"Astre, let's go," Milk stated, crouching next to Astre, who laid face-first on the ground.
Astre looked at the ground of the tomb as closely as he physically could. His blond hair was blocking his view of anything else. "Maybe I should have simply let myself get sliced. I always carefully avoided any romantic NPC flags."
He always ridiculed the players who tried to romance NPCs while being unable to find a relationship in real life. Though Death seemed more advanced than most NPCs he has seen, being more life-like, it was still imitation. She probably had a whole CPU reserved just for herself.
Sighing, he got up. This was no time to be mulling about his love life. He had something important to do soon. He opened his menu and furrowed his brows as his timer counting down the time till tournament was a few minutes away from 24 hours. He would have to revisit Loki, as he wasted some of his supplies on the fight.
"Oh, the casanova got up," Blast uttered carelessly. "Is that how you hit on Blaze too?"
Astre frowned, then grinned and pronounced, "Instant Trap."
Just then, a sudden iron-net sprung up from the ground and bound the halfling causing him to fall to the ground.
"Nope, it was more like this," remarked Astre as he casually walked to the exit of the underground cavern.
"How do you even take this off," said Milk as he tried to unbound his friend.
"Ouch, ouch!" Blast gasped in pain. "It's cutting into me!"
"There should be three knots in it, as long as you untie them in correct order he should be fine!" Astre shouted, leaving the area.
"Wait! Please! I'm sorry!" Blast shouted with tears in his eyes.
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Blast grunted as he caressed cuts on his hands and face. "Why did you continue pulling on strings when he already turned around!" the halfling complained to Milk.
"Because elves are sadists," declared the elf.
The party walked through the cave that led to the surface. Ken and Sora ignored the duo as they started bickering and focused on their discussion with Astre.
"So what the hell was that," asked Sora. "Are we going to have to fight her too?"
"Depends on you," stated Astre. "I think by now I can tell you about this. The Death marked you, and if you meet the requirements, you will be forced to go through what I went."
"Not that I don't want for that to ever happen, I couldn't even see any of your moves, It was all just blurry mess for me. What are the requirements?" asked the mage somewhat unhappily.
"I'm not sure exactly, but it's connected to how many sentient being you killed. Generally, players and NPCs," Astre answered, the last part somewhat more silently.
"She said you weren't worthy before? Did you know you could retake the trial if you came he... ouch! Ken!" Sora shouted as her boyfriend hit her side with an elbow.
"Come on. He helped us. Even if he got something out of it, we should be thankful," Ken answered.
"Thanks, Ken. Don't worry, though, I didn't know that," stated the blond-haired adventurer. "I wouldn't have come inside if I knew."
"Why?" asked Sora inquisitively. "Didn't you get something out of it?"
"Yeah, though I dunno about its usefulness," stated Astre remembering his evolved ability. The unchanged description didn't help his worry. It saved him dozens of times in his adventures. He hoped it still worked as it did. "Still, since I'm partaking in the tournament soon, dying would be bad. Since they didn't announce how it would take place yet, I could maybe get rid of the penalty in time. I also heard that the death penalty for Death is different."
"I will cheer on you!" declared Ken enthusiastically.
"Are you not part of Nighshadows?" asked Astre. He knew they had a connection, so he assumed beforehand.
"Dunno, I guess you could say that?" replied Ken uncertainly.
"You could describe us as unpaid interns," explained Sora. "Milk only enrolled us in because of his brothers, but since we are low level, they don't invite us for big things. They, from time to time, give us tips or point us to grinding spots, though."
"Did they also point you to that boss?" asked Astre.
"Nope, lately, everyone is busy with preparation for the tournament. Even their crafting division doesn't have any time off. They even make sure our artisans take part in the hunts to get tickets," replied Ken casually. "We took it off guild board, and I guess I'm bad at giving up. But it worked well in the end."
"Yes, we only barely died this time, and we wasted five days on it," said Sora. "Thank you Astre, if not for you, he would complain about this through the whole moving process."
"Haha, don't worry about it," said Astre joyfully.
"I need to ask. Once we finish moving, could we go out together like this someday?" asked Ken.
"Ehm, I..." Astre was interrupted as system notice appeared in front of him.
Congratulations, till now, 954 invitation were gathered with all your fantastic effort! The remaining 46 tickets will be randomly given to players with a total skill level above 18. Everyone who received a ticket, open its description to receive further instruction. The rest, please remember to tune in on our live stream tomorrow.
Astre didn't wait for a second and opened his ticket. There he received a prompt to open another window.
Hello! I hope you are just as excited about the tournament as we are. While we want to apologize for being so late with news, there was a need for utmost secrecy as details of the competition were finalized. Now to the most crucial part.
Due to the tournament nature, every participant will be required to use a full-body capsule. As the tournament will last three days, it is necessary for the proceeding. We understand that not every player has one, so we prepared enough capsules for everyone in multiple locations. You will receive the address to the location in the e-mail you used during registration. If you changed your address, please notify us as soon as possible for us to arrange transport or a different location as needed.
Astre was thankful for this, he didn't expect anything like that, and he never felt like spending fifty thousand dollars on something he didn't need. Still, did they expect them to not logout at all during the tournament.
"Astre?" spoke Ken.
"Ah, sorry was reading the new instructions, it seems the tournament will be kind of unique," the adventurer answered. "About your question, though. Let's see if I will still be playing after the end of the tournament. Sure let's play again together. Anyway, I need to log out soon, so let's hurry to the safe zone!" As he finished, he turned around and started sprinting back to the city. He could summon his mount, but the party wasn't at that stage yet, and while he could leave them behind. This way was more enjoyable.
"Wait, what do you mean by still playing!?" Ken shouted as he sprinted, doing his best to keep up. The rest of the party followed soon after.
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Astre looked at his starting pc after logging out and took off his helmet. He went to Loki as soon as he returned to the city. Fortunately, the dwarf has still been resetting his traps. He even introduced the party to him, and somehow Blast was dragged into testing explosives in traps.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
He opened his old e-mail account, and he found a mountain of spam there. A quick search let him discover what he required. Looking at the address of the location where he would have to go, he smiled. It seemed the place was an only five-minute walk from his apartment. It seemed it was one of the few internet cafes that survived until this era. He didn't know it had capsules in its offer.
He wondered whatever he should check it out now. The mail didn't contain much else other than an address and time. He was told to come at least thirty minutes earlier, but knowing him, he would arrive at least an hour sooner or stress wouldn't let him do much but pace around his room otherwise.
Thinking about it caused unrest to already settle in his bones. The ashen-haired man furrowed his brow and went to eat out, and maybe just by accident, since it was on the way, he would check out the place.
Eating a hot dog, he entered a mall's basement. He wondered how such places gained new clients since he was looking for it and had trouble finding it. The air conditioners worked on full throttle as he was pretty sure the temperature was below freezing. Zipping his jacket and correcting his hood, he took the last bite off his meal and opened metal pair of doors with graffiti saying, "Ice Cafe" on it.
Inside he found an unfamiliar scene. There were dozen of old arcades standing next to the wall—something he has never seen before. Then there was row upon row of PC booths. Few vending machines were placed there and there.
Most surprising of all, there were quite a bit of people here. Not every station was taken, but quite a few were. People even seemed to get excited over the arcades with people screaming at each other. He admitted most looked much older than him. Still, he saw some people his age.
As he stared at the unfamiliar sight, someone in a red and blue uniform came over to him. "Hello! Is that your first time here?" A cute looking girl, maybe year or two younger than him, stood next to him. She had a bit of Asian feel about her. Mostly from her eyes.
Astre stared for a second, not understanding, then he nodded. She had an official-looking badge with name on it 'Jun', on her red and blue blouse. She also wore a hat over her blond hair with the logo he saw before on the door.
"Oh, we don't get new clients often, let me show you around," declared the girl excitedly. "Where did you learn about us?"
"From an e-mail," he spoke absentmindedly, he was still a bit out of his zone after witnessing all those unfamiliar sights.
"I'm pretty sure Jim, oh our manager, said he broke off with all those spammy advertisers," she responded surprised.
"Oh, no, it was an e-mail from WGames," Astre stated as his attention focused on one of the screens near him, he was pretty sure it said Road Fighters 2 WWFCT. Weird Name.
"WGames?" she inquired as she looked closely at his face under the hood. Then realization struck her. "NO WAY! AS...!" she couldn't finish as Astre covered her face.
"Not so loudly, please," he replied as he let her go.
"Wait! Really!?" she screamed silently in high pitched voice. "I didn't believe it when I saw your name and picture on the list, but you are here! Ah! I'm June!" she introduced herself as she stretched out her hand.
Astre shook the hand, "As... Kendrick, I guess you can call me Astre. I may not sometimes respond otherwise. Just don't scream about it, I hate that kind of attention." After achieving fifth place in the tournament streamed worldwide, he stopped being the low-key black horse that guilds sometimes complained about on game forums.
He cursed himself for not making himself some giant nosed monstrosity he sometimes saw or changing his face details at all.
"So, did you decide to check out the place before the competition?" asked Jun. "If so, I can show you around the place, maybe some pre-tournament relaxation."
"I guess learning some game history could be a nice distraction," Astre answered, looking at another monitor in the distance. Resolution Fantasy XI, he felt like he heard the name in the past.
"Then, I shall please," stated the woman smiling.
For the next few hours, Astre learned more about PC games and Arcades then he ever had occasion in his life. True he did play some games during his IT classes in school, but those were usually small games focused on casual fun.
He even noted few titles down to play later, like Gravity Effect. The other games he played, he completely failed at them. Fighting games seemed to have a neverending list of combos, and all those people had years of experience. Still, it was fun, once he even nearly won by mashing all the buttons against a fifteen-year-old that came with his dad.
Some people recognized him, but all were a good sport about it. The fact that they were much older than him helped. When people learned he was going to partake in the next tournament, they even cheered on him.
Soon it was night, and the place was closing. Jun spend all this time with him. Once the manager came over to her, and it seemed like she was in trouble. After he saw Astre next to her, his whole demeanor changed, he simply patted her on the back and went back to the counter.
"So, how do you like it here?" asked Jun.
"It was fun," answered Astre, he enjoyed himself quite a bit, but the constant reminder in the back of his mind never seemed to pass whatever he did.
"I'm happy," stated the girl. "How do you feel about tomorrow?"
"Determined? Scared?" Astre asked, mostly himself. "I want to win, no matter what."
Just as he said that, he noticed the door to the underground cafe opened. Someone in a blue hoodie entered, red locks of hair falling onto their chest from under the cloth.
"Wow, do you do it for money? Fame?" the girl continued her questions.
"I..." he responded, unsure how to answer as he kept looking at the new arrival. Somehow they felt familiar.
"Ah, sorry, that's stupid questions... say I'm sure you are busy, but if you would like... would you like to grab dinner or something?" the blond girl proposed as her face reddened a bit.
"Blaze...?" Astre spoke with recognition at the blue-hooded person.
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Afterward, Jun bid him goodbye till tomorrow and glared at Blaze. Honestly, he was happy with delaying declining the girl. He wasn't used to such situations.
He walked down the street as he looked behind him from time to time. Finally, he stopped and grunted, "Are you really following me around?"
Blaze stopped walking and looked at him with a glare, additionally to the blue hoodie and baggy trousers she wore, she also had a surgical mask covering her face. The only reason he recognized her was because of glare that seemed never to leave her face when she saw him.
"No, I'm just walking in the same direction. Maybe later, I can give your address to one of my fans so they can mob you later," Blaze responded with anger.
"Nice, let me check where the closest police station is," Astre declared as he pulled out his phone. Checking the hour, he saw it was already 8 PM. "So, do you want something, or you just want to stab me in back allay?"
"Why not both?" she stated, from her face movement behind the mask, he was sure she gave him a sneer.
Astre shook his head and turned around. This incident was certainly not something he wanted to deal with right now. Could he return to breaking hearts?
"Fine, fine!" she relented, annoyed. "I want to ask if you know anything special about the tournament. I can make it worth your time."
Astre looked at the woman in front of him with a questioning look, "Can't your company gather information for you? Or your guild?"
"They do," she answered simply. "But since the best informant in the game is your buddy and only wants to sell me your hairless chest photos, I may be missing something. Probably doesn't want to give your enemy number one any information."
"Cherry?" Astre asked, surprised. He didn't expect the man to do something like that. "How much is he charging? I should get my share next time I see him."
"As if I care!" she shouted. "Look, if you don't want to deal with me, I will go."
"Well, I don't exactly want to deal with your aggressiveness and salt. Still, I doubt I know more than you. I don't have any details about the tournament."
She glared even angrier at him, "What a waste of time."
"How much would you be offering anyway," Astre asked.
"Depends what you know, dunno, ten thousand?" she spoke, making Astre eyes to widen. He wondered how much she earned if she could just throw that much money around.
"Well, I guess, I could bite that. Do you know how many tickets Nightshadows have?" Astre asked.
"Sixty?" she asked rhetorically, and angry, always angry.
"I wonder how many fans you would have if they saw your face now," Astre said, earning another glare. "Anyway. From what I know, they have been grinding tickets nonstop. So much in fact that I wouldn't be surprised that they had twice that many. They also kept their crafting team busy all the time, taking them on the hunt, and well, this is just my guess, but they asked my fellow trap maker for something big."
"Big?" she asked, for the first time without so much fire in her voice.
"Not sure, something certainly not for one target," declared Astre.
"I see," she accepted, considering the information. "They could be getting tickets to lower the competition, but with so many players, that would be a tiny dent to make. It also doesn't sound like something they would do. Do they expect it to be one big battle, sieges? Crafter would be useful there!? Why I didn't think about it!"
"Well, I wouldn't jump to conclusions, but maybe?" Astre stated, shrugging his arms. That would be his battle to fight anyway.
"It must be nice not having to worry, large force or not, you will still make all of them fall into your traps," she remarked with a groan.
Astre only shrugged, "Was that worth it?"
"Yes, send me your account number, here have my e-mail," she said, pulling out her phone.
After exchanging e-mails and Astre wondered what tab to put it under, she asked, "Do you know anything more? About anything special?"
"Not really, I stumbled upon the information about Nightshadows by accident. Other then that, well Sunnies have a lot of tickets, you have 39, all of the top ten guilds have at least 30 or more people in. Black is participating..." he answered as he thought out loud.
"Black!?" she nearly shouted, her face crossed with worry.
"Oh, did I trigger PTSD?" Astre remarked jokingly.
"Did Cherry tell you this!?" she asked, ignoring his joke. That caused Astre to take it more seriously too.
"Yes, Is there something I don't know?" asked the ashen-haired man.
"They are dangerous. Black's assassin build is perfect, scary even. They can one-shot nearly anyone before they have a chance to realize they have a dagger in their spine. Black even once wiped out forty members of Sunnies' party after they killed a Mythical and got the loot for themselves," she spoke, he knew most of those things already. "With you, at least as long as you don't pursue too hard, it's fine."
"Wow, rude, do you want me to put some traps in your path? Make you dangle in front of your fans?" Astre half-joked.
"Do you want me to burn you to cinders?" Blaze answered as the glare returned to her face.
"Well, I guess we may not even have a chance to meet in this tournament, I won't wish you good luck but take as many with you as you can," said Astre turning around.
"Don't worry I will make it painless," Blaze responded, continuing to walk behind him.
"Wait, why are you still following me?" Astre asked, surprised. "Are you seriously going to leak my address!?"
"No, idiot! I'm just going in the same direction!"