Lord Yin

A man with long black hair stepped out of a capsule that looked more like a sleek jet than a gaming pod. The dark strands flowed like silk as he emerged.

Standing to his left was a lady in formal secretary attire, her hair pulled into a tight ponytail. As the man rose from the pod, she handed him a tablet.

His sharp yet lazy eyes swept across the screen. Long fingers slid over the surface a few times before he handed the device back.

"I was in the game when I saw it too. For the system to compare him to me—he must have done something quite remarkable."

The lady nodded and pushed up her angular glasses.

"You don't need to worry, Lord Yinhui. Your legend sits high above the stars."

Yinhui walked forward, bare-chested, wearing only long black track pants.

He dropped onto his simple but wide bed and rested his elbow on his knee for a few seconds.

"Ruiyi."

The lady's eyes went wide.

'He called my name!'

But she wasted no time in answering.

"Yes, Lord Yin."

Yinhui patted the bed.

"Come sit."

Ruiyi's face turned crimson. She walked slowly to Yinhui's side and sat on the bed.

Her heart hammered so hard she thought it might burst. Then she felt his soft, smooth hand on her skin—on her thigh.

Her entire body shivered, and her face burned hot. The hand slid beneath her mini skirt while his other hand found her neck, holding it with false tenderness.

But something felt wrong. Something dangerous lurked beneath the calm movements. Something evil flickered in his cold gaze as he stared at her, tilting his head.

He leaned closer, and she closed her eyes. But what she expected never came. Instead, sharp pain shot through her as his fingers dug into her thigh, reaching toward her most private place. Before she could scream, his hand tightened around her throat like a vise. Her voice died, and she fell helpless into his cruel grasp.

The most chilling thing was how his gaze stayed cold and distant even as he hurt her.

Then his voice came, dripping with ice.

"To be compared to some nameless nobody is annoying enough. Now the game won't stop ringing his name. Everyone knows his name now. My legacy gets compared to some worthless worm who just started playing—maybe he leaked cheats from the developers, I don't care. But you know the most annoying part? It's you trying to make me feel better with your pathetic attempt."

He squeezed her neck tighter.

"What? You think I'm bothered by him? You think he matters? That I shouldn't worry? Why would I worry in the first place, Ruiyi?"

Ruiyi kept choking, her eyes turning red. Blood trickled down from between her thighs, and her breath began to fail.

Yinhui watched her with those same cold eyes for several seconds, then released his grip. She crumpled to her knees, gasping like a drowning woman.

He wiped the blood from his fingers on the white sheets.

"Get out of my sight."

The secretary scrambled to her feet, stumbling as she fled his room.

Yinhui buried his face in his palms for a moment and let out a long breath. Then he clenched his fist and stood up.

"Cien..."

His eyes filled with blood.

"The only reason I'm remembering that name is so I can make you suffer." 

***

After Lucien finished with the Dungeon and set his respawn point, he logged out of the game.

The reason was simple—he wanted to prepare properly for the battle with the Black Godzilla.

There were things he needed to do. First, he wanted to buy as many potions as he could afford and fuse with everything. All his plans right now centered around fusing with things.

After that, he would go back into the game and hunt more monsters. He'd get to at least level 20 before he hunted the Black Godzilla, which was level 120.

Lucien bit his nail and chewed it as he thought deeply about his situation.

'Should I just level up to 50 at least?'

The problem was time. Even being level 0, all he wanted right now was to jump into the Evelaine Hollow and fight that damn Godzilla.

And for all the convenience, the mist that veiled the region had been cleared by him. So he was free to walk there now. What he wanted—the cause for the passion that awakened in him—was finally within his grasp, yet he couldn't seize it because he was weak.

'Let's just find things to buy first...'

Lucien logged into the forum.

That was when he began to witness some things. His eyes widened and widened as he read through the comments on the forum—the aftermath of the world announcement tied to Player Cien's achievement.

He knew there would be a world announcement, but he never thought much of it. But it seemed that him just doing his thing had caused chaos everywhere.

He dropped his face in front of the monitor.

'All I wanted to do was game in peace.'

Lucien wasn't interested in glory or fame, or even the game to begin with. But now that it was his passion, what he wanted was to game in peace, defeat monsters, and enjoy himself.

In fact, when he thought about spending the next sixty years of his life playing this game—endlessly killing monsters and growing stronger only to kill even stronger monsters—a strange light filled his body. Goosebumps of pure happiness washed over him. He was too excited for it!

But it seemed there was no way he could do that, not when he had unknowingly gone and caused so much chaos. Now people were even saying he got insider tips from the developers and was cheating.

But the fact was that cheating didn't exist in Evolution Online. Why?

Because the major program of the game itself was governed by an ever-evolving Artificial Intelligence. So if there was to be an Easter egg, and a player got tips about it, the AI was programmed to twist the process so that it became a reward of effort. Even if a tip was involved, it was useless.

Because the ease that the tip would have brought simply didn't exist. The chairman of the Evo mother-company had taken to the media to explain this himself when the issue of cheating was rising some years ago.

However, people hated and despised what they couldn't reach or understand.

Lucien finally opened his account on the monitor to check how much was in his game account. All the money from his properties he'd sold, he'd already converted to game coins.

His eyes widened as he saw...

[You have 45.780 (exchangeable) gold coins]

Lucien lifted his fingers and counted. His eyes widened even more, terror creeping onto his face.

"That's like three point something dollars... what? That means... I'm broke?"