1 Not a Hero
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I switched the Gamestation on and prepared to jump straight right onto the game! The colourless screen flickered a brilliant white light, with the words written, "loading screen," floating at the centre. It invited any players who bought this trending bad boy out from the store, including me! Since I purchased it, my savings went to the drain, with my other cash saved from my pockets.
I couldn't wait for any further, so I slammed the buttons and stomped my feet, hoping that the monitor would zoom in soon. With a squeaking sound, the game finally loaded.
People called this game "Magique". Like its name, it gave all the players their fantasies, desires, and wishes. We can become adventurers, heroes, and villains inside the fantasy world. Each player had control over their lives, and that would not affect their daily living.
It had a story that the players could follow. It also had an open world for the community and the people who only loved to have fun. The adventurers or villains could communicate via chat boxes and all party messages using the option button on the screen.
It gave the players a new interactive experience unlike any role-playing game on the internet. You can only have one character per person while playing the game. There were no smurfs or alternative accounts, since the Magique copies every information about the players. The government and the game developers had their orbs peeled to hackers who would try to breach the game. Nobody was successful in ruining it.
Magique also showered skilled players' money right after completing a strenuous quest! A bountiful of treasures or cash would reveal itself right after completing the missions. Those mountains of money became the magnet to attract unfortunate people like me.
I had my eyes on the prize after hearing such a reward. Nobody could decline such a sweet offer.
People can play Magique on smartphones and other devices. However, during player versus player interactions, those who used pocket-sized gadgets would win. Those who lost would have their money deducted from their inventory.
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[Welcome, Arthur Wyllt]
[Statistical Power- 12, 1999, 2111, 421, 210]
[Titles]: {Hero's Descendants}
[Species]: {Human}
[Occupation]: {Adventurer}
[Class]: {Knight}
[Level 100] {Next Level-> 12/100,000 Experience}
[Stat points]- 1,000 remaining status points!
[STR]- 592 [VIT]- 792 [MEN]- 402
[DEX]- 691 [INT]- 941
[M. DMG]-66156
[CRT]- 300,000.00%
[H. RATE]- 100.%
[C. DMG]- 400,135.0%
[DEF]- 2,000,135
[P. RES]- 11,056.0%
[M. RES]- 91,467.9%
[EVD]- 200.0%
— [Health] --- {195,146,121/195,146,121 [+1,00,000.0 Hp regeneration per minute]
— [Arcana] --- {2,184,978/2,184,978 [+401,514.8 Arc regeneration per minute}]
The system welcomed me. I did not change my in game name and used my actual name in the game. It was tiresome to think of an uncommon name, and most players already took the cooler nicknames out of the picture.
As soon as I rested my hands on my keyboard, my character popped up on my screen. It gave me a wave, lowered his head, and greeted me.
Arthur was the name of my character. He had the toughest armour and a bastard sword sheathed on his hip. I dressed my character as a proper knight, with golden hair and white armour cladded around his body. He did not have a shield, since I wanted "that" Arthur to look like a king.
It was ironic, given that my character looked more like a soldier than a leader sitting on the round table. If he had a shield, my Arthur would paint an image of a paladin, which I wanted to avoid.
Arthur in the game was an embodiment of me I could not become. His eyes struck anyone with lightning the moment girls would see Arthur's body. Even in this online game, those women flocked around my character, asking me about my identity. However, we were miles apart from Arthur from Magique and Arthur "me" in this world.
He had a six-pack of abs and a charming look comparable to prince charming in this world. People even called me "the knight in shining armour," instead of the awesome version, "King Arthur".
Despite the name taken from those legends, my sword did not have the name "Excalibur" on it. Written on my blade was the word "Clarent", which symbolised the sword of peace. Excalibur remained hidden in this game, and I believed someone from the demon tribe had taken the sword. It was the first quest of Magique in the mid-part of the entire game.
I was the legendary hero in this realm. The responsibility of taking down that uncouth villain was part of my job. But I had no means of finding that perpetrator. I didn't even know what the villain's goal was because of the world of Magique. All I knew was that I needed to kill the man and get my prize. It was a blind attempt to complete my task, but the game required me to do it.
People believed in me for who I was, unlike the humans inside this world called Earth. Whether it was non-player characters or players, they placed their trust in me and let me lead the way. Since I had the power to create craters on the ground out of nothing, everyone I partied with became scared of me. Some dared to ask and invite me, while others did not do the same.
The game summoned the characters in the plaza, with an obelisk at the middle. That tower served as the landmark for the park. I could find the adventurer's guild at the sides, which I needed to go to right now.
And that was what I did.
I issued a command for my character to move to the place and visited fellow players playing the game. I slid the gates open and barged inside, introducing my return to the people idling around.
"Hey, I'm back at the inn!" I announced myself, and carved a grin on my face.
However, as I opened my eyes, not a soul greeted me back. Every one of them had their eyes leered at my figure, staring with disdain and pure hatred. Some of them had their killing intentions spread like wildfire behind their backs, while others did not care about me.
"Why are you looking at me with a funny face?" I asked, and scratched the back part of my head.
I did not remember doing anything terrible to these people. It was the other way around! I always helped other players with their quests having nothing in return. Although I wanted to leech them for my experiences, I still helped them and provided them with the power to kill the bosses.
"That's the guy we are looking for," a man stated, and pointed his forefinger in my direction. "He's the one we need to kill, right?"
"Yeah. Arthur has a large bounty on his head."
"How should we split the reward? 50/50? 40/60?"
The man slammed the other adventurer's head on the board, killing him in an instant, without warning. Instead of blood gushing out from the screen, pixelated dust excreted from the man's body. With an electrifying scream, the guy who got banged by his fellow player died from the game.
"You monsters! What have you done? And why are you killing your teammate? And why are you after me? I did nothing wrong to you!" Thousands of questions fled from my mouth, but I prepared my blade. There would be a battle occurring afterwards. I could already sniff the acrid smell of blood lingering in the air.
My body quivered in front of the screen, unsure of what was happening within the guild. Everywhere I looked, those people wanted me dead. They locked their eyes as if I was a boar hunted by butchers in the forest.
"You became too wealthy and popular. It's time for you to end your reign once and for all. We will steal your loot and share it with these people, right here. I will play as the robin hood in this game. You're the villain here, Arthur."
It was what the guy had mentioned. If these players killed me, they could snatch my valuables and take every gold I earned away from me. After respawning inside the game, the system would take everything away from you, except for the equipped items of the dead player.
"You are all sick people! I can give you money if you ask! You don't have to rob people like this!" I insisted, but no words reached into their ears.
A sinister grin escaped from the man's mouth as he fiddled with his dagger clipped in his hands. "Sorry, pal. I have my fair share for killing you."
A notification emerged in front of my face, telling me two things. My first task was getting information from the guy before me. Since that guy was the guild's broker, he might have valuable information about Excalibur and the villain. He might be even working for that bastard! The second thing was my quest. If I killed him, all the information about Excalibur would transfer in my inventory and would remain there. That detail would help my conquest on finding the villain that took the holy sword away from me.
The system told me I needed to survive their onslaught and kill these people before logging out of the game. Magique refused me to log out from the game, given that this was the primary mission that I must finish at all costs.
I had killed no one before, since I knew killing people would leave a title on my character as a player killer in this game.
After our exchange, the players present inside the game charged forward towards me. All of them armed themselves with countless melee weapons and staves at each of their hands. They schemed to overwhelm me with numbers.
But I also had an ability hidden behind my sleeves.
Every player inside the room tried hitting me with everything they had. After a complete minute of continuous attack, these players noticed something.
The adventurers lifted their heads and noticed my crimson health bar and the azure mana cap on top of my head. It revealed my current status as a character. With those numbers alone that reached over millions of health, nobody could stop me.
"You must be joking, right?"
All the players murmured to themselves as they finally witnessed the difference of powers against me. They were like ants to me, and I was the alligator that preyed upon the swamps. None of them had the skills to beat me. Even the game preferred talented people over pay-to-win scoundrels, which did not differ from the skirmish.
I careered through the side and launched my blade at the guy who provoked me a while back. He was the only one that I pointed my sword at, since none of them was of use to me. All I wanted was to gain information about Excalibur and the one wielding that weapon.
Everything around us was nothing but dirt in my eyes.
Within a second, I was beside the man who had the mouth of a sailor. I grabbed the man by his neck and pinned him to the wall. Everything happened almost in an instant. Nobody could keep up with my speed, since I had an insane amount of dexterity in my status points.
"Tell me where the hell is Excalibur, or you'll kiss your account goodbye!" I growled.
Instead of telling me the location, the man just burst into laughter in front of me.
"What's funny?"
"Nothing. It's pitiful to see a hero killing an adventurer for information, don't you think?" the man growled, and spit on my face.
The sticky saliva dripped on my cheeks and continued flowing down to the ground. I used my free hand to wipe off the stench and used the other to crash the man to the table. With a blaring thud, I killed the man once and for all.
"Anyone else wants to be a crushed potato?" I remarked. None of the players in the guild gave me a reply. They all became mute after witnessing such a brutal death of their comrade.
But there was one thing that caught my attention. I looked behind the gates and addressed the soldier from the kingdom, staring at me with fear. His legs wiggled like noodles, but the knight kept a straight face in my direction.
The man unlocked the scroll open, shook his head, and stated everything written on the paper, "Players and adventurers! We require your assistance to vanquish the horde coming into the village! We plan to evacuate all citizens in the castle! Those who can fight, please spare us with your power."
Everyone's attention shifted to the knight, who was still wobbling his feet out of fear. Nobody paid attention to me as the monsters raided the village. We even discerned an arrow piercing through the guild's walls, which was a sight to behold.
"These darts came not from goblins," a man confessed, and went outside to lead the entire members of the guild. "Let's focus on protecting the village and evacuate the people. After finishing the quest, we get back to Arthur and kill him."
It was as the man had mentioned. There was a notification that alerted every player online and playing this game. The mission explained that we needed to defeat all monsters breaching the town. We also entailed rescuing the townspeople from the attacks.
Each defeated monster would drop around five silver coins, with the bigger ones amounting to ten silver coins. It was a great way for farming levels and coins during the occurrence.
The event also had a timer, so everyone wanted to join in the battle. The players wanted to take advantage of the monsters attacking the village. Since the quest was an immediate order of the king, the kingdom also doubled the prizes given to the adventurers.
Everyone went outside and slain the monsters. Everyone but me trod that path. I had my priorities straight and went ahead of the forest. After killing the broker, I learned the Excalibur was in a remote place far from the Mainland's kingdom.
Defending the village was a waste of time for me. I did not want to play a miniature role of a hero to save the town.
I wanted to kill the villain who planned on corrupting every kingdom in Magique, which was also the wielder of the legendary sword.
But before I could go my way, a knight called out for my attention. It was the same soldier who had entered the adventurer's guild a while ago.
"You, player! Aren't you going to defend the kingdom? You're the legendary hero! Why wouldn't you save our people!" the knight cried, as he swung his blade to the incoming goblin.
I did not have time to turn around or converse with an NPC. I opened my mouth and gave the knight a brief reply. "I don't have time for you. You mean nothing to me."
