Chapter 14 - World Tournament III: I love bets.

[Hikari POV]

I was alone, sitting on a bench in the changing room part of the arena, just waiting for the moment. Unlike before, I could feel the strength of the audience, the energy, the excitement, everything was there. And it wasn't for nothing.

Today wasn't just the final of the Midgard Tournament, but the entire World Tournament's end. So the way for all participants, who didn't leave ExtraServer, could enjoy this day, each fight was going to be done at a different time in the realms. So far, the Alfheim, Helheim and Muspellsheim finals have already taken place, in that order respectively. Clearly I went to the first one, to see Touch_Me, the only person in our group, besides me, who reached this level. Without a doubt, I could see his big win, which made me celebrate wildly, unfortunately he was instantly teleported to a place that the Devs said every winner could see the fights and wait until the event ended for real. That is, he will be watching my fight.

My heart was pounding, my right foot kept shaking, making a rhythmic sound on the ground, and I could feel sweat from my irl body on my face. No matter how many times I went through big things like this, this time I wasn't being selfish, I saw this victory as something for our group, not me. Two World Champions in the same guild, which is focused on ending PKs that attacks heteromorph players, that's a strong message.

"It's your time, boy." One of the event staff members, who had the look of an automaton, called out to me, I followed him taking a deep breath, and when we got to the door he gave me good luck.

I took my first step into the arena, hearing the applause of several people. With a quick look I saw that the arena was crowded, not in the same way that Alfheim was, but it was understandable because of the hours irl. But it wasn't just the physical arena, there were also more and more televisions floating around with other servers' audience, in a more exaggerated way than yesterday. In the center of the arena there was not only the usual judge, there were also some Devs, so I walked towards them, always waving to the people in the stands. On the other side of the arena I saw the person I was going to face, he seemed to want to be seen as someone "cool" and "edge", because he didn't even bother to look and wave the same way I did.

"Are you ready? Today is going to be quite interesting for all of us, I'm sure of that." Said one of the Devs, I didn't talk to this one much, but his appearance was unforgettable, a humanoid with a trio of horns on his head and a large thorn coming out of the center of his chest.

"Always ready." I replied, fixing my spiky ponytail.

"Certainly…" Said my opponent, with a rather heavy voice, which was what I expected from his armor.

"Perfect!" That same Dev seemed to whistle, calling out to one of the pixies that lit up the arena with that magical atmosphere. The NPC turned into a microphone, and so he spoke again, now to the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen! Now we have here in Midgard, the end of the tournament that will show who is your champion!"

"To my right, we have our journalist, who has shown that levels are not all you need! Being the person with the lowest level among all the other participants, Hikaaaari!" The applause was deafening, preventing me from hearing anything else, so that Dev waited until the volume was adequate before continuing. "And on my left, we have the warrior in black armor! Considered by many to be the god of Longswords with wide blades! Your berserker! I present to you, HaaammerOfMidday!!!" And again there was the deafening sound of applause.

"Like the other fights that took place today, one of the gimmicks is that our fighters will enter a 'pocket dimension', to have a huge area! But like the other 3 fights that happened, they will have an extra gimmick, which will not be repeated in the next fights!" He raised his voice to say and soon a roulette wheel appeared next to him.

The roulette had 9 parts initially, but now there were only 6 options with very flashy and different colors, and so that Dev held on tight, spinning the roulette wheel. That floating disk kept spinning and spinning, until it slowly stopped at a part with the number 4 stuck in it. "And it looks like they got the most interesting gimmick we had pre-written! They will be allowed all equipment within their inventory, with the exception of those marked with a huge red X!!!"

My eyes widened hearing that, was this really something they were doing? Have they gone crazy? They created the weapon ranks rule precisely to better control the equipment each one would have. But at least I wasn't the only one surprised by this, my opponent was also wide-eyed, there's very much a chance that he had fully planned to fight me, but that was within the original rules.

The audience was now going crazy, cheers, people cheering for both sides...

This is going to be… interesting…

A smile unconsciously crept onto my face, as it grew wider and wider as I took a huge leap back, startling the present Devs and the Judge a little. With this new gimmick, there was a clear change of plans, I equipped my SpeedTypeArmor, an armor that consisted of a white and gold breastplate with wing symbols on the sides of the torso, crimson arm and leg guards, black boots with gold details on the back that resembled lightning and on my head there was an incomplete white helmet, with only the areas that protect the back of the head and the jaw.

Some might say it was a "horrible look", but that set had pieces that increased agility and special stats by 20 total points each, clearly not having that much defense. About the weapons, I remained with [Kuwoi-Muramasa] on my waist, while [Bow-Bifrost] and [Fire Howls], a small ax with a flaming aspect, were on my back, and in my left hand appeared my gauntlet with a parry focused round-shield coupled.

Hammer did not change his armor, continuing with that heavy garment very seen among berserkers and with that longsword that has an extremely wide blade in one hand, but on his back there was a war spear, with a kind of small flag tied to it.

"This time I won't lose… you used to be 20 levels above me, but today I'm 10 levels above you…" He said, heavy air coming out of the vents on his full-helmet.

"Levels aren't the only thing… I thought by all that time you would have realized that while watching my fights." I started by getting into a defensive position, with the little ax now in my right hand.

"Ready?" The judge asked while the Devs disappeared and the environment around us was changing, becoming a landscape of very flat green field, with the limits of the arena that existed before, now being formed by trees well spaced between them.

Me and Hammer nodded in agreement and the Judge fired a projectile with a flare gun, shortly after disappearing. We were in position activating our skills in sequence before the roar of the explosion reached our ears…

…[Attack Boost], [Great Attack Boost], [Greater Attack Boost], [Agility Boost], [Great Agility Boost], [Greater Agility Boost], [Body Strengthening], [Refined Body Strengtheing]...

KA-BOOM!!!

Hammer ran with extreme speed towards me, swinging his longsword diagonally from top to bottom. I had enough reaction time to defend with my shield, causing a loud metallic cracking sound. In the midst of this absurd sound, I hear a small and soft tinkle, at the same moment I pushed the longsword back, activating the parry effect of my equipment and making HammerOfMidday take a few steps back. Having that little space, I went in for a ferocious attack with the [Fire Howls], jumping up and then trying to do a top-down slash completely vertically. My blade met his, having an effect similar to when I parried that attack, causing me to be thrown backwards, spinning on my own horizontal axis.

While I was in the air, he grabbed that spear from his back and threw it towards me, screaming."[Fury Greatest Aim]!!" It even surprised me how he had a classic skill from the [Hunter] and [Lance Soldier] job classes.

"[Lesser Flight]" I used one of my skills that my chestplate allowed, regaining control in mid-air, but I ended up receiving that attack, being hit in the shoulder. It was a fair bit of damage, but he looked pissed off, like I was supposed to have taken more than just damage. But it didn't matter, because I saw the spear appearing again in his hand after having flown a great distance.

As obvious from the name of the skill, I didn't remain floating for long, soon landing on the ground, already receiving a visit from Hammer with his longsword trying to attack me horizontally this time. I leapt over his attack, extending my left leg and kicking hard at his helmet, but the momentum of the attack didn't make him move away from me, instead my body moved away from his.

"Apparently I was only able to push him back before due to the parry mechanic…" I thought, as I started swinging [Fire Howls] gently through the air above me, forming after-images of fire in the shape of the ax.

I watched his eyes turn red, while his feet rubbed the ground like a bull ready to run, apparently he had activated the skill [Berserk's Push] and I was just waiting for the right moment to release the energy. I took a deep breath, pointing my ax at him.

"[Phantom Lesser Weapon]..." I fired those copies of fire from my axe, and Hammer advanced against them, seeming to use the skill not only to try to attack me, but to reduce the damage he would receive when he was hit.

The projectiles were going through him while the few exposed parts of his body were showing the reliefs of veins flowing with a lot of blood, he had entered the base state of a berserker. To dodge, I jumped over him, but I was met with an attack I didn't expect. He practically turned quickly back and hurled his war spear in my direction. Hitting me in the back area and throwing me a little far, but thanks to the passive effects of my chest piece, I managed to land on my feet.

I watched him looking enraged at me, starting to run like a bull after the bullfighter, shouting loudly and stretching one of his hands forward, making the war spear stuck in the ground return to his left hand. I threw the [Fire Howls] upwards and with a well-timed [Shadow Dash], my body could pass through his without taking damage from the charge or his spear.

Turning around on my own axis, I quickly grabbed the [Bow-Bifrost], aiming for his back while I still couldn't get out of that trajectory. "[Great Magic Arrow]" A glowing arrow appeared in my hand and upon releasing the string it split into five that flew with speed, creating a rainbow trail wherever they passed.

Two out of five arrows hit his back, due to the passive effect of my bow I could see the area hit creating glowing crystals, causing Burn and Freeze status at the same time, with the other three passing close and hitting the ground, creating a cluster of spiky ice due to the second effect. Hammer hit hard against that cluster, obviously doing more damage, which was lessened by the state he was in, but still, damage was damage.

"AAAH!!" He screamed after being hit by all that, but I couldn't tell if it was in pain or anger.

"Hmm.. never mind…" Seeing the [Fire Howls] landing on the ground, next to where Hammer was, he got a smile on his face, possibly because he thought my idea was for my ax to hit him in the fall, but it wasn't simple just like that...

"[Great Sacrifice: Item Breaker]..." I said in a whisper, making the [Fire Howls] start to glow and explode with great force, raising a lot of dust and hitting my unprepared enemy for something like that.

That skill was one of the few that I had earned with cash-items instead of getting it with hard work and job class evolution. It was part of a series of expensive skills that had a lot of good points, but a lot more bad points... for those who don't know how to get around. That one in particular meant that any item I had could be deleted in exchange for it exploding, with the intensity of the explosion depending only on the durability of the item itself, both in quantity and percentage. And with my [Craftsman] JobClass, I had repaired that weapon to the fullest before the fight.

After that initial explosion, some crackling noise can be heard, very characteristic of when equipment is damaged to the point of no longer being recoverable. When finally Hammer's silhouette emerged from the smoke, he screamed in rage.

"[True Nature of Fury]!!!" He came out of that smoke, running towards me, with the torso part of his armor and half of his war spear having been the equipment I destroyed with my surprise skill.

That skill he used was one of the most classic of the jobclass [Berserk], it made a large part of the defense status go to the attack, referring to its state. That meant that part of his PhyDef went to PhyAtk, and part of his MagDef went to MagAtk, even though I highly doubt he cares about his own magic attributes...

But that also meant I couldn't relax so much anymore and let him get to me again. With my bow equipped at the time, my options were limited to dodging and defending myself, with the round-shield on my gauntlet. And that's exactly what I did.

This time his longsword felt ten times heavier than before as I parried, not to counterattack, but to buy myself some time to think about my next tactic. Not only that, but when I dodged, I felt the simulated air of that virtual world rush past me with tremendous force, as if I were 2 mm away from being hit by the side of a bullet train.

"I don't know whether to hate or love how exaggerated and realistic YGGDRASIL looks at the same time…" I thought for a while as I dodged yet another slash that HammerOfMidday was trying to do.

"Stop dodging and fight!! I know you haven't even used all your tricks! Just an armor-destroying explosion is not enough!" His voice sounded more powerful, like some kind of enraged general who was energized by the rage of an entire battalion.

Why would an opponent like him say things like that? It was even obvious why.

The initial provocation he made before the fight, he wanted to feel superior to me, because for him what matters are levels and, consequently, skills. But unlike him, I also have technique and movements trained by my own brain, something that with a Neural Helper could never be done. By the way he was moving, it looked like he was using this same device just to give blows and use skills with YGGDRASIL's pre-programmed settings. I was showing him the truth that the way he viewed the game was not completely absolute, and he was hating it more and more, he wanted me to stop my silent argument… he hated the way I "danced" with him.

I began to laugh unconsciously, fending off another attack through the parry system of my round-shield. I could hear him yelling more in rage. "Are you laughing at me!!! I won't let it go so easily! I will destroy you!!!"

Yes, his rage was consuming him more and more, swinging his sword more predictably, using skills like [Slash Power] and [Great Slasher] to intensify the blows, forgetting more and more about strategy and truly acting as his main job class. This made me have a mental question about what the other job classes he has, so far there have only been one or two skills outside the [Berserk] or the classic [Warrior] skill-tree.

It seems that it was time to stop making that silent argument of dodges and parries, after all we have viewers watching and the event will have 5 more fights in different realms after this one. Still, the smile didn't leave my face.

"Then destroy me, Mr. BigSword!" I taunted him again and when he gave one more [Great Slasher], I didn't react.

Taking that intense damage made my character bleed from the mouth, but it didn't take away my smile. Making him angrier and slash at me more and more, without even thinking about why the fuck I was letting him do all of it…

I was letting my life be taken from me, my HP bar falling lower and lower. And finally, instead of him trying to make more cuts, he grabbed me firmly by the neck, lifting my body and showing once again the clear difference between our heights.

"You little shit..." he said with his teeth grinding together in anger. "Why don't you wipe that shitty smile off your face!?!" I laughed more and more about that situation, making him get angry and throw me away. Even with my body there in the ground, I started to laugh out loud, turning into something almost hysterical as I arched my back against the floor.

"Did you freak out because you saw you were going to lose? Stopped defending for accepting defeat and being stupid for forgetting that you can just yell for quit?" He said it arrogantly and still with the classic fury of a berserker.

"I'm just laughing... because realizing how stupid you are..." I said, still smiling, as I stood up, gripping my katana tightly and pulling it out of its sheath, causing the effect of paralysis on him.

"Eh?! What trick is this?! Berserkers like me have the passive ability against fear effects!!" He complained, temporarily paralyzed there.

"It's not fear paralysis, it's just regular paralysis…" I spoke in a voice that was completely different from the giggle I was having before. "And well… if you really want me to fight seriously, you should remember how you really lost last time…"

His face was confused, but as soon as his eyes widened, I raised my trusty katana high in the air, and turned it, aiming down. "Because I'm about 20 levels above that time… so it's going to be much worse…" And so, I hit with [Kuwoi-Muramasa].

I didn't stuck into the ground as many viewers expected, I putted it into the only part of my armor that exposed the plain cloth I wore underneath, causing blood to spurt. I stared into Hammer's eyes, an almost blank feeling on my face, and I could feel his body slowly come out of paralysis.

My HP bar was so low that it stopped showing percentage, becoming more specific and showing the counter in unit form. When it reached 10 HP, a system message appeared in front of me.

[Warning! Player Hikari is in critical condition.]

[Do you want to enable Alpha-Glass?]

"Yes…" I muttered to myself, but the smile was back on my face. From the look of panic Hammer was starting to get, I must have looked like some kind of extremely sadistic maniac.

An explosion happened around my body, it was so intense that it made some trees in the scenery shake, my body was surrounded by a reddish aura. As if that wasn't enough, I could feel the blood running down my mouth and wound, slowly removing my katana from inside my stomach, with the blade incredibly dirty with blood.

  [Blood Pool] was activated shortly afterwards, with all that blood floating and surrounding my body as if it were Saturn's rings, until it slowly sticks to my armor, turning it completely into the purest red, together with the katana. That same aura surrounded [Kuwoi-Muramasa] violently, it could even be said that the blade was pulsing, as if the weapon was begging for death and blood.

"It's now…" The ground beneath me seemed to crack as I firmly placed my feet. "… that you should be running, calling for your mommy~"

Before Hammer finally had some reaction, I didn't allow it. With my agility becoming very high, due to the armor upgrade that already gave that passive buff, I managed to get behind him. Without having changed the direction I was looking, I slammed my katana's handle hard against his back, my PhyAtk status at that moment allowed that alone to be enough to throw him and knock him face down to the ground.

Allowing him to stand up, only to be gifted with a [Blood Cutter], projecting some of the blood onto the katana's blade as a sort of crescent-shaped energy. He tried to defend with his arm guards, but again he was thrown back.

"What the fuck?!?" He exclaimed as he watched me use [Thunder Hand] and [Fire Hand] skills to further enchant my blade.

"A while ago you were complaining that I didn't really use my skills…" I replied, the smile on my face hurting a little. "So… Don't complain later~"

"AAAAARGH!!" He got up and seemed to use [Berserk's Push] again, heading directly towards me.

"Are you desperate? Or are you really stupid?" I thought, letting out a heavy sigh.

Our blades met, causing a huge gust of wind on impact. Now, that tremendous force that reminded me of a bullet train was gone, making me laugh again as we tried to attack each other repeatedly, with the loud and extremely sharp sound of our blades impacting each other. But he didn't come out unscathed, during each attack I gave, part of the blood that was glued to my armor came off and formed a projectile that hit my enemy, it wasn't a great damage and it didn't even seem to shake him that much, but I was taking HP from him no matter what.

"AAARGH!! [High Prison Flow]!!" He exclaimed and soon a kind of huge cage appeared around us, having its bars made of something that resembled cobalt, but they were always in motion as if it were something solid and liquid at the same time. However, he didn't stop the attacks, so I used my shield on the left gauntlet again to parry and thus drive him a little away.

"So that was it? Have you advanced a bit in the jobclass [Guardian]?" I said, giving one more of my laughs.

"Shut up and die already! I don't need to explain anything to you!!" he tried to do another [Great Slasher], but after that I could hear the sound of his heavy breathing, as if his MP was low now.

"So that was it… You have little MP and only focus on low cost fortification skills~" I said, looking at my blade still surrounded by blood, electricity and flames. "If it's getting to the point where you spend that much MP, then I'll do the same~"

"What?! What do you mean?!? Those skills of yours should be draining you out!!!" He exclaimed, disbelieved, but he tried to strike me again, which I parried with ease this time using my blade.

"Did you even forget that my MP amount is twice as much as my HP? Not like you, I am equally focused on physical and magical battles." Again I defended from one more attack from him, but I felt that my reflexes were getting slower.

No wonder, that skill he used around us is called that because it makes people inside the AoE move with the same speed they would have if they were under water, an even effective way to face enemies, since the amount of races involving the aquatic environment is low. I then thought it was about time to end it, before my [Alpha-Glass] effect wore off.

"Allow me to demonstrate…~" I said as I stuck my katana straight into the ground. "[Greater Sacrifice: I'm special!]" 

Although the name of that skill was pretty silly, it had an impressive effect to say the least, like the other skills in the "Sacrifice" line, it had immense synergy with people from job classes [Blood Drinker], [Cursed Caster] and [Cursed Knight], so it didn't waste me an extremely insane amount of MP since I have one of the 3, was it still too high cost? Yes, but not to the extreme that would make me never want to use it.

I could see the simple list of my character's attributes, all… decreasing… decreasing… and decreasing more and more.

My PhyAtk and MagAtk that I had so much increased before? Reached 5.

My PhyDef and MagDef? They also reached 5.

My Agility that I love so much and my Resist? They reached 25 and 5 respectively, due to my armor…

But where were all these attribute points? As the name suggests…

My Special attribute now had… 536 points…

Hammer didn't attack me initially because he didn't know what that skill did, getting completely defensive… And that's what I expected.

He being in that state, I used my grand item that was on my finger. "[Wish upon a Star]!!" I used the ring and his jewel exploded creating a kind of roulette wheel.

Hammer realized that he was too defensive for a situation like this, he tried to move, but… nothing… not even I could move…

The world around that roulette stopped so that it could spin grandly, with 20 items on it, being my weapons, some potions, and pieces of armor.

But why had I done all this? Using a skill that turned me into a mega weak player and then using an item that was completely related to luck? Did I freak out? Am I really insane?

Perhaps this was the kind of question that came to mind from viewers… But there are actually two reasons why I would do something so risky…

Firstly, [Kuwoi-Muramasa's] skill [Blood Rush Fever] deals damage according to Agility, PhyAtk, MagAtk and, most importantly, Special, because of that, theoretically, what I did would be the same as taking points of Resist, MagDef and PhyDef and distribute among the other 4 attributes. But what really mattered was the second reason.

I took a good look at that ring and found one thing, every time it was written in the description of the ring about how much luck was needed, the word "luck" was always surrounded by a yellowish color, there is only one other thing that does that, besides very rare items. When the word "special", referring to the attribute, appears in the system texts, it is also surrounded by yellow…

The "Luck" of [Wish upon a Star] is completely related to the Special Attribute…

With that, I wasn't afraid to use it. And when the roulette wheel stopped…

[Congratulations! You are very lucky!]

[Player Hikari received a copy of Kuwoi-Muramasa, RankS -> RankB!]

Time started to run slowly again, I gripped the original katana firmly, ducking against the horizontal slash HammerOfMidday was trying to do, but he was still regaining his speed. Finally, with my left hand, I firmly grabbed the copy of my katana that descended from the heavens.

"[Blood Rush Fever]!!" I used the skill with the copy of my katana, instantly slicing through my enemy, delivering a slash with it to his unprotected torso.

Just one hit? I would need 3 more targets for me to even activate this skill's infinite combo exploit. No… I now had two katanas, both had different cooldowns for this skill.

The first one was not that powerful, the copy being rank B instead of rank S made the damage scale with the necessary attributes not incredible, anyway, a set of 571 points still did absurd damage, taking 20 % of his HP.

"[Blood Rush Fever]!!" Thus, I was able to use it one more time without having to change my target, the passive speed boost buff for each enemy hit still counted, even if it was with another katana. The original rank S item's scale was much higher, so those unified Phy-MagAtk, Agility, and Special points felt like a meteor.

Before the system message even appeared, HammerOfMidday's body was severed, separating the top and bottom with a clean, almost surgical cut that ran through his waist.

[Player HammerOfMidday received fatal method damage.]

[Player Hikari killed Player HammerOfMidday.]

"AND WE HAVE MIDGARD'S WORLD CHAMPION!!!!" The judge's voice boomed around me as the atmosphere slowly returned to that of the arena.

Several people were giving standing claps, not only those present in the arena I was in, but in all the broadcasts I could see. I couldn't help but notice some who seemed to be gossiping through text messages, with system windows open in front of them.

Due to a light that seemed to come from an intense spotlight, I could notice a trophy descending from the skies and slowly being in front of me. This made me remember how different it was in the previous 3 realms, where, for example, Touch_Me received the trophy by the hands of a High-Elf NPC, while in Helheim the winner received the prize through undeads that appeared from the ground. The item looked like a golden chalice with images of trees and clouds embedded in it.

I reached out my hand, taking the item. I remembered that that was how Touch_Me had disappeared, as if a vortex had swallowed him from the inside out at an absurd speed, but for me, it was as if I were instantly somewhere else.

The place had a splendid gold and silver decoration, with details on the walls made of a blue that seemed to try to change color, but never managed, reminding me a little of the arrowheads of my [Bow-Bifrost]. There were some rustic wood furniture that reminded me a lot of the style of furniture that exists in the rooms where the Devs and I gather for live interviews.

"Hikari-Kun!!" My thoughts were cut off when I heard a voice around me, I couldn't turn around in time and had already been squeezed into a big hug by my friend in shining armor.

"Touch-sama!!" I chuckled and returned the hug. "It's really nice to see we're in the same place."

"I expected no less from you! But seriously, what madness was that halfway through to the end of your fight? You even looked like a complete lunatic!" He exclaimed, still showing excitement that we are together there.

"I just wanted to scare and confuse the enemy about how to react, my usual strategy." I answered him, but then I noticed a whistle and turned around to notice Muspellsheim's and Helheim's World Champions, who were sitting in separate armchairs.

Helheim's Champion had the appearance of a demi-human, more specifically a Nekomimi, a race known by many as being the perfect for cat lovers, his clothes gave him away that he was a mix of [Rogue] and [Hunter], but traits like part of his right arm being with exposed bones made me suspicious that he had also fallen into the line of undead-related JobClasses. Muspellsheim's Champion was the same player who beat Ulbert, his big war ax was leaning on the ground nearby, with details of flames coming out of its handle, he seemed to be an Undead Beast, more specifically a mix between Zombie and Minotaur, and this was noticeable by his skin being greener than normal for that race of demi-humans, in addition to one of his horns being broken, but with bones appearing in place as if they were being repaired.

"So you really know each other? Nyehehe." Said the nekomimi, with a big smug face. "This Half-Insect was always saying good things about you and how you represent justice and blah blah blah, I thought he was just talking for the sake of a speech you gave in one of the battles you had. Btw, my name is [NyahoSorrow], nice to meet you~"

The other player there didn't seem to want to say anything, he just let out thick air through his nostrils while a system screen appeared in front of him, on which he kept writing with a keyboard. I just stared at him for a bit, along with NyahoSorrow. After all, I think about the situation correctly, if my friends had won their tournaments, we would all be here now talking, but there's nothing to do, it was obvious that there were chances of defeat, in the same way that there were chances of victory, but at least it was a relief not to see that pervert Peroroncino here with us, it would really be an embarrassment to all of Helheim.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, NyahoSorrow, as my friend here said, my name is Hikari, but really… your fights were very interesting, I heard about you two because of other acquaintances who entered the same tournaments as you. They both said you are 'Iron First Players', so to speak, but I feel 'Bone Fist' would be a better term." I answered the Nekomimi, who ended up laughing at my pun, while the Minotaur didn't even react, as if he wasn't even listening.

Touch_Me, on the other hand, put a hand on my left shoulder, squeezing hard and saying. "I will stop you from spending that much time with Luci★Fer, he is infecting you with these little jokes."

"I'm sorry I couldn't resist~" I let out a hearty laugh.

Not much time passed and slowly the other winners appeared in that room, they all looked very different from each other in terms of race and build, but I was happy to see at least one person extremely focused on magic was able to be one of the champions, from Asgard in specific. And with the arrival of the last winner, a bizarre sound appeared, along with the Level-Up notification.

I was confused and went to look at what it was, realizing that the Devs forced Level-Up on all of us, so that we could obtain a JobClass called [World Champion]. "A level up for free after level 50 is really an amazing thing…" Said NyahoSorrow as he was sitting next to me, and I could only agree, due to the exponentially calculated amount of EXP.

Finally, Great-oDoll, TrjegulFreyjaha, and two other Devs appeared in that room, with the first of them speaking in a grand manner. "My dear Players! Today I'm honored to say how grateful I am to see such incredible and powerful people within this game that my colleagues and I work so hard on programming, as well as on the design and customizable appearances that our champions already know. As a prize, you won the [World Champion] jobclass, which allows you to show everyone how great you are, in addition to being able to use special items that no one else can use, unless they pay a lot. But beyond that, we'll let you create your first special item! You can create the description, appearance, flavor text… everything!"

"However, after we receive the settings of what you want, we will check what can and cannot be accepted, so it won't become things like that… extreme overpowers … So yes, even you, World Champions, will have a limit, but this limit will be so high that I doubt that during your future adventures, you really will feel limited." TrjegulFreyjaha spoke right away, and one of the Devs behind her snapped its fingers, thus bringing up a golden screen of the system in front of us.

"The item can range from armor parts, accessories, swords, pistols, cleavers, whatever you want, even if any of you are crazy, the special item can be a hair ribbon! Hahaha!" Great-oDoll said laughing and finally we were free to write.

I was thinking deeply about what I should order. I already had too many good items, but I know they weren't enough for the future when I reach the limit of level 100. I kept thinking and thinking, more and more… until I had a ridiculous idea, making me raise my hand to the Devs present there. "You said it could be anything, didn't you, Doll?"

"Exactly, Midgard's World Champion, why do you ask?" He replied.

"Instead of having a new item, upgrades of an old item can also be done?" My question confused him, but then his eyes widened.

"Boy… I wouldn't recommend this, you have so many options, but would you choose to upgrade? It would be more interesting to ask for something completely new, and if you really don't have anything in mind and want an upgrade, you'd be better off having an item that could be mistaken for an improved version of something you already have." I sighed at his answer, but he quickly continued. "It's not that I don't trust your decisions, after all, you're here simply because of your creativity in mixing skills and creating synergies out of thin air. I'm saying this because I know exactly what item you want to upgrade, and I'm already telling you that if you're really stubborn and want to go with that idea, you'll end up with an initial improved version, not the current improved version."

"So it's the same logic of resetting in an idle game to gain prestige that helps you evolve even more?" I asked, since that was the only analogy I could think of.

"In part, yes… but actually it would be more complicated and irritating to go back to the stage that it is at the moment…" I smiled at his answer and nodded, going back to writing in that system window.

Time passed and the other World Champions finished writing what they wanted and handed it to the Devs, with all of them disappearing as soon as they had nothing to do there. In the end it was just me and Touch_Me in that room, it could see in our faces as we always analyzed what we wrote, erased and re-wrote something over it until we were satisfied. It seems we were taking longer than expected, so even the Devs left that room, with TrjegulFreyjaha remaining to get our world items settings.

Touch_Me was the first of us to finish, he looked extremely happy with his choices. "Lady TrjegulFreyjaha, here is the item I wish to have! It's fabulous!"

She took the setting he handed her, and looked at it curiously. "Oh, interesting, a full armor named [Compliance with Law], the stat buffs this item gives are well within the expected cap, now let's see the flavor text." She smiled as she saw the item that Touch_Me wanted so much, but her look was super confused by what she read next. "Wait…w…wtf? Why is the word 'Justice' being repeated at least 1 time in every sentence?!?"

This made me lose focus as I finished writing about my item, I started laughing a lot hearing that, and tried to explain the feline dev's doubts "It's just that he works with things like that, he's really fanatical about the idea of perfect justice. It's a very common thing to see him doing." Clearly I haven't given away too many personal things about him, just enough.

"Oh…" She looked at my faithful friend, a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Alfheim's World Champion, I just spoke without thinking..."

"It's okay, I see people reacting like this all the time…but…that's the price I have to pay to achieve the Most Honest Justice in the world!!" He said this with a pose, which made me laugh even harder.

Touch_Me soon left, as he said someone was calling him out of the game, possibly his wife or daughter. Anyway, 5 minutes passed, I got up from my seat and handed the feline dev my world item settings. She took it and seemed to read it more carefully than she had when she received the previous request, without doubt she was looking to see if I had done something extremely absurd, but in a way that even impressed me, she looked at me smiling and confirming with her head.

"This item is within the limits we can give. Great, I expected you to exaggerate a lot more."

"Wait… really? I really thought you were going to complain about something and ask me to change a few things." I raised an eyebrow. "I mean… didn't you complain a lot when you saw the things I was doing with [Kuwoi-Muramasa]?"

"Yes, but that's because the katana that Doll gave you as a gift, was ranked low, and it became much stronger than some other Devs expected. I mean, we had to manually rank it as S for this tournament!" I ended up scratching the back of my neck at her response. "And what you gave me, it's quite acceptable… In fact, from what I've read about the other World Items that have been asked for here, yours seems to be the most Overpowered among them."

"Really?!? What is the criterion for you to know these limits????"

"We have some draft World Items that we will be adding just as rewards from future events and such, this new katana of yours is in a similar parameter to these drafts. So congrats… I think… Either way, you will receive an email when the item is ready, Hikari." She clapped her hands while smiling at me, and soon I decided to get out of there, obviously waving to her before that.

"I'm going to have a lot of things to do and people to deal with…" was what I thought before logging out, feeling proud of what I achieved today. Maybe I will reward myself with a lot of candies, or just wait for what I was planning since the middle of the tournament…

Either way… this is just the beginning.