My eyes widened at the text floating in front of me. ‘...What is that?’ The name sounded very intriguing, but I couldn’t hide my disappointment. The impression I got from her words was that I would be transported back to RO. Besides, I never wanted to be king. “It’s a gift from me to you, I hope you enjoy it.” She looked at me with a gentle smile befitting a goddess. “What does this gift do?” “That would ruin all the fun of figuring it out yourself” I was curious about what she had given me. But while I was talking to someone who claimed to be a goddess I had another thought in mind. “Is there no way to send me back to RO?” She looked at me with eyes of pity for a few seconds before she slowly shook her head. “There is no returning to that world as it has ceased to exist.” “Oh… damn…” My mood took a dip from hearing her words. “Your synchronization is almost complete. I am truly sorry about your world, but I have to leave now” She said as she turned around to walk away. “Wait! What happens now?” I said hurriedly She stopped and looked at me over her shoulder. “You will arrive in the world of Nightmare, and your journey will begin.” “I see...Thank you for all your help” I wasn’t very enthusiastic but I was sincerely grateful She continued to walk away as the white world began to fade away. “we’ll meet again. Until then, I wish you luck on the trials to come.” Her body started to fade away until it completely banished. When she left she took everything in the makeshift world she created with a snap of her fingers. That included my real-world body. I returned to being a floating conscious in the dark world. ‘What now?’ *Beep* Another system message appeared in front of me [Synchronization 99% complete...] The synchronization process appeared in my view. [Synchronization complete!] As soon as the synchronization process was complete another message appeared. [The title [The Last King] and its abilities shall now follow you into Nightmare Online] 'What? there's more?' I didn't understand why I was being rewarded. The sensible thing to do was log out and not get your character data messed up. I never knew my stubbornness would pay off like this. [Your abilities are as follows] ============================ [Unique traits] [King’s privilege] [Passive][Max] -Ruler online: Items accessible Skills accessible Stats apply [King’s Domain] [Passive][lvl 1][Exp 0%] -Certain abilities can apply within your domain -You can detect the presence of those who enter your domain Range 20m Radius [???] Will become available when all requirements are met [???] Will become available when all requirements are met ============================ The rewards seemed to be [Unique Traits] with very vague descriptions. I didn’t know what they meant but from the sound of it, they seemed pretty good. [King’s Privilege] was a [passive] Unique trait that was already maxed out. But the more interesting one was [King’s domain] which was another [Passive] trait. This one could level up; I just needed to find out how it worked and how to use it. There are 2 more traits that are currently locked. ‘I should just worry about those when the time comes’ *Beep* [You will now enter Nightmare Online] As soon as the message closed everything changed from darkness to a blinding white. [Welcome to Nightmare Online!] [Please choose your Race and Gender] After a few system messages popped up I was finally able to choose my race. As I scrolled through the list of races I could saw their appearance and description. The appearance of the male characters all had a preset look that resembled my character in RO. There are only 5 races; Humans, Yari, Barto, Krux, and Vita. Each race has 2 primary classes and 4 sub-classes. I wanted to pick a class that would be good at PvP. I knew that MARE was heavily PvP oriented and I had no intention of being a pushover. I could always pick a tank class and make myself hard to kill. But I have always been more interested in being DPS. I scrolled back and forth between the character’s description and sub-classes. I glanced at the assassin class only available to the Krux race. I heard that assassins in MARE had an exceptionally high mastery ceiling. Many players that failed to master them had to make new characters altogether. I also knew that my brother who loved to PvP had chosen to be an assassin and I didn’t want to compare my assassin to his. I don’t like playing classes that are very popular either. ‘I wish I had asked more about this game beforehand’ It was hard to make a decision that would follow me for the rest of the game. There was no other choice but to keep looking and go with my gut feeling. That was when a certain sub-class caught my attention, ‘Defiler’. From the looks of it, they were similar to warlocks. Being able to apply a large number of de-buffs, curses and crowd control abilities. They could also steal the [HP] of their enemies to heal themselves. ‘I’ve never heard of this class, I suspect it’s not very widely picked.’ I made up my mind and clicked on the race [Krux] *Beep* [Are you sure you want to pick this [Race?]] [Yes/No] The Krux race resembles elves in appearance, they are tall with a thin athletic build. It was no exaggeration to say they were quite ripped. Their skin was a pale blue hue that made them seem lifeless. But that didn’t take away from their pretty elf-like looks. Their most notable feature is an arm that is completely dyed charcoal black all the way up to the shoulder. This arm is also longer than the other with sharp pointy fingers that resembled a demon’s. It looks like a partial demon transformation. I clicked yes. [Please choose a Primary Class] [Dark Mage / Shadow Walker] I clicked on [Dark Mage] which was the primary class for a Defiler. [Please customize your character’s appearance] ‘Oh boy’ The appearance customization part of any game could take anywhere from a minute to a few hours. I don't want to bother with this too much since I'm already satisfied with how my character looks. I merely modified a few things like eye and hair color then clicked [Done] [Are you done customizing your character?] [Yes/No] ‘Yes!’ [Character creation is now complete!] As soon as I clicked 'yes' my vision went completely black. I tried to open my eyes but they felt heavy. When I managed to open my eyes everything was blurry. I felt like I was underwater. I tried to strain my eyes but everything was still a bit blurry. I was in what seemed like a large test tube. I tried to move my hands. I could see my black and blue arm, I was in the body of my newly created character. I placed my hand on the glass of the tube. Looking out at my surroundings, I saw men in white coats walking around. My vision was still too blurry to distinguish their faces. There were a large number of large test tubes as far as my eyes could see. They all had other submerged bodies floating inside of them. 'Am I in some sort of experiment lab?' A thought crossed my mind. Was I some sort of experiment? nothing was making sense. I tried to feel around my area and I touched the oxygen mask that was covering my face. As I was feeling around my surroundings 2 men in a white coat came and looked to be inspecting me for a few seconds. The men began to talk among themselves. One nodded and walked away as he seemed to follow orders. My vision began to fade and everything turned to black. *Beep* [You are now being transported to the starting zone! Good luck!] When the darkness began to fade away and my vision became clearer I saw myself standing in the middle of a town. The buildings around me looked decrepit and in poor condition. By the looks of this area, this has to be the slums. l immediately pulled up the game’s menu and looked for the map ‘Found it’ I pulled up the map, I was trying to find my location and the name of this small town. [Anka] was the name, coincidentally this was also the name of one of the starting towns in RO. I pulled up my status window. ------------------------- [GhostDKing’s stats] [HP- 500] [MP - 200] Strength - 10 Dexterity - 12 Agility - 14 Intelligence - 12 Mind - 10 Constitution - 10 ------------------------- [Ruler Online] [HP- 500] [MP - 200] Strength - 10 Dexterity - 10 Agility - 10 Wisdom - 10 Intelligence - 10 Vitality- 10 *Luck - 10 ------------------------- ‘I have 2 different sets of stats?’ As I was thinking that, a system message appeared. [Conflicting character stats cannot exist at the same time. The system will now consolidate your stats...] [Consolidation complete!] ------------------------- [GhostDKing’s stats] [HP- 500] [MP - 200] Strength - 10 Dexterity - 12 Agility - 15 Intelligence - 12 Mind/Wisdom - 10 Constitution/Vitality - 10 *Luck - 10 ------------------------- “Hmm” I looked over my stats to see what changed. My Mind and Wisdom, as well as my Constitution and Vitality, were now fused. My Agility also increased by 1 point for some reason. The system didn’t allow me to have 2 different stats from 2 different games. I didn’t mind it since it would have been very confusing otherwise. Additionally, my Luck that wasn’t originally in the MARE's status window was now clearly there. I kept glaring at my status window. “Luck 10” Seems like I had luck which as far as I knew wasn’t supposed to exist in this game. The luck stat in RO was only used for crafting and having a higher success rate on enchantments. It was also the only invariable stat in RO so adding stat points was impossible. “Does crafting also exist in MARE?” I had too many questions and not enough information. I decided to walk around Anka and think about what to do next. But as soon as I took a single step I received another system message. [Warning! Your level is too low to equip these items please unequip them before their durability drops to 0] "Oh shit!" I blurted out as I read the system message. I unequipped my [Vampiric Knight’s armor] and [Frost Wyrm Sword]. I quickly threw them in my inventory. I currently only had 1 bag and it had a total of 20 inventory slots. Each bag had 10 fewer inventory slots than RO. But almost like making up for that difference, while you could hold up to 8 bags in Mare. In RO the total number of bags you could carry was a mere 4 bags. I looked at my clothing I was wearing some shabby pants and a shirt that looked like dirty rags. I looked closely at my body. My demon had was my right arm. I'm guessing your dominant arm would naturally end up being the demon arm. I began to walk around Anka looking for an NPC to guide me or at least point me in the right direction. As I was walking I could feel the presence of any NPC or player within a 20m radius of my vicinity. It was like I had a radar that told me the location of those around me in real time. ‘So that’s what it does..’ I figured out a bit about what my unique trait [King’s Domain] was capable of doing. ‘Is it only a radar?’ I started to feel a bit disappointed with my unique trait but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I continued to wander through Anka. I asked a few players for assistance... or at least I thought they were players. There was no real way of distinguishing NPCs from players unless I asked. They pointed me towards an NPC that had a bright yellow ‘!’ over his head near the area where I first spawned. I made my way towards the NPC. There were a few players whose faces were familiar. They were players from RO that were beginning to spawn in town. I tried my best to avoid them and went straight to the NPC. As I approached I noticed his distinguished his old and pale features that made him look like a zombie. Even with that tattered body of his he still had a huge creepy smile on his face. “Hi, I'm new here and need a bit of guidance, are you the guy I need to talk to?” “Hello! That is correct, Welcome to Nightmare online! I am the beginner’s guide and I’m here to show new players around the game! Do you want to follow me to start the tutorial?” Hearing the word 'tutorial' made me hesitate for a moment. I was still undecided on whether I should play this game or not. The fact that RO shut down only a few minutes ago didn’t exactly have me feeling my best. I was only going with the flow of events in which I was dragged into MARE. I didn’t have the will to go through a tutorial right now, not to mention I never liked wasting my time on them. “Can I decline?” “Of course” “In that case thank you, but I’ll have to pass” “No problem! you can come back and do the tutorial anytime you'd like!” I waved goodbye at the guide, as I walked away from him. ‘He's kind of creepy’ I thought as I took another glance at him over my shoulder. I felt a bit bad for walking away. That feeling quickly dissipated as I saw a small group of players walk off with the old man to start the tutorial. I decided to log out for today. [Are you sure you want to log out?] [Yes/No] ------------------------- Everything turned dark for a moment. I opened my eyes and I saw the familiar ceiling of my room. I could feel the soft, comfortable bed that I've had for years. I took off my VR set as I continued to remain laying down. I had a lot to think about. I started playing MARE online but I was still undecided on whether I should continue. ‘Shouldn’t I get a job and help out mom? But what can I even do? I have no skills or talents. My only talent was playing RO.’ I knew the right thing to do was to make money and help my mother. I have been a burden to her for the last 2 years. After I finished high school she looked after me and didn’t give me a hard time for playing games all day. I know she is happy to have me around the house and not out in the streets getting into trouble. She recommended I go to college but that wasn’t free and I didn’t want to put even more of a financial burden on her. I finally got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. The only way I ever made money in the past was in RO. I sold many rare weapons, armor, and material for USD. I made around $15,000 in the span of 2 years. I used that money to help my mom. Unfortunately, RO wasn’t here anymore. I turned on the faucet and let the water run. I cupped my hands and put them under the running water. I hunched over the sink and splashed some water on my face. The cold water made me feel a bit more awake. I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. My complexion was a ghastly pale white from the lack of sun. I had bags under my eyes and my dark brown irises were black. I looked lifeless. I splashed a bit more water on my face until my curly hair was dripping from all the water. I had no idea what to do now. 'What to do... What to do" I thought to myself as I continued to glance at myself in the mirror. “Wait a minute...THAT’S IT!” I can make money in MARE! Why didn’t I think of that before? I quickly got up and sat down at my computer, I turned it on and searched for the MARE forums... It was the first result. I went in and looked for any sales. I stumbled upon the MARE’s market sub-forum and started browsing through it. [S> lvl 80 [High Grade] Paladin set $5,000 or BO] Posted 5:55pm [T> Lan for USD 100 - 1 Ratio check in-game market] Posted 5:40pm [T> White Tiger mount for Sylph mount] Posted 5:36pm [S> 1000 Titanium ores stacks for 300 USD each] Posted 5:30pm [S> my lvl 80 Assassin (PvP build) for $10,000 (pm me plz)] Posted 5:27pm [S> Rare [Perfect Grade] Genji's Bow for $12,000] Posted 5:15pm [S> 10,000 Lan for $100 in game] Posted 5:03pm [B> Materials for lvl 80 Blood Moon weapon] Posted 4:59pm There was a long list of posts on the sales forums. From what I could see most Items were selling for hefty amounts of money. ‘Isn’t this illegal though?’ I couldn’t help but think back to RO. The selling of in-game items and currency for real-world cash was strictly prohibited. That’s why I was only able to make $15,000 in those 2 years. I had to be secretive about my transactions. I was forced to message players outside of the game to avoid getting banned. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case for MARE. I searched the forum for a bit and found that there is a market where you can trade in-game currency and items for USD. The game company took a 1% tax from the transaction to make a profit. If RO had this business model I would have definitely made much more money. There wasn’t much I could do about it but move on and try to make the best of what I have now. With my unique traits I know I’ll be able to get far in the game. All I need is a large player base that I can sell to. MARE has over 10 million registered users and over 2 million active players. I made up my mind. “I’m going to make as much money as I can playing MARE” But before that, there was still too much I don’t know about the game and the forums can only help me so much. I picked up my phone and dialed it. The phone started to ring as I put it to my ear. *Puru Puru Puru Puru Puru…. Puru Puru Puru Puru Puru… Kacha* I heard someone pick up the phone. “Hello?” “Hey Maico, It’s been a while” -------------------------