I climbed out of the warm-up pod and found that the lights had been turned off, replaced with LEDs. Everyone was quiet with only four people besides us remaining. Two security guards, one for each entrance. Helena, who stood next to Veyra and Aree, and one more organizer sitting by a computer setup with a headset on.

  Three minutes. All that was left now was our stage arrival.

  “Ready?” Helena asked. “You’re up first.”

  Veyra looked ready enough. We both nodded.

  For the last few minutes, we waited in silence, listening to the muffled bass creeping in from the stage overhead. I appreciated the lights being turned off. The dimmer lights matched the atmosphere of the stage much better, making the transition from backstage much softer. Nobody asked any more questions, until the clock hit zero, and Helena said, “Assassin first.”

  The security guard opened the curtain, showing a staircase upward. A ramp had been placed here, too, for Veyra. A caster’s rumbling voice echoed as someone was already introducing the match.

  I stepped up the stairs, where one last set of curtains separated me from the main stage. The security guard spoke to a walkie-talkie, saying “Ready.”

  The caster’s voice was now clear enough for me to hear his words. I felt the bass of his amplified voice in my feet. “...facing off against the first ever duo to make it to the finals of the three versus three competition!”

  I breathed in and out. I didn’t expect my heart to be pounding, but I could feel the pressure. All I had to do was walk to my game pod without stumbling, and that would be it, yet somehow, I felt like I was waiting for the scariest mission of my life. There was a short wait as music played with visuals I couldn’t see.

  Finally, the caster's voice rumbled my introduction.

  “The shadow assassin of Team Solo Mage. The undisputed rookie of the year matched only by his guardian angel, From New York, the one-shotter of front-lines, the gear thief who matched a god, Assassiiin AAAAA!”

  Just like that, the final curtain opened, and my walk-in began.

  The sheer volume of cheers hit me first. The lights made squint, and the gigantic arena revealed itself. The stage underneath the jumbotron was already larger than a house, with seats spanning all around me, cheers coming even from behind.

  There was no time to watch and admire as my legs took me forward. A cameraman walked backward in front of me, streaming my face directly to the jumbotron. This time, I didn’t have a fancy walkway to the stage like in New York. Instead, I walked straight through the ground-level audience, through a crowd. Only fences on both sides blocked people from trampling me.

  Everyone reached their hands over the fence, close enough to very nearly touch. I raised my hands to my sides, as the organizers had encouraged, and brushed my fingers against the endless row of hands, while following the cameraman toward the stage.

  I was stepping up toward the stage, when the caster's voice echoed Veyra's introduction as well.

  “The Goddess of quick-casting! From Thailand, in the finals as her first tournament appearance, the legendary fire mage SevenStrife reborn with frost and time, Veyyyraaaa!”

  I made it to my game pod just in time to watch Aree and Veyra start their walk-in. People cheered and reached their hands for high fives with her as well. She lifted her right hand, lightly smiling. Her left hand stayed on her lap, and the people on that side received nothing, confused.

  She made it next to me with a third empty pod sitting there, unoccupied. Behind us, remaining game pods for the Guild PvP tournament were all covered with black cloth.

  I couldn’t spot my sister anywhere at a quick glance, and I’d probably look dumb if I tried to scan the crowd. Anna was there somewhere with her banner. I knew she’d be just as excited to see me win as I was.

  Some cinematics played on the jumbotron above, until the caster called, “First from Team Celestial Order! The immovable tower, from Turkey, the most ruthless support player in all of the wilderness, Prannnceeeer!”

  Prancer2 walked in with the most unenthusiastic face ever, as if everyone in the crowd was just in his way, their cheers being insults. The audience cheered regardless, though not as loudly as for Veyra and I.

  “A warlock with a smile to melt anyone’s heart, from Stockholm, Sweden, a man so charming he’s impossible not to love, and the mage so fierce to the Swordmaiden herself picked his flames, DJ Mikoooooo.”

  He didn’t even bother pronouncing the last part of DJmikolele’s name as the warlock walked in with a rainbow pride flag on his back as a cape. He moved with much more enthusiasm than anyone so far, giving everyone a beaming smile.

  “And last, but certainly not least!” the caster called with the loudest introduction yet. “The myth. The legend. From Tennessee, the swordmaiden herself, who requires no introduction, Annnaaaaath!”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  I felt his rumbling voice in my chest from the volume of the bass as cheers rang. Annath walked in with perfect posture and composure, as if the crowd was merely a part of an army to command. To my surprise, she actually lifted her hands to meet the crowd’s enthusiasm, though her gaze was already locked on the stage.

  She took the game pod in the middle between her two allies, facing Veyra on our side. They locked eyes, with Annath’s stare being as threatening as always. I couldn’t imagine those eyes not having a grudge. Veyra looked away.

  Next to Annath, Miko shrugged, while Prancer gladly faced our empty third game pod.

  “Best of five, the finals of the three versus three tournament between Team Solo Mage and Team Celestial Order!” the caster said. “Let the match begin!”

  That was our sign to get into the game pods and log in. The pods were already unlocked, letting me slide in and immediately connect with the neural receptors. The stage lights dimmed out of my vision. The cheers disappeared entirely, and I was finally back in virtual reality.

  The menu screen of the tournament client didn’t calm my nerves, though. With my home setup, the virtual pod greeted me with a typical menu to choose which application I’d like to log into, kind of like a game console. Here, we were met with a simplistic menu to choose the items we wished to equip for the match, along with a timer of two minutes.

  Veyra would need to remember to switch out her equipment. I probably didn’t need to worry or remind her, though. She’d berate herself for months if she ever lost even one match due to a mistake like that. I chose the exact same items I’d been rocking for the whole tournament and logged in.

  And here I was, the arena of the grand finals.

  A dragon roared below, its silhouette flying within the dark clouds. The arena was the same as before by layout—the flat mountainside—but the atmosphere was entirely different, the weather appropriate for a duel to the death. The clouds below zapped with thunder.

  I was the first to log in, followed soon by DJmikolele and Annath. Prancer2 took his time, but he spawned in as well.

  Where was Veyra?

  Did the items I sent her get lost somewhere? What was going on? Why wasn’t she spawning in?

  The timer to log in read thirty seconds, ticking down. My heart began to race. Where the hell was Veyra? Surely, she wasn’t going to abandon the match?

  Five, four, three, two, one…

  The countdown hit zero, and the log-in timer switched into the five minute phase of studying opponents’ equipment.

  Veyra failed to log in. She wouldn’t be fighting in round one.

  I stood in confusion.

  What the fuck? Was I about to face Annath one versus three?

  No, there had to be a mistake. This wasn’t okay. I opened the menu, and instead of looking at my opponents’ gear, I pressed the small button that read, “Emergency Contact.” That was the button we were supposed to use if we experienced a technical issue, or an emergency of any kind.

  In practicality, what the button did was connect me to a call with the organizers. They picked up soon enough.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Where’s Veyra?”

  I heard static noise through a microphone, until a man’s voice spoke over my ears, as if I wore headphones. “It seems her game pod is not letting her log in. We are investigating.”

  No way. Not now. How, of all times, this happened during the finals? The one time her doctor checked her out, making sure everything was fine, now was the time the game pods didn’t let her in?

  “It’s a health risk error, right?” I asked. “Can we remake the match?”

  The timer kept ticking while I waited for a response. Ten seconds later, he said, “It is a health error, yes. Veyra is unable to log in. We are thinking of solutions. She says she does not feel sick. We are moving her to a different pod. If she can log in there, we will restart the timer.”

  “Can’t you just disable the forced log-out feature?” I asked.

  “We cannot,” the man said. “That is illegal, even for an official tournament match. If she can’t log in, I recommend a substitute player until she is able to compete.”

  For fuck’s sake, man, I wanted to say, but forced myself to stay calm. “So if she can make it, we can reset the timer?”

  “We are looking at solutions,” he said. “Please wait, but be prepared to play round one.”

  He muted the microphone, while I had my mouth hanging open, dumbfounded. What the fuck was this? Wasn’t this completely ridiculous? Sure, there was a good chance Veyra was lying by saying she felt okay, but wasn’t her own condition supposed to be her own decision?

  That would have been how it would have worked with regular eSports, at least. With VR, there were laws and safety regulations in place to make sure nothing could happen to a person inside VR. But with a literal doctor on standby, surely that should have been irrelevant.

  Apparently fucking not.

  “It looks like Veyra is unable to log in for the first match,” the man said. “I’m afraid you will have to fight as is.”

  “Are we serious?” I asked. “I’m alone here.”

  “We will allow substitute players to log in, or if Veyra can log in during the remaining timer, we allow a restart of the match,” he said. “I’m afraid the match cannot be postponed any further. There are no stages to host the match later. Unfortunately, this might be written off as a medical forfeit.”

  Bullshit, I thought, followed by half a dozen more curses. The eagerness and anticipation all turned to anger and shock.

  The timer read one minute, and I couldn’t do anything but wait. I had zero chance of winning this alone.

  I waited for the full five minutes. Nothing. Veyra didn’t come, and the dude behind the microphone couldn’t come up with solutions. I stood there in shock, while the arena opened up, and the match was supposed to start.

  So what the fuck am I supposed to do? I thought.

  Annath’s brows were furrowed as she approached me, her helmet off.

  “Is this a joke?” she asked. “Where is she?”

  “Health risk,” I said. “She… can’t log in. I’ll have to stall.”

  Annath lowered her sword, disappointed. She must have also known of Veyra’s condition. As far as I knew, Annath was one of the few people who knew the truth about Veyra, being her former guild leader.

  “Well…” The line on Annath’s lips almost resembled sympathy. “She sometimes used to log straight back in after this happened. Her condition rarely took more than half an hour to let her log back in.”

  I nodded. “I’ll have to stall until then. The first round is yours.”

  Annath bit her lip, clearly upset as well.

  Then she did something I had never expected.

  She sat down. “She’ll be back. The Seven I know is stubborn enough. We will wait. I’m not going to fight you alone.”

  Miko and Prancer were both just as stunned as I. They held their weapons, ready to fight, but with their guild leader sitting down in the middle of the battlefield, they just stood still, wondering what to do.

  I snorted, a smile appearing. Then I sat down as well, next to Annath, as we waited to give Veyra time to log in.