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Emilia sighed as she exited the 'full-dive pod', feeling a little nauseous. 'It's nowhere near perfect, but… the so-called VR gear in the last world can't even come close to comparing to this thing.'
Cynthia nodded. "And for good reason. Darryl is the 'great genius' behind most of the advances in the field, after all. And I don't think I need to tell you the source of it all."
The crimson-haired girl hummed thoughtfully. 'Darryl Burns, huh… he'll be an annoying opponent for sure.'
She hated to admit it, but he was the type of cunning man she hated dealing with the most, the type who always seemed to have some unexpected trick up his sleeve. Moreover, with his already strong starting position... catching up and taking him down will really be a monumental task for someone like her, who was starting from scratch.
Cynthia giggled. "Would you rather he be like Amos?"
Emilia couldn't help but roll her eyes. 'As if! I'll show you I can handle it perfectly. Anyway, how long will it take for the audition results to come out?'
Unfortunately, since she couldn't afford a full-dive pod of her own, and this was a 'station' where anyone could rent it for a small fee, some people didn't take kindly to her just standing around after leaving her pod.
"Hey, you shiny-haired pipsqueak! Yeah, I'm talking to you! If you're not gonna use that, why not get out of the fucking way?"
The crimson-haired girl was a bit unhappy with the rude fellow who interrupted her thoughts, but as she turned around to give the rude idiot a piece of her mind, her words suddenly got stuck in her throat.
'Ahh… this guy… isn't he too big to fit into this pod…? Is he a giant?!'
Even though she was standing straight, her head barely managed to be at the same level as his waist. Even if she'd shrunk herself a little, it wasn't by that much!
Cynthia giggled. "At this moment, there should be no special species like that in this world, though it might change soon once 'Arcadia' is released."
'Giant or not, I refuse to believe this big boy can fit into that small thing, but… I'm sure it will be funny to see him try.' Emilia pursed her lips thoughtfully before stepping aside. "Well, sorry… it's all yours."
In fact, she vaguely recalled that the hero seemed to have a trusty companion who was of similar stature, but there was no way for her to be sure it was this guy, since that person was wearing a full-face helmet and plate armor in almost all the images.
The rude 'giant' snorted before shoving past her despite Emilia already having made way, and curled up into a ball with his knees tucked to his chin in the same pod that the crimson-haired girl had been lying quite comfortably in with plenty of room to spare.
Contrary to his previous rude gangster image, he looked like a scared little baby, and Emilia couldn't help but giggle. 'There's no way that lid is going to close, is there?'
Her thoughts were proven wrong when two staff members came around to push the lid in, roughly stuffing the giant man into the pod with great effort.
Once they were done, they gave her a nod before dusting their hands and leaving.
The ringing of her newly purchased phone broke Emilia from her bewildered state soon, however.
"Let's see… Congratulations to Miss Emilia for being shortlisted for a final interview…? Finally!" She cheered.
Cynthia couldn't help but snort. "How conceited of them to think they can still 'interview' you before making up their mind, even though we both know they're desperate. Then again, this wouldn't be the team of the villainess if they were kind and generous."
Emilia giggled. 'I couldn't talk to Danielle much before, but I'm quite excited to see what this world's Danielle is like!'
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Emilia knew that this seemingly normal world was going to go through a major change once the revolutionary and highly advanced full-dive game, Arcadia, was released by the hero. But it wasn't really the first of its kind.
It had already been a few years since Darryl, the hero, had developed the full-dive pod, and a number of great games had come out since then, with many becoming quite mainstream.
Naturally, Emilia understood that their objective must have been to make sure that the vast majority could be lured into the 'real deal' from the start to avoid trouble, and that was never going to happen if Arcadia was the first full-dive game in the world.
Of course, as an unintended side-effect, many of these games had become quite popular, and many 'professional' gaming teams naturally pursued them as a lucrative career choice.
It might be tough getting in and becoming popular, but once they did, the sponsorships and popularity coming their way would be well worth it.
'The Crimson Witches' was one such team, led by the villainess in this world, Danielle Lyons. It used to be quite popular, but had recently lost all its momentum once one of its star players committed suicide.
With rumors spreading that it was caused by Danielle's excessive pressuring and 'bullying' of the poor girl, Emilia roughly understood why a previously popular team could so suddenly be desperate enough to hire 'newbies' like herself.
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Naturally, Emilia had worked hard on honing her skills before applying for a position in the 'Crimson Witches', and her trial run of the game they were currently pursuing also went well, so she wasn't too worried about the interview.
The crimson-haired girl dolled herself up to make a good impression, put a charming smile on her face, and headed straight for the address she'd been given in her shortlisting notice.
Feeling her cheerful mood, Cynthia couldn't help but smile. "Not to rain on your parade, but you do realize that the villainess and the heroine are like fire and water, and you'll have to watch them argue and quarrel every day?"
Emilia, however, just chuckled in response. 'Let's see.'
Since her destination wasn't that far from 'her' apartment, it didn't take long for the crimson-haired girl to arrive even on foot, only to notice that there was some sort of commotion at the building's front door.
Emilia recognized the beautiful girl with a wild mane of curly midnight black hair and bright yellow eyes as the heroine at a glance, Sylvia Forrest, and the other girl… was Danielle, the villainess.
"How can you say that my friend wasn't selected after she's already received the shortlisting message?!" The heroine pointed a finger against Danielle's nose angrily, but the other girl remained completely calm.
"Like I said, there was someone who performed better than her for the vanguard role that I only noticed at the end, so I decided to replace her position even after the message had been sent out. She's still welcome, just in a substitute position."
The blonde girl's indifferent attitude only seemed to make the heroine more furious, however. "You're clearly just discriminating against us because we beat you before! You should be grateful we even bothered to apply to your team when it's in such a desperate situation!"
Of course, the other girl wasn't one to back down so easily. "Isn't it just because you've been kicked out and blacklisted by the 'Golden Heroes'? Heh."
Emilia wasn't sure if the heroine and her friend had just previously defeated the 'Crimson Witches' in a game, or if they'd actually physically beaten Danielle up, but she guessed it must be the former based on the blonde girl's 'calm' reaction.
With the heroine still jumping up and down angrily, the blonde girl actually ignored her to walk towards Emilia instead. "You look a little older than your picture in the application, but I'm guessing you must be Emilia, right? Let's not mind the idiot and head to our interview, shall we?"
Watching the blonde girl's overly maintained twin drills hairstyle, Emilia couldn't help but smile and shake her head in amusement. "I don't really mind, but… I don't think it'll be a good idea to make our future teammate misunderstand things more than she already has?"
Although their names were coincidentally the same, this world's Danielle was obviously nothing like the meek and na?ve villainess of her last one. Having her authority challenged by both the newbies on the team obviously pissed her off.
She smiled coldly. "Alright, since both of you refuse to listen to me… let's forget about your interview, and you two can settle it with a duel instead. The winner gets to stay, and the loser leaves. Of course, since we'll have an extra vacancy either way, I guess Miss Sylvia's friend will be more than happy to fill that in."
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