With most of the immediate battlefield cleared of corpses, the players began logging off one after another to rest. Although playing using the gaming capsule was akin to sleeping in the real world, remaining inactive for an extended period of time wasn’t ideal. Victor also seized this opportunity to tie up loose ends and attend to several matters before heading back to the main building, specifically to his office.
Upon entering the room, a mischievous voice chimed in with a warm welcome. “Oh! Welcome back, Master! Congratulations on your successful venture!”
“Mm.” With Lumen shrinking back to the size of a medium-sized dog under his hand, Victor nodded wearily and sank into his chair, his shoulders slumping from exhaustion. “So, do you have any information on what happened when the queen spider died?”
Lizbeth was watching from behind the scenes, so she would likely possess more information on the matter than Victor. Just like how viewers often knew more than the characters in a story.
“Oh, that…” Lizbeth’s lips curved into a wry but playful smile, a suppressed giggle escaping her. “Hehe, it must be one hell of a surprise, I assume? With more than a thousand small spiders chasing you and all…”
“Sheesh, don’t remind me of that anymore.” Victor waved his hand to signal her to cease. Changing the topic, he said, “More importantly, can you tell me about the curse?”
“As you may know, a few moments before its demise, it utilized its remaining life force to cast that curse known as ‘Curse of Bloodline Retribution.’ It is an innate curse that special magical beasts would have, used to mark their killers so that stronger, more potent beings of their bloodline would take revenge on their behalf. In essence, it serves as a racial “defensive mechanism.”
“I see…”
Victor had certainly heard about such curses before, although the specifics were somewhat hazy. Evading a curse like this wasn’t an overly complex task for an official Magus, but for Victor, it could easily translate into a death sentence, even if the adverse effects weren’t immediate. The wolf nestled in his lap had spared him from that grim fate, prompting him to shower her with affectionate strokes on her head. As expected of a magical beast with the blood of a mythological beast said to have swallowed a moon…
“There, there, what a good girl…” Victor’s fingers luxuriated in the soft, silky fur, incomparable to even the most lavish of pelts. She reminded him much of the corgi he used to have on Earth…
For some unknown reason, Lizbeth gazed upon this display with a hint of envy. One of her tiny fingers was resting on her lips.
Noticing her expression, Victor inquired, “Hm? Anything wrong?”
“N-Nothing.” She quickly averted her gaze.
“If you wanna pet her so much, feel free to do so; Lumen wouldn’t mind, right?” Victor raised Lumen gently, like a docile pet.
“Woof!”
“That’s… Well, okay.”
Lizbeth slowly floated toward Lumen, joining in to offer the wolf gentle strokes of her own, albeit not as energetic as expected.
What’s up with her? Wait… An abrupt realization flickered across Victor’s head, but he denied it as quickly. No, no, no…! That would be weird.
With no urgent matters demanding his attention, Victor activated his Master Shadowlink Mark and indulged in a bit of online browsing. He was curious to gauge the players’ reactions on the forum about the aftermath of the battle. He wasn’t in a rush to claim his reward from the mission, anyway.
The official forum was already flooded with discussions, so he had to skim a lot of posts until he stumbled upon an interesting one. Curiously enough, it was a thread made by the harbinger of updates — Storm Bringer.
Storm Bringer: “I was killed in the ensuing chaos of the last battle! But it’s okay because victory is a sure thing! Over a hundred Lesser Hiveborne Arachnids met their end in close combat, and possibly several hundred more fell to our ingenious traps. Hahaha, it was great! I killed at least four… No, five! It must be a penta kill!”
Squadzell: “But you’re still dead in the end. 😏”
Castlefrost: “I died in the final confrontation too. Seriously, it was the most epic part of this battle, with the headmaster NPC spearheading the confrontation against the queen spider. It was an honor to be a part of it.”
Captain Derp: “Noooob! You guys are such noobs! If I were the one playing, I’d have single-handedly wiped out a hundred of them with my eyes closed! #SkillIssue”
Castlefrost: “Screw you! You don’t even qualify to play this game. You don’t have the right to criticize us!”
Storm Bringer: “Enough, enough. I might be six feet under, but I took the opportunity to edit the footage I captured. Here, I will share the URL link with you guys.”
It appeared that Storm met his end during the final confrontation, but not before taking five Lesser Hiveborne Arachnids with him. He then wasted no time in editing the footage he’d captured. Well, Victor wasn’t one to underestimate this old online friend of his, so he opened the link. Apparently, it was just a two-minute premiere video and not the whole one…
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
The trailer began by showing the arachnid horde’s distant march and then fast-forwarded through the activation of traps until the players faced the horde head-on. Next, the queen spider, with its menacing presence, unleashed chaos before the main character entered the scene — which was Victor himself. The trailer culminated in the epic final confrontation as he, along with the players, faced off against the remaining arachnid horde.
“Well, well, well, don’t I look cool in this video.” Victor beamed in glee. The edited video’s quality was superb, and he found himself praising it, particularly because the main character was none other than himself. The production value was so high that it could easily serve as the game’s promotional video if the perspective weren’t limited to first-person POV.
“Hmph. Only you would be shameless enough to praise yourself,” Lizbeth chimed in with a snarky remark, clearly still upset about something.
Victor retorted, “Oh, come on, don’t be such a wet blanket.”
Still, this gave him the idea to create an official promotional video to attract more players to the “game.” As luck would have it, Victor had already ensured that Lizbeth recorded the entire event for future reference, allowing him to send the footage to Storm later. Why do it himself when someone else would willingly do it for free?
Victor opened the official forum again and noticed that by this time, more and more players had logged in by now and were commenting on the thread. They were bragging about how cool they looked in the trailer Storm made.
Prominence: “Damn, bro! This is like a trailer for a bestseller movie! 🤯🤯🤯”
MariaC: “Yup, yup! It’s incredibly cool, alright! I’ve never been this excited since the last time I watched Marvel, Lord of the Ring, and such.”
Squadzell: “It looks fantastically real! Watching it makes me want to play even more! Cyber, I know you must be lurking here somewhere. Right? Please give me access to the game!!”
Storm Bringer: “Please beware that this isn’t the finished product since it takes time to edit the whole thing, but I highlighted the most thrilling moments for the trailer. I’m investing a lot to hire a trusted editor for this one, so be sure to watch it when it’s ready!”
Prominence: “I’m hyped for this!”
Squadzell: “+1.”
SuperNovaX: “+2.”
Stickman_Just_Passing: “+3!”
ZeroXScyth: “I wonder where that sourpuss Noobzilla has gone to? Usually, he’d make a fuss here on the forum after failing to do so on Discord, claiming that this is all a fabrication by the game developers.”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “Hah! He’s probably too ashamed after seeing the videos and screenshots that people have posted. It’s a shame we can’t make fun of him anymore.”
That was true. Every time that troll showed up, everyone would have a lot of fun. This guy was like a gopher; he loved to taunt the closed-alpha players and then disappear, not giving anyone a chance to mock him. He became less active after the new update rolled out and started to appear less frequently until he was gone from the surface of the earth.
Perhaps in his world, he believed that he was fighting against some dark force. To him, those who “ridiculed” and “defamed” him were probably the moderator’s alt accounts. But Victor wasn’t one to judge easily.
Comparatively, viewers on YouTube, who were mostly not aware of the existence of the game, were not so easily convinced.
“Is this really not CGI?! Tell me that this is CGI!”
“It’s not CGI; it’s a next-gen VR game! Have you not seen the previous few videos?”
“I have! But I thought it was a film made by bored people doing random stuff in a forest. After all, the scope of the previous videos is limited to first-person perspective, and they’re doing mundane things like farming, making bricks, and stuff. It feels more like the real world than a game.”
Storm himself didn’t reply to any of the comments, as someone else (his fans mostly) had given clarification to every question asked. That aside, what these people said didn’t offend Victor in the least. In fact, it inadvertently flattered him and his game, which was essentially another world in disguise.
As Victor read the comments, he came to realize something and thought in his heart, They were lucky they didn’t have to witness a giant spider giving birth to thousands of smaller ones or even the gore part… It’s all censored here.
“Real world, my foot! Just look at the scale of the battle. Look at the strange creatures and magic used by the characters there. This is likely to be a promo video for an expensive VR game, but it’s unlikely to be the real content.”
“Yeah, it’s just hard to believe. I mean, look at the graphics quality. It’s insane! They probably use some sort of motion tracking to make this. Still, if it’s a real game and looks exactly like this, then it must be a fully immersive VR game!”
“Actually, Storm put the link to the game in the description. It’s a game called ‘Magus Academy Online.’ I’mma check it out right now.”
“Be careful; it might be some shady gambling site.”
“…”
This scene was a lot like when Victor first tried to chea— recruit players into his game. There were skeptics, but curiosity would always win out in the end, leading to more people discovering his game. He just had to be prepared for when it would be received worldwide in the future and covered by the media.
With nothing of interest left to explore, Victor closed the holographic screen and stretched his weary body. In this battle against the arachnid horde, he had overexerted himself, and the accumulated fatigue only caught up with him now in a single motion.
“Ugh… I think I will sleep on my bed now.” Victor put Lumen down and dragged his body into his room; he had no more strength to spare for anything else.
Although the sun was about to rise from the horizon, Victor was dog tired; he might collapse unconscious at any second. There were still other problems, like the magic barriers that were no longer there to protect his safety, but the matters that could be taken care of later should be dealt with later.
“Good night. I hope you have a sweet dream,” Lizbeth said with a hint of warmth as she followed him inside.
With no energy left to respond, Victor collapsed onto his comfy bed and snuggled himself under the warm quilt. As his consciousness slowly fell into the embrace of darkness, he subtly felt a gentle touch on his forehead, like the brush of a soft breeze or even the bite of a mosquito. Either way, he didn’t pay it much attention, but thanks to that, his sleep became even more comfortable, and he was carried into a long, sweet dream.
A dream sweeter than any he’d had in a long time…
***
Atop a city wall, four figures stood side by side, each wearing acolyte robes with an ornate design with patterns that gleamed in the fading sunlight, casting elongated shadows against the stone beneath them. At the front stood a young man with striking, fiery red hair, his stance exuding an aura of command. His gaze was sharp, fixed on the distant Thornwood Forest.
“Prepare yourselves,” he said, calm but charged with intent. “We’ll seize the inheritance with our new forces.”
As his companions nodded, a breeze swept over the wall, rustling their robes and carrying his words into the encroaching dusk.