"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuck!" the young cursed furiously and almost crashed his Orange 25 phone and destroying it. He was a young man seemingly in his early twenties, dark skin, shoulder long dreadlocks and above average looks.
"Damn rich players! Fucking wealthy good for nothings! Opulence Guild! Fuck you and your fucking money! You spineless, fake gamers, sons of…"
The young man kept cursing, veins bulging on his forehead and eyes full of anger and fury as though he'd just witnessed his high school crush being banged right in front and he could do nothing but watch.
"Lucius, if I hear one more word from that filthy mouth of yours, I'm coming to clean it with my broom!" a feminine yet authoritative voice sounded from outside the room, scaring the young man into silence. Being promised a beating of a lifetime by his mom, the young man had no choice but to keep quiet.
Even though he was twenty one years old, he was still afraid of his mom simply because he was black and African. And it was because of this reason that he knew that his mom would do as she promised and if he dared to resist, she'd call the big man, the big bad wolf, his father to deal with him.
After being threatened, the only other thing he could do was cry. How could he not cry after what happened? How could he hold it in after what they did to him? The more he thought of what happened, the sadder he became.
'Legends Of Mythical Warriors!'
This was the name of the game he just finished playing and it wasn't that he lost the game that saddened him… maybe it was a little bit about losing. The truth is, three months ago, this game posted an event that would occur three months later and this event would last three days with enticing rewards for anyone who completed it. From legendary weapons and skills, all the way to godly beasts and spirits, some of these rewards only being obtained after months of grinding due to their rarity.
Lucius had started preparations the moment he saw the post because one of the rewards for completion was a weapon he absolutely wanted. A staff called Sun which greatly boosted one's combat strength, he even had a screenshot of the staff's stats which read:
Name: Sun Staff
Title: Game Over
Strength:+100000000%
Durability:+10000000%
Damage:+100000000%
Critical hit:+10000000%
Remarks:
[A Divine Weapon that can decimate all in its path. A weapon of mass destruction that even its creators, the Almighty, fear it.]
…
To get this weapon, Lucius had spent the entire three months grinding levels in the game, since there was no level cap, he could level up as much as he could. Days without sleep, only eating noodles, no baths, no going out and no girls to warm his bed. He'd sacrificed his life to the game for an entire three months, an entire three months!
Then when it was finally time to taste the sweet fruits of his labour, Opulence Guild came and took everything not just from him but all players participating in the event. Opulence Guild was a guild created by the richest youths in the world that even professional gamers wouldn't cross paths with them in money driven games.
Although Legends Of Mythical Warriors is a relatively popular game, it wasn't even in the top ten most popular games currently. And with the new game, System Online, he'd expected them to be there since it was so popular.
System Online was so popular that almost everyone was playing it, 99% of the population was actually playing the game. Lucius hadn't yet started playing the game because he was too invested in Legends Of Mythical Warriors and wanted to end the game using Sun Staff.
…
Lucius cried until he fell asleep and was woken up by his little sister telling him that food was ready and to come and eat. His family hadn't interrupted him from playing Legends Of Mythical Warriors for the past three months and probably would have continued to do so if he hadn't made so much noise which indicated that his game time had concluded.
Everyone sat at the sofas while watching a movie called Dragonia. Sitting on the three-seater sofa was Lucius, his older brother Tshepo and younger sister Dineo. Their father and mother, Titus and Mbali, sat on single-seater sofas.
Even though Lucius looked like someone suffering from depression and might kill himself at any moment, no one bothered with him. As black people can't suffer from depression and are afraid of death, they knew that he would be fine and even if he did somehow kill himself, they'd simply go and claim the life insurance money and move on with their lives.
As cruel as it sounded, that's what they were taught from when they were still children. Their father would often say: "Living is hard but dying is easy so choose your own paths. Live and fight or quit and die." and would look straight at his two boys and say: "Weaklings have no space in the world of the strong so if you want to live longer, be strong!"
Lucius had to be strong if he wanted to continue living. After dinner, Lucius kept himself busy by washing the dishes before taking a long bath and finally going to sleep. He was tired both physically and mentally and a good night's rest would help with that.
…
Early the next morning, Lucius woke up and swept the yard, mowed the lawn and watered the plants. These were his daily chores that he hadn't done for three months and it took him a few hours to finish. After that, he took a bath and prepared to go out and see people. Meeting and interacting with people would help him mentally.
"I'm guessing you're finally going to join us in System Online right? After what happened yesterday, you got to admit that Opulence Guild is a goated guild. To make a two week event end in a few hours, now that's something you don't see everyday." said his sister.
"Shut up or I'll shut that mouth for you! I'm surprised that you're able to use that empty brain of yours at critical times. If only you had done the same in your studies, you'd probably be far in life, unfortunately…"
"..."
His sister remained silent because she knew she couldn't win in a battle of words against Lucius. Everyone in the house knew that Lucius was academically the smartest person in the family and could go to Tertiary Institutions anytime he wanted but he instead wasted his time writing books.
"For old times sake I'll give you a piece of advice, don't mess with Overlord Titus in the game or you'll probably have to quit playing System Online too hehe." advised his sister.
Lucius knew that she was probably talking about their father. Unlike him who was into light novels, his father was into anime and had a collection of anime from before the Meteor Fall incident. From what their mother told them, Titus had been into anime from an early age and the anime that got him hooked up was Naruto. With his favourite character in this anime being Itachi Uchiha.
It was after he finished Naruto that their father fell in love with anime, dark anime to be precise and the life lessons he taught them as children were apparently inspired by an anime character called Ryomen Sukuna. In real life Titus is a kind person but in the Online Games he played, he was renown for being m evil, cruel, smart, ruthless, petty, merciless and bloodthirsty.
If you had low levels then Titus would kill you and leave his infamous line: "There's no place for the weak in the world of the strong!" and only high levelled and skilled players could party up with him.
"Thanks for the advice. I'll make sure to stay as far away from him as possible. Then I'm out, tell father and mom that I went to the mall to buy a gamepod and other stuff.