Black Online

Swoosh~! Swoosh~!

Hermes and James fell out of the portal and landed on the pure-white ground that extended forever and ever.

They were on the Zero Floor!

’...I didn’t think I would see this place again.’

Hermes thought.

"Argh, god damn it!"

James screamed loudly, and he then grabbed Hermes by his throat and slammed him hard against the ground.

"This is all your fault!"

"Haha... Sucks to lose, doesn’t it?"

Hermes chuckled, and in anger, James pushed his fist through Hermes’ rib cage, feeling a satisfying crack as Hermes let out a surprised gasp.

"Don’t think this place can hold me forever!"

James shouted.

Then, he tried bending the space in a way that would let him teleport back to the Tower of the Black.

However.

It failed.

"...Why doesn’t it work?"

"Zero Floor is in a separate pocket dimension altogether. You should’ve noticed back in the tower that your hack teleportation only lets you travel about five floors at times.

"This pocket dimension, simply, is so far away from the Tower of the Black that your teleportation doesn’t reach it.

"This place might be in a completely different universe altogether."

Hermes said.

"Fuck... But don’t forget, you might’ve managed to trap me, but there are still other hackers."

James said angrily.

"...You didn’t sense it, did you?"

Hermes asked with a smile.

"Sense what?"

James asked with a frown.

"The hackers... are already dead."

...

Tower of the Black, First Floor, the Fields outside the Starting City.

"S-Stay away!"

Hacker Dean waved his weapon at the players, who were surrounding him, a look of terror in his eyes.

Around him, all the other hackers were already dead, and he was the last one remaining.

In that moment, a spear stabbed into his back and exited from his chest. It was a spear wielded by Raizen.

"COUGH!"

Hacker Dean coughed up blood and fell down to his knees, and he saw his health bar dropping close to zero.

"I-It doesn’t matter if you kill me... James will never lose to you guys... As long as one of us survives... all of you lose..."

"About that. We had already received word that your leader, James, has been dealt with. You’re literally the only one left."

A player said.

"W-What?"

Hacker Dean couldn’t believe his ears.

He thought that there might be a chance that the player was lying, but the sound of fighting in the city had been quiet for a while now.

At first, he thought it was only because James finished killing his prey and was going to come here to save him.

Instead...

The health dropped to zero, and everything turned dark.

A player raised his sword high towards the sky. Trembling in ecstasy. The players, with exhausted looks, forced a smile on their faces.

"WE’VE WON!"

Loud cheers reverberated throughout the battlefield.

...

Real World, Black Online Company, the control room.

"Yeeeeees!"

The men and women inside the room celebrated and hugged each other as they witnessed the sight of victory through the screens.

It was over.

"Make a complete system scan. Find out if there is even one trace of the hackers left."

Kuroganehara Izan said.

They did a quick check, and everyone came to the same conclusion that the hackers had been completely eradicated.

Black Online was back in control of players!

"The system looks good!"

"We can’t find a trace of any Reality First users!"

Kuroganehara Izan nodded, and then he clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention, and they all listened.

"The damage that the hackers left is still visible in the tower. Let’s start the restoration operation. Commence the update program."

Izan said.

They halted their celebrations for a second and went back to working, their fingers furiously typing across the keyboards.

...

The world cheered in unison.

The news was filled with the players’ victory. A hard-earned victory. The age of the hackers was over after one year of hard work and determination.

As soon as the people found out that the hackers were finally gone, the number of players in Black Online skyrocketed.

Everyone that quit the game because of the hackers was flocking back to the game, and the number of active users immediately started increasing rapidly.

A victory belonged to the players!

...

Somewhere in the world.

Sitting inside a lightless office, James tapped his finger against the desk as he tried calling someone with a landline phone.

He kept calling, but no one answered.

"Why the hell isn’t that bastard answering now?!"

James slammed his fist on the desk, and at that moment, the door opened, and Hacker Dean walked in.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

"I am trying to contact that moron Aizen, but he doesn’t pick up. I am sure he has a way to get another patch of updated hacked cards that will bypass Black Online’s anti-cheat!"

James shouted.

"...Others are currently having a meeting. They all want to head back home to their families. What will I say to them?"

Dean asked.

"Huh? Are they stupid? They’re all wanted people just like me. As soon as they meet their families, they will be put in handcuffs and thrown into jail!"

James angrily shouted.

The shout was heard by everyone outside the room. A silence fell. A regret began filling their hearts.

They thought that they were fighting for a good cause, but now they realized the harsh consequences of their actions.

What they did was illegal, and therefore, every one of them was now a wanted individual, and they would never be able to get back into their old lives.

...

[You’re Dead!]

Hermes stared at the message in front of him, and then with a dry chuckle, he pressed the Log Out button.

When he opened his eyes again, he was lying inside his Virtual Reality Pod, and he quickly pressed a button to open the glass lid.

The glass lid slowly lifted.

He then sat up straight, looked around his fancy, quite futuristic-looking basement room, which was his gaming lair.

"Dead... Well, that stings."

Hermes scratched the back of his head, and he then climbed out of the pod and stretched his arms above his head.

He then looked at the landline phone, pressed buttons for a number, and then put the receiver to his ear.

Click~! The call connected.

"...Young master?"

"Get me another game card."

Hermes said, and put the receiver down.

"I guess I need to start all over again. That’s fine. I was getting bored either way."

...

Black Online, First Floor, the Starting City.

"...He is dead."

Aria said as she looked at her friend list and saw that Hermes’ name had turned red, signaling his death.

It darkened everyone’s expression, as none of this was possible without Hermes, and he was the only one that died.

"He was a strong man. I am sure with his genius he will catch up to us soon enough."

Grimson said.

’I start to understand why everyone was speaking so highly of Hermes. Truly an impressive individual.

’I wasn’t really able to do anything in the whole fight. It looks like I still have a long way to go until I can battle the top.

’But I am closer than I was over a year ago.’

Fang Raon thought.

At that moment, in the skies above the First Floor, an announcement suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: A new game Update will commence in ten minutes. Prepare accordingly. The game’s servers will be temporarily shut down]

"An update?"

Fang Raon said with a look of surprise.

It was the first update that happened during his time at Black Online, but he had heard about previous updates.

All previous updates added something truly special to the game. This one must be something big as well because it had been a long time since the previous update.

"The update was delayed so long because the hackers, so adding the update to the game would’ve gone to waste as no one would be there to experience it.

"Now, with hackers dead, the update will attract all the former players back to the game. This update must be huge."

Aria said.

"How long will the servers be down?"

Fang Raon asked.

"It is usually a couple of days, but might be longer now. I am sure Black Online Company will try to fix all the damage left behind by the hackers.

"That means bringing back all the locals that have been killed by the hackers."

Aria said.

"Does that mean that they might also bring back the ones killed by the hackers?"

Lock asked.

"...Unfortunately, that seems to be impossible from what I’ve heard. Those accounts have been completely deleted."

Aria said with a sad look.

It would be amazing if that was possible, but the hackers were really ruthless, as they really wanted to destroy the game.

"With the hackers dead, Black Online will go back to normal. It’ll be so fun. The last year has been hard.

"All the joy was sucked out of the game, but now, with everything going back to normal, I can go back to grinding."

Super Max said with a smile.

’With the hackers gone, I wonder what I’ll do. Everyone in Rose Records has kept climbing up the tower, so I’ve been left behind.

’Maybe it is finally time to start making more videos and even streaming. I guess I’ve delayed that long enough.’

Fang Raon said with a smile.

[10...]

[6...]

[3...]

[1...]

[Server is shutting down!]

All the players vanished from Black Online. The skies turned dark as if the light had been sucked out of the world.

Black Online’s servers were down.

This would’ve been the same sight if the hackers had won, but now, the servers were only temporarily shut down.

Once the servers were back up, Black Online would look more beautiful than ever before.

A new age.

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