Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

The demon named Og'tharoz had long heard about Psykers, so he was fascinated when he finally had the opportunity to meet one in person.

Some of the legends he had heard over thousands of years was that the Psykers would be responsible for guiding paranormal creatures to the end of all that exists. Others said that the Psykers would be the ones causing the extinction of the paranormal world. Among so many divergent stories with dystopian futures, the one thing that everyone who ever heard about this subject agreed on was that the Psykers were beings of unparalleled power.

Before Og'tharoz shook Kaizen's hand, he had already felt the power of this young man and how different this broad-shouldered boy was from all the other people he had ever met. Kaizen appeared to have no fear, no trepidation, as if his every action was within his comfort zone. The demon was so impressed that he had no doubts when Kaizen proposed that they share the house, thus abandoning his social exile.

,m After the deal with the demon, Kaizen and Jayaa left the house while running towards the broker.

The bard didn't even have to pretend to be very frightened, for his heart was in fact almost bursting out of his mouth for cooperating with a demon.

Jayaa shouted, in desperation, things like:

"It's not a ghost in the house, you damn liar! It's a demon! And he almost killed me!"

There was such sincerity in the bard's words that the broker's eyes bugged out on the spot. "A demon?!!!"

Demons were known as nasty, mischievous creatures who could possess people to feed on their feelings. Hatred, anger, and greed used to be feelings capable of completely dominating the heart of an ordinary human, and demons took advantage of this blindness to manipulate men, inducing them to do things they wouldn't normally do.

The old broker didn't know how to react. He had never thought that it could be a demon that haunted this house and not the spirit of a former resident.

Acting like a demon, Kaizen approached the realtor in this moment of weakness and doom. With a soft, calm voice, he said to the almost gray-haired old man:

"I know some people who might try to take care of the demon, so I'm still interested in buying the house."

This caused a look of hope to appear on the man's face, who raised his eyebrows as fast as a hawk can take flight, but before he could say anything, Kaizen continued.

"However, taking care of this demon won't be cheap, not to mention the various structural damages to the house, the renovations I'll have to do, the bad reputation of the construction... Yeah, I guess there are more negatives to buying this house than positives. What do you think, Jayaa?"

The bard nodded enthusiastically. "You're right. This will all be very expensive. If to this day the church has not exorcised what is in the house, even with the fame of the place, I think hiring the powerful adventurers for that service will be very expensive..."

"I completely agree." Kaizen crossed his arms and nodded like his colleague.

"Wait, wait, wait. I can give a great discount, how about that? There probably won't be any other buyers showing up for the house any time soon, so I guess I can make an exception for you guys. Three thousand gold coins is fair for the location of the property, right?" The realtor inquired, spreading his arms wide.

"Obviously not. To drive out or kill the demon will probably cost almost this amount for my experience, not to mention all the other factors." Kaizen bluffed.

Droplets of sweat began to trickle down Verzano's forehead, who seemed desperate to close the deal. "Two thousand eight hundred?"

"Too expensive. What do you think about five hundred gold coins?"

"I don't s-" Just as the broker was about to deny the bargain, he looked in Kaizen's direction and sharply saw a person standing in the doorway.

This person he saw had long black hair, frightening eyes like that of a madman, very pointed ears and horns. His heart almost stopped at that moment. Hearing about an evil being is nothing compared to seeing one.

"C-right, right! I'll take the five hundred gold offer!" Verzano exclaimed, quickly looking away.

Kaizen smiled confidently. "You know what? Five hundred gold coins is still very expensive for such an old house, and since you were about to deny that offer, I'm still not convinced that it's a good deal to buy this house."

"Four hundred gold coins and we'll sign the papers today, all right?"

With his arms still crossed, Kaizen took a few seconds to ponder and the realtor, agonized at having seen a demon with his own eyes, exclaimed:

"Three hundred and the house will be yours right now! You'll never find another building in the business district for that price, and if you're worried about renovations, you can tear it down and have a new house built after you kick the demon out."

These were wise words from Verzano, proving that he was a very experienced and insightful broker. His advice about demolishing was something Kaizen needed to consider.

"Fine. I agree to buy that house for three hundred gold."

"You won't regret it, sir, I promise you that! Now let's go to the real estate office as quickly as possible to deal with the documents before my office hours end."

"All right. Aren't you coming with us, Jayaa?" Kaizen inquired as he started to follow the realtor and his groupmate didn't do that either.

"I'm going to have to go meet my girlfriend now in the white district. She wants my help to convince a guy to give her a mission. What do you think about meeting us after you finish buying the house? We can go farm for a while."

Jayaa then opened the game interface, opened the window that showed the group members, clicked on the Kaizen icon, and finally on ADD AS FRIEND.

[The player 'Jayaa' has sent a friend request. Do you want to accept? YES/NO

(Attention! Users on your friendships list can see your current level and location in real time].

"That's fine with me. I'll meet you later, man." Kaizen said with a smile and accepted the friend request.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

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https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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