Overhaul

[Speaker 1: Did you see that?]

[Speaker 2: See what?]

Two television personalities were talking on a live broadcast and behind them was a live feed of the current situation in Immersion Online.

[Speaker 1: That player. I think a mage wrapped herself in water magic and rushed to Hell Dog Letani.]

[Speaker 2: Really? What happened to her?]

[Speaker 1: She died. What else do you expect?]

[Speaker 2: Well, I didn't expect anything else.]

A news network was covering a story within the game. It was a huge event that was anticipated for months but it only recently showed itself to the public.

-Hahaha. That was stupid of her.

-Maybe she thought water magic would negate hellfire?

-Hi Mom! I'm on TV!

-She thought she had a big brain but it was actually just a large tumor.

The broadcast allowed public comments. It was moderated by an AI so that there would be profanities or hate speech.

[Speaker 2: Oooh. Look at that player!]

[Speaker 1: Hmm. You mean that warrior?]

A warrior stood in front. His head was glistering because he was buffed to the limit by the supports that surrounded him. He was wearing jet black armor and a very huge sword that it was more appropriate to call it a slab of metal.

-That's Balding-Man!

-Holy shieza. It is!

-Go Balding-Man! Takedown this furry bastard!

[Speaker 1: The players seem to know this person.]

[Speaker 2: Indeed, he has quite the personality.]

Balding-Man and his band of supports were at the forefront just outside of Tepat City. They were the ones that led the march to the city which was burning.

-Hmm. Why is the city not breaking down?

-Hey guys, follow me on Twits. I'm doing a Livestream about this.

-The game never had a destructible city.

[Speaker 1: Take a look at the comments!]

[Speaker 2: Hoho. How come Immersion Online isn't fully destructible like the real world?]

Despite the calm discussion of the viewers and the casters, the warrior named Balding-Man was feeling nervous.

'This isn't good.'

Balding-Man was the highest level player in the game. He was a level 230 player with a Unique Class. He did not use the typical warrior skills but different ones with different effects.

'This is impossible.'

Balding-Man looked at the enemy before him. It was a flaming dog that was more than 2 storeys tall. It breathed out flames and standing a distance away from it was already made you feel the heat. Its lining was not made of fur but of igneous rocks.

Although Balding-Man's hair stood on ends. (Body hair, of course, his head was clean-shaven.)

[Speaker 1: Ooooh. Hell Dog Letani made its move!]

Hell Dog Letani noticed the gathering army outside the city. It turned its focus to the crowd and observed them. After a few seconds, it rushed to them.

[Speaker 2: Let the clashing begin!]

[Speaker 1: You know, the fight started since earlier. Remember that female mage?]

[Speaker 2: Oh yeah. My bad.]

-Go Balding-Man!

-Kill that hairless dog!

-Woi! Which hairless dog are you talking about?

-Yea! Balding-Man is also hairless you know!

Balding-Man gripped his iron slab. He looked forward and gulped his fear down to the depths of his stomach. He had no choice but to face the monster.

"This is where we stand! On the floor, gang!"

"Augh!"

Balding-Man screamed and his followers chanted. Balding-Man was making a battle cry to encourage the people who were following behind him.

"We shall fight! Against this beast that threatens our livelihood."

"Augh!"

"We shall fight! Because this is the only way we can prove ourselves to everyone!"

"Augh!"

"We shall fight! For this new world!"

"Augh!"

"Charge!"

"For Sovngarde!"

Hell Dog Letani and the Balding-Man's army rushed towards each other. It was the battle of the largest scale that has yet to happen in Immersion Online.

-Hoooooooooooo. I wanna log in and join!

-Go join then?

-I died and still have 10 hours left of death penalty.

[Speaker 1: It's coming!]

[Speaker 2: I shouldn't have volunteered to be a caster. I wanna witness this for myself.]

Everyone was excited about the biggest event to ever happen within the game. The excitement filled within every player and viewer's heart, everyone had the same sentiment.

"WIN! AND SURVIVE!"

"RROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAR"

As the two sides were about to clash, Hell Dog Letani let out a roar. At the same time, a breath of flames came rushing out of Hell Dog Letani's mouth and it rushed towards the army of players.

[Speaker 1: It's a disaster!]

[Speaker 2: Just plain awful.]

-Hey. Maybe they shouldn't have rushed in front like that?

-Very clever. But you are only as half as clever as you think you are.

-Still makes me more clever than you.

Plenty of players transformed into blue lights and were forced outside of the game. These same players all swiftly shut their virtual reality rigs down so that they could watch the live television broadcast.

'Shet. That took half of my effective HP.'

Balding-Man took the damage in full force. He was the front of the charge and that meant that were he to die from that hit alone, the battle would have ended already.

'Let's not charge in like that again.'

Balding-Man lamented his mistake. This was the first-ever large scale field-boss in the game so he made such a rookie blunder. It was a good thing that he was buffed by the highest of blessings available at this moment.

"But I didn't die!"

Balding-Man screamed. His scream was a signal to everyone that the battle has just begun, it reminded everyone that it was not over.

As Balding-Man approached ever so closely to Hell Dog Letani, the moment came where his attacks could now reach the beast.

"Deafening Slash!"

Shiiiiiiing~

It was the highest damaging skill Balding-Man could dish out. It was an attack that used the most amount of shockwave from Balding-Man's class's arsenal of skills.

It had the effect of distracting the opponent for a while due to the deafening sound, however, this skill also affected the user and everyone around him.

[Speaker 2: Woah. That's a very loud ability.]

[Speaker 1: Yea. But I don't think it did as much damage as it is loud.]

Hell Dog Letani flinched for a second. Everyone else also flinched due to the loud sound. Most of the players that followed Balding-Man's gang did not expect the crowd-control ability.

One thing about raid bosses is that they have a higher resistance to all crowd control ability. So Hell Dog Letani was able to recover its movements faster than anyone.

"Heh."

Hell Dog Letani let out another roar. Another batch of flames shot out from its mouth to its surroundings.

-Woah. That roar is a fire alarm!

-Get out.

A lot of people were wiped out. They all died because they could not escape in time. They all flinched because of Balding-Man's skill. Strangely enough, Balding-Man and his gang were doing fine.

[Speaker 1: Did they do what I think they did?]

[Speaker 2: Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows?]

It was sabotage. Balding-Man and his gang let everyone die to Hell Dog Letani's flames in the first moment of the fight. They did not want to share the spoils of war!

-Dirty! That's very dirty!

-We can't say for sure if that was intentional.

-Laundry washing available 24/7 at Wash n' Dry!

"Hehe"

"Good work!"

Balding-Man laughed a bit. He was pivotal towards the deaths of every other player, so he felt that he had the power. However, he deeply regretted it.

'Huhu. My biggest skill did not do a lot of damage at all.'

Balding-Man was crying deep inside.

He could only continue the battle because he would be branded as a traitor if he just let everyone die for no reason.

"We're doomed." Balding-Man lamented.

Now, all he could do was face the beast. No backing down.

"But let us die fighting!"

He picked up his slab of metal and rushed forward once more.

Hell Dog Letani saw Balding-Man's shining head from amongst everything that was happening. Hell Dog Letani determined that Balding-Man was the one that threatened it the most. It was about to slap Balding-Man away but Balding-Man moved to the left side quickly.

"Heh. I won't foolishly charge again."

Balding-Man said as he prepared another ability. Once his blade could reach Hell Dog Letani's right forepaw-

"Quivering Blade!"

It was a short-ranged skill. Balding-Man's blade was vibrating and once his huge ass sword struck Hell Dog Letani's igneous fur, the blade dug its way through!

"BREAK!"

The igneous armor broke and magma toned flesh showed itself underneath the igneous fur. Once the armor was broken, everyone focus fired on the weak spot with all of their abilities and spells.

[Speaker 1: Colorful.]

[Speaker 2: I have no words.]

-Poggies!

-Balding-Man is not pepega.

-Trading hair regrowth formula for igneous scales.

While all of that excitement was happening, a person in Donut City was making tea for his mother.

"It's ready, Mom. Drink up."

Bob said as he set down a cup of tea on a table.

"Hello! Adventurer, did you come from Bagel Village?"

Bob was having the time of his life, serving his mother.

Subsequently, a woman in a dimly lit room received a call.

"Hello?"

*The prototypes were a huge success. The beta testing results came in earlier and it also showed positive results.

"I see! Then what are we waiting for?"

*We need to wait for some PR first.

"Okay. Set the headlines for tomorrow morning's tv shows then."

*What should we entitle it?

"Hmm. Try 'NPC Overhaul'."

*But aren't we changing the entire game world?

"Then how about "New World Overhaul"?

*I'll call the television news providers.