Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Klaus decided not to immediately mention Charles' comment about her not liking him at first. He wanted to approach the subject more subtly, so he started with something more neutral.

"Charles called earlier. He's quite satisfied with our work so far in Niflheim and said there's a mission next week"

Hollie smiled slightly. "That's good to hear."

"You already knew, didn't you?" Klaus asked.

"Yes, of course I did, but it's cute that you think I didn't."

Klaus smiled and started to take off his jacket. "I'm enjoying working with you, Hollie. I feel like we're making good progress on these missions."

"I'm enjoying our partnership too," agreed Hollie.

"However, Charles mentioned something curious. He said that you didn't like me before we met. Do you remember that?"

Hollie's expression changed slightly as she looked at the papers, as if she was surprised by the question. She looked back and took a deep breath before answering. "Yes, I remember. It was well before I started working here, even when you were a novice.

Charles was already charmed by your performance at the time, but I was suspicious of your data, I thought you were cheating or abusing bugs, because you were apparently a nobody."

Klaus nodded, understanding the situation better. "It's understandable, I did abuse the attributes and levels bug without meaning to. If I were you, I wouldn't have liked me either."

"But you kept proving to me and Charles that it was lucky that the bug happened to you, because you protected the main human city several times, and seeing someone else protecting the world you worked so hard to take care of was gratifying, both for me and for Charles." Hollie smiled, looking more relaxed. "Now, I'm happy to be working with you. I'm sure we'll do a lot for Rise Online."

Klaus felt a mixture of emotions when he heard Hollie's words. On the one hand, there was a sense of relief at having cleared up the misunderstanding from the past and having won her and Charles' trust. On the other hand, a pang of guilt hit him as he remembered the bug he had taken advantage of in the game.

He had never told anyone about it, and now he wondered if he should have been more transparent from the start. Either way, there was no going back.

"I understand," said Klaus, trying to keep the conversation light. "I'm glad to know that I was able to prove my worth over time. And I'm also glad that we have this partnership now."

Hollie agreed, smiling genuinely. "Yes, it's good to work together for the good of the game. And about what Charles mentioned, don't worry too much about it. It's all in the past now."

Klaus also nodded in agreement, feeling more relaxed. He knew he needed to focus on the present and the mission ahead.

After a few minutes of chatting about their day, they headed for the deep immersion room, where the capsule was waiting.

Upon entering the capsule, Klaus felt a sense of lightness and familiarity. He had been through this process several times before, but it was still fascinating every time the immersion began. The lights slowly went out, plunging him into the darkness that preceded the entry into Rise Online.

When Kaizen opened his eyes again, he expected to find himself in the dark shed where Valthorn said they would be safe until nightfall. However, his vision was greeted by something totally unexpected: he was in a prison cell, with bars and his hands tied back with handcuffs.

The dim light filtering through the bars revealed dark and dingy details of his surroundings, which were clearly a dungeon with cavernous walls.

Next to him, Kaizen noticed the presence of another player. It was Andrew.

Andrew was already awake and looked at Kaizen, clearly perplexed by the situation.

"Look who finally woke up," said Andrew.

"What's going on?" asked Kaizen, his voice filled with confusion.

Andrew nodded. "I don't know, I woke up and I was here too. The others aren't here and no message has appeared apart from the one in front of you." He pointed with his chin.

Then Kaizen looked ahead and saw a screen floating near the lock of the cell.

[You are under indefinite arrest.]

Below the large message, there was a question mark, characteristic for finding out more information, so Kaizen got up from the floor, easily broke the handcuffs and touched this icon.

[If you're under arrest, it means you've committed a crime or legal violation. Remember: violations can be interpreted in their own way depending on where you are.

The time sentence usually varies between a few hours and a day, but if it's more than that or indeterminate, it means you may have been sentenced to death. To get rid of your sentence, you can use tricks such as argument, bribery or even escape, although all these options are impossible in...]

Kaizen threw the message to his right, closing the text window.

Andrew shook his head, trying to process the situation. "That doesn't make sense. Could it be some kind of mission event? It was a secure area, so it was possible to log out, right? Nothing should happen while we're gone."

Kaizen tried to concentrate, his mind still trying to adjust to the unexpected turn of events. "I have no idea. We're certainly still in Niflheim, but something has changed. I don't know if the game processes changes to safe areas even when we're out of the game, but maybe that could be possible, because Alina and Og'tharoz were still in the shed."

"What if we tried talking to the others via chat?" Andrew had the idea and opened his system.

After scrolling through the list of friends, he found Xisrith online at the bottom of the list, but the one to talk to in chat wasn't there and when he tried to click on "Location" his system screen suddenly closed. A message appeared shortly afterwards.

[This player could not be traced. He may be on an active mission, inside a dungeon, with a concealment item or trapped].

So Andrew looked at Kaizen and nodded, indicating that it was no use.

Kaizen sighed with resignation. "Looks like we'll have to find them on our own then."

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