With the success of the defense, the wounded soldiers who had fought in the eastern gate of Base 19 were hugging each other and jumping in joy. It was a dangerous situation, but they had come out of it alive. It was all thanks to the single Crystal Soldier who had went ahead in the forest to intercept the approaching enemy, then came back and helped the defensive line. Although the appearance of the gray Vulpia had shocked them beyond their wits, its sudden entrance and disappearance could only be called a blessing.

The hero who had stopped the development of a tragedy was now busy collecting materials on the field. He was crouching down on the ground, collecting blood samples, body parts of the corpses, as well as the scattered shards of crystals.

Seeing him like that, the armed personnel of Base 19 looked at each other with wry smiles. They walked toward him and said their thanks. Then they also began collecting materials.

These materials were important for both research and development of the base. It could be said that Base 19 was behind the scientific development race against the other bases. Deep inside the personnel’s hearts, they were afraid that the other bases would come and take over Base 19 with the reasoning that their management was lacking and irresponsible. Fights between bases do occur, and Base 19 was lacking in combat power and personnel.

Tonight, this have all changed. They all looked at the man who had single-handedly turned the tides around with expectant eyes.

The eastern gates opened and a group of people came out. It was Director Ostwald followed by the personnel of . This was the first time that they had come out of the base as a group, and still dressed in non-combat attire.

All the combat personnel stood at attention. The director was the highest ranking personnel of Base 19. He was like the general in an army.

“Well done, everyone.”

A warm smile was on his face as he spread his gaze at all the people with bloodied and damaged clothes. Then, his eyes settled down on CrySol AllIsDead.

“This outcome would not have been achieved if not for a certain someone. Step forward, CrySol AllIsDead.”

Allen did as told, and stepped forward from the crowd. All eyes were on him, but he didn’t feel uncomfortable. Unlike his days as the combat priest LessHealMoreKill who was always looked at with envious gazes and plotting minds, this time, the eyes that looked at him were those of reverence and gratefulness. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but he didn’t let it go to his head. The encounter with the classed up gray Vulpia had told him that he was still weak and there were others much more stronger than him out there.

“As a sign of Base 19’s gratitude, we award you a class up recommendation in advance. Once you reach the 10th Rank for your class, you can go ahead and proceed with a Class Up. I hope that this will serve you well. Your strength is much needed by the base, and the faster you improve, the better the outlook of our home will be.”

“Thanks. I will put this to good use.”

“I’m glad to hear that. The rest of your rewards will be sent to your terminal.”

Director Ostwald then looked at the others.

“Of course, you all will also be rewarded depending on your achievements in battle.”

The director turned and left. The personnel who accompanied him all smiled and bowed toward Allen and the others before turning to leave with the director.

Quest Complete!

Defend Base 19

You have played a great role in defending Base 19 from a pack of Vulpia. Despite the impossibility of the situation, you did not shrink in fear and fought against the beasts with all your strength, annihilating every one of them.

To the eyes of Base 19’s members, you are a hero.

Rewards:

Class Up Recommendation

+250 Crystal Energy

+400 Creation Points

+5000 Credits

The others had began to walk back to the base. As they passed by Allen, they talked to him and thanked him a lot. They also told him that the materials they had gathered would be sent to him through the terminal. He told them it was okay not to, but they insisted. He could only accept their goodwill.

Back in the base, Allen was excited to check the loot he had gotten and the rewards that were sent to the terminal, but he held back and instead headed for . He didn’t know if it was a blessing in disguise that the attackers of the base were all Vulpia. He had collected enough blood samples to fill all ten vials to the brim.

As soon as he arrived in the , he handed over the ten vials of Vulpia blood samples.

Quest Complete!

Dr. Pheol’s Request

You have successfully collected ten vials of Vulpia blood samples. One of the researches that the are working on can now proceed without problems.

Rewards:

+100 Crystal Energy

+100 Creation Points

+1500 Credits

Dr. Pheol was all smiles when he received the blood samples. He immediately handed them over to his assistant and daughter, Eleanor, to be brought into one of the research rooms.

“Follow me… there’s something I want to show you.”

They entered through the left corridor this time. There were no windows to peek through into the rooms, so whatever was being conducted here should be something important and must be kept a secret from outsiders.

“Whatever you see here is confidential information. Normally, CrySols or other personnels aside from the Director and the researchers responsible are not allowed in here, but I’m making an exception for you.”

The doctor led him in front of one of the doors and said those words. He then used the biometric optic and fingerprint scanner beside the door, as well as inputted a code and swiped a security card. The security was extremely tight, and Allen took note of this. He remembered that the game allowed players to infiltrate another base. If that was the case, then this security-tight area should be of high value.

The door slid open and they entered. There was no one else inside aside from them. The dim lights brightened, and the rest of the room became visible. There was a console and a huge monitor beside a glass shielding. Behind the glass was a small room with a table and something on top of it. Surrounding the table were mechanical arms fitted with different types of tools. It was similar to the room where he got the implant, except that the subject was not human but an object.

It resembled an over-sized pistol with a cylindrical barrel half as long as an arm. It didn’t seem special to Allen, so he was slightly confused.

“This is?”

“It’s a ‘short gun’. You may have noticed that the ranged weaponry being used right now are called long guns. That was because it was deemed too difficult and inefficient to develop smaller armaments. By reducing their size, the firepower is affect negatively, but the ammunition consumption remains the same. The amount of ammunition that can be used without reloading is also reduced because of the decrease in cartridge size. Despite that, I still wanted to develop a short gun that can be used as an alternative to the unwieldy long gun. With a short gun, you could also equip with a one-handed weapon with your free hand or even a shield for defense. There are many possibilities.”

Then, the doctor’s face formed a depressed and self-deprecating expression.

“Alas, my skills are lacking. No matter how much I try, I couldn’t make a breakthrough.”

He then turned his gaze to Allen.

“But I saw your battle and the weapon you used: a transforming weapon! It’s truly out of the ordinary. I know that we did research on the viability of material transmutation and transformation, but we still had not applied it to a practical design. Did you make it yourself?”

“Yes…”

“Amazing! You are truly talented! Base 19 was blessed with a person such as you. I was indeed right with resting my hopes and expectations on you. If it doesn’t bother you, could I leave this research to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I will send a blueprint to your terminal. You could use it to craft this weapon, despite its incomplete design. You could also use it to study the inner workings of the design and use that to innovate and create a new design. What do you say?”

“I’ll gladly accept that offer.”

…

…

…

6 am. Sunday.

Diane Dion was in a bad mood. She was sitting on the edge of her bed. Her long auburn hair was a mess and it partially covered her face, making her appear like a ghost in one of those low-rate horror movies.

With a scowl, she looked at the screen of her phone. 102 missed calls since five in the morning. As she was about to check who the bastard was, the phone started ringing again.

“Who is it?”

She used the grumpiest voice she could.

WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!!!

It was a familiar voice. She was one of Diane’s friends and classmates, as well as a core member of her party in Hazard Frontier Online.

Her shouting almost broke Diane’s eardrum.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SHOUTING AT!!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!!! WE JUST LOGGED OUT AN HOUR AGO AND I HAD JUST FALLEN ASLEEP!!!”

Uhhh… I think you broke my eardrums…

“THAT’S MY LINE!!!”

Alright! Alright! Calm down! I’m sorry Diane! I’m sorry! It’s just, this is urgent!

Diane knew this girl’s personality. When she said something was urgent, she really mean it. Having calmed down after releasing her anger, her bad mood had finally disappeared. The voice on the other end of the call indeed sounded urgent.

“I’m sorry, too. So, what is this urgent thing?”

Check the forums, Diane. There’s something completely unbelievable going on right now. You immediately logged out last night, so you didn’t hear about it, but we did. We checked the forums just to be sure, and what we found was truly shocking.

“Fine… fine… Wait a minute.”

She turned on her laptop and accessed the Internet, then opened the public forums used by Hazard Frontier Online players. There was a sticky thread with the subject “THERE’S SOMEONE IN BASE 19!!!”

Before opening the thread, Diane was a bit skeptical. It was not impossible for someone to be in Base 19. Players can choose that as their starting base, but it would always end up with the player deleting that character, creating a new one and start out in a different location. This cycle had repeated itself already countless of times, as told by the older players, those who have started playing at the same time as the game was released. Every time someone starts in Base 19, the news would immediately spread to other bases due to NPCs talking about it like some sort of gossip. When the player deletes his character, the NPCs completely forgets about him.

Have you opened it, yet? What do you think?

“Not yet.”

Hurry, hurry!

“If this isn’t worth my time, I’ll feed you to the Centidillos in the dungeon we raided last time.”

After saying that, she clicked the thread open. The very first post mentioned about how two nights ago, a new player registered Base 19 as the starting point. It was the center of discussion for a while, then died down as they knew that that player would not be able to stay long in that place. It was then forgotten.

Around 24 hours later, the NPCs across all 18 bases started talking about a rumor. It was about the new player helping defend the base against a raid from a pack of more than twenty Vulpia. The weakest were Class II, while the pack leader was a Class V.

The players knew how difficult defending the base was. The classes of the NPCs in the base range between Class I to Class V, but that doesn't mean a single Class V NPC can handle a single Class V Crystal Beast. It requires a party of four to five NPCs with an average class of IV to handle a single Class V monster.

With most of the players out doing quests in different places or harvesting materials to trade and craft, only the few people who happened to be in the base at the time of the attack would participate in the defense. They could manage, but it could not be said that it was an easy task.

Base 19's situation was even harsher. There was only one player during the time of defense, and it was well known how much stronger the monsters around Base 19 was. Furthermore, since there were no players to do quests for the base, the base doesn’t have the required materials procured through the quest to further research and construction. The physical defenses were poor, as well as the NPCs abilities

What they thought as impossible was now being spread through the NPC network. It was reasonable why the players were making a big fuss about this. They were asking if anyone had an idea what the name of the player was. As there was no one else in Base 19, and the NPCs were keeping the confidentiality of the information, not a single hint could be obtained. No one was willing to waste money or sacrifice their hard-earned character just to know who this mysterious character was.

’Could it be him?’

There was only one person Diane could think of who had the ability to do the seemingly impossible. He had stayed by her side for five years. She had been willful, but he still followed right behind her no matter the absurdity of the things she wanted to do.

At first, she wasn’t like that. She only began requesting to do those crazy challenges when she met him. That was because she knew that even if it was impossible for her, it was possible for him. As long as he was there by her side, she could do anything.

“LessHeal… MoreKill…”

She unintentionally muttered the in-game name he used.

Huh? Did you say anything?

“No, it’s nothing. Was there any video of what had happened in Base 19?”

None. That’s what makes it the more mysterious. I was thinking of making another account just for checking it out. I’m sure the well-off players are thinking to do the same. It would just be a bit wasteful if it turned out to be some sort of hoax.

Diane slightly regretted not starting in Base 19. She was actually afraid of doing so. Using the reason that she was accompanying her friends was just a cover. She could bring her friends along and start in Base 19. It was just without him, she did not have the confidence in conquering such difficult challenges where she was not sure of certain victory.

“It doesn’t matter for now. We’ll know who that person is in time. I’m sure he would be able to read this and might tell us himself.”

That’s good and all. I just hope he doesn’t stay behind the shadows and bask in the glory of the attention he is getting.

“I’m sure he’s not that kind of person.”

Diane convinced herself that it could only be him. A smile formed on her lips as wild thoughts entered her head.

’He’s here. He’s in the same world as me. We might be able to meet again. I wonder what’d he say if we meet.’

For a moment, she was tempted to make a call. She shook her head and decided that it would be better if she didn’t contact him for now.