[YOU WERE HIT BY [CHAIN EXPLOSION].
684 DAMAGE TAKEN.]
As I was able to escape from the explosion, a rock collided with my knee, and I felt a jolt of pain assaulting my body.
"AH! OUCH, THIS REALLY HURTS!"
Due to the power of the explosion and the damage to my knee, I fell on my back and lost more HP.
"I NEED TO USE EMERGENCY AID…!"
As I felt a burning sensation on my chest, I looked down and saw blackish-red fire burning on my body. I instantly started striking it with my hands, trying to put out the fire, but I felt pain, and my HP kept decreasing.
No matter how many times I struck, the fire didn't go out.
Then, a green glow surrounded me, and I felt a soothing sensation in my soul. The fire on my chest vanished.
"HUH? THIS IS?"
[[HARIN] FROM YOUR PARTY USED [HEALING LIGHT].]
[1020 HEALTH WAS RESTORED.]
'HARIN? HEALING LIGHT ..?'
"HARIN!" I called out as I turned my head around and saw her staff glowing while she remained inside the barrier.
"Thanks!" I said to her, and she just gave me a smile.
Nice! It's time for a counterattack!
"Lyx!" I summoned Lyx back to me.
"KONG!"
"You should try to get the chief goblin's attention! Don't force yourself with an attack!" I said to him as I placed my staff back in my inventory, and Anki appeared back into my hands.
I took aim, and Lyx ran at the goblin chief.
'ALL I NEED IS ONE CHANCE!'
"KEKEKEKEL! DIE! ALL OF YOU DIE!" Said the Goblin chief with madness in his eyes as he continued to use his chain explosion skill, keeping anyone from getting near him. His body seemed to be abundant with mana.
'The chief goblin became more aggressive, so if I make one mistake, we might all die!'
As he casted a fireball at one of the players, killing him.
"ARGH!!" The player screamed in pain as he died.
'JUST LIKE THAT.'
As Lyx reached him and the goblin turned to look at him.
"NOW!"
"Swish!" As my arrow left the bow, it split the air apart as it flew by many goblins.
The goblin chief looked up and saw the arrow coming towards him at very fast speed.
"KWAAA!"
The goblin tried to use one of his skills, but Lyx bit off his arm, and electricity traveled all over the goblin chief's body, paralyzing him and slowing him down by 30%. That was enough, as an arrow directly pierced through the right middle of his forehead, killing him in an instant.
A blue glow surrounded the goblin chief, and all the other goblins disappeared from the place.
"IT WORKED!"
"WHAT?"
"HUH?"
"DID IT DIE?"
"REALLY?"
Were the reactions of NPCs and players alike, as it was hard to believe what just happened…
[[CHIEF GOBLIN] HAS DIED.]
[GOBLIN'S CAMP QUEST] WAS COMPLETED.]
"WE DID IT!"
"WOW!"
"QUEST COMPLETED!"
Screamed the NPCs and players in very joyful voices.
[YOU HAVE SLAIN THE [CHIEF GOBLIN]. 6740 EXPERIENCE WAS GAINED.]
[YOU HAVE CONTRIBUTED THE MOST TO THE [GOBLIN CAMP QUEST] 124 FAME POINTS WERE GAINED.]
[YOU MET THE REQUIREMENTS FOR [GOBLIN CAMP RAID QUEST].]
[LEVEL UP.]
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU BECAME LEVEL 30.]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 30 AND UNLOCKED YOUR JOB'S SPECIAL SKILL.]
[UNLOCKED A SPECIAL SKILL [ASSIGN SKILL TO FAMILIAR].]
[UNLOCKED [SPATIAL EXCHANGE].]
'Special skill spatial exchange?'
[IT'S YOU WHO HAS SLAIN THE CHIEF GOBLIN.]
'First, I should check what Lyx's hidden potential level is.
HMM. Lyx's hidden potential is still at 6.
Was spending 100 hidden potential points for Lyx's evolution a big deal?
If the hidden potential point becomes 20, I'll try to assign a skill to him.
Want to evolve him after getting another 100 points…
But realistically, it will be better to assign a skill to him before I do.
Let's check the second skill.' I thought while looking at the windows in front of me while Lyx stood beside me…
[[SPATIAL EXCHANGE]
TYPE: ACTIVE SKILL
SKILL LEVEL: LV 0
PROFICIENCY: 0%
SKILL COOL TIME: 3 MINUTES
THE SUMMONER SWAPS HIS PLACE WITH ONE OF HIS SUMMONS.
THE SUMMONER MUST BE UNHARMED FOR 0.5-1 SECOND FOR THE SKILL TO ACTIVATE. INCREASING SKILL PROFICIENCY LEVEL REDUCES THE SKILL COOLDOWN TIME.
HMM. Don't gonna lie, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't unlock any attacking or capturing skills...
But these skills are pretty useful in combat.
These are great skills. I'm satisfied! Plus, now I'm level 30, which means I can go waifu hunting.
"John!" I heard Harin calling me, so I turned around and saw her walking towards me…
"Harin!"
"Thank you, John. We were able to complete the quest thanks to you." She said as she gave me a light bow while thinking about me.
"HAHA, It's nothing, Harin. You did more than a single person's worth of work.." I answered her with a smile.
"Nonetheless, if it wasn't for you, John, we wouldn't have cleared it. Thank you for your effort." She said, looking full of gratitude.
"He did more than me, really." I said while petting my furry friend.
"KONG!" He howled as he nodded with a happy look in his eyes.
"Right, I was really surprised by Lyx. His combat skills were truly amazing."
"THANKS FOR TODAY, LYX." She said as she grabbed his head and put her hand on his fluffy head, smoothing his fur.
"KRR-
GRRR-"
"HUH?" As I felt someone approaching us, I turned around and saw two guys and a girl.
'UMM… What? Are they here to introduce themselves?'
"Nice to meet you. I'm Rukin. I didn't have a chance to introduce myself during the quest," said the guy in golden clothes wielding a sword. He had yellow hair. As his hand moved to shake my hand, I did the same.
I didn't have a chance either. Nice to meet you too, I'm John.
"Hey John, would you be interested in starting another quest with us?" said Rukin.
"A quest?" I said.
"Yeah, we know about a hidden quest related to the camp quest," said the yellow-haired guy.
'If it's a related quest, it should be 'THE GOBLIN HIGH PRIEST QUEST'...
I was going to give up on that quest because of its difficulty, but then I leveled up a lot from the camp quest.
I was considering that quest anyways…
So why not go with a party as I would rather not die now.'
'But these guys…
By the looks of it, they are over level 50, so why are they bringing us along to the high priest quest?
We do have too much of a level gap to benefit them?
Or, there's a connecting hidden quest?
I don't have a good feeling about this... should I dig deeper?' Were my thoughts as I heard his voice again.
"Yes, there's a high priest goblin quest that is placed in the tunnel behind the barracks where the high priest is waiting.
We just have to slay him, and we'll complete the quest.
He's weaker than the chief goblin, but I think it'll be a little difficult for us," he said as he pushed them and spoke again.
"I saw your combat, and it seemed like you had a strong summoner's artifact…
So if you guys join us, we'll complete THIS quest in no time."
"ARTIFACT?"
'What artifact? What the f*** is this dude saying. HUH, wait, wait, wait, look at this. They think that I summoned Lyx through a summoner'S artifact..?
Artifacts are expensive, so they must be looking to catch me and sell it off for a big haul... I see.'
"I SEE! OKAY." As soon as I said these words and saw the smiles on the faces of all three of them, I understood everything. And it confirmed what I was thinking.
'And I wasn't able to control myself as this would be fun.'
'Nice! Then let's see...
Shall I give them the runaround?'
...….
POV SWITCHES TO 3RD PERSON.
As we see on a mountain, a man in his 35's logged in as he looked around, and nothing could be seen around him.
Then a blue glow appeared beside him.
"AWOOOOOOOO!!!!"
As a unique white and brown wolf howled while looking at the sky.
"He always does that when he gets summoned."
As the man looked at the beauty in front of him.
"Well, John, now you will be my test subject, and let's see how fast you can progress," said the man with a wide smile.
...….
POV SWITCH TO JOHN.
As we continue to progress in the cave, walking deeper and deeper while encountering goblins in our way, who were easily taken care of.
"John, defend that direction, please!" said the guy in white.
"Harin, can you please heal me!" said the other guy in the group.
'I can finally see the end of the quest.' I thought as I looked at the guy with yellow hair.
'The hidden boss, The Goblin High Priest, will appear soon, so shall I get ready for our real plan?' I am sure these were his thoughts, and I say this just by looking at his face; he really thinks everything is in his control.
I can already guess his plan, which should be like while both I and Harin are taking care of the goblin high priest, they'll pretend like they're engaged, and at the end, they'll attack these two fools and get everything for themselves!
Soon he'll have an artifact worth millions of gold in his hands!!'
Thinking of a fool.
Look at how he's smiling. Can't you at least put on a poker face?'
I thought as I opened the message window.
Harin. the boss will
come out soon.
Then what should we do?
Do you see that place over
there that looks like a
prison?
I said as I pointed at the dipper into the cave which had iron spikes coming out of it above. As she nodded, I continued to explain.
If anyone takes even a step in
there the boss will appear in
5 seconds. then the entrance
will be closed off by steel
bars. and it won't open
unless one of them died
We will continue to follow the
group from behind and when I
give the signal jump back
quickly. alright?
"LYX! ATTACK!"
"KONG!!" Howled my wolf as he cut down the two remaining goblins.
"Let's pick up the pace to the entrance! Is that okay?" I asked them.
"AH, YES! OF COURSE!" said the yellow-haired boy.
And now I know what he must be thinking; it should be 'This idiot really doesn't have a clue. He won't be able to escape without his familiar, so everything is going as planned.' Fool.
…Is what he's probably thinking right now. THAT FOOL!
"Hey, John. Do you see that? The high priest and two berserkers will appear over there. Now! Let's all move on!" said the guy in the white robe while pointing at the location I pointed out before.
"Ok Lyx, you take the lead!" I said as he walked in front of us.
As my summon, he isn't counted in the system, and the goblin priest won't be appearing. So technically, I could explore a whole dungeon without getting inside it or risking the awakening of the Boss Monster.
With skills like Mind's eyes, which would allow me to see what my summons see for a limited amount of time.
As my wolf was already in place, the whole group moved forward.
5…
4….
3….
2…
1…
"NOW…!" "Bam" I saw as I grabbed the hand of Harin and jumped back.
As the steel bar slammed on the ground. And. We were safely outside of it.
"!?"
"JOHN? HARIN? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
WHY DIDN'T YOU COME IN?!" said the yellow-haired guy with a panicked face.
"HAHA... Why? Are you really asking me why?"
I know that you were going to PK us and steal my summoner's artifact.
"W, WHAT…!" said the guy with wide eyes.
"At least keep your poker face, how you gonna steal something? I could read you like an open book."
I know you don't believe me, so let me tell you your current thoughts, which are "H, HOW DID HE KNOW?" I said as I saw his wide eyes grow wider.
"And by looking at your eyes, I can confirm I was right. Hahahah anyway. So there's no reason for me to play along with your plan.
YOU THREE HAVE FUN INSIDE THERE." I said as the cave started to glow and…
As I saw they all had angry faces as they started to bash their weapons at the steel bars.
"You idiots! You don't understand anything! You can't escape from here!
THE QUEST CLEARLY SAYS THAT RETURNING TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD IS IMPOSSIBLE UNLESS THE BOSS MONSTER IS KILLED OR ALL PARTY MEMBERS ARE WIPED OUT!"
I said as they all gritted their teeth.
"And now you are thinking. truthfully, we can take care of the high priest all by ourselves!
After we slay the high priest and these bars lift, it will be your funeral! It won't take long!"
And now looking at your face that had lost all its colors, I confirm that I am right by every word. HAHA, THANKS FOR THE WARNING…
"LYX, BITE!"
"Aaaaaaaa" I said as my wolf jumped at the woman who looked like she was a magician or a priestess class, and he took a bite on her shoulder as she screamed in pain, shocked by the thunder fang.
[FAMILIAR [LYX] INFLICTED CRITICAL DAMAGE TO [MILLON]!]
[[MILLON]'S HEALTH HAS DECREASED BY 1077 (32% OF TOTAL HEALTH).]
[[MILLON] HAS BEEN PARALYZED, AS HER SPEED REDUCED BY 30%.]
WHAT!
AHH!!
[[MILLON] HAS BEEN INFLICTED WITH [BLEEDING] AND WILL BE INFLICTED WITH 215 DAMAGE EVERY 10 SECONDS.]
"T. THIS CRAZY DOG…!" said the guy with yellow hair, gritting his teeth hard.
[SUMMON CANCEL] I said as Lyx disappeared in front of their eyes.
"KRRRRRR!"
As the conditions were met, the boss awakened.
"WHAT, NO WAY…!"
"If I'm not wrong, she was your healer, right? And now every passing second, the Healer itself is losing its health. Now let's see how you fare against those 3 and after 3 of us." I said as they realized how much trouble they are in.
"KRRRRRRRRR
KRRRRRR
KRRRRRRRRR" As two Berserk Goblins who were huge, even bigger than Lyx, and the high priest goblin screeched, creating a wave of fear in them.
"YOU FUCKER! DO YOU THINK WE WON'T BE ABLE TO KILL THE BOSS BECAUSE OF THAT?
AFTER WE KILL THAT BOSS AND THESE BARS OPEN UP, IT'LL BE YOUR TURN NEXT!"
"YEAH, I DON'T THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO." I said as I sat down and looked at the fine view.
"KRRRRRR"
'And something I didn't tell them was because we are technically still part of their team, so even if they die, the boss won't despawn as we are still alive even if they are not in the fighting area, so by lowering the boss's HP, they are doing us a favor. Hahahaha haha. A loophole not many people know about and even fewer people use it. And it can't even be fixed because of compliances.'
'It's used as a player party up with a bunch of noobs, then have them fight a boss and let them lower its HP while waiting outside of the boss rage attacks.
And after all the noobs die, you get their items that they dropped after death, you kill the boss, you get all the EXP from the boss as no one is alive to share with you, you also get all the loot from the boss. And you did this all without getting PK penalty, as the boss monster is the one who kills all of them…
Of course, no high-level player can use this strategy as no single person can kill a high-level boss… especially some lower level.
"YOU FUCKER...."
[THE QUEST BOSS HAS BEEN
SUMMONED.]
"HUH?!"
"Let's take care of these boss monsters first! That fucker is next!"
"DAMN! OKAY!"
"KEK... I had my pain meter on high, but I'm okay, sure!"
"Let's see if you can stay calm like that later!"
Has any third-rate villain actually succeeded after saying that line?" I said as I mocked them.
"...Will they be fine?" asked Harin.
If you are worried, you should help them. I told her.
"HUH? HELP?"
"KRRR!" Goblins screeched while charging at them.
"Clank" "Crack Crack" as their weapons and goblins' weapons collided, resulting in their...
"KRR!" screamed the goblins as they saw the cracks in the weapons of their enemies.
"KEK!" And the girl even had a very hard time even swinging the sword with one hand as she was still bleeding.
Even though she was continuously casting Healing on herself, it didn't work. The more she healed, the more she lost, as her slow speed also made this even harder.
"Bam" as one of the Berserk Goblin's axes collided with the shield of the yellow-haired guy.
"KEK!"
As he slashed the Berserk Goblin's chest.
"HAAAP!
KWAAW'' the Goblin screamed in pain.
As the Goblin High Priest lifted his hand up and spoke.
"ᛟᛒᚦᚲᛃ"
"ᛗᛉᛃᚷᛃ"
"Hᛖᚨᛚ"
"ᛏᚾᚠᛟx"
As a green glow surrounded all three goblins, and the injuries they suffered...
KRRRR!.
...…
Time Skip
It took longer than expected to clear the quest, but in return, I got the thing I was looking for the most, so currently, I was just heading to the summoner's place.
There is a summoner's place where you have to go for your first summon. As it was a way to cross-verify your account.
As I said multiple times, this game was pay to win. So even for summoning, you had to pay a million for your first summon. Which doesn't seem a lot, but if compared to coins you earn from quests and monster hunting, it's a lot as even my latest quest only gave 9000 coins.
Thankfully, those three had a lot of stuff, and I got to loot most of it.
Soon, I stood in front of a massive mansion with a wide-open field. From the outside, it looked delightful and homey. I touched the door, feeling the smooth wood, and I jumped up and down. It feels like I'm standing up instead of lying down, and there's no movement delay. I started walking towards my new in-game home.
Plastered walls and intricate stone carvings make up most of the building's outer structure. Thankfully, this place is only accessible for the player and his harem to live in.
As I walked through the intricate wooden door, I took a good look around my home. There's a grand staircase in the middle of the room going up towards the second floor. Hardwood beams support the upper floor and the rows of small candles attached to them. The walls are decorated with photographs of different waifus in different articles of clothing and poses.
I smiled to myself and started walking towards my summoning room, which has an arrow pointing towards it. I was a little nervous, to be honest. In the beginning, there's a chance of getting through a gacha spin, but the latter is almost impossible due to how many items, skills, and equipment are in this game.
After a minute of walking, I finally reached my destination, evident when it said Summoning Chamber. It was an ordinary brown door with a magical symbol formed in a heart with weird patterns outside and around it.
I took a deep breath and opened the door. As I walked in, taking a good look inside, much to my disappointment, there's not much here other than candles around the room giving a whole spooky vibe inside. Further inside is an altar table with a red-headed buxom blindfolded woman holding her hands together as if presenting something. Under her is a circle shape with shapes for ten coin sacrifices. On the other side of the room on the floor is the summoning circle.
I stopped in front of it, and I checked my inventory from the game. There are 11 coins, and I opened them all. I ignored the congratulation letter on joining the First summon. I took the summoning token, the pink heart item with ??? Marks in the middle, and then I grabbed the ten coins and one by one instantly them in space and with a glow, they vanished.
"And there goes my one million." "Sigh" Again did I mention how much pay to win this game was.
So at this point, you had to convert your one million game currency into these special sacrificial coins, which could only be done through the main system shop. And you had to pay to do that.
Sigh.
I looked at the summoning token, my ticket to get my first waifu, and it's a rainbow ticket with an outline of a voluptuous female with a question mark in the middle.
I moved the token towards the magic summoning symbols in front of me and let it go as it dropped in the middle. The crest on the ground then started shining as if bathing with golden light, and then it released a blinding light forcing me to close my eyes.
When I opened them again, I saw the coin floating in the air above the magic circle. I moved my hand toward the coin as it slowly landed on my palm.
I took a good look at it; it's a rainbow-colored coin with a woman in high-tech armor with white light radiating off of her. She looked familiar, but I couldn't place where.
I used my magic to summon her as the coin grew brighter and brighter. I closed my eyes until it stopped. I blinked a few times to get my vision back.
Loading Content....1%...37%...58%...100%
[Congratulations, you have summoned...
ERROR…
...….
!!!ERROR!!!
!!!ERROR!!!
!!!ERROR!!!
!!!WARNING!!!
!!!VIRUS DETECTED!!!
!!!ERROR DETECTED!!!
!!!WARNING!!!
!!!VIRUS DETECTED!!!
---------------------------
---------------------------
"What's going on?!" A handsome man named Sam yelled out to no one in particular. He's one of the leading programmers out of many who are checking the system for any glitches or problems in the game.
"Sir, we, we don't know. The game was working just fine, but somehow, it started to delete itself." A young man informed him while still typing in codes to stop, if not slow it down.
"We need to pull the plug. I can't have all of my work gone. We spent more than seven years and so much money on this game. And do you even know how much we had to pay in residuals for all the IPs we borrowed from all these massive companies?"
"But sir, there are still people in there." A female programmer informed him.
"Just force log out and save as much data as you can before it's all gone. If not, then it'll be on all of your heads." Sam threatened them before he left to inform the director.
"Bastard." A random computer programmer said after he left.
"Here here." A few agreed, and they became quiet, focusing on the situation.
----------------------------
----------------------------
At that moment, the entire area around the world began to give out warning signals telling players to log out.
"A power outage? Nah, even if that happened, there's a backup power generator. Did something happen to the game servers?" A player asked himself. He logged out immediately, feeling something terrible would happen to him if he didn't.
Many players started logging out following that guy's example. Some cursed the company for cockblocking them when they were about to have fun with their waifus, and others ignored the signs, taking off their clothes and touching their summoned waifu/husbando.
For the people who ignored the warnings, they froze in place and were forcefully logged out. The system ran a diagnostic scan to see if anyone is left.
1%...4%...38%...57%...63%...99%...error...
{Found one. Location: player's mansion}
It looked up the player's ID. {4857799} {God_Full_of_Greed_Johnny}
[Log.out.error...error..]
For some reason, it couldn't force the user to log out, nor could it send any alerts to the user. It sent a message to the main computer for input.
"As it waited, it recorded the vitals, brain activity, and video of the user, {4857799}...
.....
On the other side...
I stared at a black screen that was constantly flashing in front of me, with an odd-looking font and rainbow colors. I felt excited for some reason and slightly confused, but after a few seconds, I just shrugged it off.
Maybe they were trying to be unique or something? I felt as if the world was spinning, and I was losing my balance. The last thing I felt was the hard floor below my feet. Then I knew no more as everything went dark.
...….
[Monitoring Room]
Sam arrived back sweating in fear from the meeting with the CEO of the company. He tightened his tie, adjusting his face to look stern as he stepped through the door.
"Well?! What's the situation? Did you fix it or not!?" He yelled out, praying they did. He did not want to know what would happen if they didn't.
"Y-yes, sir, we did, but there were some unexpected complications." One nervous employee said. It was silent for a few seconds as they waited to be yelled at again.
"Well, what's the problem? Did we lose all of our data?" Tanaka probed.
"N-no, no, sir. We saved 78% of our important data. The rest is just player data and some anime and comic characters."
"Good, good. That's good." He nodded with a smile, feeling relieved.
"But sir, there was one complication that's really bad." A female employee spoke up, ruining his mood. She continued as he glared at her, "It's one of the players, sir. He didn't log out, nor could the AI log him out forcefully before we shut down the game. It also recorded his vitals and his last moments. He's brain-dead, sir."
"So? Just send some money to his family as compensation and force them to sign NDAs. After that, delete all data regarding that player from our servers." Sam said, waving his hand like it wasn't a problem.
"B-But, but sir, a human being died..." The same woman tried to argue, but she flinched in shock at Sam's rage.
*Bang*
"SHUT YOUR TRAP IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU!!!" He yelled at her. Everyone flinched and kept their heads down while shaking in fear.
"Now, if you excuse me, I have a press conference to get to." He said, taking a deep breath before he left the room. He had to look presentable, after all.
"Bastard..." Someone muttered after a minute of typing codes on the screen, and a few other employees muttered other curse words.
...