There is no free lunch

"Bye, mom." A middle-aged woman was getting into a car as a young man in a wheelchair stared out the window. "Since when did you get so old?" Ryan muttered.

He couldn't help but notice how his mother had aged considerably in the last couple of months. Three months ago, a single accident changed the fate of their entire family.

His dad was dead, and so was his once-promising future. Now all that was left was a pair of useless legs and a lot of unpaid hospital fees.

In this condition, his mom alone was struggling to make ends meet. With a paraplegic son and a young daughter, she was suffering all alone.

Ryan's heart wrenched in pain as he watched her lonely silhouette tiredly get into the car and drive away. Snapping him out of his thoughts, a loud knock sounded on the doorstep.

"Dude! I saw your mom leave. Log in! Now! It's almost time!"

Ryan did not bother opening the door. He already knew who it was. Instead, he wheeled himself to the sofa, where an expensive-looking helmet was resting.

This was the gaming helmet of the recently popular game 'Mana Online'. The game's release came out of nowhere, but ever since then, its popularity has skyrocketed at an exponential rate.

The entire gaming population was now invested in this single game. Even several people who have never touched a game in their lives were addicted to this game because of the amazing realistic features.

Rather than playing a mere game, it was almost as if they were living a second life. Ryan, however, was late to this party because he had only recently returned home from the hospital and was still in a lot of pain.

In fact, it was his doctor who suggested that he play this game for pain management as he had already maxed out on his pain medications.

At least that's how it started. But once Ryan sat down and looked into the game, he saw that some people were actually earning quite a decent amount by playing the game. Also, the gaming helmets were freely handed out.

Taking everything into consideration, Ryan decided to try this game, not for pain management, but seriously, at least for this year.

The road to his recovery was long, and in the meantime, he wanted to help his mother out at least a little bit to ease her burden. Even if he could earn 100$ or 200$ per month, it would still be a big help to their family.

So he registered for the game, and the helmet was promptly delivered. Of course, as soon as he made this decision, his neighbor and best friend, who was also his only friend at the moment, Mark, jumped at the chance to help him.

He wanted to power carry Ryan, which he understood was a higher-level player helping a lower-level player gain experience points faster.

Thus, this morning when he logged into the game for the first time, he was immediately dragged to one of the guild runs.

Ryan intended to refuse him as he had a plan of his own, but the instant he logged in, he was immediately overwhelmed. He was able to move his legs again, walk again, and run again!

While he was still in shock, Mark had dragged him to this thing.

And so, he was currently standing in front of a Level 30 dungeon, Priest's Tomb.

"Is everyone ready?" The leader of the guild that Mark belonged to spoke up. He was a tank player with an impressive aura about him. At least everyone seemed to respect him a lot.

"I know we have a few carry-ons today. Everyone who is here for the free exp points, make sure to stand back and not cause any inconvenience. Thanks in advance." He politely instructed.

There were 30 players in total, 10 of whom were 'Carry-Ons'. Apparently, these additional players were brought in just for the headcount.

The guild group had already cleared the entire dungeon and was now trying to tackle something called the hidden boss, and to trigger this hidden boss, a headcount of 30 was required.

This was the first time Ryan was playing a game like this. So he carefully observed everything and everyone around him, taking in all the information.

A few minutes later, the dungeon run began, and the guild group started hacking through a bunch of mummies that popped out from various corners.

These monsters looked very real and might as well be lifelike mummies. However, they were swiftly dealt with by the group. There were healers, damage dealers, and tanks, and everyone was playing their part perfectly.

Ryan himself was a thief class player. He made this selection in the beginning when he logged into the game because this one had the highest earning potential according to the current online discussions, thanks to all the treasure chests in the game.

The guild group also had a couple of thief class players, and they seemed skilled. Ryan watched them wreak havoc on the mobs.

The party made quick and easy work of crossing each successive cave as they made their way deeper into the dungeon where the final hidden boss was supposedly located.

And as soon as they stepped into what looked like the main tomb, suddenly a loud whooshing sound echoed in the caves and the wall ahead of them started cracking.

From within this wall, a huge mummy appeared.

"This should be the final boss," Ryan observed.

Immediately, all the main players in the group started fighting the big boss. Of course, all the side characters, including Ryan, took a step back so as to not disturb them. They silently watched the fight from the back.

The fight was also very awe-inspiring. The team had excellent coordination, and they used some sort of rotation method to methodologically bring down the health of the boss mummy.

Within a couple of minutes, its health was already down to the last 20%. "Woot! Woot! Free exp!" All the extras near Ryan started cheering already and checking out their status screens to see how much they would level up.

Some even discussed if they would get any loot from this hidden boss, as any item from a hidden boss would be extremely good.

However, Ryan did not join in on these celebrations just yet. His gaze was still fully fixated on the boss fight. Perhaps because he had more riding on this game than everyone else he had paid more attention to every small detail right from the beginning.

And currently, there was something wrong with the scene in front of him.

Many players had dangerously low health. The two healers seemed to be fully occupied healing the tanks, as they did not have any time to heal up the other players.

More importantly, all of a sudden, the coordination between the two tanks was off.

Ryan had read that elites, bosses, and hidden bosses in a dungeon were more difficult than normal, but the group that skillfully managed to reduce the health to 20% was now struggling way too much.

And soon, the first player unexpectedly died as well.

And it didn't stop with that, the next second, a couple more players died.

Up until the boss fight, not one player had died, but suddenly, at this final boss, members of the party were dropping left and right like flies.

And this was not just the main members of the party, the extras standing at the back also started dying because of the tank's placement.

Ryan quickly became alert.

Every death cost one stat point, which was a huge punishment. He was already late to this game, so he did not want to lose any stat points and get a handicap right at the start.

If he did, he would fall back even more. He would never be able to catch up with the other players.

Ryan made a quick mental calculation, and after that his actions were straightforward. There was no hesitation. Perhaps this was selfish, but he did not care.

He inched away from the fight towards one of the pillars in the room, and when he was behind that pillar, he swiftly left the party. At the exact same moment, he also activated [Stealth]. As a thief class player, this was one of the three starting skills he had.

'This should be fine?' Ryan held his breath and observed the scene unfolding in front of him, and then something unexpected happened.

In this busy, extremely important, and extremely difficult final hidden boss fight, the tank actually took the time to shout out loud. "What happened? Did someone leave the party?"

Hmmm? Ryan, hiding in the shadows, narrowed his eyes at this comment.

And moreover, the person did not stop with that. The tank blocked the next attack by the boss and unexpectedly asked again, "Mark, isn't that guy your friend? What happened? Can you find out?"

"Ahhh. Ahh." Mark was only barely holding on, dodging the boss's attacks, so he stammered, not knowing what was happening. Why was he asking this now?

"Leader, he logged out. He is a paraplegic. He must have gotten tired or something." He blurted out some response and continued dodging the attacks as best as he could.

"Oh!" The tank nodded. He did not seem to doubt this and went back to the fight, but the next time the boss attacked, he once again didn't block the attack in time and… three more players died.

Everyone cursed out loud at how difficult the boss was.

But the main tank smiled and looked a lot more calm. "Don't worry, everyone! Do your best! If it's a party wipe, then we will try again. No problem. For now, let's just try to figure out all the moves of this guy while we are still alive."

His voice raised the morale of the remaining players. Everybody looked at their courageous leader in awe and did their best. However, one person alone had a different expression.

Only one person could see what was really happening.

What a load of bullshit! Ryan smirked, continuing to watch the show. Now he was more sure than ever, something was definitely stinking in this guild run.

And just as he suspected, the remaining members of the team also started dying one after the other until no one was left. At this point, the tank finally revealed a huge grin.

"Phew!" He stopped struggling, or rather, acting like he was struggling, and activated some sort of skill. Immediately a golden radiance covered him, blocking the boss's next attack easily.

A skill like this probably wouldn't last long, so Ryan curiously looked at the guy, wondering what his game plan was. Sure, he successfully killed everyone, but now how was he going to take down this super powerful hidden boss all on his own?

At this point, the tank's grin widened even more as he pulled something out of his inventory. It was a small, inconspicuous canister, but the tank confidently opened this small case and tossed something at the boss.

Fwoosh!

Ryan's eyes widened in shock. The next instant, something shocking occurred.

The huge, monstrous boss in front of him actually stopped. He froze like a statue. Wait a second, not like a statue, but he was actually becoming a statue. What the hell was that liquid?

As if answering his thought, the tank clapped his hands and exclaimed in excitement. "Damn. Thank God, this holy water actually works!"

After that, the two guys in the room silently watched the whole big thing turn into a stone. The tank then casually crashed his axe against the statue, shattering it into a million pieces.

Almost instantly, a bright golden glow enveloped the tank. This happened a couple of times.

'He leveled up.' Ryan silently watched. Leveling up three times was quite good, but the tank appeared impatient, almost as if this was not what he looked forward to the most.

The next second, the shattered stone dust started disappearing and, in its place, a treasure chest appeared.

'Hmmm?' Ryan raised his brow in shock. When he had researched this game, he had read that all treasure chests were either copper, silver, or gold. But this one was black?

The tank's eyes glittered in excitement as he rubbed his hands and dashed towards the treasure chest impatiently. For him, it didn't seem to matter that the treasure chest was black.

So this was a special hidden boss that dropped a special item?

Now Ryan was starting to get the whole picture. The thing inside was probably extremely valuable, even game-changing. No wonder this guy purposefully killed everyone else.

Who would want to share something like this?

He peered to see what the item was when the tank hurriedly opened the chest and took out some sort of chain, a neckpiece. "Oh my god!" He quickly equipped it with a grin that split his face in half.

'I guess that's that then.' Ryan shrugged. As far as he was concerned, he didn't care about the loot. It was never his in the first place.

He gained a lot of free experience and got some good gear without sacrificing any of his stats. This was a significant jump-start to the game, so he was satisfied.

The final boss also spawned the dungeon exit portal, so now all he had to do was wait for the tank to take the portal and exit. Then he could also exit and go somewhere else to grind.

However, the next second, something unexpected happened. Right after the tank equipped the neckpiece, something red, black, and ominous started enveloping him.

Before Ryan could guess what this could be, the tank started screaming loudly.

Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh!

His eyes, ears, and nose started bleeding, and eventually, the tank collapsed on the floor and started twitching. He then clutched his throat and gasped, actually dying.

"What the…" Ryan watched the tank's dead body disappear into pixels, leaving behind one neckpiece.

He slowly stepped out of the spot where he was hiding. Now, it was just him in the room.