Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

After logging out of Rise Online, Klaus woke up in his usual dusty little room.

As has become a habit by now, he removed the NeuroGear from his head and placed it next to his pillow. It was exactly 11:53 pm on December 23. Another day, he had spent the whole day playing and this time he didn't even have time to take some breaks for basic things like eating or going to the bathroom. Still, he felt extremely good, he felt more alive now than in all the last years of his life.

Naturally, Klaus got up and to make sure that what had just happened was real, he sat down in front of his old computer.

The CPU fans were making more noise as they ran with each passing day, and the LED lights had been burned out for some time.

Klaus' big right hand gripped the mouse tightly, and he clicked once to open his avatar's inventory in the game client. When his inventory opened, he looked at the left corner of the screen, just below his nickname was the amount of coins he had.

[Total of your Current Amount: 233,670 gold coins].

Once again, his heart soared. A movie consisting of not very pleasant memories flashed through his mind.

Klaus would never forget how many nights he spent awake imagining what that day would be like, nor how many things he had to sacrifice to achieve that goal.

In all his various almost unhealthy jobs as a waiter, salesman, broker, delivery man, fitter, digger, builder, etc., Klaus never managed to earn an amount that would considerably reduce his family's debt. However, he always felt that he could not stand by and watch his parents do their best to fight the world. He was not the type who would accept this so easily.

Therefore, Klaus battled day after day to be able to relieve, at least a little, the weight on Chun and Michael Park's backs.

Maybe Klaus made his parents feel guilty during this time or they felt that they were bad parents for having to see one of their children go through all of this even though he was so young. However, Klaus felt too guilty about the whole situation to stop working because of his parents. After all, if he had continued to play, perhaps their debt would not have become so large.

Anyway, working a lot and in various jobs that nobody wanted had become commonplace for Klaus over the years.

Now, after seven years of the accident involving his family, it seemed that his efforts had finally paid off. This was the moment he had worked so hard for, and with such a large sum of money in his hands, Klaus felt that he had finally completed a cycle.

So Kaizen clicked to convert all the currencies he needed into dollars. Then a notification came on his cell phone.

*Ping*

[A deposit of $2,000,000.00 was made by Hónghé Holdings].

Klaus picked up his cell phone, read the notification, and then lay down on his bed, staring at the bright smartphone screen. A tear streamed down his face a moment later, and this time it was not one of sadness. It was one of relief.

'I finally did it,' he thought.

Klaus knew that this was only the beginning, but at least he had a chance to make it up to his parents for all they had put them through in the past few years.

This was also a chance to give his younger brother Ard a different future. As well, it was giving his brother Rhyzer more time to continue fighting for his life.

Immediately, Kaizen looked up his mother's number in his address book and called her. It was late at night, and his mother usually woke up early for work, but Klaus felt he couldn't wait until the next morning to tell her the good news now.

*Trrr... Trrrr...*

Chun Park hears her cell phone vibrating on her bedside table. Although her cell phone is on silent mode, she woke up anyway thanks to her light sleep.

"...Um...?"

Sleepily, she groped with one hand on the headboard and picked up the cell phone. At first, the glow of the cell phone bothered her eyes, but when her brain processed that it was a call from Klaus, she answered it as quickly as she could.

"Hello, Klaus? Is everything okay, son?"

At the same time, she got out of bed, worried as any mother would be. It was very unusual for Klaus to call outside her lunch hour or at night, as he did this time.

Consequently, the two other people who were also lying in her folding bed also woke up.

Michael Park heard his wife say the name of their second child, so he also got up quickly and turned on the light in the small bedroom.

Meanwhile, little Ard, who was very sleepy, slowly opened his eyes. In Ard's arms, there was a small white cat, who took advantage of Ard's wobble to manage to get loose.

"Hi, Mom. Everything is fine, yes. Sorry I'm calling so late." Klaus stated.

Rubbing her eyes sleepily, Chun asked:

"It's no bother at all. Did something happen? Do you need anything?"

Klaus took a few seconds to answer.

"Son?"

In this short time, Michael had already put on a jacket and was also putting on his shoes, ready to help Klaus with anything, even at this hour. Although his relationship with Klaus was not great, he would do anything to help his sons.

"No, it's okay, Mom, it's serious. You don't have to worry about me that much."

"Are you sure you haven't had a bad dream and are worried about looking fearful to your flatmates? If you want, I can sing that bedtime song I used to sing to you. Hehe!" Chun sneered at his face to relax.

Klaus smiled. "That would be great, but maybe another day. Actually, I'm calling to ask about how Christmas will be this time. Last year we helped out at the shelter the day before, ate supper, and exchanged gifts after midnight, didn't we?"

"Ah, so that's why..." Chun was relieved and smiled, also calming Michael, who sighed with relief and went back to bed. "Well, this year we don't have as much space as last year, and the owner of the property has forbidden any kinds of parties, so we may not be able to have a fun Christmas like we typically have. Michael promised Mr. Clinton that he would still help with the Long Island shelter's delivery of clothing and food this year, how would you like to help him with that? I know we won't be able to have the usual Christmas, but that doesn't mean we can't make other people's Christmases better."

"All right, I think that will be cool too. By the way, Mom, my roommate's sister said that there is a great restaurant here downtown that is always open during Christmas. If you guys want, we can have lunch together on the 25th to make up for the lack of supper and we can still exchange gifts."

"Sounds great, son. Your father would hate to admit it, but he seems to have been excited about it." Chun said, smiling.

Michael's voice was far away on the phone and yet Klaus heard him say embarrassed:

"You don't have to narrate all my expressions to him..."

"He's blushing." Chun continued.

Klaus inevitably laughed. "Thanks a lot, guys."

"Why are you thanking me, son?" Confused, his mother asked.

"I know Thanksgiving has been over for a while, but I just got the urge to express how grateful I am to have you guys in my life. Maybe if I were alone, I would have given up by now, but since I have you guys, giving up gets a lot harder. Seriously, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys again."

"Oh, son... You're going to make me cry... We're looking forward to seeing you too, we miss you so much... Sniff... Don't forget to come see your mom tomorrow when you finish things at the shelter, otherwise I'll kill you. Your dad can give you a ride to the station afterwards."

"Okay, thanks, Mom."

"I'm the one who thanks you for calling, son. Are you sure you don't have anything else to talk about?" she asked. A mother's instinct never fails.

Klaus denied with his head, as if she could see, and then said:

"No, it's okay, Mom. Tomorrow we'll talk better."

"All right. See you tomorrow, son."

When Klaus hung up the call, he sat up in bed with a huge thrill in his chest. He was so happy that this feeling didn't seem to fit inside him, and he thought that maybe it would have been a problem to tell his parents everything he wanted to tell them over the phone, because it would take away their entire night's sleep, not to mention that he wanted to be able to hug them when he told them that they could get their house back.

However, Klaus woke up the next morning, on Christmas Eve, to knocks on his door.

*Knock, knock!

"Hey, Klaus! Wake up!" Jayaa exclaimed.

The black-haired boy got up sleepily, turned on the bedroom light, and opened the door with the wires still messy.

"Good di- Cof! Cof! How much dust was trapped in that room?"

"Good morning, Jayaa... What happened for you to be waking me up so early?"

"Early? It's already eleven fifty-eight. Seriously, how late did you stay up playing yesterday?"

"Um... Until almost midnight.

"And I haven't seen you for what? Like three days? Anyway, this letter came for you." Jayaa held out the letter, and Klaus took it. "I don't know who it's from because of the blank envelope, but it doesn't look like a collection letter."

"And I hope it isn't."

Kaizen took the envelope, tore off the top, and pulled the thick paper letter from inside. The first few words he read from the letter were more than enough to make his eyes widen.

[Sender: National Institute of Standards and Technology.

To: Klaus Park.

...]

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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