Fantasy Siva {{The Legend Of The Destroyer}}

[TKhan]

Update 15

That Short Encounter

Siva woke up and found himself on the same place where he last remembered he was. In the place where he lost his consciousness during the fight. +

Three pairs of eyes were looking at him with worry, one was wearing a smile, surrounding him awkwardly.

“Yo monster.” Fuma greeted him briskly. “You‘re asleep for 2 hours. The system detected that you are really sleeping so it didn‘t log you out.”

“Are you alright?” Thorn asked the question.

Siva looked around and saw that the monsters he had wanted to gather have been gathered in one place and he looked at them with expression of apology.

“I lost it. I‘m sorry for troubling you.”

At that reaction, Thorn, who had his impression at him exchanged glances with Loni, and Henna, who was closest to him, gave him a drink that Siva gladly took.

“Why?” Thorn’s question made Siva stop. “We were wondering why are you going so far as to endure that much pain for just a game? Are you rushing to make money or to establish fame?”

Siva paused to ponder. Looking only at the glass of water in his hands, the fire that lit their surroundings had lighted up the solemn expression he wore. Loni and Henna stared at his face, wondering just what kind of memory those words triggered.

But then, Siva closed his eyes and when he opened it again, he was already wearing the solid expression he had when he was fighting the monsters.

“It‘s not something for you to know.”

Siva stood up. He gave back the glass of water and thanked Henna for the trouble.

He pushed towards the direction of the pile and checked the map he had bought from the shop to put a mark on his definitive location. Siva then summoned his truck from his inventory and this time, it looked like modern with a large legged machine to pull the weight.

“So that‘s it then?” Thorn exclaimed angrily. “Not as much as a thank you or an explanation?”

“I‘ve said my thanks and I apologized for the trouble I caused you, is that not enough?”

On Siva’s words, Thorn paused and pondered. He was taken aback by the truth on the man’s statement. If he were to point out what was wrong, that would be on his part because he went towards the wrong direction to where he should have gone through.

The lifting of the loot to the legged truck was as easy as it took for him to gather it. And at the middle of his activity, Loni finally spoke up.

“Wait, I have a…proposition for you.”

Siva looked at her and then to Thorn. His face wore full of irritation but the look of resolve in the woman’s eyes spoke of something else. Something he might regret if he didn’t listen.

“What is it?” He said and faced them. “Speak.”

Loni looked at her companions and paused to receive Thorns nod. When she finally got the strength, she told Siva the whole reason.

“We saved you from the big monster because we thought you can be invited to join us.”

Siva smirked and replied sarcastically. “You? You want me join you? What are you, a guild?”

“That‘s the plan.” Thorn butted in. “Look, I‘m sorry if my approach is bad but all I wanted to say is that, if it‘s possible, would you consider joining a party? Will you consider joining us?”
“No.” With no hesitation, Siva replied with a firm expression. “Firstly, I’m going to be your worst enemy when the time comes. Secondly, what I’m after is a lot different from what you guys want. I might look like a selfish bastard to you now, but my answer is no. I have my reasons so please, leave me be.” +

“Then tell us.” Henna, butted in. Her face told Siva that she honestly just wants to know. “Tell us what your reason for going so far as to risk that amount of pain for just a game.”

On her words, a strike of pain draw from his face. It may have been just a moment’s surprise, but it did not escape Loni’s observant eyes.

Siva swallowed, turning his back on them. “It was a personal matter.” And he continued on his activity.

“If it has something to do with loot, we can always talk it over.” Thorn said and he offered an open palm.

The act made Siva thought of a business offer. It was an offer that he might not get ever again. Truthfully, he saw how these people fight, they are definitely strong.

To take on an S-rank monster with only four people, it would require not only skills and experience on high end combat but also equipments that offer additional stats and damage. And for one, inventing or even just the act of gathering the materials for an equipment that can defeat an S-ranked monster would take so many months, if not years.

But there is a strong shackle that he cannot, even just the thought, ignore. This shackle is holding him to the deal that he made with Augustus. And he himself know that even without his warning, he would have to deal with the deal’s rules his own way.

At this, Siva finally let down his sarcastic face and looked at Thorn with understanding eyes.

“I get what you are saying,” He said and showed the group his modified weapon. “Tell me then, if what you are saying is true. Then are you willing to give me all of the MODs you can get while I‘m with you?”

At those words, Loni’s expression changed but it was different than the expression her companions had when they heard Siva’s words.

“Your silence tells me that you can’t. See?”

“But…Destroyer,” Fuma cut off. “Sure its normal that you ask for any special compensation, but MODs, I think it‘s not something that we can give out freely.”

“I know.” Siva nodded. “Most players are like me, they want MODs so they can sell it for real money. Most of the users of Terroa aren‘t like the others that spend a lot of money for leisure. Like me, or maybe like you, I am not as rich as them.” And at this point, Siva’s face were painted with a painful expression. “I‘m here not because I wanted to but because I had to and one of my reasons for being here is for those MODs.”

Those words did not make any sense. As Siva turned his back to them and boarded his truck, Thorn and the rest were left pondering on the meaning of his words.

But the most disturbed of them all was Loni. She was staring at his back and was pondering on a thought she only had just a few moments ago.

Could it be?

So before Siva left them, Loni ran over and asked in a haste, “I want an honest answer, are you part of the masked organization?”

Siva’s eyes were wide in surprise but before he could let go of his mental rope, he said, “No.” and shook his head. “I will never be a part of such foolishness.”

And he kicked the accelerator that made the legged truck pull the cargo away from the place.

Their distance widened, Loni and the rest were left in a daze, trying to swallow the bad results of their bold move. And then, Thorn leaned back at them, his face in an expression that told them the open truth.

“At least we know he‘s not part of them.”

“But leader…”

“It‘s alright, Henna. I expected as much, Loni?”

“Yes. I think it‘s alright to gather everyone. We have to tell them about him. I feel that in the near future, his words are going to be some sort of warning to us all.”

“I feel the same.” As Thorn nodded, Fuma, Henna, and Loni also nodded in confirmation. Then, they each took out a Z500K worth quick transfer module and said the same words all at the same time. +

““Alderney.””

And the stone disintegrated. All of them vanished in a bluish light that hugged them in the dark oblivion, and the moment they opened their eyes, they were already inside the city of Alderney, in the Northern Empire, a sovereign country under the flag of Splitzen.

***

Inside the game, a day spent is just 8 hours in real life. And so, Rex were brave to spend 36 hours straight inside the game. Each time he wakes up, his head is hurting. It is because for the past three weeks, he’s been doing nothing but hunting.

He hunts because he wants to get familiar with the world and its system. Even now, he was still in the part of adjustment. But unlike before where he felt dizzy after every dive, now, the headaches were lighter that it was almost non-existent. But still, the worst case is his right leg.

Every time he wakes up, his leg would always kill him. The pain of not moving it for 12 hours is pulling himself to his limits. But still, there was nothing more painful than the pain of not seeing Baron for the past three weeks. Even though Graham had said he could visit him, the doctors that were assigned to take care of his therapy are conducting it in the house instead.

He literally can’t leave the house.

Medicines were delivered by schedule.

The care taker are doing her job. The old woman was never a sociable person and so even though he tried to start a conversation, she would only agree with him and not answer back with enthusiasm.

Foods are also sort of in a diet. The stocks available are only good for two days. Milk is given to him once every week and so he had to conserve it for two days.

If he didn’t know, he was being given a message. In a businessman’s perspective, three months’ time before the initial investment’s profits come are a humongously long time than consciously waiting the day pass by.

He knew he had to hurry.

Searching the internet, he landed on some rumors of unsolved cases, mysteries, and folklores from the game that until now haven’t been solved. But then, the problem is their location.

Some are located in the North Continent, some in the East, then the closest one is on the South Territory, the Kingdom of Alexandria. There are also those from the Empire of Splitzen, and then in the Kingdom of Heroe, there was a rumor about the Gold Chariot of Eris from a group of adventurers.

Unfortunately, all of these rumors were all far away from him that it would take him not only vast amount of resources to get there but also large amount of time.

And so, he had no choice but to stick to the place he is close with. Aarun. In the South Territory, or South Dominion to some conservative adventurers, there are not that many known legends. Even if he did spend an entire day researching in the library, all he could land on are parts of history with no such unsolved rumors.

One day, in his frustration, all he did was to hunt and kill monsters. He had even made a name as “Masked Traveler” from the conservative players that see him in the road on his way to the city. +

These users are always crowding over him, asking a few questions regarding how to hunt, why the monsters he brings had either crushed heads or missing eyes.

No cuts can be seen on his victims. And even if there are, it would only be a shallow one, made by a rock.

In the end, as two in game months passed by, alone, he made no progress on discovering what secrets he should be chasing after. His time is running out and he was in a panic. In his desperation, he even went to the Guilds and tried to ask for Quests and Missions but he only landed on the minor ones with E-rank. He did once get a D-rank mission but as soon as he completed it, he had nowhere else to go but to hunt again.

Missions were a lot different than Quests.

Whenever an NPC gives him one, it would always be inclined to hunting down specific monsters, there are times that it multiplied in numbers, but mostly, it’s just errands and personal matters of the NPCs.

He wondered if Fame had something to do with the NPC’s behaviour towards him or if he was missing a kind of key ingredient on getting a high ranked quest. In all his pondering, he always ends up investigating some of the information he received in the library and would always end up in a dead end. Eventually, the next two weeks were wasted like this, with only him gathering a few materials and resources, freezing them, exchanging money, killing monsters, and doing it again and again.

He had adjusted his Cassius Clay four times, giving it a lot of essential boosts and lowering its we. He even went as far as putting an accelerator on its function. 3

The boots were also improved and with a month’s worth of gathered materials and items, he spent it all to improve its durability and add a new function as far as it can go. This new function is the ability to use the compressed air as a means of an Air Jump.

He discovered a valuable information when he was talking with the NPC shop’s owner. In the city, he was the only one Siva had the good vibes to talk to.

The NPC shop owner told him that when he reaches the A-class fighter rank (players that can hunt A-rank monsters) he will be given the authority to hunt down rare ingredients for improving equipments. These rare ingredients are called Elemental Stones.

With the help of technology, right weapon design, and the right use of its elemental attribute, a weapon can be improved in such ways that it can also be lined amongst the ranks of unique equipments. This news caused Siva to feel excited. Still, he was a long way to go. With his current hunter rank of “C” which is in the mid-level zone, even hunting B-ranked monsters is going to be a whole lot of challenge.

Unlike the first three ranks of monsters, B-rank ones are almost three times as difficult as C-rank monsters.

Not only their sizes are different, but according to his general understanding, B-rank monsters have larger amounts of dedicated memory so their AIs are expected to be a lot fiercer and more savage than the mediocre monsters in C-rank. +

Even him, with all his confidence and his boasts, is in a lot of thinking trying to enter the B-rank monster infested forest in the North Gate.

Siva was pondering inside the third floor of the city’s library, no books in hand, just using the silence to think clearly and concentrate more on what he had missed. In his mind, he thought of all the information he had been gathering until now. But an hour passed, two, three, no fresh idea came up in his mind and he was so frustrated that he hunted in the C-rank monster forest for the rest of the night.

When morning came, it marked his two months and three weeks since he’s been in Terroa.

Though there were still significant amount of time until his deadline, it was never in his nature to relax, not until he passed his requirements before the limit.

At that, he went upstairs to the fourth floor, wanting to unwind all his stress for a new start. Upon seeing the NPC woman with her smile, Siva paused again as he remembered the same dilemma he had been before.

And so he replied, “Clemente‘s Demise.”

He entered the fourth floor room, went towards the fifth floor and searched for the keyword he wanted to know the information of.

“Search: The Hero of Sparta.”

His search resulted in 355 items, all varying in the time scale at which he had heard the words.

It’s too many and too varied…not enough time.

“Redefine search. The death of the Hero of Sparta.”

This time the search even became 509 items. It was clear that there are more news about his death than the time when he was alive. It was somehow a punch to his chin if ever his descendants were aware of this. But to Siva, it was an unnecessary information.

At that moment, the commander of the SWAT team posted in the fifth floor to guard the Book Of Legends came and ignored the players that was looking at the giant book.

 

[TKhan]

Update 16

Progress

“’tion!” The commander with mask yelled. The men in black SWAT uniform with weapons stiffened their bodies and the commander added. “It‘s zero fourteen! Who the hell was in-charged of you?”

At the angry question, one voice from the uniform appearances of the SWAT guards spoke up.

“Permission to speak sir!”

“Granted!” The commander replied firmly.

Then from the left side, the one at the very tip of the lined men moved and eased his posture. And though his face was hidden in the seemingly Knight Combat Mask, his voice sounded clearly behind the covering.

“It was Captain Socorro sir!”

At his answer, the commander angrily spat, “What the hell is wrong with that kid?! All of you, at ease! Eat for god sakes! And for the next twenty minutes, I want you girls to be full and standing there on guard! Do you understand me ladies?!”

“Sir yes sir!”

And there was silence in the room.

“What the hell are you waiting for?! Time is kicking and if you don‘t scram it will kick you in the butt! Go!”

And the men all broke out from their lined formation running towards the only way down from the 5th floor. Siva gave way for them and saw a few reaching for their backs with prepared foods.

And as the commander also went down with them, he turned his attention to the closest MIB with him, and the SWAT guard looked up and removed his mask.

“Whew, you saw that huh.”

An NPC. Siva thought.

“Does that happen normally?” He asked courteously. The man gave a large bite on his lunch and he even went as far as offering Siva some of it. “No. I‘m alright with my own.” As he said, Siva also summoned a bread from his inventory. Since he was already here, why not share meal time with an NPC.

“It doesn‘t happen normally. Captain Socorro is just a newly assigned officer and so he was still busy with the paperwork and such.”

“I see.”

“By the way, I often see you here. Are you fond of the History of Terroa? Not many hunters and travelers are going in this corner of the city so I kind of made it a habit to remember the faces of the usual visitors.”

“Ah! You have a good memory.”

“Not really. It‘s just that, though there are new faces everyday, you visiting the book for four times a week is not common. Actually, you‘re the only person to ever do that. Are you searching for any specific topic?”

On those words, Siva paused and thought for a bit. In his silence, the MIB noticed the book in his hand and he laughed heartily as to he recognized the book.

“I see. Clemente‘s Demise. Hahaha…”

Siva‘s brows curled. “You know this book?”

“Yeah!” The man answered. “There was a time when many adventurers and travelers came here holding that book and during that time, we had to be specially alert just to stop them from touching the Book of Legends.”

“I also heard that story. But I just came here and I really don‘t know anything else aside from the rumors that this book contained a treasure map.”

“And you believed that?”

Siva took a bit of his bread, in lined with the guard swallowing a spoon full of his boxed lunch.

He just shook his head sideways. “No. Fortunately, I became aware that it was a hoax and so I just brought this book as a ticket. I actually finished reading it and I can be sure that there is nothing that‘s really vexing in this book. Though I should comment, this is a good novel.” +

“Hahahaha…I thought so too. GULP. And honestly, I was a victim of that rumor too. I even thought that the handwritings of the author meant something aside from the words itself. But I was wrong. It was really just some random numbers.”

“Ah these?”

Siva opened the book and showed the man the said numbers written all over the book. In every sentence, there were numbers. Sometimes a single digit, there are times it was two. But there are many times that it was in a group, like the ones in the preface, there were already visible groups of numbers that made no sense.

“Yeah. Many code breakers tried to solve the secret of those numbers but none of them succeeded.”

“I thought so.” Siva agreed and closed the book.

“But I was a step ahead of them.” Suddenly, on the guard’s boastful words, Siva’s curiosity kicked in.

Since in the first place, NPCs are also quest givers, so when an NPC is talking about a topic it would either be a key or a clue. Or if not, then it would be those rare times that it was just nonsense talk.

Why didn’t I thought of that before?

“What do you mean?” He asked the guard. “There is no meaning behind these numbers. I myself had tried to decipher it.”

“Well, what did you came up with?”

“Nothing.” Siva shrugged and the acting came as effective as he wished it to be. Though in the first place, he really did found nothing.

“There is a technique I used to decipher it. And I bet ya, it was the easiest, most common, and actually the very first thing any code breaker would think of.”

“And that is?”

“Words.”

“Words…..words?” Siva was actually puzzled.

“Yeah words. Those numbers are words. But…that‘s just how far I went. Because after that, I was lost.”

Siva’s heart was pounding in excitement but he still did his best to control his emotion. He finished his meal and asked for his name.

“Gilberto.” The guard answered. “And you?”

“Siva. My name is Siva.”

“Oh, what a name. Well then, I guess our talks has just got into an abrupt end. But I bet that this is not the last.” As he spoke, their stand in leader had come up along with the others more from the fourth floor.

Gilberto then put his helmet back on. With a nod and a thumb up, he bade farewell for their meeting and Siva waved a hand as he went down hastily while Gilberto came back to his job.

With no wasted time, Siva went inside a cubicle and he opened the book wide on the table.

“Open Tablet.” He commanded and a holographic pen and paper materialized in front of him.

Next, he summoned the reference window, his old data logs regarding the rumors, and a browser window for accessing the internet. He then typed in the keyword for the rumor regarding Clemente’s Demise novel.

In the browser, the thread about the rumors of the map came in as search results.

He clicked the first one he had read before and read the contents again starting on the top. You cannot read a thread without being a member of the site so for that sake, he logged in using his personal account and used a pseudonym for posting a reply.

[This case is not yet solved.] He typed in as soon as he finished reading everything.

He didn’t care if the thread had ended a few months ago or if he would be branded a new fanatic. But in his desperate situation, he had no choice but to at least hold on to something he can put his effort to. And this time, that would be this rumor. He decided to give it a shot but the longest time he allotted for it was a month.

After that, if it doesn’t get any result, he will have to put his all to go to the Kingdom of Alxandria and go after the rumors of Avalon.

As he finished reading the online thread and actually memorized certain important parts on the first breakers’ findings, he found Gilberto’s words somewhat true. In short, after the breakers have actually found the words, it was there that they got stuck. Some even went as far as jumbling the letters of the words and truthfully, there were over thousands of words in there and god knows just how painful it is to actually jumble them up.

Why didn’t I thought about that?

It was actually a simple way to find the meaning of the numbers in the novel. For every sentence, there was a number and that number corresponds to the words in that sentence. It was obvious and yet he didn’t realize.

But there are just too many words and it would take him forever if he would jumble it all up just like those people did before him.

Instead, he wrote the first twenty words he saw in his holographic pen and paper.

The words were: force, its, never, doubting, Terrans, he, easy, protector, ravaging, on, very, immortality, descents, even, none, came, end, from, intent, and notable. After he had noted the first twenty words, Siva started to use some sort of an algorithm to solve the relevance of the words.

The first one he used was to put them all in a straight sentence. No. It didn’t work out. He then started to put a few conjunctional words when necessary and even if the sentence were completed, it still did not make sense.

“Do I really have to use all of the words together?”

But then it would take so many days to solve it!

Siva trashed the idea.

But what he did was to add more words so he added the next ten words in there.

Declare, total, honestly, enhanced, people, rocks, on (…the other hand), verbally, intelligence, and defended were added on the list. And just by looking at them, he immediately knew, he would end up with the same “no” as a result of the same method.

And so he tried and it really is. Putting them together to create a sentence isn’t a working method.

His next move then consisted of lines and angles.

Siva used the table light and mirrored the words in their original place to see if there are actually some sort of direction they were going but all he ended up was a few triangle and irregular lines. They did crossed in on some words, even letters, but they still meant nothing. The line and angle technique was a waste of two hours.

And then he realized, there are actually thousands of ways to decipher it and if he could think of them, he’d be an old man before he could finally find a clue.

It was here that he also realized how and why those first code breakers gave up on this puzzle.

Their conclusion that the numbers were just there as guides, and doesn’t actually point out on the words that he just wrote down was becoming truer and truer. He can feel the laughing voices of the critics behind him.

After eight hours of doing nothing but trying many styles and ways to make out something on the words, he finally landed on the conclusion that maybe he did a big mistake somewhere. After that, he guessed that his first mistake came from the words itself.

What if it doesn’t mean these words?

As he thought of that idea, he felt the chill of truth crawling on his nape and back.

His mind worked, he shook his head and convinced himself. Going for a break, he went outside and bought food and had a meal. To relax himself, he drank cold tea to lower down his tension.

Was it a mistake?

As he reflected on these thoughts, he closed his eyes and leaned back. When he opened them, the night sky of Aarun greeted him, filled with stars and no moon.

He thought, the ways to solve this problem had as many stars there are in this night sky.

“Ah…what a beautiful sky.”

He felt relaxed looking at this kind of view.

How many days has it been? Weeks? Months? He actually never felt this relaxed ever since that happened.

Life is full of disasters. I just luckily landed on one.

Siva sighed heavily and noticed an old man beside him, also staring at the same stars as him in the bench.

“Good evening.”

“Hmm? Did you just wished me good evening or you actually meant that it was a good evening whether I want it or not? Or…you did meant that you felt good in this particular evening? Though I should say it is really a good evening. Or maybe are you just simply saying that it is an evening to be good on?”

Siva was utterly surprised.

What was that supposed to mean?

“Well, maybe…all of…them…I suppose…” And he raised a brow at which the old man smiled.

“Ahahaha…I was just quoting someone.”

“Sure. I guess.”

“You looked troubled when I saw you there earlier so I tried to do what you were doing and I found it very amusing.”

Siva tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. “Are you following me?”

“No.” The old man responded with a strong voice.

“But you just said….”

“I said ‘when I saw you earlier’ or are your ears just there as designs to make you look human?”

Siva became speechless. This old man here has a lot of problems, including his speech and his way of saying things that doesn’t make any sense. Or perhaps, he then thought bitterly, saying deep things with deep meaning leaning on to the direction that it actually doesn’t make any sense.

Wait…that doesn’t make any sense.

“Did you just thought I was an NPC?”

Those are the words that shocked him most.

“No I didn’t! But while we’re on the topic, so you mean you‘re not?”

“How insolent! Do you not recognize me, you damn brat! We just talked about weapon improvements on the shop not long ago!”

“What?! You‘re the shop owner?!”

“Fool! I‘m just the shop keeper! And being a keeper doesn‘t make me the owner!”

“No! I mean, you look different. You look old!”

“I am old, you freaking bastard! Can‘t you see?”

“No, I‘m sorry. I mean, does wearing a welding mask as hat with an apron can actually change the looks that much?”

“Hmm…” The old man rubbed his beard. “You do have a point. I sometimes see myself more handsome without them.”

Suddenly, Siva felt his world gone cold. “You‘re not at the slightest bit handsome. You‘re an old man.”

“I am old. Or are you actually blind and were just pretending to see me?”

“…”

“Ahahahaha…I‘m just kidding. Kids these days, you are all so easy to trick! Ahahaha…”

“You really are the Shop Keeper.”

“I am. I just told you that, right? Or are your ears just there to really make you look human?”

“Please don‘t go back on that topic.”

“Ahahahaha…anyways, what‘s bothering you?”

“Many things.”

“And they are?”

Siva paused as he read the man’s expressions. Yeah, users of the Neurolink Device are not limited to young people. And in Terroa, hunting monsters aren’t the only way to earn a living and actually play the game.

Some of the users entered the game to sight see. And there are those like this old man that entered the game to experience many things, including working on shops to become weapon smiths.

“Actually, I‘m working on a problem and I can‘t find a way how to solve it.”

“Are there clues?”

“Yes. Actually, the clues were given. It was just that the scope of the problem was too big, I’m overwhelmed by its entirety.”

“Ahahaha…you know kid, you‘re actually stupid.”

The comment was straight on the wound and he felt somehow hurt that it came from the old man.

“Don‘t rub it in.” He retorted.

At his reply, the old man stared up and Siva had no choice but to do the same.

The stars were scattered, looking like the same sky on where he grew up. Manila. In there, you can’t really see the night sky, even if it’s full of stars, because the nights in Manila are full of sparkling lights of the ads that blinds the beautiful view of the stars.

The only place you can actually go stargazing is when you’re on the rooftop of a tall building or when you’re actually in the province, somewhere high up.

“You know kid, I‘ve met people like you before.”

Siva looked at the old man who kept on staring at the stars and replied in honest curiosity, “Really?”

“Yeah. You think you‘re strong alone so you try to solve your problems alone. Then you crave for that which you can‘t reach so you can have something to be busy for, while actually forgetting your real problem.”

“What‘s that…”

Siva stopped in the middle of his sentence when he realized the truth on the old man’s words.

In short, I was distracted.

“…do you see these stars?” The old man pointed up.

Siva followed his finger. “Yeah?”

“That‘s your problem kid.”

“How did it became my problem?”

“First, you‘re easy to trick. You followed my finger without thinking. You did not even try to ask yourself just why and how it happened. Second, because you’re thinking too much of the problem, you‘re forgetting to actually ask the very basics of questions.”

“But…I tried it before.”

SIGH. “Kid, if you did you could have found your answer and not be here right now.”

Again, wise simple words and yet it had a profound meaning that was so deep, it was almost invisible. Siva asked himself what that question was. And he still did not find any answer. He was still distracted.

“So what are those questions? No. Wait. I know what you‘re gonna say. You’ll tell me that it was up to me to find that out.”

“No.” The old man’s expression was dead pan.“I actually planned to help you out but you said all those things so I change my mind. And yes you‘re right.” The old man stood up and fixed his clothes. “You must find that on your own.”

Siva tried to follow the old man but he somehow had some secret skill that each step he took looked a bit wider than normal. In just few seconds, he was gone.

Left with more questions than answers, along with his puzzled mind and chaotic thoughts, Siva went back to his bench and sat down heavily. He gazed up to the stars and sighed. He pondered on the conversation he just had and even to the fact that he was surprised to learn of the old man’s identity.

When he had spent a good two hours trying to find a way out of his predicament, he felt drowsy that he did a yawn loud enough it distracted the other players.

Then, he went back to the library. Good thing it was a 24/7 library and that inside his cubicle, he can sleep and think at the same time.

Just to make sure, he turned on the automatic log off system that let’s you log out of the game when you fell asleep. He stretched out the back support of the chair and leaned back to it, letting his arms rest on the side. He then read himself to sleep, reading the words he had written in his tablet and actually dedicating a few bytes of his brain memory to it.

After a few moments, he found himself dreaming.

In his dream, he was still thinking of the words that he wrote down. The words flew up above his head and there were the stars and the words floating in the dark night sky. Siva was floating beneath them, wearing his silver colored polo with a design on the left sleeve and the black slacks and his combat boots, with his cloak on above it all.

Face-its-never-doubting-Terrans…he thought of the words over and over, even in his dreams, he read it and looked for ways on how to solve it.

He lined it up, he lined it down, he jumbled it, made a few words, jumbled it again, took the numbers and the letters instead of words, he even put all of the words together and used the numbers to pick out particular letters from the words.

It was still nothing.

 

[TKhan]

Update 17

Rex in the Real World

Rex woke up and felt a bit comfortable in his back touching his bed. His right leg, as usual, was aching and so to cure it, he had to walk and adjust its settings. Thankfully, the maintenance kit for the robotic leg support was delivered two days after his stay in the safe house and so he had no problem trying to cure his bad leg.

For the past month, he’d been doubling his exercise regimen and his stretches are becoming more and more athletically inclined.

He had passed through the sixth month of rehab ever since the incident. And he felt that he can finally put a few weight on the bad leg and adjust the leg support on its lowest setting. The moment he did that, the first try he walked, he fell down. There was no one to catch him and he fell down on the bench on the mini garden.

On the pain, he couldn’t help but shout.

The crashing noise and his scream was loud enough that the kids playing outside peeked on the bottom of his gate.

When they saw that he fell down, they all scattered and called for their parents and older brothers, and even sisters, to go and help him.

Rex’s fall hurt his right elbow and it made recovery from his fall harder. Then the people came and peeked below, they saw him and called out at which Rex did not try to reject since his right leg actually hurt.

He flicked his fingers and made a sound, the electric lock disengaged and the gate opened, pulling itself in for four times and some of the people who saw it made reactions of awe before they helped him stand.

“Are you alright?” The adults who helped him stand asked Rex. “How did you fell down?”

Rex checked the robotic leg support and he grimmed when he saw that one of the main shaft broke.

“I was trying to do a new exercise regimen but I think I over adjusted it and I fell down. And now, not only does it hurt, it actually broke. I‘m in deep trouble.” 24

There were almost 15 people there, both children and adults, with younger ones and those around and a bit more than his age were also present. Some were all worried about him, some was just trying to join the loud commotion, some were actually helping him, and some are actually just looking at his somehow cute face.

Rex hadn’t been in the barbers so his hair was long and its slightly brown black color gave off impression of ethnicity.

His right eye had a cut that left a scar. His lips also had a scar that looked like a slash of something sharp from the upper to the lower. It gave off a bad boy aura and the young girls and adults alike marveled on how it gave additional charm on his mysteriousness.

In a very unique and rarest of the rare opportunities, they got a chance to finally see the boy next door. And just like how rumors of his coolness spread amongst the women of the neighborhood, this here was a chance that only come once in a lifetime. For that matter, the people that gathered in his house became 7:3 in favor of girls.

—young girls at that.

When Rex was finally sitting up on his bench, right leg outstretched, a teen girl quickly brought a med pack from her own house and started to cure the bruise on his right elbow. Good thing, his left arm with a cast wasn’t injured nor damaged.

As the treatment went on, that’s when he noticed that some of the people there are looking around at the small garden where they are. Some of them were old ladies.

“You live alone?” A man spoke up.

“Yeah.”

Then another interrupted. “I sometimes see an old woman coming here on weekday mornings. Is she your auntie, or your mother?”

Rex paused before he answered that question in a trembling manner. Somehow, he had lost his voice on how to talk to people.

“C-Caretaker…”

“Wow!” A few people exclaimed. Then another man asked, “What about the people in lab coats?”

“They are…” Rex paused and was averting any eye contact to anyone. “My…my doctors.”

At his answer, a unified understanding came from the surrounding people. Then, the teen who was treating his elbow asked, “I saw you when you came with your limousine. You must be rich.” and her face was flushed in red.

He could lie to them and say yes. But then, that’d be digging his own grave since he wasn’t even close to any of Augustus’s henchmen.

And so he just answered with a tinged of truth.

“No. My parents are dead.” And he actually said that with a sad expression that seem to stab at everyone’s hearts. “That‘s…my guardian.”

No one made a reaction. Somehow, they can see the picture on where this injured guy stood. And the ladies, most especially, wore compassionate eyes that they are almost on the verge of crying. Then, the teen finished her job and put on the bandages on his elbow.

“It‘s done.” She said with a beautiful smile. “Do you still have something that needs caring or fixing? I‘m a nurse student so you can ask me…”

She did not finish her adorable words since another pair of teens interrupted her.

“Hello, I‘m Anna. I‘m an HRM student. If you want any dish, I will cook for you.”

“Hi. I‘m Rio, I‘m an Engineering student and I can fix your leg support for you.”

“Really?” At those words, Rex actually felt really happy. “Can you really do that?”

“Of course!” Rio replied happily. “It just needs a bit of a fixing and…”

Then the teen nurse interrupted. “By the way, I am Elsie.” Her brows were twitching. “If it‘s not rude, can we ask for your name?”

Rex paused for a moment before he spoke. “D-Dex.”

Elsie nodded at her. “Nice to meet you and Anna, Rio, can I have a word with you two?”

The two called names looked at her, pouting. Then they followed her outside and the man earlier replaced them and gave him a metallic staff from nowhere.

“This is my grand father‘s. My name is Matt. I‘m just the house up front on the right. You can use this until your leg support is fixed. I won‘t ask questions on how you got these injuries ‘coz my instincts tell me that it‘s a personal business. But if you need anything, you can always call me. We‘re neighbors after all.”

At those kind words, Rex felt so small, he could’ve shrunk and hid on where he was sitting.

Then Matt stood up and turned to face everyone that gathered there. He told them that everything was alright and he literally controlled the crowd to back off and give him space. When they exited the premises, Matt waved a hand and told him it was okay to close the gate so Rex snapped his fingers again and the door followed the command with a smooth sound.

When he was alone, he sighed heavily and listened as the sound dispersed outside. But from below, there are still a few shadows standing in front of the house and he felt awkward that he had to need their help.

Then, a knock came from the gate.

Rex combed his hand as if holding a door knob and turned it left, then the lock on the side for people made a sound and Rex slid it right to open it.

At that, Elsie peeked and along with her was Anna and Rio. And they all smiled when they saw him sitting on the bench just outside his house.

“Ah, well, we‘ve decided…” Elsie began and Rio bid a smile and continued.

“…since you can‘t cook right now, we decided to bring you food.”

Then Anna finished with an adorable smile. “Can we do that?”

Rex was weak with those kinds of smiles. He could only remember when Baron was doing that when he’s either asking for a fight story or a piggy back ride.

Rex nodded weakly and told them. “I‘m sorry if I‘m asking you, so please…” And then he reversed. “But I promise, someday, I will repay you with the same level of kindness.”

Seeing his eyes and his reaction the three teens all made a smile and they bid goodbyes and closed the gate themselves. But then, outside, he could hear giggles and Matt’s rebuke.

And at that, due to pain and sudden exertion of effort and physical strain, Rex felt weak and actually felt sleepy. He went inside the house and sat on the sofa. He used the staff with difficulty since his leg support was broken and his right leg was actually stuck outstretched.

“Why me?” He let go of a long held breath.

And just as he was about to sleep, a call just came that made him jolt up. There was only one person in the world who would have the audacity to call this house.

And so he answered.

“You called?”

“I saw what happened.” It was not Augustus but the right hand man, Rude. “You actually made the whole neighborhood worried.”

“It wasn‘t intentional. And by the way, how did you see that? You actually said ‘whole neighborhood’.”

“It’s simple. We have more eyes in that place than you can imagine.”

“Heh. I thought so. To make sure I won‘t run away, you actually planned on checking up on me every damn minute. Don‘t tell me you also watches me while I‘m taking a dump.”

“We‘re not that low.” Rude’s face was stern and in killer mode. “Eitherway, we called to tell you that we will not be responsible for what you do outside the job. I think it’s been explained by Graham, but I will tell you again, one of the reason we don‘t want you out and socializing with people is the very reason that we won‘t be responsible if anything happens to you. That include you getting hurt unnecessarily. Do you understand?”

“I do.”

“Good. So what‘s with the staff?”

“My leg support broke and one of the neighbors gave this to me as a form of help.”

“I see. I‘m sorry, but what I said is final.”

“One of the neighbors offered to help fix it. Can I at least get that much?”

“Just outside the house. That‘s all.”

“It‘s fine.”

“Very well. Tomorrow, the doctors will be arriving. You can tell them what you need.”

“I appreciate that.”

Maybe sensing that Rex had a solid rock, flat faced expression, Rude asked something that was outside of his commands. Call it charm, or maybe sympathy, even Rude himself seem to realize it was a lot of trouble too.

“Is there something wrong?”

Rex could only stare at the face of the man in the holo panel. He straightened his pose and said with as much hate in his voice as he could. And with his long practice on improving his acting skills inside Terroa, he was positive that the message went across.

“Can I see my brother?” And as per usual reaction, Rude came quiet and he actually looked beside him and then shook his head. “I thought so.”

“I‘m sorry but you got your deal.”

“I know.”

“Good.”

“Do you need something else?”

“No more.”

“Then can we end this call? I‘m sleepy.”

“Alright. Just remember, time is against you.”

“I know.” And the call was cut.

 

[TKhan]

Update 18

Violence is the Best Medicine

Siva, in between his hunts when he’s resting, looks up his notes and tries to decipher the code.

Ask the basic question…

“Damn old man. What basic question?! There are no such thing as the basic question! You fooling me?!”

And he threw a rock towards the dark side of the forest. Even though it was the middle of the day, light does not pass through the thick branches of the trees and so the ground below seemed as if it was night. The only light there was the very tiny openings and it gave the impression that it was the afternoon.

To where he threw the rock, a few C-rank monsters came. Five of them. And seeing them, Siva could only feel as much happy as when he knew he found his goal.

“Come on!”

As he taunted, the first monster lunged an attack.

It was a Heron.

It’s a monster with a skin made of solidified blood and this monster was actually those that belonged in the boundaries of C and B rank. Since it was a monster that lives by eating other monsters, its ability was inclined to like a T-Rex, alongside its appearance that looked like its smaller ten meters high version.

The attack was made up of a thrusting motion with a bite when they see you on their peripheral vision.

And so he dealt the attack just how he dealt any of the same monster tackles before.

A punch right through its attack.

He met the attack with an attack of his own. He did not jump aside as any beginner would commit when in a fight against them. These monsters actually use their weakness as their asset and it was an effective and very deadly asset.

Just when his fist was about to make contact to the monster’s skull, even though it was three times his size, the Air Shot activated along with an invisible anti-recoil field behind his elbow. The frame of the Cassius Clay reinforced itself, allowing shock to the user come as if punching a normal sandbag. Thus, a knuckle weapon is born. Based on the form of his attack, the anti-recoil field will also change. When his fist is in axing motion (Karate Chop —which in his current level is effective only on D-rank monsters), the anti-recoil field is on the hand that serves as the blade.

The laser sensor that detected it activated both skills and Siva’s attack deflected the monster’s attack. They both got rejected by each other’s power but it was Siva who was in a bind since the monster easily recovered its balance using its large hind legs.

What more, its four friends also joined the fray that made Siva jump back to retreat in a more distant place.

Damn it.

Surrounded, he could not hope that there is going to be help coming his way. All he could do now is to do what he’s been doing all these time. And with the wild fight thought running in his head, Siva clenched his fist and prepared to meet them.

He kicked the ground and dived with all his effort. A straight line of dust came to where he took a step and he did it again, but this time, in a zigzag, to avoid being bitten by the monster’s large mouth. This wasn’t effect of an ability or any physical or equipment upgrade, this is pure ability born from his years of fighting (and also escaping) gangs and school raids alone.

He dodged the first, then the second, and when the third came, instead of dodging, he clapped his hands and a new kind of attack using air bellowed from him.

It was a technological technique that focuses on the impact to create a sonic boom towards the front side.

The effectiveness of this attack is just as far as three meters from Siva and it actually needed a full swing of the hands to maximize its effect. The effect, however, is that all living beings three meters away around the user will be subjected to air shock that numbs the body.

And at that, looking at the staggering monster, Siva jumped up and summoned a sword in exchange for his Cassius Clay.

He climbed up the monster’s body, gripped its scaly head and with its last moments alive looked at Siva’s face with an expression that told him his death is near.

“Yes…” Siva whispered as he pointed the sword’s tip towards its left eye. “Yes! I am your devil!”

And he stabbed it through, moderately fast, not quick and definitely not slow. The monster cried but Siva still continued to put it in deeper. And until the sword had reached its brain, with Siva’s hand holding it a few cm away from the eye, he ordered the weapon to do what simple function the blade had to do.

Grind.

Inside the monster’s head, the smooth blade snapped open and it became small blades like a chainsaw.

But the idea for it was different. It was Siva’s very unique idea. He used all of the Grinder fangs he had gathered to create the blade and used previous Heron’s bones he collected to use for the hilt and the guard.

Using alternating fluctuating tiny magnetic fields to move the small blades, it will not move in just one way, but rather, since it has an alternating magnetic fields in the tiny blade’s roots, it will move up and down in a straight line and will recreate the chainsaw effect in that manner. Although it may sound very powerful, the fact remained that it was a D-class weapon and so it wasn’t something that can be used to attack thick scales like the one these Herons had.

But, the catch is, it was a very effective weapon once it was working inside the soft spongy innards of a large monster. With that idea, combined with his unique CQC fighting style, Siva’s brutal hunt had just became more brutal and monster murder had just been given a new meaning.

It happened just as fast as he climbed up.

One second. That’s all it took him to kill the first one of the five. The other four couldn’t attack their comrade since they knew that the food was still onboard but as soon as they realized that their food was this dangerous, their instincts told their body to run away.

But alas, there was something inside them that was actually resisting their brain’s command. It was as if it was telling them to kill or be killed.

They can’t seem to resist his charm.

‘Why?’

‘Bro, why can’t we escape?’

‘I don’t know but when I’m looking at that Terran, my mouth seem to drool in hunger.’

‘Bro, me too!’

‘Me three!’

‘I want to eat him!’

‘Let’s escape…let’s escape to eat him.’

‘That’s conflictingly stupid bro…’

‘I don’t get it.’

‘Eat…attack him…kill him…’

The monsters talked to themselves as if they were in a trans. Their small brains failed to realize that they were already under Siva’s ability from the moment they entered his 100m radius territory, the Killing Zone.

It was a unique ability.

Just like in items, or equipments, of any other things in Terroa that had ranks and classifications, or even types of rarity, abilities also had rarity levels.

It starts from being Rare, Special, Legendary, and yes, being Unique.

If a player in the beginning of his game chooses to put 50% or more of his free stat points at any given stat, he would get the privilege to choose his initial skill or ability to a peculiar list.

That list ranges from Normal to Unique, depending on the settings of the skills of the user.

But there are rules, advantages, and disadvantages to this kind of privilege.

For example, in Henna’s case, she was an Archer but she also considered his defenses and his athleticism so after he spent 50% of her stats to DEX, which changed it on its advanced form, CON (Constitution), she spent the other 50% on AGI, STR, STA, and VIT. And so, basing on that setting, he received the opportunity to choose her initial skill from the build she had initially decided.

And as a Rare Skill, Hawkeye, she became adept in her archery, but not as effective as a pure Archer, who can shoot four arrows every second.

At 70% stat distribution, she could choose Double Shot or Strong Bow as an initial ability. All of these are Special Skills.

At 90%, she can choose one of the Legendary Skills Gyro Shot, Synergy, or even the Healing Arrow which is an ability inclined to the magical properties of the Holy Element that can heal wounds to a certain extent.

And then at 100% distribution to DEX, she could choose from Snipe, Ignore Defense, Quad Shot, or the coveted skill Arrow Storm.

But this would only work if he chose to be an Archer in the first place. Because as what was said, there are more to the 100% DEX distribution than just skills made for archery.

In Siva’s case, the ability he chose, Killing Zone, is an ability that doesn’t actually belong to any specific class of fighting style. It can belong to any, actually, but it was still a unique skill for it can only effect the user and nobody else.

As an example, whenever he’s agitated and in search for more enemy, that’s when the skill activates and only affects him. In short, it was a skill for loners.

Its purpose is that when a monster entered the 100m radius from the user’s origin, that monster would then be attracted to an irresistible smell leading it towards Siva. Its restriction affects his rank. Although unwritten in any form, player rank is determined by the highest kind of monster he had killed. So, even in Siva’s shoes, since he’s only killed C-ranked monsters so far, his rank is currently C. It would only increase when he kills any B-ranked monster and along with it is the rank of monsters that can be attracted to his smell.

The effect of the ability was that it will lower the enemy’s defense by 70% but the side effect is that there actually is no limit to any number that can be attracted to his direction. Meaning, if there are over a thousand C-ranked enemies in his 100m radius territory, includes D and E-ranks too, Siva had no choice but to fight them all or die.

On the side note, it only works on those that Siva had recognized as his enemies.

Kill or be killed.

For that reason, he’s been slowly but continuously enhancing his equipments one by one until he reaches the maximum level he can improve and upgrade them.

But that doesn’t mean he can be limited to only one kind of weapon. He was still a player after all. And with the privilege to all users that they are free to use any kind of fighting style and weapon, as long as their we would allow it, they are individually a huge unstoppable force.

As soon as he pulled off the blade from the Heron’s eye, his blood spilled clothes bade a vision of cruelty. He turned around and glared at the enemies, and with a flash of light, his equipment came back to being with Cassius Clay.

Naturally, all players are given an opportunity to set a maximum of three default equipments which they can interchange (reequip) at any moment’s notice. Unused items on their pre-entered settings are saved back into their inventory and as long as their weight units (we) allows it, the equipment settings can be controlled.

The four remaining monsters roared and two came at him at the same time. Each took left and right flank and the other two attacked from the front side.

In theory, these four are no different from just two large Herons attacking him. But that only applies on the defenses. Their attacking ability and their actual power output wasn’t a bit affected, making them as dangerous as they normally are without Siva’s ability’s effects.

But Siva was a person who never goes into war with nothing but shirt and sticks on.

He knew these facts and so he greeted them with his third equipment settings. And this time, it made use of consumable items that he himself is reluctant on using.

But still, this is an equipment that he had invented himself and he was positive that it will work.

Eibon and Steve.

As he thought out the names, the Cassius Clay on his arms vanished and two handguns materialized on his hands instead. The one on the left had a crimson silvery luster while the one on the right had a blackish gold color that shines beautifully in the dim light.

Of course, these are still on its prototype but him using these two are for one single purpose alone.

Blinding the enemy.

He fired off bullets and spent the full seven bullets clip each on the monsters up front.

When he had depleted the bullets, the goal was met to the one on the right but the one on the left protected its eyes by closing them but stepped back as he was in a state of shock from the wounds he received.

The flankers came, Siva dashed forward. Actually, in that situation, jumping back would have been a big fatal error for these monsters had a thrusting motion that can close ten meters gap in an instant. But when they are changing their direction when in their full swing thrust, their center of gravity would take time to shift from leg to leg, giving him enough time to kill the closed eyed bastard in front.

While the blinded one hits its head on the ground and the trees trying to drive away the pain, the other one recovered its bearing and saw him next.

Too bad for him, Siva was already five meters away from his monstrous face and while he kicked the air and did an Air Jump, the sword he had summoned in a split second was already on its way to his right eye. This time, not only this monster will be blind, but he’d also be dead —something that Siva enjoyed the sensation time and time again.

The monster could only let out a roar as its brain became minced meat inside its head.

Brutality was now Siva’s song and the two surviving Herons growled in anger and agony.

“Yes! Yes! Come on!” As he yelled, he exchanged weapons again. In a full swing punch, Air Shot was released and this made the left one’s head and his fist fly up in unison. But instead of going against the flow, Siva followed the momentum and Air Jumped using the other foot that brought him higher than the two’s jaws can reach.

While high up in the air, he summoned the guns and changed its magazine. Then he fired in the direction of the staggering Heron while he watched with wary eyes the actions of the other one.

It was waiting for him to land.

Too bad for you, I know you’re waiting for me.

He fired right on the left one’s face and even though he had poor accuracy, he still managed to shoot off one of its eye before he ran out of very expensive bullets.

Twenty eight bullets, 120K Zentra, gone. If he sell these four monsters’ parts, he could get 140K Zentra so deep inside his head, he had been telling himself to succeed or het goes broke. Kill or be killed.

As this thought entered his mind, he started to wear a smile. It was this one special feeling itself that made a Virtual Reality game very exciting. The difference of being able to move your own body than just a 3D avatar is so huge that it was overkill. Actually, this is the very same feeling that the players of the 3D world have been craving for.

Now he understood.

In Terroa, that craving had been long since forgotten because of the very harsh environment and the system’s nature that the game developers imposed on the users.

The thought “I must survive” gave birth to the poor conservative playing style that killed the enjoyment and the real excitement of a Virtual Reality game.

But now, he finally know the reason why it was made this way. He finally knew why it was harsh up to this point. He had finally realized the reason why this world was set to such a degree, it was almost hateable. And lastly, now he knows the reason why all of those people who went after his life were angry about. They also felt this feeling, but, ended up dying because the feeling overpowered their attention.

It was this exhilarating sensation that was addicting about this game. And now, Siva had found a name to that indescribable hunger he felt when he first stepped into Terroa. It was actually with him all along and he was just not accepting and was actually just denying it.

That name, that feeling, it was pleasure in violence.

Suddenly, he felt his whole body became alive. His attention became sharper, his senses more alert, and his reflexes…a lot more smoother. Naturally, the moment he accepted that name, something in him changed. No. There was something in him that woke up.

As he spent all of his bullets to that one monster, his eyes were already set towards the other enemy.

It was waiting there for him like a crocodile to its prey. But no, he thought happily.

I am not the prey. You are.

A smile flashed on his lips. Then the smile became a grin that could send an E-rank monster retreating, then the grin became a laugh, and that laugh was cold and sounded sinister.

The moment that he felt that gravity was pulling him back to the ground, he tilted his body, changed back to Cassius Clay, and dived in head first towards the last normal monster while looking at each other eye to eye.

The monster jumped, he knew it would jump, since all these time it’s been bending its leg. But then, as if he knew it already, Siva did nothing but waited for the plan on his mind to happen. It’s because the other one who had his one eye shot down, was waving its head, frantically trying to lessen the pain.

In his waving of its head, he ended up head hitting his companion’s neck. The jaws that was supposed to eat Siva whole changed direction and Siva then felt that the charging was completed.

It’s been 20 seconds already. His right fist is ready for use. It was this sudden awareness of his surrounding that made him wonder how it was possible.

And so with no wasted time, he punched down.

The Air Shot hit the normal one’s right side of the face and its expression rung the bells of effectivity since it did looked up as he fully absorbed direct air pressure.

Its head motioned to collapse to the ground but since Siva himself was in midair when he used the technique, he was also pushed a bit upwards. On his way down, he changed his gear to the Ender, and he stabbed the white bladed sword on the fallen one’s eye as he fell down.

No painful roars were made, it’s brain had been made numb from the air pressure that directly fed from its head’s pores.

Two more to go.

As soon as he turned his head, he wasted no time and climbed up the nearest staggering blinded monster. And after ten seconds more since he climbed, it fell down dead along with a painful roar.

The last monster paused to feel for his surroundings and he faced the direction where he had thought the last dying scream came.

But then a voice came from the other direction.

“I‘m here.”

And next that happened, the monster died.

 

[TKhan]

Update 19

Each Day

Archers and mages are distance fighters. To build a strong character, in their normal standards, would take at least ten months before his first 2nd tier abilities can be obtained through Upgrades and Items.

Talismans are the secret to a Mage’s power and his multiple magic ability, unlike any other class. Even if it’s Tier 1 magic, multiple talismans will still put on damages, although, they are very expensive, very rare (for a drop), and actually are very hard to create.

These accessories are made up of rune stones, rare materials, magical items, and was actually made not by technology, but by enchantment. That’s why there are many kinds of shops in a city. There are the NPC shops that deals general trading and equipment customization.

Blacksmith Shops for general melee combatants.

Archery Centers for bowmen.

Enchantment Temples for Mage fanatics.

And of course there are the Guilds that offers some advanced forms of enhancement and many kinds of improvements to a player’s personal skills.

But through all these, Mages share the most difficult of stages when trying to get stronger. It’s because not only Talismans are actually hard to make, they are also very sensitive things. So mostly, instead of streamlined visible equipments, they are made in the form of tiny accessories not easily seen by the naked eyes.

And although its magic damage decreases along with the talisman’s size, for conservative players, it’s always better than being visible targets for thieves and bandits.

Talismans are a Mage’s life, it defines them.

And despite their weak defenses and physical bodies, they are the strongest damager in a group, especially when against aliens.

Then there’re the archers. These people rely on their Bows, their arrows (and its numbers), and their DEX stat that defines 80% of their accuracy. An archer is a lot strong when using skills. Skills’ damage depends on where in the target it will hit and actually also depends heavily on the type of bow and arrow used.

In a way, they are like Mages, but right in the middle of being an all rounder and a magic caster.

What they’re after are mostly strings. A bow’s body is easy to find but strings, that’s the part that easily snaps when met with a certain tension. Sometimes, a skill use might loosen a string’s tension, affecting the player’s accuracy and the damage output itself. That’s why archers are searching for that ultimate string to pair up with their ultimate bow.

These two kinds of players are what mostly makes up 97% of all the hunting users. Melee fighters are the bunch that actually only relies on 50% skills and ability, and 50% defensive and attack power enhancements.

Equipments in this class mostly deals with all these adds and plusses. Additional defenses, additional stats, additional damage, and so on…but there are two kinds of melee fighters that defines their usage and maximum contribution in a hunting party. The first are those who actually enchant their weapons with magical abilities to deal physical damage + magical attributed attack, or, exchange from using melee attacks to casting magical spells in the middle of the fight.

The second are those pure melee fighters. They are the people who concentrates more on improving their equipments and their skills and abilities mostly leans on enhanced movements or specific ability.

These are the rarest of players. In ratio, for every 300 players, there would only be one pure melee fighter.

The reason for this rarity could be blamed on the person’s actual athleticism or to how much one could actually take on painful damages from a monster. Just the thought alone makes anyone cower away on being a cool knight.

And for this, seeing someone fight off five C-ranked Herons on his own —and actually win, brutally, is a sight enough to put Siva’s spectators to shivers. And so, in the midst of their seeing of such grandeur, a Mage from their group decided to take a video.

He started on the part where he killed the first one of the five. And when they saw that he flew up and the monster below were waiting for him, they knew at that moment that he’s now a goner. Still, they couldn’t pull themselves to help him.

They just kept watching even if they knew he was going to die. And then, it was here that the one taking the video told them, “He‘s smiling.”

“Excuse me?” Asked a C-ranked Archer.

“He‘s smiling look!”

Just when he was about to be eaten, that’s where the other monster who’s been swaying its head collided on his companion’s neck. It diverted the bite and actually gave him an opening for a counter attack.

It was there that he delivered a bone shattering point blank range attack on the monster and its eyes rolled up as a sign that the attack made an effect. Then the man changed his gear and finished the monster off on his way down with a sword. The sight was a bloody hell, like watching a 3-year old wash their clothes in blood.

And until he finished the last one the same way, all the group could do was let go of their long held breath.

“Did you see that?”

“He‘s a monster.”

“I think he’s a Martial Artist in real life.”

“Can they really fight like that?”

“Of course not! Those moves aren‘t human!”

Then they heard something interesting coming from the man’s direction. He was laughing. As he pulled off his sword from the monster’s eye, his face and whole body was actually bathed in red blood. And while he was holding the sword, that white splendid looking sword, he was looking up and laughing like a maniacal psycho killer.

“Why is he laughing?”

“I don‘t know man…”

“Don‘t ask me, I was just recording it.”

“Dude look!”

From their group’s left side, four blue skinned ten meters high monsters were walking towards the man’s direction. They all looked like they were hungry since they were all drooling while looking at him.

“Shit!”

“He‘s screwed…”

“Those are the top C-rank monsters, Sigma!”

The monsters looked like large rhinos with two tusks as eyebrows and a large blue skinned body filled with sharpened crocodile scales and a tail that looked like a large hammer.

An archer tried to stand but as soon as he turned his head around, he froze and his blood drained from his face. One of the mage noticed him and he also turn his head back. And there they saw it, another bunch of C-rank monsters with a head in a hammerhead sharks’ shape. In simple description, they looked like brown scaled land based hammerhead sharks with T-Rex legs, times four, and a lizard’s tail with sharp pointy bones.

“Another competitor to the top rank.” The mage told.

The monsters were just 30 meters away from them and from their angle, they could have seen the humans, the food, but in some weird phenomenon, the monsters seem to only see the man and ignore their presences.

And as soon as they saw it, the man then turned to greet his visitors and his laugh stopped but his smile did not disappear.

“Hahahaha…more!” The man said and after that, he resumed the death defying fight using his unique style that could only be explained in one word.

Daredevil.

***

Rex was watching the TV when Elsie and the others’ faces came from the browser that popped out on a corner of the holo TV. Since he wanted to be updated on the current events, he did not turn off the holo TV and instead went outside and just closed the door.

In the bench with his borrowed staff, he opened the door and the girls entered.

“Hello! We came again!” Anna greeted him cheerily.

“Dex, is it alright to go in?” Rio peeked and asked.

Rex nodded at them. Elsie led the three inside and he immediately noticed the things they had brought with them. Anna had a lunchbox. Rio brought a tool box. Elsie with her med kit.

“We came as usual…” Elsie told him. “I hope we aren‘t intruding.”

“No,” Rex smiled and explained, “I actually am a bit useless right now so I am really grateful that you guys are here. I‘m really sorry for the trouble.”

Anna blushed when their eyes met.

“It‘s our pleasure…I mean, it‘s our…yeah…it‘s our pleasure to…um…”

Rio interrupted. “What Anna was saying is that we are glad we could help. Anyways, let me have a look at that robotic leg support.”

Rio sat down and opened her tool box. For a student to have all those modern tools, she was definitely a rich kid with a rich or middle class family.

But then, that’s not what Rex noticed most. It was her clothes. They seemed to be loose and speaking of loose clothes…

At her prompt, Elsie kneeled down to check on her wounds. She was wearing normal house clothes and her bosom seemed to become a bit bigger than normal from her tight upper shirt. Anna saw it and so she sat down on his left, showcasing her aromatic cooking when she opened the lid of the lunch box.

It was one of the all-time Filipino favorite dish, Afritada, and Anna actually presented it with her cute and adorable smile.

The three girls seem to be teasing him and it was in a way that’s slowly getting bolder and bolder day by day.

At first they had their restraints and were a little bit reserved but now that they were on their fifth day of an everyday visit, they seemed to have made a competition of some sort along with a fourth element.

“Yo!” Matt’s voice made the three jolt. “How’re you feeling Dex?”

Rex raised his head and smiled at him while actually trying to avert his eyes off of the three’s actions. And his arrival was seemingly a good fortune because if he did not, Rex would have been in bigger trouble.

Noticing the girls’ clothes and their actions, Matt shook his head and spoke up. “Tsk, tsk, tsk…you girls, why are you wearing such daring clothes?”

“Not sexy?!”

“Me? Ugly?!”

“I’m not teasing him!”

Elsie was the first to react followed by Anna and finally Rio that made the two look at her with blushing and silent expressions. And Rio with burning red face went back to what she was doing and continued on.

“Ah…I mean, I‘m just…working here.”

I never even said any of those words. “Anyways,” Matt was holding a basketball and he threw it to Anna who hurriedly caught it with one hand while the other held on to the lunchbox. “You, my little sis, could you fetch me some water?”

“Kuya!” Anna angrily shouted. “Why of all places?”

Then Matt started to act. “Oh? Kuya is a bit envious of Dex. Why do I feel that I never once tasted Afritada made by my little sister before? Oh, kuya is hurt, really hurt. And yet, me asking for just a glass of water was yelled at by my cute little sister while serving another man…how…painful…how really, really painful…”

And Matt acted to cry.

Anna pouted, seemingly affected by the words, and she went outside with heavy footsteps.

“You were family?” Rex couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah. Mom and dad were always out for business and so I was left to look after her. And these two, well, I at least know them so I trust them with her.”

“Hey!” Rio retorted and Elsie seconded.

“That‘s rude!”

“But then again,” Rio added with a hmp. “That‘s just Matt for you. He never changes. Still ball headed.”

“Hey, what‘s that suppose to mean?” Matt crossed his brows and glared at her. Rio then stood up, being the tallest of the three girls, and since she was just a few centimeters short Matt’s height, she accepted his glare with another glare of her own.

“Exactly what I meant!”

And it was here that Elsie spoke to Rex. “Don‘t mind those two.”

“Are they always like that?”

“Always? Yeah, more like, that‘s the way they speak their love for each other.”

“I heard that!” Rio turned to face them. “Me? Him?! Not in a thousand years!”

“Heh! Look who‘s talking! Let me tell you now Dex, there was this time when we were in a forest in Terroa, I saved her and she hugged me crying.”

“That was…that was just the heat of the moment!”

“But you still hugged me.”

“That‘s because I was scared!”

Then Elsie told Rex. “See?”

But Rex, though he was laughing while watching the two, had something else that bugged his mind. It was all very clear in his memory, Matt said it, they play Terroa.

Could I ask them for help?

As this thought entered his mind, Rex automatically got his answer. No. I can’t trust them. Not yet. Maybe not while I’m still bound by the deal. As he thought of these things, Elsie noticed his silence and called, “Hey, you seem to be worrying about something.”

“Me…no, I was just thinking of what Matt said.” At this, Rex thought, at least I can use it as an alibi. Then he summoned the browser window and showed her of a list of words reaching over 300. Somehow, he got so deep into it that he just had to save it as personal file.

 

[TKhan]

Update 20

Problem Solved

“What is this?” Elsie’s brows curled in puzzlement and Rio and Matt got curious so they also peeked in.

“What are those words?”

“What are those words?”

The two looked at each other as the same words came out of their mouths at the same time. Then they did a loud hmp with each other and continued to check the list of words.

At that, Anna came back and handed Matt his glass of water. Matt received the glass and in his place, Anna squeezed in on the two.

“What are these words?” She asked.

“It’s something I picked up in the internet.” Rex answered. “I was looking for treasure maps so I tried to surf the net and then I came across this weird rumor and tried to investigate it. So when I heard Matt earlier…”

“Ah!” Matt let out a sound as if he had realized something. “So…oh…I see…from the sound of it, you seem to be a Book Gamer.”

“Book Gamer?” Anna asked, tilting her head. And even Rex wasn’t familiar of the term.

“These are gamers who first plan how they are going to play the game.” Matt lent an open hand as he started to explain. “Usually these are gamers that first research the game, write down their strategy plan, then adjust on that plan according to how they have decided to play the game. But this list…Dex, are you perhaps already playing Terroa?”

“Oh…well I‘m…ah…” On that short pause, Matt had a strange glint on his eyes before a victorious smile emerged on his lips.

“Oh no.”

“Not again.”

Elsie had the narrow eyed expression looking at Matt while Anna kept on staring at the list of words. When Matt got close to Rex, he had his hand lowered to him in a way that made him look like a prince reaching for a weakened knight.

“Dex, if it is possible…would you like me to be your private engineer?”

“Engineer?”

The term itself sounded fresh but it was not new since Rex himself had been called like that by the NPC shop keeper.

Engineers are the newest trend of players in Terroa. Swordsmen, Mages, Archers, these are all the classes that’s already been tried and tested throughout the gaming generations.

But no other game except RPG: Terroa had actually given players the freedom to wield and create their own specific weapons. In that regard, the versatile weapons experts (players with 2 or more weapons) are officially called Engineers. And Engineers aren’t only limited as fighters.

Though it was given that there is no smith job in the game, but once a player created a weapon from the NPC shops, then automatically, he can always sell that weapon. Thus, business and Arms Trading are made.

“Don‘t listen to him!” Rio interrupted. “I‘ll engineer your weapons! What type of fighter are you? Are you a hyper melee? A ranger? A Wizard? Or all of it?”

“Heh! As if your designing skills are in par with mine? All you can do is design basic functioning things that can be made by everyone.”

“Hey! Not everyone can use my designs!”

“Oh yeah I forgot, they can be made by everyone but no one can use them!”

“Compared to yours! Not only they‘re exclusive for melee fighters, the materials for them are all too rare to a normal hunter to find! In short, they‘re a lot worse than my designs!”

“Correction! Not worse…SUPERIOR!”

“Says who?”

“Says me!”

“Yeah because you‘re the first and last customer you ever had!”

“What?! And have you had your own customer?”

“…”

“Thought so.”

“Oh you two…you do know you’re both on the same boat there, right?”

“…”

Rex honestly had a laugh on that one. When was the last time he had these kind of people around? He can’t actually remember. But he honestly knew he missed it.

Elsie saw him smiling with her comment and so did an open gesture of gladness, “So what about it? You can go from both of them you know. We’re all in the same party and all of our equipments are made by these two.”

“Really?” Rex wondered honestly.

“Yup.” Rio answered him. “I specialize in ranged equipments.”

Then Matt interrupted. “I can create awesome melee weapons! My motto is ‘Strong men use the sword!’.” which made Rio glare at him again.

“Heh! You mean suicidal men use swords!”

“But cowards use ranged weapons…”

“What did you say?”

“You heard me!”

As the two started to quarrel again, Elsie put an immediate stop to their developing tension.

“You two, both your equipments are superb, okay, but if I should honestly put my thoughts into it, no offense, but your designs are really not only expensive and the materials very hard to gather, but it‘s also not meant for beginners. Not even for intermediate users.”

And so the verdict was given and peace came.

“Wait. What do you mean by that Elsie?”

“You mean to their designs?”

“Yes.”

To Rex’s fast inquiry, Rio and Matt’s attention was abruptly caught. They looked at him and studied his expression and from that honest curiosity alone, it was enough to make them smile. But then, there was a feeling alongside with it. A feeling that felt so deep, it seemed…sadistic.

Even so, their happiness to learn that he is interested were enough to overcast the doubts. The two’s eyes had a strange glow that could only be directed to a certain enthusiasm: Gadget Freaks.

“So what are your preferential?” Matt asked.

“Tell me your style, I‘ll get right on it.” Rio adds and the two’s eyes were filled with life, different from when they are fighting with each other.

Rex was overwhelmed by their spirit that their faces were too close to him, overshadowing his entire being.

But then, a joyful sound like a TING! came from the youngest of their group and they all looked at her with a look of bewilderment. Anna, however had just realized that she was missing out of something.

“What?” She could only say.

Matt walked towards her and checked where her attention was all these time. “What were you doing?”

“I solved the puzzle.”

“Huh?” Rio tilted her head in confusion.

“What puzzle are you talking about?” Elsie inquired.

Then Anna took the holo panel as if a thin solid paper and flipped it to show its contents.

“I solved your puzzle Dex.” She innocently said.

“You can‘t be serious…right?” Rex was skeptic. He had spent weeks over it, over a hundred ways to solve it, hours of concentrated attention, but once, he never got ahead of those endless words. So of course, Anna, in just a few minutes, solving that puzzle that no one else had ever done, it just sounded really impossible.

“No.” But her face was really serious. “Look. It has this repetitive message.”

“What repetitive message?” Curiously, Rex snatched up another browser and saw what magic Anna made and true enough, his eyes widened in surprise.

“It really is a repetitive message.”

In truth, all Anna did wasn’t much. Since the words were already stacked together, top to bottom, beginning from the earliest to the 305th word, what was left for her to tinker was just to circle out all of the first letters of the words. Thus, a repetitive message is revealed.

Rio and Elsie was also in shock. Of course they will be. Anyone will. It’s because from just a first glance of those words, there’s already the head-aching impression of a puzzle. But then Anna…in just those short time, she actually managed to solve a puzzle without so much as a single clue.

“The answer was there all along!” Rex shouted in delight as he clenched his fist. In his happiness, he shook Anna’s hand that almost tore up her shoulders.

“Wait, Dex, why are you so happy?”

“Yeah. Is that puzzle really that important to your game?”

Rex could only look at Rio and Matt with surprise as he had failed to hide his excitement. Too late for any kind of cover up, and so he had no choice but to create another lie to cover a lie.

“Ah well, you see, you know that my parents are dead, right…?” The four exchanged glances and they all nodded. “And you know that I am like this, under the care of my guardian, right?”

Again the three girls nodded.

“So?”

On Matt’s prompt, Rex took a deep breath and let it go in a long sigh. When it seemed that he had built up the right atmosphere, he said, “I have a younger brother, he‘s the only family I had left. Our guardian is not a relative and so if you can imagine my situation, I know you will come to think that someday, I will have to repay that man of all the money he had spent on taking care of us. And since I don‘t have money, I could only go for a living by selling treasures.”

“I see.” Matt nodded and the three girls looked at him while waiting for a reply. “Basically, what you‘re planning is to sell whatever this puzzle may lead to, a treasure, right? But Dex…solving this puzzle doesn‘t make any sense. I mean…Find The Providence? What does that even mean?”

“Everything, Matt, everything.”

“A jump board?”

“Precisely!”

Seeing the determined look in his eyes, what ever the words they all wanted to say vanished in the blue veil of resolve. They can feel a deep emotion coming from the eyes of the man. Is that why he kept on standing?

Is it the reason why he felt so distant?

As different thoughts started to swell in their minds, questions also started to rise. But then, there is that one thought that they all wanted to confirm and basing from what his reply going to be, it might actually affect the bond they were just starting to create.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW


But them, as young adults, doesn’t have the guts to ask away. All of them, except Anna.

“But Dex, where‘s your brother?”

Rex widened his eyes in surprise to her question. He averted his gaze from her and clenched his fists. It trembled on his lap and caused Elsie to worry, even Matt who seemed to be carefree and headstrong saw the strikes of sadness in his eyes. So he pulled Anna closer and shook his head to her bewildered expression.

“Well, I‘m not really good at talking about him yet.“

“I see. I‘m sorry if we asked.”

Rex shook his head, but then when he looked at the browser window again, his mood lightened up.

“Well, anyways, I‘m surprised to learn you were also a player of Terroa. Would you perhaps like to join us?”

On Matt’s attempt to change the mood, Elsie also had a guess that it might work and so she nodded and pitched in her own words. “Yes! Would you like to? We play only for fun and adventure. We don‘t actually care about other guilds and such.”

“What‘s your goal in playing the game?” Rex asked.

The four exchanged glances, then, Rio took a piece of metal, Matt showed his muscle, Elsie stood up with both hands on her waist, and Anna looked afar. All of them were in their pose as they all said, one by one:

“My goal is to become the best enchanted weapon‘s inventor! I will use modern technological designs using magical runes and functioning as magical artifacts!”

“I want to create the best and the strongest weapon of destruction! Bwahahaha…”

“I‘m just here to heal them. As long as I am alive, no member of this team shall die.”

“I love Hawkeye of the Avengers so my goal is to be like him. I will be the best sniper in the game!”

Rex could have laughed them off but seeing their face full of life and energy, he couldn’t pull himself to do so. More like, he was drawn to their passion so much that he thought that he could trust them. Maybe.

“What about you?” Matt suddenly asked and Rex was taken aback.

“Me?”

“Yes. Are you really only looking at Terroa as some kind of money making game?”

Money making game?

Somehow, Rex was hurt by those words. He didn’t know why or how, but he felt emptied of all his safety belt when he pondered on that one question. What was that? He don’t know the answer. Somewhere on the line while thinking about this puzzle and to how much he can make from selling off excess treasures he can find, he lost the answer to that question.

—No.

More like, there is only one answer to that question.

“Yes.” He answered with a hollowed expression. “I don‘t have anything else of use for Terroa.”

On that answer, the dark veil of emptiness shrouded the face of the four visitors. Seemingly feeling the awkward tension, Matt was the one who patted Rex’s shoulder while saying, “It‘s decided then. You‘re coming with us.”

And the four stood up, leaving Rex. “Wait! What is that? What do you mean?”

And when the four of them were already at the gate, Matt leaned back and told him casually, “Just exactly what you heard. We are all from Central Continent. Are you somewhere close?”

“Aarun.” Rex shakily said.

“Alright. An hour from now, let‘s meet up in the central plaza of Aarun, near the fountain.”

“W-Wait! I haven‘t said yes to anything!”

“You don‘t have to. As friends, it‘s all we can do to cheer you up. Oh, and also, eat plenty. We might hunt for the whole night.”

And then Matt left with them while wearing a wide grin. Rex was still standing, trying to decipher what had just happened. While the floating holo panel in front of him had the words that Anna had just solved, Rex was thinking of the lingering presences of his visitors.

Friends.

He was sure he was called like that. Since when was the last time he called anyone a friend?

He can’t remember.

And as he slumped back to the bench, the smell of Afritada entered his nose. And as he looked to the right…he commented upon himself.

“Weird…I‘m smiling…”

 

[TKhan]

Update 21

The First Meeting (1)

It was still two hours inside the game for the planned meeting, Siva went directly to the old man’s shop.

“Hmm? Oh! It‘s you young man. Perfect timing. I‘m finished with the adjustments you wanted me to do. And let me tell you mate, these are the last adjustments we can give to your weapon.”

“Did the durability increase?”

“Yeah.” The old man scratched his nose. “I was sure surprised to learn that. Where did you learn that draping it with Cuar blood in the middle of forging will fortify the bond and strengthen the Heron bone material?”

“I read a lot of books.”

“Hahaha…good to know a lot of things eh? Anyway, I also happen to see a few adjustment slots in there after finishing your request so as a courtesy for a regular, I put on some personal touches of mine from the years that I‘ve been here.”

“Much appreciated.”

“Naaa, it‘s alright. Besides, with our last adjustments on this baby, it‘s now a unique C-Class weapon. Of all the weapon requests I‘ve seen, this is the first of its class so be proud of it, boy.”

“Thank you.”

Siva equipped the Cassius Clay and examined its now new form. It was smaller but had more durability, lighter, but definitely stronger, and its functions’ output were improved tremendously with the last adjustments.

By using highest grade C-rank materials, Cassius Clay had been improved greatly, it made him smile.

Then, when he examined the Ender, he was also pleased with the improved durability, sharpness, and the strengthened frame that corresponds with increase of damage output.

It was worth all those trouble he had against fifty or so top-rank C-ranked monsters.

But then, when he held in his hands his beloved very own uniquely designed, marvel of Terroa Engineering, Eibon and Steve —the Twin Guns, his happiness could not be put into words.

The black golden shine of Steve was as sinister as he last saw it and Eibon’s majestic silvery crimson color was as tantalizing to the eyes as it ever been. Both had been improved. Their barrels are sturdier than before, and in front of the muzzle was as an extension that gave the looks as if the guns were longer than their original designs.

But then he asked the old man, “Where is the thing you said you improved with your personal touches?”

Hearing him made the old man laugh. “Hehe, you‘ll know it when you feed manna into it.”

“Manna? But if I use my manna in the guns, doesn‘t that make me a magician?”

“Hahahaha…you‘ll see.”

Siva could only shake his head as he left the NPC shop and his next destination was the library. There, as soon as his feet landed on the solid ground floor of the building, his concentration on the target was eating up all of the other people’s attention.

Wearing silver polo, black slacks, and a white sword reversely stacked on his back with the scabbard (a pair of metal clip) on his left shoulder and the hilt on his right waist.

And when he finally got into the 4th floor, he did not let the female NPC finish her words as he instantly told her what book he wanted.

And then, in the fifth floor, facing the giant Book of Legends, he spoke up.

“Search: Providence.”

TING!

[No search results]

As soon as he saw the message, he felt that his world collapsed. No. He felt that it was understandable but it was still a shock. Of course the map to a treasure can’t be existing on the Book of Legends. It was a book older than the novel Clemente’s Demise itself. Even older than the generation at which the author existed.

But still, he tried to randomize the search.

“Search: Find The Providence!”

No results. He also tried to randomize the letters but still failed. And so, at the end of his two hour time before the designated meeting time, frustration and a big lug of disappointment had befallen on his shoulders.

There was no answer except for one.

“This is not a keyword in the Book of Legends, this is a message directly from the author.”

Yes. He could only think about that. The author was an avid supporter of the late Clemente. From the way the book was written, it was clear that he despised the rumors of his late great leader’s past. For him, it was a degrading conduct that he even noted in the end of his book that he will find them all.

For Siva, it doesn’t make any sense, but then for the author, it was his life.

Siva was frustrated over one thing, “Another dead end.” and this thought was making his hunger worse.

Outside the library, there were eateries lined one after another. It was as if the developers knew that users will always flock around the library and so they set up a whole lot of them to help users spend their money and make the company rich.

Siva had been spending a few of his breaks in here. He most liked one place where an old man was cooking a cheap set of food, foot long sausage between breads and burgers with drinks. It only costs 200Zentra but the flavor and satisfaction was enough for poor people like him. He chose to be one, despite his ability to give himself a better life inside the game.

And then, this particular day, the old man attending the stall tried to have the normal conversations he always had with Siva.

“You look disjointed.”

“I am?” Siva raised a brow while munching angrily at the foot long sausage burger.

“Yes you are. Something bothering you kid?”

“The Providence.” Siva answered nonchalantly. It was a famous trigger for a quest on most games. Once an NPC tried to have a conversation, it is sometimes a trigger to some quest. And if the player is lucky, he might end up with a high grade quest or mission.

But alas, the NPC said, “What‘s that?” with a very clear indication of bewilderment. “Well, whatever it is, I know you will find this thing or whatever it is.”

Siva shrugged and finished his meal. In the plaza, he sat down on the bench and waited for the familiar faces while wearing his cloak and a mask covering his face. In his back, the sword can be seen vaguely since the cloak does not actually cover up the whole body and the tip of the clip that held the weapon protruded.

His sitting in the plaza cross armed had actually been turned into a commotion. The cloak and the mask has been used too many times often and those who were familiar with it always bringing loads and loads of dead monsters in a tractor started the gossips.

At first the crowd was just a few hunters, but then as the minutes passed by, they became tens or maybe reaching hundreds.

Some people took pictures, some videos, but still, there are those who settled themselves on the exchange of stories while whispering with each other, not aware that they were actually worsening the situation. But then a louder commotion came from the direction of the gates. People were telling names and titles but Siva did never butt any care about it for he was too absorbed in his thoughts to be minding things.

And then as the commotion became louder, that’s where Siva saw Matt’s face protruding from the crowd of middle sized players.

Then he saw Anna, with her black clad armor that resembled Black Widow in the movies and Rio who actually looked like an old ideal witch in purple drab clothing and a large triangle hat that can shelter two people. They were all being followed by a priestess, who, in all respect, was so Elsie with her reserved and cowardly look.

Seeing them, Siva understood why people were there around them, flocking like ants on sweets. It’s because from the looks of their equipments alone, it was no doubt that they are high ranked players. That’s actually the first thing that Siva noticed. But for these men, well, we could only honestly say that Siva’s eyes aren’t for looking at women.

And so, Siva raised and waved a hand that instantly grabbed Anna’s attention. She ran over and jumped at Siva with no regards to whatever the other users around would actually say.

“W-wait…how did you know it was me?” Siva asks and Anna only smiled at him pointing at the bench.

“You always sit the same way in your house.”

“I see.” With a sweat rolling down his cheeks, the rest of the team was approaching one by one and Matt bumped fists with Siva.

“Sorry we took so long, we didn‘t use our teleport devices to get here. How long are we late?”

“One hour, fifteen minutes, thirty two seconds.”

“All because of Rio‘s wardrobe.”

“It was so fast and windy, it actually almost ruined my hair. Hmp.”

“Come on, I was looking forward to this!”

As Matt explained, Elsie and Anna told their whines leaving Rio pouting as she brushed her hair.

This group of five, without them minding it, had just became the center of attention in the plaza. First, there was the eye catching Rio, a witch by all respect. Paired with her large hat, her short skirt, high heeled knee long boots, short cape that looked like mini wings divided on her shoulders and flattering in the wind, and the face on top of it that gave the impression of the bewitching beautiful witch.

Second was the tall Knight beside Siva. Matt was the simple explanation of a Paladin, though he doesn’t look like he uses a shield but the Claymore on his left side is enough to give him the impression. His armor was not to be told of jokes since aside from its bright chrome shine, the material used by his armor set was that of an S-ranked monster. So with him and the people around him, carrying his helmet on one arm looked like a Car Racer after a great race.

Then there was the simple white beauty of Elsie.

Although she gave the impression of a priestess, her clothes are still made from high grade materials but the design itself was not inclined to a priestess. It was just her way of carrying herself conservatively that gave the impression of the job. In fact, in Terroa, a priestess is more properly called a Healer.

Since there are no actual Church Priestess in Terroa, those who take up the noble profession of healing other people are called Healers, wielder of the very useful but MNA-INT stats, and Slot consuming Healing Magic.

Lastly, there was Anna.

Anna actually looked different here than in the real world. In Terroa, she was now called Hawkeye, as she have previously announced, and she is a pure ranger.

Her equipment is a technologically advanced bow made by Rio at which, it has the ability to fire off light arrows, instead of normal arrows. It was a laser module, very expensive, detailed, and very rare. It was only a possible feat all thanks to a rare MOD they discovered in one of their adventures. That MOD recharges Energy of the user 25% every minute.

But since the Magic Ornamental Device landed on Anna’s hand, she gets the privilege to choose how she wanted to use the item. And thus, Rio created a weapon that can give emphasis to the MOD’s special attribute.

All in all, this group of three woman and a guy was a group known throughout the continent as [explorers].

These people were famous for being solid fans of adventures and sight seeing. They aren‘t weak and also slightly very strong.

They are famous adventurers because of new places they discovered, taking videos and pictures of it, then posting it on their blog site. In a way, they are also a bit famous on tourist users and that’s the reason why they are gaining this kind of attention. Not only because this four had uniquely strong inventions as their equipment, their fighting style was also acclaimed by others.

But then there was another kind of topic circling around their group. It was all going around Siva.

People were wondering why “The Volume Hunter” were talking with them and they could only blame it all on the rumor of VH’s next haul.

And so they closed in to listen on their conversation.

“Call me Siva here.”

“Alright.” Said Matt. “I‘m Volt.”

Then Anna, “Hawkeye.”

Rio was “Samara” while Elsie was “Agatha”.

“Really…Siva? I didn‘t know you had a thing for masks. What made you wear one?”

On Volt’s remark, Siva began to be anxious of his surroundings. He looked at the people’s faces, to the ones whose been gossiping around, and then to the ones familiar to him since they were following him around for the past how many hours.

“This crowd is the reason why.”

“I could say the same.” Agatha added and they all agreed to go to a restaurant.

In there, though the people were lessened, Siva was still reluctant on removing his mask. Though he had lowered his hood to reveal his long hair and his skin complexion, he was still unwilling to remove the mask.

They ordered some foods and for the next moments that they were gathered, the girls were already staring at Siva and his mask.

This annoyed him so much that he did not enjoy the foods he ordered. Then, when the conversation finally got into an awkward silence, that’s where they all put their gazes on Siva.

“So what‘s with the mask?” Rio asked.

“Yeah.” Elsie seconded. “I thought they were meant for the crowd. What does that mean?”

“These people are gossip mongers. So far, I‘ve made up some sort of story around these parts and if I reveal my face here…”

Samara stared at him then to the people around with her piercing, studying glance. And when he pulled it back, she said, “Your personal gaming life might get affected by the rumors they would create.”

Siva nodded silently.

“Well,” Volt clapped his hands. “That’s it for the introduction part. I think I should ask this now, Siva, in regards to that secret, what are you planning to do with it after you found it?”

“Sell it.” Siva answered. “Then find another one.”

The four visitors looked at each other and they all placed a single look on their faces as if they had landed on a single unified thought. And when Volt opened his mouth again, he looked as if he doesn’t care.

“Alright. I‘ve decided, we will go along with you.”

 

[TKhan]

Update 22

The First Meeting (2)

And the rest all cross armed nodded.

A sound as if “Kuh” was heard coming from Siva’s mouth and his actions as if being choked gave him away. At that, he said hoarsely, “Are you guys serious?”

“Yes.” Replied Samara. “As you‘ve know, we are a group that are hired always by tourist companies to do explorations around the Central Continent. We’re pretty strong too. And you coming along with us will be good for both sides. The more the merrier, right?”

Hawkeye added, “Actually, as of late, it‘s been kinda boring so adding you to the group will change that.”

Agatha spoke after drinking a sip of her coffee, “It‘s because the requests have been getting harsher and harsher from the clients, their prices for new places for development of a tourist destination have been getting lower and also…” She placed the look on Volt.

“Yeah,” Volt told Siva, “Ever since we met you that day when you fell, it kind of been our conversation to bring you along so we could have fun together.”

“Ah…I appreciate the thought.” Siva smiled but it wasn’t long. “But what I‘m actually concerned here is my personal goal and also I have a skill that will always endanger you all.”

“Skill?” Hawkeye tilted her head adorably.

“Yes. And my goal might actually hinder you all in the future. As you‘ve known, I play this game not to have fun, but to earn money. But most importantly, I‘m here to sell the MODs. I‘m not even planning to keep them for use myself.”

“That‘s extreme!”

“Yeah, I know that already. But, you guys, I actually appreciate the thought. I know all players would like to have a taste of what MODs power up are like, but I‘m not one of them. I‘d rather sell them off.”

“I understand.” Volt was still nodding, seemingly unmoved by his opposition to his worries. And at that, Hawkeye was also nodding cross armed. And then, she raised a finger that made Siva curious.

“Are you perhaps avoiding groups with rules?”

“Rules?” Siva corrected his thoughts. “Not really. I think rules in a group is normal. Though I‘m not sure if you guys are referring to the rules of MOD acquisition.”

“But we don‘t have such rules in our group.” Samara interrupted. “You see, MODs doesn‘t get crafted out of a monster’s belly. After a fight, if a MOD carrying monster dies, that MOD automatically drops off like a normal drop, shining like a gem rock, floating in mid air. That‘s how MODs drop from monsters. And…no one else except the worthy will get the MOD.”

That’s new. Siva thought of this as he pondered. He looked at them one by one and except for the fidgeting Elsie who called herself Agatha inside the game, there were looks of satisfaction on the others’ faces.

“But what do you mean by worthy?” He asked with honest curiosity.

“Simply put.” Volt explained. “The person who had the most performance during the fight gets the right to have the MOD. And we‘re not the ones to decide with it, it‘s the system itself.”

“I see. So basically, the one who exerts the greatest effort gets to be the winner.”

“Basically. But you can always hand over the item if you want. It‘ll just crawl in mid air like a floating gem and until the worthy touched it, no one else can steal it from him or her.”

Once a person gets the MOD, he gets the privilege to do whatever he wants with it, either use it or give it away. In a way, that’s really a good deal. It’s because usually, in most hunting groups, the leader of the party gets to decide what it is to do with their loot. But in this particular adventure team, no, actually, it applies to everyone else, they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted to do with the MOD.

If so, then hat happened to the conflict between TGG and the Sylphiadora Guild?

Siva thought of how it started, in the news he had the chance to have a peek at in the internet, it was said that the Slyphiadora Guild snatched away a Special MOD from a hunting team from Titan Goliath Guild who won it over a hunt. And if that rule applied to everyone else and not just this particular team, then that means that the Sylphs had committed a grave crime.

They murdered users for a MOD.

People are corruptible, and for fame, money, even gaining small attention, they would kill for it.

Is that how this game had turned people to?

As Siva’s thoughts began to drift away, he suddenly remembered where his body was located. He casually put a stop to his swirling thoughts and focused on the situation and the conversation at hand.

Though Siva was being tempted to agree to their request, he just have to ask, “What’s your personal goals as players? Individually.”

The look of surprise was seen in their faces but since it was a question befitting the situation and the given circumstances they knew of Siva, Matt’s avatar was the first to nod after a sigh.

“Actually, I play the game just to sight see.”

Then followed by Anna, The Hawkeye, who held her bow, “I just wanted to hunt monsters just like the ones in the movies and practice archery.”

“I‘m just here to take care of them and also train myself for being a nurse.” Elsie’s avatar, Agatha, spoke.

“I just want to invent things.” Said Rio, The Witch, who had a floating bag beside the table.

“What about you, Siva, does selling treasures and MODs all you actually want in the game?”

At Volt’s question, Siva couldn’t help but chuckle.

I can’t believe I had to answer that.

“Yes and No.” He said. “Yes I want to sell them off whenever I could find them and no, that‘s not all I want from this game. If I had to put it into words, this place is also my outlet.”

“I thought so.” Replied Volt. “Then what about this, do you want to come with us while actually doing what you‘ve always been doing. And also with our rules, you won‘t have to worry about anyone getting your stash.”

“Actually, like what I‘ve told you guys before, what I‘m worried about isn‘t about that but rather, because of my ability. Because whether you like it or not, if I go with you guys, somewhere in the future, you will hate me and my ability for bringing in trouble.”

“So what was that ability?” On Agatha’s question, Siva was left to look away towards the window.

“It‘s hard to tell.” He could only tell her. “But it can be quite painful, to the point that you will have to quit being with me and wish to go our separate ways.”

But Volt urged, “Go on.” and even Samara and the ranger Hawkeye was putting on faces that they were all looking forward to hearing it.

“…and I‘m also quite low ranked.”

“We don‘t mind.” Said Volt and at that, Siva was now pushed in a corner from his own excuses.

“Why do I have to join you again?”

“Does it matter? It‘s because we‘re friends, right? And as far as I know, friends always travel with each other and have fun together and especially, they always have adventures together.”

And he was actually pointing at some drawn horizon inside the restaurant and dragging Siva’s head to that imaginary situation to some imaginary place.

But Siva removed the hand and brushed away the clouds of imagination.

“I‘m sorry guys, but my decision is clear…”

And before he could even finish his words in an awkward end, Hawkeye had already interrupted.

“Are you perhaps afraid to be hated or are you afraid to lose relationships?”

In the midst of his standing up, behind the mask of conceit, fakery, deception, and the literal sense of the word, Siva’s heart swayed. It was said that truth will always set anyone free, and though he was prepared to leave them here, after hearing those words, and Elsie’s hand pulling his shirt, that Priestess from the Apollo Race had a shine in her eyes that told him “Don’t go.” +

“You know, whatever your ability are, what we‘re after wasn‘t any kind of material thing. We just wanted you to trust us. We just wanted to be friends with you.”

Agatha’s hand reaching in from the other side of the table let go of his shirt. Siva, who was ready to let it all go slowly sat down on the table and reached in for his head. He undid the clip that let go of his mask’s grip on his skull and Siva’s white face finally revealed itself.

Seeing him, all his four visitors were dumbstruck.

Siva was from the Apollo Race so essentially he was expected to be a handsome guy. The special traits of the Apollo Race was that it was a race focused on physical appearance rather than fighting prowess.

The stat Charm at which the Apollo boasts with an additional bonus in the beginning of the game, may not have much effect on people but it does have an effect if it was raised and tended to in a certain level. Apollo uses the CHR stat to brighten up the complexion of the avatar, making the person appear 30% more appealing in the naked eyes. It has an effect on the mood of the people around that character and it does tremendous effect on NPCs especially of the opposite sex.

But him, Siva, his Apollo character was a picture of battle. He had a large scar on his left cheek, a scar that went from left upper lip to the bottom, and three slanted scars on his right forehead.

Though it may have looked like a gruesome sight, for some reason, the girls and even the eavesdropping patrons of the restaurant were all frozen on the sight of their table. Yes, the Apollo Race was a handsome race, but this man was an exaggeration of that word. He had this pained expression in him that automatically turns into a sight, more beautiful than any sunset or sunrise anyone had ever seen.

Siva was looking down, his hair was fluttering in the gentle breeze of the city streets. His shoulders made a movement that indicated he let out a long held breath and moved up and down until it settled.

While the streets of Aarun boasted on the lively atmosphere it had as a frontier city with lots of Newbies and traveling businessmen walking to and fro, Siva’s long black hair fluttered with elegance that any person who saw it would have frozen in place thinking he was some nobleman from some anime who came to life. And yet, that beautiful face had a sad expression.

It broke the NPC waitress’s heart that she ran toward the back room. The eavesdropping female players were suddenly struck down with conscience that they cried and went towards the comfort room.

Everything in his 30m radius suddenly became a place of religious worship that all those who had a weak heart either collapsed or averted their gazes in extreme nostalgia. And while all these things happening in just mere seconds after he removed his mask, the three girls in his table did not escape the CHR effect.

“I…I‘m sorry…” Hawkeye’s words trembled as she deliberately spoken the words with utter shyness.

Then Agatha who was directly opposite him, sobbed and wiped the forming tears in her eyes, “So the reason you were not willing to travel with us is because you’re afraid that your ability would make you hated.”

Siva kept being silent.

“But that‘s not the real case here, right?”

Siva glanced at Samara and fell into silence. Then Volt put his elbow on Siva’s shoulders and said, “You are really a handful. I told you countless times, right? We don‘t care what your goal is, we play this game for fun. Alright, what about this, we get to hunt one time, and then we leave you alone to decide.”

“Is it really alright for you guys?”

Volt tapped his shoulder. “Of course.” And Samara sighed with a smile in the end.

“But in exchange for you declining our invitation to party, we will have to accompany you on your search for that treasure.”

Siva let go of a short cough.

Hawkeye leaned over and punched his arm. “We‘re actually vacant since we just came from an adventure in the dessert on the northern lands. We have plenty of time to spare for you.”

“But what about your other contractors?” Siva tried to shake them off.

“All cleared.” Agatha answered. “And in addition to you declining us to party, ehem, you will have to add us up on your friends list.”

SIGH. “I really have no escape on you guys huh.”

“Friends are like pimples, it‘s irritatingly there.” Said Volt and Anna and the rest laughed off, making their table alive.

Siva let go another sigh before he opened his prompt window and sent out friend invitations. And when he was about to close the holographic panel after all of the invitations have been confirmed, he glanced at the item on his inventory list.

(-) ITEMS

(-) MATERIALS

(-) MISC. ITEMS

(-) EQUIPMENTS

(-) FILES

At the side of his vision, he saw the last item on his inventory window and paused for a moment. And when his finger moved again, a list materialized on the four visitor’s window.

“Hmm? Isn‘t this the list that Anna solved earlier?”

On Agatha’s remark, Siva nodded and his expression was in deep thought. “I just realized this earlier while waiting for you, isn‘t this a message directly from the author himself?”

“Christofer Eclaire.” Samara murmured. “Have you gone up to search for the key words?”

“Yes. But there is no such thing as ‘The Providence’ in any of the databases in the library. I even randomized the word but still got zero results.”

“What about another book‘s title?” Asked Agatha.

“Done.” Siva shook his head. “I also tried specific word search and random acronyms, nothing worked.”

“Then,” Volts rubbed his chin as he looked around the restaurant. “I could only think of the same thing as you. What are you planning?”

“One last thing but I needed your guys’ help.”

Hawkeye smiled warmly on his words and she didn’t hide the fact that she was pleased.

“So you do need us after all.”

“Just this once.” Siva blushingly corrected. “It is because I really need to solve this problem before next month. I have a…deal to catch up to.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Samara clapped her hands.

“Alright, it‘s decided.” Agatha cheered.

“So where are we going?” Volts smilingly asked.

Siva pointed on a direction that headed straight to the library’s direction. Seeing this, the four people who was familiar with the city all looked bewildered. But it was Hawkeye who first reacted when she saw the place Siva was pointing at.

“That‘s the Registry Building.”

“Precisely.”

“That’s a Political Establishment for keeping notes of Territories and City Population. What‘s that got to do with this?”

On Samara’s question, Siva glanced over at the name of the author listed at the top left of the list he had been keeping afloat in the table. And then he explained with utter surety:

“If this really is a message from the author himself, then surely, he left clues on how to hunt for this long lost treasure.”

“And that is in the Registry Building?”

“Yes.” His short reply on Agatha’s inquiry. “Because if I am the author and I hid some sort of clue on my book, the last person I would entrust that secret to is to my beloved wife.”

“Ah!” Volt exclaimed and stood up from the seat.

“Easy right?”

“Genius! Let‘s go!” Volt darted off the restaurant and Agatha, Hawkeye, and Samara except for Siva had the look of bafflement in their faces as they followed.

“Wait!”

“Volt, wait up!”

“You‘re so slow Anna, and you too Witch!”

“Volt…wait…”

“No time to waste! We‘re running out of time!”

“Where are we going? Why are we rushing?”

On Hawkeye’s huffed voice, Siva walked on the same pace as Volt. But then he leaned back and smiled at her. He, too, was unable to hide his excitement.

“We‘re going to search for Christofer Eclaire‘s last descendants…”

 

[TKhan]

Update 23

Search for the Quest

Their search for his descendants went smoothly after two hours. They first checked the place where he was born, then to the place where he moved, then the registry of his grand children, leading them to a place in the Central Territory, a month’s travel time from the City of Aarun.

“Who would have thought that one of Christofer‘s living descendants was a war veteran.”

“Yeah…”

Siva could only stay silent as he unwillingly listened to the conversation behind him while focusing on how Volt operated their team’s investment, the [Cyclone], in the city hangar.

He had seen many of these things flying around and over the forest and the city. Even in the video played in the underground society, Goldwyn City, that lost teaser video of RPG: Terroa also showcased these marvels of technology right after the Mechanical Wings display. It was said to have been one of the oldest designs, yet, one of the basis designs for quick travels in and out of Walled Cities. For users, buying one of the basic unmodified [Cyclone] could cost 20 Million Zentra and that’s already four months worth of playing the game.

This only showed how much money these guys are making by being hired adventurers and explorers in Terroa. Not only they enjoy the game, they also earn money, in-game currency and real time currency.

Siva computed in his mind how long before he could buy one for himself. Hunting Herons, those T-Rex look alike not only require extreme concentration, he also had to be moving all the time just to avoid dying. Four of them, in their best quality game, costs around Z160k after two hours of fighting. And that was really tiring.

The most expensive monster he had yet to hunt was the three horned C-ranked monster, the mini rhinos, the Sigma.

But hunting them wasn’t easy. They are the hardest amongst all his game since not only they are agile monsters contrary to their large bodies, they also had thick scales that becomes an absolute defense against his air attacks.

Including them, if he had to fight for a whole day, he would have to be first exhausted to his limit before earning Z900k. Sacrificing food, rest, and becoming a homeless wandering warrior for five days would have to be enough to give him the money to buy one basic unmodified 2nd hand [Cyclone].

But then again, for that Cyclone to be enough for a moving living quarters for a traveling warrior, he would have to buy some accessories, spare parts, maintenance equipments, the Windstone that was very expensive, and he also had to modify the inside of the ship to make it seem to be able to support life.

All of this added to the computation, it would simply reach an astonishing amount of over 50 million Zentra.

In short, owning a Cyclone not only becomes limited to rich people, one would have to also become adept in fixing it in case it broke down.

And seeing Volt expertly manipulate it…Siva could only sigh.

“Alright.” Volt’s voice echoed as the Cyclone started to lift itself up from the Hangar base. “To the North!”

The three girls fastened their seatbelts and watching them, Siva did the same. The hangar roof opened up and an NPC signaling flags and light points hovered on the side of the 12m long 5m wide rectangular tube with wings and large boosters at the back.

The mechanical engine started to make a sound and the light indication that the Hoverstone panels at the base of the ship had closed flashed red. And at the next instant after the NPC outside Siva’s window brought his flag down, Volt pressed a button on his panel and a sudden jolt was felt by the whole ship as the view up front became a scene of what it seemed to be riding inside a wormhole.

But the jolt only lasted for a moment.

Unlike the feeling of riding an airplane in real life, there was no such thing as pressure inside the Cyclone.

It was because the base and the body are imbued by the so called Blackrock that the pressure inside was maintained to atmospheric density and its attribute that can cancel gravitational (and anti-G) pull preserved the feeling as if you are still in the ground.

Siva saw the people inside the ship unlocked their seatbelts and so he did the same. They all faced each other and Anna brought food from the trey in one of the cabinets inside. She handed the food one by one to each member of the team, including Volts, who left the pilot seat and joined in on them.

“Don‘t worry.” He told Siva when their eyes met, “I put the ship in autopilot. We’ll reach the next city after three hours so we have time to rest inside.”

Then Samara added, “So let‘s talk about this quest you are after, Siva, where did you find this name?”

“Yeah.” Hawkeye leaned closer. “Who is this Eclaire that I saw at the top of your list?”

“That‘s the author of a book, Clemente‘s Demise.”

After he spoke the words, their expressions became understanding. They realized that all these time, they were being led down the path of a treasure hunter from the forgotten unanswered rumor of the map inside the novel. But who would have thought, one of the person they know would actually find an answer to that riddle.

From time to time, Siva would notice the change in the scenery outside the window.

The forest would sometimes become a barren land, then the large rivers would become forests and even the mountain ranges at the side became more prominently seen with its bright ice caps and blue edges.

The world inside is a different world…

As he thought of this, Siva slowly drifted on to sleep.

He had turned off his auto log off system and so as he was sleeping inside the game, it would be just like sleeping in real time. Their main difference is just that you wake up inside the game and not in the real world. And also, since real world time is the one used while sleeping, if you sleep for 8 hours, it would be 24 hours inside the game.

This kind of scenario rotated for the next four days.

All commercial Cyclones travel at a fixed speed of zero to a maximum of 600km/hr within a second, once airborne. It is a fixed number, with a computed ratio of how much Windstone is going to be used up going from [point A] to [point B]. These machines had intelligent AIs that compute their travel path from the downloaded map and links it to their destination’s airfield database to prevent problems, especially accidents.

There’s already an existing airway on the database of every Cyclone. It’s been divided into height, depending on the destination with an onboard laser radar guiding system, adopted from the real system from Jet Raptors in the real world.

It was one of the attractions of this game, Terroa, part of the 90% reality logline that pulled the attention of air plane fanatics. If the distance from the origin to the destination exceeds 1000km, the height the Cyclone had to travel would be around 5km above sea level.

This is set so that there would be no accidents in midair and also to establish a system of traveling in the sky, just like how it is in the roads below.

In this regard, Siva wondered on the system that controlled and regulated this world and to how much of memory did it require to maintain such vast amount of information. What more, if this world had this kind of large detail, the system that operated this world is a lot more of an unbelievable task in itself.

Whoever created this world surely had it all planned out up to the smallest details. This world, Terroa, was not just a game anymore. Just like how its tag line said, 90% reality, almost everything else in this world is real.

Then he thought of his brother. It may be a world of numbers, a world created from zeros and ones, but it still felt realistic to the point that you could actually live here.

Is it possible?

He shivered on the thought as he opened his eyes.

The first he noticed was that the girls were looking at the view outside the window. They were already on the descent maneuver and Volt on the pilot seat was doing some flashy things of pressing buttons and swiping off panels that popped up on his view.

“Oh you‘re awake.” Agatha’s face greeted him with a smile. Siva yawned and straightened his bearing, then he looked outside and asked back.

“Where are we?”

“Hagonoy.” Answered Hawkeye. “We‘ve arrived in our destination.”

“Already? How long was I asleep?”

“22 hours.” She replied. “We’ve already logged out twice in rotation since you fell asleep and we are here now after 28 hours of travel.”

“A month’s travel was shortened to this extent.” Siva sat straight on his chair and combed his hair, though there was no need to since it combs itself to its fashion.

“You didn‘t turn on your auto log-off?” Asked Volt.

“Yep. It‘s because it‘s a hassle to log in and wait for the confirmation sequences.”

“You‘re weird.”

“I know.”

And then Siva yawned again forgetting the speech.

Hagonoy.

It was a developed city that measured the size of the island of Manhattan. And despite its large size, it was still considered a mid sized Walled City in Terroa, a mere half the size of the City of Jeremiah, the Central Territory’s capital city and this continent’s largest city.

In terms of market, Hagonoy features a lot of modern attractions from advanced technological concepts for all weapons and gadget freaks, and also to a vast collection of NPC shops, fashion houses, Guilds, and even the one event that players of this world all wanted to be part of, the Coliseum. The Walled City of Hagonoy is a large city and just like Bangkok, one can get lost here easily.

As soon as they had parked their Cyclone in hangar bay number 44, from a stack of over two hundred on three sides that looked like parking slots on a shopping mall, a pedestrian bridge emerged from the edge of the trimmed side and they all stepped into it.

“It feels like we’re inside a large spaceship.” Agatha commented and Siva smiled along with the others.

Walking towards its registry table, Volt, as the leader was the one who stamped the signature on their arrival logs. This system had been imposed after the War of the Braves, 50 years ago, according to the game’s history.

The purpose of this is to record who’s entering and going out of their territory, watching over the citizen, and also looking out for reported fugitives.

But with the current condition of the world, Siva thought, this system is only effective for those who had entered the city through legal means. What about those who sneaked in or sneaked out through the gate? Or in the sewage? Or in the trash trucks? Or in the cargo vans and trucks entering from land?

Siva smiled as he thought of those circumstances.

Now that’s what I call playing the game.

But truth be told, once you’re a fugitive, until your case had been resolved, you will be pursued and banned from certain places and of course, all NPC with regards to law and order would automatically recognize you.

And, depending on the weight of the crime, the punishment ranges from one week frozen account to a month of unable to play the game. Of course, that is still a paid expense for the game.

System. Business. Money.

This bitter words pulled of the smile on Siva’s face and until they were already outside the hangar area, the seemingly lively Hawkeye locked her arms on Siva’s.

“Let‘s go have a stroll.”

Then Agatha snatched the other arm. “Let‘s watch a few movies before we work.”

Samara saw this and she pouted, pulling his shirt.

“I want to go too.”

And Volt scratched his cheek while actually holding his sword as if readying to fight.

“I was actually planning on joining the coliseum‘s monthly competition. Wanna come with me?”

Though all of it was tempting, Siva let go of a long sigh and released himself gently from the arms and the hand grabbing his cloak. He told them, “It‘s alright if you guys go on ahead. This is my personal quest after all, I won‘t force you to come with me.”

Hearing that, Volt sheathed his sword and gave Siva a light punch on the shoulder. “Hey, hey, hey…that‘s not right! I thought we agreed to go on a hunting once?”

Hawkeye seconded. “Yeah!”

“That‘s right.” Samara had her hands on her waist.

“Uhum…uhumm.” And Agatha was pouting while nodding vigorously.

Siva lightly scratch his head as he smiled. He gave them all a shrug and started to walk towards the western gate’s direction.

“It’s eight in the morning. We have a long day ahead of us.” And then he turned around and motioned for the other guys to follow. “Are you coming with me or not?”

The four exchanged glances. Nodded. And then they all shrugged and had a smile as they followed his back.

 

[Rahul]

wonderful story dear please post hindi section in hindi language