“Nurse Yoichi”

Yoichi absolutely loved nurses.

Since he used to get sick a lot, he was a regular at the VR clinic. Whenever he got anxious before an exam, the kind nurse ladies always kept him company. They were probably actually specialized AIs, and ideal nurses like them didn't exist in real life, or more like the "nurse" profession probably didn't even exist anymore period, but regardless, Yoichi loved nurses. He loved them so much that whenever he was able to choose his clothing in games, he always went with nurse outfits. These outfits could only be found in historical literature now, but even still, the overall aesthetic remained popular in games and other creative works. However, Yoichi didn't want to lie about himself, so he never posed as a different sex or became one of those "nekama" people. Therefore, he always played with a male avatar using his real name, "Yoichi," whenever he played any games.

In deference to Yoichi's pride, people thus dubbed him:

Nurse Yoichi.

Yoichi was quite taken with this nickname, so in order to live up to it, he preferred playstyles that specialized in archery[1]. As long as there were bows in the game, no matter how unpopular it was for any reason, he would prove that he could nevertheless reach the top ranks with it. He was even experienced in archery in real life; the present Yoichi was unrecognizable from the sickly child of the past. In this game, bows weren't particularly bad or anything, so aiming for the event championship should have been a suitable goal. Since the start of the game, Yoichi stoically chose to use nothing but the bow. Considering the skills he learned, his stat values supporting those skills, and his archery ability in real life, then not just with bows but even in terms of weapons in general, not many could match up to Yoichi.

Since that was the kind of person Yoichi was, then it was a matter of course that he would make it through the preliminaries. Not only that, but he emerged victorious with quite a bit of time left before sudden death. However, after Yoichi was transferred to the spectator seats, he only saw 30 monitors displaying preliminary fights; two of them were already blacked out.

—Someone cleared the prelims even faster than I did…!

He was shocked. To bring out the best in the bow, he had learned the [Enhanced Vision], [Enhanced Hearing], and [Enhanced Smell] skills. With them, he was able to find enemies faster than anyone else could and snipe them with arrows. If there was a duel in progress, he could use sound to determine their locations and kill them at a distance. If they were hidden, he needed only a whiff of their scent to find an opening through which to fire an arrow. If they were coming after him themselves, he would wait until they exposed themselves and shoot straight at them. Therefore, the person who had earned the most kills was Yoichi himself.

Since Yoichi had killed players with maximum efficiency, he thought he naturally had to have had the fastest clear time.

—What kind of player could have…

Yoichi had found a rival. In other words, this was proof that there was a player out there with as much love for a single thing as Yoichi had.

Yoichi was excited for the championship.

Finally, all the preliminary blocks finished, and only those advancing to the championship would be transferred back down to the arena. One player among them had completely devastated block 16. All the players here looked fierce and resolute, but one of them fixed a terrifying glare at Yoichi. However, he was used to this kind of intimidation and it felt like nothing more than a breeze to him.

Before long, the system announced the start of the championship battle, and the 32 contestants in the arena were transported away. He landed in a meadow. For an archer like Yoichi, he would be at a disadvantage in an open field, but he spotted a forest a little bit away. If he could make it over there, he should be able to find a lot of hiding places. Yoichi began to make his way toward that forest.

On the way, Yoichi's boosted hearing caught the sound of footsteps. He turned to look in that direction and saw a thin youth wielding two short swords approaching him.

"You were able to detect me at this distance. I'm even using a skill right now. Guess the rumors really are true."

Without letting down his guard, he readied his bow while observing his opponent. This player was dressed head to toe in tight black clothing. From what he could tell based on the two weapons, this was a speed-focused melee fighter. Wait, since they tried to get closer while using a skill, maybe their fighting style was like a ninja's or a thief's.

"Am I famous or something? I don't believe I've done anything worthy of attention in this game yet," he asked while continuing to observe his opponent's approach.

He didn't know what rumors these were, but it was bad for his opponent to have information on him. It was true that Yoichi adopted a similar playstyle in every game, though, so if they knew him from one of those games, they could easily predict how he would fight here.

"Nah, I don't really know that much about you. All I've heard is that you've picked up quite the arsenal of skills. Well, I did confirm that to be true now."

The black-dressed person tried to get closer while talking, but Yoichi kept them in check with his readied bow.

"Even still, I've been stoically honing my archery. You won't find it easy to get closer to me."

At that, the black-clothed person looked taken aback. "'Stoically'?! Did you say 'stoically'?! Bullshit! You should actually look up the definition of 'stoicism' in the dictionary for once! You damn poser."

That instant, or he wasn't sure exactly when, but before he knew it, Yoichi found himself in the spectator seats.

In other words, he had been killed.

—Did that black-clothed boy do something to me…?

But would he really have deliberately interrupted himself in order to launch an attack? If he really had done that, then he had some truly fearsome assassination skills, to aim for that momentary lapse in attention span. He soon realized that this was a mistaken impression right away. Yoichi dumbfoundedly noticed that the boy in black was standing right next to him; he had also been defeated, probably at exactly the same time.

"You bastard… also died…? When did…?"

The boy was also staring blankly back at him. He was probably going through the same mental turmoil as Yoichi right now. They had been facing off against each other while on the highest alert, and yet another championship participant, so close to the start of the match, could kill them both at the same time without them even realizing it.

As though sharing some kind of secret signal, the two both turned at the same time to check the monitors. However, they saw nothing there in the meadow except flowers swaying in the wind.