CH 49

I’m in the plaza of a special event-only venue.

There is a plaza, and past the plaza is the Coliseum, where you can do PVP.

It was no longer just a single map, but larger than one, with room for tens or hundreds of thousands of people to walk through it.

We were in the middle of the plaza and I was about to talk to Suzu to ask her to leave the area for a while because we were standing out…

「Ladies and Gentlemen! !」

Suddenly, a screen appears all over the sky. There was a man on the screen.

「The one you’ve all been waiting for――! ! ! ! The event has arriveddd! ! !」

「「「「「Uoooooooo! ! ! !」」」」」

A cheer erupts at the sound of the man’s voice.

「Let’s see! I’d like to explain what this event is all about! !」

「This event is a PVP! ! The only two conditions for victory are either the opponent’s HP is completely gone or the opponent surrenders! ! Other than that, you can do whatever you want! ! Freedom! ! It’s great! ! !」

「… Will it be okay this time… ?」

「I don’t know…」

「And and and! You’d think that those in production would be at a huge disadvantage in this event! But! ! For those of you who are in production and don’t have any weapons, we’ll temporarily give you a random medium-grade weapon! Those in production and without combat skills will be temporarily given random combat skills! !」

「「「「「「「Ooooooooooooo! ! ! !」」」」」」」

「I’m pretty sure they’re all voices who are in production…」

「I guess…」

「The number of participants is a whopping 100,213! There are over 200,000 people here now, and even half of them are 100,000! ! It’s unbelievable! It’s just too hard to fight with this many people one at a time! 100 servers! ! We’ve created 100 servers for now! So in the preliminary round, we’ll have 1,000 people battle it out in a battle royal style! ! Every top 2 players… In other words, a total of 200 people will advance! Then we’ll divide it into 4 servers, and 50 people will fight in a battle royale style! Then the top 3 players… A total of 12 players will fight each other in a tournament!」

「Hyah… 100 servers…」

「Is that amazing?」

「It’s not amazing or anything… It’s definitely gonna be heavy…」

「You who are worried that it will be too heavy! ! We have a recently developed processing mechanism at our headquarters, so no problem! ! Feel free to fight as much as you want! ! Let’s go! Are you ready! ?」

「「「「「「「「「「Ieeeeeeeeeeeeee! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !」」」」」」」」」」

「… It’s so loud…」

「It’s the first Event… It can’t be helped…」

We were surprised by the loudness of the crowd’s noise, and we were slightly taken aback…

Afterwards, other members of the Administration explained the information that had been cut out due to a mistake by the moderator.

The game will continue until 2 out of 1000 people are chosen, and the acceleration and deceleration of time will be constantly changing depending on the server. In addition, there would be a live broadcast from the official website that would show the highlights of the game. Well, I guess that’s not my business.

「Let’s get you back on track! Transferring! ! In 5! 4―! 3―― ! 2――― ! 1―――― ! ――」

「「「「「「「5 ! 4 ! 3 ! 2 ! 1 !」」」」」」」

「Okay, Aya. I’ll see you soon!」

「Yes!」

The countdown began, and at the same time as zero, my vision went blank.

─────

──

「Hmm……」

When I woke up, I found myself in a dark desert area.

「I- It’s cold! !」

Even with a fur cloak, I couldn’t protect myself from the chill of the desert at night, but I guess it’s better that I don’t lose any HP… ?

「… What should I do from here… ?」

Desert as far as the eye can see. Dune, dune, dunedunedunedunedunedunedunedunedunedunedunedune…. Hmm? A person?

「It’s called PVP, so it’s probably an enemy… I know… Ah… Our eyes met…」

From a distance, it looks like a man. Weapons… Ha… Is it a long sword?

As soon as the man’s eyes met mine, he took off running.

「………. Ooooooooooo! ! ! ! !《Swordsmanship・Double Slash》! !」

――Junjjun! !

The two flying visualized blades cross each other as they come flying towards me. It was quite fast. But,

「Seeei! !」

――Supapan!

「Wha… ! ?」

In an instant, Ayane sliced through the two blades almost simultaneously without missing a beat, and ran to her enemy.

「Ke, 《Swordsmanship・Claw = Z》!」

He slashes at Ayane, who approaches him with movements as though she doesn’t feel any weight, creating a Z trajectory.

Originally, 《Swordsmanship》 was a skill that gave the holder a technique called Arts. Ayane was unaware of this…

By the way, there is a skill called 《Sword Art》 that Ayane doesn’t know yet… I’ll tell you about it some other time…

Ayane dealt with all of this with a minimum of movement.

「What! ?」

「Ryaa!」

――Gusa… !

「Ka… Wa…」

The long sword is flicked outward, and while he’s vulnerable, the sword is thrust into his neck, which is not protected by armor.

The man who had been stabbed turned into light and disappeared.

○Today’s Skills○

Today’s topic is 《Swordsmanship》, which has been around since the early days.

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【Name】《Swordsmanship》 MP consumption: Depends on the skill

【Effect ① (LV. 1)】 Grants sword-specific Arts as you level up.

【Effect ② (LV. 1)】 Decreases the MP consumption of Arts (small).

【Effect ③ (LV. ☆)】 Increases the damage of normal attacks with by sword (medium).

LV.1: STR＋25

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【Name】《Swordsmanship》: Double Slash MP consumption: 30

【Effect ① (LV. 1)】 It can send two blades of light flying.

【Effect ② (LV. 1)】 You will be able to send them flying at the same time.

【Effect ③ (LV. ☆)】 You will be able to make them fly freely from your sword.

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【Name】《Swordsmanship》: Claw = Z MP consumption: 45

【Effect ① (LV. 1)】 Can slash 3 times in the form of a Z.

【Effect ② (LV. 1)】 Increase attack speed (medium).

【Effect ③ (LV. ☆)】 If it’s a Z shape, you can learn to break the shape.