Black Online

18th Floor, Tower Forest, Rasmus’ Gang Hideout.

In the depths of the forest, there was a well-walled village. It had a couple of houses, wooden walls that surrounded the place, and a few watchtowers.

This was originally Goblin Village, but Rasmus and his gang of player bandits slew all of them and took it over.

It was a smelly, disgusting place with lots of animal and local corpses scattered about, so there was a lot of cleaning to do before it was suitable for living.

"...H-Here..."

At the front gate of the village, a nervous-looking player offered a pouch worth 10,000 gold coins, and with him, he had his girlfriend.

His girlfriend was a normal-looking girl. There was nothing extraordinary about her appearance or demeanor.

Someone you could see in the street and forget about within seconds, without her making any sort of lasting impression.

"Give it to me."

A player bandit took the pouch from the player’s hand, opened it from the top, and quickly counted through the coins inside.

The game helped him count. It was, otherwise, impossible for him to count to 10,000 in a short moment.

The player and his girlfriend were nervous. They weren’t sure how trustworthy these bandits were.

It had been a few months since they arrived at the 18th floor, and they’ve been hard at work to make themselves strong enough to defeat the 18th floor’s boss.

So, they came here with the Tower Key in hand, expecting to meet the boss soon, but then they came across a group of bandits.

Unfortunately.

They dragged them here, to the bandit hideout, and they were told to pay 10,000 gold coins for passage to the tower.

They thought about just not paying and leaving, but they were afraid that if they didn’t pay, they would get killed instantly.

Therefore.

The player gave the bandit all of his hard-earned money and just hoped—hoped—that the bandits would stay true to their word.

"...10,000 gold coins. You may pas—"

The player bandit was about to say, "You may pass," but in that moment, an arrow whizzed past his ear and stabbed through the player’s eye.

The blood splattered all across the player bandit’s face.

"Agh? The fuck?!"

The player collapsed to the ground. The arrow was sticking out of his skull. The shot instantly killed him.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

The girlfriend screamed and turned his heel to run away, but then another arrow came, and it pierced through the girl’s shoulder.

She collapsed to the ground with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Tch... God damn it..."

The bandit player looked behind and saw a silhouette of a man standing over at the other end of the village.

Carrying a bow.

With a deep sigh, the bandit player pulled out his sword and then beheaded the weeping girl.

Over at the village, Rasmus lowered his bow.

"Boss... If the rumors spread that we are killing players even if they pay the toll, nobody will pay us."

In that moment, his right-hand man, Tian, walked over and said with a tired look on his face.

They had been trying to create a business model where the players, if they want to get to the tower, have to pay a toll of 10,000 gold coins.

It was an easy way to make money.

However.

If the rumors spread that they were killing them even if they pay, the players would just try to sneak past them instead!

They didn’t have enough man power to guard the entire forest to make sure that nobody got through.

"This is boring. Why can’t we just kill them and rob them of their stuff?"

Rasmus asked.

"If we do that, then players will just start storing their stuff on the 18th floor and then try to sneak to the 19th floor.

"Once they reach the 19th floor, they can just use Tower Pearl to come back to the 18th floor, get their stuff back, and then teleport back to the 19th floor, completely evading us.

"Once they store their stuff, even if we find them in the forest and kill them, we won’t get shit from them.

"That just won’t work.

"If we make this into a legitimate business model, then players could be willing to just pay the 10,000 gold coins."

Tian said.

"Won’t they do that nevertheless?"

Rasmus asked.

"No. If we make ourselves look legit and that we’re men of our word, they’re more inclined to pay the sum.

"Because why would they try to sneak to the tower and risk getting caught and killed? Is 10,000 gold coins worth dying over? For many, no."

Tian said.

"Tch... This is just boring. I want to shoot stuff."

Rasmus clicked his tongue.

When it was just him alone before the days of Dead Redemption, he just killed everybody that got in his way.

He enjoyed it.

It was fun.

Especially when he started getting hunted by players—there was a guild that once sent fifty players after him.

He killed all of them.

The rush of adrenaline was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

"There are more people coming! I see only two! There is also a camera with them, so one of the must be a streamer!"

A player from the watchtower.

"A streamer? Rasmus, do not shoot them. If a video leaks that we’re just killing players, this won’t work."

Tian said with a serious look on his face, and Rasmus just rolled his eyes and whispered, "Fine," under his breath.

At the front gate, the player bandit looked at the two corpses in front of him and watched them slowly fade away.

However.

Their blood still remained in the group.

"Damn..."

In that moment, two people walked up the hill, and soon it was close enough for their appearances to be clear.

"Ah..."

The bandit player’s words got stuck in his throat when he saw the woman. So beautiful. It was like he was looking at a goddess.

"Wait... I recognize her..."

He said, and then his eyes widened in a surprise, and he quickly sent a message to Tian.

Ding~! Ding~!

Tian opened his chat window. He saw the message. His eyes widened in a surprise, and he looked at Rasmus, who was lazily sitting in a chair.

"You apparently know one of the people... Does the name Xiao Yue ring a bell?"

"...Huh?"

Rasmus raised his head, and with his amazing eyesight, he looked towards the gate and saw the two players clearly.

And one of them... looked very familiar.

"Oh?"

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