Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Everyone was very surprised by the terms of victory and defeat in the duel between Klaus and Ashley. It was hard to imagine that someone would risk his place in such an important program just to date a girl, only parts of which they understood, because Ashley was not just any girl, she was the belle of the campus and an unattainable goddess for most of the men on campus.

"Wow, that's very interesting! And who suggested this bet?" A boy asked.

"I proposed." Ashley said, trying not to sound soft because she was the leader of the Dagger Dispute Society.

"Huh? You're tougher than I thought, Ashley.... And you took it so quietly?" Another asked Klaus.

"I accepted it." Klaus said confidently.

Everyone looked at Klaus in surprise, as if he was the crazy one for accepting, and he soon understood that this reaction was not because no one wanted to go on a date with Ashley, but because few people in the entire country could beat her in a duel.

"It's getting hot in here!" The first colleague said excitedly.

"Well, we wish you both good luck, and if you're going to compete, we want to watch. What room are you playing in?" The second classmate asked.

"We don't know yet. We'll see if there are any available." Ashley said.

"Yes, there is. Room number three hasn't been used today. We can go there." The third classmate said, pointing to the door of the room.

"Thank you." Ashley said and took Klaus by the hand.

They made their way to room number three and entered. It was a large, bright room with two separate glass booths, two consoles, and two helmets connected by wires. Ashley and Klaus split up and each went to one of the booths. They put on their helmets, logged in, adjusted the game settings, and started the game.

Meanwhile, the spectators watched with some excitement from a few chairs they had set up near the entrance of the room. Klaus was a mystery to them. They didn't know anything about him, they didn't know if he was really good or if he even knew the rules of dagger combat. Klaus was an unknown, and from the way he didn't seem nervous about this fight, they couldn't tell if he was a crazy person, if he was so interested in Ashley that he was blind, or if he just wanted to have fun. Obviously, they were more curious to see how she would slaughter him than whether or not he was capable of beating her.

When they were done, Ashley inquired:

"Hey, you've been practicing since last time, haven't you?"

"Of course not. I downloaded the game on my new phone, but I haven't had time to try it again."

His answer made her arch her eyebrows. "So you haven't played Dagger Dispute since that day?"

"Exactly."

Hearing that, she felt a little frustrated, because on the day of the train ride where they met, he managed to beat her even though he was a beginner, and so she thought he was a hacker, except that when he got home and checked his device, he didn't find any suspicious programs installed. That was one of the reasons why she was so hopeful to meet him again on the special show, and also one of the reasons why she was embarrassed to face him the night she met him again.

"Seriously...what is your problem...?" She muttered to herself.

pαndα`noνɐ1~сoМ Klaus heard her mumbling through the microphone and asked:

"What did you say?"

Ashley quickly composed herself. "Nothing, nothing. I'm just getting ready to defeat you and then never see your face again."ραпdα `nᴏνɐ| сom

"You can try, but I can guarantee you it won't be that easy to get rid of me." He said with a smile.

Ashley smiled back. "Good, because I won't take it lightly."

They looked at each other through the screen and exchanged a defiant smile.

"Let the game begin." Ashley said, clicking READY.

"Let the game begin." Klaus agreed, also clicking READY.

Then a countdown of three began.

Dagger Dispute was a theoretically simple game. On two parallel grids of thirty-six squares each, dots appeared at random intervals, and the two competitors had to compete for each of the dots, with the goal of filling all thirty-six squares. The winner was always the first to fill in all the squares of the grid. There were many ways to play this game, many strategies and ways to beat your opponent, such as trying to figure out the pattern of the dots appearing and preparing to catch them, but in a human contest, the fastest, most agile, and with the best reaction speed always had the best chance of winning.

Ashley and Klaus concentrated, their eyes glued to the screen. A moment later, the countdown finally ended and the first dot appeared in the center grid. Klaus and Ashley's fingers moved quickly, trying to catch the same dot, and when a bell sounded through the room, the audience knew that one of them had caught the first dot. Automatically, they looked to their left, to the booth where Ashley was standing, as there was a monitor right below her showing the number of her points, but to their surprise, her points were still at zero.

Then they looked to the right, where Klaus was, and saw that he was the one who got the first point. Immediately, most of them stood up from their seats.

"Woww! That guy got the first point against the leader!" One of them shouted.

"That was fast! Looks like Klaus really came to play." Another commented.

"She must be feeling the pressure now." A third said.

Ashley tried to remain calm, but she couldn't help but feel a twinge of anger and frustration when she saw that Klaus had gotten the first point. She knew she had to focus and try harder if she wanted to win.

"That was just one point, you have a lot more to win." One of her classmates said, trying to stand her ground.

"Yes, that's right. You still have a lot of games ahead of you." Another agreed.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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