Underneath the clear, black, starry night sky above, a single small, glowing object was seen whizzing by above a certain man, the sight of the music-filled bustling city below him, lit up by both torches and his own dark vision, merchants selling to customers, beggars asking for money, strippers in skimpy outfits, advertising themselves to the masses to lure them in for cash, city guards patrolling the area fully armoured, sword in hand waiting, ready for any crime to occur.

There, all alone, a man cloaked in a simple outfit of all black, his rather handsome, pale, ghost-like face on full display, his short, smooth white hair flowing in the cold wind breeze that was striking his face that felt both real and not real at the same time, a serious look in his slightly glowing blood-red eyes jumped from building to building like a ninja, attempting to navigate the city as fast as he could, sweat running down his face as he tried his best not to get spotted.

"Stop right there, criminal scum! Nobody breaks the law on my watch! Get off of th…"

A sound was heard from below from one of the guards, his voice deep and intimidating yet somewhat flat at the same time.

'Shit! They caught me! Why now!? I have to end this quickly before they catch me! Infinite sprint isn't good enough! At this rate, I might even hit an invisible wall before I find it! I've been building up to this moment for over 7 years! I can't fail now after getting so far!' The man thought, showing a scowl on his face, revealing his 2 long teeth-like fangs hiding in his mouth, his heart beating quickly, the sweat running down his face now even faster.

"Follow him! He's going north!"

The voices underneath him seemed to be getting even closer, that was what he got for getting there as fast as possible and no preparations.

He needed to speed up by any means necessary; at this rate, he would never make it.

[ Wind Walker ]

[ Haste ]

Suddenly, the man's body glowed a faint colour of red and green, his speed drastically increasing at the cost of both blood and mana that he was so desperately low on in his condition after everything he had been through to even enter the city as he continued jumping from building to building, his movement meticulous and quick, like a complete expert.

"Stop! In the name of the law! Follow him! Stop! In the name of the law! Follow him! Stop! In the name of the law! Follow him! Stop! In the name of the law! Follow him!"

Ignoring the guard's incessant ramblings almost like they were all too common for him, he focused on the task at hand.

'Almost there…'

...

'Found it!! Absolutely perfect! He spawned!'

His face brightened up yet became more panicked and jittery, looking at what seemed like a pub with a group of muscular men sitting on a table by the back door, talking and having a beer, their attire looking like those of peasants rather than the middle class.

Yet, his focus did not stay on them for long, immediately shifting towards the man standing beside the back door of the pub, his pants unzipped and his face completely red, drunk out of his mind, peeing directly on the wall to the right of the closed door.

Without a moment of hesitation, the white-haired man jumped down from the high building above, nobody noticing him despite his rather flashy entrance.

Promptly after landing on the ground, he dashed towards the back door of the pub on the opposite side where the other man was peeing, now repeatedly dashing at the wall like an idiot or a madman, of course not before perfectly lining himself up with a certain mossy crack.

Despite the many civilians in the area, his rather odd display garnered absolutely no attention from anyone around him, almost like he was not even there, even including the man that was still peeing to his right and the group of men having their beers who were no less than a few meters away.

"Have you heard the news? king Reinhart's forces that he sent to destroy the hoard of evil spirits have all been wiped out… Even captain Raven died in the massacre…"

"Massacre!? Were they defeated that easily?"

"Yes… All found dead on Bruma hill… No survivors other than a few desperate screams coming from surveillance spells…"

"Do you think it's Midnight's doing?"

"No clue… But if this keeps up, I'm not fucking sure about the state of our country anymore…"

The man paid absolutely no heed to the drunken men's conversation, almost like filtering out their speech was second nature to him as he continued dashing into the wall, impatient waiting for the man to his right to finish his piss.

"Guards! Here! I found him! Arrest that man! Roof jumping is against the law in this town!"

"AHHH!"

Swiftly, turning a corner, the guards had finally caught up, now rushing at him with their red and silver armour, swords drawn ready to attack.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Not now! Piss faster! Piss faster!'

He inwardly panicked, the armoured men now only 100 metres away from his location.

"That darn slut Serena… If she doesn't stop bitching then I might have to teach her a lesson…"

A sudden smile of hope and excitement filled his face as the man beside him had abruptly stopped pissing, zipping his pants back up and reaching to open the door of the pub.

Yet… It might have been too late...

"Submit or perish! criminal!"

The guard had already reached his location, now slashing straight at his chest, not flinching at all in the wake of his strike as he profusely prayed to the heavens above to not let things all end here after he had gotten this far, still constantly dashing at the wall…

And… It seemed like his call was answered…

Suddenly, the man that was previously pissing thrust the door open with a mighty slam, the wooden door crashing straight at the white-haired man's body mere millimeters before the guard's sword made contact with his body.

"Hmmm? No sign of him… Must have been the wind…"

The white-haired criminal had completely disappeared, now nowhere to be seen. He had phased through the wall and ground of the pub, instantly falling into a deep, black abyss below, seemingly endless, no fear at all in his heart.

In fact, it was quite the opposite actually. He was celebrating, cheering and thrusting his arms up and down in victory, taking a quick peek at the sky above only to see small fragments of the world and the guards that almost killed him, now casually walking away like nothing even happened.

"LET'S GOOO!!"

"YEAH BABY! That's what I've been waiting for! That's what it's all about! WOOO!"

"Sub 6 hours! Sub 6 hours! In the 7 years, this game has been out, I'm the first one to get a sub-six-hour 100% speed run!"

"Poggers in the chat baby!"

*Huh* *Huh* *Huh*

"Wha?! $10,000 DONATION FROM "Biggus_Dickus" SAYING: Wow! Sub 6 hours! You beat your own world record! 6:20 was good from before but you managed to get sub 6! This will never be topped in the history of the game! You're insane! Keep it up man!"

"Thank you so much for all the love and support on the streams and- WHA! $1,000 from "E-rectile_Reptile": Broooo! Ren! That was…"

The man, now known as Ren, felt his heart beating faster than machine-gun fire, the relief and excitement overwhelming his jittery, vibrator-like body as he continued falling down in the deep, black hole of darkness underneath the world, reading his live stream's chat and the flurry of seemingly endless donations and subscriptions that he had missed during the run.

What Ren just did was what most people commonly referred to as a "pro gamer move". By perfectly aligning himself with the correct side of that door, once the scripted NPC slammed the door open, the force would clip him outside of the world and skip him all the way to the credits.

Most good speedruns all ended at that final part...

That pissing NPC only spawned in that area a quarter of the time, and even if he did manage to get him to spawn, he needed to perfectly line himself up in order to be clipped, which was much easier said than done. What made the situation even tenser was the addition of the guards that had nearly killed him.

It was the perfect run that was almost completely ruined...one that neither he or his live stream chat that he was broadcasting to could believe, he had never felt so alive in years, one of the best moments of his life.

The emotions he was feeling in his heart were simply indescribable...

And, after a few minutes of calculated dropping into the void, he had finally made it to the end…

Music began playing out of nowhere as the names of all the developers began scrolling down his vision, making him mute the game and continue his conversation and interactions with his chat.

Until, suddenly, the message he had been waiting for so long had finally arrived.

[Congratulations Player! You have 100% completed the game along with all of the side quests! You are the true hero who had saved the world of the evil spirit menace, at least for now…]

[Final time: 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 47 seconds ]

[New world record!]

[Hidden Quest Complete: Undisputed Champion!]

[ You have completed and proved yourself beyond the world's wildest imagination in many ways over the years! On behalf of the entire New Era team, we would like to bestow upon you, the undisputed number 1 player in the world, exclusive, early access to beta test the next new game-changing update that had been anticipated for many years! Congratulations!]

[Accept] [Decline]