MOBA Game Apocalypse-Chapter 96: The Long Wait Starts

Chapter 96: Chapter 96: The Long Wait Starts
[Hello to all those who are tuned in, I know all of you have been excited for this moment, and I am happy to announce that the 242nd Battle has officially started!]
[You are now seeing live drone footage of a Dome in the Amazon Rainforest...]
[Which teams would be winning...]
[Last month, an S-tier Hero made an appearance, and the month before that, it was the First Soldier! What awaits us...]
Every news outlet across the globe erupted with the beginning of the 242nd Game. Screens flickered to life in homes, bars, and public squares as news anchors delivered the same breathless excitement they’d perfected over twenty years of this horror show.
A hundred Domes, and hundreds of drones hovering above each of them, minimum.
And while the same words that have been said each month echoed throughout the globe, while everyone else celebrated and waited in anticipation in the safety of their homes, the creeps, veterans and new, trembled inside their translucent prisons.
The drones, even hovering hundreds of feet in the air, captured every moment of terror from their silhouettes.
It’s... the same as before, and probably has been for the past twenty years.
Adults wept openly, their faces streaked with tears and snot. Children wandered lost, calling for parents who might not even be in the Dome at all, or the Game for that matter. The elderly... some had already collapsed from shock, their bodies unable to handle the sudden transition from normal life to this nightmare.
Grace is right... this needs to end.
Adam watched an old man clutch his chest, gasping for air that wouldn’t come. A woman in her seventies sat in the sand, rocking back and forth while muttering prayers in a language he didn’t recognize. A boy who couldn’t be older than ten stood frozen, his red halo casting eerie light on his tear-stained cheeks.
The last Game felt like a lifetime ago for him now. And perhaps it was—because for once, he’d had a month that actually moved his life forward... for better or for worse.
He sighed, started to walk, and looked up at the giant clock as it ticked down. Fifty-eight minutes remaining. He squinted, the harsh sun almost blinding him. Then, he finally looked around, taking in their environment for the first time.
Desert. Endless, rolling dunes of sand stretched in every direction, broken only by the crowd and uneven waves of beige.
This... isn’t good.
The heat was already seeping through his clothes, and he could feel sweat beginning to form beneath his new armor.
He turned toward their crystal, and the pillar of crimson light stretched impossibly high into the sky, a beacon that would guide both allies and enemies. Without the chaos of a ruined metropolis, Adam could now clearly observe the elements of the Game.
He looked at the other pillars scattered across the horizon, distant but visible, marking the positions of the other crystals in their lane—it was too far to see the other creeps, however.
Finally, he turned toward the largest pillar of light, the Spawn Crystal. From the direction of all the crystals, it seemed they were positioned at the Middle Crystal of the Middle Lane.
...That meant it would take a few hours before they saw any real action.
Do I just... wait?
He was about to sit in the sand... when he finally noticed that everyone was staring at him. The whispers had stopped. Even some of the crying had quieted. He instinctively backed away, but then heard gasps from behind him.
He wondered what was happening at first, but then felt the weight of his sword against his hip.
Oh, right.
He was... equipped now.
The armor set Clementine had given him was all black. He wore what looked like a stylish jacket with an oversized collar that covered the lower part of his face and head, but it was padded with the hide of some monster she’d never identified. His pants matched, secured with a large belt that doubled as a sheath.
His boots were also heavily padded and armored around the ankles and shins, making each step weighty... but still surprisingly silent.
And then, of course, there was what everyone was really staring at—his weapon.
The sword looked like a katana at first glance, and that’s what most people would call it. Those more familiar with weapons might recognize it as an
odachi
. But it wasn’t quite either. Shorter than a traditional odachi but thicker and wider, yet not quite the size of the slab of greatsword he’d trained with.
Even sheathed, it looked incredibly... intimidating.
Clementine had called it the
Shion
—Adam... forgot what it meant. The fact that it was nearly as tall as he was made it even more menacing.
Sure, Adam was shorter than the average male, but that didn’t change the fact that he was carrying a
big fucking sword
, which was what everyone else thought.
Adam realized this too, and slowly, and very carefully made his way through the crowd. People parted for him like he was carrying the plague.
But even then—
"Uhm. Excuse me, Ma’am. Sir."
"Excuse me, I’m just passing."
"Thank you."
Adam didn’t forget to be polite, speaking gently to each person he passed until he reached the front of the mob.
"...Is he a Hero?"
"No, look at his halo."
"He might be a level 9 vet, don’t go near him."
"How... how many people do you think he’s killed?"
"Ssh! He might hear you. Stay away from him."
"He might just be a rich kid."
"Is he... a child?"
"He’s obviously dangerous. Stay away from him."
The crowd moved away from him and made sure to keep their distance. Most of them continued to speak ill of him, but Adam just let them talk. It didn’t matter what they thought.
He sat down in the sand and looked up at the clock again. Forty minutes before the Game officially began. In his last Game, he was in the Outer Crystal and was immediately thrown into battle after an hour.
But for some reason, this waiting felt... worse? Perhaps because it was the slow buildup toward inevitable violence. An inevitable violence he had already experienced.
What was he supposed to do here? Should he start stretching? But that would make people even more nervous. He should just... wait.
His thoughts drifted back to his training with Clementine, but before he could really focus back on his lessons, he heard new voices behind him—different from the fearful whispers.
He looked back, expecting to see the Heroes assigned to their lane arriving, but no. Red halos hovered above their heads.
Veterans. And from their gear and confident postures, they were veterans of several Games.
What... are they doing?
Adam’s eyes widened... as the group casually sat close to him like they knew each other.
Adam found this odd at first, but not for long.
"Why... isn’t a Hero here yet?" The only woman in the group said, her voice hurried as she looked up at the ticking clock.
"Relax, there’s no need to be nervous," one of the men scoffed.
"She’s... right, though. What if... we’re a Sacrificial Lane?"
"Man, shut the fuck up."
A Sacrificial Lane.
If Adam was right, it was a strategy Heroes used—and it meant abandoning one lane to blitz a priority lane... and this also meant bad news for everyone of them.
"Hey. Relax—they’ll be here any minute."
The group continued talking, but when another twenty minutes passed—
"F-fuck... I think... I think I was right! We’re in the sacrifice lane!"
"Shit!"
Their voices grew louder, and the other Creeps heard their conversation.
And in just a single minute, panic spread through the crowd.
"We... we’re being sacrificed?!"
"We’re all going to die!"
"They abandoned us!"
"Where are the Heroes?!"
Some people started hyperventilating. Adam watched it all, thinking about how cruel the Games truly were. He closed his eyes, trying to block out the rising hysteria.
"Hm...?" He opened them quickly, however, when the tone of the veterans’ conversation shifted. They... started talking about the nearby women, and not in a safe way at all.
Adam looked at their eyes and saw the same predatory gleam he’d seen in the veterans who’d tried to assault Grace.
"What the fuck are you guys saying?!" The only woman in their group stood up. "Are you fucking serious right now?!"
And just like that, the situation escalated from twenty to a hundred in seconds.
The woman drew her weapon first, cutting one of the men without any warning.
"What the fuck?! Did you just... cut me?!" The others responded immediately.
"W-wait! Let’s all calm down!" One man stood by the woman’s side, raising both his palms at both sides.
However, right now, the men were already beyond reason. They surrounded the pair and also drew their weapons.
"Oh, we’ll have fun with you fir—"
They were about to fight... but then they all noticed Adam standing up.
Everyone looked at him. Both sides raised their guard as Adam placed his hand on the hilt of the
Shion
.
With his green eyes being almost the only visible part of his face, he looked even more menacing than before. He didn’t speak at first, just stared at them.
Then, finally, he spoke.
"Stop."
The group waited to see if he would say anything else... but he didn’t. He truly just stood there, all five feet four inches of him, hand resting on a sword that was nearly as tall as he was.
There were thousands of them there, and yet, as the start of the battle drew close... everything had gone quiet in the Middle Crystal of the Middle Lane.