Seojun was about to say something else
When the system chimed again.
A calm mechanical voice echoed in every player’s ears.
System Announcement
All participants will be disconnected for the scheduled 30 minute intermission.
Preparing session logout…
Luma blinked.
“…Already I was ready to crash her with my power.”
Above them Rui looked up as a faint blue glow began forming around her.
“Oh right,” she said.
“Break time.”
Mira twirled her pike once before resting it over her shoulder.
“Thirty minutes isn’t long.”
Around them the tribal hunters were still celebrating, completely unaware of the glowing system effects surrounding the players.
Luma sighed.
“Of course it kicks us out right after the boss.”
Seojun glanced once more at the massive sandworm corpse lying in the dunes.
The faint glow inside its torn body was still there.
But before he could focus on it
His vision dimmed.
Logging Out
The desert faded.
The wind disappeared.
The cheering hunters vanished.
And in the next instant
Seojun opened his eyes in the real world.
A calm chime echoed through every player’s ears.
Then the system voice followed.
System Announcement
Schedule break is happening
All participants will now enter the 30 minute intermission.
And they heard
Intermission Rules
• All participants will be temporarily disconnected from the simulation.
• Players will return to the arena venue for a 30-minute break period.
• Participants may walk around the venue, rest, or visit designated areas.
• Earpiece communication devices must remain worn at all times.
Another line appeared.
The earpiece will block outside information to prevent spoilers, outside coaching, or strategic interference.
Luma snorted.
“Basically they don’t trust us.”
Rows of players were seated in sleek reclining arena chairs, each one surrounded by a curved console and cables connecting their headsets.
Staff members walked along the aisles while massive screens above the stadium replayed clips from the match.
The crowd’s distant roar echoed through the building.
Seojun sat up in his chair and removed the visor.
Around him, other players were waking from their sessions.
To his left, Luma pulled off his headset and stretched his arms.
“Ah,” he groaned.
“Real gravity again.”
Across the row, Rui swung her legs off her own arena chair while Mira calmly removed her headset beside her.
The portal opening.
The glowing sphere.
And the sandworm exploding from the inside.
The crowd erupted again.
Seojun looked up at the screen and sighed.
“…Yeah.”
“No way anyone missed that.”
The POV of the hunters and heroes from the kingdom not associated with the fight it’s blurred in silenced.The crowd cheered again.
Luma looked up at the screens and groaned.
“Great. They’re looping it.”
Rui hopped down from her arena chair and stretched her arms.
“Of course they are,” she said with a grin.
“That was the best moment of the round.”
Mira stood beside them, calmly adjusting the small earpiece in her ear.
Then she spoke.
“Remember the rules.”
The others looked at her.
“No discussion about the match during the break,” she said.
“The earpieces filter out outside information, but the system still monitors what we say.”
Luma raised his hands.
“Relax, tournament police.”
Mira ignored him.
“We talk about it after the next session.”
Then she turned and walked away toward the crowd of players and staff moving through the arena halls.
In seconds she disappeared among them.
Seojun blinked.
“…She just left.”
Rui shrugged.
“She does that.”
Luma stood up from his chair and stretched.
“Well. Thirty minutes.”
He gestured toward the massive venues with loud cheers coming out of them.
Food stands, rest areas, and sponsor booths filled the open space and other tournaments going on.
“You two want to walk around?”
Seojun stood up.
“Sure.”
Rui followed beside them.
The three stepped away from their row of arena chairs and joined the crowd moving through the venue.
As they walked past the massive walls of screens displaying the tournament broadcast, Seojun noticed something strange.
Some of the displays looked… distorted.
Sections of the broadcast were blurred out to them.
On one screen, commentators were clearly analyzing the sandworm fight but the moment they started pointing at specific strategies, the image faded into a soft blur.
Another screen showed a replay of Rui’s portal attack but the instant the camera zoomed in to break down how the attack worked, the image fuzzed over again.
Luma noticed it too.
“…They’re censoring it.”
Rui tilted her head at one of the screens.
“Huh.”
Seojun tapped the small earpiece in his ear.
“The system must filter anything that gives away strategies.”
Luma nodded.
“Makes sense.”
He pointed toward the screen where the commentators’ mouths were still moving while the tactical diagram behind them was completely blurred. This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
“They don’t want players learning mid tournament.”
Rui laughed.
Behind them, the crowd continued cheering at the visible highlights while the blurred sections flickered whenever deeper analysis appeared.
The tournament was making sure one thing was clear.
Players could watch.
But they couldn’t learn anything useful until the break was over.
About a minute later, one of the massive arena screens changed to another broadcast.
A large banner appeared across the display.
ValDante– 5v5 Shooter Match
Seojun glanced up with interest.
The screen showed a fully immersive battlefield.
An enormous ruined city where players moved with real physical motion inside the VR.
They sprinted across rooftops, slid behind debris.
Gunfire and explosions echoed through the broadcast speakers.
Then the commentators’ voices rose with excitement.
“And the star player is entering the fight!”
The camera locked onto one player riding along the side of a wall.
Seojun blinked.
“…Is that a horse?”
It was.
Inside the VR match, the rider galloped along with his sleek black horse,the vertical surface like gravity barely mattered.
Flames burst from a weapon in his hands as he fired downward at enemies in the street.
The player name appeared across the broadcast overlay.
NOEL WILLIAMS
For a moment the broadcast showed the real player cam.
A young man with cornrows leaned forward in his arena chair.
Back in the game world, Noel kicked his mount forward.
The horse leapt off the wall
Straight into the center of the enemy team.
His weapon roared.
A wave of fire blasted outward in a wide arc, swallowing the street in burning light.
One enemy dropped.
Then another.
Then another.
Within seconds
ELIMINATED
ELIMINATED
ELIMINATED
ELIMINATED
ELIMINATED
TEAM WIPE
The entire enemy team vanished in flames.
The arena crowd exploded with cheers.
Luma stopped walking and stared at the screen.
“… I could’ve done that myself.”
Rui crossed her arms as the replay showed Noel riding calmly out of the burning battlefield.
” There’s so many top players in this event even from Canada,” she said.
Seojun nodded slowly.
Above them, the replay showed the moment again as the commentators shouted over the roaring crowd.
“NOEL WILLIAMS WITH THE FULL TEAM WIPE!” this is gonna be 2 combined Thank you everybody for reading today I promise not to make this rest time boring just remember there’s 16 simultaneous events Happening