Chapter 2 - The Wrong Job (2)

It was the long-awaited opening day of Asrian Online.

People from all sorts of gaming communities were excited.

Thanks to people searching for strategies and users that streamed their gameplays, the communities remained very active.

- Wow... Servers aren't lagging at all.

- You're right. Usually, when you begin playing, it lags so much that the server enters maintenance.

- Is this the power of innovation? This is the first game with Sensory Synchronization, right?

- I've managed to get the ID 'Legend.' I'm selling it for USD 1000.

- This game allows duplicate IDs, lol.

- Really? I was happy after obtaining the ID 'Love' ㅠㅠ.

- The amount of users is in the tens of millions. If it didn't allow duplicate IDs, you wouldn't be able to create a decent one.

SeoHyun felt restless while watching the virtual reality capsule in the corner of his room.

Even though Asrian Online had launched, he hadn't started playing it—he had a very good reason for that. Before starting, there was something he wanted to know.

That something was job selection.

In Asra Online, you had to select your job at level 1.

You could upgrade your character's job, but you couldn't change it. Not only that but resetting the settings wasn't even an option.

There was an option to add another character slot via DLC, but the price for that was 100 USD—it was three times higher than what it cost in Asra Online.

They were charging that because they could, but it was a lot of money for SeoHyun, who was struggling with that month's living expenses.

Since he didn't have any friends, his parents were the only ones he could ask for money.

- Wow. As soon as you start, an NPC comes out and picks your job, lol.

- Yeah, I was also surprised by that.

SeoHyun's eyes shone with interest.

After scrolling down a little bit more, he finally found the information he was looking for.

- It seems like you can choose between four jobs. The Angel NPC guides you through the process. But to give a brief explanation: if you choose a sword, you become a warrior, if you pick up a magic wand, you become a magician, and so on.

- I ignored the NPC and just grabbed a random thing. I ended up becoming a priest, lol.

- In my case, I became a thief.

- To become a thief, you have to pick the short sword, right?

- Yes.

Asrian Online had been open for about 10 minutes, but the online communities were in chaos because of the job selection.

SeoHyun felt relieved.

"Just as I thought, waiting was the correct answer."

He was afraid that the new game might have a different way of doing certain things.

After reading that your class got chosen the moment you picked up a weapon, he felt relieved by deciding to wait and not to log in.

"Good. I've learned how to pick jobs..."

It was time to be at the forefront by exploring and completing quests.

He read a couple more posts and then walked towards the capsule and laid down.

[Do you want to log in to Asrian Online?]

"Yes."

[Loading.]

Whish-

Soon, he couldn't see anything but darkness. SeoHyun felt like he was floating in the air.

At first, he felt uneasy. But after hearing the calm system message, he could continue with the set-up.

[Please enter the username you're going to use in Asrian Online]

"Hyun."

[Setting Complete!]

When SeoHyun opened his eyes, rather than the capsule's walls, he saw what looked like a castle soaked in darkness.

A silent blackness covered the entire palace.

"Has it started?"

Hyun tried to move.

Walking alone in a dark castle late at night made him feel like an assassin.

Hyun was looking around when a bright light made him frown.

'Ugh!'

The traces of light gathered and formed a set of wings. What appeared next was a humanoid life form—it was an angel who was glowing.

"Welcome, being from another dimension."

He could hear a soprano voice directly in his mind.

It was his first time hearing another person's voice in his mind; it reminded him of one of those martial arts novels.

But that wasn't what surprised him the most.

SeoHyun already knew that an angel appeared in front of you as soon as you started the game, but he never thought that it would be a female angel.

'What a moment, is she...?'

He had already met this angel in Asra Online.

Yes, it was definitely her.

Subconsciously, he called her by her real name.

"Keidrial...?"

The names of most angels ended with -el, but the names of demons ended with -al.

Her angelic form’s name was Keiruel…

But her real name was that of a demon.

The fact that she was a demon was revealed in the latter half of the story.

"From now on, you'll be able to experience more than..."

After Hyeon said her real name, her voice that was as kind as a mother's faded out.

The glow that symbolized an angel went out like a candle.

Crash-!

Her beautiful wings broke into polygon-shaped pieces.

The statue of the angel that was blocking the way collapsed and disappeared.

The voice of the angel sounded like an artificially modified and distorted one.

"So, you know my name? How did you know~?"

Keidrial spread out a pair of black wings.

SeoHyun could hear her creepy but playful voice. His body was getting excited on its own.

He knew why.

Keidrial could make one hallucinate. She had this special ability because she was a named creature.

The Sensory Synchronization functionality could manipulate human emotions, but it was at a non-harmful level for humans.

That was also the reason why he felt pressured.

Even though his heart was beating fast, he tried to calm down and order his thoughts.

'In the communities, everyone said that an 'Angel' had appeared before them.'

She had horns and black wings.

If anyone could call her angel after seeing these, they should definitely get their sight checked out.

That meant one thing: people didn't know about Keidrial's real identity.

Nobody had revealed her true self.

Even in Asra Online, she was the last named NPC to appear. So he was probably the only one that knew about this.

"I got caught? Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it now. You should be grateful that you were able to see this form."

Keidrial laughed in such a way that it was hard to tell if she was having fun or feeling annoyed while looking at Hyun.

"Now, please pick your job and get out of here, human."

She pointed to four items that were on top of a desk.

There was a sword, a dagger, a wand, and a cross.

They were items that allowed you to become a warrior, a thief, a magician, or a priest.

Hyun looked at Keidrial with suspicion.

'Is this really all?'

An event that suddenly happened…

In Asra Online, when a secret event happened, usually something special appeared.

There was always a special reward or another linked event behind things that were hidden.

'There's probably something more here.'

SeoHyun stopped and started looking around.

'What's that?'

Behind the demon, he could see something of great quality.

It was a red carpet.

…But the length of it was unnaturally short.

‘Shouldn't the carpet of a palace like this be longer?’

On top of it, he saw something that was a little bit too small and asymmetrical to call a cushion.

It was as if a piece of it was cut out.

'What's this?'

That place had appeared where the statue of an angel was standing. That meant that it wasn't visible while Keidrial was hiding her identity.

When she turned into a demon, the statue of the angel disappeared, and that space that was hidden became visible.

'Should I take a closer look at it?'

Hyun slowly walked towards where the red carpet had appeared in order to take a closer look.

Keidrial, who saw what he was about to do, started to panic and shouted at him.

"Wait...!"

'Huh?'

"What are you doing? Why aren't you choosing your job?"

He looked back at Keidrial, who was trying to rush him into making a decision.

‘Is she feeling uneasy?’ It wasn't normal to see her like this.

‘Maybe...?’

Hyun smiled maliciously.

"There's something I wanted to take a closer look at."

"There's nothing over there."

"We'll see about that."

Hyun got closer and stepped on the carpet.

At that moment—

[You've found a hidden place!]

[The number of jobs from which you can pick has increased!]

In the empty place, torches appeared, and a new space showed itself.

He could see a throne at the end of the red carpet that had looked unnaturally short before.

The red carpet had looked short because there was a hidden place at its end.

"..."

Keidrial remained silent.

* * *

Was it because he had discovered the hidden place? She was glaring at him with scary eyes.

Even those eyes couldn't keep him from being excited.

"This is awesome!"

While walking on the red carpet and looking around, Hyun couldn't hide his smile.

The number of jobs from which you could pick was more than four!

These were probably upgraded or hidden jobs!

He could see more than a dozen of item, and they were all probably job-related items.

'Hmm?'

After getting to the end of the red carpet, SeoHyun started to wonder about another thing.

The demon that had deceived him, Keidrial, had rapidly placed herself behind the throne.

Normally, he wouldn't have thought much about it. But at that moment, he couldn't help but think that Keidrial was there because she wanted to hide something.

"Why aren't you choosing your job? After all, there are a lot of hidden ones around here. You should be satisfied with anything you pick up."

"Wait..."

Hyun looked at Keidrial with suspicion.

"Can you please move away?"

"Wh... Why do I need to do that?"

He laughed at Keidrial's reaction.

He found it somewhat cute that an evil demon couldn't control her emotions.

"Then just stay there."

He stepped inside the place that Keidrial was guarding. But surprisingly, they didn't bump.

There, in that job picking place, the user's will was the most important thing. That's why she couldn't do anything to stop him, including physically.

Hyun walked through Keidrial and found a sword stuck in a marble.

"Ah...!"

Hyun was awed by the sword. He could tell at a glance that the sword was at another level!

The sword was emitting a dark red light.

"What kind of job does this give?"

It was hard to tell, even for someone with eight years of experience.

In Asra Online, he had a job called Dimension Crasher.

That job, which was the last upgrade, allowed him to destroy anything.

Maybe this job could have the same... No, at least similar destructive power to the one he used to have.

There was no doubt remaining in his mind. Hyun extended his hand and grabbed the sword.

Black energy emanated from the sword and covered Hyun.

He should have thought about it more carefully.

Keidrial was a demon.

According to the lore of Asra, she was a demon that gained pleasure by deceiving humans and devouring their desperation.

[Congratulations! You've picked the hidden job 'Support'!]

"Huh...?"

It was as if the system was laughing at the dumbfounded Hyun.

[You've finished your first job selection!]

[You can get more character slots in the cash shop for 100 USD!]

Keidrial started to laugh at him.

"Hahahahaha~!"

‘Support?’

‘What? Is this a hidden camera prank?’

After coming back to his senses, the first thing he saw was Keidrial, who was dying of laughter.

"Hahaha, that job may unexpectedly be good, so do your best!"

Zap-

Keidrial, who was laughing at him until the very last moment, disappeared.

After being left alone, Hyun could feel his body being forcefully transported to another place.

He couldn't help but shout out in sorrow.

"Fuuuuccckkkkk~!"

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