Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

After lunch, Kou and the rest went back to the ski lift, going as high as they could to ski down as many times as possible, and then returned to the vacation house when the sun began to set.
Julia and Hinagiku, the youngest, were really tired and sleepy so they went to take a nap, which Iris joined as well, to get some rest before it was time for dinner, the rest were still at the entrance when…

“Ah, there they are! Hey, Reo, can you help me out? Suzaku keeps pouting and sulking, maybe you can comfort him.”
“Wha… Who’s sulking here?!”

There was quite a bit of noise as two familiar figures from school…Haru and Suzaku approached them.
Looking at Suzaku, being dragged around by Haru, it was clear that he was in a sullen mood.
As far as he went, they just explained that he had something to tell Reo.

“You know…I asked you to make me stronger. I never told you to drag me along on some trip.”
“… I see, that explains why you would be sulking like that. Or maybe it’s more like frustration?”

Hearing that, Reo nodded approvingly, understanding why Suzaku felt that way, but then he added…

“But that’s also why I’m convinced you should be here.”
“…What do you mean?”

Suzaku just tilted his head in confusion, as Reo was fully confident, almost like he had some secret plan.
But he did not elaborate, instead, he looked at the two people a bit behind Suzaku, and the young man who had just come back with them.
“Lady Amarylis, Sora, and Más…Reiji, do you have a moment?”
“Oh, is it time for the tester to try things out? You’ve found us in a really good moment.”

Hearing Reo’s voice, she…Amari turned to him, smiling with delight as Reo nodded.

“Good, we shall go with him then. Sora, could you get the test server up and running?”
“Yup, right away. I’ll get ready to deploy the app too.”
“Sure, let’s do this then.”

Almost like they were all in on it, Amari, Sora, and Reiji all nodded together.

“I believe you’re the son of Art Director Hikami…Suzaku, right? Come with us.”
“Wait, hold up…I didn’t agree to anything, and there’s no need to drag me like this?!”

Amari was in very good spirits as she dragged Suzaku away…who still did not know what was happening and tried to not trip following her.

***

In the end, he was dragged…to one of the resting rooms inside the vacation house.
He was already grumbling again, as an application had been forcefully downloaded and installed to his NLD, before being forced to sit down on a nearby couch to dive into the virtual world.

“Do you want to watch too?”

Sora then asked Kou and the rest, handing them the memory stick with the app Amari had given Suzaku earlier.
After installing it, they opened as instructed…and after following a few steps, they all dived into the virtual world too, appearing as the audience in a large circular arena.

“Dad, what’s this place?”

Crim looked around that place, which resembled the ancient roman colosseum, and spoke to her father, who was sitting next to her, looking just like he did in real life.

“This is the beta server to test out the arena we’ll implement in a future patch.”
“The arena?”
“Yes. You can directly transfer your character data from Destiny Unchain to this battlefield, and then fight with other players, regardless of what server they come from.”
“Umm… Does that mean we could end up fighting players from the second server, uncle Sora?”
“Yes, Hijiri, that’s exactly it. And nothing that happens here gets saved, so it’s not like you’ll end up losing your items if you lose a fight. This is merely a place for players from both servers to fight and compare skills, and we’ve been hoping to implement it next year. And am I glad that we finally have some proper beta testers too.”

Sora was in a really good mood as she spoke to Hijiri and Subaru.
Meanwhile Suzaku was in the arena, looking displeased at his opponent.

“…So I’m going to fight that guy?”
“Yes, you will. Alright, I’ll set the fight to start in one minute, okay?”

As Sora kept moving things without explaining much, Suzaku just nodded without thinking much.
Sora then inputted something into the console in front of him, after which a countdown appeared in the corner of everyone’s vision.

Suzaku was in the center of the arena, and in front of him, with swords stuck on the ground while stretching his arms and legs was…a young man with red hair, called Rage.

…As far as Crim could see, he just looked like an average human male.
He carried two shortswords, just like Sorleon, and wore a long coat made of cut resistant fibers, and a light breastplate on top, equipment clearly focused on mobility rather than defense.
Overall, all the equipment he wore were things one could find in almost any shop around the streets, so it was hard to call it high level. That alone made him look like an average player at best.

And also…he was of an older generation than Suzaku.
It was widely known that the generation with the best aptitude when diving into virtual worlds was Suzaku’s, giving him an advantage…which made him displeased again, but as he had no other choice, he readied his Demonic Sword.
Still, it was obvious he would have preferred to fight Sorleon or Crim a lot more.

*I still feel like they’re up to something.*

Crim could not shake off that feeling, but before she could put her finger on what it was, the countdown went on and the match was about to start.

“This is useless. He doesn’t even look that strong…”
“Hahahah… You shouldn’t underestimate him, after all, he’s-”

Before Sora could complete his sentence, the timer ran out and the buzzer rang out, signaling the match started…and right then…

“…Uh?”

Suzaku let out a confused sound, suddenly feeling like the ground vanished from below his feet.

“…Ghah!!”

And then his back struck the ground as he let out a pained groan.

At the same time, Crim lunged forward, leaning on the rails around the arena, her eyes glued on the action.
All she had seen from there…was Rage leaving his swords on the ground, dashing in front of Suzaku in an instant and sweeping his legs off.
But…all of those movements felt really familiar.
She had not seen them in a while after evolving species, but before that she always saw them…*they were exactly the same movements as that opponent she could never beat.*

“He’s *your master you’ve never been able to defeat before*, Swordmaster Rage.”

Watching from afar…Sora commented with a carefree voice.
Suzaku remained on the ground, looking at the sky in a daze, while Crim could not believe seeing those movements she was familiar with…or rather, almost produced a primal reaction in her.

Afterword:
The second thing I wanted to write the most in this volume