Chapter 16: Battle in the Lava Crossroads! Part 1

The voice of the host reverberates while he starts to explain the rules of the secondary categories for the final match. The Amateur category being the highlighted category for this tournament, is going to be announced last. Nevertheless, being a 1st class tournament it has good surprises and hard maps for each category.

"Are you nervous?" Ana smiles while peeking at me.

"Why should I?" I say unblinkingly.

"Oh, so you are that confident?" In contrast, Ana blinks twice hearing my statement.

"Not at all." I smirk.

Ana tilts her head with a natural charming curiosity, "Then why are you not nervous?" She asks.

"Because now that I think about it," I pause and look directly at Ana's eyes and shrug slightly, "It wasn't my money which got invested."

"You dummy!" Ana tries to hit me but I agilely dodge.

After a while later the host showcases a new map that will be used for the final round in the amateur category: Lava Crossroads. It is simple map conformed by 4 suspended bridges that join together in a structure at the top of a mountain, the rest of the map is either volcanic rocks or lava rivers. Each bridge is about 50 meters wide and has a lot of trenches and sandbags that are of perfect use for cover.

The 32 players would be spread evenly near each of the four roads and while getting to the center doesn't ensure victory, there are many advantages for getting faster than others like shied recovery tools and deployable turrets.

There is a hint of mystery while the host talks about the maps of each category, obviously there are some secrets that the players have to discover while being inside of the game, but at least having a general idea of the layout is enough to make some mental preparations.

"And for the prizes, those who are seeing this kind of 1st class tournament for the first time may not know our costume in BME that is to rise prizes accordingly depending on the number of participants." The energetic, yet mysterious voice of the host booms out from the speakers loudly catching my attention.

"Right Rick," The other host, a female one, intervenes naturally and continues the explanation with a charming voice, "In BME is our pleasure to care for the players, and we do not profit monetarily from hosting this tournaments, that's why all is returned to you, our dearest players!"

Hearing this words the crowd become confused. The entrance fee of 200 dollars is not wasted even if you lose on the first round. Each participant get a digital deluxe copy of Shooting Range valued at 130 dollars, another 100 dollars worth of vanity items inside the game, and a commemorative title and insignia, in other words, they are not really profiting from hosting this type of tournament.

On top of the already generous entry gifts by giving prizes to the winners they are incurring in loses, and if you take into account the costs of the staff, publicity, installations, gear, etc., the cost of the whole event goes to another level.

Seeing the confused looks on the crowd and even the players, both hosts looked at each other and nod with a pleasant smile across their faces, they wait for about 10 seconds and then the female host continues, "Since this is the 5th Anniversary of Shooting Range, all the money collected as entry fee will be directly distributed to the prizes of the winners!"

Without even letting the crowd react, Rick then carries on, "A total of 1534 players participated in this 5th anniversary tournament. There announced prizes ranged between 3 to 20 thousands depending on the category for an initial pool of 95.000 dollars. But today, we are adding the 306.800 dollars from the entrances fees to the monetary prizes!"

Gasps, yells, blank looks, slack-jawed mouths, players and watchers alike are filled with astonishment. What the hosts mean is that they are quadrupling the already generous prizes. Four time the prizes. The prize for the first place of the amateur category is no longer 20.000 dollars but four times that amount.

I am almost drooling thinking about the new prizes but the next intervention of the female host shock me even more.

"And of course the categories which will benefit more will be those which had more participants."

Of the 1534 players from the 4 categories, 635 are from the amateur category, which is more than a third from the total. That means that from the 306.800 dollars from the entrance fees, more than 100.000 is going to be added to the prizes of the Amateur category. The initial pool of 35.000 dollars for the category will increase to 162.000 dollars.

After hearing this, I am actually drooling with my mouth wide open. Ana is shocked too, she stands up but then she has to sit down to calm her agitated breathing.

The hosts plays a little with the suspense they created and then proceeds to announce the new amount of the prizes. For the amateur category, the first place will get 90.000 dollars, the second place will get 50.000 and finally the third place will get 15.000 dollars. There will be 7.000 dollars in prizes for the rest of the finalists.

"Time to get ready." After the introduction ends, I wipe the drool from my mouth and then, with a hint of glint and eagerness in my eyes, I stand up while helping Ana that is still a bit shocked.

One by one, 145 players off all 4 categories go towards the 128 VR Drives accompanied by a round of applauses from the public. As for why there are more players than drives, it is because the semi-pro category final round has 16 players and 16 Carrier Orb operators, the 17th extra player is obviously Ana.

I go quickly to my VRD to attach and test all the sensors. Unfortunately I didn't hear the part where the host said that the amateur category is the last one. I am starting to get annoyed but there is nothing I could do, if I want to stand up from the VRD I will have to attach all the sensors again later and it would be even more bothersome.

Each category has an expected match time of 20 minutes with 10 minutes intermission, which meant that I have to remain motionless a little more than an hour before going online.

"Sigh, I thought I heard that all categories will start at the same time." I say a bit frustrated.

"*chuckles* Of course not, that would not be fun for the audience." Ana says looking at me, "Just admit you were excited when you heard the prizes."

"Look who's talking, I almost had to piggy back you because you couldn’t move from the shocking news!" I say while looking at Ana.

Ana remains silent for a moment and then says in a low voice while timidly playing with the tips of her fingers, "You should have done so."

My gaze inevitably falls on Ana's chest and I sigh inwardly.

Upon seeing me looking at her, Ana immediately reacts trying to cover her breasts with both arms. "Hey! What the hell are you thinking?!" She says embarrassed thinking I am actually staring at her chest.

I shrug, look at her eyes directly and say casually, "Just that you are a bit..." I pause for a moment and notice that Ana's cheeks are turning red, then I sight again and continue, "Heavy."

"Heavy."

"Heavy."

"Heavy."

The word "heavy" resounds more than a hundred times in Ana's mind in less than one second. Her pupils quickly contract, the sweet and embarrassed expression she had a moment ago is replaced with a cold glare and a murderous aura.

"What did you say?" Ana slowly approaches me step by step.

"Stop, stop, STOOOOOP!" A loud shriek is heard in Gamer's Corner for an instant.

Time went by and there are just 5 minutes left until the start of the final round of the amateur category. The last finals were the team finals, since there was a relatively stronger team, everybody guessed from the start who will win. Effectively that team was the winner and because of that the public is a bit bored, however they are waiting with anticipation the finals of the last category, the amateur category.

I finally put on the helmet hiding a mark of a slap in my right cheek and log in.

"Welcome to the lobby No. 4. Match will start in 1 minute."

'90.000 dollars huh, that's more than twice of what I have earned in the past year.' Each second is an eternity for me but I am not nervous, I am excited. "Here we go Ana! Get ready."

"Roger." Ana focuses hard on the laptop in order to do her job properly.

"Battle start in 3... 2... 1...

As always, my vision is filled with a bright light and the next moment I am transported in to a different landscape as Kortef, the Silver Battle Droid.

"So the spawn is in a rocky forest uh?" The first thing I do is to take cover and crouch behind a rock inspecting my surroundings.

There are tall rocks everywhere. Black volcanic rocks. The floor is black too, I can see different layers of possibly different volcanic eruptions emulated in order to create this landscape. Further ahead I can see tiny streams of red liquid flowing, it is obviously hot lava. This rivers of lava are 1 to 3 meters wide. The illumination of the map is a bit lacking because the time of the map is set at dawn, the sun is not fully bright yet.

I lift my body and observe a tall structure in the south, "The bridges are about 2000 meters ahead." I murmur.

The Carrier Orb projects a holographic map and then studies it for 2 seconds, "The length of the bridges are around 600 meters, plus 100 meters of the radius of the main structure, plus 3000 meters of open field, for a total of 3.7 km. The area of the map is around 43 square kilometers, fairly large map for 32 players." Ana quickly calculates and informs me.

"That's right, but the strategic advantage of that tower connected by the 4 bridges is too good to just hunt in the outer perimeter of the map." I judge that it doesn't matter if the map is larger, the main battle is going to focus in those bridges.

"What's the plan then captain?" Ana asks, she is ready to jump into action immediately but it is obvious that in such large map it will take a couple of minutes until we meet another player.

"Sigh, can you stop calling me captain for once?!" I really dislike that nick, in fact, I dislike military tittles, "Going straight is a suicide, but not going means certain defeat if someone gets to the tower," It is truly a headache to decide what will be the optimal strategy since I only have one life, "Whatever, let's go and decide on the run!"

"Yes, captain!" Ana teases me again and retracts the holographic map.

*Thud, thud, thud.*

I start to run but not even 5 seconds later I stop.

"WOW, amazing! A Levitating Charger!" Ana sounds extremely excited. Right in front of us there is a black metallic vehicle. It is like a motorcycle but without wheels, and if you look closely you could see that the vehicle isn't touching the ground at all. "*chuckle* Captain, you are quite lucky!" Ana says happily.

However, I just stand there, unmoving. Since Battle Droids doesn't have facial expressions it is hard for anyone to know if I am happy or not. Truthfully it is good to find a vehicle so easily, but I am thinking in something else. I see the Levitating Charger and then stare in the distance towards the tower.

Ana notices that I am strangely quiet, "Captain? What's wrong?"

"This is bad." I say softly.

"What? It's a brand new Levitating Charger, what's so bad about it?" Ana is a bit confused.

"No Ana, not the Charger, think about it..." I start to get near the Charger, "If this sort of vehicles are in the outer perimeter of the map, then what sort of things are inside the tower?"

"Can it be... A defense system?" Ana says with a hint of worry. If a player takes control of a defensive tower, no one else could harm them. A Defense System Tower requires at least 100 players working in unison in order to siege it.

"Defense systems has a range of 4 to 5 times the height of the building, that tower is only 300 meters tall." I shake my head disapproving Ana's idea.

"So its maximum reach can cover only half of the map," Ana continues my theory, "Meaning that if that tower is a defense system a player can just hide 2 km away forcing the player in the tower to have to go outside and find them."

"Exactly, and to top it off, this map doesn't have a time limit, so how can they be so sure that this gigantic map will be cleared in only 20 minutes?" I ask Ana with a bit of mystery.

"Could it be...?” Ana is thinking of the only possible and logical option, this time she is clearly worried.

I do a tiny leap and start the Levitating Charger, then I look to the clear sky for a moment, "That's an Orbital Weaponry Control Tower."

END OF CHAPTER 16