As the Gargoyle exploded into pixels, Tsukuru no longer had a solid object to grab. As such, he dropped back down to the ground.
There was a short pause, before Tsukuru then heard the sound of electronic interference again.
Looking over towards the far side of the arena, he saw eleven groups of pixels begin to form.
And like usual when he saw a group this large, the pixels clustered together into the shapes of the Swarmers.
Tsukuru let out a sharp exhale, and looked over to wear his Scordana Gunblade was still on the groundfrom when he had used it to kill the first Gargoyle.
He reached his hand out towards it, and activated his Video Stasis Skill.
A moment later, both his outstretched hand and the Gunblade became enveloped in an aura of glitching pixels.
Next, he activated his Stasis Shift Skill.
The Scordana Gunblade took on the form of a light-blue hologram, and began to glitch.
Then, it glitched out of existence, only to reappear a moment laterin Tsukuru's hand.
There was a series of eleven consecutive flashes of light, and the Swarmers all let out a "scree!" as they fully manifested.
Without missing a beat, Tsukuru aimed the barrel of the Gunblade at the group of Swarmers, and fired.
A gunshot rang out.
The twenty Flachette Darts spread out, piercing a good five of the Swarmers in multiple, random locations.
They all screamed in pain, before then exploding into pixels.
A System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed 5 Swarmers.]
Tsukuru aimed his gun at the next cluster of Swarmers, and fired again.
There was another gunshot, followed directly by another group of five Swarmers being used as pincushions before they exploded into pixels.
The same System message repeated itself.
[You have killed 5 Swarmers.]
As the final Swarmer lunged at him, Tsukuru hit the release switch on the back of the Gunblade, turning it back into a dagger.
He swung the dagger out in a horizontal arc, slicing the Swarmer in half.
Both halves exploded into pixels, and a group of three System messages appeared.
[You have killed a Swarmer.
Wave 4 is now complete.
You have received 2 Battle Points.
Battle Points: 8
You have received 100 Gold.
Current Balance: 1,440 Gold]
[The Exchange Corner has been updated. A new item is now available for purchase.]
[Wave 5 will now begin. Would you like to continue?
[Continue] [Retire] ]
Seeing the new messages, Tsukuru glanced to the side.
'Mom,' he asked. 'What's my current run time?'
"You want an exact number, or a rough estimate?" she asked.
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"Just give me the rough estimate," he replied.
"An hour and a half," she replied. "Give or take."
Hearing this, Tsukuru smirked.
"So, it takes me an hour and a half to get past Wave 4, huh?" he asked. "Well, Quinn's probably going to be in that VR Pod all afternoon again, so I might as well keep going."
Tsukuru reached forward, and pressed the "continue"option, causing it to light up, and for an electronic "beep" to be heard.
***
Later that day, back in the real world…
***
Logan looked down at the body of his surrogate brother as he laid on his bed.
'How long does he intend to stay in there?' he thought, his eyes narrowing slightly. 'It's been hours, already.'
***
Back in the Battle Arena of Tsukuru's System, he swung his right arm in a horizontal arc, slicing through a Swarmer.
The two halves exploded into pixels, leaving Tsukuru once again alone in the arena.
Just as he had said, Tsukuru had simply kept going, powering his way through wave after wave like a nonstop gauntlet of enemies.
He was now at the tail end of Wave 10, and now that he had gone through nearly ten Waves, he began noticing certain patterns.
Each "Wave" consisted of five groups of enemies, which always ended with a Group of Swarmers.
The first group of Wave 5 had been composed of three Mages, and five Swarmers. After that, it was another six Swarmers, followed by two more Mages. The third group was three Gargoyles, and another two Mages. Finally, the Wave had finished up with ten Swarmers.
Wave 6 had started out with two Gargoyles and four Mages. There were then another two Mages, and another Gargoyle. Then, it had been two Goblins, and three Swarmers. After that, there were three Hobgoblins and two Dark Elves. Finishing up the wave was a group of eight Swarmers.
Wave 7 had started with two Goblins and one Hobgoblin, followed up by six Swarmers, two Dark Elves and three Mages, three Gargoyles, a Dark Elf, and a Mage, before ending the wave with ten Swarmers.
Wave 8 began with two Dark Elves, and a Gargoyle. After that, Tsukuru had to fight three Dark Elves, two Gargoyles and a Mage, two Goblins, before ending the Wave with ten Swarmers.
Wave 9 had consisted of two Gargoyles, three Hobgoblins, two Dark Elves, two Hobgoblins and a Gargoyle, three Dark Elves and two Gargoyles, with a group of twelve Swarmers to round it out.
However, Tsukuru's current Wave was the one that had him the most infuriated.
It had been nothing but Swarmers.
Six Swarmers, then nine Swarmers, then twelveSwarmers, and the group that he had just finished had been eighteen Swarmers.
'I swear to god, there better be an actual fucking enemy for this last group,' he thought angrily, his right eye twitching erratically.
During his grind through the last five Waves, Tsukuru had earned a grand total of 1,320 additionalXP, bringing him up to 3330/8000 XP.
Additionally, the XP wasn't the only thing that Tsukuru had gained.
The "new item" that had been added to the Exchange Corner once he had finished Wave 4 had turned out to be the Gargoyle Summon Race.
It had been even more expensive than the Hobgoblin Summon Race, costing him a hefty 14 Battle Points.
Once Tsukuru had accumulated enough BP, which had been after he had completed Wave 7, he had instantly purchased it.
After all, the only other things available in the Exchange Corner were the XS XP Candy, which was essentially worthless to him now, and the set of three "Stat-Boosting Pills".
Buying the Summon Race had completely cleared him out, but his BP was slowly building back up.
Currently, he had 4 BP, as well as 1,940 Gold Coins, as each Wave rewarded him with 100 Gold upon completion.
Tsukuru decided to take advantage of this "lag" between the Waves to reload his Scordana Gunblade. He turned it back into a gun, and popped open the cylinder.
Flipping it upside down and giving it a hard, sharp jerk, the six empty cartridges fell out and scattered on the arena floor.
Looking down at the empty cylinder, Tsukuru activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference could be heard, and pixels began to appear in his hand.
The pixels clustered together into the shape of one of the speed loaders.
There was a flash of light, and the speed loader manifested.
Tsukuru put it on top of the empty cylinder, and twisted the release switch.
The six bullets were deposited into the cylinder, and the "wheel" of the speed loader jerked upwards.
Tsukuru flung the speed loader over his shoulder, causing it to clatter across the floor.
Behind Tsukuru, over a dozen speed loaders could be seen littering the floor, a testament to just how long he had been fighting here.
As Tsukuru clicked the chamber back in place, he could hear the sound of electronic interference again.
Looking over, he saw pixelsbeginning to form on the far side of the arena.
But instead of seeing multiple groups of pixels, he only saw one.
Tsukuru got a sense of deja vu, which quickly morphed into a feeling of pure and utter dread, as he saw a massive amount of pixels begin to cluster in a single group. More and more pixels began to appear, until the hulking form of the Minotaurbegan to take shape.
The creature would have easily dwarfed a normal person, such as Quinn or Vorden. But to Tsukuru, she might as well have been a giant.
Tsukuru's hand tightened around the Scordana Gunblade, as his heart raced.
'She's here,' he thought, as his face took on a serious look, him now at full attention. 'The 'Gatekeeper' has arrived.'
The "Gatekeeper" was the unofficial name that Tsukuru had given the Minotaur, as, before Reiju's "recalibrations", she had been the sole reason that Wave 3 had been the farthest Tsukuru could reach in the Battle Arena.
There was a bright flash of light, and the Minotaur manifested.