Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 61 - Man

He couldn’t decide if he should show his family the truth yet or not, so he didn’t.

Instead, he focused on his mission. Saving the world. He already knew who was important to that goal, he had been in contact with the future top players since before the game even came out.

His best friend Gabriel, who lived relatively near, was one of them.

Therefore, he immediately sent him a message.

Renan: "Bro, it’s an emergency. I have to show you something in person. I’m driving over now. You HAVE to see this.

Gabriel: "?????????????"

Gabriel: "Are you ok bro? What happened?"

Renan didn’t even answer. After informing his family that he’d be out, he was already on his way. The last thing he wanted to do was waste time.

...

When he arrived at Gabriel’s, his friend was already outside waiting for him in the parking lot.

"Brother." Gabriel called out to him as Renan parked. "What happened!?"

Renan didn’t hurry. He parked properly, turned the car off, and got out. He took a deep breath.

This is the moment.

He gave a quick look around. There was no one else around.

Renan gestured. "Let’s go to your yard."

Gabriel was baffled. "Dude!" He got close to Renan, walking alongside him since Renan was already walking. "What happened, dude, dude! Answer me!"

"I’m getting there!" Renan replied, heart pounding. "Gabriel... remember Narinder?"

Gabriel opened his mouth in shock. He even nearly tripped over himself. "Huh? Narinder? Why are we talking about Masteria? Didn’t something serious happen, tell me, man!"

Renan stopped trying to explain. He knew his friend was the action first type. He could explain after he had provided visual proof of the problem.

Now that he was in the yard properly, he crouched and picked up a rock. In full view of Gabriel’s confused, agitated eyes, he held the rock between his two palms.

He squeezed his hands together, and incredulously, the rock cracked and crumbled.

"Huh?"

Gabriel still wasn’t processing it properly. He looked at the rock which had just crumbled, and then at Renan’s face.

"Huh?" He repeated, unsure. "Wait, dude, what? How did you do that? And you still didn’t answer the question. What happened?"

Renan opened his hands slowly, letting the pieces of stone fall out. "Can you crush stone?"

"No, but..." He looked down at the dust, and back at Renan. He was a bit irritated. "Dude! I’ve been worrying so hard! I don’t know what trick you are using, but if you got me worried over nothing, damn man!"

Renan took a step forward. "Pick up a stone and break it."

"Man, yo-"

Renan interrupted him. "Just do it and you’ll see my point! I’m trying to show you something important, I’m not messing with you!"

Gabriel scanned Renan over to see what was wrong with him. All he saw was a very serious man. "Fine."

He bent down and picked up a rock roughly the size of a golf ball. He tossed it once in his palm, then clenched his fist around it.

Nothing happened.

He frowned and squeezed harder, his forearm tensing.

"See?" he said. "What am I supposed to do with this? You can’t just break stone."

"Exactly." Renan replied. "You can’t just break stone. Stone is a hard material, it is beyond a human’s grip strength to break it."

Renan put his hand out. "Pass me the stone."

Gabriel passed it over in silence.

Renan gripped the stone and squeezed. It broke into a few pieces.

Gabriel froze. "No."

He reached out his hand, pointing his finger at it. "No! That’s not..." He looked at the broken pieces and back at Renan. "You’re joking, you’re using a trick!"

"Gabriel." Renan looked into Gabriel’s eyes.

Gabriel took a step back, unsure.

He watched as Renan put his hand in his pocket and took out a coin. Renan then proceeded to bend the coin in half in front of his very eyes.

"...No way," Gabriel whispered.

Renan tossed the bent coin to him.

Gabriel caught it automatically. He turned it over in his fingers, pressing along the crease, trying to bend it back. It didn’t move.

"This isn’t..." he said quietly.

His eyes lifted back to Renan, uncertain of just what was happening.

"...What did you do?"

Renan exhaled slowly. Now that the moment had come, the words felt strangely difficult to say.

"Masteria is real."

Gabriel stared at him. "...Bro."

"It’s real." Renan repeated. "It’s not just a game. It’s not advanced VR, nor is it AI. It’s an entirely new world."

"Man." Gabriel sounded disbelieving. Renan didn’t blame him. It was much easier to believe a trick was being used. To suddenly believe in the supernatural made no sense.

Renan turned to the side, and took a couple steps to a tree. Gabriel’s gaze followed him.

Renan readied a punch, and- BOOM!

Gabriel immediately froze. After processing for a few seconds, he could only reply with an exaggerated, drawn out version of his previous statement. "M A N!"

Tree bark had shattered and went flying all over. There was now a deep indent of a fist in a tree, and his friend staring right at him.

Gabriel stumbled back. He didn’t know whether to be fearful or impressed, but he felt a lot of confusion. He groaned, processing what he had just witnessed. He wanted to say something to explain it away, but he couldn’t.

"...Explain." Gabriel said.

Renan nodded.

"Do you remember the Empress’s Divine Beast, Narinder?"

Gabriel’s eyes flickered with recognition. "Of course."

"It blessed my soul." Renan replied.

Gabriel’s breath hitched, saying nothing in response.

"Like I said, Masteria is a real world. It’s not simulated by the Game Pod." Renan continued. "That Game Pod connects the soul to another body in another world. If something affects the soul there... it carries back here."

Gabriel looked down at the bent coin again.

"...So you’re telling me," he said slowly, "you got a buff in the game... and now you have super strength in real life?"

"Yes."

Silence fell between them.

"Man." Gabriel repeated for the fourth time today. He had run out of proper responses and was now just saying words. He sighed. "Man... That’s not... That’s not possible."

Renan stayed quiet, letting Gabriel process the information.

"No, no, no, no... That’s not... That’s not possible."

Renan stayed quiet.

Gabriel found a nice patch of grass, and sat on it while going over the revelation he just had. "That game just launched." Gabriel said. "There are millions of players. I haven’t heard about any of this... how has no one found out?"

"They will." Renan said. "Eventually."