Our MC IS actually pretty good, even if he’s outdated or not nearly as flashy.
The next few chapters will be a flashback, introducing us to preexile Ayr and some other significant characters to Ayr’s life.
After, Mc, (ex?) policewoman hacker lady, and the other characters from the tournament get sent on some sort of practice mission as trainee Gardeners, but the mission seems to quickly go awry as they are separated upon teleportation and are all attacked by a HUGE swarm of giant insects. Ayr handles himself in combat like the former pro he’s supposed to be, and the others who spawned near him opt to follow him instead of the specially designated veteran assigned to each group because Ayr seems to know what he’s doing.
I can’t exactly “read” Japanese, so the above “spoilers” are guesses based purely on imagery and the context for the released Eng translations.