Love is War

Chapter 20

“Ladies and gentleman! These are the top 20 hopefuls, to win the privilege of buying the GRX 9090 in our shop!” the announcer said while we walk into the stadium in line. The crowd watching became big and there they are cheering for us, the eliminated players from earlier are also there.

As fast as it may seem, players like me who showed incredible feats attracted a fandom already, I call mine the Trojan Warriors, since that’s the one I can think off quickly. Then the one who attracted majority of fans, is Anonymous, the tall guy who is messing with my head since we saw each other back at the entrance.

Now we are lined up here to hear the announcement and what will happen on the 2nd round of the competition. The nettle royale ended earlier and we who survived the top 20, well, we are only 19 right now since the twentieth one is not yet determined thanks to that 6 consecutive kills on Anonymous, then my one kill that went on at the same time.

The judges are spectating the replay of the exact moment so that they can decide who will be the lucky twentieth player who will get his or her second chance to get that card. Means, one more enemy for me, I can be confident enough but I cannot be more confident since underestimating them will lead to unexpected consequences that will ruin my gaming dream.

“Let’s wait for a couple of minutes before proceeding to the second round since our judges are busy determining the other one that will join our top 19,” the announcer said and I believed that he is been called Cal by his partner, regardless of that that 6 consecutive kills by anonymous appeared in an instant. Naturally, we can easily tell who was the twentieth one, since normal pro players can achieve the same feat but not that fast to made it hard for the judges to tell who is who.

That was really some inhuman reaction from him and my chances of getting that card are reduced by half after seeing that aiming skills that he had which ruined my top 3 goals earlier, but I will move on from that since the only important thing that happened to me that round is qualifying for the 2nd round is my main goal. I don’t care about the other surprise prizes since the card is the only one why I came here.

After some moments later the crowd start cheering again and I almost dozed off since I felt so sleepy waiting for the last player that will qualify to the second round. We turned around to the corner since the employees and behind them is a man who wore big glasses.

Oh, my expression went blank upon completely identifying the identity of that man. It was the annoying fatso who persisted getting the gaming rig that I eyed on earlier. Hate? Call me a bully but I hate the guts and personality of this guy. He gives me not just only the nerdy vibes, but also the rich spoiled brat vibes. Nerdy vibes are okay with me since nerds are fun to be friends with, the rich spoiled brat one? Since I’m also rich myself I can’t tell but I am not spoiled, ever since I was a child, I know which is which, but no thanks. They feel like that they can get everything that they wanted and that’s what pisses me off.

Since my dad likes to spoil us as much, but when I was a child, when we lost our mother, that’s the moment that opened my eyes to reality, that not everything is going as planned. There are catastrophic events that we did not even expect that will happen later on or tomorrow.

That’s why seeing those brats not appreciating their parents and only see them as a bag of money, it gives me the urge to punch their faces until they are bleeding and the eyes are so black and swollen.

It activates that psycho in me, if I can say that. I’m okay with anyone calling me a quick judger based on appearance but as far as I can tell, I am never wrong with my gut instincts.

“Now! WaifuLover69 enters the stadium!” the announcer shouted and the crowd starts booing the fatso. That satisfied me and it is enough for me as punching him in the face per se.

“Players! Are you ready!?” the other announcer asked us and the rest of us answered yes and I did not even bother to shout like them.

“The second round shall begin!” I think I will start calling them by their names since they are taking turns in shout casting in this competition. This one was cal. “Spin the wheel of fortune,” and our attention went to the big screens above as they started to choose the next game that we will be fighting in.

The battle royale was eliminated and that’s how far as I can tell since I am sure that they do not intend to repeat the same game mode as earlier since it will be boring for the audience to watch and besides there are only the twenty of us and battle royale games requires 5 times as much of our number right now.

“RANDOM!” the other one shouted named Allan. Random? What random? I did not even hear about that game nor played it in my gaming career. “Randomized gameplay mode, this means that we will pair up two players in each round and they will fight each other with the games assigned on their bracket. This will be the one determining our top 5 finalists that will fight on the final round where the one who will win the GRX 9090 will be determined!” he explained. Oh literal random, I thought he meant a game named random. I pray that I will not be partnered with Anonymous since fighting him this round will be a gamble.

I wan to win this round and I will prepare myself to face him in the final round.

“Now players look at the screen above to see your assigned brackets and opponents, take note that everything here is based on an AI randomizer so we can assure you that these bracketing are 100 percent fair and no bias included,” Cal said and I don’t think that I need that explanation since my prayer was answered, since Anonymous is on a totally different bracket than and that’s enough for me to not question them.

Yuri is the one that I have to look out for since he, or I rather call her a she, and the one who reached the top 3 earlier, but the one right now that I am against with is not worry some so much since it’s the fatso earlier. That AI did me a favor in defeating the annoying fatso.

“That’s what you call fighting,” I whispered to myself after they posted each games in every bracket. The fatso and me are assigned with a fighting simulator game called Tokken 7, a famous game where we pick our character and the one who wins the best of 3 round will win the game.

I have plenty experience to be proud of and be confident that I can defeat him this round. This round might be tricky since some of the brackets are unfortunate enough to be assigned with unfamiliar game and the other is familiar with. That’s a one sided game if you ask me but who can blame the game moderators since the AI did the job for them.

This round is a battle of luck, and I am one of those lucky players that got assigned with a familiar game that will pull me through this round, I would like to give my thanks to the god of the games for blessing me with such luck.

“Now players go to your gaming rigs since all of the games that we included in the wheel are all online but, to give way to our audience who took a liking to our players each round will be streamed one by one and the players are taking their turn to start their match, starting from bracket one to last, and we will give you 5 minutes time to prepare yourselves for the upcoming round!” he said to us and the employees who are surrounding us guided us to the gaming rigs that we are playing on earlier.

The pc is already turned on and there is no problem for me turning it on since they did not turn it off earlier. I pressed the exit button in the game and that brought me to my desktop window. Where multiple games are already included, especially Tokken 7 where I am playing with my enemy.

Like what happened with Escape on Gulag earlier, the game was already logged in with a dummy account and it just asks me to put my desired username for the game IGN. I put the same username that I used earlier “warfreak101” to show my respect to my fans. I will not let them down and I will give them a good fight.

Underestimating this fatso? No, he did not even deserve my attention but he will get my full potential in this round and I will do my best to crush them with all my might. That’s how I hated this guy, just by looking at him it’s like he is filling up my rage gauge that will burst out any moment and I will start punching him back and forth to the face.

We are in the bracket 4, and we will wait for the first three to finish their game and Yuri is next on us which is bracket 5. The fatso determined my username quickly and he invited me in a custom lobby without waiting or watching to the other contestants ahead of us. He is not just a spoiled brat huh, also impatient brat. Well he wants to be defeated quickly. I cannot blame him if he wants that, that also works for me.