Fate Online: Shadow

9:00 am, Thursday.

As the sun shines over Central City. Michael, can be seen jogging around the park circling around it along with people who also had the same thought as him, taking a jog, near his apartment.

"I want to see Amanda so bad but sadly she will only open her restaurant next month after moving here in Central City. Instead of thinking about her, I think I should worry about what I’m gonna do from now on as I don’t really wanna go back to being an assassin and It’s not like we’ll go back to the way it was as we don’t even know each other right now. Fortunately though, I already know a lot about her." Michael said confidently before he came to a halt and looked at the TV attached on top of a pole in the park as he watched the news being broadcasted early in the morning.

"On March 22 of 2030, Mine Technology has announced that they will be releasing the Virtual Reality Game, Fate Online with 90% realism beating all other virtual games out there. You can purchase a virtual helmet at your nearby game station for only $1000 with a monthly subscription $300 at exactly 12 noon today"

"Yes, that’s it! That’s the game that I was hearing a lot about before. It was said that a lot of people got rich overnight from playing the game and selling equipment" said Michael, overjoyed as he rushed back home and took a shower. He then wore a red t-shirt and pants before rushing out of his apartment headed towards the nearest game station along with a $1000 he took from his piggy bank.

Michael increased his speed when he saw that there isn’t a line yet.

"Nice! I got here first!" said Michael excitedly, acting like his past life never happened. Probably comforted at the thought that he can now at least prevent some bad things from happening.

Michael waited as time tickled by with people arriving in groups, couples or alone like Michael.

11:50 am, a sudden commotion happened.

A burly man came beside Michael as he heavily tapped his shoulders.

"Boy, scram. Your line is now mine" he said with an intimidating tone.

"No" Michael said flatly without even looking at him.

"Why yo- *urff* " the guy was not able to finish what he was about to say when he suddenly got elbowed on his chest followed by a kick on the side of his neck as he immediately fell unconscious.

"Shit" cursed Michael as his body reacted instinctively, the moment he felt a killing intent directed at him.

"Yo-you do you know who we are?" said the guy’s companion in stutter while pointing at him.

Michael didn’t say anything but just glared at him.

"Heok! I-I’m sorry! W-we’ll scram now" the guy suddenly started apologizing as cold sweat started dripping from his face onto the concrete ground and immediately ran away with his companion in tow.

"Wow, that was awesome!"

"Did you see how he beat that guy? It was so fast that he already kicked him just after elbowing him."

"That’s awesome, is he martial artist or something?"

A commotion started around Michael but he just ignored it as he fell into a deep thought.

"That’s weird, I shouldn’t have any murderous aura right now as I haven’t even killed anyone but the guy got scared so bad that he even started sweating from only a glare. Does that mean that I managed to retain my aura?" he thought and smiled when he realized how great would that be.

......

"Heok! Wh-what happened?" the burly man suddenly yelled as he jolted awake.

"Senior, you’re finally awake" the other burly dude said in relief.

"Was I - oh the pain hurts like hell!" he scowled in pain while clutching both his chest and neck.

After a few seconds.

"So Jack, what happened when I fell unconscious?" he said calmly but his eyebrows are twitching from embarrassment, beaten unconscious in front of his junior.

"I ran away while I carried you to the car senior and escaped" Jacks said ashamed.

"You escaped?" this time, his voice became stern.

"Yes, I-It wa-was because I t-think I saw the shadow of a terrifying demon when he glared at me, so I run away in fear" Jack said trembling still remembering how scary it was.

"Yo-you really saw a shadow from his glare?" he asked trembling.

"Yes Senior! I really saw it, you know I almost shit my pants...." Jack started rumbling about how scary it was or whatnot.

But his Senior just ignored him, "If what Jack said is real...holy crap. Only someone who had been to numerous life and death battles with his hands soaked with the blood of his enemies would someone had that kind of intense killing intent, even our boss’s killing intent doesn’t come close to that. Only now do I realize that I actually survived a calamity, we would have been killed if we weren’t in a public place but if we were in a secluded area *gulp*. I need to tell Boss about this later so that we won’t invite a calamity in ourselves" Jack’s senior shivered in fear when he thought that today would have been his death anniversary while also planning on how to avoid this walking disaster.

"Senior, are you alright?" Jack stopped his rumbling when he noticed that his senior was covered in sweat.

"Ye-yeah, I’m okay but did you manage to purchase the game helmets?" he was embarrassed and tried to shift it to another topic.

Jack hastily shook his head while looking down.

His senior just sighed because he can’t really blame him, he just silently wore his shirt and stood up as headed at the door.

"Come on! We’ll go back and hopefully there are still game helmets left at the other stores" he said and stepped outside without looking back before getting on a car.

"Coming!" Jack hastily ran outside the room they were at and opened the car door before closing it as the car drove off towards the direction of another game station.

While on the other hand.

Michael didn’t even think much of what happened earlier, maybe even forgetting about it.

"I’m already an old soul but I still can’t help but feel excited at the thought of playing a virtual game" said Michael as he held the virtual helmet in front of him as he smiled happily.

Not even knowing that he was already labeled as a "disaster" by one of the senior members from one of the largest gangs in Central City.

Finally arriving home, he excitedly rushed inside his room and plug the connector before lying on his bed and wore the helmet over his head.

It was dark at first but then there was a sudden flash of light along with a system prompt that appeared in front of his eyes.

[Do you wish to dive into the world of Fate Online?]

"Dive!"