I'm speechless.

“What's the big deal about losing equipment when you die in-game? Why are you so agitated?”

“You...!”

Bone Girl was left speechless by my question.

“But that's... character death! It represents... a denial of your... your gaming abilities! It makes you lose dignity...” she mumbled on and on.

Pfft—

Forgive me for laughing rudely.

Dignity in a game? Too addicted, I would say!

Maybe this girl could be used for electrotherapy.

Seemingly aware that her threats were meaningless, Bone Girl blushed.

“Then... I want to add one more condition!”

“Who said you could just change your mind like that?”

“I don’t care! I just want to add! If you lose, you have to kneel down in reality and apologize sincerely to me! Record it on video!”

I suddenly gasped; this was too harsh, right? Witness nudity in the game, and kneel to apologize in reality?!

“I disagree!”

“You clearly saw my... my that…”

Although our conversation was in whispers, Bone Girl's tearful appearance still attracted angry curses from the audience.

I couldn't stand to see a girl acting like this, and I had suffered a lot because of it.

“Hold on! Please hold on! What if you lose?”

“I lose?”

Bone Girl widened her eyes, as if she had never considered such a possibility.

“H-how could that be possible!”

She was so frightened that she stuttered.

“What if? You have to give an answer, right?”

“Then I… I'll just let you decide what to do with me!”

She was angry and frustrated, assuming a fighting stance.

“It's settled! Accept the death battle, you scumbag!”

I have to say, the white lightweight armor Bone Girl was wearing, with its golden trim, was both lively and lovely, while also looking heroic and dashing.

It's just that the mixed weapons in her hands weren't so friendly.

Seeing that there was no turning back, I sighed and decided to go along with it...

“I accept.”

As my words fell, a transparent barrier rose between the audience and the arena, and green health bars appeared above both Bone Girl's and my heads.

The health bars were in percentages, so the specific values couldn't be seen.

However, based on the cheers from the audience, they probably thought Bone Girl's health was overwhelming mine.

I thought so too.

If she has tens of thousands of times more health...

At this moment, a stand rose in the center of the audience seats, and a muscular man wearing golden tight-fitting performance clothes walked out.

“Yo, everybody! Today I, Golden Fairy, will be the commentator for this death match!”

The audience cheered again.

There were many ways to earn in-game gold, and being a commentator was one of them. Since gold could be converted to real money in the black market and the profits were quite lucrative, many game workers appeared in recent years.

I was dumbfounded; was this what the audience liked in a commentator nowadays?

I remember in my gaming days, people wanted a cute, petite girl as a commentator, preferably one who got breathless easily when speaking.

When the battle got intense like that… Hehehe…

Golden Fairy began his commentary, twisting his body: “Today's death match contenders are— one of the leaders of the Pioneer Group ‘Blue Union,’ currently ranked first in the arena, the highest win-streak holder, the spiritual pillar of many players, and the beloved Bone Girl!”

The audience burst into applause.

“And facing Bone Girl, uh… he didn't report his identity… never mind, and facing Bone Girl is the mysterious black-clothed swordsman!”

The audience booed, apparently looking down on me for not reporting my identity.

Nonsense!

There's a messaging system in the game. If I report my identity, won't my inbox be bombed by you guys?

“We can see that Bone Girl is wearing the Level 6 anti-specter lightweight armor ‘White Breeze,’ and her weapon is the Level 8 heavy gunblade ‘Dark Annihilation’! Wow! That's some extremely luxurious equipment! It's probably the front-line configuration of Pioneer Group, right?!”Tsk tsk tsk, a level 8 strength, can the current pioneer teams really get this kind of equipment now? Back in the days, even a level 3 strength would cause a brawl at the auction house.

"And as her opponent, the mysterious black... never mind, it's hard to pronounce, let's just call him the Mysterious Swordsman!"

Finish it, you bastard! Do you have any sense of professionalism as a commentator?! Even if the NPCs don't care about the quality of the commentary, aren't you afraid that the audience will vote you out in the next commentator election?!

However, judging from the laughter from the audience, the Golden Fairy's commentary seems to be quite to their liking...

The world is really getting worse!

Bring back the commentator girl who used to finish the super long names even if she was panting!

"He's equipped with level 0 black casual clothes! And a level 0 iron sword! Wow! Can we say that this is the worst equipment in the whole game? I remember that newbies are given spectral pistols now..."

Newbies are given spectral pistols now?! Trash operators!

How are we old players supposed to play?! Back then, a spectral pistol would cause a bloody battle that only a few dozens of people could get their hands on!

"Alright! Anyway, the much-anticipated deathmatch is about to begin! Countdown!"

As the commentator spoke, a number "10" appeared in the middle of the arena.

There are still ten seconds of preparation time before the battle.

The beasts in the audience held their breath, and the scene quieted down at once.

Bone Girl immediately stepped back and kept some distance from me. I'm a pure melee fighter, while she can fight both close and ranged. I guess she wants to kite me to death, making sure she won't lose.

How boring, right? I have level 0 equipment!

I sighed and decided to ignore her anymore

Frankly, these 10 seconds are pretty boring. I even suggested before to change it to 0.1 second, but my idea was not adopted.

What can you do in 10 seconds? Nothing. I simply took off my iron sword, stuck it in the ground as support, and squinted my eyes slightly.

I'm just gonna take a nap.

Since the atmosphere on the scene was so quiet, I forgot that I only intended to take a nap at the next second.

In a daze, it's a good time to reminisce about the past. How did I end up in this mess?

The story begins three days ago.

...