In the dead of night, a small lamp shines intensely as it illuminates a room highlighting a twenty-something man sitting in a gaming chair in front of a computer.
Click... click... click...
The rhythm of the sounds produced by the mouse clicks seemed to synchronize with the rhythm of the pointer of the wall clock. The computer screen faintly glowed as a swordsman stabbed his sword that radiated golden light into the heart of a large black dragon surrounded by black flames.
"Hahaha. After 5 years, I finally got it..."
As David laughed and punched the air in celebration of his achievement, he noticed an orange announcement in the global chat and his smile turned stiff.
[System Announcement: Congratulations to the "Number 1 Under the Sky" player for being the first to complete the 99th floor of the abyss. Please go to the 100th floor of the abyss to receive your reward]
Such an announcement caused a great uproar among all the players whose curiosity only increased, even more, to know the true identity of the strongest player whose alias is Number 1 Under the Sky.
"Fortunately, I've kept a low profile for the past 5 years of playing and no one else knows my true identity. Otherwise, what would they say about a worthy Harvard University librarian with a nickname like that in an online game..."
Looking at the details of the scenario presented on the computer screen, he couldn't help but lament: "The developer of this game is very stingy... If it weren't for the fact that all dead troops are permanently lost, I would have completed this floor a long time..."
In the dark dungeon, in addition to the great black dragon, tens of thousands of bodies of his troops in red armor, as well as tens of thousands of bodies of abyssal creatures lay dead on the ground.
"To kill this Eternal Night Abyssal Dragon and his followers, I lost my legions of troops that have been carefully evolved over the past few years. At least, my commanders can be resurrected, otherwise, I wouldn't even waste time trying to complete this game..."
"By logic, the next boss guarding the 100th floor should be even more powerful than the Eternal Night Abyssal Dragon. However, why didn't my reward appear in a treasure chest like when I completed the previous floors?"
"I won't be attacked by the next boss on the 100th floor after I teleport? How will I get my reward?"
David is not only known as the strongest player, but he is also considered the one that most developed a territory and completed the most missions within the game [MMORPG: World of Knights] released in the early 23nd century.
This game doesn't just focus on completing quests and dungeons, but also on territory development, kingdom management, troop building, commander evolution, and many wars of conquest of other kingdoms to get more resources. At the same time as the Castle Lords fight against the dark forces that try to conquer the World of Knights.
After spending 5 years adventuring and developing in the game world, David led his commanders along with his legions of troops to invade the 99th floor of the abyss, and finally, he was the first player to manage to kill the Abyssal Dragon of Eternal Night. However, unlike when he conquered the previous floors, his reward didn't appear in treasure chests as expected and the game's progress seemed to follow a different path.
While still filled with doubt, the once majestic Abyssal Dragon of Eternal Night that now lay dead on the dark floor, started to shine with golden light illuminating this entire gloomy dungeon, and a portal with a large halo radiating golden lights emerged in its place.
"Anyway, it's no use for me to stay here just suspecting. I'll know what will happen after crossing this portal..."
Click.
Followed by a slight clicking sound produced by the mouse, the swordsman in golden armor walked in slow steps until he entered the halo which had many patterns of mysterious white runes slowly rotating in the center of the large circle surrounded by the golden halo.
[This portal will take you to the 100th floor of the abyss and there may be unexpected surprises on the other side. Are you sure you want to teleport?]
[Yes! No!]
Seeing these text boxes popping up on the computer screen, David didn't hesitate and clicked [Yes].
Click...
Boom!
However, just as he finished clicking to proceed with his teleportation, the computer screen abruptly went black and there was a small short circuit in the intertwined wires behind the monitor.
A current of electrical energy coursed through the mouse wire and headed for David's right hand who still had a surprised expression on his face until the electrical current entered his hand and disappeared. He was about to look at his right hand when he felt a tingle in it, but a strong feeling of weakness overcame him as his vision began to blur and, unknowingly, he lost consciousness as he plunged into eternal darkness.
...
After an unknown time, David seemed to hear a voice that sounded distant, but that gradually grew stronger as if calling someone...
"Young master, wake up..."
At the same time, he felt that there was a strong hand shaking his right shoulder.
"Young master? Who is this? Why is there a man in my room trying to wake me up? What happened after I lost consciousness? Who took me to my bed?"
David began to remember that he had lost consciousness after his computer had an unexpected short circuit. However, he was a single man and lived alone, so he was filled with doubt as he realized that he was lying in his soft bed and that there was also someone else in his room.
He was about to open his eyes to see who this person was and clear his doubts when he was suddenly taken aback by a large amount of unfamiliar memories flooding his sea of awareness.
Curious, he began to analyze these images that emerged clearly in his subconscious. It felt strange, but he felt like he was a third person watching the entire growth period of a young man from birth. Furthermore, this young man and the settings in these memories belong to another world, a fantasy world that is home to a myriad of races and that is ruled by Knights who cultivate internal energy and who possess terrifying powers.
This young man in your memoir is called Makai Collins, the youngest son of Crimson Duke Marvin Collins who was given the title of Hereditary Duke by the king himself after he made great conquests in the War of Kings.
The War of Kings was an important milestone on the Vita Continent.
Ever since the Continent of Haoran was conquered by the forces of darkness that suddenly emerged on a large scale from the abyss 300 years ago, humans were unprepared and were caught by surprise in the flames of war. The abyssal forces continually emerged from the teleportation portals that connected the lower layers of the abyss with the World of Lazerorth which has two major continents, the Continent of Haoran in the west and the Vita Continent in the east.
The humans who inhabited the Continent of Haoran were the predominant forces in the World of Lazerorth, while the humans who inhabited the Vita Continent were seen as barbarians by them, as not only were the powers that govern the Vita Continent weaker, but they too lived harmoniously with a myriad of races.
However, even if they were powerful and that once looked down on the Vita Continent, they still were driven from their own continent by the dark forces and found themselves forced to take refuge in the Vita Continent.
Since then, the once harmonious Continent Vita has been engulfed in the flames of wars over territorial disputes and the establishment of new kingdoms and empires with the invasion of all those who inhabited the Continent of Haoran.
110 years ago, the Starfall Realm that was far from being implicated by warfare, located at the southern end of the Vita Continent, was also engulfed in the flames of war after the War of Kings had completed 90 years.
However, Haoran's forces stabilized when they were already exhausted and new kingdoms and empires were established on the Vita Continent. Many of their own forces had been drastically reduced after facing two great centuries-old wars and this forced them to scale back their expansion by new territories.
Even so, a small kingdom that had been integrated into the south of the Empire of Avalon, the Kingdom of Gusman, wanted to take advantage of this moment to annex the territory of its neighbor, the Kingdom of Starfall even further to the south and which was even richer in minerals and fertile lands.
However, the Avalon Empire had entered a period of resupply and consolidation of its own forces, after all, there were still many internal conflicts that needed to be resolved and they could not give much support to their vassals.
Still, the King of Gusman had always coveted the Kingdom of Starfall, but had never before dared to wage war, and even though the Empire of Avalon could not provide much support, he felt that it was enough and that he could emerge victorious against Starfall.
However, who could have expected that in the peaceful Kingdom of Starfall, great forces would arise like hungry lions that seemed to crave the flames of war?
During the last 10 years of the War of Kings, the King of Gusman suffered losses one after another with even the little support provided by the Empire of Avalon, he had no choice but to give up.
Meanwhile, great heroes emerged in the Kingdom of Starfall during these 10 years of war and the most famous of them was Marvin Collins, who was a small Baron at the time and who impressed everyone with his meritorious conquests. Even the king himself, Silas Kaiser lll, was in awe and personally bestowed him with the hereditary title of Duke Crimson.
In the last 100 years, since the War of the Kings finally came to an end after lasting 100 years, Duke Marvin Collins has rapidly developed his new territory, the Crimson Duchy, located in the southwestern part of the kingdom.
During his quiet period of development, the Crimson Duke had three wives, and with them, he had two sons and a daughter. However, he unexpectedly had another son who was born 15 years ago and no one knew anything about his mother's origins.
In the memories that David was processing, even Makai did not know who his mother was, as he was a baby and had never met her. However, David could see all these memories as if he were watching scenes from a movie and came to know many things that the young Makai did not.
As Makai suddenly emerged as the Crimson Duke's youngest son and no one else in the Collins family other than the Duke himself knew of his mother's origins, he grew up being seen as the bastard son of the Crimson Duke. However, Makai was never intimidated by this, he grew up steadfast and determined to prove to everyone that he was worthy of being the Crimson Duke's son and always trained more than anyone with the desire to become a Knight even stronger than his father.
The result of his efforts was not in vain. At age 10, he was enrolled at the Royal Capital Knights Academy, where every young aristocrat in the realm would be enrolled and graduated at age 15.
As the young Makai in his memoirs turned 15 yesterday, he had just graduated, and during his 5 years of studies, in addition to learning aristocratic etiquette, Lazerorth history, and other customs, he had managed to fill all the vital path of his first palace and had reached the peak of an Apprentice Knight in the way of the sword.
Generally, an Apprentice Knight forms their first vital palace after the age of 18 when they gain a breakthrough in understanding the path they have chosen to follow and officially become a Bronze Knight.
These knight paths could be a swordsman, spearman, squire, assassin, archer, berserker, among others.
As Makai chose the path of a swordsman and his understanding of the basic sword was about to reach the advanced level, he would soon fill his first vital palace and officially become a Bronze Knight.
"Young master, wake up. The family council led by your father the Duke is about to begin. The young master will be late if he doesn't wake up now..."
The middle-aged man's voice rang in his ears again pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Wait... Don't tell me this young master is the same in my memories..." David had this sudden premonition.
The memories that surged through her mind flowed like running water in a shallow river, fluent and gentle. Hearing the middle-aged man's voice again, an image of a serious man in his mid-forties sprang from those memories in his mind.
With a bad feeling, David quickly opened his eyes and his body went rigid as he realized that his conjectures were true.
The middle-aged man who still had his strong hand on his right shoulder was exactly the same in his memoirs, Jonathan, the butler of the young master Makai Collins, the youngest son of the Crimson Duke Marvin Collins.
"Is this… is this really possible? I was reincarnated in another world and now I am the owner of these memories that have popped into my mind?"
Startled, he quickly got out of bed and ran to the mirror beside a red wooden wardrobe.
Although David already knew the answer after seeing the butler Jonathan and the surroundings of the unfamiliar bedroom, he was still shocked to see the young man who had appeared in his memories now being reflected in the mirror.
Even though the young Makai had just turned 15, his body was well defined and clearly delineated muscles as a result of a lot of physical training. With his height of 1.78 meters, anyone could misjudge his age if it weren't for his youthful face that looked quite handsome with his long black hair.
"It seems I died with that little short circuit in the computer and now I'm reincarnated in this world..."
[Ding!]
[Welcome to the Knights World System]
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
"Who? Who's talking?"
Dumbfounded, David looked around his room, but there was only the butler Jonathan who was now hastily looking for some clothes in the red wooden wardrobe.
[The host need not worry. I'm a system that only belongs to the host after going through some unknown modifications]
David was surprised, but very quickly, he chuckled coldly upon hearing the system's next words.
[The last residues of a low-level deadly poison found in the host's body have been purified by the system]
"Hehe. It seems that this young man turned out to be a poor victim and was poisoned on his birthday by his own family members..."
He quickly understood what had happened to his predecessor as he assimilated his memories along with the discovery that he had been poisoned. He could only associate that his predecessor had been poisoned at his birthday feast the night before. It just wasn't easy to know who was responsible, after all, the Collins family is a big family of Duke and he had a sister and two older brothers.
"Family... I hope my family on Earth will quickly get over my loss... Although it's a little sad, we are all destined to perish one day..."
"Now that I belong to this world, I must quickly accept this new identity or I will end up being killed without even knowing how, just like my predecessor..."
"From now on, I will be Makai Collins and forge my own reputation so that everyone knows me by my own name and not as the Crimson Duke's bastard youngest son..."
[The host possesses a strong will that coincides with his predecessor's wishes. Upon feeling such an iron will in the host, the last soul fragment of its predecessor was relieved and finally left its former burden in the host's hands]
[First mission triggered: Please join the family council to get the welcome pack]