Black Online

Second Volume.

...

A few months later.

First Floor, the Starting City.

The large clock at the clocktower struck noon, and with that, obnoxiously loud fireworks exploded in the sky.

Parades with blasting horns moved about in the nice and clean cobblestone streets while the crowd was gathered around.

Decorations hung from every street lamp—the Race— was written in all of them with the symbol of the Twelve Elder Council.

"Look, Mom!"

A little girl excitedly looked at the parade in the balcony, and her mother, with a gentle smile, touched her little head.

They were all locals. And this was very new to them. They had never seen parades like this done before.

It was, after all, the creation of the otherworlders, and they were showing a little taste of their own world.

With the gates of the First Floor being open for every player—it doesn’t matter what level one is or how far they’ve gotten—there were many strong players roaming the streets.

It was a little scary for the new players. They could get crushed like bugs by them. However, luckily, they were in a Safe Zone.

And they had no intention of going anywhere else until all these festivities were over!

At the large square of the Starting City, there were tents raised, and players were getting their runner numbers.

With that number on the chest, it meant that they were officially part of the Race, and there was no going back anymore.

Everyone wanted to get that great reward that awaited at the finishing line.

There was, of course, the little part about if they happened to stop running, they would get executed on the spot.

However.

Most participants were High Rankers, and while a fifty-floor run was a long... long run, they believed they could do it.

"...What’s your plan for the Race, buddy?"

"...My plan? It’s a long run, so it would be foolish to start fast, but I also don’t want to get too much left behind in the first place. I think I’ll pace myself and try to stay in the middle of the pack until the halfway mark."

"...Yeah, it’d be bad to be a few floors behind the first place at the end. Then you’re forced to take risks and push yourself too hard to catch up."

The players talked.

In that moment, a horn went off, and with that, a loud voice that seemed to be boosted by magic echoed throughout the air.

"PARTICIPANTS, HURRY TO THE STARTING LINE. THE RACE WILL START IN TEN MINUTES!"

Hearing that, the players started rushing to the starting line, as they didn’t want to be late to the start.

The players pushed each other as everyone wanted to start from the front, even though it really didn’t matter in the end.

However.

By starting first, you didn’t need to run shoulder-to-shoulder with other players, which could cause some unnecessary collisions.

The players filled the starting line. So many of them that the street looked like a sea of colorful jerseys.

At that moment.

A cane-holding old man walked to the front of the players. He looked rich. It was obvious to everyone who he was.

A member of the Twelve Elder Council!

"Hello, my dear participants... My name is Jasper Tiberius, and I am a representative of the Twelve Elder Council.

"I am here to welcome you and... here to start the Race officially. May the odds be ever in your favor.

"The route that will take you to the finishing line over at the 50th floor is a route that you choose as a player.

"All you need to do is reach the tower at the floor, use it to skip to the next floor, and repeat and repeat until you’ve reached the 50th floor.

"The great company of the Black Online is helping us with the tracking of every player, and they get alerted if one of the participants has stopped running...

"And they will execute you."

Jasper Tiberius said very seriously.

The players were quiet.

There were nearly a thousand players gathered. Not that many since there were billions and billions of players.

It was because it was really hard to win the Race, and only those who were confident in winning were participating.

Most of the player base was scared about dying if they stopped running for even a second.

Without the execution rule, there would be billions of players participating, most likely, and the council wouldn’t be able to manage that.

Therefore.

They had to come up with the execution rule to cut that number off drastically, but even with that, there were more players participating than they anticipated.

’Greed is a really dangerous thing.’

Jasper Tiberius thought with shining eyes.

Then, he smiled, showing a little bit of his teeth, with most of them missing.

"Get ready!"

He shouted.

The players took their positions, and even the sound of the parades faded in the background as if the whole world turned quiet.

The locals, with excited looks, were watching from the roofs, balconies, and windowsills.

"Set..."

Jasper Tiberius said.

Every player was trembling in their shoes. Trembles of excitement. They all already wanted to start running.

Then.

Jasper pulled out his wand from thin air, pointed it towards the sky, and shot a brilliant streak of light into the air.

BOOM~!

It exploded in the sky.

The players kicked off into a run. A stampede of players. The ground shook under their heavy running steps.

They were even about to run Jasper Tiberius over, but he quickly covered himself with his cloak and twirled around in a graceful pirouette.

Poof~!

He disappeared into thin air.

The players ran past where he was just a second ago.

Swoosh~! Swoosh~!

In that moment.

Few players ran past the leading players with insane speed, taking the lead from them immediately.

They were moving much quicker than everybody else!

The players that were at the front were shocked, and some of them were shaking their heads at their foolishness.

"Hmph, using Godspeed at the start of the Race. Are they stupid? They’ll exhaust themselves if they keep doing that!"

"Yeah, that’s very stupid of them!"

However.

Then, the Godspeed users stopped using it and instead ran normally.

All they wanted was to take the first spot, so there wasn’t a danger of getting left behind other players.

"The Race has begun!"

On the rooftops, several players shouted excitedly as cameras hovered in the air around them, broadcasting the race.

They were livestreamers, and they thought it would be easy to get viewers by broadcasting the Race.

And they were correct.

They hit a million viewers in no time, and it just kept increasing from there on.

"Hey, look!"

At that moment, one of the livestreamers pointed towards the middle of the pack as one of the players tripped.

It happened because one of the rival players intentionally tripped him over, and the player fell face-first into the ground.

Players behind him quickly evaded by jumping or running around him.

But they realized what this meant.

"Nooooooo!"

The player screamed and looked towards the person who had just tripped him, and the person was just grinning from ear to ear.

It was like he was really proud of what he had done!

"BASTARD!"

The player screamed, and at that moment, his head exploded, sending chunks of brain matter and blood splattering in every direction.

"..."

The locals quieted down, and they covered their mouths in shock, as they never expected the first death to happen in the first hundred meters!

The player’s corpse turned into pixels and disappeared from the street.

This player was actually a very old player. He had been playing on this character since day one of Black Online.

And he’d been playing every day since.

He was among players with one of the highest hour counts in the game, but now he was gone just like that.

It was insane.

One of the oldest characters in the game was just gone like that.

Nobody could imagine how that player was currently feeling, losing a character like that, which he had been using more than his real body!

Where he poured all his blood, sweat, and tears.

"The first death already happened!"

"Wow!"

"That’s another risk in the Race. You need to be mindful of other players. Because there are players that will try to sabotage you!"

The livestreamers talked to their chats.

...

Real World, Black Online Company, the control room.

"...That’s one."

On the screen, one of the faces turned gray, and only 987 players remained.

The room was filled with computers, and sitting before them were employees of the Black Online Company.

There were hundreds of them.

After all, they needed a lot of people to keep an eye on all the participating players.

They were also broadcasting the event on national television, and billions of people were watching worldwide.

"Keep an eye on that little sabotager. He might make things interesting. Show him more in the broadcast if he keeps doing that."

Izan said with his arms folded in front of him.

"Yes, boss!"