As Tsukuru thought 'yes', the book instantly lifted into the air, as if levitating.
The book burst open in front of him, and the pages began flipping.
While the book was flipping pages too fast for Tsukuru to actually read them, he could see that the words on the page were glowing light-blue.
Finally, once the last page had been flipped, the book began to disintegrate from the bottom up, slowly breaking apart into pixels.
It reminded Tsukuru of how it looked when he first created a Summon, only in reverse.
Suddenly, Tsukuru felt a piercing pain in his skull, like a splitting headache.
"Agh!" Tsukuru screamed, stumbling back, his hands on his temples.
It felt as though the information was being injected straight into his brain.
After a few moments, the pain subsided.
Tsukuru took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself.
He slowly brought his hands down to his sides.
It was then that two sets of overlapping System messages appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[A new Skill is now available.
Skill Hard-Light Projection - Lv. 1 has been acquired.]
[Hard-Light Projection - Lv. 1
Active Skill
You can manifest structures made out of interconnected, hard-light hexagons. These structures can be walls, domes, and even platforms.
Requires MC
-1 MC for every minute of use.
You can only make small structures composed of a maximum of ten hexagons. Hexagons are easily breakable, having the durability of basic glass.]
Tsukuru dismissed the System screens and decided to try out his new Skill.
He held his arm out in front of him, as if he was blocking an attack with the back of his hand in front of his head, and imagined creating a small shield of hexagons in front of it.
A moment later, an octagon-shaped structure made out of seven interconnected, translucent, light-blue hexagons appeared in the air in front of the back of his hand.
Tsukuru noticed that each hexagon appeared to be slightly smaller than the back of his closed fist, and the "shield" consisted of an outer ring of six hexagons, all connected to a main hexagon in the center.
Looking at it, Tsukuru smirked.
He then imagined deactivating the Skill.
Instantly, the seven hexagons shattered like glass before then fading away.
"Cool!" Tsukuru replied, a bright smile on his face.
He then thought for a second.
"Oh, yeah." He muttered, putting his hand under his chin. "Didn't I unlock another Skill when I Leveled Up?"
However, before Tsukuru could think more on that, a new System Screen popped up in front of him.
[Wave 2 will now begin. Would you like to continue?
[Continue] [Retire] ]
Before Tsukuru decided on whether or not he wanted to continue, his gaze drifted up to one of the four large screens floating above the four corners of the concrete arena.
The first line, which showed the XP he had accumulated in the arena up to this point, read 1,025.
Tsukuru's face morphed into a look of annoyance, as he knew that wasn't accurate.
At most, he had only received half of that.
The second row showed his "play time", as it showed the image of a pocket watch with the number "00:25" next to it.
This indicated that, including the five minutes he had lost waiting for the arena to form, he had been here for roughly half-an-hour.
The third row showed the current wave, which still read "Wave 1", as he hadn't decided if he was going to continue on or not.
The third wave showed his number of kills.
It had an image of a skull with the number "23" next to it, indicating that he had killed twenty-three enemies.
Finally, across from the "XP" line was the line reserved for his "high score", showing a golden trophy with a "1" next to it.
Since this was the first time Tsukuru had ever finished a "wave", the recorded high score was 1 wave.
Tsukuru smirked.
"Man, this place is awesome!" He said, glancing to the side. "I can't wait to tell Quinn and Vorden about this place when our time in the VR Pods is done!"
Suddenly, Tsukuru's eyes widened, and he felt a knot in his stomach.
"Quinn…and Vorden…" He muttered.
He just now remembered that him being sent to his "Battle Arena" of the System's wasn't planned.
As far as Quinn and Vorden knew, he was logging into the Power Fighters mainframe with them!
Tsukuru remained there, still as a statue for a second.
He could feel his heart racing.
Suddenly, his hands shot up to his head, and grabbed his hair.
"FUCK!" He yelled, pulling his hair. "They must be worried sick!"
Tsukuru's eyes widened, and he felt a cold sweat run down his back.
"Or…even worse…they think that I've ditched them!"
Tsukuru grit his teeth.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He muttered.
His gaze shot up at the System screen still in front of him.
"Sorry, but I can't spend any more time in here!" He replied, as he slapped the "retire" option on the screen.
A new screen appeared.
[Would you like to abandon your Challenge Run?
[Yes] [No] ]
Tsukuru pressed the "yes" option.
Another screen appeared.
[You have abandoned your Challenge Run.
What would you like to do?]
There were two rectangular bars underneath the text in the screen.
One read "Transfer to Power Fighters", and the second read "Exit VR Pod".
Instantly, Tsukuru slammed his head against the first option.
A moment later, Tsukuru's body began to break apart into pixels, as he left the endless space.
Meanwhile, back in Power Fighters, Quinn watched from the stands as Vorden defeated another opponent.
Every once in a while, Quinn would glance to the side, expecting to see Tsukuru teleport in.
"He's really not coming, is he…?" He muttered.
Down in the arena with Vorden, he watched as his most recently-defeated opponent broke down into pixels, him being teleported out.
Vorden let out a sigh.
Just as he reached out to access the Power Fighter's interface to search for a new match, a screen popped up in front of him.
[A Guest Player has requested a room invite. Would you like to accept?
[Accept] [Decline] ]
Vorden stared at the message for a moment, his eye twitching in annoyance.
'Tsukuru…' He thought in irritation.
A few minutes earlier…
When Tsukuru's body reformed itself, he found himself in a completely white room.
"Now this is Power Fighters…" He muttered, as he glanced from side to side.
Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of him.
[Power Fighters
Ver.6.8.3 ]
In the empty space in the bottom of the screen, a message flashed repeatedly on the screen.
[Tap screen to begin.]
Tsukuru reached out, and tapped the empty space on the screen with his index finger.
Pixels appeared around the point of contact.
The screen lit up, and an electronic sound was heard.
The screen vanished, only to be replaced with a new one.
[Main Menu
[Log In]
[Register]
[Play As Guest] ]
Doing what Vorden had told him and Quinn to do, Tsukuru pressed the "Play asGuest" option.
He accessed the Power Fighter's mainframe, and brought up the "search" option.
A rectangular bar filled with a series of dashes, the first one flashing, appeared, as did a keyboard below the bar.
Tsukuru inputted the name "VBCopy" into the bar, and pressed the "enter" key on the keyboard.
The rotating wheel icon appeared on the screen.
After a moment, two new rectangular bars appeared on the screen.
[ [Message]
[Join Room] ]
Tsukuru pressed the second option.
A new screen appeared.
[Sending Room Invite. Please Wait…]
The rotating wheel reappeared.
Tsukuru stared at the screen impatiently, as he waited for Vorden to accept.
"C'mon, c'mon!" He muttered, tapping his foot.
Back with Vorden, he stared at the message for another second, before he let out a long, annoyed sigh.
He pressed the "accept" option.
Back with Tsukuru in the white room, a new screen appeared.
[Room Invite accepted.
Transportation in Process…]
Tsukuru let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank god…" he muttered.
Once again, his body began to break down into pixels.
When his body reformed, he found himself sitting in a set of stands that was encircling a circular fighting arena.
In the arena, there was a man with the same body build and blonde hair as Vorden, but he had white bandages around his fists, and a scarf around his face like a ninja mask.
Tsukuru raised an eyebrow in confusion.
But before he could question it, he felt a hard elbow jab into his left bicep.
"Ow!" Tsukuru complained, rubbing his arm and trying to make the pain go away.
Looking up, he saw Quinn looking down at him, an annoyed look on his face.
"Where the hell have you been?!" He whispered angrily.
Hearing this, Tsukuru let out a nervous laugh, and brought his finger up to his cheek.
"I'll…I'll tell you both about it later." He replied.
Vorden glanced up at Tsukuru now standing in the stands next to Quinn out of the corner of his eye.
He let out an annoyed sigh, and accessed the Power Fighters Mainframe's "Search" option to find his next opponent.
Tsukuru and Quinn continued to watch as Vorden fought opponent after opponent, until their time was up.
As they did, Tsukuru noticed how realistic the fights were.
Whenever Vorden would strike or stab a person, the Power Fighter's mainframe would cause the player to react by startling them, but not cause permanent damage.
Additionally, the game treated hits to vital spots like "critical hits", but a person could still fight as long as their health bar didn't bottom out.
'Damn, Logan.' Tsukuru thought. 'You didn't do a half-bad job on this…'
Before either Quinn or Tsukuru knew it, their time was up.
As they all exited their VR Pods, Quinn couldn't wait to try out fighting in the game tomorrow.