The Virtual Pod actually functioned quite similarly to the VR Capsule I was more familiar with.

The only difference was that I did not need to put on a helmet while in the pod. Instead, their version simply had you lay down on what I could only describe as a bean bag within the pod itself though I was sure it wasn't beans inside that bag.

When the pod closed up, I felt myself sinking even further into the bean bag and when I next blinked, I found myself in the virtual world.

Wow, just like that? There wasn't even a boot up sequence.

Looking down at myself, it seemed like they made our avatars look like they were wearing an armoured suit with a full face helmet covering my face. I felt a little wasted that they didn't give us a transformation sequence where I would put something on my belt and shout "Henshin!" or something.

It felt kind of cool, not gonna lie.

Speaking of which, their waiting room was literally just a plain room with a black screen hovering above us. I guess the screen would be showing the announcer or something when the competition starts.

I found the other girls already inside and huddled around another screen which I quickly realised was used to make bets on ourselves. The only reason I knew who was who was because of their differences in height.

All the girls went to bet one million Credits each on the outcome where we would be the champions.

I gave them a look, "Really? A whole million on this? I know we're here to win but isn't that a little too risky?"

"Pffft, we're here to win, Tera! Don't worry, we won't lose!"

"And what gives you that confidence?"

"Because you're here of course!"

I raised an eyebrow, "I'm flattered you think that much of me but… In case you forgot, I got owned by that Pirate Lord."

"Tera… He was wearing power armour. You fought a guy head on in power armour and almost won."

"... Touche…"

I'll just not mention the fact you then went ahead to obliterate that same Pirate Lord after that.

Still… While I believe I would not be the worst in this competition, I can't say that I'm the best either.

"I'm guessing they allow this because the prize money isn't that big anyway?" I asked.

Sure, three point seven million might sound a lot to a normal person… But this money would be split four ways amongst us so we won't even be getting one million each.

Amber turned to me, "If you want to, we can participate in the competition again next week. It's a weekly thing."

Oh. That kind of explains why the prize money was that low.

I'm not too sure I would like to compete again since I don't see the allure of staying here longer than a few days at most.

Yes, the place is interesting, but staying here longer would make us spend even more money than we should and we don't have that much money to burn at the moment.

I went over to them, "What's the payout like then?"

Ries turned to me excitedly, "Because we're first time participants, the payout's really, really good if we win!"

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

She then gestured at the screen and I saw the odds which made my eyes widen.

"One to twenty?! That means if we win this, we get twenty million each?!" I gasped.

Amber laughed, "That's right! Way more than that prize money, eh?"

I looked further and it seems like these odds only applied to anyone who was participating in the tournament for the first time. If you were participating a second time, the odds would be one to five. If you have won before, the odds would be one to two and drop even more if you have won multiple times

I guess they don't want some pro to just constantly dominate the tournament and get a ton of winnings through that. But they want to entice newcomers as well by giving such a big potential payout.

"But still… This is also assuming that we would win this tournament," I pointed out.

Amber waved, "It'll be fine, Tera! Don't worry!"

Ugh… I'm only agreeing to this because we're making use of money that was given to us… But fine, I'll put a million in this as well.

I was just about to ask how long we needed to wait before the tournament would start when the screen above us came to life.

A short highlight video where it showed several scenes of what I assumed to be the gameplay of past participants played out before the screen changed to show the words "Linc Battle Royale".

It then faded away to reveal the owner of the station smiling down at us.

"Greetings champions! Welcome to this week's battle royale! Are you ready to join the ranks of the winners of this arena?! Because this week, we have something special planned for the winners! What might that be? Why, it's the special privilege to meet me in person!"

Ugh… I don't really want that… Can we just take the money and go if we win instead?

"Now the game will be starting soon! For all the veterans, welcome home! For the first timers… Good luck! You're going to need it! Let the battle royale begin!!"

Oh, we're already starting just like that?

As soon as the screen turned off, I found my vision blurring and my body started to float before a sense of vertigo enveloped me.

When my sight returned, I found myself falling from the sky towards a landmass below.

What the hell?! We're already dropping in like this?! There's no tutorial either?!

I looked around and found a whole mass of people also dropping out of the sky alongside me.

It was clear which ones were the veterans as a number of them immediately flattened their arms against their sides and shot towards the ground, angling themselves towards specific locations down below.

The others were either panicking at falling out of the sky or they were still in the midst of figuring out what was going on.

It wasn't my first time being dropped towards the ground in a battle royale game so I first tried to look for my companions but it was a little difficult to do so since most of the people around me were in the default avatars and there weren't any names above their heads either.

Damn… Seems like even coming as a team might not give you an edge over the solo players since they don't guarantee you dropping alongside your team… And if I had to guess, friendly fire is also on as well so you might accidentally kill your own teammate by accident while mistaking them for an enemy.

Heck, you might even get yourself killed by an enemy when you thought they were your teammate too.

I decided that it would be a problem that I would need to deal with later since there's no way I could find the other three in that crowd in this situation.

I also need to find a good spot to drop on to start getting equipment I could use to start fighting against the other contestants.

Looking down below, I was expecting the place to be modelled after their 'modern' type of battlefield but surprisingly, I found myself looking at a large island that you might find back in my version of Earth.

There were locations that look like industrial complexes, a small city in the centre, a rural town, several farms and even what looked like a military base.

Several of the veterans have already angled towards the military base since that should be where the good weapons are while the others were moving towards the city in the centre.

I considered my options.

For this match, I wasn't trying to get the highest number of kills, I just needed to be the last one standing to win so it's better to play it safe.

Thus, I angled myself towards one of the industrial complexes where I believed there would be a decent amount of loot that I could grab before making a run for the less populated areas and hunker down for the others to be eliminated.

I'm assuming this battle royale would also feature some kind of effect where the play area will keep shrinking as time goes on to force players into confrontations instead of being able to just sit in one spot throughout the entire game. But that would be something I would deal with as we go along.

For the moment, it seems like some of the other players have also made the same decision as I have and started their descent towards the same industrial complex albeit at different landing points.

I aimed for the roof after making sure no one else was also aiming to reach there and I had a brief moment of panic wondering if I had to activate something to prevent me from taking fall damage but I suddenly slowed down automatically as I neared the ground, allowing me to land safely.

Alright, time to loot!