CHAPTER 71: ZION GAMING PODS

"Gaming pods?" Gideon asked in a questioning as he and Victoria followed Baal on a sidewalk.

Just now, he told them that their next destination would be a gaming cafe were there were incredibly advanced gaming pods for them to use.

"I think we had something like that back on earth, where people could have themselves put into the game with their real power level and skills. But the upper limit of strength was rose gold since that was the highest that could be measured." Victoria recounted as the image of a pod like contraption flashed in her mind.

"That's pretty much it, but the upper limit on this one is platinum, moreover, it can near perfectly mimic real life, I'm the one that made it after all." Baal not-so-carefully bragged which caused the duo to roll their eyes.

"And we're here." Baal said as they stopped in front of a large black building that was two storeys tall and was teeming with people.

The three of them entered the building and at the counter was a fairly good looking female demon with red skin.

"Hello sirs and miss, would you three like to rent a Zion pod today?" The woman asked politely.

"Yeah, I would like to rent three VIP pods for these two and myself for... Four hours." Baal responded and the woman nodded and immediately brought out a holographic pad to which Baal entered some figures which the siblings assumed to be his version of account details and paid.

"Thank you for your transaction, the VIP pods you rented are on the second floor. Enjoy." The demon said with a sweet smile and Baal smiled back before taking the siblings along with him.

On their way to the second floor, the saw numerous pods with different races inside. There were also holograms that broadcasted matches and battles for those who came to watch while they were served food.

They got to the second floor and there were quite a lot less people and pods, but these pods were much more high end and provided more comfort and had many more features than the ones downstairs.

"Here we are." Baal said while bringing the siblings to three large black pods.

"Here, let me open these for you two." Baal pressed some buttons on the two pods and with a hiss, both of them slid open.

The siblings didn't stand on ceremony and immediately got into the pods and we're surprised by their soft and comfortable interior. They then laid down properly and immediately after, their heads were covered in helmets and the duo soon felt their consciousness fading.

They didn't resist and let the pod do its thing,and they soon fell asleep. But then immediately after, they found themselves inside a white room with Baal, but he was wearing his armour and there was actually a helmet on his head and above it was the name 'The real Baal'.

"Why are you in your armour? And I thought you said that the pod's upper limit was platinum rank?" Gideon asked.

"To you first question, this is what I customized my character to look like, and for your second question, I brought my power down to a level the system could accept. But if I show more than that while in the pod, it will crash." Baal explained and the duo nodded in understanding.

Immediately after that, two black and purple screens appeared in front of the siblings, and on the screens were their bodies as well as an area for their user name, friends, battles and a bunch of customization options for them.

'Reminds me of the system a little.' Gideon thought as he browsed through the options on the screen and customized his character as well as Victoria.

After about ten minutes, duo finished their customizations and clicked ok. Immediately after, their bodies shone and where then covered in the same thing as their characters in the screen.

Gideon wore a light green coloured leather armour with a scarf around his neck that reached his waist and a plan black mask on his face.

Victoria on the other hand wore a but more armour, but nothing that would impede her movements and her face was covered with a purple helmet that went along with the rest of her armour.

As for the names, Gideon put poison master while Victoria put purple empress. And when Baal saw that they were done, he nodded and said.

"Alright, since you two are done, you should participate in a duo battle. Just go to your profile and send a friend request to each other, accept, go to battles and pick duo." Upon hearing this, the two of them immediately did as said and Gideon sent a friend request to Victoria who quickly accepted He then clicked on the duos icon and added Victoria before pressing search.

After a minute, a white light engulfed the two of them and a second later, they found themselves in a large arena and we're surrounded by stands, and there were already a few people waiting.

They looked into the crowd and saw Baal who was watching them with folded hands and he nodded when he noticed their gaze.

"Hey, why is such a little girl here? Did the system glitch or something." A voice from the other side of the arena said with genuine confusion.

"I doubt it, she might be some hidden prodigy we don't know about for her to be put against people at the gold rank. And the other person seems pretty young two." Another slightly deeper voice was heard.

The siblings looked forward and saw two people who were meant to be their opponents.

They were both guys and one of them was a muscular dark skinned demon and they other was a light green skinned demon. The buff guy's name was 'Baal wannabe' while the skinny guy was whirlwind.

'I wonder what Baal thinks of that guy's name?' Gideon thought and glanced at Baal who had a slightly embarrassed gaze.

"Hey, not trying to be disrespectful or anything, but can that girl fight?" Whirlwind asked with some apprehension, he wasn't the type of guy to beat up little girls.

"Heh, I can assure you very strongly that she can fight, so don't worry and feel free to go all out." Gideon replied with a small chuckle.

Seeing his confidence, Whirlwind and Baal wannabe decided not to dwell on the matter and got ready. Baal wannabe bringing out a double edged axe and whirlwind bringing out a pair of short swords.

The duo didn't stand on ceremony and also summoned their weapons, and as if sensing they were ready, a lou countdown began.

"3...2...1... GO." The moment the robotic voice ended, Gideon disappeared while Victoria used her purple empress mode causing her aura to skyrocket.

Baal wannabe and whirlwind were immediately on high alert as they sensed grave danger from Victoria, and they didn't sense Gideon at all.

With a stomp, Victoria shot towards the two like a cannon ball, specifically, Baal wannabe and appeared in front of him in an instant and threw a punch.

Wannabe immediately blocked the punch with the shaft of his axe and was shocked when he found himself take a step back from the punch.

Victoria didn't give him much time to think though as she immediately exerted force and the head of a purple dragon came from her fists and engulfed Wannabe.

*BOOOM*

*Wannabe!" Whirlwind shouted as he watched his partner get engulfed in the dragon head and explode.

He wanted to go and help him when he suddenly felt a chill on his back.

He immediately ducked his head down and kicked backwards, but his foot hit air.

'A feint?' He thought and tried to regain his balance, but then he immediately felt his foot get swept up.

'Not good!' As he was falling, he could hear the wind get sliced apart and immediately used a spell.

"Wind funnel!" Immediately, a giant funnel of green wind blades surrounded him and he rushed to get back to his feet.

However, just as he was about to get ready to find Gideon, light suddenly shone from under his foot, and before he could look down, dozens of green string burst from under him and bound him tightly. And before he could react, he felt his body go numb and fall down. A second later, Gideon reappeared and slashed his throat. Immediately after, he burst into light particles quickly reappeared on his seat with a dazed expression.

'What the?' His mind went blank as he tried to process his loss.

Meanwhile, Baal wannabe who was currently jumping through all areas of darkness that he created to dodge the onslaught of Victoria's ferocious attacks.

'Damn, forget counterattacks, I can barely dodge all this!' He shouted in his mind as he jumped backwards and a shadow clone was where he was previously, and then was immediately vaporized by chaotic purple fist energy.

Victoria stared him down as she sent countless attacks a him and accurately predicting where he would move to causing him to change his pattern of dodging.

'I need to break out of this, Where's whirlwind?!' He shouted inwardly, but couldn't look around as that would spell doom for him. Unfortunately, his teammate was already eliminated.

After a few minutes, he got tired of it, and with a shout, darkness enveloped the whole arena.

"Absolute void!" Victoria immediately felt as if she entered a swamp and felt her movements become sluggish, she also felt her mind becoming foggy.

Seeing that his spell worked, Wannabe dashed towards Victoria with his axe raised up high, but just as he was about to reach her, he unintentionally looked into her eyes which glowed for a brief moment.

"Gah!" A wave of pain assaulted his mind causing it to blank out, and due to this, his spell got cancelled letting Victoria move freely once more.

By the time he recovered from the pain, Victoria's fists had already punched into his chest and destroyed his heart. He then also exploded into particles of light and reappeared right next to his partner.

"The winners, Poison Master and Purple Empress." The robotic voice announced snapping everyone out of their shock.

Other than Baal, no one expected the fight to end like that and we're too stunned to speak.

'Those two are too strong!' Was the only thought they were able to think at that moment.