In the wake of war is the eye of a storm.

On one spectrum, Mad was discerning her ideas of destruction, waving her arms in the air as her group nodded their heads and cheered. The Guildless, on the other, were quiet and waited until finally a message. It was from Madder. “I have located the Horizon.”

The group looked back at one another and silently got up. They were in an outpost in Mainland. The destroyed city had yet to recover as the Domination Event continued. All damage was to persist and remained irreparable to players. The Guildless would prepare something they hadn’t tried for a long time.

The message from Madder would instruct the Guildless players to prepare for battle, not against Mad or Madfeather, but against each other. They were quickly confused. “Why would we need to fight one another?” Gaston yelled. “I would tear you apart. ”He yelled, laughing to himself.

Diggy looked at Hagerty, rolling his fingers into a fist. “I would like a rematch!”

Hagerty clenched his mouth, raising the side of his lip to create a slight curve of confidence. “Hmph,” He josted. “I was going easy on ya’?” The tension between the two could be felt.

“Guys! Calm down.” Finally, a voice came to settle the group. It was Grande. “Madder wouldn’t jeopardize our survival for any reason.”

They then received a message regarding the pairings of fights that were to occur. First on the list was Gaston and Mandy. Second on the list was Oege and Aethera. Third on the list was Hagerty and Diggy. Surprisingly, Grande was not fighting anyone in the group but was given another task.

Madder would explain. “As Mad is watching you all very closely, I must make sure to keep her distracted while we enact our actual plan. I will need you guys to make this as believable as possible. Try not to defeat each other…consider it sparring.”

Grande would receive another message. “This is what I need you to do…”

An hour passed and Mad sat impatiently on her throne in Horizon. “I’m bored!” she yelled. “Why aren’t they doing anything?” She began to scroll through a screen she manifested looking at each of the players. “What a minute…”

Meanwhile, her henchmen went their ways in Horizon. Jun sat in his chamber twiddling his fingers thinking about everything that happened so far. Was it just as Mad had laid out? He recounted all of the events. “Who would’ve thought that at level 1, a new player like me had met the strongest players in the game…”

Just then a voice came in. “Strongest, maybe the most problematic.” the voice said, Jun turned to face where the voice was coming from and turned to see that it was Nero.

Jun quickly looked aside, making sure not to make eye contact with him.

“I think you have it wrong.” He said. “I think you have bigger problems right now.”

Jun felt his helplessness, but then felt sentiment from his words. He then looked to see the blackfeather along Nero’s pocket. “It's glowing.” He thought. He felt something oddly familiar but distant from it. An energy that seemed to attract him, but also push away something deeply within him.

Nero could tell something caught his eye from his gear and quickly listed the statistics of his equipment, like reading a list of perks on a car. “Is it the Flare-Tailed boots, triple-slotted with armour penetration?” He then excitedly rubbed his elbows. “Or is it the Toktu-Shaman Bracers painted in black Tribal dye?” He then pinched the headband over his head. “Or is it the classic martial arts headband, a cosmetic item personally crafted by….” He paused.

Jun could tell that the headband had some significance to him. It sparked a memory causing him to quickly stare into the distance.

“A good friend?” Jun says softly.

Nero nodded his head. “A simpler time.” One could feel the sorrow in his voice as if he were between himself. Something was holding him hostage from revealing his motives but Jun pressed on.

“Was it love?”

Nero began to blush and wave his hands in front of him. “No, no, no!” he said embarrassingly.

He held his hip and rubbed his face. “How can I put this?” Smashing his hands together he came to an explanation. “You know what beats love? A good fight…”

Jun stared blankly at Nero and waited for him to continue.

“Going toe to toe with someone of equal strength and power, and seeing who can calculate the move to gain the upper hand just to figure out it was their plan all along…” He continued into the distance. “Even I couldn’t hit her. She would parry every strike I attempted and then with a single slash I was left to die...”

Jun couldn’t help but pry. “Then she’d win and you challenge her again and again right?”

“No…” He said solemnly. “I would fight her even in death...” Nero’s face had gone from a solemn lonely look to a face filled with joy and pleasure. Jun could tell this was no ordinary sentiment but a lust for battle. Jun didn’t know Nero well enough to know that it was somewhat uncharacteristic of him, but something was off. Nero caught himself for a moment, covering his mouth. “Dammit,” he whispered. He swiped his lip with his thumb. “Our fight never ended.”

Finally, he shook his head. “Enough of this Alex, I have to go.” It was quick, but the slip from Nero caught Jun’s attention. Enough so that Nero turned around, and coughed, feigning to walk towards the exit.

“Alex,” Jun said to himself. “Who is Alex?” The feather would resonate as the thoughts passed through his mind. Finally, even Nero would feel the vibrations. The name was familiar to him but distant. A memory, something was causing his head to feel dizzy and he couldn’t understand.

“What is this? What is happening?” He grunted to himself. It was as if Nero had seen an epiphany come true. He turned and faced Jun. When suddenly the ground began to rumble. He reached out his hand as the feather broke loose from his pants, and flew towards Jun. “It’s too early, don't!” Nero yelled.

But Jun was done being the passenger in a vehicle. Something bothered him in the moments of his helplessness. His motive was still the same, to become the richest, but whose game was he playing? Why was he never in control? At all times he was being led, captured, like a pet. Even his caravan was stolen from him. It was his. Not theirs. And this bothered him to his core. The only person to take him seriously was. “Blackfeather…”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The feather stood afloat right between his cell. All Jun had to do was grab it but there was his hesitation. In a flash Nero made it to the feather and reached, even putting his shoulder into the motion to increase its speed. As he touched a follicle of the feather it propelled him back, as if a barrier had been created around it. “I am done being just an aside to everything in my life. I am taking control.” He reaches for the feather.

The feather seemed to have a mind of its own while it did not allow Nero to touch it, it allowed Jun to clutch it with his hand firmly, as it vanished into small pixels of black grains seeping into Jun’s mind. It set off a large burst of energy, sending Nero back meters to his feet.

“Guys!” Nero yelled. “We have a problem.”

Jun stood, swiping his hand on the ground, summoning a long sword in hand, gowned in black leather armour with a cloak. A class change window emerged in his HUD reading, “Sellsword.”But he had inherited more than he knew. A voice would cowl in his mind, second to his own. “It took you long enough, Junior.”

Although the experience was new to Jun, he knew exactly who this voice was. As memories began to fill his mind, a memory of something dear came to him. It was the first time he met Olivia. “You remember now, who you are?” The voice spoke.

Finally, another notice would appear in front of him. It was one regarding the activation of a new skill he had acquired.

PBE Skill: Entrepreneur

As he became aware of his memories, they would likewise manifest in the game. In Asper Online, some of the tab menu options that existed were common in other games. There was a Skills Page where players could read all their skills. These skills were either ones they had to activate manually deemed Active Skills, or skills that were ongoing called Passive skills. There was a Quest Page, where tasks given by players were. It comprised a list of quests fresh, and also completed. There was also a Character menu where players could see their character statistics, including levels, and all equipped items. But this section also included a character's name, a space for a guild's name, and led to the Social menu. While he had no friends before in his Social Tab, it suddenly began to be filled. The information soon would fill his mind with hundreds of players who were either online or offline, as well as proximity. He looked at a name that appeared online, but also nearby. Nero, who was on his friends list. Finally, he felt a grip over his head, as if a crown had been placed. He reached for the mass, and it was an assembly of words. “Entrepreneur.” The words would pulse, but also pull up a menu in the character screen called Titles. As he read the words, it listed what Entrepreneur meant to the player that had it. “This player can buy and sell in-game resources for any and every other in-game resource at will.” Jun knew about PBE” Skills from Madder and Crypto. He knew these were skills granted by the developers. But he had just started the game. How could he have a PBE Skill? His memories would flood once again. He couldn’t tell who the person was, but it seemed like Blackfeather speaking with an aura like a black beast.

In the memory, the beast seemed like a mentor to him. It told him how the skills worked, and told him to test it out. The visage of Blackfeather struck an object destroying it in an instant. “Again!” the black beast said. And Blackfeather would strike the object, yelling “Mercy!” But again he destroyed the object. “Why isn’t it working?” He yelled.

“Again.” The beast said. Blackfeather would try again to no avail.

The beast rose to his back, manifesting a cloak. “Your PBE Skill Mercy was never intended to be called Mercy. It is the only way you can bring her back without destroying her. You need to master this. For her sake. Please try again.”

Blackfeather would then target the object one more time. He seemed to have more resolve which could be seen in the way he took stance, and held his greatsword. It was then that Blackfeather turned and faced something he was seeing. “What are you doing here?” Blackfeather had seen Jun in his visage.

The memory then subsided and Jun felt a feeling in his brain swell.

While Jun evolved, Nero lay on the floor, with his hands pushing his weight up, when suddenly Into the room came two players helping him up. “Get off me,” He said while he had already reached balance standing.

“We heard some commotion in here.” One person said.

“Mad isn’t going to be happy about this.” The other said.

Jun saw the three players standing in front of him.

“He regained Blackfeather?” The First player yelled. “Warn!-”

Jun wasn’t sure how his newfound skills worked, but if he put it to the test. “It’s too bad I don’t have time to figure this out.” He raises his sword in front of him. “PBE Skill: Entrepreneur!” Everything in the room became colour and labeled with a price. From health bars to pixels on the walls. He then looked closely, and even the pixels of air had price tags on them. He then raised his hand and it had a price on it. He opened his character screen, looked at his character, and saw that his character had a price “quote.”

“Quote?” Jun said to himself. He would then notice that some objects had red numbers with negative percentages assigned to them.

“He doesn’t know how to use it! Quick, grab him!” The one player said. As Jun looked up he saw that over the player's head was a large red negative number above the player's head which constantly changed in price. The air to the left had green numbers but to his right hand had red numbers. Nero's body was green but the air surrounding him was red. Meanwhile, the other player was labeled red. He looked down to see that the floor that he was standing on was red and increasing quickly to a large number. When it finally reached a number it pulsed, and something in Jun told him to move, so he jumped in the air. Under his raised feet, an Aur Alun emerged, manifesting towards the wall and ceasing to exist. It was then that Jun slowly came to realize what he had gained. This was another skill that emerged on the top right of his HUD. It read, “Net Worth”. As Jun focussed on it, it displayed what it did. “Net Worth added together the total of positive points a player has which can be used to raise their quoted price. Acquire Net Worth by completing green actions. Red-labeled actions will lower your Net Worth. Use your Network to use your Quoted Skills.

Jun's mind ran quickly to check Quoted Skills, but he couldn't as he saw red numbers come to his face. It was Nero’s fist. Generally, Jun could see green still to his right but felt that he couldn't move quickly enough to do so. “I’m finished.”

Nero’s fist would come to a spec of Jun’s face when Jun would hear the voice yell out to him. “MOVE, ALEX MOVE NOW!”

Jun’s body teleported to the left where the green points were. His Net Worth decreased but then rose back to where it was. He felt his chest pump. It was as if he was looking at the face of death. “That would’ve killed me wouldn’t it.” The room was tight with the three assailants blocking his way, but he noticed a strip of green numbers towards the exit. He began to run in the direction of the green numbers. Nero would attack him once again but Jun saw beyond Nero was a green patch, and phased from existence, lowering his Net Worth, and appearing beyond him. The first player then reached for Jun. Again his attack was labeled in red, but a curved space of air was plotted in green. Jun followed the green space, rolling his body clockwise around the player, and facing the last player. His Net Worth had risen and dropped. He realized that he activated a movement skill at that moment. Onethat allowed him to teleport and another that allowed him to move quicker in general.While the teleport skill showed a green area it seemed to first cost Net Worth to activate, while the green path he took gained him Net Worth.

“I think I understand now.” He looked back at his quoted price. It had risen. Jun had realized that his quoted price rose when he gained green points, which meant that the cost to teleport him was more. In front of him stood the last player. He inspected the player's name which was in green. “Yanderes,” He read.” She then raised her arms, which extended towards Jun, transforming into the Heads of Aur-Aluns whose mouths were wide opening to crunch onto its target. To Jun this Attack was red, but there was a section in between her arms that was red with slim sections of green, but a section that was gold was closest to Yanderes. Jun hadn’t seen this colour label yet but took the chance to understand it. He ran towards the red but noticed that green was appearing between the heads of Yanderes' arms as they intersected. He jumped, curling his body like a pole vault evading the first, and evading the other. When he finally stopped at the gold-labeled spot, His HUD opened up with a question: Use Skill: Reap-poses. Y/N? He noticed her body fluctuated from red to green, back and forth, but a line in her torso was gold. He looked at his weapon. He raised the blade past his neck beyond his head, raising his elbow to gain strength for the attack he was about to attempt. He then followed to curve of the line as best as he could, swinging upwards through,

Yanderes' body split as it rose, fizzling. “Ugh!” she yelled. Jun’s Net Worth rose. He wished to look back but in front of him was green. So he took forward, running into the hallway. All different paths would come; it seems that his memory led him as some hallways were labeled with red, and continued to follow green paths. Finally, it led him to a room. The doorway was red but beyond it was Green. From the top of the door, fuzzled smoke like water, fogging the door.

“Would you like to enter?” The voice said. It was like a Soul-Like game entering the area of a boss. He looked to his left and there was a gold mark on the floor. He touched it, and a figure of himself appeared. “Summon yourself to a world, when a player calls upon you.” Jun looked back and the green corridors were slowly turning red. Jun knew he couldn't enter the room as Mad must be in there. The two players must be gaining on him as well. His senses told him to trust the PBE Skill, and he grabbed onto the gold mark. His body seeped into the gold mark. As Nero and a player named Spotter came to the door, they looked around but then entered the room.

Mad who was in her chair facing the screen turned to face the players who entered. “What is it?” She said bothered. “You are keeping me from these Player vs. player fights on the surface!”

Nero looked at the screens and saw many of the Guildless players fighting. “Impossible, why would they turn against each other?”

“We knew Borealis was never meant to exist. The strong will eat each other! The world is only meant for Whales and Shar-!” As she was interrupted, the Horizon began to shake. “Um,” Spotter said. “You guys feel that.”

An alarm began to sound. Mad looked up and could hear millions of scratches on the ceiling. “It couldn’t be!” she said.

From the ceiling came the face of a gigantic shark forming from the bodies of millions of ant bodies. “I’ve patched a tunnel!” it yelled.

As the shark came crashing through its mouth opened wide to swallow Mad. Another player descended, gracefully planting her feet on the floor of the rustic room. It was Grande. “Old Friends, meet again.” She said cunningly.