A/N: Glad to see you guys liked it. I haven't yet decided on the pairing of this story, so I'll just read the reviews to see what you guys want :D. Now, I'll answer some questions.

Zayden StormVoid: That's a very in depth review. Thanks! And technically, you're right about the class. But he's a Duelist. Physical class is like one of the categories of the available classes. As for who he falls in love with, *wink. What team he will be in, you'll find out soon. And as for if Nico's still gay, no. Not that I have a problem with it.

Primordial of the Whoniverse: We'll see :D

pappinjordan17: Thanks!

Bionic608: I haven't really read other gaming stories other than Warcross, – which is a good book in my opinion – so I can't really say that I have a decent idea of being unique. And yeah, I try to write by my own schedule and not feel the pressure of wanting to squeeze out chapters half-heartedly. Thanks for the tip!

Now, on with the story

Chapter 3

Percy is now standing in the middle of an empty basketball court, surrounded by buildings in all sides except the one side facing the street.

To her demand, Annabeth wanted to have a private match against Percy with no one watching. Security guards dressed in black suits were guarding the open side of the court. They really treated the pro players of Olympia like a celebrity.

"So it's going to be a normal one-on-one match," Annabeth said as she put her Glasses on. Her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail. "Normal rules. But since we're not really in an official ring, whoever yields or is unable to continue will be the loser."

Percy nodded. For some reason, he felt very nervous. Annabeth gave out an aura that just made the air heavier. It doesn't really make sense but then again, neither is Percy going against one of the top players of Olympia.

Through his Glasses, Annabeth's attire changed. She wore a lightweight leather armour on top of what looked like a red sweater with vambraces and black combat pants. Around her neck was a grey scarf, flowing down her back.

She had grey shoes on, but it seemed more thicker around the sole of the shoe.

Her outfit was designed to minimize defence and to increase her mobility, which is a nice choice since she's an Assassin. Percy wore his outfit, the usually black coat and two swords.

"Pretty basic," Annabeth commented after taking a good look of his battle outfit. "Are you not taking this match seriously?"

Percy shrugged. "I only started playing Olympia yesterday. I don't have all those cool items you guys have."

She smirked. "A rookie indeed," She took out her weapon, a bronze dagger that's a bit larger than your average kitchen knife, probably sharper and deadlier too. "Ready?"

Percy took a deep breath and exhaled before taking both of his swords out. He nodded.

In a flash, Annabeth disappeared from his sight. Her body blurred and turned invisible. Percy looked around to see if he could see her, but she was nowhere to be found.

At the very last moment, Percy could see the tip of her dagger glinting right in front of his face. Percy dodged just in time and struck at where he'd seen the dagger with his swords.

He had only managed to get a strike as he hit nothing but air. Percy then felt himself getting kicked from the back and he felt flat on his chest. He could hear the ground shook just slightly as footsteps came rushing at him. He rolled out of the way instinctively and heard the sound of metal clanging against the concrete.

Percy swiped his leg underneath where he'd just heard the sound and felt like he'd hit something. There was a yelp and a sound like something fell on the floor.

When he heard it, Annabeth's invisibility broke and revealed her sitting on her butt. Percy wasted no time in going straight towards her, both swords ready for the attack.

But her abilities in this game were well known. Annabeth slid herself away from the attack, closer towards Percy. She gave him a kick to the chest, in which Percy grunted in pain and was pushed back.

She immediately got up and rushed in towards Percy, going on the offence. Percy thought with him having two swords and a better reach than her tiny dagger, he would have the upper hand.

It proved wrong as Annabeth weaved effortlessly around his wild attacks. The fact that he was just a rookie was now showing as Percy blindly swung his swords around. Annabeth just dodged around until she found that one opening where Percy had committed to an attack too much. Annabeth sidestepped a thrust from his sword and grabbed his wrist, twisting it to disarm him.

Percy yelped in pain as Annabeth kneed him in the back, causing him to stumble. As he fell, he still felt Annabeth's hand gripping his wrist tightly with one knee on his other hand and her sitting on his back. Her dagger was pressed against his neck, leaving Percy with no options left.

"I yield," Percy grunted reluctantly. He could hear Annabeth smirking as the pressure of his back lessened and his wrist was let go. He turned around and lay on his back with Annabeth standing over him.

"You have talent," Annabeth admitted grudgingly. "But you lack experience and technique."

"How would you know?" Percy grumbled.

She grinned, like she was happy to explain it to Percy. "First, you're right-handed. You're not ambidextrous. That makes the sword on your left hand more of a dead weight than a weapon."

Percy didn't want to admit it, but she was right.

"Second, you lack the proper stance and fighting technique." Her outfit changed into normal again as the match was over. "You fight like a rookie, which is no surprise there."

As Percy stood up, she went closer towards Percy. "And lastly, you lost your head."

Percy frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When you realize I was coming at you, you panicked and swing your swords like a madman. You lost your cool and was desperate to defend yourself. I couldn't even count the amount of openings that you gave out." Annabeth took her Glasses off. "I'll admit this: You have reflexes. Not many pro players can dodge my attacks while I'm invisible. And yet, you don't know how to utilize that. You just react to it without thinking."

Percy found her remarks to be extremely irritating. But he had no grounds to stand on. She was a pro player. Percy had just picked up Olympia yesterday.

Plus, everything that she said was on point. Her observation skills were amazing. No wonder she was regarded as one of the top players of Olympia.

"You're far from a pro player," Annabeth said. "Or a rookie, for that matter."

"Are you here just to bash me?" Percy asked as he gritted his teeth.

"You said it yourself. You've only started playing Olympia yesterday. To be honest, I'm not that surprised that I won." She said as she stepped closer to Percy. "But like I said, you have potential. And we, at Minerva, are always looking out for players with potential."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Are you doing what I think you're doing?"

Annabeth snickered. "We'll see at the Rookie Showcase." She said. "I'll be expecting to see you there." She walked towards her car – which was a limousine, by the way – accompanied by her bodyguards. Before she entered, she told him one last thing. "This match never happened. If I see you yapping around about this match, I will make sure that your chances of getting recruited at the showcase goes down to zero."

"Tempting," Percy said. Annabeth glared at him. "Fine."

She entered the car and drove off. One of her bodyguards gave Percy a grey business card with Minerva's official contact number and email address.

He looked at the bottom right of his screen to see a friend request from Annabeth herself, accompanied with a message from her.

From: Annabeth

To: Percy

And just to make sure you understand, yes, I was trying to recruit you. The look on your face made me unsure if you understood me or not.

Percy replied.

From: Percy

To: Annabeth

I think you're just finding an excuse to talk to me. I'll see you at the showcase.

Percy noticed that it was already half past eight. He was an hour and a half late to school. But considering the circumstances on what just he figured he could just take his time.

Since he wasn't that eager to go to school, Percy decided to stop by the Orphanage. Today, for some reason, Thalia didn't tackle him to the floor like she usually does.

He entered the building only to find Hestia cleaning things up. When she saw him, she had a smile plus a confused look on her face.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school today?" Hestia asked,

Percy shrugged. "Something came up." He said. "Where're the kids?"

"They're asleep," She said. "Are you hungry?"

"Am I ever not hungry?" Percy grinned. Hestia just chuckled as she gestured him to follow her to the kitchen. Percy followed her. "You know, I think you should open up a restaurant. Just a small one."

"Please, you compliment me too much," Hestia said with a smile as she prepared a sandwich for Percy. "Though Thalia has been eager to see you,"

"I'm guessing she wants to have a match against me in Olympia," Percy smiled. "I'll play with her later."

"I guess she even got you into the game," Hestia chuckled. "You kids and your games these days."

Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't you play Olympia as well, Hestia?" Percy pointed out. "I've seen you cheering for one of the teams."

Hestia nodded. "You can thank Thalia for that. She'd been the reason why the kids here had started to play Olympia as well. I don't play it that seriously. I just love to watch the professional games."

Percy managed a small laugh before his train of thoughts wandered off to the events before this. So far, Rebellion and Minerva had both tried to approach him. Did he really want to join the pro scene? He'll admit that he found Olympia to be a lot more interesting than he had initially thought it would be. He found that he wanted to be better than anyone out there.

But he didn't want that famous life of a pro player. He didn't want the spotlight on him and people worshipping him like he's some sort of god. He was afraid that if he does go pro, he'll lose his mind.

He was interrupted from his deep thoughts when Hestia called out his name. "Percy? Helloo?"

Percy blinked a few times before his mind jarred back to reality. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Hestia chuckled. "Your food's ready." She handed him a plate of cheese grilled sandwich with extra cheese, just the way Percy liked it.

"Thanks," Percy smiled widely as he dug into his food.

"What were you spacing out about?" Hestia asked.

Percy swallowed his food before sighing. "A few of the pro teams have approached me in the past few hours."

"So I've heard," Hestia said. Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "What? It's all over the news. The news about your match with the other guy spread like wildfire."

"Anyway, I'm having a bit of a dilemma between going pro or just laying low."

"Why? Isn't going pro a good thing?"

Percy finished the rest of his food and wiped his mouth off with a tissue. "I'm afraid I'll go insane just like the other players. Besides, I don't want to leave you guys. Who's going to come over here and finish all your food? And Thalia will be devastated if I left."

Hestia smiled at him as she ruffled his hair. "Do you want to be a pro player?"

"Well, I want to be better than everyone. The game does that to you," Percy muttered.

"Then why are you even debating about this?" Hestia said. "No one knows who you'll be in the future. What you can do is pave a path for yourself so that you be what you want to be."

Percy whistled. "That's really deep. You've been reading some motivational books lately?"

Hestia smacked his shoulder playfully. "I'm being serious. And you don't have to worry about us. I know you. You'll come back here no matter where you end up in the future."

"How are you so sure about that?"

"Because no one cooks a grilled cheese sandwich the way you want it like I do," She wiggled her eyebrows.

"Well, I can't argue with that."

Line Break

By the time Percy reached Crimson College, the time was nine in the morning. Percy figured that everyone must be in class right now, so he should have no problem getting into his class.

The keyword here is should.

"Jackson!" A voice shouted. Percy looked around to see Luke storming towards him. He was glaring daggers at Percy. "You've got the nerve to show yourself around here."

Percy smirked. "I study here. What are you on about?"

Luke grabbed Percy by the collar. "Don't look so smug, Jackson. I gave you that win on purpose. I wasn't in my best gear." Luke was shaking with anger. Percy guessed his reputation as the top rookie was damage when Percy defeated him.

Percy glared at Luke. "A loss is a loss, no matter how you put it. Learn how to cope with it and stop being a big baby about it." Percy pushed Luke away from him.

Luke gritted his teeth and went for a punch. Percy was expecting it so he dodged out of the way and let Luke's momentum propel him forward, sending him tumbling down to his chest. He stood up, anger evident on his face. "You'll pay for that."

Percy noticed a crowd was starting to form around them. He decided to use that so Luke would get off his back. "You really want to do this in front of everyone?" Percy gestured around them. "You'll only hurt yourself more."

Luke grumbled. He knew he wasn't in a good position. If he beats Percy up, he'll look like the dickhead of the month. If he doesn't do it, he'll look like a cowards.

"The Rookie Showcase!" Luke announced out loud. "We'll have our rematch there." He walked up and gripped Percy's shirt by the collar. "And don't think I'll go easy on you this time." He glared at Percy one last time before storming away, shouting at people to get out of his way.

Then the crowd swarmed at Percy, bombarding him with questions and friend requests. Percy had barely enough room to weave around and run from the crowd.

He found himself inside his classroom, with no one inside. He breathed out a sigh of relief as his knees collapsed and sat down on the floor.

The last twenty-four hours has been rather eventful for Percy. He'd picked Olympia for the first time since it came out, he'd won against one of the top rookies in the world, he'd been approached by several teams, and he had a chance to have a match against Annabeth Chase, one of – if not the – best Olympia pro player up to date.

"You know," A voice said at the back of the classroom. "You have a really bad habit of making yourself the centre of attention."

Percy looked towards where the voice came from to see Nico grinning at him. Percy groaned as he stood up.

"And you have a bad habit of appearing out of nowhere," Percy muttered. "What are you doing here?"

Nico frowned. "I study here."

He mentally facepalmed himself. He knew Nico had been one of his classmates since he'd been to this school. He was just didn't care to notice.

"Good point." He sat down next to Nico.

"It seems you have a busy morning," Nico raised an eyebrow at him. "I heard Annabeth herself has come down to see you."

Percy widened his eyes. He hasn't talked to anyone about it. No one knew. But apparently Nico did. Was he going to get in trouble for this.

The look on his face must've been funny because Nico laughed. "Relax. Annabeth told Piper, Piper told Beckendorf's girlfriend, she told Beckendorf and Beckendorf told me."

"Well, she said not to say anything about the match, so, I don't know what you're talking about." Percy said nervously, not wanting to ruin his chance at the Rookie Showcase before it even began.

Nico shrugged. "I understand. Minerva's a scary team. They have connections all over the world." Nico crossed his legs. "Which brings me to my next question. Have you decided on which team you'll join?"

"How do I even join a team?" Percy asked.

"You really don't know anything about Olympia," Nico said while shaking his head. "You know about the upcoming Rookie Showcase, right?" Percy nodded. "It's an event organized by the creator of Olympia to bring fresh talent each year into the professional scene of Olympia. This is where rookies get their big break. It's an event to showcase your talents as an Olympia player to tell everyone that you got what it takes to become a pro player. Hence the name, showcase."

"Rookies, like you and me." Percy added. Nico gave a 'not really' look.

"I am a Rookie. So is Luke. You, on the other hand, are a Wildcard."

"Uh huh," Percy said, clearly not understanding anything.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Rookies get invited to the showcase. Meaning that they worked their asses for it and are deemed qualified in the eyes of tournament organizers and other top pro players." Nico pointed at Percy. "Wildcards, on the other hand, are players who didn't get invited directly to the showcase but are voted by the community. It means that people think that you have the potential to become a professional Olympia player that other pro players don't see."

"So, I'm the community favourite?" Percy guessed.

"In a way, yes." Nico said. "I'll admit this though, as you had probably guessed, the Rebellion is keeping an eye on you."

"How do you know?"

"I've been keeping in touch with them." Nico grinned. "Although it hasn't been officially announced yet, my spot in the Rebellion is guaranteed."

"And you're telling me this because?"

"I just think you're going to be a nice addition to the squad." Nico said. "I saw what you did yesterday with my own eyes. You are probably the fastest player in Olympia, and that's really saying something."

"So you're here to convince me to join the Rebellion?" Percy asked. Nico nodded. "How do we even know that they're going to try and recruit me? You said it yourself, they have been keeping an eye on me and that's about it."

Nico grinned. "Give them one hell of a show at the showcase and they'll go for you,"

Percy's head was starting to swirl from everything that's been happening. "I'm gonna need time to think."

Nico seems to understand. "Well, don't think too long. Remember, you're not the only rookie out there." He said as he stood up and left the room.

Percy put on his AR Glasses to see that he had a ton of friend requests from the crowd before. He decided to decline every single one of them, since he didn't know any of them. Though he did get an email.

From: blank

To: Percy

Stay away from the showcase if you know what's good for you.

"What the hell . . ." Percy muttered to himself as he read the message. He thought it was probably just a spam mail, so he deleted it.

And then, his Glasses rang. He had an incoming call. He looked at the Caller ID.

Artemis.

He answered with a bit of hesitation. "Hello?"

A/N: I'm feeling a bit guilty, so I'm gonna give some credit to the book Warcross, which had slightly inspired the making of this story. It's a good book, so give it a read.

Two things I want to talk about.

First, I feel like some of you are confused by the amount of explanation that's been going on in the first chapters. Maybe it's just me. So I had in mind to make one of those like quick guides for games, just to explaining all the general and basic things that you should know about Olympia as a game. Is it a good idea? Is it bad? Or are you guys fine either way? Tell me in the review segment.

Also, I need you guys to determine on what the pairing should be. You can go ahead and leave your opinions in the reviews. Just be fast with it because if I start to write about Percy's relationship, there's no turning back. Choose swift and wisely my fellow readers.