Pride Online

Chapter 211: Qualifying Round Part I

“Welcome everyone to the Hunting Gate of the year!!”

The announcement came with fireworks lit up into the sky, as well as many balloons that were floating up. Then the balloons popped, before some huge letters flowed out of them, reading, “The Hunting Gate.”

And around 50 meters above the town, an enormous light ring was seen there, circling around Dores town grandly. The ring-shaped light was actually a gigantic grandstand to support 75,000 spectators at the same time.

Also, in the grandstand, there were special seats for the same old keynote speaker, DJ Toei, Pride’s number one host. And there was Asia’s number one GM, Thada sitting and smiling broadly beside him as well.

“Me, your homie, DJ Toei is back again for another major event of the game. ...And of course, today, I’m here with my best assistant, GM Thada!”

After Toei’s words, the resounding cheer noise came from the girls on the grandstand instantly.

“Hello, Toei, and you all players as well.”

The young GM greeted the audience politely. And a moment later, big square screens were appearing in the center of the ring, showing images of every angle of it. And the first one that was shown was Thada’s attractive face which got a lot of attention from the audience.

“This year, the Hunting Gate is still vigorous as usual, right, Thada? No, this year could probably be even more fun than the last one as well.”

“That’s right, Toei.” GM Thada smiled prudently in reply, before placing his hands interlacing together on the caster’s table. “...Not only that our light ring seats are taken fully by the audience who’s come to watch the event this year, but there’re also many competitors signing up for it, totally breaking our maximum goal down.”

“Woah! ...In that case, our event will be more bustling than last year, right?”

“Yes, totally.” Thada smiled widely. “Our staff after seeing that there’re unusually many competitors, we then have added a special qualifying round that we’ve never had before in the event as well.”

“A qualifying round?”

“Correct. And for the new rules and details that were just added in this special round, we’re going to have June, who is now in the field, explain that for us here.”

After Thada finished speaking, the giant screens in the middle of the ring started showing the image of GM June, who was the owner of the pink hair and the slogan, “Go hard or go home” with a bright smile instantly.

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“Too many people here.”

A complaint came from the tall man who was now resting against the wall, looking all defeated. Wisana’s attractive face was now soaking in sweat. Those amber eyes that were looking around the place were tired somehow.

“Guess I’ll get exhausted from this before I even start the competition surely.”

And that could actually happen like he said, because who would have thought that there would be this enormous crowd of people who wanted to join the Hunting Gate? It had been almost an hour since he split up with his friends. However, after he got to the inner side of the town, he found out that the number of competitors was overwhelming, and that made the line to the event move so slowly.

Until it completely stopped moving now!!!

“I hate getting stuck so much.” Wisana wiped the sweat off his face. “It’s too crowded, and sweaty hot here. I’m starting to get jealous of those who’re sitting on the grandstand now.”

He said, then looked up at the grandstand called “Light Ring” in the sky, before letting out a long-exhausted sigh.

It was about 8 o’clock now, and it should have been the time that the players started doing a roll check in the center of the town already. Let alone starting the event, because he did not even know when he could sign up for it if the line kept on not moving like this!

Why were the staff working so slowly?!

“Hello, the competitors.”

A moment later, there was a cheerful voice of some girl coming from Wisana’s information window, making him open it up as well as the other players around. After that, it showed an image of a pink-haired girl. She was smiling so sweetly with a microphone hanging from her ear.

“She’s that bombed body GM,” Wisana recalled the award ceremony from a few days ago. He remembered this girl so well since she asked him a lot of questions that day.

“We need to announce that the first round of the Hunting Gate has started.”

The first round?

The listener raised his eyebrows out of curiosity, as did the other players around him. Many of them started asking each other confusedly.

“Since there’re many competitors joining the Hunting Gate this year, I and the other GMs have changed some parts of the rules by adding the qualifying round, the first of which is going to happen next.”

After the pretty GM finished speaking, there was silence for a few seconds before it was followed by yells and loud bawls out of displeasure.

“What the hell? This is not what the terms and conditions said.”

“Why would there be this qualifying round? It’s such a waste of time. Just let the competitors inside already.”

“The GMs are being nonsense again, so annoying!”

“People have collected the points for this, what else do they want?!”

And the bawls kept going on and on from many players. However, GM June was still smiling like nothing happened. Her smile looked so delightful, even.

“Don’t be upset, everyone. ...How about this?! For someone who does the highest score in this qualifying round, I’ll give them a kiss on their cheek as the prize.”

And then the cute pink-haired girl held up a finger and placed it on her lips, before winking seductively. And that made the yells and shouts from a few seconds ago go completely silent right away before that was followed by loud yelling noises. But they sounded totally different from earlier this time.

“I’m gonna win this. A real kiss, right, June? You’re not joking, right?”

“Come on now, June is mine. I’m going to give all I got for her!”

“Who said that? The one who will make the highest score in the first round is me!”

“No. I will!”

“No, not you. It’s me!”

And that was how it went, people...

At first, these guys yelled because they were pissed off by the GMs, but now they seemed to accept the qualifying round and started fighting against each other instead. ...Meanwhile, Wisana who was looking at GM June’s face started thinking, “Girls are really scary.”

“So, you guys don’t have any problems with the qualifying round now, right?”

“Right!!!”

The cheering shout that came from the competitors in unison, like an army of knights encouraging themselves, made Wisana rub his temple. ...Even though many girls were trying to object, they did not seem to be able to resist the major crowd of people.

So, it turned out that right now, GM June had everything under her control.

“Anyway, for this qualifying round, I have to apologize to those first ten competitors who had the most collecting points. You will not be participating in this and will be waiting for the next round. So, I’m going to teleport you to the final battle zone now.”

After the clear voice of GM June, Wisana looked at the crowd in front of him. Then, there was a light beam appearing over there. And he thought that was totally the teleportation that GM June talked about.

He thought and then smiled. ...He guessed that Shin had probably been teleported now since he had the highest points.

“In a short while, I’m going to explain the rules in the first round to you. But for now, let’s see something interesting first.”

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