Pride Online

After the chaos under the sunlight, it did not take long for the moon to come up and replace the sky so quickly like turning a book page. The soothing silver of moonlight was tenderly throwing upon a clearing of the short grass field with trees of different sizes scattered about. Surrounded by all that, a pair of young people were by a campfire, listening to the firewood cracking and cicada sound. The young man was lying down on his elbow, looking the most relaxed and in the best mood.

“I never thought we could get worn out in a game like this, too.” Wisana started the conversation. Maysa, who was managing the items on her inventory window, looked up and smiled at him.

“It’s because of the cumulative exhaustion,” she said. “The more you exert, the more drained your nerves get. How to solve this feeling is to take a good nap for a couple of hours, or you can drink Pixie potion. It can help restore your energy for a while, too.”

“And do you not have a potion, May?”

“Yeah, I do. I got like 15 of them.” Maysa answered with a smile before she looked at the screen, being busy with her inventory again.

“Well, why don’t we drink it, and continue to farm?” His words made her giggle.

“You need to chill, bro. We'd better use the potion only for emergencies, because cumulative exhaustion can be caused by getting attacked or running too long, too. So, let’s take a comfy rest for a bit. Besides, we shouldn’t risk going out to fight monsters at night.”

“Why?” Wisana asked more.

“Well, monsters are tougher at night. Also, this area frequently has some bad boys roaming around. If you get too hyped up and run into one of them, I'm pretty sure you’ll be knocked to the ground. So, be a good boy, and take your nap, okay?”

Wisana frowned when he heard that. The other laughed.

“And we’re in the open like this, your bad boys won’t come for us?”

“No, they won’t,” Maysa answered. “You see this campfire? It's a ranked C monster repellent fire. It can keep monsters with levels lower than 40 away, so don’t worry. Besides, if something goes wrong, your Jinnie that has just been upgraded to class D should be able to alarm you.

When the other one got referred to, Wisana raised his eyebrows, smiling mildly.

“Is that true, Jinnie?”

“Of course, Master. Please take a rest. I’ll take care of this.”

After she finished, the guy glanced at Maysa to give each other a knowing smile. Because, after Jinnie finished her upgrade, the most obvious progress was that she talked more naturally. Her voice sounded lively, and she even got cuter!

“Master, you made me surprised today. I was gone for just two hours, and your level was up to 13. I’m so proud of you.”

“Yeah?” Wisana smiled broadly. “I’m proud of your upgrade, too.”

“No, master was the one who helped me to improve. I'm so glad that I can’t put it into words.”

Listening to Jinnie throwing compliments at her master made Maysa bust out a laugh.

“Jinnie’s very sweet. Now, I kinda want to upgrade mine, too.”

“Of course, she is. She's my Jinnie.” Wisana smiled. “How about yours? What's their name? Why don’t you introduce us?”

“Hey, Al, can you come to say hi?” The clear voice demanded. Seconds later, a pink hologram popped up with a square frame and the name ‘Albert’ on it.

“Hello, sir Wisana. My name is Albert, or you can call me Al,” the computer-generated voice spoke. Wisana nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Al”

“Sir.” That was all the reply, before the pop-up disappeared, leaving Wisana blinking in confusion. He turned to the girl beside him for an explanation.

“Al’s shy.” She answered with a smile. “He actually doesn’t talk to anyone, but me.”

“An AI can be shy?”

“Obviously. Their personalities were generated based on the personalities of more than two hundred thousand people, in order to make the AIs diversified and human-like as much as possible. For example, your Jinnie can be the type of sweet, honey-tongued, clingy girl, for sure.”

Wisana thought of what she said before he nodded in agreement. Yeah, she really was clingy.

“I’ve seen some dom type AI, too.”

“Huh? You mean like the dominant type in SM roles, that kind of thing?”

“Yup. I gotta tell you that she was so savage, deadpan insulting her player. Well, it was consented though, as the player somehow seemed to like it, too. I was kind of cringed by them.”

The other burst out a laugh, feeling kind of relieved that Jinnie sounded like a normal girl. If he got that type of AI that was self-centered, bossy, or stiff like a tomboy, he would lose his mind for sure.

“Why you haven’t upgraded Al, though. He still sounds like he’s on default class, right?” Wisana asked.

“No, I haven’t.” Maysa shook her head. “I’m planning to upgrade mine to the higher class at once. This is how most players do it. Unlike you, who started with AI upgrades instead of using coins on items for himself. What a weirdo.”

Wisana scratched his cheek, not sure if he should tell her that he needed Jinnie to search for his crush, Warunya. However, Maysa could sense that the guy might have his reasons that he was not comfortable sharing. She shrugged, not minding it. She then brought a blanket and a pillow out of her inventory.

“Well, you were crazy from the beginning anyway since you tried to sell gold star treasure for forty thousand or picked a fight with hundreds of Brown howns. So, Upgrading AI first is not as surprising anymore,” she said, tossing the pillow and blanket to him.

“Is that a compliment or an insult?” He asked.

“Both.” Smiling as she replied before bringing the bedding out for herself. Wisana sighed softly.

“Tomorrow we’ll go to Tristan, the capital. We'll get there around 9 in the morning, probably. Then, I'll take you to the association of explorers to register for your class. After we finish our business, it’ll be around 3 p.m., and that is the time I'll log out.”

“Um, understood. Let's stick with your plan, boss,” he said as he winked at her, making the one who was just forcefully promoted raise eyebrows. Then, she chuckled.

“Alright, let’s sleep, then. Al and Jinnie will wake us at 5 in the morning.”

“Got it. Night, May.”

“Good night.”

After they wished each other goodnight, the two started setting their spots to sleep on. Wisana was patted on his big pillow, getting it in shape, while Maysa was already in the blanket.

Who would have thought he would have to actually sleep in a game, too. He felt kind of jealous of players with higher levels that they could keep on playing longer day and night. Wisana chuckled as he thought about how a little kid he was like for sleeping at this early time. He lay down.

“Attention, please. This is an official announcement from Pride Online about the new event.”

Both Wisana and Maysa got up from their mattresses at the same time, making eye contact for seconds. He saw Maysa open the news feed window, and Wisana did so, too. His hologram screen popped up.

“I think that the GMs are preparing a fun event for us again.” The clear voice said, smiling.

“GM?”

“Not right now, Wisana. Let me listen to them first.” She brushed him off, paying close attention to the square frame in front of her.

“Good evening, I’m DJ Toei here to announce good news to you, my friends. Currently, our staff has acknowledged that many players have improved their levels so much that they can easily beat all the bosses in the game!”

Hearing the announcement, the round grey eyes were glancing at the man in front of them shortly before thinking to herself,

Yeah, here we had a newbie who defeated the green mushroom boos, as well.

“For this reason, we are having the most thrilling event, which is...”

The broadcaster paused, letting an exciting soundtrack play.

“Hunting Lord Inferno!!!”

GROWL!!!

Suddenly, his screen showed an image of a fire-red, gigantic monster. Its growl made Maysa and Wisana flinch at the same time.

“The monster is 18 meters tall with 15 million health points. It can be a new challenge for those who like hunting bosses! Let’s face this walking catastrophe!! Give it all you’ve got, and you’ll feel the thrill the way that you’ve never felt before!!”

“I think this event is not for us, May,” the hoarse voice said, his hand scratching his cheek as he was looking down at the image of Lord Inferno with a creased face. 18 meters tall, huh, what did it feed on? Dinosaurs? Why did it have to be this enormous?!

“Hold on, everybody! Don’t get all freaked out, yet! Let's hear about the prizes! For those who can bring Lord Inferno down, you will get 5 rare S ranked items! Anything! You name it and we will give them to you. Also, for those who have too few levels to challenge the boss, don’t worry. We’ll make sure that you can join the event, too!”

“This is definitely ours,” Maysa said, looking up at Wisana with sparkling eyes.

“The event is 'Get that shot if you dare!'”

The event’s name got the buddies glancing at each other. Wisana could not help but wonder why the DJ guy had to be overexcited with just a photo event?!

“We’re inviting players who can’t challenge Lord Inferno to join our photo contest. And of course, your photo will be considered only if it meets these 3 conditions.”

Seconds later, there were letters replacing the Lord Inferno image. Maysa read it quickly.

“Get the shot if you dare!"

Event Rules

1. The photo must have Lord Inferno in it

2. The photo must present the fighting scene.

3. Name the photo properly.

“Alright, I think everyone understands these rules. And for this event: Get the shot if you dare! We will award prizes to the top three winners.”

The broadcaster paused and the intense soundtrack played again like he was about to announce the Oscar winner, getting Wisana shook his head, annoyed. “Damn! Will someone die if you just say it?!” Maysa seemed to think the same, too, as she blinked, forcing a dry smile.

“Starting with the third place, the winner will get the garment of the war god, full set!!”

The guy rolled his eyes, then he asked Maysa.

“Is this one so good?”

“It’s okay. The selling price can be around 500,000 coins,” she answered, not really interested.

“The second-place winner will get 300,000 coins and 30 pieces of Mithril ore.”

“This one’s good. Mithril ore can be used for upgrading any weapons, and the selling price is up to 50 thousand each.”

Wisana nodded, thinking that the third and the second prize was such a day and night difference.

“And the first-place winner will get 1 million coins and a rank S item, which is anything you ask for. But hold on, there’s still more! You’ll get a Lanova, the newest motorcycle that it’s not up for sale, yet too!”

The third and the second were different as night and day, but the first prize was completely out in a different space already!!

“That’s it for the good news, and I, DJ Toei, the most handsome man of Pride’s staff, will have to say goodbye to- uh, wait, I almost forgot. The Hunting Lord Inferno event will take place in the abandoned dungeon, close to Tristan at 8 p.m. players can download more information and the map on the news feed window. And DJ Toei must go now, goodnight, sleep tight.”

The DJ’s high-pitched voice ended as the Newsfeed disappeared, leaving just Pride’s theme song playing. Its sound and rhythm were so encouraging that Wisana, who just heard it for the first time, could not help but feel excited, too.

Well, it was such a mood builder! If it kept playing for a bit longer, he might get up and start marching and chanting!

“Wisana,” He was still irritated by the DJ when Maysa called his name. He turned to look at the pretty face that was made up with a smile as always.

But he somehow felt anxious.

“I changed my mind. We’re not going to Tristan tomorrow. We’re going to the abandoned dungeon!”

“Huh?!”