In the dim torchlight of an underground dungeon, a small, translucent blade of wind tore through the air.

“Kree?!”

Shik.

The blade cut deeply into an ugly goblin’s neck, spurting a fountain of blood into the surroundings as the goblin sunk to the ground. A second wind blade hit the same wound and fully severed the head from its body.

“Nice!”

That was a really nice shot, Rone didn’t think he could do it again even if he tried.

Magic-casting as a mage required a large amount of focus and visualisation. In Hero of Liberation, casting using a simple, spoken incantation and gave a linear, reproducible result which was very simple to use, though a bit lacklustre. Contrarily, in the four years leading up to the launch of World of Heroes, Virtek had advanced their technology and were now capable of reading signals from the brain’s visual cortex. This breakthrough led to the creation of the new magic system, whereby the player only need imagine the spell to bring it into reality.

Rone found another goblin and prepared his next spell. The spell selection and damage calculation for mages in this game was calculated using a metric called ‘thought pulse’. The clearer and more vivid the visualisation created by the player in their mind, the higher this value would become and the more devastating the spell’s effects. This meant that more advanced spells later on in the game would definitely be more difficult to control, but for now, Rone only had to control his small starter spell, [Wind Blade], which summoned a sharp blade of compressed air to launch at high speed.

Even though it was a starter spell, it was still fairly hard to visualise, because the blade was partially transparent and also not a solid object. Approaching the goblin, Rone condensed his spell and prepared to fire.

Ring Ring!

“Fu-” The spell collapsed and veered off-course, scraping the ground and dissipating into the floor. Rone kicked the goblin away with his foot and fired an inaccurate second wind blade, gouging a hole in its leg before retreating for distance.

Picking up the call, Rone spoke into the air with undisguised annoyance, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Did something happen?” A voice with a discreet hint of glee came through from the other end.

“No, nothing. How far through the dungeon are you?”

Max tutted in slight dissatisfaction. “I’m done. I was teleported out before I could even pick up my arrows. You could have warned me about that, you know.”

“Eh? You’re done?”

“Yeah, the boss didn’t even put up a fight. He just fell over, like a schoolgirl seeing a spider in the kitchen sink. Are you nearly done? Because if not, I might as well go in again.”

Rone thought for a moment. ‘It’s been like 4 minutes?! I’ve only killed 10 goblins, how is he clearing the entire thing in that time??’

“Rone?”

“Uh, yeah. I think I’ll be a while, so go do whatever. This class is a bit weak at the start.”

“Kay!” Max abruptly hung up the call.

“...” Ignoring the injured goblin, which was slowly crawling toward him, Rone stared into the long dungeon passage ahead with a vacant expression.

‘Is that guy actually a monster?’

...

...

Max ended the call and took a moment to stretch, flexing his arms and legs. It was peculiar that stretching felt good at all in the game, given that his body was motionless in real life.

“Excuse me, sir?” Someone walked up to him and called out to him.

Max turned around and saw a pair of men, one seemingly in their 20s and the other in their 40s. Somehow, they both seemed to be fitted with good equipment already, despite the game having only just launched.

The older man had addressed him, so Max stopped staring and responded, “Hi, can I help you?”

“Yes, we were just wondering where we could find a hat like yours, it looks rather impressive.”

Max smiled widely. The black cattleman hat was an extension of his body now, so a compliment to his hat was like a compliment to himself. “It was given to me by the NPC at the archery range. He should have a few more like this, but this is the only black one.”

“Alright, thank you very much.” The man whispered into his friend’s ear, like a butler informing their superior of important details prior to entering business negotiations.

“How much?” The other man spoke up.

“Huh? For the hat?”

“Yes. I want that hat.”

“Sorry, but it’s not for sale.” Max smiled. “I’ve grown too attached to it already.”

“What about 200 gold?”

“? No, I’m not interested in selling. Thank you for the offer, though.”

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“...”

The atmosphere suddenly turned chilly as the two men reached an impasse.

“...George.” The younger man spoke again. “Just take it off him.”

The older man sprung towards Max and reached for the hat. Max swiftly sidestepped and watched as George sailed past, grabbing air.

“Hey now, did you think you could just steal it since you couldn’t buy it?” Max’s tune was still playful as he took off his hat and held it behind him, dashing backward to avoid George’s following tackle. “No-no-no, I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that, fellas. If you want to get a hat like this, you have to earn it fair and square.

Tristan and George watched as Max held the hat out in front of him, before it spontaneously disappeared into the air. Max dusted his hands theatrically and made eye contact with Tristan.

“What?! What did you just do?”

“What else? I put the hat in my inventory.”

Tristan took a moment to register before he cursed and turned to George. “Hey, we can still get it if it’s in his inventory, right?”

“I’m sorry young master, I’m not sure. It might be only equipped items that-”

“Wh- *cough* Hahaha, did you just say young master? What is this, a Wuxia novel? Who are you calling young master in the 21st century?” Max laughed and pointed at Tristan mockingly. “Maybe I should be scared, you have a big family behind you, right?” He taunted.

Tristan narrowed his eyes. “As a matter-of-fact, I do. My name is Tristan Avaricius, cousin of Damien Avaricius, heir to the Avaricius Corporation. I’m sure you’ve heard of us, no?” Tristan smiled, wondering how subservient this arrogant guy would become now that he heard his real identity.

“Nope.”

“Huh?”

“Never heard of them. Either way, do you think being a relative of a relative of some big-name company gives you the right to steal from people? If so, that’s pretty lame, bro; what would your cousin think?” Max grinned and threw out a blatant provocation.

“...” Tristan stared at Max, who stared back impassively. “...George.”

“Yes, young master.”

“Kill him.”

As if waiting for permission, George took an iron sword out of his inventory and lunged toward Max.

“Woah! So quick to violence!” Max adroitly evaded the blow, “It seems this is the true face of the Vicius family! Tsk tsk.”

Max skilfully dodged and weaved through George’s attacks, adding insult to injury by sticking out his foot, over which George cartoonishly tripped, nearly falling as he stumbled.

“George! Take this seriously!”

“Y-Yes, sorry young master. Do not worry, I’ve managed to successfully corner him now.”

Tristan took a glance at the surroundings. Indeed! George had applied pressure to push Max toward the dungeon wall. There would be little room for him to dodge now. “Good, now finish him off.”

“You guys aren’t very smart, are you...” Max commented. Taking a step backward, he took his hat out from his inventory and placed it back on his head just as his body faded and he was teleported into the dungeon.

...

...

“Pfft~ oh my god haha, the look on his face.” Max appeared in the dungeon space and couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

At the moment of teleportation, Tristan’s face contorted into a look of shock and unwillingness as he realised Max’s plan. Max felt as if that guy might actually die from disappointment.

“Oh, man.”

Max composed himself, only to instantly remember Tristan’s face again and lose it completely.

“P-hahahaha!” Max grabbed his stomach and knelt on the ground.

He really wanted to make that face his new phone wallpaper.

...After laughing for a bit too long, Max forcibly stopped himself. He’d been too noisy and attracted a goblin, which attempted to sneak up on him from behind. Without even turning around, he fired an arrow, and it dropped to the floor.

“Haah, right, dungeon.”

Max got up and yanked his arrow out from the goblin. The green monster disintegrated into bright red particles, which scattered about before gradually fading into the air.

“Oh, so the common mobs don’t stay as corpses either.” Max recalled the goblin boss, which disappeared in the same way during his first dungeon clear. It seemed like that happened for all monsters, not just bosses.

Hopping back into grind-mode, Max went through the dungeon again, killing all the goblins. He paced himself this time, as now he needed to collect his arrows after each shot; he was already down to less than 100 of the 200 arrows he started with, which had been generously given to him by his favourite rancher.

There were no treasures or special loot in the dungeon, which was quite disappointing. He did loot one small dagger from a goblin, but that was about it. After defeating the boss again, Max claimed its weapon and sucked it into his inventory, planning to sell it somewhere and earn money to buy more arrows.

There didn’t seem to be any secret room or anything, so Max unceremoniously stomped on the dungeon core crystal with his foot to end the dungeon run.

“...As expected.”

When Max returned outside the dungeon, his two attackers were still standing there waiting. Tristan pointed and yelled at Max, who didn’t feel like dealing with that and stepped back into the teleportation radius again, peacefully culling more goblins and pretending nothing had happened.

...

After some time, he approached the boss room again before receiving a call from Rone.

“Max! Are you still in the dungeon; there are some crazy weirdos chasing me, claiming that I’m your accomplice!”

‘Oh, right. He existed.’

“Max! are you there? My agility stat is higher after levelling up, so they can’t catch me, but I can’t cast a spell since being chased by people who want to murder you is too distracting!”

Max was forced to nod in agreement. People trying to stab and kill you was indeed distracting.

“Max!”

“Alright, I’m coming, I’m coming. Circle back to the dungeon entrance.”

“Okay!”

Max made swift work of the boss and went back to the surface. Upon seeing the unfolding chase, which looked pretty funny, Max was tempted to watch for a little longer but opted not to because Rone might get angry. He drew his bow and issued a warning, “Get away from him or taste arrow! You have five seconds!”

“Max, shoot them!” Rone called out in panic, “They’re heavily geared, we can’t defeat them easily! Since they’re both melee, we need to-”

Pew.

Pew.

An arrow impaled the skull of the large, speedy man known as George, while a second disappeared behind Tristan’s hairline a few paces behind. Unexpectedly, both players turned into particles.

“Uh?”

“Wha?”

All four people were shocked.

‘D-dead in one shot??!’

Rone stopped running and turned around as the blue particles dispersed in the air. “M-Max? Did you use a skill or something?”

Receiving no answer, Rone turned back around. “Max?”

Unexpectedly, Max had an expression full of grief as he stared at the interface in front of him.