The Immortal Player

Inside a room in the Karakoa Ship, a circular runic formation was carved into the flooring of the sleeping area. At the same time, Magic Crystals were embedded at the walls—making the circular runic formation glow, bright blue.

Mathew, Lony, Roval, Aldo, Loren, and Yuson stood at its center, while Paul stood by the door—waiting for them to depart. On the other hand, Beatrice stood outside the room—emanating a heat that was strong enough to keep the other NPCs away from that hallway.

"I really can't believe it!" Paul gasped in awe, "Captain had set up a teleportation platform on his own… No wonder he told me to assign Beatrice to guard this room, temporarily…"

"Won't it be dangerous to put the teleportation platform at the center of the ship?" Lony asked, out of curiosity. "I-I mean… Won't adventurers like us, randomly spawn here?"

Paul Solares simply burst into laughter in response. Then, he said, "Young man, that won't happen! After all… This is an advanced teleportation platform!"

"Advanced teleportation platform?" Lony's brows furrowed, and asked, "Where there even different types of teleportation platform?"

Paul Solares nodded and said, "Yes, there are! As I know, there are three types of teleportation platform. The Basic, The Advanced, and the Instantaneous teleportation platforms. Two of which were being used by us, humans. While the other one could only be seen in dungeons, most of the time."

"The Basic teleportation platforms and the Advanced teleportation platforms almost had the similar functions. After activating the Magical Energy stored with in these Magic Crystals, these runic formations would be activated—transporting everyone with in the circle to another 'target' teleportation platforms." Paul explained as he crouches down and pointed to the bluish runic formation.

Then, he said, "The only difference is that Advanced teleportation platforms has special modifications and traits like the 'code lock on' of this teleportation platforms. Thus, rest assured that no adventurer would randomly spawn here. In fact, unless you know the 'code' you won't be able to teleport from here or to here."

"Hooo… That's cool!" Roval said, consequently making Paul Solares smirk.

"It is indeed!" Paul said.

Before anyone could utter another word, Mathew rubbed his chin and asked, "Was it easy to set up a runic formation—a teleportation platform like this? And… What do you mean by Instantaneous teleportation platforms? You said that it has something to do with dungeons, right?"

"For your first question…" At this moment, Paul Solares stood and walked to the door of the sleeping area and said, "It was naturally hard to set up one. But… Captain had the help of the little girl. Either he prepared this runic formation long ago, or… he had learned how to make runic formations from the little girl. Just ask the Captain personally if you are curious on how he manage to build a teleportation platform on his own. Even I am puzzled on how he did it by himself."

"As for your second question… Instantaneous teleportation platforms are teleportation platforms where either monsters or humans could go in or out freely. Thus, its name instantaneous. It was the best teleportation platforms of all. Imagine walking through it and arriving to a nearby stronghold that might take days to travel to. It was the best teleportation platforms. Unfortunately, it requires a huge magical energy source just to keep it open. So… It's only typically located in dungeons where it feeds on the excess energy of boss monsters deep inside it."

"I see…" Mathew, Lony, and Roval nodded in response as they learn something new from Paul Solares.

Paul Solares simply smiled towards them as a muscular man entered the room. Paul Solares can't help but clap his hands and say, "Alright, Sire Aks is here!"

Aks simply bowed slightly in response and said, "Forgive me! Antonio seemed like he need some more time to rest. We'll leave him in your care instead."

"Is that so?" Paul Solares pointed towards everyone else from the Advance Force—guiding Aks to the teleportation platform. "Don't worry. We'll take good care of him. Just focus on your task and help the Captain as much as you can in my behalf. The things we needed to take care of is way more than what a single fleet could do."

Mathew smirked in response as Aks joined them inside the runic formation. Then, Mathew said, "We will… Glory to Heroes!"

A blinding bluish light shone inside the room that was strong enough to make Paul Solares shield his eyes with his left arm. Then, in the next second, the Advance Force—together with Mathew, disappeared into thin air.

At this moment, Beatrice approached Paul Solares and asked, "Are the reinforcements gone?"

Paul Solares nodded in response and said, "I'll also be taking my leave. The ships would retreat to the seas soon. I'll leave the injured men and this room in your care. You can guard these two rooms at the least, right?"

Beatrice can't help but frown and flick her tongue before saying, "Don't underestimate me too much! Just because I lost to Captain once, does not mean that I am weak!"contemporary romance

"I know! I know!" Paul Solares said in a cold tone. "I am just reminding you about it. The fate of the humans in this continent lies in our hands. Add up the fact that we lack capable personnel… We can't afford to mess things up, right now."

Paul Solares did not give Beatrice a chance to utter another word. He left the room and closed the room—leaving Beatrice alone in the room with her fists clenched and tinge heat emanating from her body.

"One day… I would definitely defeat Captain!" She grumbled.

~~~~~~~~~

At the centermost area of the Baliu Village, the teleportation platform lit—shining of bright light that indicated that someone had been spawned or had been teleported. When the blinding light dissipated, the advance force—together with Mathew had appeared.

Since players spawning was just a normal occurrence, no one paid much attention towards them. Utilizing this chance, Mathew nodded towards Loren as if he was saying 'Let's go.'. Then, they quickly left and separated from everyone else as they had planned earlier.

On the other hand, Lony, Roval, and Yuson nodded towards each other and left—heading towards the Village Shop of Baliu Village. Their job was to check what items could be found in the village shop and report it back to Pedro. At the same time, they would act as Pedro's Merchants or Middle man for their transactions, while establishing a good reputation for their group.

As for Aldo and Aks, the two of them headed straight to the village chief's office and talk with the village chief. Their discussion includes the recruitment of the best men that the village chief would recommend and, at the same time, give some guidelines and warnings regarding adventurers as usual. Also, if possible, they could prepare something to receive Pedro and something that could further elevate Pedro's reputation, especially when he arrives at the Tarala Kingdom.

Unknown to all of them, the world was in chaos as Pedro's Kill Count continued to rise. Players kept cursing the top players, saying that they were all using cheats or hacks. At the same time, they can't help but voice out their frustration towards the game developers—who seemed like they were not doing anything about it.

In fact, the game developers of Bearth Online had even released an announcement, informing everyone that they were not able to detect any malicious external programs, codes, or such through the live media coverage in real life. Thus, Pedro and everyone else was still ignorant of the chaos.

"What are the game developers doing? Someone is cheating in broad day light and they dare turn blind eyes on it?" A player grumbled outside the Baliu Village.

Mathew can't help but frown upon hearing what the man said. He halted on his tracks and glanced towards that man, and said, "Cheating?"

"Hmm?" The man—with his two friends, glanced towards Mathew and Loren. Then, he asked, "Is there something wrong, brother?"

"I was gonna ask the same thing…" Mathew said whilst forcing out a smile, "What's with the game developers and the thing about cheating?"

"Oh! That?" The man rubbed the back of his head and said, "You don't know about the chaos happening in the game?"

"Chaos?" Mathew frowned, indicating that he does not know anything about what the man was saying. "Me and my sister, here, just died in the field—fighting monsters for hours, and we just made new characters and spawned in this village. I heard you say about cheats… So… I was kind of interested. Hehe…"

"I see! I see! You're one of those unfortunate ones, huh..." The man sighed in pity towards Mathew and Loren. Then, he said, "Sorry to break your hopes up brother… We also have no information about the cheat. In fact… It seems like only a few of the top ranking players in the event knew about it. You can check the forum and rankings to see it for yourselves."

"Thanks, brother!" Mathew bowed slightly to the man whilst forcing out a smile. Then, he said, "We'll be heading first then, we have a quest to do after all!"

"Good luck, brother!" The man said. "Don't die this time!"

Mathew simply made an okay sign, while Loren waved towards them with a sweet smile. Without second thoughts, Mathew checked the Continental Quest Rankings while running towards their meeting point with Sabrina.

The moment he saw Pedro's kill count, he can't help but be at loss for words. Only after a few seconds was he able to return to himself and chuckle, "Cheat? I don't think so…"

done.co