Chapter 23

AN: I know, it's late. Whatever, I'm in a place where there's no internet for a full month so what do you expect me to do?

Bla bla.

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In the game YGGDRASIL, there's a certain space called Private Platform. This Platform is not accessible to any Players unless they're allowed to by the Administrators themselves.

Though this Platform has no exact purpose. In fact, throughout the whole time that the Game has run, the Private Platform has only been used twice.

The first is when a Player used an item that allows him to contact the Administrators themselves, and the second is... today.. The day of The World Tournament.

The World Tournament had just ended, and there's a total of Nine Players that was hailed as the winner, or in other terms, the World Champions.

Each World Champions will get two things for winning the Event. The Job Class called "World Champion", and the World Champion Item. Both of these will be given by the Administrators themselves.

And since the winning prices of the tournament are not something they can just give straight away due to its complexity, they will have to meet each winner Face to Face.

And that is where the Private Platform comes into play. That is where the Winners of the World Tournament got dragged off to right after they won the final round of the World Tournament.

∆∆∆∆∆

In the middle of Tokyo, there's a certain Building called, Takayama Building. This Building is where the Developers and everyone that is involved in the game YGGDRASIL, works.

Right now, everyone inside the Building is pretty busy. Though all of them are pretty much busy every day, today is much more busier since a big Event is currently happening inside the game.

On the sixth floor, the floor where the Administrators are located is more busier than the others. They have much more work since they don't just have to work on the surface of the game, but today, they also need to interact with Players too.

Today, they will give some Players a Class and an Item as some sort of reward. Giving Players a Class is not much of a problem, though it will still be a lot of work, it is still not comparable to the sheer amount of work they have to do for the Item section. The Item that they will give is something that the Players themselves will decide. Whatever the Players want, they have to work on it on the spot. It's not the same as the other Events where the reward Items are already decided.

All the Admin's faces look dead tired. At this current time, they're on a short break that's why all of them are to be seen out of their offices. Or at least not all of them.

*Intense Typing SFX*

One of the Admins who, if one were to look at his face, anyone can see that he looks far younger compared to the other ones, are still inside his office typing something on his computer while looking visibly irritated.

"... I'm really going home late tonight." He said as he sighed heavily while still typing continuously.

*Creak*

Suddenly, the door of his office opened up and his co-worker, who's also an Admin, peeks inside and says something to him.

"... Oi Satoshi, you aren't going out? Break is about to end already."

"... Umm, I'm still pretty busy. I'll just catch up later once this ends." The Admin who turns out to be called Satoshi, looks towards his Co-worker and said with a sorry face.

"... Hmm, okay then. Just don't overwork yourself." His Co-worker said before he proceed to leave the room and go outside.

*Thud!*

Now, as the door closes, Admin Satoshi is alone in his office again.

"... Argh! It's all that Guy's fault!" Satoshi said as he slammed his desk lightly.

If one of his co-workers were to see him right now, they'll surely be confused since this morning, he's still looking pretty happy then suddenly, this moment, he's already so angry.

"... F*ck!" Satoshi said as he bring his attention back to his Computer.

*Extreme Typing SFX*

This goes on for almost an Hour.

Admin Satoshi didn't do anything but his Computer. He did not stop typing about something on his keyboard or even move. If someone were to look at a video of his during this past hour, one will see that he did nothing at all or even change his position. What he is an hour ago is the same with him right now.

*Tururut*

This kind of thing will most likely continue if he didn't get interrupted by the sudden sound of his communicator, which indicates that someone is calling him.

*Tut*

"... Hello?" Satoshi said as he pressed his communicator to receive the call.

"... Is it time already? .... Alright, I'll go now."

*Tut*

The call didn't last. Satoshi only exchanged a short series of words before ending the call. But he seemingly understands what's the call for already as immediately after that, he stands up and grabs some Helmet looking thing on a nearby table.

This Helmet seems to be a VR Helmet.

He goes back to his seat and puts the Helmet on his head.

After that, he then grabbed some cable-looking thing on the corner of his chair. He pulled the cable all the way to the back of his neck then without hesitation, plug it in his Neural Port.

"... Ugh." As he plugged it in, his VR helmet glowed and his vision changed. Almost everything around him became dark and all he see is a selection of many things.

He scrolled the whole windows of Selection and only stop when he reached a certain window that has the word "YGGDRASIL" written on it.

"... Alright, let's meet that bastard." Satoshi muttered to himself before fidgeting something within his vision.

After seemingly done with whatever he's doing, he then rests his arm on his chair.

"... Log in." After he said that, his whole surroundings turned dark.

A few seconds after that, he regained his vision ever so slowly, only for him to see a different place, though it seems that he's not new to this as he already knows what this whole thing is about.

"... Yo. It's been a while since we last meet like this Satoshi-san."

Suddenly, before he could even regain his whole vision, he heard a voice, in which, if someone were to judge where it came from, it will be right in front of him.

A few seconds after that, Admin Satoshi finally saw the whole vicinity and who's the owner of the voice he just heard.

"... Yuki, you ungrateful Bastard." Satoshi said towards the Player with a tone full of hostility.

Of course, the Player in front of him is no other than Yuki himself. He just won the World Tournament, and just like the other World Champions, he got dragged in this place, immediately right after the Event ends.

"... What? Why?" Yuki said, acting like he know nothing.

*Bam!*

After Yuki said that, Satoshi slammed the tiny table in front of them and look towards Yuki, though his Avatar doesn't have any features at all, Yuki can see that Satoshi is looking at him with murdering eyes.

"... I gave you the favors you want in the past, and now when it's my turn, you did me like this huh!?" Satoshi shouted madly towards Yuki.

"... But I really don't know what I want last night!" Yuki said as he prove himself innocent.

"... Bullish*t!" But Satoshi seems unconvinced as he throws his hands in the air.

"... Look, all I want is a break. I just asked you to simply tell me what your Item is going to be last night so I can work with it already and leave early today, but you son of a b*tch—"

"... I don't really know okay!? And besides... It's not like I'm sure that I'm... You know, going to win??—"

"... I rather believe that Santa Clause is real than what you're trying to say. You're not going to win? BWAHAHAHA! *slap* That's the best joke I've ever heard!" Satoshi said while laughing out loud, though one can tell that it is just a fake laugh.

"... Did you really believe that someone can beat your ȧss huh? You are like the Cockroach of this game! No one will be able to kill you, unless I personally click your Kill buŧŧon! Wait, let me try it right now so you can see." Satoshi said as he hurriedly operates his own Console.

"... WAIT WAIT WAIT!" Yuki quickly tried to defuse the situation. He can take anything but dying. Dying in-game for Yuki is a pretty big deal due to his penalties. So when he heard dying, all the lights in his head goes red. Though he knows that Satoshi is just scaring him, he still needs to calm him down since he can really do that thing and don't give a f*ck.

"... Okay alright? It's my fault, I just forgot about what you said last night and fall asleep." Yuki said in an apologetic tone.

"... Tch!" Satoshi was still looking pretty pissed, but he still withdraw his hands on his console. A good sign for Yuki.

"... I'll just make it up to you in another time okay? This time, I will not forget about it, I promise~..." Yuki pleaded more as he walks towards Satoshi and gives his virtual shoulder some virtual massages... though he himself knows it's pretty unnecessary.

"... Come on man~" Seeing the unwavering Satoshi, Yuki pleaded more.

*Sigh* But Yuki's plead this time seemed to have worked.

"... Whatever." Satoshi said in a grumpy tone as he swat Yuki's hands away from his shoulder and gestured for him to go back on his sit already. Though looking pissed, he now sounds pretty calm.

"... Yay!" Yuki said happily as he jump back on his sit.

"... Let's just get this over with." Satoshi said tiredly as he reach out to his console and operates it again.

Throughout the whole conversation they just had, if someone were to hear it, they will surely speculate that the two of them had a not-so-good connection. But the truth is, Yuki and Satoshi are pretty good friends, both online and in real life. That's also the reason why Yuki knows who Satoshi is right at the very beginning.

"... Okay bastard, I already gave the Class to you." Satoshi said after a minute of operating his own Console.

"... Ooh~ nice. Good job." Yuki said as he clasped both his hands.

"... But there's a catch. The class had immediately adapted to your whole Character alignment. Therefore, it changed into something else."

"... Hoo~ really? What it turned into?" Yuki asked with an excited tone.

"... It changed into a World Terror. It sounds cool in my opinion." Satoshi said in an unchanging tone.

"... What are the differences though?" Yuki asked, wanting to know what is the difference between the normal one to what he just got.

"... Well, that's for you to find out." Satoshi said, wanting to move to another section already.

"... Now, let us go to your World Champion Item. Just tell me what you want."

Hearing this, Yuki pondered for a second before answering.

"... Alright, I want an accessory type. A ring to be exact."

"... A ring? Why a Ring?" Satoshi asked, though he's already working on it as right after he asked, his hand is already processing Yuki's choices on his console.

"... Well, I already have my OP sets anyway, so I want an OP ring this time."

"... Hmm. Alright, what does it do?— Oh! And for the love of God, please, just make it simple okay?"

"... Oh don't worry, it's pretty simple." Yuki said, reassuring the worried Satoshi before explaining what the Ring he wants to have, does.

Yuki's explanation about the whole capabilities of the Ring didn't last long as he's done in under five minutes.

"... So how's that?" Yuki asked Satoshi about his opinion about the details he gave.

"... Hmm, it's acceptable but, I'm still thinking about it." Satoshi said as he keeps pondering about Yuki's Ring.

"... Come on, it is pretty simple, what would you even think about it."

"... Yeah, that's the Problem! It's so simple! So I'm thinking what could be the hidden advantages that this will give you. I better stay vigilant around you or you might end up breaking the game or something." Satoshi said as he know that all of Yuki's main items had at least three pages of description, so a simple item like this that has a simple description is pretty suspicious.

"... Alright, think about it as hard as you can. But you'll surely find nothing." Yuki said as he slumped his body on the chair.

"Hmm." Satoshi pondered about it as hard as he can.

But after a couple of minutes of thinking and ended up with nothing, he finally gave up then agree on Yuki's idea.

"... Fine, we'll go with this." Satoshi said as he operates his Console once again.

But while he's doing something with his console, Yuki asked a question.

"... So, about the thing I asked. Is it possible?"

"... Hmm. I don't know. I'm still not sure about it until the new Patches came out officially. It might be risky for the both of us if I were to work on it now." Satoshi said without even looking at Yuki as he just keeps his attention on his console.

"... Alright, just tell me if it's possible." Yuki said as he sighed deeply.

A couple of minutes had passed when Satoshi was finally done with whatever he's doing with his console.

"... Alright done. You'll probably get it by tomorrow or even today if yours was the first to work on." Satoshi said as he stands up and start walking away. Gesturing that his work here is already done and he now wants to leave.

"... No problem, thanks for the hard work."

"... No big deal." Satoshi said as he stopped walking and bring up his console again. On his console, a logout buŧŧon had pop out.

He's about to press the log-out buŧŧon, but before he did that, he looked back towards Yuki, looking like he just remembered something.

"... Oh, right. Someone caught my attention the other day. It's a very peculiar player, at first I even thought that it was you, but I found out that it wasn't. That Player even got some interesting things on his hand. A perfect recipe for disaster." Satoshi said with a serious tone.

"... What does that mean?" Yuki asked, completely intrigued about this.

"... If my speculation is correct, he's going to a path that leads to nothing but being... A World Enemy."

Yuki after hearing this, frowned. He was about to say something, but like his mind got read, Satoshi immediately followed up.

"... No, I know what you're thinking. I can't tell you who it is exactly even if you give me all your money. What I'm doing right now is already considered a breach in our rules. I might be fired you know? But I can at least tell you this, he's not among the World Champions."

Yuki, after hearing this, was visibly confused. He then starts pondering deep within his thoughts.

"... Oh well. What I just want to say is, be careful." Satoshi said in a mysterious tone before focusing his attention back on the console and finally pressing the log-out buŧŧon.

"... Catch you later."

And with that, Satoshi finally left the place, leaving only Yuki in the darkroom while still deep within his thoughts.

After a couple of moments, Yuki finally stands up and goes towards his console too. He navigates to his log-out buŧŧon and presses it.

But before he disappeared within the dark place, he muttered some words that echoed throughout the space.

"... Something has been changed. I need to get ready."

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