Seeing the two screens floating in front of him, Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"So this is where I end up when I die in the Battle Arena, huh?" He muttered.
He glanced up at the ticking clock in the upper-right corner of his vision.
It read "00:09:59", indicating that he had just about ten minutes left in the VR Pod.
It was only enough time to complete a single"Wave".
Tsukuru put his hand under his chin, and began to do calculations in his head.
"Let's see, since it's a repeat run, I'll only get 10% XP." He muttered. "Wave one consists of four groups of enemies. Added together, it is fifteen Swarmers, 3 Goblins, and 3 Hobgoblins in total."
He glanced to the side.
"A single Swarmer gives me 1 XP, Goblins give me 2 XP, and a Hobgoblin gives me 5." He muttered.
He began to do math in his head.
"All together that's 15 XP from the Swarmers, 6 from the Goblins, and 15 from the Hobgoblins for 36 XP in total."
He glanced to the other side.
"Is 36 XP really worth it?" He thought.
His eyes then darted to the side.
'System, bring up my Status Screen.' He thought.
Instantly, the System screen popped up in front of him.
[Name Hikiko Tsukuru
Race Human
Level 5
XP 1264/1600
Title Little Rookie
Ability Video
Ability Level 2
_____________________
HP 30/30
MC 60/60
_____________________
Strength 11
Stamina 14
Agility 12
[Stat Points: 0] ]
As Tsukuru studied the screen, his eyes narrowed.
'36 XP would bump my XP up to 1300 out of 1600.' He thought to himself.
As he was thinking, he subconsciously glanced upwards,
As he did, he noticed that his clock now read "00:06:59", meaning that he had lost threewhole minutes just thinking about it.
The last thing he wanted was to be forcibly ejected right in the middle of a fight.
Tsukuru let out a sigh, and hit the red "Retire" option.
As he did, an electronic "beep" was heard, and a new, more familiar System message appeared.
[ What would you like to do?
[Transfer to Power Fighters]
[Exit VR Pod] ]
Tsukuru momentarily thought about logging into Power Fighters, and catching the tail-end of Quinn's last fight.
But Tsukuru didn't know what Quinn's User ID was.
And with it, he had no idea where to look.
And seeing as how he had less than seven minutes left in the pod, it was unlikely that he'd find him in time.
It was the same reason why Quinn and Vorden hadn't tried looking for Tsukuru the first time they came here.
I would have been a waste of time.
Tsukuru let out a deep sigh, and pressed the "Exit VR Pod" option.
The option lit up bright, and an electronic "beep" was heard.
Instantly, Tsukuru's body began to break down into pixels.
The process started from the top down, making it look as though Tsukuru was disintegrating.
Instantly, Tsukuru's vision faded to black once again.
A moment later, in the VR Room back in the real world, an electronic "beep" was heard from one of the VR Pods in the center of the room.
Instantly, the hydraulics activated, and the lid began to move up on their own.
As they did, steam could be seen coming out from the interior.
When the lid was fully raised, Tsukuru could be seen laying inside, looking as though he was asleep.
Instantly, Tsukuru's eyes twitched, looking like someone who was just now waking up from a deep sleep.
Tsukuru reached his right arm out, and grabbed the side of the VR Pod.
Slowly, he used his upper-body strength to lift him out of the pod.
As he got out, Tsukuru looked over at the Pod to his immediate right, which was still closed and in use.
'Guess I'm gonna have to wait here until Quinn finishes.' Tsukuru thought.
***
Meanwhile, back in Power Fighters, Quinn had just started his fourth and final match of his second half-hour of the day.
It was against a Level 4 with the Stone Transformation Ability like Riley.
Quinn had an easier time than during his first fight against Riley, as the Blood Swipes could slice through stone perfectly fine.
In the end, he finished off the Level 4 with another barrage of Blood Swipes.
A System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[25 Exp received. Exp: 365/800]
His last match complete and his time in the VR Pod now exhausted, Quinn decided to log out.
Nate, after observing Quinn during his matches, had a strange thought lingering in his mind.
'Just what is that Ability?' Nate thought.
Nate brought up the Power Fighters UI, and brought up the "Ability List" section.
He began to scroll down the long list of Abilities, to see if he could find anything similar to those strange, red lines.
However, he could find no such thing.
***
Back in the real world, Tsukuru was leaning against his VR Pod like a wall.
However, unlike before, his school uniform couldn't be seen.
He had now switched into a set of robes with a hooded cape, which was folded back behind his head.
The robes were jet-black and had a metallic sheen, as if they were made of metal.
The robes gave Tsukuru the appearance of an assassin or a rogue from an old, medieval-era video game.
It seemed that during the time he was waiting for Quinn to finish, he had created a replica of the same "Glathrium-Fiber Robes" he had created in his System's "Battle Arena".
Which he was now wearing as proxy "Beast Equipment".
Suddenly, he heard an electronic "beep", as well as the sound of hissing steam to his immediate right.
Instantly, he snapped his head to his right.
As he did, he saw Quinn climbing out of his VR Pod, as well.
Seeing this, Tsukuru smirked.
"Hey." He replied in greeting.
Hearing the voice, Quinn turned to face him.
As he did, Quinn stared at Tsukuru for a moment.
"Tsukuru…What are you wearing?" Quinn asked, tilting his head in confusion.
He was slightly off-put by Tsukuru's new outfit.
Tsukuru looked down at his outfit.
"Oh, this?" He asked. "It's an outfit that's made with 40% Glathrium fibers. I got the idea from the 'cape' you were talking about."
Quinn stared at the strange outfit for a moment.
"I see." He replied. "Well, I think it's time we headed back to the dorms."
Tsukuru nodded in agreement.
"Yeah." He replied. "Let's go."
Unfortunately, as Quinn and Tsukuru walked away from the pods and towards the door VR Room, there was something that Quinn had not accounted for.
As Quinn was not an expert gamer, there was one thing he didn't anticipate.
Gamer Rage.
The Level 4 User Quinn had beat was so frustrated at his loss, that he had gone running to the gamer forum to complain.
He shared a video of his match with the title "What Ability is this? Is he a hacker?!'
The post started to gain some traction, as the over ten people Quinn had beaten today started posting comments on the video.
"Yeah, I fought against him too, and he used those red lines on me."
"I lost in an instant."
"Is there really an Ability like this in the game?"
"It looks like the Wind Slash Skill, but why is it red?"
"Yeah, didn't they ban cosmetics like a WHILE ago?"
This comment in particular had someone react with the post "I miss my flowers!", followed by a "crying face" emoji.
Apparently, the previous reply had opened up an old wound.
Of course, even though the post had gained some traction, there weren't many comments.
After all, things like this were posted on a nearly daily basis.
Usually, from sore losers who could accept that they had lost, believing that their opponent must have been a hacker.
But those who did watch the video started to ping the creator, asking if what was seen was real.
In the VIP dorms of Military Base 2, Logan was busy sketching out a blueprint for Tsukuru's "VR Headset", the working name Logan was going with.
Next to him as he worked, was the replica helmet Tsukuru had given him, Logan using it as reference.
However, it was then that he heard a "ping" from his computer.
"Oh, for crying out loud." Logan muttered, as he saw the post. "Another person accusing their opponent of being a hacker?"
Usually, Logan would just ignore these posts, considering them as nothing more than background noise, but he noticed that the admins were getting tagged in the post more than usual.
Logan let out a sigh, and clicked "play" on the video.
As he watched the video, Logan's attention grew and grew.
Watching the video, Logan could immediately tell that it was real.
Curious, Logan searched up the User IDs of the two fighters.
Looking at their information, his eyes widened when he saw that the person with the red lines didn't have any Ability selected.
"No, it can't be." Logan muttered. "Did someone really hack the system?"