Chapter 4: World Key
"AAAHHH!!!!!"
Lucas sat up from his bed quickly as if he had a nightmare.
"D-d.a.m.n…how the h.e.l.l am I supposed to defeat that monster!?"
He rubbed his forehead in frustration. What happened to him was really not that far off from a nightmare.
He saw a real dragon in front of him and was burned to death with its black flame breath.
"I can"t believe this…I"m still hot from the fire and my body won"t stop shaking…"
Even though he was in the real world, his entire body was shaking in fear and was completely drenched in sweat as if he was in the desert even though the air conditioning is on.
Looking at his sweat, he decided to take a bath first. It was afternoon and dinner was nearing, so he wanted to at least freshen up before eating his dinner.
Lucas stripped off his shirt as he walked towards the bathroom when he noticed something dangling from his neck that should not have been there, or rather, should not have been in this [World].
"N-no way…"
+ + +
"Ah, looks like he died again."
"And his HP zeroed in one go…looks like he already met Denneth."
"Oh dear…"
Trask, Pearce, and Lilianne sighed deeply.
"Well, it was as expected after all, there"s no way he can defeat a dragon."
"Well…I guess, though, Denneth is actually the weakest dragon as far as I know."
Trask said as he looked at Lucas" status in pity.
"But we can"t let this chance go, he died, so that means he can"t play for another 24 hours. He was one of the lottery winners right? Search him and find out where he lives."
"But, we don"t know his real name."
"About that, his name should be Lucas as well."
Lilianne showed a nostalgic smile as if she was remembering something.
However, Trask and Pearce looked at her in disbelief.
"Haha, who uses their real name as their in game name?"
"Him, actually, I asked his name after I introduced myself as Lily, a user. I think he misunderstood and answered his real name by accident as he looked fl.u.s.tered."
"Ah, I see. Well, it"s worth a shot, let"s see if he"s in there."
Trask compromised and ordered to look for his name in the winner"s list.
"Found it."
After a while of searching, Lilianne showed a smile as she found the name [Lucas Lauwers].
"Good, then send someone to go get him and bring him here."
"Would it be fine if I go?"
Lilianne volunteers as she wanted to meet him for a while now.
"Hm? Why?"
"Since he knows me more than any employee here, this way he won"t be suspicious at least."
"I see, alright. Tomorrow morning, make sure he gets here safely."
"Understood."
After Trask gave the final order, Pearce and Lilianne left the office.
+ + +
"What is this thing doing here!?"
Lucas was holding onto a golden key that hung from his neck like a necklace.
There wasn"t really anything weird about it if someone were look at a third person"s view. However, Lucas, who knows what this key is and where it came from, was confused at the sight of the key.
After all, this key is the exact same key he found on the skeleton"s belonging in game. With the mysteriously beautiful jewel embedded on the end of the key holder and its shiny golden surface with delicate engravings, this was without the doubt the [World Key].
"This key…it said that I will be able to pa.s.s through any world that I visited right?...Is that why this can pa.s.s through the real world as well? But something like this is…"
Impossible. No matter what, he can"t say it. After all, the object in question was right in front of him.
After staring at it for a while to ascertain its existence, he tried to do something from the game. He double tapped the surface of the key.
NameWorld KeyRankSSSEffect+30 all statsDurabilityN/ADescriptionA key that opens the gate of the world! With this, you will be able to pa.s.s through any world you have visited.Keywords[Character Fusion]
[World Gate Open]
Accompanied with the familiar *ting* sound was a blue window he saw in the game often.
"W-what the h.e.l.l…"
Lucas" face cramped as he stare at the window. He began to wonder if he was still in game and was stuck inside the dragon"s illusion or something so he tried to double tap the other objects in his condo.
Double tapping an object will make the item"s description appear, while there are certain items which description can only be opened by a specialized job, other people can still view other items. Sometimes though, there is additional information if a specialized job were to appraise it.
Anyway, no matter how hard he tried, he didn"t open the descriptions of simple items in his condo which meant that this is reality. He also tried to open his status window but it still didn"t open.
After regaining his calm, he pondered over the keyword which wasn"t there before.
"Does it only appear in this world? Or is the requirement to pa.s.s through a different world?"
Lucas was really curious about it and decides to use it.
Unconsciously, he stretched his arm in front of him with the key as if to open an invisible door and shouted the keywords.
"[Character Fusion!]"
He has no idea why he had to make it as dramatically as possible but anyway, light gathered on the tip of the key as he turn it as if he was unlocking an invisible lock. Afterwards, the light gathered on the tip engulfed him like when he was transported to his starting point.
He closed his eyes at the blinding light and opened it when he felt the light diminish and looking at his surrounding"s for any change.
However, there aren"t any visible differences in his condo unit.
"Haaah…geez, now I feel embarra.s.sed for doing something like that…did I just imagine the lights and effects?.......I really should get some sleep…but first, a bath…"
Dejectedly, Lucas dragged himself to the bathroom.
As Lucas hung his towel beneath the mirror and removed his shirt, he finally saw the change, or rather, he saw himself.
"W-what the h.e.l.l…"
Lucas face was even more confused from before. He finally understood why the keyword was called [Character Fusion].
It"s only understandable as he saw a familiar white haired, red eyed, person reflected on the mirror. In other words, it was [Lucas]. The [Lucas] of [World Gate Online].
Now that he took a good look, when he should"ve been topless before, he took off his shirt again which was weird. The shirt that was removed now was a familiar shirt and his shorts which he is currently wearing is also familiar, they were clothes of a beginner in the game.*ting*
NoticeYou have fused with your character in [Horus]!
In this state, note that if you kill someone, they will be immediately transported to a special hospital and will be unconscious for 1 day.
If you kill a non-red player, you will be marked as a red player and will be transported to a special jail instead if you die.
Dying as a non-red player will transport you to the special hospital as well and will be unconscious for a whole week.
Also, the [World Key]"s drop rate when in this state will turn into 100%! Since this will have 0% when not activated, it is highly recommended to not activate it unless it is absolutely needed. Having 0% drop rate though doesn"t mean that it cannot be stolen.
As if knowing how confused Lucas is, a notice window appeared before him.
"W-what the h.e.l.l…"
He was really at a loss of words and can only repeat what he said earlier.
[Harus], it is the name of the world he was playing awhile ago. The world through the game called [World Gate Online].
After calming himself down in his sofa in the living room, he tried some things out. After a lot of experimenting, he learned that he could now open his status window, descriptions of every item in his condo, skills that should"ve only existed in the game. Thus, he concluded himself.
"The key was used to switch places with the other me who was in a different world?"
As he said, the him right now is definitely [Lucas] in the game. So what happened to his real self? Of course he was still the real Lucas, while being real, at the same time not, he was Lucas with the ability of [Lucas].
His head started to hurt the more he thought about it.
"d.a.m.n…just what is going on here…ugh…let"s go back for now…my head doesn"t feel right with all this continuous turn of events…"
This was pretty much a cheat in the real world as he would have superhuman powers.
When he checked the key again on how to turn back, he noticed that [Character Fusion] has become [Disconnect] so he was able to go back to normal. He decided to a.n.a.lyze this key further tomorrow since he was too tired to think straight.
After bath was dinner then finally, he slept while dropping himself on the bed showing how tired he was from everything that happened.
+ + +
Meanwhile, inside [World Gate Online], a young man with short straight white hair hidden in his dark blue hood wearing round gla.s.ses, Merah, was reading books quietly in [Drachedge"s] library.
Though there is a library in the town, there are hardly any players spending their time reading the books found in it. Even if they do, they will only shortly enter in order to find the information on certain monsters, items, or places then leave. There are others who didn"t have the money to sleep in an inn and just slept in the library since it was quiet. There are also those who would flirt with their lovers here and there taking advantage of the few people in the building.
However, the hooded youth was one of the rare types who actually read the books seriously. Beside him were countless books stacked on top of each other making it look like he built a fortress out of the books.
Due to these repeated actions of reading books, naturally, the NPC librarians grew fond of him and even took care of him. They would often give him food and water to drink for free and even answer all his questions once he asked them.
And thus, he was given the hidden job [Bookworm].
He though it might be useful in the future so he accepted it.
Afterwards, he gain superhuman memorization ability, as one of the job"s pa.s.sive skill [Perfect Memory], he was able to remember everything he saw just once. Because of this, he tried to read every single book there is in the library in order to stock his knowledge, his [Perfect Memory] also already hit max level
mastery thanks to that.
After Merah closed the last book, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Finally finished…how many days did I take? Already lost count after a week…"
As he relaxed in his chair, he looked up at the ceiling with a satisfied expression.
"Alright! Now let"s find a fighting job so I can begin my journey!"
He then stood up and prepared to leave the library but was suddenly stopped by the librarian.
He looked back and saw the old man holding onto a rather antique book that he was sure he hadn"t seen before, forget [Perfect Memory], the book stood out so much that anyone won"t be able to forget it after seeing it once. After all, the book seemed to scream LEGEND all over it.
"…This is?"
"Young scholar, this is a book that has been pa.s.sed down in this library for generations and generations in order to find the true [Seeker]. Ever since you have arrived in this library, I"ve felt a strong compatibility of this book towards you. And now that you have read all the books in this library and will be leaving on a journey, it is time for me to pa.s.s it on to you."
The old librarian explained and bowed as he presented the book to Merah.
"…[Forbidden Seeker"s Diary]?"
After reading the t.i.tle, he opened it to see its contents.
[[For the person reading this, if you have been allowed to read this then you must have had immense knowledge within you, one capable of storing an entire library in your head. I am Urien, also known as the [Seeker of Legends] during my time. I have searched countless legends, tales, wonders…however, that is only limited to this world. I am ashamed to be called the [Seeker of Legends] and not been able to prove a legend of another world and so I did something…unorthodox so to say and was labeled as the [Forbidden Seeker] and was given a death penalty. But I won"t go down easily, after a lot of trial and errors, we have finally achieved to create it. The key that will allow the user to travel between worlds he had been before, though it might be useless as you still have to figure out the way to actually get into one, this was the limit of our power, as we have no idea what other worlds look like. So we can only rely on the future generation, the keys are scattered all over the world, find them and they will be yours. Though that does not mean you have to do that, at the back of this book is one of the keys, it"s yours to take. Use it and travel through worlds I have never seen. The legends and tales will be the one to guide you, if you look carefully, it will lead you to the right path. May you have good fortune.]]
NoticeYou have been given a hidden job [Seeker of Tales]!
After reading the [Forbidden Seeker"s] diary, his power was pa.s.sed onto you and will gain unique powers every time you discover and prove a tale!
NoticeYou have learned a new skill, (Active) [Rune Appraisal]Beginner LVL 1 (0.00%)!
You will become able to understand low rank runes during your journey.
MP Cost: 2 points
NoticeYou have learned a new skill, (Pa.s.sive) [Universal Language Comprehension]Beginner LVL 1 (0.00%)!
You will become able to understand all languages no matter where or what race it is!
"…I didn"t even receive a confirmation message…or rather…I can"t believe I got 2 hidden jobs now…"
Merah stood stupefied at the sight of the windows that popped out.
"Young seeker, this is the last gift this library wishes to give you."
"Hm? Another one?"
The librarian held out a quill with a beautiful golden feather before him.
NameScholar"s QuillRankSSDamageN/ADurabilityN/ADescriptionA quill used by scholars that writes without any ink, this is the perfect writing material for writers as it turns his own magic power into letters and words.
"…Somehow…I"ve been receiving rather high level materials one after another…well, it"s free so might as well take it."
Merah showed a stiff smile as he kept receiving cheat like materials and jobs from the old man. Finally, he bowed to the librarian and said his goodbyes.
"Now then…what legend shall we see?"
+ + +
*ding dong*
"…Who is it this time…"
Lucas pondered as he looked through the peephole. It was a bit before lunch when his doorbell rang, and despite it being a holiday, Lucas has no idea how he will spend his time as he waits for the death penalty to finish.
When Lucas looked through the peephole, he saw a strangely familiar looking woman. However, since the woman was very beautiful, he can"t remember being acquainted with her.
"J-just a sec."
He dashed to his room and quickly dressed himself up in order to fix his attire and clean out any messes in the living room. All of this, in 5 seconds since he didn"t want to keep the girl waiting.
After finishing up, he opened the door and cleared his throat.
"Ahem, umm, is there something wrong?"
At his sight, the woman let out a giggle which he seemed to found very familiar.
"You are Lucas Lauwers right?"
"Y-yes, is there something you need?"
Even the voice seems oddly familiar. Lucas thought as he answered the woman"s question.
"Fufu, your face seems to say you"ve met me but can"t remember where or when at all."
"W-was it really that obvious?"
"Fufu, then shall I tell you how we met?"
The woman let out a teasing smile. While seeming to sense a bad premonition, Lucas gulped his saliva nervously.
"Fufu, the truth is…"
"…yes?"
The woman drew closer and placed her lips beside Lucas" ear.
"I"m pregnant, it"s yours."
"…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..eh?"
Lucas can only stand there in shock as if he was paralyzed from some kind of magic spell.
"You might not have remembered since you were drunk that time, but I cannot forget that moment."
The woman placed both of her palms on her cheek and started to blush seeming to act embarra.s.sed.
However, Lucas who knew he did not try to even go to bars and just went home and laze around, he managed to regain his calm after thinking about it logically. This woman is lying.
As he thought of that, he let out a teasing smile of his own and continued his act.
"I-I see…now that you mention it…….so I am now a father…is my baby in here?"
Lucas acted and even rubbed the woman"s belly and placed his ear as if wanting to hear his child"s heartbeat.
"…eh?"
This time, it was the woman who became shocked. After all, she was the one that started the joke but was then followed through by her own victim.
"G-geez, I understand, I"m sorry for tricking you. I"m here on official business so let me save face."
The woman gave up and pouted at Lucas for his earlier act.
"N-no, I"m also sorry for getting ahead of myself…"
Like that, the two reconciled and Lucas led him inside.
The woman sat on the sofa in the middle of the condo unit and Lucas went to the kitchen to get some light snacks and water.
After serving them, he then sat opposite of her and they continued their talk.
"Let me introduce myself again, my name is Lilianne Bristow, you met me as [Lily] in [World Gate Online] as your guide."
"Ah, so that"s why you seemed oddly familiar. In here, I am Lucas Lauwers, and [Lucas] in game…though it was not supposed to be…well, I can"t change it now anyway."
Lucas curtly bowed as he introduced himself to Lilianne.
"So you really did misunderstood me when I asked your name…I"m sorry about that."
"N-no, it"s fine, it was my fault to begin with, anyway, you said you were here on official business before, what do you mean?"
Lucas decided to get to the point and asked her business with him, or rather, the company behind [Portal]"s business.
Hearing this, Lilianne nodded and went straight to the point.
"Forest Trask, the current CEO in the Philippines has been wanting to meet you."
"…………………………………………………………………………huh?"
+ + +
"Oh, is that him?"
Trask revealed a smile as Lucas entered his office.
At this point, he really began to wonder why he seemed popular here. From the entrance to the reception desk, to the lobby, the hallways, the offices he pa.s.sed, he heard things like "So that"s [Lucas]?", "Ooh! It"s the level hundred [Novice]!", "So he really died battling the dragon?", "H-he"s not that all bad looking huh?" and many other things, basically, they were checking him out.
Well, aside from that he also heard things like "Ahh, Ms. Bristow is a G.o.ddess", "For me to see Ms. Bristow today, I"m sure something good will happen to me.", "Ms. Bristow! Please marry me!" and many others.
It was really embarra.s.sing for Lucas who wasn"t used to being the center of attraction, but it seems he has no choice in the matter and can only follow Lilianne.
"I"m sure Ms. Bristow already introduced me, but for formalities sake, let me introduce myself."
Forest Trask stood up from his seat and gave a slight bow accompanied with a smile.
"I am the current CEO here in the Philippines, Forest Trask at your service."
"L-likewise, Lucas Lauwers, character name [Lucas]."
As he didn"t know how to introduce himself, he just said his real name and in game.
"Yes, I"ve been expecting you."
"U-umm, if I may ask, why is it that I was called here? And the other employees also seemed to know me…"
"Ah, for that, you got that guy to blame."
As Trasked pointed at his door, the door suddenly opened and revealed another person.
"I-I heard [Lucas] is already here, is that right?"
"Geez, you guys really do as you please…"
Trask rubbed his forehead in frustration but it seemed he didn"t mean it.
"Oh! So you"re [Lucas]? Indeed, there are similarities. Ah, sorry about that, my name is Pearce Reynell! Feel free to call me Pearce, Lucas!"
"A-ah, yes, likewise…"
Lucas was overwhelmed by this person"s bright nature and can only answer in short sentences.
Lilianne beside him seemed to have a wry smile as she understood Lucas" predicament.
"Because of this guy being talkative, almost every personnel in this building knows you."
"S-seriously?"
"As for why you were called here, simply put, because you were interesting."
"………………………………….hah?"
Lucas was dumbfounded by the CEO"s answer as he grinned.
"It all started with Ms. Bristow here recommending you as an [Interesting Player]."
And thus began Trask"s story.
Lucas seemed to get the gist of it and said bluntly.
"So it was Lily"s fault I"m here in the first place."
"I-I"m sure you will thank me soon enough if you listen through the end though."
Lilianne broke into cold sweat as the blame was suddenly pushed towards her.
"Lily huh? That was her name in game right? You seemed to be in a good relationship with each other."
"Heeeeh, good for you."
Trask said revealing a teasing smile while Pearce cheered in monotone as he drinks hot coffee from his container.
"What"s with you two? It"s not like that at-"
"Apparently, she bears my child- ouch! Hey!"
*Ptsuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu*
After intercepting Lilianne to getting his feet kicked by her, Pearce spitted the coffee he was about to drink and nearly choked himself.
Looking at all of this, Trask was happily laughing.
"Wh-wh-wh-wha-what do you mean by that!!!!???"
"Geez Lucas, I thought that matter was already settled!"
"That"s for turning my in game name to my real name."
"I thought that was your fault!?"
"Well then that makes me a sore loser."
"Hahahahaha"
The office was in a ruckus during this time and the people outside can only wonder as to how such a situation happened.
"Looks like she"s weak to getting teased herself kukukuku, with this, my revenge for her is over."
Lucas silently thought to himself and then continued to the primary business.
"So, why am I here?"
"Yes, I know that you"re in a quest to kill [Denneth the Nocturnal] and frankly, I really wish to see the battle."
Trask calmed himself and sat on his chair, the air around him suddenly became different to the one laughing before. As expected of a CEO.
"You want to watch the quest finish? Well, first of all, I"m still in the dark on how to defeat that impossible monster. And also, I don"t want to share it in public."
"No problem, put it up on private and tell us the pa.s.sword for the video, as for whether the quest fails or not, I am willing to pay you 50,000 pesos for it. Though, if I found the video interesting and you somehow defeated Denneth, I am willing to add another digit for it."
Revealing his business smile, Trask proposed to Lucas.
"F-fifty…no, if it"s like this then I will defeat that dragon! You have a deal!"
Lucas" eyes seemed to show 500,000 on both eyes and accepted the deal without hesitation.
"Then we have our deal, just kindly sign this paper here and the deal will be complete."
"Understood…hm?"
Lucas tilted his head as he read the paper he was about to sign.
This was because there were additional informations in there that Trask failed to mention.
"Hey, this says that you will post the video in the [Hall of Fame] if ever the quest is completed."
"Ah yes, good thing you mentioned it. As it said, we will post an edited video in the [Hall of Fame] if ever you were to complete this quest, I"m sure it will be quite the hit."
"…….Fine, but don"t mention my name. Be it real or in game."
Although Lucas didn"t want his video to be placed there in the first place, since he already accepted it, it will be bad to suddenly reject it. Since he doesn"t want anyone to notice it was him playing. But since he already changed his appearance and is still in a beginner"s set, he doubt anyone will notice in the future.
"Is that fine?"
"Yes"
"I see, well, everyone has their own circ.u.mstances."
With that, Lucas signed the deal and received the initial 50,000 payment.
As Lucas was about to leave the office, he stopped and turned his head back to Trask.
"Sir…I have a question…….have you ever thought how interesting it would be if your game character was brought here in the real world? Do you think it is possible?"
Lucas asked the question he had been keeping in his mind.
Normally, he would directly ask about the [World Key] but after Trask"s explanation earlier, he found out that there are things even they wouldn"t know due to the [G.o.ddess] governing [World Gate Online] so asking directly might"ve been risky.
"Hoooh, now that would be interesting indeed…as for whether it is possible or not….."
For the first time, Lucas felt a chill crawl down his spine as Trask let out a smile.
"I"ll leave that to your imagination."
+ + +
After having lunch in his condo unit, Lucas took out the [World Key].
"I guess it"s safe to say Trask knew about this…"
As he looked at the key in awe and in fear, he resolved himself and tried to use it one more time.
"[Character Fusion!]"
After the familiar light surrounded him, he became [Lucas] once more.
Afterwards, he tried a few things like placing items in the real world in his [Invetory] to taking game items out and leaves them in this world. It was really amazing how such a thing can work in real life.
His abilities also matched his game stats making him superhuman.
"This…What will I use this for?"
That was the problem. Aside from how awesome it is to have game abilities in the real world. He really has no need for it right now. Probably only when there"s a fight or something, but real life for him has been boring continuous cycle of normal everyday things, and thus, nothing interesting happens. He didn"t also
want to become some kind of superhero since that will only lead to more trouble.
"[World Gate, Open!]"
NoticeSince the only world you have visited so far is [Harus], it will be configured as the default designation. However, a seal is placed in [Harus] which prevents entering using this way.
As Lucas tried to use the other keyword to determine what it is used for, he received a message saying it didn"t work.
Lucas connected everything he"s learned so far and came into a conclusion.
[Portal] is a device like the [World Key] he has but different in a way that anyone can access it but only limited to [Harus]. The game called [World Gate Online] is named that way because through the [Portal], one can pa.s.s through a virtual [World Gate] in order to travel between worlds.
As for why [Harus] was sealed, it might be to prevent players from entering that world without logging in.
"So [Portal] is like an artificial [World Key]? Though I"m still not sure whether my thoughts are right, for now, let"s solve my problems one at a time."
Thinking that, he went back to normal and wore his [Portal], he also didn"t forget to put the video on private from personal for Trask.
Lucas closed his eyes waited to be transported back to the cave. When he opens his eyes, he would need to find a way to defeat that dragon at all costs. After resolving himself, he remembers the spot of his resurrection point.
However, when he opened his eyes, he can no longer see anything resembling from where he was supposed to resurrect.
Ill.u.s.trator: imaginexbreaker