CH 105

“What the hell?!”

“No way! Ah, shit!”

“Hmm. I suppose this wasn’t totally out of the blue…”

“Is it because of government pressure? I think I saw a news clip stating that DIO is starting to hinder the normal flow of society.”

On his way to the transportation gate to go to a hunting ground, Adol halted as he heard cries all around him and a general bustling in the town square. It seemed that something unexpected had been posted on the Announcement Page.

“What could it be? I’m sure it’s not an end-of-service announcement.”

Reaching into his pocket, Adol took out a personal PDA. The PDA device, also called a Beholder, allowed him to see the terrain and any living organisms within a ten-kilometer radius. It also allowed one to easily read and respond to whispers as well as access the Announcement Page. Obviously, this sort of device could not have been created by a user. Though there were many mages in DIO, the world of DIO hadn’t yet caught up with modern science, so the general sophistication of infrastructure and available goods within DIO was uneven. The device he had in his hand was something that he had purchased at the Exchange Center. He had heard that it was a popular item.

“Let’s see what all the commotion is about.”

The device was a touchscreen-type item, so Adol, who always wore gauntlets, couldn’t easily use it whenever he wanted. To make things easier, Adol had designated his Gear Five slot as his normal streetwear. But if he switched to Gear Five right now, his hidden identity would be revealed, so changing into Gear 5 wasn’t a viable option. Since he had to show his face often while conducting his real-life work as a sports instructor, he wanted to avoid having his face revealed in-game as much as possible.

Beep.

As he imbued the device with his internal energy, the screen lit up. Unlike an electronic device that required a battery, the Beholder required a stream of external power to operate it, so it could be operated with internal energy. Adol wasn’t skilled in materializing physical objects, so he wasn’t able to create a mid-air projection, but he was still skilled enough to imbue his internal energy into the device.

The announcement post read:

/A never before seen world, DIO (Dynamic Island Online)!

Welcome to this fascinating and fun new world!

Recently, a lot of issues have been brought up regarding users. Actually, users themselves haven’t caused or brought up many issues, but there have been a considerable number of issues brought up by governments and mainstream news organizations.

Ah, why didn’t all of you moderate your play time…

There are many users who play a full 24 hours, rest for the required 10 minutes of log out time, and then re-enter DIO for another 24 hours of gameplay. We don’t really feel this is a problem, but if this pattern continues for users, the real world will face many troubles in properly operating. Additionally, lying down for such long periods of time will inevitably cause the physical body to deteriorate. Since it’s been less than a month since the service’s launch, many of you likely have not seen any major changes in your physical bodies, but that doesn’t mean nothing bad will occur in the future if this habit continues.

Hence, we have the following announcements to make:

1. The maximum gameplay time will change from 24 hours to 12 hours. This change will take effect on January 25 at 00:00. Once a user plays the allotted daily limit of 12 hours, they will automatically be logged off.

2. Playtime will reset every day at midnight. Any un-played playtime will NOT carry over to the next day.

3. There will be no instances of offering or purchasing playtime. Period.

4. The Training Room time flow will be based on DIO time and not on real-time. On the maximum setting of 100x, 12 hours in real-time will equate to 14,400 hours in the Training Room. In other words, one will experience 600 days in the Training Room in one daily 12-hour session.

…/

/We are making this difficult decision due to users ‘logging off’ from the real world. Hence, we’re making these changes because of you, yes you! We appreciate that you’re loving the game, but maintain your social life too, alright?

Thank you for your love and support of DIO. It’s okay if you only love us half as much now.

Later./

“Ugh…”

The announcement posts were read by billions of people… but this one was written in such an unprofessional tone. Moreover, the content of the post was inflammatory. Users were playing the game too much, so playtime would be reduced by half? The logouts were going to be automatic and forced?

“It’s such a ruthless decision… but I guess it makes sense. Reality has been affected by DIO…”

Though the post mentioned users’ physical health, DIO had never caused injury or harm to any of its users’ bodies. Actually, for having laid down all day, one’s physical condition actually ended up reinvigorated after a session in DIO.

“Of course, since I’m not eating as many meals, my weight has been fluctuating. But it hasn’t had any negative effect on my muscles…”

If a user really wanted, they could easily go on a diet while playing DIO. If they were serious about their diet, then they could eat health-conscious food during their logout periods and then log back into the game. Moreover, if they craved something, they could just eat it in-game.

“But how does that work? Since the system is interacting with my brain, is it also regulating my physical condition? I wish they’d tell us the details, but the company is so shrouded in mystery…”

As he mumbled to himself, Adol continued to walk towards the teleportation gate. Right at that moment…

Vroom!

It was a familiar sound. An engine sound that seemed to ripple through the air. However, wasn’t this type of sound something that was often heard in reality and not in DIO? This question was soon answered.

“It’s Cruze!”

“She materialized a m-motorcycle?! Wait, how many different objects is she able to materialize?”

“Ack. Cruze… you’re a cheat code! I hope you get nerfed!”

“Ah, because of her, everyone thinks aura users are all-powerful!”

While people stared and shouted, Cruze rode her silver-colored motorcycle in a zigzag pattern through the gathering crowd. The reception she received was ten times that of what Adol had received earlier.

“Wow, unbelievable. She’s so young, yet she’s already one of the three Master-level users in the game… she couldn’t have reached that level just by being a genius, right? She probably had to go through a tremendous amount of training to reach the level she’s at right now.”

“Probably. Anyway, look how cute she is! She’s cuter than any of the mainstream idols in real life.”

“Forget idols; she looks like a character straight out of a comic book. I heard that a popular entertainment group approached her to be one of their idols, but she flat out denied them.”

Everyone’s attention was focused on Cruze. A person who had never received this type of attention would have felt overburdened, but Cruze seemed to consider everyone as just part of the background. She casually brought the motorcycle to a stop in front of Adol.

“Did you come here knowing he was coming?” she asked him.

“Hmm? Know what? What are you talking about?” Adol replied.

“He’s coming.”

“Who’s coming?”

Adol was perplexed by Cruze’s vague way of questioning and explaining. To Adol, Cruze was an acquaintance. It was very rare for users over level eight to ever meet each other, as there were so few upper-level users in the game. Hence, like many other users, the upper-level users had created their own network for party play purposes.

Cruze was several times more powerful than the level nine Adol, but since there were so few upper-level users, she had no other choice but to get to know him. The reality was that there were no other users at her level. There was one user who was much more powerful than her, but he never participated in party play, so Cruze had to set her sights down to the level nine users in order to find users to party up with.

Adol had become friendly with Cruze. She greatly disliked users who showered her with praise or attention, so she appreciated the general disinterest that Adol had in her. The same also applied to Hanma, who also seemed to be a user that was under twenty years old in real life. Hence, Cruze felt comfortable around the two. What made the two a particularly good match for Cruze was that both Adol and Hanma played as tanker-type characters. For a damage-dealer type character like Cruze, the two were optimal party members. Thus, it made sense that the three had a relatively close relationship.

However, the other users didn’t seem to think this way.

“Cruze said something to Adol.”

“Why is Cruze talking to an old fogie like Adol?”

“Ack. Shit, Cruze is actually talking to Adol. Damn it, I wish I was a level nine user, too… ugh.”

“…”

Hearing the commotion and comments, Adol couldn’t help but break out into a sweat. With her abnormal genius and unbridled personality, Adol thought that the other users would dislike Cruze; however, it seemed that she was immensely popular among the users.

“Oh, so it seems you don’t know anything. Well, I guess that’s true of all the users who are just standing here without a care in the world.”

“What are you talking about? Also, when did you materialize a motorcycle… eh?! Is that a Tomahawk?”

Sharing the name of the American cruise missile, which could be launched on land or on a battleship, the Tomahawk was a silver-colored motorcycle with an eight-thousand three-hundred CC V10 engine that could output five-hundred horsepower. It was a monstrous machine that could go zero to a hundred kilometers per hour in less than two and a half seconds.

At first glance, one might think that the motorcycle had two tires, but upon closer inspection, one would find that the bike actually had four, two in the front and two in the back. The reason why the Tomahawk was called a motorcycle was because of how riders looked when riding one. In truth, it was a bit of a miscategorization to call it a motorcycle.

Cruze shrugged. “I figured since I was materializing something to move around in, I might as well materialize something nice. I looked around on the internet and found that this thing was the most expensive. Ah, its top speed is six-hundred and forty kilometers per hour, but once it goes above five-hundred, it starts to become unstable. Could there be something wrong with my materialization?”

Adol shook his head in response. “No way. The six-hundred and forty kilometers is a projection based on the vehicle’s specs. The actual recorded top speed is only four-hundred and eighty kilometers per hour. If anyone tried going faster than that, it’d be hard to hold onto the handles… but, since you’re a talented user, I’m sure you’ll be able to reach the theoretical top speed soon.”

“Hmm…”

“Wait, do you even have a license in real life? Are you allowed to ride a motorcycle?”

“Of course I don’t have a license. But if you think of things that way, then do you think I’m allowed to ride around and operate a tank in real life?”

“I guess you’re right.”

Hearing her logical argument, Adol nodded his head. It didn’t make sense to apply real life rules and laws to the game. While he was nodding his head, Cruze started mumbling to herself.

“Gear Four.”

Ping!

From her skin-tight clothing, which was optimal for active bike riding, Cruze changed into metallic lightweight full-body armor. On each arm, white characters were written across her black armguards. It was some sort of ancient language. Three gold-colored rings also formed in her hair, organizing the loose and flowing strands into a tight ponytail.

“Delete. And Loading.”

As she blinked her eyes, the Tomahawk disappeared and a Barrett M82 rifle appeared in her hands. She was in her full combat gear.

“Cruze?”

“Since we’re here, you should prepare for battle.”

“Since we’re here? I really don’t understand what you’re talking about…”

Right at that moment, a text box appeared before every user.

/The Sword Sovereign, Sungmuk, has made his appearance at the East Gate of Starting!/

“Sungmuk? Who the hell is… ah, right, Sungmuk! Isn’t he that orc hero?”

“Right.”

Hearing Cruze’s relaxed response, Adol stood dumbfounded for a moment, as if he was still trying to put two and two together. Finally realizing what was going on, he quickly grabbed the sword that was sheathed on his back. However, he soon made another dumbfounded expression.

The user population in Starting was over one million. Unlike the closed beta period, Starting couldn’t be overrun unless several tens of thousands of monsters attacked all at once. One single monster could not possibly be powerful enough to contend against such a large user base.

“But why did he come alone? Has he gone mad?” Adol thought out loud. As if to answer his question, screams started to fill the air.