Harem Online: My Party Is Full of Beautiful Celebrities-Chapter 12: Question
On his social media feed, Martin saw one of his classmates again.
The guy had once run with him. Back in middle school and high school, Martin had been an infamous delinquent, the kind who skipped class, smoked behind the school, and picked fights with other delinquents. He wasn’t proud of it, but he also hadn’t gone around hunting normal kids. Most of the trouble had been with people who wanted trouble back.
He’d buried that part of his life deep down, and most people had moved on. Martin hadn’t been so lucky.
A photo filled the screen.
[Beach sunset. Four silhouettes. A man lifting a little kid onto his shoulders.]
[Caption: "Anniversary trip with the family. Still feels unreal sometimes."]
Martin’s mouth went dry.
A family of four on holiday, huh... sounds fun. I can’t even afford a half-baked one-day trip for myself.
He scrolled a little, and the comments were worse.
"Bro... you really went from running errands for Martin back in school to this? Wife, kids, holidays. Life is crazy."
The classmate replied almost instantly.
"Meeting my wife was the best thing that ever happened to me. She’s the reason I stopped living scared and started living right."
Martin let out a hopeless laugh. The exhaustion on his face made him look worse than he felt.
Even him.
He got out. He found someone.
What did I get?
His thumb hovered over the screen.
Whatever. Real life doesn’t reward effort.
In the game, at least results show. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
He pushed the post away and searched for Monster Hunter Academy Online. Sure enough, those posts were trending all over social media. People praised the game’s innovation and its groundbreaking immersion. Most of them simply enjoyed it and felt like different people in it.
Martin agreed.
Then one particular post caught his attention.
[Cassandra Selfmore, one of the top-earning businesswomen in the country, has shown serious interest in investing in Monster Hunter Academy Online, and she’s eyeing the top players on the hidden Level One Dungeon leaderboard. She has invested heavily in the esports scene before. Could she be aiming to control the North American pro scene?]
Martin usually ignored celebrity news. Not because it didn’t matter, but because it did. It always reminded him how far behind he was.
But Cassandra Selfmore wasn’t just "famous" to him. As an office worker, her surname was unforgettable.
She had too many successful businesses. Her influence stretched across so many industries that a single word from her could topple the company Martin worked for.
Hidden leaderboard... so my run actually matters.
Could I change my life in this game? I already changed myself a little, but I never thought about turning this into my life... I guess there’s a window for that.
Martin stared at the article for a few minutes, then forced himself to close it. For a guy barely scraping by each month, it was better to wait and see whether this game developed esports or any other real money potential.
He searched for Level One Dungeon.
Sure enough, there were countless posts about it. Martin even saw players talking about their runs, goals, and current stats.
[Trending: Level One Dungeon Challenge]
One thread caught his eye.
[Has anyone defeated the lake monster in a solo run?]
[RandomPikaPika: Hi! I’m a duelist and solo dungeon runner. Ever since that lake monster killed me, I set my sights on it. I managed to land critical strikes with Flurry and wound it, but then the Wooden Wolves fed on the blood and became much stronger and more persistent.]
[One-Eyed King: I’ve been there, bro. As duelists, we only have Riposte, which lets us deal more damage after dodging or blocking an attack. But it has a cooldown and doesn’t help you survive getting swarmed. The evolved wolves are too overwhelming. I repositioned as much as I could, but it was still too hard. IMO, we need to hear a tank’s POV.]
[Thorn’Shield: It’s impossible in a solo run, especially for tanks. We have defenses and Perfect Blocks that negate the damage, but we deal much less damage and have the slowest movement speed because of the weight of a shield and sword. If you don’t deal enough damage fast enough, the lake monster cleverly builds up an army of wolves, and it becomes more overwhelming than you think. This part of the dungeon is too advanced. It needs a lot of luck and brainpower.]
[RandomPikaPika: Oh, you’re #1 in the Damage Taken category! Congrats, mate! You’re right, but what do you mean about brainpower?]
[Thorn’Shield: Keeping track of everything takes too much gas, you know what I mean? Blocking in each of the tentacles’ lanes, keeping distance from wolves and blocking them too, keeping an eye on your own position in the chaos, and on top of that, we still have to deal damage to the evolved wolves to kill them and refill our stats. It’s way too much to handle. And the rewards for the time and effort are still unknown. It’s better to go the opposite way and find the nest of the Triple-Headed Wooden Wolf Boss.]
Martin could relate to Thorn’Shield’s words so damn well.
He knows about the other boss... which means he must be playing way more than me. And he’s not wrong. Too much time and effort... for what? Ranking rewards aren’t known yet, either.
Martin kept reading about the Level One Dungeon and other players’ experiences.
He didn’t want to spend too much time on his phone, or he’d look like a zombie tomorrow. Not like he didn’t already look like one.
—
The next day, a single question weighed on his mind.
Do I give up on the lake monster... or do I do what Thorn’Shield couldn’t?
