Veyra: “Sorry, I saw you but I got nervous and chickened out D;”

  I stared at my phone blankly, while sitting in the corner of warm-up room three amongst a few other top players. The clock was past 11am, and the group stage for our tournament was starting in an hour. At noon, we’d have our first matches, and they’d continue all throughout the day.

  Assassin: “I don’t bite :(”

  Veyra: “I knooooowwww, I’m just a blushing idiot”

  Veyra: “Cute hoodie though >.>”

  She still continued typing… not letting me respond.

  Veyra: “I can’t focus for the life of me. I’ll actually need to warm-up my brain for casting now if we want to win. You’ve read the ruleset this time, right?”

  I read the messages, but cute hoodie and blushing idiot were all that my brain focused on. Oh my god. I knew the hoodie was the right choice!

  It took me a while to form my message.

  Assassin: “Ye, I won’t screw up this time. We’ll see each other on stage, then?”

  Veyra: “Yep, sorry again. Let’s win.”

  She went offline.

  I sighed. I had actually read the rules this time. This was not a single gearset ruleset tournament, meaning that players were free to switch their gear around as they wished. This was, however, a public gearset ruleset. All items that players joined the tournament with were revealed to the viewers and the opponent before each match, essentially revealing what gear every top player in the game was running.

  The public gearset rule made the battles more about skill and less about mind games and hidden spells. Only the guild PvP tournament followed a private gearset ruleset, since the guild battles embraced chaos anyway.

  Additionally, the item reveal was always an exciting part of Worlds for the community. I remember gushing over SoulShadow’s gearset back when I was a little kid.

  I checked the brackets again. Or well, the group stage. Veyra and I were in group C with four other teams—two lesser known teams, and Nomnom Catones and Luxueux, who would be our toughest opponents today.

  Every team in our group would play a single best of one against each other for a total of four matches each. The winning teams would advance onto the double-elimination brackets that started tomorrow. Losing teams would also advance, but they’d start from the losers’ bracket, one loss away from elimination.

  In practicality, what that meant for Veyra and I was that we were allowed one loss throughout the whole tournament. That would place us into the losers’ bracket, where we could keep fighting to have a chance at a rematch against the one who defeated us.

  A poor performance in the group stage wouldn’t eliminate us, but it would essentially count as our first loss. We needed to win at least three out of four matches to guarantee a spot in the winners’ bracket for tomorrow.

  We really couldn’t afford any random losses against lesser teams, considering Annath was in the tournament.

  The forums also had a few interesting posts. The most popular one that included us was titled, “Veyra’s first tournament appearance; predictions?”

  By Neanderland, 1,569,257 upvotes: “I would not be surprised to see Veyra resort to system casting with some excuse like ‘Oh noo, the game pods here are different, they don’t read as well!’ I predict Assassin will have some cool dashes, and they might win a few matches against noobs, but they’ll start from the losers’ bracket and get eliminated in the first match tomorrow.”

  Reply by Appletrinity, 1,269,912 upvotes: “It’s insane that these two have tickets at all. What the hell are they doing at Worlds? Joining a three versus three tournament as a duo? Is this fucking kindergarten? Yeah, they’ll be dropping out immediately.”

  Reply by Ghostbussin, 256,179 upvotes: “Hypothetically, if Veyra isn’t cheating and her casting is just as good offline, how will the tournament look then?”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Reply by Appletrinity, 784,841 upvotes: “Lmao, still a loss for them. Assassin is a top 300 player, whose build got deleted. He won’t be useful unless he has mythic items. Veyra isn’t on the top 500 leaderboard at all, and her items are weak. They’ll be stomped.”

  The forums were as pleasant as always, it seemed. I still received an insane amount of hate on every comment section. In real life, though, nobody had thrown any rude comments at me yet.

  Hopefully Veyra had the same experience. The forums were always forums, but when people were face-to-face, few dared to say anything stupid.

  I breathed in and triple checked the entry instructions to our first match. I then warmed-up in my assigned pod, Shadow Dashing around and throwing knives, until it was our turn to fight.

  I headed to the backstage of the miscellaneous stage—a small and well-lit hall, hastily decorated with a few Worlds 2026 banners. There were a lot of organizers’ computer setups and some couches to wait on, where players from group C, our opponents, were already chatting. Neige, Fuhad, and Sloudon from Luxueux spoke French loudly, while members of NomNom Catones sat perfectly still, saying nothing.

  I couldn’t spot anyone that looked even slightly like Veyra, though.

  I checked the time. The tournament would be starting in ten minutes. Where was she?

  “Assassin A, correct?” a tall woman in a suit asked. “Aiden Miller?”

  “Yep,” I said, showing her my card.

  She nodded. “You’re assigned to pod seven, color coded purple for your team. Feel free to take it easy with appearances for the group stage. Walk-ins will start for the bracket stage tomorrow when there’s more of an audience and with dedicated matches being casted. Today, everyone will be casted simultaneously.”

  “Got it,” I said, having already read this. The group stage was displayed similarly to the open qualification event in New York. All five teams would be fighting at the same time to save time, since the stage had to be free for the finals of the dungeon speedrunning event later today.

  The woman moved to the next arriving contestants, who also were not Veyra. I opened my phone.

  Assassin: “You coming?”

  I received no response, and she wasn’t online.

  We were supposed to show up ten minutes early, were we not?

  Time passed as I sat around, tapping my foot. Four other teams were waiting now, all with their three players present. The organizers moved to final preparations with only a few minutes before the first matches were scheduled to start. I sat all alone.

  Where the hell was Veyra?

  I kept waiting, anxiously biting my lip, glancing at each and every entrance there was to the back stage. Nobody was coming.

  “Starting in one minute!” the tall woman called. “Get ready!”

  Players stood and stretched. Luxueux stopped chatting and wore serious expressions. Everyone haphazardly lined up to the curtains before the stage, about to enter the stage.

  “Aiden?” the tall woman asked, while I was still sitting. “Is everything alright?”

  “Where’s Veyra?” I asked. “My teammate?”

  She bit her lip, looking around. “You don’t know?”

  That goddamned idiot… I thought, clenching my fist. I couldn’t get angry, but I was upset for sure. Just where was she?

  “I’m afraid we can’t delay the competition for one person,” the woman said. “We’re starting now. If she misses the first match, she can join late for the second.”

  I sat there with my chin on my fists.

  The woman looked troubled as well. “It’s starting now. You’re free to enter alone if you wish, or forfeit the first match.”

  Maybe I can win the first one alone… I thought as I stood. I kept glancing at the entrances. Still no sign of her. I joined the line.

  “Hmph,” Fuhad said to me. “Tough luck.”

  I didn’t even respond, keeping my eyes behind me, on the entrances.

  The first team already walked to the stage. Cheers from the crowd echoed backstage. Before I knew it, Luxueux entered as well, and it was my time to follow.

  I stood still, glancing behind. The organizers watched me, urging me to move forward.

  “Are you choosing to forfeit the first match?” the woman asked.

  I bit my lip. I’d fight solo if I had to. I could probably win against some of the worse teams.

  But was it wrong to ask for my first stage arrival to be with Veyra? Even if it was just for a side-event at a smaller stage with no walk-in, was I wrong to hope I could hold my hands with her for our arrival?

  I turned around to enter solo, when I spotted movement at the back-entrance. “Wait,” I said.

  It was a man, entering back-first, carrying something up the stairs with the help of another man.

  A wheelchair. Sitting on it was the same girl I’d talked to earlier today, now without a mask, and her face clearly lit by the brighter lights.

  We met eyes, and my heart skipped a beat. Her hair color was different. She had freckles. Even her eyes behind her glasses were a different color.

  But that was the exact same face, full of anxiety and worry, now turning to shock as she spotted me.

  Her wheelchair was placed down on the flat floor, and another Thai woman with bangs walked up to push Veyra. Her assistant clearly recognized me as well, head perking up as she spotted me.

  My gaze was transfixed on Veyra, my heart pounding a million times a second. “You came,” I said.

  She nervously looked away. “Yes…”

  I couldn’t believe I hadn’t recognized her before. Even if she’d had a mask and even if her features were hidden in the dark, the shape of her face was exactly the same.

  I had already called her cute. I’d said all those embarrassing things. And it was all true. The glasses fit her perfectly.

  She’s exactly my type!

  “The event is starting,” the tall woman said. “You’re Veyra, correct? Hurry, please.”

  I offered her my hand. My right hand on her left side. She froze, staring at it awkwardly.

  “Um,” she said, lifting her right hand. “The other side, please?”

  I smiled and moved to the other side. I held her hand, and we finally moved to the stage.

  20 chapters ahead on !