Black Online

The car rolled to the front door of the Rain Game Company’s headquarters, which was located right in the heart of the Rain City.

"I’ll open the door for you!"

The driver said, stepped out into the rain, quickly opened the umbrella, and went to open the door for Aizen.

Aizen stepped out of the vehicle, shielded by the umbrella, and his son, Raon, quickly followed as they hurried inside the building.

The two bodyguards walked behind them without any need for an umbrella.

’How come the rain isn’t touching them? Is this some high-level ability that I am unaware of?’

The driver wondered.

He was well aware of the Five Pillars of Powers and had also learned Read and Godspeed from the teachers of the Rain Family.

However.

He didn’t quite understand what ability the two bodyguards were using, and he could only conclude that the two of them were incredibly powerful individuals!

"Welcome!"

As soon as they all entered the building, they received a loud greeting as hundreds of people bowed as soon as they entered.

They were all company workers—from ordinary game developers to the highest executives—they were all here to welcome them.

Aizen looked casual about it.

He had gotten used to things like this, as whenever he went to visit one of the branches of his company, they always threw some sort of welcome party for him.

In that moment.

Nero and Ronin walked over.

"I hope the flight wasn’t too terrible."

Nero said with a smile and extended his hand, and Aizen shook it firmly.

"It was fine."

Aizen said sternly.

"Young master Raon."

Nero nodded with a smile and also shook his hand, and at the side, Ronin was standing with his head straight.

He wasn’t the biggest fan of welcoming a rival company’s head with such fanfare, as even if they were currently in a partnership, they were still rivals.

At the end of the day.

"Shall we?"

Nero pointed towards the elevator, and Aizen nodded, following him without a word, with Raon trailing after them.

’It sure is a beautiful building. Now that I think about it, I have never visited Fang Headquarters either. I wonder if it is as grand as this one.’

Fang Raon wondered.

They entered the elevator.

Then, Nero used a special key that took them to the secret floor—where the game called Rain Online was being developed.

Rain Game Company has created several other games—but small ones like mobile games—and they’ve gotten fairly decent reception from the public.

However.

The new game—which they hoped would rival Black Online—was their biggest project by far, and it had cost them a lot of money.

Ding! Ding!

The elevator stopped, and as the doors opened, they were welcomed with a sight of a majestic gaming studio.

Hundreds of booths, with cutting-edge computer technology, and inside them, hundreds of game developers working tirelessly.

They had recruited all the best game developers they could find from Rain Region for this amazing project.

And at the end of the room, there was a room. Its door was tightly locked. Its walls looked like foggy windows.

"That’s where it is."

Nero said as he looked towards the room at the end, and as Aizen looked over with curiosity, so did Raon.

As they approached the room, they found someone sitting near the room, her head hanging low, and she was doing something with a phone.

"Phoebe!"

Ronin kind of shouted to wake her up, and Phoebe flinched and clumsily put the phone back in her pocket.

She stood up, looking disoriented, and she immediately hung her head low, as if she were afraid to look people in the eye.

’She is the one...’

Fang Raon thought.

The girl that she was supposed to marry in two years, and she was pretty in her own right with shoulder-length black hair and the usual beauty of the Rain Family.

But she was way different from Juniper.

A very shy individual, lacking confidence in everything she was doing, and having an air of innocence.

"Let me introduce you to Phoebe Rain—the future wife of your son, Raon. She will also tag along with Raon as he goes to check the game."

Nero said.

"I’d prefer if my son went there alone."

Aizen said.

"That’s... unfortunately not possible. There are certain areas inside the game where if you go in there, you’ll immediately die.

"A little bug in the system."

Nero said.

"...Hmm."

Aizen narrowed his eyes.

’Father thinks that he might be lying. Those ’certain areas’ might be where the truth about this game is revealed. It’s what they don’t want to show us.’

Fang Raon thought.

"She’ll just be there to make sure that your son doesn’t accidentally kill the character."

Nero said with a smile.

"That’s fine then. Shall we then start?"

Aizen asked.

"Sure thing."

Nero walked to the door, slid the keycard across the scanner, and the door opened with a quiet "swoosh."

The room was simple. Foggy-looking walls. In the middle of it all, there were two Virtual Reality Pods, but they were different from what Raon was used to.

’Are they planning to not only make a new game but also their own version of Virtual Reality Pods?

’I feel like that is kind of a mistake. It’s easier to get players to play the game if they let their game work in previous Virtual Reality Pods.

’If they also have to buy a new Virtual Reality Pod to play this game, they might not even bother to purchase it at all!’

Fang Raon thought.

He then looked at his father and saw his conflicted expression, as it seemed like he was thinking the same thing.

"The left pod is yours, Raon."

Nero said.

With a nod, Raon walked to the pod and climbed inside.

The pod, for some reason, wasn’t flat like Black Online Company’s pods but instead was sloped at an angle.

"We thought that having the pod angled would help with muscle relaxation, as our research shows that it improves blood circulation and reduces stress."

Ronin said.

"Oh, okay..."

Fang Raon replied.

He wasn’t confident about the design choice, as he was basically standing, so what would happen to his body if he played like fifteen hours straight?

His legs might be so sore he wouldn’t be able to walk the next day.

Then, there were also some straps, and he put them on.

"Those straps stop your body from falling over."

Ronin said.

’They’re quite tight and uncomfortable...’

Fang Raon thought with a frown.

Meanwhile, Phoebe climbed inside the pod next to him, put on the straps, and leaned back against the cushioned back.

She glanced at Raon briefly but noticed that he was also looking over to her, and thus she immediately turned her head away.

’H-He is not what I imagined...’

After Juniper’s return, she had been pretty much grounded by the family, and her status in the family was lower than ever before.

Her cheating scandal had already spread across many circles in the Rain Region, and Rain Family’s name had been dragged through mud lately.

At one time, Phoebe met with Juniper—who had just barricaded herself in her room—looking disheveled.

She kept mumbling about how she was framed, et cetera, and then Phoebe asked her about Fang Raon.

As he was supposed to be her future husband, and she honestly felt very scared to marry someone she didn’t know.

Juniper badmouthed him a lot. About how ugly he was. How uninteresting and boring he was.

It made Phoebe think that he was some kind of monstrosity, and she had been crying by herself quite a lot lately because of it.

’He isn’t ugly...’

Phoebe thought with a slight blush in her cheeks.

She was really relieved!

"We’ll be in the room next door."

Nero said to Aizen, and then they all went to the other room, which was the control room, and there were many screens showing different corners of Rain Online.

Several people were already sitting by the screens, typing something into their keyboards, as they were doing last-minute checks.

"This is where we activate those Virtual Reality Pods and can check how they’re doing inside the game."

Nero said.

’The game looks fine through the screens.’

Aizen thought as he looked at the screens showing the inside of the Rain Family, and honestly, it was a pretty sight.

Resembled a lot of Black Online in many ways.

Tap~! Tap~!

Nero tapped on the microphone, then leaned close to it and spoke to it.

"Are you ready?"

The voice echoed inside the Virtual Reality Pod room, and Raon showed thumbs up in response, and so did Phoebe.

"Do it."

Nero said to one of his workers, and they immediately did something on their keyboards and pressed enter.

Virtual Reality Pods suddenly closed with the glass lid.

"Countdown till consciousness travel... five... four... three... two... one..."

In that moment, both Fang Raon and Phoebe fell asleep, but their heads were hanging uncomfortably, like they were about to fall off their shoulders.

’That looks like an uncomfortable position to be in for hours. My son might have quite a sore neck once he is out.’

Aizen thought.

In that moment, from the screens, they could see two figures appearing in one of the open fields—they materialized from pixels and turned into what looked like genuine human beings.

"These are pre-made characters that we made for them. We wanted to skip the game character creation phase, as it takes a lot of time."

Nero said.

’Is that true or is there something wrong with it?’

Aizen wondered, and then he looked at his son on the screen.

’I want to find out everything, Raon. I trust in you.’

Meanwhile, Nero and Ronin tried to act casual about it, but they were actually very nervous about all of this.

’Please, do not break the game.’

Nero thought.