章 36: Melee Event Tournament
The day of the melee event tournament.
All the players were gathered around an enormous arena, and two mascots were commentering in the sky.
[Welcome To All The Players And Good Luck To All The Participants Of The Event.]
There were 31838 players playing LNA worldwide. However, out of 31838 players, only 400 players participated in the melee event tournament.
"No one really cares about melee fighting nowadays, so I can't say I am disappointed," Kevin remarked.
"To be honest, I expected less than 400 participants, so I am very much surprised," Kiana remarked.
Since this event didn't need any skills or abilities, and since the players' stats will be changed to default 100 stats, there was no level requirement to participate in this event.
[We Will Now Name All The Participants In The Alphabetical Order.]
The mascots started calling out the names of the participants one by one.
Ziro was pissed off since they were calling out the names in alphabetical order.
"Man." Kevin placed his hand on Ziro's shoulder and uttered, "It must suck having a name starting with 'Z'."
Kiana pulled Kevin back by grabbing his collars: "Stop it, Kevin."
[Starting with K, we have: Kain. Kapla. Karsi…]
"Finally, they reached K. Our names should be called out soon," Kevin asserted.
Ziro raised his brows and uttered to himself, 'So they also participated?'
'I hope Kevin makes it to the final round, or at least, I get to fight with him.' Ziro glanced at Kevin and chuckled, 'I will beat the shit out of him.'
[Kevin. Kiana. Kiras…]
"Yay!" Kiana hugged Kevina and said with a cheerful smile on her face: "Our names are together here too!"
'Damn. They are so lucky.'
Ziro glanced at Alina and thought, 'Her name starts with A, and mine starts with Z. There is no way our names can be together.'
'But well… she isn't participating in this event, so it doesn't matter anyway.'
[Starting with N, we have: Naria. Naresh. Nawal….]
"Argh! They are still at N. It will take forever to reach Z," Ziro groaned in annoyance.
He had no interest in the name-calling, and it wasn't as though it was mandatory to be present in the name-calling. But since Alina was with Ziro, he didn't care about anything else.
[Nia. Nick. Nier. Nirahua….]
"..." Ziro knitted his brows and wondered: 'Nier? It's not like there is only one Nier in the world, but why do I have a bad feeling about this?'
Nero's interest suddenly piqued.
"Hey! Alina! Ziro!" A voice called out to Alina and Ziro.
Alina looked back to see a girl with blonde hair and wearing newbie clothes, waving at them.
"...."
Kiana glanced back and forth between Alina and the girl, and asked with a curious look on her face, "Do you know each other?"
Alina gritted her teeth and nodded: "Apparently, yeah."
'Uh on. She is pissed," Ziro, Kiana, Kevin had the same thought.
The girl approached them with a smile on her face and greeted: "Hello, my name is Nier. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you…" Kiana greeted back with a curious yet calm look on her face.
She was excited to see what happens next.
Nier approached Alina and smiled at her.
"What… are you doing here? I thought you weren't interested in VR games?" Alina asked.
"When you mentioned Ziro was playing it, I decided to play it too. Although I am just one day old, I hope you help me level or whatever this game works like," Nier answered.
Shen then turned to Ziro and hugged him: "Yay!"
"It's been a while, Nier."
"I changed my in-game hair color from Ivory to blonde. How do I look?" She asked curiously.
"You look great. The last time I saw you was six months ago. How have you been doing?" Ziro asked without any sign of annoyance or frustration in his voice.
He was genuinely happy that he got to see Nier again.
"I have been doing great. How are things going with Alina?"
"Same as always— actually, no." Ziro stopped after remembering what happened at his home a few weeks ago. "There was some sudden development recently."
"Oh?! What happened?" Nier asked curiously.
"I will tell you later."
[Sekki. Semir. Sera. Setsuna…]
"Sera? Is she our Sera?" Nier wondered.
"I have no idea, but I think it's our Sera," Ziro answered.
"Hey, guys! I finally found you!" A voice called out to them.
No one other than Nier looked at the voice as they knew it was Sera.
She approached them and greeted them with a smile.
"It was so hard finding you all in the crowd…" Sera stopped when her gaze dell on Nier. "No way! Is that you, Nier?"
"Yup."
[Zars. Zativ. Zakker. Zian. Ziel. Ziro. Zirelo. Zoro…]
"The name-calling ceremony finally ended," Kiana uttered with a sigh.
[Thank You All For Attending The Naming Ceremony.]
[The Players Who Attained The Ceremony Will Receive 10000 Gold Coins, 10 Medium HP Potions, And Emblem Of The Melee Even Tournament.]
[The Tournament Will Start Tomorrow. Please Look Forward To It.]
[All The Best To All The Players Who—]
[...]
[We Have Got A New Participant Just Three Seconds Before The Deadline.]
[The Name Of The Participant is Alina.]
Ziro turned to Alina and squinted his eyes: "I thought you weren't interested."
"I wasn't until two of my rivals suddenly showed up in the participants' list," Alina replied and glared back and forth at Sera and Nier.
[Once Again, All The Best To All The Players Who Are Participating In This Melee Event Tournament.]
Alina, Nier, and Sera stared at each other and made various types of faces to show their feelings.
"I won't lose to you two," Alina declared.
"I have received training with Ziro, so there is no way you can win against me," Nier proclaimed.
"I am older and mature than you two, so you girls are no match for me," Sera remarked.
'That's your reason? At least come up with something decent,' Ziro sighed inwardly and thought, 'This event suddenly took a strange twist and turned everything upside down.'
-- 贈り物
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