Chapter 2 BETRAYAL

A young but tall and fit elite male assassin is surrounded by enemies with no chance of retreating or escaping.

Noctis, a handsome young man, is returning home from yet another stressful marketing proposal. It is just the end of his shift and he's preparing to head home.

It has been 4 years since he last saw his elder brother, who went away to some far away city to focus on playing VRMMORPG Fantasion and earn money, hoping to find a cure for their father, who was still sick back then.

They encountered a serious financial problem back then, so his brother decided to do the unthinkable.

"Noctis, you know those ads that went trending about a game named VRMMORPG Fantasion where you can earn a lot and change your life for the better?"

"You're planning to join? Satsuki, I know you're a pro when it comes to gaming and all, but this is risky."

Then he pushed Noctis against the wall with a hand up the neck sleeve of his shirt.

"Hey, brother. Why did you have to do that?"

"Noctis, you must be dreaming. We're obviously about to go bankrupt. We need money to cure our father. And to pay for your studies in school."

Noctis was left speechless for a few moments until he finally found the right words to speak.

" You're right. I was wrong all along. Just be careful out there, ok? I also play many hack'n'slash, RPG, and strategy games so I know it's a dangerous world out there in VRMMORPG Fantasion.

"All right, Noctis, I will. Take care of our father for me, ok? Make your elder brother proud. See you after I finish this game even if it will take a few years."

Then they had dinner and drank sake together for one last time before he packed up his things and went on to VRMMORPG Fantasion, even though it's next to impossible for Satsuki to log out from VRMMORPG Fantasion, he still managed to get in touch with Noctis, and sent Noctis high- class daggers, katanas, and mysterious dragon badges that sold for a high price in the real world, when auctioned off at a gaming convention, or else sold to collectors of swords, knives and gaming curios.

His father has long since regained full health.

When he heard the news regarding Noctis' brother after fully regaining his health, he returned to his old job as a pioneering board member of VRMMORPG Fantasion.

It was thanks to both his father and brother that he was able to get into an elite university in Tokyo in college.

He returned to reality from his memories as he realized the train he was riding on was about to reach his neighborhood.

Noctis found himself holding a God Class assassin dragon emblem.

His father also sent a lot of God-class katanas, daggers, and knives.

They also sent him a lot of emails, texts,chats, and videocalls explaining in full detail about the weapons and the badges they sent back. They also told him a lot of stories about VRMMORPG Fantasion.

"They must have been lucky enough to get into elite Guilds."

Noctis smiled and thought to himself. It's obvious from the weapons and badges they sent back.

Satsuki, known as Ayami Ashima in VRMMORPG Fantasion as an elite assassin, nimbly slashed and dodged his enemy's attacks with his katana.

"Damn it. If this is to be my end, then I'll go down fighting. There is no end to these undead liches. Someone's messing up my comms system with my father. He's been unable to contact me for an hour already?"

He already knew who set him up for a suicide mission. He laughed bitterly.

" So, everything I worked for is all for nothing. I thought I could change the game. Turns out I'm just another major chess piece to use. All those years. I took them in and trained them to be the elite fighters they are. Now they'd turn against me. I should have left them to die at the hands of the Necromancy Guild, and fought my way up the ranks solo."

He shut down relations with them and disbanded the Guild when he felt that they were becoming hostile to him.

He still remembered how he single-handedly weakened the Necromancer Guild which has been plaguing VRMMORPG Fantasion and was at its prime while he was rising up the ranks.

He managed to find out the deadliest weakness of the Guild Leader.

And he still remembered rescuing those newbie entrants to VRMMORPG Fantasion who blundered their way into a level far harder than theirs and managed to get themselves into this mess.

He took them in, formed the Gamer Guild, and eventually managed to elevate the Gamer

Guild to elite status. But all of that didn't matter now.

Hashioki Ashima watched from the administrator panel in alarm as he saw his son fight off enemies all alone.

He knew it was a trap set up by the other faction who wished to gain absolute control of the game. He had to act fast.

Sorry, Satsuki, I may be quite influential among the administrators and game guardians, but there is someone out there from the other faction more influential than me. I can't risk getting caught. Thanks for everything you've done for me and Noctis.

So, he set about putting Plan Ashima Into action.

It is a contingency plan he devised and managed to have it passed as urgent in the Board Member Meeting.

It was to safeguard his son's legacy and to protect his true allies just in case, and immediately contact Noctis to replace him if something happens.

This is the best he could do to at least safeguard Noctis, aside from discreetly giving him hard-to-find and customized God-class weapons and badges, He also inserted cheat codes into the game so that Noctis would have infinite money, and tweaked his stats a bit so he would get a huge advantage over the other players of VRMMORPG Fantasion.

Sure enough, Satsuki reached his limit and a spell of undeath hit him squarely in his eyes. He fell to the ground, lifeless, but not without causing serious damage to the last remaining stronghold of the Necromancer Guild.

Noctis just finished eating dinner when he saw an urgent message flash from VRMMORPG Fantasion into his android smartphone.

It read:

"Satsuki has been eliminated. You're chosen to replace your brother. Avenge your brother's death Sorry, I can't do much as I also have to do a delicate balancing not as a game administrator. I can't risk your brother's true allies, and my own allies as well.

Love, from Father. "