10 minutes earlier in the viewer area, Ethan's eyes darted to the 10 small screens. He never knew that live trial games were far more interesting than those trimmed highlights he used to see.
It was only now that he realized that the trial game was not all about fighting. There were a lot of things a hunter had to keep in mind.
The first 30 minutes were without action, but he saw different approaches from many hunters.
Two hunters found each other and formed a team. Then there was Kite, the one Johnny was praising. This girl was a master of quick hands. He still remembered the shock when she stole a bunch of money from the pedestrians.
Now, she was the only hunter with some money, as well as two small knives. The only other person with a weapon was Goli, the one he gambled on. Although fat, this guy was very strong. He pulled a small iron pole from a fence in the city's posh area.
What was more interesting was that all 10 hunters started far away from one another. In his opinion, those two hunters on the team were far ahead of the others, as they had already found a clue about a rabid dog. He saw them slowly moving toward the orange dot.
He checked the chat only to see everyone spamming "Viper" in the chat.
Ethan closed Goli's perspective and felt confused for a moment. He scanned the 10 small screens, two of them overlapping in the center.
He was super interested in what this team would do, but for now, he scanned for Viper.
As he looked at the bottom right corner, his eyes froze when he saw a man moving away from the bloody corpse.
It was unclear on the small screen; he was fearful but still switched to Viper's perspective.
The small screen expanded and now covers the entire screen. The camera zoomed to Viper, and there was a small mini-map in the corner that showed the orange dot around the hunter.
It was like looking at an old game screen, where they had to control the characters through a keyboard and mouse.
His eyes darted to the madness behind Viper, and he almost threw up. He had seen some blood before, but not this much.
His hand started shaking in fear. He saw Viper moving into the empty alley. He could see an orange dot on the mini-map in the corner.
He controlled his urge and gripped his chair. Finally, some action after 30 minutes of the game. When he saw both the orange dot and Viper moving toward each other, his heartbeat increased.
Before he could prepare himself, a massive dog jumped on Viper. "What the hell?" Ethan jumped to his feet when he saw the muscular dog.
This was the first time viewers saw the infected dogs, not just some orange dots on maps.
Ethan had the urge to check the chat, but the few seconds of the fight sent him into shock.
Ethan just stood motionless. 'Is this for real? Why isn't Viper stabbing the dog? Stab it, man!' He screamed in his head. He found it hard to believe.
Before this, he had seen many cool fights where hunters killed small dogs in a few slashes, but this was nothing like that. 'Is this a proper fight, or is Viper super weak?' Hundreds of questions plagued his mind, but he dared not blink his eyes.
When Viper bent down, Ethan screamed, "Stupid, protect your face!"
Ethan moved back a few steps in fear when he saw the dog's mouth chewing on Viper's shoulder.
He sat on the ground and started biting his nails in tension. "Yes! Choke that bitch. You can do it, Viper!"
Suddenly, a notification popped up in front of him.
[Announcement! Hunter Apprentice Viper killed one of the original rabid dogs. Total number of main rabid dogs left: 8]
Ethan started jumping up, waving both his arms around. "Yay! You did it, Viper!"
He hit a wooden corner and fell on the bed. Not caring about that, he looked at the chat.
...
Zombie_432: Damn!
You_lou: Whoa! Who is this Viper guy?
Johnny: No idea, but damn, this guy is tough.
Loli_756: Fck, what was that dog? Was it on steroids? It was more like a tank, man.
Glowing_wand: Haha, Viper choked that shit. Haha, it was so funny.
Zombie_432: Viper fan!
You_lou: Viper fan_2!
...
Ethan was surprised to see a barrage of messages, all praising Viper. Even the hardcore fans who were going nuts about the player they gambled on were all praising Viper. He was confused about it.
Then he saw the message that had been in his mind.
Cool_stick: Uh, guys, isn't Viper super weak?
Silence. The entire chat died down.
Zombie_432: Who is this NOOB!!!
You_Lou: Fck this noob!!!
Glowing_wand: No, fck all the noobs! Every noob in the chat, send me your mom @#@$@3.
...
Ethan's mouth dropped when he saw this madness. One minute everyone was talking about Viper, and now everyone was randomly cursing each other.
He was at a loss when a message in red appeared.
Armond_002: [Anyone interested in examining the game can join the special chat. Notice: Any profanity will result in you getting kicked.]
Ethan noticed that the message by Armond was a link. He looked at the game chat and saw that most were still cursing each other. He realized he wouldn't understand anything here.
Not waiting any longer, he tapped on the link.
A notification popped up on his screen.
[Unknown is inviting you to a private chat. Do you want to join the chat? (yes/no)]
Ethan tapped "yes," and soon he found another chat box pop up next to the first chat box.
He noticed he was still part of the game chat alongside this new analysis chat.
He manually set the chat panel a little further from the game chat. It was still below the game screen.
He decided that after this game he would check some available themes to not waste time doing manual settings.
Ethan focused on his new chat.