Chapter 9: Dire Straits.

We go out the store and start walking towards the Gamer’s Corner. We only spent around 20 minutes in the boutique so we have still another 20 minutes to go back.

‘Oh, he must love me! I can’t believe he didn’t say anything even if it was so expensive!’ Ana feels as if she is floating in the air. She is hopping like a little girl while walking.

On the other hand I am inwardly sighing. ‘2.550… plus 3.000 to pay for the gear she bought plus 8.000 I need for the project… I need to win, I cannot let her down.’ It is a lot pressure, it’s not like I don’t have ways to earn money, but if I lose I have to work a lot, ‘I have to be careful the next time I go shopping with her… Wait, there can’t be a next time… Or can it?!’

Although I am thinking about a lot of things, I am trying to have a fresh and relaxed expression. For some reasons I am used to deal with this sort of situations. ‘Don’t think too much about that, I'm planning to win anyways.’ No one plays a tournament without aiming to win, and I really want to win, no matter how hard it will be, no matter how many obstacles I find on my path.

After a bit more of walking we return to Gamer’s Corner.

There is a brief reminder about how the 3rd round is going to work. A Juggernaut Duel consist in 2 participants facing each other in an arena with a Juggernaut Spark, an item that basically increases the fighting capabilities greatly with some different effects based on the Race and Sub Race.

Since 64 participants remain in the amateur category there would be a total of 32 duels and each one has an estimated duration of 5 minutes. In order to let the people enjoy most of the show, there would be 4 waves of 8 duels with each wave starting 5 minutes after the previous one started. Although I am in the 4th batch of duels I am not permitted to watch the other duels, I have to remain in position in the VRD.

Even if this is just an amateur category it should be fun to see the remarkable duels and cunning strategies.

♫ ♪ ♫

“Mr. Ackerman, this is the information you asked for.” An assistant gives Mr. Ackerman a digital device displaying the information of two participants.

“Hmmm, let me see, Kortef… His name is Marcus Trevor… Mmm… Why everything is blank? Why there are no recent records about him? Is this a joke?” Mr. Ackerman turns towards the assistant waiting for an explanation.

“It seems he is a new player,” The assistant immediately replies, “He has no recent activity in any game in the past 2 years, maybe a little more. There were some records of 4 years ago, but for ranking purposes, when a player is inactive for more than 2 years his profile is treated as a new one.”

“So he is like a retired old pal, uh?” Mr. Ackerman tries to guess without looking at the personal details.

“Well… I don’t think you can call old a guy who only has 18 years…” The assistant says timidly.

“Hmmm, interesting, interesting.” Mr. Smith intervenes. “His match… Has it been decided yet?” He asks with a bit of curiosity.

“Of course, he is in the 4th batch, this is his opponent.” The assistant touches the screen of the digital device three times and the information of another player pops out.

“Crimson Crisis… Hybrid sub race Semi Specter… Gunner class…” Alfred pauses a moment and a smile flashes in his face. “Look like he was not very lucky.”

Mr. Smith frowns. Hybrids with the Semi Specter Sub Race has the ability of dealing 40% more damage to energy shields. This ability is boosted with the Juggernaut Spark 150% extra damage, total devastating against any kind of Battle Droid. On top of that the Gunner Class increases the accuracy and damage of mid ranged weapons dropping drastically the accuracy and damage of almost any other weapon, since Kortef is a Berserker with only light weapons he is at a huge disadvantage.

“Well, a bet is a bet, and I will not back down.” Mr. Smith smiles. He is in a good mood thanks to that Kortef, even if the odds are nonexistent for the next match his mood will not change.

“Right, a bet is a bet.” Mr. Ackerman affirms. In the end they are betting an additional 300.000 dollars for Kortef success or failure in the 3rd round. Of course Mr. Ackerman bet is for Kortef’s failure.

♫ ♪ ♫

“Marcus… Marcus… Marcus… MARCUS!” Ana suddenly yells in my ear.

“Uh? What?” I answer her surprised, I was a bit deep in thought.

“Why are you daydreaming? The 4th round starts in 7 minutes.” Ana says with some worry in her voice.

“Oh, I was just thinking university stuff, don’t worry I’m fine.” I smile faintly, “I’ll go online, be ready you too.”

“Sure, I’ll do my best.” Ana smiles back at me.

I recline in the VRD and put on my helmet. ‘Sigh. 3 years uh.’ My mind is filled with thoughts full of melancholy. ‘In 3 years I haven’t seen my family once. If not for expending time today with Ana… I would not even remember them right now and just follow with my usual tasks… I wonder, how are they? Do they really just let me go without batting an eye?’ For the first time in the past 2 years I feel homesick. Nevertheless, there’s something more important I must achieve right now so I proceed to connect to the game.

“Irregular mental activity detected. Scanning…

“…”

“Mental stress levels under critical point. Mental state may cause problems during the transfer of conscience to the Virtual Reality.”

‘Mental stress? You are not going to let me to connect because of stress?’ Upon hearing this my melancholy vanished immediately. “System command: decrease all system connection restrictions by 25%.”

“Warning: Decreasing system connection restrictions can cause irregularities in the virtual connection, do you wish to proceed?”

“System confirmation: proceed.”

“Warning: A record of overriding system connection controls will be kept. If multiple records accumulate you will no longer be able to connect until an official evaluation is made, do you wish to proceed?”

‘Great, now I’m being lectured by the OS of the VRD about how to operate a VRD… Just damn great!’ This restrictions sometimes are very annoying, I have no other choice but to try to stay calm and put my mind together. I inhale deeply and relax: “System confirmation: proceed!”

The system of a Virtual Drive, although is not exactly as intelligent as an AI, is very advanced. It is programmed to determine if a person is connecting to a Virtual Reality to evade the real life or even being threatened to log in, or just to enjoy a peacefully experience. Under certain extreme conditions the system may reject some log in attempts or just give warnings as the system did with me, but I as a Virtual Reality Studies student have some commands available to lessen or to shut down temporally the connection restrictions.

This command is given to some users to find malfunctions in the gear they normally test and is pretty normal to use it. The reason of why this restrictions exist is quite simple: To have friendly environment inside a Virtual Reality. If everybody could enter with their states of mind however they wished some Virtual Worlds would be utterly chaotic.

“Match start in 30 seconds.”

“Good luck Marcus!” Ana sends a system notification to me.

I open a voice chat and say with a mocking tone, “Hehe… Don’t screw it up Ana.”

“You bastard!” Ana shouts back at me. Her shout is so loud that some people turn to look towards her and she has to lower her head flustered.

I relax even more and do my best to focus on the oncoming duel. The participants don’t know which map nor which opponent we have until we see them with our own eyes. There is no way of predict if I should try medium range with the Light Plasma Carbine or close quarters combat with the Advanced Piercing Plasma Saber, I can only take decisions on the run and hope for the best outcome.

To be honest there was no need to lessen the connection restrictions, but I have to focus and I don’t want that an annoying system message pops up reminding me about the stress in the middle of the duel and because a tiny distraction I lose the duel. I wanted to play as safer as I could play.

“Match starts in 3… 2… 1...”

With a brilliant flash my consciousness is transported to the battlefield as Kortef. ‘South Cerit forest, nice.’ I think inwardly as I remember that this map is a part of a campaign map. I don’t have any way to know if it’s an exact copy or just the ambience is similar.

The map is a densely packed forest with thick trees that range from 1 to 5 meters in diameter and heights up to 200. In the campaign this map is packed with savage monsters in every corner, but it seems that for tournament purposes the wild life is turned off. There are dry leaves and fallen branches scattered everywhere, it seems as if the season is autumn.

The map isn’t very big. It has only a 200 meters diameter but with the densely packed trees it is hard to know where the enemy will assault. Since the proximity radar is turned off my only choice is to rely on the Tech-Type Carrier Orb pulse radar to know the location of my enemy. That will reveal my position the instant Ana activates it. I have to be prepared.

“Juggernaut spark acquired. Juggernaut Mode activated for 5 minutes.”

As soon as I am able to move a system notification pops in my field of vision indicating that this is indeed a Juggernaut duel.

The main effect of the Juggernaut Sparks in all the Battle Droids is quite simple: We get triple shields. Since I am a Silver Battle Droid and has 50% extra shields initially, with the Juggernaut Spark now I have 450% shields.

While 450% seems like a lot because the Battle Droid are more powerful the more shields they have, by distributing the energy from the energy shields in the head, torso, arms, and legs, each part get a boost to their functionality according to the amount of energy shields; however this boost caps when there is 75% of energy from energy shields stored in a specific part, meaning that the peak condition of Battle Droids functionality is 300% energy shields.

Since the Silver Sub Class has exceeds the maximum amount to operate in peak condition they don’t get further boosts, they just can maintain the peak condition after receiving a few hits.

Additionally to the triple shields all the Battle Droid have the Silver Sub Class has another minor perk under the Juggernaut Spark effect: The Seismic Strike Module can be used with less drawbacks.

“Ana, there’s no point in delaying, use the pulse radar and distribute the energy shields evenly.” I command Ana and immediately look for a cover in a nearby tree.

"Deploying Light Plasma Carbine, sending scanning wave... WATCH OUT! AT YOUR 9 O'CLOCK!" Ana was issuing the commands but the pulsar radar immediately shows the enemy 20 - 30 meters to the left where I am.

*Ba-ba-bang.*

*Ba-ba-bang.*

I couldn't even curse when I see two triple shot bursts coming at me. The first burst impacts in my Light Plasma Carbine that was being deployed sending it far away, the second burst impacts in my torso reducing my shields by an horrorific 82%. Without even giving me a chance for my heart to beat one time, I see as a 3rd burst is being mercilessly shot.

*Ba-ba-bang.*

"Marcus!" Ana shouts frantic.

After receiving the first burst I was already attempting to do a side-roll towards another tree in order to use it as cover, but still, one of the bullets of the 3rd burst impacts in my arm where the energy shields are stronger.

*Ba-ba-bang.*

A fourth burst was shot but I am already hiding. "That last bullet impacted my shoulder and still drained 26% of the energy shields? Impossible! What kind of weapon is that?" Without having the chance to fight back more than 100% of my energy shields were blown in just 3 seconds.

"It's not the weapon," Ana says, "I think he has a bonus against energy shields but I couldn't see anything, it was too fast!"

'Damn it, I need to at least grab the carbine again and figure a strategy to fight back.' I watch as the rifle is only 15 meters away from my position. In order to pick it I will be probably expose myself to heavy fire but being unarmed is far worse. "Here I go!" I yell and start to run towards my carbine.

"Don't be so full of yourself!" The other player yells and two bursts came from his Assault Rifle.

*Ba-ba-bang.*

*Clang.*

A metallic sound rings as my Carbine is hit by a bullet and sent far away. Knowing where the burst came from I abandon the pursuit of the carbine and turn to look directly the other player. As I see the Race of my opponent my mind goes blank for a fraction of a second, "This... is he a Half Specter?!"

Right after seeing my opponent face to face I can see now a bit of his information. His ID is Crimson Crisis and not only his appearance if of a Half Specter, he is indeed a Half Specter. He doesn’t give me much time and after sending my weapon away another two bursts are shot, this time aiming at me. I barely had time to take cover again with two bullets hitting me, depleting another 37% of my energy shields.

"How unlucky can I be? That race is my perfect counter and I don't have a ranged weapon right now. Damn it, damn it, damn it!" I am in a really tight spot.

"Calm down, there has to be a solution." Ana says helpless but tries to comfort me.

"I can't think of one but I will not surrender that easily. For now let's make some time and recover the carbine." I am not going to give up until I am killed. "Equip Advanced Piercing Plasma Saber." As soon as I say Ana immediately deploys the weapon and I tightly grip it, I can’t toss this one too.

I start to run from tree to tree taking cover while Crimson Crisis start to chase after me from a safe distance. "Hahaha brat, you are losing and yet you dare to just hide?" Crimson Crisis yells at me with a teasing voice.

♫ ♪ ♫

'Let's see if you are just a strategist or if you can actually win with your own merits under such disadvantages.' Mr. Smith strokes his chin while watching the duel in the screens.

END OF CHAPTER 9