Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

The goal of every clan with high-level users in Rise Online was to lead each of its members to great positions of power. In a world as vast as Midgar, becoming the owner of a considerable percentage of land and founding your own empire was the ultimate goal of those who wished to rule.

With the taxes collected each month, feudal lords, nobles and monarchs could build essential businesses such as granaries, greengrocers and forge shops in the cities under their rule, or pour money into enlisting cadets and training them for war to gain more power or influence.

Furthermore, a ruler who develops the economy and advances the technology of his people can become very powerful. Technological innovations raise the quality of life, which attracts more talented people, and also evolves public safety and sanitation.

At this point, there were still no players in such a powerful position, but everyone knew that achieving this kind of power was not impossible in Rise Online, even though most of them lacked the necessary qualities for it. Still, there was one man who was obsessed with power, greedy and self-centered, and this person was not Kaizen, but Taznaar.

In the real world, Taznaar was the son of the owners of a large military technology development and marketing corporation called the Cypher Federation. So since childhood he always had the best toys, the best clothes, the best video games, the best trips, and everything that a child of billionaire parents could want.

The only time Taznaar had a little difficulty in life was when he first played an online MMORPG. Within this genre of games, only the true side of each person prevails as the levels increase. Solidarity practically does not exist, selfishness reigns and being a good liar is part of the game, all to become the strongest player on the server.

When the heir to the Cypher Federation discovered this new world, he fell in love and vowed that just as he would one day dominate the real world, he would also dominate the world of Rise Online. For him, this was not a challenge, but something that would happen naturally.

After hearing all this through Klank, Kaizen said with a debauched smile:

"That explains why he seemed so angry that day."

Kaizen restrained himself from laughing proudly, because that would draw the attention of the other people in the tavern they were in.

"His Clan people really are as strong as they say, aren't they?" Kaizen inquired as he looked strangely at the inside of the mug of orange liquid that the waitress served.

"Very much so, but you are stronger. You managed to kill a mythical creature completely on your own while we, who were united in a raid, couldn't even see the blood color of that weird centaur."

"You guys were just using the wrong strategy. The terrain was very favorable for the Boss, so you should have focused on spreading out your forces, so you would have had more control of the area, not to mention that the mages and archers would have had more opportunities to attack, probably resulting in more hits. That woman called Bloody Lily, she spent two arrows that looked very powerful just to not let the Boss escape. She got too emotional, she should have used it when the Boss wasn't expecting something like that."

Klank looked at Kaizen not knowing how to react for sure, for this mysterious man was completely right. Then he smiled, a little embarrassed.

"I hate to admit it, but you really are much smarter than I am. Until now, I was wondering what we did wrong for the raid not to have worked out before you showed up. I thought of several reasons like lack of damage, group buff, coordination, and several others, only the answer was zone control."

"That's the basics of fighting powerful monsters." After so much staring at the liquid in the mug, Kaizen finally got up the courage to take a sip.

*Glup*

When he swallowed, he felt as if he were swallowing a melted honeycomb. The drink was sweet and balanced just right.

"Oh! It feels like I'm drinking the blood of an angel." He joked about the taste of mead, which made Klank laugh. "So, shall we make the transaction?"

"Yes we will! Fifteen claws and two paws of Mutant Ranked Moss Scorpions; Nine claws and seven heads of Primal Ranked Steel Claw Mantis; and finally, Thirty paws of Primal Ranked Wild Wolves... As I said before, I can't pay much for the wolf drops because they are quite common, but I will be making a trip to the North next week, so I will be able to sell the Moss Scorpion and Mantis drops for a very good price. Seven gold coins is what I can afford."

"Eight maybe?" Kaizen asked.

"Fine, I'll do it for eight if you promise to keep bringing interesting drops for me."

"Okay. That's fine with me."

[The player 'Klank' wishes to transfer eight gold coins to you. Do you accept the transfer? YES/NO.]

Kaizen clicked YES and then transferred all the traded drops to the buyer.

"So, shall we add each other? That way the communication between us will be easier so that what happened earlier doesn't happen. You know... in case we miss each other." As Klank was proposing, Kaizen got up from the chair at the table they were sitting at. "That's not going to happen, is it?"

"It's nothing personal. Like it or not, you are very friendly with a staff that wants my head, so I can't afford to trust you that much, yet." Kaizen said, opened the inventory and pulled out an item. "However, you are right in one part. I don't want to waste my time with mismatches anymore. Take this."

Confused, the green-haired boy reached out and took what Kaizen was handing to him. This item was a business card made of cheap parchment paper, but there were two interesting details on it. The first detail was that on one side it had the design of an hourglass, and on the back there was a sequence of eleven numbers that, arranged the way they were, looked like a cell phone number.

By the time Klank looked at Kaizen again, the broad-shouldered man was already walking out the tavern door, so he decided not to pester him any further and to find out for himself what this sequence of numbers really was.

'The son of a bitch didn't even say goodbye...' he thought, looking at the card.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

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https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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