The year 2124, June 24. Exactly at 12:00 midnight which is also at the military time of 2400.
In the middle of the Holy Asian Alliance's Territory. The vast majority of the land consists of only skyscrapers and the lowest amongst them have at least 60 floors.
But the reality is not much going to fortune, the current population of the World has already reached a trillion plus, hence, by the passage of time, more apartments were erected as high as they can.
The richest amongst all the people bought their own lands and those that couldn't follow up whether they are rich, average, or poor can only settle with living in an apartment.
It's not that they can't buy their own property, instead, there are no more lands for sale.
Right now, the middle of the Holy Asian Alliance's country was treated as the commercial area and farther and farther away are either apartments or a high rise market.
A boy at the age of 17 in his high school stage is currently playing with some friends inside the Capsule Rental apartment. The whole of the 30th floor inside the Skyscraper is actually for online game lovers.
The boy's name is Kas Shen.
"Shen, let's go for one more run, we might earn a few more money after it!" The one that spoke is his best friend, Lug Pwan.
Shen removes his gaming helmet as he moves out of the capsule; "Nah, I`m good, I don't have any spare money to play for another hour or so."
Pwan chuckles; "They say that a violet item usually appears at the 10th run, why not try it? I`ll treat you for an hour. If there's no great item, we'll just call it quits for today."
Shen ponders for a bit as he looks at his left wrist where a watch like-thing is attached: "Let me check my balance first."
"Sure." Pwan smiles as he nodded in response.
Shen chuckles as he pressed it for a few time. After he tinkered with it, something like a hologram appears.
*Public Details*
Name: Kas Shen
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Father: -Deceased-
Mother: -Deceased-
Siblings: -None-
School: 7th City High School
Social Standings: Orphan.
Address: 7th City, Susak Apartment Complex, room 1224.
Balance:
USD: 3.24
Seeing the money left in his account, Shen couldn't help but chuckles; "The least that I could do is buy a bread tomorrow morning."
Hearing this, all four of Shen's classmate couldn't help but laugh too. One of them, Hisao pats Shen on the shoulder: "Don't worry, it's not like the rest of us aren't scraping day by day."
The rest of the gang also nods their head: "Yep! We just have to get lucky and get a purple item this time!"
Shen finally nods his head as he looks at Pwan: "It's your treat! Remember that."
Pwan chuckles as he equipped his gaming helmet again: "No problem, I still got $9 left in my account."
With that, all of them entered the capsule again to play.
"Hmmm?" At this moment, Shen became bewildered.
[Do you want to survive the apocalypse that's to come? [Yes] or [No] ]
"A Phishing ad? That's too old school, nobody will believe that." Shen tries to brush it off but it just wouldn't go away.
Shen: "Kwan, some phishing ad is blocking my monitor and it's not going away."
Kwan: "Eh? That must be a very great virus, just move it to somewhere that won't block your vision."
Shen sighs as one side of his mouth curls in displease and moves it to the upper left corner of his vision.
30 minutes had passed.
Inside the game.
Hisao: "Shen! Tank it now!"
Shen: "On it!"
[Do you want to survive the apocalypse that's to come? [Yes] or [No] ]
The window popped up again in front of Shen.
Shen felt nervous as they are right now in the middle of fighting the boss; "Wait! Swap with me! The phishing site is blocking my vision again!"
Kwan frowns: "Zumi! Swap with Shen now!"
Zumi, one of their classmate nods; "On it!"
After just 10 seconds, Shen finally prepared again: "Swap!"
Zumi: "Swap!"
As soon as Shen enters the combat, Zumi immediately backs away to recover his missing health.
Kwan chuckles: "Good! Good! Good! Just a little bit more!"
Zumi: "I got 1/4 of my HP up!"
Hisao: "Keep recovering, we might need you in full when the boss goes berserk!"
Zumi: "Got it!"
Shen is diligently tanking the boss as he takes a low-quality potion every time its cooldown is finished.
[Do you want to survive the apocalypse that's to come? [Yes] or [No] ]
Shen grits his teeth: "The phishing ad is up again."
Kwan frowns again: "Just keep tanking for now and try to brush it off to the sides."
Shen nodded: "Okay, I`ll do my best."
All of them did their best to deal as much damage to the boss, but at this moment, the boss went berserk.
"GROAAAAAAAAH!!!" A hell piercing scream resounded.
*Party member "Kwan" has been disabled for 5 seconds*
*Party member "Hisao" has been disabled for 5 seconds.*
*Party member "Zumi" has resisted being disabled for 5 seconds.*
*Party member "Sukim" has been disabled for 5 seconds.*
*Party member "Shen" has been paralyzed for 5 seconds."
Kwan: "Shen! The boss is going to attack me!"
Shen: "I`m paralyzed! Zumi! Swap! Swap!"
Zumi: "I`m going!"
Party member "Kwan" has been struck by the boss "Silver Fanged Iron Wolf"
-2,155 HP!! Critical!
Kwan couldn't help but frown: "D*mn it! I`m a damage dealer! Why are you letting the boss hit me!"
Hisao also frowns: "Zumi is too far away and Shen is paralyzed, just take the hit and we'll kill it after!"
The atmosphere became awkward amongst the five of them as they silently played the game.
Silver Fanged Iron Wolf
HP: 124/98,824
When the boss finally became an easy kill, Kwan immediately smiles: "I`ll kill it now! Desperate Slash!"
Shen smiles as their hunt will finally end and he'll be able to sleep too, but something is amiss when Shen looks at the boss. because in front of him is...
[Do you want to survive the apocalypse that's to come? [Yes] or [No] ]
Shen couldn't help but be annoyed: "F*ck you!!!"
All of them heard it and lost focus for a while, and just at that moment, they heard a shout.
"Gaaa!"
Kwan was struck with another critical hit and in addition, the boss' passive activated.
[Blood offering has been activated. The boss' HP will regenerate 2x of the damage dealt.]
Silver Fanged Iron Wolf
HP: 6,914/98,824
Everyone looked at Shen in shock too.
Kwan: "D*mn it Shen! What the hell are you doing!"
Hisao: "Now's not the time to argue! Let's kill the boss!"
Shen felt extremely guilty as he moves the notification to the side again and focused on dealing with the boss.
15 minutes had passed.
All five of them finally finished the boss.
"Yeah!" All of them howled in excitement.
Hisao: "Look! There's a violet chest! two of them!"
Hearing Hisao, everyone looks at the chests on the ground and couldn't help but be excited.
"Who's going to open it?" Hisao asks as it's always a round-robin whenever a loot drops and basing the luck on alternately between each player.
Kwan chuckles as he immediately dashes forward; "I`ll go! I`ll pick up the two boxes too!"
As soon as Kwan finishes his words, he's already beside the chest.
A slightly blinding light appears from the box as it slowly opens.
All of the party members excluding Shen felt mad, but what's done is done.
The two items appear in front of them with a window displaying its properties.
Shield of the Corrupted Knight
Lvl: 49
Quality: Violet (Top-grade)
Defense: 395
Movespeed: -20
Durability: 120/120
Set effect: (2/4/6)
2: +115 Defense
4: Movespeed +75
Attack +36
6: 15% Block rate
Game/Market Price: Above 25,000 Gold/USD
Gauntlet of the Corrupted Knight
Lvl: 46
Quality: Violet (Mid-grade)
Defense: 98
Attack: 45
Movespeed: -5
Durability: 89/89
Set effect: (2/4/6)
2: +115 Defense
4: Movespeed +75
Attack +36
6: 15% Block rate
Game/Market Price: Above 25,000 Gold/USD
Everyone's eyes shone brightly. The expectation that they'll have a few years of an easy life is making them extremely happy right now.
But the other four didn't expect something.
[Player "Kwan" has acquired the "Gauntlet of the Corrupted Knight".]
[Player "Kwan" has acquired the "Shield of the Corrupted Knight".]
[Player "Kwan." has left the party.]
[Your friend "Kwan" has deleted you from his friend list.]
[Player "Kwan" has left the dungeon.]
The continuous spam of notices made all of them speechless.
"Wha... LOG OUT! LOG OUT!" Hisao was the first one to actually realize what happened.
The three of them woke up immediately and logs out of the game.
It takes at least 15 seconds to log out of the game and another 5 seconds from getting out of the capsule and removing their helmets. Kwan has a lead of at least 10 seconds, and it will be near impossible for them to find kwan after they lose their sight of him.
Shen felt too shock to even move from his spot.
Shen: "What... What actually happened?"
Shen already know what happened but reality is too harsh for him to accept. His best friend since childhood, actually betrayed them all for money.
Shen with tears in his eyes slowly stood up: "Kwan... Why... why did you do such a thing."