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Sitting next to the window, I gazed at the night sky and the moon that hung above. The far-off moon hanging from the sky created beautiful and charming scenery in my eyes.¹

After changing my clothes to pajamas that Sara brought for me, I sat at the table. A top-of-the-line latest desktop computer in my view.

I turn the power on, and the system comes on.

I eventually connected to the internet, and typed a familiar address to the webpage address line.

The address was to a website called ‘Ones who love the sky’, an official fansite for Blue Sky players in Korea, which was a massive site with 2 million users. And obviously, with huge numbers like that, it was easy to find useful information on hunting and news related to the Blue Sky game on the website.

‘Phoenix VS Gods of Death, the gruesome long guild war between them has finally ended.’

The main headline that was on the front page of the website had that written on it. Phoenix and Gods of Death, both are giant guilds that are leaders in Blue Sky.

In the Korean server where there are five total giant guilds, Phoenix and Gods of Death were ones that were causing incidents right from the open beta phase of the game. At first, they were quarreling about small things here and there, but after a few violent confrontations, it ended up in a relationship akin to cats and dogs.

They were even still fighting amongst each other before I had quit the game, and now it looked like they ended up having a major fight that ended everything.

I felt that both guilds were pretty much the same, so I don’t care to support either one.

The only other news I could find about Blue Sky was that users have found a new dungeon, or that the ranking had changed somewhat. Oh and a short headline about the death of the user ‘Cross’.

“Sigh…”

I let out a deep sigh from the bottom of my lungs. Although I did expect to see this, no one would be able to accept their death when they were alive and reading the headline².

As I read in the news that my body was cremated, I realized that there was effectively no way for me to ever get back into my old body. The article about my death was so short that there was no mention about my sister.

Dos: Rest in peace. I knew him well, and he was pretty godlike with controls.
GuriCityHandsome: Did that person really pass away? I think I have them in my friends list actually. Well, rest in peace.
ScissorHands: OMG. So it was real. I thought it was just a lie… T-T

I saw a number of usernames that I was familiar with. Dos was one of the few acquaintances I had left in the game, and was someone that helped me out quite a lot. He would always cheer me on telling me to never give up. I remember promising him that we’d go on a raid together one day.

GuriCityHandsome. She was a younger girl that I met while playing the game, and I remembered that she was at the same age as my sister, around 19 years old. A kind girl who gave me a lot of advice when I was trying to get closer to my sister.

ScissorHands. Sorry, I don’t remember you.³

I felt sadness creeping up on me reading the comments, so I left the site. Once my mind settles down a bit, I should go to Korea and just see my sister even if I can only see her from a distance.⁴ I decided to stop reading about news on the Korean server for now, and I searched for England’s Blue Sky fansite. With a simple search term, a few websites that matched my search popped up.

I went onto the site that touted the most registered users among the websites.

“Hello Blue Sky? What a simple name.”

Although the website interface was a bit unfamiliar, it was still well balanced in terms of design and ease of use.

I was surprised by the way they laid out the news articles about the game, as they were presented in a way not unlike reading the Guardian, a newspaper that’s distributed in England.

As I thought, the main headline that decorated the front page was the item that I had acquired. In anycase, that was the 9th, huh? It meant that there was only 1 more legendary tier item that users of England server can find.

“Heh…”

Doesn’t really matter. I’ve already had a massive fortune by finding two of those legendary items, so I shouldn’t be too greedy. Though if I could get one more legendary item by selling off my conscience, I’d consider it.

Cuosia: Is there anyone who knows about Artoria?
Lus: I’m a mage user, and I wanna see the extra effects that the staff has!!!
Fernando: They own two of the legendary items. Is this rigged?
Goliat: Hey guys, is it really possible to kill Death Knights with one hit?
Carlos: After watching Artoria in the video, I really respect them as a two handed sword user. But besides that, why do they have so many potions? It really shows that this game is pay to win…
Demon: Hey Carlos, Artoria was already famous for being a whale, spending huge amounts of money to get ahead in the game.
Carlos: Demon, please don’t act like you know everything about them, it pisses me off.
Dorian: I want a legendary item too!!!
Demon: You’re being quite rude, Carlos.
Carlos: You wanna have a fight or something?
Holbein: Lol they’re fighting
Demon: Carlos you *******! Come to the 3rd arena in the Colosseum, my ID in the game is ‘Christian’, what’s yours!
Carlos: ‘Cow’.
Utopia: OMG! Those two high ranking players are battling it out.
Horus: Are they going to bet their characters on this fight and delete them if they lose? Or just sealing them away for a while?
Liverpool: This is so cool! LOL, I’m gonna go watch at the colosseum!!
Martin: I’m gonna go as well!

A number of comments that weren’t particularly useful continued one after another. It looked like having childish fights in online comments is the same in Korea as England.

The problem was that I needed to register to the website if I wanted to learn more information about the article. I knew that I would end up coming here more often, so I clicked the ‘register as new user’ link on the website.

The interesting thing is that in Europe, people don’t have a unique identity number associated with them. While Korean people each have a unique security ID number attached to them, the people of Europe don’t have anything like that as such a thing would be seen as an invasion of basic human rights and privacy.

But due to the recent incidents involving terrorists and a number of problems in society, a number of European countries and England tried to implement a system of issuing European Citizen Cards with IC chips implemented inside the card, but it was met with such disagreement from the general public that the plan was a failure.

Then how would people prove that they’re them? For this, every individual has an identity security code associated with themselves, but if the code was ever lost, the government would issue them a new code instead of telling their old code again. Although it was bothersome from both the government and individual’s point of view, the good thing was that it minimized the risks of identity theft. Though this was done because of the “safety first” mindset that dominated most government policies, it was still a bother.

I remembered the butler telling me that my identity card is always inside the drawer of the table, so after I took it out, I typed my personal information properly into the required boxes and successfully created a new account without much problem.

I put my ID on the website as ‘Cross’ as I was used to being called that, but as it said that the name was already taken by another user, I changed it to CrossArtoria instead.⁵

I logged in, and began to search for a variety of information.

Of course, the thing I was most interested in first was the rankings. Although the number 1 would probably be me, I was still curious about the other ranking players.

Ranking – Total Level
1. Artoria (900)
2. Merlin (875)⁶　
3. Lucas (848)
4. Terror (845)
5. Hamington (840)
6. Dor (836)
7. Casper (833)
8. Tiara (830)
9. Wine (827)
10. Mary (826)

The distribution of average levels was much better than Korea’s server. As people in Korea were very competitive, they kept their levels in check and usually wouldn’t level up on their own. This meant that users’ levels were a bit on the low side. But to think that my previous character was on the same level as 5th or 6th level in England’s server…

Although I can’t say for sure that I am as good as them just from pure numbers, I was still pretty high up there. Well, that doesn’t particularly matter anymore.

“Merlin, huh…”

I thought it was a very coincidental name. Rank number 2. Although the information on their class wasn’t revealed, considering they used the name of a character in a classic England fable, they would likely be a mage.

The problem is that I literally had a staff with their name on it. If I was in his position, my mind would have been racing to figure out how to get it for myself.

On top of that, they’re ranked second…

“I may end up getting killed by the number 2 at this rate.”

As I had no acquaintances nor control over anyone, it was hard to get help in game. This caused me to feel somewhat worried. Even though my character is quite overpowered, there’s no way that I would be able to stop them from coming in droves and running me over.

With worry growing in my mind, I searched for Merlin’s name. Numerous articles popped up, fitting for such a popular ranking user, and I clicked on the link that one of the users put up with the name ‘Detailed information about Merlin’.

Just as I thought, my worries were spot on. She was the leader of a giant guild in the game, something I cannot take on by myself. On top of that, she’s the same age as me as well. There was no way that a girl her age wouldn’t have a competitive spirit. Sensing more possible danger, I searched for ‘Volcano’ this time.⁸

Although there wasn’t very much information, there was still enough. I just hoped they wouldn’t do anything rash.

I was trying to boost my mood, but my worries just grew even more. In an effort to once again try to improve my mood, I clicked on the ‘auction’ link in the website.

This auction area exists in every fan site and acts as a middleman for users who aim to trade goods between one another. Even though they need to pay the commission fee for putting up their item, it’s well worth the price as it attracts more people to the site, helping both the users and the website.

“Hmm, why don’t I try putting up ‘Merlin’s Staff’ on the auction?”

I can’t equip it anyways. As it was the first item that I had ever earned by myself since coming here, I was curiously tempted to sell it for real cash. Although I already have a gigantic amount of wealth, for some reason I felt that I didn’t really want to use the staff myself.

Whether it sells or not doesn’t really matter.

That was my intention right now. Well, it would be great if it did sell though.

I walked over to the bedroom and pulled out a memory chip that was plugged in on a corner of the capsule. The capsule automatically records videos and screenshots of your game, saving it to a memory chip that’s plugged into its machine. To take out the recorded videos and screenshots, one just takes the memory chip out and plug it in wherever needed like a flashdrive. Though the problem is that it gets filled up in a month or so. You’d end up changing to a new chip, or format the media that’s saved on the chip so it can fill back up again. In the past, I just replaced the chip with a new one every month.

In anycase, I plugged in the memory chip into the PC and pulled out the necessary screenshot. There is a feature on the capsule where it takes a screenshot every time you gain a new item in game, which was a feature left in the game since the open beta period where items got lost due to bugs or server problems and users would use the screenshot feature to have proof that they had indeed owned that particular item.

And so, I input the screenshot with the details about the power and special effects that the staff had, and set up the auction for the duration of one week and minimum auction price at a hundred thousand euro.

Immediately, the ‘hot news’ section of the website updated with the image of the Merlin’s Staff that I had put up for auction.

I then witnessed the view count for the page rising endlessly. From just 10, 100, to thousands, the view count of the auction page was rising extremely quickly.

Already, 3 bids for the items were registered. Considering that it was put up for an extremely high price and the duration of auction was for a whole week, this was extremely quick.
Comments for the item were formed in real time as well.

• OMG! Look at those special effects. I guarantee that this is the best item for mages.
• Well of course it is. It’s the only legendary mage weapon equipment in the entire game, and also has specs like these, it would be crazy if it wasn’t!
• I guarantee that this auction will reach the highest price ever recorded in the history of auctioned items on this website.
• There’s 3 bidders even though it’s hundred thousand euro!
• An Ancient tier equipment with special effects like those already sell for around that price, of course legendary items would go way beyond that!
• I’m a mage and want to buy it, but I can’t even dream of buying it for that price…
• What killer specs.
• The person who put up this auction is Artoria, right? Wow, this is amazing, can’t wait to see how much it sells for.
• Artoria if you’re reading the comments please send a whisper to ‘Wine’, I wish to buy it off you…
• ‘Wine’? I think I often saw that ID somewhere…
• Are you new? Wine is one of the top 10 ranking users in Blue Sky as well as a mage, you’d be dumb to not know that;;
• lol, I’m so happy that I’m a DPS.
• Hey poster above, Artoria also has the Excalibur sword as well, right?
• Aaaah… I want a legendary item too!!!

I shook my head side to side as I watched the comments flow like a waterfall, and decided to check back on the auction after a day or two when people start to calm down a bit. I then turned off the internet explorer⁹.

I felt like I was about to pass out, I just felt so sleepy.

I practically tossed myself onto the bed which was flexible and comfortable, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

1. Robinxen: Romance.
2. Silva: Hmm so I guess he was “Cross” huh?
3. Lilith: Don’t worry Edward, I do
4. Robinxen: ADOPT HER YOU FOOL!
5. Robinxen: I am…so dumbfounded.
6. Robinxen: Poor guy got his staff stolen.
7. Silva: Catarina Claes?
   Robinxen: My next life as a gamer.
8. Robinxen: The most OP yuri duo will be born in the future if she seduces this Catalina girl with the staff.
9. Silva: Internet explorer.
   Robinxen: W-well….it’s the future right so maybe it got revived but actually good?