Virtual Tournament (1)

SHING

…

For the rest of the day, I practiced with this advanced AI who actually won a few rounds against me since I was, of course, way too smart for my own good.

But, I also began to get extremely mentally tired as all of this was taking place in my mind, and of course, the strain was too much for me to eventually handle.

Though the next day I came back, and I participated in a small tournament held against people around my own stats.

As I slipped into another unconscious state yet again, I selected the tournament tab and then clicked on the only option open to me, which was around my own level and stats.

Waiting for a few minutes wasn't so bad as I then suddenly drifted off into a similar white plane, but this time my enemy wasn't a faceless computer that replicated my every move.

We were stuck in place as an androgynous voice counted us down.

"Five… four… three… two… one… Begin," The voice announced, and suddenly we were free to move.

My opponent was a tank who wielded a giant greatsword, and I was a horrible match-up for him since, for half of the match, I was just buzzing him like a bee, slowly chipping away at his surprisingly tough and sturdy armor.

"Goddammit! Stop moving around so much!" The man shouted, immediately losing his temperament and activating one of his last-resort skills: [Berserk].

A massive amount of killing intent poured out from his body, blinding him with uncontrollable rage that also increased his strength and defense by three times their original amount.

Though it was a shame he didn't get any faster; otherwise, I would've had to use some of my other skills to defeat him.

"And the winner is… Helu," The androgynous voice announced as the tank behind me flopped to the ground, his head slowly falling apart into hundreds of individual white pieces.

There was no gore in this training facility, so they could appeal to some of the younger generations that might be interested in becoming an adventurer or soldier at the least.

Fighting was fun to do, especially when there was no risk, such as pain or dying, so lots of people flocked to this kind of fun.

And since there were training facilities such as these where you could pay ten bronze coins an hour, the barrier to entry was pretty damn low.

"Your next fight will begin in a few minutes," The voice rang through the white space yet again, and so I decided to just sit down and meditate until I was finally dragged into my next match against a busty mage.

"You're pretty damn hot… though, not my type," I muttered before dodging to the side and letting the small fireballs swoosh past me.

They exploded in the background as I charged towards the woman who set forward her wooden staff and conjured another fireball at the very tip of it.

"Good luck surviving this," She taunted me, but from point-blank range, I ducked down and slipped in between her guard.

"Oh yeah?"

"W-What the hell?" The woman stuttered as my blades dug into her throat, and she let out a few whimpers as her body slowly faded into the white abyss.

Some people chose to turn on pain since they were either part of the military or were actual adventurers who wanted to raise their pain tolerance without the threat of actually dying.

There is a slider that you can slide back and forth to set how much pain you want to go through, and of course, I went for the highest setting, which replicated the real amount of pain you would go through upon getting hit by an attack.

"Am I gonna get a challenge?" I sighed as even though there was a prize to this tournament, I still entered for the chance of potentially losing.

If somebody manages to reveal a weakness in my fighting style, then I can quickly fix it up and patch up any holes that could potentially kill me later on.

Some people are scared of losing, but if you call it losing instead of learning, then you'll never improve and just continue to dig yourself into a ditch of self-loathing.

As I appeared in the next level of the bracket, I faced another tank, but this time she had a sword and shield with massive metal armor.

There didn't seem to be any obvious cracks in his armor that I could use, so I decided to chip away at her shield first.

She might've thought she was draining my stamina, but after a few minutes of me going all out, she soon realized my seemingly bottomless stamina… well, it wasn't just seamlessly since it was actually bottomless.

But, since I was able to input my stats and entire status into the system through the trust method, nobody would be suspicious of me being a monster or having endless stamina.

Though, if they dug far enough, they would be able to discover my true status… I could just get my friend to swiftly take care of that if needed.

For a good amount of money, he would be willing to do pretty much anything without even a single question.

"*sigh*... I was saving this for the final dual, but it seems I'll have to use it now," The woman muttered, and upon seeing her activate a few buffs, I stopped my continuous assault and calculated my next moves.

"Geez… [Haste] and [Quicken]? Seems you really prepared for my type," I licked my lips before activating my own buffs.

[Haste] and [Empower] quickly flooded my body with a newfound source of strength that I was able to pull from, and soon, I found myself circling around the woman with a few after images.

She might've increased her speed, but if she couldn't tell where I was, then it was useless.

TING TING TING TING… CRACK

And then, just like that, the center of her shield that I had continuously beaten and assaulted finally cracked, crumbling into hundreds of pieces and leaving her completely vulnerable to my next set of attacks.