Dmitry defended against the frontal attack of the axe by sidestepping and driving his weapon into the opponent's head, killing him.
"Next."
Dmitry dodged to the side, kicking the opponent's belly upward, then drove the tip of his weapon into the opponent's back, shooting and launching him away.
"Next, next, next."
Over an hour later, Dmitry had defeated nearly everyone playing in the area, totaling about eighty-two players.
"You know, man, I think he really is the one."
"You're an idiot. Of course, he's not. He's just another monster pretending not to know anything. This jerk is worse than those smurf account users."
"So, you two boys want to be next?" Dmitry asked, taking off his headphones and letting them rest around his neck. On the computer screen in front of him was a castle with open doors and the word "Victory" displayed on a huge blade visible inside the door.
"We're not that good, unlike the others. We know you're very skilled and the complete opposite of us, hehe," the boy with orange hair said with a nervous chuckle.
A few chairs away, a guy stood up, looking at everyone with disdain. "Cowards. Hey, kid, let's bet."
Dmitry leaned back in his chair, grabbed his wallet, and placed it on the table next to the keyboard. "Kid? You know I'm older than you, right?"
"Really? So the old man wants to play. I get it, and seeing how you understand what I'm talking about," said a boy with blonde hair and black eyes, wearing a black jacket with a white shirt featuring a thick red stripe, and dressed in a hoodie, sitting at the computer next to Dmitry.
Inside the game:
"Interesting that you're a berserker," Dmitry said, looking at the boy who had dark red eyes, wearing old black armor, with red hair, and holding two war axes.
"Learn what a real player is like," the boy said, his body surrounded by an aura shining in various colors. He appeared in front of Dmitry, swinging both axes down. When he looked ahead, he saw Dmitry landing on one of the axes, kicking the boy's face, making the axes leave the ground and go flying backward.
"Kid, you made a big mess," Dmitry said, looking at the two craters in the ground made by the axes.
"Does that mean I caught your interest, old man?" the boy said with a big smile, starting to attack Dmitry.
Dmitry was jumping up and down, dodging the axes the boy threw until he noticed one of them got stuck in the ground.
"Let me teach you something. Initial effects have a standard duration, so if you're fighting someone, think that they know this," Dmitry said, his body covered in the same colored aura as the boy's.
"In the same way, they should also know how to use it," Dmitry said from behind the boy, kicking him and then appearing in front of him, hitting him with his weapon and launching him against the ground.
"Second, don't get caught without your weapon," Dmitry said, pulling the axe out of the ground and striking the boy's ribs, breaking his armor and then throwing him against the wall.
"Third, never think you're the strongest unless you've proven it." Dmitry threw the axe at the boy, destroying his head protection, then ran toward him, grabbing his arm, and tossing him into the air, continuously shooting him without giving the boy time to react, destroying the entire front of his armor. With this, the boy's health bar melted away like sugar in water.
'After all this time, they haven't fixed the game. It's still as unbalanced as ever,' Dmitry thought.
[Defeat – Your Empire Has Been Taken] was the message that appeared on the boy's screen, who was in shock, wondering how someone could pull off a combo of moves like that.
"So, did you learn something?" Dmitry asked, turning his face to the side with a gentle smile.
"Shut up, you just got lucky. There's no way you could do something that complicated..." the boy said, completely in denial after losing in such a humiliating way.
"What are you talking about?" Dmitry asked with an apathetic expression, which only irritated the boy more.
"No, it's nothing. Just forget it. I'm a man of my word, so just take this," the boy said, placing three hundred-dollar bills on the table and leaving in a rage.
"It's a shame, an ex-professional player extorting rookies without any skill," Andreza said, putting her hand on her face with an amused smile.
Dmitry, taking out the card and standing up, looked at Andreza and handed back the card with a gentle smile and an innocent look. "Me? Who said that? I just put my wallet on the table because it was bothering me. I never bet."
Andreza took the card, sitting in the chair Dmitry had been in. "You're more interesting in person than I thought without that mask."
"Well, they say it's a gift I have. Anyway, see you later, Andreza," Dmitry said, leaving the cyber café. But as he looked to the side, he saw a girl with dark blonde hair that was almost orange, wearing a black shirt with yellow letters on the chest and light pink fabric pants. She seemed to be looking for something or someone inside the cyber café.
"Hey, can I help you with something?" Dmitry asked as he saw the girl slowly turn toward him.