Chapter 260: Ranked Typical
———Wiina———
<11: 56 am>
“Is it just me or do you have no appetite lately?” Jeff asked as I was about to leave the classroom.
“What does that mean? With how much we ate yesterday it’s probably better to watch my calories for a while.” I give out an excuse.
“Wha- Hey! Don’t act like you haven’t been skipping lunch lately!” He yelled out as I walked towards the teleporter.
*Zoom*
“Phew…” I muttered to myself before undoing the disguise and sitting down on the sofa and grabbing the tablet. Just checking things as usual, seeing everyone’s movement and where they’re going. As usual most people are going to the cafeteria. Right now might not be the best time to check on students’ movement, but I don’t really need to eat or have any intent to converse with my classmates during lunch so I have some free time to waste away. Perhaps I should invite Karra to a private lunch but she is being chatty today so it’s best to not interrupt her flow.
I looked through the tablet and the giant screen in front of me, seeing that today’s movements are rather typical. There has been no abnormal movement even with yesterday’s event being taken into consideration.
As for the dungeon logs, no records were broken that day, surprisingly enough. It seems like everyone was way too preoccupied with the party to actually go out and actively fight. Perhaps the large volume of food slows them down too much to act. It’s not outside the range of prediction, so nothing to worry about.
On the topic of anything that could threaten this place and cause a scare. There’s nothing today, and with the invading country now demilitarized another attack is very unlikely. At least it won’t happen within a span of a few weeks. There has been no abnormal behavior shown by anyone even including a somewhat unstable individual like Kelim Meskle. Everything is as stable as it can be despite the heightened sense of paranoia yesterday. They certainly have a reason to be a little bit on edge considering the scale of the party, but really what they should be worried about is a bit later in the week, but only someone with precognition or insider knowledge would even have such an inkling.
As for the teachers, all of their movements are normal. They’re way less likely to cause trouble than us rowdy young adults, but I might as well check their movement just in case, I have plenty of time to compile everything and make judgement.
…Everything is in order. Alright, time to just watch the dots move around for ten minutes and see if anything remotely interesting will happen or not. After ten minutes I can go do some ranked matches and stomp a few people before dragging Karra to hang out.
Hmm… Based on the trajectory it doesn’t look like anything eventful will happen during that time. I guess I might as well go do something else before I start bullying people.
*Zoom*
Perhaps I should get a bit of exercise in. This floating dungeon is still around since she’s still trapped there and never gets the chance to pull it back to its original time.
*Zip* *Splat* *Slice* *Blast* *Smash* *Slash* *Strike* *Boom*
…Alright. I think that’s enough. Blitzing through over a hundred floors still felt the same like last time. When I’m on autopilot like that it’s hard to feel anything. Even if I go to a thousand floors it doesn’t feel like I would be entertained. The lack of emotion from the opponents makes it hard to find this enjoyable. There’s no real purpose for me to come here and kill the monsters. It’s just the case of needlessly killing time. It’s been a minute and I already felt bored, so it’s time for me to leave and go do something else.
*Zoom*
Back to this room again. I guess I’ll scroll through all the news the second time. I don’t really have that much stake in what happened to that country, but I need some sort of entertainment here. Just some sort of update to think about for a few seconds would’ve been good enough.
…No update on the revolution. There has been a lot of unrest ever since Rico’s attack. Even their police force was heavily affected and with how badly the country deals with the rising amount of magical terrorist the civil unrest is at its breaking point.
There has been no update on the damage done to the country by that so far. Nothing official anyway. I could go look it up in that room, but I want to be surprised even if I have a good idea of how everything will go down. Even a story with an obvious trajectory can still be fun as long as you don’t spoil yourself.
I put a random cartoon on the TV in front of me while I search for other things on this tablet. About six minutes before I go and wait in the ranked queue. Or rather, the newbie bully queue.
These old stuff were certainly impressive and smooth. It makes some of the choppy animation of the modern look extra embarrassing once you look through the old catalog of stuff during the time where technology was way less advanced. There was a really bad crunch culture back in the day so perhaps that shouldn’t be too surprising, but the standard of today should be way higher than it currently is regardless, and it’s not just limited to these shows either…
But that’s enough about contemplating on how everything seems to advance way too slowly than anyone would’ve expected. Enough time has passed without me finding anything interesting to read through. Time for me to play around with my fellow students.
*Zoom*
“<Matchmaking in process.>” The robotic voice rang out as I shifted my form and waited for my victim. There probably aren't that many people in the queue at the moment. Whoever will pop up on the other side of the field is probably a- “<Match found. Emmie Pennela. Current Rank: #1.>”
…Ah. Well, it’s nothing unusual, she is the type to quickly eat up and then look for a fight.
*Zoom*
“The first time we meet here this month, I believe.” Emmie remarked as both of us were transported to the battlefield. It’s just a simple large room reminiscent of a school gymnasium. Nothing really fancy to it. “...Shed that plain disguise of yours already so we can get started.”
“You sure you don’t want at least one ‘genuine’ win here? Against Jass?” I jokingly asked while the barrier separating us is still active.
“No. Change immediately.” She bluntly demanded. Always a tough customer. I guess as long as I edit the data to show that she won the match it doesn’t matter. Forfeit is obviously not an option if I don’t want to piss her off. Even if I have a way of shutting her up I’d rather not go to that point in the first place. It’d be bad for my conscience.
“Very well then.” I shifted my form again and pulled out my long rapier. Even if I don’t think it’s appropriate for the situation she would be quite insulted if I pulled out a simple plain broadsword.
“<Begin.>” The announcer dispassionately said.
*Dash* *Clash* *Clang*
Both of us quickly ran in with our weapons drawn and started swinging at each other. There is obviously no struggle on my end as I let my body do the work and keep defending the attacks that came in from almost every direction. Her speed and precision with what is usually a very impractical weapon can be hard to follow for most people.
*Clang* *Block* *Parry*
“Hmm… Your physical output seems to have increased by almost half from the last time I saw you so active during that lizard incident.” I casually remarked as the exchange continued. The increase in her strength is rather sporadic, but it does translate to overall an insane rate of growth that outstrips everyone in our class outside of myself.
*Weave* *Slice*
She threw out those magical threads to constrict my movements but I quickly cut them all down before retreating to give both of us some breathing room.
*Bang* *Evade* *Bang* *Evade* *Bang* *Evade*
She then morphed her scythe into a staff with a gun barrel at the end and started shooting multiple projectiles towards me. Nothing I can’t intercept, but I might as well humor her and proactively avoid them as I slowly close the distance I graciously gave her earlier.
*Swing* *Clash*
She quickly shifted the form of her weapon back to normal once she saw me moving within range for a melee attack, our weapons clashed again with her figure pushed back by the force of my swing. While I could make it lighter the fact of the matter is that she won’t accept a free win or even an even match. A fight without struggle wouldn’t mean too much especially considering the opponent right in front of her.
*Duck* *Punch* *Crash*
I then retract my weapon and quickly duck and slide towards her with a punch right into her stomach and sending her flying right into the ceiling and falling back down.
*Punch* *Smack* *Strike*
The moment she fell back down I rushed her with a flurry of punches that didn't give her any breathing room at all.
*Shine* *Dim* *Slide*
I quickly slid away the moment she used her combo breaker. That super mode of hers that engulf her in red and black aura certainly looks menacing, and the side effect of activating it causes enough force to stop most attacks in its track.
Still, the gap in power between us is too great for even something with multiplicative boost to close the gap. She probably knows that and that’s why she relies on its secondary effect and quickly deactivates it soon after. Since I’ll simply adjust my strength accordingly the boost to power serves no purpose in this duel. All it’ll do is tire her out faster.
I raised my hand towards her and poured power into the palm of my hand.
*Shine* *Throw* *Evade* *BOOM*
I threw the ball of energy towards her and she quickly ran out of the way and it made contact with the wall behind her, releasing a massive shockwave that it even staggered the intended target that avoided its initial trajectory.
*Shine* *Slash* *Swat*
She still managed to create an energy blade from her scythe and launch it towards me before she lost her footing, but that is easily swatted away. That attack was sloppy by her standard so even the others could’ve seen it coming.
*Dash* *Block* *Clash* *Parry*
She still had plenty of stamina left so she ran towards me for more meaningless clashes. The difference between us is too much for me to even pretend to be pressed, so this is just more padding from my perspective.
Not that I have anything better to do at the moment, so I’ll humor her for as long as she can last. We’re not really obstructing anyone else by keeping this up regardless. There are more than enough fighting arena for the others to occupy and mess around.
———Kenni———
<12: 21 pm>
“Well. You know how this goes by now.” I said with a smirk on me while watching the nervous girl on the other side of the barrier.
*Dash* *Grab*
She ran towards me with a dagger in hand and I quickly intercepted her by grabbing her wrist.
*Punch* *Kick*
A quick combo of a punch to the stomach and a kick to the head and she is already out cold.
“<The battle has concluded. Returning to the lobby in ten seconds.>” The robotic voice rang out with a hologram screen in front of me showing how much point I got. It’s a meager amount since her rank is in the bottom ten.
“I’ll do another match.” I said before the countdown reached zero.
“<Resuming. Matchmaking in process.>” I guess I’ll do four or five more before I go chill somewhere else. It doesn’t look like Malk or Qyunda will snatch second place from me. I think I’ll rely on that Mission Room for entertainment going forward, if it has anything interesting for me to try out.