Black Online

"Huff! Huff! Huff!"

Players ran down the streets of a volcanic-looking city, and the locals were waving flags as they ran past.

They had already reached the 3rd floor.

It so happened that the 3rd floor was one of the shortest ones in the entire Race, as the tower was in the middle of the Volcano City, and it’s also where the spawn place was.

Unlike the 2nd floor, where players spawned in the middle of the cold winter forest and had to blindly run through the woods until they found the Winter Village.

The players were freezing just moments prior when they were on the 2nd floor, and now they were scorching hot.

"So hot!"

A player tore his winter clothes off him, which he wore on the 2nd floor to shield himself from the cold.

"T-The tower..."

The player whispered as he saw the massive tower looming over the buildings, and even though it looked like it was close, there were still miles to go.

The huge size of the tower usually tricked travelers into thinking it was closer than it actually was.

...

A few hours later.

The players, who were leading the race, finally reached the 6th floor and continued running as soon as they spawned.

"Welcome~!"

"Gooooo!"

They were immediately greeted with loud applause and the sight of the 6th floor’s players and locals.

The player’s gazes were immediately glued to the beautiful ladies, who didn’t shy away from showing their bodies.

But they had to quickly concentrate on the Race ahead, as a single mistake could mean that they would die.

"I just realized one thing. Don’t we have to cross the fucking ocean to get to the tower? What the hell are we going to do?!"

A player shouted.

When other players heard him, they all became very concerned, because he was right.

Usually players would take a boat to get to the 6th floor’s tower!

"Do we also need to take a boat? How does that work then? We need to run circles in the boat while it takes us to the tower or what?!"

A player asked.

It sounded silly to do like that, but it seemed like they had no other choice, as the alternative was swimming!

"We need to swim!"

"Are you crazy?! That ocean is filled with Sea Beasts. We’ll be eaten alive!"

At that moment, they reached the beach, and the seemingly endless ocean greeted them with crashing waves and a foreboding sense of danger.

"There is no time for hesitation!"

The players gritted their teeth and ran straight into the ocean and started swimming furiously against the waves.

However.

In that moment, one of the players jumped over the players, soaring through the air, and then he kicked the air.

With each kick, he propelled himself further and further until he was gliding effortlessly over the water.

"W-What the hell?!"

"A user of Skydance!"

A player, who knew about the Five Pillars of Power, shouted.

However, those who didn’t know about it were totally surprised and thought it was some rare skill they didn’t know about.

But then...

Several other players also used Skydance to skip the water entirely, and they were much faster than the ones swimming.

"That’s so unfair!"

"God damn it!"

...

Hours went by.

The leading players were running down the 7th floor’s endlessly stretching desert.

"...Look."

A player said and saw some camels in the distance, but that wasn’t the worrisome part—there were riders on them.

"It looks like the first proper obstacle is here."

A dark-eyed player said emotionlessly.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

At that moment, loud laughter echoed through the air, and more and more of those camel-riding bandits appeared in the distance.

They were laughing. Like they wanted to scare the running players.

They then whipped their camels into a faster pace, closing the distance between them and the players.

"They are coming!"

A player shouted.

The riders were wearing a combination of different colored scarves and masks, but they all seemed to be from the same group.

They unsheathed their weapons.

"We do not stop running."

The dark-eyed player said coldly, and then he pulled his axe from his inventory, jumped into the air, and swung his axe.

He sent a flying slash towards the riders.

"What the—"

Before the riders could react, the flying slash cut through them, leaving their lower bodies still mounted on their camels while their upper bodies fell to the ground.

And just like that, all the riders died!

The dark-eyed player landed back on the ground, still running, and then he stored the axe back in his inventory.

"Good job!"

"Those guys were such idiots!"

The players laughed mockingly.

It was indeed foolish, as they were just 7th-floor players attacking players that had already gone beyond the 40th floor.

...

10th floor.

The players were running down a long grain field with wind in their hair, and the owners of these farmlands—the locals—just watched with interest.

"We’re there!"

A player said with a dark expression on his face as he saw what awaited in the distance, and he wasn’t happy about it.

The 10th floor was quite controversial.

It was a pretty easy floor with a lot of floors and a little small village where players spawned once completing the 9th floor.

However.

At the end of the floor, before reaching the tower of the boss, there was an annoying maze—yes, a maze.

It was so complicated, and not to mention, the maze was ever-changing, so even if you had completed it once, you couldn’t use the same route.

It had taken players days to successfully navigate through it, but of course, there had been lucky players that had reached the end of it in only ten minutes.

It was all based on luck!

And this was a very important moment in the Race.

Five players were running in the same group. They were leading the Race. They all exchanged a look.

With a simple nod, they all understood what others meant, and that was to split up and let the luckiest man win!

Flying over the maze with the Skydance also wouldn’t work. The walls of the maze were simply too high.

It reached the peak height of the floor—basically connected to the sky.

Smashing through the maze walls also wouldn’t work. They were too tough. Even Leon wouldn’t be able to break through.

"Good luck, boys!"

With that said, the players entered the maze from different entrances and disappeared into the darkness of the maze.

...

It had been three days since the start of the Race, and at the end of each day, the Twelve Elder Council allowed a one-hour break.

It was so players could go offline, eat, take a shit, and maybe even take a little nap with an alarm on the side.

At this very moment.

The leading player ran through the 49th floor’s tower, and once he ran through the light, he appeared on the 50th floor.

"I am finally here..."

The player whispered with an exhausted smile.

He appeared on the bridge of a strange, Greek-like floating palace with stone columns, silver statues, and dried-up gardens.

This place felt like a place where gods and goddesses may have lived in the forever past, but now, it was abandoned.

Abanadoned... well, not quite.

CHEERS~!

In that moment, loud cheering reached the player’s ears as he reached the end of the bridge and arrived at the massive Greek city.

Thousands of locals were there, welcoming him with loud applause and shouts of joy.

The street ahead was long. But at the end. A finishing line.

He could see it already!

’I’ve really won! Come on!’

The player excitedly grinned from ear to ear.

While he was running, the livestreamers were commentating the scene to their streams, and hundreds of cameras floated in the air.

The main broadcast showed the scene to every household in the real world, and billions of people were about to witness the first winner of the Race’s history!

Swoosh~! Swoosh~!

In that moment, from the spawn point, players started to emerge, and they immediately started running down the long bridge.

However.

They saw that the leader was so far away, and even though some of them were using Godspeed, they were too exhausted to use it to its fullest potential.

So they were only barely faster than with their normal running pace.

They realized that they wouldn’t be able to win!

"Haha... I will become so famous..."

The leading player whispered, and he was already able to imagine the glory that followed with his victory.

It was a moment of endless glory!

But then, in that moment, a strange figure stepped out of the crowd and walked all the way to the middle of the street.

He turned and looked at the player with a smile.

’Who the hell is this moron?’

The player frowned and was ready to pull out his sword if needed.

"Hey, get out of there! What are you doing?"

"Do you have main character syndrome or what? Don’t you see that the winner is about to be crowned, and you’re trying to make this about yourself!"

"Leave, you idiot!"

The locals weren’t having it, as they thought it was just some attention-seeking moronic player.

"Hehe~!"

James removed his hood, pointed his finger at the player, and pulled an imaginary trigger with a smug grin on his face.

"?!"

The player frowned, wondering what he was doing, but in that moment, a hole appeared in his chest.

A hole that came from nowhere. It started bleeding furiously. The heart then exploded, and the player suddenly collapsed into the ground.

The cheers stopped. It turned quiet. The player had dropped dead.

"My name is James from the Reality First group. I am Black Online’s first-ever hacker. The game that you all so dearly loved will be destroyed by me...

"That is a promise!"

James shouted loudly, and then he spread his arms, and black fire spewed in all directions, scorching the locals and leaving chaos and destruction in his wake.

This was Safe Zone, but for some reason, it wasn’t affecting James at all, who stood there, laughing maniacally.

At the top of the rooftops, more people appeared, wearing the same dark hood of the Reality First, and they were all grinning.

"Hahahahaha!"