Black Online

Players whispered inside the hall with each other. Since there were so many people whispering at once, it was quite loud.

They were all wondering what they were doing here.

In that moment.

Seonwoo Kim took a step forward and stomped her boot on the ground, which immediately silenced everyone.

"Quiet down!"

She shouted with her ugly, harsh tone.

"Thank you, Seonwoo."

Leon said.

With a slightly flushed blush, Seonwoo Kim took a step back but just close enough to Leon so she could still guard him.

"We’ve been summoned here by the request of the Black Online Company. They want this hacker problem to end right now.

"Black Online’s player count is dropping every single day, and there are barely a hundred thousand active users left anymore.

"It’s disastrous compared to the hundreds of millions of players before.

"Hackers have made the first floor their base of operations. They’re camping the spawn location so no new player can enter the game.

"We’re currently organizing a strategy to attack the hackers and take back control of the first floor."

Leon said.

When the players heard that, there was immediately commotion in the crowd, as they had many conflicting feelings.

On the first floor, there were over fifty hackers at all times. It was a very dangerous and powerful army.

"We will launch an attack with the full force of the player community. All of us, attacking them simultaneously.

"And we won’t stop until all of them are dead."

Leon said coldly.

In that moment, one player shouted from the crowd.

"What if they just teleport away? We’ve been so close to killing a few hackers, but they just teleport away like cowards!"

Players nodded, as they have suffered the same fate.

In many battles against hackers, they’ve sent hundreds of players to kill one hacker, and after close to a hundred player deaths, they were so close to killing the hacker.

Only for the hacker to teleport away when it started to look bad.

"That’s where Hermes comes in."

Leon said and turned to look over to Hermes, who was sitting in the first row, and gave him a nod.

Even though they were rivals, they had to work on this together, as all of them wanted for the hackers to be gone.

They ruined the beautiful game that they loved.

Everyone’s eyes fell on Hermes.

"I will cover the entire floor with my Space Lock. It’s a spell that freezes the space in a way that the hackers won’t be able to bend the space to teleport away.

"However, the size of that Space Lock will drain my mana quickly. I will bring as many Mana Recovery Potions as needed, but in just about ten minutes, I will deplete about two hundred of those potions.

"Therefore, we don’t have a lot of time to get rid of the hackers."

Hermes said.

"The head of the snake has taken base at the Adventurer’s Guild. I will confront James there while the rest of you take down the henchmen."

Leon said.

At the second floor’s balcony of the guild hall, a group of players looked down at the meeting happening below.

"..."

Raizen looked at Leon with furrowed brows.

"Will this work?"

Raikou asked.

"Hundreds of thousands of players attacking the hackers simultaneously. If we threw enough bodies, sure, even the hackers would fall.

"But I have a feeling that Leon is underestimating them a tad too much."

Anna said.

"It doesn’t matter. Hermes is there. I think behind the closed doors, Leon is asking advice from him because he doesn’t want this mission to fail.

"This is a crowning moment in Leon’s player career, and if they successfully defeat the hackers, he will be hailed as a hero.

"Therefore, even he will abandon his pride to ask help from Hermes because he knows that Hermes is much smarter than he is."

Raizen said.

"The guild masters. Come with me to the back. We’ll discuss the plan further."

Leon said.

The guild masters of various guilds stood up from their chairs and followed Leon out to the back room.

Meanwhile, the rest of the players kept talking with each other about the plan and whether it would actually work.

"Will you go?"

Anna asked as she looked at Raizen.

"I don’t believe he’d like to see my face."

Raizen said.

...

The guild masters surrounded a circular table. It had a map of the first floor laid out on it.

"Hermes."

Leon said.

Hermes nodded and took a "chess piece" from a box and placed it on the northern side of the map.

"This is the location of the tower. It’s also our entrance to the first floor. It will be guarded heavily by the hackers.

"With the Newbie Floors being unlocked for us, they are anticipating an attack to come sooner or later."

Hermes said.

"It means a sneak attack is impossible."

One of the guild masters said.

"Not necessarily. We will send one Assassin with strong enough Stealth that he can stay undetected by the hackers."

Hermes said.

"Who has that strong of a Stealth? Hackers have wallhacks and all kinds of detection methods. They can see through any invisibility."

Grimson Duke said.

"Lock."

Hermes looked across the table at Lock Manchester, who had stayed pretty quiet for now, and everyone’s eyes fell on him.

After the disbandment of Dead Redemption, Lock had been playing with his friends, but a while back, their group was attacked by hackers.

While Lock survived, all his friends died, and because the first floor was occupied by the hackers, they couldn’t even play with new accounts.

Thus.

He wanted to do everything in his power to get rid of the hackers, no matter what.

"I’ve been able to stay undetected by the hackers. They can see through my Stealth easily, but that’s only if I allow them to.

"My idea is for me to activate my Stealth, and then use my speed to avoid their line of sight completely.

"Hackers’ weakness is speed."

Lock said.

"Lock will distract the hackers, and then we launch our plan of attack—everyone in this room will attack at once to kill all the hackers in one swoop."

Hermes said.

The guild masters looked at everybody gathered around the table, and it was honestly impressive might.

The strongest force that the player community had to offer.

"Won’t the hackers be alerted if the Tower Announcement of the hackers’ death appears in the sky?"

A player asked.

"We’ve asked the Black Online Company to disable those announcements. They’ve already done that."

Hermes said.

"Once we’ve killed the hackers, Hermes will cast Space Lock, and then I fly over to the Starting City, find James, and attack him.

"Once I’ve started my attack, you all will surround the city and launch an attack simultaneously. The hackers will be so disorganized and overwhelmed that they won’t stand a chance against our coordinated assault."

Leon said.

The guild masters nodded, and a short while later, the meeting concluded, and they all went on their merry way.

The date of the attack: tomorrow.

It was only Hermes, Seonwoo Kim, and Leon left in the room.

"What about Raizen and Rook?"

Hermes asked.

"What about them?"

Leon asked coldly.

Even hearing of their name made him extremely irritated, as he hadn’t forgotten about that day over a year ago.

"We might need their help."

Hermes said.

"Absolutely not. Knowing them, they would probably just try to stab me in the back. We’ll do better without them."

Leon said with a scoff, and then headed out with Seonwoo Kim following behind him, as if she were just some loyal dog.

Hermes just shook his head.

...

12th floor, the Training Camp.

Ding~! Ding~!

"Huh?"

Rock, who was enjoying a nice refreshing drink, heard a ding on his ear, and opened his chat window.

He had received a message from Della.

She mentioned about the meeting and everything that was said there and that they would commence the attack tomorrow.

’It’s time, huh?’

Rock sipped on the drink and then put the drink down on the table and headed out of the gate.

A short walk later, he found a young man meditating on top of a rock, facing a cliff and beautiful waterfall.

The young man wasn’t the same young man as the one from over a year ago. He had changed in ways that were immediately noticeable.

"Brat, they’re going to attack them tomorrow!"

Rock shouted.

Fang Raon opened his eyes, turned his head over, and showed a glad-looking grin that showed his handsome features even further.

"Does that mean we’re done here?"

He asked.

"...Yes."

Rock nodded.

Then, Fang Raon stood up, and he had grown at least a few centimeters taller, and his body looked perfect for combat.

The defined curves of his muscles were emphasized by the tight fabric of his shirt.

He walked over to Rock, stopped right before him, and he was at least a head taller than Rock now.

At the head of Rock, there were few more gray hairs scattered among the black ones than just a year ago.

"It was fun."

Fang Raon smiled and offered his hand for a handshake.

"Hmph."

Rock just grinned and grabbed his hand with a tight grip.

"Go show them hell."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!