Black Online-Chapter 145: I Dedicate To You

Fang Raon sat across from Lock and then pulled out his phone from his pocket.

"Are you a phone kid?"

Lock asked with a smile.

"Not really. Why?"

Fang Raon asked as he opened the phone and looked for things to do with the phone to pass the time.

"I see all my classmates always take their phones out during break time and will have their eyes glued to the screen till the bell rings.

"You can’t even talk to the guys!

"And you immediately pulled out your phone when your match ended, so I just assumed that you were like them."

Lock said with a smile.

Fang Raon wryly smiled.

He didn’t use his phone much, but now that he had his vision back, of course he liked to use his eyes now.

Thus, he just liked to open his phone every now and then and check out some pictures from faraway places.

The waterfalls. The beautiful landscape. The breathtaking sunsets. Even some celebrities, as he had always wondered how they would look.

’No one would understand how I feel. Everything that I see from my phone is a thing I have never seen before. It’s... an amazing feeling.’

He thought to himself.

In that moment, he went to the messaging app and pressed on Chaewon’s name, and her profile opened up.

Her profile picture was her smiling with her friends. It looked like the picture was a couple of years old, since she took the picture in her school uniform.

’She was very beautiful even then.’

Fang Raon, out of curiosity, checked other social media platforms and searched for her profiles.

She had a pretty thin social media presence, with about two dozen pictures in total uploaded to the websites.

The comments on her pictures were either from her friends or from her male classmates—everyone calling her beautiful and complimenting her style.

’What am I doing? I feel like a stalker.’

Fang Raon closed his phone and smiled wryly.

There were still couple hours till she would call him, and he was quite confident that he would be done with the tournament by then.

’Whether I lose or win the next match, I will only have two matches left in the tournament. I doubt it’ll take long.’

He thought.

In that moment, the rest of the matches concluded, and two girls sat down alongside them—only four of them remained.

The rest left the store—looking dejected—as they were so close to the prize money only to lose in the last match.

’She must be Anselma Rocha.’

Fang Raon thought as he looked at the woman sitting across from him.

She had black hair. Normal features. Nothing about her stood out. There weren’t any distinctive markings or accessories that would make her memorable.

Just a normal girl.

’And she is Lourdes Quintana...’

Fang Raon glanced beside him and saw a hazel-brown-haired woman with a kind face—she was a woman in her late thirties.

It looked like she was most likely a mother already as well.

’I guess all kinds of people play Black Online. Even mothers like Lourdes Quintana.’

Fang Raon thought.

This time around, it didn’t take long for the next match-ups to be decided, as the firm-sounding man updated the tournament bracket.

"Mmh~"

Lock giggled at the sight of the whitebeard, and the two women exchanged glances before also standing up.

***

[Semifinals]

[Anselma Rocha vs. Lourdes Quintana]

[Fang Raon vs. Lock Manchester]

***

’I am going against him?’ 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Fang Raon looked at the giggling young man and thought that he probably got the worst opponent possible.

’I have a bad feeling...’

Quickly, the young woman went to the two rooms—to update the Virtual Reality Pods for their new users—and a short while later, the doors opened again.

"You may enter."

The man said.

Anselma and Lourdes entered the first room. Fang Raon and Lock stepped into the second room.

They all climbed inside their Virtual Reality Pods. The man and the young woman fiddled with the control panel.

"Good luck out there, you hear me?"

Lock said with a giggle.

"Same to you."

Fang Raon said.

"Hehe, I don’t need luck. You do. You’re going against me, after all."

Lock said with a confident smirk.

’That guy’s confidence is off the charts. I am not surprised. It looks like he crushed his first opponents pretty handily, so he must have strength to back it up.’

Fang Raon frowned.

In that moment, both of them turned limp inside the pods as their consciousness got transferred to the virtual world of the game.

...

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Hearing the sound, Fang Raon frowned and opened his eyes to a shocking sight that took his breath away.

He was standing on a platform—a circular platform the size of a small hall—and it was surrounded by a seemingly endless ocean of water.

Swoosh!

In that moment, his opponent—Lock Manchester—appeared on the other side of the platform with a smile on his face.

"Oh? No more forests? This is good. I was wondering why those tournament organizers fiddled with that control panel for so long.

"They wanted to give us a proper stage to fight, I see!"

Lock said with a laugh.

He was wearing black leather armor that looked like something an assassin would wear, and it especially contrasted his pale skin.

’Assassin?’

Fang Raon immediately thought.

And just like he expected, Lock pulled out a pair of daggers from his inventory and twirled them expertly in his hands.

It was like he wasn’t afraid at all to accidentally cut off his fingers.

"You’re Warrior?"

Lock asked.

’I didn’t even take out my weapons yet, and he already knows.’

Fang Raon thought, and then he pulled out the sword and shield from his inventory.

He didn’t twirl them around or show off any of his skills. He simply held them in a tight grip.

In that moment, Lock put his weapons down, pressed his forehead against the ground, and closed his eyes.

"This fight I dedicate to you, Mother, and this victory I dedicate to you, Father."

He opened his eyes, picked up the daggers, and stood back up.

There wasn’t a smile left in his face anymore. Only coldness. It was obvious that he was not joking around anymore.