Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

The right word to describe the interior of the Municipal Library was 'noble'. All the furniture in the place had a sublime look. The wallpapers were well put together and looked new. Every detail in this place showed that this was a noble environment, where only the most cultured and privileged attended.

"Who are you?" The bald man inquired to Psyker as he regained his posture and tried not to look so surprised by his presence.

"He is Kaizen." Quietly, Bleeding Lily said, and then she sat down on one of the couches in the center of the library's entrance hall.

All five men from her guild who were present immediately went on high alert, but none of them went off on Kaizen for two reasons:

The first was because Kaizen already had the reputation of being as strong as a Sacred Rank creature, for having so easily defeated a mythical creature.

The second reason was because their leader didn't give the order to attack. In fact, she didn't even seem to be concerned about his presence.

Orkoi, the white-haired boy who carried a brown owl on his shoulder, looked at the red-haired woman and inquired:

"Are you sure it's him?"

"I have no doubt. You couldn't be there, but look at how Dodir is reacting now. He was there." She replied.

Then Orkoi looked over and saw Dodir, who had yellow eyes and black hair, staring at Kaizen voraciously.

"All these days, all I wanted was to find you to face you, Kaizen! Let's fight!" Dodir exclaimed, flexing his arms eagerly.

"..."

Across the lobby, Kaizen had his back to Dodir, asking the short, blond boy:

"Oh! Is that a skill from your class?" he pointed to the screen on which a video was playing.

"N-no, this here is the highlights that become available during events like this." The boy, shy and fearful, replied in a low voice.

Kaizen placed his hand thoughtfully on his chin as he stared at the video closely.

Dodir was at a loss as to how to react. He was simply ignored by his greatest enemy. However, he was not someone who gave up easily. Slamming his feet hard on the wooden floor, Dodir quickly approached Kaizen and held him by the edge of the iron breastplate.

"Hey, do you hear me? Let's fight!"

Although Dodir was quite high level, Kaizen was not intimidated and, with a neutral expression, replied while wiping his ear with one finger:

"Who the hell are you?"

For Dodir, hearing this questioning coming from Kaizen was an even bigger thud than being ignored, so he let go of the Psyker's chest as a look of disconsolation appeared on his face.

"I... I was running after you in the Howling Drawers. Don't you remember me? I was in the far left corner in the middle of the screaming crowd trying to get to you." Dodir said with a despondent voice.

"Ah! Now I remembered..." Kaizen said.

"Is it serious?"

"No, sorry about that, man. I thought if I said that, it would remind me somehow, but it didn't work." spoke Kaizen, smiling with his mouth closed.

Dodir turned away and threw himself into an armchair. "My greatest rival doesn't know me..." He muttered.

Just then, footsteps coming from the upper floor could be heard coming down the majestic staircase that stood in the center of the lobby. The people coming down were Dathan and Araxie, the Bloody Lily's most loyal subordinates.

"Most of the NPCs are fine, but the next horde will be more complicated." Dathan said loud enough for everyone on the second floor to hear. He sounded a little stressed.

Suddenly, both Araxie, as well as Dathan, stopped in the middle of the stairs because when they looked into the lobby, they realized that there was a different person than usual present.

"Who is he?" Araxie inquired and pointed with chin at the man with black hair and oriental facial features.

"Kaizen." replied Orkoi, staring at the Psyker with narrowed eyes.

After a brief moment of surprise, Araxie said as she placed a white iron tiara in her golden hair:

"You must only be very foolish to appear before us with such courage."

"What is this guy doing here, Lily?" Dathan came back down the steps, but this time his voice sounded milder. "Did he threaten you?"

"Don't talk nonsense. He might only be able to threaten me if he was an Evolved." Bleeding Lily said as she fiddled with the system interface nonchalantly. "Since he cost us so much for stealing the Druid Centaur raid, he set out to teach us a way to defeat this Boss as easily and quickly as he did."

Everyone who was present raised their eyebrows, because if what Bleeding Lily was saying was true, by defeating the Druid Centaur, they could collect a lot of essential information about the future and the past of the Howling Draughtsmen region, not to mention the rewards.

When Dathan reached the end of the staircase, he looked at Bleeding Lily and stated:

"I confess I am curious to find out if he really has a strategy or not, but if you are trusting him, I trust your decision."

After this brief conversation, many minutes of staring at Kaizen followed, but he didn't even care about the fact that he was inside the wolves' den, because he was more interested in learning other things, as that was what he was there for.

Kaizen approached the person he saw was the weakest and insisted that this blond boy tell him the reason they were analyzing several videos of other players. Soon, the boy grew weary and finally began to explain.

"Events are unique opportunities for all the players involved and they usually give a lot of money. For example, there are popular votes for the public to decide which was the best move, there are also special awards for the player who gets the most slaughters, not to mention the hero relationships you can build with NPCs."

"Popular voting, right? I liked that."  Kaizen said. "What placement is my play video in?"

"Is that all you heard about? Frankly... All right, I'll see what position your video is in." The boy put his glasses away and started fiddling with the interface. "Wow, you're doing really well. Your video is the eleventh."

"Eleventh?!" Unsatisfied, Kaizen asked.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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

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