After Klaus Park returned to the dorm late Friday night, it didn't take long for his classmates to arrive as well. And just as he had predicted, they all began to think that Klaus was some kind of god because he had won over the cold and beautiful Ashley Cox with seemingly little effort. Little did they know how long it took Klaus to arrange his first date with her.

Anyway, they talked until dawn about the other girls in the karaoke room, and they all told Klaus what happened after he left the room.

According to them, the girls were even nicer than they had imagined. They were all very intelligent and nice from start to finish. Helen even asked for Andrew's contact information, which motivated Nathan to do the same with Krista Hendley, and since David was much more excited after finding out that Amanda liked archery, they arranged another meeting, this time alone.

Klaus was happy for his roommates. At least this way they wouldn't have to worry so much about the times he usually arrived at the dorm.

The next day, Klaus had a lot of things to do, including going to the archery department, but that would only be in the afternoon, so he would have a good part of the day free. Since he had no optional classes and the first month's exams were still far away, Klaus ate something in the cafeteria near the dormitory and quickly made his way to the Deep Immersion Pods. Coincidentally, the cell phone in his pocket vibrated just as he was about to click CONNECT. Knowing that if he didn't answer it now, it would probably take hours to respond, he decided to see who the message was from.

There were three messages from three different people. The first was from Klaus' mother, Chun Park.

[Contact Name: Mother.

Message: Good morning, son. I know it's only been a week since the special program started, but when can you come visit us? We miss you, especially Ard. (7:18 AM)].

Klaus smiled when he saw his mother's message and replied immediately, saying that he would ask the instructors about it. ~

He then went to the second person's message, which also made him smile when he saw who it was.

[Contact name: Ashley

Message: Hi, I added you here. How do you want me to write your name? Please don't ask me to put a heart, it's too early HAHA (9:30am)].

Klaus was not the type to play games because he thought it was exhausting, so he replied right away and said that putting the heart next to his contact name was not a bad idea.

Finally, the last message, and the one that had just arrived a minute ago, was unexpectedly from Klank.

[Contact Name: Klank the Rich.

Message: Hey, man! How are you doing? I am sending you a message because you asked me to instead of calling. Actually, the reason is that I wanted to let you know that I have already found buyers for the Sea Dragon items. If you are interested in selling the others, I can either buy them from you or introduce you to my buyer if you owe me a favor. Anyway, don't forget that the tournament we talked about starts today. It would be cool to see you there].

Klank's message made Klaus think, not about the sea dragon items he still had, because there was no point in selling them when he could turn them into much more useful and valuable items, but about the matter of the International Tournament. According to Klank himself, this tournament would not last very long, only a weekend, but it was a tournament with the support of the three most powerful human nations, and it would provide a Legendary Rank item, something Klaus had never even gotten his hands on. It was a great opportunity, but also a great risk.

In general, no level 70 player could even consider entering a tournament where all the players were high level. However, Kaizen was no ordinary avatar, he was boosted, and his stats certainly put him on par with at least a level 130 player. Klaus knew that if he used his own ingenuity in battle and took advantage of the high PR, he could probably fight even a level 150 player, after all, Rise Online was not like the classic MMORPGs of the beginning of the century, it offered a lot of versatility, and getting a hit didn't depend only on the computer doing it right for you, but on you doing it right, and that was true for everything in this game, which is why it was considered so difficult.

Before logging into Rise Online, he thought about what he should do. He could go to the tournament site and sign up, but that would mean exposing his avatar and his skills to the whole world again.

Of course, he could also register as Klaus, the simple blacksmith from the Ravenfeather shop, but if he won this tournament as Klaus, it would be bad at best, because no matter where he went or who he met, there would always be a chance that he would be recognized. At least if he wore the mask disguise as Kaizen, he wouldn't have that problem.

While he was still deciding whether or not to participate in this tournament, he decided to search the web to find out more information about it.

He found out that in the group stage of the tournament, the 3000 brave players who would participate in the competition would be divided into 3 groups of 1000 players each. Each group would have players from different nations to ensure diversity. The players would fight each other in a vast, wild arena, using only their own equipment and skills. There were no restrictions on time, kills, or even alliances, only that each player's sole goal should be to eliminate as many players as possible while trying to be among the last four survivors. In this way, the four survivors from each group would advance to the next stage.

In the round of sixteen, the eight surviving players with the fewest saves and assists in the previous stage would fight a 1v1 battle to advance to the quarterfinals, where each would face the top four players from the group stage. Of course, the semifinals and finals would follow to complete the championship.

This was a simple format for the tournament that had two different funnels to filter the best from the worst players.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

More character images in:

https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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