The Survival Games

At the current time, the players who have yet to fully go out and explore what was available to them in the form of the minigames were either still exploring or were simply relaxing and still trying to take everything around them in. However, for the few that have, they were all experiencing their own forms of excitement.

In particular, both Yuta and Reiji were in the middle of their own match of Survival Games. Of course, since they already knew how the game was supposed to be played, they had the advantage and had dashed towards the scattered chests at the centre area while the others were still a bit dazed and confused about what to do.

Of course, they weren't heartless, so they obviously left a good number of chests for the others to loot themselves. It took a bit of time, but the other players eventually got the jist of things and all went their separate ways across the map.

For this particular game, the map chosen was one that Reiji called 'Ruined World', and you can probably guess by the name just what it entailed. The map consisted of a relatively large map of both city and wilderness, the catch was that it was all destroyed as if a war had completely torn the landscape apart.

Being the creator of this map, Reiji obviously had the advantage over the others, even against his brother. At the present time, Reiji could be seen rushing through the destroyed skyscrapers jumping over and avoiding holes and other potential dangers.

From what can be seen of his character, he had a full set of iron armour, the exception being his pants which were seen to be a pair of chainmail leggings. He also had attached two iron swords on either side of his waist while a bow was present on his back.

As Reiji ran, his eyes remained narrowed as he continuously glanced around at his surroundings, the barrier that was closing in was getting faster and the remaining players were obviously being forced closer together. The game was truly nearing it's climax.

Sliding across the ground, Reiji skidded to a stop next to a chest that he quickly opened. Looking inside, he saw that it had a few food items as well as a few other potentially useful pieces of equipment. Reiji widened his eyes for a second before smiling.

'Ender pearl, definitely will be useful!'

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『Survival Games - 1』

● Remaining Players: 4/25

● Number of Spectators: 2,560

● MVP: Genesis - 10 Kills

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Giving the game chart a quick glance, Reiji could estimate that the barrier would probably reach its final reduction in approximately five minutes or so. The smaller the number of players, the quicker the barrier would close in, that was how they programmed it to be.

'I better start making my way to the centre, the barrier's coming in quick...' Reiji looked out from the building to see a red blinking dome of light in the near-distance. He was about to turn back into the building when he saw something coming towards him at incredible speed, he reacted just in time and dived behind the blocky pillar. 'An arrow!'

Reiji narrowed his eyes down at the arrow that was now sticking into the ground beside him, and judging from the position of the arrow, he had a rough estimation as to where the person who shot it could be.

'It's too dangerous to fight here, especially with the barrier closing in...' Reiji looked towards the side of the building he was on before narrowing his eyes. Taking a small breath, Reiji quickly broke into a sprint while unsheathing one sword. 'Here we go!'

As expected, Reiji found another arrow coming towards him from the glassless windows, which he struck with his sword as he ran. Whoever this person was, they had some pretty damn good aim if they were able to fire it that accurately at him on short notice.

Reiji reached the open window before jumping grabbing onto the hanging vine, and using it, he swung over to the next building and breaking his fall with a quick roll on the ground. He quick stood back up and continued running, he needed to get into a better position.

He didn't completely know where this person was, but they obviously knew where he was.

'Are they following me?' Reiji quickly looked to the right along the rooftops of the other buildings, he couldn't see anything though. That was when another arrow fired at him. 'Yep, definitely following me! I think I know where they are though!'

Reiji immediately turned his gaze towards the direction opposite of where the arrow was fired, and when he did, he caught the glimpse of what looked to be an iron helmet moving quickly along the other rooftop. Due to the height of the building's rooftop railings though, he couldn't get a clear view of what they looked like.

'Too hard of a shot... Okay, I only got two of these, better not mess up.' Reiji took out one of his ender pearls before tossing it towards the window of the building that the other player was on top of. The window he threw it at was the one present at the top floor.

Upon hitting its mark, Reiji quickly found himself teleported in a burst of purple particles as he kicked down the glass window, shattering it in the process. He knew that the person must have heard the glass breaking, so he would need to stay on guard if that person decides to attack instead of running.

Reiji rushed towards the stair case leading to the rooftop, unsheathing his other sword from his waist before quickly making his way up. Once he jumped up onto the roof, he was definitely prepared when the player suddenly jumped at him with their blade already swung.

Both Reiji and this other player gritted their teeth as their weapons clashed, Reiji was able to push the person back though since he had two swords fighting back against the person's swing. The other player quickly retreated backwards and eyed him warily while pointing their weapon.

'They're pretty decked out, this'll be good...' Reiji smiled slightly as he noticed the full set of iron armour the person wore. From what he could tell, the person appeared to be female underneath all that armour. "You have a really good aim, but can you beat me in swordsmanship?"

"We'll see, I hope you don't disappoint." The other player smirked in response to Reiji's words as they both bent their knees. They both then charged towards each other and began parrying and blocking each others swings. "Y-You have serious power behind those swings, aren't you being a bit too harsh on a girl?"

"Sorry, I'm all about gender equality."

"Ha!"

Both fighters gave each other smirks as their fight continued, though the scale was tipped more on Reiji's favour as his constant swings with both swords were making it difficult for the girl to fight back and defend with her only having a single sword in her hands.

Since Reiji and Yuta decided to turn off gamer tags when players were in games like Survival Games, both players couldn't see what each other's names were. As the fight continued, the female player knew she wasn't exactly in a favourable position right now.

"Switching to range, are you? Won't help!" Reiji smiled as he rushed towards the player who backed away quickly and began firing arrows. Reiji slashed away any arrows that were fired at him as he continued running forwards. "I can tell how you were able to make it this far, I'm impressed!"

"Same to you!" The female player responded as she discarded her bow and rolled to the side to avoid being hit, it didn't help much though as Reiji quickly kicked against the ground towards her and delivered a quick spin kick. The kick caused her to stumble back. "Gah, that's smarts...!"

"You were good, but not good enough!" Reiji quickly slammed bother swords down onto the female player, who raised her sword horizontally to block it. The force behind his swings made her stumble and drop to the ground though. Seeing this, Reiji swung upwards, hitting her sword out of her hands. "It was fun, this is the end of the road for you though."

"Seems like it, though this position is very questionable if you ask me." The female gave a small amused scoff as she found herself pinned down with a sword pointing at her chest. Reiji just gave her a small deadpan at the last few words. "Finish me off, good game."

"Good game, see you later." With that, Reiji plunged the sword down as the blade pierced through her armour and through her character. There wasn't any blood, but her character did flash red before her player character began dispersing into particles.

『Player Eliminated - 3/25 Players Remaining』

Reiji looked down at the corpse of items left on the ground and began taking whatever he could and might need for later. 'Man, am I glad we didn't make it so corpses remained. Don't know how I'd feel stripping armour off a girl...'

『Player Eliminated - 2/25 Players Remaining』

'Oh, only two of us left?' As Reiji finished collecting the items, which he had also exchanged his chainmail leggings for the iron ones he had just gotten, he noticed the sudden notification in the chat. 'Either it's just me and Yuta, or he died just now or sometime before. We'll just have to see.'

With that, Reiji quickly began making his way towards the centre.

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It didn't take long before the barrier completely surrounded the centre area, it had begun closing in at an incredibly alarming rate once only two players remain standing. Due to this, Reiji now walked from the small amount of surrounding debris towards the centre as his eyes glanced around.

"You're finally here!"

Reiji stopped walking and looked up and towards the area where all the chests were at, and when he did, he saw none other than Yuta himself sitting on top of one of the stone pillars that made up the centre interior. He watched as his younger brother jumped down and landed gracefully onto the ground.

"So the other remaining person was you after all, honestly thought you might have died." Reiji gave a small chuckle as he unsheathed his two swords. Seeing this, Yuta also seemed to brandish two swords of his own. "Who did you end up killing just now? Was it a good fight?"

"A good fight?" Hearing this, Yuta scoffed as a look of annoyance crossed his face. "The dude was literally hiding in a hole close to here, he didn't even have a weapon, only leather boots and a few pieces of food. The dude thought he could just hide the entire game."

"Really?" Reiji laughed a bit at that. "Then allow me to give you a proper ending fight!"

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it, bro!"

With that, both Reiji and Yuta rushed at one another and began swinging at incredible speeds. Each time their swords clashed, small sparks seemed to explode outwards. The only sound in the area was the sound of metal clashing against one another constantly.

Due to their height difference, both of them had their own advantages and disadvantages. Reiji found it harder to properly defend and attack, especially if Yuta struck low at his legs. For Yuta, defending against multiple strikes from above was proving to be very difficult, especially with the force behind each strike.

"Oi, stop going for my damn legs, you crotch goblin!"

"The hell you call me? Maybe you should stop hammering down on me like the damn Hulk!"

Of course, their exchange wasn't done without the occasional taunts and conversation between them. Any insults and such between them were taken with a grain of salt, they knew that neither of them meant anything truly insulting or rude towards the each other.

Yuta quickly dashed backwards and began climbing up the vines leading up a circular formation of pillars. He continued jumping across them while firing arrows, Reiji followed suit as he ran around said circular formation while firing his own at Yuta as well.

"Hyaa~!"

"Wh-What the?!" Yuta stumbled when Reiji suddenly threw something at him that was completely unexpected. "Did you throw a freaking fish at me?!"

"Hell yeah, I did! The perfect distraction!"

"Wha-!" Yuta widened his eyes when Reiji suddenly appeared in front of him, both swords already swinging towards him. Yuta wasn't able to react quickly enough as he was sent flying back when both swords struck him. As he was dropping to the ground, Yuta glared at Reiji. "Th-That was cheap!"

"All's fair in love and war!" Reiji smirked before taking out his ender pearl, the last one that he had after using one before on the skyscraper. Yuta's face went blank when he saw it, Reiji then chucked it at full power at Yuta, hitting his brother directly as he found himself teleported right above Yuta's falling body. "Say goodnight, little bro!"

"Br-Bruh! You and your ender pearls..!"

"Hya!" Raising both his swords, Reiji swung both downwards at Yuta. The attack caused Yuta to descend even quicker before ultimately crashing against the ground, unmoving as Reiji landed not so far away. Looking back, Reiji watched as Yuta's character began dispersing. "Looks like it's my win."

『Player Eliminated - 1/25 Players Remaining』

『Gamer Over!』

『Winner - Genesis!』

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As soon as the game ended, Reiji soon found himself teleported back into what looked to be a waiting room that consisted of a small parkour course for the players to enjoy, as well as just a lounge area for them to rest.

This was the waiting room for the game, the place that the players would obviously wait in for the game to start or for them to be teleported back to the hub after a game. Finding himself back, Reiji looked around before seeing Yuta walking over with a deadpan look on his face.

"You ender pearling bastard..."

"You're just salty, second place."

"You...!"

"Nice fight back there, you two." Both Reiji and Yuta turned their heads to see another player walking over towards them. Reiji blinked in eyes in surprise as the person that just walked up to them was the same girl he had fought back on the rooftop. "So, you called yourself Genesis, huh? Nice to officially meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Reiji smiled and offered his hand, which the female accepted as she firmly shook his hand. Yuta also took the chance to introduce himself as well. "Yuna, huh? Sounds like a pretty normal name, did you perhaps use your actual name or something?"

"Yeah, didn't really want to think too much."

"Aren't you worried at all?" Yuta blinked as he crossed his arms over his chest. There were all kinds of players out there, and Yuna here certainly seemed to be quite the interesting one indeed. "Players usually avoid using their actual names in games, even if their name is common."

"Meh, I don't really care. A name's a name." Yuna shrugged her shoulders before grinning as she looked down at Yuta. "Also, nice job catching that fish with your face."

"G-Guh...!"

Hearing this, Yuta visibly winced as Reiji also gave his brother the same grin Yuna had. Yuta began yelling at them as the two simply laughed. With that, the three of them continued to converse with one another until the timer ran out and they were all teleported back to the hub.