Chapter 2: Inscription to the tourney.

‘How troublesome, I need to change the topic quick.’ I thought and try to quickly change the topic, “Oh right, what are you doing here? You told me you are still living at Greenfield Bay, isn't it?”

“Yup, I’m still living with mom and dad, but I came here to watch the VRFPS amateur tournament that will be held here tonight.” Ana says while opening the bottle of water and drinking a sip.

‘Bang, bullet dodged,’ I dodge a troublesome. “A tournament here in Glassglow?”

“No way…” Ana widens her pretty eyes behind her glasses and looks at me with a surprised look, “Don’t tell me, do you live here and had no idea? It’s a tournament hosted by Blue Moon Enterprise, everyone who has the tiniest relation with virtual reality games knows about it.”

“Well, since I escaped home in my free time I’m either looking for a better paid job or studying,” I explain the fact casually and pause for a moment, “I only touch virtual reality gear for hardware or software technical tests or maintenance, I promised myself to not play nor search news about games until I graduate.”

“Hump, you silly boy.” Ana pouts while folding her delicate withe arms beneath her chest, making her cleavage a lot more visible. “It’s still a little more than two hours before it begins, come on, let’s go.” Ana quickly stands up and picks my wrist persuading me to stand up.

“Go where? To watch the tournament?” I exclaim. To be honest I have no desire to spend my time watching other people playing.

“Of course, where else?” Ana says. Her mouth was slightly curved upwards like if she was smiling maliciously, but I couldn’t understand why.

“Hey wait.” I try to resist. “Although these three days I’m free from work I still have duties to do.”

“I don’t care.” Ana pulls my wrist even harder.

“Sigh, you became as troublesome as your chest became bigger.” I murmur in a low tone.

“What did you say?” It seems she heard me mentioning something about her chest and glared angrily at me.

“Nothing, nothing, let’s go.” Scratching my head yet again, I stand up and follow Ana.

While strolling and walking to the north wing of the shopping center, where Gamer’s Corner is located, and where the supposed famous tournament will be held, Ana is talking a bit about her. She told me that she was studying Mechanical Engineering in Greenfield National University, and the reason for being here was that the university was under some kind of studies for some important credentials and certifications, so the students in her deanship had one “almost free” week. Two days ago she decided to come to Glassglow to watch the tournament.

“Wow, so many people and the event hasn't started yet.” After getting to Gamer’s Corner, I say in a surprised tone while watching at the crowd of at least a thousand people.

“Of course there is a lot of people. We are speaking about a BME tournament and it will be broadcast on the main web and highlighted on some TV channels.” Ana says proudly and she pulls me again by the wrist, “Come on, let’s go.”

“Let’s go? Go where? We are already here.” I reply trying to not being pulled anymore by her.

“Shut up and follow me dummy.” Ana pulls even harder.

“Okay, okay, I got it.” Ana is so stubborn when it comes to something she wants. I give up and follow her.

Ana leads me directly to a counter where a man and a woman were sitting with a high tech laptop in front of each of them. Both are wearing a black T-shirt with a blue moon logo with the words “Blue Moon Enterprise” beneath. Ana approaches the counter and with a charming tone says, “Hello, we wish to register to the Amateur tournament, are we still on time?”

“Of course, there’s still some time. Both of you wish to apply?” The woman replies gently with a smile.

“No, just him.” Ana makes a final pull and drags me closer and points at my face.

“Wh… What?” Her sudden action takes me by surprise, “Ana, what are you talking ab… ugh.” Just before I could finish my complaint Ana gives me a heavy blow to the stomach that I couldn’t dodge.

Ana draws near my ear and says in a soft tone, “Shhh, just follow what I say.”

‘Just what is she thinking?’ I couldn’t help but try to guess.

The female attendant watches dumbstruck the spectacle in front of her and returns to reality by an elbow push given by the man sitting at her side. She quickly regains her composure, “Ehmm… uhmm… sure.” She picks up a paper and extends it towards Ana, “You only have to fill this form with your basic information and pay a registration fee of 200 dollars.”

“200 dollars?” I exclaim loudly. ‘So she wants me to go bankrupt or what? I have to decline.’ Without thinking too much I try to persuade her immediately, “Ana, I don’t even have… ugh.” Ana gives me another heavy blow to the stomach I couldn’t dodge. ‘Don’t you know how painful is this?’ I say to myself.

Ana draws near my ear once again and whispers, “I told you to shut up, let me do this.”

‘She is so stubborn.’ I recall some memories of her, if there is an avatar of stubbornness, that’s Ana.

She turns to the woman and says, “Do you accept a credit card?”

The woman chuckles and says, “Yes, of course we do, just fill this option here, and sign here, here and…”

“Wait, wait just a moment.” I interrupt the woman but this time I assume a defensive posture to avoid being hit by Ana again. Seeing this, the man on the counter couldn't hold out and let out a laugh. “How much time is left until the registration period is over?” I continue.

“Uhm…” The woman glances to the clock on her computer. “The registration closes 1 hour before the tournament begins so you have roughly 40 minutes.”

“Thank you, be right back, Ana come here.” Without waiting, I start to walk away from the counter.

“What are you doing? Let’s register first!” Ana grabs my hand trying to persuade me to stay.

“Just come.” I hold Ana’s hand and pull her a few meters away from the counter. I snatch the registration form from her hand and start to read it while shooting glances around the Gamer’s Corner noticing some players that were chatting.

After a while I ask Ana, “What’s the prize of this tournament?”

“I think it’s like 20 thousand dollars.” Ana says while smiling.

“What? 20 thousand? No wonder.” I reply with a serious expression while I still reading the form.

“What do you mean?” Ana tilts her head to the right with her hands in her back to have a clear view of my face.

“Look at those over there. Almost all of them are holding advanced VR Gear pieces, and you have to register here the gear and the AI you will use as carrier orb.” I say while pointing to some players that were showing off the gear. “Here it says that they only give you the basic VR gear and you are allowed to bring up to 4 certified 3rd generation gear pieces. That alone is a huge disadvantage and I don’t even know what game this tournament is based on. I told you, I haven’t played anything for 3 years.” I say in one breath to Ana.

“Oh, is that so? About the game, it’s Shooting Range.” Ana says with a charming smile.

“Shooting Range?” My eyes light up. I know that game very well.

“Yup. So you still remember, isn't it? This tournament is held as a 5 years anniversary. When you received your VRD and this game was launched you played it a lot.” Ana says looking directly to my eyes waiting to see my reaction.

“Of course I remember, but still, it has been 3 years…” I have a conflicted look. This is a tournament after all, no matter how good I was, 3 years was enough to make rusty any player, experienced or not.

“I don’t think that 3 years would be enough to shut your keen gaming senses you had. Come on! It will be fun and it's my treat!” Ana holds my hand once again and tries to pull me to the registration counter.

“Yeah, it will be fun,” I say but I don’t let myself be pulled by her, “Still the difference in gear is too much. It’s like playing chess without towers and I don’t think that all of the participants would be incompetents to not take advantage of me. I don’t want to waste your money without having a chance to win.” I say sincerely trying to persuade Ana.

“Oh? So what do you need to have a chance to win?” Ana asks me with a tone full of curiosity.

“Uhm, since is a VRFPS, if I had a pair of high speed motion gloves and a 3rd gen ultra-high definition optic nerve link, I should stand a chance, but…” I shake my head while trying to explain.

“No buts. Let’s go then.” Ana replies to me.

“Go? Go where?” I ask with a shocked expression, I know where this is leading and I don’t have money right now!

“To buy those things obviously.” Ana stick out her lovely pink tongue to me.

“But… but both of them cost at least 2 thousand dollars!” The nightmare became real. My shocked expression turns even more shocked, if that was even possible.

“I know how much do they cost approximately, I have a pair of gloves in my house but obviously it’s impossible to bring them, so let’s go buy a new ones. And don’t complain, just follow me! We have barely enough time to go and return.” Ana happily pulls my hand, this time walking towards the hall that led to the left wing.

‘This girl! I’m needing around 8 thousand dollars for the second part of my project and she casually wants to buy gaming gear worth 2 thousand dollars.’ My tears, once again, began flowing down his face. Spend time and money on gaming? I definitely can’t do that.

We start to walk at a fast pace towards the electronics department. Before we arrive, I commented with a mysterious tone. “It will be very tiresome playing with the default commands of the AI.”

“What are you talking about?” Ana asks without stopping.

“Well, they only gives you a standard AI as the Carrier Orb.” I explain while pointing to the form.

“AI? You dummy, of course I’ll be the Carrier Orb!” Ana says with a happy tone.

“What? I don’t remember you being good as the Carrier Orb, you want us to lose that badly?” I say with a mocking tone. This was my little vengeance.

“Hey that’s mean! You just disliked the way I used to play, but you know I was pretty good! You know it! Besides, I played a lot as the carrier orb with my ex-bo… cough, cough.” Ana’s face turns as red as a tomato and tried her best to avoid being seeing by me. “A friend, I played a lot as a carrier orb with a friend of mine.”

“Oh… well, it’s your money anyways, I’ll do my best.” I say and continue my pace holding Ana’s hand and the bag of supplies. ‘Did I hear wrong?’ I try to recall what Ana was going to say before coughing.

When we got to the left wing, I try to persuade Ana to buy the gloves and optic link in the shop I know. Ana refused while saying it was a second rate branch for finished products, and she is quite right. Although they sell good quality basic materials the finished products are not of the highest quality. Nevertheless, I try to persuade her saying that even if she is right I know someone in that small store and we could get at least a small discount.

Her answer was a sudden kick in my left knee. She then pouted angrily and went to one of the biggest shops. She turned to be quite savage hitting me with no reason, that’s a bit annoying. Without anything else to discuss, I follow Ana.

The shop was crowded, and fearing that we would not make in time, Ana divided the job and tells me to wait in the row of the counter while she is going to look for the items. I used the spare time to fill almost all the inscription form while waiting there.

When she returns she doesn’t let me see directly the items that she picked and just tells me to have faith in her.

After a couple of minutes it was their turn to pay. Ana quickly grabs a pair of gloves and the optic link from the basket she is carrying and the attendant passes it through the Bluetooth scanner.

“It’s 2.900 dollars.” Says the attendant.

Ana gave the attendant her credit card while I look terrorized. I want to try to stop the transaction but I’m incapable of forming a single understandable word. She just shoot some glances at me and smiles.

We walk out of the shop and it took me some moments and breathing techniques to recover from the shock. Spending money without seeing the prices of the items was a common thing back then with my family, however, after I started living on my own I always try to go for the cheap things when I can, I never have expended so much money in luxury things.

I would have purchased similar items for 1.800 dollars in the shop that was less than 20 meters away! She spent a whopping 1.100 more for no reason! That was a terrible blow to my confidence.

“Ana, why did you do that? Did I missed the part when you told me you won the lottery or what?” I ask while trying to calm myself.

“Of course not you dummy, to be honest I wanted to buy another optic link but I had not enough money. I had around 3.200 dollars saved on my bank account so I still have something left for the inscription.” Ana says timidly, as if she was hiding something else.

“Didn't you told me that you were going to stay here in Glassglow until your university was certified? That’s at least 4 or 5 days more, isn't it?” I ask her with a serious tone. ‘Does she have flowers in her brain? She is spending more than 90% of her money just in the first day!’ I began to question Ana’s mental state.

“Yup, why do you ask?” Ana looks at me.

“Well, what do you plan to do with only 100+ dollars for 4 days? Do you have a place to stay? Do you have the ticket to return to Greenfield?” I ask while maintaining his serious tone. ‘I can’t call myself mature, but she just acts like a brat still being so impulsive punching me randomly and spending money without a second thought.’

“No, I planned staying in a hotel since the beginning.” Ana replies timidly. “And I trust you can win, but if by chance you don’t…” Ana blushes and starts fidgeting. “You can let me… at least you can let me stay at your room tonight, right?”

‘So that’s it, she thinks I will definitely win and refund her.’ I thought and the look her straight in to her eyes, “Ok, I get it, I understand. You are pushing me to win. I’ll do my best to win the tournament.” I reply still with a serious tone and start jogging towards the hall that leads to the south wing.

“Hey… you bastard! That's not it!” Ana stomps her feet and pouted angrily. She tries to catch me but I was faster.

After some time we are again in front of the registration counter with 10 minutes left for the registration period to close. Ana fills the last spaces of the registration form and gives it to the woman.

Ana pays with her credit card and after that the man in the counter starts to examine quickly the motion gloves and the optic nerve link checking that both items fulfilled the standards. Of course they were already unpacked, I examined them while walking.

After a while the man in the counter checks once more the form. He frowns and asks, “Where is the digital card that has the AI called Ana Garcia?”

“*chuckle* It’s not an AI, I’m Ana Garcia.” Ana replies with a soft laugh.

“Sigh, this is not a pro tournament, you are allowed to use scripted AIs as Carrier Orbs, there’s no need for you to operate the Carrier Orb.” The man in the counter said and immediately the woman continues, “Yeah that’s right, our standards AIs are pretty good, so you will be fine with them.”

“Hump, we don’t need an AI! We will participate together!” Ana angrily stomps her feet and grabs my arm. Feeling the softness of Ana’s breasts pressing against me, I don't protest at all.

“Oh… oh I get it.” The woman in the counter murmurs and makes an eye signal to the man who immediately understands.

“Oh right, of course there’s no restriction to playing as a couple, take this token and here is the password, and welcome to the Shooting Range Amateur Tournament.” The man says with a gentle smile.

“A couple? That’s what you call a team now?” I say with a confused look.

“Shut up and let’s go to the waiting room!” Ana says while pushing me with a slight blush in her face.

The woman and the man in the counter exchanged glances and shake their heads while laughing softly thinking that Marcus and Ana just came here to waste money and time.

We both took place in a corner of the waiting room. Gamer’s Corner started to get more and more crowded. We start to chat about the game. Ana explained me the most significant changes and patches in Shooting Range in the past years.

She tells me about the upgrades and nerfs that some weapons had, about the new weapons, new maps, and about the new customization options. I watch attentively at Ana’s explanation and ask some things that I need to know.

While I am talking, I am moving my hands emulating the sense of having a gun but suddenly someone sat at my side pushing me towards Ana. As a result I poke by accident Ana’s breasts with my index finger. Her answer with a slap to my face by reflex.

When there is only 30 minutes left for the start of the first round of the tournament, all the screens in Gamer’s Corner highlight the scaffold where two hosts welcome various judges that would verify that everything would be fair and square.

The hosts talk about the various categories and various prizes that will be given in the tournament. There are 4 categories: Junior, amateur, team amateur, and semi-pro. Although of those categories the most important one is semi-pro, the most highlighted one was amateur. The reason for this was because various celebrities are going to participate, thus the amateur category has a total of 635 participants.

After a while, the hosts explain that for the amateur category there will be 3 preliminary rounds with a 32 man death match at the end. The game of the first round will be “Tag Hunt”, with a total of 48 servers, and only the top 4 of each server would classify reducing the contestants to less than a third. The second round will be “Sniper’s Territory”, a triple threat random team competition in which only one of the 3 teams would classify, reducing once again the quantity of the contestants by a third, 64 to be precise. The last preliminary round will be “Juggernaut Duel”, a one vs one match were only the winner would classify to the fabled “Last Man Standing”.

Gamer’s Corner has a total of 3 floors. Although normally all the floors are not dedicated for virtual reality gaming, with the collaboration of Blue Moon Enterprise, for this event they had an outstanding total of 2.500 Virtual Reality Drives. The first floor only had around 300, while the second and third had a bit more than a thousand each one. For the first two rounds only celebrities and renowned characters will use the VRDs of the first floor and a total of 200 screens will highlight the different battles.

We have the token No. 1438. With the help of an assistant we go to the third floor and found the VRD which had the same number as the token. We have 15 minutes left until the start of the first round, so I start to install the drivers to tune the new motion gloves and the optic nerve link. This last piece has to be attached to the helmet of the VRD, so I quickly remove the default one and install the new one.

Ana went to another location to find an assistant to borrow a laptop which will be the terminal in which she will operate the Carrier Orb. The assistant looks at her with curiosity because in the amateur category she is the only one who is going to operate the Carrier Orb.

Normally, if a professional player could choose between an AI and an assistant, without a doubt they would choose the AI. However in the professional category the use of AIs is not allowed; that is the biggest difference between amateur and professional categories.

“Are you ready dummy?” Ana whispers to me with a sweet voice trough the microphone attached to the headset she is wearing.

“Almost, just a couple of sensors and I’m done. I wish I had a custom suit so I shouldn't have to test all this sensors one by one.” I say while connecting some sensors to some parts of my body and testing them with great efficiency, after all this was what I was studying.

“Oh? You were quite shocked for the price of the gloves and optic link being 3.000 dollars and now you wish to have a custom suit that costs at least 20.000 dollars?” Ana replies in a burlesque tone.

“…” I glare at Ana. Since I have a helmet with a dark tint, Ana couldn't see what face I was making, but still the thought of making me angry made her chuckle.

“The first round will begin in 2 minutes, all players finish your preparations.”

END OF CHAPTER 2