Chương 129: B2 Chapter 34 - Disagreement

Post by Farfae, 7, 357, 279 upvotes: " Aiden 'Assassin' Miller reaches rank Master Elite in Art Of Steel with a win rate of 87%, playing exclusively with a sickle and a dagger." The attached image of the post showed my stat sheet from Art Of Steel, with a nice pledge for having achieved the second best rank in all of Steel. I sat on my hotel bed in the morning, reading the comments. By CannonMinion, 2, 469, 177 upvotes: " For those that are unaware, Master Elite the top 1% of all players.

He's not fighting the goats yet, but that's by all means an incredible achievement. I'm interested to see how far he goes." Reply By Ivak45, 1, 647, 442 upvotes: " So he's really doubling down on fighting with a sickle? Is that weapon actually good?" Reply By ImperialKilogram, 1, 972, 468 upvotes: " It's trash lmao. The Steel community is wondering who this guy is right now. A sickle is a troll weapon. Same with a dagger. Their range is just too short to be viable in real world combat. Even in Wonderwind tbh.

The assassin class is unpopular for a reason." Reply By RushBP90, 2, 652, 125 upvotes: " I've been watching some of his replays. He fights like an absolute maniac. He's the type of guy who medieval knights saw nightmares of. I can't tell if he's using a dagger and a sickle to handicap himself or if he actually thinks the weapons are good, but he's somehow making the combo look broken. Doesn't matter that he has zero margin for error with every fight, he just doesn't make mistakes."

That last comment wasn't really true. I was making plenty of mistakes. That was why my win rate had dropped from over ninety five to eighty seven percent. Diamond and Master players were already insanely good, and they knew how to punish someone who fought with a garbage combo. Lately, my win rate had been closer to seventy percent. The average was still inflated by my climb in the lower ranks. But arguably, losses were more valuable than victories.

Every time I tried something and it didn't work, I knew I needed to adjust for my next fight. I wonder how Veyra's practice is going… I could just ask her. She hadn't been online for over fifteen hours, but knowing her, she was probably imagining spell patterns in her sleep. I opened our texts. Usually, sending messages to her happened automatically. If something interesting happened in my life that I wanted to talk about, I sent a text to Veyra, or I logged in to bother her in Wonderwind if she was online.

Right now, though, I just stared at our last messages, which was me asking if she was feeling well. I knew I wanted to talk with her, but I couldn't figure out what to tell her. I put my phone down and lay in bed, trying to think. Although, I was really just brooding over the same thoughts over and over again. Why did it feel like we were suddenly so apart, even though there was barely a mile between us? My phone buzzed, and I grabbed it right away, despite knowing it was probably just some stupid forum post.

It wasn't. My heart thumped when I noticed I had a message from Veyra. Veyra:" Hey, I'm sorry for giving you a boring vacation so far; -;" The next message came instantly, as if she'd already written it and copied it here. Veyra:" I get really anxious when I feel like I'm about to puke around people. Even if I'm not really sick, just the possibility makes me nervous. That's why I just don't really go outside or meet people in real life.

I probably shouldn't feel that around you, and you haven't done anything to make me anxious, but it just happens anyway. So if you're wondering why I'm acting weird, that's it." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I read the messages a second time before slowly writing my reply. Assassin:" Thanks for telling me <3. I think I can understand. Maybe we can work through that." Her reply took over a minute, while I sat still like a nervous stick.

Veyra:" I think I still prefer online dating, but it sounds silly to suggest going back to that for a reason like this …" I stared at the message, a bad feeling building inside. Was she hoping for me to agree? Assassin:" I've loved every minute hanging out with you in real life, personally. Online is awesome as well, but seeing you for real feels special." She kept typing and deleting her message before typing something again. I sent another message first.

Assassin:" How about meeting again and talking about our hopes for the future, just to clear up any misunderstandings?" Veyra is typing… Veyra is typing… Veyra:" Yeah, I guess that sounds good. Let's do that." Veyra:" I'll need some time to think before that. Like one day. Is that okay?" Assassin:" Of course. We'll meet tomorrow, then?" Veyra:" Sure. See you then." Veyra:" I hate how you're more mature than I am >. > I'm supposed to be the older one here."

Assassin:" Haha, I don't think anyone on this planet except you has ever said I'm mature." Veyra:" Maybe I'm just immature, then." Veyra:" Sorry for the hassle, see you tomorrow <3" She went offline. I waited for a little while, until I tossed the phone aside and plumped back down on the bed, eyes facing the boring white ceiling of my hotel room. This definitely wasn't how I expected my visit to go. She only wanted to date online from the very start. I've been the one pressuring her to meet me…

And it seemed she still wanted to only date online. Could I accept that? Was I prepared to only see her in VR? Online dating was better than never talking to her again, but was it enough? I didn't want kids or a normal life with Veyra. I could have considered having children at some point if Veyra was the one who wanted them, but if she couldn't have them, that reinforced my thought of a future without starting a family. But no matter what, I wanted to stay with Veyra. At night, I wanted to know she was near me.

If something went wrong in her life, I wanted to be there to support her, and vice versa. If she wasn't on the same page… I wasn't sure if I could settle with just online dating. I'd feel like something was missing for the rest of my life. I'll need to persuade her tomorrow, I thought. And if we disagree… That thought drowned itself immediately. I didn't want to think about what would happen if we disagreed. The nervousness remained. This type of anxiety was truly one of the worst feelings to endure.

No amount of brooding over thoughts in my head would make it go away. The only thing to help would be meeting Veyra tomorrow. I already knew the night would feel like the longest stretch of time to ever exist. Lying in bed the whole day wouldn't help. It was still just morning. So I logged into VR to assassinate people to kill time.

[Match Found] [Accept / Decline] I clicked accept and loaded into the sixteenth match of the day. I hadn't lost a single match today so far. I'm not sure what it was, but I was slipping past spears and parrying swords as if my opponents were fighting with wooden sticks they found at the playground. And these weren't bad players either. Most opponents were Master Elite, just one rank away from the best of the best.

The pool of opponents was getting so small that I was starting to get matched against the same players multiple times. [Your Opponent: Erick Swiffen, Grandmaster, Rank 454] I paused, blinking at the bearded man on the other side of the grassy arena—the same one where I'd fought my first match in Art Of Steel. Now I fought my first Grandmaster opponent here. A top five hundred player. Amongst all the fighters, in a world where virtual reality made fighting incredibly competitive, this man was the 454th best.

He wore a bandana around his forehead with his hand gripping a sheathed katana as he approached me. Perfect; he fought with the same weapon as Dragrath. Katanas were uncommon in Steel, but I'd faced them half a dozen times at all levels of the ladder. It was certainly a viable weapon. Erick unsheathed his weapon, and my first duel against a Grandmaster began.