“Hey bro, why the fuck do we need to drag that trash along? He does nothing. He just sits there and suck up all our exp. Kick him out already and get one more DD.”

“Shut the fuck up Pax. We need him if you want to clear that last floor. Without Celestial shield we’ll score another wipe.”

“Sorry J, he’s just frustrated. We’ve been trying to clear that floor for over a week.”

“As long as you pay up, I don’t care. Ten mil gold to get you to the chamber and I pick one item from the loot if we survive the fight. Gather up, I need to redo your buffs.”

Joe replied. He really did not care. He was there for the money and nothing else.   

Like many other people he spend countless hours playing RealBloodOnline with little or no break. Though there were two important differences that separated him from the rest of the players. He played for real money and he played as a support class. That was his way of living, playing a game, mastering it then selling his services to the highest bidder.

People often scoffed at him when they learned of his profession.

“ What do you do for living?”

“I help people.”

“You’re a civil servant?”

“No, I play a support class in RBO…”

After that laughter always ensured. Joe did not laugh. Nor did he care. His work earned him roughly a million dollar a year which after deducting costs of equipment, bills, taxes and subscription, still left him with  enough cash for a comfortable living.

Even in game people mocked him. Who would play a support class? They were weak, useless in a fight as they made no real damage and were terribly squishy. Also all the other players would often gang up on the healer when something went wrong. It was not a very forgiving class and less than a percent of the total player base choose it. A huge mistake.

The company that made RBO designed it in a way that one way or another every class was necessary. Even though the freely available charms and potions could let a warrior zoom past the early stages of the game,  later dungeons were quite impossible without the assistance of a talented healer.

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It was something this louse party of noobs would soon find out as they were approaching the gate to the boss level.

“We have reached the gate. Please transfer the agreed amount to my character.”

“You lazy son of a bitch if you think I’m gonna pay you anything…”

Here we go again. This idiot may try to PK him and what worse, he’s this party main DD. Reckless arcanist that would die  at least ten times already were it not for the buffs he got from Joe.

“Deal or no deal, your choice. I’m not going in until you pay me.”

With a round of curses, they send him the required amount.

“I see we have a deal. Now, before we go, one word of advice. There is no chance for rebuff inside that chamber, that means we must do it within twenty minutes or you’re all dead.”

Actually twenty minutes was for normal buffs. Over the last few months he spend a fortune over-enchanting all of his skills so compared to what you would get from an NPC town  buffer, his buffs lasted for entire half an hour and their effect was at least sixty percent stronger. This should be enough even for this shitty party to clean that room.

“Tank, whatever is inside, don’t let it agro me or DD. If I die you die.”

“And for fuck sake I hope you have a good armor because if my mana goes dry spamming heal on you we’ll die anyway.”

“Shut the fuck up and move your lazy butt. You’re here just for the Celestial shield, if you fuck this up I’ll PK your ass till you dlvl to nothing!”

Well, he tried. With a swipe of his fingers Joe send the buffs flying and run along the idiots into the gate. What followed was… predictable.

The tank was an idiot. He used up all of his ultimate skills in one go within the first few minutes. The moronic DD died first after attacking the boss way before the tank could grab and hold its agro. Joe rezd him once, then twice then… left him on the floor as it was pointless.

The arcanist had no idea how to play his class that depended sorely on evasion and quick consecutive attacks. He stood in place and spammed the same spell over and over again , not even realizing the monster was resistant towards that type of damage.

Thankfully the archers were making up in skills and could kite quite nicely. They finished within twenty seven minutes and with about one third of his total mana left. Not bad considering the junk grade equipment the tank had.

Since the arcanist made a rage quite half way and disconnected, the boss rewards doubled for achieving victory without a full party and without the use of the celestial shield which, truth to be told was a shitty skill. It burned all your mp and gave you what? Ten seconds of immortality? Most of the bosses had chain skills that lasted twenty to thirty seconds. It was a trap skill design to kill noobs.

As promised, Joe picked up one item from the top of the list and left the party.  A high level robe with a slight enchant. Not bad. It should net him close of a nine hundred million gold. That should keep him and his fuck toy fed for a couple months. Speaking of fuck toy, where was she?

Ah. That’s right. She was moping in her room, possibly dead drunk. Another publisher rejected her manga. Would she ever learn? Instead of aiming for complex character and convoluted story she should aim for a harem of at least ten jumbo sized horny girls or a flat chested, perverted loli.  Or a mix of both. Seems like nothing else would sell these days. With the industry in the gutter gone were the times when authors actually told a story. Now? Each and every title stank with puke inducing moe and fanservice.

Oh well, no fun today.  He decided to let her cry for a bit in private but that just meant he had to find some other way to kill time until the next assignment. At three in the morning there was not much to be done. Perhaps grabbing a beer and some noodles? Round the corner a nice Chinese noodle place opened a week ago. Perhaps he should give it a try? Google said they were still open so , why not?

Armed with a credit card and some pocket change, he prowled through the empty street. Warm summer breeze tickled his nose with oriental scents, the place should be round this corner.

And then, everything went white.