1 Pandemonium

"Haa... so boring... the world is boring... my life too... everything is too boring nowadays..."

A popular streamer complained in his stream, along with fifty thousand viewers. On top of being famous, the streamer also had eye-catching characteristics on display.

He looked—dressed like the Monkey King, sitting on his extended, majestic staff. Behind him was a mountain view that reminded his viewer of the mythology.

That's right. The streamer was streaming while inside the game world.

The streamer grumbled about how no more unique games were developed. Every game, especially MMORPGs, looked identical to each other. The story wasn't far from Heroes vs Demon, Good vs Evil, JRPG style where the player started from nobody to killing a main villain.

To compensate for the cliche storyline, the players had no choice but to roleplay with each other. But after some time, that couldn't satisfy them anymore.

Every game company kept releasing new games. But they never cared about implementing new and unique mechanical systems.

"Guys, name a game that has its own unique system. But don't bother telling me about its storyline because no one cares about it anymore. Thanks to those idiot companies."

The streamer began reciting his chat's responses with a bored tone.

"Aeon Realm. Unrecorded Tales. Cyberpunk Online..." He nodded. "Those are good titles."

"Heaven Beach? What the hell, chat. Get that sh!t away from my stream! That's not an MMO! I mean, it's online and multiplayer, however... you know what I mean, right?"

His face flushed as his live chat began teasing him.

"Hey, shut up! I know you guys played that game when you're in heat, too!"

The streamer got into an argument with his viewers about that game.

Ten minutes later, he was distracted by something that moved hundreds of meters below him. It should be impossible for humans to see that far.

But the streamer was not an ordinary human currently.

Because of his character's skill, the streamer could see the situation on the ground while relaxing and talking with his viewers on the mountain peak.

And what he saw earlier was a character belonging to another player.

Not just any player, but a well-known one.

The streamer adjusted the camera and zoomed in on a particular character on the ground, hundreds of meters below him.

"Do you see that, chat?"

At first, the viewers were commenting, "Where?", "Who?", "See what?"

But after the camera became focused, they got worked up. The live chat was filled with:

"ANARCHY!"

"KlLL HIM, WUKONG!"

"AVENGE US!!"

"GIVE ANARCHY A LESSON FOR US, WE BEG YOU, WUKONG!"

The streamer, Wukong, swallowed his saliva as he read the viewers' request. His body began producing sweat. Fortunately, it was concealed by his cosmetic items.

After a while, Wukong sighed.

"Alright. Alright. Hear me out, chat! Today, I will defeat Anarchy for your sake! So, don't forget to donate to me if I win!"

Jumping down, he retracted his staff and walked to the edge. Using his skill, Wukong observed Anarchy.

The goal was to ambush and kill Anarchy as quickly as Wukong could. If possible, a one-shot attack. However, he knew that thing didn't exist in this game.

Unlike Aeon Realm, whose server had been closed a few years ago, this game didn't implement a one-shot mechanic, be it to monsters (PvE) or players (PvP).

It was the same with other games made by different companies.

But since this game had the best gameplay mechanics and had the most active players among the other games, Wukong kept playing it. However, if the developers had no intention of adding more content to their game, it was destined to fall from its throne.

Taking a deep breath, Wukong interacted with his viewers before jumping down the mountain peak.

"Type '1' to pray for my win!" Wukong shouted as he leaped with style.

While he launched down like a missile, Wukong cast multiple buff skills.

"[Eternity], [Titan's Strength], [Blessing of Luna], [Sun Scream], [Enhance Strength: Quadruplet], [Enhanced Agility: Quadruplet], [Enhance Intelligence: Triplet], [Athena Shield], [Thousand Mirrors]..."

Even after applying tens of buffs on himself, Wukong's face didn't get any better. His mouth constantly twitched out of nervousness. And that feeling continuously grew more intense as he got closer to the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Wukong cast one more buff.

"[Heaven Conqueror]"

"Wukong" was not only his username. But it was also his class name. A legendary class. And [Heaven Conqueror] was its ultimate skill.

Unfortunately, those all would turn out to be futile.

Wukong's staff enlarged and extended when he was 200 meters above the ground. He swung it, managing to reach and possibly sweep Anarchy, who seemed clueless about the ambush.

Getting confident with his victory, Wukong declared:

"We won, chat!!"

'If Anarchy got hit by this attack, he would be left with half HP. By then, I just need to perform my combo,' Wukong mused. 'Finally, I will get my first win after a hundred unofficial duels!'

However, just before his staff could crush his not-so-clueless opponent, Wukong's jaw dropped when he saw Anarchy vanish.

"What the hell?! Where does he go, chat?!!"

A voice came behind him.

"Behind you, monkey."

After that, all Wukong remembered was an in-game window notifying him about his death and penalty.

The stream went black screen for a while before returning with a different view and location. It was now recording Wukong's gaming room decorated with the latest gaming devices.

"Hey, chat..."

Wukong's expression turned serious after he had just awoken from the gaming capsule.

"Do you think Anarchy is using bugs?"

— Nah. You're just bad.

— Skill issue

— LOL

"Hey, now! Why are you guys attacking me?! No friendly fire, okay?!"

Sighing, Wukong continued interacting with his viewers.

By now, since he couldn't log in to the game due to a penalty, the viewers decreased until he was left with a thousand.

"I think I'll end today's stream now..."

As he was about to end his stream, a donation came in.

"Hey, Wukong. There's a new game called 'Pandemonium' in store. Don't you want to test the poison out for us?"

Wukong raised his eyebrow. "Pandemonium? AI, search for it."

After a moment, the AI installed in his house told him about Pandemonium.

"[Pandemonium: It's a VR Full Dive-in MMORPG that was released an hour ago. The developer and publisher of this game is of one company called "Nebula Universe."]"

"Nebula Universe? What is that?"

"[Sorry. I have no information related to them currently.]

Wukong looked at the camera.

"Do you guys know something?"

His viewers' reaction was the same as the AI.

'If even the AI doesn't know it, how would my viewer know?'

Shaking his head, Wukong grinned.

"Hmm. Okay, I'll test that game right now. Of course, it will be off-stream. See you guys!"

Wukong sighed and asked his AI to install Pandemonium on his gaming devices.

Finished installing, he entered the capsule and lied down comfortably.

"Run Pandemonium!"