The Immortal Player

After a couple of casual conversations, Weyron and his mother left as Pedro logged back into the game. And as usual, he had started his daily training with his training sword, the newbie sword. Unlike Sabrina, Pedro was not that compatible with a sword even though he was a sword wielder in his past life. Thus, he could only put more effort into his Sword Mastery Training than that of his close combat training.

As for their Mana Outburst training with Faunia, they were now able to last around thirty minutes—awake, against the Mana Outburst of Faunia. It was not because their Mana Capacity was increasing at a god-like rate nor were they able to increase their Mana Recovery to the point that it is regenerating at a bug-like speed. Rather, it was because they were able to control or limit the amount of the magical energy to the point that they may even be able to train Mana Control—the second stage of the mastery of Mana Utilization, at some time.

That said, Pedro and Sabrina believed in Faunia, Clara, and Ragas' teachings. Thus, they did not argue that much about their training because they know that in order to master the use of their Magical Energy, it is necessary to, first and foremost, have a high Mana Capacity and fast Mana Recovery.

On the other hand, just because they can increase their Mana Capacity and Recovery through training, does not mean that the player system was faulty. In truth, the system was just indicating the actual strength of the players and the changes that happen to their characters' bodies as it levels up. And unknown to them—even Pedro and Sabrina, there was no specific limit as to how much an individual's body can handle the changes with matters concerning their Magical Energy—or Mana, and their Health Points—or known to NPCs as Life Force.

Well… Compared to Mana, Life Force or HP is a fixed variable that can't be trained to increase. It was heavily dependent on a being's level and would only increase permanently as their level and/or vitality attribute increases.

That aside, there were still definitely limits on how much they can train and increase their Mana Capacity, Recovery, and Release through Mana Outburst Training. But they were still far from reaching it because they would only reach their limit when their body starts to get physically affected when using their Magical Energy to its maximum form.

And because Pedro had once unleashed an outstanding amount of Magical Energy when he fought and defeated Faunia, he was still not even close to One Percent of his true capability.

Add up the fact that he had increased his level many times since then, although there was a definite limit to what a human body can contain, the current level of Magical Energy being used by both players—including Pedro and Sabrina, and the common NPCs were not even an ounce of their true capability.

Fortunately, with the existence of the Adventurer's Guild and the Continental Quest, players from the Aquari Continent were still attached to low-level quests, including the top-ranked players. That said, it was still way better compared to players on other servers because most of them are still busy trying to establish a decent 'safe zone' for themselves.

Although unified players in other servers were able to establish a place to stay for themselves, it did not last long as internal conflicts between different groups or factions of players occurred. Pedro knew about this fact and knows that it would take—the best factions/guild, at least half a month to establish a firm stronghold on their own. So, he was not necessarily in a hurry to establish the two gaming organizations and expand to the other servers. Besides… He needs to have a firm grip on the Asian Server before he decides to expand to the other servers.

…

A day of training passed by like a wind, and the information about the Exhibition Games was sent to the participants ahead of the official announcement. The event was called Bearth Online Simulated Battles that was meant to introduce the future professional league of the game.

As its name suggests, Simulate Battles are battles that would be held in a simulated environment using 'synchronized' data of characters from the game's main server. Items, Weapons, and such were included. However, anything with Artificial Intelligence, like NPCs, Slaves, Pets, and such can't be synced and used in the said competition.

Similar to other VR Game Professional Leagues, the Simulated Battles would have three major stages, namely the Elimination Stage, the Inter-Server Playoffs, and finally the Tournament Championships.

During the Elimination Stage, each guild/gaming organization would face random enemies—either other guilds/gaming organizations or Simulated Monsters based on the discretion of the system. Those who won't be able to pass this stage would be immediately eliminated from the competition and would receive a consolation prize.

Moving into the Inter-Server Playoffs Stage, guilds/gaming organizations would be matched against a random enemy from the same server. Then, they would have a 'best of 3' competition to determine who would move forward on the playoffs. The respective guilds/gaming organization would fight against each other until the Server Champions or also called the Server Representatives were determined.

Lastly, the Championship of the competition would be held with a 'best of 5' competition to determine which guild or gaming organization would stand on the top and be hailed as the champion of the competition.

The Consolation Prize for those who were eliminated at the Elimination Stage would be 1,000 US Dollars per player that participated.

The Consolation Prize for those who were eliminated at the Inter-Server Playoffs Stage would be 2,000 US Dollars per player that participated and an additional 5,000 US Dollars for the respective Gaming Organization per stage in the playoffs that they were able to reach.

The Server Champion's Guaranteed Prize would be 100,000 US Dollars for each Gaming Organization/Guild, 10 Gold Coins for each Gaming Organization/Guild, a month worth of Lifo Supply, and 20 VR Boxes.

Lastly, the prize for the World Champion would be a staggering amount of 1 Million US Dollars for the winning Guild/Gaming Organization, a B-Rank Sword, 20 Gold Coins, half a year supply of Lifo, 50 VR Boxes, and the rights to choose where the next Bearth Online Championship would be held.

As for the mechanics of the simulated battles, each battle would be a game of either War Simulation that may involve Kingdom Defense or just pure Battlefield Combat Simulation.

The Kingdom Defense is mainly composed of two opposing Kingdoms in a randomly generated environment where a maximum of 20 players would be allowed to play on each side. The First Team to achieve the specific goal or objectives set by the system or… the First Team to be able to annihilate all the players of the opposing force would be the winner for that round.

Amongst those 20 Players, a role of King, Ace, Queen, and a Joker would be assigned with specific roles and value compared to other players.

The King is of the highest authority amongst all the players and has the power to increase the attack damage and magical damage of its members by 50% on that round. Thus, Killing the King of the opposing force would provide them a 50% damage advantage over their enemy.

The Ace is the role of the strongest player and would be granted a 20% increase in all attributes—except Special Attributes. This is a vital role that would play as the major killer during the battle.

The Queen is a special role, where if captured or killed would grant the enemy team a temporary 10% boost on all attributes—except Special Attributes, for 10 minutes. It is a role that is not as important as the other roles but it can be a game-changer at crucial times of the battle.

Lastly, the best role, The Joker! It is a special role that is given to a player that would allow one to act as one of the three roles and confuse the enemy. If captured or Killed by mistake, they might obtain a -10% on all attributes—except Special Attributes, as a penalty.

As for the Battlefield Combat Simulation, it is similar to Kingdom Defense with a maximum limit of 20 players on each team, but there won't be any objectives set by the system nor special roles to be given to players. It would only be straightforward combat amongst the two opposing forces in a random simulated environment and location. And only the team/guild/gaming organization that would be able to annihilate the opposing force will be considered the winner for that round.

…

The said Exhibition Games would be held in China, after two weeks. The Opening Ceremony would be held on April 02, 2031. While the Championship is estimated to be held on April 15-20, where the official launch of the game was set to be announced.

Pedro could not help but to scratch the back of his head after knowing that that the said competition would be held in two weeks. He was still undergoing recovery and he did not even know if he would be allowed to travel on plane by that time.

With a slim chance that even his parents would even allow him to participate in such an event, Pedro could only hopelessly shake his head and said, "I guess, I'll leave everything to Mathew and Sabri just in case."