Frist Game (1)

Ryo continued to perform beautifully in the galaxy, maneuvering through asteroids arranged like obstacles. His skill in controlling the Quantum Striker spacecraft was truly evident as he agilely guided it through narrow gaps between asteroids, creating a beautiful streak of light in space.

"Damn, this is so much fun," Ryo exclaimed with a happy smile, accelerating without any hindrance. His friends couldn't even keep up; that's how fast Ryo soared among the asteroids.

"Uwahh... He's getting farther, is he not using brakes at all?" Dinda was surprised to see Ryo disappearing from her view. "Forgive me, Captain, I doubted you. He's amazing."

"Actually, I didn't expect him to be this good in his first control. I thought he would be like me, crashing into asteroids right at the start," Fajar said, laughing. It was far from his expectations, but it was incredibly impressive.

Fajar honestly didn't think he could control the Quantum Striker spacecraft in one go like that, especially at its maximum speed. This spacecraft had the highest speed with a score of 42, while the second fastest had only 38. Not only that, the Quantum Striker also had many abilities to increase its speed faster and had a high maneuverability, making it extremely agile in movement.

Ahem...

Fajar spoke loudly, although impressed, he still wanted to win this game. "Ryo, I know you're enjoying yourself, but don't forget the objective. Since we're the red team, you try to take the nearest upper mine post first, then contact us as soon as you reach it."

"Got it, Captain."

"The rest, proceed as usual."

"YES!" they replied in unison.

Ryo swiftly headed upwards to secure the nearest upper mine post.

On the other side, Dinda and Fajar went downwards. Fajar entered the nebula, while Dinda stayed outside, intending to control the nearest lower mine post.

Meanwhile, Bonbon and Andi went to the central area. Bonbon entered the nebula, and Andi went to the portal to reach the upper central mine post.

They all tried to advance at their best speed.

Soon, a very bright golden light began to appear; it should be a mine post. A planet surrounded by crystals and a white circular line around it, it clearly was the mine post they saw in the match last night.

Ryo tried to inform Fajar first to make sure, "Guys, I've reached the mentioned mine post," Ryo's voice suddenly broke the silence of the other members, not only because he spoke suddenly.

"You really arrived, Ryo?" Dinda asked with a vibrating tone; she did think Ryo was great after seeing him fly so fast at the start, but this was beyond reasonable. In his first attempt, he matched the top speed of a pro player. Even she hadn't reached the nearest lower mine post, which should have had the same distance.

30 seconds? He reached his first mine post in 30 seconds, a great time for other pro explorer players. Explorer skills are not only determined by speed, but speed is the key. Other world pro teams with good-speed explorers are always at the top, especially the team from Canada, "Team Oppyrus," which has the speed to reach the nearest post in 26 seconds, always becoming the runner-up in the world championship.

"Hum... well, this is a bit slow. I'm not used to it, and it's a bit slow at the beginning, but I'm sure it will be faster next time."

"Faster? Seriously? This is insane." That's what everyone in the team is thinking right now. "Great" is not enough to describe him.

Everyone laughed and smiled. What Ryo did really boosted the spirits of the other members. It was fascinating; it was like getting a pro player in their team. They all became motivated and wanted to do their best.

"Alright, Ryo, take over that mine post. Around the mine post, there's a ring, right? Enter it and stay there for 5 seconds, wait for the white line to turn our team color, red." Fajar suddenly commanded; although he was impressed, he still had to focus on the game.

"Okay," Ryo immediately directed his spacecraft into the mine post. And stayed there.

[Mine Post 1 successfully taken over] simultaneously with that notification, the mine post sign above the central area that was initially white turned red.

"I've done my task; what else needs to be done?" Ryo asked what needed to be done; he really needed information about the gameplay to be done.

"You go to the upper central mine post, where Andi is. Then help Andi kill their carry because their support should be taking the lower mine post, and their carry is alone now."

Fajar tried a tactic usually used by "Oppyrus" because they had an Explorer with great speed. Usually, teams use a common strategy where support and carry take the hard lane, or the lane that has no connectivity with the teleport. Support will take the nearest mine post on that lane first, while carry will go straight to the nebula lane to kill enemy drones.

Midlane takes the middle

 lane in the nebula to clean up drones, and the offlaner takes the easy lane, the lane connected to the teleport. Their initial goal is to secure mine posts and usually clear the lane of drones, and kill them if possible in a 1 vs. 1.

However, in Oppyrus's team strategy, with their fast explorer, their easy lane forces the carry into a 2 vs. 1 situation. Thus, putting more pressure on the carries.

After hearing Fajar's instructions, Ryo immediately set off, passing through the outer nebula lane to reach mine post 2, then turning in from there to surprise them.

While Ryo was on his way there, the others started their tasks too. Dinda successfully reached the nearest hard lane mine post or [mine post 6] at 34 seconds and controlled it at 39 seconds.

Meanwhile, Bonbon and Fajar entered the nebula lane to clean up drones. BonBon headed to the mid nebula, and Fajar went to the hard lane nebula.

[Mine Post 2 Successfully Controlled]

Andi managed to control it at 45 seconds. Andi did take a bit longer than usual because he used a tank-type spacecraft, which had the slowest speed. When Andi wanted to go and enter the nebula, Ryo's voice sounded, "Yo, Andi, I'm behind you."

"Hah..." Andi didn't expect that Ryo could be 5 seconds faster to his location. It was not just luck. Andi had to admit this by seeing how fast and agile Ryo was. "You're really something, Ryo, but you're not the main character here."

Seeing himself almost caught up, Andi didn't want to give up and bought 2 Speed Boosters from the store and activated them.

[Speed Booster] [100 Gold]

Increases the user's speed by 10 points for 7 seconds.

Making this purchase was indeed wrong; as an offlaner, there are many things to buy and pay attention to, but since this is still a Low-Rank match, Andi didn't care. By buying the Speed Booster, Andi's speed, which was previously 31, now became 51 points. Even with this speed advantage, Andi still couldn't leave Ryo far behind.

"Is that the nebula? It looks like a thick black cloud sea, and even starlight can't penetrate it," Ryo said when he arrived in front of the nebula.

Now, both of them successfully entered the nebula in 3 seconds, which was 2 seconds faster than usual.

"Let's race again, Ryo. Who will reach the Nebula Lane first, you or me?" Andi provoked Ryo; he spoke using his speaker, thoroughly enjoying this.

Usually, Andi had to do everything by himself at the beginning, and it was very boring. However, now he found Ryo, who was so fast and unexpectedly managed to finish with the same time as Andi, taking over the mine post.

Andi blamed his lamp, his spacecraft, Black Gorilla Universe, had a large, black, spherical appearance like a UFO. Now, after turning on the lamp, there was a white light forming lines seemingly from LEDs on its body, displaying a new appearance. And from its front tip, there was a white spotlight that shone forward.

Meanwhile, Ryo had lights coming out around his wings. Although the lights were small, there were many of them, giving off a contrasting blue light in the surrounding darkness.

Both of them began to enter the Nebula, racing to enter the nebula lane.

"Alright, I accept your challenge. But how can we determine if we have reached the lane or not?" Ryo was curious; what exactly was the Nebula Lane, and how was it different from other places since they were all in the galaxy? How did they distinguish the Nebula Lane from non-lane?

"Oh yeah, I forgot you're still a beginner because I see you're so great." Andi laughed loudly. "Let this handsome and muscular senpai teach you." Andi winked and posed, showing off his muscles.

Ryo didn't see it, but he could imagine it. "How terrifying that must be, for sure," he mumbled. Ryo unconsciously imagined something bizarre, knowing Andi's nature of showing off after boasting about himself.

"You'll know you're in the lane when the Nebula Lane has slightly brighter light due to the nebula light made of flashes of gas and particles inside the nebula. Although not too bright, more like dim lights, and again, there are no asteroids blocking the Nebula Lane."

"Oh, like that. Then I'm going first." Ryo pressed his "Speed Up" button, and his speed skyrocketed, leaving Andi behind in an instant. Leaving only a trail of blue and purple light merging.

"Darn, isn't that a cheating ability!"