10 True Swordmage! (1/2)
Celeste was very unhappy. Despite being warned that the ramen he was going to have was truly one of the spiciest, he had still ventured off to give it a try. However, he found that he could not even finish the noodles and toppings. Sure enough, he had failed the food challenge, and before he could go and buy a proper meal, he received a text from his superiors that asked him to prepare a report of the day's tryouts sooner than the usual time.
Because of this, he had to rush back to his booth in the convention center with only a rice ball and some crackers. This had left bad taste in his mouth, as he was forced to watch a day of exceedingly poor tryouts followed by ramen that was too extreme for him; and he wasn't even allowed to buy a consolation meal before he was rushed back to deal with more tryouts.
However, upon returning back to the tryouts area, a large crowd could be seen cheering and roaring at the main stage area. The main stage area was normally used to highlight new applicants that were performing well. As soon as an applicant displayed promise, their previous performance would be replayed on the stage. The analysts and recruiters that were featured there would give their impression of how strong the player is, and whether or not they'll have a chance with the organization they had applied for. Unfortunately, it would be Celeste's turn on that stage tomorrow.
The crowd roared again!
”I can't believe he's still going!”
”How much time has it been?”
”He's been at it for over an hour!? How could that be possible!”
”Is he actually just a pro player in disguise? Looking at the mage setup, it seems like something the god tier player Resonance would do!”
”No way! Resonance would never try a character setup this stupid!”
”How can you call The Dawn's character set up stupid?! He cleared the entire first stage by killing the Pro AI in only 3 minutes!”
”Yeah! He even won the second stage's 1 on 2 match in the 5 minutes that he was required to just survive!”
”Look, he's already broken the record of 20 minutes in the third stage by a whole 45 minutes!”
'...'
Celeste made his way towards the crowd. He pulled on a youngster's sleeve which caused the youngster to turn around.
”Excuse me, but who did you say broke those records?”
---
Li Ming was currently very bored. Although he was having fun at first, he couldn't help bu be bored at this moment.
In the first stage, he was surprised by the enemies strength! The enemy seemed to resemble Mato, but without her intellect and cunningness. Because of this, Li Ming was able to take advantage of the AI's openings and mercilessly cut it down.
'Whoever designed this AI must really underestimate Mato' he had thought while loading into the next stage.
In the second stage, he was up against 2 players. This time, he was being charged at by two players who looked like the Tokyo Bullet's captain, Kou, as well as the Berlin Crane's Ace player, Kartoffel. At first, Li Ming chose to flee from this situation, as he thought that he couldn't win. But after watching the AI for a while, Li Ming noticed the two AI, although strong individually, weren't actually cooperating with each other the way a regular squad would.
He decided to take advantage of this. Thankfully, the second stage took place on a map of a cityscape. He had ran into a shopping center in the heart of the city in an attempt to outrun the two pursuers, but they had split up as soon as he had entered the building.
Kartoffel, who was known for being a very graceful player, normally chose to avoid direct confrontation, as they were viewed as a messy battle with little strategy. Berlin Crane's motto was ”Victory through graceful strategy”. Therefore, his AI chose to fly above the shopping center to launch a large scale spell to level the entire structure.