Black Online

Smog Region, Royalz City, Matt & Ben’s Video Game Store.

"No... no... no..."

A young man browsed through a long selection of console video games on a shelf, but nothing seemed to pique his interest.

Console video games were kind of an antique at this point. It had lost its popularity. But there were still people playing them occasionally.

And these "retro" video game stores were also selling them, but they didn’t sell that well, as only hardcore gamers were buying them.

That’s why there were shelves full of them with heavy discounts.

"What are you looking for?"

At that moment, his friend, a girl with a ponytail, walked over and saw him shake his head at the selection of the video games on the shelf.

"Don’t really know. Most of these games are pretty outdated. I guess Black Online raised my standards so much."

The young man said with a sigh.

"Yeah..."

The girl replied sympathetically.

They had turned eighteen over a year ago, just a few months before the arrival of the hackers, and those few months were amazing.

They had never had so much fun.

But it all ended with the arrival of the hackers, and Black Online literally became unplayable for weaker players.

They quit the game before the hackers got a chance to kill them, as they didn’t want to lose their accounts.

It had been one year and three months since then.

Hackers were still a major issue in the game, and the player count of Black Online had dropped drastically.

"At least there is still something to look forward to."

The young man looked over at the television screen, which was showing a trailer for the upcoming game "Rain Online."

It had become the most anticipated game in the world because it promised a realism that was equal to that of Black Online.

And most importantly, the most advanced anti-cheat system in the world.

"Just a few more months!"

The girl said excitedly.

"There’s nothing to buy here. Let’s just go to an internet cafe."

The young man said, and the girl nodded, and they stepped out of the video game store into the smoggy air of the Royalz City.

At that moment.

They noticed several abandoned Virtual Reality Pods in the alleyway—broken by bats and covered in graffiti.

A lot of players, out of anger, tossed their Virtual Reality Pods away like trash.

The reputation of the Black Online Company among the masses was at the lowest possible point.

...

Black Online, 2nd floor.

It was silent in the winter forest. Almost too silent. There wasn’t any sound, not even the rustling of leaves or the chirping of birds.

In that moment, the silence disappeared.

Boom~! Boom~! Boom~!

Explosions shook the forest, and the snow fell off the branches of the trees, and the ground quaked beneath.

A group of players dashed through the forest, pale sweat running down their faces, as they were trying to outrun their chaser.

However.

It wasn’t working.

"You cannot escape me!"

At that moment, Hacker Ulrich glided across the air like a bird, and he summoned several fireballs with his left hand.

"Fire Bombardment!"

He launched them at the group of players, who scrambled to dodge the fiery attacks, and the forest was left ablaze.

"And with my right hand..."

Hacker Ulrich opened his right hand, and in that, an icy smoke swirled around his hand like a tornado of frost.

"Ice Age!"

He swung his right hand, and at that moment, everything around him froze—the trees became encased in a layer of ice, and the ground turned into a solid sheet of frost.

One of the players, a Mage, turned around and put his hands on the snowy ground.

"Volcano Erupt!"

Geysers of lava erupted from the ground, melting the snow into water puddles and chasing away the ice.

In that moment, Hacker Ulrich launched himself at him, and before the Mage could do anything, he pushed his ice spear through his chest.

"Ugh!"

The Mage gasped in shock, but then he turned into ice, and Hacker Ulrich immediately punched him to shatter him.

Shatter~!

The icy pieces of the Mage scattered across the ground.

"God damn it!"

The rest of the players kept running, but they couldn’t much farther, as Hacker Ulrich immediately caught up to them.

"Are we there yet?!"

One of the players shouted and turned around to see Hacker Ulrich being right behind them!

"There!"

A player pointed towards a small opening in the trees, which showed a ditch, and behind that, a road splitting two forests in half.

They leaped over the ditch, ran across the two-way road, and jumped over another ditch and into the thick forest.

Hacker Ulrich followed them.

However.

As soon as he jumped over the ditch, he noticed something behind the tree line of the second forest, as if there were multiple figures hiding there.

"Huh?"

Hacker Ulrich frowned.

In that moment, arrows shot out of the forest, and before Hacker Ulrich could do anything, they had already hit their target.

One of the arrows hit him right in the middle of his brows, and he immediately collapsed to the ground.

"Ah..."

Hacker Ulrich’s eyes shook in a shock, and he saw his health plummet to dangerous levels.

"Heal..."

Crunch~! Crunch~! Crunch~!

In that moment, he heard the sound of the crunching snow, as if someone were walking over the snow towards him.

Then, a man stood over him with a metallic crossbow in hand, smiling at Hacker Ulrich with no fear whatsoever.

This man wasn’t afraid of some hacker.

"This will be my fifth Hacker kill. Not bad~!"

Kerr Gehram said with a grin, and then he pointed the crossbow at Hacker Ulrich’s head and pulled the trigger.

"Wai—"

Hacker Ulrich was immediately silenced as the arrow pierced through his brain and nailed him down to the ground.

[TOWER ANNOUNCEMENT: Player Kerr Gehram has killed Hacker Ulrich Wess—he has been rewarded one million gold coins and a special event reward!]

"Thanks for helping us, Kerr!"

The players said with relieved smiles.

"Not a problem. The plan worked perfectly. You guys were good bait."

Kerr said with a smirk.

In that moment, one of the players pulled out his interface to check the time and realized something.

"The meeting is about to happen, isn’t it?"

"Yeah, Kerr, you must hurry to the 6th floor for the meeting!"

Kerr put the crossbow on his shoulder and looked at the winter forest in front of him and sensed something.

"Sure, but there is someone watching us..."

He said with a frown.

The players quickly pulled their weapons out again and looked at the vast and empty winter forest, but they couldn’t see anything.

Only snow and trees.

"...That guy left."

Kerr said.

For a second there, he sensed someone looking at them, but after witnessing Hacker Ulrich’s death, the person ran off.

"Another Hacker?"

Kerr shrugged his shoulders, and then he pulled out his Tower Pearl and cracked it under his tight grip.

...

Black Online, 6th floor, the Adventurer Guild’s Hall.

Hundreds of players were sitting inside the hall in whatever seat was available for them.

Everywhere one looked, they could see world-famous players, streamers, and guild leaders mingling among each other.

This was the biggest player meeting in the history of Black Online, and nothing even came close.

"...This is crazy."

Chaewon said as she was sitting quite far at the back with the rest of the Rose Records members.

"The full strength of the player community is currently gathered right here. The strongest of the strongest."

Della said.

Behind them, Machary sat with his arms crossed, looking around the hall with a sharp gaze, trying to get a sense of everybody’s strength here.

"...Yo, that’s Sivernius from Eagleback Silver Guild. I’ve heard that he once climbed the tower to reach the sky."

Luke said, excitedly pointing towards a long silver-haired man, who seemed to emit an aura of power and mystery.

"...That over there is Arandor from Whiteheart Guild. He is one of the few sword masters in the world who have mastered all forms of sword combat. Apparently he is even better than Leon with the blade."

Nico said, looking at sharp-looking black-haired man, who was surrounded by his loyal guild members.

"And that over there is Grimson Duke, the former strongest player in the world."

Niall said, looking at the crazy-looking man with crimson hair, who looked like he was ready to attack anyone who crossed his path.

"...Here he is."

In that moment, Machary said as his gaze landed on the silver-haired man, who was walking towards the speaker’s podium.

Everyone’s gaze landed at him.

They all instinctively felt it. This guy was the strongest. Since this place currently was the gathering place for the strongest, nobody backed down.

’If I want to become the strongest, he is the man that I must beat.’

Machary thought.

Leon took his place at the speaker’s podium, and he looked across the hall at the hundreds of players gathered here.

His gaze was intense.

Many of the players unwillingly had to look away with cold sweat running down their backs.

They didn’t want to look away and wanted to stare down at Leon, as they didn’t want to admit that they were weaker.

However.

They were simply unable to handle his gaze!

"I’ve heard that Leon has already killed twelve Hackers. All solo kills."

Niall said.

"..."

Machary stayed quiet.

The 15th floor was currently in the ruins. Rose Records had to abandon that place because they were attacked by a Hacker there.

Just one Hacker was enough to chase them away from the 15th floor, and yet, Leon had already killed twelve of them.

’The strongest...’

Machary frowned.