Chapter 61: Unintentional Grinding
Unintentional Grinding
Mike read the prompt and lingered for a moment before selecting ’Create New Account’.
As soon as he did, he was shown another prompt that asked him to put in his username and password, and under the latter, it explained that his energy signature would also be recorded and used to identify him instead of the password if the need arose.
As for his username.
’Hm. Well, it’s not like I have to do anything elaborate.’ He mused as he stared at the panel, and a holographic keyboard appeared.
After a brief moment’s hesitation, he typed in ’Mr_Lupine’ as his name and hit enter.
After that, it asked him to put in his password, and he stared at it for a moment before inputting ’Gone_Is_Klein_4’.
The password was a grim reminder, and he exhaled before pressing enter.
As soon as he did. He was asked to customize his character. He was a bit confused for a moment, but then an exact replica of him appeared in his front, surprising him. Moreover, a panel then appeared filled with all sorts of customization options.
From his hair to his clothes, to his skin color, his eyes, and so on.
It was a lot, and Mike was a bit overwhelmed at first, but he quickly regained his composure as he considered what he wanted to do.
’Hm. I don’t want myself to be recognizable, especially when I use my Lupine abilities when I fight.’ Mike thought as, yes, one of the primary reasons he wanted to use Fighter’s.Inc was so that he could make use of his Lupine side more in fights.
So far, it was a part of him he had more or less allowed to take the backseat, as it hadn’t done much recently.
However, Mike had a feeling that repressing it completely wouldn’t be a good thing, so his plan was simple, outside, he’d use his ’public’ ability being his Primal Surge/ Vertex Aura, while on the platform, he’d fight solely with his Lupine abilities.
Well, not solely, but he’d use it a lot more.
But for this to work, he had to ensure that no one could associate his identity in real life with his identity here. Hence, he’d make sure he was unrecognizable within the game.
After a while of tinkering, he managed to set his appearance to something satisfactory. Sadly, he couldn’t change his height, but he believed what he had was good enough.
His skin was now tanned, resembling what he had on Klein 4 before his transformation. Just less scarred. His blue pupils had turned yellow, and his white hair a dirty blonde. His face also now had a mask on it, and behind that mask was a slightly bearded face. He also now wore a simple sleeveless shirt and baggy pants, almost making him look like some martial arts practitioner.
Satisfied, he confirmed his choice, and a moment later that was his new appearance.
He looked down at his tanned arms and marveled at the seamless change. Customization was awesome!
However, he remembered that he had limited time, so he quickly pulled up the main panel where there were numerous options.
There was an area for the different types of battles one could engage in, then the one for recordings, which Mike assumed meant he could watch recordings of past fights. There was then a spectator’s option which allowed him to spectate other fights, and a friends option which he soon picked and added Theresa’s username.
He waited for a while, but nothing happened.
Scratching his head, he decided that standing around wasn’t productive, so he went under the 1 V 1 section and picked Random Battles.
It asked him if he was certain, and he selected yes, which was when he realized that there was a tier system for fighters, and depending on how many fights one won, they had higher and higher tiers.
Since Mike had just started, he was at the bottom of the barrel at the Wood Tier, Rank 1. He’d need to get to Rank five before being promoted to the next tier, and it was 5 fights for each Rank under the wood Tier before he got promoted.
Soon enough, the fight got paired, and it asked him if he wanted to allow others to view his fight, which he promptly refused.
What if Theresa decided to spectate and saw him using his Lupine powers? Hell nah!
Eventually, Mike found himself in another room, but now, it looked a bit like a standard arena with a stone floor and boundaries at the edges.
He quickly noticed that opposite him, another person stood. It was a tall male dressed entirely in black. Above their head, their name tag Unpaid-Landlord_6996 could be seen.
’Interesting name.’ Mike thought as a large countdown appeared overhead.
1 Minute Before Fight Begins.
Mike nodded to himself, which is when he saw another screen appear.
{Please select your weapon.}
The message surprised him, but he quickly understood. Fighting unarmed probably didn’t make much sense unless one’s ability allowed it, and most people still used weapons that matched their abilities.
’I mostly fight unarmed, though. But it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get something that can at least protect my arms or hands.’ He thought as he quickly looked through the available options.
There were things from swords to bows, to staffs and staves, to even things like guns.
Mike clicked the category that said gauntlets, and he quickly sifted through them until he found a pair that suited his needs.
A pair of dark gauntlets that let his fingertips open, allowing things like claws to come through in case the user had an ability related to claws.
Mike picked these as he planned to make use of the claws that came with his partial transformation.
When he picked them, he saw the same set of gloves materialize over his hands, stopping a bit after his wrist. He looked forward and saw that his opponent had equipped a pair of curved daggers.
Soon enough, the countdown ended, and as soon as it did, Mike’s opponent charged forward.
Mike ran forward to meet him, albeit at a slightly slower pace as he immediately started observing him to see what he would do, activating Predator’s Foresight and Primal Awareness without hesitation.
As soon as they got close to each other, the blades of the daggers suddenly began to glow bright red, and Mike could feel the heat radiate from them.
The guy swung one dagger vertically, making Mike move to the side, but as he did so, the other dagger was already moving towards where he’d dodged into, aiming to cut across his chest.
Instead of retreating or blocking, Mike moved forward and quickly grabbed the wrist of his opponent, stopping the downwards slash.
Surprised, his opponent tried to pull back while swinging his other dagger, but Mike didn’t let him, as with his superior strength, he hoisted him off the ground and slammed him into the ground. The force made the guy bounce with a grunt, and Mike clenched his fist and threw a punch straight at the guy’s head.
To his credit, the guy managed to raise a hand to block despite his dazed state, however.
CRACK
A sickening cracking sounded out as Mike’s fist made contact with his arm and immediately broke it, the limb bending unnaturally as it failed to resist the force of the blow.
The guy let out a pained grunt as he tried to move away, but Mike’s hand was still firmly clasped around his other arm.
Mike sighed and punched down quickly, his fist finally hitting his head, but instead of a horrid crunch, his head simply turned into particles that soon faded away.
{Winner: Mr_Lupine!}
A prompt appeared in front of Mike, congratulating him on his victory. It then asked if he wanted to continue, and he just shrugged and selected yes.
Soon enough, he got paired up again, and this time, his opponent had a pair of horns and held a longsword.
This fight had been even more straightforward, as they seemed to be able to boost their speed with their horns. However, Mike read them pretty easily, and by holding out his arm in a timely manner, his opponent just ran into it at full speed, dazing them enough for Mike to give another devastating punch to their skull.
After that, he fought someone who could unleash powerful blasts in the shape of hands.
Yeah, Mike more or less just ran through the attack and gave them a good punch to their noggin, ending that fight.
Things passed like this, and it didn’t take long before Mike had entered Wood Tier, Rank 4.
He hardly batted an eye, though, and kept going at it. He was a bit disappointed by the lack of challenge, as so far, he hadn’t even used his Partial Transformation, nor had he used Crimson Ladder. He was more or less just running forward and hitting people very hard, and it seemed to be oddly effective.