At another place...

A young man is sitting in a pretty chair in his room inside a high-rise penthouse apartment. His face could be considered top-grade handsome by the majority's standards. He was wearing expensive clothes made of silk fibre, and was holding a wine glass in his hand.

Tenkawa Ouma, 22 years old. The first son and main heir of the Tenkawa family, a large conglomerate with various business projects spread across the country.

He also had another identity, a guildmaster of the great guild in the Ascension world, Genesis. In that world, he was known as The Radiant Hero, Leon the Templar Knight.

Possessing wealth and blessed appearance, truly the epitome of being born with a golden spoon.

But even so, his expression didn't look good, especially after seeing the holo screen.

He leaned back in his chair in deep thought.

So many bad things happened in one day. The raid operation he led was destroyed by an unknown third party. This made him so angry that he couldn't think straight. Because of that, he seemed to have said something wrong to Hecate and made her angry.

"Today is a really bad day."

Hecate, one of the core members of her guild, everyone's little sister figure.

She was a mascot as well, the top ranked DPS in the Genesis Guild. As one of the players who managed to reach the 3rd Job-class - Archwitch, she only focused(?) on water elemental spells and dealing strong damage to her enemies.

Her petite stature and adorable face can't help but trigger everyone's lolicon maternal instincts.

Even Ouma himself had to resist the temptation to pat her on the head!

♦♦♦

 

When players create their virtual avatar, the game's AI will provide a basic appearance based on the player's own body shape. Players can make subtle adjustments based on the system, but the differences can't be too great.

These are regulations made from the government, not from the side of game companies.

It is said that this rule was created to overcome various problems that arise in VRMMO games, such as when some people cannot control their body properly after returning from a game due to differences in body shape. Another case is nekama fraud.

One day, a player finds out that his in-game girlfriend is actually a guy IRL, they even had sex in the game. The nekama man was eventually killed by the victim player and the incident went viral.

After these kind problematic cases occurred, the government decided to enforce this rule. No more nekama, no more giddy people.

Interestingly, shortly after this regulation was enacted, many people decided to have full-body surgery. Discarding fat, cutting one's own flesh and bones just to beautify one's self.

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

In short, Hecate's looks truly reflect her IRL. This girl is really a loli!

♦♦♦

 

Now that Ouma was thinking deeply, Hecate was probably angry too.

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

Even his avatar, Leon was still level 108… no, it would be 107 after today's incident. It would be difficult to surpass her level, but he had no intention of giving up. Even if he had to buy Exp Potions every day.

Besides being a strong player, Hecate is also a very good strategist.

The raid of the World BOSS, Sharknath the Calamity Dragon originally used her strategy.

Each member's overall placement, understanding of their roles and timing of skill usage, the BOSS's attack patterns and weaknesses, were all largely based on her suggestions. And it was so well executed, just a little more and the BOSS will be theirs... Until Black Phantom comes along.

"Black Phantom...!!"

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

Black Phantom's sneer at that time… Even if this bastard's entire face was hidden by that hideous mask, Ouma could still hear the strange and distorted voice clearly. He(?) was certainly looking down on Leon!

Then, that outrageous magic… Insane damage that surpassed Hecate by a huge leap.

At first, Ouma had thought the Black Phantom was a glass cannon Archwizard specializing in wind elemental spells. With that amazing output, then this bastard's health and defense should be like paper. But he was wrong!

Black Phantom received Leon's Ignition Break head-on like nothing. Not only that, Leon was counterattacked by the Stone Curse debuff and died reluctantly, without understanding why he died.

What was even more frustrating was, he could remember the System Message when he died:

An important item had dropped when he died. Remembering that fact, Ouma threw the glass in his hand against the wall.

The glass shattered and the wine spilled onto the carpet, but Ouma didn't care.

He was truly too angry to care.

"DAMMIT ! THAT IS A SKILL ASSIMILATION ORB! DAMMIT!"

When players reached high levels and acquired many skills, including the skills of their Sub-classes, it was inevitable for them to lose track of their own skills.

There will be some of their skills that are redundant and achieve basically the same effect. Then, some low-level skills will inevitably be forgotten and will no longer be used.

Such things could be resolved with the Skill Assimilation Orb.

Unneeded and redundant skills can be combined into more powerful skills while keeping their Skill Screen neat and clean. Leon had many skills he wanted to combine, especially the many redundant skills he acquired from his Sub-classes: Holy Knight, Sword Master, and Guardian of Light.

In order to obtain the Skill Assimilation Orb, he had accumulated over 1000 Glory Points. These points can only be earned by achievements, such as creating new Skills outside of the Skill Tree that have not been found before, or killing BOSSes.

Killing boss monsters is easier and gives more points, especially world BOSSes, which give more Glory Points generously.

Leon painstakingly collects points by frequently doing "raid parties". And when he has enough points, he eagerly exchanges them quickly. He planned to use this orb once he leveled up again and use his Skill Points to unlock a few more skills.

But alas, before he used the orb, it was snatched away by Black Phantom!

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

"If I knew this was going to happen... I WOULD USE IT SOON!! SYIIT!!"

Ouma did not want to accept this fact.

To get 1000 Glory Points, he must participate in 100 raid bosses (@10 Points), or 20 world bosses, since world bosses gives 5 more of the amount (@50 points). Or an even more extreme method would be to solo kill a World Boss.

But Ouma knew from the bottom of his heart that his avatar, Leon did not have that kind of power to accomplish such a feat.

"Wait and watch your neck, Black Phantom. I will cut off your head myself."

This enmity, truly cannot be erased.

But sadly, Ouma couldn't do anything about it at this point. Because the information about this savage player was too little.

Using the bracelet terminal on his arm, Ouma swiped the holo screen and quickly accessed the internet. He downloads all the videos that shows Black Phantom's appearance to his cloud storage.

Black Phantom is not the real username, no one even knows this bastard's real identity. Every time he(?) appeared, the name always be hidden, most likely by using an expensive money item, the Crime Scroll. He was given the nickname Black Phantom because of his(?) distinctive black cape and 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 were gone, looting their treasure and causing them enormous loss. Then, he appeared inside a dungeon that Prominence Guild was 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 companies and organizations attach great importance to this technology. Especially when social distancing rule is in effect. Inside virtual world, physical touch won't bring any harm.

• • Many of the organizations now held important meetings inside a virtual world.
    Long distance no longer become a problem.
  • Movie production started to shift their approach and make use of the games realistic effects to make a film.
    It was way cheaper than hiring a special effect programmer.
  • Idol and band activities also held inside virtual worlds. It was way safer than in the real world.
    If a riot happened, it can just laughed off, logout and all will be fine.

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

People start using the virtual world as a replacement for the real world. Many aspect of life have started to change its meaning ever since this technology was 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 heirs 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 do 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 fear the unknown, but now that he knows who the enemy(?) behind this incident, he no longer has anything to fear.

He stood from his chair and pressed something in it.

The gorgeous chair suddenly morphed its shape like a transformer does. It now reveals a safety box that is carefully hidden inside the chair. 

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

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

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

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.