Black Online

Fang Raon walked down a sidewalk, thinking about his options.

"Player killing could be an option, but outside the safe zone. There are many player hunters preying on victims outside safe zones usually.

"However, I am not sure if any of them have weapons of value that I am looking for."

He talked to his stream.

His chat was also giving him options.

[Rumbleman: Maybe join another Ranked match and try to get your opponent to bet a sword or weapon of a similar kind?]

"I could do that, but I would need to get Warrior as an opponent. I might get Mage or whatever. There is also a possibility of getting into a fight with a higher-ranked opponent.

"If I get someone like Leon, I will be in a hopeless situation with a weapon."

Fang Raon said.

At that moment.

[SERVER ANNOUNCEMENT: The servers will shut down momentarily for an emergency patch!]

"Huh? A sudden server announcement."

Fang Raon looked towards the sky, like millions of other players, as it came as complete surprise.

[LadyBelle: Emergency patch? That is new. I wonder if something is going on]

"Will my stream die?"

Fang Raon asked.

[LadyBelle: No. You’ll be teleported into the virtual space. Your stream will stay online unless you log off]

"I hope the servers won’t be offline for long."

Fang Raon said.

In that moment, the world vanished before his eyes. The streets were gone. The beautiful sky disappeared.

He was back in the virtual space.

The camera was still hovering in the air.

"I wonder if there is a way to check out the information about this emergency patch from this screen. I’ll check it out quick."

Fang Raon checked the screen, but there was nothing, except the game store.

[LadyBelle: There is stuff on the website. The emergency patch is about the Ranked. They’re moving its location!]

[SkyF1: I guess they didn’t expect it to be so stacked. Apparently they’re changing its location to one of the islands instead!]

[LadyBelle: That makes sense. There were way too many people there. Now everyone has to take a boat to get to the Ranked Island. Will there be enough?]

"I am sure there is an unlimited boat spawner there. They must’ve thought it through. I guess this is a good update.

"I hated going inside that building."

Fang Raon said.

In that moment, the light came back on Black Online. The servers were immediately back up. It was barely a minute down!

"That was quick!"

He quickly logged back in and soon appeared back at the street where he disappeared just a moment ago.

The massive Ranked building was gone. It was replaced by an abandoned inn instead. It had cobwebs in the windows and a boarded door.

"Ranked Island is outside the safe zone. Isn’t that risky from the developers? It’ll make things more interesting."

Fang Raon said with a smile.

[Uruquay: Are you thinking the same thing as I am?]

"Let’s go find a good target for player killing."

Fang Raon said with a smile.

...

The Harbor, 6th floor.

Boats after boats departed from the harbor, carrying players. Groups of players rushed out of the city.

It had never been this active before, as millions of players rushed out to the open water, towards the Ranked Island.

Ranked Island wasn’t far. Within ten minutes, it was possible to already reach that place.

"We’re leaving for the Ranked Island in three minutes. Last-minute boarders, hurry up!"

A captain of a ship shouted at the front of the ship. He was a local. Behind him, a decently sized passenger ship could be seen waiting for the last few passengers to board.

It could fit a hundred or so.

Players paid the man and boarded the ship.

In that moment, Fang Raon tossed the captain a few coins and boarded the ship.

He took his place under the shade, and sat down in one of the chairs, and kept his eye on the surroundings.

[LadyBelle: Who are you targeting? I don’t really like killing random players. For some, this game is their life. All of their money is tied up in it]

"Don’t worry, Belle. I’ll target someone who deserves it. I promise you, I won’t harm innocent players."

Fang Raon said.

A moment later, the ship sailed off to the distance. Players were excitedly chatting with each other. Most of them were sharing their rank as well.

"...Yeah, I am rank 901. I had only one loss yesterday, but that alone must’ve pushed me down so many ranks! So annoying."

"...This ranking system is harsh. I think to get to the top 100, you would’ve needed a perfect record with no losses!"

Ding~! Ding~!

Out of nowhere, Fang Raon received a message on the chat window, and he pulled it out and saw a surprising message.

[Ragnar: Congratulations on the victory. I apologize for Ivar’s behavior. I give him full control of my body for one day every month, and today happened to be the day, unfortunately]

[Ragnar: Let’s have coffee someday]

Fang Raon replied quickly back and then closed the chat window, and he was just saying that he would love to have coffee.

He didn’t take Ivar’s behavior to the heart. After all, his nickname was the Slaughterer.

"Wow, a stream camera!"

Out of nowhere, a player grabbed the floating camera from the air and made it point straight at his face.

The stream only saw a grinning face of a player. A dark hair, darker eyes, and ear-piercings that dangled from his ears.

There were also hook piercings above his eyes and lower lip. He looked like a delinquent and not a fun kind.

"Take your hands off the camera, please."

Fang Raon said.

"Haha, sure."

Remm tossed the camera away, and it almost crashed into a wall, but it stopped just in time and continued hovering.

"How many viewers do you have?"

The delinquent asked for fun.

"Nine."

Fang Raon said.

"Hahaha! So few? Maybe you should quit the streamer while you’re at it. Who the hell wants to watch Pipsqueak like you anyway?"

Remm asked with a grin.

"...It looks like we’ve found our target, chat. A nice sword you got on your belt. It must be a high-tier weapon."

Fang Raon looked at the sword dangling from Remm’s waist. It was a sword with a black blade, and it emitted a faint, ominous aura.

It had little necklace chains dangling from the handle.

"My sword?"

Remm frowned, and he then pulled out his sword, and the black blade looked so dark that it could catch light.

"Blackest Blade, is its name. It’s a tier VI weapon. This sword even has a special effect. It can turn the user into a shadow."

Remm said with a smirk.

The weapon was his pride. He didn’t foolishly taunt it around. He did it for a reason, as he had done it many times before.

To make players attack him, so he could kill them and steal his loot, and it was working as several players overheard him and looked over.

In that moment, in Fang Raon’s chat, one of the viewers recognized him.

[Uruquay: Watch out for this guy! This is Remm the Manhunter. He is a streamer like yourself with half a million followers. That guy got thousands of people watching every stream of his!]

[JohnsonLaw: I think I remember that name. That guy has a horrible community of edgy teenagers who worship the dude. He is bad news]

They didn’t realize that saying such things made Fang Raon want to kill him even more and get his hands on the sword.

He stood up.

"Why don’t you give me that sword?"

Fang Raon said with a smile.

"Oh, this sword?"

Remm looked at the black blade, grinned, and then held it out towards Raon, like he was offering it.

"Take it."

"..."

Fang Raon looked at the blade, and then grabbed the hilt, which was also being grabbed by Remm.

The black blade of the sword caught fire. Black flames. It was getting increasingly hot in the ship.

"Black flames of death. They can cause you actual pain, did you know that? If you manage to hold onto the sword longer than me, I will give you the sword."

Remm said with a smile.

In that moment, an uncomfortable feeling appeared in both of their hands as the black flames kept getting hotter.

It was genuinely starting to hurt.

’Physical pain doesn’t work on this game. This must be something else. The pain is all in the mind, and this sword is somehow increasing the intensity of the mental strain.’

Fang Raon thought.

It was definitely starting to hurt, like he was holding his hand in a warm stove, but he was still holding firm.

Remm didn’t know, but he had gotten very used to pain by now because of the torture training that Rock gave him.

"...Ngh."

Remm’s facial expression cracked slightly.

This was the first time that someone had held onto the Blackest Blade this long.

He had done this test multiple times before, and whenever a player felt even the tiniest amount of pain, they would give up.

The pain scared them, as all of them knew that they couldn’t possibly feel pain inside Black Online.

So, if Remm could actually hurt them—like stab them with a sword and it would feel like they were actually stabbed by a sword—the possibility terrified them.

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