It had been a week since Marko's application into the Claw guild was accepted and 2 days since he went for his first guild dungeon run.
The dungeon had been a C rank and the complexities and fast thinking which Marko found himself having to employ despite having much stronger teammates left him fatigued and near breaking point.
Waving it off as him just being a newbie, the guild leader had given him a 3-day break and after lounging in the house for 2 days, on the third day Marko decided to play around a little and his chosen playground, was Zen online.
Going to his game room, he had placed himself into his game pod, letting the green synthetic amniotic waters it pumped flood his body and then he embraced the darkness.
Within his lobby, an ambient room with incest burning to one side and soft cushions and pillows placed on the other, he had pondered what option to select on the screen that had appeared in front of him and remaining firm on his desire to just have fun he selected,
[Unranked match]
[Random opponent]
In Zen online, there were different categories of matches, there was the B rank matches which were participated in only by licensed B rank hunters, the C rank match, the D rank match, the E rank match following the same order and then the unranked match.
Most people complained that there was no difference between the E rank matches and the unranked matches but for someone like him who was more knowledgeable he knew that there was a difference and it came in the presence and absence of Aether.
E rank fighters had their Aether unlocked and actively running through them, while Unranked fighters either had no Aether or it was jus stagnant, a bundle of energy resting in theory core unable to be used.
Awakening one's system didn't mean that one could now use Aethe. No, they still had to learn to draw on it and circulate it through their body, because it was only then that the game pods would recognize and categorize them as E rank.
If the game pod prodded you and couldn't find Aether in your body, you would be recognized as unranked and stuffed with the civil fathers, mothers, and underage of the world who just came to the game out of curiosity or boredom.
The unranked category was for the general public, the above ranks were where the ambitious ones operated.
Though Marko looked down on this rank, he remembered the far back days when he used to be here and couldn't help but think that he should give back to the community.
"I shouldn't forget my roots"
[Opponent selected]
["Grind bomb( C) vs Crusher2Q3(unranked)]
[lower ranked opponent chooses battle ground]
"A walk in the park"
Grindbomb was Marko's username on Zen online and when he had faced his opponent, a boy with the body of a wrestler and wielding a giant axe he decided to educate him as he beat him up, his lesson not just for the apparent boy he was facing but also the few dozen spectators the unevenness of his match had attracted.
Refusing to get out of the way as his opponent jumped into the air looking to slam his hammer down on him, Mark delivered a slap to the dropping hammer sending it and it wield who clung tight to it flying to the side.
"Game skins are just that, skins, they don't do anything to your body weight or strength. You said you are just 14 yet you fight me like you were an actual strong man."
Seeing some spectators nodding their head from the corner of his eyes, Marko felt a satisfaction within himself loving that though he was still a rookie back in his guild and even in the C rank sector of the game here he was revered as a master.
Sometime during his tutorship of the eager boy. Marko noticed that rather than his spectator getting tired and leaving they were instead increasing and then at a point he had to stop when he noticed that his dozen spectators was turning to numerous spectators.
"What is happening" Marko asked himself stopping and paying attention to the crowd and then following the multiple gazes, his eyes landed on a player who was quietly sitting at the front of the spectators stand.
Marko focused on the name floating above this spectator's head and immediately his mind read the name he was taken back to the past a title ringing through his head.
"King of the unranked"
"What is wrong master, who is that guy" his opponent who had already taken him to be his teacher asked.
Marko wanted to curse the boy for being ignorant but then he remembered that he was just 14 years old, and with Zen online being only for those 12 and beyond was probably not active when the king of unranked was rampaging in the arena.
Though Marko felt like brushing off the infamous exitance and telling the young boy that it was nothing, considering a fighter famous among unranked player was trash in his eyes, his heart tightened as at a time, teddy-blood had been his greatest inspiration.
"As you can see his name is teddy-blood, back in the eyes he was a famous fighter, but then about two years ago he disappeared and was never heard from till now."
"You said he was famous fighter, does that mean he is really strong" The boy asked already having stars in his eyes this, making a bad contrast with the big macho body he had chosen as his game avatar.
"Yes, among the unranked he was really strong, he had the moniker king of the undead and was iconic for going 99 fights without a defeat."
"Woah, 99 fights," The kid exclaimed but then his face scrunched up." But doesn't that mean that he was one fight away from being allowed to engage in E-rank matches"
"Yes"