<ul>


    <li>"Oh, look at that, she’s at it again, ying so intensely."</li>


    <li>"It’s just a toy hammer! It’s just a toy hammer! It’s just a toy hammer!"</li>


    <li>"I knew it! You should never give Eugene <em>anything</em> to hold!"</li>


    <li>"Fact: Even if you give her nothing, that’s still a problem."</li>


    <li>"Hey, want your head smashed by a fist instead?!"</li>


    </ul>


    "Haha, as expected of Eugene! Once again, she’s stirring up chaos everywhere she goes! And there she swings the toy hammer! It’s really something to see how a seemingly harmless weapon can be so powerful in the hands of a skilled yer!"


    The arena was roughly the size of two ser fields put together, filled with various cute and colorful structures—like skeletal construction frames and multiyered buildings—designed purely for fun.


    The official name was "yful."


    Falling from high ces or getting hit didn’t hurt at all. It was a yground created specifically for roughhousing. The SD characters were meant to be yful and adorable, engaging in light-hearted mischief with each other.


    However, everything started to change when Eugene stepped into the scene.


    <em>Thwack!</em>


    "Wuaahhh, blub-blub, ouch!"


    <em>Beep!</em>


    Thankfully, when her arm sliced through the air, the sound wasn’t something terrifying, but rather the cheerful pop of the toy hammer. Of course, it wasn’t just one swing.


    Eugene had darted forward, wielding a toy hammer in her left hand while her right hand, holding a pistol, squeezed the trigger repeatedly. Instead of actual bullets, various yful projectiles shot out—like little slimes, freeze bullets, and electric shock rounds—all making delightful popping sounds as they hit their targets.


    Anyone struck by these bullets immediately copsed with a cute sound effect, immobilized by the status effects.


    "Ugh, no…!"


    "See youter."


    <em>Pop, pop, pop.</em>


    ncing around and confirming no one was nearby, Eugene raised the toy hammer and gently bonked her opponent on the head. Their HP bar dropped, and with a yelp, they were sent to the lobby.


    At that moment, another yer popped out from behind and opened fire on Eugene’s position. But she quickly vanished, leaving behind only the faint afterimage of a snake tail.


    The yground was now turning into a CQB (Close-Quarters Battle) zone.


    A grenade exploded nearby, releasing a bizarre-colored gas that slowly began to freeze everything around it, turning the area into a field of icy water droplets. As the frost spread, the surrounding air chilled.


    But Eugene narrowly dodged the freezing st and quickly regrouped for a counterattack. The yer who had thrown the grenade suddenly found Eugene dashing toward them with unstoppable speed.


    In mere seconds, Eugene had closed the gap, her toy hammer spinning through the air and striking the enemy’s arm as they tried to fend her off. The yer was sent flying, and Eugene tackled them in a single swift motion.


    <em>Thud!</em>


    The unfortunate yer was thrown like they’d been hit by a car. In the midst of the chaos, Eugene snatched her spinning toy hammer mid-air and, despite her SD appearance, her eyes glowed with a fierce intensity.


    The yer pinned beneath her squealed in panic.


    "Wait, this is just an event match!"


    Eugene grinned and replied.


    "Exactly."


    <em>Bang!</em>


    With a yful kick, Eugeneunched another opponent straight into the lobby. The UI on her screen indicated that 24 yers had been eliminated. Meanwhile, the arena remained chaotic with explosions echoing all around.


    And it wasn’t just Eugene causing the mayhem. All around, yers were setting off bombs. Given how cramped the space was with hundreds of participants, the resulting chaos was inevitable.


    Then, just to raise the stakes even further…


    <strong>- Now, to add some tension to this rxed match, we are introducing special armored units! Good luck surviving!</strong>


    <em>Thud, thud.</em>


    Six strange… tube-like SD avatars dropped from the sky, wrapped in what looked like puffy armor. While they didn’t <em>quite</em> look like armored units, the moment they pulled out their massive rocketunchers, the atmosphere changed dramatically.


    These weren’t just cute characters—they were killing machines.


    With a <em>whoosh</em>, a missile shot from one of theunchers,nding in a densely popted area and transforming into a massive wave of slime that swept away the yers.


    Although the damage wasn’t lethal, getting hit left yers wide open for follow-up attacks. And if hit directly, they were ejected straight to the lobby.


    No one was trying to team up or form alliances. It was every yer for themselves in a desperate scramble for survival.


    Some were even using other yers as shields, throwing them into open areas to lure fire, or shooting blindly into hiding spots to create distractions.


    "Hmm."


    And, of course, some yers were brave (or foolish) enough to try taking down the armored units.


    In past years and even in the original game, there had been attempts, and even sesses, in taking down these powerful enemies. Ideally, this was when yers would start working together to ovee themon threat.


    But this year, teamwork seemed in short supply.


    Not that Eugene cared much.


    <em>Bang! Bang! Bang!</em>


    Gunfire echoed from all directions. However, Eugene’s shots were aimed squarely at the armored unit. Her bullets struck the giant SD character, and its head snapped toward her, its rocketuncher following suit.


    Though the unit quickly fired, Eugene had already disappeared. The missile hit a structure, and in a sh, the upper part of the building froze solid. But Eugene had no need to engage further—she had already gathered the information she needed.


    <em>''Looks like they’re notpletely invincible.''</em>


    Since the game didn’t provide live ammunition, the damage she could deal was limited. Her previous shots were freeze rounds, and they had clearly left the target encased in ice.


    Although the damage wasn’t great, her pistol’s crowd control abilities were valuable. If she paired it with a melee weapon, she could potentially do real damage.


    Most of the weapons she’d encountered so far had been mediocre—toy hammers, sponge maces, lightsabers…


    Wait, <em>lightsabers</em>?


    Now that could work.


    "Alright, let’s do this."


    In an instant, her n clicked into ce.


    She needed more freeze rounds. And one lightsaber. Fortunately, in-game drops were plentiful, so it wouldn’t take long to gather what she needed.


    With a lightsaber hanging at her waist, five clips of freeze rounds, and three grenades in hand, Eugene was ready. Her pistol was a rapid-fire type, perfect for closebat.


    The ground was a sticky mess, thanks to the never-ending slime missiles, and deep puddles had formed everywhere. Stepping into one by ident could mean getting trapped, or worse, drowning in slime.


    Eugene carefully fired freeze rounds at the sticky ground, creating a path of ice to walk on. Across the way, in the middle of a street made of makeshift buildings, one of the hulking armored units locked eyes with her.


    Its SD form looked almost adorable, but Eugene could tell from its cold, piercing gaze that it was anything but cute.


    Their eyes met.


    They both moved.


    <em>Boom!</em>


    A slime rocket slowly sailed through the air, its warhead glowing pink, signaling that it would create a sea of slime upon impact.


    But Eugene was more interested in its slowness. With sharp eyes, she tracked the rocket’s trajectory and aimed her freeze rounds at it. A split secondter, she fired.


    <em>Pop!</em>


    The warhead exploded in mid-air.


    "Waaah!"


    "What the heck was that?!"


    A massive wave of frozen slime—an impossible amount of icy liquid—rained down, shattering into pieces. The ground froze solid.


    Despite the chaos, Eugene had already calcted her next move. The closer she got to the armored unit, the better her chances of victory.


    Her small SD avatar moved with speed that didn’t match her size.


    <em>Thwack!</em>


    With a fully loaded freeze-round pistol, she charged forward. The armored unit responded by firing more of its specialized rockets, including one filled with sparkling powder that caused confusion on contact.


    The sound of battle surrounded her. A freeze grenade hit the ground, creating a sturdy tform, but it couldn’t support much weight and shattered as soon as Eugene passed over it.


    She was closing in on the armored unit. The AI controlling it wasn’t very smart, and its rocketuncher was ill-suited for closebat. The moment Eugenended a full clip of freeze rounds at its feet,yers of ice formed, locking it in ce.


    As she approached, thementators raised their voices in excitement.


    "Wow! Eugene is pulling off an acrobatic fight even here! She’s closing the distance in an instant! We can’t predict what’s going to happen next!"@@novelbin@@


    Of course, this was all lip service.


    Eugene had closed the gap to within 10 meters. She pulled out a blindingly white beam of light—a lightsaber. The glowing de arced through the air.


    With a <em>vwoom</em>, the sound of the sma de hummed. In the blink of an eye, the armored unit was shed, and as the lightsaber’s glow faded, the once imposing figure copsed to the ground.


    <em>Thud.</em>


    Despite wearing what looked like a puffy jacket, the sound was heavy.


    <em>Clunk.</em>


    "And Eugene has done it again! She has neutralized the armored unit, using creative tactics to ovee the difficult terrain of yful, and now… Oh! Eugene has picked up the rocketuncher!"


    <ul>


    <li>"Wait, what?!"</li>


    <li>"Defeated armored unit? No. I <em>am</em> the armored unit now."</li>


    <li>"I knew it, LOL."</li>


    <li>"Eugene’s new skin: Running Armored Unit!"</li>


    <li>"Fact: The remaining yers are going to miss the slow-moving armored units now."</li>


    </ul>


    With a nk expression, Eugene surveyed her surroundings, where everyone had frozen in ce.


    The quickest yers were already running for their lives.


    The average ones were frozen, stiff with fear.


    The slowest ones had just stopped cheering.


    <em>Whoosh!</em>


    "Why are you standing still, you idiots?! Run for it!"


    With a feebleunch sound, the rocket fired, followed by a pitiful explosion.


    But the effects were far from weak.


    yful was hungry for more eliminations.


    The sky was clear, and the air was filled with a sweet scent.


    The breeze was cool, the view spectacr. The towering obstacles were magnificent. Beneath it all, hundreds of yers struggled, climbing toward the top.


    From up here, they all looked like AI characters. Off in the distance, a group of about 12 yers waved at her, smiling brightly. One of them was a fellow pro gamer, though she couldn’t quite remember the name.


    They were waving happily in her direction. But Eugene felt nothing.


    <em>I wonder what that guy’s doing right now.</em>


    That thought crossed her mind as she imagined what Eugene was up to at that very moment. Probably wreaking havoc somewhere, either flipping the arena upside down or tossing yers off like Zhang Fei at Changban.


    A strange person indeed. Strong people are always scary, right? Eugene must be an absolute powerhouse in real life—someone who would go down in history books if they were born in ancient times.


    Anyway, time was up.


    She gave the group a hearty middle finger.


    Her allotted flight time was over.


    <em>Plop!</em>


    <strong>- [Notification: You have been eliminated!]</strong>


    Those bastards had teamed up and tossed her into the slime sea.


    With her mouth full of jelly’s sweet taste, Dice was sent to the lobby.