16 A Bitter Distraction

"I hope next someone is stronger ...."

Wondered Crey aloud.

He was waiting for the matchmaking result when while loitering around he found the soft button where the weapon could be chosen for the next match. The earlier tiny knife scratch had made an awfully good impression on him, making him consider taking a weapon to the next match.

"Hmm…"

He browsed through cold weapon slates while humming leisurely and swiped through various weapon types like spears, blades, swords, knives, etc.

The world had changed quite significantly after the discovery of standard power suits and battle armors like EXO armors. And because they are so widely produced, even for lowest D rank armor with just a thin plate covering - it was capable of blocking projectile ammunition, thus making mechanical guns obsolete.

They aren't though completely useless, If a man could be targeted at their unprotected body parts but the new Weapon Corporation emperors harshly pushed previous guns and their owners out of business. The business world is an ocean of wealth where big sharks and new monsters eventually eat out old and small fishes.

The propaganda was soon pushed around the world proclaiming that the bullets were not able to pierce helmets or armors in any way. These mechanical guns are just pieces of outdated technology. This was the last thrust that killed the old rifles and guns.

Actually, in addition to this, the discovery of controlled plasma, the evolution of electromagnetic, laser guns, etc. Also had a great impact on changing warfare weapons with their advantages and improvement in damage output over old tech.

Thus, the release of a new type of hot weapons also led to the re-discovery and improvement of cold weapons. They were dug back from history, redesigned (taking heavy inspirations from various sci-fi) to match the current era, and genetic enhancements that came at the right time to boost their popularity once again. Because to pin down an 'Evolved' under gunfire who could react in very less time is particularly hard, the feat that could be performed only by specific Evolved with guns.

Thus this led to the Evolved community having a major preference in the cold weapons re-designed for modern Evolved armored warfare than new hot weapons. As battle armor and suits consist of more than fifty percent of a Fighter's power level, the new weapons were developed capable of facing them.

Therefore in the weapon section of this game, nearly all weapons were available from every sector. But to Crey's dismay, all of them were locked. They could be only purchased with real credit (Fed coins).

"Fifteen hundred Coins for an A-2xt spear! F*ck no! "

Swore Crey as he checked one of the expensive weapon's costs. He was already too poor, which was one of the main reasons he accepted coming here to try for this military academy. He immediately selected the filter of free weapons and now there were only three pitiful weapons in front of him.

"A steel knife, a simple neon laser sword, and an electromagnetic gun. Damn! Choosing is really hard."

Crey grumbled as he randomly, without giving any serious thought, chose the plasma sword. It was the sword whose blade was formed by the plasma which acts as a 'superheated solid transparent glass' at outstanding heat temperature. And with the use of clever glow particles, its edges have been made to emit neon light to make it appear glittering.

Crey grabbed the Sword which appeared in front of him from nowhere. There was no instruction or tutorial needed for it as Crey waved it a few times in the air to get the hang of this straight sword. He wasn't unfamiliar with cold weapons, especially swords, knives, etc. Technically, he wasn't unfamiliar with any type of weapon thanks to his improbable past.

"Too showy! Not at all practical for sneak attacks or surprise raids in the Dark but I guess it is perfect for a dueling game like this. Ah….! Why am I thinking like this again?..

This brings back some memories....bad memories! "

Sighed Crey as the memories he had locked deep in some corner of his mind floated back to his mind. His mood hit rock bottom as he sat down on the floor in a crouched position.

Sometimes depression hits hard to him, at random moments like at the entrance of Academy or like now. He was just starting to get lost in his thoughts when in a stupor his hand got flashed with the high high-temperature edge.

"Ouch…..aaaa!"

A loud painful scream sounded in the empty virtual arena. He mumbled a few curses inside his head as he remembered suddenly that he had to reset the pain sensitivity back to default position.

"No... no...this is one of the worst parts of this VR experience. "

Grumbled Crey with a foul expression on his face as he quickly opened the screen settings and began to find the pain sensitivity toggle. The pain in real life and pain in this world was too different because here the pain nerves are getting accurately stimulated by this machine releasing electromagnetic waves, reaching inside the skin to ignite nerve ends precisely giving an extreme flavor of pain.

But in the real world every time we get hurt, the pain nerves are not fully stimulated. People who regularly train, or some with hard skins, etc. have their pain senses numbed which helps them adapt to partial pain, or people like him who were long adjusted with high tolerance to pain due to regular exposure.

But this machine is ignoring all those restrictions and barriers to hit straight at the nerve to give ultimate unbearable pain reaching to the core of the body.

"Where the heck is it? "

Crey finally found the tab holding the game parameter settings after some searching, he clicked on it, and there on the corner, he found the pain sensitivity tab. He sighed in relief knowing that it is changeable and clicked on it. There it was in the form of a slider where it was maxed to a hundred percent. He moved his hand to drag the slider back to fifty percent but suddenly…..

"Opponent found! You are being teleported now."

Crey's pupils literally dilated in fear as his hands moved at extreme speed to drag the slider back to fifty percent. Once changing he found the apply settings option and was about to click it when the screen blacked out. A sad scream wailed in the room but it was cut short by the vanishing Figure of Crey from this empty arena to the new stage.

"No....."