Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

When the last Emperor Bats were killed, every player in town received the same notification.

[The first horde is over].

[Of the 30,000 players present in the Royal City at the beginning of the first horde, 25,000 remain.]

Most of those who were alive were stunned by the number of players killed.

"What? Is it serious that 5,000 people died to mere zombies? They should uninstall the game after that."

"Shut up. They were probably newbies."

"The zombies weren't very strong, but the giant bats were definitely annoying."

[All remaining players received 5 gold coins and 1 Class Point as a reward].

While some players exploded with excitement at the rewards, others were deeply disheartened. Kaizen did not complain, although 5 gold coins was a paltry amount for him, the 1 Class Point was exactly what he needed.

[The second horde will start in 1 hour].

"And the first horde was hard enough." Klank sighed, looking at the reward screens.

"Don't worry, we have all the Guild members online, so just follow the plan and everything will work out fine. There's no way we can't win this event." Bleeding Lily he replied. "Shall we get going? The guys should be waiting for us at the shelter."

"Let's go." Kaizen replied.

At that moment, Bleeding Lily turned back with an expression of disbelief. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked Psyker.

"As you said earlier, we'd better work as a group." Kaizen said and smiled without showing his teeth.

"You are... never mind." The redhead turned forward and started walking calmly, as she was not having the energy to tire herself out by running.

Klank approached Kaizen as the two began walking and inquired whisperingly:

"Do you see no problem in revealing your identity to her? I'm sure she is so angry with you that she could kill you right now. You made her take a big loss that day."

"Man, I'm going to teach you something, all right? Most influential and powerful people, as she seems to be, don't think like you or me, that at times we are driven by our emotions. For example, I have a habit of getting too excited and so I act on impulse. Do you think she has something like this? Possibly yes during a battle, but I bet most of the time she is analyzing the macro scenario more than the micro."

"What does that mean?" Klank asked.

"Basically, people like her are more concerned with seeing what the world might look like, rather than what it actually is, you know?"

"That makes...a little sense, I guess? But I'm not sure if that applies to her."

Soon, Bleeding Lily got tired and heard the whispering coming from her rear, so she shouted:

"Hey! What are you two whispering about?! Shut up if you want to stay around during the next horde."

Kaizen and Klank were quiet at the same time. They both didn't want to bother the woman any more than necessary.

Walking through the streets of the Royal City, it was easy to see that there were many destroyed houses and many dead people everywhere. Although only ⅙ of the players did not survive the first horde, the number of NPCs was even higher. In fact, the sudden attack made a huge massacre.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the building taller than all the others in the white house district. This building had a central tower with a large round pane of glass, and on the pediment of that place was written: City Library.

'A library?' Kaizen wondered as he read.

The doors of the place were open and Bleeding Lily was the first to enter. Kaizen and Klank followed her without blinking. Suddenly, they heard howling, as if someone was pushing.

"Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen...!" A man with black hair and yellow eyes was doing several push-ups in the middle of the lobby.

"Don't push yourself too hard, Dodir." said Orkoi, who was a boy who appeared to be under sixteen. Orkoi had gray hair and a large brown owl on his shoulder.

"Huugh! Think of the items and the experience we'll gain, man. It's okay if you want to get some rest, but I'm going to… twenty-five… be in the best shape possible for the next horde." Dodir replied.

"Hm, so I'll rest for both of us." Orkoi quickly gave up trying to get Dodir to rest.

Further to the left corner of the main lobby, two other men were talking. One of them was tall and had a shiny bald head, the other was blond and short. In front of the blond man, there was a system screen floating and video images were scrolling.

"It's the Triad Guild that's in the City Market, isn't it? They must be getting help from a group to defend such a narrow place." The blond man inquired. "Not many zombies showed up in their highlights."

"Were they? Shit, it'll be a problem for round two if they want to expand their territory into our area."

Kaizen didn't understand a damn thing about what was going on and what these two men were talking about, but he heard when another boy, sitting in an armchair near them, said:

"Cedric, come see this here."

The bald man who was standing turned to his right and approached this boy who called out to him. "What is it?"

"It seems that there wasn't actually another group at the City Market with the Triad Guild."

"What do you mean? What are you talking about? Of course there was. It would be impossible for them to keep a place with as many corners as the City Market clean of zombies."

"It's not that there were other people in the City Market, but nearby there was a Horde Chief and a gambler. If you can't believe it, see for yourself."

Since in front of the seated boy there was also a screen, he just pressed the play button and the video began to scroll, so the three of them crowded around to watch.

In the video, there were three separate moments cut out that showed the Necromantic Witch's battle against Kaizen. The first moment was of the three zombies he killed with a skillful sword swing. The second, of the moment he killed the speed puppet. Lastly, there remained the moment that Kaizen cut off the head of the Necromantic Witch after a swift sequence of critical blows.

"Ow, who is this guy?"

"He's amazing!"

"Is he part of the Triad Guild and that's why he was in the vicinity of the City Market?"

"Look, it's me! I look very handsome in these videos..." Kaizen said, watching the video alongside the other three men. "By the way, how come you guys have a video of me?"

The three men from the Bloody Lily guild slowly turned back to see who was talking to them and were startled when they saw that the man they had been watching fight a moment ago was standing exactly behind them.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa /NandoFalske

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