Black Online

[TOWER ANNOUNCEMENT: Player Leon D. Hart has killed a Hacker Paul Forester—he has been rewarded one million gold coins and the Mythic Sword Dealbreaker!]

"Well, look at that."

Hermes stood in the middle of some abandoned ruins, looking at the announcement message in the sky.

"And I thought I was going to be the first player to take down a hacker, but as always, he always seems to edge me just a little bit."

Hermes said with narrowed eyes.

Then, he looked across the abandoned ruins, and he wasn’t here alone, as an injured woman was chained to a wall with white chains.

"You bastard! Let me go!"

Hacker Laura screamed angrily.

"Just use your hacks to free yourself or wait... you can’t?"

Hermes asked with a chuckle.

’What the hell are these chains made of? All my abilities have been disabled! Even my connection to my hacks has been completely severed!’

Hacker Laura thought with a frightened look.

She didn’t understand what the hell was going on.

Just an hour ago, she felt invincible with these hacks, and she was currently here, on the 34th floor, hunting down players.

It was all pretty easy and going well, but then this white-haired guy popped out and completely destroyed her.

"I fused these white chains with Maxima. Every time you try to use one of your abilities, these Maxima chains destroys your power as soon as you use them.

"You probably don’t know what I am talking about, as you haven’t learned about the Five Pillars of Power..."

Hermes chuckled.

"..."

Hacker Laura looked at him with hate in her gaze.

She had already seen the announcement of Paul dying, so she knew that they—hackers—weren’t invincible any longer.

They could die.

She was a new recruit of the Reality First organization, and she truly agreed with their cause.

She believed that virtual reality was a disease that was going to rot everyone’s brain and make them slaves to the technology.

With virtual reality, she believed that the government could easily control everyone and make them into mindless puppets whose whole purpose in life was to serve the ruling class.

She wanted to help Reality First to destroy the root cause of it—the Black Online.

However.

If she died here now, there was nothing she could do to help that cause, and she would definitely get kicked, as she would have no more use to them!

’I can’t die...’

Hacker Laura gritted her teeth and tried breaking through the chains, but they were too strong.

’Wait...’

She looked behind her and noticed that she was chained to a wall.

These chains were too strong to break, but this wall wasn’t.

’You’ve made a mistake!’

Hacker Laura grinned and kicked behind her and destroyed the wall with a single kick, and the chains got loose.

They clanged to the ground with a loud noise.

"Oh?"

Hermes raised an eyebrow.

"You fool. One day, I will have my revenge for what happened today."

Hacker Laura said coldly, and then she started teleporting away, as she didn’t believe she was strong enough to kill him.

Not today.

However.

In the near future, she would find a way.

Hermes pushed his hands forward—the right and left hands pressed together—then his beautiful white grimoire turned through pages.

As the space was about to take Hacker Laura away, suddenly something happened, and the air around her shifted.

It started bending and stretching in ways that made it look like it was made of taffy.

"Space Lock!"

Hermes shouted.

"Huh?!"

Hacker Laura was shocked as her ability to teleport wasn’t working anymore. She was trapped in her current location.

"What the hell is this ability?!"

She screamed in shock.

"When you teleport, you bend the space to your will. Even with your hacks, there are still rules that your hacks have to follow.

"You just can’t teleport elsewhere without an explanation about how your teleportation works. You can’t just jump from one place to another without a logical explanation.

"I locked the space around you so that it cannot bend, and since it doesn’t bend, you cannot teleport anywhere.

"Those rules are the weakness that I can exploit. I can use them against you."

Hermes said with a smile.

"...Who the hell are you?"

Hacker Laura asked with fear.

"I am Hermes of the Moon Family. It’s nice to meet you."

Hermes said with a smile.

She gritted her teeth, and then she pulled out a bow from her inventory and pulled the string taut all the way back.

At the string, a glowing arrow suddenly appeared, which was the manifestation of Hacker Laura’s aura.

"Aura Pierce!"

She let go of the string, and the arrow flew straight towards him.

It wasn’t just an ordinary bow shot but something far more dangerous, something that could pierce through even the strongest defenses.

This arrow, if it hits a player directly, could cause a maximum of 10,000 health points of damage, making it one of the strongest attacks that a Ranger could execute.

Yet.

Hermes didn’t flinch. He didn’t even move.

The arrow was obviously about to hit him directly in the face, but when it got within inches of his skin, it suddenly steered slightly, just enough to brush past his cheek.

The arrow effortlessly smashed through the skull of a small bird flying behind him and made it explode into a cloud of feathers and blood.

"How? It was definitely going to hit you!"

Hacker Laura asked with a bewildered look.

She had an aimlock hack, so no matter what, any arrow, skill, or spell that she launched would hit her opponent with 100% accuracy.

Even if she didn’t aim anywhere near her opponent, the attack would find a way to still hit her target.

Yet.

It missed just now!

"The few inches of space around me is called the "Hermes Zone," as I named it myself for fun. In that few inches of space, the space bends and contorts to redirect any attacks away from me.

"This is one of the spells that I created myself. It’s an extremely difficult spell to create, as it’s all about understanding the intricacies of space-time manipulation.

"Luckily for me, I am pretty smart."

Hermes said with a smile.

"T-That’s some bullshit!"

Hacker Laura shouted with disbelief.

She couldn’t understand how there was a player like him alive, and she had no idea how anyone could beat him.

Even if James was standing right in her place right now, she wasn’t sure whether even he could beat him.

Even if he were extremely strong—strongest among them without a doubt—as even without hacks, they believed James could’ve been skilled enough to join Dead Redemption.

However.

James hated virtual reality games, but before he grew to hate them, he did play Black Online regularly and was an amazing player.

He was one of the best players without a doubt when he was still playing.

Something happened in his life that made him hate Black Online with passion and any other virtual reality game for that matter.

’The shocking thing is that this guy isn’t even the strongest player alive. The strongest is that Leon guy who had just killed Paul!’

Hacker Laura thought with a shock.

She had to inform James that they had to be careful from now on, as they couldn’t just rely on their hacks to do all the work.

There were some really dangerous players that could ruin everything if they weren’t careful!

"I’ve had my fair share of fun. I have a date in an hour, and I’d rather not miss that so... I think it’s time to call it a night."

Hermes said with a smile, and suddenly, his happy-smiling expression dropped, replaced by seriousness.

The air in the ruins changed, and the Hacker Laura could feel it... the death was coming, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"P-please..."

She pleaded, but it was too late, and the white light suddenly spread across the ruins, enveloping her in a blinding flash.

Booooom~!

A massive explosion shook the 34th floor as several players witnessed the sight of a massive mushroom cloud explosion coming from the direction of the ruins.

"What the hell is going on in there..."

...

Black Online Company, the control room.

"LET’S GO!"

"Wohoo!"

The employees were cheering happily as they just watched both Leon and Hermes kill an hacker—with relative ease even!

"Hahaha, these hackers are not that tough after all! Leon and Hermes completely demolished them!"

The employees happily high-fived each other and celebrated, as this was the first time they were winning against the battle against the hackers!

It had been a long week—sleepless nights—as they had done everything in their power to try to remove the hackers from the game.

They’ve failed.

Therefore.

Their only hope was for the players to get rid of them.

"..."

Izan looked silently at the screens, but he wasn’t celebrating like others, even though these two victories were a step in the right direction.

’However, this is Leon and Hermes we’re talking about. The two strongest players in the game.

’Even though the hackers didn’t stand a chance, the fights weren’t as easy as I hoped. 99% of the player base won’t stand a chance against these hackers.

’And the hackers might target Hermes and Leon from now on, attacking them with a group, and from now on, hackers might not be moving alone anymore.

’It will make things far more difficult.

’It can’t just be Hermes and Leon doing all the work. The rest of the players also have to put in the work, but hopefully, these two victories gave everyone a much-needed boost of confidence.

’The war has only just begun...’

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