01. Player Reached The Top, page 1
part #1 of Player Reached The Top Series
PLAYER REACHED
THE TOP
by Rick Scar
Text Copyright © 2019 Rick Scar
All rights reserved.
No part of this book can be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
Introduced by Valeria Kornosenko.
Translated by Anastasia Koptelova
Illustrations by Sofia.
Contents
Chapter 1. A Way Out of Being Broke
Chapter 2. Tips from a Pro
Chapter 3. An Unexpected Twist
Chapter 4. First Steps Toward a Dream
Chapter 5. All We Need is Patience
Chapter 6. Try This for a Vantage Point
Chapter 7. David and Goliath
Chapter 8. A Head Start
Chapter 9. Fearsome Enemy
Chapter 10. The Cursed Shard
Chapter 11. Find Him!
Chapter 12. Ready to Leave
Chapter 13. A Mysterious Hunter
Chapter 14. Trial
Chapter 15. Radermin
Chapter 16. Sis
Chapter 17. Planning a Kill
Chapter 18. In the Right Place at the Right Time
Chapter 19. A New Place for Leveling Up
Chapter 20. The First Guard
Chapter 21. Crimson Runner
Chapter 22. Soul Cry
Chapter 23. The Scroll of ʻBack and Forth’
Chapter 24. Reserving a Little Table
Chapter 25. Owe
Chapter 26. Welcome to Latakhorgh
Chapter 27. Hidden in the Depths
Chapter 28. The Cursed Mark
Chapter 29. Follow the Cursed Aura
Chapter 30. The Loaded Shard
Chapter 31. The Relations of Cause and Effect
Chapter 32. A Hunter or His Prey
Chapter 33. Resident Gloom
Chapter 34. The Grave Mound
Chapter 35. The Truth to Choose
Chapter 36. Come Back and Reward
Chapter 37. The Message of the Adept
Chapter 38. Laws of the World
Chapter 39. Greed
Chapter 40. A Vagrant Charlatan
Chapter 41. On the Brink of Insanity
Chapter 42. Pulling the Chestnuts out of the Fire for Somebody
Chapter 43. A Great Archer
Chapter 44. The Capital of Adamarona
Chapter 45. Mystery of Shards
Chapter 46. A Spy
Chapter 47. Power Over Bodies
Chapter 48. There is Nothing Kept Secret that will not Come to… Death
Chapter 49. “A Pot with Snakes”
Chapter 50. Consequences
Chapter 51. Doing a Jigsaw Puzzle
hapter 52. An Ancient Device
Chapter 53. Acting the Part
Chapter 54. A Wry Smile
Chapter 55. Preparing for an Exit
Chapter 56. Descendants of the Disappeared Race
Chapter 57. Demon’s Jaws
Chapter 58. People Change, but not Horghs
Chapter 59. Ekaro Dead City
Chapter 60. Eternity in Hell
Chapter 61. A Moving Target
Chapter 62. The Beginning of Race
Chapter 63. A Priestess of an Ancient Stone.
Chapter 64. The Green Lagoon
Chapter 65. It’s not that Simple.
Chapter 66. Rage of the ‘Coward’ Archer.
Chapter 67. A Hideout
Chapter 68. That Monster
Chapter 69. Game of Cat and Mouse
Chapter 70. How to Capture a Dragon
Chapter 71. The Embodiment of Greed
Chapter 72. The Lost Time Labyrinth
Chapter 73. In Search of the Way Out
Chapter 74. The Thaumaturge
Chapter 75. The Stone Head
Chapter 76. The Comeback
Chapter 77. Following in Father’s Footsteps.
Chapter 78. Old Acquaintances
Chapter 79. The King’s Daughter
Chapter 80. The Spoiled Tomb of Three Wishes
Chapter 81. Time as Madness Standard
Chapter 82. A Really Mad Reward
Chapter 83. Vakhaness Undercity
Chapter 84. Cerberus and the Box
Chapter 85. Pay me for my Death
Chapter 86. To Deceive a Deceiver
Chapter 87. The Legendary Secrete Boss
Chapter 88. The Fall which Millions Memorized
From the author
Facebook litrpg groups
Chapter 1. A Way Out of Being Broke
Give me a fulcrum and I shall move the world
Archimedes
Give me a lot of money and I’ll move Earth and a couple more planets just in case
An unknown poor man
Cash is king. It’s a higher truth. Will Thompson, the older sibling and the only son in the family, had to learn this truth too soon. People who believe that money can’t buy happiness just have never been rich enough. Financial debt, on account of multiple unsecured loans from various banks and bad credit loan companies, not always legal, and sometimes downright shady, was suffocating both Will and his dad. The purse strings were so tight that they Were barely breaking even.
Will’s father, Darius Thompson, worked his fingers to the bone and, for the most part, was unable to see his family with any regularity. Will’s mother, a Russian immigrant, abandoned her family when Will’s sister Leah was three, leaving him to do all the parenting. Because of this, the siblings developed a strong bond. Against his father’s wishes, the young man dropped out of high school to pursue a better life for his family, especially Leah. He wanted his sister to get a proper education and enter adulthood with confidence and a sense of purpose. She was meant to shine bright, and he would always be there for her.
Will and his dad did everything possible to send Leah to one of the best private boarding schools outside their hometown. With her smarts, she’d have no problem getting a stellar GPA, good enough for any college. At fourteen, she was shrewd and savvy, a cut above the rest of her peers.
Will grew into a strong young man with an athletic build. By the time he turned twenty-four, he had been recruited into an elite Special Ops unit of the U.S. military. The enlistment requirements changed in 2035, when the normal mandatory eight-year commitment period changed to five years of mandatory active duty, which meant there was a chance for a rookie to get selected for Special Forces. His detachment commander noticed what the others didn’t see: an iron will, determination, calmness. This was the result of bullying on him and his parents, because poverty was always a good reason for mockery.
The salary was high enough to feel financially independent, pay off loans, pay utilities bills and his sister’s tuition. Leah, knowing what cost her education came with, both literally and figuratively, dedicated herself to her studies. She could not afford to let her old man and brother down.
A year after Will left the service, one of his army friends hooked him with a job as a waiter in a fancy restaurant. He could have applied for a job in law enforcement, or perhaps as a personal bodyguard, but having spent three years negotiating with terrorists and surviving firefights, he felt it was time to put the military behind and step off his dangerous path. It meant he was poor again and faced new depts and hardship. He didn’t know what was in store for him, until one day he accidentally overheard a conversation at the restaurant where he worked.
A couple of well-dressed guys, about the same age as Will, were paying with Platinum Visa cards, emphasizing their social status and the difference between themselves and Will.
He managed to hear, that they were discussing a new VR game to be released in six months. Will would normally not pay attention to a VR-based conversation, but the phrase “big money” slipping out of the mouth of one of the men made him heed. Fortunately, they were sitting at the bar, so neither of them noticed they had picked up an eavesdropper.
“I’m telling you, it’s legit. You know who my father is, right? I heard what they were talking about, every last word, man. Thank God he didn’t see me, or he would have ripped my head off.”
“Ha! He definitely would, your dad is insane!” Both smirked.
After that, they lowered their voices. Will had to strain to hear them, but he could still follow the conversation.
“So, when is it coming out?”
“Well, it’s not production ready yet. It’s in private beta or something, but once it’s released, hundreds of millions of players from all over the world are going to want to play. Do you understand what kind of money we’re talking about here? This business is skyrocketing! They use real life money to buy virtual swords and costumes. Man, I’m so excited! I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, but just think of all the money we’ve spent on video games. Gamers will buy anything that’ll help them score extra cool points. Magic potions, epic threads, you name it! Real. Life. Money. Bro! Those player auctions have tons of offers!”
“Yeah, sure, but how is it different from the games we’re playing right now?”
“It’s completely different!”
“I don’t get it…”
“Everything is for sale in this game! Property, lands, kingdoms, entire empires, for Chrissakes! This is the dawn of a new era of VRMMO! You could be the Mayor of a virtual town! But what’s truly awesome is that brand new
“Geez, keep your pants on. It’s a game changer, I got it. There’s just one thing that I don’t get, though —what was the conversation between your dad and that other guy about?”
“Oh, they were just discussing how they could beat the game. It’s business stuff, but in virtual reality. I didn’t get a whole lot of it, but the numbers they were discussing would have blown you out of the water, bro.”
“That serious, huh?”
“Will!” someone yelled.
The young man turned his attention to the bartender, who was holding out a drink order that needed to be served. He was not thinking about the drink, or the two men at the bar anymore. He was immersed in his thoughts. He had to get in on this deal. There was a lot of prep work to be done, but he was beaming.
It was a great way out of being broke.
Chapter 2. Tips from a Pro
He had been suffering from insomnia for nearly six months. His dad and sister were concerned about his health, but Will insisted that he was fine, and that, soon enough, they would go on a vacation somewhere. He started preparing without discussing it with anyone. The young man didn’t want to think about what would happen if the plan didn’t work out. If it weren’t for Curtis, an old army friend who lent Will quite a sum of money, none of the following would have happened.
He worked part-time as a night shift security guard at a mall. The Internet was available, so the guy wasted no time, studying the gaming world between rounds. Will was not a gamer, but he usually achieved his goals because he worked hard. So, nothing could stand in his way, if once he took something seriously. Lack of knowledge or experience was no exception. Will studied all available information, learning strategies, character builds, and character classes, and memorizing every relevant detail. He didn’t know which of this would be useful in the game he was preparing for, so the task at hand was to learn as much as he possibly could. In reality, things could turn out to be different, which would render his effort useless, but, at least, he was doing something. The information was so abundant that one of the walls in Will’s room was slowly turning into a map with drawn arrows and notes. The scene was so baffling that if anyone saw it, Will would have a lot of explaining to do, proving that he wasn’t crazy. Thankfully, his home folks were away most of the time—dad often went on business trips, and his sister Leah lived on campus during the school term. Apart from everything else, Will joined several community forums for gaming geeks in a hope to find something useful among copious amounts of various links and comments.
All that learning naturally made no sense without practice. To fix that, Will rented a game capsule at a local gaming center. Will had often heard them being called gaming hubs by most professional gamers and those who went there regularly. Those weren’t cheap, but they were a necessity, because failure was not an option. This game capsule allowed each player to create only one game character on their account which was linked to the capsule’s serial number. Will had no idea who came up with that, but it was frustrating. For the longest time, he could not make up his mind about which class to pick for his character. Angela, the lady at the reception explained that they ‘offer blank accounts’ , with preloaded character classes of every kind to choose from, to help players make a choice. Except, these characters couldn’t join clans or do quests. This option was recently introduced by a series of developing companies to attract new players. This worked for the noobs as well—what were the chances that a player would start anew or even stay in the game if he didn’t like his race or class? The abilities for each character were preset by professional gamers, so that you could explore your character’s potential prior to making your choice. It was not about clothing, weapons, or skills, as you had to go with the default settings, but rather about which character you were—a tank, a healer, or, maybe, a thief?
Three months had passed since Will first heard about the game. He opened his eyes, and returned to reality. The snow-white interior of the capsule welcomed him back from the game in its familiar manner. He opened the door habitually and got out. It was chilly outside the capsule, soft light from the ceiling, relaxing music and a faint smell of coffee finalized the transition. A tanned guy, wearing shorts and a colorful t-shirt, who looked either Japanese or Korean, was quietly talking to Angela at the reception. When he saw Will, he stopped talking and smiled at him, as if seeing an old friend. Will didn’t know the man, but he definitely had seen him before.
“Hey,” said the guy. “Angela told me you’ve been trying to choose a class for two months. Can I help you?”
Will frowned trying to figure if he looked like he needed help.
“What do you want?” he asked without blinking.
“This is Pak Cheong. He’s a part-time consultant in our center and he plays a Lost Lands. A sensational game, you may have heard of it. You, as our regular, can ask him for advice if you want. Free of charge, of course.” Angela said.
“Well…” Will thought that this would be a great chance to clarify some things he had read about and got straight to the point, “I have a couple of questions unrelated to classes.”
“I’m listening to you,” Pak replied.
Is it possible to play this game alone?”
“Well, it depends on your goals. If you’re not into epic quests or dungeons, which would normally take at least five people to complete, then you can play alone just for fun. There are a lot of people who simply want to escape into a world of swords and magic, depths of space or underwater realms. The downside here is that you will probably be spending more time respawning than playing, and that impedes your character development. Different games have different penalties, from de-leveling to debuffs, which are so harsh that you wouldn’t stand a chance against a low-level mob. There are also time outs, when you are just got kicked out from the game for a day or two. It’s fine if you’re a casual player, but if playing is your bread and butter, death is the worst-case scenario for you.”
“Right,” Will nodded and paused to think something over. “Have you ever killed tougher enemies? I mean, enemies who are ten times stronger than you.”
“Sure. Once. But then again, every situation is unique. What do you know about exploits?”
“You mean using game bugs to your advantage?”
“Exactly!” Pak nodded. “It’s impossible to detect them in modern games. The developers tend to get very nosy when it comes to this kind of stuff. They follow top gamers on social media, read forums and blogs, watch tutorials — anything they can find. Then they fix the bugs and release updates. But gamers are rather sly, aren’t we? If we can’t find a bug, we’ll make one. Some even manage to make some coin off it by selling them. I’ve got to tell you, it’s tedious as hell. You have to know the location inside out and waste a billion lives, which is not easy.”
Having learned nothing new, and wondering if he should speak frankly, Will gave Pak a puzzled look.
“Listen, you’ve probably guessed that, it’s more about money than fun for me, and the problem is that I don’t know which class is right for that.”
“Hmm. I’ve never come across a noob like you, indeed. You’re too focused, even when you play. Sorry, I had a peek while you were in the capsule. Uhm, never mind. Opinions vary, as they say. People tend to be very fond of the class they represent. I, for one, am making good money playing a Paladin. It’s not about the class, it’s about the player. If you’re not all thumbs, and if you got what it takes, then go for it —pick one and show them what you got.”
“It sounds like they’re paying you for getting people hooked,” Will said with a smile. Pak looked at him grinning and replied nothing.
They talked for half an hour more, during which Will learned a lot of useful things. When the conversation was over, Pak handed Will his business card.
“Here is my e-mail, I’d like to play with you sometime. Contact me in case you have any questions. Free of charge. You’re a smart and motivated guy. I’m just offering to help because I have connections. Think about it.” Pak waved him goodbye and headed back to the reception.
