Siam Square, Thailand

15:40 

 

"P, I want to take a break from work"

 

...

 

.......

 

............huh?

 

"What? But why?"

 

"It should be obvious P"

 

All of a sudden, Eyes' body slumped on to the table. And slammed her forehead against the surface.

 

"I AM SO FUCKING TIREED!!"

 

"I HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH YOU FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS WITHOUT A SINGLE DAY OF REST!!"

 

"I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING ELSE, TRY SOMETHING NEW, BUT YOU ALWAYS JUST FUCKING WORK, WORK AND WORK, YOU WORKAHOLIC MOTHERFUCKER!!"

 

"But you could-"

 

"But you could have just quit" was what he was about to reply to Eyes' whine. But he wasn't that dense to consider's Eyes' feelings. Having stick together with him through hell, they managed to achieve a high ranking status in the Underworld hierarchy, as well as becoming economically successful to the point that they both could live for the rest of their life modestly without having to work again. Eyes could've stopped there, but Pratch wanted to continue for no other reason other than to selfishly satisfy his own ambition.

 

"I'M MORE SHOCKED ABOUT YOU P! HOW COME I STILL HAVE STRESS EVEN THOUGH MY MIND IS PRETTY MUCH CYBERNETIC NOW BUT YOUR HUMAN BRAIN STILL FUNCTIONS LIKE IT IS NOTHING!?"

 

"I honestly don't know"

 

Can he still be considered as a human being? Pratch remembered that he used to have hesitation when it comes to killing. But many things had happened, and the limiter that always caused him always give up halfway was no longer there. Now he can easily rob a life of others with a flick of his fingertips without feeling anything. Is that limiter what determines a person whether they are or they are not a human? If that is the case then he might've already become a monster for quite a while now.

 

But Eyes was with him throughout his transformation. Pratch might've instinctively assumed that Eyes' mentality changes along with himself. But that wasn't the case. Although Eyes never judges him for killing others, Eyes' feelings might've been suppressed all this time. So it is understandable that Eyes deserved at least a long rest.

 

He focuses his attention on to Eyes, who seemed to have calmed down. 

 

"Alright, I understand. How long would you like to take a break?"

 

Eyes' eyes immediately shine to Pratch's question.

 

"One year"

 

"One year...huh"

 

He's going to have to work solo for one whole year then, while Eyes....wait what was Eyes going to do again?

 

"What's your plan for the year break?"

 

A smile erected on Eyes' face.

 

"Glad you asked! I, of course, will indulge myself in this" Eyes pat on one of the box they were carrying previously.

 

"Speaking of which, what's with these boxes?" asked Pratch as he is totally dumbfounded of what is inside of the box. 

 

"Remember what I told you about Godsbound online a couple of nights ago? Well, yours truly, has gotten a hold of 2 KEYS to access the beta testing!" 

 

"You sound weirdly proud for getting on hold of the keys" 

 

"YOU HAVE NO IDEA! I SPENT HALF MY FORTUNE TO GET THESE KEYS RIGHT HERE"

 

Pratch wheezed. He heard something he didn't expect to hear from Eyes, after the 20 years they've been together.

 

"wait, wait wait wait, hold on. YOU SPENT MONEY ON THIS?"

 

"Well, how do you suppose I got a hold on this then?"

 

"I don't know? Didn't you said that they were available only through a draw?"

 

"Oh, so you hadn't taken a visit to the basket recently?"

 

The Basket, officially known as the Dark-Web Store page. You think of anything, anything at all, whether it be real corpses, illegal drugs, hack clients, virus trojan in a floppy disk, you name them, it probably will be in there at a certain price. It works similar to iBay, but ironically, it provides much better service and guarantees what you see on your screen would be what you would be holding when it arrives at your front door. For Pratch, who is almost always online on the Dark-Web, he rarely visits the Basket despite having enough money to build his own artificial planet to orbit around the moon. He is a man who doesn't know how to spend money. The most expensive thing he had paid for, was his custom-built CryTech Intervention Sniper Rifle. Needless to say, the weapon itself is a military class weaponry that can be shot up to 3500 Meters as well as it is perfectly all weather-resistant. It was made by the grandmaster craft man who goes by the username "ironpegassi89" on the Dark-Web, although he had gone quiet for a few years now, he is still one of the people Pratch would like to had a drink with someday.

 

So according to what Eyes was saying; earlier this month, someone who proclaimed he was Novidia on the Dark-Web decided to auction off 20,000 beta-test keys for the Godsbound game. And Eyes was one of the lucky few that was able to acquire the 2 keys from that auction. Half of Eyes; fortune, that means it could be in the 9 digit figures. But this news caused Pratch curiosity to go even higher for this game.

 

"So you are saying that there could be up to around 80,000 beta-testers?" asks Pratch in an unsure voice

 

"No, I think it is safer to say that the real number could be around 100,000 testers"

 

"How come?"

 

"In February, although it wasn't made public, Novidia actually auctioned about 20,000 other keys from his own private Twidder account"

 

Pratch hold his hands up to stroke his chin "But why would he wanted to do that? Was he facing some financial issues for the game?"

 

"My best guess is as good as yours, there were very few traces of information available on this topic"

 

Pratch was bewildered. Not even Eyes, who he believed to be one of the world's elite hacker, was this limited to any information regarding a single indie game developer.

 

"But still though, I don't understand why'd you make the effort to buy and not just rig the Twidder draw from the beginning"

 

Eyes looked straight at Pratch "That's the strangest part"

 

"what was?"

 

"His twidder account is completely hackproof"

 

...

 

Pratch was impressed. There was one truth he knows from Eyes was that anything in this world can be hacked. And so if Eyes said that there was something he couldn't hack into, then there might've been a change in the industry that they didn't follow.

 

"We were too focused on the game in front of us, we didn't notice the new blood rising above the skill levels, who do you reckon did the security?"

 

Eyes replied dejectedly, "I have never seen this kind of language before, whoever that did this is using a system that has never been seen before" 

 

Pratch replied back with pity "Well why don't you take this break and think about it.

 

Eyes agreed and voiced out this opinion.

 

"I think you should take a break as well"

 

Eyes said so while pointing towards Pratch.

 

"Me? A break? No way"

 

"Why not? You might as well practice how to live normally from time to time"

 

"No, I don't think I will"

 

"You...don't tell me you planned to never return to the normal society?" asks Eyes worryingly 

 

"I don't imagine my self retiring"

 

"..."

 

Despite Pratch's refusal, Eyes looked somewhat satisfied.

 

"You are as stubborn as ever" 

 

"You know me"

 

"Yep, but that doesn't mean I will give up"

 

Eyes picked up Pratch's phone and quickly browse for a certain webpage. Then handed back the phone to Pratch with a smile. 

 

"How about I compromise your work for a bit?"

 

What Pratch saw on his screen was the usual Dark-Web Thread Board, but the content right on the middle of the screen was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Posted by a user named "4aqXf63jLoqh20S", was an image file with the following, written in a huge white serif on a blue background:

 

{EMERGENCY QUEST}
[Greetings, I came in the time of great needs!]
[I, Darius, am in need of your cooperation. We require you to protect our King, Kairanoor of Shirudal. He has been targetted by the Great Gods and Goddesses of Light. They had amassed an army of over 100,000 individuals with incredible potential. We, no matter what, must not let the king fall.]
[Rewards: Upfront: 2M
After completion: 18M and an additional reward.]

 

...

 

"Is this some sort of a prank?" 

 

With that Eyes laughed, "I know right? It totally looks like a joke. Nobody at all took it seriously at all"

 

Eyes continue on, "From what I gathered, the characters mentioned in this thread are all NPCs from the Godsbound game"

 

Pratch scroll the page down and noticed a timer 

 

[Remaining Time: 15hrs 17min 22sec]

 

Pratch became even more confused.

 

"Wait, this thread was approved? So even the Dark Agents took this post seriously?"

 

Eyes replied "They either have a weird sense of humour or that this is a legit request, perhaps this is one of those case of role-playing gone too far. But the isn't the pay quite a lot? Considering this is coming from a player asking other players to protect them and reward back in the 7 figures is nuts"

 

"As I said, this will compromise your job a bit, You will work while you are in the game. You will have to learn all the new functions and systems from the ground up again. Considering that you are up against 99,998 enemies, some of which are already experts when it comes to video games, you will clearly be at a disadvantage"

 

Eyes looked back at Pratch. Pratch's eyes turned sharp, tensed his muscle.

 

Pratch was excited, he could feel his blood started to boil from this adrenaline flowing through his veins. He had never felt this before. Previously he would only ever accept jobs from whoever that requested for him specifically, not once in his 20 years has he offered his service for others. What would happen if someone like him accepted this quest? Would there be competitors to take on this job as well? This would be a chance for him to shine on the stage while others would witness him taking the crown of the greatest assassin alive.

 

"I decided"

 

Pratch moved his finger down across the screen and placed his thumb over the type button at the edge of the screen.