Chapter 12 - World Tournament I: Mid-Start

[ ? ? ? POV]

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I was sitting in my room, watching the holographic landscape from my window, along with my huge amount of collectibles on the shelves nearby. In front of me was my computer, on the screen there was only the image of the end of a video call. I had just had a meeting with the group I was hired to work with.

Honestly, they were all great at the job, but I expected more emotion from male voices, we've already been warned about how people want to feel more action from male characters, while female characters were already at the top end of the market. But what could we do after all? It will only be seen by mature people, not kids who love the thrill of fighting games.

"At least I'm free now…" I muttered quietly to myself as I stared at the ceiling, having an adorable decoration I recently bought.

It was a super adorable pink with countless stickers of characters I've voiced. All were super cute chibis that they use in promotional art in public places. It was great that I was still making a lot of profit from sales, it was so much so that I didn't even have to be bothered by doing slightly smaller jobs, which had proportionately fewer hours per week.

"Oneesan!!!" My annoying brother's voice eventually came from behind the door.

"Argh…" I sighed, turning off the mic in front of me, only to turn towards the door and scream. "What is it now, brat?!" I got up going to the door.

"Ohohohoho, don't you know what time it is? You told me to call you now, Oneeeeechaaaaan~" He kept teasing me in that stupid perv voice.

But his words hit me, making me stare at my phone a bit and see what time it was, it was almost time for the event-

No... it wasn't just that...

"H-He called me and I didn't even answer him?!.. Why did I have this shitty meeting!?!" I completely demonstrated my irritation there and opened the door, to reveal my brother, with the exaggerated and messy blond hair. "I asked you to let me know 2 hours in advance! Not 1 hour!!!!"

"Calm down, Oneeeeechan~ There's still time!" He laughed annoyingly at me and walked down the hall, but he wasn't fast enough as I managed to throw a pillow right at the back of his head, making him escape my gaze.

I took a deep breath, taking a few vitamin drops out of my drawer and popping them into my mouth, before actually laying down on the bed and putting the headset on my head. With nagging thoughts of my anger at things not going my way.

It didn't take long to connect to the YGGDRASIL system, my body initially looked like just a humanoid mannequin that emanated a completely white light, but little by little it changed, gaining more shapes and colors. Until it became a big pink bubble that was slightly settling.

Entering the server I always enter, I ended up going to Midgard, appearing in the main area there. I could see some human players wondering about my presence when I arrived, it was not surprising, as a heteromorph player nowadays, I practically entered the enemy realm. But I didn't care, because I was there to see him. He had signed up for the Midgard championship, being the only human in our group, who wanted to participate in it so much, this really was the best option.

"Eeh… how gross…"

"Is that slime or a bunch of dead bodies?"

"Does this player have the courage to appear here?"

I could hear the others talking, they didn't seem to care that I heard them, but at least they weren't going to go up to me and talk to my face, I took a deep breath. Due to my fame, there was a huge chance of having my fans between those racist players. If they found out who I am, they would have a heart attack and consider themselves traitors to my fandom…

"Perfect…" I thought, after all, I was playing this game to dissociate myself from my fame.

While walking towards one of the Midgard transmission arenas, I tried to make a call to Hikari, having his phone number, I could contact him within the game, even if he was on the ExtraServer. It took a few minutes, but he finally answered.

"Hello, BB. How are you?" He spoke calmly and simply, as if he wasn't even inside the event.

"I-I'm fine… I'm already in Midgard, I'm coming to see you." I ended up stuttering a bit.

I still wasn't used to having his phone number, even though I'd heard his voice before, was talking with him in this method more… exciting…? I lack words to understand why I'm acting like this...

"Great, I'm fine too. The people here are just reminding the participants of the rules… no big deal."

"I see… Hm… which side do you recommend I sit on?"

"Well, players can choose at will which side they will enter the arena… There were already those choices before the tournament, I will always enter from the north side."

"Okay! Even though the tournament is being recorded, I will record my perspective so that the people can see it later. It is a pity that I am the only one who will be watching your matches…" I said sadly, but my hidden face showed that I was happy to be the only one, luckily that was a voice call and not a video call.

"I agree, but it makes sense at least for the events to be live holographically in their respective realms." He gave me a soft laugh. "I find out something great, you'll love it."

I didn't understand what he meant by that, but in the end he just kept sending me adorable kissing emojis and then hung up the call. Even though my face didn't actually exist in my character, my pink goo turned redder with embarrassment. Arriving at the arena, the place seemed pretty crowded, but as I passed the entrance, a kind of notification appeared on my HUD.

[Player Bukubukuchagama! You have been invited to stand in a VIP area of the arena you entered. Head to the North side and report your ID to the Guard NPC there.]

I was surprised, clearly… So that was the "Something great"? Did he get me a VIP area so I wouldn't be bothered by so many human players? How cute.

It didn't take long for me to enter the VIP area, thanks to a human NPC who helped me get there. There were few people there, the vast majority were human and stared at me strangely, with one or another elf and demi-human players between them. I sat down in a seat that had my name on the back, the VIP area was just what I would expect from privileged seats in a theater, with the glass in front of me also serving as a holographic screen, and I only noticed this because 3 players next to me were using the screen to bet on the winners of this first battle.

[Notice! The show will start, stay tuned!]

That message came up and finally a holographic version of a human player in grand clothes was in the center of the arena. "Hello! Ladies and Gentlemen! Humans and Heteromorphs! I am pleased to announce the First and Unprecedented World Tournament!!!" He spoke, moving his hands elegantly and with an imposing voice. Everyone seemed to get up and clap their hands, scream happily, while I could only move slightly and use emojis due to my body.

"As you all know, what you will see now is the part related only to players who signed up for Midgard! And these will be the participants!" As he said that, a popup appeared on my screen, showing which fights would happen and in which order, I was surprised to see who would be the first to fight.

"Let's get started, just like that! Contestants Dive_Higherfrost and Hikari can take the stage!" And with his grandiose voice, two doors opened in the arena, one below where I was and the other on the complete opposite.

From the one on the other side, I could see a human player who wore a uniform characteristic of players from Niflheim, the "true winter" realm, having furry clothes with the appearance of thick leather and raw metal. On his head there were numerous accessories that gave him the appearance of having hair made of pure frozen crystals.

Below me was why I even thought about entering Midgard after that fiasco. The spiky red hair was there with that golden hair tie with an attractive shine, having a special dark purple headband so that his face was completely exposed, something he normally doesn't do. As for armor, it seems that he chose a very simple one, focused more on agility than on defense itself, or at least that's the impression it gives.

"Dear participants! Do any of you decide to activate Command 7?" The presenter spoke loud and clear, but I was confused, I had nothing in my head that made sense out of that last word.

"I refuse, who is the crazy person who would do that?" Said the guy named Dive_Higherfrost.

"I want to activate Command 7." My Hikari said, making his opponent a bit surprised.

"Great! Perfect! As one of our contestants decided to accept on day 1! It will be great to talk to viewers!" The announcer said with a big laugh. "My dear viewers! Command 7 is a permission for everyone to have access to a participant's status! Normally, everyone's status is kept secret until the end of the tournament or when that participant is out of the event! But when this option is activated, all the prizes that this participant wins, from now on, will be doubled!"

If my character had eyes, they would be bulging out of my face. This was literally trading important information for more rewards! Was that the real thing Hikari meant on that call?!? He's destroying his element of surprise, and now all enemies will know which attributes to watch out for!

"Is he insane as much as he is kind?" It was the only thought that came up before a + symbol appeared next to his name as a participant, I clicked, even though I knew I would only see his attributes.

.

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Username: Th3Unkn0wnF0r35T

Began Playing: April 4th, 0000

IGN: Hikari

Job: YGGDRASIL'S JOURNALIST ★

Residence: Álfheimr

Alignment: Lawful Evil ————— Karma: -200

Total Level: 76

Racial Level:

Human ————— Lv.Max

Jobs Level:

Rogue (Assassin) ————— Lv.10

Ranger ————— Lv.5

Striker ————— Lv.7

Single Blow ————— Lv.8

Wizard (High-Wizard) ————— Lv.15 [MAX]

War Wizard ————— Lv.6

{Blood Drinker} ————— Lv.5

Craftsman ————— Lv.5

Commander ————— Lv.5

Weapon Master ————— Lv.10 [MAX]

Ability Chart:

Hp: 600 (60) | Mp: 1200 (120)

Phy.Atk: 92 | Phy.Def: 65

Agility: 120

Mag.Atk: 92 | Mag.Def: 65

Resist: 56 | Special: 56

Total Stats: 726

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.

That was the information that surfaced not only for me, but for everyone present in the arena… No… This information appeared in all the arenas of Midgard…

The whole place seemed to have gone silent, until the other player started laughing, laughing so hard that it even echoed throughout that space. And thanks to that, everyone went back to talking to each other, gossiping before the first fight really started.

My real eyes were widening inside my character, not for the reason everyone expected. After a survey, it had been discovered that the average level of all participants was 85 and up, so Hikari being level 76 was what made the opponent laugh and everyone was impressed by how "low" that level was. But for me, what impressed me was that, he was at level 70 when he went to the ExtraServer… He had leveled up 6 levels in that short amount of time.

Not only that, but there was that Job Class I didn't remember him having, so it must have been something he got in that same short amount of time. [Blood Drinker]... Never heard of it, it seems like something only someone of the Vampire race could have, but if that was the case, why would he have it? And what does it mean?

"As the last thing to do, in each fight, we allow the participants to decide the items they will use, so that there is always variety. Dive_Higherfrost, what will your weapons be?" the presenter asked.

"I will use the [Frozen Dagger], two to be exact."

"Okay, they are B-rank items, which makes you allowed to wear up to B-rank armor and a maximum of one A-rank piece." After he said that, Hikari's opponent seemed to change equipment right there, and than he asked my acquaintance the same right after.

"I will only use [Kuwoi-Muramasa] as a unique weapon."

"This item is S-rank, it forces you to wear C-rank or lower armor pieces, are you sure about that?" Hikari nodded, while seeming to change the gauntlets he had for fingerless black gloves, apparently it was the only thing above rank C he was wearing in the start, but finally the famous katana appeared on his waist.

"With that done… let the fight begin!" The presenter exclaimed, snapping his fingers and disappearing from there.

We all watched the scene, Hikari seemed to position himself, standing still with his hand on the katana's handle, while his opponent seemed to be rubbing the blades of the two daggers together. Speaking in a mocking tone loud enough for everyone to hear, he began to tease.

"Get over here! I saw these ridiculous attributes! It's so below average and so balanced that you shouldn't even be able to handle a level 87 player like me!"

"If you say that… come here." Hikari's voice can be heard easily, and I know him well enough to know that he... was he bored?

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" The opponent exclaimed, making his first move.

He activated [Agility Boost], dashing at my Hikari with some speed. Using the daggers, he tried to hit him with horizontal slashes, but something happened, something that I expected, but that no one else seemed to understand.

Hikari had drawn his katana from its sheath, activating its temporary paralysis effect on the enemy. So Dive just stood there like a fool for a few seconds, giving Hikari enough time to simply take a big leap and land on the other side of the arena, his katana now in hand.

"What the fuck was that?!" Dive exclaimed after getting back to moving.

"Nothing much… it always happens… I just didn't kill you for wanting to make things fair…" Hikari said neutrally and with an unconventional battle pose.

The opponent was quite annoyed by this, also using [Attack Boost] to increase Phy.Attack's attributes, he advanced again against Hikari and thus both began the actual fight. The two daggers with frozen blades were trying to hit the enemy, but the katana's blade always seemed to stop the attacks, causing countless sounds of metal hitting each other repeatedly.

Everyone seemed to be silent, as they saw someone level 76 without any use of boost skill, going toe to toe with someone at level 87 that used [Agility Boost] and [Attack Boost], in addition to having two blades instead of one. That was really a tournament, an event among the best who signed up, and apparently only now the penny had dropped, if someone with below average level is there, there must be some reason, nothing is so easy.

I couldn't contain myself and giggle with that, the defense patterns Hikari used were identical to the ones he used to train with me and my brother. It was giving me so much nostalgia, that I knew when he was finally going to actually counter attack…

He soon seemed to spin around to defend against another one of the two daggers' attacks… Yes, it was now.

After the spin, he gave a surprise blow to the enemy, a punch with his right hand, pushing him back a little. It could be a little space, but it was enough for him to go immediately afterwards, without any delay, make a vertical cut from bottom to top, throwing Dive_Higherfrost a little up and back, with his HP bar decreasing a lot, in a single attack, he had lost 20%, while Hikari was still at 100%.

"Da hell?!" Before Dive could adjust himself in position, Hikari advanced very quickly towards him again, without even using skills.

"[Body Strengthening]!" Dive said, increasing his defense, while Hikari was attacking very quickly with the katana.

Some blows were reflected, but the vast majority of cuts from that katana managed to reach the opponent. Losing 5% of HP with each hit, Dive seemed to be extremely enraged and irritated, trying his best to get away or counterattack my beloved, but it was useless. Hikari continued to dodge the blows and accelerate his blade movements, the movements were so fluid and abnormal, it was obvious to everyone that he wasn't using the neural helper, as most players do.

"You shouldn't even be able to handle a level 76 player like me..." Hikari's voice came up, as if he was copying the phrase Dive said at the beginning of that match, and so he gave him a last blow by piercing his stomach and using [Great Fire] to burn him from the inside to form, dropping Dive's HP that was at 40% directly to 0%.

So, the fight was over, it had only lasted 8 minutes, and the vast majority of that time was just the two of them trying to attack each other to find some gap. For many, that seemed quite boring, but in fact it was just the first fight, the first phase of the tournament…

The moment to crush those who thought they were the best, when in fact they weren't even close...

"YES! GO HIKARI!" I broke the silence after that victory, getting up from my chair and screaming for Hikari. It didn't take long for others to start copying me and eventually, everyone seemed to be chanting his name.

"AAAnd our participant Hikari, guarantees his first victory! Very moving and interesting to see you hit someone as cocky as that guy!" The presenter said, returning to appear there.

"It wasn't a big deal, he just had a lot of openings... the fact that he was thinking as a better player only made these openings much more frequent." Hikari spoke even calmly, and finally he looked at me…

Is that why you wanted to know where I would be sitting? It was impossible for him to know where I am since this is just a broadcast and the arena he is in is a completely different one from mine…

"And I will not show my potential to those who act like this without reason. I hope they take me seriously so I can show what I've been training with all my friends before I get here... It would be disappointing for me to win the tournament without using my unique tricks that set me apart from everyone else..." He might sound arrogant, but I know him well enough to understand that he wasn't bragging or really teasing.

He is serious...

He wants this to happen...

He doesn't want all the effort he put in during our training sessions to go unused…

I could feel some heat, my real face was heating up while my character was redder than usual. Hearing some people booing, and others continuing to applaud him for that speech. I couldn't help it, I smiled so hard that the game made an emoji of it appear above me.

"You will finish them off. I know that…" I thought, and went to get up towards one of the NPCs in front of a bar in the VIP room. Even though I only came to see him, I wanted to make the most of it.

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Time passed more and more, and the tournament continued with all the expected fury and strength. And after almost 1 month in game (1 week irl) the qualifiers ended, for each realm having 64 participants, the Event Staff had to do on average 2 fights each day in game, and on August 24th - a saturday - the grand finals would really start.

There were 8 participants left from each realm, and among the 4 players from Nine's Own Goal that were participating in all this event, only Ulbert had been defeated, he was in the Múspellsheim Tournament, and had been eliminated in the last phase before the quarterfinals, by an extremely violent player who gave zero chances to attack, as if he were some kind of bloody maniac. Touch_Me, with his paladin charm, seemed to be doing very well in Alfheim, being seen as one of the most favored participants in that realm. Takemikazuchi was also doing very well in Niflheim, being seen as a player who could easily reach third place, thanks to his skills focused on improving and fortifying techniques from his Samurai Job Class, which was already at max level.

My brother on the other hand, was seen as a bad joke in Helheim, his personality was the complete opposite of the realm. This made players think that if he truly became Helheim's World Champion, Helheim's fame as a dark place would be destroyed. So he was always booed, even after winning some fights. The reason people found out about his personality was the simple fact that he was openly an H-Games lover and made jokes related to fetishes when he defeated any opponent...

"Baka… are you really self-destructing on purpose? Or are you blinder than a chicken going straight to the stove with so much joy?" It was one of the questions that always popped into my mind when I heard him celebrating and showing off both in and out of the game.

As for Hikari, in the last fights he had, people didn't seem to go all out against him, and they were punished for quick, accurate and fatal blows. The first fight, against Dive, had been his special katana debut; in the second phase of eliminations, he had decided to use his bow, [Bow-Bifrost], always keeping his distance from the opponent, but attacking with his own fists when necessary, apparently that bow was also in rank S, again making it impossible for him to use good armor and another weapon of assistance; in the third phase of eliminations, Hikari was finally able to use more than one weapon, having a Greatsword with a very wide blade and a rustic whip that caught fire when attacking. He made a strategy of using the whip to trap and pull the opponent, while using the Greatsword as a shield and cutting element.

Among these three phases, he only used basic skills such as elemental enhancement, increased magic defense and aim enhancement, in addition to some moves that are only achieved by the Job Classes [Striker] and [Single Blow], at times when his weapons were not really needed. That is, they hadn't really forced him to go with all the strength he had, because I know very well that [Kuwoi-Muramasa] was the only weapon in his arsenal that would allow him to show his frightening potential in a "correct" way.

I was there again in one of the Midgard arenas, this time being accompanied by Ulbert, who after that defeat he had, wanted to see some of Hikari's battles, because until now he hadn't even seen the recordings that I send in our private chat. Like the other times, people kept looking at me strangely, because I was apparently one of the few heteromorphous players that wanted to see the event in this realm, but thanks to Ulbert next to me, now they didn't seem to be disgusted, but afraid.

"You seem to have gained considerable fame outside of Múspellsheim." I said, making a lovely voice to cheer him up.

"It must have been because I survived 4 attacks in a row from that crazy freak, even without being defending… Seriously, everyone over there is calling him 'The demon with the axe'…" Ulbert said, not wanting to talk about his defeat so well, but the fact that people had such a strong reaction due to that fight, made him hold his head high.

"Oh! Buku! How are you?" A human player said, approaching me after Ulbert and I entered the VIP area of that arena.

"I'm going well and you? Have you been spending days inside the temple?" I said to tease him and he started to laugh.

"Uh… do you know each other?" Ulbert immediately reminded me of this detail, and so I began to speak again.

"Ah! Ulbert, this one is a friend of mine from when I was still playing as a human character, [Ralphinestein], a High-Cleric." I said to him, and then looked at Ralph. "And Ralph, this one here is [Ulbert Alain Odle], a demon player who has been hanging out with me and Hikari for some time now."

"Woah! It's a pleasure to meet you, if you're someone who always talks to Bukubuku and Hikari, I can already see how amazing you are." Ralph said excitedly.

"Thank you, I think. Well, since you're also an old acquaintance of our FleshSlime, I also feel like it's a pleasure to meet you, unfortunately she doesn't seem to like talking about the past, so I'm even surprised by that…" Ulbert spoke as he stood next to where I was sitting.

"Anyway, are you excited to see today's fight? You must be wanting blood to spurt everywhere, no?" When Ralph asked this, I made a thumbs up emoji appear.

Soon Ulbert asked, out of pure curiosity. "What is he talking about?"

"It's just that an annoying player who tried to use me before, will be our Hikari's opponent now…" I spoke as the presenter appeared and seemed to introduce the participants who were going up.

As always, Hikari appeared through the gate below where I was, but on the opposite side, appeared one of the people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting, [SaintElvBlade], the red-haired elf paladin. The two walked close to the center of the arena, where the presenter was.

"And here we are, for the start of the fourth round of seven, in Midgard's Tournament! To my right, is an elf fluent in a language, called 'Shining Cuts', his name? SaintElvBlade!" That cowardly elf kept blowing kisses to the audience, as if he were the greatest.

"And on my left is the person who has been giving our newbies the most publicity! The one who has an unreachable thirst for justice, the one who does things that always surprise us! Hiiiikari!!" Ulbert and Ralph started clapping as I whistled happily, he might not actually be in the same arena as us, but I could see him raising his right fist up, as if showing the world he's there.

"Perfect. You already know how to start." The announcer spoke, first looking at Blade.

"I will use my tier 4 paladin set as armor, and as a weapon… just my [Great Crystal-Sword]." He said this with a great broadsword, the blade was crystallized like salt, emerging from his back and finally a golden and white paladin's armor, having a gap from which the elf's long red hair came out.

"That looks like a polished version of Touch-sama's armor, doesn't it?" Ulbert asked me.

"Touch-sama had told me that he was saving up so he could buy a new set of armor exclusive to paladins… I think it was this model…" I replied, but I still didn't take my eyes off the arena.

"Great, the item ranks are acceptable and balanced. Now, Hikari, what do you decide to go with this time?" He just stood there after the host's question, as if he was having some deep thoughts, but soon all his armor disappeared.

Being… topless… wearing only shorts?

"Hey! What indecency is this?!" The opponent seemed to complain, and with good reason.

The game could be very realistic and all that stuff, but due to the policy of extreme virtual reality games, characters couldn't really be naked unless they didn't have genitals or anything like that. In the case of human players, women have a bandage covering their breasts like a bra and wear black knee-length shorts, and men only wear black normal shorts.

"I choose to sacrifice any piece of armor, in order to use [Kuwoi-Muramasa] which is S-rank, and an accessory item which is A-rank." Everyone in the audience seemed to freak out about it, and I believe it wasn't just in this arena. To say that all Midgard's arenas were filled with people anxious to see a situation like this was quite acceptable.

"Wait! That's not allowed, judge!" Blade seemed to intervene.

"Actually, yes, the rules about the ranks were made so that everyone would not have equally strong strength and defense equipment, only one can be. Him choosing to go without defensive equipment is the same as having F-rank equipment. From the calculations we made very carefully before, in these cases, the player can choose an S-rank offensive item and any other non-defensive item, to balance the scales." The presenter said this with a smile. "And in this specific type of case, the maximum rank for this 'other item' has to be A rank. Because two S rank items is something extremely overpower in the opinion of the Staff of this event!"

The gossip was increasing a lot in the audience, while I was in disbelief. Until the moment before the list of participants, we never trained without our defense equipment, so apparently this would be something completely new?

"Heh… how funny…" Ulbert commented, now leaning on the window to see better.

"What is funny?" Ralph was the one to ask.

"Everyone being surprised like this, I think a demihuman rabbit tried to do this same thing in Jotunheim. But that happened in the first qualifiers, and she lost very badly. The battle lasted 2 minutes, so people must have completely forgotten about this possibility." I was even surprised that I hadn't heard about it too, maybe because we don't have anyone from Nine's Own Goal in that realm while the event is happening.

"Anyway, let us know which A-rank item you have in your hands right now, so we can finally get started!" The presenter seemed to speak much more excited about the situation, he had fun with it.

His katana appeared on his waist resting on his shorts, and soon something appeared in his hand, giving to see that it was a ring, thanks to the big screen on one side of the arena, which focused on important moments. "This item is called [Wish upon a Star]…" He placed the item on his ring finger, giving the jewel a soft kiss there before placing one of his hands on the handle of the katana.

"Okay! So… LET THE QUARTER FINALS BEGIN!"