---------LEGEND---------
PLAYER/USERNAME
Alexander/AlexFae
Amber/Davina
Grace/Lasair
Xia/Genevieve
-------------------------------
Xia was still sitting at the table after dinner and wasting time playing some games on her phone when a message notification covered part of the game screen. The sender was Amber, who was probably checking why she wasn't online yet even though there was 'only' half an hour left before the start of the second match of the tournament.
[Amber]
[Where are you?? It's time to connect to LotA!]
[Xia]
[Calm down, there's still half an hour to go and I need less than ten minutes to connect. Are you nervous?]
[Amber]
[Of course! Last time we won by a whisker!]
That was true, however, Xia felt much less nervous than when she had to face the first match of the tournament, after all, playing a match of a tournament in front of who knows how many millions of people was no different from the first kiss, from the first time that you performed on a stage or from the first time you went on a roller coaster: the first time there is always anxiety, the heart beats fast and the stomach twists to the point of hurting... the second time you know what you expect and there's just a bit of fear, the time that you get to the third or fourth time everything starts to flatten out and doesn't arouse any particular emotion like eating or tying your shoes.
This is why there're people who envy children or feel nostalgia for that lost sense of marvel in a too short time, the one in which even just learning to pedal a bike was not perceived as something mundane but as a great achievement.
Xia wrinkled her nose.
[Amber]
[You should be more anxious and excited than me, I remind you what's at stake!]
Yes, there was money for a latest generation NexNetVR, that is, with all that money Xia could have even paid the first two installments of the Cocoon variant, which allowed people to remain eternally connected to the game without ever needing to disconnect for eat or go to the bathroom.
[Amber]
[Xia? Are you still there? Xia? Xiaaaaaaa?!?!?]
[Xia]
[I'm here… I was just thinking. Now I'm starting to go down to my room and log in.]
[Amber]
[Ah, thank goodness. Tonight we will have to pay particular attention to their ace. I found out about him and it seems like he's a full timer.]
[Xia]
[Uh?]
[Amber]
[A person who spends most of his life inside a virtual reality, it seems that this player, this Nosis, puts his NexNet out of his head just because he doesn't have the money to live on passive income.]
[Xia]
[I understand him, a little.]
After all, in recent times Xia too had started to live like this: she remained in the real world we the bare minimum, the study activities with Grace were the only thing - aside for eating and sleeping - that prevented her from retreating inside LotA at every opportunity.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
[Amber]
[Personally I find it sad: how can you give up so lightly all the wonders that reality can offer? And in exchange for what? To become some kind of video game pro gamer?]
Xia hesitated to reply to the message. Reality wasn't something she liked all that much, for her, living in the real world was something that had to be endured, like a burden; everything she looked at didn't have the vibrant colors of the LotA world, the pain in the real world was authentic and complete, her legs didn't move in the real world, the only thing reality and fiction had in common was that Xia's aunt and cousin were absent in both places.
[Xia]
[I’ve to log in.]
Xia put the phone in her pocket and grabbed onto her crutches, pulling herself to her feet with a grimace.
“Are you going back to your room already?” Maylin asked.
“That thing's going to fry your brain,” Grandma Jennifer grumbled, putting out her cigarette in the ashtray in front of her nose.
Xia nodded a few times, “yes, tonight is the second match of the tournament. My teammates need me.”
“Oh, the Maritime Cup. I've heard about it,” Maylin said with a hint of a smile, “so… come on and get busy! I'll be rooting for you! Mom, how about putting on the e-sports channel?” she asked to Jennifer.
“Pfff… I'll never understand any of that rubbish, but if you insist…” Grandma Jennifer called up the home automation system and told it to put on the e-sports channel, where some presenters were discussing the upcoming game while behind them came broadcast replays of other matches and details on the eight players who will face each other, including Xia.
Not that there was that much to say, they just talked about strategies, completed dungeons and other data related to the game. Only for Davina, AlexFae and Nosis there was more information since one was a YouPiper, the other had her own e-shop linked to the objects she recovered on LotA and the last one was being described as a rising star of the LotA scenario in Nova Scotia.
In any case, the idea that Xia's mother and grandmother were watching her while she was playing wasn't bothering her, on the contrary, maybe at that point even Jennifer would have understood that e-sports weren't very different from watching tennis, a sport that Jennifer liked very much.
“Thanks mom, you'll see that everything will be fine,” also because it's not like Xia was in danger of getting hurt, the most that could happen to her was to lose the match.
Yes, okay, in that case she would have lost her chance to win five thousand dollars. Details.
The girl went down to her room and as usual locked the door, the idea that someone - even her mother or grandmother - could have entered her room while her body was completely helpless and the perception of the real world was at most a muffled noise beyond the metal and soft padding of the NexNet made her terribly uncomfortable.
Xia started the game and made herself comfortable on the bed, put on the helmet and closed her eyes for the time necessary to lose awareness of her real body in exchange for that of her fictitious one.
One login screen and a loading screen later, Xia appeared in the lobby-lounge that she had already seen when she played the first match, she had been the last to arrive and so she allowed herself to glance over the heads of her opponents, however, focusing more carefully only on the player Amber had told her about.
[Nosis]
[Level 45 – HP: 100%]
He was more or less at the same level as Dravaros, but his character had a different fighting style that reminded Xia of AlexFae; the avatar was a Shadowood elvreth with capuccino-brown skin, with one brown eye and one blue. He had long, wild hair that fell messily down to his mid-back and was wearing a premium dress that was somehow reminiscent of a less bulky and more stylistic version of a samurai armor. Secured to his belt were sheaths that held two wakizashi and his ears and tail expressed a feeling of control and attention.
“For this round the game mode will be a domination deathmatch, whoever has the most points or whoever eliminates the opposing team first wins!” The presenter declared, spreading his arms.
Domination Deatchmatch was one of the most common game modes during tournaments, this was because it prevented players from camping inside ruins or in forests as hiding would have allowed the opposing team to win simply by staying in the control areas and accumulating points. Even the World Championship was based on this mode!
“Prepare yourselves for the challenge. May the best players win!" The presenter concluded before the lobby-living room was replaced by the usual loading screen.
The ruin of an ancient castle loomed around Xia, it was impossible for her to tell how big it was from the position in which it appeared and therefore she had to overcome some walls that had partially collapsed and she leaned out to take a look without running the risk that a player had the unknown and never heard of ability to shoot an arrow or perhaps a spear so hard and so far that they could hit someone on the opposite base when the game was just starting. Beyond the walls stood what looked like an ancient garden that had been completely reconquered by nature, with traces of what might have looked like flowerbeds or benches still visible here and there.
[AlexFae: usual formation?]
[Davina: fine to me!]
[Lasair: I’m fine with whatever you decide.]
[Genevieve: perfect, then you two in top, me and Lasair in bottom]
That was not only a formation that Xia liked since it allowed her to play together with Lasair, but also a balancing situation: [Guardian] was a multifaceted Attitude, it worked well with the other three Attitudes, but the pairing [Guardian ]/[Seeker] was the worst as the [Guardian] didn't hit as hard as a [Warrior] or a [Hunter] and its spells were more versatile than theirs but not as effective or impactful as a [Seeker]'s.
To put it simple: a Genevieve/Davina pairing would have been lacking in terms of hand-to-hand combat, overly reliant on magic and would have exposed them to opponents more capable of doing a lot of melee damage very quickly.
Xia and Lasair moved through the meanders of the castle, sometimes climbing the walkways until they reached the control area in the bottom of the map. The area they had to occupy was a small body of water, an enchanted pond that seemed to have come out of a dream, with small insects and frog-like creatures resting placidly along its banks. It was large enough to take a bath in, not that Xia thought about taking a bath, character avatars never got dirty and given the limitations of her device she wouldn't even have felt the touch of water on her skin.
Xia was the first to arrive, preceding Lasair only by a few meters and already in a guard position with her sword gripped in both hands and her foot distantiated for greater stability; a blue streak of light floating a few inches from the ground and insubstantial to the touch was delimiting the control area and was passed by a single step by the [Guardian] who was looking around without yet noticing any opponent in position.
[Area: disputed]
Wait, wha…
“[Shadow’s Step],” Nosis muttered, appearing out of nowhere a few steps away from Xia, one of his wakizashi raised above his head and ready to strike.