Their breakfast had finished yet there's no shadows of either Francais or Frederick showing up inside the room. They thought it was a good idea to not wait them or else they'd be starving.
The ti to gather in the stadium ca. The first ga won't be held there though. It was going to be held sowhere and all the players were on the way there. The arena was their gathering location for the participants and their families.
The venue was more like a dium to large scale stadium arena that had a seating capacity of minimum fifteen thousand people.
When they arrived, the competition was about to start and the seats were almost occupied. On the center field was a huge white screen that would display the happenings on the gas. And at the sa ti the score.
If the event last night was attended by those in the middle to higher ranks of every rcenary factions, this ti, it was attended by everyone together with their families, thus the venue was packed even though the first batch participating on the first ga were already not there.
A representative approached their group and led them to their seating spot inside. They were given to occupy a full block of seats on the audience.
The remaining people on their group were Asia, Francais, Mr. Alinsky, Jai together with two other female servants and his security escorts. The rest of them, including Frederick were already boarding the buses that would bring them to the location with blindfolds on.
"Ladies and gentlen today marks the first day of our seven-day-conference." The announcer announced on the speaker.
"I hope for those who are left to wait for their relatives, friends, families and faction mates are all prepared as the first ga will last for hours depending on how fast they can finish this. And when the rules are going to be read to the players, no one is allowed to leave the arena unless given the permission. This is for security reasons." He continued.
Asia looked at Jai who had a big bag behind his back. Probably, they were food and other stuff that they needed while waiting. Maybe soone had given Jai a tip that sothing like this would happen so he ca prepared.
The huge LED screen positioned at the center field then lit up to show the players for the first ga.
They were inside a white room full with capsule like bed. On top of the bed was a helt ga console that they had to wear.
The participants were wearing a white pajamas like that in hospitals and they were blindfolded.
Each factions were given enough screen ti. As for Mr. Alinsky's people, they were labeled as the 'GUEST Team' since they t the minimum number of people per faction.
Then, the announcer explained the competition rules for the audience and the participants to understand. At the sa ti, it was flashed on the screen with different language translations for everyone to understand.
"Welco to the ga of virtual reality and role playing gas!"
As the na of the ga was announced, everyone yelled in delight because they thought this was easy to win.
Of course, these types of ga concept was popular among the youth and young at hearts. Almost everyone plaid this type of gas.
Like any other virtual reality and role playing gas, the participants were asked to logged in the ga using the helt that they had to wear on their head.
"You'll be given one mission inside and you have to do it to pass and continue. That is, 'To clear every levels and reach the top on a given ti'. If not, you will lose. There's no limit to how many will win. But there's a catch and I am going to explain this later on."
But they didn't know what's in store for them once they logged in the ga.
It was going to be a mass elimination round for the lower ranks. Those who would be eliminated would lose one of their chances to move up in their rcenary ranks as the succeding gas continued.
They would stay on that level unless they're able to defeat a rank higher than them. The second chance they got was if they had taken the minimum number of missions to rank up.
Majority of the participants on this round had accomplished fewer missions and so they had already lost hope on the second option, thus this was their last chance to rank up.
"Players, please wear your virtual reality ga helts and get inside the capsule so we could begin." The announcer said.
Asia could see Frederick wearing his helt and hurriedly entered the capsule. He seed very confident.
The screen inside the arena then changed and they could all see the greeting ssage that the participants saw in the virtual world and it said, "Welco. I hope you have said your last words. Goodluck!"
Well, that was weird.
As soon as the contest begun, the audience had finally realized why the ssage was like that.
The main door was then shut off and was locked from both the inside and the outside. No one was allowed to either go out or enter.
Then, lasers coming from every direction started pointing at every family mbers of every players.
Weirdly, twelve laser beams were pointing towards Asia. Mr. Alinsky had ten of them, too. Unsurprisingly, Francais only had one.
"Is this so kind of joke?" Asia mumbled to herself. At the sa ti, she started chuckling as she thought they were so childish.
"Ladies and gentlen, before the competition started, we have asked the players to write down the person whom they didn't want to die among their companions in the audience. And the number of laser beams pointing at you ans the number of people who didn't want you to die." The announcer explained the weird rules.
Should they lose the ga, they would not only lose the chance to rank up but also, they'd be given the final test. This test would asure if they're really fit to being a rcenary or not.
Their final test would be, killing the people they didn't want to die or choosing to kill themselves instead.
Should they chose the forr over the latter, bullets would fly and shoot the person chosen. Should they chose the other way, they won't be able to wake up as an acidic gas would co out from the gas chamber inside the capsule, killing them in the process.
Then, the screen on the field changed once again. This ti it showed what was going on inside the Virtual Reality Ga.
Just like in any virtual gas, they were given the chance to choose their characters or avatars in the ga. The only catch was that they'd only recognize them through character nas and not their real nas. Even their relatives on the audience could not recognize them from one another.
They'd only know who that person was behind the avatar should they lose and be eliminated in this level.
"Players and people in the audience, good luck."
The players were oblivious to the additional rules since only the losing players had to make that difficult choice later on.
Now, the audience were on a tight position. Their lives were on the hands of their family mbers who were now battling with their opponents inside the ga.
Everyone desperately cheered on the participants as if they could hear them.
At this point, who would want to lose? No one. Everyone wanted to live. Majority wanted to go ho with a complete family. Yet it seems like it was going to be a dream at the end of this conference.
All of them seed to have forgotten how cruel the world they chose to live and even had families to raise. And now, they're going to suffer. Not only them but even their little children.
If this was the first ga, then, what about the rest of the gas?
As for Asia, she was not surprised about this. Even if she had twelve laser beams pointing towards her, she was unaffected by it. Instead, she was bothered to know who dared to write her na on that damn paper.
They better dare not to choose to kill her or else she'd co back from the dead and drag them down with them one by one.
anwhile, President Williams sat down on his seat inside the control room. The ten strongest rcenaries in the world were also there with him.
They were seated according to ranks.
With an devilish smile plastered on his face, he said, "Good. Now let's see how everything will end."
"Right! I like this idea President Williams. I believe that there are so many of us and this group is already over saturated. What a good plan to eliminate the useless ones!" The rcenary on the tenth seat said.
Everyone agreed to what he said aside from the one on the fifth seat and President Williams was quick to notice that.
"Are you upset over sothing?"
"Why should I be upset when this idea was originally mine to begin with?" She sharply answered taking away the credits from him.
Right. She suggested this and she let them borrow the technologies needed for this contest.
The ga started and everyone saw the environnt changing and they were all lining up on the starting line. In front of them was a huge upside down building and they had to clear the lowest level then climbed to the top.
A word then flashed in front of them urging them to walk and enter the door in front of them.
Everyone entered the big door and they were surprised to see what was inside.
They were stepping on a cliff and below the cliff was a scorching hot lava. Looking down, they were actually boiling and bubbles popped up on the air indicating how hot it was down there. The temperature in the place was so hot that all of them were sweating heavily. Even their clothes were starting to lt.
Then the instruction popped up on the screen in the stadium and at the sa ti in front of the players.
They had to reach the other cliff on the other side which was a hundred ters away to clear the level. They have to cross to the other side or the cliff that they were stepping in at the mont would collapse when the ti ran out and they'd fall on the lava and die on the ga.
Everyone watched as the ga clock marked thirty minutes and then the ga officially begun!
"Are they insane? How can we cross to the other side when there's nothing we could step on?!" One of the contestants yelled.
"We have to find sothing. So triggering switch hidden sowhere that could activate sothing here. This is a virtual ga, nothing is impossible here, right?"
Everyone looked at the other side of the cliff which had a steel door which would be the exit to this h*ll place.
After hearing him, they checked on their items to see if there's anything that could help them in crossing.
Most of them cursed because the items inside were pretty useless. Tape asure, a bottle of water, a rope, a bag of pebbles, a bag of marbles and so other useless stuff.
To make things worse, their killing weapons were locked for the second level. How were they going to clear this?
Outside the ga, instead of being upset, Asia decided to focus on the ga. She herself was trying to solve on how to cross to the other side and finish the level.
She thought this ga was familiar. No. Actually, she knew this ga. She and Eunji once draw this concept on a paper. Hoping one day, they'd be able to make a virtual ga out of this.
Asia looked at one of the cara and she flashed a knowing smile. She knew that soone would see this smile in the control room but she didn't care.
Inside the ga, the players were trying their best to find ways to cross to the other side.
So of them asked their rope item and tied them together and when it was long enough, they tried tossing them to the other side.
However, their ideas failed miserably because the rope rope lted due to high temperature.
There were a total of two thousand lower ranked rcenaries. And they didn't know that the more they stayed their total weight would make a toll on the soil and it would start collapsing even before the ti ran out.
And it was too late for them to realize that.
At least a foot length of the soil collapsed and fell on the scorching lava together with a few participants five minutes after the starting ti.
They thought that those who had fallen would not really die but to make things more interesting, the pop-up screen in front of them showed what had happened after they got eliminated.
All of their eyes widened in horror as they saw what had happened in the real world. They saw so of the relatives being shot to death.
Now, they realized the consequence of this ga. And so so of them wanted to quit. Never mind ranking up. They wanted to save themselves and their families.
They pressed the pop-up screen but unfortunately for them, there's no turning back. They could not log out.
This made the atmosphere in both the arena and the virtual ga to be tensed. Oblivious to them, outside the arena, a black car was driving near.
Nathan who was on the driver's seat got his phone and dialed soone else's number. As soon as the call connected he spoke to the other line, "I'm here. Where are you?"
***
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