---------LEGEND---------

PLAYER/USERNAME

Alexander/AlexFae

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Pathetic.

This was how his teammates appeared to Nosis; he had had to take on three opponents at the same time for his companions to be able to recover the flags, and winning with points wasn't even something he liked. Winning meant overpowering your opponents, making them understand that they had no hope, grabbing some flags, maintaining control over some areas for longer or destroying the enemy nexus didn’t bring him the same satisfaction as seeing them explode into colored bubbles repeatedly, that it was the true meaning of victory for Nosis.

“It's clear that this tournament has no initial skimming,” he said to himself, easily avoiding the blows of one of his three opponents; he counterattacked with surgical precision, causing his opponent to explode into multiple rainbow-colored bubbles. “One down.”

“But… what the hell are you??” Asked one of the two remaining opponents as he stood guard with his shield raised, “[Spider’s Web]!”

"Now he's mine!" The second opponent exclaimed as he nocked an arrow and took aim.

Nosis dropped one of his wakizashi in mid-air and traced the somatic components for one of his spells in the time he needed to pick it back. The [Hunter]s' spells were second in speed only compared to those of the [Warrior]s, and had more or less the same effectiveness. “[Shadow’s Step].”

From the center of the [Spider's Web] area of effect, Nosis immediately teleported just outside of it, right in front of the [Guardian] who had cast it. He disposed of his opponent quickly and easily, reducing the number of enemies he had to face to just one ranged shooter.

“This is a third-rate tournament, how can there be such a strong player??” Nosis' last remaining opponent wondered. “[Triple Arrow]!” He exclaimed upon completion of his spell.

An arrow that split into three bolts of purple light whistled towards him, Nosis moved just enough to avoid them, with a movement that almost made him look like a contortionist in the eyes of his opponent, "not to talk about my sexuality, but five thousand dollars is five thousand dollars,” he replied, shrugging.

Just under a minute later the fight was over, and just in time for Nosis' teammates to bring the second flag to the base, declaring his team's victory.

The ruins of the ancient Middle Eastern city in which they had fought vanished and a loading screen later they found themselves back in the lobby-living room. The opposing team looked extremely disheartened as theirs had been a crushing defeat, they had not only lost because Nosis' team had recovered both flags, but also because they had barely managed to kill anyone even once. In the end, three of them attacked Nosis because at that point they had completely lost control of the situation and had decided to simply try to get revenge on a player who had done nothing but kill them effortlessly throughout the entire battle.

Nosis sighed, “thanks for the game. It has been an easy one.”

“WHAT?!?” The 'leader' of the opposing team immediately became enraged, “take back what you just said!”

Nosis sighed again in a way that made him seem like the top of the class trying to explain how to solve a very simple exercise to his too stupid classmates. His brown and blue eyes searched for the presenter's.

“The tournament rules define statements like yours as an act of provocation and anti-sportsmanship,” the presenter informed him, “you are invited to withdraw them, otherwise you will be suspended from the next match and if your team has no reserve players, it will lose the match by default.”

How boring are the tournament rules, “okay. I understand, I take it all back and I sincerely apologize for my lack of sportsmanship,” Nosis said with the same sincerity one would expect from a pathological liar.

Two members of the opposing team did what Nosis considered a rage quit.

There was an exchange of congratulations and handshakes between Nosis' teammates and the two remaining ones from the opposing team, then the entire team moved to their private lobby: in the world of LotA it was possible to obtain – starting from the World Level 2 – a private instance that was ultimately the housing system of the game. There were several maps to choose from, but all were large and small island complexes where from one to twenty players could have worked together to build homes and other useful structures to passively obtain Tarants and other items of poor or low rarity, but useful even at high levels for item enhancement.

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The 'base of operations' of Nosis and his companions consisted of a large island on which they had built eight structures in total. He said goodbye to his companions and set off towards his home. He liked being there since the house he had built, although reminiscent of an ancient Japanese house, was still much larger than the bare two-room apartment in which he lived. It can be said that Nosis existed in the real world only for the time necessary to provide himself with food and living, sometimes he fell asleep connected to LotA and at times he almost had the sensation of having difficulty understanding if the real world was the one in which he had to work and eat to live or the one where he was a deadly swordsman capable of spells that defy any laws of physics.

He put his weapons aside and changed his dress from combat to a more homely one and lay down on his futon with his hands clasped behind his head; using his mind as a cursor and keyboard, Nosis opened the tournament website and looked at who had won the other games, especially, which team he would face in the next round. The informations flucuated in front of his face in what looked like a floating TV screen. There were two different systems in LotA, unlike the one in the normal game which requires a few steps to use, the one in the private instances worked at the speed of thought, this was because being able to access the inventory at the speed of thought during a fight was considered a damage to the balance of the game.

“Nova Scotia Angels…” Nosis murmured. He opened a second window with a mental command and displayed the details of the team members he was supposed to fight next, "if this continues, getting to the finals will be a walk in the park."

- - -

Alexander was on his way home after being sent by his mother to the store to buy some supplies that had run out; It was about twenty minutes from his house to the nearest grocery store on a road that was snow-covered and dangerous in the winter, so he was driving the family pickup with the utmost care.

His sister Mary was also with him, who had decided to accompany him on the road illuminated by a reddish sunset and the car lights. She stood looking out the window, her forehead resting against the cold glass. She was silent and looked into the distance, to the points of the pine trees.

“Hey, little sis…” Alexander tried to get his sister's attention, giving her a gew light pushes on the shoulder, “what is it? Why the long face?”

“You know why,” Mary grumbled softly, straightening her back and turning her head towards him, “it's because of those bad gentlemen.”

Ah, Mary was still thinking about that. While her and her brother were in the town shop, one of the customers referred to Alexander as 'the weirdo that dresses like a girl', which infuriated Mary while Alexander did his best to feign indifference or even that he hadn't heard how he got called. Obviously this was why he was so keen to leave: people living in sparsely populated places tended to be more 'attentive to detail' than those in larger cities where simply the mass of daily visual information was such that no one would even be able to say how many people wearing hats they had seen during their day.

“Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it, little sis,” Alexander said, shrugging, “life is like that, you can't force others to mind their own business.”

“But it's their fault if you want to leave! I don't want you to go away!" Mary protested, “if they stop, you would stay!”

“I know…” Alexander murmured softly, he didn't want to leave either, his family was understanding and he adored his sister, so from his point of view he was between a rock and a hard place: if he hadn't left he would have had to continue to deal with his fellow villagers, if he had left he would have lost the possibility of being with his family and his loved ones. "I am sorry."

“It’s not your fault.”

“Well, I could be normal, stop finding nice to dress feminine…”

Mary abandoned her position against the door of the pickup to move closer and lean against her brother's arm, "you're already normal, they're the ones who are stupid."

What Mary had just said spread a sense of warmth into Alexander's heart, and he laughed with a relieved spirit after the bad mood caused by being called 'weirdo'.

"That's right! ‘Stupid’ it’s the right word!” He exclaimed while still chuckling.

Mary smiled, “I was thinking: do your teammates you play with know that your avatar doesn't match reality? You should say it right away! Trust is important in friendships!” She declared with that naivety typical of children.

“W-well, let's say no… I'm waiting for the right moment.”

“Why?” Mary asked promptly.

“You see,” Alexander began to say while trying to find a suitable way to explain to a little girl some quite important issues related to crimes and improper attitudes on the web, "although there are several male players who enjoy moving female avatars, generally speaking in the world of the VRMMORPG a male who passes himself off as a female and socializes with them without them knowing that they are socializing with a boy can lead to being branded as a creep, and even risking of being permanently banned from the game in question.”

“Isn't it a bit like being called a weirdo? If that's the case, why didn't you say it right away?” Mary insisted, “You must not get banned! If you get banned then you will earn less money!”

Mary had multiple points there.

“It was too late to introduce myself as a male when I decided to reconnect with them, okay?” Alexander pouted, “so I figured if we don't end up making it to the semi-finals I might as well not bother saying it, since they and I will never see each other in person except for that reason."

“You're doing a very dishonest thing, big brother!” Mary replied, grabbing him by the ear, “you have to say it right away and apologize for not doing it sooner, otherwise I won't talk to you again!”

"No! I beg you! Don't stop talking to me!” Alexander pleaded, letting himself be pulled by the ear but without taking his eyes off the snow-covered road. The lights of their house were close.

“So you'll tell them? Do I have my good big brother's word?” She asked with a beaming smile and stopped tugging on his ear.

Alexander snorted, “ok, fine… but if they ban me, I'll take your Sintendo Swap!” he exclaimed trying to sound serious.

Mary opened her eyes wide and went pale, “nooooooooooo!!!”

Alexander drove the pickup under a roof made specifically to protect it from the elements and turned off the car, winked at his sister and together they got out of the car and hastily returned to the shelter of the domestic heat.

Genevieve would have definitely killed him, luckily, he would have respawned.