Beep~!
"Annie!"
"Hey? Are you there? Answer if you can hear me!"
"Please! It's urgent, really urgent! If you're there, answer me right away!"
While Annie was bored out of her mind, waiting for the three contestants to be decided who would join the semifinals, that heartless shoulder-blade warrior suddenly contacted her in a frantic rush while she was on standby for the competition. He'd even used the paid voice-message feature that let him send audio without her having to answer the call?
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Right after that, the button requesting a live conversation began flashing and bouncing around on Annie's player interface.
"..."
(ー`′ー)
"Honestly, why does he have to bother me at such a crucial moment..."
s(｀ヘ′;)ゞ
She was furious, but she glanced at the "Gundams" battling in separate arenas, blasting away at one another with beam sabers, beam rifles, live ammunition, Dragoon systems, missiles, and anti-ship swords. Figuring those idiots wouldn't decide a winner anytime soon, Annie thought it over and reluctantly tapped the flashing communication icon.
"??"
(.)
"What's up, big brother Edge? Did you find something super fun again?"
ヾ(^▽^*)))
Honestly, if he hadn't said it was "urgent, really urgent," Annie definitely wouldn't have answered the flashing call! So she hoped he had something to say that would satisfy her or at least pique her interest.
"Thank goodness!"
"Annie! Listen, here's what happened..."
"We got word that IOI seems to have cracked and found Halliday's final clue first thing this morning. They discovered the third challenge! It's happening right now, on the planet Doom in Sector 12!!"
"They've set up a powerful magnetic shield around Halliday's avatar's castle—that's Anorak's castle. It seems to be something called the Orb of Osuvox!"
"It's a level-99 artifact orb. It creates a large, impenetrable barrier that resists magic.