That Time I Played A VRMMORPG.

Right now, the 'defenseless' Kaede was currently having fun drawing on the ground with a stick. It's not like she was doing it on purpose, although it's fun, as a result of waiting, she caught a party of three.

It's good nonetheless while she enjoyed drawing his face on the ground, while she can bait players and get reward points.

"Drawing to the ground la~la~" To her ignorance in the surrounding, a male swordsman ran towards her with a prepared attack.

He used a straightforward dash with a shout; Kaede instantly noticed and in just a moment equipped her jet black shield that's on her side.

To her, who only had a whopping [ AGI 0 ] it was so quick. But the speed of emptying the distance of fifteen meters is too different from the speed of her, making a sheathing sound with [ New Moon ].

"[ Paralyze Shout ]!"

The sheathing blared as the other players who were waiting for their companion to finish the girl slumped on the ground accompanied by the man who had decided to have a conflict with their worst player in the event.

With a *parin* sound, the red crystal on the large shield shattered. Kaede took the large shield and stood up.

"Mufu〜… It's my victory! He~he"

This time, she pushed her large shield to the downed player's head to not destroy their main weapon. Of course, she's lenient towards the players gears but not the players itself. In the next instance, the swordsman player became light particles and disappeared. The other collapsed players were defeated in the same way.

The temporary MP stack filled her with motivation as she got more thrilled. Kaede nodded to herself. "This synergy with my large shield and [ New Moon ] is… stronger than I thought! Hun~Hun!"

There's no way you can call this set a bad build. Kaede nodded with happiness and went back to the previous place and waited for another unsuspecting player to take the bait.

-

[ NWO ] First Event Spectator Lobby 2

241. Name: Anonymous Spectator

So Pain is going to be the champion of this event? He has the game's highest level, he's probably matchless with all the players you can count… He participating seems to be a little unfair.

He can even compare to those pro players from the other regions too, he's so overpowered. How do we suppose to beat him, in the current state, he is probably the only person that broke status charts to the highest degree.

242. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Yeah, his movements are too inhuman.. he's too good at this event, maybe he joined just to earn the tokens?

243. Name: Anonymous Spectator

The ones that are continuously winning were with famous names, imagine all of them joining and fighting, doesn't that make you excited~!?

244. Name: Anonymous Spectator

It's natural for top players to be strong! Yeah, I would like to see guilds fighting individually! Especially when they all grouped up and beat up newbies!

245. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Ha? What's with these reactions… isn't that bad? I mean, it's just the first event, right?

246. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Uwaah~ the ones that showed up are too op.

247. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Interim Results Ranking:

...

An unknown large shield user named Maple crushed 120 people with no damage received, staying in her position. Current Place: 61

An mage orthodox gauntlet named Knox using skills and spells to players and received no damage. Current Place 87

…

248. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Fhuaa?!! What?

249. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Cheat? no… impossible... This is a VR game with an unprecedented AI! The security here is top-notch!

250. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Maybe, they are players from other games? Rampaging like that, it's about time that it's shown on the screen.

Still...

That Maple-chan was so cute though.

251. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Is this it? Hey, it's showing!!

251. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Wtf!? The players can't move when they approach him? That's a skill isn't it?

252. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Wow? He can compare to the top mages out there! Uhh~ why are the spells towards him vanishing?

253. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Maybe he's a guy that puts all his status on INT? That's maybe why he's skills are so potent, it probably stack effectiveness with it.

But!! He should run out of MP already, I haven't seen him drinking MP pots.. ah, he's also using a similar skill as the player Maple!

254. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Wut? Insta-killing a defense build guy? Ha~? Wtf.. is that skill! What a good synergy of skills! He's a legend!

255. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Ha? It's true!

256. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Ha?

257. Name: Anonymous Spectator

He's a one-man mage... they can't even reach 10 meters from him.. what a dude I wonder what's the other skill he's using.

258. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Eh? Can you really do that? Isn't that like cheating?

259. Name: Anonymous Spectator

If it is, everyone will do it... maybe he got it from a rare hidden quest or something but looking at it he's a full INT user if he got hit by something he should be dead already, unless he had a barrier, look at the reflection of something when a skill hit him, don't you think it's true? Many mage's do that too, to protect themselves.

It's just normal to cast a duration skill like that. Don't easily suspect cheating because you thought better players are out of the norm. It's normal for pro or good players to be like that!

I can probably do that too if I had a skill like that.. unless these two players knew how to get the skill or they knew each other?

Noted by: XXXXX

260. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Rather, think of how a mage is withstanding so many players alone... it's not possible for normal players to be able to do that!

What a strange sight and also a chance to see how he can pull this off! Look, it's Maple-chan's turn!!! Wow! She's so cute~~! Ahh she defeated another player, oyyyy! It happened so fast, the player's face was so!!

-

Kaede got bored sitting around, so she decided to change place and walked toward Gram direction.

Although leaving the ruins, she didn't notice that in front of her were a lot of players looking at her with a begrudging face.

Their current numbers were about fifty. She already defeated more than one hundred players, so she expected retaliation from the previous players.

She saw a lot of players that made a party that wanted her head, but she hadn't seen a gathering of fifty players.

"With massive magic, I'll blow everyone away! "Kaede happily said and used her infused [ Hydra ] skill to the players near her.

Full Form [ Hydra ]! It was her first time using it and the area of her skill is larger than she thought.

"Aya~"

-

Gram heard a sound of *booooom* from a kilometer away from him, it's like a big bomb had exploded.

He already left the forest area and was at the dilapidated housing. He saw in the distance, a big violet cloud looming and expanding.

"Uh, I don't want to approach that for now." Gram wryly smiled as it seems Kaede was better at getting the crowd's attention.

Gram had still all his crowd-control durational spells activated, rotating around him [ Fiery Aura ] [ Gravity Downforce ] that had a double effectiveness since he used a larger MP as it's fuel.

As soon as he sees a relatively nearby player, they are already feeling heavy and before then, a spell or a skill will travel to their face and burn them to death.

Some will fight back outside his area of effect spells but they couldn't even damage him nor destroy that resplendent light barrier surrounding the person.

The groups of players weren't happy with his actions. Before then, he noticed that players congregated behind him.

Looking at them seriously, he saw many players and it seems they were totally prepared to use ranged spells this time. Wanting to destroy his barrier with the help of quantity, of course there were exceptional players here as well but they were the same, and weren't able to damage him in the slightest. So the only possible solution is to group up and try to defeat him with it, if they were lucky, they would get his massive reward points, but even then, they would be the next target of the whole group.

"This is a little troublesome, they don't know the meaning of overestimating themselves."

As soon as they got to the position, they started releasing their skills at him. Probably, they had hunted solo players or parties and probably each of them had many reward points to be embezzled.

Gram couldn't counter every spell they will use even with the overpowered [ Bizarre Eater ] which can count as the best and effective counter skill for a mage like him. So before they could destroy his [ Light Barrier ], he counterattacked.

In that moment, he responded by a sleek gauntlet, a yellow-colored hue appeared and before then, he shouted coolly.

"[ Earth Wyvern ]! Full Form!"

The [ Earth Wyvern ] appeared made of a yellowish-black cloud. Before then, the silhouette of the dragon spatted a big wave of smoke in front that engulfed every player in front. It spreaded since there aren't any walls to cover the smoke.

Including the players that were watching far away got caught, around 500 players suddenly stopped moving in their place like stiff and slowly twitching. Had gained a long [ Enc.u.mbrance ] and [ Slowness ] debuff.

[ Transcendental Meditation]!

[ +100 MP ]

[ +100 MP ]

[ +100 MP ]

[ +100 MP ]

[ +100 MP ]

In the second, the volley of skills had stopped, albeit it didn't stop the earliest skills that had been casted. Thankfully, his [ Light Barrier ] took it all down and even though it nearly broke down, but since he had been supplying it with mana. He easily brought it back to it's optimal numbers, making those slumped looking players grief and gloom.

Gram sacrificed his massive temporary crystal with a flick, at his hand a blue and red aura spreaded and waiting to be used. He then used [ Sonic Fissure ] with a sharp shout and while raising his hand cooly, a sharp sonic across 140 meter in front of him spreaded and blew while dealing massive damage to the players that had been stuck in the ground.

Like being pushed by a massive sandstorm, their bodies ragdolled to some meters before vanishing. It had been only ten seconds, as everything that happened was so fast. Even those at a distance couldn't believe what happened, nearly opening their jaws with disbelief.

"What a monster!"

[ Player, [ XXXXXX ] had been defeated. ]

[ Player, [ XXXXXX ] had been defeated. ]

[ Player, [ XXXXXX ] had been defeated. ]

… x41

Gram sighed in relief, he was actually prepared to take on the spells hurled at him but luckily his casted skill worked as a counter-attack and rebounded some spells aimed at him as before he used his massive full form [ Earth Wyvern ] it was a nice discovery.

Many expressions were found at their deaths, as before their countdown, there were still in disbelief while others were angered.

"It's not my fault that you keep targeting me, well it's just a game. Don't curse me too much!" He felt like he was flexing but he still said it while brushing his hair past. Effectively making himself an enemy of all males while some girls had started to think of him as a prince-charming.

355. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Wtf... this player. This is too much of a monster. Does he even use any mana to cast skills like that?

356. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Strange sight... that's a skill not for mage's it's like, similarly to the howling shout skill that had a massive requirement for STR. Maybe it's a variation spell for mage users? But how come it dealt so much damage.

He received so many projectiles but they still didn't even damage him? And that ridiculous enc.u.mbering magic? They can't even try to move from the death itself, waiting for the countdown before the next skill should be a horrifying experience.

Poor players.

357. Name: Anonymous Spectator

He timed his echo skill to cancel out some spells How cool! His timing is so great!! I'm starting to love him! <3

358. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Almost all large-scaled skills had effects with them, his gauntleted hand shined so maybe it's an integrated skill so it didn't have any MP usage.

I think... But I'm not sure though.

359. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Un... There's nothing wrong with his build, it's just his synergy that's troublesome. He might just be building it with specific skills that can get c.u.mulatively cast to incapacitate his enemies. As for the next skill, I don't have an idea…

360. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Seriously, there was already that walking fortress and now this one-man army!? They had a similar way of doing things. Uhh? Are they related? I'm now assuming they were, cause they are both monsters!

361. Name: Anonymous Spectator

Freaking cool!

-

The time remaining is only one hour left. After an hour, all rankings will be decided and so the players frantically try to defeat others.

Gram and Kaede have reached each other but as of currently they had been sometimes accompanied by the other players.

The announcement cat imm.a.t.u.r.e voice was heard from everywhere around the event instance map.

"The current number first in the ranking is Pain-san, number second place is Maple-san and the third place is Knox-san desu! In an hour starting now, when the top ten get defeated, get an increased reward point, here it comes.

Du! Duun!

30% of the points gained by them will get transferred!! The position of the three will be shown on the map! Please do your best until the end!"

"Looks like they're not going to end it simply." Pain shook his wavy blue hair, and didn't seem to feel a sense of crisis and had been cutting players like nothing. He continued his onslaught after a second of stopping.

"Ue〜 why am I still not in the top three? Ha~ my spawn point is terrible, let's speed up the hunting." Dread said who was known for his dullness now had now a sign of fighting spirit. Hearing two newcomers beating him in the rankings made him much more competitive but he didn't try to fight them, after all, they could easily beat him in the rankings. For him, grinding normal players was the best.

"Eh? I did it! I'm number 2! Knox!" Maple felt happy and glad while she looked at Gram, wanting to be praised.

"We just need to keep this up... that first place though, maybe he's just that overpowered guy, we can't overcome him." Gram rubbed her silky black hair earning satisfied expression from her. He mulled and guessed the first place ranking was like a person that was really into the game, with much skills and techniques from the real world, it was easy to break some sense in the form of skills.

Even, having better sense, reaction and timing had a difference in this VR game. For Gram, it was just good and he will take everything given.

Of course, players there were always players aiming for their heads as they ran towards them, striving to be at the top ranks but only earning skills at their faces or getting bashed by a tower shield.

The two slow-moving top-ranking players were sitting on the side, casually chatting at each other.

Clearly, other players weren't thinking normally as they really wanted the reward points as they kept on attacking them even though it's futile.

"There she is! That's her! That's the 2nd placer! Don't approach! Shoot them at a range distance, the farther the better!"

*Washa Washa* The players came in batches, like greedy locust that wanted nothing more than destruction.

Within them, there were many fast based players and alongside mage based players. Without being able to keep up with that, one player's knife seemingly teleported towards Kaede and aimed for her defenseless neck.

Although one was able to approach them with fast speed, even without his [ Gravity Downforce ], she took the shot without bothering. The player's knife bounced off as she looked at him nonchalantly with a slightly grinning face.

"Ha? W-Why?!"

But, that wouldn't get through Kaede, Gram flicked his hand as he used [ Gravity Downforce ] that enveloped the area and made every AGI based user. Although she was affected, she didn't mind not moving since she's near him. She could move with only light difficulties and can use her skills

"Don't lose focus! [ Shield Attack ]!" Kaede shouted cutely and bashed the man to smitterins, knocking the person back before vanishing in a moment.

[ Player, [ XXXXXX ] had been defeated. ]

"Do we just retreat? These two are monsters.. Crap, I can't move!" The man noticed he couldn't move, he had already been enveloped by the gravity.

"Don't do it please~! Ahhhh!"

Before the newly uninformed player can get his forgiveness and didn't seem to see the other player carefully maneuvering themselves outside his domain as the stuck player got defeated by a seemingly large shield, unwillingly s.u.c.k.e.d on the shield itself.

And although, a lot of players appeared and tried to surround them but reaching a specific distance made them unable to move and only those that had a high STR could approach Kaede but got eaten by her shield yet again.

Players complain in their head about why they can't even get through her shield, even if they tried to attack the other, it won't do any damage.

Having seen that scene a lot of times, the movements of the players had become cautious, and they slowly lessened their distance but any more than that, they didn't approach for more. Although Gram had single target spells. But those players were now cautiously waiting and not doing anything. There were still skills here and there shooting at them in long range although without any effect. Afterwards, those players would empty their mana as they had to wait for a long time, MP potions were after all, not available in the event.

"Kaede, pick what you want to use [ Hydra ] or [ Echoing Roar ]?" Gram whispered to her and she nodded vigorously. Gram explained earlier that he can boost one of the skills with his [ Power Augmentation ], a broken skill but had a long cooldown time.

Her poison was so effective after all, but oh well, she got excited to try out her explosion skill to other players. She quickly chose [ Echoing Roar ] with great fervour.

Choosing [ Power Augmentation ], he recreated the skill with [ Spell Creation ]. Rather than making another skill, he thought of using the spell creation to just improve one of his existing spells.

[ Skill [ Power Augmentation ] had evolved to [ Power Augmentation II ] ] ( Requirements to gain: Spell Creation. Undefined. )

"Eh, can you really power up my skill? Even though we're not a [ Party ]?" Kaede asked as she showed concern since she might kill him unnecessarily.

"Don't worry, I won't go down that easily and I have a high VIT if I can't survive using my barriers. Look here." Gram pointed at his prepared [ Light Barrier ] that had a LBP: 5000/5000, and that made Kaede slack jawed. He showed her the new descriptions of the modified skill he just created. (An: [ Light Manipulation ] He used 500 MP to increase his Barrier then used [ Transcendental Meditation ] every 2 minutes. OP but hey can't do anything about the story… XD )

[ Power Augmentation II ]

Enhance statuses or a target skill based on the used mana. 1 MP is equivalent to 1 status point, damage, area of effect, and duration. The skill is cast to the available status/skill of the targeted player or monster. Lasted for 30 minutes when used to a certain status. Effective only once the skill had been used, wears off after the enhanced skill started cool-down. Cooldown time: 6 hours.

"That's amazing! Then are you sure? You don't want the points?" Kaede looked at him curiously, which was really cute. He couldn't help but rubbed her head affectionately before just smiling at her. He used [ Power Augmentation II ] and choosed [ Echoing Roar ] as it's target, making it's damage, radius and effectiveness much better. She also sacrificed the remaining crystals at her shield making the skills five times much better. Her shield emitted a red and black aura making her much 'fearsome'.

"We're together here.. just do what I said." Gram moved at the back and smiled at her with a motivating gesture.

Kaede also smiled as her eyes turned bright before she put her shield in front and stood straightly towards the cautious looking players.

She cast [ Echoing Roar ] accompanied by his [ Power Augmentation II ], and as it turned out, was really more destructive than ever.

The area of effect got increased five times while the damage was just enhanced a little better but with her existing STR from the newly gained [ Build Up Strength ] the damage and it's debuff had been enhanced to the point that one tick of it could kill normal mage's without a barrier. The only thing that could block the skill where magical defense in some cases, favors him greatly right now. The debuff couldn't penetrate his defense making him smile in the process.

"Explosion~!" Kaede shouted cutely as the skill reverberated in the nearby players before they got blown away with consecutive damage, like the ticking damage from poison or bleed but this time, but much greater, [ Internal Bleeding ] instantly halved their HP and then it continued to damage them to the point of just a second, they disappeared.

"That's not an explosion goddammit!!"

[ - 2 LBP ]

"[email protected]#k! Escape! Ahhhh~!"

Nearly all players nearby didn't even put a status on their HP as even defensive players don't allocate much as they focus on their primary status. It quickly negated their defense and as the modifier relied on her STR which is already so high, it didn't take long for players to vanish. The only left players standing were the far away mages that had been lucky enough to use some sort of magic barrier towards their friends and themselves.

"The skill had so much firepower but it doesn't work well for mages, unless they don't have any magical barrier skill, which normally every mage would try to have. This basically counts as a physical nuke! Haha!" Gram laughed at the side while they watched as the most tankiest players vanished.

From the front line, at the range players at the back. They became a fertilizer for her points and increased to the point solidifying her rank to top 2.

They wanted to try to seek death to these monsters at the game, they already saw what they could do and still tried.

In the end, they reap what they saw. Until after a moment, everyone on the instance event heard a *cliiiiiing!* as the sound echoed signifying the end of the event.

"The end! The result is that! There was no change of rank from 1st to 3rd, the 4th..." The cat summarized the ranking and then saluted.

"Well then, we will now proceed to the awarding ceremony!" The comical cat vanished and before they realized, the duo got teleported instantly to the plaza before the event started. All players returned back from where they had been teleported.

The ranking from 1st to 3rd were told to climb the stage, so Kaede and Gram walked up on the stage side by side.

Kaede was standing while looking straightforward, but with the amounts of sight, she somehow got shy, and her face blushed.

After the first ranker who said just some motivational words albeit his cool sharp looking features, the man wearing the cool-blue armor passed the microphone to the second ranking player.

"Next is Maple-san! Please say something!" The comical cat said.

Kaede was the one next, so the two should have already talked, but Maple was too nervous that she stopped listening.

In that abrupt moment, her mind blanked.

"Eh! Ah! Eh! E〜to, uhmm, I endured a lot sho it wash okay deshu~" Kaede bit her tongue, she bit her tongue grandly in front of the large screen with a massive crowd. She also didn't know what to talk about afterward, but what she just said was enough to gather a massive roar from the audience. Even those that had been griefed by her onslaught during the event had been pacified by her outburst.

Gram at the side chuckled and tucked his muffler to make him more a little sharper. Displaying his cool features was a satisfying thing to do, his looks already could be compared to the first ranking person, who was really good looking, courageous and prideful. Gram features though made him mysterious and serene.

"What a wonderful speech!! Maple-san! Next is Knox-san! Please say something!" Kaede had been so embarrassed she couldn't look forward, and so she hid behind his back seemingly announcing their not so private relationship.

"Nothing more to say! Everyone should have fun, don't be gloomy about the event or you'll make her cry! By the way, Maple-chan here is too cute!" Gram' lightly said with his cool voice albeit afterwards couldn't stop himself giggling seeing her pouting self hiding at his back. It broke his aura of mysteriousness as the others felt that the two had a great relationship hidden behind those player characters they used.

"You didn't have to say that, look at their smug faces." Kaede looked at him with a betrayed face, he only had to pacify her.

When she got the event prize, Kaede wanted to return to her rented inn's room swiftly while she brought him with her, introducing the inn's ability to improve stats for some time. Of course, with that said, she got more popular in the forums while the two got debated as their relationship seems much more than they saw. It seems they became a popular couple from their own out, it was until they reached the front of the inn but they got stopped by a ranker they saw from the stage.

And it seems they were interested in making friends with them.