While all the spectators of the world were concentrated on the battlefield awaiting the start, behind the scenes of the venue gathered the leaders of the major European guilds. Far enough away from any spotlight, camera, or audience. In reality, they didn't care about who would be the winner of this demonstration battle, for they were all more interested about why the mysterious leader of the largest European guild had summoned them there.
"Who does he think he is to keep me waiting?" Khalil, Leader of the Sedentary Guild asked aloud. He had the appearance of a man of about 26 years old with thick brown hair.
"Seriously... couldn't this meeting have been inside the server?" The Leader of the Arguments of Hell Guild, Fryft, leaned over the table, looking bored.
The hooded man opposite where Fryft stood at the large round table, known as Brightwater, answered her:
"Goldrudder is a perceptive man. If he asked for us to gather here, other than he wants to raise so much money with a silly event, there must be a reason for it."
"Ohh...~! You are the famous leader of the Water Wolves Guild, Brightwater! I've always wanted to meet you in person~~. I confess I've been a big fan of yours since you were posting videos to help beginners when RO released." Mikal, Leader of the Prisoners of Love Guild, said to Brightwater, also placing his hands on his blushing cheeks. There was just one small detail, he was a man.
"That's right, I used to make silly videos. However, one day I fell into a trap of some players who already knew my way of playing, my arsenal of skills, and the locations where I hunted, so I learned my lesson." Brightwater stated.
Marklen Shattermast just clicked his tongue as he heard all this talk and turned his face away. Since cell phones were not allowed in the room, he felt like he was stuck with ugly, weird monkeys that he was having to put up with.
"Well, there's nothing to do. We have to wait." Beltumal, Leader of the Makros Guild, stated with his arms crossed with a serene look at everyone.
After a few seconds, these leaders mentioned, and the more than a dozen other leaders who were in this room, could hear and feel the elation of the audience as the demonstration battle began. Then a blue light in the center of the round table where they were standing turned on, and a large hologram was projected to the ceiling at the same time as the lights went out.
This hologram was only the image of a silhouette in the midst of darkness, clearly making it clear that the person in question did not want to divulge his face, and the robotic voice that accompanied the beginning of the broadcast confirmed this.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen... For those of you who have never properly met me, I must introduce myself. My name is Goldrudder and I am the Leader of the Blazing Sun Guild. As you may well know, I was the first to become an Evolved three months ago, but I was not selfish and showed other people how to do it as well. This time, I have gathered you here to once again reveal something, however, I will tell you in advance that I do not want this to be revealed to the general public."
The words spoken last by Goldrudder were more than enough to capture the complete attention of all the Evolved ones seated at the table. Then he continued.
"Every day more players start playing Rise Online, more locations are discovered in the various worlds, quests are found, NPCs are created and then die. Lo and behold, at the end of November even an entirely new class appeared for the first time for us. However, dangers also arise, and as we players evolve, dangers accompany us..."
No one knew how far this Goldrudder speech would go, until the Guild Leader of the Erased Sun Guild suddenly decides to be more direct.
"A week ago, a Korean lady named Yeong-Hui Yi reported to the Seoul police that she was smelling a very strong rotten smell coming from the apartment next to hers. The police promptly responded to the call, and even after persistent knocking on the door of the apartment, they got no response from the landlord. So they easily broke the lock on the door, entered the apartment, and found Min-Jun Song, a young man of 25, dead on his bed. The entire apartment was completely clean, there were no signs of a break-in on the balcony or the door, no visible wounds on the surface of his body or discards of medication in the garbage cans. The investigators' first hypothesis was that he died of a heart attack, but one detail was drawing too much attention not to be taken into consideration In the young man's head was a NeuroGear."
All the leaders present at the meeting table immediately looked at each other, startled.
On the other hand, Khalil smiled mockingly. "You don't mean to say that this man died because of the NeuroGear, do you? That's completely ridiculous and conspiracist."
Goldrudder did not get angry with Khalil, instead he continued to talk, completely ignoring what Khalil said.
"Min-Jun Song bought his first NeuroGear four months ago precisely to play Rise Online. He was skilled and his avatar was known as Hanyes. He had just recently become an Evolved from the Freelance Hunters Guild. From the information I was able to gather from the Captain of the Freelance Hunters, Hanyes died in-game while trying to complete a hunt for a Superior Epic Creature. After he died, he automatically logged out and hasn't heard back."
Almost complete silence filled the meeting room, and the shouts of the people in the showmatch audience was all the noise they could hear.
"The police are looking into the case, and I think that since all this has come to my attention, Hónghé Holdings must already know. The company will probably hush up the case so as not to lose out on sales, but ladies and gentlemen, I don't want to insinuate anything, this was the first case of death of an Evolved in all history. I will continue to gather information about the case and will inform you if anything new comes up. However, I reiterate that we need to be more careful as the dangers of this game are evolving along with us."
...
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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