As the days went by, the people playing became excited as to what the game has created for them.
And now, the annual Zero Competitive Series has come.
As the billboards, big screens and even televisions advertised it, people's hearts began to burn with passion.
As different teams were advertised, people began to bet their money, and expected to win big.
At a certain pub, a man can be seen drinking liquor as he laughed with the others.
"Hey, Karlo, you said that Misfits will win this year, right?"
"Hey! I didn't say that they will win, I said that they definitely will. I bet my life on it." Karlo said with arrogance, plus the drunkenness he feels, he blurted out loud.
The whole pub laughed when they heard it.
Because Karlo always loses when he says he bets his life. But, who are the Misfits anyway?
Misfits, the group Karlo was talking about was a quarter finalist last year, and this year, they took a rather interesting player.
The group was consisted of four main members.
The first is Two-Face, a man with a mask with a face in each side. These two faces are said to be life and death, as he is a Priest that can revive his teammates, and also the one that pulls the strings of everyone. A genius priest, but a crafty strategist, hence the Two-Face.
Next is Fashionista. Her mask only covers her eyes and nose, with butterflies on it. She is the mage of the group, and is adept in artistic escape, and combat that makes explosions looks like arts.
Third one is Hahoe Mask. A guy that is an assassin that always thwarted the plans if another team. His critical thinking was on par with the professionals when in fact, their team is just it's second year in the roster, but is still giving a good game.
And the fourth one is Zoro. His mask is a piece of cloth wrapped around his eyes, and wearing a hat on his head, and uses a sword. His cape and boots are also the things notable, and is greatly good at using the sword.
This team created waves of miracles in the past year, and this year, their skills have improved since the lost last year.
And now, they got another ally, who is not yet unmasked, or masked rather, to be able to maks their team stronger.
"What an interesting bet." A person sitting nearby said, and this, garnered a whole lot of laughter.
"Hey, hey, hey, are you saying that you want to bet with me?" Karlo said.
The man tippped his hat, and just quietly drank his shot that's on the table. Karlo saw this, and thought that the man was scared, and now, he has to make himself bigger, and intimidate him more.
"What? Afraid now? Can't bet your life, eh?" He said as he laughed. The whole crowd went with him, and Karlo swam in the crowd's applause.
But then, the man stood up, and shook his hand.
"Deal. If the Misfits won, my life is yours. But if they lose, you're mine." The guy said, sipping his last shot and walking towards the door. He slammed it shut, which made the pub silent.
But then, Karlo',# nervous laugh made the crowd roar again with laughter. As he saw this, he also laughed out loud, but he cannot forget the bottle that the man has just finished.
It's a bottle of tequila.
_________________________________
Games are always played on weekends, to rake in viewers, as well as sponsors.
And today, is just the day.
In the clear field, a man can be seen running. His body legs have Japanese Style Boots, plus gauntlets on his hands. His pants are black, and a vest for his upper body. He also wears a bandana on his head, and is currently at a hillside.
As he was taking cover at the lush green trees, a bullet was then fired at a high speed in his direction.
PWOOOSH! PWOOSH! PWOOSH!
Three quick shots, but he dodged them all. Although he is not aware of where the bullets are coming, he dodged it perfectly and ran towards the direction in which these shots came from.
As he ran, he side-stepped a few times, and dodged a few bullets that came towards him.
As he did this, the crowd went wild as they cheered for him.
"Go, Hiroki! Crush the face of that bastard!"
"Take steady steps, Juno, you are cornering him."
"Dodge and combo him, Hiroki!"
"You can do it, Juno!"
As the crowd went wild, the others also become wild, and that was when the guards shut them up, but it's not enough due to the intensity of the battle.
Today, the Number 1 Team - La Floras are fighting their rivals, the Number 2 Team - Glory.
These two are the first two teams to fight for the championship in the first five years of the ZCS, and these two are tied with their championship titles.
In truth, these two teams are under the two families, Baltinoir for Glory Team, and Saimenda for the La Floras.
Though they have equal numbers of titles, the sheer number of wins under each of their belts are stunning.
Each of them won four titles, which is already almost half of the life of the game, they reigned as the masters. There are also others that took the win from them, but they come back higher the next year, and fight to death.
And this year, La Floras are stronger than ever, and so is Glory.
Too bad, this is just the Quarter Finals.
Although they can mix and match it up, the conductors just pushed it through, and made a concession that today may be great, and tomorrow is trash, but they will definitely give it their all, until the day of the anniversary.
"Ladies and gentlemen, as we can see, Hiroki is already 100 meters away from Juno, and the distance is steadily decreasing."
"But Juno is already making a move, partner. What do you think will happen after?"
"I think Juno has two options: one is use his Spell: Recoil Snipe to increase the distance between them, or two, is to use his skill Fast Snipe to hit Hiroki and possibly slow down his progress."
"A good ovservation partner, but as we all know, Hiroki also has skills that can bring Juno down if he gets near. That is, if he gets near."
"Correct, partner. And now, we continue on looking at the battle that is going on."
As they said that, the battle is already in the critical moment.
Juno, is a marksman plus mage sniper, who uses mana as bullets, and uses mage skills to increase the distance between him and his enemies. He can also use detection magic and concealing magic that makes the enemies have hard time finding him. His class is called Dimentional Sniper.
On the other hand, Hiroki is a brawler plus striker class. Brawlers are known for barbaric fights, as they use anything at their disposal to win, and strikers are known for the highest DPS among the melee classes, which makes Hiroki's class: War Fighter, stand among the top.
Both of them have epic classes, and are on level 100.
What made the fight more interesting are the hidden spells and skill trees that the two has, and how they use it in this battle.
BANG!
A bullet flew too fast that Hiroki did not have time to react that fast, and that's what Juno was waiting for.
As soon as the first bullet hit, he can use it as leverage to make the next bullets hit.
With that in mind, Juno then jumped to the air and fired three bullets to Hiroki.
Hiroki, knowing this, let the first bullet hit, and dodged the next two, to shake Juno's senses, but Juno is much smarter.
In that time, he used the recoil to send him backwards for a little bit, and continued on firing towards Hiroki.
Seeing this, Hiroki knew that it will fall out of place if he doesn't do anything.
And so, he was the first one to pull out his card.
"Heavenly Stomp!" He shouted.
And when this happened, he stomped on the ground, and a shockwave too big stopped the incoming projectiles, and created a fog of war that Juno's senses was interfered with.
"Hiroki with a brand new Spell we got to see this season! He shatters the ground and also shattered the hopes of Juno escaping."
BAM!
A tackle pinned Juno to the ground.
"Juno, now on the ground, and Hiroki for a War Pummeling.".
Eight consecutive punches rained down on Juno, but he kept on fighting and dodging the fists, but to no avail.
All eight rained down right at his face, and now, Juno's health is down to three-fourths.
But, because Hiroki is a melee character, and Juno uses a sniper, which has too much length, he can't do anything.
...for now.
"Hiroki with a Slam Down, Juno cannot stand up. Hiroki's stomp stopped his momentum. Is this gonna end, or will he pull his cards out."
As the commentator's voice rang, the crowd went wild, but the other half was also praying that Juno can make a miracle.
As they watch Juno's health bar decreasing steadily, all hope was lost for La Floras' first round.
But then, something unimaginable happened.
BOOM!
"SHOCKWAVE GRENADE!"
"RAAAAAAAAAH! LET'S GOO!" The dying fans now has fire lit beneath them as the commentator's voice erupted.
"JUNO IS STILL STANDING, HIROKI CANNOT FINISH HIM!"
BANG!
They all saw a sudden bullet hit Hiroki square in the chest.
"JUNO HIT HIM, AND NOW, IT'S TIME FOR A COUNTERATTACK!"
As he said this, Juno was already firing bullets at Hiroki in fast intervals.
Right, right, left, right, up, down.
As he fired the gun, Hiroki dodged, but the bullets are too sparsed and he only dodged two of them.
"FOUR HITS FOR JUNO! IS HIS SPECIAL COMING?!"
BANG!
A louder sound rang out that sent Hiroki flying.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
At regular intervals, bullet shot out, and were hitting Hiroki squarely. This made him so furious, as he was like a feather being blown by many people into the air again and again.
But, this skill is not a joke, but a skill created by thoughts and the realism of the game.
The skill is called Stagnant Gun.
Stagnant Gun is said to be the hardest of the three skills of this series, as the player must not use any big moves to let the opponent stay in the air as long as they like, and hit them like a target everytime.
Hiroki, who was mad at this, now pulled his second card.
"Falcon Stomp!"
"OH NO! HIROKI JUST SHOWED US TWO OF HIS SPELLS. IS HE THAT DESPERATE FOR A WIN?"
But then, a sudden change happened.
Juno who was fighting below, firing at Hiroki, suddenly turned around and fired his gun.
"Velocity Bullet!"
He shouted as he fired it at the ground. He was then flung back, sending himself to the air.
Hiroki, who saw this, grabbed the opportunity to redirect his attack towards the path where Juno is travelling.
"OH NO! JUNO'S BACK IS IN FRONT OF HIROKI! WHAT HAPPENED? DIS HE THROW THE GAME?"
"BOOOOOOO!"
Loud booing filled the stadium. The fans were clearly disappointed on what Juno did. This was the best opportunity to take the lead, but then, Juno wasted it.
Yet, they were silenced by the next shot.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three shots rang out, but not towards Hiroki, but towards the ground, and it changed the flight direction of Juno, three times.
One, was to dodge the incoming attack. As he fired one, he messed with Hiroki's timing and direction.
Two, was to stabilize his body in the air. This was done to cancel our the remaining kinetic energy in his body.
And the third one was for the preparation shot.
And then, what happened next made their jaws drop.
Six consecutive bullets were fired.
As Hiroki messed up, he cancelled his spell, but then, bullets rained behind him, sending him down to the ground.
And when this happened, Juno, who was on the air, put his eye on the scope, and used his spell.
"Rail Gun!"
BANG!
Hiroki's health bar dropped to empty, and a single word came out of the screen.
VICTORY!