Isaac trudged along the snowy streets while the two bodyguards followed closely behind him. They remained alert and eyed all of the passersby with suspicion.
The group walked by a few stores with screens showing the headlines from the day's News.
After finding a window with fewer people around, he stopped in front of the screen. As he watched, a few others stopped beside him to watch the News.
A female news anchor stood on the screen, pointing at a chart that was displayed behind her.
"Yesterday's release of the newest VRMMORPG, White Online, was a major success! An unprecedented 500 million copies of White Online have been sold, and that number is rising swiftly!
There is a high chance that the sales of this game will break over 1 billion within the week! This is completely unheard of!"
"Young master, is this the same game that you purchased?" Michael asked curiously.
Isaac nodded, "It is. I don't find it strange that White Online has become so popular so quickly... It's almost like a second world. Who wouldn't want to explore it?"
Their attention drifted back to the screen as the News Anchor changed her tone.
"There have also been a rise in complaints about this so-called wondrous game! If you die below level 6, your account is terminated entirely!
If this happens, you're required to buy a new VR system just to start again! Most believe that this is a ploy by the Legacy Company to milk more money from the players!
Today, we will hopefully have some answers! We have the honor to have the president of the Legacy Company with us today for a short interview!"
The camera panned out and showed a ruffled man scowling next to the reporter. He hadn't even bothered taking the seat that had been assigned to him.
"Arthur! What do you have to say about these alleged claims?" The reporter asked as respectfully as possible.
The man rubbed his temples, "It's simple, but these morons don't seem to understand. Everyone will realize this in the future.
If you can't survive to level 6, you're too weak. You don't belong there. The world of White Online doesn't need weaklings."
Arthur didn't say another word. He spun around and stomped out of the view of the camera.
The News Anchor looked slightly awkward as she spoke, "Those... Um... Those, viewers, were words straight from the Legacy Company's president. In other news..."
Isaac chuckled at the flustered woman, "What an intelligent individual..."
"Young master? What do you mean?" Michael asked. "Looks to me like the game will lose a large following from that."
"Not quite," Isaac laughed. "You losers who can't even make it to level 6 don't deserve to play this game!"
He turned his head to Michael, "That's how the players will hear his message. Those words will only motivate the players to prove him wrong."
"You mean..." Michael widened his eyes.
Isaac nodded, "The ones who have already died will rush to buy another one."
"Those aren't cheap," Michael scoffed.
Isaac shrugged, "They aren't cheap, but they aren't super expensive either. Most people's pride won't stand for being called a weakling like that."
Michael and Richard looked at each other thoughtfully.
"I think the game will pass a billion sales in less than three days," Isaac laughed, turning to walk down the street again.
The two men stirred from their stupor and chased after Isaac. The group peacefully walked the streets until they reached the gates of their neighborhood an hour later.
The guards didn't even look up, only opening the gates and remaining silent.
Isaac quickly made his way into the mansion. Michael and Richard bowed to the young master before heading to take care of other matters.
Isaac tossed his jacket on the hanger and set his shoes neatly to the side.
"Isaac?" Isabella's head peeked around the corner.
"Hey, mom," Isaac smiled.
Isabella raised her eyes, "You went out for another walk?"
"Michael and Richard were with me," Isaac nodded.
Isabella sighed in relief, "Good. Are you going to play your game now? It'll be a few hours before dinner is ready."
"I suppose," Isaac shrugged. He gave his mom a hug as he passed and made his way up the stairs.
Once he was in his room, he turned on his laptop, "Let's take a look at the other player's progress."
He went straight to the most popular streaming platform of the time, StreamKing. Isaac was shocked to find that a few top streamers currently had over a million viewers!
Scrolling down, he soon saw the name of his favorite streamer, Underlord. Underlord's current views were at a whopping 631,000!
Isaac clicked on the stream.
Underlord was walking through the streets. Isaac quickly noted that the man was no longer in the newbie village.
Underlord opened up a map, showing it to the viewers. He was currently in the starting city of Stronglord, which was located in the South Continent.
He zoomed the map out, showing that there were five continents. Currently, they were simply known as North, South, East, West, and Central.
Each of the continents held their own starting city, and the players learned that the continent you spawned in after leaving the newbie village wasn't random!
In Isaac's world, there were four continents. Winterland, Autumnland, Summerland, and Springland.
The starting city you were spawned in was determined by the continent in which you lived. Underlord had spawned in the southern continent, showing that he was actually from Winterland!
The man zoomed back in on the map, showing that Stronglord City was massive! It spanned just over 10 kilometers, which was somewhat impressive for the aged architecture the game was based on.
The city was surrounded by an equally gigantic rock wall, which reached just over 50 meters! The architecture wasn't as old as the villages, either.
The city's architecture was designed in a style similar to that of the 19th Century. There were proper roads, which were much nicer than the dirt roads of the newbie village.
The city was large enough to hold hundreds of thousands of players and NPCs.
The city was built on an enormous mountain! The wall ran around the base of the mountain, and the buildings became more elegant the further one traveled up!
At the mountain's peak was a grand palace that stood majestically over all of the buildings below it! This was the Royal Palace of the Stronglord Empire.
While Isaac was admiring the city, Underlord revealed his status screen...
[Name: Underlord]
[Level: 13]
[HP: ???/???]
[XP: 1560/2500]
[SP: 0]
[White Coins: 13945]
[Title: None]
[Class: Dark Priest]
[Legacy: None]
[Legacy Rank: No Legacy]
[STR: ???]
[AGI: ???]
[VIT: ???]
[STA: ???]
[DAR: ???]
[CHA: ???]
[Desperate Prayer: ???]
[Legacy Quest: ???]
[Map]
[Inventory]
[Help]
[Log Out]
Isaac's mouth hung agape.
''Waahh... He is indeed pro,'' Isaac was dumbfounded.
''He has hidden his Quest's description as well... I guess that's smart... No one will be able to use that knowledge to their advantage, I guess...''
''He has a skill already... That is amazing,'' Isaac was genuinely amazed. He was sure that Underlord wasn't the best player, but he was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining ones.
"But if he is already level 13... How high are the top players?" Isaac wondered, realizing that he was far behind the curve.
''Was he Beta Tester as well...?'' Isaac mulled over that thought as he closed the laptop and stood up.
He grabbed the headset from his wardrobe and made himself comfortable on the bed.
As he lay down, he donned the headset and ventured off into another world.
[Connecting...]
Isaac opened his eyes and found himself standing in the streets.
To be more precise, he was standing at the spot where he had logged off.
He also noticed that the players had better gear than previously.
Most of them weren't wearing the same newbie gear as Isaac was, instead they were already wearing leather armor.
Some even had pieces of Iron armor equipped.
Isaac decided to go check out the Armory again and see if he could buy a few pieces of armor, depending on how much it cost.
He walked through the streets and arrived at the shabby-looking building whose interior was much better than its outside.
And when he was just about to enter the building, he was interrupted by someone.
"Hey, girl! How did you manage to wear male clothes?" Isaac turned his head and saw a group of three girls wearing Leather armor.
Despite the armor though, their excellent figures couldn't be hidden. Males and females had a slight difference in the newbie outfits, with the Male having a white shirt and leather pants and females having a long-sleeved shirt with leather pants. The only difference was the fact that their pants were slightly shorter than males.
The group of three was looking at Issac with curiosity. His skin looked flawless, which made them a bit jealous.
Isaac rubbed his cheek and said, "I am a guy..."
"WHAT?!" The three girls exclaimed.
'I don't look like a girl...' Isaac almost cried imaginary tears, but then saw his reflection in the window.
'My skin looks smooth and my eyebrows look delicate... but that's all...' Isaac thought. 'Maybe I should build more muscle...?' he wondered.
"Y-You are a guy?" The group of girls couldn't believe it.
"Yep!" Isaac said.
"Wow..." The group of girls looked fascinated— their cheeks blushing pink.
"Nice talking with you. Now if you can excuse me," Isaac said and entered the building.
"W-Wait!" The group of girls followed behind him not wanting to let go of that quick.
Inside Isaac once again saw the grumpy-looking seller.
But he didn't go to him directly instead, he looked at the items on the walls.
There he found the price of leather armor quickly.
[Full Leather Armor - Cost: 300 White Coins]
"Not that expensive…" Isaac murmured and went towards Iron items.
[Full Iron Armor - Cost: 800 White Coins]
Isaac gazed at the heavy-looking armor.
'It doesn't seem like a fit for me... Not flexible enough... But the Leather Armor is good...' Isaac observed the leather armor, which was obviously more expensive.
Isaac then went to the leather armor and grabbed it before going to the grumpy-looking old man and putting the armor on the desk.
"I want to buy this and 100 Flintlock bullets."
The grumpy-looking old man snorted, "310 White Coins!"
Isaac nodded and put the appropriate amount of coins on the table.
The grumpy-looking old man grabbed the coins and waved his hand, "Get lost."
Isaac put the armor in the Inventory and the bullets in his pouch. He turned around and headed toward the group of girls who were waiting for him.
"H-Hey." The first girl said with a slight blush.
She had short blond hair with beautiful blue eyes. The armor slightly covered her figure, but her beautiful face was still a magnet for guys.
"Yeah?" Isaac raised an eyebrow, 'Why are they waiting for me?' he wondered.
"C-Can you accept my friend request?" She asked with hope.
'Friend request? There was something like that?' Isaac didn't know, and he became rather curious.
He nodded in agreement, "Sure."
The blond girl clumsily pressed something in the air, and a message popped in front of him in the next moment.
[Friend Request Received!]
[Player Hellsky has sent you a Friend Request!]
[Accept/Reject]
Isaac pressed Accept.
[Player Hellsky is now on your Friend List!]
[Hellsky: Level 8]
"Me too!" Two other girls shouted loudly not wanting to be left.
In the next moment, Isaac had another two players on his friend list.
[WinterLove: Level 8]
[SnowMaiden: Level 8]
"Thank you!" Hellsky bowed deeply.
"No problem?" Isaac said with a strange tone before leaving the building
But just as he had started walking in the streets, he heard their loud shouts "See you later!"
'Weird girls.' Isaac thought with a slight smile.
He soon reached a bench and sat down wanting to check out where the friend list was located
"Hmm... Interface." Isaac murmured, not finding it immediately.
[Name: Wraith]
[Level: 5]
[HP: 50/50]
[XP: 100/400]
[SP: 10]
[White Coins: 200]
[Title: None]
[Class: Marksman]
[Legacy: None]
[Legacy Rank: No Legacy]
[STR: 13]
[AGI: 25]
[VIT: 25]
[STA: 22]
[PRE: 35]
[CHA: 10]
[Map]
[Inventory]
[Help]
[Friend List]
[Log Out]
"Oh..." Isaac thought it was weird for the Friend List to suddenly appear.
He wondered how could he send a friend request without the Friend List and how had the three girls manage to do that.
"Strange..." He muttered, but then he saw him having 10 stat points.
"Ah... Let's see." Isaac put all the stat points in Precision.
He was planning to test the Precision's absolute limit and hopefully prove King Klaus wrong.
[Name: Wraith]
[Level: 5]
[HP: 50/50]
[XP: 100/400]
[SP: 0]
[White Coins: 200]
[Title: None]
[Class: Marksman]
[Legacy: None]
[Legacy Rank: No Legacy]
[STR: 13]
[AGI: 25]
[VIT: 25]
[STA: 22]
[PRE: 45]
[CHA: 10]
[Map]
[Inventory]
[Help]
[Friend List]
[Log Out]
Isaac then opened his Inventory and grabbed the Leather armor.
[Leather Armor (Common) - HP Increase by 10 Points]
He wore the leather armor and looked like a more experienced player.
"10 Points increase..." Isaac muttered and glanced at his HP.
[HP: 60/60 - Leather Armor Effect]
"That's nice... But I don't wanna buy the Iron armor... Is there a better armor perhaps..?" Isaac shrugged and decided to throw those thoughts away for now.
"I need to level up..." Isaac stood up and left the village.
He reached the familiar-looking forest, that had fewer players than before. But then he heard fighting noises coming from the forest. They sounded a bit distant to him though.
"This will be difficult..." Isaac thought aloud.
Players' levels had been increasing greatly, and most of them were already good enough to defeat Level 5 and Level 6 wild animals.
"Should I player kill?" Isaac decided to enter the forest first and decide there.
Most of the players had grouped up with their friends or their newfound allies.
'Killing is almost impossible. After all, I can't kill whole parties. Additionally, I might become a target for player killing because I am alone…' Isaac wasn't sure what to do, but he sneakily entered deeper into the forest encountering a lonely-looking Wild Bear.
[Omega Wild Bear]
[Level 8]
[HP: 70/70]
Isaac took his Flintlock from the Inventory and aimed at the Wild Boar. But then… he heard a noise.
He quickly hid behind a tree peeking towards the other side of the forest.There he saw three different individuals sneaking closer to the Wild Bear, trying to take it down with a sneak attack.
'This will be difficult...' Isaac thought while eyeing the three figures.
But If he plays this right he just might get a lot of XP…