Black Online

"Reality First... you all shall die..."

Fang Raon said.

However, his voice sounded different. It was deep and raspy, like there was something stuck in his throat.

He sounded much older than he sounded.

In that moment, beams of concentrated fire shot out of the eye holes and cut through the computers like a hot knife through butter.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

They jumped out of the way out of the fire and watched as the fire burned through the walls and computers.

Desks caught fire, and smoke began filling the room, and the fire began quickly spreading across the place.

"T-That’s impossible..."

James whispered with a look of shock, his eyes wide with disbelief.

An impossible sight happened before their very eyes. Fire shooting from the black figure’s eyes. Like something out of a videogame.

"W-w-we need to get the hell out of here!"

With panic and chaos, everyone started running out of the room, and lastly, James and Jack were the last ones to leave, glancing back one final time at the terrifying image.

A sight of the black figure standing in the middle of the flaming sea was engraved into their minds—forever.

"..."

Fang Raon watched them leave as the fire started spreading towards him, about to touch the black cloak he was wearing.

In that moment, he jumped through the ceiling and landed at the rooftop and looked back down to the building through the hole.

Fire was spreading very quickly.

’The fire will destroy all the evidence they have about Fang Family’s involvement in this case. They got nothing left.’

Fang Raon thought.

’With their safehouse gone, Reality First has no place to hide at. It’s just a matter of time before they all get caught.

’They will most likely spout all the beans about the Fang Family when they’re in police custody.

’However.

’They will just sound like they’re crazy if they even mention a person with flames shooting out of his eyes. Nobody will believe them.

’Even if the police come to talk to us, they have zero proof of anything. I’ll handle that problem if it comes down to that.’

Fang Raon thought.

He looked across the streets and saw the passerby noticing the sight of the building burning with fire.

Some of them were calling for the fire department.

Red and blue lights flashed a distance away. Reality First members were scurrying out of the building. They noticed the police cars.

They all started running away.

At the rooftop, Fang Raon was already gone. No sight of him anywhere. It was like he never even was here.

...

On the television, news was playing. It showed a professional-looking woman news anchor dressed in a red man’s suit.

"A few hours ago, ZPD caught several members of the notorious hacker group—Reality First—who had been living in Zodiac City for over a year undetected.

"Their leader, James, is still on the run, but apparently, he is also currently in Zodiac City, and a manhunt has been launched to capture him once and for all..."

Click~!

The door of the apartment clicked open, and Fang Raon pushed it open and took off his shoes before stepping inside.

"You’re back!"

Chaewon peeked her head from the kitchen.

A smell of food was lingering in the air. Stoves were all occupied in the kitchen. Della and Chaewon were making some food.

"I am back."

Fang Raon smiled and then glanced over at the bedroom and noticed the third Virtual Reality Pod over there.

"You found a pod."

He looked at Della, who nodded.

"It’s a newer model. It’ll apparently help us experience virtual reality in a more immersive way. I heard that it even affects the real body in a way."

Della said with excitement.

’What?’

Fang Raon looked surprised, and his heart skipped a beat.

He wondered in what way.

"Like... how?"

He asked.

"You know how if our real body is hungry, you also feel it inside the game. If I eat inside the game, I won’t feel as hungry anymore.

Della said.

"Really? Interesting."

Fang Raon said.

To him, it sounded like the Virtual Reality Pods were getting more advanced, and soon enough the food inside the game would also feed the real body.

It was an insane concept to think about.

Soon enough, people would never need to leave Black Online for any reason.

’My Virtual Reality Pod is still vastly more advanced. It feels at least fifty years more advanced than anything else in the real world.

’No, maybe even more.

’It feels impossible to have such a crazy impact on a real body. I got my sight back, for God’s sake. My deadly illness was cured like it was nothing!’

"Crazy stuff happening in the news. The news has been nothing but about Reality First. It sounds like they made a big mistake."

Chaewon said as she looked towards the television.

"What happened?"

Fang Raon asked.

"They are on the run. They had a place they stayed at in Zodiac City—under the wraps, of course—but they apparently accidentally burned their place.

"It exposed them to ZPD, who had been hunting them down all day, and more and more of them are getting caught every hour.

"It looks like Reality First is done once and for all.

"I was worried that they might get their hands on more of those hacked game cards, but they’re done for."

Chaewon said with a smile.

It was a big relief for everyone.

’A relief indeed.’

Fang Raon thought.

...

Later in the day, Zodiac City, Zodiac Police Department.

"..."

James sat inside an interrogation room, his hands cuffed to the table in front of him, and he had a nasty black eye.

He tried fighting the cop that was trying to arrest him, and he got a punch in the face for his troubles.

The door opened.

An old gray-haired cop walked in. He didn’t wear a police uniform but simple dark clothes that looked like they belonged to a detective.

"James Damian Lazavik. A normal kid from the suburbs of Jeffland. Star player of his school’s Hard Football team and decent student."

Lundgren sat down on the table and opened files on the table that read basically every detail of James’ life.

"I am having a hard time understanding how a normal kid from Jeffland became a domestic terrorist."

Lundgren asked.

"...I am not a terrorist. I fight for a good cause. You will see it in the future."

James said and then looked away.

"Right. What you did in Black Online was an act of terrorism. It caused the world’s economy to nearly crash, and countless people lost their livelihoods.

"Before Black Online, there was a large issue with not having enough jobs for everyone. It was dark times.

"But when Black Online came, thousands and thousands of new jobs came available. And people were able to rebuild their lives.

"You tried to destroy all of that."

Lundgren said.

"Hmph. I tried saving all of them from mind control. Humans aren’t meant to be in that fake world. It’s not real. Their brain will rot without even realizing it."

James pointed with his fingers at his temples.

"They need to be woken up!"

He shouted.

"...What happened at that safehouse of yours? It was a safehouse, right? We tried finding out who owned it, but we reached a dead end.

"So why don’t you tell us who your supplier of those game cards was and what happened with the building?"

Lundgren asked.

"...A man in black came through a window, and fired flames from his eyes. It was fucking crazy!"

James cried out.

"...Right."

Lundgren said, but it didn’t sound like he believed him, and it was a normal "right" that one would say to a crazy person.

He closed the files, stood up, and walked to the other room, where other officers were wryly smiling.

Some sounded like they wanted to hold back their laughs.

"He also said the same thing as other members of Reality First. A man with fire shooting from his eyes."

Lundgren said.

"It’s obvious that they are a bunch of crazy kids. They think Virtual Reality Pods are some mind control machines to make every human into some kind of mindless puppet!"

A cop said.

"Did any of you find out anything new?"

Lundgren asked.

In that moment, one of the cops raised his arm, and everyone turned to look at him.

"Yes?"

"One of them said that the supplier was Fang Aizen, the recently deceased head of the powerful Fang Family."

A cop said.

"...Interesting."

Lundgren said.

"Is there any truth to the matter? Everything else that they have said has been nothing but nonsense so far."

"I don’t know. Fang Aizen was recently in the news following his death. Maybe the guy just saw him on the television just recently and told his name randomly to get some time off."

"That could be it."

The cops nodded in agreement.

"We’ll go through their stuff to find out if there is any truth to what they said. We cannot make blind assumptions about family as powerful as Fang.

"It’d be bad."

Lundgren said.

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