Chương 59: Summer Phantom is Back (Bad Nickname)

"What did I miss? Also, aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"Yes, dad!" Josh playfully answered making Dario wince. He then followed him to his office, leaving a stunned Joe behind.

"So, did you already finish analyzing their teachings? What's your conclusion"

"It works well as a basic introduction to the Tower. Basic combat practice, learning a specific role to easily find a party, learning some knowledge about the Floors, a very complete foundation really."

"I sense a but coming."

"It's really basic. There is no way they'll nurture a ranker like that. If one appears it will simply be a coincidence. So, decent as a basic education but limiting the potential of their students."

"Oh? How would you go about training future rankers then?"

"Easy, really. You find the students' breaking point and you drive them all the way to it. Over and over and over. They need to learn to face danger and unexpected situations, not the goddamn guidebook of the Tower!"

"Haha, gotcha. So people that want an especially bright future should stay away from it. Anything else?"

"Oh yeah, there was an imbecile saying Solo Climbing to Floor 10 is impossible. He was a teacher to boot!"

"So, a stern warning about their teaching staff?"

"Yep, that's about it. Ah, right, Dario. Can you run a background check on an Amelia? Her surname should start with J. She's followed around by a team of 5 Climbers that seem to have received formal military training."

"Sure, I can arrange that. But why? Did she catch your eye haha?"

"Oh, nothing much. Her father owes me 100 000 credits."

"You call that nothing much?! Aren't you around level 10 or something?! That's already enough to buy two D+ Items, aka the stuff that only Rankers can wear! How does he owe you so much?!"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm sure you can follow the trace of these military guys. Right, do we even have a military at Metropolis C?"

"Well, there's the guys in charge of the civilian, there is the Black Squad, and other than that there is an alliance between Metropolis C-D-E with a common army that we use for common threats. Since the apparition of the Tower, they've been Climbing full time at Metropolis D."

"So you're telling me this army wasn't even mobilized for the Disaster Zone?"

"Well, their specialty lies in their marksmanship. They are way weaker in the Tower or in an instance. Let's just say many guilds volunteered, calling dibs on the opportunity, and when none came back…"

"These soldiers are too costly to train so they preferred sending us to die?"

"Exactly haha. It did prove an effective strategy too."

Josh couldn't help but agree on that one. Now, there was one thing he needed to figure out. There was that one Floor 11 that was proving troublesome, more accurately the bonus mission at the end. If killing all the rats Solo was a way to accomplish a Feat, Josh wouldn't skip it no matter what. He was sure that it wouldn't be available anymore should he level up, by definition.

"Dario, I need a way to train my reflexes. I need to learn how to defend a small area against a rising number of enemies. I need it to be an entire sea of enemies."

"Wait…are you talking about the rats on Floor 11?! Wait you not only reached Floor 10 but cleared it too?! Solo?! How?!"

"Isn't that one obvious? I killed the Boss, duh. So, any suggestion?"

"You…Well, as much as it pains me to say I know just the perfect thing." Dario's face showed reluctance.

"Spit it out!"

"*Sigh* You can head to <Phantom> for that. I'm sure they have some silly game for it."

"Thanks, Dario! You are the best dad! Later!" Josh simply left a sighing guild master behind. How horrible must it be for him to send his own people to a competitor? Well, who cared.

<Phantom> was actually located a few streets away from Draconic's awesome Dragon building. As soon as Josh saw it, he felt his blood boiling. The entire building exterior was made of one giant screen that showed many cool game-intro cinematics, one after the other.

All over were also various holograms that invitingly waved at the passerby. They were clearly characters from some of the popular game franchises! Josh simply stood there in utter wonder, gawking at it all.

He had once been a gamer, a pretty good one too, back when Josh was still a student. He wasn't especially skilled or talented, but he was hardworking.

Every summer vacation, there would be a small time frame devoid of any schoolwork. He would fill that time with gaming and reading. He had redacted many game guides so in-depth that people thought it had been leaked from the game developers themselves.

Josh would somehow stumble upon exploits, weird bugs, and peculiar clear methods apparently by chance. Fact is, he simply took actions that most players disregarded when playing.

Since Josh would be active every summer and remain dead for the rest of the year, he had been dubbed the Summer Phantom. The one that haunted games, but only in summer. Now here he was facing the Phantom guild haha. Life sure took unexpected twists at times.

Josh slowly approached one of the holographic characters and curiously passed his hand through the body of the bunny girl. It seemed so real but there was no sensory feedback. How awesome!

It was to be expected from the company that had created the VR technology in the first place. Came a voice from a stranger.

"How long are you going to stand in the way, dumbass?" the angry man was young and wore what Josh assumed to be branded clothes. In fact, there was a stupid orange logo on them. The man's appearance…didn't matter one bit for he was clearly an extra.

As Josh sidestepped, the man scoffed while swaggering inside the building. Under his breath, he even murmured "Country bumpkins shouldn't come to such a place."

Josh naturally, simply headed inside too. Sure, he was peeved about the asshole, but he was still in wonder mode with his eyes shining everywhere with rapt attention. As he entered, an entirely new world unveiled in front of his eyes.

If it had to be described in one word, it would be…RGB! There was color everywhere! It followed an arcade-style where an epileptic was bound to perish simply from entering. So many colors of all kinds, flashing and flashy ones!

Josh quickly saw something interesting. At the entrance were holographic screens hovering in mid-air. People could somehow interact with one to buy Phantom Credits, see a list of all games, and quite possibly a lot more.

Josh browsed it but quickly gave up. They pretty much had everything. For example, they had:

-Fighting games

-Shooting games

-MOBAS

-Stealth games

-Horror games

-Tower defense games

-Racing games

- …..Plus many and many others.

It didn't help either that every category had dozens of available games, some clearly being variations of one another. Sometimes there was even the same exact game with different age ratings. One even read: Getting chased around by a Big Vampire Lady, PG13 version, 16+ version, R18 version….

This was a whole new experience for Josh, he needed help. Thus he went on a journey toward a counter with an employee lazily reading some post about the Tower while sighing.

"Hey, there! Can you assist me in finding a game?" The man didn't even raise his head.

"For a newcomer, I suggest either of these two:

- Falling guys, you control a little guy in a nonsensical race.

- Dance Dance Resolution, a cool rhythm game where you literally do nothing but step on flashing color squares following the beat."

"Actually, no. I'm looking for some VR game to practice my reflexes. Hopefully, something where one needs to remain in one spot killing as many enemies as possible. Of course, said enemies would be infinite."

He finally looked up. "In such a case you …wait…aren't you that guy that killed Myth Busting?!"

"Eh, no? I think they did try to debunk something I said. However, that's still totally their own fault"!

"*Sigh* Yes, I know. I'm just hella sad about it. Bummer. Ah, anyway I think I know what you need. Follow me." A few seconds later. "There it is, alright get Phantom Credits and good luck!"

In front of Josh was a machine with a small helmet. Ah, this was probably the original version of the capsules he had been seeing so far. It pretty much looked similar to that one show about youngsters getting trapped in a VR game.

The machine it was attached to could read <Super Wack-A-Gobbo>. There were actually 6 of these. On each was a drawing of a stick hitting a bunch of goblins. Josh quickly placed the helmet on his head.

That is when his vision went dark and a whole new dimension appeared before his eyes. Draconic had nothing on this! This was so damn cool and...