Chapter 10 - Dreams and Reality

“Hello, Miss Yurdakul. My name is Faruk Ozan. How are you?” The man with 1.85 cm height and quite athletic body said with a smiling face. He had short, straight, brown hairs, a short brown moustache, brown eyes and a handsome face.

“Hello, I am fine. Thank you. And you?” Gizem Yurdakul said with an uneasy voice. She was quite nervous.

“I am fine too. Thank you. I will be conducting your interview. It says you were graduated from Istanbul Kent University of Faculty of Journalism and Public Relations in your CV.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Okay. Now I will get straight to the point. As you know, the first VRMMORPG, Royal Blood Online, was launched a few days ago. There has been a huge uproar all around the world and it seems that it will be the new trend in the world. So as the TDT Media, we decided to form a new unit focusing on Royal Blood Online. However even though we predict it will be the new trend, it is still too early to invest a huge amount money on this. So we decided to form this new unit from freelancers. Of course in the future when it really became the trend, we will hire the successful freelancers who brought us scoops about Royal Blood Online as the full-time employees. And you are one of them. You have a quite good CV with no experience. So this will be a good experience for you even if you aren’t hired. We will provide you the game unit so don’t worry about it. However we won’t pay you any money unless you bring us something. You can come and go anytime you want. However we expect you to bring at least a scoop in a month. And if you don’t, we will stop working with you. Would you like to do work as a freelancer for us?” Faruk Ozan said with a very serious face.

“Yes.” Her answer was quite short since she couldn’t calm down her nervousness. She had many interviews after her graduation. However all of them had said “We will call you.” and never called back. So she was quite desperate for a job. Even if she won’t have a stable monthly salary. However she had a chance now if she works hard and produce good results in this freelance job.

She had always wanted to be a good journalist. That was her dream. She was so happy when she was accepted to the Istanbul Kent University of Faculty of Journalism and Public Relations. She was gonna be graduated from there and start to work as a journalist right after that. However reality was not so gentle. It was quite hard to find a job in Turkey unless you have someone with influence in some certain places. And she didn’t have anyone like that. So it has been a year already since she was graduated. On the top of that she had lost his father last month. Her mother had a pension however it was barely enough for the food expenses and bills. So she had to find a job as soon as possible. That’s why she accepted the job without thinking.

“Good. You can start immediately, right?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, follow me then.” Faruk Ozan led Gizem to a very large room at the basement with 50 or more game units in it. Actually it was more like a silo. There was a table with a computer on it at the entrance of the room. And a blonde woman was sitting there. She stood up when she saw them.

“Mrs. Tokat, this is our new freelancer, Gizem Yurdakul. Can you please assign her a new game unit?” Faruk Ozan asked the woman with a polite voice. She was a woman around late 30s with a short blonde hair, brown eyes and an average face and body. She was about the same height with Gizem.

“Sure, Mr. Ozan.” She answered with a quite polite tone and started to write something on the computer. After a few minutes later, she took out an electronic security card and handed out it to Gizem.

“Here it is, your electronic security card. You can enter here with this. Your game unit number is 48. Please don’t use any other game unit. “ She said with a polite tone.

“Thank you very much.” Gizem took the card.

“Now you can go and start if you like.” Faruk Ozan said with a smile on his face.

“Sure. Thank you very much.”

“Not at all. Then good luck.” Faruk Ozan left and Gizem headed to his game unit. She entered in it and connected the game. A gentle voice welcomed her. She selected Ranger class, Semerkant city as the starting city and Ideal Mode as the play mode. She didn't customize her appearance.

After a bright light, she found herself in a wreck town. She saw many people in the street she spawned. She felt like in a medieval city. Everything was quite realistic. The way people walk, move and behave was no different from reality. However it wasn't the same for her. When she wanted to walk, she lost her balance and fell onto the ground. She felt a pain like mosquito bite. Game mechanics was a little different from reality. She tried to stand up and she lost her balance again. The people around her were laughing at her. However none of them tried to help her. She was quite frustrated and embarrassed. She wanted to log off and never log in again. However she needed this job. She couldn't give up easily. So she endured all of her frustration and embarrassment.

After a struggle of 4 hours, she was finally able to walk and move properly. She first checked her bag. There were 10 wheat breads, a bow and a quiver with 250 arrows in it. She checked the bow.

[Novice Short Bow]

Type : Bow

Attack : 2~3

Attack Speed : 10

Range : 10

Durability : [25/25]

Weight : 1

Requirements

Level : 1

Strength : 10

Agility : 20

Class : None

A light bow for novices. It doesn't have high attack and durability. But it will be useful for novices.

'Better than nothing. ' She equipped it and left the city via South gate. She had played MMORPGs before and she would always play with Ranger or Archer classes so she knew she had to hunt monsters in order to get stronger. However she didn't know that Royal Blood Online was quite hard compared to other MMORPGs. She went into the woods and found an empty spot of Wild Rabbits. Her attack range was only 10 meters. So she aimed at a Wild Rabbit from 10 meters away and shot it.

+Battle Phase is active.

She could drop its HP by only 3%. And all of the flock had started to run towards her at an amazing speed.

"Oh my God!" She cried in a shocked voice and started to run. She had figured out that there was no way she could hunt them by herself. Actually there was no way she could hunt by herself at least for a while. However Wild Rabbits were too fast. They caught up with her in no time.

+You are back stabbed. Critical damage. You lost %10 HP.

+You are back stabbed. Critical damage. You lost %10 HP.

+You are back stabbed. Critical damage. You lost %10 HP.

+You are back stabbed. Critical damage. You lost %10 HP.

+You are back stabbed. Critical damage. You lost %10 HP.

System notifications were flooding up. She had lost %50 HP in no time. Fortunately Wild Rabbits were waiting for a few seconds after they attacked. She took this chance and she activated the basic skill all classes had, Dash. It was a skill that increases the movement speed by 200% as long as the stamina holds. However it was consuming 2 Stamina per second and her maximum stamina was 95. So she could use it only for 47 seconds. Surprisingly it was enough to shake off the Wild Rabbits. They had stopped following her after 40 seconds. It was a close call. She had almost died.

“Phew. It was so close. However what the hell is wrong with this game?! It is too hard. Can’t I hunt by myself? Do I have to grind in a party?” She cried with a pissed off voice. She had seen many parties on her way. And she couldn’t have understood why they were hunting in a party against some mere rabbits. Rabbits were the weakest monsters that a beginner can easily deal with on his own. At least that was how it was in the other games. However it was quite different in this game. She had understood why they were forming party to hunt rabbits now. It was because it was impossible to hunt them alone!

She went back to the city and started to look for party members. Fortunately she could find a beginner male Mage, a beginner female Cleric and a beginner male Assassin in a few minutes. Now all she need was someone to tank, a Warrior. However it was quite hard to find one. They had to stand there for a few hours to finally find one. A male Warrior with golden hairs had finally joined their party. They immediately went hunting and hunted for 2 days in real life. They had taken some breaks to eat and sleep. However they were not longer than a few hours. They had grinded constantly for 2 days in real life. She had started to play it for a job however now she was playing it for fun. She had gotten quite fond of it. She had completely forgotten about the job.

After 2 days when they all had reached level 5, all of the party members had left the party except for the man with golden hairs. His name was Golden Boss. He seemed to be a decent man. He hadn’t left her. They had tried to find new party members. And for that purpose they had gone back to city for that however they couldn’t find anyone there. And they had gone back to the woods in order to find a party to join on the suggest of Golden Boss. However they hadn’t had much luck there either. They had found a possible party to join but they were top players and there was no way they would accept them to their party. They were about to go back to continue searching for a party. However they had seen a Cleric who approached the party. She had done something they hadn’t dared to. So they had decided to watch it out of curiosity. But it had turned into a bullying for her. Golden Boss had wanted to help her however Gizem had tried to stop him because they were too weak to do anything. Unfortunately she couldn’t do it and Golden Boss had started to run towards them. After a little hesitation, Gizem had followed him.

‘What am I doing? There is no way we can do anything to stop it. It is the rule of the all worlds. The strong devours the weak. Why am I even following him?’ Gizem didn’t know why she was following him but she couldn’t help it. They were hunting for 2 days and even after other party members had left her, he hadn’t. She had somehow felt bad about letting him go alone. So she was following him. Then suddenly she 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 had kept approaching them. Gizem had also slowed down. Now she 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 had stopped getting closer. Gizem had also gotten quite close to Golden Boss. There were less than 5 meters between them. However Golden Boss hadn’t realized her presence. His focus was on the boy and the man with golden hairs. Gizem had also started to watch the scene.

“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.

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. Gizem was bewildered about the scene she was witnessing. How could a player move like this? How could a player dodge every attack? Because of the game settings, you couldn’t dodge every attacks. Some of the attacks had to hit you. However he was dodging all of the attacks. Gizem was trying to make sense of it. However she couldn’t. She approached to Golden Boss. However he didn’t realize her presence. He was focused on the scene in front of him and he had an excited expression unlike Gizem. It was as if he could make sense of it and he was enjoying it.

“What is going on here? How can he dodge all of his attacks?” Gizem asked with a puzzled expression. However Golden Boss didn’t answer. Gizem kept standing and watching it.

Meanwhile The Prince and his friends also had shocked expressions. They seemed like they couldn’t make sense of it either. The Prince had drawn his sword and started to attack him with his sword. However the boy was dodging his attacks by stepping to right and left with a perfect timing. Each of the sword attacks were missing him by hair’s breadth. After an about 30 seconds struggle of The Prince which felt like forever, The Prince had stopped with a shocked and frustrated face.

“What the hell are you?! How can you dodge all of my attacks?!” The Prince shouted with a wavering voice.

“I am just someone who hates the bullies.” The boy answered with a smirk on his face. He was making fun of The Prince. Then suddenly Golden Boss approached them and spoke.

“He is probably a martial artist who is playing in Realistic Mode. That’s why he can dodge your attacks.” Everybody had turned to him.

“Realistic Mode? What about it? Isn’t it just a mode made for the mazosists who love pain? What does it have to do with him dodging my attacks?!” The Prince answered with a distrusting expression.

“Well, since you didn’t play in Realistic Mode, you wouldn’t know. It is a mode that allows you to experience game with utmost realism. Unlike Ideal Mode, you can control your avatar no different from reality in Realistic Mode. The game mechanics are quite different. You can use your personal abilities in the game. It is much more fun than Ideal Mode.” Golden Boss answered with an excited attitude.

“I see. Are you playing in Realistic Mode as well? You talked as if you knew it.” The Prince asked with an calm and arrogant attitude. Since he made sense of it, he had calmed down.

“Nope. Not anymore. I had started to play in Realistic Mode. However when I died at my first day, my avatar has been deleted and I was banned for 72 hours. After my ban was over, I started to play in Ideal Mode to test my theory. Since I was quite shocked when my avatar was deleted and I was banned for 72 days and couldn’t find any information about it on the net, I tested whether it was because of the play mode or not. Realistic Mode is much more fun to play but losing your avatar for good when you are dead is just too unfair.” Golden Boss answered with sad expression. When they heard that their avatar would be deleted when you died, there was a malicious smile on the face of The Prince, and a panicked expression on the face of the boy.

“Good to know that. So if I kill this peasant now, he will lose his avatar, huh? That’s good.” The Prince had started to run towards the boy. His sword was glowing with a light blue light.

“Piercing Strike!” The Prince shouted and his sword moved in a horizontal line. Maybe it was because he was in a panicked state, the boy couldn’t dodge it completely and the sword landed on his right shoulder. The boy cried in pain and stepped back quickly and retreated 5 meters in a second. However after a second pause, the boy started to move towards The Prince with quick steps. His two swords were glowing with an eerie blue light as well!

“Deadly Double Slash!” The boy shouted and landed two cross vertical slashes on The Prince.

“What the hell?!” The Prince cried with a puzzled face and fell on the ground. His body turned to the grey and a “ting” sound was heard and a golden light bathed the boy. The Prince was dead! He was dead with a single attack! And he had dropped his sword! Everybody was frozen out of shock and started to stare at them with a blank expression even Golden Boss. There was a dead silence. Even he was trying to make sense of it. Even if he was playing in Realistic Mode and have a better avatar control, that wasn’t explaining how he could kill a top player with a single attack.

The boy had kneeled down and taken the sword as if he did something so natural. At that moment a voice broke the silence.

“W-Who the hell are you?! W-What did you just do?!” The female Mage with The Prince had asked with a trembling voice. She had a terrified face. She was shaking in her shoes.

“Like I said before, I am just someone who hates the bullies.”

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Author Note: 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