Infinite Realm

1 week later…

"Sato! The program is about to start." Hayami yelled at her brother from the sitting room.

"Alright." Sato replied as he walked from the kitchen towards the sitting room with a bun in his mouth.

"Grandfather's not back yet?" Sato asked Hayami once he got there.

"No. He and grandma went to the hospital for a checkup last evening. I think they spent the night at the hospital." Hayami said with a bit of worry in her eyes.

The couple didn't return this morning which meant that something must have happened. If that were true, then it most likely wasn't something positive.

"I see." Sato replied with a bit of emotion.

Sato remembered that during the week, his grandmother had been feeling all tired and looking sickly. Even with the regular shots she took, the illness was already starting to act up and couldn't be suppressed with the same drugs anymore.

Milio-Schripolises was the cancer of their timeline. Even with all the improvements in health care and technology, it was still a stubborn illness to take care of. One of the reasons why was because it was very rare. As a result of this, effective treatments for it were still under research and development, and it could only be slowed down with the available health features affordable to a common man.

To better understand this, it could be said that Milio-Schripolises was incurable for an average man but not so much for a wealthy individual. As there was no official treatment program for the disease, advanced treatments using high-level technology were used by most health centres to handle various difficult illnesses and they were also used for the disease at hand, which is Milio-Schripolises. However, these advanced health treatments cost a lot and only the rich were typically able to afford them. Therefore, a situation was made where a disease seemed incurable but was actually only as a result of the cost of treatment.

'I need to work harder. Very soon, the exchange feature would be activated and I can earn a lot from that.'

"It's on." Hayami's voice woke him up from his imagination.

"Welcome everyone, to another segment of Virtual Times." The voice of the usual male host sounded from the display unit.

"Today's show would surely be fascinating to you guys out there as our special guest for today's segment is an interesting fellow. So stick with us and I promise you, you won't be disappointed. Announcements regarding one of the top trending games of the month, Infinite Realm, would also be made so please look forward to it." The female co-host added with a lovely smile.

As usual, the show proceeded to give updates on various VR games, starting from the least popular ones on the top 10 -except the 7th place- while speaking a few honorable mentions which were usually games below the top 10 but with a lot of potential. This alone took more than 20 minutes, which was equivalent to almost half the time of the show. 

Finally, the duo proceeded to the top 5, and this took even longer since compared to the top 10, the report on the top 5 was more detailed and descriptive, covering a whole lot of events that had taken place.

"Finally, we arrive at the part where we invite our guest speaker to the stage. Regarding our special guest today, he isn't a popular VR gamer, a retired player, or even a streamer; neither is he related to any of the front-end gaming occupations." The male host suddenly announced.

"Wait, he isn't?" The female co-host abruptly faced her partner with surprise.

"Ah, that's true. I also kept his identity a secret from you." The male host tapped his forehead as he 'recalled' a certain fact.

"No matter, we will all meet him now. Please help me welcome, one of the developers of the fastest trending game in history as well as the newly ranked number 7 on the rankings, Hashimoto Junki aka, Cyanide."

A round of applause sounded as a middle-aged man in glasses walked out from backstage, onto the stage.

The studio where Virtual Times was hosted had the same look as a news channel's stage during the report segment of the show. However, once the interview segment arrives, the two hosts switch to a more open stage, similar to the ones seen on celebrity talk shows. With 2 armchairs and a styled sofa aesthetically arranged alongside a few potted plants and quality lighting, the entire stage looked fashionable and conducive even to the viewer.

"Welcome, Mr Junki or should I call you Cyanide?" The male host smiled as he stretched out an arm towards the guest.

"Cyanide." The middle-aged man smiled and shook the arm.

"You, you…" The female co-host was astounded as she stared at the Cyanide with wide-opened eyes.

"Some of you may or may not know, but to those who have been gaming for over a decade as well those who know their VR history well, Cyanide would be a very familiar name." The male host said as he noticed his partner's reaction.

Sato had a shocked look on his face as he stared at the middle-aged man on the screen, surprised by what he saw. 

"Brother, who's he?" Hayami asked as she saw that her brother was also shocked.

"He's-" before Sato could complete his sentence, the male host interrupted him.

"To those who do not know him, he is Cyanide, or better yet, the One-hit kill King, God of assassinations, Cyanide. A retired gamer and a former God-ranked player.

The history of VR games was over 2 decades old and massive improvements have been made continuously compared to then. Similar to the current timeline, the player rankings back then were the same and they existed a lot of fantastic players. Cyanide was a very popular name back then as he had managed to climb to the rank of God. In simpler terms, he was among the first batch of players who had gained the title of 'God'.

To be a God-ranked player meant that the player had transcended what could be perceived as 'human'. they had a battle or record of at least 99% against players that weren't at their rank. They also had another title they went by, 'Destroyer', which meant that even if they were surrounded by multiple other players, they would still be able to wreak havoc and walk away with their lives intact.

Monster Ranked experts were already so scary as defeating them would require a team of 20 Experts with at least 5-7 Apex Experts 'Kings'. Such a lineup couldn't easily be found anywhere and only top-rate 1st tier guilds and super guilds could afford such a line-up. Hence, Monster-ranked Experts could pretty much walk the world unhindered as long as they avoid such parties. However, a God-ranked player was different.

These guys were the true monsters, but as the title had already been taken, they became known as 'Destroyers'. Defeating them required another God-ranked Expert with a team of experts to prevent the target from escaping or one of a higher tier. This was because as long as a 'Destroyer' willed it, stopping them would only be a pipe-dream. 

Unlike Monster-ranked Experts, using the zerg tactics to beat them was dumb, since the number of lives that would be sacrificed to achieve that was a lot. 

Therefore, it became a well-known fact that unless one was a Monster-ranked Expert, they were to run at the sight of a God.