16

The wedding had passed, and with the help of her new dad and the movers he hired, Isabelle and her mom were able to move into his house days later.

As Isabelle stepped into her new room, she couldn't help but marvel at its size, three times larger than her old one.

Excited to make it her own, she settled down on her bed and turned on the TV, hoping to unwind with her favourite K-drama. This sort of series always seemed to provide her with peace, most times.

However, her tranquil moment was wrecked when she witnessed an unexpected kiss between the drama's main characters. Frustration suddenly welled up inside her, and with a huff, she shut off the TV.

Determined to channel her anger into something productive, Isabelle decided to indulge in her favourite video game, Death's Arena.

She couldn't help marvelling at the game's banner as the game loaded. She could see a dark-skinned man holding two giant swords suffused with lightning, his eyes were fully white.

To the left of the man was a pink-skinned girl who was petite but dressed in a goth gown and make-up, an upended giant glowing red hammer, with her right leg atop it.

Behind the girl was a green orc with a huge golden nose ring, his dark green hair in big braids and beads. There was a heavy necklace around his neck and gauntlets in his hands. He was in a fighting stance, his red eyes glowing and his teeth clenched.

Behind the orc was an orange-haired girl dressed in a sexy student uniform and glasses, proudly holding a scythe while grinning.

To the right of the dark-skinned man was a slim girl dressed in a miniskirt and sports bra. Her hands were behind her back, looking shy, but her hair was fluttering with the tip being dreadful poisonous snakes that were ready to bite.

Behind this girl was a tanned man with a bald head, his bare upper body revealed his solid, glistening muscles, and his eyes were white. With this look, one would think he was a warrior, but unexpectedly, this character was holding a glistening green healer's wand.

Seeing this, Isabelle chuckled. This character was Jakeston, a new character recently introduced in the game.

30%. 50%. 89%. 100%.

She cancelled the four pop-up banners and then went into the battle area after claiming some daily rewards.

The battle area had different sections:

[Training] [Solo] [2V5] [5V5]

Isabelle didn't choose any of these sections. Instead, she went for the last one.

10v10: Ultimate Battle Royale.

It new section that was added to the game 6 months back that opened once a month, and today happened to be that day.

This intense section involved two teams of twenty players competing to obtain a specified artefact. Finding the artefact first didn't guarantee victory. Instead, it triggered intense battles between the two teams.

The final possessor of the artefact, the last one standing, would claim rewards ten times better than those given to his teammates, while the losing team would receive nothing.

As Isabelle immersed herself in the game, she found herself with 9 allies, all using different characters of their choice.

Her chosen character, Kaylia, was a blindfolded, raven-haired young woman in a short, strapless sequinned gown, with white fox ears on her head, and no weapon in her dainty-looking hands.

As she twirled her character around, she saw a message from the teammate using the assassin character, Rhyder, who had four intricately carved golden daggers.

Rollie107: "Yo, Eye Candy, why are you using this character? You want to become food for the monsters before we even reach our destination?"

Unlike 5v5 and other battle modes, if one's character died in this quest, they wouldn't be resurrected.

"Gastin22: "This isn't a 5v2 battle. Delete the game after this, you trash!"

Trolly58: "Are you cursed or something, Eye Candy? Don't you know, it's better to pick strong and durable heroes. Are you nuts?"

"Slam your mothers after this game," was her simple reply to these annoying teammates. She then ignored the rest of their insults until the system muted them.

As they progressed along the forest path, several monsters-big and small, strong and weak-showed up and all began to fight. Of course, she couldn't be bothered to fight the bigger monsters. She went for the easy kills.

The teammates, unfortunately, couldn't complain as they'd been muted and the ban was yet to be lifted. What luck!

Thankfully, no one died in this battle. They continued ahead on the path, fighting more and more battles with not just monsters, but even ghosts and monster plants.

Soon they got to the ancient cave where the artefact was said to be located, and many equipped their characters with many items and potions. Except for Isabelle, who was far behind them.

Her teammates viewed her as an utter lag on the team. If they lost, they'd blame it on her and report her account for various violations, whether true or not!

They all entered the cave, ever-prepped up to defend and attack. They made their way zealously as they ascended and descended narrow man-made stairs in the cave, which had several skeletons and eerie cries.

Soon they reached where a glowing box made of sapphire was. It was slightly open and one could see a glow in it, even though one couldn't see what artefact it was.

Trolly58: "Haha, we made it here before the other team. Now we have to defend this box from being claimed by them."

Gastin22: Eye Candy, you better hide yourself in a corner. We all know, you'll be the first to die."

Isabelle simply ignored them. The artefact would be hers no matter what. She twirled her character around,d wondering what was keeping the other party so long.

A second later, the enemy team arrived; they were six in number. Obviously, 4 of their team members were dead.

And just from the enemies' get-up and the aura surrounding them, it was without a doubt these weren't trash

Rollie107: "Healer Liona, please do your best to aid us. Or you can be our cannon fodder"

JGreve22: "Don't worry about that. My defensive beads can still block six more attacks"

Gastin22: "Eye Candy, do your best not to feed?"

Healer Liona was in the middle of the team coz she couldn't attack, the team's warrior was close to her, while the tank was at the forefront of the team.

JuvenileSis: In-game command [Attack]

Facing off against formidable opponents, they couldn't afford to be careless. Isabelle, of course, didn't care about the enemies too much, but what caught her off guard was when she encountered TroublemaKer as one of the opponents.

It was actually her stepbrother, Axel's username. She had tricked one of his friends into revealing it some time ago before her step-parents met and fell in love.

*Sigh*

Currently, Axel was using his favourite assassin hero, Kayne, the most handsome hero in the game, having blue skin with his unclothed upper body covered in glowing gold tattoos. His red hair was in a single braid with a spear's head attached to it at the tip. His lower body had slightly loose black harem pants with a beaded belt. His hands had nothing but two wooden daggers.

Not only was Kayne very expensive to buy, but he was also one of the top 5 hardest game characters to master.

Very few people had mastered this character, and many who used it were not that formidable. No one would have expected that this Kayne user was Axel, who was very cruel in his matches.

She began to pity her teammates even more because they thought the strength of numbers would wipe out the team of 6 enemies.

Complete dunderheads! Anyway, it's not her business.