Black Online

"...Mhm."

Slowly, Fang Raon opened his eyes and still felt groggy, as if he had only slept a few hours all night.

Sleepily, he reached out for his phone on the nightstand and checked the time and saw that it was almost one in the afternoon.

’I slept plenty...’

He thought and then looked around the bed and saw that it was empty with the still smell of two women lingering in the air.

"Ngh!"

Fang Raon stretched his arms above his head and then climbed out of the bed and lazily walked to the bathroom.

He quickly brushed his teeth, took a quick shower, and then changed into fresh clothes, and then found his way to the kitchen.

He opened the refrigerator door but didn’t see anything he wanted to eat, as there was only Chaewon’s and Della’s food in there.

Chaewon had been on a health kick lately, only buying fruits and vegetables, while Della liked cereal in the mornings.

’I guess I need to take a quick trip to the convenience store, but before that, I should check out how my video is doing.

’I don’t expect much since I just recently uploaded the video, but I hope I am in for a pleasant surprise.’

Fang Raon sat before his desk, turned on the computer, and while it was slowly turning on, he turned his gaze to the other bedroom.

The room of the Virtual Reality Pods.

’Chaewon is most likely at work, but since I didn’t see Della anywhere, she must be currently at Black Online.’

The computer turned on.

He quickly typed his password, and then with the mouse, he double-clicked on the browser and waited for it to turn on.

’This net is painfully slow, but I don’t have money to purchase a better one, so that shall do it for now.’

Fang Raon thought and looked around the apartment, which was very much modest-looking.

’I want to give them something better than this...’

He narrowed his eyes, and then the Internet browser finished loading up, and he quickly went to the Lagless site.

Lagless site quickly loaded, and he ignored the Top Ten of the Week and went straight to see his channel’s statistics.

[Guild War - Rose Records vs. Grinding Grief/Monsieur Rascal]

[169,556 Views - 4,409 Likes / 121 Dislikes]

’Nothing new in there. Same old. But what about the new video?’

He looked slightly down and saw the statistics of his new video, and his eyes broadened by surprise.

For a moment, he thought he was seeing things!

[The Hunt for the Butcher]

[1,056,994 Views - 19,456 Likes / 22 Dislikes]

’What... in the world? How!’

Fang Raon couldn’t understand how the video that he uploaded ten hours ago could already have over one million views.

It didn’t make any sense!

Then, he looked at his subscriber count, which had been stuck at around 130 for over year now, and even that had insane change.

[Subscribers: 1,999]

’How did the video get that many viewers... Unless...’

Fang Raon went back to the front page and went through the Top Ten of the Week, and then, at the last spot of the list, there it was.

His video.

Compared to other videos, his was doing the worst, because he was just a newcomer, but he was still performing insanely well.

"Haha..."

Fang Raon leaned back on the chair and just laughed and clenched his hands into tight fists and cheered.

"Yes!"

He wanted for his video to do well because videos that make well make lots of money, but even more importantly, the plan was now a success.

Devon would have much harder time to do anything in Black Online without being hunted down by other players!

’I added in the description of the video the link to my DeadPixel stream, so I hope the success of the video also transfers there.

’I must definitely stream today to reap in the rewards for sure, but before going back to Black Online...’

Rumble~!

His stomach rumbled.

He went to get his jacket, put it on, and made sure that he got his wallet and apartment keys in the pockets.

Then.

He stepped out of the apartment, made sure that the door was locked, and then headed down for the nearest convenience store.

Luckily for him, there was a convenience store on this very floor, which was one of the reasons why he picked this floor.

There was an available apartment a floor down that was cheaper by about thirty bucks, but this floor was more convenient.

It only didn’t have a convenience store, but also a gym, a laundry room, and many other stores of interest.

A short walk later.

He arrived at the small convenience store that had just about ten shelves’ worth of items, and he just grabbed some quick-to-make food.

Then, he walked to the counter, put the packaged food on the counter, and reached out to his wallet.

"Shall I heat it up for you?"

The casher asked.

She had a microwave behind her.

"Hmm, sure."

Fang Raon said, and then he quickly walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water as well.

"I’ll take this too."

He put it next to the packaged food and paid for both of them while the casher ripped the package off the food and stuffed it inside the microwave on a plate.

"I haven’t seen you here before."

The casher said, and fidgeted with her hair slightly, as if she were nervous in his presence, and threw glances at him.

She was very intrigued by his bright blue eyes, which were the most beautiful pair of eyes that she had ever seen.

She would remember a person with such eyes if he’d been here before.

"Just moved to this floor just recently."

Fang Raon said.

"Ah, I see. Welcome then."

She said with a smile.

Fang Raon smiled back at her, and then the microwave beeped, and she quickly took it out and wrapped it around a foil.

It looked like a burrito.

"Here you go!"

She handed it to him with a smile, and he grabbed it and the water bottle and then walked out of the convenience store.

’Where...’

He looked around for the place to sit and then saw a table right at the front of the store and sat down on it.

He took a bite of the burrito-looking food while looking around the floor, and he wouldn’t have minded some better views.

It was just concrete walls everywhere.

At the upper floors, there was more vegetation and stuff to make the floors look much more beautiful.

This floor clearly wasn’t high enough for anyone to care about the aesthetic appeal.

’Soon enough, we will be on a high enough floor that we actually have proper views. I know Chaewon would like that.’

Fang Raon thought.

While he was ’enjoying’ the food, out of nowhere, a person in a navy blue suit walked over and sat across from him at the table.

He looked straight at him.

With a mouth full of food, Fang Raon looked at him with a raised eyebrow and just saw him staring straight at him.

He quickly swallowed the food.

"C-can I help you?"

Fang Raon asked, almost choked on his food, and quickly drank from the water bottle to wash it down.

"Fang Raon. No middle name. A man that was paralyzed and blind just over a year ago but miraculously recovered.

"You’re supposed to be still at the Caretaker Facility getting ’treated’ and slowly waiting for your death to arrive.

"But here you are!"

The man clapped his hands with a smile on his face.

"Who are you and how do you know so much about me?"

Fang Raon asked with a suspicious frown.

"My name is Shiryuu. I am a former employee of the Black Online Company. I was their lead Virtual Reality Pod engineer.

"I built that pod of yours."

Shiryuu said with a smile.

"..."

Fang Raon’s eyes shook, and immediately, he thought that this man in front of him was the mysterious admirer of his.

"Are you... the admirer?"

"That admirer of yours is Kuroganehara Izan, the CEO of Black Online Company."

Shiryuu said.

"What?!"

Fang Raon gasped and was even more confused than before, because why was such a big shot an ’admirer’ of his?

It didn’t make any sense!

"There are a lot of things that you need to know and that we need to talk about."

Shiryuu said.

"...This pod... What is it?"

Fang Raon asked with a frown.

"It’s an experimental device created by us in the Black Online Company. We wanted to create a device that can cure everything with the help of Black Online.

"However, Kuroganehara Izan also had other nefarious intentions with it. He wanted to transfer the powers of Black Online to the real world.

"And he succeeded... with you as his top experiment."

Shiryuu said.

"I am... an experiment?"

Fang Raon asked with shaky eyes.

"You are. In the past few years, Black Online Company has sent hundreds of these experimental Virtual Reality Pods all around the world.

"To the ’unlucky’ of the world that have suffered serious injuries to see whether these experimental Virtual Reality Pods could cure them."

Shiryuu said with a serious look on his face.

"...What happened to them?"

Fang Raon asked with a frown.

"They all died. Six months ago, a person named Rodrigo Silva Ribeiro died. His brain just melted like ice cream left in the sun for too long.

"He survived second-longest. There is only one person that is still alive. And that is you, Fang Raon.

"All the experimental Virtual Reality Pods are different from each other. To see which one of them worked and which doesn’t.

"None of them had worked out so far... except yours.

"You’re Experiment No. 001."

Shiryuu said.

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