Hakurai

Chapter 345: Impending

A ring disintegrated from Calikgos’ finger when he reappeared in the graveyard of the Monastery of the Stars, up the mountain away from Rene and staring down at the swarming Mosmir.

He grimaced, opening his chat to see several new angry messages from Mike, insulting his incompetence.

“Get back in there and kill them, now. Order the last wave of airships in. How can so many people be so useless?”

He mentally sent his response. “You failed to heed my warnings about att...

Chapter 344: Suzy

Several Months Earlier…

Aegis, Yuki, Savika, and Celestian wandered the lower ruined tunnels of the Darxon hideout beneath Rene. Aegis took the lead, peering through doorways only to find caved-in room after caved-in room, until finally spotting one still intact. 

There was nothing special about it; most of the stonework from the old keep had given way to crumbling rocks and dirt, but it was space, and that was what they were looking for.

“...

Chapter 343: Sacrifice

Tommy was pacing inside the central studio of the Fanta-See network, numerous screens on the wall in front of him, and several workers at keyboards, staring up at Aegis’ broadcast alongside him instead of working.

The implant in his ear was lit up due to his connected call with Shinji and Hae-won, but Hae-won had him muted, busy talking rapid-fire to keep up with the action.

“This feels different. This doesn’t feel like the usual, family-friendly Aegis,” Tommy said into th...

Chapter 342: No Right

“Which Airships are those in Rene?”

Calikgos eyed the message and scanned the surrounding fleet. He was back on the deck of Sages of Destiny’s flagship beside Lilya. The bombardment had stopped, and Kordas had been reduced to a blazing pile of rubble. A tidal wave of black mist was encroaching on the fleet from a distance, well over the height of the highest sailing ship; Kalmoore had fallen far below the abyss and was minutes from crashing to the ground of the old world.

�...

Chapter 341: Bait and Switch

The thick green smog made it difficult to see his own hands, only visible thanks to the glowing bless spell outlining them with a flare of white magical energy. He held his breath for as long as he could, navigating the halls from memory, though he’d only visited the palace once since Savika had been elected Queen.

On more than one occasion, Aegis stumbled over the bodies of dead, lootable Kordas guards. He was somewhat distracted; he opened his livestream viewer to watch Feng aboard ...

Chapter 340: Ruin

Calikgos stood beside Lilya aboard the Sages of Destiny’s flagship, looking down at the destruction in the distance. They’d already parted from Kalmoore Airspace, hovering high above the black mist of the abyss as the island's edges submerged. 

The nearby ships were filled with celebratory cheers of victory, but he and Lilya remained silent. They both received notifications that Aegis had started streaming, and a message came through to Calikgos from a level one character named...

Chapter 339: Ire

The more Eli watched, the worse it got. His livestream viewer hung in his peripheral vision as he rode the bus back toward his dormitory. He had to push his way through the crowds of other students, some laughing and taunting him while others apologizing to him. Many were even sobbing.

The shouts, jeers, and whimpers ranged from ‘serves you right’ to ‘it’s the end of the game, isn’t it?’. 

Every top 10 streamer had participated in the attack on Kalmoore, broadcast...

Chapter 338: Fence Sitting

The experience was fast, but it came in bursts. With a combination of Aegis’ Virabhadra spam and Emerill’s repeated casting of his own assassin cooldowns, they were able to take down their first void hydra raid boss as a party of two after 33 hours of fighting. 

Aegis had roughly kept track of the damage they’d dealt to the level 204 monster to get a sense of how much it had, both so that he could more easily anticipate when the next ones would die, and to get an understandin...

Chapter 337: The Plan

It was only an hour before Eli had received several messages informing him that he’d been unbanned. A proper explanation came from Tommy.

Mike had banned the group using vague clauses in the ‘suspicious activity’ section of the ToS, citing the conversation between Aegis and Rakkan involving his former employee, Ryan. Tommy pushed back on it for its lack of substantive proof that it had anything to do with the game or Averon directly, as VGN was not a protected entity under the ToS...

Chapter 336: Fan Mail

Eli blinked at the holographic display hovering in front of him, hung on the underside of his sim-box’s lid. The option for the Shattered World Online greyed itself out. It moved to the bottom of the list of available simulations, with Office Simulation 2090 taking its place at the top, autoselecting itself and waiting for his input.

He took a moment to process what’d happened. If this Mike person could spy on everything they did, including their in-game communications, he must’ve...

Chapter 335: Reunion

Level Up!: Unarmed Combat has reached Level 53!

Level Up!: Shield Mastery has reached Level 176!

Level Up!: Leather Armor Proficiency has reached Level 176!

Aegis was panting heavily, sweat dripping from every orifice. “No experience bonus for combat skills sucks,”...

Chapter 334: Faith, Faithless, Unfaithful

Ryan had a hard time focusing at work and spent more time out of his sim-box than in, making up excuses to do so, such as delivering reports to the opposite end of the building. After he’d been sent from Nicholas’ office, he saw Mike get called in, and a few minutes later, watched him storm out.

That was yesterday.

Since then, nothing had come of it. But he knew something was brewing in the background. He knew what Mike had done, he knew Nicholas knew, and he knew Mike knew N...

Chapter 333: Pent Up

Even with his stream turned off, word got around fast that Aegis was back in Rene. Darkshot, Trexon, Amlie, and Rakkan arrived as a group through a portal at the altar, catching Aegis on his way back to the Keep with Lina.

“Did ya see our prelims? We knocked it outta the park!” Darkshot cheered, his viewership count rising rapidly the moment Aegis was nearby. 

Aegis shook his head. “Missed it.”

Rakkan nodded along. “Pretty sure everyone did, with that attack o...

Chapter 332: Vulnerability

Ryan worked in cybersecurity from his sim-box at Averon Headquarters, where all Shattered World Online operations took place. It was mundane work, monitoring for any irregularities in connections and player behaviour. Anything that the Samantha AI flagged, he was assigned to investigate.

It was, for the most part, only false flags. Occasionally, someone would attempt to enter the game world using a modified sim-box to cheat, but they were caught almost as quickly as it took them to load...

Chapter 331: Both Ways

Starting this Monday, Book 4 chapters will be released 3 times a week at 12:00 pm CET (6:00 pm EST) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Once I write far enough ahead to have Book 4 fully completed, this will increase to 5 times a week. I will soon be uploading a new story alongside Spiteful Healer once I've had time to write it, so I hope you'll check that out too! It will be Isekai, LitRPG, and darker-themed. Without further delay, here's the next chappy!:
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