The Final Desperation

[You have slain: Swordsman, Berserker]

[Your maximum energy has increased by 30]

[You have obtained 17,598 coins]

[You have obtained: Energy Strengthen, Wind Cutter]

 

[Energy Strengthen]

Rating: Rare

Type: Knowledge Book

Description: A book containing all of Berserker's experience in using Mental Energy to boost his physique

 

[Wind Cutter]

Rating: Rare

Damage: 24

Durability: 130/160

Effect:

Swift Cut (Active): Burst out with 500% attack speed when performing a quick draw, 5 min cooldown

Description: A decent katana wielded by Swordsman before his untimely death

 

While the katana wasn't anything fancy, the book was. If it wasn't for the fact that knowledge books can only be used in EverRealm, Genji would have used it right away. That was what he was working toward so having a reference would be a big help.

Genji picked up his dagger and looked at the faint arrow in his view. The target had disappeared from the mini-map and the arrow is getting smaller. It doesn't seem like he will be able to catch up.

"Shame. That was such a good opportunity."

But that doesn't mean Genji was going to give up. He pulled out a map and kept his eye on the arrow. Then he waited for it to disappear. When it did, he marked the general direction the arrow was in. It's not a good method, but it will give him something to work off. Genji shook his head and looked for a nearby hotel to stay for the night.

 

---

 

The next morning, Genji checked into an internet cafe and looked for an address in the vicinity of the line he marked. Then he called a taxi and traveled over. Once night arrived and his tracking skill got off cooldown, he tried again. This time, the arrow was clearer and a dot appeared on the mini-map. His blind guess had paid off. 

"We're being tracked again," Sensor opened his eyes and informed the group.

"What the? Is it the same person?" Cleaner asked with an annoyed tone.

"I don't know, but it's still one person."

"Damm persistent bastard."

"So what now? Do we try to get rid of him?"

"Wait, I have a better idea," Mage interrupted, "Let me do the talking when he arrives."

When Genji came upon the group, he raised his brow. Then he checked his badge. No doubt about it. It's them, but aren't they a little too bold? In front of Genji, a group of oddly dressed people sat around a park table. They were casually chatting like they didn't commit a heist and the Psychic Association is looking all over for them.

"You must be our pursuer," Mage got up from his seat and walked over to him.

Genji reached for his saber and prepared for combat.

"No need to be like this. We're not here to fight. How about you join us? Since you were able to track us down, you must be skilled."

When the rest of the group heard his so-called plan, they facepalmed. Why would he join? He obviously here for some other reason and is ready to fight. Why are you talking to him? Any moment now. He's going to reject-

"As long as I can join the game, sure."

Wait what? It's that easy?

"See? It pays to be civil sometimes," Mage turned around to the wide-eyed group and lectured them in a "I am right," tone.

Civil? Did this fucker just call himself civil? The Mage that blew up the side of the museum last night? You call that civil?

"Welcome to The Guild. In this group, we all go by our specializations. For example, I'm Mage and I specialize in spell casting. So what can we call you?"

When Genji heard that, he understood why the previous opponents from last night had such weird names. So it's a code name.

"How about I take Swordsman?"

Genji decided to test the waters with the name of this deceased man.

"I'm sorry, but someone is already using that."

'Are they playing dumb or do they not realize I killed the previous Swordsman? Maybe they do know and they don't care?' These thoughts flashed through Genji's mind, but he decided to play along.

"Is that so? How about Assassin?"

"Sounds good. From now on, we will call you Assassin."

Mage sat down with the rest of the group and continued bathing in the sun. Genji found his own spot and asked a question.

"So why are you sitting here? You people seem too relaxed for the situation you are in."

"You mean being hunted down? I don't see anyone that is after us except for you. As for why we're sitting here, we're waiting for Morphling."

"Morphling? You mean curator Dan?"

When Genji heard the name, he thought back to the odd behavior of the curator last night.

"That's one of his identities. Interesting how you saw through the ruse."

"It's not hard if you saw what I saw."

Geni decided to bluff and not reveal his abilities too much. He would rather keep his stronger senses to himself. Especially when he doesn't trust any of these guys to not stab him in the back.

"You must have used night vision goggles. How sharp of you when the lights only went out for a few seconds."

"It never hurts to be cautious."

2 hours later, a taxi pulled up next to the park and a woman in a red dress stepped out. She looked around before walking over to them, swinging her hips in an exaggerated way. When she walked over to the group, she took off her sunglasses and blew Genji a kiss.

"A red hibiscus blooms twice, dear."

This was an oddly specific phrase. Genji guessed that it was a code of some kind. 

"Morphling?"

He put one and one together and made a guess.

"That's me. What's your name, dear?"

"I assume this isn't your original look?"

Genji chose to not follow the woman's flirtatious words and pointed at a potential sore spot. When Mrophling heard him, she clenched her chest and leaned with her other hand on her head.

"How mean. Don't you know that you should never say that to a lady?"

"Putting aside whether you are a girl, I'm not interested in your act right now."

"Hey now. Let's all take a step back. This is Assassin, Morphling. He recently joined us," Mage stepped in and mediated the rising tensions.

Morphling dropped her act and put on a serious face.

"Fine. The plan's a success. The association is going the opposite way right now. We should have a few days before they catch up with us. Let's return to base before then."

 

---

 

Genji stepped out of the large car and looked at the so-called base. A normal house. To be honest, this was not what he expected as a base of a group capable of pulling off that heist. When he walked in, he was expecting a secret entrance like his first world, but there was nothing. It was as simple as it looked. The house might be on the bigger side, but there's nothing special about it.

"I think I understand why no one has caught you people yet. No one expects the most wanted group to be living in a normal house."

Genji looked around and saw a few more people coming into view. In total, there are about 20 people, including him. All of them are at the mini-boss level. This is not a normal group.

"Mage, everything went well?"

"For the most part, yes."

"Then what happened to Swordsman and Berserker? And who's the unknown person?"

"Accidents happened and now we have him as a replacement."

"The leader's not going to be happy about this. They were two of our strongest fighters."

"If it's fighting power, you don't have to worry, Mechanic. Assassin should have defeated the both of them."

When Genji heard Mage mention that, he tensed up and prepared for an onslaught of attacks. He's now in a den of mini-bosses and relaxing would get him killed.

"Is that so? Fine. I won't pursue this anymore."

'Aren't they too chill about the death of their members? It's like they don't care about each other at all. I didn't happen to join the main villains of this world, right?'

Mechanic sat down at the dining table as someone brought out large trays of food. Genji followed as everyone else did the same. After the person set the last dish, he also took a seat and dug in.

"Chef, your food is as good as ever."

"That's of course. It's me your talking about."

Another mini-boss level person. Genji is starting to think everyone in this home is at this level. As this was happening, a maid pushed a sickly-looking man in a wheelchair into the room. The maid positioned the wheelchair at the head of the table and stepped back. The man looked at everyone for a few seconds before speaking.

"I see we have a new recruit. I'm Seer, the leader of this group. Now let me get started on why I was so insistent on getting the cartridge for the game."

Although Seer looked weak, Genji didn't underestimate him. That's because when he used inspect on him, it revealed that he was a boss! 

"The game, Etheria Offline contains a powerful artifact capable of changing the world. As long as we can clear this game, we will be able to get our hands on the Pristine Gem, an artifact capable of granting any wish to its owner. With this, we can finally achieve our goal of world peace by destroying the Psychic Association."

The first part was fine, but the second part told Genji that this group was exactly the main villain of this world. Not that he minded the affiliation. As long as his mission can be completed, he doesn't mind siding with these deranged mental patients. It's not like it's the first time he destroyed the world order. Rather, EverRealm seems to reward him for doing that so aligning with this group may be beneficial.

"So when are we getting started?"

Genji noticed that everyone was looking at him, trying to gauge his reaction to the ambitious goal. If he shows any signs of hesitation, they will pounce on him and remove this potential threat. Genji realized this and showed his eagerness to begin, dispelling the doubts of everyone.

"After this meal. Each cartridge allows up to 50 people to enter the world at once. Unless the psychic dies, these slots will not be recovered. Lucky for us, we managed to kill some of the psychics bound to these spots while Mage's group was retrieving the cartridge. As of now, we have 5 slots available."

Genji understood now. So that's why the association was okay with displaying it. It's because it's useless for anyone to steal it unless they know who entered the game using this cartridge. As for how this group knew, Genji guessed it has something to do with Seer's ability. His name is Seer so it would be more surprising to Genji if he wasn't involved somehow. 

"As of now, we will prioritize our main combatants for these slots. Bladedancer, Lumberjack, and Nomad will get a slot. As for the other two, we need to redistribute it since Swordsman and Berserker are gone."

Mage stood up and started talking.

"With all due respect, Seer, I think I have the perfect candidate to replace them. This is Assassin."

Seer looked over to Genji and nodded. Genji didn't know what the frail man saw in him, but he agreed right away.

"Very well. That leaves one spot left. Let's have Sensor go. His abilities will be a big help. Now that's decided, everyone can scatter. As for those who got called, meet me in the gaming room."

The maid then pushed the wheelchair out of the room, leaving the rest of the group to enjoy their meal. When Genji finished, he leaned back and waited. A few minutes later, Sensor finished and Genji motioned to him.

"Where's the gaming room?"

When Genji and Sensor entered the room, Genji noticed there were 5 people already sitting on the couch. Seems like they were the last ones. Once they were seated, Seer handed the maid five pieces of paper, to which she handed out. Genji took it and looked at it. It was a list. A list of names.

"I assume these are people who we need to kill?"

"As expected of someone that goes by Assassin. Yes. These are the usernames of the other psychics in the game world. I want you to kill them if you come across them. This will free up more slots for the other members."

"So that's why you gave priority to people who can fight."

"Yes. But be warned. The game operates on different rules and you are entering with your body. Any injuries you suffer will be reflected when you leave the game. That includes death."

"Go figure. Let's get started."

Seer nodded and took out a gaming console to plug the cartridge into. A simple game menu popped up on the TV. The colors were reminiscent of the arcade era and only two options were available, 'play' and 'exit'.

Seer handed the controller to a man on the side.

"Bladedancer. Go first."

The man took the controller and selected 'play.' As soon as that happened, the person disappeared, causing the controller to drop. The next person in line took the controller and repeated the process. When it was Genji's turn, he felt himself banking out for a second before he found himself in a room of white with pink gridlines.

As he was looking around, an orb of light with pixilated wings flew in front of him.

"Welcome to Etheria Offline. I am Hope, your guide for the tutorial. Unlike normal MMORPGs, Etheria works differently."

The white scene in front of Genji started to morph as a binder appeared in front of him. Genji took it and flipped through it. There are 10 cards displayed on the pages.

"This is your collection. In Etheria, every effect is dependent on the cards you possess."

A robot teleported into view. In its metallic arms, a similar binder appeared out of nowhere.

"You can summon and store your collection at will."

The binder flipped open as the robot tapped on a card. Out of nowhere, an arrow materialized next to it and shot at Genji. Just as he was about to dodge, the arrow stopped mid-air. Genji looked around and realized the robot had stopped as well. It was as if time had stopped for the environment.

"When your opponent uses an effect, you can use your own to counter it."

His binder flipped to a specific page where one of the cards was highlighted.

(Barrier)

Effect: Summon a barrier that absorbs 100 damage

Cost: 30 mana

 

When Genji clicked on it, he felt an unknown energy drain from him to erect a round sphere around him. Then time started flowing normally again and the arrow bounced off.

"Now that you have defended, you need to counterattack."

3 cards became highlighted in Genji's view. Genji clicked on one of them. Summon arrow. It was the same attack the robot had used. This time, the robot defended with an ice wall.

Once that happened, one card became highlighted. Fireball.

"Each magical ability has a counter. Learn them and you will gain an advantage in battle."

A small orb of pure heat condensed above Genji and shot at the ice wall. When the fireball approached the wall, the ice started to melt and weaken. Then an explosion of mist blocked Genji's view.

"You can continue your attack as long as you can pay the cost. Now finish it."

Genji opened his binder and selected the only skill he can use. A lance appeared and threw itself into the fog. When the fog dissipated, a robot with a lance through its head appeared in Genji's view. Sparks of electricity buzzed around the damaged parts before the robot fell over. Then the binder in the robot's hands floated up and a stream of light shot toward Genji's binder.

"When you defeat an opponent, you plunder a card from them."

(You have plundered the progression card: Tutorial Bot)

"Normally, you can't plunder a progression card, but this is for demonstration purposes. There are 100 progression cards in the game. Collect all of them and you can challenge the final boss. Win and you clear the game."

The binder flipped to a new page where a card with the picture of the robot appeared. The card didn't do anything, but it decorated his collection.

"Now it's time to choose your class."

Then 5 books of different colors appeared in front of Genji. Each book was a different color and represented a different class.

• The blue book: Mage, gains access to elemental cards and increased mana pool
• The red book: Warrior, gains access to action cards and the stamina stat
• The black book: Rouge, gains access to stealth cards and muffles the particle effects formed from using skills
• The grey book: Tank, gains access to survival cards and increased health 
• The white book: Priest, gains access to support cards, and a slight increase in both health and mana

Genji looked at this and ruled out the physical classes. He's not particularly interested in these specialties. His techniques and instincts would act as semi-specializations so trying to add on to them would net diminishing returns. That leaves him with the mage or priest class. After much thought, Genji made his choice.

"Priest"

His reasoning for this is that the class only said he gains access to certain skills, not got locked into it. That means he can still obtain offensive cards in the future while having support cards to help him out. It's the most balanced-sounding class and Genji prefers balance over a skewed specialization. He can make up for his weaknesses when he's balanced, but trying to make up for something that doesn't exist would be troublesome.

"Is that your final answer?"

"Yes."

When Genji answered, he found his binder glowing and morphing. When the light faded, the previous binder had turned into a white tome. The same book as the option that was offered to him.

"Please select your username."

"Assassin."

Since he's using this name with The Guild, he might as well continue for this world. Hence, he became Assassin, the priest.