Ascension: Online

"Whew - that felt so satisfying!" Ichigo shouted with a laugh.

"Bloody straight," Jim agreed, chuckling.

We had just finished beating Qin Yao up. Or rather, they had. I didn't participate, mainly because those two were hitting him so much that I couldn't even join in. It was pretty pitiful, honestly. Still, he got what he deserved. He had no one to blame but himself.

After we were satisfied, Captain Ling Ye and the guards took Qin Yao away. It was pretty funny, actually. He couldn't even log out because he was being detained, his hands locked behind his back. But following this theory… it certainly was possible to trap someone inside this game - by preventing them from logging out via their System. However, this method wasn't entirely fool-proof. As players, they can simply kill themselves to reset, then log out after respawning at their last spawnpoint. Qin Yao was probably debating to do that right now, but he wasn't eager to feel more pain after what Ichigo and Jim just did to him. He'll probably log off the game after he was tossed into a jail cell.

Either way, this certainly wouldn't be the last we would see of him. He would log back in to the game sooner or later, and with his personality… probably come looking for revenge. However, it's not like his actions had no repercussions at all. At the very least, if he showed his face in Tianyin City ever again, he would get arrested once more.

Therefore, it would be quite some time before we would ever have to deal with Qin Yao again. I'm grateful for that.

As for us, we followed Captain Ling Ye and the soldiers back into the city to claim our rewards. We heard that the other players who had participated in this public event had already received their prize money of 75,000 gold, even Hua Hua, who had died to Moonserpents.

Qin Yao, obviously, wouldn't be receiving anything. In the end, Ichigo forced him to cough up the money from his inventory. He refused at first, but with a couple of threats from Ichigo and Jim, he gave in relatively easily.

"Did he give the money back?" Ling Ye asked, walking into the jail cell Qin Yao had been confined in. His hands were chained up, pinned against the wall - so he still couldn't log out, even now. Truly tragic.

"Yep," Ichigo replied, holding up a large sack that appeared to be quite heavy. "Right here."

Ling Ye nodded. "My thanks. You can keep the money as an additional reward."

Ichigo's eyes widened. "A-Are you sure?"

"… Yes. You lot showed me the truth. Thank you for exposing the reality."

"Hey now, we didn't do anythin'," Jim suddenly interrupted. "It was all Igarashi here. I think he deserves the bloody money, yeah?"

Ichigo hurriedly nodded. "Yeah. Here, Igarashi."

He handed me the enormous sack of gold coins, and I accepted it gratefully.

"Well, no sense turning this down, I suppose…" I murmured as I stored the money into my inventory via a hologram that showed up in front of me.

After that, we left his cell. It was only a matter of time before Qin Yao would give up and resort to suicide in order to log out. Not a good method by any means.

"Hero Igarashi," Ling Ye said as we walked. "I… truly apologize. I was blind."

"This is the fifth time you've apologized to me tonight," I chuckled. "Don't sweat it. Oh, and… also, 'Hero Igarashi' sounds weird. Don't bother calling me that."

"What? But…"

"You see… I dislike standing out. Understand?"

Hearing this, Ling Ye's eyes widened slightly in understanding. "… I see. In that case, I shall respect your decision."

We parted ways shortly after that. Jim and Ichigo both logged off, and I lied to them, saying that I would log out after they did as well. I couldn't really do this, of course, so instead, I headed for a clothing store. I needed some new underclothes - I could obtain fresh armor from completing various quests, but not normal clothes such as T-shirts.

Unfortunately, the store was already closed. It was already nearly 10 PM, after all. So, I just returned to the inn I had stayed at the night before. I paid the proper price for one night's stay this time around. Luckily, no one booked the room I had stayed in yesterday, so I just took that one - it would've been a hassle to adapt to a new room, after all.

After a long shower, I exited the bathroom and opened up my System. I was still completely naked, but after some thought during the shower, an idea struck me.

I switched to the 'Crafting' tab without bothering to look at my profile and took a look at the materials I currently had:

[Sickleboar Meat x19]

[Sickleboar Skin x13]

[Bones x2]

The materials I had obtained from slaying sickleboars didn't change at all, since I didn't kill any during the entirety of this public event. I kept reading.

[Silver Wings x8]

This must've been from the silverwings we got ambushed by.

[Moonserpent Scales x1]

[Moonserpent Fangs x2]

And lastly, the moonserpents we fought.

After some thought, I decided to give my idea a shot. I dragged five sickleboar skins into the five circles on the right hand side of the screen, one in each. Then, clicking on the crafting table in the middle, the circles converged into one.

"Please work…" I muttered quietly.

And then, it was finished. A notice popped up:

[Obtained: Sickleboar Pelt x1]

I smirked, then dragged three sickleboar skins this time and placed them into three circles. Clicking on the crafting table, I waited.

[Obtained: Sickleboar Underwear x1]

I sighed in relief. I was so glad to have found this recipe. I switched to the Inventory tab and located the two items I just crafted, equipping them immediately - a shirt and underpants, both made from sickleboar skin.

"Hm… this feels… kind of weird, but…"

It was the best I had. After some adjusting, I dove into my bed, and took a deep breath. Then, after pulling the covers over me, I switched to the 'Quests' tab. I now had three newly completed quests, ready for me to claim.

[Primary Quest: Corruption - COMPLETE]

[Investigate the source of the Magic Beasts' corruption.]

[Rewards: 2000 XP, 5,000 gold]

-

[Public Event: Exterminating the Beasts - COMPLETE]

[Exterminate the Magic Beast horde that has plagued Tianyin City for years.]

[Rewards: 1000 XP, 2,500 gold]

-

[Vault: The Vault of Corruption - COMPLETE]

[Complete the Vault of Corruption.]

[Rewards: 4,000 XP, 10,000 gold]

I blinked in surprise. Apparently, completing Vaults offered better rewards than even Primary Quests. It seemed that they would be the most efficient way to level up fast - and since my stats scaled with my actions without needing to spend SP, if a Vault offered trials that tested physical ability like the Trial of the Sprinter and Trial of the Leaper, then my overall power would skyrocket.

I then claimed the rewards. Immediately, a new prompt appeared:

[Level Up!]

[Lv. 11 -> 15.]

[You received 40 SP and 8 AP.]

40 SP and 8 AP, huh? What a bountiful harvest. I now had 10 AP in total. I wasn't in a rush to obtain new skills, though, right now, I was tired. I just wanted to look over my new stats, distribute my SP, talk to A.R.X.A. a bit, then go to sleep. I would worry about skills tomorrow.

I switched to the 'Profile' tab of my System, and my eyes widened in shock at how much my stats had grown:

[STR: 60]

[AGI: 80]

[INT: 35]

[DEX: 14]

[MAG: 26]

[LUC: 10]

This was quite the increase. My STR stat went from 48 to 60 from killing those Magic Beasts alone. Unfortunately, the trials within the Vault of Corruption weren't strength-focused, so that didn't help much.

That said… it certainly did affect my AGI stat. A leap from 48 to 80 - that's a 32 point increase without having to spend a single SP. I was confident I could now avoid any attacks other players my level threw at me, and Magic Beasts as well. Furthermore, I was now so fast and agile that they would not be able to react to my speed, giving me many opportunities to strike.

As for my INT stat, my guess is that the Trial of the Chemist helped increase this, along with the logical reasoning I used to expose Qin Yao. Both were related to intelligence, after all.

My DEX and MAG stat both didn't increase, but that was only natural.

And lastly-

Wait. The hell? Is it just me, or did my LUC stat go down? I could've sworn it was 12 before, and now it's 10…

Hold on, don't tell me… my stats can go down based on what I do in the game as well?!

I quickly distributed my stats like so, then switched to the A.R.X.A. tab:

STR: 60 -> 80 (Cost: 20 SP)

AGI: 80 -> 80 (Cost: 0 SP)

INT: 35 -> 35 (Cost: 0 SP)

DEX: 14 -> 30 (Cost: 16 SP)

MAG: 26 -> 30 (Cost: 4 SP)

LUC: 10 -> 10 (Cost: 0 SP)

[Greetings, human.] She said as her robotic face glitched into view.

"Uh, hi, A.R.X.A… long time no talk," I said casually. "Have you been watching everything I've been doing?"

[Yes. I am surprised you managed to make it out of my traps-]

"H-Hold on, by traps, do you mean how the Vault's trials were targeting me?!"

A.R.X.A. fell silent for a brief moment, then spoke once again.

[Error: Cannot process subject's meaning.]

"'Error' my ass! So it was you controlling the metal crates!" I yelled in frustration. "It was also you who dematerialized that final pillar right when I was about to jump in the Trial of the Leaper, wasn't it?!"

"Oi! Keep it down over there! Trying to sleep!" a man shouted from the room next to mine, banging on my wall.

"A-Ah, sorry," I quickly said, lowering my voice, then turned back to A.R.X.A. "Did you do all that for your own entertainment?"

[Would you believe me if I said no, human?]

"… Not one bit."

[There you have it.]

"Ugh… whatever. At least now I know you'll help me sometimes, but hinder me at other times," I muttered in disdain. "That aside… I wish to confirm some things with you."

[Speak.]

"Alright. Firstly… it's with regards to my own stats. I saw that my LUC stat had dropped down, somehow. Is that… supposed to happen?"

['You' are not supposed to happen.]

"Huh?"

[Your stats leveling up on their own is a 'bug' in and of itself. If they can go up, why can they not go down?]

"… I see. I'll have to be careful from now on then," I sighed.

This was troublesome. For example, if I didn't exercise at all for a week or something, my STR and AGI stats would both undoubtedly go down. Maybe my DEX stat too. Moreover, if I ever thought up a stupid plan or something… would my INT stat decrease? Probably. I don't know about MAG, but apparently, my LUC could decrease from the most random events ever. The moment a little misfortune befell me, my LUC stat would go down - even though it was supposed to help decrease the amount of misfortune that comes to me. How ironic.

"As for next question," I continued, organizing my thoughts. "The 'Corruption' skill I obtained from beating the Vault of Corruption… does the MAG stat affect the power of this skill?"

[Information on the skill can be found in the 'Skills' tab. Refrain from asking me such stupid questions.]

I rolled my eyes and did my best to control my annoyance. "Okay… and the final question - there should be billions of people playing Ascension: Online right now. How come there are only such few players around?"

[There are 24 servers in Ascension: Online, each based on a different timezone. The servers are all parallel reality planes of this one. The server you are currently in is Server 1, the original reality plane of Ascension. The other 23 are all parallel ones I fabricated.]

"So, the other servers are all parallel reality planes, huh? What about the NPCs in these other servers?"

[They are all not real. They are virtual clones created from the DNA data of their original counterpart in this reality plane.]

"I see… I figured as much," I muttered in thought. "But even with 24 servers based on the different timezones of my old reality plane, there should still be millions of people playing on one server at a time… so there's one more factor in play here, isn't there? And that is the age distribution of the population."

[Correct.]

I smiled. My guess had been on point after all. There was an age restriction on Ascension: Online - this had been a tiny detail I noticed when I completed the calibration process - a tiny prompt had appeared in front of me that read 'scanning DNA'.

From this small technicality most other people wouldn't even see, I had concluded several things:

1. You could only have one 'account' for AR games. This account was bound to your DNA - it could not be fabricated. In the case of Ascension: Online, this meant that if you ended up trapped somewhere, you either had to reset your location by killing yourself, or escape. Otherwise, you would remain trapped forever, even if you log out. The next time you log in, you would still be in that place. 'Making a new account and restarting fresh' was not possible in the world of AR - alternate reality.

2. There was an age requirement on certain games. For example, why were there no little children in Ascension: Online? The answer was simple - if the DNA scan ran by the system showed that you were below a certain age, you could not start up certain games. Otherwise, children could be exposed to potentially sensitive content. In the case of Ascension: Online, I assumed the age restriction to be somewhere around 14 or so - in other words, I was just barely above the required age to play.

The second point here, age restriction, was why there were only a limited amount of players despite the popularity of the game. Children, who were the largest age group in the world's total population, were all too young and unable to play. Moreover, seniors above the age of 50 or 60 would also, for the most part, be uninterested in combat-focused games such as Ascension: Online.

To sum it up, in reality, the only people playing Ascension: Online in the world are those between the ages of 14 and 50, spread across different playing times, different locations in the vast world of Ascentia, and 24 different servers. With this in mind, everything made sense, and the answer to my question was laid bare.

With my mysteries solved, I said good night to A.R.X.A. and drifted off to sleep.