Chapter 9 - Golden Boss

"Good morning, Mr. Allan. "

" Morning, Rachel. "

" Are you hungry, Sir? "

" No, thanks. I ate in the office. I will just go online without eating anything. So don't bother with preparing anything. "

" I understand. May you have fun."

"Thanks." He said with a smile and went directly his room. Today was the day that his ban was over.

James Allan was one of the richest people in the world. He owned many companies in many fields. Petrol, clothing, automotive, communications etc. He had also the biggest bank in the world, World Money Bank. He would investigate in many fields he was interested in. And his latest interest was gaming industry. He had played many MMORPGs and he was always a top player. Since he had money, he could buy best items and VIP memberships. So he had gotten bored from them as well. Until he heard about the first VRMMORPG, Royal Blood Online, being launched. He wanted to invest money and get a partnership in the company. However he was rejected politely even though he insisted quite much. He was quite pissed off at first. It was his first time he was unable to get what he wanted. However he wasn’t the type of person who would hold a grudge for something like that. Actually he was quite amused. It was too boring always to get what he wanted. That’s why he had given up on getting an partnership. However he was definitely planning to play it. He had even preordered the game unit.

James Allan had started to play it next day after it was launched due to some real life issues. At first it was just curiosity however he had become addicted after a few hours. He had started to play it in Realistic Mode since he wanted to test its realism. And it had blown his mind. He had fallen in love with the extreme realism. However there was a very big problem with it. And he had suffered it at the first hand when he died for the first time on his first day. His character had been deleted and he was banned for 3 days!!

He had immediately searched information on the net. However there was no information about the character being deleted if it were to die. All he could find that the character level would decrease and you would be banned for 24 hours. It wasn't making any sense. Why was his character deleted? Was it a bug? He kept thinking for a while and a theory flashed through his mind.

'What if it was because I was playing in Realistic Mode? In the description it was written as "you will experience everything no different than reality". So when you die, you die for good, huh? That would make sense. Since you would feel the pain to the maximum, I doubt many people would select it. And even among the few who selected it, I might be the first one who died. That's why all I could find was about Ideal Mode which the majority had selected. I need to test this. '

When his ban was over, he created a new character in Ideal Mode and connected the game. However it was weird this time. He had felt so dull and awkward. While he was playing in Realistic Mode, he hadn't felt that way. He had felt so natural that he had forgotten this was a game. He was able to walk and move easily. He had taken some self defense classes and he would go to a gym occasionally so he had an athletic body which helped on dodging monster attacks. However now he wasn't even able to walk properly.

'What the hell? I can't even walk properly. How am I supposed to play like this? ' He was quite disappointed. He started to practice to adjust to the game mechanics. Few hours later he was finally able to walk and move properly. However he still had to concentrate on his movements. It was quite hard to move unlike in Realistic Mode.

'Now I can at least move. I need to test my theory first.' His game ID was Golden Boss. He was a 45 years-old man with golden straight hairs, brown eyes and an average face. His body was quite well built and his height was around 185 cm. He hadn’t changed his appearance. He had no problem with it after all.

His starting city was Semerkant. He had selected Viyan before but he wanted to change it to see how other starting cities were.Well, it was not quite different from Viyan. It was a wreck city just like Viyan. He was a little disappointed.

He left from South gate since it was the closest one to the main street where he spawned for the first time he connected. He went into the woods, found a Wild Rabbit flock and attacked them. He could somehow dodge their attacks while he was playing in Realistic Mode however it was impossible for him now. His self defense techniques or athletic body were useless. He was limited by his stats and skills. He was dead in less than a minute. Since he was level 1, he wouldn't lose a level. At least that was what he thought.

+You are dead. Since you are level 1, your level couldn't be decreased. That's why when you reached level 2, your level will be decreased. You are banned for 24 hours.

+Forced log off in 5.

+4.

+3.

+2.

+1.

He could see the Wild Rabbits turning back to their spot. When countdown reached to 0, everything went blank and he got out of the game unit. He was quite frustrated because his level would be decreased when he reached to level 2. However he could test his theory and he was right. He felt relieved and frustrated at the same time.

'Damn it! That's so unfair. If you wanted to play it as realistic as possible, your character would be deleted when you are dead. And if you didn't want your character to be deleted, you would have to sacrifice the realism of the game. I want both!'

"Aauughhhh! I wish I had the company. I could play it without a fear to lose my character! " He cried in frustration.

" Moreover now I can't play in Realistic Mode, even if I wanted. There is no delete option when you selected Ideal Mode. Damn it. " He had become more frustrated. He wanted to give up on playing it. However it was too late now. He was already an addict.

The next day he had eaten a sandwich in the office so that he can skip dinner at home and go online as soon as possible. He went directly to his room and connected the game. He had informed his employees he wouldn’t come to office daily and he would work at home. He was the boss after all. He could do anything he wanted.

He woke up in a temple lying on a flat rectangle stone. Temple was no different from the houses in the city. It’s a wreck building with broken chairs and tables scattered all around the floor. The graffitis on the walls had fallen off to the ground. There was no one in the building except for him. He got up from the stone and left the temple.

He headed to the main street. There was no way he could grind level by himself even though he was a Warrior since he was playing in Ideal Mode now. He was restricted by his stats and skills unlike Realistic Mode. In Realistic Mode his stats and skills were only supports. They weren't really determining his power. But it was a different story for Ideal Mode. He wouldn't be able to exceed his stats and skill levels. He could only control them which was quite hard compared to Realistic Mode.

In the main street he saw a small party consist of 4 players. A male Mage, a female Ranger, a female Cleric and a male Assassin. It was a quite balanced party. They were looking for a Warrior. He approached them and asked to join the party. They accepted him with open arms since all of them were level 1 novice players. Leader of the party was the female Ranger. She had dark, slightly curly hairs, dark eyes, a slightly tanned skin with a cute face. Her height was about 165 cm and she had a nice body. Especially her breasts were quite huge for her body. However she looked quite young around early 20s.

"Welcome to the party. My name is Gizem. Since you joined the party, we can go hunting immediately. Is that okay with you? " The female Ranger said with a smile on her face.

" Sure. Let's go." Golden Boss answered while checking other party members. However they weren't very friendly unlike Gizem so they headed to the south gate without saying any words. Golden Boss didn't mind it either. Probably they would go different ways once they gained some levels and never see each other again. So there were no need to become friend with them. Although having allies in the game was a good thing, it was too early for that. They were all level 1. You wouldn't guess who will be a strong ally and who will not now after all.

They found an empty spot of Wild Rabbits in around 15 minutes. And they started to grind. Golden Boss was tanking by attracting the hatred of the Wild Rabbits while Mage and Ranger was attacking with long ranged attacks from far away. Assassin would attack when he would find a chance. And Cleric would heal Golden Boss. It was a quite basic and simple grinding method.

Royal Blood Online had a very cruel party system. The experience was shared equally even if only one player attacked and landed the fatal blow. There was no profit for that. And on the top of that there were no party experience bonus either. The only reason why people were forming parties was because it was quite unlikely to grind level alone under the normal circumstances.

After 8 days of constant grinding, most of the party members had reached level 5 except for Golden Boss. He would have reached level 5 if it weren't for the ban he got for dying while he was still level 1 in order to test his theory. His level had dropped to level 1 again when he had reached level 2. So right now he was level 4. Mage, Cleric and Assassin had left their parties after they reached level 5. So only Golden Boss and Gizem had left.

“We should find party members.” Gizem said with a worried tone.

“Yeah. If we had a Cleric, we could grind easily.”

“Shall we go back to the city and try to recruit one?”

“Okay, let’s go then.”

They went back to the city and tried to find a Cleric for their party. However even after 2 hours, they couldn’t find anyone let alone a Cleric. Golden Boss was quite bored of that.

“Well, we have no luck here. Let’s go back to the woods. Maybe we can find a party to join there.” Golden Boss suggested since he couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Y-Yeah…” Gizem nodded with a hesitant voice.

They went back to the woods again in order to find a party. However they had no luck. You could form a party with max 10 people in Royal Blood Online. However due to the cruel party system, parties were usual formed with 4 or 5 people at maximum. And all of the parties were full with 4 or 5 people. So nobody was accepting them. They had been searching for a party for about 2 hours now. And they had gone into quite deep in the woods until they had seen a party with three people. A ray of hope had appeared in their eyes. However it had immediately disappeared when they had seen the monsters they were hunting and their equipments.

They were hunting Savage Bears and their equipments were emitting a light green aura. They were high level players with high level equipments. There was no way they would accept them to their parties. Golden Boss had recognized their equipments. They were limited edition Excellent items he had failed to buy because he had no character since his account was banned. These items were being directly delivered to the character ID. In other words you had to have a character in the game in order to buy them. Since they were limited editions, reservation option did not exist as well. He had felt quite frustrated however there were nothing he could do.

"Let's give up. There is no way they would accept us to their party. Let's go back and continue searching a party." Golden Boss said with a frustrated voice.

"Okay." Gizem nodded with a disappointed face. However just when they were about to leave, a female Cleric approached to the party. So out of curiosity they decided to watch. Cleric and party talked something for a while and she tried to leave. However the man with golden hair was pissed off for some reason and he started to shout with a angry voice and didn’t let her go. And suddenly the man with golden hairs punched her. Poor Cleric was blown away 5 meters back and stayed immobile for a while. Golden Boss couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to go help her. However he was stopped by Gizem.

“Stop. What can you do even if you go? They are far stronger than you. You will only suffer the same way with that poor Cleric. That’s all.”

“However I can’t stand watching this. Does he even call himself a man? Bullying a weak girl. I need to do something.” Golden Boss said with a furious voice. Meanwhile the man with golden hairs had started to approach Cleric. He was probably planning to hit her again. Golden Boss was out of patience now and had started to run towards him. However he was quite far away from them. He wouldn’t be able to make it in time. While he was running in these thoughts, he heard a voice.

“Hey, what are you doing there?!”

He was a teenager around late 10s with dark brown straight hairs, hazel eyes, a lightly tanned skin and a cute face. He had a well-built body with around 175 cm height. And he was standing at back of the man with golden hairs. Golden Boss had slowed down when he saw the boy. However he kept approaching them. Now he could hear them somehow. The man with golden hairs turned to the boy and spoke.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I should ask this question. Who the hell are you bullying a weak girl? Do you even call yourself a man?” The boy said with an angry tone.

“Hmp. Another peasant appeared. Get lost. Otherwise you will have the same fate.” The man with golden hairs said with a little irritated tone.

“I’d like you to try that.” The boy answered with an intimidated tone. He didn’t look quite strong. However he looked quite confident.

“What did you say?! Do you know who I am?!” The man with golden hairs shouted with an angry voice.

“Very well. If you want to suffer so much, it can’t be helped. However I won’t forgive you even if you beg me later.” The man with golden hairs was calm now and he had started to approach him with a confident look. Meanwhile Golden Boss had gotten quite close to them now. He was only 20 meters away from them. However he stopped getting closer. He had gotten quite curious. The boy looked quite confident even though he didn’t seem to be strong. He had Chain Guardian set on him. That was a level 5 beginner set that was sold in the city. He had checked them and bought one. However because of the level requirement, he couldn’t wear them yet. Anyway he wanted to see what he is gonna do against a high level player.

“You stupid peasant, you will regret big time for this. You don’t seem to know who I am. So I will tell you. My name is The Prince. I am the top player in the weekly rankings so far. But don’t worry. I will not kill immediately. I will beat you up until you beg me to kill you. Then I will kill you.” The man with golden hairs said with an arrogant attitude. His name was The Prince. Golden Boss had checked the rankings before so he knew this ID. It was the only level 15 player in the game. The second place belonged to Deadly Beauty, a female Mage with level 14 and third place belonged to Keskin, a male Ranger with level 14.

‘The Mage and Ranger who are hunting there must be Deadly Beauty and Keskin.’ Golden Boss thought with wary expression on his face.

The Prince had sheathed his sword and started to attack the boy with his punches. However surprisingly he couldn’t connect any of them. The boy was dodging his punches quite easily. The boy had a malicious smile on his face while doing it. It was as if he was playing with the top player. It was as if the one in danger was not the boy but The Prince. Golden Boss was bewildered. However he could figure it out and could make sense out of it after a little while. He must be an martial artist playing in Realistic Mode! There was no other way to explain what was going here. After he figured it out, he had started to watch it more curiously.

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Author Note: I wanted to make something clear in case you would be confused. The time concept I am talking about in my story wasn't always the real time. 1 day in the real world is equal to 4 days in Royal Blood Online. For example when I say "They were grinding for 8 days, or 2 hours" it is "game-time" which is equal to 2 days and 30 minutes. And when I say "it has been 3 days" while they were not connected the game, it means it is in real time.

Anyway I hope you enjoy it. And if you enjoy it, you can support me by rating, following or commenting. I am open the criticisms. I know I am lacking on many fields however I want to improve myself. So feel free to comment. Have fun.

Royal Blood Online