Joan rested her chin in the palm of her hand as she stared out the window, watching the slums gradually transform into towering skyscrapers.
According to the address listed on the flyer, the preliminaries were taking place in a wealthy part of downtown: Nightrider Gaming was the name of the company hosting it. Joan had never heard of them before but liked the ring their name had.
So, on the day of the preliminaries, she'd woken up hours before Navier usually did and slipped out of the hostel to take a bus downtown. Although the two were friends, Joan didn't pry into Navier's life, and so, Navier didn't pry into hers.
The bus came to a grinding halt, throwing Joan into the seat before her. She groaned in annoyance and gave the driver a well-deserved stink eye as she stepped off the bus. In front of her was a towering building, at least 20-stories tall.
Joan looked down at the flyer in her hands. Then back up at the building. Then at the crowd of at least 300 people congregating around the doors.
Sparkling, gold letters shone at the top of the building. Sure enough, she was at the right place. "Nightrider Gaming" was written and glowed brilliantly in the depressing gray of the misty morning. It served as a beacon of light, a replacement for the sun hidden behind layers of looming gray.
A long, line snaked around the building, starting at a table in front of the building and ending at… who knows where. The line was too long for Joan to properly see the end.
At times like this, Joan was glad she'd grinned her ass off to become an Apex player. She struggled to hide her smirk as she pulled out her registration ticket and skipped the line.
"Hey, hey, hey! Miss, miss, miss. Back of the line!" one of the boys manning the check-in table angrily shouted at her. His hair was frazzled, and dark purple bags hung below his eyes from days of sleepless nights in preparation for this night.
Joan wordlessly showed them her ticket, and an expression of shocked realization spread across the boy's voice. Written on her ticket in all-caps was "Apex." The short word was enough to grant her immediate respect from those in the gaming community.
The boy sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "S-S-Sorry about that." He began to flip through his binder, looking for the name Joan had given on her registration ticket.
"Rem? Rem Oaks. We got you. You can go inside," the boy nodded toward her. His eyes held deep admiration as he stood before one of the top Mortal Strike players.
Joan nodded to him before entering the front doors of the building.
As she walked past them, the second boy operating the registration desk elbowed the first boy. "Was she Apex?" he hissed.
"Y-Yeah," the first boy whispered back.
"Damn! A female gamer, huh? She probably was boosted."
Thanks to Joan's impeccable hearing, she was able to hear their conversation even though she was already multiple meters away from the two. She raised an eyebrow when she heard their conversation.
"Watch me," Joan scoffed. She wasn't a superhuman for nothing.
Any e-sports event wanted to attract as many top-tier players as possible. Not only was it good for their image, but it also added extra competition to the player pool. And in Mortal Strike, Apex players were the best of the best. Gaming companies were always scrambling to fish out the best players in the limited pool of Apex players.
The first floor of the building had been transformed into a massive gaming venue. The newest Mortal Strike pods were lined up in rows, and it'd be too easy to get lost in the maze of gaming pods.
Joan rolled out her shoulders before heading to find her assigned pod.
***
"Welcome to the first-ever Nightrider Mortal Strike Tournament!" the speaker blasted overhead. By noon, all the players had appeared.
It had been a massive turnout of 500 players. For the preliminary round, the 500 players were split into five groups of 100, and the top 20 players from each round would move on to the actual tournament.
Joan looked around at her competition. No one seemed particularly noteworthy.
As she settled into her Mortal Strike pod, she overheard the boy next to her whisper to his friend, "Man, there's a girl beside me. I bet you 100 bucks she'll be the first one out." He continued to brag, "Watch me win this whole thing, man. I was just promoted to Apex. Ain't no way anyone can beat me. Be on the lookout for 'Joplin' on the big screen."
Joan hummed to herself. "Oh, I'll get you on the big screen alright. Your name will be the first to appear as dead."