Black Online

A wall opened. Lock stealthily crept through. He scanned the nearby area with his Read.

"...It looks like we’re clear."

He said calmly.

In that moment, the other members of the "Super Squad" walked out of the smuggling route and looked at the sky of the first floor.

"You can head back."

Hermes said to the local merchant.

"You don’t need a ride back?"

The local merchant asked curiously.

He didn’t mind helping the players because the hackers were enemies of everyone, as they had also been killing locals without remorse.

"No, we don’t. We will either die or win; in that case, we can just use the normal routes to travel through the tower."

Hermes said.

"Okay. Good luck, heroes."

The local merchant said, and then he turned his wagon around and started heading back to the 6th floor.

Within the depths of his mind, he was already thinking about packing his things and heading somewhere safe, just in case.

If the players happen to lose now, the sixth floor would most likely be the next target of the hackers.

For them to have a chance at surviving, they had to go somewhere safer.

What locals didn’t know was that if the hackers really won, there was a high chance that Black Online’s servers would shut down.

Which would mean basically an apocalypse for the world.

"Mask your presences."

Leon said, and everyone’s presence thinned until it was barely there.

They weren’t sure if there were any masters of the Five Pillars of Power among the Reality First ranks, but they didn’t want to take any chances.

Leon then looked at Raon, wondering if he managed to do it, and to his surprise, Raon’s presence was nonexistent.

It was even easy to forget that he was even there if he moved his eyes away!

’An Assassin? No...’

Leon thought with a frown.

"Will you activate the Space Lock?"

Grimson asked of Hermes.

"No, the hackers would realize it if they happened to teleport. There might be a hacker that would rather teleport around instead of walking like a normal person, so we would be exposed if that’s the case.

"If I had such an ability, I probably would."

Hermes said with a wry smile.

"We’ll take it safe. We will only use Space Lock later."

Leon said.

They nodded, and then they all activated Godspeed and started running at their full speed through the empty fields of the first floor.

"I was thinking! If Hermes is here, how can he use Space Lock over on the 2nd floor? Won’t the hackers just teleport away?!"

Super Max asked.

"I’ve taught one of my disciples my Space Lock. It won’t be as strong as mine, so it won’t be able to cover the entire floor, but it can surround a small area, such as the area around the tower!"

Hermes said.

"You taught such a valuable spell to someone else?"

Grimson asked with a surprise.

It was a very valuable skill that any mage would pay millions of gold coins for, and yet he taught it to someone just like that!

"What kind of master would I be if I kept all my best tricks to myself? Haha."

Hermes laughed.

First Floor wasn’t all that big. It was one of the smallest floors. And thus, with Godspeed, they managed to already reach the vicinity of the Starting City.

They could already see the walls of the Starting City, and behind the walls, they could see towers of smoke billowing towards the sky.

Several buildings in the Starting City had been burnt to ashes, and the streets were littered with debris and wreckage.

A place that was once brimming with locals was now a ghost town. The hackers had either killed all or all locals ran off!

"I can sense someone."

"I can sense someone."

At that moment, Fang Raon and Hermes said at the same time, and they looked at each other with a brief surprise.

’How was he able to sense that?’

Hermes wondered.

He didn’t use Read, like Raon did, but instead he used his powerful detection magic to be able to sense the enemies’ presence even when they were far away.

"There is a hacker stationed in the city still!"

Grimson said.

"It’s not a surprise. I can’t sense anybody else, so everyone else must be over at the tower. We can take care of that hacker inside the city."

Hermes said.

"Let’s go!"

Leon shouted.

They reached the walls of the Starting City, and with Skydance, they just ran on the air and jumped over the walls of the city.

They landed at the tallest building near them and then kept hopping from roof to roof, making their way to the sole presence left in the city.

"The presence is really strong."

Hermes said.

He had a bad feeling about this. It was a much stronger presence than any other hacker he had encountered.

It wasn’t just some random hacker that they left behind stationed in the city.

At that moment, they stopped at a smooth roof and looked down towards the Adventurer’s Guild, where they felt the presence.

"I’ll take care of this. The rest of you, commence the next phase of the plan."

Leon said.

"Shouldn’t we all take him down together? I feel like this hacker is different from the rest of the trash."

Hermes said.

"Hmph, do you know who you are talking to? I do not need help."

Leon proudly stated, and then he jumped down from the roof and landed gracefully on the pavement.

"..."

Hermes just rolled his eyes and then motioned for everyone to follow, and they started heading back to the wall.

The next phase was simple—make their presence known to the hackers—so they would know that they had taken over the city.

Meanwhile.

Leon pulled out his white-ribboned katana and slowly stepped into the Adventurer’s Guild.

In that moment, he found someone sitting at the front desk. His back turned to Leon. It looked like he was drinking.

’Time to become a legendary hero.’

Leon thought, and he retrieved his flying camera and made it hover in the air and started livestreaming.

As soon as he went live, his view count skyrocketed, and it quickly jumped over 100,000, and it kept climbing.

The chat became immediately active.

"My name is Leon D. Hart. I’ve come here to exterminate you, hacker."

He said coldly to the man drinking at the front desk, and the man’s ears just perked up with the corners of his lips lifting slightly.

"Is that so?"

In that moment, the man turned around, and he lazily leaned against the front desk, revealing an amused smile.

He was none other than James, the leader of the Reality First!

...

Black Online Company, the control room.

"Leon has made contact with James!"

The workers were furiously typing on the keyboard as they put up several screens, showing every angle possible of the entire floor.

They could see Leon and James at the Adventurer’s Guild. The members of Super Squad were heading over to the wall. The hackers were stationed near the tower.

"So it begins."

Izan crossed his arms.

This was a battle that would decide the future of the Black Online, as if the players now lost the game, most likely, it had to shut down.

They had been in the negatives for a while now, as there weren’t enough players playing the game to sustain it.

Nobody was purchasing any more of the game cards and the virtual reality pods either.

This was a battle that must be won.

’It’s in the hands of the players now.’

...

Everywhere in the world, people sat down in front of their computers, their eyes glued to the screens of Leon’s livestream.

The livestream was even shown on televisions in every household, as this livestream had been dubbed as "Fate of the Black Online,"a title that had captured the attention of millions.

If now the strongest players in the world also fell to the blade of the hackers, they would have no chance at ever defeating them.

"...Come on, Leon!"

A young man screamed at the screen.

"Please win..."

A girl prayed.

...

Hermes stood at the top of the wall. In that moment, he pointed his hand towards the sky. Everyone looked at him.

"There’s no going back now."

Grimson said with a grave expression.

In that moment, Hermes shot a beam of light towards the sky, and as soon as it "touched" the sky, the light beam exploded.

It looked as if fireworks had gone off, and it was really loud, alerting every presence on the floor.

"SPACE LOCK!"

Hermes shouted, and an invisible dome enveloped the entire floor, and within seconds, all his mana depleted.

He quickly started chugging down on the mana recovery potions, but they were quickly running out.

’If the battle takes too long, all of his mana recovery potions will run out.’

Fang Raon thought.

In that moment, all the hackers near the tower frowned and looked towards the Starting City in the distance.

They used their hacks to see far in the distance and were able to see a group of players at the top of the wall.

"How did they get in here?"

"They’ve taken over the city!"

A few of them shouted.

"I cannot teleport!"

A hacker shouted, and then all of them also tried teleporting but, for some reason, couldn’t bend the space to their will.

"Do not fret. We left James there for a reason if something like this happened. He’ll clear a path for us."

Hacker Duke said.