Chapter 5 - Naive (not) Innocent Fool
I was grinding on the top of Heaven Fall...
It was some kind of huge waterfall a few kilometers high, with random rocks in the middle of it.
Recently the game was patched with a PVE system, and as it was the first big patch of the game since its launch, that was obviously a huge boost to the fanbase.
The game broke quite a lot of records. It was both the only game you could play in your sleep, but also had the record of the most played game on the first day, week, and month after its release. It also entered the top twenty of the most played games in the world. With over ten million daily players in only a month, it broke the existing record.
With the last patch, the number of players skyrocketed, and the game almost doubled its amount of players in a few days.
Not only did this patch include a PVE system, but it also included various additions, and, whoever I have to thank for this be blessed, balancing.
Most new players were PVE players, that were rarely searching PVP. Due to the high difficulty of the PVP level-up quests, a lot of older players were likely to switch to PVE soon. These two elements meant that the majority of the players now were doing PVE quests.
And the first level 6 PVE quest just happened to be on the top of this waterfall.
The only reason I came here, though was obviously to use a spell that was added in the last patch too.
The game company obtained a partnership with a few entertainment companies, and as a fan of dumb power fantasy novels, and as such a fan of Smartphone, I obviously did the special quest to get 'Slip'.
That op spell is particularly useful to make people unintentionally fall to their death no matter their level. One just cannot have any friction with the ground under the effect of the slip spell, making stabilizing yourself basically impossible.
That's a cross-level spell! Its efficiency doesn't lower on higher-leveled players!
As the game was now, no matter the level, the fall damages were as deadly. I guessed it could change in a few extensions, but for now, it was strong. That's the power of collaborations for you.
Thinking that, I loved Smartphone even more. How could I not? This spell was op! What's op can't come from something bad, that's obvious (for me)!
So come at me, crossovers! I need to be a fan of a few other op items' crossovers!
But well.
In the end, I'm just hiding in the bushes for 10 hours every night. Being able to play while sleeping truly is useful.
It's been a week since the update, and I'm still farming level 3 players.
I also discovered that there was a quest for each level at the same place! My luck really was good! While I searched around the horizon, I saw the profile of someone.
It was a girl in the distance who was clutching her staff tightly and was looking around distraughtly. It looked as if she was searching for her lost parents, and while it looked cute, it looked, first and foremost, defenseless.
Aha! My next victim!
I had already killed a lot of people, too many to count… don't look at me like that, I'm not kidding! I was now level 5! That scared you right? My last quest was to kill 500 level 5 players! Even though I had died here and there which was a pain in the ass, I managed to kill them all. Sure enough, I may have pushed them to their deaths, but that still counts!
I was hidden at my usual spot awaiting the clueless girl so I could reap her sou- hmm, her xp… The closer she got to my hiding spot, the more tempted I got to just go and push her right away. My hand tightened around Mjolnir… When she was just a few centimeters, I jumped out and rushed towards her, striking down with a totally unnecessary shout that would alert my opponent.
"FOR ASGARD!"
She hastily turned around and screamed!
That ear-piercing scream strangely almost seemed to stop time, as her staff gathered mana and shone with a blue light…
Then… WTF IS THAT? IS THAT A GENKIDAMA? NO? THAT'S BIGGER? HOW MUCH MANA IS IN THAT SHIT? WAIT FIRST OF ALL HOW THE FUCK DID SHE EVEN…
*BOOOOOOMMMM*
At that moment, I used all my life-saving artifacts, even the one-time-use ones… And… Everything broke as I was disintegrating into oblivion.
Maybe I didn't prepare that many.
[...]
At my respawn, I had all kinds of thoughts…
Would I take revenge? Wait how was I supposed to take revenge...
Should I change my hunting spot?
But one thought was stronger than the others:
Let's invite her to my party! That lost sheep needs guidance! She didn't have time to see my nickname nor my appearance, right? What shameless? What is shamelessness? What is Bai? Is that edible?
I rushed over to the place of my death where the poor and unlucky lamb was still standing. She was now admiring the sun on the precipice. Once again, I felt that urge to go kick her off the cliff and yell 'This is SPARTAAAA!!!!' or 'You like looking at the sun? Then take a closer look!', but my urge to pat her head like a dog was stronger.
I close in, and pat.
*Pat*
*BOOOOOOMMMM*
Not again!!!!!! Looks like team Rocket blasts off again!
The power in that strike was not as strong as the previous one, so it didn't disintegrate me instantly, but pushed me on a few kilometers into the sky before disintegrating me.
[...]
This time I won't make the same error!
Never again!
I, this ImperialShadow, vow it on my boss's life!
[...]
Repeating history, I went over.
I closed in again, I walked on a stick and…
Wait?
Did I walk on a stick?
*Crack*
She instantly turned. To have such a good hearing, it was almost like she had Jumbo's ears. She was about to launch the same spell again.
-Don't shoot!
I hurriedly revealed myself and said with my hands up as if I was getting arrested.
-And why should I not kill you right now... you… you… you per… pervert?
She replied while blushing, being way timider than the content of her sentences requires her to be. If it was not for having been the victim of her spells, I wouldn't have taken her seriously.
She seemed to have needed all her courage to even say the first half of the sentence...
-Why are you saying I'm a pervert?
-Pat…
She said timidly.
-Pat what?
-My…
I was getting a bit impatient. Finish your sentence goddammit!
-Your?
-Head…
Good, you finished your sentence, great!
-That wasn't me though…
That was not a lie, just false… So long as I don't admit it, you can't 100% say it was a lie.
She instantly blushed even more and lowered her head in shame. If she was in a tomatoes plantation, I wouldn't even see her...
-Oh, sorry, my bad.
So cuuuuuttttteee!
I gotta say: cute + op
-Equals join my team!
-Uh?
I didn't intend to say it! I thought, tearing up inside at my blunder.
-Hmm, I meant, as you seem to not have one, would you like to join my team?
-Your team? What is a team?
She momentarily forgot her timidness.
-My party, I mean.
-Ooohhh…
She made a face matching that exact reaction.
-Then?
-Okay!
I heard some voices not far away, these could be who she was looking for earlier, so I decided to go elsewhere.
-Good then, then let's go there, you'll show me your stats.
He he...
We went a few hundred meters away. As we were in a forest, there were enough trees to isolate me and her from the other players.
She seems to have similar thoughts as she was blushing even more than before.
-Don't worry, sexual actions are bannable.
She blushes from having her thoughts exposed.
-Oh… Ye-Yes...
It could be useful to be able to see the stats of your party at some point. Only being able to see the statuses of others in challenges shouldn't be a thing. That game may be technologically revolutionary, but it truly has many points to improve on.
I use
There are 4 people:
-Don't tell me she's not here yet?
-No, you know she has some kind of problem with time, she's always here at least one hour before us… She should have been waiting for us here…
-Do you think something happened to her?
Said the fourth man.
-Her? I would be more worried for the people she met...
The fifth replied.
I mentally added a '+1' to what he said.
-I mean, she could have run out of mana.
Said the fourth man.
At this moment, I looked at the status window she sent me.
I was left gasping for a few seconds and even forgot to keep using
-This…
-Is there a problem?
She asked worriedly.
-No, no! Nothing, really!
I answered.
╔════════════════════╗
║ Name: PinkyKitty
║ Level: ???
║ HP: 1/1
║ MP: 400/400
╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢
║ Stats
║ Intelligence: 200
║ Wisdom: 200
║ Luck: -15
║ Will: -200
╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢
║ Inventory
║ Mage's Baton x1
║ Letter (infinite):
╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢
║ Genome (MAX)
║ Absorption
╟━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╢
║ Skills (0 points)
║ SpellCast(99,MAX)
║ DefBan(99,MAX)
╚════════════════════╝
Is this status legal, even among cheaters?
-I just have a question, are you an admin?
-No, why?
At this moment, I could've had a dilemma.
Do I report or do I take advantage of it?
I didn't, so I chose quickly.
Though, I was really relieved she wasn't an admin.
-Then, can you tell me what DefBan is?
-Oh, it's definitive ban, my sister told me to use it on guys that bother me.
I was too naive...
-...
When did such a sister exist? Did she own the game or something?
-But I don't like doing it, that's mean.
-I see.
I was yet again relieved.
She said:
-While I'm talking about my sister, she told me to give this to everyone I play with:
She gave me that letter in her inventory.
I opened it:
"If you dare do anything to my pure and precious sister I'll get your address, come at your home, and beat the shit out of you.
PS: May anything happen to her, even if you've got nothing to do with it, this is the same.
PPS: Be sure I know what you're doing, I have access to your personal details."
Was this a threat?
-...
I mean, who gave someone like her such important responsibilities such as having access to the database?
Aren't modern databases containing such vital information not supposed to be accessed? Does she have some kind of a secret access not even the company knows of?
Siscons are scary...
At least, I never filled in my actual address.
At that moment I didn't know the localization function integrated with most recent electronic equipment, or just that if she had access to the game database, she probably had access to the logs and could find my IP, and thus my localization, but that's for later.
For now…
-By the way, why are your stats so high? I also can't see your level.
-My sister said to me she edited my character a bit. As for the level, she said I don't have any level, it's a characteristic of my class, so I can do every quest I want of any level I want.
A hidden class! And not any, a legendary one! A cross-level class! A class that does not power up through levels but just use! Doesn't that mean that the only way to know how powerful she is would be to see how many people she can kill?
-O…
-Oh?
-P.
-Pee?
-OP!
Anyway, she's perfect to manipulate… A system-breaking low will with sky-high intelligence and wisdom. That was the first time I heard it was possible. So even if she could see through basic plots she'd just fall for me if I saved her once or twice while looking cool, right?
-And, what's that genome anyway? I never heard even once about absorption.
-Oh, the early staff of the company that makes this game, my sister included, were scouted to be descendants of families with powerful genomes. Our family's genome allows us to absorb the magic in the air in permanence.
-Isn't this the case of every mage?
Wouldn't the family of a moderator have some kind of OP genome? Or could it be just a faster regeneration speed?
-Normally, you would have to stop once your magic capacity reached its limit, but for us, it never reaches any limit, our body just naturally increases the limit.
-O…
-Oh?
-P!
-Oh.
She directly understood this time. I should stop with my stupid gimmicks. It makes me look as stupid as I am.
Anyway, she looks totally calm although what she's telling me is so incredible. Isn't she way too calm?
Wait a second.
She was born in that OP family, so it must be a matter of sense for her.
If I follow this logic…
Don't I look like a country bumpkin who never saw the world to her?
-Aaah!
I blurt out.
-Hey, are you fine?
Her caring eyes seemed to be asking me to pat her head! Though that was only my delusion.
-O...
-P?
-Of course, I'm fine, I was just stung by a hornet!
I see how you look at me, I know there are no hornets in this game, just let me keep the small bit of dignity I didn't lose yet.
I add:
-But it's nothing! Anyway, let's go!
-Go to do what?
-Well, let's…
Do I have something to do? I obviously can't PK shamelessly as before with her around. How do you want her to trust me later if I reveal myself as such a player? She'll just fear me silently with her low will. I need to act tough so she admires me!
Low will… Acting tough… Admiration...
I know!
-Let's first join with a friend of mine and add him to the party. We'll do some dungeons later.
PVE!