Lili woke up with ass in the air… That's a saying in her country. It means her sleep was really bad and her mood was affected. Because the bed wasn't that comfy. She missed Lei's soft and warm bed. Her arm was aching, and she had bad dreams. She dreamed about being cut again.
Lili looked into the mirror and saw her dead self. She had puffy eyes with, how she called it, death shadows under her eyes. Her face was bloated and pale as hell. She looked out of the window and saw gray skies from which were pouring.
Normally, she would stay in bed. But she was signed up for the tournament today. She'd better clean herself up and put some makeup on.
"So, Lucy, are you on the way?" Lili called her friend when taking a tram to the expo.
"Sure, I'm on the way already. What's your plan today?" Lucy sounded tired.
"I've signed up for the SoL tournament, but I will probably be done soon. I'm not that good." Lucy snored.
"With how much time you play it nowadays, I doubt you are easy to defeat." Lili smiled. She finished the bracelets for Lei and had no new work. Only a few new episodes to translate, and that was quickly done. So, she had a lot of time now. Naturally, she spent it with friends. More like Lucy was asleep, so she played SoL with Dragons.
"Okay, but still, they will try their best. Remember… no one wants to be defeated by a girl." The guys here were so prejudiced. No girl could be better than her. But that was in the whole gaming world.
So just a few girls were playing professionally because they were discouraged, bullied, and made fun of. She was even once told that she should go back to the stove and let some guy make her pregnant because that was what she was only good enough for.
Well, he said it after she tore his ass with her healer account.
"I'll be there soon. And I brought you a surprise with me. So, be prepared." Lili laughed. Yeey, new facemasks for her.
"Sure. I'm already here. See ya soon." She finished the call and got out of the tram.
She entered the expo. Bought some breakfast. She tried Nutella and Anko taiyaki, so good. After she had her coffee for a second wake up, she went to get herself into the tournament.
They had simple rules, playing with borrowed accounts, so everyone had the same conditions. They were divided into pairs and the winners would play together. PKing with the time limit of ten minutes. So much time to destroy some guys. Lili smirked.
Her character was a swordmaster. She had so much luck today because Chao lent her his account and taught her how to operate it a few times. Three out of six pairs were battling at the same time. And she was in the second part of the first round.
When Lili watched the first bunch, she noticed a slightly malnourished guy having a swordmaster too, and, heck, his style was so similar to Chao that if she hadn't known Chao, she would think that Doom was this guy. If she met him, it would be interesting.
That guy did such a reckless move. He disarmed his helmet and continued without it. His HP got a bit down because of it, but it seemed like he got a bit faster.
Suddenly, he missed his target, just because his hand slipped. Wow, this guy was like Chao and Lei combined into one. Lili was trying so hard not to laugh. Clumsy genius player.
But he won. And if she wins two rounds and semi-finals, and he wins his second round, she will meet him in the finals. Lili smirked with delight. Challenge accepted.
Lili was surprised by how easy peasy the first two rounds were. It took her three minutes to completely destroy the enemy brawler in the first round. The second round was a bit harder because she went against a guardian. But still. Six minutes later, she saw a winning sign appear on her screen.
And she had no idea how she did it. She was just evading his attacks and randomly pressing her skills when they were available. Lili started with the sequence that Chao taught her. And that just pressed and pressed.
But when she tried this trick in the semifinals, she saw her character losing. The swordmaster was pretty good but had problems against a magician. It took her probably an eternity to get close to him to deal some damage.
And another thing was this weird guy watching her so closely she even felt his gaze. He was watching her every move. Not the characters, but every move of her hands, her fingers. How far she moves the mouse when evading. Sometimes he randomly looked at the screen, then she felt his gaze back on her hands.
"When you are against a magician, you have to be quick. Leave big damage-dealing skills when you get closer to him. It takes time. But when you are close, unleash your character and the swordmaster will take care of it." Lili remembered what Chao said and looked at the skill bar. She still had two MP consuming skills left. And one of them was chain skill.
So, Lili followed Chao's advice and when she got close, even though she had little HP left, she released those skills. After she was done with them, she released one more, and when she wanted to follow with its chains, a winning dialog popped up. And scared her so much. Lili forgot to monitor the magician's HP.
Everybody was so surprised about what happened. Even the moderator. There was silence, then her opponent stood up and held out his hand. That surprised her even more. The first two walked away without a second glance.
"GG, you are really good. For a girl." She shook his hand and wasn't surprised anymore because of that remark. Misogynists all over here.
"Thanks, you were good too," Lili said back and then they gave her a few minutes to prepare for the finale. She had some food and water when her phone rang.
"I'm almost there… still playing?" It was Lucy.
"Mmm," Lili had to swallow the ball of Dango she had in her mouth, yummy so sweet, "finals now in five minutes. What do you say? Should I win?" She laughed at Lucy. Lili was a bit puzzled because she had no desire to win. And after that remark, it wasn't fun anymore to play in the tournament.
She felt discouraged. Lili knew that if she wins, they will say that she cheated… as usual, because girls can't be better at games than guys.
"I'll be there to see you win. And if you are good to me, I will show you the surprise." Lili nodded. She forgot Lucy cannot see her, so she mumbled okay. After a while, they called her to continue. The finals were there.