Pride Online

WRRRRRRRGH!!

The flashback had been quite long. Let us get back to the present. Now, Wisana was still scampering from the damn mushroom. It was kind of pathetic that no matter how fast he ran, he could not shake it off!

“You need to get revenge that much?”

Wisana thought of turning around and fighting it just to get over this. But he also knew that if he did, he would be the one to be over. He was running across a bare field into this thick wood with tall trees all blocking the path. And it did not make it easier for him to flee!!

“Damn it. I can’t keep running like this. It will get me eventually.” he muttered. “And to fight? No, that’s not possible.”

He said as he turned to look at the mushroom monster, which was now holding a wide, annoying smile.

“Alright. If I can’t fight him directly, I'll do it with a detour!”

It was true that he sucked at playing games, but when it came to surviving, he would not lose so easily. The brown eyes searched through the environment around him, trying to come up with a plan. Then, he caught sight of a cliff, not further than ten meters ahead. A big smile appeared on his good-looking face.

The tall young man sprinted through the trees and stopped at the edge of the cliff. He looked down and found it was quite deep. If someone fell from here, no doubt they would not remain in one piece.

UGEEEEZ!!

A few seconds later, that damn mushroom leaped at him again out of its personal stupidity just like how Wisana wanted it to do. He smirked with satisfaction.

“If you want to play tag that much, fine! Play alone in that pit, jerk!!”

After he finished, Wisana turned around and dodged before the chubby monster crushed him. Then he shoved the mushroom down the mysterious cliff with his foot in its back, just to make sure that it followed the gravitational law.

GEEEEZ!

“This guy, still screeching till the end.”

Wisana said as he watched the body of the gigantic green mushroom vanish into the darkness of the cliff. The scream echoing through the wood made him feel strangely sorry for it.

Wisana froze again when a soft voice announced.

“Player Wisana has successfully killed Green mushroom. You got 8,500 EXP and levels up to 5.”

The anonymous voice made him blink.

“It’s the same voice from earlier. What is this?”

He asked with confusion, then some objects with a faint light surrounding them appeared in front of him. He peered at them and saw that they were a roll of paper, a disgusting mushroom spore, and a white, clean feather.

Wisana did not have to be a pro gamer to know what they were.

“So, these are the prizes for sending that jerk back home?”

Speaking as he smiled. The young man bent down to check out the items that dropped from the first monster he killed, which were:

Rank 3 World map (*The map has medium resolution.)

Rare Green Mushroom’s spore (*Mushroom spore can be used for compounding potions.)

Angel’s feather (*It is used for reviving players.)

“And what can I do with these items? The map seems to be the most useful one, though.”

Wrong. The map could be sold for like 500 coins.

The most valuable one was that spore. Its sell price in the market could be up to 25,000 coins. However, with all the intelligence he had and was so proud of, he only picked up the map and the feather. The nasty green spore was carelessly kicked out of the cliff, following its owner down to the bottom.

“Let’s see.”

He unrolled the map in the hope that it could guide him out of here more or less. However, as soon as he stretched it out, the map just disappeared before his eyes, leaving him confused.

“What? What's wrong? Where did it go?!”

“Would you like to look at the map?”

Again, the sweet voice spoke in his ears, making him jump. He turned around, searching for the speaker.

“Who said that? You’ve been speaking for a while now!”

“I am your personal AI.”

“AI?” The listener was still confused, so he asked again with a high-pitched voice. “Where are you? Come out, so I can see your face.”

“Your request is beyond my capabilities to proceed.”

The brown eyes narrowed, Wisana sigh.

“Okay, whatever. So, what do you do? Don’t tell me that you’re here to be another game tutor for me.”

“I am here to facilitate and support gameplay for you.”

“Can you be more specific?” he said, rubbing his head back and forth.

“Yes, sir. Personal AI systems can help and support our players with anything they need, for example, help them with server connection and update news and useful information about the game. Moreover, personal AI can be improved if we get the proper upgrade from our personal players. We are always ready to help and support you and we will be useful to you as much as we can.”

The explanation brought a smile to his good-looking face again as well as excitement to his heart. Because this was like having his own Ada, a.k.a., the database, with him. Now his gamer’s life got easier.

“So, what's your name?” Wisana asked.

“I do not have a name, yet. I have to ask my master to give me one.”

“Is that so?” he drawled his voice, rubbing his chin as he pondered. “I’ll call you Jinnie. Is this okay for you?”

“Yes, sir. Saving AI’s name as Jinnie ...data updated. So, what can Jinnie do for you, master?”

A big smile crossed Wisana's face as he was called ‘master.’ Her voice was so sweet. Her words were so polite. And she called him ‘master.’ But it would be even better if she could come out with a pretty face!

“Can you find me the location of a girl named Warunya?”

“No, I cannot, master. Your request is beyond my capabilities to proceed.”

“Aw. Never mind. Then can you take me to the main city?”

“No, I cannot, master. Your request is beyond my capabilities to proceed.”

“What about the nearest town?” his tone of voice was becoming rough.

“No, I cannot, master. Your request is beyond my capabilities to proceed.”

“Okay. Can you find me the nearest player, then? I can ask them instead.”

“No, I cannot, master. Your request is beyond my capabilities to proceed.”

“And what can you do?!!”

“I am here to facilitate and support gameplay for you.”

Her clear answers made Wisana wish that he could jump off the cliff and die with the stupid mushroom just to get over with this AI. He got so annoyed by them. Why were they like this? The first one sent him to the wasteland. And the second was so dull, that she could only repeat the same thing over and over!

“Why are you so useless?!” Wisana complained in high-pitched notes.

“It could be that I am still on level 1. Also, I have not yet upgraded the information that is useful for master, except for some basic information that could help you with your command window.”

“Damn. What are you? Window 94??” And all he could do was sigh. “Do you know where the nearest town is? I want to talk to the others, maybe, I can get something from them, not like you.”

“Yes, I do, master. The nearest town from here is Albasta.”

“Okay. Can you guide me there?” Wisana asked with zero expectation.

“Now loading the Rank 3 World map.”

After she finished, a holographic window popped out in front of Wisana. He just understood then that the map wasn’t missing, but Jinnie had downloaded it in her AI brain.

“What’s next?”

“The green dot here is where we are, and the red dot is Albasta, our destination.”

“And?”

“Master, you need to walk there.”

I Knew it!!

Wisana yelled from the back of his mind. He dragged his finger along the red line on the map to measure the distance between the two points. It turned out to be approximately 5 kilometers that he needed to walk to the city.

“This is too troublesome. When will I be able to see Orn?”

Speaking of her, it reminded Wisana of why he signed up for this game in the first place, since he was busy with that mushroom. A part of him also felt relief that she was not around, though. So, she did not have to witness his pathetic situation. He would not be able to take it. And, if he ran into his friends, he definitely would not reveal himself, either. Nuchjaree and Tunwa would drag him along on their quests.

And that meant there would be more pathetic situations for him to perform!

“Sh*t, I completely forgot about this. I can’t let them see my face. I’ll just keep them in sight from afar! Heh… That’s right! I must stay away from them!”

He decided, then walked away from the wood immediately, with the yearning spirit of seeing Warunya, also with the spirit of not seeing her. This was confusing. He just wanted to see it with his own eyes if there were some guys actually flirting with her, not to be asked to join their party.

The young man kept walking without realizing that the Green mushroom he just kicked off the cliff was very strong. Even players with 20 times higher levels ganged up on the monster, still, they wouldn’t kill it so easily like he did.

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Monster Information

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Green Mushroom Boss

Level: 38

Elements: Earth (4)

Race: Plants

EXP: 8500

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Attack Point: B

Armor: C

Magic Point: E

Agility: D

Talent: E

Luck: D

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HP: 15,000

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This rare Green mushroom boss respawns every 3 hours. It is infrequently hunted, due to its abilities being overrated with earning EXP. Also, the items dropped from it are not worth the risk.

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At Pride Company.

In the operation office, there were dozens of beds for the game operators to lie on while they were logging in. And from the other side of the room, there was a large desk for the technicians to monitor the game. A pretty woman got up from her bed, pulling the P.M. out.

“Just got off your shift, Ada?”

A hoarse voice spoke from the other side of the room. A tall man was just walking past her bed with a black folder in his hand. The woman paused for a second then made eye contact with him, sleepily.

“Yeah, I did. So, stop calling me that.” She said with a stiff voice.

“Haha, sorry, Aim.” the man said, as he smiled widely. “What’s wrong? You seem to be in a bad mood. Aren’t operators supposed to have a friendly smile for our customers?”

“How can I NOT be in a bad mood?!” She raised her voice in reply. “I just had to deal with this annoying smart-ass newbie. I tried to introduce him to basic gameplay, and he refused to listen, just wanted to rush in like he already knows it all. And I asked him what city he wanted to go to, do you know what he said?

“No. What'd he say?”

“Chiang Mai!” the woman cried out.

The tall young man with glasses in front of her burst out with laughter.

“And did you send him straight to Inthanon mountain?”

“Not funny, Tos!” She said with a stiff voice, gazing at him.

“What did you do next? Don’t tell me you lost it with the players.”

“I’ll lose my job if I do that.” The operator said with a serious face. “I had to count to hundreds, trying to keep it professional. But damn, this guy really got on my nerves. He was actually cute but so damn annoying. How could he say, ‘you have a cute innocent face with huge erogenous boobs’ to a person he just met for the first time?!”

The last sentence made the listener put his hand up to cover his giggle.

“Tos!” she scolded.

“Sorry. Well, he had a point, though. Your baby face makes you look cute and innocent. Also, aren’t you the one who customized those boobs to be so huge yourself?

She blushed before looking away from his too straightforward comment. Because, yes, she did it herself, and what was wrong with that? At least in the virtual world of Pride, let her have these to overcome her insecurity.

“Whatever. I was just pissed off by that Wisana guy. If I ever see him again, I swear I’ll send him to the abandoned dungeon, the toughest one!”

“Hehe number one Pride’s Operator, so vengeful over trivial matters,” he shook his head. “, But really, though. I got to say that you're very professional. You were provoked and could still do your job professionally.

“Yes, by sending him to Green mushroom boss!”

She said with an icy cold voice. A cruel smile showed up on her face in satisfaction.

“Huh?! What did you just say?”

“I said I just sent him to the mushroom to get slaughtered,” she said casually like she was just talking about the weather. Then she turned to look at him, giving him a sweet smile. “I saw it adorably bouncing around Albasta’s dungeon when I was searching for information. It was such a perfect time and place for him to be.”

“Why did you do that? He’s a new player, isn’t he? He’s level 1, he can’t counter the mushroom boss. He’ll get killed!”

“That’s the point.” She crossed her legs carefreely.

“I just praised you for being a professional, I take that back,” Tos said. “He teased you once, and you sent him straight back to the respawn fountain on his first day? Aren’t you worried that he would sue us?”

“Aww. No, he can’t, because he told me I could send him anywhere, so I did what he wanted, sending him straight to the pit,” she smirked. “Also, he didn’t even realize that I was an operator, not an AI. If he was too dumb to tell us apart, then he just deserved this!”

Tos wearily shook his head, glancing at the Satan in beautiful woman’s skin, then let out a long sigh again.

"Pride’s number one operator, why are you like this? (Sigh) not surprised why you’re 28, and still single.”

“Tos, what did you say?” She lifted her head, asking in a sharp voice.

“Nothing. Would you excuse me, I have to start my shift now.”