CHAPTER 73: START OF THE FIRST MATCH

The players surrounding us also kept increasing.

Before we were unable to move around anymore, we checked out something that we were interested in.

That was…

「No good, Hind! There’s an invisible wall and we can’t get out!」 (Yumir)

「Just as I thought…so they are basically saying that if you want to see the imperial capital, you should come on your own, huh?」 (Hind)

It was to sightsee around the imperial capital by using this warp.

We tried going through the entrance/exits but there was an invisible wall like when you haven’t defeated the area boss yet.

The other players seemed to be thinking the same, a nimble looking girl close to us tried to avoid the entrance/exits and climb the wall.

She did manage to climb it without issues, but once she stretched out her hand it collided with something as expected.

Once our eyes met, she let out a wry smile and waved her hand, and I returned a similar reaction.

「That’s a shame. Even though I wanted to see things like the castle or the townscape of the imperial capital. We can’t really see them from here.」 (Selene)

「If low level players stayed behind here, they would be unable to move to other places after all. It can’t be helped.」 (Riizu)

「That’s why they made this area…just as Riizu has said, if you thought about it, it’s the natural result.」 (Hind)

「Even then, it’s human nature to try to do it! Doesn’t it make you want to get to the other side of the stage!?」 (Yumir)

In 3D games, there are times where you slip through the graphics and there’s nothing on the other side, and you end up falling though.

There’s no meaning in doing that.

If you found something like that in an online game, it’s usually a custom to contact the developers.

However, to keep challenging a difference in level that looks like you could climb but you can’t and before you notice an hour has passed…that kind of experience, I believe some people can understand that kind of thing.

「Well, I mean…since we got here early and all, let’s go and secure some good seats.」 (Hind)

「Oh, aren’t there still empty seats at the front!? Hurry up!」 (Yumir)

We followed after Yumir who ran off, and we hurried to the front row seats.

After some time had passed since we took our seats, the arena filled up in a blink of an eye.

Just as I thought, even if you can watch a recording later, there are a lot of players that want to live the experience.

「Seeing this many players, makes you remember even more just how popular of a game TB is.」 (Riizu)

「If it was the desert, you wouldn’t get this kind of feeling at all after all…」 (Hind)

Our seating order was Yumir to my left, Riizu to my right, and Selene-san further to the right.

On top of them being front seats, they were close to where the fights would be held, but there will be a barrier in place when battles are going on so there probably won’t be a risk of getting harmed.

We can just spectate without worries.

「When is the time for our match?」 (Yumir)

「If this tournament goes in order, we’ll be the second to last. We should be able to take it easy for the time being.」 (Hind)

「Ah, there’s a tournament chart in the menu. Eh…」 (Riizu)

Looking at my movements, Riizu opened her own menu window.

You can look at the chart for the other venues in the tournament.

Albert aniki is first on the list, and I can see names from the turtle event here and there…

「!! Hind-san, Hind-san!」 (Riizu)

「What’s wrong, Riizu?」 (Hind)

「Look at the first match!」 (Riizu)

「First match? …Ah.」 (Hind)

I wonder why I missed it.

The name of Tobi was clearly stated in the first match of group H.

Having their names called, a familiar face appeared on the stage.

A man completely in black…the person who was accompanying Tobi, was an adult male holding a bow that looked to be around 30 years old.

He gave the appearance of someone quite wild, he had his hair on a knot at the back, and was wearing a japanese style armor and bow.

An archer, huh…his player name is Mitsuyoshi.

Their opponents were a heavy warrior and a martial artist, both were male and since they were both vanguards, they were going for the strong style pattern.

「What’s with him, isn’t he acting quite cool and staying silent?」 (Yumir)

「No, isn’t he just being nervous?」 (Riizu)

「Well, as long as he keeps his mouth shut his eyes are cool, and since he’s slender, his clothes stick to him.

Even though that all goes to waste once he starts talking…」 (Hind)

「This is about that theory we talked about, about them being more mysterious and attractive if you don’t see them, right?」 (Selene)

There were quite a lot of cheers coming from girls.

Tobi, who had been indifferently going towards the starting point until now, suddenly raised a finger and pointed it towards us.

「I can hear you guys!! If you keep talking as you please, I’m going to cry, you know!?」 (Tobi)

「Oh, so you noticed us?」 (Hind)

「I was quite aware! To begin with, aren’t guild members and friends displayed on the map!?」 (Tobi)

「Hahaha, isn’t it fine, Tobi-kun!? Thanks to them you have relaxed, so you should thank your friend!」 (Mitsuyoshi)

「Mitsuyoshi-dono!」 (Tobi)

Even inside this boisterous arena, surprisingly you can hear from the front row.

Just as I was thinking that, along with a mechanical voice, something big was displayed within our field of view.

Dresser’s corner (Grado empire) & Little finger’s hangnail (Grado empire) vs Tobi (Sala kingdom) & Mitsuyoshi (Mahl republic).

The country of origin, that is to say the country they belong to was clearly displayed.

Just as I thought, isn’t this a proxy war…? Even though Tobi went to another country, it was still judged by where his guild was located.

If you are not affiliated with any country, it’ll probably use the place you moved into the arena from.

Once the names disappeared, the word 「READY」 was displayed and the four of them readied their weapons.

「There’s nothing like live coverage, huh? That’s a shame!」 (Yumir)

「It’s true that it feels a bit lacking. There’s the chance that there will be starting from tomorrow…」 (Hind)

「You are right. We’ll be in the same venue there after all.」 (Riizu)

「-Ah, it has started!」 (Selene)

Right after it began, the heavy warrior and martial artist moved forward for a quick attack.

At that time, a scene that I thought was a lie unfolded in front of my eyes.

Just when I thought that Tobi’s image was blurring, he divided in two and one of them went to intercept the martial artist that was aiming for Mitsuyoshi-san.

「He multiplied!?」 (Yumir)

「That’s a evasion type light warrior skill. There are few people that use it, we also saw it once before right?」 (Hind)

「If he used it right from the start, it means that it’s a skill that consumes HP right?」 (Selene)

About those HP consumption skills that Selene-san mentioned, the most famous one is the mage skill that converts HP into MP 『Mana Conversion』.

In the case of 『Other self technique』, if I remember correctly, it spends 1/4 of your max HP, so you could say that it was risky to use it at the beginning considering they are a pair that can’t heal at all.

「However, he controls it so well that you can’t tell which one is the real one! Even though it will disappear if he gets hit once, you can’t really ignore it!」 (Yumir)

You have to manage the other self while moving yourself, so it’s very hard to use.

But Tobi and his other self are not getting hit and he’s shutting down both vanguards.

There are gaps in their movements, but since they are moving constantly they are hard to spot.

It’s true that just as Yumir had said, it’s hard to tell which one is the real one like this…

By the way, attacks from the other self to the opponent are effective, but since its HP is set to 1, they’ll disappear once they are hit by something.

「Tobi-kun, he’s amazing…! Like this, the opponents won’t be able to carelessly aim for the rearguard.」 (Selene)

「He skillfully turned this battle into a stalemate…ah, the archer has started to act.」 (Hind)

Along with the sound of the wind getting cut, an arrow came flying from the bow.

That penetrated Tobi’s back, and the first moment we thought it was an accident…but that seemed to be the other self, it pierced through the vanishing body and it was a direct hit onto the surprised martial artist.

Like that, by making use of the hit stop, the successive arrows found their mark and filled the martial artist with holes.

They are quite fast, that archer’s attacks…! The way he loaded the next arrow was abnormally smooth.

Looking at how they had taken the advantage now, I could feel a threat from how he easily judged that he should slay that other self that had a high cost.

Seeing that, the heavy tried to go help him in a panic, but Tobi didn’t let that chance slip by and chased after him.

In order to get past his hit stop resistance, he made some light attacks and finished with a foot sweep, because the weight of the armor was getting in his way, the heavy warrior had a hard time getting up and was pinned down by Tobi, then he proceed to beat him up.

Due to the bewildering development, the audience in the arena broke into huge cheers.

There’s probably no need for me to say what happened next.

The first match of group H opened with the light warrior and archer causing a disturbance with their shutout.