"Oh, look at that, she’s at it again, playing so intensely."
"It’s just a toy hamr! It’s just a toy hamr! It’s just a toy hamr!"
"I knew it! You should never give Eugene anything to hold!"
"Fact: Even if you give her nothing, that’s still a problem."
"Hey, want your head smashed by a fist instead?!"
"Haha, as expected of Eugene! Once again, she’s stirring up chaos everywhere she goes! And there she swings the toy hamr! It’s really sothing to see how a seemingly harmless weapon can beco so powerful in the hands of a skilled player!"
The arena was roughly the size of two soccer fields put together, filled with various cute and colorful structures—like skeletal construction fras and multi-layered buildings—designed purely for fun.
The official na was "Playful."
Falling from high places or getting hit didn’t hurt at all. It was a playground created specifically for roughhousing. The SD characters were ant to be playful and adorable, engaging in light-hearted mischief with each other.
However, everything started to change when Eugene stepped into the scene.
Thwack!
"Wuaahhh, blub-blub, ouch!"
Beep!
Thankfully, when her arm sliced through the air, the sound wasn’t sothing terrifying, but rather the cheerful pop of the toy hamr. Of course, it wasn’t just one swing.
Eugene had darted forward, wielding a toy hamr in her left hand while her right hand, holding a pistol, squeezed the trigger repeatedly. Instead of actual bullets, various playful projectiles shot out—like little slis, freeze bullets, and electric shock rounds—all making delightful popping sounds as they hit their targets.
Anyone struck by these bullets imdiately collapsed with a cute sound effect, immobilized by the status effects.
"Ugh, no…!"
"See you later."
Pop, pop, pop.
Glancing around and confirming no one was nearby, Eugene raised the toy hamr and gently bonked her opponent on the head. Their HP bar dropped, and with a yelp, they were sent to the lobby.
At that mont, another player popped out from behind and opened fire on Eugene’s position. But she quickly vanished, leaving behind only the faint afterimage of a snake tail.
The playground was now turning into a CQB (Close-Quarters Battle) zone.
A grenade exploded nearby, releasing a bizarre-colored gas that slowly began to freeze everything around it, turning the area into a field of icy water droplets. As the frost spread, the surrounding air chilled.
But Eugene narrowly dodged the freezing blast and quickly regrouped for a counterattack. The player who had thrown the grenade suddenly found Eugene dashing toward them with unstoppable speed.
In re seconds, Eugene had closed the gap, her toy hamr spinning through the air and striking the enemy’s arm as they tried to fend her off. The player was sent flying, and Eugene tackled them in a single swift motion.
Thud!
The unfortunate player was thrown like they’d been hit by a car. In the midst of the chaos, Eugene snatched her spinning toy hamr mid-air and, despite her SD appearance, her eyes glowed with a fierce intensity.
The player pinned beneath her squealed in panic.
"Wait, this is just an event match!"
Eugene grinned and replied.
"Exactly."
Bang!
With a playful kick, Eugene launched another opponent straight into the lobby. The UI on her screen indicated that 24 players had been eliminated. anwhile, the arena remained chaotic with explosions echoing all around.
And it wasn’t just Eugene causing the mayhem. All around, players were setting off bombs. Given how cramped the space was with hundreds of participants, the resulting chaos was inevitable.
Then, just to raise the stakes even further…
- Now, to add so tension to this relaxed match, we are introducing special armored units! Good luck surviving!
Thud, thud.
Six strange… tube-like SD avatars dropped from the sky, wrapped in what looked like puffy armor. While they didn’t quite look like armored units, the mont they pulled out their massive rocket launchers, the atmosphere changed dramatically.
These weren’t just cute characters—they were killing machines.
With a whoosh, a missile shot from one of the launchers, landing in a densely populated area and transforming into a massive wave of sli that swept away the players.
Although the damage wasn’t lethal, getting hit left players wide open for follow-up attacks. And if hit directly, they were ejected straight to the lobby.
No one was trying to team up or form alliances. It was every player for themselves in a desperate scramble for survival.
So were even using other players as shields, throwing them into open areas to lure fire, or shooting blindly into hiding spots to create distractions.
"Hmm."
And, of course, so players were brave (or foolish) enough to try taking down the armored units.
In past years and even in the original ga, there had been attempts, and even successes, in taking down these powerful enemies. Ideally, this was when players would start working together to overco the common threat.
But this year, teamwork seed in short supply.
Not that Eugene cared much.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire echoed from all directions. However, Eugene’s shots were aid squarely at the armored unit. Her bullets struck the giant SD character, and its head snapped toward her, its rocket launcher following suit.
Though the unit quickly fired, Eugene had already disappeared. The missile hit a structure, and in a flash, the upper part of the building froze solid. But Eugene had no need to engage further—she had already gathered the information she needed.
'Looks like they’re not completely invincible.'
Since the ga didn’t provide live ammunition, the damage she could deal was limited. Her previous shots were freeze rounds, and they had clearly left the target encased in ice.
Although the damage wasn’t great, her pistol’s crowd control abilities were valuable. If she paired it with a lee weapon, she could potentially do real damage.
Most of the weapons she’d encountered so far had been diocre—toy hamrs, sponge maces, lightsabers…
Wait, lightsabers?
Now that could work.
"Alright, let’s do this."
In an instant, her plan clicked into place.
She needed more freeze rounds. And one lightsaber. Fortunately, in-ga drops were plentiful, so it wouldn’t take long to gather what she needed.
With a lightsaber hanging at her waist, five clips of freeze rounds, and three grenades in hand, Eugene was ready. Her pistol was a rapid-fire type, perfect for close combat.
The ground was a sticky ss, thanks to the never-ending sli missiles, and deep puddles had ford everywhere. Stepping into one by accident could an getting trapped, or worse, drowning in sli.
Eugene carefully fired freeze rounds at the sticky ground, creating a path of ice to walk on. Across the way, in the middle of a street made of makeshift buildings, one of the hulking armored units locked eyes with her.
Its SD form looked almost adorable, but Eugene could tell from its cold, piercing gaze that it was anything but cute.
Their eyes t.
They both moved.
Boom!
A sli rocket slowly sailed through the air, its warhead glowing pink, signaling that it would create a sea of sli upon impact.
But Eugene was more interested in its slowness. With sharp eyes, she tracked the rocket’s trajectory and aid her freeze rounds at it. A split second later, she fired.
Pop!
The warhead exploded in mid-air.
"Waaah!"
"What the heck was that?!"
A massive wave of frozen sli—an impossible amount of icy liquid—rained down, shattering into pieces. The ground froze solid.
Despite the chaos, Eugene had already calculated her next move. The closer she got to the armored unit, the better her chances of victory.
Her small SD avatar moved with speed that didn’t match her size.
Thwack!
With a fully loaded freeze-round pistol, she charged forward. The armored unit responded by firing more of its specialized rockets, including one filled with sparkling powder that caused confusion on contact.
The sound of battle surrounded her. A freeze grenade hit the ground, creating a sturdy platform, but it couldn’t support much weight and shattered as soon as Eugene passed over it.
She was closing in on the armored unit. The AI controlling it wasn’t very smart, and its rocket launcher was ill-suited for close combat. The mont Eugene landed a full clip of freeze rounds at its feet, layers of ice ford, locking it in place.
As she approached, the comntators raised their voices in excitent.
"Wow! Eugene is pulling off an acrobatic fight even here! She’s closing the distance in an instant! We can’t predict what’s going to happen next!"
Of course, this was all lip service.
Eugene had closed the gap to within 10 ters. She pulled out a blindingly white beam of light—a lightsaber. The glowing blade arced through the air.
With a vwoom, the sound of the plasma blade humd. In the blink of an eye, the armored unit was slashed, and as the lightsaber’s glow faded, the once imposing figure collapsed to the ground.
Thud.
Despite wearing what looked like a puffy jacket, the sound was heavy.
Clunk.
"And Eugene has done it again! She has neutralized the armored unit, using creative tactics to overco the difficult terrain of Playful, and now… Oh! Eugene has picked up the rocket launcher!"
"Wait, what?!"
"Defeated armored unit? No. I am the armored unit now."
"I knew it, LOL."
"Eugene’s new skin: Running Armored Unit!"
"Fact: The remaining players are going to miss the slow-moving armored units now."
With a blank expression, Eugene surveyed her surroundings, where everyone had frozen in place.
The quickest players were already running for their lives.
The average ones were frozen, stiff with fear.
The slowest ones had just stopped cheering.
Whoosh!
"Why are you standing still, you idiots?! Run for it!"
With a feeble launch sound, the rocket fired, followed by a pitiful explosion.
But the effects were far from weak.
Playful was hungry for more eliminations.
The sky was clear, and the air was filled with a sweet scent.
The breeze was cool, the view spectacular. The towering obstacles were magnificent. Beneath it all, hundreds of players struggled, climbing toward the top.
From up here, they all looked like AI characters. Off in the distance, a group of about 12 players waved at her, smiling brightly. One of them was a fellow pro gar, though she couldn’t quite rember the na.
They were waving happily in her direction. But Eugene felt nothing.
I wonder what that guy’s doing right now.
That thought crossed her mind as she imagined what Eugene was up to at that very mont. Probably wreaking havoc sowhere, either flipping the arena upside down or tossing players off like Zhang Fei at Changban.
A strange person indeed. Strong people are always scary, right? Eugene must be an absolute powerhouse in real life—soone who would go down in history books if they were born in ancient tis.
Anyway, ti was up.
She gave the group a hearty middle finger.
Her allotted flight ti was over.
Plop!
- [Notification: You have been eliminated!]
Those bastards had tead up and tossed her into the sli sea.
With her mouth full of jelly’s sweet taste, Dice was sent to the lobby.
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