Chapter-28

The sound of the two mecha teams consisting of three players each fighting against the other rang in the battle areas. You can see that the first team is completely overwhelming the second team. It does not even take 10 minutes before the second team loses with a crushing defeat. The first team named 'S.R.W' took one win after another in the arena.

The team remained unstoppable in the tournament throughout the whole day. The opponents of this team can not help but feel like a child compared to the other team's skills in mecha piloting. The trio known as S.R.W have become popular over the past two weeks. Mostly because of their skills in mecha piloting and also because the three of them are popular from the start.

The trio is none other than 'Big Square', 'Big Round' and 'Wanderer'. The first two have been popular for a long time because of their talent in mecha piloting and the fact that both become the top students of the Ninth Ring Academy. The third member of the trio came as a surprise when he revealed his identity as the 'Wanderer' who took the top place in the ability users' pillar.

'Wanderer' was already very popular because of his ability and his mysterious identity. Even now they still did not know anything about 'Wanderer' other than the fact that he is a water ability user and a skilled mecha pilot. The fact that he is a water ability user was only known because the other players that happen to get a glimpse of 'Wanderer' usually saw the water patches at the place where he had just killed the zergs.

They do not know his face as well since 'Wanderer' never shows his face, opening the private system while he is in mecha fighting others. Many people tried to stalk the 'Big Square' and 'Big Round' but they could not find out who the 'Wanderer' really is. Two weeks ago, it was announced in the V.R world's Mecha Planet that they would be holding the special tournament. A team consisting of three could join the tournament.

On the first two days, the teams would be randomly paired to be an opponent and points would be given based on the winning rate and performance. Based on their points, on the second and the third day, the 10000 winning teams of the first round would be paired to fight against each other. The 500 winning teams would advance to round 3.

Round- three is where two teams would be paired and would have to fight another pair. The pair would need to defect the other pair so it is mostly about teamwork. The 250 left would once again need to fight another team but this time you have to use your luck. Every team would be assigned a number and you have to pick a random number to be your opponent.

The third round would have five sections. You advance a section if you win a fight. You would need to pick a number in each section. After each section, the losing team's number would be erased from the board, while the winning team's number would stay on the board. Of course, the numbers would not be shown and the viewers would only know your number if you lost and got erased from the board.

So, for the teams with lower skills than others, they would need to be very lucky if they want to get an easy opponent in each section. After this round, only 50 teams would be left and these 50 teams would be ranked as the top Mecha Pilots of the V.R world. They would get free access to enter the new planet that is based on the ancient earth which would be opening in two months.

The fourth round is where you would participate individually instead of as a team. The 150 players of the 50 teams would need to fight 10 opponents and the points would be given. The player ranking in the mecha piloting would rank according to the points of this round. The top 20 players of this round would advance to the final round.

The final round would be broadcast live and the top 10 players would get a chance where they would be chosen by the mecha Master of the empire to be their apprentice for five months. Of course, if the Master likes the player even those among the top 20 could be chosen. A chance to become an apprentice of the Mecha Master like the sudden money rain. This is the chance no mecha pilot would want to let go.

So, that is why Cha Yoohun, Shira Hattori, and Shen Li became a team. They get to know each other and become friends after the 'Planet running accident' which Hattori likes to call. More correctly, Hattori bothers Shen Li so much that he has no choice but to become friends with them. Also, it was Hattori who pulled Shen Li into this tournament and he did not say anything since was debating whether to join or not at that time. When it comes to naming their team, all three of them suck. So after thinking of many ridiculous names they settle down for 'S.R.W' which is actually the Initial of their name.

Today they finished the second round with flying points. They still have not lost even one fight and have gained many fans. But Shen Li's attention was not on it but on Xiao Xin. After months of being friends, Shen Li revealed that he is the 'Wanderer' and to say 'Free Soul' was surprised was a given.

'Free Soul' also revealed that his name is Xiao Xin and they laugh at the fact that 'Xin' is the fake name Shen Li gave to the other party. The fake name of Shen Li turns out to be the real name of the other party. According to Xiao Xin, he is the youngest son in his family and he has a rare disease.

Shen Li was confused since, in this area, most children are born from artificial birth chambers with their parents' genes. So, such a thing as a disease should not happen to Xiao Xin who is still very young. He did not ask what happened since Xiao Xin had bitter emotions in his eyes at that time. But he asked what disease instead.

Xiao Xin was silent for a while and Shen Li thought that he was debating whether he should tell or not. Xiao Xin finally gave in and said that it is the 'D type N.C' disease. Shen Li had done research on 'D type N.C' disease and what he found was disturbing. 'D type N.C' is not the name of the disease but the name of the drug.

This drug was created by a mad scientist 30 years ago and used to massacre people. In that accident, people were affected and they slowly started to lose strength in the body. They become weaker and weaker until they eventually die. The mad scientist that created this drug did not create the cure and committed suicide after the massacre.

It was named 'D type N.C' because of what it does, 'Death and No Cure'. The drug was banned but many people bearing evil intentions and star pirates still use them today even if it is hard to get their hands on. From this, Shen Li can conclude that Xiao Xin is the victim of the kidnapping by either star pirates or the rival of their family.

In order to keep the victims of the 'D type N.C' drug alive a lot of money is needed and based on the way Xiao Xin spends money in the V.R world, it was quite easy to know that the family of Xiao Xin had to be very rich. The victims of the 'D type N.C' are always in pain so they like to spend most of their time inside the V.R world in order to escape from the pain.

Shen Li has been doing research on this drug and trying to create a cure for months. He has really come to like the younger boy over the months they have been friends. He has come a long way in the research and was about to finish the cure but got stuck instead. And because he was busy these days, he did not have much time to do the research on the cure.

The problem right now is that Shen Li had not seen Xiao Xin in the past two weeks. Xiao Xin has not logged in and Shen Li is becoming worried. Shen Li decided to increase the time on the research instead so that when Xiao Xin came back he would have the cure ready.

"Kid, I hope you are fine."