Black Online

Black Online, 12th floor, The Woods.

Fang Raon sat in front of a tree, holding a small pebble in his hand, and he was trying to cover it with his essence.

The essence of Maxima.

’With Maxima, I can make this small pebble into a mighty weapon. I still have a long way till I have mastered it, though.’

Swoosh~!

In that moment, a flying pebble came flying at him from behind, and it looked like it was about to hit the back of his head, but Raon nonchalantly tilted his head to the left.

The pebble flew past him and smashed through the tree, sending the destroyed parts of the tree flying everywhere.

"Did you have to do that? You’re destroying the environment, master."

Fang Raon said and turned back to look at Rock, who was slowly walking towards him while rolling several pebbles in his hand.

"Your Read has improved greatly in the past week. I think we can now make greater strides towards mastering other Pillars of Power."

Rock said.

"I am ready."

Fang Raon said.

With a smirk, Rock crushed the pebbles in his hand and nudged his chin in the direction of the training course.

Fang Raon jumped to his feet and followed behind him.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky, but then white clouds drifted by, blocking the sun like a giant hand.

...

15th floor, Snowberry Village, Rose Records mansion.

Inside the common room, several members of the Rose Records were gathered to hang out and play some games.

Meanwhile.

"...That Fang Raon has the luck of a devil."

Nico said with burning envy.

They were looking at Chaewon and Della sitting at the corner, chatting with each other excitedly.

"She is Raon’s girlfriend, right?"

Machary asked as she looked at Chaewon.

"Yeah. I have no idea how he pulled that off."

Ocon said.

"I mean, Raon is pretty good-looking."

Rae said.

"Not that good-looking. He must be really good in bed."

Nico said, rubbing his chin.

"You guys are gross..."

Rae pouted and left the table and went to sit with the other girls, as she was too much of a shy soul to be talking with boys about boy stuff.

"But honestly, we should be thanking Raon for dragging that demon instructor away from here. I don’t have to wake up so early anymore."

Nico said and stretched his arms above his head.

"It doesn’t mean we should be lacking in our training. Raon is getting stronger every day. So should we."

Machary said with a serious look on his face.

He could feel the threat of Raon getting much more real with every passing day, and he could only wonder how strong he was currently.

He was definitely improving at a drastic rate with Rock’s teachings, as he was a legendary teacher that even trained the Dead Redemption.

"Ugh... I guess you’re right."

Nico said with a sigh.

"Let’s go do some combat training. If we haven’t improved at all before Rock returns, he might really just kill us."

Machary said.

"Alright, team leader..."

They groaned and stood up and headed out for yet another training session, as Machary has really gotten addicted to training.

It was his obsession, but they all knew that it was because he didn’t want to lose Fang Raon now or ever.

...

Smog Region, Nindendog City, 32 Pollution Street.

A crowd was gathered outside an apartment building, and the people watched as yellow hazmat-suit-wearing individuals walked in and out of the building.

There were many vans parked outside with the words "Environmental Cleanup Crew" written on the sides.

"...What is going on in here?"

"...I don’t know. Maybe a gas leak or something?"

The people whispered among each other.

Inside apartment number 11, the hazmat men were cleaning up the place while a Virtual Reality Pod was smoking in the corner.

Inside the Virtual Reality Pod, there was a badly charred person inside, smoking like an overcooked sausage.

"..."

One of the hazmat men leaned to look at the charred person, then wrote down some stuff on his clipboard.

He noted down everything that he saw inside the Virtual Reality Pod’s screens, which were cracked but not destroyed.

In that moment.

A person entered the apartment, looking out of place, as he wasn’t wearing the same hazmat suit as everyone else.

Yet.

The hazmat men didn’t react to his presence, as if he belonged here, just like them.

The person had a pale face—almost sickly pale—with crazy black hair and wild-looking eyes that never shut.

He was Kuroganehara Izan—the owner of the Black Online Company—and, therefore, the creator of Black Online.

"...Another dead."

Izan said emotionlessly as he looked at the badly burnt corpse, and he grabbed the victim’s burnt hand before dropping it back down.

"...Report."

Izan turned to the hazmat man, who was holding the clipboard in his hand and was still writing.

"Virtual Reality Pod, this time around, burned the person inside. Last time, the Virtual Reality Pod froze the person to death. Now it’s completely opposite.

"It’s truly strange. The settings were not that much different between the two pods, but the outcomes were drastically different."

The hazmat man said.

"...Maybe we can find a middle ground between the two settings so that neither happens... Look into that."

Izan said.

"Will do."

The hazmat man said.

"Clean this up. Just say there was a gas leak that, by inhaling it, caused this unfortunate situation."

Izan said.

The hazmat men said so and noticed there were some police sirens going off outside, so they had some explaining to do.

"I’ll keep them busy."

One of the hazmat men said and went outside to talk to the police officers while the crowd kept getting bigger outside.

It was like they were here for some kind of show!

"...How many experimental Virtual Reality Pods are there left?"

Izan asked.

"There are only three left."

A hazmat man said.

"...Only three. It started with thirty. What are their names?"

Izan asked and sat down on the couch that had some cat hair on it while the cat itself was nowhere to be found.

"Rodrigo Silva Ribeiro, a man from the Warm Regions. He was in a serious shark-attack accident and lost both his limbs as a result.

"While the Virtual Reality Pod cannot physically replace his limbs, it has improved his mental state greatly. He spends pretty much all of his waking moments inside the game, where he could actually walk.

"So far, no problems there.

"The second person—Anastasia Ivanovna Sokolova—is a woman from the Cold Regions. She was a victim of a serious accident that left her paralyzed.

"She has been confined to a wheelchair ever since, but now with Virtual Reality Pod, she could actually walk again.

"She is actually a lifer in Black Online, meaning that she has basically abandoned her real body and is living inside Black Online.

"Her real body gets fed regularly, and her other needs are taken care of by caretakers. Therefore, she never needs to log off.

"So far, no problem there."

The hazmat man said.

"...Any interesting developments there?"

Izan asked curiously.

"None from what we could tell. They don’t spend much time outside the game, so we can’t tell if there were any interesting developments for their real bodies."

The hazmat man said.

"Anastasia’s paralyzed body hasn’t recovered yet?"

Izan asked.

"I think she is afraid to do anything risky to level up. She is just staying in the floor 1’s Starting City, and therefore, she is incapable of curing herself.

"Despite the letter we gave her, she has no intention of venturing out to explore because of her fear of dying."

The hazmat man said.

"...Why?"

Izan asked.

"I think she is afraid that the Virtual Reality Pod will stop working if she dies inside the game, which is a foolish thing, but... that’s what she thinks."

The hazmat man said.

"...What an idiot. She is a mother of three. If she were only less of a coward, she could actually walk again in the real world."

Izan shook his head.

"Then, the third person—Fang Raon—we know he has fully recovered, and we’ve heard rumors of how he is doing inside the Black Online.

"However, he is currently staying in the Fang Village, where we don’t have access, so we are lacking in valuable information about his current activities."

The hazmat man said.

"If Fang Raon dies like others have, it could be a problem. The Fang Family is an influential family, and if they suspect the Virtual Reality Pod was at fault, they might come asking for answers."

Izan said.

"...We can send a team of three secretly there to snatch the Virtual Reality Pod back, if that’s what you want."

The hazmat man said.

"...Let’s not do that yet. We still have remote access to his Virtual Reality Pod, so that will give some information back to us.

"His body vitals, et cetera. If it looks like the Virtual Reality Pod is killing him, we’ll go ahead and get it back."

Izan said.

"Yes, boss."

Then, Izan stood up from the couch, walked to the burnt corpse, and put his hand on his own chest.

"I admire your dedication to our cause. Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten. The new age of human history will treat you as a hero."

Izan said.

...

The First Volume - End.