Maria got into the booth prepared for her and quickly changed her clothes out. She had to take her mask off since she would be immersed in the Capsule’s fluids but thankfully, the booth’s glass was tinted so no one could see her face. She entered the Capsule while listening to the loud cheers of the audience which were soon deafened once she was completely immersed in the Capsule’s fluids.
She logged into the game and appeared in a clearing along with the other participants. Previously, Maria hadn’t paid much attention to her competitors during the test run but seeing some of them preparing themselves, such as that celebrity, Monique Bell, she finally noticed that some of them were actually rather familiar with Virtual Reality and Maria was definitely right since Monique Bell had jumped on the idea of participating in the IGC because she secretly played Unitale in her free time and spent her time in the game playing with her 2 daughters who were also very active in the game.
A few of the participants were eyeing Maria rather cautiously because rather than being wary of the people who were likely on their level, they were aware that she was above everyone else when it came to the virtual world and recognized her as their strongest competition for this event. There were many other famous streamers who were invited to attend the IGC’s side events, but she was the only streamer participating in the Obstacle Course Event. The others with her were IRL celebrities and figures that the committee thought would excel in this kind of event.
Unlike the test run, everyone learned from their mistakes and began looking at this from a gamer’s perspective just like Maria. They warmed up and got familiar with moving in the virtual world while they looked at the course which had changed very drastically compared to the one they had tested. The staff member did say that each stage would be randomized by the AI so they had already expected the first obstacle to be different from the test run. The fog of war that previously obscured the map was also lifted so the participants could see what major obstacles they would be facing later down the line.
“Damn, there are two cliffs in this one…”
“Tsk.”
“The entire map is visible, but we can’t see any of the obstacles other than the major ones.”
The land course of the race was now taking place in the middle of a forest and they had to run from one end of the forest to the other while dodging what appeared to be pitfalls before climbing a large cliff to get to the next watercourse. After that, they would have to swim across the watercourse that had a few whirlpools scattered around and some frozen areas to reach the end and climb another cliff before finally arriving at the final course which was the canyon part. Somewhere around the center of the canyon part, they would have to enter a cave which was a complete black zone.
This map looked much more difficult than the one from the test course and everyone there couldn’t help but give Maria a look as it was likely her fault that the difficulty had been vastly upgraded. After all, she did say that it was rather ‘easy’. It definitely was easy, but that was only in her opinion. Everyone else felt that the first test run course was already pretty difficult but that was only because they hadn’t been prepared.
Now they were so things would play out differently than before and Maria knew this as well. One other thing was that during the test run, no one saw how Maria finished the last course. However, everyone heard from the staff member that she had completed it so quickly even though it was supposed to be the hardest part of the race. It didn’t matter right now because everyone knew one thing, they had to get ahead of her in the first two courses of the race or else Maria would leave them behind in the dust all over again.
The participants were given 10 minutes to get used to the virtual environment and prepare themselves. Maria used this time to get familiar with the 4 skills in her arsenal which previously weren't there before. She looked around before mumbling to herself, “I have to be careful of the [Firebolt] and [Ensnare] skills...I hope I can dodge them…”
Maria started using the skills and frowned when she saw how fast the projectiles moved. It would take some effort but she was confident that she’d be able to dodge them if she saw them coming at her.
“Alright, this should be easy, just like the test run.”
“Contestants, please move to the starting line!”
Outside, Maria’s friends were all looking on in anticipation as they saw her get ready. Everyone also took notice of her new form which was vastly different from before. Her wings were no longer black as they had turned a deep crimson red.
Not only that, but they saw a smaller pair of wings hidden underneath Maria’s large ones which made this her 5th pair. Maria herself hadn’t noticed it because it was situated on her lower back side and since they were still undeveloped, she couldn’t move them. Another thing was that Maria had her weapons holstered on her back out of habit so they could see her large demonic ax, Calamity, and her Zantetsu-R.
“Oh, that’s strange. When did Mary get another weapon?” Emily said as she pointed at the Zantetsu-R.
Lizzy turned her attention to her friend’s back and exclaimed, “Hey, you’re right!”
“I thought she would only use that large, transformable ax of hers but I guess not,” Amanda added.
“Wouldn’t those be a burden for this race? PvP isn’t enabled so what does she have them out?” Gerald said as she pointed this out.
Although PvP was technically on in a way, this only applied to the event skills. Attacks and the like wouldn’t affect the players at all.
“She has a reason, probably.”
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Everyone noticed that most of the avatars were basic ones that were created using the contestant’s image and only 3 or 4 of them had been customized. This meant that these were players. Maria was obviously one of them and so was Monique Bell, to everyone’s surprise. The other 2 were from the invited martial artists that were participating in the event.
“Let’s begin the countdown!”
A screen suddenly materialized above the starting line with a large 10 displayed on it and it started counting down.
“3!”
“2!”
“1!”
“GO!”
Yun Chi exclaimed and immediately, Maria and everyone shot forward as they kicked off the ground. The audience expected a normal race but what they got was completely different. All 10 participants moved forward so quickly like a catapult had thrown them ahead and immediately, event skills were being used. The only thing was that the target was a single person.
“Oh, come on!” Maria exclaimed as she saw 9 projectiles headed straight her way.
She had been surprised earlier when everyone moved in a manner just like her and this caught her off guard for a bit but what happened next caused her to cry out in dismay. The other 9 contestants had fired [Firebolt]s and [Ensnare]s at her right as the race started so she was pinned down a little.
Outside, Yunchi exclaimed when she saw this, “What’s this?! All of the contestants fired their event skills at player Maria right from the get-go! It looks like she will be forced to use her [Barrier] and stop─Oh, wow!”
Against everyone’s expectations, Maria didn’t activate [Barrier]. Instead, she continued running forward while she kept her eyes on the incoming skills and began weaving her way through them. She expertly jumped and dodged them while using her wings to push her around in the air. A few chains suddenly appeared and she used them to pull herself away from the projectiles and keep her body moving forward.
“Hahaha!”
Maria let out a laugh as she dodged the final skill that was aimed at her. She lagged behind a little from the rest but it wasn’t as much as everyone else hope for.
“Damn!”
“She’s good, holy shit.”
“Well, it was worth the try!”
The other contestants began saying and this didn’t escape the audiences’ ears.
“So it would seem that this was a planned attack!” Yun Chi exclaimed in surprise.
Up in the VIP booth, Lizzy was on her feet and yelling, “Hey, that’s not fair!!!”
The other contestants tried again but this time, Maria smirked and did something a little dirty. She used [Swap] on the contestant closest to her right at the last second and made them bear the brunt of all those skills.
“Aw, why me?!”
“Hahahaha!”
Maria only laughed at the person’s misfortune as he was hit with so many skills at once. After getting past the clearing, everyone arrived inside the forest where the first leg of the race began. Right from the start, a large tree trunk swung down on them from the air and many of the contestants either fell flat on their bellies to dodge the tree trunk or jump over it. Maria did something else. She jumped onto the tree trunk and waited as it swung back before kicking off and launching herself in front of the rest.
“You could do that?!”
When she landed Maria used her chain to pull herself forward and jump over the hidden pitfall that was somewhere in front of her. The contestant behind her tried to move around the pitfall but it was actually so large that they triggered it and fell down.
“Falling into one of the traps will force you to start again at the checkpoint! That’s a lot of time wasted for contestant Bram!” A caster said.
Once the pitfalls were revealed, they wouldn’t be hidden again so the other contestants were able to circumnavigate the hole or jump over it. A few people were able to keep up with Maria this time around and they copied her methods and steps as she used the trees in the forest as footholds to launch herself ahead. The level of acrobatics, skills, and situational judgment that Maria displayed was definitely in line with how she was in the game. She was one of the faces of Unitale and people saw her as the strongest female player though not because of her personal power but due to the powerful figures in her faction.
The rankers and IGC participants who had been delegated the position of being in the audience for today were forced to reevaluate their view of the female streamer since they could see that her technique and movement were actually very refined. No one knew her true level but they all thought she wasn’t at level 100 since she hadn’t qualified for the IGC but they had to change that thinking because she was invited to the IGC as a participant for the side events which was probably why she didn’t participate as a contender.
Other than the first contestant who had mistakenly fallen into the pitfall at the start, everyone else skillfully made their way through the land course and just before they reached the cliff, they began trying to sabotage one another with their event skills. Many of the contestants still aimed for Maria but since she was able to dodge them so easily, they tried throwing the skills as those around them instead. Someone tried using [Swap] on Maria and since the projectile of the skill was so quick, she couldn’t dodge it in time and her position in first place swapped.
“What the? Hey!”
Maria was incensed as she was pulled back. She wanted to use [Swap] on the person who had swapped with her but they broke past the forest line so she lost vision of them for a moment. With her suddenly appearing so close to everyone, they began launching skills at her and Maria returned the aggression in kind as she did her best to dodge the skills. She had to use her [Barrier] which was something she didn’t want to do because they were at the cliff now.
“Tsk, I bet one of these guys are gonna use [Swap] on me again!”
The audience was waiting to see how the participants would scale the cliffside and they were all once again surprised. Maria and everyone didn’t climb the cliff like a normal person would but began kicking off the side of the cliff to move upwards. Of course, the skill and level of body control that Maria displayed couldn’t be copied so easily so some had to cling onto the cliffside before climbing up and using their enhanced physical capabilities in the virtual world to scale the cliff.
Maria, however, did as she had done in the test run and shot up the cliff as she kicked off the cliff walls repeatedly. One of the players below used [Swap] on her but she was prepared, however, the projectile speed of the skill was so fast that it managed to clip one of her wings. She appeared at the bottom of the cliff and cursed, “Dammit!”
Maria was a little pissed off but instead of using [Swap], she pulled out her Calamity, changed it to its third form, and attached a chain on it. She began whirling her weapon around and kicked up a slight wind storm before she jumped up and threw her Calamity upwards.
“HAAHHHH!!!”
The momentum of her throw pulled her upwards until she was around halfway up the cliff. A few people below her thought about using [Swap] but they were surprised that Maria didn’t stop there and kicked off her weapon to shoot herself forward again. She pulled out Zantetsu-R, quickly attached a chain on it, and threw it upwards, stabbing it into the side of the cliff. She pulled on the chain to force herself even higher up before she pulled on the other chain attached to Calamity and stabbed the sword into the cliffside again before repeating what she did with her Zantetsu-R.
Maria did this until she landed safely on the top of the cliff. She quickly retrieved her weapons and holstered them on her back before looking down the cliff and smirking. She gave the rest of her competitors a wave before continuing forwards.
“Heh.”
Outside, Yun Chi was laughing as she said, “She’s taunting them! Player Maria is taunting her competitors!”
“Haha, that’s so BM! But who could blame her! Everyone has been launching their skills at her from the start of the race!”
“The way she scaled the cliff, is that even legal? Is it not cheating?”
“There’s no such rule that doesn’t permit the use of items in the race so it is legal!” said Yun Chi after she skimmed through the rulebook which wasn’t too thick.
Maria quickly arrived at the end of the cliff and looked down to see the ocean ahead of her. Unlike the previous time where it was sunshine and clouds, this ocean course was extremely turbulent. She could see the whirlpools that were a bit far ahead as a storm churned the ocean waters causing large waves to crash everywhere as lightning struck the waters from time to time.
“Oh, crap…”