"Beep, beep, beep..."

The noise of the notification spam on Leon's account forced him awake.

He opened up his eyes, only for them to be assaulted by red flashes coming out from the corner of his window.

"It's lovely to smell napalm first thing in the morning," Leon muttered with a small grin before pushing himself up on the bed.

A quick look through the notifications confirmed the young man's expectations.

The news of the first spot token holder losing it set the news agencies on fire. Even though the VR e-sport scene was still relatively fresh and small, its share of the media was nearly monopolistic.

"Duel, accident, duel, duel, theft, duel," Leon muttered the keywords from the first few articles. "I'm glad to know people figured it out so quickly," he admitted before heaving a deep sigh.

Leon then pushed himself off the bed. He left his clothes for today on his chair, allowing himself to get dressed in a single moment. Leon then reached out to one of the few drawers he had in the room and pulled out a torn pack of cigarettes.

'Might as well take the opportunity,' he thought, hiding the pack in his blouse pocket before pulling on his hoodie and then leaving his residential unit.

Leon's house was just a single, autonomous part of the greater whole. With the entire building being made from blocks of prefabricated units, the only corridors existed in the free space between them.

The young man had to walk for nearly ten minutes before he finally managed to free himself from the oversized residential stack. And the second Leon reached the open area, he pulled out one of his cigs before lighting it up and taking a long puff of the toxic smoke.

'Aren't they awful?' Leon thought, recalling the taste of the cigarettes he tried while still underage.

It wasn't that he was proud of breaking the law in this silly way. He simply couldn't forget the taste of a real cigarette, something that was long lost ever since molecular printing became a thing.

The cigarettes Leon had belonged to the old kind, made from actual tobacco. Sure, they were of the worst and cheapest sort, but they were still real.

"Disgusting," Leon muttered once he finished the cigarette, releasing the smoke from his lungs as he threw its butt on the ground and stepped on it with his heel.

With a few more steps, the young man reached the tube station.

Leon pulled his face deeper under his hoodie, hiding in the corner of the free space from all the people on the station.

Even though most of them were too busy with their AR interface Google, Leon still felt vulnerable around them.

'Out in the open is never safe,' he repeated his catchphrase before boarding the public ride. A few minutes of images of the city flashing beyond the windows later, Leon walked out right in the middle of the town.

'I really don't fit here,' he thought, pulling the edges of his hoodie even further as he made his way to a brightly illuminated building.

Ever since the explosion of popularity that came with the recent advancements in VR, 'Agebreak,' the company that lead the development of the technology became a giant.

This once garage-centered company soon took the spot of one of the greatest tech giants of the world, rightfully occupying the most expensive area of the cities around the world for their shops.

Leon's city was no different, with 'Agebreak' local headquarters standing side by side with the city's administration office!

'Here goes nothing,' the young man thought as he approached the huge wall of glass at the store's front.

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Leon pulled out his identification card before swiping it over the reader by the entrance.

"Reading..."

A single word appeared on the screen before the device turned green.

Whoosh...

The glass doors to the building pried open to the sides with a futuristic sound and a sudden bout of smoke blowing in Leon's face.

'They really are into their theatrics,' the young man thought, lowering his head and silently stepping inside.

'Normally, people would be going crazy upon seeing anyone enter this place from the front,' Leon thought, gritting his teeth in frustration mixing with relief.

It was already hard on him to hold on to his courage in the open areas of the town. Drawing a lot of attention upon entering the building would only further bring Leon's morale down...

And yet, he couldn't help but tighten his fists.

"Hmm?" a voice appeared at Leon's side. "Are you one of the contestants?"

Leon didn't even get to place a single step inside the building when someone already found him out.

'Tough luck,' he thought, turning his head around to face the threat.

"Y-yeah..." Leon whimpered, raising his hand only to grab at the edge of his hoodie and pull it even further down.

At this point, Leon looked as if he turned into a turtle and was trying to hide his head within the shell of his outwear. And yet, even when hiding like that, Leon still stole a glance at the people who happened to him.

There were two of them, one for each gender.

"Can you show me your ID?" the man, roughly a few years older than Leon, asked.

"Ah..." Leon almost jumped only to scramble to bring out his device.

"Chill," the woman said as she stepped in. She appeared to be around Leon's age... Yet, she couldn't be more different from him.

She had long, blonde hair that fell all the way on her back. Her face was perfectly toned with all of its details coming together just right to make her cute yet in a non-invasive way.

And then there were her green eyes, brimming with confidence that Leon oh so lacked.

"Can't you see how terrified he is?" the woman said, placing her hand on Leon's shoulder. "I'm sorry that he came at you like that," she then lowered her head before Leon's hoddie while uttering her apology. "He was cranky like that ever since he got his face slapped yesterday," the girl then explained before attempting to peek underneath Leon's hoodie.

"I-it's okay..." Leon managed to utter those few words, taking a step back in reaction to the girl invading his personal space.

She didn't appear to have any ulterior or vicious motive... but.

'I can't allow a nice girl to throw me off my mindset,' Leon thought, swallowing his saliva hard before taking a deep breath.

"Here," he said, pulling out his device and passing it over to the girl.

"Is this..." the girl whispered when she stuck Leon's device against her own. Her eyes opened up wide as she quickly glanced over at Leon's hoodie. "How did you get this token?"

'At least everything is going as planned,' Leon internally breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was pretty random," Leon used the courage he stockpiled for the last few years to answer properly.

"Wait a second," the man whom the girl held back glanced over at the devices. And then, his face turned red.

"I was grinding materials in the outer zones when some dude came at me swinging,: Leon brought forward the story he came up with before the man could burst out in flames.

'It seems that this is the guy I humiliated yesterday,' he thought.

It was a complication, sure, but one that Leon was ready to deal with.

"And then?" the girl asked, not ceasing her attempts to see through the shadow that covered Leon's face.

"What else?" Leon pretended to be surprised. "Can't you see my build?" he asked, pointing at his device. "I blasted him down," he then explained before raising his shoulders only to shrug them.

"No, I wouldn't dare to inspect your personal information," the girl shook her head as she protested Leon's words. She then pulled the devices apart before passing Leon's one back to his hands. "I just needed to check whether your token is valid," she said before straightening up and resting her hands on her hips.

"I'm Eleria, you might know me from the Hero rooster of the MigGaming organization," the girl introduced herself before offering her hand for a shake.

'What the fuck...' Leon pursed his lips together, preventing an exasperated moan from escaping through his lips. 'How the hell is a bigshot like her in here?!'

Leon had no other choice but to hold his cries in his soul. And so he reached out and grabbed the girl's hand before giving it a good shake.

"I'm Leon, it's a great honor to be able to be your a-acquaintance," he replied, burning through his stockpile of civil and social courage like mad.

"Come on," the girl rolled her eyes as she pulled her hand back. "You have the token, meaning, you are eligible to join the qualification tournament," she stated with a wide smile on her lips. "So let's drop the formalities and talk about..."

"Hahahahha!" the man to Eleria's side suddenly burst out in laughter. He went as far as grabbing his own stomach while tears of joy splurted in the corners of his eyes. "To think that you would get him like that!"

"Rupert, that's enough," Eleria scolded her companion, rolling her eyes again.

This time, however, there was no amusement behind her pupils.

"Oh, speaking of which, you are right on time!" The girl's mood suddenly changed as her face relaxed while a warm ray of kindness appeared in her eyes. "All those who didn't do it before need to go through the calibration process. Do you want me to guide you there?"

Leon's eyebrows moved up on his forehead. The warm voice of the girl somehow made its way to his heart, calming it down.

"Yes, please."