Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme

Back in Masteria, Lumi and Lena materialized in Elenora, their respawn timers finally complete.

The moment they appeared, they were immediately confronted by an extremely irate Merath.

The ancient magician stood before them with his arms crossed, his usually calm demeanor replaced by visible frustration.

"Explain." Merath’s voice was dangerously calm. "Explain to me why your airship came crashing through my library window."

Lumi winced.

That was right. He did do that. The autopilot. He’d programmed it to return to Merath’s library, but he hadn’t exactly accounted for the airship’s approach vector. It had apparently taken the most direct route possible, which meant straight through the side of the building rather than any reasonable route.

"I mean, what?" Merath continued, his voice rising slightly. "Did you seriously send an unpiloted airship crashing through my window?"

The ancient magician gestured sharply toward the library behind him. Lumi could now see the damage. A large section of the outer wall had a massive hole in it, wooden splinters and shattered glass scattered across the platform. The airship itself was parked awkwardly inside, half in and half out of the building.

Lena tried very hard not to laugh. She failed, a small snort escaping before she clamped her hand over her mouth.

Merath’s eyes snapped to her. "You find this amusing?"

"No, no." Lena shook her head rapidly, her voice muffled behind her hand. "Not at all. Very serious. Very bad. I’m so sorry."

Merath’s expression suggested he didn’t believe her for a second.

The only reason he didn’t lose his mind on the spot was because he had seen them with that airship before and thus knew it was theirs.

If it had been some random airship from an unknown source, he would have assumed it was an attack. He would have destroyed it immediately, investigated the wreckage, and hunted down whoever was responsible.

But this was their airship. The one he’d seen them using multiple times. Which meant this wasn’t an attack.

It was incompetence.

Or perhaps something else entirely.

"Why?" Merath demanded. "Why would you do that?"

Lumi opened his mouth to explain, then stopped.

How exactly was he supposed to answer that question?

He couldn’t say they’d both died during a magical baptism process and programmed the airship to return on its own. That would require explaining topics he absolutely could not discuss due to system restrictions.

He glanced at Lena, who looked equally stuck.

The system prevented them from revealing certain information to natives. Anything that would expose the true nature of Masteria Online, anything that would reveal players weren’t actually native inhabitants, anything that touched on Earth or the Dark One’s plans.

And of course, due to those system restrictions, neither Lumi nor Lena could actually give him a proper answer.

All they could do was skirt around the issue and say something vague.

Lumi took a breath and tried his best. "We had reasons. Trust us. But we can’t say them."

Merath stared at him.

Lena nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. Very good reasons. The best reasons. But yeah, can’t tell you. Sorry about that."

The ancient magician’s eye twitched slightly. Merath was silent for a long moment, his expression unreadable.

This was, of course, really frustrating for him.

He was an ancient magician who had lived for centuries. He’d seen countless mysteries, solved innumerable magical puzzles, and accumulated knowledge that most people couldn’t even comprehend.

And yet these two strange adventurers kept doing inexplicable things, refusing to explain themselves, and expecting him to just accept it.

The worst part was that he could sense they were telling the truth. They did have reasons. They weren’t being deliberately obstinate or disrespectful. There was some genuine constraint preventing them from speaking openly.

Whatever was happening, it was beyond his current understanding. Yet, he hated that. How exactly was there something beyond his understanding? He knew almost all things magic, did he not? Unless it was the Dark One, then...

Oh, right.

Merath exhaled slowly, his frustration giving way to resignation. Of course, he could only believe them and let them go.

After all, he did trust them. He had to.

"Fine," Merath said finally. "Leave. But next time, please land your airship anywhere else rather than through my wall."

"Will do." Lumi said quickly, already backing away before the ancient magician could linger on the incident too long.

Lena gave an exaggerated salute. "You got it, boss!"

They retreated rapidly, leaving Merath standing alone in front of his damaged library, shaking his head slowly.

...

Once they were away from Merath’s library, Lumi’s mind shifted back to more immediate concerns.

The raid was soon. In just a few days, actually. Presumably, either today or tomorrow would be the last day with the pixies. That was good timing, since the raid was coming up and he needed to be ready for that.

Speaking of the raid, his follow up post on the forums had generated exactly the response he’d hoped for.

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, had seen it.

The announcement had spread like wildfire across internet, every social media platform, every forum where Masteria Online was discussed. Everyone knew about the upcoming raid. Everyone knew Lumi was organizing it.

That said, how many players would actually show up was severely limited by how many owned a game pod and cared enough to participate.

The game pods were expensive. Three thousand dollars, plus installation fees. That wasn’t pocket change for most people. Even with the recent price drop, it was still a significant investment.

And the game pod, as expensive as it was, had already dropped in price by two hundred dollars since launch.

Nexarch really wanted everyone to own one.

That much was obvious. The price reduction had come suddenly, announced without much fanfare, clearly designed to remove barriers to entry. The more people playing Masteria Online, the better for their plans.

Little did they know how badly that decision would backfire on them.

Beyond the price drop, Lumi had noticed something else suspicious.

His gold exchange platform had received some very convenient help recently.

On paper, it was just some interested investors who had reached out to his business partner Lucas and the others running the operation. They claimed they believed it was a good investment, that the platform had strong fundamentals and growth potential.

That excuse made no sense to anyone with basic business competence.

The gold exchange platform wasn’t even a month old. It had no proven track record, no profit reports, nothing. Any legitimate investor would have asked for extensive documentation, demanded detailed financials, and negotiated for significant equity in return for their capital.

These "investors" had done none of that. They’d simply offered money with minimal strings attached.

Luckily, Lucas had immediately pointed this out to Renan.

...

The conversation had happened a few days ago.

Lucas had called him in the evening, his voice tense with suspicion. "Renan, we got an offer."

"What kind of offer?" Renan had been working on his posts in the forums at the time, so he wasn’t paying that much attention to Lucas’s words. He could handle it.

Lucas explained. "Investment. Big investment. Some venture capital firm wants to put ten million into the platform."

That got Renan’s attention. "Ten million? Are they crazy?"

"Yeah. And here’s the thing." Lucas paused. "They’re not asking for much in return. Standard equity agreement, minimal oversight requirements, and they’re fine with us maintaining operational control."

"That’s suspicious."

"That’s what I said," Lucas replied. "No legitimate investor would structure a deal like this. We’re too new, and too unproven. No one would think we’re worth ten million. Even I’m not sure we have that potential. They should be demanding way more control, way more information, and way more guarantees. Frankly, they should be demanding all we have and more."

Renan thought about it for a moment. "Did they say who they represent?"

"Some shell company. I looked into it. The paperwork traces back to about five different holding companies, none of which have any public presence. Whoever’s behind this doesn’t want to be identified."

Lumi grinned. "It’s Nexarch."

"Huh?" Lucas was baffled. Nexarch? Like... the company that made the game? Why would they fund a third party RMT operation?"

"Who else could it be?" Lumi asked. "They have a vested interest in making the platform successful. More players trading gold means more engagement with the game. More engagement means more people getting pulled deeper into Masteria."

"Yeah, but..." Lucas was unsure. What exactly were they talking about? If Nexarch wanted a platform to exchange between game currency and real currency, they’d host it themselves."

Renan shrugged. Of course, Lucas still didn’t know Masteria was a real world. He didn’t need to, not yet. Renan leaned back in his chair, considering the implications. "What do you think we should do?"

"Normally? I’d tell them to fuck off. This whole thing screams red flags."

"But?"

"But you’re going to tell me to accept it anyway, aren’t you?" Lucas said.

Renan smiled slightly. "Accept it. All of it. Don’t negotiate, don’t push back, just take their money and run the platform exactly how we planned."

Lucas was quiet for a moment. "You want to explain why?"

Renan wouldn’t lie to him. Even if his answer made absolutely no sense to him. "Because they’re trying to help us, and they don’t even realize they’re shooting themselves in the foot."

Renan understood the logic perfectly. They thought a successful gold trading platform benefitted them. In a different timeline, it did. In this one, he would be using it to build infrastructure that would be crucial for breaking people out of the system’s control.

Of course, Lucas knew none of that, which is why he was silent for a while. "What?"

Renan could only push on. "Just do it."

Lucas couldn’t refuse. "Alright."