Black Online

The 50th floor was in the flames.

"T-This is insane, guys!"

Somewhere in the city, a man spoke to a flying camera, which transmitted feed to his livestream that was currently being watched by a close quarter of a million people.

After people heard of the emergence of hackers, their view count kept increasing like a rocket, and it wasn’t slowing down either.

He would usually be happy about it, but he was also currently in danger, as the hackers were currently killing everyone.

He had already seen a couple of his livestreaming friends die to the hackers, and that was also one of the reasons why his stream was getting popular.

His stream moniker was Archive.

Usually, he would average about two thousand viewers, but tonight, he easily broke every view record of his.

With this amount of views, he was even on the front page of the whole DeadPixel website!

However.

The reason viewers were flocking to his stream wasn’t because of his charming personality but because they wanted to see the hackers.

And they believed that this livestreamer was so dead.

"I-I try to sneak out. The whole Safe Zone is enclosed inside a Combat Zone, so I can’t use Tower Pearl or log off to get out of this mess.

"I need to somehow get to the bridge and return to the 49th floor!"

Archive said to his chat.

"Good idea!"

But at that moment, his body went cold as he heard someone say "good idea" right above him.

With a loud gulp, Archive turned to look at the rooftop, and there was a cloaked figure perched on the edge of the rooftop.

Looking down at him with a smile.

"I could see you through the walls. I got a wallhack, you see. It looks like you’re streaming. How is your stream doing? Any good viewers?"

Lindstrom asked with a smile.

"I-It’s doing okay... A-About quarter of a million viewers..."

Archive said with a nervous look.

His chat was moving quickly.

[=STREAM CHAT=]

[Philly: You are so dead!]

[PanPan: Run, you idiot!]

[MixerDay: Wallhack even... You can’t even hide from the hackers!]

"Wow, quarter million! It seems that you are popular. I also once had a dream of becoming a livestreamer, but I am too shy to be on camera."

Lindstrom said, and then he jumped down from the roof, and landed near Archive.

"I-I can end the stream... If you want..."

Archive said nervously.

"Nah, no need. I want them to see what is about to happen next. The whole world must see that we are not joking around.

"Reality First is a real threat."

Lindstrom said coldly.

"P-please... d-don’t..."

Archive said, and he quickly turned around and started running away while the camera broadcasted him fleeing.

Then.

Lindstrom suddenly appeared in front of him. It was as fast as a blink of an eye. The camera even failed to capture his movements.

At one moment, he was standing still, and the next moment he was right in front of Archive.

"I’ve got no choice but to fight!"

Archive put his hands together, and then he pulled them apart, and suddenly a glowing grimoire appeared in front of him.

"I am not weak!"

"Oh?"

Lindstrom raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Archive did some quick hand signals—he put the two fingers of both hands together, crossed over each other to make an X.

"Flamethrower!"

Flames gushed out of the tips of his fingers, and Lindstrom’s eyes reflected the sight of the rising flames.

In that very instant, the flames engulfed Lindstrom, and the smoke rose into the air in a thick, swirling cloud.

"Did I get him?!"

Archive asked his chat with a slight smile.

The chat was moving quickly. They thought he really got him. That was a really dangerous attack to get hit by!

"Flame protection."

But then, he heard a voice inside the flames, and out of nowhere, those flames started getting sucked into a vacuum.

Inside the dark smoke, the flames got sucked into Lindstrom’s right hand, and soon, the fire was gone.

Lindstrom was completely uninjured!

"What?!"

Archive was totally shocked!

"A magic spell—Flame Protection—I made myself fireproof."

Lindstrom said with a chuckle.

"Y-You’re a Mage?!"

Archive asked with a shocked look.

"Yes, and no. I am Mage, but I am also Warrior, Tank, Helper, Assassin, and Ranger. I am whatever I want to be."

Lindstrom said with a chuckle.

’How is that even fair?!’

Archive cried inwardly.

He had spent two years with his character, playing from early dawn to late night, and he was about to lose it all!

Realizing that he couldn’t fight against this force of nature, Archive dropped to his knees and put his hands into a prayer.

"P-please, s-show mercy... I-I don’t want to die... My c-character is far too valuable. I’ve spent far too much time and effort on it to just let it disappear like this!"

Archive begged.

"You have a family?"

Lindstrom suddenly asked.

Surprised by the question, the teary-eyed Archive looked him straight in the eye and nervously nodded.

"I-I do... Mom... Dad... and little sister..."

"You’d rather spend time in here than with your loved ones. You’re a fool. I lost my family in a car accident ten years ago.

"I would do everything to get them back. You don’t even understand how good you have it. Don’t take your family for granted.

"In the near future, your parents might be gone, and you’ll regret spending time in here instead of with them."

Lindstrom said coldly.

"I..."

Archive got no words.

"Consider retiring from this game. Black Online won’t be around much longer. Go spend time with your family."

Lindstrom said with finality.

And then, he punched a hole into Archive’s chest and pulled his heart out, and he immediately dropped dead.

The camera also lost its wings, dropped to the ground, and had its lens cracked, and the stream ended.

"Slaves of the technology... I shall free everyone..."

Lindstrom said, and with the help of the wallhack, found a few more players hiding nearby and quickly went after them.

The same thing was happening all around the floor.

The hackers were finding players and locals—no matter who—and just killing them without any hesitation.

A word had spread across other Race participants. The Twelve Elder Council stopped the Race.

Those who were at the 49th floor already, about to reach the 50th floor, quickly took their Tower Pearls and teleported away to some of the lower floors.

As far away as possible from the hackers!

In the Black Online forums, a hate thread after hate thread was being created, targeting the Black Online Company.

[AngelicSoul: What kind of a shitty anti-cheat do they have? How could they allow cheaters to ruin the player experience like this? It’s ridiculous!]

[Shinzo: I lost my account to those goddamn hackers. I want my account back. Right now, or I will sue the entire goddamn company!]

[Doooh: Black Online Company, what a joke. Why aren’t they banning those hackers already? What is taking them so long?!]

...

At the front lounge of the Black Online Company.

The cameras were mounted on the camera sticks, and chairs were placed in a circular formation, all facing a speaker’s podium.

Dozens of news reporters had gathered here on short notice as they heard about an important press conference taking place.

It was regarding the hacker situation in the Black Online.

"...Who will be taking the podium, I wonder."

"...It’s most likely again their spokesperson. I wish we could talk with the mastermind of the Black Online, Kuroganehara Izan, for once."

"...This is actually the first time that the public hasn’t been on the Black Online Company’s side. I’ve never seen so many negative comments about them before."

"...The angry players are a scary sight to see. At one moment, they’re completely on your side, but if you mess up, they turn on you in an instant."

The news reporters talked.

But in that moment, a door at the back opened, and a person walked out—a menacing-looking guy.

It wasn’t the spokesperson. The spokesperson was a woman. This was someone else.

"...No way... Kuroganehara Izan?!"

"...It really must be dangerous if Izan, who never speaks to the media, is here to address the whole world!"

At that moment, Kuroganehara Izan stepped behind the speaker’s podium, and the cameras flashed.

This press conference was being broadcasted all around the world. The world held its breath, waiting for Izan’s first words.

"An unfortunate situation. The hacker group called Reality First has launched an attack against Black Online with very advanced hacks that we have never encountered before.

"Some might be wondering—why don’t we just ban them?—but as it stands right now, we cannot, as they have some kind of super ban protection in place.

"Their characters are basically not part of the system in a way that allows us to restrict their access. They’re foreign and invading viruses.

"For those that lost their accounts today, you’ll be compensated; that is a promise, but you all must be wondering what we are doing next...

"We have already created a patch that will stop any more of these hacked accounts from being created.

"But the main problem is to get these hackers out of the game."

Izan said, looking straight at the cameras with his dark eyes, and the world stayed silent like in a library.

"Good news is that these hackers can be killed. They don’t have an infinite amount of health, and they can be hurt.

"Therefore, I am officially starting a new event—Hacker Hunt—and with each hacker you manage to kill, your reward will be one million gold coins and a special event reward.

"We, as players, must work together to combat this problem. We, the Black Online Company, ask for your help!"

Izan said, and he suddenly bowed towards the camera, and the news reporters were shocked to the core.

Then.

The cameras started flashing, and the news reporters started bombing with questions after questions.

Yet Izan stayed quiet as he kept looking at the camera, like he was looking at all the players out there.

’This is a war between players and hackers...’

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