The Boss Behind The Game

On the day of the launch of Battle Online's European server.

The night in the bustling City of Fog was unusually deserted.

Below the hazy streetlight, a teenager was lying still on the ground. A coin-sized wound was still visible at the back of his head, with droplets of blood on the ground that was still wet.

"Ow…"

At that moment, the teenager opened his eyes. He subconsciously propped himself up, feeling a sense of pain from the back of his head.

He reached his hand out to touch it and immediately noticed that his hand was covered in blood.

"Where am I?"

Reinhardt instantly felt that something was wrong. He clearly remembered that he was discussing the counterattack plan on Beiqi with his friends from the guild. So why was he lying in the street now?

"Huh?"

He then realized that the jacket he was wearing was the one that he had already thrown away a long time ago. Why was it on him now?

"Is this a prank? Or was I really abducted and robbed?"

As he thought of this, Reinhardt quickly reached into his pocket to check if he had lost any belongings.

Reinhardt was stunned again when he took out his phone and wallet.

He had already changed this wallet two years ago, the same for his phone and the jacket he was wearing. What exactly is going on?

The clueless Reinhardt started to panic. He quickly tapped the phone screen, intending to call the police.

16 February 2319?

After looking at the date on his phone, Reinhardt stood up in a hurry and looked around.

The familiar streets, the skateboard in the nearby grass, and the bloodstains under the streetlights were all there.

This scene suddenly reminded Reinhardt that two years ago, he had fallen off his skateboard and injured his head in this same exact place!

Could it be that I have traveled back in time to exactly two years ago?

This guess made Reinhardt panic, as he did not know if this was all a prank or it was really happening.

If all of this was real, then that would be incredible.

He staggered forward a few steps, but the wound on his head throbbed, causing him to stop walking as the pain was unbearable.

Reinhardt could not continue walking ahead, so he took his phone out and opened a medical service app. He chose the option for direct treatment service, then he sat on the ground to wait.

After a moment, a smart ambulance could be seen driving toward him, before stopping beside him.

"Ding! Please confirm your identification!" said the mechanical voice.

Hearing that, Reinhardt reached out to configure his thumbprint in the identification sensor that the ambulance handed to him.

"Ding! Identification confirmed. Good evening, Mr. Reinhardt. Please board the car, we will do our best to treat you."

Click! The door of the car unlocked.

Reinhardt opened the door and sat into the car.

After he went into the back seat, a few streaks of light scanned over him.

[Scanning in progress…]

[End of scan... injury in the head… cleaning your wound now and bandaging it…]

After that announcement, two mechanical arms sprang out from each side of the door and a medical box popped up on his right.

As the mechanical arms were treating his wound, Reinhardt's attention fell on a television screen inside the ambulance. He was still thinking about the strange incident that had happened.

At this moment, the screen changed and an advertisement played.

[The European server of Battle Online has just launched today, if you would like to experience the authenticity of the game everyone is talking about…]

Reinhardt's eyes widened when he saw the advertisement, "I'll be damned, is this real or not?! Today is the launch of the European server of Battle Online?"

"Oh my God! Did I really travel back in time?"

Perhaps the incident on the street might have been a prank, but it was impossible for the advertisement in the ambulance to be fake.

Reinhardt suddenly became excited with this thought.

He was very clear about the impact that Battle Online would bring to the future.

This game marked an epoch in the world, and two years into the future, he would still just be a normal player in the European server, similar to other lower-level players, hoping every day to obtain a hidden character class or inherited character class.

Albeit, it would be different this time! Now that he had traveled back in time, his mind was already filled with various gaming knowledge about Battle Online that he had learned in these two years, and also the strategies for many quests. Did this mean that he stood a chance to become a very powerful player!?

He knew that if he could become stronger in the game, his whole life would never be the same again because anything that was valuable in this genre of a game could also be monetized in real life.

Besides, he believed that as long as his abilities became stronger, numerous large guilds would hire him into their guild with a high salary.

He immediately took out his phone and opened up his contact list. He found his best buddy's phone number and dialed.

"Hello? Reinhardt?"

"It's me! Please listen closely, I have a very urgent thing to tell you!"

The seriousness in his tone seemed to surprise the person on the other side of the phone. There was a series of rustling noises, before his friend's voice returned, "Tell me, I'm listening!"

"Stop playing Storm Legends... delete it quickly. Tonight is the launch of Battle Online, let's play that game!" Reinhardt said excitedly.

The person on the other side of the phone went silent for a few seconds before replying slowly, "Reinhardt, are you fully awake? What are we going to do with our Gold Farming Workshop if we delete the game? If we really delete the game, we won't even be able to pay the rent, do you want to sleep in the streets?"

"Don't care about that gold farming thing any more... quickly play Battle Online! We must use this to our advantage and we'll never run out of money ever again, trust me!"

"Beep... the treatment is done, the medical fee is twenty thousand. Do I need to send you home, Mr. Reinhardt?" the mechanical doctor's voice rang.

"Reinhardt, I understand now why you're acting like this. I think you're hurt really badly. Where are you? I'll be there in a moment."

Reinhardt was speechless.

"I'm not crazy, I just injured my head a little. Are you listening to me?"

"Yes I am, you've injured your head, this is not a small matter," the voice on the other side of the phone was very solemn.

"Wait for me, I'll be there immediately, I'll talk to you again when I arrive!"

"Ambulance, send me home!" Reinhardt roared excitedly after he ended the call.

"Alright, Mr. Reinhardt. You are staying at Flying Bird Street, are you headed to that location?"

"Yes!"

...

When he reached his destination, Reinhardt quickly paid and dashed back to the place he lived.

Previously, he would be very depressed over the twenty thousand medical fee for a long time, but now he felt that it was not a problem anymore. As long as he grabbed the opportunity of the launch of Battle Online, two million, even twenty million would not be a problem anymore.

Reinhardt did not feel an inch of tiredness even though his wound had not completely healed. Instead, he dashed up five consecutive flights of stairs, his whole body filled with adrenaline.

Reinhardt took out his keys and opened the door. He immediately saw his best buddy McCray, who was cooking noodles.

When he saw the bandages on Reinhardt's head, McCray gave him a predictable look, "Are you alright?"

Reinhardt's eyes sparkled with excitement as he stepped forward and grabbed McCray's shoulder, "Haha, we're going to be rich, we're really going to be rich!"

"Rich? How are we going to be rich?" McCray was confused.

"Through Battle Online! Today is their official launch day... an extremely important day!"

"Listen to me, I know that you're very excited and I can see that, but you must rest first!" McCray advised him with a serious face.

"Could you please trust me? We have been brothers for so many years, I would never lie to you. Tonight is the night, so come play Battle Online together with me!"

McCray was stunned for a few seconds as he looked at Reinhardt, who had changed so much.

He clearly remembered that a few hours before Reinhardt went out, he was shouting about how he was going to fight for some good things that night, but he had changed so much all of a sudden.

The way McCray saw it, he must have hit his head really hard.

"Whatever, what time is it now? We must launch the server at 10pm sharp, let's get ourselves prepared!" Reinhardt walked to his gaming table and turned on his computer. He took out the gaming headset that was connected to the computer.

"Are you really not going to play Storm Legends anymore?" asked McCray quietly as he walked toward him with the bowl of noodles.

"Not anymore! That useless game is going to shut down soon. Don't be blinded by its popularity now, that's only because Battle Online's European server hasn't launched yet!" Reinhardt opened the website skillfully and entered the Platform173 download link.

When he saw the banner of Platform173 with the countdown icon for Battle Online, Reinhardt felt very pleased as he knew his life was about to change.

As a veteran player, he had a huge innate advantage because not only did he remember parts of the strategies for the quests, he also clearly remembered the two strategy posts in the forum that shared their process of obtaining their inherited character classes.

These posts were the key to his rise.

One was the Dark Knight, and the other was the Devilman Hunter. These two character classes were very powerful, both emerging in glorious victory multiple times during their inter-server matches in the later stages, catching the world's attention.

Reinhardt was extremely grateful for the two fellows who shared their strategies of obtaining their inherited character classes.

He could only apologize to the world for this now!

As McCray watched Reinhardt fidgeting about in excitement, he could not help asking again quietly, "If you're really not going to play the other game anymore, how about you give me your account? I'll run both accounts to earn more money."

"Why do you still want to play that stupid game? I told you, that useless game is going to shut down any time soon. Now that there is a great opportunity right in front of us, this is the chance for us to turn our lives around, don't you understand!?" Reinhardt turned around, feeling exasperated at McCray.

"How about this, you experience the game with me for twelve hours. If you're still unsatisfied after twelve hours, we'll continue playing Storm Legends. What do you think?"

Met with Reinhardt's strong demand, McCray was stunned but he eventually nodded, "Alright then... twelve hours. After that, we'll go back to gold farming, the rent is due soon."

"Just twelve hours, hurry, finish your noodles. I'll download the game first and go to the forum to have a look!"

Reinhardt was extremely speechless when he saw how reluctant his buddy was, but he could understand how he was feeling.

None of these were important, though. Once his buddy had experienced Battle Online for himself, he would understand.

Thinking about this, he reached out to open the official web forum of Battle Online on the Platform173 website.

Reinhardt had tears in his eyes when he saw the familiar interface of the official web forum.

In this life, I will not let those other players from the original server bully me anymore. From now on, I am the main character in this world. Even if you guys started playing it three months ago, I will surpass all of you!