Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

When Klaus Park called Chun during his lunch hour, he was nervous about what she would say about him accepting the invitation to live with Jaya for a while. However, her response surprised him.

"Uff! Good." She expressed. "I talked to that friend from Baywood, and she said she has a one-room flat, but it's only one bedroom. That's enough for me, Ard and your father, but I rejected it because it wouldn't be fair to you… We are only accepting it if you're going to live with your friend, okay?"

"That's fine, for real. I'm just worried that you won't find a place. By the way, Mom, don't worry, I'll get our house back. The house you and Dad bought when you were newly married won't be from the bank for long."

"Oh, son..." Chun was silent for a few seconds, holding back from crying. "We will get through this harsh moment and get the house back together. I know that. I love you, Klaus. See you later, son..."

"I love you too. Bye, Mom..."

*BIP*

"Klaus, are you secretly cute?" Jayas inquired and took a sip on his cappuccino from Starducks.

When the black-haired man heard Jayaa's voice behind him, his shoulders shook from the fright. He slowly turned around, looked his colleague in the eye, and inquired:

"You were here the whole time?"

"Maybe? I saw that you were pacing back and forth as if you were lost, so I thought I would come and lend a hand. However, you started your call and I don't want to..."

As Klaus listened to Jayaa say, he slightly smiled.

"I'm just kidding. Relax, buddy." said Klaus, who then stole the cup of cappuccino from his colleague's hand and took a sip. "Urgh... Man, this stuff is only sugar. You need to be careful with it."

Jayaa smiled and exclaimed:

"Sugar is the only thing that moves my pretty and amazing body!"

*

The bank gave the Park's deadline to leave the house was 10 days. It was a short deadline for the family, who had a garage full of stuff and an attic full of memories to take care of. Although the bank has promised that it will put the house up for sale again only if in one year the debts are not paid off, Michael and Chun did not have much faith that it is possible to get more than 2 million dollars in such a short time.

However, Klaus was the one who had the most faith that this was possible after realizing the last weekend the gigantic economic potential of Rise Online.

Since on the first day, Klaus didn't have many things in his room to organize into boxes, and most of the large furniture in the house would be sold or donated, he didn't have much to do when he got home from work. So, since he didn't want to waste any time, he immediately put on the NeuroGear and went into deep immersion.

[Calibrating data...]

[Calibrating Data.]

[Checking RISE ONLINE game updates...]

[No updates were found.]

[Do you wish to connect to RISE ONLINE? YES/NO.]

As soon as Kaizen opened his eyes to the fantastical world of Rise Online again, he felt the excitement that something very important was going to happen. Immediately, he forgot his problems in real life and focused only on the gameplay. He remembered his current in-game goal perfectly, as he had been thinking about it the whole day as well.

The day before, Kaizen had logged out in an alley parallel to the street of Zahir's store, so he had to go to the main street, which was full of people and carriages, transiting from one side of Holinda to the other, and with painless, he found his target.

When he stood in front of a store with a modest but very beautiful wooden front, he didn't wait long and entered.

Zahir was serving another customer, a green-haired man in standard novice clothes, however, when he saw Kaizen, his arms opened wide as if he was visiting an old friend after a long time.

"Kaizen! There you are! I've been waiting for you all day! Why did you wait so long to come?" Zahir asked, stepping closer and taking the other customer aside.

"I was busy with some things. Did you finish the armor I ordered for you?"

"Did I? Boy, I made such perfect armor for you that your jaw will be dropped forever.... The steel plates are malleable and light. The bracelet is as powerful and strong as you wanted. The chest plate is also easy to put on and take off by yourself... And I haven't even mentioned the boots! HAHAHAHAHA!"

As he said this, Zahir walked to the back of the store.

The rookie who was present in the store was not happy to have been snubbed by Zahir. "Tsk! Excuse me, dwarf, you are attending to me now, aren't you? Why does this guy get special treatment? I want to buy a scythe, and I'm ahead of him in the order of service."

Zahir turned around, looked at the newcomer, and asked:

"You think this is a farmer's store, stranger? Scythe? That's not even a weapon a real blacksmith makes, and a warrior of real honor blood shouldn't even consider using a scythe. Besides, do you have money? I'm talking about tens of silver coins... Do you?"

"Well, no..." The novice was surprised by the dwarf's aggressive behavior.

'First of all, should NPCs be this harsh with players?'

"Don't have any money? Then get out of here before I kick your ass myself to teach you how to be a man! Get going! Go!"

As the rookie walked away looking like a wilted flower, Kaizen said to Zahir:

"You don't know how to win over the clientele. If you continue with this behavior, you will lose a lot of money."

These were sincere words from someone who, at the moment, needed money more than anyone else, and even the dwarf could sense that sincerity.

"Maybe yes, maybe no. However, I will not sell my items to worthless people like that man who was here. You know, I recognize someone weak by smell..." Zahir pointed to the wide, parched nose on his face.

*Sniff*

Zahir took a step back and gave a sniff near Kaizen, who stepped back with a nervous smile, not understanding what was happening.

"You smell funny, boy! You stink of a mixture of wet goat, rotten milk, and burning coal. What did you eat today?"

"Actually, I haven't taken a bath in a few days, I've been in the Misty Woods and a cave with spiders..." Kaizen tried to explain his own bad smell, noticing for the first time that his odor was terrible.

At that moment, Kaizen remembered one of the goals he had in mind when he decided to go back to Zahir's store: to get a new place to forge.

"Besides the Misty Woods and the cave, I've also been messing around with iron ores and hammers and stuff like that... I'm trying to learn a little bit about blacksmithing."

The dwarf Zahir, who most of the time kept a closed and grumpy face, showed Kaizen his look of incredulity for the first time.

"Huh? You, a blacksmith? HAHAHAHA! That's a good joke, Kaizen, a really good one!"

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

More character images in:

https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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