Black Online

"W-wait, you haven’t seen everything yet!"

Phoebe panicked.

If he now just left after seeing the NPC, he definitely would not have anything good to say about the game to his father.

Therefore.

She had to make him stay no matter what!

"I think I’ve seen enough."

Fang Raon said.

"No, no, you haven’t seen the combat system yet!"

Phoebe said.

’...The combat system...’

Fang Raon thought about it.

He then thought that it didn’t hurt to check everything that the game offered—in case there was actually some good stuff about the game.

"Okay."

He said.

Phoebe let out a sigh of relief, and she then pulled out a pair of swords from her inventory and handed one of them to Raon.

"How’s the combat system in here? How many classes, et cetera?"

Fang Raon asked and gave the sword a couple of swings but noticed that it was incredibly light for a sword of this thickness.

’Did they not add extra weight to items that should be heavier?’

Fang Raon thought with a frown.

It felt like he was swinging a twig.

"Well... We will have Warrior, Tank, Healer, Assassin, Mage, and... Archer classes."

Phoebe said.

’So basically exactly the same as in Black Online? Except they renamed the Helper class to Healer and Ranger class to Archer.

’If they wanted to compete against the Black Online, I think they should’ve made a completely original game with a different concept.

’This is nothing but a cheap rip-off.’

Fang Raon thought with disappointment welling inside him.

"Shall we...?"

Phoebe said as she took a sword stance, but it looked amateurish, as she was holding the sword with both hands in between her legs.

"Sure."

Fang Raon said and swung the sword at her, and she lifted her sword to block his attack, and then the two blades clashed.

’It feels like I am trying to push air because of how light these weapons are.’

He thought.

Phoebe pulled back, and then quickly attacked with speed, swinging that heavy-looking sword with ease.

It was easy for her to move quickly despite the heavy-looking sword because it was actually very light.

If the sword had realistic weight, she would barely be able to carry the sword with her non-existent muscles.

Fang Raon casually deflected each of her strikes without breaking a sweat.

He was using Read to anticipate her movements, and honestly, even without Read, he doubted she would have been able to land a single hit on him.

’H-he is strong...’

Phoebe thought and quickly changed into a stabbing stance and drove the sword towards his chest.

Fang Raon sidestepped, the blade grazed him, and smashed into the window of Farmer John’s house.

[My house!]

A text box appeared above Farmer John’s head, but he was still smiling, as if that was the only expression he could show.

"Ah!"

Phoebe looked frightened.

In that moment, Raon took a look inside the house through the broken window and noticed something truly strange.

There was nothing inside.

It was a black void.

"What the..."

Fang Raon frowned, and then he walked to the door of the small house, and Phoebe shouted, "Stop!" but it was too late.

He pulled the door open forcefully, and to his shock, there was only blackness inside.

"You guys didn’t even make interiors for the houses?"

Fang Raon asked with shock.

"Uhm... T-that’s not exactly true... There are few interiors, for things like weapon stores and merchant stores...

"W-we didn’t think it was necessary to make interiors for every single building... It’s not like players are going to spend much time exploring them anyway."

Phoebe said, sweat trickling down her face.

"Hah..."

Fang Raon shook his head but then noticed something, as in the corners of his eyes, there was some glitching.

"What the hell is that?"

Fang Raon asked with a frown and turned his head rapidly from side to side and noticed how his vision glitched strangely.

"Don’t move your head like that!"

Phoebe shouted.

"...Why?"

Fang Raon asked.

"T-there is a little bug with the vision system..."

Phoebe scratched the back of her nervously.

’A bug with the vision system... It’s a really big problem. If I move my head even slightly too fast, it glitches out, and it looks like the whole world is lagging to me.’

Fang Raon thought.

[You are logging out!]

At that moment, a message appeared to the two of them, and they noticed their bodies turning to pixels.

’They must’ve forcefully logged us out from the control room. I guess they don’t want to make the impression even worse... somehow.

’There might be some bugs that might be worse than what I just experienced.’

Fang Raon thought.

In that moment, the two of them disappeared from the virtual game.

...

"Ah!"

Fang Raon opened his eyes, and he immediately had a look of discomfort as his neck felt really sore.

’Yeah... this Virtual Reality Pod sucks...’

He took off the straps, stepped out of the pod, and massaged his neck for a few seconds.

Phoebe left the other pod. She looked defeated. It even looked like she was about to cry because of how it went.

The door then opened.

Three figures—Ronin, Nero, and Aizen—came in.

"...Phoebe."

With anger, Ronin stomped towards the scared-out-of-her mind Phoebe, and he raised his hand.

He was about to slap her!

"Don’t!"

Nero shouted.

Ronin refused to listen and swung his hand for her cheek, and Phoebe closed her eyes with tears streaming down her face.

But... the slap never came.

"What are you doing?"

Fang Raon asked, holding Ronin from his wrist, stopping the hand mere inches away from slapping her cheek.

"Hands off me!"

Ronin snarled and slapped his hand away.

Phoebe opened her eyes in shock and looked at Raon, confused about why he did that just now.

"You are really going to slap her? Really? It’s not her fault that your company made a shit fucking game."

Fang Raon said coldly.

"...Mind your tongue, boy."

Ronin said coldly.

"Or what?"

Fang Raon said with a cold smile, and his eyes suddenly had a crimson hue to them, and even some smoke began to waft from his eyes.

’What the hell is going on with his eyes?’

Ronin’s eyes shook.

"That’s enough!"

Nero separated the two before a fight broke out.

He was already embarrassed about how the showcase went, but now he was even more embarrassed because of how Ronin acted.

"Phoebe, you can go home."

Nero said gently.

Phoebe nodded and ran for the exit, but before she fully left, she looked at Raon and then quickly looked away.

"Father."

Fang Raon turned to look at his father, who was rubbing his chin and clearly thinking about something.

"It was bad, huh?"

Aizen said.

"Worse."

Fang Raon said.

"...Hmm."

Aizen started thinking.

"It’s still in early development. It is planned to be released in about two years’ time. All those bugs will be fixed. by then."

Nero said.

"I don’t think the bugs were the worst part. The game, from its core, is bad. It will never reach Black Online.

"Black Online is so popular because it’s a second world to many people. In there, you can be anything. You cannot tell the difference.

"When you play Rain Online, you can tell it is just a game, and that single difference is what makes it so inferior to Black Online.

"Two years is not enough to close that gap."

Fang Raon said.

"A game is a game. We have done our research and we know what we are up against. Rain Online will do just fine."

Ronin said.

"It won’t. Why even go for the same concept as Black Online? If you made the game take place in the tower, it would be basically the same, except inferior in every aspect.

"Why not try something different? Maybe a sci-fi game that takes place in space? It could be a completely new and unique experience for players.

"But this..."

Fang Raon shook his head with disappointment.

"Just because you played video games doesn’t mean you know shit about business."

Ronin said angrily.

"...I know that this game will bomb horrendously."

Fang Raon said.

"..."

Nero held on to his cane, also thinking about something, and sensed that Ronin was again about to say something, so he quickly stopped him.

"That’s enough, Ronin. Aizen, may I have a word with you? Alone?"

Nero asked.

"...Yes."

Aizen nodded.

They then disappeared to another room, and Ronin stomped away, as he didn’t want to be in the same room as Raon.

’Will father pull the plug on the partnership? I hope so. I am sure he was able to see problems with the game with his own eyes.’

Fang Raon thought, then he left the Virtual Reality Pod room, and sat down on a chair by the hallway.

Several game developers looked in his direction, but then they turned back to their computers and continued what they were doing.

A short moment later, Aizen left Nero’s office and began walking down the hallway toward Fang Raon.

"Well?"

Fang Raon asked as he stood up, and Aizen didn’t say anything about the meeting, except, "Let’s go."

And he immediately followed him with the two bodyguards trailing behind them, and they entered the elevator and started descending towards the ground floor.

"...The partnership is still on."

Aizen suddenly said.

"Why? That game is the only reason we’re in this partnership, and I already told you that it won’t survive a battle against Black Online!"

Fang Raon shouted in a shock.

He didn’t understand why his father was making such a foolish decision!

"Make a list about every problem you found in the game, and I will send it to Nero. They’ll do fixes according to your reports.

"I will also be hiring thousands of game developers over in the Smog Region, and I am sending them here to help them out."

Aizen said.

"...That alone won’t be enough."

Fang Raon said.

"It does not need to be Black Online. It just needs to be a good enough replacement."

Aizen said.

"...What do you mean? A replacement?"

Fang Raon asked with a frown.

To him, it sounded like Aizen was saying that Black Online won’t be a thing anymore in the near future.