A Certain Middle-Aged Man’s VRMMO Activity Log

At long last, the PvP tournament of the 20 Liberators has drawn near to the day after tomorrow.
In front of the coliseum made in Nexia, a large amount of people were enveloped in a frenzied atmosphere; as for why

“The cutoff for purchasing admission tickets, as well as betting tickets, is close at had, so those who want them should hurry up!”

The NPC vendor girl advertised with a loud, authoritative voice.
The admission tickets are self explanatory, but as for the betting tickets, you buy the ticket of whichever party you think will win as a bet; the entire sum of money used to buy betting tickets will be split amongst all the possessors of the winning betting ticket.

If it’s like this, then not even 1Glo will enter into the bookkeeper managers’ profits, but this time it’s pretty much a festival, so there’s no intentions of taking in profits, it seems.
But, even so, they’re selling so well; betting is a frightening thing.
By the way, the parties are only designated by the party leader’s name and the amount of people in the party.

2-man Party: Teen

3-man Party: Grad

4-man Party: Ayame

5-man Party: Silver

6-man Party: Randa

Is what they are.
As for the popularity, number 1 is Grad’s party, the runner up is Silver’s party, Ayame’s party is a rival to keep an eye on, and Teen and Randa’s parties are treated as the underdogs.

“Ain’t this Grad officially redeeming himself?”

“No, if it’s that, then Silver would be the one to redeem himself, right?”

“For me(ore), I want to support the Ayame-san who came putting in all that effort from the time of obscurity!”

“Teen and Randa aren’t weak either, but their other members are way too awful.”

The rough evaluations of onlookers is that kind of thing. And though it’s rough, it’s an accurate evaluation. It’s just, you won’t know how well they’ve strengthened themselves until after the fights begin, and you won’t know what the results of the fights will be until it’s begun1. Even so, here and there are people who buy the unknown Teen and Randa’s betting tickets.

“And, in the end, I wonder who was the chicken that ran away?”

In general, this sort of topic is also guaranteed to make its appearance.

“I bet he’s not being a chicken though, that dungeon’s solo-er; if there was information about him you could tell better.”

“That’s right, that’s right; the first guy to do it is the most impressive, right? The one who calls him a chicken is a chicken.”

“What’d you say you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

That’s right; it was written that the one who achieved the solo portion rejected his partic.i.p.ation.
In the end, no one figured out who the solo achiever was; it remained a mystery.

Many players came up with theories, but none of the theories were proven.
As a bonus, with this times partic.i.p.ation rejection, the only proof that the solo player had, the Liberator t.i.tle, was erased. The decisive evidence has pretty much already disappeared.

“Setting aside whether he was a chicken or not, would you guys kick aside this only chance to get unique stuff?”

The people who got excited about the topic of the reject-ee shook their heads at this voice.

“It’s a magic sword, right? Revival potion, right? Special equipment, right? If it were me, I wouldn’t kick it out, ne.”

“It’s impossible for me; I want a revival potion, see.”

&ldq
uo;I think it’s impossible; if you think about it another way, someone doesn’t want to stand out so much that he’d kick even this aside is a rare type of player.”

Typically, MMO player aim for strength.
Aiming for peerless play, winning in PvP, or even searching for rare items.
To do any of those, in the end you need power.
Because of the desire to play that way, people level up, search for items, and make equipment.

And, as you struggle towards your goal, what’s waiting for you is clashes with others who have chosen your same path. Even avoiding them is impossible unless you are stronger than your opponents.
You can especially expect opposition in an official PvP tournament where the winning prize is announced to be 30 million in cash.
If it comes to that, the heated compet.i.tion that breaks out would be way past the kind you’d get in an inferior real-life; you wouldn’t be able to say it’s just a mere game.

Maa, to begin with, “mere” is ~ right?”
Even if stuff like people aren’t limited to games is said, it’s the words of people who aren’t able to take anything seriously. To master one thing, do you know how difficult that is?
It’s a statement that only those who can’t understand such a thing would say.

When you say that, there will be people who respond saying that they seriously go to work, but that’s a different topic.
Do you aim to be number 1 in the industry in that job? Do you put that much effort in?
That’s the kind of direction I’m talking about.
Whether its play or work, to stand at the very top can’t be reached with an half-hearted effort.

Maa, there’s that kind of hidden circ.u.mstance too; it’s the opinion of all the players that this time’s PvP also serves as a pre-game for that official tournament.
The official tournament has over 1000 people who have entered; this time’s tournament, even though it’s just a little, it’s expected that you can come to watch and try to steal the movements of the upper players.

The discussion got a bit off track, but the players who want to talk about that kind of thing have also gathered; the front of the coliseum has become engulfed in a heated fervor. Although it’s VR, the ones that are there are gathered there are, without a doubt, humans.
The tournament still has two days before it begins. But for Earth, this is all something completely unrelated.