Prisoners of VR

"Come one, come all!" Lace carried a piece of a branch whose leaves covered its top like a dome. She treated it like a mike and shouted like an anchor, "We're having a contest!"

Twenty metres away from the wall that was being built was a platform made of bamboo. It spanned four metres in area and reached three metres in height. Standing on it was Lace, her voice booming.

Affixed on the ground right before the platform was a lever formed by a bamboo pole almost four metres in length. The shorter side of the lever spanned a metre while the longer side formed the remaining three metres.

A wooden cup was tied to the end of the longer side; it was a tad larger than a human head. Placed in it was a dense piece of wood, cylindrical in shape, weighing a couple of kilograms.

The tip of the cup touched the ground. The lever stood at an inclination of forty-five degrees to the ground. Standing beside it was Trot, wearing a grass hat to garner attention towards himself.

His unique getup, coupled with Lace's shouts grabbed the attention of onlookers. A crowd gathered around them. Most of them had been observing the platform from when Trot began building it.

The crowd increased in numbers quickly, reaching four hundred, causing Lace to become nervous. She looked around, staring at the figure of Rahu leaning on a tree next to the Dungeon entrance. Upon seeing him nod confidently, Lace braced herself and put on an excited expression.

"Now! We'll have a small contest. Our challenger here, named Trot has proclaimed that he was once a ranker in Angry Birds. If you don't know about that game, go back to school, you brat!" She roared until veins popped on her neck.

"Anyone can top the rankings of a mobile game if they dedicate enough time to it." One of the spectators snorted in disdain, "Come to the point, will you? Things are different between a mobile game and an actual sport."

'Perfect!' Lace was relieved at the spectator's retort. Of course, he was a plant. But to her surprise, his acting was better than she had thought. It convinced even her.

Lace pointed at the spectator and said with laughter, "You, sir, are correct! Hence, Trot is extending this challenge to everyone. Can you beat his record?"

"Just what is this game, anyway?"

"Yeah, don't beat around the bush, lady."

"We're all busy people."

"Alright! I won't waste time with an explanation. The game itself will be self-explanatory. Now, I'll begin the countdown." Lace pointed at Trot, "Be ready, sir. Have you selected your target?"

"Yes, I'm ready." Trot exhaled softly as he relaxed his limbs. He then stared at the tip of the lever's shorter side, focusing on it. His serious expression and his concentrated demeanour caused the crowd to turn silent, wishing to see what he was up to.

Anyway, it was free entertainment. So, they wouldn't shy away from basking in that, whether it was something dramatic or pure mockery.

"On a count of three, we'll begin." Lace shouted at the top of her voice, "Three! Two! One! Start!"

Trot burst into action. His right hand pushed the tip of the lever's shorter side, moving it horizontally. In a second, he affixed the launch direction and bolted to the top of the platform, leaping with all his might. As he fell, Trot bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Rawrrr!"

He landed on the tip of the lever's shorter side and sent it slamming into the ground with force. In response, the lever's longer side instantly shot up into the air, transferring all the generated momentum into the cylindrical tree trunk at its tip.

The cylindrical trunk shot through the air at tremendous speed and boomed toward the cliff. Dozens of Monkeys were situated there, seated on long poles of bamboo lodged into the cliff wall.

The Monkeys were alarmed at the projectile. But, it happened too soon, causing their reaction to be delayed. A projectile slammed into the body of a Monkey with enough force it was thrown off its footing.

It didn't even let out a shriek as it began to fall toward the ground. As the Monkey was on the cliff wall, it was a straight trip to the ground. By now, Trot was running on the ground as all his attention was on the falling Monkey.

Followed by a leap, he caught the Monkey and yanked the Invoker Crystal on its forehead, roaring towards Lace, "Time?"

"14 seconds!" Lace announced aloud.

"Heck yeah!" Trot leaped in victory as he equipped the Invoker Crystal. His actions pumped the onlookers that cheered in response. The sport seemed cold-blooded at first glance, but as the Monkeys simply revived, not many voiced an opinion against it.

Even Rahu couldn't say much, since the Monkeys made sure to take revenge. That was why he created such a sport, knowing very well its pros and cons.

"That was awesome!"

"Great aim, my man!"

As the crowd praised Trot, he suddenly did something that stunned them. Observing the trail of blood leaking out of the forehead of the Elite Monkey that was still alive, Trot walked towards the cliff wall and stared at the group of Elite Monkeys glaring at him from above. He raised his hands to show the captor in his hand.

He then placed the Elite Monkey on the ground and clasped his hand in prayer, displaying his respect. Trot turned around and walked towards the platform. Even though he injured the Elite Monkey, he caught it before it fell to the ground.

And once he plucked out its Invoker Crystal, he respectfully placed it in the corner for the Monkey's comrades to pick it up. He didn't torture it. Just that fact alone transformed it from a slaughter into a sport.

Of course, the Monkeys threw stones at him in retaliation, but Trot didn't fight them. Instead, he ran out of the Dungeon.

"14 seconds! That's the current record!" Lace shouted right as Trot left the Dungeon, "Remember, everyone! It doesn't count if you fail to catch the Monkey while it's falling. You have to display your sportsmanship for your record to be valid."

"Shall I try it?" Rahu walked out of the crowd, taking advantage of the crowd's momentary silence as Lace explained the rules.

"Sure!" Lace nodded happily as she announced, "Give a round of applause for our next challenger, Woof!"

"Hahaha!"

"That name's a riot!"

"Damn, that guy. I was gunning for that name."

The crowd laughed as Lace's introduction about Rahu was pretty much a dog's loud bark. One of the spectators that Lace appointed as a judge walked forward and reset the lever's position and placed a cylindrical trunk on the cup.

They had prepared around a dozen cylindrical trunks with the same size, weight, and dimension to make the contest fair.

"Ready?" Lace trailed off as she began the countdown, "Three! Two! One! Go!"

Having spotted his target on the cliff wall, Rahu acted at the same speed as Trot. He moved the lever horizontally to fix its launch angle. He then rushed to the top of the platform and leaped, launching the cylindrical trunk.

His mark was off by a metre as it hit above the Monkey he targeted. As the cylindrical trunk bounced off the cliff, the targeted Monkey caught it, hissed once, and threw it at him.

Rahu flinched as he evaded the projectile and stomped the ground, shouting in frustration, "Damn, I was close!"

"You failed, sir." Lace said in enthusiasm as she shouted while the judge reset the lever, "Now! Who's next? Raise your hand!"

Many hands shot up among the crowd as Lace selected one that repeated the task just as how Trot and Rahu had done. The first two set up a perfect example of success and failure. So, everyone knew how to play the game correctly.

The game received a lot of enthusiasm for three reasons. First of all, people weren't seeing any success in getting Skills from the forest. It was too dangerous there due to the numerous traps and ambushes. Way too many people died. So, it was too risky to venture into the forest.

Second, to monitor their actions and attack the users so that they wouldn't finish building a wall, the Elite Monkeys had to camp at the cliff wall. Without this deterrent, too many users would converge at the place and build a wall. Following that, they'll begin clearing the trees. That would shrink the territory of the monkeys until they would have nowhere to go.

Third, both these elements converged into this game. The Elite Monkeys had no other choice but to stay on the cliff wall. And, this was also the safest and most realistic option for the users in getting a Skill. Moreover, it was fun, especially thanks to the cheers from the crowd.

As Lace anchored the sport, she became more and more accustomed to riling up the crowd that continued to increase in numbers as word reached Larkrood Village.

From the corner of the crowd, Rahu observed everything. But, his attention was primarily on the forest. And he saw, hidden amongst a group of Monkeys atop a tree, witnessing the scene was the Dungeon Boss.

It was calmly watching the event unfold and didn't take action. After all, thanks to the event, the deaths of the Monkeys became almost nil. Only the Elite Monkeys died, and that too at most once every ten or twenty minutes. That was pretty much nothing.

At this rate, before the users could kill even a quarter of the Elite Monkey population, those killed at the start would revive. It was rather advantageous to them and the Dungeon Boss understood it clearly.

'Okay, it has been baited successfully.' Rahu smiled as he turned around and began to walk towards the Dungeon portal, 'It won't invade us for the time being, since it has the chance to observe us invaders without any risk.'

He exited the Dungeon and stared at the figure of Trot waiting there, fully equipped for a journey, "The plan's working."

"You're amazing, Woof," Trot said and accompanied Rahu as they crossed the hill where the Grass-Faced Dungeon's portal was and walked further into the forest. "Tell me the truth. Are you a professional VR gamer?"

"Nothing of the sort." Rahu waved his hand casually, 'Back in the day, I aspired to be a professional eSport player. But that became a dead dream.'

"Let's hunt for better Skills now."