A/N: Nice to see to positive response I'm getting from this! And as you can tell, yes it does have that SAO and Ready Player One vibe to it with a sprinkle of Log Horizon (it's a good anime, btw. I totally recommend watching it).

Chapter 2

After the fight with Luke, Percy hurriedly left the Arena with more than a few pairs of eyes staring at him. He was on his way towards the Orphanage when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned around to see Nico alongside someone who Percy has never seen before. The guy was tanned and buff, built like a linebacker. He had a permanent scowl on his face that made Percy uncertain whether he really needed to go to the bathroom or he wanted to punch Percy in the face.

"Nice show back there," Nico grinned. "I haven't seen a fight that was over in a second,"

The buff guy nodded in approval. He was smiling, but it looked more like an evil grin. "I wouldn't get ahead of myself, if I were you. Luke was just in his sparring gear. That wasn't him at his best,"

Nico nudged the buff guy. "Give him a little credit. Luke's like the second best rookie in the world right now." Nico said. "With me being number one, of course,"

Percy made a 'time-out' gesture. "Wait, who are you guys?"

The buff guy whistled. "They weren't kidding when they say you haven't played Olympia."

Nico shrugged. "Could've fooled me." He held his hand out. "I'm Nico di Angelo," Percy shook his hand. "And this is Charles Beckendorf."

The buff guy held his hand out. "Or just call me Beckendorf."

Percy shook his hand. "Um, I'm Percy." He looked at Nico. "Aren't you meant to be fighting Luke right now?"

"Well, I was supposed to until . . ." He gestured at Percy. "You gave him an ass-whooping so severe that he cancelled the match between us."

Percy didn't know what to say. It was his first time playing Olympia and he'd just beaten one of the top prospects in the game's industry.

"Well, we need to get going," Beckendorf said. "Nico and I have some professional talk to do," He put the emphasis on the word 'professional', as if he's trying to tell Percy something.

Nico grinned at him. "Well, see you around, Percy," Nico said with a wink before they went off on their way. Percy tried to put his thoughts together as he entered the Orphanage.

Again, for the second time that day, he was greeted by Thalia who appeared out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground. Percy groaned while Thalia was sitting on his stomach with a wide grin was evident on Thalia's face.

"Percy!" Thalia exclaimed. "You're famous!"

"What?"

Thalia put her AR Glasses on and stared in front of her. "Look at your news feed! It says you've defeated Luke Castellan in just a few seconds!" She grabbed his shoulders and started shaking them. "Do you know who Luke Castellan is?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Percy groaned. "Now get up, will you?"

Thalia reluctantly get off of Percy as he stood up. He took out his AR Glasses and wore them. Thalia had a confused look on her face. "Since when did you get yourself a pair of those?"

"A friend gave them to me," Percy explained.

"I thought you had no intention of playing this game," Thalia wiggled her eyebrows. "I guess the temptation was just too much, huh?"

"It's not like I wanted to," Percy rolled his eyes. He put on his Glasses as the UI turned on in front of him. At the upper left corner of the Glasses displayed his name and underneath it displayed a green bar that represents his Health Points (HP) and a blue bar underneath that which represents Mana Points (MP). Next to his name was a series of numbers. Indicating his rank. Right now, he was above the ten thousand digit.

"Well, I'm glad you're playing it now," Thalia smiled. "Now I have someone else to spar with other than Jason,"

"What about the other kids?"

Thalia shrugged. "They're scared of me. I am the highest ranking player in this place." She said it with a bit of a smug look on her face.

"Can't wait to beat you then," Percy grinned. They moved to the living room to sit down for a bit. At the bottom right corner of the Glasses, he could see a bunch of symbols. One for e-mail, the other one for a phone call, one for the Internet, and one that looked like the outline of a person, which had three notifications.

Friend requests, Percy mentally thought. He didn't know how to access it so he turned towards Thalia. "How do you even check friend requests?"

Thalia managed a laugh. "Seriously?" She sat up straight. "Just point at where the symbol is on your UI display."

Percy nodded. He pointed at the bottom right corner of his vision and the symbol expanded into a box with three friend requests. One of them was from Grover, so he accepted with no hesitation. The other was from Nico. How the hell he managed to send Percy a friend request, he had no idea.

The other one was from someone that Percy had no idea who it was. At first Percy thought it was Beckendorf, but the profile picture was of a girl with chocolate brown hair that was cut choppy and uneven. The name read 'Piper'. Percy didn't know who she was, but he accepted it anyway.

Then, another friend request popped up. It was from Thalia. Percy looked at her just to see her smiling. Percy smiled back as he accepted immediately.

Then another notification popped up:

Thalia has invited you to a duel. Do you accept?

Yes No

Percy laughed. "Not now, Thalia. I'm tired."

Thalia pouted. "Aw. Please? Just a short round."

"Maybe next time," Percy said as he faked yawning. "I'm really tired."

"Fine," Thalia sulked. "But I'm gonna fight you one day,"

"And I can't wait to beat you,"

Line Break

After dinner time at the Orphanage, Percy was already on his way home. The Internet icon on his Glasses allowed him to access the Internet (duh!). The news about him defeating Luke went viral and was all over the place. One news article read that several professional teams are already trying to find him and recruit him into their team, which Percy had no intention in being part of.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Percy's UI display popped up with a notification.

Piper has invited you to a duel. Do you accept?

Yes No

Percy looked around to see if he could find this 'Piper'. Turns out she was behind him all this time, following him silently. Percy stared at her, to see if she would respond. The Glasses projected her name above her head, just to confirm it was really her. He hadn't chosen whether he would fight her or not.

"So?" The girl, 'Piper', said. "Are you going to accept?"

"Who even are you?" Percy asked. Under the moonlight, Piper looked like a daughter of the goddess of beauty, if there is one. She was probably the same age as Percy, maybe a bit younger.

Piper rolled her eyes. "You really know nothing about Olympia, do you?"

"I get that a lot."

"Just accept the invitation." Piper said.

Percy looked at her before focusing back on the invitation to duel on his screen. He declined.

"I'm tired for the day." He said. "Maybe some other time," He waved her off as he turned around. He could hear Piper grumbling in annoyance, but he didn't care.

He heard footsteps behind him to see Piper was following him. "Do you know what you're getting yourself involved in?"

"I don't know," Percy grumbled. "And frankly, I don't care. All I did was just win one stupid duel."

"Well that stupid duel was with one of the top talents of the year," Piper rolled her eyes. "And aside from me, other people from other teams are gonna go after you as well. Not all of them are gonna be as nice as me and Nico."

Percy raised an eyebrow. They crossed a road before Percy replied. "You know Nico?"

"I'm from the team that's going to recruit him during the rookie showcase," Piper said. "Piper McLean," She held out her hand.

Reluctantly, Percy shook it. "Percy Jackson." Then, another notification popped up on his display. It was another invitation to a duel from Piper. Percy sighed before he declined again. "Look, I already told you. I'm tired."

Piper looked disappointed. "I really was hoping to test your skills to see if you're not a fluke," Then, she straightened herself. "Well, the rookie showcase is a week from now. I suggest you get ready and get yourself some nice equipments to help you out. They're not going to be wearing basic armour like Luke did."

"I'm not in the rookie showcase," Percy argued.

Piper shrugged. "Check again, rookie." She said before turning around. "I'll see you soon." And just like that, she ran off. By the time they'd finished talking, Percy was already outside of his apartment building. He made his way quietly upstairs, careful on not waking the landlord before entering his room.

He had finally reached his apartment, where he was not going to be disturbed. He breathed out a sigh of relief. He went to the fridge to get a drink and got a surprise when his AR Glasses started ringing. The AR Glasses had a frame that was comfortable and the curved ends of it fits onto your ear perfectly with the curves extends all the way to your ear, acting like headphones. On its side was a button to answer calls.

He answered the call.

"Hello?" Percy called out.

No answer.

"Hellooo?" Percy called out again. And again, no answer. Percy rolled his eyes and turned the call off. Maybe it was Thalia playing a prank on him, but he didn't see Thalia's name in the caller's ID. And the only ones who could call you were the ones in your friend list.

He grabbed a drink and sat down on the couch. He figured if he was going to get involved about the game, he might as well learn about it.

He looked through the community websites of Olympia. He scrolled through the forums looking for guides, walkthroughs, and basically every information there is to the game.

Apparently, aside from the PvP aspect of the game, there was a whole other side of PvE. The PvE consisted on players going against monsters that the game might generate in random places in the world. Since Olympia was popular worldwide, that's going to be everywhere.

There are three types of PvE events. There's Solo, where you take on monsters on your own. There are Squads, where you go on a five-man party with other players to take on the more difficult monsters. Then there's Raids.

Raids interests Percy the most. It's an event where you take on the most powerful monsters in all of Olympia, or technically known as World Bosses. The goal of the event is to defeat the World Boss for rare loots and item drops from the monsters that are unavailable from anywhere else.

A Raid typically consists of four five-man party, which makes it twenty players in a single raid. And even then, the World Bosses are not that easy to kill. The most famous Raid team was a team called the Roman Legion, led by a player named Reyna. Apparently, they were also one of the strongest teams in the Olympia competitive scene currently.

Percy looked up Piper's name, since she was in a team that was going for Nico.

Piper was in a team called the Rebellion. As he scrolled through the team roster, he noticed that Beckendorf was also in it. So that means that's twice that this team has tried to recruit Percy.

Percy scrolled through the news feed to see articles about Nico getting recruited into the team and that the Rebellion was going to be one of the top contenders of the season. Luckily, there was no news about Percy.

He went through some matches in the pro scene of Olympia, just to see how the game was played professionally. He found himself watching the game intently, putting himself in some of the player's spot just to see what he could've done better that the other player didn't.

One player attracted his attention. Annabeth Chase. She'd been the youngest rookie to have entered the pro scene of Olympia. Thanks to her brilliant mind and her fast decision making, she'd been one of the top players in the game. The community had nicknamed her 'The Tactician', due to her understanding of the game and the ability to adapt to almost any situation.

Ever since she'd entered the pro scene, Annabeth has not lost a single match. Be it Solo, a three versus three, or a five versus five, she has not dropped a single match. Her intelligence had seen her be the captain of the team, Minerva. She's also the youngest player to have ever held the captain role in any team.

From what Percy observed, she has two classes that she used frequently. If it's a team match, then she uses Enchanter. It's a class where it focuses on buffing allies and weakening the enemy. It has a skill set that cripples the enemies with status effects and utilize her team's offensive abilities.

The other class she would use are during Solo matches, where she uses her Assassin class. This class has the highest physical damage output out of all the classes. They use stealth and evasion as a way of defence while their offensive capabilities are through the roof.

Percy watched all the videos on her fights. In teamfights, she was a leader. She gave out commands and her team followed without hesitation. Every decision she made had been calculated from the beginning to predict all the possible outcomes and scenarios. Every move the enemy team made was useless as it was all predicted by her. Any attempt to do random things that she would not expect are futile.

In Solo matches however, Annabeth's combat skills are on a next level. As an Assassin, she would easily dodge enemy attacks and then disappear from sight as if she was a ghost, only to appear again behind the enemy with her weapon at their throats.

As he was studying more videos of Olympia matches, a notification buzzed at the bottom corner of his screen. He'd received an email from someone.

When he opened it, he was surprised that Nico had found out his email address. He'd sent an email to Percy with a link attached to it.

To: Percy

From: Nico

You should take a look at this. Might want to consider a career change.

Below the message was a link that led towards a news site, Olympia News. One of the more prominent and trustworthy media outlet out there.

The headline read:

Percy Jackson Is Nominated As The Rookie Showcase's Wildcard Contestant!

While the name of Percy Jackson is unknown to many people, this young player had done what the community never saw coming. In a short sparring match at Crimson College with top rookie of the season, Luke Castellan, this young kid has wiped the floor with Luke, beating him in mere seconds.

With the Rookie Showcase coming in just a few days, the community has voted to see more of this unknown prodigy in action. The Wildcard spot in the showcase is for players who are not directly invited to the showcase, but are picked by the community as the player with just as much as potential as the other rookies.

So far, we have not been able to get in contact with Percy Jackson, but the word is that several teams have already been keeping tabs on him. While our interview with Luke had recorded him saying that he "did it on purpose", the clip of the fight suggests otherwise.

Will this Percy Jackson be the next breakout star of Olympia? Well, we'll find out soon enough at the Rookie Showcase.

Percy groaned internally. This was exactly the opposite of what he wants. How has word travelled so fast in only a few hours? He guessed that the advanced technology of AR Glasses might've helped, but he didn't really put his mind into it.

Only after a few minutes Percy realized how long he has been staying up. It was five in the morning. Only two hours left before he has to go to school again.

Percy groaned out loud. He was thinking about calling in sick today. Usually, the teachers wouldn't mind. But since he'd made it to national headlines, this was not going to be overlooked.

So he closed his eyes to get every moment of sleep he could get.

Line Break

Percy woke up to his AR Glasses ringing. He sat up drowsily as he looked at the Caller's ID.

Grover.

Reluctantly, Percy answered the call. He wanted to say 'Hey, what's up man?' but it came out like, "Unh?"

"Percy! Where are you man?" Grover asked frantically. In the background, Percy could hear some sort of commotion.

"I've just woke up. What's wrong?" Percy yawned.

"Dude! Everyone's looking for you!" Grover said. The chaos Percy heard in the background got wilder. It sounded like people cheering. At one point, Percy could hear a girl screaming 'Marry me!'.

"Where are you?" Percy asked. He was way too dazed to be hearing loud noises. "Who's looking for me? And why does it sound like a concert there?"

"I'm at Crimson College," Grover answered. "Some of the pro players are here and they're looking for you. You've gotta come down here man!"

Percy sighed. "Fine. I'll be there in ten minutes."

"In five," Grover argued. "And hurry!" He said before ending the call.

To be honest, the whole situation had just made him not wanting to go to school more. He was still sleepy after watching videos of Olympia fights and all that.

But he figured Grover might get into trouble again, so he got ready for school.

On his way down the apartment, he came across his landlord, Mr. Funk. Percy cursed mentally as he remembered about his delayed rent.

"Oh, Mr Funk." Percy said. "I'm sorry for paying late. I'll pay you by the end of the week, I promise."

Mr. Funk frowned. "What are you talking about? You've already paid your rent enough to cover your for the next year."

Percy stared at him in confusion. He pinched his forearm to make sure he wasn't dreaming. And he wasn't.

"Oh, and someone's here to see you," Mr. Funk said before going to his room. Percy looked at the door to see a girl leaning on the door frame. Her athletic figure made Percy assume that she was a marathon runner. Upon closer inspection, the girl was wearing an orange t-shirt with short denims. Her blonde hair was let loose down her shoulder. She regarded Percy with her stormy grey eyes.

Although Percy knew who it was, he had to make sure. He put on his Glasses. The name projected above her head.

Annabeth.

When they looked at each other, there was only silence between them. Annabeth did some things in her own UI before a notification popped up on Percy's screen.

Annabeth has invited you to a duel. Will you accept?

Yes No

A/N: I figured I would end it there :D