Fifty-large crowd

"Mikel!"

"Mikel!"

"Wake up, God dammit!"

SMACK!

"Shit!" Mikel stumbled as the stinging slap brought him back to reality.

He was still confused and dizzy, but two firm hands grabbed his arms and shook him until he awoke properly.

"You can stop now," Mikel said calmly and the person retracted his hands before releasing a light cough due to the awkwardness of the situation.

Mikel now took a proper look at the person who had harassed him and his eyes widened before he quickly straightened up. His gaze became one of respect.

Dressed in a simple shirt and shorts with a low cut and black stud earrings on both ears, was none other than the number three player on Beltimus online's player leaderboard and the guild leader of the top guild, kings of kings; Vincent Zinero.

"What are you doing?" Vincent raised his brow as he saw Mikel's new demeanor.

"Showing my respect," Mikel's expression remained uptight and Vincent released a sigh.

"Can you stop?" Vincent asked.

"If you want me to."

"Please stop."

Mikel relaxed at those words and Vincent couldn't help but shake his head in frustration. The former had been doing this for about a year now.

There was once a time when Mikel felt like he was the best of the best in Beltimus online. He had let his achievements get to his head.

He was part of a top guild and also owned legendary armor. It was expected that it would get to his head at some point.

Many members of KOK had complained about his attitude, and Vincent had taken it upon himself to solve the issue.

He had challenged Mikel to a match and promised to transfer ownership of KOK if he won. Of course, Mikel accepted the challenge immediately!

In his head, he was practically unbeatable. There was no way Vincent, who didn't own any legendary rank equipment at the time, could stand up to him.

It was a best-of-three match.

Mikel had proven his dominance in the first match and had easily defeated Vincent in less than three minutes!

In fact, it was so easy, Mikel felt he could've played it and won even if he was blindfolded. If only he had not let that win go to his head, he would've noticed that it shouldn't have been that easy to win someone as skilled as Vincent.

Unknown to Mikel, Vincent had used that first match to get a vague sense of the former's skill and ability, as well as what the legendary armor was capable of.

In the second match, Vincent won by a narrow margin.

Mikel immediately realized his mistake and took the last match as seriously as he possibly could. But this time, Vincent won without Mikel being able to land a hit!

He could still remember sitting in front of his monitor and seeing the defeat banner glaring right back at him. Over fifty of his fellow guild members were spectating the fight and Mikel had never felt more humiliated in his life.

However, Mikel was a disciplined fighter and had met many failures in his life. It did not take long for his feeling of humiliation to turn into respect for his opponent.

One thing was for certain though, that very day, Mikel had experienced a newer brand of humility.

"Wait, where the hell are we?" Mikel looked around and had to ask as he seemed to get more confused with every passing moment.

It looked like he was in a large white room that had no doors or ceiling. The whiteness seemed to fill every inch of the place.

The whiteness wasn't blinding, but it was also something you couldn't ignore.

There were multiple people in the room. Most were in clusters and talked quietly with each other while the others were secluded and it seemed to Mikel that it was by choice.

Way above them, quite a distance away, was a device that displayed numbers. Anytime the number on it increased, a new person appeared in the room.

When Mikel got here, the number was twenty-nine. It was now thirty-two.

"I don't know," Vincent looked around as well. "I appeared here when I opened a message in my in-game mail that told me that the game had been completed," he turned to Mikel, "I'm guessing that was you."

"I'm sorry. It just kind of—"

Vincent raised his hand to stop him from speaking, "No. Don't apologize. You did well. At least I'm glad it was a member of my guild that achieved that feat."

"Thank you," Mikel smiled slightly.

"As I was saying, I got sucked into my monitor screen after clicking the link in the in-game mail, and I appeared here," Vincent folded his hands in front of his hands and sighed.

"Would you believe me if I tell you that is exactly what happened to me?" Mikel chuckled nervously.

"I've asked around, that's exactly what happened to everybody," Vincent said.

Mikel looked around once again, but this time, he concentrated on the people in the room. It was then that he realized what most people here had in common.

Although he couldn't recognize some of them, the people here were all the top fifty players of Beltimus online!

There were very few top players he had met personally or had even seen in real life, but if everyone here was a top fifty player, then whatever was going on here was a big deal.

As he kept looking around, he could see some of his guild members and other top members of other rival guilds, but his eyes caught sight of a woman who stood at the end of the room alone. For some unknown reason, his eyes were drawn to her.

She wasn't exactly beautiful. He couldn't even see her face properly because of the angle he was looking at her from and the way that she stood.

Vincent noticed the direction of his gaze and quickly stood in front of him to block his line of sight.

"You might want to stop staring. It's getting creepy now," Vincent commented.

"Who the hell is that?" Mikel's voice could not hide the magnitude of his curiosity.

"That... is Genesisofdarkness."

Surprise filled Mikel's expression as he heard those words.

That was the freaking number one player of Beltimus online!

Nobody knew much about Genesisofdarkness because they refrained from associating themselves with any guild or organization, but Mikel would never have guessed in his wildest dreams that the top player was a girl.

Wait, how did his guild leader even know who she was?

Before he could ask any questions, he heard a loud sound that forced him and every other person in the room to cover their ears to protect their ear drums.

It was like an extremely loud horn.

Everyone was too distraught to realize that the large device above them was now displaying the number fifty.

....

"Woah... That IS loud. My bad, guys."

SNAP!

With the sound of someone snapping fingers, which was strangely louder than the horn, everything went silent.

Mikel's ears were still ringing as he raised his head and gasped lightly when he saw the person before them.

Standing a few meters away was a bald man with a golden glow that wore glasses which he adjusted from time to time as they always threatened to slide off his nose.

A small smirk formed on his face when he noticed the expression on everyone else's which indicated that they recognized who he was.

Galliard B. Jonathan.

The head developer of Beltimus online and the CEO of the company that made it!

"Hello everyone. I understand you're all confused, but do not fret," Galliard announced.

"I'm here to provide clarity."