Welp,... I'm Hosira - a normal hikikomori in this cruel society. I have no job nor future. My life has been gone since the day I missed my mother two years ago.
She was a pretty woman, she had a life and a future ahead. Then I was born on a rainy day, in the happiness and hopes of my parents.
I had a normal childhood, a normal school life and a normal characteristic. In those fifteen years, my father gave me nothing but money. He was the kind of person who always stuck his head into work and jobs.
However, my mother always said, "He needs to run the businesses." or "He is taking care of us but not in a visible way."
Gross! For the whole fifteen years, the total times that I met him was able to count on my fingers.
Then the calamity instantly crashed into my peaceful life with my mother. A car accident took her away from me - I lost my mom.
That's why I'm here and play games while isolating myself from the outer world.
But I'm fine with it, silence, only me and myself in a dark room with the memories of the bygone days.
They told me to leave the past aside - idiot.
They told me to step out of that room and have a life - gross.
They persuaded me to have some friends - hell!
They all came for money and left after getting enough from my "father," they do not even care about anything else but finishing jobs and earning rewards. That's so sickening, terribly sickening.
Let's talk a little bit about my favorite game, it's just a standard fantasy RPG game with a strange story line for each route.
I chose to be a servant of God - Loki the Trickster, in a hardcore gameplay.
Basically, I started with a weakest character to have an extreme buff on the ability rolling wheel. That character doesn't even have an identity in the game, and I wasn't allowed to name my character either.
My ability was unlocked from the Exclusive tier, it's another kind of gambling which provided me a move to steal any kind of power from others, lasting 30 seconds.
I mean, it's not that OP while comparing it to other NPCs like Aranta, Luker, Ian or even Lucy and Himeno. Their stats were absolutely overwhelming mine in general.
Suddenly the system or the guidance popped up and required me to kill at least one guy to continue the game at the next stage.
That's suck, I mean… how the f* can I kill someone who is even stronger than me?
First try: I didn't do anything, suddenly the NPC Fafan rushed straight to me and I died.
Second try: I received the same consequence.
I realized that I just chose the worst option to start a hardcore based game this time. But who cares dude? I have nothing but time, and nothing is way more depressing than the moment I lost everything.
I tried to find the fandom and checked the guidance of gameplay, however, I saw nothing related to that game information. As if I was the only player in that RPG world.
Pressure makes diamonds, I tried thrice to parry the attack as other games, but the consequence of those efforts is death.
Wow, suck! I changed my strategy after that. I realized that her movement was the same thing - which means I could dodge the first strike to observe more actions.
Sixth try: I dodged to the left but still got killed by an AOE sword swing.
Seventh try: The right side was chosen, but I still got the same way of death.
In the eighth one, I jumped back and threw the only knife in my hand to her head. I still died.
At that moment, I knew that I needed to find another way to dodge all the attacks until she got tired, or the endlag after finishing all normal attack combos.
Starting with a back leap, a scrolling movement to shift myself to her rear and a front dash to escape her attack range.
Nice! I instantly flicked my screen while pressing the shortcut to do a side dash to the left.
As I predicted, the air slash instantly took away half of my HP. Looking at the top left corner of my screen, I knew that the bleed effect would kill me after twenty seconds. Seemed like I would need to dodge continuously instead of waiting for her next action.
Ninth try: Back, front, front, rotate and side dash.
*Whirr* - Because of the sound effects, I knew that the air slash had been released before I could catch up with this pace of battle.
I was aware of this problem. If she kept spamming those slashes like this, I wouldn't stand a chance to defeat her.
I knew that I had my ability, however, the requirement was I had to hit her or at least do a touch in close range.
That's the big deal.
Tenth try: After dodging all the previous slashes, I rushed straight to her with a gambling hope. If I could touch her right now, I would have something.
Eleventh try: I just did it again, nevermind…
Dodging the first one, I tried to combine the dash and the attack at once. The good news was I did it successfully, but the bad news was my 11th death. I hate this game.
Next try, I repeated the same things, but this time I chose to do two dashes before touching her.
I realized that she always used the air slashes whenever missing the close range slashes. And her animation was bound to the standard fantasy samurai NPC.
With all that information, I could make a claim of this game's core. All NPCs moved as coded, their next actions would change if the variables occurred at the previous moment and they are limited by inertia.
Different from them, the player like me wasn't bound into them. Which meant I could combine actions for combos like dash and attack, block and dash or even adding jump into those combinations.
Whatever, I entered the game for the 13th time, I chose to do the same things as the previous try.
To describe it cinematically, I'd like to role-play exactly as the character in the game.
In the vestige of The Beyonder, a human is approaching his opponent through each step. His hand grabs a knife and his head wears a hat, he's just an ordinary fighter who just woke up from an endless dream.
They both know what the next thing their opponent is going to do.
*Clack* - Grabbing the sword, she rushes straight to him with a swift slash. It even carves a pressure that can threaten any kind of beings in this world, as if it's going to split this realm into the separated parts.
*Whirr* - Sword in the wind, it cuts and divides everything in its way totally into two parts.
Catching the pace, the challenger rapidly downs his knees and also rushes toward that swordswoman at his peak speed.
*Whoosh* - The blade grazed his face, leaving there only a narrow bloody line on his left cheek, no big deal. His two legs keep moving after that, by a half-rotation and a burst to the left side - he has forced her miss twice in a second.
Golden chance! Taking that advantage, the challenger also mobilizes all his power to the right arm - landing straight on her hip a strong strike.
*Bling* - Ability has been activated as predicted.
In his hands, suddenly a chain has been materialized. He instantly knows what he needs to do right away. *Clash* - even though he has no mastery of this weapon, he can still use it in general. At least, negating the air slashes is no longer impossible.
He instantly crafts the dagger and the chains together - forming a far range weapon to counter the swordswoman. But everything just stops at the theory, the skillful user is the true matter.
*Whirr - Crackkk* - The ground obviously is torn apart whenever the dagger cuts through them. It's a miracle that a human can achieve that kind of power, however, it seems like the stealing ability is the key for the explanation.
*Boom - Boom* - He jumps and swings that weapon around and around himself to stir up all the rocks and dirt - forming an unforeseen situation.
Up to the present time, the 13th try is the best one so far. Hosira will surely take this chance to explore all the concepts of this world.
That's why he's really addicted to playing this game, he felt it. He felt the miracles that his mother used to tell him in the fairy tail books. Perhaps it's weird for a teenager to dream about unreal things like magics or fantasy things, but that's all he still remembers about those bygone days.
Back to the player's POV, he's trembling with these brand new feelings right now. The adrenaline inside himself is bursting without any stopping point. It's the feeling that he can't find in his "father", his "friends" or other people in that cruel society.
Yes, you are all suck, so just get the f* out of my way.
He immerses in that game as if he's truly a character inside the whole story of that world of miracles.
Dodge! He rushes to the left without looking back, there's no chance for him to be alive after wasting a second on that kind of useless movement in combat.
*Boom - Boom* - As predicted, those two air slashes were only two centimeters away from him.
*Clash* - The third one has been destroyed in the air by the chained dagger - advantage!
*Whrr - Clang* - The chains have locked up her in the distance of fifteen meters, he swiftly drags her to his side - waiting for the next stolen ability.
*Boing* - This time I chose to touch her chest, don't worry, I just wanted to examine the promotional message about "100% authentic" in game functions.
By the way, this touch gave me even three options on the system board instead of automatic reception.
Unlock normal stats Disarm the opponent permanently
III. Stealing one of her moves
I swear at that moment, my neurons instantly pulled out all its 120% potential to decide between those three choices.
My mind murmured, for the first one, it's too risky due to the lack of information. For the second one, it meant that I could approach her with less risk. However the third choice made me think a bit.
One of her moves? So basically there was a case that she had more than one move? Wasn't that a big deal?
If it's true, she could have another secret trump card - which could probably kill me.
I wondered what it was and I decided to choose the third one, I wondered what the consequence would be.
I see. It's very suck I meant.
After stealing one of her moves, instantly she pulled out a hammer and executed me in a second. And I stole her air slash by the way, so I could come up with a hypothesis that her special moves might be adjusted by the weapons.
The next time, I did the same thing, especially choosing the second option instead of the third one. If her moves might change based on the weapons, just disarm her to negate every variable.
It's exactly the same as what I predicted. After disarming her, she couldn't pull out anything else except normal punches - that's the huge nerf, wasn't it?
He instantly moved back to keep the distance while swinging the chained dagger into her side. It blew up everything on the ground and gave her a lot of challenges on her way to approach him.
And that was the first time he could take a blood drop from that girl.
Nice sign! He kept swinging again and again while leaving his back without any protection.
*Vsh* - That girl caught that chance, she instantly rushed straight to him then disappeared at the last second.
*Thrank!* - Two steps ahead my girl. I dropped a trap there, covered by an illusion of a golden chance. I knew that I couldn't catch her again from far range, so baiting her with my fake weakness was a good choice to eliminate this girl.
I had a crazy idea that might take me another time to log into the game another time if I messed it up. Instead of tightening her up and starting touching her to activate my move. I chose to kill her for the surprise consequence.
As I predicted, my ability wasn't stopped at that level. It even allowed me to raven every move from any corpse via a touch.
And at that moment, the system board also popped up as usual.
Reward? That's fun, I scrolled down the screen to find something special. There are items, potions, moves, abilities, stats improvement… but the final thing surprised me.
"Contract of God" - Even the name told me its function, this is a kind of buff or blessing in early game. And for those who have ever played an RPG game, a small difference like support effects or critical damage always cause the final result of any match.
As if I was led by gods, I chose it to put a new beginning for the route I had picked. Since that decision was made, the story of the game was activated.
[Stage 2: Surviving]
Then another two screens also popped up. Here they are, the main quests of the game. I was very excited, after struggling many times with that early game boss, I finally activated the true story of this game.
There was one thought inside my head, if I was the only one in this world playing this game. I'd do everything to become the strongest, then if there'd be one day that it is published world wide. I could kill anyone I like; is it normal to enjoy it?
Furthermore, the feelings of dominating others are very attractive, they like the charms among my grey life. That's why I really really want to conquer everything in my sight no matter what it is.
I chose to climb up that extreme mountain to get the highest crown of that world, as if I was trying to ascend to be a God after all. And if I was a god, I'd like to create a heaven of mine on my own. Different from the experience of accompanying others, betraying is way more fun.
But what did it mean about surviving? I wondered by myself, it had confirmed that I had a checkpoint already. But somehow I still felt anxious about the next movement.
At that moment, I didn't know that I should run away for the first fifteen seconds.
*Boom* - In outer space, a bunch of starlight dropped down as a waterfall - instantly wiped my character away.
Oh hell nah, again?
I entered the game another time, due to the saved data, I could move with a subsonic speed non-stop for hours in the game. However, the attacks were set at lightspeed.
*Boom* - Another explosion was instantly thrown straight to his face, our challenger died again.
Third try: I knew that there were many NPCs targeting me on purpose. So my job would be defeating them and stealing their moves.
He rushed on his knees and legs - bursting his speed to reach the subsonic level again. This time he aimed to eliminate them as fast as possible to unlock more moves.
As predicted, this game still had a leisure period of time. My second enemy wasn't that hard to fight against, actually that NPC only could throw away his bombs to explode everything around.
It's an annoying power, but I got the air slash from the previous swordswoman already. I admit, it's very OP and unbalanced, even though my energy bar wasn't that much, I still could spam those slashes ten times at once after bursting half of my energy to run.
So balanced, I thought I loved this game.
*Krank* - The chained dagger has pinned straight to his heart after a normal swing in subsonic speed. I easily dragged him into my side and thrusted my hand through his chest - instantly killed him.
All powers are stolen - *Boom* - Starlight formed many spears and stabbed through his body almost instantly.
[Strength has been absorbed]
This was a kind of glitch, all my stats and abilities were saved no matter how many times I died - which means I could be stronger through each death for an easier process next time.
Do I even need to explain why it's a big deal? Whatever, just let me cook.
He rushed straight to the same enemy, within a punch with the new power - instantly blowing him away. Moreover, his stats improved again after that elimination.
Thirteen seconds left, he burst again - accelerating himself into another level of speed.
Next one! He leapt straight to the random guy with beautiful cyan hair with his bursting fists.
Instead of being passive and waiting for others to kill me, I decided to actively attack them to gain as much power as possible.
The system board didn't show me any information about that NPC but I knew that he wasn't a weak one.
As I predicted, he easily countered me in one step and it took me 34% of my HP almost instantly.
I saw the effects of shockwaves, perhaps I could add some stun effects in my strikes after absorbing that "piece of cake."
This trial was fun as hell, I swear my adrenaline just bursted and sent me to another level at that moment.
Theme switch: Cinematic!
The unnamed being rushed straight to the fighter ahead. His hands swiftly swung directly to the enemy, aiming for a one-shot combo at the start.
*Vsh - Vsh - Swish* - Parry! The cyan-haired guy swiftly knocked back the chained dagger by the explosive punch.
Doesn't matter! The challenger kept swinging that weapon over and over again into his opponent at the supersonic speed - Mach 5.
Dust and rocks were stirred up mercilessly with a massive speed.
It even forced that calm guy to start jumping and dashing away. But when he turned back, the unnamed one was already swinging his dagger into that delicious neck.
*Smack* - A palm strike instantly knocked him back two steps, consequently, the challenger lost that golden chance.
The expression was the same as the smile, but he knew that the up-coming challenges wouldn't be as easy as before. The unnamed one started running around with the hypersonic speed on his feet.
*Whoosh* - Leaving behind the roaring winds, he danced between those flying rocks and threw some to the calm guy intentionally.
Among the sharp metal songs, he lifted the calm guy over his head and swung him around and around rhythmically.
Respectively and heavily crashing into those rocks.
Beheph: [I admit, you are strong.]
Beheph: [However, it's not enough heat for me.]
Aura Burst! Within a second, that chill guy just disappeared as if he could teleport immediately while getting locked by the chains and dagger.
*Vsh* - The last image carved into his mind was an unstable afterimage and his blood spurted out as a crimson waterfall under moonlit sky - Death.
"What the f*?" - I swear I screamed like that at midnight after losing in the same way thrice continuously.
Like, dude, how was I supposed to win against a NPC who could even kill me right away after his second phase had been activated just a second before. I couldn't parry, neither dodge nor counter. He's truly a broken NPC after all.
Furthermore, after the first three rewards, I wasn't allowed to steal more as if I just reached my limit. It always repeated like this over and over again:
High Hypersonic speed (Mach 40) Shockwave (ability)
III. +10% all stats
So basically, I couldn't do anything except non-stop boosting my stats until I could beat that guy. Even the next try I still lost within a second with High Hypersonic speed, absolutely improbable.
Then I realized the truth, each time I failed tenfold and kept boosting my stats, I could see more and more ways to counter him. And guess what… I needed to repeat it over three hours to have a chance of dodging the first attack, hell!
Different from other times, at the 1098th try only for this boss, finally I could touch him in his second phase - instantly unlocking the next choices.
Threat Alarm Random Ability
III. Better options next time (stack:100)
As a "skillful" player, I knew that I should choose the first one and save the rest for next time. Its name said everything, each time Beheph attacked, I always received a red sign before the strike threw straight to my screen.
And in three more hours, I tried everything to survive beneath that unbalanced boss. Thankfully this game still loved me, by maximizing all stats with current limits and the luck drop option, I found it.
An overpowered cheat in any kind of RPG games - Bleeding effect. If you all have played some game like ER or DS-III, all the NPCs or bosses always have a secret bleed bar. Whenever this bar is filled up by the bleeding effect, the hemorrhage or blood loss will be activated immediately with approximately 10% of their health bar.
So basically I just needed to stack up 10 times blood loss to kill this boss, no matter my base damage or Beheph's base protection.
As predicted, Beheph was still unable to restrict this kind of blood loss.
By parrying the first attack, I immediately clicked my mouse to stab the dagger into his left shoulder with 103 physical damage (critical) and 1/10 blood loss.
Then I moved my wrist and mouse to flick the screen while pressing side dash buttons and driving a normal attack into his neck - stunning him 0.5 second.
Special - R: The chains rapidly locked up Beheph in the air as my brilliant movement of advantage. Spamming space and left mouse button, I dragged and threw him over and over again into the cracked rocks around us.
Finishing it with a leap straight toward him, I landed an air variant of normal attacks combo to slam him down back to the ground with another 0.5 second of stunning.
Even though the description is about hypersonic speed, they obviously only made it like normal combat but more effects during the process. With the timer right next to me, I could determine that for each 15 seconds being stunned, Beheph was going to unleash an energy burst in the radius of 100 miles and cause 50% of my HP.
From the start to the present time, it was around 14 seconds total. And it's not reset until I die, that's why I unleashed three more air slashes combined with shockwaves to raise it to 15 seconds - activating that passive.
It also required him around 3.7 seconds to charge and 2 more seconds to release it outside. With the High Hypersonic speed (Mach 40) and boosts from previous choices, my character could move with the speed of Mach 82 - which means it took me around 5.7 seconds to escape the attack.
With the delay of 0.7 second at the beginning, I still have around 0.4 seconds to reflex with that kind of explosion.
Hey, let me teach you some tech in this game. When you press "W" twice, you are allowed to run with the maximum speed. But when you press it thrice at once, you will rush ahead with the temporary speed of 1.5x your base speed.
By combining with double left mouse clicks in that process, you can perform a guaranteed critical strike whenever you are still rushing ahead. Yet, the cost is the thrice stamina loss, so that's why I only did it for a total of two attacks and changed to another tech.
Just remove the rush status and press "Q" to scroll ahead, you will gain 0.25 second of immunity to any kind of damage. Moreover, you can even attack while scrolling like that, and nothing was way more convenient than a throwable weapon in that case.
An axe was thrown straight to his snap in purpose to stun him 0.5 second and one critical strike - 97.35% HP left.
With the out range weapon, I could keep the distance of ten meters away from him while stacking the blood loss meter - 4/10 already.
I swear this match was even harder than anything I could imagine in my brain. My hands were full of sweat and my eyes were red. Even though it's harmful for my health, I don't care. I'm still fine to be right here and tell you my story soft and sound, okay?
The strategy was very easy to understand. Whenever the boss attacked I dodged aside and assaulted him with a normal stab to stack blood loss status. Then baiting him in the first 0.5 second to waste his next attack while dashing and throwing a strike at his rear to stun Beheph another time - repeated the same movements until he activated the explosive passive.
Three times of "W" sent me flying away with the maximum speed, another three times of "W" sent me back to the boss with two critical strikes and two stacks of blood loss. Scrolling ahead and throwing a dagger to the same target - gaining one more blood loss stack.
On average one time of those operations I gained 4 stacks, which means I was able to drain Beheph's HP 40% totally after ten processes.
Yet, 5% more of his HP was also drained by my normal attacks with critical damages. Hopefully twelve more times just drove me straight to the victory after his health bar reached the bottom.
Nothing was way more satisfying than that feeling of accomplishment I swear. I swear that night was the best sleep I'd ever had in my life after three days struggling with that game.
Diary of Hikikomori - Day 33: "He keeps knocking my door without any intention to stop, so f*ing sh*t annoying. Why doesn't he just let me alone as the way he faded in my life fifteen years ago? And that woman, that b* always persuades me with the poisonous temptation. So sickening, get out of my life!"
Another day, another life! I opened my PC and checked the rewards, nothing is happier than gambling in the morning.
Yet, I was surprised. Instead of giving me three options like before, this time it showed me a cutscene of the story.
Honestly, everything I knew about this game was the great war that a character mentioned "Yujin" would face at the end. For three days playing the game, I didn't even see him yet. So when I saw this thing pop up, I was very excited to see the true countenance of him.
But it was different from my thoughts, the cutscene didn't show me anything about Yujin. It's only about Aurorize and the power system in the recession era. It pissed me off man.
But the worst sh*t that it sent me into Aurorize and removed all the levels, experience and moves that I'd accumulated for three days ago. What the f*?
"Dariana, the golden kingdom of desert."
"It was built by one and only one human in the past 3800 years ago…"
"But in one day… it was destroyed by the demons from Helheilm… leaving there the greatest vestige of mankind at the center of desert Alfha."
That's all I got from game lore, I had no idea about what I should do next.
And then, I found it - the great rune carved on the giant rock inside the mausoleum of the first emperor of Kingdom Dariana.
"Yo, human…"
But this game was weird, it didn't even let me play the full cutscene for the whole story. It immediately sent me to the Arezal - a wild continent lying on the north of the center continent of this human world.
[Quest: Kill at least one "outsider" to unlock the System.]
I swear at that moment, my eyes just opened wide. Seems like it was the true beginning of the gameplay - I thought.
At the start, it gave me three choices, but one of them was locked as if I wasn't allowed to access that power too soon.
Accept the quest Death
III. Worship Loki (locked)
Well, best multiple choices ever. And that was how my story started on the land of a crownless continent.
At the very beginning, I knew that this stats were just suck, that's why I came up with selling myself (my character) into the slave trade association.
The only thing that remained in my pitifully poor inventory was a dagger, the one I had used in two matches before. Let me show you its description.
Item: The Dagger of Traitor (???)
P.ATK +31 | M.ATK + 31
Shield Piercing 100% | Blood loss (10 stacks - 5%) | Death I (+15%)
Passive: Sure-Death (one time used)
- "The dagger was used for the execution of a guilty emperor but it also pierced through the heart of the great traitor of that ancient empire eras ago."
Wow, even 31 physical attack points. Compared to the quality of other uncommon items sold in basic shops, it's even worse than those green items, I swear!
The only hope that my eyes caught was the passive "Sure-Death."
It allowed me to land one strike with the special effect killing any kind of entity below god level.
And just in case you ask me about my strategy. To be honest, my old ability was named "The hand of the Thief," which allowed me to steal at least 5% other's stats or some special other choices.
Yet, at that moment, it was set to its passive form - "The sense of the Thief."
It only gave me the possibility or value/chance of some specific events or dangers that I took place in instead of stealing actively. I guessed that it was related to my locked system, and I was right.
After being sold by myself, my character had to tolerate the three days in hell as what was told before.
On the first day, my passive ability warned me about a mysterious variable on the journey.
I admit, at the last night of that process, I couldn't wait anymore.
Observing them with those sh*tty manners, it really pissed me off in a second of madness. However, at the turning point, my ability just warned me about "him" one more time. And that was when I knew that I should dive deeply into that hell more and more.
As "predicted", Ryun just came into the role of a hero. He fought with the flexible sword style and defeated all the enemies except the mage in order to figure out the root causing that crime.
It was too perfect. He killed all the two other threats and left there a moribund mage with the emptiness at where used to be her legs and arms.
Sure-Death was activated on Ryun and split him into two parts. That's how I got enough strength to shatter that mage at the end even though my ability wasn't given back to my character.
Non-stop, I started to walk to the territory of Ryun's father after inheriting his identities and memories. Nothing is better than a good beginning, but… I was wrong.
The plot twist of that side character was he wanted to kill Ryun on purpose.
Larin Liferberto is a duke exiled from the Cala Empire into this crownless continent. After 10 years struggling he had his first son with - Ryun Liferberto. Yet, he isn't a kind of innocence, he is a devil inside the human form.
In the dark side, he has another son with a sinister woman, his name is Larin Liferberto II. The name just says everything, Larin II is set to be the one and only one heir of that duke. About the reason for that action, I have no related information for that, however, I'm sure about the probability of Ryun's secret.
It was also mentioned by the semi-locked system during my journey, that Ryun had something even more wicked than anything I could imagine. That's the deep enough base to build an antagonist, yet, who is controlling this character is me - a random guy with no talent in this element.
I wondered how to build a good kind of antagonist that's different from some idiots outside who always try to fight the protagonists without any self-awareness or strategy. Perhaps the only thing I had was the ability to redo anything whenever my character died. I hope it works well.
That night, I was killed by three assassins in my room. They all outspeeded me absolutely, I couldn't do anything but give up the option of facing them directly.
I chose to walk around and kill any mobs that were weaker than my character's base stats in order to accumulate more and more power.
The period of time was still two days as the previous try, however, this time I set up a normal trap under my bed to counter at least one enemy in the first second. By stunning them a while to take time and rush straight to the nearest one with a crash shot - I successfully touched one of them.
[Stats Boosts]
I kept repeating the same strategy until I maintained the same speed as my target. The new version of my ability only allowed me to boost my stats up to 100% of each opponent instead of the unlimited capability like before.
Yet, it was limited to one target only, so basically I just needed to apply it on multiple targets to be stronger than them in general.
That's how I could shatter them all in one night and escape that castle as fast as I could until getting blocked by a trap.
Larin II: [Nice try, my elder brother.]
Larin II: [However, the almighty only needs one servant.]
I didn't get the whole meaning, but I believed that it was related to the hidden cutscene in the great vestige of Dariana. Honestly I didn't even care about this kind of NPCs too much, unless they were set to appear in the story line many times.
Larin II didn't leave a strong enough impression so I just "cheese" him with my subsonic speed. Shifting my character into his rear and suddenly moving back to the front while he turned his back.
A critical strike just took away his life, I instantly ended the battle in five seconds and that was the worst and blandest one I'd ever had in my life.
Yet, his ability was way more attractive than anything.
Ability: Puppet Manipulation
- Allow users to control any kind of non-living things on purpose with a specific joint connecting directly into them.
And at the same time, the sense of Thief let me see an undefined future about a guy named Razun. It's weird that this game didn't give me any kind of clear guidance since I entered the story mode. It's like reading burnt paper and trying to figure out the full story without any kind of support.
Sometimes it gave me the feeling like I just missed some hints or secret details and went far away from the true story line. I know that this game is weird, but no one can code a game that contains unlimited contents distributed equally into any ending for each small variable occurring in the process.
It's just like being lost but also being sure that I didn't get in any trouble, somehow it's just weird like that.
Consequently, I remembered that I had a data book right beside my character. Its history function could even combine with my passive ability to help me check the mentioned or met beings - absolutely convenient.
It mentioned that Razun had a bloody conflict with a strange NPC called "Aetheria," but when I asked the system, it just ignored the question and told me to do whatever I wanted. As if I could really break the whole story line to dig into another ending. It's fun - I thought.
Still remember three guys accompanying Razun when they jumped straight into Aetheria in the forest? They are all the puppets that I controlled from a very far away distance to help Razun defeat his opponent.
Nevertheless, there were three times that I made mistakes in that fight. First, I let those three puppets follow Aeth for just getting broken by his sudden Space Breaker.
Next, the epic item that I exchanged from the system shop with 4000 points was destroyed by him in the second Space Breaker.
Like, f*! Four thousand points isn't a cheap cost, right? I just wasted it on that overpowering boss without gaining any profit at all. Finally, controlling three puppets was too coercive for my eyes.
In the explanation in the game, controlling three puppets is like observing everything with three different angles and sights. The complicated process and its difficulty are just enough to overflow one guy's mind.
In the POV of a player, I only needed to pick one of them and control that body to fight for me while two others were moved by AI. I could also switch between them, yet, the result wasn't equal to the efforts so I and myself had no reason to overcomplicate everything.
Consequently, when all my puppets were destroyed into pieces, I needed to step into that muddy pool to save that summoner.
And that's why I'm here, standing still in their battle while touching Razun's shoulder with my left hand.
Obviously Razun just got defeated by Aetheria at their final attacks. I also knew that I shouldn't do anything but run away from that ridiculously strong opponent.
"Oh wow, good grief. Look at the mess you left Razun."
He strokes his hair confidently, "Aetheria right? I've heard plenty of things about you. To be honest, I don't want to fight you right now."
"Oh? Have we met each other before?" - Aeth slightly takes out a potion and heals himself.
*Haha* - He laughs, "Nah, this is our first time."
"I see." - Aetheria slightly throws away the empty potion and rushes straight to him with a supersonic speed (Mach 5).
"So it means that I have no reason to deal with you." - He said without any hesitation while aiming for a high kick.
*Haha* - "I told you it wasn't this time buddy."
Stolen - Shadow Gate - A pool of moving shadow instantly appears under their feet and lets both Razun and Ryun enter it swiftly.
"See you next time"
*Whoosh - Boom* - Even though his kick at the speed of 1715 meters per second was very powerful, he couldn't catch them at the last moment. He frowns, obviously.
"Oh ye, next time I'll send you straight to hell."
*Boom* - He leaps straight to the red gate inside the lake, leaving there a mess of a wild battle.
Shadowverse - The dark and black dimension connected to the shadow gates of their ability.
Razun breathes heavily, "So your ability is stealing?"
"I don't think so. It's more like adaptation and mimicking instead of stealing and negating others' moves or abilities." - Ryun leisurely replied with an obvious demand of studying.
"Can you teach me some technique?" - He asks.
"No."
"So I'll keep you here until you die of hunger and thirst." - Ryun slightly threatens
Razun also looks at him with a sharp glance, "Anything except my ability."
"I don't even need to learn everything. I just need some basic techniques." - He persuades.
"Deal. But we need to make a binding indenture."
"Just do it." - Ryun doesn't even hesitate.
Binding Indenture is a kind of contract that locks mentioned beings into a fair trade between two equal profits. The mentioned beings must obey the indenture and finish all the clauses to get their rewards from the other.
Of course, if one of them arbitrarily breaks the vow, that guy must take a serious damage due to the seriousness of the problem and the consequences after that.
Because there is no third party so both Razun and Ryun must be each other's judgement to make this kind of contract.
[Binding Indenture]
- Ryun must open the shadow gate whenever he learns all the basic techniques.
- Razun must be honest and teach Ryun with all his basic techniques about the shadow ability and summoning ability.
They both materialized a small nail by their Aura and sent them to each other. All they need to do right now is stab it through their chest and put it inside their hearts. Which means if one of them messes up, that nail will execute them immediately.
Razun leisurely sits down and calls out Plamung and Tamias, then points at them.
"They are my contracted beasts, I'll do five techniques only. For more sh*ts, you'll need to figure it out by yourself. So the first one is called Inheritance."
He slightly materializes three claws on his right hand, surely it's the ability of Tamias.
"This one, it's very simple, you just need a contracted beast to use their ability. Yet, the cost is doubled and the pressure after turning off this mode is very high, so use Inheritance wisely."
Next, he seals his two hands into each other finger by finger and chants a word: "Fusion"
Phantom Wolf - Tamias and Lightning Leopard - Plamung are swiftly distorted and woven into each other to form a new creature.
"I call this form Fusion Beast. By fusing them like that, you can achieve the new power, yet, the aura loss is tripled to maintain this kind of fusion. Otherwise they will be forced to separate from each other while fighting." - He explains as an expert while Ryun is seriously listening.
"And now is its reverse technique - Separation."
He chants the same word and that fusion beast is split into two original parts - Tamias and Plamung.
"If your compatibility with the contracted beasts is very high. You can actually fuse and split them continuously to attack and dodge the strikes from others wisely."
He swiftly moves to the next one as if the reaper is rushing him from the back.
"The fourth one, I call it Transformation. It allows you to temporarily change your contracted beasts into their own elements for a minute. Its benefits are obviously huge so I won't waste my time to explain it here." - He does everything as fast as a flash.
"So what is the next one?" - Ryun's curiosity is all in his eyes.
"Shadow Split."
Razun rapidly weaves his hands into each other and points them to the ground, but nothing happens.
"Uhh?" - Ryun confuses.
"Uhhh… hold on, I just split their shadow before, now I need the remains of Lazaro Sa."
Shadow Gate - The half body of a big being just drops down from the darkness above their head.
Observing that, Razun agrees that this guy isn't a normal human.
Razun: (His talent perhaps is even more than Aeth.)
"Like this?" - He asks while redoing the same actions as Razun's. Suddenly inside that big corpse, two shadows swiftly move out and run back to their owners.
"What the f…" - Razun opens his eyes wide, he can't even believe that there's a kind of person who can adapt and mimic that kind of difficult technique and do it again in a second.
"How can you?" - Razun doesn't know what is going on at all.
"How do I know?" - Ryun also doesn't know what is going on in general.
"Alright, now finish our indenture." - Razun declares.
"Hmm? Which one?"
*Clash* - In the confusion of Razun, Ryun instantly rushes straight to him with a dagger in his hand. It brutally clashes with the iron claws of Razun - stirring up the whole shadow dimension around them.
He smiles, "Do you really want to die? Seems like you don't know the principle of indenture."
Ryun also smirks, "Well, you can try if you want to kill me with that binding indenture. I just finished the clause by myself."
Razun knows it; he observed that the gate was opened, yet, he couldn't jump out of this dimension due to the two broken legs. Dizzyingly standing in combat with Ryun like this is all the effort he can do, let alone to leap up fast in this miserable condition.
"Well, unfortunately, it seems like your contract doesn't work." - Ryun dashes aside to throw one kick to Razun's snap.
*Smack* - But he is way more skillful than Ryun, Razun swiftly lowers his body to sweep the ground by his broken leg after fixing the joints by his Aura temporarily.
Razun: [Yes, because at the start, I made no contract.] - Hoshira instantly gets shocked, he hasn't thought about this case.
In his confusion, Ryun just got an elbow slam straight to his face - giving him a faint sight.
Razun: [I even know that you aren't Ryun. He is not a sort of man who's forever calculating like the way you've been expressing.]
Razun slightly sighs a bit, he has no problem with the death of his old companion, however observing a random guy using Ryun's identity does outrage him.
Razun: [This is the last memory of us, Ryun.]
He seals his hands tightly - summoning the fusion two-head wolf (an optional variant while fusing).
Razun: [Don't worry. I'll spare your body and you will be a part of my greatest chimera beast.]
As soon as finishing the declaration, the fusion beast rapidly pouches Ryun with its sharp fangs.
Suddenly, hiding in the shadow behind him, another Ryun swiftly rushes straight to him with a dark dagger. Of course it is the puppet ability of Larin Liferberto II.
"So this is what you're aiming for? So bland." - Razun rotates himself and uses Iron Claws technique to wipe out that puppet in a second, absolutely overwhelming.
"I've been waiting until a little bit of my Aura just recovers by itself. Thanks to you, a greedy idiot."
*Pfft haha* - "Same dude. I've also been waiting for you to pull out everything you have."
Suddenly the shadow surrounding them starts to move and lock them inside itself. Razun instantly gets shocked, he knows that it is another higher level of space manipulation than his basic Shadow Gates.
Moreover, it can be considered as the higher Aura technique of Pulse - Zone.
Zone is a kind of space locking technique which allows the users to take advantage of the space around them to attack. It's usually used in combat between mature mages or Aura users. They always unleash their power outside and form a special area restricting any bad effect on them.
Non-stop at that, Zone even gives the users the ability to cast spells anywhere and anytime they want. Same thing to the Aura users, especially the Emanation one, they can release any kind of attacks swiftly in their zones without restriction or delay. It is the true advantage because their zone is even considered as their spells already.
"Zone?" - He murmurs in hopelessness.
"Yes, to be honest, my ability gives me the capability to use your power at the lowest level. But I can still upgrade it more, this shadowverse is ownerless, that's why I need to thank you before I kill you. Thanks for giving me this big gift, Razun."
Dropping a heartless declaration, Ryun slightly closes his hands as the way he closes the space inside the shadowverse - swallowing everything inside.
|You've killed "Razun."|
|"The hand of the Thief" is activated - steal all the stats and powers.|
|"The hand of the Thief" is upgraded to lv2.|
|You have unlocked new power. Please name it [___]|
"Just call it Shadow Gate. I have no joy in glazing any kind of power, keep it simple. You can automatically name it for me next time."
|Got it.|
|The red gate is invaded by two more people. Would you like to close them?|
"Oh, I almost forgot it. If they die inside that rift, I will lose the chance to steal their abilities in future. So just leave them alone. Especially Ian and Aetheria, keep them on track for me." - Ryun slightly orders, he is planning another strategy.
|I can't lock on to them until you unseal me.|
"I see. Whatever, I won't change my decision. But do you know how to expand my Zone outside? Trapping them into my gates isn't an effective way."
|You need to learn about the space concept at the basic level. As a player, you don't need to really learn about it but just have the related books. Of course, it will take a bit of your time. Good luck.|
Ryun sighs, he wants a realistic game, but now he's tired because of its authenticity.
"So where should it be?"
|Tower of Mages. You can even find level 7 books of space spells there.|
He smiles, "Seems like I have to steal something again. It's all your fault to let me know, dude."
|...Liars always cover themselves with lies and dishonesty.|
Inside the dimensional rift, two guys are seeking for the same person.
"Where the f* is he?" - the guy in the Holy Knights Table, "Phoenix," asks.
"How the f* do I know?" - Aeth replies in the same way. Seems like he doesn't need to care about the ceremony actually.
"You always leave a mess for me dude." - Phoenix complains while seeking around with the hypersonic speed (Mach 25).
"If you all could kill that pontiff and dominate this Holy Council, nothing here would be a mess."
"I wish we could. Don't you really think that priests and that pontiff are that easy to be killed? - Phoenix slightly frowns his eyebrows.
On the contrary, Aeth just easily maintains the same speed and puffing on the cigarette.
*Ew* - "This quality is so bad." - He throws away the cigarette and slightly harvests a serpent's head in advantage.
"If you all didn't piss him off. Everything was done centuries ago."
"Shut up Aeth. That guy's idea is crazy. Do you really think we can kill the pontiff and stabilize the Holy Council beneath the pressure from The Tower of Mages and The Hunter Council?"
Aetheria only looks at Phoenix with a sharp glance, "First, that guy has an ability to destroy every roadblock on our way. Secondly, even though he can't maintain the power of our organization after that, he still can damage the two other forces to destroy the whole economy. Lastly, the only thing blocking his way was you guys' rules and prohibition."
He leaves no mercy, "Moreover, since the day his lover died, the last chain locking him with the Holy Council was broken apart. And you guys must take responsibility for that death. Even though I haven't met her, she's still my lost sister, accompanying you all is the last goodness I can spare."
Aetheria unconsciously unleashed his Aura while saying that. Seems like his emotions just got stirred up suddenly when he mentioned about his sister's death.
"You guys want more labor. I just gave you all one guy with a huge potential. Even if he took half of our resources to be stronger, I wouldn't regret investing in him. So just shut up and do your work, not being here at the beginning is still you guys' idea. Now take the duty of it."
Aetheria truly shows no respect to his superior, this muddy pool is way deeper than you guys thought.
*Bang* - He bursts his Aura to boost his speed, dashing forward faster and faster to leave there the tears of the past. Aetheria is really carrying a huge duty on his shoulders, there were many times that he just wanted to run away and find his true freedom. Yet, in this council still exists a person that he wants to protect.
Glaris Grantey is Aeth's foster sister. His true elder sister is called Fantis Grantey, this truth was revealed on his 18th birthday. It was supposed to be a good day, yet, life is cruel. He and the mentioned guy were required to back up The Holy Council's east branches in a special rank and plenty of rank 9 dungeon breaks.
And the reason for that calamity was the arrogance and carelessness of The Holy Knights. He knows that it must be a planned accident of other forces, yet, it doesn't mean that all of them are innocent.
It's countless to mention about the times that Aetheria wishes he could protect his sister on that day. However, wish is just a wish, it couldn't be real and his sister just rested in her eternal peace.
The strongest knight also left the council due to that loss. He knew that it was a cabal, that's the reason why he left behind everything for just chasing the truth.
His determination and rage of that bygone day still carve deeply into Aetheria's mind and memory up to the present time. He can't forget it for just a little bit. It was something that can even dye the world in a crimson light of doom.
"Good grief. Where are you...?" - His eyes unconsciously narrow. Even himself can't tell that he wondered about Ian or his brother-in-law.
Behind him, Phoenix also gnashes his teeth.
Do you really think that we want it to become true? He thought.
He looks at Aeth's back with a regretful look, but he can't tell him about his thoughts. Phoenix knows that words are useless in this problem. Two guys two lines, each one has their own unspeakable story. Yet, they are still pursuing the same goal after all. Perhaps they might find the answer at the end.
In the same dimension, our cleaners just appear 300 miles away from the boss' base - in another forest.
Ian starts the conversation, "Should we jump straight into its base?"
"F* hell nah man. The normal epic beasts can even get us in trouble if we solo them turn by turn. Even if the boss isn't Wyvern, even if we all jump into it at the start, it only takes the boss a strike to break at least our bones." - Paragon starts yapping out his experience of playing dungeon games.
"Shut up! Lower your voices." - Aranta gives them a glance, he just saw three phantom leopards approaching their place.
Without a word, they all know what they need to do. Starting with a three-section staff slamming straight on one's head. Then both Aranta and Ian rush straight to them full of Aura fists for one shot strike.
All three beasts are taken down in a second, they also divide their bodies into many parts and save them into their inventories for money, also leaving no trace to keep hiding.
Yes, they are hiding from all the beasts among the forests with the Aura technique - Veil.
They don't want to rush yet. Hunting all the beasts for goods and reducing enemies at the end is the strategy that they're applying.
It's been the 23rd team that they've hunted. They also observe that the pace is raised a bit, which means the boss possibly realized the existence of enemies. But surely it hasn't known their exact coordinates, that's also the advantage they can abuse to farm some money.
Nevertheless, this rift leads to an open-world type of Savage Wilds. Limited biomes like Spider Caverns or Venomous Cave are easier to clear due to its limited scale. And the open-world type like this is harder to clear not only because of the scale, but also the big amount of monsters inside.
Totally, they just cleared around 400 rank 7 beasts, 200 rank 8 beasts in a month due to the distorted and different time flow between two dimensions. However, it takes only 5% the amount of monsters in this dungeon. It isn't light work at all.
Ian also told them about the backup of at least one Holy Knight, so that's why they are trying to buy as much time as possible for help.
To summarize their daily life: 8am breakfast made of meat; 9am hunting for food and materials; 11am setting traps and building temporary shelters for themselves; 3pm hunting until midnight.
Amazingly that they've been keeping the same determination and patience at the start up to now. Perhaps they didn't develop too much strength, but surely they have more experience than ever.
But one day, Paragon decided to put an end into this journey.
"I think… we should start it right now." - His eyes shone with the determination of a true Hunter.
Paragon persuaded them about the possibility of winning. They have become experienced and stronger, there shouldn't be any doubt that they could clutch this rank 7 dimensional rift.
According to the information that Paragon and Aranta heard from the Hunters, it's only rank 7 dungeon. And through the experience that they've had, Paragon is more confident than ever.
"It's just a rank 7 dungeon. We can do it."
"I don't think so. It's a red gate and a mutated dungeon. We should hide away from that boss. And I haven't mentioned the case if the boss is Wyvern." - Aranta tried to warn Paragon from the threat that could kill them easily.
"We can even kill a rank 7 beast in a strike, what's wrong with you?" - Paragon kept persuading.
And that's why they're here, 2 miles away from the boss' base.
"Are you sure, Paragon?" - Ian asks.
"100%, trust." - He replies while Aranta just sighs.
He knows that it would be risky, but Paragon wants to try something too.
"That's why we need to go beyond our limits guys."
"Oh yea, I'll run first if we're just cooked." - Aranta is very serious about this declaration.
*Pfft* - "Look at your face man, so *ss." - They are hopping around very peacefully.
But in the shadow that they can't foresee, that couple of shiny eyes just open wide and wake up a monster inside the mausoleum.