Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

"Ah~! The curry was delicious, Klaus. Thank you so much for that." said Isabella, taking the dishes to the sink.

Jayaa was lying on the couch, his stomach facing up as he stared at the light. "God, if I have to die someday, let it be here and now. I have no regrets anymore, because I just ate the most divine curry in this world."

"Look at the size of your belly, man. You're sure to wake up with a tummy ache tomorrow." Klaus stated as he collected his glasses and headed for the kitchen.

The blond man stood up, sat down on the couch, and then reached out to try to reach for the television remote control on the small table in the center of the room. His stomach was so heavy that no matter how hard he tried, he could not get out of his seat, and he was too lazy to get up.

When Klaus returned to the room, he picked up the control and handed it to Jayaa. "What's wrong with you?" he asked with a smile.

"My stomach is so heavy I can't move. I think I'm going to die here."

"You ate too much, man."

Jayaa made a sound of disapproval. "No, I didn't eat enough. I don't even like vegetables, and you made me eat potatoes and carrots... That was the healthiest food I've eaten in months."

Meanwhile, Isabella was in the kitchen, cleaning the sink and countertop. She couldn't stop smiling, because the curry was so good that she couldn't get it out of her mind.

When Jayaa turned on the television, coincidentally a story of the hordes event was playing and that quickly captured his attention.

"What's that? That's the Royal City..." He stated, recognizing the local architecture, even though everything was dark, on fire and partially destroyed.

There were thousands of cracks in the city floor, as well as in the walls of the buildings. The streets were covered with the blood of a few thousand NPCs, and the sky was as black as the thickest night.

Resting his head on his own right hand, Klaus replied with a neutral face:

"Oh, that? That was a horde event that happened today. A group called The Eye of Hermodr attacked the Royal City. They were very strong."

Flabbergasted, Jayaa turned to look at Klaus. "Wait, you were there?"

"Luckily, I was. It was pretty tense and I almost died twice, but it was also pretty productive for me."

Jayaa was still slack-jawed, because in the headline of the report was well highlighted the fact that of the thirty thousand players present in the entire Royal City at the time of the start of the event, only 40% of those players managed to survive to the end. This percentage was absurd, considering that it was a random event in an early and large city. If the event had taken place at peak online player times and had been announced, there would probably have been ten times as many players participating.

Jayaa's disbelief at the brutality of the event was once again highlighted when suddenly the news report showed an excerpt from Kaizen's broadcast.

In this excerpt, Kaizen was facing The Guardian of the Gates of Nielfheim head-on, alongside dozens of shadows extremely similar to himself. This was a scene so fucked up and iconic that it actually looked like it was taken from a Hollywood-produced movie.

"The scene you are watching was streamed by the Kaizen player and is only a few minutes long that also shows the final minutes of the event. The video available on the video platform already has more than five million accesses." The reporter said.

That was more than enough to leave Jayaa speechless.

"You... you..." Jayaa didn't know how to express in the right way what she was feeling. It was a mixture of surprise and pride. "You earned... how much money from the event?"

"Two thousand coins. Basically, twenty thousand dollars. Also, I won some levels and items that looked pretty cool, but I didn't have time to check them out properly, after all I was already late."

"Oh my god. That's... that's..." Jayaa still couldn't find the right words, so she just shook her head and sighed, "I think you're the luckiest guy in this world."

"Lucky? I don't know if lucky is the right word, but I definitely had a good time." Klaus said with a smile.

The two continued watching the news report about the event, which now showed a video summary of the event. There were many videos of people fighting bravely against the hordes of monsters, as well as some videos highlighting the best moves. Soon Isabella joined them and started watching the report as well. She was as surprised as Jayaa that an event had happened so suddenly in the city where she lived.

At the end of the report, the winner of the ranking awards for the event was announced and surprising some people, but not most, one of the reporters announced:

"First place for top move goes to the rising player named Kaizen, with his culling of the famous Lord Sigurd. He used in the correct timing a consumable item called 'Ring of Gold' and skillfully used the shadows summoned by this item to solo kill a creature with the same strength as an Epic Boss. The prize for this first place is 'The Key to the Mage Tower'."

"The Key to the Mage Tower? What's that?" Klaus asked aloud.

Surprisingly, Isabella was the one who answered him instead of Jayaa. "Oh, you play Rise Online too, Klaus? That's cool. Well, obtaining The Key to the Wizard's Tower is the only way to access the Wizard's Tower, which is a mysterious dungeon that a famous Streamer did a broadcast exploring a few weeks ago. She revealed that it was with this item that she accessed the place, but since she's from an e-sports organization, she didn't reveal how she got it."

"So it's a virtually unexplored place? That's interesting." said Klaus, thinking about it.

"The second and final award, is about the top of the culling rankings and this one also goes to Kaizen who, by maximizing the use of the powerful Gold Ring, managed to kill almost two hundred creatures. A pity that summoned kills don't give experience, otherwise he would have moved up many levels. The reward for having also reached the top of that category is the item 'Blessing of Bastet'."

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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

More character images in:

https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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