Long City

The gilded sword sliced through the dark, furry coat of skin.

An inhuman scream echoed into the sky.

Blood spilt everywhere and the horrifying, large rat pixelated into the air and disappeared. In its place came a bunch of Blue armour and a few copper coins.

A similar beam of pixels and loots appeared next to it.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, Chu Ying and Finfin. You have killed 14 Rats of the Rocky Pits in Long Forest!

Please return to the Adventurers Guild to claim your system rewards!]

Chu Ying fell to her knees and heaved.

"Ms Chu Ying, are you okay?" a young man in a white priest costume asked.

"I'm fine. Just a bit jittery," Chu Ying said as she stood up, her white Armour clicking against each other. "I can never get used to the realistic effect of these monsters."

"One of the reasons I hate missions that have to do with the killing. The effects become even more realistic and gory than normal."

Chu Ying sighed. "Let's just get this over with, Brother Fin."

The two of them raised their hands, palms facing the loots the monsters left behind. The things pixelated into a light beam and went into their storage rings.

"Let's go," Fin said to Chu Ying.

The short-haired girl nodded.

The two walked away from the Rock Pits.

"Do you want to do missions regularly with me?" Fin asked her. Chu Ying looked at him in surprise. He blushed at the suspicion in her eyes. "Don't get me wrong, Ms Chu Ying!"

Chu Ying looked at him curiously.

Fin smiled. "I usually do regular missions with some of my friends from school and you did say you were doing your missions with random people. I just thought maybe you would like to join us."

The suspicion returned to her eyes.

"We have girls too! Three of them! One is my big sister!"

Chu Ying nodded. "Sure. Okay."

"You don't have to force yourself if you don't want to!"

Chu Ying smiled. "Nonsense. You can't force me into doing things even if you try. You should ask my best friend. He is always frustrated about it."

Fin grinned. "I can guess. You were insistent on killing a lot of the monsters that the Mission called for."

Chu Ying cringed. "Yeah. I hate Rats."

"That would explain why the poor creatures suffered as much as they did."

"They had it coming."

"Did they?" Fin asked her with a grin.

Chu Ying pushed him away with a smile.

They used a Reptile Cart to return to the Teleportation point, where they disappeared into a beam of blue light.

[Ding!]

[You have reached Long City. Please step out of the Teleportation Circle to make way for other Players.]

Chu Ying and Fin stepped away from the magical structure.

"Let's go," Chu Ying said to him.

Fin nodded. "Let's go to the Arena after this. The others are waiting for us there."

They got their mission rewards and walked towards the Arena of Long City.

They met up with three other people in the food court of the Arena. The place was getting crowded by the second as they found a booth to squeeze into.

"Ms Chu Ying," Fin called as he saw Chu Ying look at the crowd in confusion. Chu Ying blinked up at him. Fin smiled. "This is my big sister, Rin."

Rin was a tall, bulky woman with muscles protruding out. Chu Ying shivered as she saw the cold assessing look the woman looked at her with.

"These two are Lion and Bear."

"Hi," the two boys said together. They were twins and looked to be about Chu Ying's age. Both of them had poker faces.

"Hi. I'm Chu Ying."

"Where are the others?" Fin asked Rin.

The bulky woman scowled. "In the arena. I would have gone in too was it not for you, Fin."

"We can go now!" Fin said. He turned to Chu Ying. "Do you want to join us?"

Chu Ying smiled. "Sure."

"Check your Profile then," Rin told her. "See what all loots you have and how much you have improved. It will help you know how much you progressed after you have played in the arena."

Fin nodded. "Yes! The arena is the best place to hone your skills as a fighter. It improves your control over your skills and refines your overall reflexes."

"Okay!"

Chu Ying opened her game interface to check her profile progress.

A Blue screen appeared in front of her. There was a list of leaderboards in one corner. The summaries of the missions that she did so far in another.

Chu Ying frowned as she realised that the World Chat was showing an unusual amount of activity.

"Brother Fin, is today something special?"

"What?"

"The World Chat is extremely active today."

Rin snorted. "A Grandmaster's Arena was just activated, that's why there is so much commotion."

Chu Ying blinked. "Grandmaster's Arena? What's that?"

"Portable Arena," the twin on the left said.

"Exactly what Lion said," Rin said and smirked. "Usually your opponents are set by the system based on your skillset and level and to use the Arena you have to go into a city or a town."

Chu Ying frowned. "What?"

"A Grandmaster's Arena is a special talisman used by people who are above level 50 to fight those who are below them on equal terms in an Arena," Fin said as he drank his coffee. "The talisman forces both parties to Level 10 with the limited skill sets they had at that level when they first played the game."

Chu Ying looked at them in surprise. "That's amazing. That would make the fight fair!"

"Not really," the twin on the right, Bear, said. "The ones above level 50 are still people who had reached Level 50. They have a better grip of their powers and their understanding of the game. They also have the fighting skill to go with that all."

"So the one who is at the lower level will always be at a disadvantage!"

Fin shook his head. "Yes, Ms Chu Ying. But there are benefits for the lower level player too. You can gain Stat points that range from 3 to 10 based on how well you faired against your stronger opponent. You also gain access to the Arena store which will have the skill scrolls and tomes that you and your enemy collected over the years in the game. You can buy those to gain new skills."

"These stats and skills stay with you even after your level returns to the one it was before," said Rin.

"And if you had a breakthrough during the Battle you get special rewards for that too," Lion said, drooling.

"And someone used this today?" Chu Ying asked them, excited.

"Nope," a new voice said. A woman in all black said down next to Rin, an eyepatch over her right eye. "HI! I'm Ro."

Chu Ying nodded. "Chu Ying. What did you mean by no?"

"I mean that someone bought 10 Grandmaster's Arena Talisman today at the auction house," Ro said. "They haven't used any yet. When they do, an announcement will be made above the Arena all over The Other World."

Chu Ying nodded in understanding.

"Hey, guys!" a green-haired girl shouted as she dragged two people into the booth.

Chu Ying looked at the boy who sat down next to her. He held a white-handled spear in his hand and wore white Armour to match it.

She then looked at the girl that was dragged in and found herself surprised.

She recognized the Pink haired beauty in front of her.

"Sister Gu Shu?"

Gu Shu looked at her in horror.

"What are you doing here?" the two girls asked at the same time. While Chu Ying's voice was curious, Gu Shu's sounded terrified.

"I just-"

Gu Shu grabbed her by the shoulders, stopping the words Chu Ying was about to say.

"A'xiu will kill me if she finds out I came to play the game without doing the assigned work! You didn't see me here!"

Chu Ying nodded at her quickly.

Gu Shu was about to talk some more when a virtual screen popped up in the sky. The entire Arena stilled.

[Ding!]

[Grandmaster's Arena activated.

10 Grandmaster Players have activated the Grandmaster's Talisman against Player SelaXiu Veritas. All matches have been arranged in the Arena!

The Grandmaster Players are: Immortal Lotus, Lu WenXian, Immortal EverHill, Immortal Crow, Immortal Frost, Immortal Star Phoenix, Immortal Long Hei, Immortal WuQi, Immortal Matchstick and Immortal Lu Yue.

Initiated Player: SelaXiu Veritas.]

"What the hell!" Rin asked in absolute shock.

"Im-Im-Immortal?" Ro said. "As in Players of Level 70?"

Everyone sat there in surprise.

"What did this SelaXiu do?" Lion asked Bear.

Bear frowned. "Isn't SelaXiu Veritas the one who killed the Demonic Wild Boss of the Southern Continent this year?"

"That must be the reason!" Fin said to Chu Ying. "This SelaXiu must have the Monster Core!"

The others gasped as they realized what this Grandmaster's Arena Battle meant.

"If they defeat this SelaXiu in an Arena battle," Ro said to Gu Shu, "The most powerful object in her possession would belong to the defeater!"

"Poor girl," Fin said in pitying voice. "She didn't even get to keep it for long."

But Gu Shu wasn't listening. Her eyes were on the familiar thin figure of her best friend that she lived and talked to for the last ten years standing in the middle of dangerous experts.

That mask hardly hid her identity.

Gu Shu's heart started to beat uncontrollably.

"Is that Master Ch-... I mean Sister Xiu?" Chu Ying asked in shock.

Gu Shu shook her head. "No! Don't talk nonsense!"

Chu Ying gave her a sceptical look. "I don't forget the people I'm indebted to sister Shu."

Gu Shu looked up at the display with worry.

The others around them looked at the two girls in surprise.

Did they know this person?

The golden cage had formed, covering many areas of water, meadows and forests.

[Ding!]

[Starting: Match 1

SelaXiu Veritas VS Immortal Lotus.

Battle Begins!]

The figure of SelaXiu ran away into the forest. A woman with violet hair chased after her.

The people watching the Battle started to laugh.

"Smart Girl," Rin said, giggling, her muscles trembling in mirth. "That's the only thing you can do against Immortals. You run when you face one."

Gu Shu and Chu Ying looked at the masked figure in concern, wondering what she must be thinking.

"She must be so scared right now!" Chu Ying said.

Gu Shu nodded. "I hope she will be able to survive this."