— Rise Online Operational Office of the Hónghé Group. —

It was almost dawn, and a black sports car stopped in front of the large modern fifty-story building.

The doors of this luxurious car lifted upward, and a man in a full gray suit stepped down.

“Welcome back, sir.” said Hollie Rees, the operational team leader of Rise Online, after waiting for the man in gray for a few minutes outside the office.

Hollie Rees is an almost thirty-year-old woman with long honey-colored hair who usually wears thick-lensed glasses. Her eyes are centered, and her predominantly weathered expression is serious.

“Why didn’t you call me earlier? It’s almost midnight now, and I have a trip scheduled for tomorrow.” Answered the gray-haired, broad-jawed, dark-eyed man, the lady replied, “Whatever… Have you even already prepared the field report, team leader?”

This man was none other than Rise Online’s Chief Developer in the Americas, Charles Richards.

“Sir, the subject’s ID is Kaizen. He’s a genuine newbie, and from what our searches on his NeuroGear showed, Rise is the first VRMMORPG he’s played. His real name is Klaus Park, and from what we found out from a few connections, he is just an inefficient worker whose family is drowning in debt. He recently migrated an old account from the long-gone game Myth2 to Rise Online and got the Psych Class.” Hollie Rees reported to Charles Richards after the two had gone upstairs to the main meeting room in the office.

As the man listened, a hologram showing the appearance of Kaizen’s avatar hovered before him on the table. In addition, several screens appeared next to the hologram, showing various data.

“Wait a minute. You said he’s a newbie, right? He’s been playing for how many days?” Charles Richards inquired, scratching his beard curiously.

“He created his account yesterday at nine-fifteen at night, sir.”

​ The Chief Developer immediately took his eyes off the data floating on the table and looked at Hollie Rees, to check if she was playing some kind of joke on him. However, Hollie Rees was not, by even a remote chance, a joking person.

“H-How? What? How did he manage to do that?” surprised, he asked.

“According to the Department of Information, he fought the NPC Elfire Waylan on a History Mission, and he not only managed to survive against this NPC for several minutes being only at level 1, but he also pressi—.”

“Better than telling me, show me.” The Chief Developer asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Then Hollie Rees flicked the tablet in her hands, and on the table where the Kaizen hologram hovered, appeared the video of a battle in the starting Training Center.

Charles Richards bent forward in his leather chair, and for a few minutes, he watched that intense battle between Kaizen and Elfire Waylan. Soon, he could no longer contain his amazed and surprised face. When the video ended, the gray-haired man was sure that the fast and efficient way Kaizen swung his sword was the most impressive thing he had ever seen a rookie do.

“This rookie abused the fact that each movement with the wooden sword consumes a small amount of stamina, so he was able to attack dozens of times with almost no force.” the man said, resting his hands with his fingers crossed on the modern table. “In any MMORPG, levels matter a lot, and this is no different in RO, however, in our game every action of the user is rewarded with experience, at least at the beginning, so I can also say that the chances of him being an alt account are low.”

“Why do you think that, sir?”

“At the beginning of the video, you can clearly notice that his movements are a bit messy and disorganized, but over the course of the video, his abilities only improve. Also, at several points in the battle, he shows the exact reaction of surprise that I’ve seen countless novices do. Still, for him to be able to do these precise and fast movements, his Performance Rating must be over 90, right?”

“Sir, to be more exact, his PR is currently at 120.”

Once again, Charles Richards could not hide an expression of astonishment and then laughed briefly. “Heh. What a coincidence… That’s hilarious.”𝞸𝐕𝐋xt.𝗰𝒪𝔪

“Sir?”

“Team Leader, do you know that the supercomputer ‘Odin’ makes perfect calculations while managing and developing the entire world we create? I know this because I am also one of the programmers of his base software. We humans just have the job of managing the community, and adding content, so if ‘Odin’ determined that the Kaizen user deserved to receive this class, it doesn’t matter if it was outside our plans, this is our mistake, not ‘Odin’s’, so we shouldn’t interfere.”

Hollie Rees looked at the tablet again and asked: “Are you still going to say the same after seeing his current status after just one day?”

Then two screens appeared next to the hologram of Kaizen’s avatar, displaying all his user data.

[Statistics Screen

Nickname: Kaizen | Class: Psych

Current Title: The Descendant of the Ironstones | Profession: Blacksmith Apprentice

Level: 7 | Alignment: Chaotic Neutral | Fame: 0.]

[Attributes

HP: 100 | Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 10 | Luck: 4

Attack: 15 | Agility:

7

Charisma: 2

Defense: 5

Magic Resistance: 2 | MP: 50

PR: 120.]

“Team Leader, how are his attributes so high?”

“Sir, during the fight against NPC Elfire Waylan he managed to evolve three levels, gaining experience by hits with the wooden sword and with dodges. After he died, he lost five levels, so he regressed to level -2. However, since he was at level 3 once, the borders of the initial city where he appeared opened up, and he also unlocked the option to acquire a random class. After that, the only information we have is that he managed to defeat the Scarlet Demon Spider, the optional Boss of the Spider Den hidden in the Misty Woods.”

Usually, Charles Richards would be amazed by this information, and he would have a reason for this, given that it has always been almost impossible for a player to evolve more than two levels in a single day, even in the Early Game. However, this time Charles was not amazed; he just smiled wryly.

“Normally, players of level 10 or lower lose only one level when they die, not all of them, but he was in the middle of a story mission, so he lost so many levels that he was in the negative. He ended up at level -2, and it took him two levels to get back to normal beginner standards, level 1, considering there is no level 0 in Rise Online. In other words, he will gain additional status points, more than any player at his level.”

‘…!!!!’ Hollie Rees’ eyes widened. “Wait a minute, you mean…”

“Now do you understand?” The gray-haired man then put his right arm over his head and propped his chin up as he looked at the woman’s astonished expression.

Hollie Rees quickly pulled herself together, tidying the glasses that had slightly slid down her nose and straightening her spine. “Sir, does it make any sense that this was all just luck? That’s a little frustrating as a Team Leader…”

“The Spider Den, where the Scarlet Demon Spider rules, and the mission related to the Ironstones, which if I’m not mistaken is called ‘The Lost Links’, weren’t supposed to be found for another few months. Particularly, I theorized that it would be by occultists or some shadow mage, but this player not only found the Spider’s Den and defeated the Boss in the area, but also activated the Psych Class Passive Skill and talked to one of the spirits of the Ironstones in the quest area. Location, quest, skill… Can you really call that ‘luck’?”

“But that… that means the game is unbalanced. We should balance it immediately.”

“No, that’s not accurate. As you said before, you have no reason to worry about an inefficient, indebted man, right? Rise Online will compensate only the hard-working. Besides, Psych is a relatively weak combat class compared to the others. He should probably have an experienced group to help him…” Suddenly, the Chief Developer stopped talking.

“What is it, sir?”

“N-nothing. I’m leaving for the day… Keep me posted on other important news.”

…

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

More character images in:

https:///bpqq9u4gS8

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