed with the ease and familiarity of having been doing it pretty much every day for the past two years.

Her employers had offered to upgrade it to a newer version multiple times but she didn't see the point, the only thing 'upgraded' was the pain transference getting toned down and locked behind increasingly more complicated mechanisms in a bid to combat the hackers breaking through them.

Well, that, or it's appearance somewhat improving. The hardware barely changed at all since they had already practically perfected it with the version they gave the stress testers. At least in Nana's opinion, her vr visor worked just fine.

She always played on [Daredevil] difficulty either way.

Sluggishly crawling out of the bed, not seeing the point of hurrying, it took her an additional 10 minutes to go through her morning routine before she made her way to the kitchen.

Not seeing Yama anywhere in the main living space, she didn't think anything of it.

The past two years Yama had also engrossed himself in studies he thought would benefit Nana, starting with buying a laptop and just searching for well known supplementary knowledge used to aid fighters in various facets of their careers.

He had also started reading about the human anatomy which he, to his surprise, found fairly fascinating when he began really looking into it.

Somewhere along the way Dai Hui had noticed his interest and proposed teaching him when he had time, partly because he felt having someone somwhat medically experienced watching over Nana was almost a requirement with how hard she pushed herself, another reason being that he had alot of freetime on his hands and he found having someone to talk to something to cherish.

Even after two years of studies however, Yama was nowhere near a fully competent doctor, not even close. Dai Hui had, on the other hand, deemed him knowledgeable and eventually experienced enough to be hired as his nurse/assistant on trial, a trial which he passed with flying colors. The only snags on his 'resume' being when he actually didn't have the information to carry out his assigned tasks.

Dai Hui had also decided to hire him not too long after his trial since he found his already small amount of work being pretty much cut in half with his help, the two of them now spent most of their days with Dai Hui teaching Yama or passing the time with pleasant idle conversation.

This also meant that Yama had aquired a stable source of income which relieved some of his worries. The two of them may not spend alot on food compared to many others since they cooked themselves and pretty much never ate out, however he had still felt a bit insecure when he watched his balance only declining and never increasing.

Despite this however, he never stopped his studies. He usually read a bit before going to sleep, occasionally getting a bit too into it making him waking up later than Nana a constant occurance which she was used to by now. Even so he was very strict with himself not to overdo it, meticulously managing his daily life not to impact his health since now that he was more knowleadgeable about it, he found himself unconsciously trying to build himself a healthy lifestyle.

Nana idly hummed to herself as she went to get her new favorite kitchen invention since she got it about a year ago, Yama had seen it while he was out for his usual grocery run and figured he might as well get her one since he knew she liked stews that often took multiple hours to cook.

Walking over to the kitchen island she opened the rightmost cupboard where she knew Yama usually stored it after cleaning it. Crouching down she carefully grabbed the metallic cylinder shaped device sporting a black top with two blocky locks placed on either side reaching over the lid.

Gently embracing the magical time-manipulating machine that made her food finish cooking faster against her body like a little girl holding a teddybear, she then gingerly placed it on the countertop like it was an invaluable treasure.

Patting the pressure cooker a few times, Nana eventually went to get started on breakfast.

---

A steady, constant stream of thuds ceacelessly echoed throughout the gym, slightly muddled by the sound of everyone else working out or sparring, originating from one of the corners that was oddly void of other people in contrast to the rest of the gym, as if they were deliberately avoiding the general area surrounding the source.

The almost mechanically consistant rhythm of impacts formed an abnormal sort of weight pressing down on whoever stepped closer, as if they had donned a weighted blanket the instant they stepped into it's radius. It was like a heavy, deafening heartbeat reverberating right next to your ear only increasing in volume as you approached, eventually sounding louder than your own thoughts making everyone closeby experience a heavy feeling of oppression, as if they were standing in front of a 5 meter tall giant forcing them to acknowledge their dimunitiveness.

This, much to everyone else's misfortune, continued until the day turned to night and even slightly beyond before stopping when a 173cm tall girl covered in lean, symmetrical muscles dripping in sweat finally stopped laying into the metal poles set up in her usual spot.

Nana heavily breathed through her nose as she wiped her forehead with her arm, her breaths emerging in long, deep exhalations while simultaneously making sure to keep it even and controlled.

Her growth spurt the past two years had seen her shoot way past her previous height of 155cm by a whole 18cm while also helping her in building some actual muscle mass compared to her thinner frame she sported when she first arrived at the Silverscale Gym. Her muscles had also gained some more definition on top of her figure also maturing slightly.

After a quick but thorough wipe down with a towel to clean the spot as best she could she exited the gym and made her way back to their apartment, occasionally seeing one of the guards doing their rounds patrolling the building.

Retrieving the spare keycard they had requested for convenience, Yama carrying the first one, she swiped it over the scanner and entered when it unlocked shortly after.

Walking towards the shower after fetching a change of clothes and putting her workout outfit in the washing machine, a freshly showered Nana emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later now wearing a comfortable large t-shirt and a pair of soft, loose shorts.

After eating a hearty meal while mentally patting herself on the back for coming up with the genius idea of making enough food in the morning to last her through the entire day, Nana eventually decided to retire for today and proceeded to her room after washing her dishes.

Going through the familiar motions of building a pillow wall on the bed so that she wouldn't fall off if she moved around while in the game, she swiftly laid down and grabbed the vr visor from the stand beside the bed and put it on.

[Requesting code word]

"...Hot dogs."

...

[Code word accepted]

[Commencing the dive]

Appearing back in the game lobby a few seconds later Nana was just about to pull up the scenario selector when something caught her attention. One of the normally transparent icons fastened in her peripheral vision, that she usually ignored, had become slightly more opaque with a red dot in it's upper right corner.

"Hmm?" Nana tilted her head as she let out a confused noise. Although this wasn't the first time this had happened, the developers utilizing the in-game mail function to send updates and such, it usually just appeared in front of her as soon as she logged in.

Internally debating between ignoring it because she didn't know, nor really care for that matter, what it was or checking it out, she ultimately decided to take a closer look after spending a couple of minutes in contemplation.

She didn't really have any plans other than messing around inside the coliseum for the next few hours until she inevitably got bored again before potentially trying some of the other scenarios. Maybe this was her lucky day and they would be introducing a new difficulty to the instances or something?

Mentally bringing the icon shaped like a closed envelope closer to her she gave it a poke making the top flap flip open before something darted out of it and started rapidly expanding.

A few seconds later a large black system window encased in a brightly shining golden frame accompanied by elegant royal purple ribbons unfolding and fastening themselves in the air to next to it appeared floating in front of her.

Following this, a noise resembling a record scratching was heard before the middle of the window was replaced with a skinny cloaked figure sitting in a small gloomy brick room with their almost unhealthily pale fingers intertwined, placed just below their shadowed out nose and upper face.

"Greetings whoever may be on the receiving end of this message." A nasally male voice intoned lazily with a sense superiority coloring his speech.

"You are hereby 'invited' to participate in the world's largest vr event sponsored by the organization of yours truly. You may not know much about us, however, we are far more powerful than you can even imagine, we are the darkness lurking in all the world's shadows, the invisible blade hanging above your head, and you would do well to accept our summons-"

Nana lightly rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet with a blank expression most others would think was sleepy on her face as the voice droning on transformed into unintelligible white noise. She had zoned out about halfway through the message since it didn't contain any of the keywords she was looking for such as 'higher difficulty' or 'increased strength'.

"-your place to dance to our omniscient tunes! The digital world is already ours!" The cloaked figure gestured grandly... as grandly as he could while still sitting down so he wouldn't leave frame, while his voice gradually gained a manic tone the more he spoke, as if the world would conform to his whims with just a word.

"There's no place to hide from our all-knowing eyes! Trying to decline is an effort in futility because... we will get you to accept, whether you want to or not! You'd best mark my words if you know what's best for you..." His speech ended in a harsh, frantic whisper as his fingers clawed at the air, slowly closing his fist as if to symbolize his power, holding the digital world in an iron like grip.

"In this event you will be pitted against others like you in a merciless tournament of blood and death where only the strong will survive solely for our entertainment!" A series of deranged, high-pitched giggles emerged from under the hood as a wide twisted smile spread on his uncovered lower face.

Nana blinked, emerging from her daze when she heard the word 'tournament' and started paying attention again.

"We're eagerly awaiting your presence, monster. Don't let us wait for too long, it could lead to unforeseen consequences... for you that is." Finishing his speech with a deep, as deep as he could, ominous voice the video promptly cut off and was replaced with a large royal purple [Accept] button.

Fortunately for Nana, the window didn't include a decline button.

Mentally reviewing what she subconsciously filtered out while she was busy ignoring the voice, skipping through most of it, Nana got a bit curious when the promise of fighting 'others like her' was so readily offered up.

Imagining fighting a carbon copy of herself made her a bit excited, if they were evenly matched in terms of physique, technique and experience, and also reacted the same way she herself would, didn't that mean that she could not only improve her ability to improvise in a fight, an area she found herself sorely lacking in, but also find the flaws she wouldn't be able to spot under normal circumstances?

Fighting an exact copy of herself would force her to start improvising to get the upper hand in some way while also allowing her to see how she herself would react to certain stimuli and if there were any patterns she could take advantage of, and if there were, get started on removing them.

The more she thought about it, the more benefits she seemed to find, really.

Nana stepped forward and pressed the [Accept] button after making up her mind prompting another window to pop up in front of her, this one colored an ominous crimson red.

[Warning: Attempt at entering unregistered game detected, proceeding may lead to negative consequences, multiple previous instances showing that the difficulty locks may have been forced open, please take caution]

[Are you sure you want to enter?]

[Accept] - [Decline]

Presented with two buttons again, Nana recalled her first time trying to enter the [Coliseum Chaos] instance. Right wasn't right, it was wrong. Left was right.

Nodding to herself in affirmation she chose the left one, disappearing in a swirl of blue pixels a few seconds later.

---

"Fuck... fuck... fuck..." A young man in his twenties frantically whispered under his breath on the verge of a mental break down while nervously pacing back and forth as far away from the nearest person physically possible. His eyes, dilated by a combination of anxiety and stress, apprehensively darted around the large room agitatedly.

"Just my luck that this shit would come back to bite me in the ass. Fuck!" He whimpered under his breath while crazily scratching at his hair trying to think of some way to escape this madhouse of absolute lunatics.

2 years ago, give or take a few months, he had gotten wind of vr technology entering a development phase and requiring individuals that could push it to it's limits in terms of destabilization by physical movement.

Of course, he didn't think he could get a tester spot legitimately. His most strenous physical activity the past few years was going to the toilet or fetching food from the microwave. However one of his internet friends had gotten the chance to participate, something their whole friend group was extremely jealous of.

Unexpectedly, for some reason he had abruptly wanted to pull out of the project after just a few days of trying out vr. Everyone who knew about it were shocked and were quick to ask why. Maybe it didn't actually work, and the company was just scamming people with fake news to promote something else?

The only response they got was that it actually did work properly, just that he thought that it was a bit 'too' real. Apparently he had had a very intimate encounter with a very, very hungry animal that was more than happy to take a bite out of him and although he said that he didn't feel any pain, having entered on [Easy] mode, the sensation of razor sharp fangs literally tearing into your flesh and ripping away your arm was a bit too much for him.

Luckily, he had set the failure condition to major injury so he didn't have to experience it for long.

After a talk with his employers they had, surprisingly enough, decided to let him loan it out as long as at least one person remained somewhat active. The reason being something about a single participant contributing multiple active people's worth of data single-handedly meaning that the average requirements to get into the project as a viable candidate consequently lowered as long as whoever they were continued with their current pace.

As a result the vr visor rotated between all of them for the next year or so before everyone except him either encountered the same problem their first friend did or just got bored of it. Something he could never see happening to himself. The sense of awe and wonder he felt the first time he entered the digital world was something that, although to a lesser extent, had stuck with him until now.

Even more so when all of the different games started popping up after vr technology appeared on the consumer market.

He had even made his own avatar and managed to not make it look like a deformed lump of dough, something he was very proud of.

It was just another normal day, or well, night. Since diving into vr could substitute for sleep with no negative side-effects found so far, most people that had a visor just entered the digital world instead of sleeping meaning that all the games, no matter how unpopular, always had at least a few people online.

Either way, he was just going about his night like he normally would, chatting with others in [Sandbox Chatroom] when it felt like the world suddenly glitched out and he appeared back in the game lobby.

While he was looking around in stunned confusion disoriented by the violent instant shift, that accursed invite popped up in front of him scaring him shitless.

After the whole message had played, his body having stayed frozen for the whole thing, he felt like he was chucked into an underground cellar. A feeling of ice cold dread flushing through his nervous system as he instantly tensed up like a deer in headlights.

Of course, his state of mind at the time wasn't very conductive to rational thinking leading to a million different reasons of why he specifically was chosen. Trying to remember if he pissed anyone off during his time in vr? Too many to count. He could be kind of a troll, but which fucking saint had never messed with anyone, ever.

It was a few minutes later after he had time to calm down a bit that it slammed into him like a truck with a drunken driver going 200 on a 20 road, the fucking vr visor he had was from the development phase.

Although they had been released to the market, why the hell would he buy a new one when this one worked perfectly fine? Well, he would have if he knew this shit was going to happen, alright!?

Hindsight really is 20/20.

Regardless, since whoever was behind that delusional organization or whatever could track the devices distributed during the test phase, wouldn't they be able to somehow find him in real life if they tried hard enough?

...Even if they couldn't he would rather not give them a reason to try which landed him in this situation, caged in with people who the company behind the vr technology had deemed 'not an average human' enough to be offered a spot as a tester.

Though, he also knew that most of these guys were probably just jacked or had some weird talents they could do since his friend that first got scouted for a spot had told him that although there were a few genuinely terrifying monsters scattered through the testers, one of the most prominent ones being the person contributing the data of multiple people, they also filled the numbers with people just regularly going to the gym in the later phases.

He might have been able to eke out a win in this insane death game if the developers had a lick of common sense, however... They didn't provide. Any. Fucking. Weapons. At all. The few matches that he had seen since he appeared, the fighters were just chucked into the arena and told to fight.

The massive arena he and all the other contestants were currently standing in was somewhat reminiscent of the [Coliseum Chaos] instance he had tried and subsequently noped out of when he was still in his curious baby phase regarding vr.

It was a massive arena floor composed of tightly packed dirt with a light layer of sand and pebbles strewn about on top. The platform was surrounded by a 10 meters tall, 20 meters wide area looping around it where he and the other contestants currently stood in wait, separated from the arena floor by a wall of bars made out of the same weird dark lilac material, feeling like polished stone, the whole thing was made of.

The second level immediately above them was the starting of the seating areas which continued on for another five levels moving further up and back with each subsequent layer forming a pattern of gradually climbing concentric circles, the seats were currently filled with a sea of people excitedly discussing the previous fights in hushed whispers as the ominous purple sky reflected off of their robes.

It was as if rather than having just watched two humans brutally killing each other with their bare hands, they had just watched some particularly interesting play.

Watching, and hearing it, since he was just below the first level, he felt the ice cold feeling of dread returning with a vengeance.

Although this was a game, there were real people operating those characters.

These pieces of shits were all fucking raging psychpaths.

While he was doing his utmost to not start hyperventilating, something that got progressively harder the longer he waited since the chance of him being next up on the chopping block got higher and higher with each match that went by, he saw something that made him do a double take.

From when he first appeared in this insane place more and more contestants were sporadically arriving in a show of various effects, something that was customizable. His own being a colony of bats scattering around him to match his vampire themed avatar, which is why the default port effect consisting of a small tornado of blue pixels materializing not too far away form him stood out so much more.

When it scattered a few seconds later he physically felt his heart drop, sucking in a cold breath of air as what looked like an, although very fit, girl in her teens wearing a sporty outfit was revealed standing in it's place.

Although he was well aware of avatars being a thing since pretty much everyone used one nowadays, the fuckers running this piece of shit game had somehow managed to forcibly remove them from everyone who entered, revealing their real appearances.

Something he found out pretty quickly. Partly because he hadn't seen any curvy anthropomorhpic animal avatars among the contestants, and also because there was a pretty clear contrast between his actual skin tone and the deathly pale white one he had chosen for his own avatar.

Which meant... a child had somehow gotten roped into this mess the size of a skyscraper... that was also on fire.

Discreetly glancing around the room while nervously fiddling with the, by now crumpled, edges of his shirt. He felt like the eyes of the others present zoned in on her with various expressions of ridicule, schadenfraude and malice as if hoping to get matched with her for an easy fight.

Hearing his heart loudly beating in his ears while his morals wanting to do... he didn't really know what, but something at least, internally waged war against his self-preservation instinct yelling at him to stay put and not stand out, his morals eventually won a pyrrhic victory against his better judgement as he decided to try to, at least, make her feel some sense of security.

Steeling himself with a deep breath, he began slowly shuffling towards her whilst simultaneously doing his best to not acknowledge her, ending up against the back wall a few moments later.

Looking around and seeing that he didn't gather any attention as far as he could see, he proceeded with the next step of his non-existent plan made up of random ideas his brain managed to come up with while he was allocating 99% of his mind not to think of what would happen if someone found what he wanted to do.

Even if he knew that the majority of the contestants were just normal people that happened to go to the gym, the threat of dying in a game with the [Daredevil] difficulty ensuring that it was indistinguishable from reality would probably not promote the best state of mind.

Closing his eyes as he leaned back against the wall with crossed arms while doing his best to give off a nonchalant and confident feeling, emulating some badass characters he had seen in movies, he quietly coughed into his fist.

Slowly opening one eye while internally chanting 'Look cool, look cool, look cool' repeatedly, he saw that the girl didn't appear to have heard him, seemingly looking around at both the arena and the other contestants curiously, nevertheless he was convinced she was just acting to not come off as an easy target.

Though she was a very convincing actor he idly noted, it would've fooled him if one, he didn't know that they were currently stuck in a crazy death game that you couldn't exit unless you 'died' and two, she was so scared that her face was literally frozen in a blank expression. Her half-lidded eyes were probably a result of her trying to subconsciously make her sight blurry in an attempt to deny the reality in front of her.

As her gaze languidly swept over him he quickly took the chance to signal to her with his hand that he tried hiding behind his back while also making sure that she could see it properly.

Feeling drops of sweat sliding down the side of his face from nervousness he inwardly cheered when he saw that he got her attention and discreetly motioned for her to come over while trying to make himself look as casual as possible.

The girl tilted her head as she looked in his general direction before glancing around again.

Just as he thought that she was planning to ignore him with him being a stranger gesturing for her to come over for some unknown reason and all, something that would've been awkward and shady as fuck in a normal public space nevermind in the middle of a death game, she started slowly walking towards him as he allowed a sigh of relief to escape him.

Unfortunately, that relief was soon thrown out the window along with whatever composure he had managed to gather in order to not look like the wreck he was currently feeling as, replaced by a chill running down his spine while his body instantly tensed up, the hair at the back of his neck involuntarily raising as he heard a deep, gruff voice resembling crushed rocks speak up from what felt like just beside him.

"You're not fooling anyone worth their salt with that piss poor acting of yours, boy. "

His eyes widened in shock as a full body startle involuntarily rattled his bones. Subconsciously shrinking his neck to appear smaller he uneasily glanced to his side, freezing upon seeing a giant of a man resembling Fluid Fossa's bigger badder grandfather.

A tall broad shouldered old man composed of what seemed to be pure compact muscle covered in scars firmly reaching over 2 meters in height decked out in what looked like a cross between tactical gear and what he thought resembled something a modern ninja from the military would wear had somehow snuck up beside him without his notice, standing barely half a meter to his right.

Unintentionally finding his gaze wandering upwards, his eyes eventually met an extraordinarily piercing gaze of a war torn man. This was only amplified by a pair of extremely chilling light blue eyes set in an intense squarish face which was currently stoically looking down at him from above, the man's muscular stature seemingly growing even taller with each passing second he held his stare.

Feeling his breathing getting more and more difficult as an abnormal sense of oppression insistently pushed down on his shoulders, he was just about gasping for air when the man's gaze finally moved away from him with a sense of dismissiveness, leaving him a shaking mess. His knees on the verge of buckling like a newborn calf regardless of his wishes while a waterfall of sweat had turned the back of his shirt into a cold wet blanket persistantly clinging onto him.

While he was slowly recovering from the weird feeling with his hands on his knees to both catch his breath and stabilize himself, his shitty luck was apparently not done fucking with him yet. Something he very swiftly realized when the soft pats of bare feet approaching sounded, his eyes once more widening in shock as he realized that he had completely forgotten about the girl he gestured to come over.

Quickly raising his head he was about to warn her to stay away, the old man beside him was probably one of the initial testers when the requirements were at their highest most demanding point which meant that he was one of the small group of people firmly in the 'monster' category, and seeing his choice of attire and the strange feeling of danger he felt just a few moments ago, he was probably a seasoned military veteran or something similar.

Though before he could get a word out they were abruptly swallowed back down when the surprisingly tall girl, she was just about a few centimeters shorter than him something that wasn't as apparent with her standing so far away before, walked past him without so much as a glance as if she hadn't even seen him.

Blinking in confusion before quickly snapping out of his daze, he hastily followed her figure with his gaze to see that she had stopped in front of the old man and raised her head to look up at the roughly three heads taller man's stoic icy blue eyes impassively peering back down at her scrutinizingly.

Seeing the two of them seemingly descend into a stare-down he didn't really know what to do ultimately ending up lamely standing beside them as he anxiously waited for something to happen, internally praying for it not to involve violence, slightly startling when the old man let out a huff a about a minute later.

"You remind me of an old friend of mine, lassie. Stubborn as a rock, could slug like it was nobody's business and unfortunately, equipped an unsatiable curiosity." The old man gently whispered in a tone of fond reminiscence before lightly shaking his head and letting out a melancholic but resigned sigh as he shook away his thoughts.

She would've smacked him into next tuesday if she knew that he was moping about. She went out doing what she loved the most, executing downright insane stunts just to piss off their superiors with a wide, dazzlingly bright smile on her face.

Looking down into the girl's eyes an old but unforgettable memory seemed to overlap with the girl's silhouette despite their stark differences. One of them was a wild, borderline insane woman with a magnetically heroic charisma and an air of authority who saw rules as mere suggestions, a fierce lioness who aggressively clawed her way through life with an unabashed, endless well of confidence.

On the contrary this little one in front of him he felt hadn't yet grown into herself, still busy slowly but firmly exploring the world at her own pace like a young turtling.

Despite all this however, he could recognize that same exact glint of boundless curiosity flickering behind her otherwise dull eyes anywhere.

The girl blinked her eyes as she unhurriedly scanned his features, letting out a small surprisingly melodious hum a few moments later before she walked closer and chose to sit down with her back against the wall and knees tucked up to his right while quietly staring into space in front of her as a vacant look appeared in her eyes.

The old man idly raised an eyebrow as he watched her placidly. The girl had apparently lost interest for now and decided to just do her own thing, that was the feeling he got at least. It also seems she wasn't much of a talker, another difference between her and his old friend who probably wouldn't shut up unless she physically lost the ability to speak.

Deeply exhaling through his nose to dispell his thoughts he quietly put the memories back where they belonged and decided to follow her lead, sitting down next to her with a grunt, an arm leisurely propped up on a supportively raised knee and his back against the wall.

No point in standing around when the option to sit was so readily available, though most probably wouldn't be calm enough to care about comfort at this point.

As he was about to close his eyes to rest for a bit he heard a mosquito like voice hesitantly speaking up from his left.

"Um... So you're not gonna fight... right?"

Gazing in the direction with a lazy half-opened eye he saw the boy from before nervously looking between him and the girl.

"No." He answered clearly and calmly with his rumbling voice.

"Even if we wanted to, you cannot hurt others in this 'waiting room'. Those who tried ended up taking no physical damage but still feeling the pain which quickly stopped any further futile attempts from happening."

"Oh... I see. C-Can I sit here? My name is James by the way, uh... sir?" James nervously asked with a hopeful tone as he took a furtive glance around him at everyone who previously eyed the girl with malice instantly averting their eyes when they saw the both of them interact with the extremely dangerous looking old man who looked like he could bend steel with his bare hands.

"Orson Baros." The old man curtly introduced himself before closing his eyes again leaving James awkwardly standing there not knowing if that was a yes or a no.

Cautiously moving closer since although the old man didn't verbally agree, he also didn't explicitly tell him to fuck off either and he was desperate enough to take that gamble.

A few moments later James could finally breath out a sigh of relief, ending up joining the two but still staying as far away as possible whilst also showing that he was sitting 'next to' the old man and not 'alone but near' him to hopefully deter anyone looking for trouble.

Although he now knew that it wasn't possible to actually hurt others physically, probably because the psychos running this whole thing didn't want the fighters to not be in optimal condition or some other insane shitty reason, the notion of still feeling pain while sustaining no damage was almost worse with how eerie it would be.

Just the thought of being boxed in by a bunch of people and beat up without end since he wouldn't take any damage was scary as fuck.

James felt a shiver run through him as he imagined multiple scenarios of just that happening only further accentuated by the cold damp back of his shirt as he frantically rubbed at his arms which were now covered in a layer goosebumps and raised hairs.

Well at least his initial 'mission' was accomplished? Right? Kinda? The girl probably feels the same sense of security he was currently feeling sitting next to the bear in human skin right beside him.

The three of them spent the next few minutes in relative silence as two thirds of the group was lost in their own thoughts.

Meanwhile, the remaining member was too tensed up to relax even with the slight feeling of safety the old man provided as his mind was very generous in providing scenarios of how he would die when he was picked to enter the arena, occasionally startling from the loud sounds of a fight or argument breaking out amongst the other contestants who had left a wide berth between them and the group.

"S-So..." *cough* "W-When did you join the vr project?" James suddenly stuttered out not quiet managing to keep the tremor out of his tone having eventually let the nerves get to him and decided against his better judgement to try engaging in some small talk in an attempt to distract himself from his impending digital, but still very realistic death and alleviate some of the stress his body was currently spoon-feeding him like a doting grandma.

"..."

Receiving a prolonged silence in reponse to his question he was just about to gather up some courage to continue pushing for the sake of his mental wellbeing craving something other than intense anxiety when he heard the old man grumble out an answer, his voice resembling a deep growling of an animal despite him speaking quite flatly.

"First batch."

"O-Oh, t-that's awesome! I uh... I didn't actually qualify for a spot the normal way, my vr visor is actually my friend's that he kind of gave/loaned me for an indefinite amount of time! Just my luck that some piece of shit organization would target vr visors from the development phase, right? I'm surprised it's not a monday today, am I right or what? Ahahaha..." Upon receiving engagement from the old man, James' high-strung nerves and bottled up feelings immediately latched onto the slight feeling of normality just having a conversation brought his psyche prompting him to blurt out a slurry of words composed of random thoughts.

"...I see." Orson grunted out a few seconds later unsurprised by James' behavior, he had seen it more times than he could count in what must've been thousands of grossly underprepared green beans with eyes clouded by all the shit media spewed out romanticizing wars setting their first foot on a real battlefield.

Real life conflict didn't have slowed down time allowing the characters to react, it didn't have some poorly written, shitty romance scenes of falling in love amidst a hail of bullets with an enemy spy that eventually decided to defect due to the overwhelming amount of love she had for a common soldier, even if some of the shit he had seen while serving would want to disapprove of that.

No, it was none of that bullshit.

War was misery, as simple as that.

When he and his old friend had served together back in the day he was half-way convinced 90% of the soldiers only managed to stay positive due to the madwoman motivating them through the sheer unbridled charisma she constantly spewed out like a broken faucet.

"W-What are you in for? Ahahaha..." James immediately followed up with a forced out joke which just came off as awkward due to his hesitant delivery, something he seemed to recognize considering he quickly tried moving past it.

"I-I mean how did you get into the project?"

Orson internally groaned as started mentally lamenting his situation. Although he was no saint, he didn't want the boy having a nervous breakdown or something, something he looked just on the verge of already. Calming others down was never his thing, he much preferred being the intimidating muscle-head.

Deeply exhaling through his nose in resignation he decided just answering his questions was probably good enough, even if it wasn't he couldn't be bothered to put in any more effort either.

"Up until the researchers working on vr achieved their first breakthrough they had been testing the prototypes themselves, however, upon entering the 'digital world' they discovered that sharp movements would mess with it's stability or something. After eventually finding a way to reinforce it's structure, they were worried that more physically taxing maneuvers would still destabilize it and decided to hire people capable of performing them to test it's limits while continuing to reinforce it more and more everytime it showed even a trace of failure until it eventually reached a point they felt was stable enough to release it to the public. It was apparently the goal of the man who founded the project in the first place."

"Oh... so, it's not just fighters that was called to participate, then?"

"Alot of dancers, gymnasts, basketball players, free runners, footballs players, traceurs and so on."

"...Which one are you?"

"None. They also reached out to the military offering spots to whoever wanted to participate and a few of us old relics decided to stretch out our bones as it were. There's alot of retired veterans who can no longer operate normally in day to day life, vr was a very tempting escape from it all."

"O-Oh..." James let out a whisper, not really knowing what to say as a melancholic air hung over the both of them.

"Yeah."

"A-At least there's no lack of excitement in vr, right? I mean an insane death game will probably get your blood pumping!" James piped up as cheerfully as he could trying disperse the heavy mood the sour topic created. He had calmed down alot throughout the conversation. He was still scared shitless of getting into the arena there was no helping that, but at least he wasn't visibly shaking anymore.

"I suppose that's true." Orson nodded noncommitantly, a surprisingly common misconception was that all veterans were bloodthirsty demons that thrived on bloodshed and death. He didn't know which delusional moron created it however it couldn't be further from the truth.

A few of his old buddies had even invited him to some adventures inside a few of the more relaxing sceneries in [Sandbox Chatroom] even if most of them were very exaggerated and contained various magical aspects. Hiking up a mountain reaching into space, fishing in the middle of a massive waterfall surrounded by mystical flecks of light softly dancing on it's surface, even just relaxing in front of a warm, captivatingly vibrant, seemingly airbrushed sunset.

"I just wish it wouldn't involve ordinary people like us..." James sighed to himself as he leaned forward and directed a pitiying gaze at the mentally vacant girl who also got swept into this mess sitting on the old man's other side, she was probably happily playing around using her brother's vr visor before being forced here without warning.

"Ordinary people, huh?" Orson quietly raised an eyebrow, the girl was anything but ordinary. Firstly, the girl's physique was basically hand crafted into the perfect weapon with an unusually high level across the board for such a balanced build, secondly... the girl had seen blood, probably even drawn it herself.

He could tell, she had that air about her. It was also much too strong for it to have been just a single instance or an isolated accident, more than likely she probably sought it out herself. He already had a sneaking suspicion of who she could possibly be based on the metaphysical weight of her... it wasn't bloodlust, not really, it felt more like an unnaturally strong... not really pride either, but whatever it was, it was engraved in her bones making her subconsciously display her past battles to anyone she found worthy enough of knowing.

The girl probably didn't even know that she was doing it, it almost felt like a semi-dormant instinct out acting on her behalf according to her feelings.

As Orson was lost in thought, he was suddenly knocked out of it by a startled shout next to him. Looking down, he saw that the boy was pointing a shaking finger at the girl who's body was currently softly glowing while a swirl of blue pixels started slowly covering her starting from her feet.

It was the default porting animation he had seen her arrive with.

"Sh-... Shit. Shit. Shit! Fuck! She was chosen, what do we do!? What can we do!? Can we even do anything!?" The boy panickedly darted up from his spot with a string of loud curses, his arms hanging frozen in the air as if he didn't know where to put them as he frantically tried finding a solution to their 'problem'.

On the contrary, the girl who the 'problem' was currently affecting slowly got onto her feet with no particular change in expression as she placidly waited for the animation to swallow her up.

The moment her figure was completely obscured from the outside she promptly disappeared from her spot, the effect reappearing in the arena an instant later along with a bulky, blocky throne of gold covered in intricate patterns depicting majestic coiling dragons and beautiful soaring phoenixes leisurely rising from a pool of blood opposite her.

"It's happening! It's really happening! Fuck! What the hell do we do Orson!? She'll get slaughtered in there!!!" James screamed himself hoarse before rushing towards the bars of the cell, gripping them so hard his knuckles turned white with his wide eyes locked onto the girl who was gradually revealed as the effect slowly dispersed.

He would be the first to admit that he wasn't the best person around, however, you didn't need to be a saint to not want to see a girl in her teens die in front of you even if she wouldn't really 'die', not to mention that she would still feel the pain of actually dying, even worse, the cause would be a bare handed human.

In James' mind giving her opponent something sharp would probably be somewhat of an improvement since it would end faster, however maybe that is precisely why these psychos decided not to.

"For a start? Calm down, boy. You're gonna pass out huffing and puffing as much you are." Orson answered as he followed after him at a measured pace, crossing his arms as he planted his large boots in front of the bars looking into the arena.

"C-Calm down!?" James sputtered indignantly before directing an accusatory glance his way. "Why the fuck should I calm down!? She's gonna get killed!"

"Settle down!" Orson frowned slightly getting tired of the boy's endless fussing as his rumbling voice was raised in an abrupt but grave shout filled with a commanding tone demanding compliance accompanied by a piercing narrow eyed stare.

Upon seeing the boy quieten down, slowly withering under his intense gaze, he turned back to the arena as he waited for the fight to start.

"Aaaand~! We have our next victims everybody! Let's hope they can put on a better showing than our previous disappointments shall we!?" A sharp mousy voice boomed across the arena seemingly originating from thin air receiving a large cheer from the crowd in response.

"I thought so! Now then let's do some introductions, those are always fun right!?"

"Victim #1 is... an adolescent girl? Guess we've got another unlucky schmuck folks! Would you care to introduce yourself Victim #1? Maybe a bit about how you are currently feeling? Fear? Anxiety? Hopelessness? Despair? Lay it on me, I can take it!"

"..." The girl didn't seem to react despite clearly hearing his voice, they had made sure that both the commentator and the participants' voices would be broadcasted no matter how difficult it may have been to hear normally.

"No? Not one for talking, huh? That's A-OK! Could we at least have a name to call you for the next few minutes or so you're still alive?"

"..."

"...Hey! Girl! What's your name!? Don't ignore me! I know you can hear me down there! Hey!?" The mousy voice called out agitatedly, a bit of temper apparent in his words as his patience started waning. Do these idiots not have any common courtesy? He was doing his best to liven up the entertainment for everyone else, couldn't they just go along with it!?

Like, he could understand them... kind of. It was just that he didn't really care. Not to mention that all the whining, pleading, begging, shouting and whatever the fuck else they tried to get out of the game was irritating as hell.

"...Mn?" The girl belatedly reacted after his shouting, seemingly emerging from a daze before she started looking around presumably searching for his figure, unfortunately for her, he was sat in a concealed booth blending in with the surroundings.

"Welcome back to the world of the living Victim #1! Now, before your hopefully gruesome death can you introduce yourself to the audience?" The mousy voice was heard forcefully speaking through gritted teeth.

Having lost interest in trying to find him the girl apparently decided that she would treat him as if he was in the air and directed a questioning head tilt at the space in front of her.

"Your name! Your! Name! Are you fucking retarded!? Deaf!? I feel like I'm talking to a three year old here, I don't get paid enough for this shit! Hello!? Hello!? Is my mic working properly!?"

"...Nana." The girl blinked dully before eventually answering after pausing for another few seconds.

"Fucking finally! That only took you an eternity didn't it, huh!? Want me to congratulate you for accomplishing such a daunting task?" The mousy voice sardonically cried out before muttering under his breath. "Fucking mentally impaired deadweights making my job harder."

"Well anyway we have Nana I guess. Does her opponent want to be a fully functioning human and introduce himself or do you want me to have an aneurysm trying to guess your name?"

"I can introduce myself just fine, thank you." A silvery voice answered coldly originating from a tall, slender man covered in a layer of sharply cut muscles wearing a skin-tight black tank top with a golden dragon imprinted on the back and a pair of thick white pants on his legs accompanied by bandages wrapped around his shins and forearms.

He idly adjusted his back length black hair into a neat ponytail while beginning his introduction, his equally black eyes staring into the ground with a simmering intensity.

"My name is Tian Long, Tian for Heaven and Long for Dragon, hailing from the illustrous Heaven clan, currently 24 years old. My chosen discipline of martial arts is the Heavenly Dragon's 8 Fist Imperial Crusher style which is a variant of my clan's own martial art style passed down in our ancestral heritage which I have been training in since before I was born and personally modified to be more suitable for myself after countless minutes of thought."

"...O-kay... That's pretty cool, buddy-"

"Unfortunately, my clan was ruthlessly slaughtered by an opposing clan when I was young weak and powerless, which in turn ignited my blazing hatred which I used to further fuel my training. From that point on in my life, I have dedicated myself solely to martial arts in my quest for revenge against those who dared scheme against my clan spurned by despicable greed for our-"

"Aaaalright~! I think that's enough of that! I said introduction, I don't want to hear the story of your life bro. Fucking weird ass people the both of you. Moving on!"

"For this fight we have Victim #1 aka intellect of a 3 year old, taking several seconds to respond to a simple question, Nana!"

"Facing against her is Victim #2 aka the 'mysterious' delusional chuuni, complete with a whole backstory and shit, Tian Long!"

The commentator's voice was accompanied by a large omni-directional screen with [Nana vs Tian Long] rotating around it appearing in the sky above the arena while a timer slowly counting down from 10 below it.

"I will have to apologize in advance, little girl. I have sworn an oath on my name with the heavens as the witness to never again bow down in defeat to another as long as remain alive, I would usually not do something as cowardly as hitting a girl, however, the circumstances has unfortunately forced my hand." Tian Long had a small frown on his face as he tightened his bandages in preparation, he would try ending this as fast as possible so as to not prolong her suffering.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Fight]

The moment the word resounded throughout the arena, Tian Long took a deep breath and adjusted his stance before suddenly shooting towards his opponents using series of fierce circular motions used to gather momentum for a powerful blow, his feet sliding across the ground like a dragon's limbs moving through clouds.

As he neared the girl who stood petrified in place his forms lowered before he abruptly sprung up with small dispersal of dust, maneuvering in the air with a familiar ease he proficiently used the rotating force to orient himself into an optimal punching position that would use his previously gathered momentum to it's limit above her.

"Heavenly Dragon's Earth Piercing Javelin Fist!" Tian Long announced gravely with a serious expression as he kept his gaze on the girl's face, he would at least honor her by not shying away from looking at the damage he himself was about to inflict.

Though his previous expression soon morphed into shock, his eyes widening in alarm as his arm was easily grabbed in an iron-like grip before his vision blurred due to being spun around, his own momentum used against him before he shot out like a cannonball impacting against the wall of bars surrounding the arena with a harsh sound of flesh padded bones slamming into unbending metal.

*Dang!*

"Ahk-!" Tian Long felt his vision flash as the air was ruthlessly punched out of him while his senses exploded in pain, the back of his head unfortunately taking a particularly hard hit since it unluckily landed right on top of one of the bars.

Crashing back down onto the ground with a small cloud of dust courtesy of gravity, his back involuntarily arched trying to combat the pain while his body tensed up.

"W-Wha-" James blinked in stunned confusion from the ground as he tried processing what he just witnessed happening in front of him. That Tian Long guy was doing some sort of kung fu movie shit and was just about to smash Nana, he now knew her name thanks to the commentator, in the head with a merciless blow when she somehow managed to reverse the situation.

And an instant later, he barely had time to react as the guy was thrown in his direction like a shooting star, his instinctive response being a startled, buy very manly, scream as he hurriedly let go of the bars and stumbled when the lizard part of his brain was shouting at him to get out of the way.

The guy impacted the bars with enough force it generated a gust of wind messing up his hair and let out a choked noise of pain before falling down onto the ground where he was currently writhing in pain.

"W-What the hell was that...?"