Playing

His brain quickly whirred into action as Aether speedily said, “Smell? What smell? There’s no smell. You’re just being delirious from lacking sleep. Quickly, go to sleep.”

Upon saying so, Aether turned around and began clearing the living room. Pushing the centre table towards the foyer, he reached for the pair of pillows and blanket stashed inside the cupboard nearby and readied his bed.

This is how the nights usually passed. Aether would sleep in the living room, while Mei would occupy the only other room.

“Strange…” Mei dawdled as such before turning around and entering her room. She moved the curtain shut, separating her room and the living space, before preparing her bed and entering it.

“Good night,” said Aether, before drifting off into sleep.

Mei, on the other hand, lay awake, her mind wandering in search of the scent’s characteristics and origin. However, nothing came to her mind causing her to reluctantly give up.

Shooting a final aggrieved glance at her brother, sleeping on the other side of the curtain, Mei quietly mumbled to herself before drifting asleep.

“Stupid, brother…”

---

Next Day. 09:18:21

Aether headed for Old Owl’s Repository. According to their talks yesterday, today was the day that Aether would get to meet the entire team and be introduced to the various aspects of the game. While he was quite good at playing it, it would be imperative for him to learn about the game to have a chance at winning the tournament.

Taking the monorail and arriving at his destination, Aether pushed open the glass doors and entered the shop.

“Hello, gramps!” He greeted the old shopkeeper stationed behind the counter on his far left. He did not garner a reply but did not find it odd owing to Midas’ explanation yesterday.

Directly walking to the back of the shop, Aether found Fox and Vix discussing something in front of one of the monitors. The instant he entered the back room, the two of them noticed and greeted him. “Hello, Aether!”

“Arrived, as promised,” Aether replied with a smile. “I hope I’m not late.”

“Not at all! You’re early, in fact,” replied Fox. “Midas and Cypher will come by later. It's just us three for now.”

“Cypher? Is that our fifth member that I didn’t get to meet yesterday?”

“Yep, yep!” Fox nodded her head adorably. “You’ll meet him today. He’s a cute guy!” Vix’s face had a difficult expression plastered on it when he heard her description. However, he quickly shook his head to rid his thoughts and asked Aether.

“Shall we begin while we wait for them?”

“Sure,” Aether noted Vix’s change in expression but did not comment on it. Nodding his head with a polite smile, he answered, “If you guys are fine with it, that is.”

“Geez! You don’t have to be so polite with us, you know! We are teammates. Teammates!!” Fox exclaimed.

“Aye, aye, Cap’n!” Aether performed an exaggerated salute eliciting laughter from the two teenagers. He was then shown a seat at the corner table before being joined by Fox and Vix.

“Alright, Aether. I’ll just ask this one more time but you don’t know anything about the game, right?”

“Apart from what I saw yesterday, yep. I’m completely clueless about the game.”

“Great! Then this presentation that I put together last night will come in handy!” Fox announced excitedly, before walking up to the holographic screen above the table and plugging something into its console.

The screen flashed to life and a slide came into view.

[A Guide on Pathfinders Ascent for Dummies! :- By Fox.] Bold, colourful font titled the slide while exciting graphics detailed its empty spaces.

Seeing this slide, Aether turned his head towards Vix, who was sitting next to him, and asked, “Was this put together by her?”

“Oh, yeah…” replied Vix, unable to disguise the embarrassment in his voice. It was embarrassing because the slide looked like it had been designed by an overexcited middle-schooler!

“It’s very wholesome,” answered Aether, honestly.

“Ta-da! How’s that?” asked Fox, her face seeking praise from the audience.

Vix buried his face into his hands while Aether replied with generous hand claps. He could see the effort and dedication gone into making this presentation –all for the sake of introducing him to the game– and amply showed his appreciation.

“Thank you. Thank you,” Fox received her acclaim unabashedly, and returned to operating the slides. The holographic screen continued to flash with slides while Fox and Vix explained in detail. Aether performed his duty as a grasshopper properly and ingested the information.

---

One hour later.

“So to summarise, there are 6 character classes and 39 different maps. Each character has a unique stat distribution, each of which has been optimised to the fullest thanks to the efforts of thousands of players over the years. The optimal stat distribution allows each character to use 3 Special Abilities and 1 Ultimate Ability, on top of their regular attacks.”

“In the base game’s multiplayer mode, each map has a 10km x 10km base area which shrinks with the duration of the match. 60 teams of three are matched up against each other and the last one standing wins. However, the format of the tournament is quite different.”

“In the tournament, each team is pitted against another in a duel-type match. The matches are still in the 3v3 format and the stage map is restricted to a 1km x 1km base area that does not shrink.”

“Furthermore, in order to register for the tournament, each team must have 5 members in their party. It doesn’t matter who plays what character but it is essential that all members play at least one match every round. Of course, every round is a best of five.”

“Do you have any questions?” asked Fox, having completed her summary.

Raising his hand into the air like an earnest student, Aether asked, “You mentioned equipment and equipment tiers, can I get a summary on that?”

“Pfft!~” Fox let out an amused chuckle. “You don’t have to raise your hand into the air, you know? Just shoot your question and I’ll answer it for you.”

Adopting the moniker of a veteran, she then explained, “Initially, when the game begins, each team is spawned into a random area of the map with no equipment equipped to their character. Therefore, the first priority upon entering the match is not to seek the enemy and eliminate them but to seek equipment for yourself. This is the golden rule!”

“What if the opponent spawns right in front of us? Do I still not engage them?” asked Aether, sensibly.

“Yes!” This time it was Vix who replied. “Even if the enemy is right on top of you, you are not to engage. Seek equipment to arm yourself and then engage.”

“Why?” To be honest, this made no sense to Aether.

Wasn’t the aim of every game to eliminate the enemy? Why bother running away if they were right before you?

“It’s professional etiquette,” answered Fox. “As much as the Ascenders Cup is a tournament, it is first and foremost a type of entertainment. Therefore, our job as participants in this competition is to entertain our viewers.”

“Thus, spend the first two to five minutes of the match seeking equipment and then engage the enemy. Failure to do so will, in the best case result in infamy and in the worst case result in a ban!”

“Now, continuing on the topic of equipment. There are four tiers,” Fox pulled up the slide once again. “Grey (starter) < Blue (intermediate) < Purple (high) < Red (top). The higher the tier, the better the performance of the equipment on your character. As a rule of thumb, seek better colours. It is generally the best option.”

“Generally?” asked Aether, catching the cadence in her voice.

“Yep, generally,” Fox nodded her head with a satisfied expression. “Equipment is not only split into different colours (tiers) but is also split into types. And each type is suitable only for certain character classes.”

Switching to the next slide she pointed at the image and said, “For example, Brawlers cannot equip the tower shields of the PeaceKeeper. Cursemaster cannot use the guns of the Gunner.”

“I see,” said Aether, understanding flashing across his eyes. “So not only do we have to seek better-tiered equipment at the start of every match but also only those that suit the character class that we are playing.”

“Exactly. That is why it is highly recommended to split individually at the start of the game to loot the map. Everyone goes around seeking good equipment for themselves before meeting together after a while. Of course, we always keep within range of each other. Venturing off too far alone and then getting ambushed by the enemy team would be a sucky way to die.”

“Of course.” Aether understood this much. Still, he found himself fascinated by how much depth this game had. Back in the past, the Full Immersion VR games that he played weren’t this engaging or exciting.

“I know that it’s a lot of information to absorb in a single sitting but don’t worry too much. We’ll just play a few games together so that you can naturalise yourself with it. If you have any doubts, you can simply ask us,” said Vix.

“That would indeed be very helpful,” replied Aether.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s jump in right now!” Fox was an ‘act before you think’ kind of person. Given a choice, she would always choose to act first before weighing her choices.

Since Aether was also eager to try out and experience all of his newfound knowledge first-hand, and Vix was also not averse to the idea, each of them entered and pod and queued up for some online matchmaking.

[Player Th3Re4lF0x (Gunner), Player OneFistMan (Brawler), and Player Vixard (Cursemaster) join the game.]

[Stage: Jurassic Park.]

-

Just under an hour later.

The pods opened and the trio exited their game.

“LESSSSS GOOOOO!!! WE OWNED THOSE KIDS!!” screamed Fox.

“Seriously! What was that final showdown!?! We tore through those final two teams in a matter of seconds! Aether almost 1v3’d the penultimate team!” exclaimed Vix.

“That was a rather satisfying match. A few new ideas have occurred to me. Can we go for another match?” asked Aether, his excitement being very tame compared to his teammates.

“Sure! Still, who’d have thought we would win our first game together!?” said Fox. “Let’s go! Let’s go!! LET’S GO!!”

The pod doors closed once more and the trio entered another match.

[Player Th3Re4lF0x (Gunner), Player OneFistMan (Brawler), and Player Vixard (Cursemaster) join the game.]

[Stage: Kelmor’s Arena.]

-

An hour later.

“GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY LOBBY, YA LITTLE SH*T!! GET THE F*CK OUT!! I AM A GOD!!!!” Fox lost herself to madness.

“Clutch! That was such an insane clutch! WE HAVE A GENIUS IN OUR TEAM!!” Vix’s face had become red from excitement.

Aether, whose face was still masked in contemplation, came out of his daze after a minute and asked, “Can I switch to another character before we start the next match?”

“Sure! Whatever you want, king!” nodded Fox, her eyes carrying visible worship and awe.

What ‘never played this game before?’ He played like a literal GOD!! Fox was in so much awe that she wished to kneel before his majesty.

“I’d like to try Modder next,” said Aether, his eyes still mired in focus. His mind whirred at incredible speeds as he analysed, marked, and noted the points where he could improve.

Aether was currently like a supercomputer, coalescing his combat experience from the past with the mechanics of this game. It helped that the game was not much different from reality, allowing him to control his in-game character just the way that he would control his actual body. What he was doing right now was fine-tuning this control.

“Sure, sure! Wait a minute, I’ll set it up for you!” Saying so, Vix jumped out of his pod and quickly prepared another, loading Midas’ Modder character into it.

Once it was ready, Aether switched pods and the trio entered the game. This would mark the first time Aether was playing a Modder; a character different from the Brawler.

[Player Th3Re4lF0x (Gunner), Player Vixard (Cursemaster), and Player ImATat00Art15t (Modder) join the game.]

[Stage: Leviathan Corpse.]

-

Another hour later.

The pod doors opened and the three players all had dazed expressions on their faces. Their eyes stared blankly into the space before them, while their masked faces had a look of incomprehension plastered on them.

“Say, Vix.”

“Uh?”

“Am I dreaming?”

“Why don’t you pinch yourself to find out?”

“I did. It hurts. So I’m not dreaming, right?”

“So is the case.”

“We are playing Ranked, right? Not casual?”

“Nu-uh. I checked. We are playing Ranked at the ‘Ascenders’ rank.”

“I see. I see.” Fox nodded to herself. Taking a deep breath, she then screamed, “THEN HOW DO WE KEEP WINNING!?!”

“I don’t know!~ Ask him!” screamed Vix back.

The two starstruck teens stared at Aether, who was still in a daze, digesting his gains from the recent game, and asked, “Brother Aether.” “God Aether.”

The first address was by Vix while the second one was by Fox.

“Huh? Yeah,” intoned Aether, snapping out of his daze. His eyes landed on the two starstruck teens. “Yes?”

“Why are you so good at this game?”

“Well, it’s not too hard, is it? Sure, there are characters and skills and whatnot, however, it all boils down to plain-old combat. As long as you are good at combat and have a decent head on your shoulders, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

“So your answer to us is,” the two teens echoed together. “Git gud (Get good)?”

“An oversimplification but yeah,” Aether nodded his head after some thought. “Essentially.”

“Wow.” “The God has spoken.” The two teens mirrored.

“Next match?”

“Next match!”

And so, the team of three with one God and two broken(?) worshippers entered the game once again.

[Player Th3Re4lF0x (Gunner), Player Vixard (Cursemaster), and Player ImATat00Art15t (Modder) join the game.]

-

The training/gaming session continued till the evening. Collectively, the team played nine games; four of which Aether played the Brawler while the other five were played as the Modder; two characters with almost similar stat distribution and non-similar abilities.

They won all nine games.