Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

When the group of barbarians was completely wiped out, Kaizen looked at the druid who was still crawling on the ground. This was supposed to be a quick and easy kill to increase his kill count and move him up in the group's overall rankings, but the samurai had gotten to him first.

Kaizen looked at the samurai, who was now in a defensive posture with his katana in one hand and the other free to block his attacks, and realized that fighting him would be difficult. This samurai was clearly not a player like the others, he was very competitive and would not give up easily.

"You are a skilled player." Kaizen praised him with respect in his voice. "But of course, I can't let you get away with it after betraying your comrades."

Obviously, Kaizen said this to sound a little snappy for the cameras. He certainly understood the samurai's reason for doing what he did.

The samurai remained silent, concentrating on his breathing as he waited for Kaizen's first attack.

Kaizen took a deep breath and said, "All right, let's get this over with soon."

In the next instant, Kaizen advanced towards the samurai with his sword, and before the onlookers could even process what was happening, Kaizen attacked with a series of blows. His blade seemed to multiply, creating illusions due to its speed.

The samurai's sword glowed a reddish hue, and he blocked each blow with dexterity, only to have a little sweat trickle down his forehead.

Kaizen knew he couldn't win this battle based on his physical ability alone, so he concentrated on confusing the instincts of the player in front of him.

'Time to try something...' the Psyker thought.

[Activating the Class Skill <Psychokinesis>.]

Psychokinesis was a systemically evolved version of Telekinesis, except that in practice, the two abilities were completely different from what Psykers had already understood. This new ability was not just a simple evolution, but more like a new deck. Basically, before, Kaizen had one card from a Psyker's immense array of abilities, but with the recent evolution, Kaizen acquired practically the entire deck. As a result, Kaizen could now do much more than just push, pull, or crush targets and creatures; he could sense and possess virtually any paranormal power. That meant he had <Psychokinesis>.

Stepping back to use this ability, Kaizen created a dozen perfect projections of himself around the samurai, trying to confuse and distract him enough to give him an opening.

However, the samurai would not be so easily fooled as to attack one of these illusions. On the contrary, he continued to concentrate on his defense.

Unperturbed by this predictable defensive posture, Kaizen continued to strike with increasing speed, but now from different directions that the samurai could not always predict, until the moment the psyker finally saw the fatal opening he had been waiting for so long. He advanced with all his strength, hoping that his final blow would be enough to defeat the samurai, but he didn't expect that the samurai was already ready for it, seeing that he was cornered and setting a risky trap by opening his own guard.

The samurai dodged Kaizen's blow and in one swift move, sliced Kaizen in half with his katana. Kaizen looked at his opponent in shock, unable to believe that he had lost.

At that moment, the samurai's face finally showed an emotion: surprise.

And Kaizen's body fell to the ground, only to go up in smoke...

However, the samurai's reaction of surprise was not because he had defeated someone as famous as Kaizen, but because he saw immediately after Kaizen was cut in half that he was actually the one who had fallen into the psyker's trap. Immediately after cutting Kaizen in half, the samurai saw that there was another Kaizen who had defeated the first one, meaning that the first one had been an illusion from the beginning.

"I lost." The samurai murmured in a calm voice amidst the slashing motion of his sword. He knew that even if he were the best player in the world, he could not come back so quickly with his sword to block Kaizen's attack.

Literally an instant after the murmur, Kaizen cut off the samurai's head.

[Supercritical Damage!]

[Supercritical Damage!]

[Supercritical Damage!]

The samurai could hardly believe it when he saw his own screen turning red and death notifications. He fought with all his might, using his attribute enhancement abilities to the fullest and trying to dodge Kaizen's attacks. But his opponent was very strong. He felt a sharp pain in his virtual body as he respawned in the hotel where he had set to respawn, and then he logged out.

Soon he found himself back in the real world, sitting in front of his computer with the old NeuroGear on his head. He removed his virtual reality helmet and threw it on the bed in frustration. As he tried to process his defeat, his thoughts turned to the prize money he so desperately needed. He had signed up for the tournament hoping to win the prize money and pay off his overdue bills, which was why he was so determined. Now, with his elimination, he didn't know how he was going to get the money to survive until next month.

Natsuhito Koga sat in silence for a long time, his mind struggling to understand everything he had done wrong during the battle. He also knew that he needed to do something quickly to make money, but he didn't know what to do. Finally, he decided that he needed to try other ways to make money, not just rely on the profit from buying and selling items and monster drops in Rise Online, so he started looking for new online job opportunities.

While searching, the samurai promised himself that he would get his revenge against Kaizen as soon as possible, even if it meant traveling all the way across Midgard.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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

More character images in:

https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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