8 8 - Victory Stolen / World Changing

Having felt successful and having a lot of witnesses, Cain didn't think that someone could steal credit his dungeon's credit. Yet here this guy was, Connor Red. (The guy who raided his shop) He had not only ruined Cain's reputation, but taken all of the credit. Cain didn't really care.

Cain just believed that his true skill would shine through. It didn't matter who did it, as long as people were safe. The shareholder was not happy. Talking to the press, he tried to explain that it was the first player who had cleared it. This caused even more complications.

Now people were thinking that Connor was the first player. Somehow the shareholder's words were drained out by the crowd. However, as a man of his word, he stayed true to the contract. He had promised Cain that he could have a more quiet identity.

Even when he was in trouble, he didn't bother Cain. To say the least, Cain was a little annoyed by Connor taking the title he had. Even though his identity was secret, he had satisfaction that he was the talk of the school. Now Connor's actions were being tracked instead of his own.

Cain had good humility. Instead of complaining for longer, he kept working. Instead of continuing to grind the instance dungeon for the majority of the day, he increased his stats. Working half of the day, it was getting harder and harder to increase them.

While exercises were good for increasing stats, his stats began to make exercising easier. This made exercising longer. Eventually it would take him 12 hours of the highest intensity workout to feel anything. His stats were around 500 at the time.

Once he hit a wall in stats, he hit a record of 50 mph, and raised 500 pounds. Having 500 stat points for everything athletic was nothing to take lightly. It just sucked that he had 30 intelligence.

Experimenting with goblin steel, Cain was able to make himself B rated armor. Even though both the Goblin steel was B rank, compared to goblin hide, it was much stronger. For example, a chest piece was about 20 power as goblin hide, but 80 as goblin steel.

Afraid of losing credit, Cain decided to keep goblin steel a secret. Around the world, portals began to appear. Ranging from 100 to 350 power, they were considerably beatable. Despite their difficulty, countries learned mistakes the hard way.

In the Netherlands, a portal that had been neglected burst. The monsters poured out and killed over 800 people. The cops and military were powerless. Their weapons did not work on the monsters. Even though the enemies were weak, players were the only things that could kill monsters. It was only when players got involved that the mess was resolved.

In China, students had been overworked. Traveling from dungeon to dungeon, a government hired team was forced to do over twenty in every day. They had ten casualties out of exhaustion, leaving two alive.

There were many other problems, such as not having strategies to beat these bosses. Some bosses that had incredible speed were mainly unbeatable, and players would have to retreat to wait for someone more equipped.

Beginner mistakes were too common. Many countries began teaching kids in military combat. With the military being powerless, the future of nations depended on their success. The United States also began plans to research ways to hold players accountable to the law.

No one wanted a player to outpower the laws that kept people safe. Every country was doing things either to protect its citizens or keep rulers in power. Fear of the future was everywhere corporate. That was when the rush of guilds showed up.

With their massive budgets, companies began creating guilds. Cain's nameless guild became one of the many within thousands. Companies like Costgo, Targat, and Starbocks funded players in contracts; even McDanald's created guilds.

Businessmen and women were worried that if they did not have players on their side, they were in danger. Meanwhile most people were deciding celebrities within the players; fighting over what players were the strongest.

Cain just watched the news half heartedly. Fame was not something he needed. To him, he just wanted a few good friends. Nothing more. The shareholder had different ideas seeing Cain's potential, but was a good man. He didn't want to force Cain into something when he was just in high school.

The days piled on. Over time, Connor was declared to be the first person to have hit 300 on all stats. At the time Cain had triple that, while Amy had close to 500. Connor was declared the strongest player in the United States, and was hired to work for the government.

Cain watched this with displeasure. He was proud of himself. This guy was just taking claim to things he had already done. Even more frustrated, he kept working on himself. It was until one day when he worked out the entire day in his home instance, that he got a new message. (1 day = 7 days in his home instance.)

'The system is intrigued by your talent and hard work. Would you like to become one of the fifty heroes?'

Looking at the message, Cain was uncertain. If there were only fifty heroes, this meant responsibility. He sighed. Clicking no, a glowing yellow haze appeared around him. A new message replaced the old one.

'Your humility knows no bounds. You are granted the title of the hidden hero.'

Despite the words describing him of humility, Cain was quite satisfied with this one. Along with it came a bonus of triple xp, as well as three special skills. He read them carefully.

'Hero's strike Lvl 1 - A strike to be used only in times of justice. [active]'

'Hero's willpower Lvl 1 - Immune to low class mental attacks. [passive]'

'Hero's rage - When emotionally unstable you are 5 times stronger and gain 5 times the experience.'

These were some incredible skills. Cain had no idea if they were the same as the fifty heroes. Even with power, he felt burdened. Having earned this power, what were the responsibilities? The uneasiness only grazed his mind, and he went to sleep.