Black Online

Smog Region, New Kirk City, Musty Street Alleyway.

A cramped, dark alleyway with nothing but the faint glow of a flickering street lamp. It was located at the dark corner of New Kirk City.

A short flight of stairs, about five or six steps, led down to a tightly locked door with a small peephole at eye level.

Tap~! Tap~!

A hooded man walked down the alleyway, his footsteps echoing against the brick walls, and then his dark eyes fell on the door.

’What a dirty place.’

Aizen thought from under the hood.

For some reason, he came here while hiding his true identity, and he told no one that he was coming here.

Aizen walked down the short flight of stairs and gave the door a hard knocking with his powerful fist.

KNOCK~! KNOCK~!

In that moment, the peephole opened and a person looked out cautiously at the hooded man.

"...Who are you?"

The person asked.

"Lucifer. I am the one that contacted your group. We have an arranged meeting here in about five minutes’ time."

Aizen said.

"...We thought you would be late. It’s quite difficult to find this place, after all, but it looks like you know your way through New Kirk City..."

The person said.

"Are you going to let me in, or are we going to wait for the rain to start pouring? I’ve seen those gray clouds, and I don’t like the sight of them."

Aizen said coldly.

"...Fine."

The person closed the peephole, and then Aizen heard the sound of about a dozen locks being unlocked.

Creak~! The door opened.

Aizen’s gaze fell on the person whom he spoke to—a long-haired man with droopy eyes and heavy-looking eyebags.

"Welcome to our humble abode~!"

Dean said with a grin.

Aizen entered the building, and as the door closed behind him, Dean led him down a messy hallway.

In that moment.

They heard the sound of keyboard tapping, shouting, the sound of a television going off, and arguments.

They entered a room—it was filled with computer setups with several monitors mounted on the walls, a television blasting some movie, and people sitting on beanbag chairs.

At the wall, there was a neon sign—Reality First—nailed to a wall.

It looked like a hacker’s lair with all the computers and wires and technology scattered everywhere.

"We have a visitor!"

Dean shouted.

Everyone looked over, and one of them lowered the volume of the television till it was barely different from a whisper.

"You must be Lucifer."

In that moment, a man turned around in a chair and revealed a devilish smirk. He didn’t look like a basement dweller.

A handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes.

"Are you the one that I’ve been in contact with? James from the Reality First hacker group?"

Aizen asked.

"Yes, and you must be Lucifer... But we both know that is a fake identity. I know you’re actually Fang Aizen, the partiarch of the Fang Family!"

James said with a smile.

"You found that quicker than I thought. Most impressive."

Aizen said.

"Something like that was piss easy... But I believe you didn’t even try to hide your identity from me. I wonder why."

James said with a curious smile.

"This partnership between us is based on trust. I don’t like doing business behind masks. I don’t believe in business that revolves around secrecy."

Aizen said.

"...We are the same in that aspect."

James said with a chuckle.

"Enough of chitchat! Why have you come here?!"

A young woman shouted, and she was scratching her arms a lot, like she was having a rash, and she looked very agitated.

Her eyes were moving from left to right and then up and down, as if she were searching for something.

"Your Reality First group has made a strong effort to shut down Black Online for good, but all your attempts have failed.

"Your group believes that virtual reality will be the doom of reality. In the future, why would anyone want to live in this world when they can live in that tower?

"There, they can become anyone... they want to be.

"It’s dangerous. Very dangerous. I agree with your group on that, and I have come here with a proposal."

Aizen said.

"What is it?"

James interlocked his fingers and asked curiously.

"You have tried hacking the Black Online’s database, but that has always failed because it’s like you’re trying to dig through a concrete wall with a plastic spoon.

"They have spent a fortune on their cybersecurity measures, but there is another way that we can shut down Black Online."

Aizen said.

"Oh? Tell me more."

James sat straighter on the chair.

"Black Online’s monthly cost to keep their servers running is immense, but that’s fine because they have several billion monthly players.

"They make more than enough for that cost to be nothing but a drop in the bucket for them, but... what if it isn’t?

"If the player count drops significantly, they could be in serious trouble. Let’s say... For a few months to a year, they will only have a few million players, max.

"What will happen to their revenue then? I believe they will go bankrupt and they have to shut down the servers."

Aizen said.

"That is obvious, but how can we cut down their player count by that much? The morons are addicted to that brainworm of a game!"

James said.

"With this."

Aizen pulled out a game card from his pocket.

It looked like an ordinary game card that one would insert inside the Virtual Reality Pod.

"A game card...?"

James asked with a frown.

Everyone in the room was equally confused.

"This is not just an ordinary game card. It’s a hacked game card. If you enter the Black Online with this game card, you will be in possession of several hacks that make you... invincible."

Aizen said.

James stood up in a hurry with a wide-eyed expression, and he looked at the game card like it was some kind of treasure.

"...You’re not lying to me, are you?"

"I am willing to give a box full of these game cards to your organization, and all I ask for you to do is cause chaos...

"Start hunting down players and killing them. A word will spread about you guys—that you are hackers—and nobody will want to keep playing in a game that has hackers in it.

"They would be too afraid because they don’t want to lose their valuable accounts, so they will stop playing until Black Online Company gets rid of the problem.

"The rage of the players will be directed at Black Online Company, and their reputation will suffer."

Aizen said.

"Won’t they just ban us?"

A person asked.

"That’s the thing. These game cards have a ban protection. They won’t be able to do a thing about it.

"However, as soon as your identity as hackers becomes widespread knowledge, Black Online Company will do a patch that will make sure that no more new accounts with these hacked game cards can be created.

"Therefore.

"Before you do anything, you all must create the account first, so there will be a full army of you!"

Aizen said.

"Hahahahaha!"

James laughed loudly, approached Aizen, and suddenly hugged him, to the surprise of Aizen, who wasn’t the biggest fan of hugs.

"That is amazing!"

James shouted loudly.

"..."

Aizen’s eyebrow twitched, and then James separated from the hug, and Aizen handed him the hacked game card.

"...What hacks does this contain?"

James asked as he carefully held the game card.

"Superspeed, wallhack, radar hack, fly hack, teleport hack, best weapons hack, and you’ll be a user of every class in the game, not just one. And some other hacks as well."

Aizen said.

"Not god mode?"

James asked with a frown.

"...That, unfortunately, wasn’t possible to do. Something deep in the game’s code stopped us from making users of hacked game cards immortal.

"However.

"If you ever happen to be in danger of dying, just teleport away."

Aizen said.

"Then, the only way for the Black Online Company to get rid of us is by killing us. Correct?"

James asked.

"That’s the only way, yes, but the hacked game cards have another level of protection against that kind of attack.

"Black Online Company will be unable to track you. You’ll be completely invisible to them. They can’t do anything to you guys.

"In theory, only the actual players could, but... they won’t stand a chance against hackers."

Aizen said with a smirk.

"Good, good... Then, when do you want us to start?"

James asked with a smile.

"Not yet. I think your group needs to hire more people. There are quite many of these game cards, and more the merrier, right?"

Aizen said.

"Yeah... I’ll start looking for more recruits right away."

James said with a smile.

"I’ll ship the rest of the game cards to you tomorrow. And... reality first, right?"

Aizen said with a smile.

"REALITY FIRST!"

They all suddenly slapped themselves in the chest and shouted fervently in unison.

Aizen nodded, put the hood back, and headed for the exit door, but as soon as his face was out of the view, he dropped his smile.

’What a bunch of morons. I am only using them. They have no idea that they are not getting rid of the virtual reality problem.

’They will only pave a path for Rain Online to emerge, but they are useful tools for now, and once they figure out what’s going on, it’ll be too late.’

Aizen thought.