*'Hiiro'*

... Phew.

I finished about twenty of the one hundred different forms I could use. I used the skill Create_Form from the menu, and painstakingly molded each form into something truly beautiful. As an example, Form_2 was my basic model, without a head. It had no eyes, ears, mouth or nose, simply because I didn't want to make something out of a b-rated horror movie, but was made so that people couldn't decapitate me. Literally all I need to say is 'Form two' and I'll change into it in about a quarter of a second.

I mean, that one'll be fun to test out, but I'm more curious about Form_1, a dandelion puff. For some reason I could set my form's mass, so I made it as light as possible. I wanted to use abuse this is many ways, such as creating a minor wind from my hand movements, and seeing if I can fly up mountains...

But before I could test it, I was rudely interrupted by a forced log-off. There was a button on the helmet that would automatically log the person inside off. This was implemented so that bugs that could force people to stay in, wouldn't make you unable to leave. However, there were certain types of operating systems that didn't have this. Since this was a game that operated on a brand new system, I assumed it didn't have one. But I was proven wrong!

"Oi! Hiiro! Get up!" Boomed a familiar voice.

"Grr... What is it Yun?" I grumbled out of a mixture of annoyance, and genuine tiredness.

"You know the tournament I told you I conscripted you into? It starts in an hour. I'm here to give you the warning." She said in a joyful tone.

"Eh?" I looked at the date. It's Monday. "Oh, so that's what you meant about it being next week. I assumed it would be in the weekend, since you were talking about attending practice sessions, and you only told me yesterday, on the Sunday!" I explained bitterly.

"Yeah, I know it was cheap to say it that way, but I also knew you had your new game, so didn't think you'd accept it any other way. One of the board members wanted you to join it, so gave me the task of making it happen. Sorry." She reasoned her actions, with a pretty solid reason at that.

"Okay. I get your point, now leave so I can get freshened up, I was about to break to have a bath anyway." I surrendered. It wasn't going to be a challenge anyway. I'd still rather take a bath and change clothes before it than after it.

"Oh, okay." With nothing else to say, she simply left. Remembering something, she turned back and added "by the way, expect some animosity from the other team members. They know you're in it, and who you are."

"I gathered."

I went to the bath, thinking about Myth of Men, and the new disguises I'd make in-game.

-

Hm, this must have been the first time I've been to the University since the enrollment day/ enrollment exams. There are way too many people here though, and since I was with Yun, the joint most popular person in the school, I was the heart of attention.

People were mainly confused as to who I was, which was reasonable since I was only in for an exam, then left. But then I heard the whispers of insults... You know, the kind where someone tries summarize your entire life story based off your looks, and 'rumors' that they heard someone say someone else said, because their lives aren't interesting enough to talk about themselves but still want to seem relevant and cool... And this is why I'm not social, I find most types of people annoying...

Anyway, I digress. Me and Yun were at the school to go to the club-room, where we met the others.

By the way, if you're expecting, fat hairy nerds, with doritos and mountain dew, you're dead wrong.

This is a room of avid SolarCraft 2 players in Hangou, this room is full of people who are anorexic, clean-shaven gamers. I know, your mind is blown by their relatively good physique. These people are pseudo-pros. Noobs to me, but miles above casual players and the new. And pseudo-pros are the kind of people who spend about 8 hours a day playing online matches, using so many short-cuts that their fingers move about a mile in distance, not displacement, each game. Yeah, this level of play uses alot of energy. And as the saying goes, 'if you have time to eat, you have time to play. So most them pick games over

When entering the room, they immediately knew who I was. I felt a mixture of scorn and awe coming from the group, which was understandable.

"Howdy, you know who I am already, if someone wants a friendly match during or after the tournament to see my skills first-hand, tell me." I said. I wanted to put off more of a friendly tone, but it ended up seeming egotistical.

The room was silent, undecided on whether or not I was a complete arse or not. So I simply followed Yun going to the coach that'll take us to the venue of the tournament. Only about ten of the club members actually went, the others just continued staring at their screens. As for why the non game playing Yun was here? She was organizing the travel and such, so came with us to sort out the administration stuff. I was sat next to one of my fellow players, so I started to talk to him. I thought I might as well try and get information now, rather than finding it out later on and getting hassled by it.

"Mind if I ask 'what do you main'?" I asked.

"You're the person claiming to be the ABC'sOfDatingSims, right? The person who's world champion, and only here because you were forced into this tournament by Yun... Why do you care about my main?"

"Intrigue more than anything. I know the game pretty well, and thought that I could get through the day without major death glares if I at least tried to see if I could advise you guys to make your plays stronger. Nothing major of course, just minor pointers like how to cheese effectively... Giving a Terran advise meant for a Zerg against Protus would be pointless. Do you have a problem telling me or something?"

This was a semi-lie. It was true that I wanted these guys not to hate me, but I mainly wanted to play nice so Yun would accept my way of life.

"No, I was just thinking you had better things to do, than talking to me. So was confused. I'm a Terran by the way."

"Which kind, bio or mech?"

"I mainly go bio, since I don't know the mech timings. I sometimes get tanks to secure ground, but mainly go for marines."

"Hm, but that won't work against certain builds. How would you counter Ghosts?"

"People use ghosts?"

"They're a unit, so yeah. I use them mainly to harass my enemy and keep them from fully committing to a fight, but I have used full armies of them in someones base to great affect. Not many people expect them, so people rarely have counters for a simultaneous charge and ghost infiltration with twenty plus ghosts." I said, semi taunting the guy. I referenced a play I, as the ABC'sOfDatingSims, did regularly. I did it in the world championship a year ago, and it basically kick-started a new meta.

"So you're adamant on the fact you are him them..." He muttered in a voice almost too quiet to reach me.

"You can believe me and ask for advice now, or not believe me and I'll shut the hell up. Your choice."

"Sorry, there's a limit to what I can believe... Someone that flawless being a normal university student, is beyond that limit."

I replied with silence, which maintained until we got to the venue. It was a relatively large area, but as it turns out, we were basically entered into a pro-tier tournament. But rather than being scared, most of the students were pumped, wanting to win a game or two to prove their school proud... And then there was me, not caring.

I was somehow in the first game against someone from another school. We entered the lobby, me under my main in-game title 'ABCsOfDatingSims'. And you know how it went. I was protoss, so cannon rushed his natural early, then built up an army around that, as he desperately tried to stop the rush unsuccessfully. At eight thirty I pushed in with an army of 150 2-2 zealots, and he conceded. The next game I was Zerg, so went for the zergling harass, massing up 100 by the five minute mark, and going all in. He didn't have enough marines and conceded. I didn't lose a single zergling in the attack, and with my title, the room was wild for the entire time. Even the skeptics were starting to believe it was actually me.

I did similar cheese-based strategies for the entirety of the tournament. All in all, my school's team barely cracked the second round, with only two others getting through to the round of 64. Only one other school had a single person get through to that round, who I ended up beating in the next round flawlessly.

I ended up with solely pros, but obviously won, and started taking the piss by accepting requests for songs to type out.

Someone said Ave Maria, and I said why not? So excruciatingly typed out keyboards in text to say which notes were to be played. I tried to maintain the tempo of the piece, and simultaneously did a skytoss domination on my opponent.

Similar shenanigans later, and I beat all my foes. The entire room recognized who I was in my first game, so accepted their defeats in game as just the existence of the massive skill gap. I got a trophy, and about 2M won, and then went back on the coach.

"Congrats Hiiro." Practically screeching in joy was surprisingly the club owner. "I'm a fan of the ABCs, but I didn't trust that you were really him until the first game. Congratulations, and sorry for not trusting you. Your plays were flawless, and you APM was so high, you started taking the mick out of all the pro-gamers as the true ABCs should, which was hilarious. Thanks for showing me all the good games, it was fun."

"Yeah..." I sheepishly responded. I'm not used to having fans, but critics and cynics all claiming bloody murder because I'm somehow not worse than them... It's all the same to me, so to hear someone swallow their pride and congratulate me is relatively surprising. "It was more of a time waste than anything though. I'd like to be playing MoM right now to be honest."

The other guy laughed it off, and the coach reached the school. I left for the dorm with Yun.

"Hm, so was that tournament fun?"

"Not really. Finding out what Ave Maria, and giving a piano tutorial whilst playing was pretty challenging though. The plays were predictable, and skill was just not comparable, and it was honestly disappointing that the pros were just as bad." I took a long, deep sigh. "But I guess it's worth it if I've proven who I am to the masses... But as I say, this is an exception. I've done my part, keep your end of this too."

"Fine. To be honest, what I said about the board governor was correct, but I mainly wanted to see you actually try. Even though you only tried to joke about and taunt all those you crossed, it was still worth it to me to see one of us three being so dominant in a competition. Sorry for today and thanks." With a wink, she ended her trail of thought.

Looking at me, she suddenly asked. "By the way, what is with that mask?"

"Huh, I swore I told you about the incident. I guess not... Eh, I'll explain again now. Years ago an incident happened, and half my face is now missing, replaced by a constant hole that almost shows my skull. I wear a mask so that nobody gets traumatized by it." I answered. Truthfully I don't actually know what exactly happened. One day something happened in a science lesson, and I passed out. When I came to, a month had passed and I only had half a face.

"Eh? I didn't know anything about that..."

"Well now you do. This is why I have this mask, it acts like a fake layer of skin, keeping my blood in me, and not letting me bleed to death..."

"Huh. Anyway, it's getting late, we should probably pick up the pace." Yun claimed, ending the dialogue.

We ended up walking the rest of the path, in the city at night. With an almost melancholy nostalgia encompassing us.

I finally got to the dorm, but ended up really tiring myself out. A mixture of sun-stroke, socializing and walking I guess was the cause, but I ended up spontaneously falling asleep in the lobby.