Chapter 2: A World Filled with Magique


    Thest subject of our ss ended in a sh. All the professors left their ssrooms and gave away the homework for us to finish within this day. But those activities never got graded by the end of the school day. Those papers remained inside the teacher''s desk, with no one touching them.


    Everyone stared at the clock ticking on the panel, waiting for the rm to sound off to the academy. After the school bell chimed a piercing sound, the students flocked with one another inside the ssroom. They formed a circle and talked about the current game''s condition. And these people excluded me from their list.


    "Hey, hey? Have you heard about this really awesome game?"


    "You bet I did? Look at me! I have all the coins in the world!"


    "Being rich doesn''t mean you''re a powerful yer, dumbass!"


    "Shut your crap, man! I''ve worked hard for this! All my savings went to this game!"


    "Hey... isn''t that Arthur Wyllt??"


    "Why the fuck is he looking at us?"


    "Rx. Just don''t look at him, okay?"


    Those were the student''s conversations. However, among those people, one had mentioned my name. It came from the batch right next to the entrance. They locked their eyes to my figure, plotting a sinister scam to offer me soon.


    "Hey! Do you want to ask that guy over there? If you need toplete the yer count, maybe include Arthur in your party? Since we have four members, adding him would make us five in the team! And even if he dies inside the game, you can loot his belongings afterwards! We can even steal his experience points." A guy with his pair of sses asked, as he directed his gaze to me.


    A violent shiver escaped from my spine as I heard my name getting mentioned from this ss. I knew that it only spelt trouble if someone spoke my name. All I could do was act as if I had not listened to their talks and slept on my board.


    Those students spun around and faced my sleeping figure nestled on the desk. Sinister grins emerged from their faces as they thought of the scheme inside their heads. Despite my head burrowing on the table, I knew they glued their eyes on me. They thought to include me in their little gathering, and that was what they did. My ssmate with sses from that group came to me and sauntered in my direction. But before that person could walk to my side, the leader of their mob pulled his arm.


    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?" the guy growled, and red in the sses guy''s direction.


    The leader of that dozen bunch grabbed the four-eyed guy in his cor and mmed him to the sides, forcing his body to bang the concrete floor. The bloke with the lenses winced in pain as his body came into contact with the floor. That guy screamed in pain as pinkish lumps of bruises formed on his head and skin.


    As if not enough, the chief of the hoodlum students gritted his teeth and cracked his neck, instilling fear in everyone inside the room. The guy''s tattered uniform bared his chest in front of the student approaching my way.


    "I wanted to use Arthur for my party! That''s all!" the bloke with the sses pleaded as he iled his arms. "I swear I did nothing wrong! Please spare me! I-I can transfer my money to you! How do you like that?"


    "Nobody talks to that loser!" the scoundrel student grunted, while tossing the sses guy in my direction. "And better send me the cashter, fucking retard!"


    I had no time to react to the scene as the body crashed against me. The student''s weight piled on top of my head, with my chair crashing to the ground. The two of us grunted as we rammed against each other.


    A violent cracking sound resounded at my hips. As I checked my sides, the sses that the student wore shattered into a million shards. Some of them even pierced our bodies. There was a puddle of vermilion blood formed beside us while warming our already chilling bodies. A sudden throbbing pain surged through my thighs, which received the impact the most from the hurl.


    None of the officials in this school or even the teachers cared about their students. They cared about the game more than the schrs of this university. It only showed that the game had conquered everyone in this world.


    As those teachers arrived at the entrance door, they did nothing to that bastard who threw that student in my direction. Those professors were so engrossed in their games. They did not pay any attention to what happened in the ss.


    The distant noise of their characters fighting against a monster resonated inside the ssrooms. Just like the teachers that had arrived in the fray, all the students left the ssroom. Their heads leaned closer to their phones, busy with their games.


    It was a nightmare living in this world.


    Everyone in my ss talked about the game that would give you money. The stronger you get, the richer you be! That topic became the trend in my generation.


    They had been doing this for a year now, without inviting me once to their group. These students thought I was a quiet person. Little did they know I was aware of their topic every day!


    But there was a catch. You can never use the money to be a skilled yer! Like uncle Barn used to say, "with great abilities,es with great management!"


    The game was not a pay to win, but apetitive one! It involves ying on aptop or a Gamestation with a controller and fighting against other yers in the PVP mode! (PVP is yer versus yer mode.) Powerful weapons meant nothing in the game if you did not know how to y!


    A level 1 beginner could beat the level 100 gold digger with a de! If someone knew the game mechanics, that person would win tons of prizes!


    And that was not all! There were mountains of features that the game developers released every day! All of those tasks rewarded yers with real-life money!


    A myriad of yers would take part in this quest to conquer thebyrinths. The guild that could aplish this mission would receive millions of Yen to their bank ounts! To those who couldn''t, then better luck next time!


    "Stay away from me, you freak! This shit happens because of you!" the man croaked at me. He took his broken sses with him and left me inside the ssroom.


    ..


    I went home right afterwards and raced upstairs to open my Gamestation, connected to the television. Millions of lights flickered all at once as the console activated itself for me to y the game. The game that the world had been talking about for generations was none other than an RPG game. People also called it "Magique" an alternate world from Earth.


    It allowed every yer to make their character inside the game. But what differed this game from other MMORPG (massively multiyer online role-ying games) was their update. It could use the facial features of the yer and their personalities inside the game.


    If a person had exceptional talent in archery, the game would process that information in its database and create an elf for that character. That elf was a marksman that would wield a bow instead of a de.


    If a person had a broad and brawny body, that person would be a tank in that world. The system would provide armour and an insane amount of defences for that individual.


    The list went on as the game grew popted.


    I did not have time to mend my wounds, knowing it would heal on its own. And my parents did not care about my shes all over my body. They also preupied themselves with the game shing in front of them in the living room.


    All I cared about was grinding for some more experience in this game. It was all that I had left inside my crappy life.


    [Wee, Arthur.] Theputer addressed me.


    [Name]: {Arthur Wyllt}


    I did not bother changing my in-game name, since nobody knew who I was in this world, anyway. And I was one of the top-ranking yers in the entire world, and the number one yer in Canada. Thanks to "Magique" my identity remained safe with me, and nobody could know who I was behind that screen. Not even a hacker could prate the game''s defences, since this was a multi-billion game created by the sharkpanies.


    Telling people my identity was a waste of time. I did that once, but the people I confided in my heart to went and used me as they wished. Those scums did not care about my well-being. All of them were greedy bastards in my eyes.


    [Processing data...0%]


    [Processing dataplete 100%]


    The game announced itself and switched the screen. However, that never happened. As I peered through the monitor, a spark emerged from the console. It almost crisped the entire Gamestation!


    "Dammit! Don''t do this right now!" I cursed, and mmed my hand on the jet-ck surface of my gaming set, hoping it would work. But it didn''t.


    The console instead generated a spark that gushed through my veins, electrifying my entire body. My muscles refused to heed my call as I tried forcing myself to touch my leather shoes beside me.


    But I was toote. My consciousness left my body, and the only thing I saw was a pitch-ck screen weing me.