MotivatedSloth

"Hello, sir. Are you cashing out or leveling up?"

Dungeons Online was the first game that cracked the system. Let nerds earn by nerding, and they will nerd forever. And Dungeons Online did just that. 

Noobs turned into middle-class workers. Pro-players turned into celebrities and multi-millionaires. 

And there was Tom. Likely, the only top ranker that lived off the scraps and cat-food. A courtesy of his father that went and disappeared, leaving Tom with just enough money to survive until his graduation. Until the day where the option of cashing out would appear.

Dungeons Online. A game where developers never shared a single bit of information. A game where the death of one's avatar is permanent. A game that can turn a beggar into a lord just as quickly as turning a celebrity into nobody. 

But where does all this money comes from? How is it connected to the unnatural disaster that all governments across the world buried any information off? And how is this all connected to Tom's missing father?

Dungeons Online

"Huh?" Cleo froze as soon as she passed the barrier.

'What's wro...' Tom thought, stepping through the barrier as well. Cleo wouldn't make a mistake like that. Either something already attacked her, or something bad happened. "Cleo?" Tom whispered as soon as he passed the invisible wall sealing the boss room away from the floor's corridor.

"Hey, Tom," Cleo turned her head away. Even though her avatar had no face at all, Tom could imagine what kind of face she wore. "Did you ever happen upon a boss marked as "Ranked type?" the girl asked. Her avatar's body turned completely still.

He didn't have any kind of system that would tell him that this boss was any special. As soon as he made his first step inside the room, a powerful aura shook his insides.

'This is nothing like before,' Tom thought. He was confident in his power, yet he turned still.

Bloody Art