"Where do we play a game, though?" Felix wondered.
"Like hell would I know. Let's ask someone."
After asking for directions, they found themselves inside a small white tower. With just a little under a hundred meters, it was dubious whether it was a tower at all.
"Damn. There's a line." Stell said darkly.
After a full hour of waiting, they finally found themselves in front of a receptionist.
The receptionist had brown hair and brown eyes. She was just slightly shorter than Stell's and Felix's height of 175cm (5'9). If Stell had to guess her age, he'd say 'slightly more than twenty'.
Looking at a hologram in front, she casually pointed at a stack of papers.
"Sign these." She didn't spare Stell and Felix a single glance.
Curious, Stell peeked at her hologram. It was an app similar to TokTuk.
'Guess that even advanced civilizations submit under the power of dopamine.' With a sigh, he picked up the papers.
"Why did we have to wait in line if we only had to fill in a few forms?" Felix asked while filling out the papers.
"'Cuz I don't want a mess." The girl casually replied as she scrolled to a new video.
Irritated that he had to wait just because the girl said so, Stell quickly pulled Felix to the next floor.
There, they found people stretching and reading their notes. Ignoring them, he entered a door meant for the games.
In the few forms they had filled up, he clearly understood that what those people were doing didn't help at all.
At most, the few notes that the guy in the corner read might slightly change the outcome.
After all, the games were random. Also, although the games would keep track of your current condition, they would also, at the very least, help you skip unimportant stuff like stretching. If you hurt yourself, no amount of stretching beforehand would prevent the injury.
After entering the door, Stell found himself in a blank white room.
[ Welcome to the Universal Entertainment. How can I help you? ]
He heard his system 'talk' to him for the first time. He knew that it wasn't the system that was currently talking but the AI that connected with his system.
Yes, he was in virtual reality. That was also why the games were non-lethal. No society was mad enough to allow the games to become lethal. Well, Stell guessed that there were exceptions to anything, but none of that was his concern.
"I wish to connect with 'MegaWarrior1778'." Stell cringed as he ordered the AI.
MegaWarrior was, of course, Felix's online username.
Following his order, Felix appeared in front of Stell.
"Hello, 'Lazy_Stellar'." Felix greeted Stell with a grin.
"Dammit! Don't call me that." Stell shivered.
"Sure, Lazy." Felix grinned even more.
"Do a team game. Two people. Competitive." After greeting Felix, Stell said to AI.
[ Processing. ]
Their systems displayed the same message.
After a few seconds, a new message arrived.
[ Wood division/Rank I ]
[ Game format: Battle tournament ]
[ Game type: Summoner ]
[ Waiting for players... ]
[ Waiting complete. Game starting... ]
Before Stell and Felix could even blink, they found themselves inside a forest.
[ Welcome to the Summon battlefield. ]
As they were greeted with that message, Felix and Stell only looked at each other.
"Um... Aren't we supposed to know what to do?" Felix asked, confused.
"Hey, system. What should we do?" Stell asked his system. Most of the formats listed were battle royales or fighting tournaments, so he didn't feel the need to delve into the details.
[ AI can't give any advantage to players. ]
"Advantage? I am at a fricking disadvantage already, you stupid piece of a pie!" Stell yelled. For better or worse, he didn't get a reply.
"Hey! It's okay. Look." Felix calmed Stell before pointing at a cute little creature he found. It walked on four legs and resembled a mouse with brown fur.
"Wow!" Stell's eyes lit up. He finally felt like he was in another world! Actually, he was in a virtual one, but who cared?
"See that little thing? That's most probably a summon. Since it's a summon battle tournament, we should probably acquire a summon before the time limit." Felix concluded with a smile.
Stell looked at Felix wide-eyed.
"What? Is something on my face?" Felix started cleaning his face.
"Since when were you smart? Aren't you like..." He stopped himself before he committed a grave mistake. 'Don't offend a protagonist. Ever!' He repeated silently to himself.
"That's not nice. I am smart too." Felix's eyebrows furrowed.
Stell could only nod before changing the theme.
"Let's catch a strong one. This one seems really weak... How do we catch them, though?" Stell truly wondered. If they couldn't even catch a summon, how should they fight? Should he fight himself? Was that even allowed?
Shaking his head, he abandoned unnecessary thoughts.
"Hm... I feel like we should tame it." Felix answered after thinking.
"Well, it's not like we have balls to throw at them." Stell said with a smile.
"What?"
"Never mind, you wouldn't get it."
Deciding to explore the forest, Stell and Felix spent a few hours looking for a powerful summon. However, no matter what summon they found, it always looked weak.
"Dammit. The forest is empty." Stell felt dejected.
"Let's scale that mountain. We might find something interesting." Felix pointed at the top of the mountain.
"Aren't you tired? I haven't slept for 25 hours, and you want me to climb a mountain? Are you crazy?" Stell angrily asked Felix.
Then, he noticed that he lost control of himself. "Never mind, let's climb it. There's nothing down here anyway."
Felix could only nod.
After an arduous journey to the peak, Stell and Felix found absolutely nothing.
"System, how much time is left?" Stell asked with barely suppressed anger.
[ Participants are responsible for keeping track of their own time. ]
"YOU PIECE OF A PIE!" He finally burst out. Then, he noticed a big pigeon descending from the sky. It was almost a meter tall, and it carried a golden egg.
"You!" Stell declared as he looked at the first summon that clearly looked stronger. "You shall be mine."
His declaration made Felix burst into laughter.
"Are you marrying it?" Felix teased, unbothered by Stell's glare.
The pigeon dropped a golden egg it was carrying. Its hostile glare made Stell realize that he may have put the cart before the horse.
The egg shined in the corner, attracting Felix's curious gaze.
"Hey, what's that?" Felix pointed at the egg.
"I don't know. I don't care." Stell said as he glared back at the pigeon.
Ignoring the staring contest, Felix approached the pigeon, wanting to take and study the egg. Luckily, the pigeon was too focused on Stell to notice Felix in time.
As Felix picked the egg, the egg shined even brighter before a system notification was heard.
[ Congratulations! You have tamed an unborn Golden Phoenix. ]
"Damn. That's impressive." Felix couldn't help but comment.
Hearing Felix, the pigeon finally noticed that its egg was in a human's hand. Just as it jumped to attack him, the egg in Felix's hand shined slightly.
The pigeon immediately lowered its head as if it was bowing before royal blood.
Immediately comprehending the situation, Felix pointed at Stell as he casually ordered Pigeon.
"Be his companion for a week. Then, we can part ways."
The pigeon's eyes opened wide. It didn't want to even come close to Stell. But, since it was an order from a royal blood's master, it could only comply.
With unwilling eyes, it approached Stell.
[ Congratulations! You have tamed Mountain Pigeon. ]
Stell looked at the scene, astonished. With a wry smile, he could only shake his head. He didn't know whether he should feel excited or jealous.
It truly was enviable being a protagonist.