Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 69: Game On

Chapter 69: Game On

When Zinnia finished her bold speech, she remembered the tension between Lyra and Vivian. Feeling a bit awkward, she rubbed her hands together and asked Lyra, "Um, do you have any?"

"Yes."

The cold voice made Mandy notice Lyra was here, too. "Lyra, sorry, I didn’t see you there."

Lyra had a book open in front of her. "If you’re not worried about what Vivian thinks anymore, you might consider going this weekend. It’s paid per task, and the wages are at least three times what you’d earn at the library."

Mandy hesitated again. Zinnia was already frustrated with her indecisiveness. "Come on, girl, your family’s worrying about bringing bread onto table, so why worry about your weak friendship with Vivian? Even if you try to be nice, that rich heiress might not even care."

Mandy felt a sudden jolt, as if someone had knocked sense into her. "Tomorrow’s the weekend. Can I go?"

Lyra wrote down an address and contact information for her. "Morrison will find a suitable job for you."

"Okay."

The atmosphere became a bit awkward, mostly due to Mandy’s discomfort. She had ignored them before, but now that she was desperate, she accepted the help they offered. It made her feel a bit selfish.

Little did she know, it was all in her head.

"Tomorrow is the mecha tournament registration and preliminary round. Aren’t you going to participate?" Zinnia asked curiously.

The tournament was a popular event. Though it carried the military academy’s name, it was originally an entertainment competition open to anyone under twenty across the Alliance.

However, military academy students always won, so the event adopted the academy’s title. The academy was happy to support it, and the event evolved into a semi-official competition with rewards for both the winners and the academy participants.

"I heard that the winning team and individuals can join a planetary development internship during the winter break. It’s a rare opportunity."

But Mandy only had money on her mind. She shook her head decisively. "I’d just be there for fun. I’ll pass."

"Alright then." Zinnia sighed, holding her face in her hands. "Lyra’s not going either. It’s going to be so boring."

The mood lightened, and Thierry, who had overheard their conversation, sat down next to them. "Are you joining the mecha tournament? Have you picked your teammates yet?"

"Not yet. Do you want to team up with us?" Zinnia asked, treating him like one of her buddies.

"Sure!" Thierry grinned. "I’ve been meaning to ask, but I thought you and your dorm mates would team up, so I wasn’t planning on joining the squad competition."

"What about your roommates?"

"They’ve already teamed up. They know I want to win and said they didn’t want to hold me back." He rubbed his hands together excitedly. "I heard from my brother that this time the competition will be on an energy mining planet. A lot of people are eyeing it."

With a snap, Lyra closed her book. "Do you need another member?"

"Yes!" Thierry and Zinnia answered in unison.

Mandy looked at the three of them and couldn’t help thinking, ’This might be the strongest team in the school.’

Nowadays, while opticomputers could meet most online needs, participating in the competition required a networked helmet that allowed access to the virtual world.

When you put on the helmet, it automatically generated a virtual character and connected you to the holographic online world made of data. In this advanced era, that world even served as a work platform for many people.

After entering the virtual world, players could either use their real appearance or an NPC face, but for the competition, facial recognition was mandatory, so only the real deal would do.

The three of them agreed to meet at the registration area in the login plaza. As soon as they stepped in, the noise hit them like a wall, and they were almost shoved back by the crowd.

Everywhere they looked, it was packed with young people.

"Good thing the officials built a big enough platform, or we might not have made it in," Zinnia said, squeezing through the crowd to reach them.

"Hey, watch it! You stepped on me!"

"Why are there so many people this year?"

To keep things realistic, the system adjusted sensory parameters to 100% after you registered. So if someone stepped on you in the network, it hurt just as much as it would in real life.

Thierry pulled Zinnia out of the crowd, guiding her to stand against the wall. "Don’t worry, once we’re done registering, we can enter the arena. It’s way more spacious. I’ve been here before with my brother."

They quickly filled out the information on the control panel in front of them, and once the registration was confirmed, they were immediately transported to another scene—a massive vortex-shaped arena, signaling where the competition would take place.

Each of them had a panel showing the competition order and how many people were still ahead. The live match feed was linked to their opticomputer, so they could log out and still keep track of their match time without worrying about missing it.

"Fixed team matches are on Sunday afternoon. Let’s form our team first."

But when it came time to choose a team name, Zinnia and Thierry almost started bickering.

"’Unstoppable’ sounds so powerful."

"Look how many teams already have that name. We should go with something original, like ’Crushing Titans.’ It sounds cool and isn’t taken!"

As the clock ticked down, they turned to their silent teammate. "You pick!"

Even in the virtual world, their eyes were full of expectation.

Lyra didn’t see the point in arguing. "It doesn’t matter."

Ding—

"Team name confirmed: ’It Doesn’t Matter.’ Wishing your team success. Goodbye."

The pleasant female voice faded, leaving Zinnia and Thierry staring at Lyra, dumbfounded.

She shrugged innocently. "I didn’t know it would turn out like this."

Zinnia groaned, holding her head in regret. "We should’ve just fought it out."

"Forget it, the name’s unique," Thierry said, quickly accepting it. "The name is just a label. What really matters is how we play."

"True."

In this data-driven world, things moved faster than in reality, with thousands of matches happening simultaneously. But with tens of thousands of participants, it wouldn’t be Lyra’s turn until the afternoon.

"I found the match location for those first-year EPMA guys. Want to watch?" Thierry shared a link.

Since they were now a team, it made sense to stick together, so Lyra agreed to check it out.

But as soon as they arrived, they witnessed a silver mecha in the arena obliterate its opponent with one shot. The match hadn’t even lasted forty seconds.

"That’s brutal—100% pain simulation," Zinnia said, rubbing her arms as if she had goosebumps. "I bet the opponent’s gonna be traumatized."

They watched a few more matches featuring EPMA’s top players. Each one ended swiftly, but none were as ruthless as that first fight.

After visiting several military academy arenas, they all reached the same conclusion: "The gap between military academy students and regular folks is just too obvious."

It was clear there was a divide.

This observation wasn’t entirely absolute, but it was a common takeaway from what they saw.

"I heard that after the third round, they’ll pick out the top contenders, and you can even place bets," Zinnia shared the scoop she’d gathered with her teammates. "Too bad we can’t bet on ourselves."

Her teammates exchanged subtle glances.

"You just can’t use your own ID to bet," Thierry explained when he noticed Zinnia hadn’t caught on. "But we can always ask someone else to place the bet for us."