Rue stood fixed on the spot, looking at the destruction with a listless expression.
What a peculiar map to use for the duel.
"So this is where the simulated duel will take place?" Rue hummed with a note of awe, noting the gentle sensation of the breeze gliding across his skin.
It felt so real—lifelike… uncannily so.
The ground felt hard under his feet, the air was suffocating when he breathed, the sky filtered with gray, and the ambiance of the place exuded this feeling of dread and misery.
Rue felt like he was actually physically here rather than in the pod his literal body currently stowed.
Of course, in hindsight, this was just a simulated world—thus it was fake, merely being an impressive rendition created for the sake of this duel.
But still the attention to detail was brizzar?!
Why they decided to choose an odd place, Rue didn't know.
Not that it mattered anyhow.
Rue's only purpose at the moment was to fight the other guy and win.
Nothing else mattered.
Cutting his thoughts short, Rue forced his attention back to the present rather than pointlessly considering the what-ifs or how's of the 'reality' around him.
Curious, Rue tried to interact with the small crystal structure within his brain.
However, not much to his shock, he couldn't sense anything—more specifically, Rue couldn't.
His Initial's presence, along with the constant flow of Will within him, was gone, shackled—restricted by the simulation's system, as the Council Head had previously forborne.
Clenching his hand into a fist, Rue sighed in resignation, feeling the lack of accustomed habitual strength pulsating throughout his body.
Rue's body was temporarily regressed back to that of a Fledgling, otherwise known as a First Destination—a mere mortal.
His current body felt so weak?!
Rue subconsciously rejected the body.
Rue's consciousness was that of a Fourth Destination practitioner, but his body was merely that of a Fledgling.
The contrast between his mind and body was that vast!
When was the last time he had felt such weakness course through his being?
Rue was 93, nearing 94 in a few assumed months.
When he thought about it, it had already been over eight decades—along with some change—since he first entered the First Destination.
He was Ten when he first began his path to power.
A few grueling months of harsh, masochistic training later, and Rue had officially entered the First Destination.
He was ten.
He was still young physically.
Still immature.
Still innocently naïve to the world's misgivings.
Still oblivious to the truth behind the cards that Mistress Fate had in store for his future self.
Rue, in the eyes of the world, was no longer the simple accidental child born into this hellish world through the used cunt of a whore.
But he was now a whore's spawn ready to tread the road to power.
After entering the First Realm, Rue rapidly began to advance.
He broke through the first nine minor destinations with ease, learned and mastered the various defensive and offensive combat techniques from the countless crippled veterans rendered homeless within the city's alleys.
Rue's latent talent blossomed during this time.
For Rue, his physical progress was the only solace he had that distracted him from his reality.
His home life was cold…
A prison.
A cell.
***
A place to be avoided.
The mold-stenched flat he called his home never felt the part.
He would run away, living on the streets for days on end, only returning home for food and other necessities.
On the days Rue didn't run away, he would bear witness to his mother's work.
Every day she brought home another supposed 'dad,' and always that 'dad' would leave before the following morning after getting his quick fuck.
Rue's relationship with his mother was, at best, distant.
The young Rue never saw his mother as a mother per se—she lacked the qualities that one tended to associate with a mother.
The maternal mother known through the media, wasn't his own.
It was completely platonic between them.
Rue only viewed his mother as a source of food and shelter.
He didn't love her, but needed her.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Looking back at it, Rue felt guilty for having possessed such a cruel sentiment.
While his mother wasn't kind or warm, she still worked hard, always bringing a fair amount of wage home every night and a plate full of food for each meal.
She was a simple sex worker trying her best to make a living with her lack of trade.
'…'
After that incident, Rue had condensed his Initial.
However, his mind during its creation wasn't in the right place.
His emotions storm-clouded his reason, his body tensed, unmoving, and at the crucial moment—right at the crux of his Initial's crystallization—
He snapped.
His young child's mind couldn't bear the mental burden that came from that incident.
Yet regardless of his current mental state, Rue's Initial condensed, taking these new feelings and adding them to the already accumulated stockpile of experience known as his life.
This was the day Rue had condensed his blasted Initial.
…
Prior to this, Rue had only been in the First Destination for a little less than a year.
It was a very short amount of time when you considered it.
Normally one remained within the First Destination for four years, with exceptional
cases only needing two years before they thought over their lives, condensed an Initial, and advanced to the Second Destination.
And Rue?
He had only spent ten months within the First Destination before he advanced.
~~~
~~~
~~~
Rue pinched his chin as he skimmed over the two violet panels before him.
[Participant: Rue]
["Peaceful setting"]
[A temporary safe-time that allows both parties to get an understanding of their respective map & inventory settings]
[Time given: 3 minutes – > Time left: 2:23]
[User will be locked inside of the 20ft x 20ft space around them until the allocated time runs out]
[This duration is short, so make the most of it!]
Dismissing the first panel, Rue shifted his attention onto the other.
The violet screen detailed a two-dimensional mini-map of the city from a bird's-eye view.
A small flashing red dot on the map showed his relative location on the map.
Glancing over several of the smaller details hidden on the mini-map, he only gathered the city's size—being ten by ten kilometers—along with some other rudimentary information he already knew from Livia.
More importantly, Rue tapped the small backpack icon in the sidebar of the screen.
Clicking the icon, the mini-map was plastered over with another similar violet panel.
The panel depicted two images: one of a pixel-art illustrated handgun and the other an axe in the same stylistic choice.