The three of them approached three empty Virtual Reality Pods and simply stared at them. Obviously, Altros and Melissa already knew how these things worked, but Rael was like an old man here.

Sure, he felt like all he needed to do was step inside, since those two mentioned his avatar or whatever should’ve already been configured, but come on... Was this world really that advanced?

"Why are you hesitating?" Altros asked, puzzled.

Rael shrugged. "I’m not really hesitating, I’m just not sure how I want to play in this PvP arena thingy."

Right as Altros was about to reply, Melissa chimed in:

"Don’t worry yourself about such things. It’s not like you’ll have many choices."

Both of them turned to her, so she continued:

"You’ll be able to choose two of your abilities, and the rest are going to be locked. Essentially, controlling your avatar should feel the same as real life, but your strength will be limited to level 1."

She raised a single finger. "That means all of your stats will be capped at 10 for the time being. If you rank up, your stat cap will increase slightly, so the fights would become much faster and punishing. You should start at Iron, I believe. You’ll face very shitty players at first, so just go easy on them."

Go easy on them?

Who does this woman think I am? Go easy on them? Pfft... Rael shook his head, then gave her a quick thumbs up. "Of course. I will make sure to be especially gentle and careful."

Melissa and Altros exchanged a glance, then nodded.

"In that case, the two of us will enter our own pods and spectate you. Whenever you get bored, just tell us. We can leave."

Hmm.

"Well, I did say I’d only be here for an hour. I’m dipping the moment my wives send a message."

With those words, Rael entered one of the virtual reality pods and then sank down into it, getting comfortable. Throughout all these years, and so many innovations, they didn’t figure out how to make a seat that wouldn’t make someone’s ass hurt if they sat for longer than 3 hours.

But oh well...

Rael watched as Altros and Melissa closed his virtual reality pod, and finally, Rael felt a tingly sensation wash over him. For a few moments, it just remained a tingly sensation as it didn’t expand anywhere past it.

And when Rael glanced to the side, he realized why that was the case.

<Ding!>

<Attempting to enter a Simulated Virtual World!><Your body is rejecting the entry!>

Hmm...

"Stop rejecting it?"

<Ding!><Your body is no longer rejecting the entry.>

With that final pop-up, Rael’s vision faded as he felt his senses simply vanish for a brief moment. It was a familiar sensation, since he used to no-life the shit out of games. It was just that he was most definitely not expecting that when the sensations finally returned, he would feel so... perfect?

It was hard to explain, as it was literally almost like his body had no issues. Not a single ache or even a single wound. Even though Rael had a special body, after eating a bunch of food that would be enough to feed several generations of ten families, he did feel a little tummy ache.

But now, there was nothing.

"How trippy..."

The moment he uttered those words, Rael’s vision returned, and now he found himself in a pitch white room, alongside a sofa beside him.

And of course...

<Ding!>

<You have entered the waiting room!>

<Your avatar/character has been loaded...>

<You may now select your abilities [ 0 / 2 ]>

Oh? Already?

Rael thought there would be more foreplay involved before he could select some stuff. Maybe a tutorial?

But since there wasn’t anything, Rael decided to just whip out something fun.

<First ability has been selected!>

Parry (Supreme): You may parry any one attack every 5 seconds.

<Second ability has been selected!>

Life Drain (Celestial): Focus on your opponent and drain 5% of their total HP per second.

Heh.

Rael never really had the chance to use Life Drain before, and as for Parry? It was good, until he got to the point where he was so strong that parrying just became a waste of time.

But now that he would be fighting against people of his power level, he felt like having these two abilities would be the most overpowered.

And not because they were cool.

Definitely not...

<Ding!>

<You have confirmed your abilities!>

<Current Profile:>

Rael Sutekh

0 Wins 0 Losses

Estimated Rank: Null

<Would you like to begin matchmaking? Yes / No>

Rael smiled and did just that.

<Beginning matchmaking...>

<00:01>

<00:02>

<00:0#>

<Match found!>

Rael was a little surprised by how fast that was. Just then, a door appeared beside him that seemed to resemble the gates of a colosseum. He stared at those gates for a moment, until finally another couple of pop-ups appeared.

<Please enter the arena.>

<If you don’t enter the arena within 55 seconds, you will automatically forfeit the match.>

Hm...

That was an interesting one.

Despite that, Rael went ahead and approached the arena’s gate. Without hesitation, he stepped on through.

His vision faded for a brief moment, and once it returned, he found himself in the center of a gladiator arena. There were bones, weapons, and even some chained-up animals by the side.

Mainly tigers, lions, and for some reason... capybaras?

Rael was a little confused by that fact, and while his opponent still was nowhere to be seen, Rael glanced around, spotting a vast spectator area around him.

And as it so happens, there were only two spectators: Altros and Melissa. Both of them were clapping, as if cheering Rael on.

He found it a little silly that these two would do something like that, but even then, Rael appreciated it.

Right on cue, Rael heard a faint hum in the distance, and once he turned toward it, he saw a burly man appear out of nowhere.

That, followed by...

<The match will begin in 1 minute.>

<Select your weapons...>