Chapter 170: Not again...
"What the f.u.c.k is that?!" Noah wondered aloud, but speaking in a tone of voice like that just made it worse.
He had just woken up and was feeling like his head was bursting with pain. Talking out loud only made the pain worse.
Without a second thought, when Noah felt his belly start to turn he hurried to the bathroom and vomited a lot of liquid, probably all the drink he had drunk last night.
"Holy s.h.i.t..." Noah said as he sat on the bathroom floor pathetically. "Pearl b.a.s.t.a.r.d, next time I"m going to make you worse off than yesterday."
Fortunately for Noah, before taking a shower he tried to use [Healing Flames] to cure his own hangover, and somehow it worked.
After cleaning himself up, Noah looked like a completely new person, as if nothing much had happened the night before.
The expression of death his teammates had on each of their faces was priceless. Everyone was very hungover; only Noah was doing very well, and since all the rest of them knew he was the one who had drunk the most, the anger they felt for Noah was very great.
--- Flashback End ---
All the way to the championship, Noah"s friends begged him to tell them what his secret was to look so good the next day, until he used the [Healing Flames] on them, which made everyone"s expression become excited to the point of Mateo even saying, "I never thought I would be grateful to be able to hear again like a normal person."
Everyone laughed at this until they arrived at the place where the tournament was being organized. Unlike ancient e-sports, nowadays one of the main means of entertainment were the battles of e-sports, especially those involving Blessings, as was the case with Valorwatch, and today was the biggest e-sports.
Looking at the huge stadium in front of them, each young man was impressed and excited to think that in a few hours they would compete inside.
Noah no longer did it for the money, but for the company of friends, fun, and the experience that it would be to compete in front of so many people in a place like this.
The stadium had two entrances, one for compet.i.tors and one for the public. Fortunately they had already obtained a QR Code in their application that served as an entrance ticket through the compet.i.tors" door, avoiding having to enter a line as long as the one in front of them, the end of which even Noah could not see, probably extending for more than a kilometer.
When people saw them enter as compet.i.tors, their curious looks had already become apparent, trying to guess who these people were.
As hundreds of thousands of people had signed up for this championship, being one of the few at the top who managed to qualify for the face-to-face phase made such people special.
Noah didn"t care so much about these sorts of things, since he was a little used to getting looks like this on the street. Carlos was also the same way as Noah, but the same could not be said of James, Mateo, and Kevin. The three were very proud, even walking around with their chest puffed up like three peac.o.c.ks, which made Carlos and Noah laugh at them, but not to the point of scoffing, since they knew it was precisely for this recognition that the three were here.
As they had woken up late, the stadium itself was already quite full despite being very large. There were even small stalls inside selling things: T-shirts with personalized prints, key chains, dolls, and various things that many onlookers were looking at and considering buying.
Noah and his team headed for the contestants" area and entered directly. The room was quite simple, being basically a long corridor with several doors with numbers on top which indicated which room was for each team. In the corridor there were a few teams, some that they had not even heard of, other teams of which they had vague knowledge, while there was only one team with an expression of discomfort sitting in a corner, apparently trying to sleep.
Clearly that team was Pearl"s team. Noah and his friends didn"t even think twice as they approached the new friends they had made, keeping their voices as loud as possible and receiving initially hostile looks from the hangover team, which quickly turned into animated smiles, ignoring the hangover.
"Sup, how are you?" Carlos asked.
"Definitely not better than you, I suppose," one of the boys who left for support said with a pained expression.
"Hehehe." James laughed proudly, ignoring the fact that he had been healed by Noah.
Noah was also pretending this was natural, and with his chest puffed up and a proud expression, he stared at Pearl, who finally made an expression of defeat before giving a laugh.
The championship was very big due to the large amount of investment money put into it. Each team had their own room with UltraSense virtual reality booths for each player.
This guaranteed that no one would be abused, violated, or have their privacy violated while playing.
When Noah entered the cabin room with his team, he was a little surprised as he did not expect such good treatment. He had never used one of these virtual reality booths; he had only used HyperSense tiaras.
From the reviews he saw on the internet, these cabins were much more sensitive and accurate than the tiara he wore. The only disadvantage was that it was not portable at all. Unlike the tiaras that could be taken in a backpack anywhere without prior installation, the cabins needed a pre-installation.
The waiting room was extremely simple because the real waiting room was not this one; it was a place that could only be accessed by connecting through these cabins via a network cable, providing more privacy and freedom for the compet.i.tors.
When Noah connected through the UltraSense Booth, when he appeared in the virtual environment, he realized that all his senses were much clearer than when he was connected by a HyperSense tiara. It was as if he could only feel his skin slightly wet when he touched the water when he wore a tiara, but with the UltraSense cabin he was able to feel his hand truly getting soaked. While the HyperSense tiara just tried to project the sensations, the UltraSense cabin truly replicated each sensation for him.
In addition to probably making the game level much more professional, this would also ensure more entertainment for the audience, since among the sensations that became clearer, pain was on the list.
A player could adjust the pain sensation to 10% if he wanted to, but 10% of a projection of pain like a tiara, and 10% of an almost exact replication of a cabin, were completely different.
As well as outside, each team had its own room in the virtual environment. Noah saw his teammates each wearing their own outfit that they had developed for the team. It was nothing too extravagant, everyone could choose the outfit they wanted, as long as the color palette of the clothes was black and red.
The five in that room, each with a more striking outfit than the other, all wearing black and red color schemes, made it look like they were some kind of evil cult or a gathering of high-ranking demons in Noah"s mind.
Heading out of the room, they saw a lot of teams. Unlike outside, which had a maximum of five teams, here in the virtual environment there were more than 20 teams. If everything went as planned there would be a total of 32 teams, which in some rounds would decide who would be the champion.
Noah"s team was not the only one to match the color scheme of their outfits, but because of a single factor in theirs, Noah"s team stood out the most.
"d.a.m.n, is that guy really Lucifer?" a man who looked like an ice elemental spoke.
Hearing what he said, his teammates and the other people around him also turned to look and noticed Noah with his team entering the lobby.
The company had made a virtual lobby that simulated a dome in the middle of the ocean. From all sides it was possible to see an infinite amount of water, separated only by a thin layer of gla.s.s.
Everyone there knew it was just a virtual projection, but that didn"t stop many of the compet.i.tors from admiring the beautiful landscape.
But when they heard that Lucifer had arrived, without exception, everyone who heard his name turned and looked in the direction of Noah"s team.
Noah noticed that there were several types of expressions. Some were showing great concern when looking at them, others just looked as if they were nothing much, perhaps believing that they could handle them easily, while others looked with respect, probably wanting to have a battle against this team.
Pearl"s team was still resting in the real world, so they didn"t know anyone else in that lobby.
Because of their arrival, there was almost no one talking, making the atmosphere far more uncomfortable than anyone wanted.
That was until suddenly one person stood up from the group and went to Noah. What made his mind think quickly.
"No, not again..."
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