This time, we took the little egg shaped train to the Arena District to participate in the battle royale.

It took us quite a while before we reached our destination as it had to make several stops along the way. It seems like the trains were designed to make a stop at every other district at least once before going to the Arena district.

Thankfully, we could just sign up through our personal terminals so we registered ourselves as participants while on the way there so there was no problem.

As we stepped out onto the supposed Arena District, I realised this was the most crowded area of the station.

Unlike the gambling district where it featured an open hall with various games scattered around the area where the visitors were free to move around, this district had several large buildings that served as individual areas to cater to the guests.

From the station, the path diverged itself towards each of these buildings and what event was taking place at each of these locations were clearly displayed on a giant holographic screen in front of said buildings.

There was the dome shaped building that had two robots facing each other in a boxing pose with the words 'Bot Fight' underneath them.

I'm guessing that's the place you would go to see robots beating the shit out of each other.

There was a colosseum shaped building opposite the 'Bot Fight' arena and this one had the hologram of a group of humans facing a mass of various animals. This one was literally called 'The Colosseum'.

I believe they had bots fighting bots and humans fighting animals facing each other on opposite sides intentionally.

There were several other smaller buildings around where most of them were simply selling food, drinks and other merchandise to visitors.

Then at the very end of the path was a towering building that stretched all the way to the ceiling of the station.

There was no name in front of this building but most of the crowd was heading there and we had received directions to head towards that building to participate in our battle royale.

"I dunno about you, but it kind of feels like he's compensating for something," Amber mused while looking up at the tower in front of us.

Ries tilted her head slightly, "His height, maybe?"

Oh yeah, he's pretty much the same height as Ries wasn't he?

Amber grinned, "That wasn't what I was referring to but that may be possible too~"

She even wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me.

Yes, yes, I know exactly what you are referring to, Amber… No need to keep looking at me like that.

I looked down at my Codex, "Seems like we need to be there in an hour to… Err… 'Suit up'? Whatever that means."

Amber nodded, "It's a virtual arena after all, so we're definitely going to do a Virtual Dive."

"Virtual Dive?" I asked.

"Oh, you've never seen something like that before huh? We would be using a machine to send our consciousness to the virtual world! So it would feel like we are actually there!"

Huh… So like the VR Capsules in my old universe? Except maybe this one is more advanced than what I'm used to I suppose but still the same.

"So what's with the need to 'suit up'?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"They'll need to prepare a Virtual Pod for us to do the Virtual Dive in since we don't have neural implants. Otherwise, we could just plug ourselves in."

Woah, woah… That sounds like a lot of things were dropped on my lap out of the blue. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there's such a thing as neural implants in this universe since genetic and cybernetic modding exists.

I decided not to comment on it and just nodded my head, following the crowd heading towards the tower that I guessed were either also going to participate in the Battle Royale or were going there as spectators.

Incidentally, I noted that quite a few of them looked rather imposing in stature.

There's one guy who was over two metres tall and pretty much his entire body aside from his head had been cybernetically modified. Not too far away from him was some guy who literally had a horse's lower body and I had to ask my companions if that was just a human who modded himself instead of another race of aliens.

I was assured that yes, that was a guy who genetically modified himself to have a horse's lower body.

"Wouldn't that give these people an unfair advantage in the Battle Royale?" I asked.

Lea shook her head, "It was stated in the rules that participants would be using avatars to compete in the Battle Royale so their own mods would not be reflected in the competition."

Amber nodded, "This also serves as a way to hide the identity of the winner from everyone else since they would only see the avatar of the winner and not the actual person too. Unless you wish to publicise your identity of course, then you can request to have the avatar changed to your own likeness cosmetically."

Right, there's the possibility that you might leave the station with your winnings only to get ambushed by some envious Mercs and robbed blind out in space.

I guess for us… It would be better if we were to remain anonymous since we don't need that publicity and only need the money.

At least I can be assured that it would be a relatively fair fight I guess?

I say relatively fair because there's definitely people here who have been participating in Battle Royales like this often and are way more experienced than everyone else.

One such example? Me.

Just not in this universe. Heh.

We reached the entrance of the building and there were directions for spectators and participants to move to different parts of the building.

Naturally, the spectator side of the building was flooded with people while we joined the smaller group that was headed towards a set of elevators that several suited guards were watching over.

We had to verify our participation in the event before we were guided to an elevator.

They even made sure that only one group of participants were allowed into the lift and I realised that each team would be sent to a room of their own to make the Virtual Dive.

For our group, we were ushered into a featureless lift that sent us up to one of the floors where a pair of armed guards and a well dressed woman was there to receive us.

The woman perked up the moment she saw us, "Welcome participants! I shall serve as your facilitator and guide today! Please follow me to complete your registration!"

We followed after her while the guards flanked us from behind to escort us.

I was already wondering why there was such heavy security around when Lea leaned over to whisper, "The owner of the station is watching the event inside this building as well."

Ah… So it's just in case some people are trying to target him by masquerading as a participant. Got it.

We were led to a dimly lit room where several spheres were lined up against the wall, which I assumed was this universe's version of the VR Capsule.

Our guide turned to us as we filed into the room, "May I ask if any of you have neural implants that would allow you to Virtual Dive without the use of a Virtual Pod?"

All of us shook our heads.

Not gonna lie, I was actually expecting Ries to have one.

The woman smiled at our answer, "Alright~ Then we would need you to each pick a Virtual Pod so that we could start our calibration! This will only take a while and you will be sent to the waiting room until the time for the competition to start! If you require any assistance, please open the menu and tap on the panic button to bring yourself out of the virtual space. Please note that even if you are eliminated from the competition, you would be transported back into a virtual waiting room and only be released from here when the competition has concluded!"

I raised an eyebrow, "We can't leave early?"

She shook her head, "The room will be sealed while the competition is taking place and only unsealed after it is over. Any attempts to unlock the doors will trigger an alarm. If you are unable to dedicate the time needed to participate in this competition, I'm afraid you would need to leave."

Hmm… I guess they don't want people to be wandering around the place which would make it hard for the guards to manage them in case there's an assassin hidden amongst us.

Well, we already intend to win this competition anyway so I guess this rule doesn't bother us. If we ended up losing halfway through, it would be entertaining to watch the show anyway.

Amber raised her hand, "Are we allowed to make bets on ourselves?"

The facilitator's smile widened, "Of course! Please note that participants of the competition are only allowed to make bets on their own team winning and nothing else. You can make the bets once you are in the virtual waiting room!"

Alright, time to strap in then.

Also, I'm obviously going to bet on us to win!