Year 21 of Project: Zerø, Zypher's past life.
The 21st Trophy on the line, and the Caelestia's fifth trophy if they win this finals.
The concept of the game is King of the Hill.
But there is a catch.
The game starts with each of the two winning teams to be the first ones to spawn.
They are apart from each other, and they won't know where the other one is. Not for now.
Then, there will be teams that will be participating.
They are the one hundred teams that participated, that made the month long celebration extravagant, as the whole world participated in it.
And, the ones who defeat the representative of each team, will have the ticket to also, get a trophy under their name.
As soon as the bell rang, the first ones to be sent, are of course, Zypher, and the Captain of the Glory Team, which is the professional team of the Magic Night Guild, under the Baltinoir Family.
They are on their quest to get the fifth trophy, which was the Four Main Guilds' target for four years straight, only to meet Eclipse, Caelestia's professional team.
In four years, they went and defeated them, and without fail, get the titles again and again.
And for Zypher, those four years were the absolute hell for them – they can't even play the game normally as they have guns, swords and all kinds of weapons aimed at their backs.
But this is the moment that they can prove that they are better than the Four Great Guilds.
As his character loaded in, he spawned on a cliff, near the edge of the map, and was relatively safe.
Until the first "summons" appeared.
At first, they come at him one by one.
But, they got creative.
As one by one didn't solve the problem, they charged at him with one more than the last ones that went forwards.
One, became two, then became three, until there came a time that he was fighting ten people at the same time.
But, that was not the problem.
As he fought the eleventh wave, something happened unexpectedly.
He was fighting eleven people, but dodging thirty attacks.
Why?
Because the ones who were just watching earlier decided that his aura farming is enough.
When the group attacking him slows down, or stops because he found an opening, those opening becomes the targets of the ones behind.
The sheer volume of attacks coming onto him is so dense that he can only attack after dodging two to three attacks.
And, that slowed him down full time.
When he fought the first ten waves, he counterattacked as soon as he saw an opening, but now, he has to think twice, thrice, or even up until five times to strike that opening.
This, in turn, drained his stamina.
And, the people here aren't just nobodies.
They are rankers, people who fought in the front lines, and people who excelled in one to two points in the game.
This might be a drop in the bucket, but too many drops can still fill it.
Up there, archers, snipers, marksmen and artillerists have an impeccable sense of timing.
The ones watching at their televisions were at the edge of their seats.
At this very moment, it looked like the world was against this one team in particular, and just like the heavens are mocking them, Eclipse, for they were the winners from last year, are the last ones to be deployed.
Meaning, it may be too long already, before they can provide support. Their eyes are glued to the screen, teeth grinding against each other as they watch their leader being surrounded by wolves.
And, the commentaries, and judges were delighted on what's happening.
First, is because all of them, are the products of the Four Great Guilds.
And, they saw how Eclipse thrashed their home guilds, and that scarred their hearts.
But, that year, the mocking they did slapped their faces.
In the most crucial moment, Zypher removed his limiter, that everyone in the said place saw why they were the champions.
A sharp whistle tore through the air woke him up from his reminiscing.
Stepping back, the four more attacks came to him, but, these attacks are not meant to hit him.
These attacks were made to limit his movements.
As soon as he dodged, a figure flew overhead, firing four shots, in different angles, going to four different directions.
And from the way he dodged, he only has place to go to.
And there, was the trap.
A sudden movement appeared from the shadows as it lunged towards him.
[Experiment #211 slain. Gaining EXP Points.]
As the system notification sounded, he already dodged the attack and did a counterattack.
[00:04:26]
The time, that looked like it stopped, continued flowing, as Zypher continued on fighting down the hellhole.
Seconds passed by, each move became exhausting as the enemies he faced started to give him headache.
And, time is not on his side.
Time flowed like water in a jar full of holes, and he didn't have the means to provide a cover, nor pour more water down the jar to keep it full.
"Damn, at this rate, I'm gonna die before I reach the bottom."
As he thought about it, a golden sword appeared on his hand.
His eyes, glowed golden as highlights appeared on the clothes he wore.
"Holy Treasury."
As the glow intensified, circular rifts appeared behind him, and each one of them, has golden weapons each, handles protruding outside, and ready to be used.
Then, he pulled another saber out of one of the portals, and decided that this is enough for fooling around.
"Blade Domain."
He muttered as hundreds of thousands of blades, swords, knives, and sabers appeared out thin air.
"Holy Descent!"
Without further ado, he rushed down the hellhole, with light guiding his path, he started to slaughter all the enemies in his path.
Notification after notification rang out, and before long, Zypher discovered himself in front of a pillar, looking at a figure chained on it.