Victor rather effortlessly towed the massive boar’s lifeless body that was dripping blood behind him, bringing it into the village so the villagers could help with the dismantling. While the weight of such a creature would render it an insurmountable task for an ordinary human, Victor’s strength was at least five times that of an average adult, but even that wouldn’t suffice to tow it so easily; it was only possible through the assistance of magic or the inverted mana on his body.
All of a sudden, the Master Shadowlink Mark on his left wrist shone, and a holographic screen was projected before him.
“Hmm?”
Framed within the screen was Lizbeth's face as she urgently spoke. “Master! Your Discord account has been bombarded with multiple pings by the players!”
“Hold on, you can do video calls with this thing?” Victor was a bit dazed.
“Yep, why would it be impossible?” Lizbeth tilted her head.
Indeed. Victor should have realized it sooner. If he could connect to the vast expanse of the internet on Earth, then the idea of seamless, shorter-distance communication should have been a total no-brainer.
“Naturally, there’s a distance limit like it could at most cover a one-hundred-kilometer range with the current level of the Nexus Tower, but that’s not the main concern here,” said Lizbeth from the holographic screen.
“What’s up?”
“As I said, the players who received their placements are reaching out to you for confirmation. It appears they are feeling rather unsettled by the deliveries or something... Humans there can be quite peculiar,” Lizbeth remarked, shrugging.
“I see…?”
Victor terminated the call with Lizbeth and launched the Discord app, sitting under the shade of a tree nearby. To his surprise, approximately a hundred unread personal messages were flooding in from the five participants he had fooled. Each message inquired about the peculiarities surrounding the gaming capsules.
Frowning, he navigated to the group he had established beforehand, realizing that the source of the issue originated from this text:
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “@everyone Did you all receive the gaming capsules? Mine just arrived… (Or should I say appeared?) not too long ago.”
This guy then proceeded to recount how a large package had appeared inside his store and to find that the content was a futuristic-looking gaming capsule. Furthermore, he wrote here that the console seemed to respond exclusively to him. When he donned the accompanying helmet, he alone could witness an activation countdown.
PleaseBugMeNot: “Are you sure that’s a gaming console? Sounds more like an overly complicated massage chair to me. By the way, I’m still not at home, so I don’t know. Maybe the others have received it the same as you.”
SuperNovaX: “Uh, guys…”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Hmm? Have you received the delivery? Is it the same way as Mike?”
SuperNovaX: “It’s worse than that. Do you think a delivery can pass through a locked door? I mean, I’m sure I left the door to my apartment locked… So how come it was already inside my room when I came back from university? I even checked with security, but they said that no one had come to deliver it. Did a ghost come and deliver this or something? ”
PleaseBugMeNot: “You sure you aren’t making things up? Since it’s so creepy, alright!”
Storm Bringer: “You’re lucky that you’re living alone. Meanwhile, I’m residing with my parents, and when they saw the gaming capsule at the front door, my mother immediately interrogated me, questioning where I had stolen such a device!"
ZeroXScyth: “I mean, I haven’t received mine yet. But are deliveries so advanced these days? Autonomous delivery using drones has become more popular in recent years, I hear.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Lol. I never knew you were still living with your parents @Storm Bringer. What are you, a mama boy?”
Storm Bringer: “Shut up, you!”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “I partially agree with Zero. Drones might explain the delivery method, but they are not invisible. The stealth and precision are too mind-boggling for that. It is as if magic is responsible for all this; otherwise, I can’t find other reasons to explain this all. Except for one peculiar thing…”
ZeroXScyth: “My thoughts exactly on the drone. On that note, is something on your mind?”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “Actually, yes. Has anyone seen a strange guy wearing a distinct black mask? I didn’t personally see him, but one of my employees might have spotted him during the mysterious delivery.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Might have? What’s with the uncertainty?”
SuperNovaX: “Now that you mention it, a security guy I spoke with did mention something similar. He seemed a bit out of sorts while talking about it. I also didn’t think much of it at the time, though.”
ZeroXScyth: “But isn’t this strange? Sightings of people dressed similarly, in different locations, almost simultaneously. Our far location aside, let’s not forget these aren’t small packages we’re talking about either. Could this be some sort of advanced technology at play? It reminds me of the saying, ‘'sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’”
Victor frowned at this. Actually, even he didn’t know exactly how these gaming capsules were delivered to their respective houses. If he had to guess, then what Mike jokingly hypothesized of it being magic was probably true. Perhaps it was connected to whatever the previous headmaster had left behind in his original world, in which case involved this mysterious man wearing a black mask.
However, to be able to traverse large distances in a short period of time must mean that it had the involvement of a high-rank Magus. But for an aloof, powerful Magus to willingly become a courier that delivered the gaming capsules… Something just didn’t feel right.
It might be some sort of magic puppet, but Victor had no way to ascertain things himself. Well, those gaming capsules couldn’t walk by themselves there, could they?
Storm Bringer: “That’s the problem! Because of that, I almost got into trouble. Here me out, it may sound a bit funny and saddening, but my mother just now almost reported me and all this, believing that I was involved in some shady business. Luckily I stopped her by convincing her to imagine me talking to the police: ‘Yes, officer, I received a mysterious package from another dimension, and it contained a gaming capsule with a fully immersive VR game!’ They’d probably think I had too much mushroom pizza.”
SuperNovaX: “Haha, exactly! I can already picture their faces trying not to burst out laughing!”
Storm Bringer: “Right? And when I mentioned that nobody else could see anything, they’d think I’ve gone cuckoo! ‘Oh, so you’re the chosen one with special powers, huh? Did you get that from a comic book or your grandma’s bedtime stories?’ Even my mother stopped with her nagging when I told her that.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Pfft! Dudeee, that’s hilarious! ”
ZeroXScyth: “Guess that dissuaded us from reporting to the authorities as well.”
The conversation after this derailed from its original objective and continued with its absurd humor. Even Victor himself couldn’t help laughing… Gee, these players sure have good imagination; their made-up story is almost right on the money.
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “Haha! There’s one more chilling detail I forgot to mention, though: The creepy twist doesn’t end here. You see, I’ve purposely filled in the wrong address to check if it’s a scam, but guess what? The package was delivered to my actual address!”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Just stop…”
SuperNovaX: “Gah! (°△°|||) I won’t be getting much sleep tonight!”
Storm Bringer: “Damn, just when I was starting to forget about this whole thing…”
ZeroXScyth: “Knowing the real address is actually simple. Remember that we have to input our email when we register for the qualification? Maybe it tracks our address from our precious purchase on an online store through there or something. IP address is also an option. Also, I reread the Terms and Services for the game, and it mentioned that they were using a new type of technology for delivery, but there was no detailed information about what it was.”
If Victor wasn’t wrong, Zero worked as a consultant to a large corporation, hence explaining the pragmatic and analytical approach in providing the answer. It was expected from the server owner of a large Discord server.
Scrolling down further, the discussion circled back to the peculiarity of the gaming capsule. Someone even suggested selling it to a console company. Unbeknownst to them, even with modern tools at their disposal, their attempts would barely leave a dent in the device, let alone break it open. Thankfully, the previous hilarious discussion prevented them from doing just that.
ZeroXScyth: “Let’s wait until @CyberWarlock comes online. Making a fuss about this right now won’t help. For now, I will try to reach out to him through a DM… Oh, and I just received mine just now; I didn’t see any masked man, though.”
The rest of the people in the group were unanimous and shifted their focus to discussing recent trending news. Some of them took brief breaks to grab a bite or attend to personal tasks, yet the prevailing restlessness was evident. Within the hour, impatience surfaced again, and one member couldn’t resist asking for an update, to which Zero responded.
ZeroXScyth: “No, he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Guys, I scrolled up our server chat and reached out to this internet guru about our situation. He thinks it’s all part of some elaborate dark conspiracy by a secret organization that rules the world. Check out this screenshot from our chat.”
He promptly shared a screenshot showing his conversation with someone online in the group. Reading through the content of the screenshot made Victor frown. Seriously? Just how astray is this guy’s imagination?
Storm Bringer: “This guy must have all the time in the world! ”
ZeroXScyth: “Hrm, I checked it just now; he detailed some fine reasonings for our current situation. But we can’t take what others say at face value, can we?”
SuperNovaX: “But what if it’s all true? What if once the countdown hits zero, some AI starts embedding itself in our brains or something equally crazy?”
ZeroXScyth: “There’s no denying that as a possibility, but come on… That’s more like something that comes out of a Sci-fi movie.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Argh! I can’t take this anxiety anymore! I will send him a DM as well!”
Storm Bringer: “Me too.”
SuperNovaX: “Me three!”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “Me four?”
And that was pretty much how Victor’s Discord account was bombarded with an endless stream of messages. Victor scratched his head in amusement at the commotion the gaming capsule deliveries had caused within the group.
CyberWarlock: Sorry @everyone. Just got back from work, so I had no time to check my phone or laptop. Anyway, I was about to inform you all that those men wearing black masks are indeed our couriers, and we have indeed partnered with a new autonomous delivery company. The reason our couriers only loiter about for a moment is to check whether the gaming capsules are delivered correctly. If our service has caused confusion among you players, please accept our sincerest apologies. And no, it’s not some conspiracy.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “The Messiah is here!”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “No wonder.”
ZeroXScyth: “Thought so…”
SuperNovaX: “Phew! Glad it was not a ghost nor a conspiracy.”
Storm Bringer: “Cyber, are you sure you’re not working with the government or any special agency?”
CyberWarlock: “Well, I can’t divulge all the details as it pertains to the company’s secrets. Sorry.”
Storm Bringer: “No worries. You probably signed an NDA with them.”
ZeroXScyth: “Agreed. Knowing this at least clears up some of our confusion. Thanks for the clarification.”
Victor’s mouth turned into a slight grin; these players that he’d handpicked were more workable than he had initially expected. He had no worries about them becoming the first apprentices of his academy. To them, the bizarreness of the delivery was inconsequential as long as they could try the game. Why fret over minor details when the bigger picture was so promising?
CyberWarlock: “Oh, and one more thing, I want to inform you all that the server will be open tomorrow afternoon at exactly 06:00 P.M. ET. So make sure not to be late. Before that time, be sure to have your meals and needs taken care of. Although the gaming capsules are designed to support prolonged use, it’s important to remember they are still in the testing phase.”
With that done, Victor closed the holographic screen and continued hauling the great boar that had become limp from its immense blood loss. The sun had climbed high, and it was nearly noon — about time the village prepared all the necessities he requested.
Like a bolt from the blue, a growl appeared from Victor’s stomach, catching him off guard… Well, he hadn’t eaten for a whole day. After all, not even Elemental Adept Magi could escape from not satisfying their bodily needs like any ordinary human — eating and excreting were essentials. However, as one progressed to higher ranks as a Magus, they could endure longer periods without needing to eat or drink.
Victor rather effortlessly towed the massive boar’s lifeless body that was dripping blood behind him, bringing it into the village so the villagers could help with the dismantling. While the weight of such a creature would render it an insurmountable task for an ordinary human, Victor’s strength was at least five times that of an average adult, but even that wouldn’t suffice to tow it so easily; it was only possible through the assistance of magic or the inverted mana on his body.
All of a sudden, the Master Shadowlink Mark on his left wrist shone, and a holographic screen was projected before him.
“Hmm?”
Framed within the screen was Lizbeth's face as she urgently spoke. “Master! Your Discord account has been bombarded with multiple pings by the players!”
“Hold on, you can do video calls with this thing?” Victor was a bit dazed.
“Yep, why would it be impossible?” Lizbeth tilted her head.
Indeed. Victor should have realized it sooner. If he could connect to the vast expanse of the internet on Earth, then the idea of seamless, shorter-distance communication should have been a total no-brainer.
“Naturally, there’s a distance limit like it could at most cover a one-hundred-kilometer range with the current level of the Nexus Tower, but that’s not the main concern here,” said Lizbeth from the holographic screen.
“What’s up?”
“As I said, the players who received their placements are reaching out to you for confirmation. It appears they are feeling rather unsettled by the deliveries or something... Humans there can be quite peculiar,” Lizbeth remarked, shrugging.
“I see…?”
Victor terminated the call with Lizbeth and launched the Discord app, sitting under the shade of a tree nearby. To his surprise, approximately a hundred unread personal messages were flooding in from the five participants he had fooled. Each message inquired about the peculiarities surrounding the gaming capsules.
Frowning, he navigated to the group he had established beforehand, realizing that the source of the issue originated from this text:
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “@everyone Did you all receive the gaming capsules? Mine just arrived… (Or should I say appeared?) not too long ago.”
This guy then proceeded to recount how a large package had appeared inside his store and to find that the content was a futuristic-looking gaming capsule. Furthermore, he wrote here that the console seemed to respond exclusively to him. When he donned the accompanying helmet, he alone could witness an activation countdown.
PleaseBugMeNot: “Are you sure that’s a gaming console? Sounds more like an overly complicated massage chair to me. By the way, I’m still not at home, so I don’t know. Maybe the others have received it the same as you.”
SuperNovaX: “Uh, guys…”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Hmm? Have you received the delivery? Is it the same way as Mike?”
SuperNovaX: “It’s worse than that. Do you think a delivery can pass through a locked door? I mean, I’m sure I left the door to my apartment locked… So how come it was already inside my room when I came back from university? I even checked with security, but they said that no one had come to deliver it. Did a ghost come and deliver this or something? ”
PleaseBugMeNot: “You sure you aren’t making things up? Since it’s so creepy, alright!”
Storm Bringer: “You’re lucky that you’re living alone. Meanwhile, I’m residing with my parents, and when they saw the gaming capsule at the front door, my mother immediately interrogated me, questioning where I had stolen such a device!"
ZeroXScyth: “I mean, I haven’t received mine yet. But are deliveries so advanced these days? Autonomous delivery using drones has become more popular in recent years, I hear.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Lol. I never knew you were still living with your parents @Storm Bringer. What are you, a mama boy?”
Storm Bringer: “Shut up, you!”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “I partially agree with Zero. Drones might explain the delivery method, but they are not invisible. The stealth and precision are too mind-boggling for that. It is as if magic is responsible for all this; otherwise, I can’t find other reasons to explain this all. Except for one peculiar thing…”
ZeroXScyth: “My thoughts exactly on the drone. On that note, is something on your mind?”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “Actually, yes. Has anyone seen a strange guy wearing a distinct black mask? I didn’t personally see him, but one of my employees might have spotted him during the mysterious delivery.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Might have? What’s with the uncertainty?”
SuperNovaX: “Now that you mention it, a security guy I spoke with did mention something similar. He seemed a bit out of sorts while talking about it. I also didn’t think much of it at the time, though.”
ZeroXScyth: “But isn’t this strange? Sightings of people dressed similarly, in different locations, almost simultaneously. Our far location aside, let’s not forget these aren’t small packages we’re talking about either. Could this be some sort of advanced technology at play? It reminds me of the saying, ‘'sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’”
Victor frowned at this. Actually, even he didn’t know exactly how these gaming capsules were delivered to their respective houses. If he had to guess, then what Mike jokingly hypothesized of it being magic was probably true. Perhaps it was connected to whatever the previous headmaster had left behind in his original world, in which case involved this mysterious man wearing a black mask.
However, to be able to traverse large distances in a short period of time must mean that it had the involvement of a high-rank Magus. But for an aloof, powerful Magus to willingly become a courier that delivered the gaming capsules… Something just didn’t feel right.
It might be some sort of magic puppet, but Victor had no way to ascertain things himself. Well, those gaming capsules couldn’t walk by themselves there, could they?
Storm Bringer: “That’s the problem! Because of that, I almost got into trouble. Here me out, it may sound a bit funny and saddening, but my mother just now almost reported me and all this, believing that I was involved in some shady business. Luckily I stopped her by convincing her to imagine me talking to the police: ‘Yes, officer, I received a mysterious package from another dimension, and it contained a gaming capsule with a fully immersive VR game!’ They’d probably think I had too much mushroom pizza.”
SuperNovaX: “Haha, exactly! I can already picture their faces trying not to burst out laughing!”
Storm Bringer: “Right? And when I mentioned that nobody else could see anything, they’d think I’ve gone cuckoo! ‘Oh, so you’re the chosen one with special powers, huh? Did you get that from a comic book or your grandma’s bedtime stories?’ Even my mother stopped with her nagging when I told her that.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Pfft! Dudeee, that’s hilarious! ”
ZeroXScyth: “Guess that dissuaded us from reporting to the authorities as well.”
The conversation after this derailed from its original objective and continued with its absurd humor. Even Victor himself couldn’t help laughing… Gee, these players sure have good imagination; their made-up story is almost right on the money.
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “Haha! There’s one more chilling detail I forgot to mention, though: The creepy twist doesn’t end here. You see, I’ve purposely filled in the wrong address to check if it’s a scam, but guess what? The package was delivered to my actual address!”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Just stop…”
SuperNovaX: “Gah! (°△°|||) I won’t be getting much sleep tonight!”
Storm Bringer: “Damn, just when I was starting to forget about this whole thing…”
ZeroXScyth: “Knowing the real address is actually simple. Remember that we have to input our email when we register for the qualification? Maybe it tracks our address from our precious purchase on an online store through there or something. IP address is also an option. Also, I reread the Terms and Services for the game, and it mentioned that they were using a new type of technology for delivery, but there was no detailed information about what it was.”
If Victor wasn’t wrong, Zero worked as a consultant to a large corporation, hence explaining the pragmatic and analytical approach in providing the answer. It was expected from the server owner of a large Discord server.
Scrolling down further, the discussion circled back to the peculiarity of the gaming capsule. Someone even suggested selling it to a console company. Unbeknownst to them, even with modern tools at their disposal, their attempts would barely leave a dent in the device, let alone break it open. Thankfully, the previous hilarious discussion prevented them from doing just that.
ZeroXScyth: “Let’s wait until @CyberWarlock comes online. Making a fuss about this right now won’t help. For now, I will try to reach out to him through a DM… Oh, and I just received mine just now; I didn’t see any masked man, though.”
The rest of the people in the group were unanimous and shifted their focus to discussing recent trending news. Some of them took brief breaks to grab a bite or attend to personal tasks, yet the prevailing restlessness was evident. Within the hour, impatience surfaced again, and one member couldn’t resist asking for an update, to which Zero responded.
ZeroXScyth: “No, he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Guys, I scrolled up our server chat and reached out to this internet guru about our situation. He thinks it’s all part of some elaborate dark conspiracy by a secret organization that rules the world. Check out this screenshot from our chat.”
He promptly shared a screenshot showing his conversation with someone online in the group. Reading through the content of the screenshot made Victor frown. Seriously? Just how astray is this guy’s imagination?
Storm Bringer: “This guy must have all the time in the world! ”
ZeroXScyth: “Hrm, I checked it just now; he detailed some fine reasonings for our current situation. But we can’t take what others say at face value, can we?”
SuperNovaX: “But what if it’s all true? What if once the countdown hits zero, some AI starts embedding itself in our brains or something equally crazy?”
ZeroXScyth: “There’s no denying that as a possibility, but come on… That’s more like something that comes out of a Sci-fi movie.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “Argh! I can’t take this anxiety anymore! I will send him a DM as well!”
Storm Bringer: “Me too.”
SuperNovaX: “Me three!”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “Me four?”
And that was pretty much how Victor’s Discord account was bombarded with an endless stream of messages. Victor scratched his head in amusement at the commotion the gaming capsule deliveries had caused within the group.
CyberWarlock: Sorry @everyone. Just got back from work, so I had no time to check my phone or laptop. Anyway, I was about to inform you all that those men wearing black masks are indeed our couriers, and we have indeed partnered with a new autonomous delivery company. The reason our couriers only loiter about for a moment is to check whether the gaming capsules are delivered correctly. If our service has caused confusion among you players, please accept our sincerest apologies. And no, it’s not some conspiracy.”
PleaseBugMeNot: “The Messiah is here!”
MikeIsHandsome1000x: “No wonder.”
ZeroXScyth: “Thought so…”
SuperNovaX: “Phew! Glad it was not a ghost nor a conspiracy.”
Storm Bringer: “Cyber, are you sure you’re not working with the government or any special agency?”
CyberWarlock: “Well, I can’t divulge all the details as it pertains to the company’s secrets. Sorry.”
Storm Bringer: “No worries. You probably signed an NDA with them.”
ZeroXScyth: “Agreed. Knowing this at least clears up some of our confusion. Thanks for the clarification.”
Victor’s mouth turned into a slight grin; these players that he’d handpicked were more workable than he had initially expected. He had no worries about them becoming the first apprentices of his academy. To them, the bizarreness of the delivery was inconsequential as long as they could try the game. Why fret over minor details when the bigger picture was so promising?
CyberWarlock: “Oh, and one more thing, I want to inform you all that the server will be open tomorrow afternoon at exactly 06:00 P.M. ET. So make sure not to be late. Before that time, be sure to have your meals and needs taken care of. Although the gaming capsules are designed to support prolonged use, it’s important to remember they are still in the testing phase.”
With that done, Victor closed the holographic screen and continued hauling the great boar that had become limp from its immense blood loss. The sun had climbed high, and it was nearly noon — about time the village prepared all the necessities he requested.
Like a bolt from the blue, a growl appeared from Victor’s stomach, catching him off guard… Well, he hadn’t eaten for a whole day. After all, not even Elemental Adept Magi could escape from not satisfying their bodily needs like any ordinary human — eating and excreting were essentials. However, as one progressed to higher ranks as a Magus, they could endure longer periods without needing to eat or drink.
