Ch 24: The Dragon Chain That Wrapped Around The World (14.1)

"I cannot believe you have no plan and still use it," Kaori said

After a lengthy discussion, the party finally left the dungeon and is now discussing outside the dungeon. With the outside being in total darkness, the party had talked about how Hao would go and take care of something outside the real world.

"As I said, it's fine. While I certainly have no plan, there is no way this will be bad in the long run."

"Tch, if you gonna play like this, you should go and do something else, like, I don't know, a noodle shop," Kaori said, which Hao seemed not to take too kindly due to his expression before he turned toward Kaori with a frown on his face before answering her back.

"OI!!" Hao shouted before looking straight at Kaori's eyes with the utmost seriousness that Hao had seen before, making her think that Hao might be angry from that remark before Hao continued

"Chicken or beef!?"

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In which the dumbfounded Kaori can only answer with "Huh?" While they can, Valka tries to hold his laughter in the back.

"Well, you ask me and advice to go open a noodle shop, so I ask you whether it should be chicken or beef," Hao explains while seemingly try hold back a smile. "I need to buy stuff for my noodle soup since you already figure it out from playing with me."

Kaori can only stand there for a few seconds before looking in other directions before her body starts to shake a little. Hao can hear stiff laughter before turning back toward Hao with a standard expression on her face.

"Well, I think it's time to split up," Hao said to Kaori

"Are you sure that you want to split up?" Kaori asks after calming herself down.

"Yeah, if the noodle stays in the group, it might get too soaked," Hao said with the utmost seriousness in his voice and face, which Valka only smiled with the response, while Kaori only did a very unladylike snicker.

"Not that. I'm asking whether we should split up for now. We can clear the dungeon very fast if we continue." Kaori ask

"As I said, I have something to do first. I will contact you back after I log back on." Hao explains with a shrug. "So, before you go, what will you be doing, if I may ask?"

"Probably going make some noodles while you are gone," Kaori said before turning toward Valka before both started to walk away.

"Wait, are you?" Hao asks, looking shocked, with a smile on his face.

"Who knows, we will see about that," Kaori said before she and Valka left the area via teleportation, seemingly going elsewhere.

"Well, there she goes..." Hao thought before looking at the new skill that he had got while doing the dungeon.

|Cruelty Testament|

|Backstab /Type: Active and Passive /Cooldown: None/Cost: 5% HP|

|Passive- Attacking the enemy from behind will cause bleed damage (does not stack)|

|Active- Throw a spinning orb of energy in front of you; the orb of energy will stay at the same place and permanently damage anyone who comes near it. You can activate this ability mid-air and throw a dart of energy instead. If this activate ability hits the enemy from behind, it will also cause bleed damage (does not stack)|

'An excellent skill to have, if I have to be honest. It sure helps that it boosts my Backstab buff even more.' Hao thought, 'In fact, I never think I heard of this skill before, from rogue, mage or even any other class, but considering how big this game is, this is unsurprising.'

Hao didn't say anything before finally doing what he intended to do after he finished the game, which is to log out from the game for now.

[Logging out...]

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Taking off his headset, Hao stretched a bit before getting up from his bed and making his way to the bathroom. Checking his phone, he now sees that it's 1 P.M. with two missed calls from Lily.

'Lily? Who the fuck is...? Oh right! That woman!' Hao thought before remembering who the woman name Lily was. Hao's ex-girlfriend, or in the case, still girlfriend.

Hao remembers that he and she broke up because...

"Because of what?" Hao muttered, "Did I break up with her because...? Oh yeah, she cheated on me." Hao said calmly

Hao now remembers that Hao broke up with her because she cheated on him for quite a long time, which Hao doesn't care about in the past because he was playing and focusing on GEP, so when he shrugged and broke up with her.

The common saying would be bros before hoes bout for Hao, it's golds before hoes.

While Hao remembers vaguely about the event because it's not that important event in his life, he still remembers who she cheated on.

'I think it some rich guy? It is probably because he has money while I don't. It seems all those nice moments are nothing but a facade, and she is a gold digger in reality. Not that I care.' Hao thought

"I mean, she probably is cheating on me right now and only called me to ask for money. Eh, who cares." Hao said to himself.

Hao cleaned himself up in the bathroom, which took around fifteen minutes. After he finishes showering, he has food from his fridge. 'Now I want to have some noodle soup', Hao thinks.

After getting his noodle soup, he quickly took it to his desk before checking his laptop for more information about GEP or any news.

'Hm... Nothing quite stands out. There seem to be some people talking about me, which is not surprising there, but it has not even been a day yet since I started playing, so maybe that might be a new personal record for me about how long it takes for people to start talking about me.' Hao thought

Hao keeps scrolling down while taking a bite out of his food before suddenly remembering something essential.

"I forgot I have a bounty on my head... I should check that out." Hao thought before trying to find a post about his bounty.

"And there it is..." Hao said before clicking on the post, "Let's see... this player did this... whoever killed him get the bounty..."

Hao only raised his eyebrow at the bounty number before shrugging a little.

"Rich people love spending their money, eh?" Hao said before finishing his food and leaning back on his chair while stretching his body.

Suddenly, his phone started to ring again, and when he looked at the caller, it was the same person, his current girlfriend.

Hao only looks at his phone before shrugging a little, not even bothering to answer his phone and not even bothering to decline the call.

'I still need to sell my gears from the first dungeon. I forgot about that and was too focused on my quests. Well, I could do that later; there is still something more important than earning money right now.' Hao thought, finishing his thought before looking at more news, this time news in general.

Hao was not very surprised about how new TV and internet channels cover GEP, how big of a phenomenon it is, and how it will change the entire generation of people, which is not wrong.

GEP or Grand Eternal Phantasy is quite a miracle in general. To release a new gaming device that only has one game in it is already risky enough for a single company, but they also release new game genres that had never been done before.

And yet all those gambling seems to pay off and make them so much profit in one day that it turns the company from nearly bankrupt into a billionaire. It was the biggest miracle in human history, with 25% of the world population playing this game, which, if you don't know, is a lot of people.

It has only been two days, and the game has become one of the biggest things in the world right now, and the media will surely start to make a big deal about how you can make real-world money by playing this video game that people dismissed as being childish.

While deep in his thought, the sound of his phone immediately snapped Hao out of his thought; in which, Hao looked back at his phone and saw that it was still the same person that had called him before, Lily.

'This woman, just how stubborn are you? Just give up already.' Hao thought, looking at his phone.

Not even bothering to answer his phone, he declined the call before turning on his headset again, preparing to return to Grand Eternal Fantasy.

However, before he could do it, his phone interrupted him again. It is not a call but a voice message immediately read by Hao's phone.

"Hao, this is me, Lily. I know you are there so please answer the phone; I have something very important to ask you. So please call me back; love, Lily." The voice message said

Hao only raised his eyebrow at the message before weighing in his option and making up his mind.

"What could go wrong," Hao said out loud before deciding to call Lily back.

Little did Hao know Murphy's Law is real.