In another place...

A young man was sitting in a gorgeous chair in his room inside a high-rise penthouse apartment. His face can be considered as a top-tier handsome by majority standard. He wore expensive clothes made of silk fiber, and holding a wine glass in his hand.

Tenkawa Ouma, 22 years old. The first son and the primary heir of Tenkawa family, a major conglomerate with various business project that spans across the country.

He also has another identity, a guild-master of a large guild in the world of Ascension, Genesis. In that world, he was known as The Radiant Hero, Leon the Templar Knight.

Has wealth and blessed appearance, truly the epitome of born with golden spoon.

But despite that, his expression wasn\'t looking good, especially after looking at the holo-screen.

He leaned back in his chair with a deep thought.

So many bad things happened in one day. The raid operation led by him was wrecked out by an unknown third-party. This angered him so much that he was unable to think clearly. Because of this, he seems said something wrong to Hecate and make her angry.

"Today was really a bad day."

Hecate, one of the core member of his guild, everyone\'s little sister figure.

She was both a mascot and at the same time, top-ranked DPS in Genesis Guild. As one of the player that managed to reach 3rd Job-class - Archwitch, she focused solely(?) on water element spells and bring strong damage output towards her enemies.

Her petite stature and adorable face couldn\'t help but triggering everyone\'s lolicon maternal instinct.

Even Ouma himself have to resist the tempt to pat her head!

When a player make a virtual avatar, the AI ​​will give a basic appearance based on the player\'s own body shape. The player can make fine adjustments on the basis of the system, but the amplitude will not be too large.

This was a regulation made from the government, not from the game company side.

It is said this rule was created to solve various problem in online games, like when some people can\'t control their body properly after returning from the game because difference in body shape. Another case was nekama scam. One day, a player found out that his girlfriend in the game was actually a dude IRL, they even have sex in the game.

That incident become viral and the nekama dude ended up killed and the other was arrested.

After such problematic case happened, the government decide to enforce this rule. No more nekama, no more giddy people.

Interestingly, shortly after this rule enforced, many people decided to take a full body surgery. Removing fat, cutting own flesh and bones just to make themselves look good.

- If you want to look good in the game, then care your appearance IRL too!

In short, Hecate\'s appearance really reflected her IRL self. She really is a loli!

Now that Ouma think deeply, Hecate probably also mad.

Don\'t be deceived by her adorable figure. Hecate is very competent player and she was the highest level in the guild. She was the most promising loyal(?) supporter, although she seems have some strange obsession with leveling up. The last time he saw, her level already reached 128.

Even his avatar, Leon was still level 108... no, it would be 107 after today\'s incident. It would be hard to surpass her level, but he didn\'t intend to give up. Even if he have to purchase Exp Potion every day.

Besides a strong player, Hecate is also an excellent strategist.

The raid of the world BOSS, Sharknath the Calamity Dragon was originally uses her strategy.

Every member overall placements, understanding of their role and skill-use timing, BOSS attack pattern and its weakness, everything was mostly based on her suggestion. And it was so well executed, just a little more and the BOSS would be theirs... Until Black Phantom come.

"Black Phantom...!!"

Ouma clenched his teeth in anger. What happened today will not be easily forgotten.



Black Phantom\'s sneer at that time... Even if his whole face was hidden by that gruesome mask, Ouma can still hear his distorted voice clearly. He was certainly looking down at Leon!

Then, his outrageous magic... That crazy damage which surpassed Hecate by a huge leap.

At first, Ouma thought that Black Phantom is a glass cannon Archwizard that specialized in wind elemental spells. With that outrageous output, then his health and defense should have been paper-like. But he was wrong!

He received Leon\'s Ignition Break head-on like it was nothing. Not only that, he was counter-attacked by a Stone Curse debuff and died unwillingly, without understanding why he died.

What can be more frustrating is, he can somewhat remembered a System Message the moment when he died:

An important item has been dropped the moment he died. Remembering that fact, Ouma throws the glass in his hand to the wall.

The glass shattered instantly and the wine spills the carpet, but Ouma didn\'t care.



He was really mad to care.

"DAMN IT! THAT WAS SKILL ASSIMILATION ORB! DAMN IT"

When player reached high level and obtained many skills, including skill from their Sub-classes, it would inevitable for them to lost track of their own skills.

There would be some of their skills that were redundant and basically achieve the same effect. Then, some of low-level skills couldn\'t help but forgotten and will not be used anymore.

Such things can be solved with Skill Assimilation Orb.

Unneeded and redundant skills can be fused to a stronger skill while at the same time making their Skill Screen tidy and clean. Leon have many skill that he would love to fuse, especially lots of redundant skill that he obtained from his Sub-classes: Holy Knight, Sword Master, and Guardian of Light.

To obtain a Skill Assimilation Orb, he had collected more than 1000 Glory Points. This points can only be acquired by an achievement, like creating a new Skill outside of Skill Tree that has not been discovered before, or killing BOSSES.

Killing a boss monster is easier and gives more points, especially world boss which will give more Glory Points generously.

Leon had painfully collected the points by doing raid party often. And by the time he had enough points, he excitedly exchange the points immediately. He planned to use this orb after leveling up some more and use his Skill Point to unlock few more skills.

But alas, before he uses the orb, it has been snatched away by Black Phantom!

That orb was obtained by trading with Glory Points! Not Gems or Gold!

"If I know this would happen... I WOULD HAVE IMMEDIATELY USED IT!! SYIIT!!"

Ouma was unwilling to accept this fact. To obtain 1000 Glory Points, he had to participate in 100 raid bosses (@10 Points), or 20 world bosses since they gives 5 more that amount (@50 points)...

Or more extreme method is just soloing a World Boss alone. But Ouma know from his heart that his avatar, Leon doesn\'t have such strength to accomplish that feat.

"Wait and wash your neck, Black Phantom. I shall personally slain your head."

This enmity, is really can\'t be erased.

But unfortunately, Ouma couldn\'t do anything at the moment. Because his information on this baleful player is too little.

Using the bracelet terminal in his arm, Ouma swiped the holo-screen and quickly access the internet. He downloaded all of the recording that has Black Phantom appearance in it.

Black Phantom is not his real username, in fact nobody knows his real identity. When he appears, he always hides his name, most likely by using an expensive cash item, Crime Scroll. He was called such because of his black cloak trademark and his disturbing mask.

Apart from being able to make players hide their names, it doesn\'t really have any other functions, moreover the price is very expensive. A whooping  500 is equal to ¥25.000 and that\'s only one use for 10 minutes. Even PK-ers would think thrice if they want to buy it.

A mere ¥25.000 is no big deal for someone like him, but to lowly peasant, it can be considered expensive.

"Which means... There are someone backing him. But the question is... Who? Prominence? or Stellar Wing?

No... that can\'t be... He also attacked them previously."

Black Phantom appeared sporadically up until now. All the place he appeared undoubtedly become carnage of death.

He first attacked Stellar Wing Guild in their stronghold while they\'re gone, looting their treasure and causing them enormous loss. Then, he appeared inside a dungeon that Prominence Guild trying to conquer. They was massacred and the clearance record turned into [???].

If they were behind this, why would Black Phantom attack them?

"Who is actually backing Black Phantom\'s operation!?"

Originally, he just scoff it off when Black Phantom appeared the first time and thinking that it wasn\'t his problem. But now that his guild also became victim, he knew the seriousness behind this.

The era has changed.

Virtual Technology has changed the world.

Now many business corporation and organization paid very importance to this technology. Especially when social distancing rule is in effect. Inside virtual world, physical touch won\'t bring any harm.

Virtual school, Virtual meeting, Virtual idol, Virtual sex...

People start using virtual world as a replacement of the real world. Many aspect of life has started to change its meaning ever since this technology is introduced.

And currently the most stable virtual world is Ascension.

If Ouma can secure Genesis Guild\'s foothold in this game, his position as the most prominent heir in Tenkawa family will be solidified. The other heir won\'t be able to do anything to flip the situation. But it seems this kind of thinking is still naive.

"I see... Black Phantom\'s existence, must likely backed by one of them! Then that makes sense!

Want to overthrow me and then did a Pyrrhic turnaround by using Black Phantom?

Heh, in your dreams, my foolish little brothers!!"

Ouma chuckled with his realization. Though, his facial expression did not smile. Humans only fears the unknown, but now that he knows the enemy(?) behind this, he no longer have anything to fear.

He stood from his chair and pressed something in it. The gorgeous chair suddenly morphed its shape like a transformers do. It now reveals a safety box that is carefully hidden inside the chair.

"This chair is really intriguing. Anything that "Rucien" makes is fascinating.

But, I wonder why he made a chair from Titanium."

If Ruri was here to see this chair, she would definitely recognize this chair as one of her creations.

Ouma couldn\'t understand what is inside the mind of an artist. Using such metal just to create a secret safety box chair, that\'s definitely not a normal way of thought.

Isn\'t this kind of wasteful?

In any case, it was worth to spend money to make a collection of Rucien\'s work, even though the price is somewhat expensive. All of his(?) work was created by using metal that hard to come by.

Ouma clicked the handle according to the password he set and the safety box immediately opened, revealing a bottle of wine and another glass, neatly arranged. He then opened the cork and start pouring the wine to the glass.

The purple color of the wine, was changed to red under the room lighting. In Ouma\'s eyes this wine suddenly looked like a liquid of blood. Perhaps he secretly wish that the liquid inside the glass is really Black Phantom\'s blood.

"I should hire some people again later to help me level up faster.

It would be shameful if the guild leader level was lower than his member."

Ouma savored the taste of the wine as he looked at the city scenery from the window.

FlyingPirateCat