Into The Portal: Monster Invasion

Monster Eyes: Allows users to see in the dark, have heat vision, elemental vision, electromagnetic vision, x-ray vision. Other powers are unknown. Please specify other abilities of the power. The corresponding test will be conducted.

‘Oh, it shows the vision I acquired as a superpower. Interesting. And what is this elemental and electromagnetic vision? I was never able to use them.’

“No further ability,” Miles said, and signing up concluded.

Although it was surprising for a machine to analyze his eye abilities, it was expected somehow. After merging with the blood orb, he gained new abilities, which fundamentally changed his body. Whether that orb changed his DNA or added something else, in a sense, and it was kinda superpower, albeit more minuscule and weak.

Machine deemed his power as Grace-Rank, Middle-Tier, which was close to his real power. He had just passed through the barrier separating him from the middle-tier depending on his body strength, but adding the ‘superpower’ he had, AI calculated his tier to be a little stronger than the normal middle-tier.

Miles looked at the white lobby in front of him and decided not to idle around anymore, and chose to teleport to Arena. The Virtual Arena, short for Arena, was the biggest sparring area one could find in the UniNet. Almost every citizen had an account in there to blow off some steam or have a spar with others.

The military would even order soldiers to have a certain amount of win every week. And if the soldier couldn’t hit the required number in accommodated time, they would have to spend their limited free time sparring against others to win. Since there were many ways to cheat by creating alt accounts and losing to your friend to help, Virtual Machines in the military only allowed accounts created by wristwatches, and random matches wouldn’t be counted.

Miles with a thought appeared in a giant lobby. Countless people were standing and talking to each other. High in the sky, four giant screens were showing the leader boards. As of now, humanity only reached C-Circle, but Crown-Rank hunters were the beacon of humanity. They would rarely fight in the virtual arena, thus it had no leader board. There were G, F, E, D tier leaderboards hung in the sky.

Each screen had 100 names on it. Miles looked at the D-Tier leaderboard first and read the names. Many of which he couldn’t recognize. After skimming through four lists, Miles saw his brother Merlin’s name in F Leaderboard and Marcela’s name in G Leaderboard.

The leaderboard wasn’t fully listed on wins, but also losses, draws, and some other few factors. The leader of the G-List had 1231 wins, and 109 losses, with no draws. But the second one had 1343 wins, 95 loses, and 100 draws. The point system wasn’t public, and one could only guess.

Miles used to play in the child program of Virtual Arena, Virtual Ring. Only after using Strengthening Serum could he find his footing here. So, it was his first time here.

Miles felt his blood was boiling with excitement, and he wanted to make a name for himself. Since he chose such a high and mighty nickname, he had to fulfill it to the end. His initial goal was having 1000 wins without losing, but of course, it was just a goal. He wasn’t really expecting to win them all.

Miles willed to fight randomly, and a list started to glide in front of him. After a while, it stopped on a name, The Real Marooner. When Miles saw the name, he didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. He was against one of his impostors.

When Miles appeared in the arena, he looked around. Unlike the child program, this arena was bigger. One of both contenders would be randomly assigned to choose the environment. The one with the choice would be in the advantage since it would be more compatible with their powers. Miles was assigned to choose the environment, and he chose a simple round arena, without any extra.

After that, various weapons appeared in front of him to choose from, and Miles chose a simple dagger to be hung on his waist. He didn’t want to fight with a bow, because it wouldn’t suit the arena he chose, but he wanted to test his power anyway.

Both contenders appeared in the arena with simple armors, and the fight began after a countdown of three.

Miles looked at his opponent to observe. The man in front of him had a similar body structure to his, so people would buy it if he were to say he was the Marooner. He was wearing blood-red armor, and not a Maroon one, but it was still proof of his commitment.

Since Miles chose not to scan any orb, he was given random armor at the same tier as his opponents. This was to protect fairness in the arena. Those who scanned their own weapons and armors still had the advantage of familiarity, but power-wise, there was no difference.

Miles gauged the dagger’s strength and decided it to be a high-tier, it also meant the opponent scanned high-tier Weapon Orb. Miles looked at his opponent and noticed the thin sword opponent was holding.

When the countdown hit the 0, The Real Marooner dashed at Miles with great speed and sparks behind him. “Oh, he has a lightning element. That is why he claimed to be the Marooner!” Miles kept the fist in front of him, and when the opponent's swords fell from the top of his head, he turned with a swift heel rotation. He turned around his left heel and hit his opponent’s stomach with his left arm elbow. The momentum he gained from the rotation and arm strength he had, caused great impact even over armor and made the opponent fly away.

Miles didn’t give any chance to his opponent and sprinted with all his strength. The armor both sides were wearing were middle-tier, and Miles's strength could hardly put an injury upon it.

Miles took out the dagger on his waist and slashed at the opponent. Still, on the ground, his opponent put the sword in front of him and tried to stop the dagger, but Miles did a full stop and changed the path of the dagger. The previous attack was just a feint, and he didn’t put any strength behind it. Now that he made his enemy's defense go to waste, he pushed the dagger as hard as he could and stabbed the dagger in the opponent's chest.

Because it was Miles' first fight with his new account, the enemy assigned was weaker in the middle-tier bracket. He was only a middle-tier with lots of expensive toys and no combat experience. And Miles was able to trick him easily, so the fight didn’t last long and he killed his enemy by cutting the latter's neck.

But when Miles finished the fight and looked around, he was dumbfounded. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people sitting around the arena and watching the game. Since Miles had just created the account, the settings were in default, and all the voices of the audience were blocked. Also, the arena walls and spectator area were separated. Without raising his head to look at the audience, he couldn’t notice them at all. So Miles failed to notice their presence. But now that he looked there, he was astonished.

“Why are so many people watching this game? Is my opponent famous?” Miles thought to himself, then he realized, “They really thought he was the real Marooner?”