"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the First Inter-Player International Competition!" Amber said as she slowly descended from the heavens.
The Asiatic beauty was wearing a tight kimono that displayed her curves that were no weaker than Eva or Roma, making many eyes sparkle. After all, good eye candy was crucial for every event, which was why beautiful and sensual women were usually chosen for these things.
All eyes landed on Amber who smiled widely, her almost shaped eyes narrowing into crescents. "The First Inter-Player Competition is an event hosted by us Glorygore Studios in order to foster unity and cohesiveness among the various countries but making you fight each other for entertainment. Any feuds that arise afterward are welcome, as they would be very interesting to see."
Many people who were excited froze, their minds crashing as they tried to process what she just said. Amber continued without a care, and a large screen manifested beside her which showed the various events.
"The Competition will be held over the course of 7 days, in-game time of course, and shall be separated into different segments. The first day will feature the Individual Battle Tower, the Crafting Battle, and the Identification Game respectively.
"The second day will feature the Group Battle Tower, the Writing Battle, and the Memory Game. The third day will feature the Individual Tournament's Group stages, the Theory Battle and the Guessing Game."
"The fourth day will feature the Individual Tournament's Knockout stages, the Performance Battle, and the Gathering Game. The fifth day will feature the Group Tournament's Group stages, the Quality Battle and the Picking Game."
"The sixth day only has the Group Tournament's Knockout stages and the final day has the Raid Battle. You can find more about the schedule and the timing in the digital brochure provided to you!"
Amber paused and her eyes showed a crafty glint. "Also, there are some important rules I must share about the competition! Contestants will be lodged in a special facility provided by the Artificial Intelligence for the duration of the event! Leaving this premises would count as a forfeit, regardless of the reason!"
"Secondly, each contestant of each category can only participate in one game! After all, that is why we listed five events for each category and allowed you to recruit five members each! This only affects the Tradeskill and Technical sections though."
Immediately, the crowd burst into an angry uproar, while the coaches and team captains of all the countries clenched their fits, fury on their faces. They had all built their strategies around a few core members, especially for the Technical section, but they had been careful enough to make sure that each member had their own specialty.
This directly changed everything, and the tournament's outcomes became even murkier. Those who had bet on Mexico were so furious they were foaming at the mouth. Even though the country had titans like Essence Stalker, Tunder Power, and Uno, their other members were barely above average.
(Author's Note: Quick correction, Tunder Power is not a Spaniard but a Mexican.)
Rather, the Central Country and those who bet behind them as well as England were laughing uproariously. Those countries had the highest concentration of titans for each section, so the win was looking to be in the bag.
Amber let the fury subside after a while before clapping her hands. "Without further ado, let us begin the first event for the day, the Individual Battle Tower! All five contestants of each country will enter the tower individually, and the progress will be tracked by the system. Those of you in the crowd can select whose performance to watch using your visors while the screens will display the most interesting battles!"
The moment Amber clapped her hands, the entire stadium began to shake as a tower manifested itself from nowhere. It looked slightly similar to the red ribbon tower from that old anime about blond dudes with muscles shouting, and whoever shouted louder won the fight.
It was quite short too, making one wonder how many floors there could be within at all, but Amber soon dispelled their confusion.
"Within the tower are 50 floors. Each floor contains a single boss monster that contestants must defeat to progress to the next one. You are not allowed to use items except those that pertain to the function of your class. All contestants will be provided complimentary mana, health, and stamina potions in the rest stop every 10 floors, so make sure to aim for them when you are running low!"
"The winner will be decided based on three criteria, the number of floors climbed, the amount of time taken to clear the various floors, and your performance during battle. Without further ado, will all the combat contestants please enter the Tower now!"
The various fellows lined up before the tower shared looks and began walking in one by one. By the time everyone entered, Amber faced the crowd and began commentating on the event as it began.
"And now, the event shall begin! Let's see how our contestants will overcome this challenge and come out on top!"
.........….
Slim Fatty entered the tower slowly, the world around her remaining black like she was in the respawn area. Soon though, the entire world shivered and was procedurally generated to resemble a swamp-land that stank.
(Author's Note: In order to prevent this event from getting long-winded and boring, for each game, I'll choose a random member of Umbra to be our 'protagonist' and we'll spectate what happens through their eyes.)
Soon, she heard the sound of croaking as a giant toad landed before her, its stomp shaking up the entire area. It was a blackish-red beast with hundreds of warts on its body that continuously expanded then exploded in a gooey mess that made the smell of the area far worse.
Slim Fatty frowned deeply as she took in this disgusting beast, but remained level-headed enough to check out the monster's details immediately.
｢Name: Bulbous Toad - Sergeant Rank monster
HP: 8,000,000/8,000,000｣
Slim Fatty remembered that the monsters in this tower would be scaled to the level and Rank of the player entering. So if one was Rank 1, they would start off with a level 10, Rank 1 monster.
This made her face harden as she realized that climbing this tower would not be easy at all. The first floor alone had a monster at the beginning of Rank 3 and there were fifty floors ahead.
Putting aside floor 50, just what kind of monster would be on Floor 10? Was it even possible to reach the end with their skills? It was unlikely given how cruel the AI was.
Slim Fatty removed all these thoughts from her mind when she saw that the toad was beginning to move. It spat out its tongue as it cast one of its own skills, Tongue Attack!
｢Tongue Attack - Active Skill
Effect: Spit out your tongue and use it as a whip to attack a foe extremely quickly. Your tongue's range is 100 yards from your body.
Duration: 15 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute｣
To this, Slim Fatty smiled mockingly and dropped her upraised sword behind her. The toad seemed to show ridicule in its eyes as it felt that this ugly human without any warts was giving up in the face of its beauty and might.
It planned to strike away the falling sword and then pierce through her back, but the moment its tongue collided with the falling blade, the toad's eyes widened in horror and fear.
Immediately, its tongue was smashed to the ground and crushed to a pulp. It then screeched in agony and pulled back what was left of its precious appendage while thrashing about in pain.
-5,600,000!
Slim Fatty smiled slightly and picked up her sword, then flourished it lightly. When it had collided with the ground, it had created a small crater where the remains of the crushed tongue that had long turned into paste lay.
This made the crowd who were spectating from the outside completely speechless, unable to comprehend how a lovely-looking miss like this could be so strong. The way she held that sword and the kind of weight it seemed to possess did not match.
Slim Fatty then rushed up to the shaking toad and bisected it casually, emptying the rest of its HP. She did not gain any experience or loot from this obviously, as it would cause a certain unbalance in the competition, but it was enough that a stairway appeared before her leading to the second floor.
She then rushed up, knowing that every second was crucial when deciding the final outcome, especially as she knew her fellow core members could kill their foes this fast or even faster.
On the second floor, she was admitted to a cloud-like land with a huge thundercloud that flitted about in the air before here, its color alternating from a peaceful silver to a thunderous black.
Level: 105
HP: 6,000,000/6,000,000｣
Even though this one had less health than the toad, its power was slightly higher. Not to mention it had low HP because it was a speed-type monster with how quickly it moved.
Not to mention it was an aerial monster, so unless one discovered a way to get into the air or lure it to the ground, this battle would be impossible to win. Normally, a person would have teammates for this purpose, but this was a solo tower climb, so each and everyone had to improvise on their own.
Slim Fatty was not bothered by this though, as she raised her blade up and swung it down. To the dismay and horror of the Thunder Cloud, a greenish-silver ray of light separated itself from the edge of the weapon and hurtled towards it at shocking speeds.
Since it was caught off-guard, a huger chunk of its side was ripped off before it could evade. If it hadn't already moved slightly in that timeframe, its body would have been cut in half.
-4,120,000!
The Thunder Cloud then flitted away rapidly as it thrashed in pain, its mind filled with fear and anger at been hurt so badly. It then shifted from silver to a dark black and flashed with lightning bolts as it raced towards Slim Fatty.
It then sent hundreds of them hurtling towards her, emptying all its power in an attempt to turn her and this entire area into a zone of lightning. Slim Fatty simply maintained a fierce frown and waved her sword about.
It was an awesome sight, to see a sky filled with endless lightning bolts raining down while a small figure simply batted them aside with one hand open her sheathe and the other waving her sword about faster and faster until her movements became a blur.
All one could hear was the thunderous explosion as the lightning she hit exploded, as well as the area around Slim Fatty which was the only no-go zone for the lightning bolts. It was like the rain was falling while there was an invisible barrier that prevented it from touching the ground in a specific area.
Soon, the Thunder Cloud could only switch back into its peaceful silver mode as it had exhausted its power. It couldn't even maintain its flight as it slowly dropped to lie on the ground weakly, its body barely able to move.
It gazed in horror as Slim Fatty walked out of the scorched cloud-land unscathed. It was about to beg for mercy, but Slim Fatty raised her Swordblade and brought it crashing down with such force that the solid cloud that she was walking on caved in.
There was an annoyed expression on her face as she sheathed her blade and began climbing the stairwell.
"Blasted thing made me waste so much time on just the second floor…" Slim Fatty muttered with annoyance.
Then she became exasperated when she remembered how Fitter would tease her for being cute when she was angry. Despite being exasperated by the memory, a smile appeared on her lips as she appeared on the third floor.
The third floor was a mountainous area with craggy rocks and many rock formations around. The ground was a reddish-brown color and the wind was full of dust. Right before Slim Fatty, a large figure crashed onto the earth from above.
It was a huge blue-skinned monster with a large stone club slung over its shoulder and a single eye on its forehead that was filled with rage as it gazed at her.
｢Name: Mountain Cyclops - Sergeant Rank monster
Level: 110
HP: 15,000,000/15,000,000｣
This one had the most HP she had encountered so far, and its size would likely make its strength beyond what anyone could reasonably handle. It was like that the only way to kill it would be to make use of its size against it or use a superior speed since it would likely be very slow.
However, Slim Fatty smiled widely with one hand on the hilt of her blade and the other on her sheathe as the Cyclops roared then beat its c.h.e.s.t, raising its stone club before rushing at her with thunderous steps.
"Come!" Slim Fatty roared as she blasted forward so quickly that the dust around her froze for a second. She then raised her sword to meet the swing of the cyclops head-on, the two weapons colliding.
Comparing the stone club that was the size of a human as tall as a tree and Slim Fatty's blade which was a maximum of 4 feet long, the disparity was so huge that any onlooker would expect her to be smashed into the ground.
However, the onlookers watching her and the cyclops were shocked to find that after a strong shockwave blew the area apart when their weapons clashed, the woman and her sword were intact, her hand no even shaking from the collision.
Slim Fatty laughed with joy, feeling her blood pumping. Ever since Draco made this senselessly heavy weapon for her, she had never been able to have an actual sword fight with many of her foes because either they would be crushed by her strength and its weight, to their weapons wouldn't be able to withstand the force.
As such, despite knowing that she would be harming herself, she couldn't help but fall into the rhythm of battle. For its size, the cyclops attack's speed was truly horrifying as just like Slim Fatty, it could swing its heavy weapon around like it was a common stick.
The sword clashed weapons over and over, moving all about the mountain area like flashes of light, only horrible shockwaves that rent poor rock formations and created craters in the ground left to show that they had collided there.
Soon, they reappeared in the public eye right where they had clashed the first time, their weapons entangled with each other as one sought to overpower the other. Seeing that it couldn't suppress this time human before it, the cyclops was enraged and activated one of its racial skills.
｢Berserk - Active skill
Effect: Unleash all pent-up rage and anger, throwing one's consciousness into the abyss as they let their inner monster run wild. Damage, defense, and HP are increased by 20%.
Duration: 2 minutes
Cooldown: 30 minutes.｣
Immediately, the blue skin of the Cyclops adopted a red hue as its stats increased, from HP to Damage and Defense. To kill it now would be much harder than before, but Slim Fatty only smiled and breathed out lightly.
She raised her sword up with both hands this time. The blade then exploded with a bright greenish-silver light that blinded all onlookers and caused horrible shockwaves to encompass the entire world.
The red Cyclops was even forced back and could only put a hand in front of its face with shock as the other hand punched into the ground to keep it steady. The waves of power from Slim Fatty at this moment were truly horrifying, not something anyone had ever seen in Boundless.
This was normal, as Legendary classes got more nonsensical as they Ranked up. At Rank 3, the kind of power she could spit out was truly earthshaking especially considering the skill she was using now.
World Slash!
｢World Slash - Active skill
Effect: Swing your blade through the essence of the world, cutting through all defenses and barriers to strike one's foe. This attack deals 1,500% sword damage.
Cooldown: 25 days.｣
Using one of her Legendary class skills, Slim Fatty opened her eyes which radiated endless sword might and finesse.
"Ash to ash, dust to dust, return to the earth whence you came." She murmured calmly as she brought the sword down.
The Cyclops roared in fear and brought its club up to defend against the all-encompassing sword light that was splitting the land itself in half. It mustered all its strength and dug its feet in to block, but it was future.
The entire world went silent as the wave passed through everything, even the Cyclops that tried to block. Its body was frozen in place as the greenish-silver light still lingered in the world as it continued its slow journey forward.
Slim Fatty then sheathed her sword and walked up the next set of stairs with a satisfied smile on her face.
(Author's Note: if you wondering what the attack looks like, google Final Gestugatensho.)
