Black Online-Chapter 190: Mysterious Woman

Fang Raon felt like a full-of-water sink, but now because of the knife stab, someone had pulled the plug.

With the water draining quickly, his health points rapidly decreased, and when the water was completely gone, so would be his life.

’This... is... so... stupid...’

Fang Raon stumbled into the street, and he extended his arm over his shoulder to touch the wound.

He tried plugging the wound so that he could somewhat stop the bleeding to buy some time.

’I just... need to find... Helper...’

He thought with sharking eyes.

[HP: 99/700]

’Ah...’

In that moment, Fang Raon’s eyes blurred.

Everything was cloudy like a dream.

’I am really going to die... Aren’t I?’

The feet stopped as they refused to move, and Fang Raon was just staring at the cloudy world in front of him.

At that moment.

A hand touched his back, and a whisper of "Heal" sounded. It was a very gentle and soft voice.

A warm feeling spread throughout his body as if he had just dipped into a warm bath, and he felt like all his worries had melted away.

The wound on his back closed. It stopped bleeding. And health slowly climbed back up.

"W-w-what?"

The vision returned to normal, and he turned around and, to his surprise, saw a blond-haired woman touching his back.

She was really beautiful. She looked mature but also youthful, as her skin was flawless and her eyes sparkled with kindness.

She was wearing some kind of white and gold dress with a ribbon of white flowers—it was a really beautiful dress.

"You should be more careful~"

The woman said with a smile, and then she removed her hand from his back and continued walking past him.

"Uh... Thanks?"

Fang Raon mumbled awkwardly.

With a giggle, the woman just waved her hand and kept walking without asking anything in return—she just came and healed him for some reason.

’She literally just saved me, and she didn’t even tell me her name. What a mysterious woman...’

Fang Raon touched his chest, let out a breath of relief, and felt like collapsing on a bed because of that experience just now.

’That guy was some parasocial viewer. Tried killing me just because he thought I was dating his streamer? Fucking crazy people... I don’t want any of those people near Della, they are dangerous.’

Fang Raon thought with a serious look on his face.

At that moment, he was hit with notifications.

[Buzz...]

[You have fought someone in the Safe Zone!]

[It is a violation of the Player Safety Act...]

[...]

[Calculating...]

[...]

[Result: Self-Defense]

[No penalty shall be imposed on Fang Raon, as he was attacked first and only acted in self-defense]

’Whew, I was worried for a moment that I’d get banned. Good thing that if you get attacked, you can at least defend yourself.’

Fang Raon let out a sigh of relief.

...

"...Pass the ball. Come on!"

Children played in the park with a ball. They kept kicking it back and forth. They acted like two trees next to each other were goalposts.

They also had a goalkeeper—a child just like them—and they had two teams, each with three children playing and one goalkeeper on each team.

"..."

With a smile on her face, Della watched them play, laugh, and celebrate their goals—it was a very innocent scene.

This park was over at St. Bella Village, and some of these children were actually locals, but there were also a couple children of players.

In that moment, one of the children noticed Della, who was watching from the park bench, and nervously averted his gaze. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Suddenly feeling nervous about having such a pretty, big sister watching.

Della just smiled and waved her hand.

She wasn’t here to just watch some children play, but she was waiting for someone.

"I am sorry for being late! I hope you didn’t wait for too long!"

In that moment, Della’s face beamed with a smile as she heard the noise and turned to see someone walking towards her.

A woman with blond hair. Kind eyes. A smile that could light up any room. She was also wearing a white and gold dress with a ribbon of white flowers.

"Mom!"

Della jumped to her feet excitedly and hugged her mother tightly.

With a giggle, Elena returned the hug and traced her hand across her daughter’s long hair.

"How have you been doing, my beautiful daughter?"

Elena asked, and then she grabbed her daughter’s hand and sat down with her on the park bench.

"I’ve been doing great!"

Della said with a smile.

Because of the drama in real life, Della wasn’t currently living with her mother and the rest of the family.

She was living over at her grandfather’s—with Rock—and thus, she hadn’t seen her mother for a long while.

It was only possible for two of them to see each other in Black Online.

"What about you, Mom?"

Della asked worryingly.

Even though her father cheated on her mother, Elena, she was still living with her father and Rook—who was Elena’s son and Della’s brother.

"I am doing just fine."

Elena said with a smile.

However.

The smile seemed somewhat strained as if she weren’t being completely honest, and Della caught on to that.

"...When can I come back home?"

Della asked.

"You shouldn’t. Rock is taking good care of you. It’s better for you to stay over at his place than with my husband."

Elena said.

"I don’t want you to be alone with them."

Della said with a sad look.

"Hehe, it’s fine, my daughter. Husband is working all the time, so I don’t even see him, and Rook is also playing Black Online most of the time.

"It’s just me there alone for most of the time."

Elena said.

"...You should just divorce him."

Della mumbled.

With a sad look, Elena touched the head of her daughter, and Della just melted into her embrace and closed her eyes.

"If I did that, he would never let me see you or Rook ever again. Your father has a lot of influence. I am sure he could even get me banned in Black Online to stop me from seeing you."

Elena said.

"...He is an asshole. I want you to be happy, Mom. I don’t want you to keep suffering because of us..."

Della mumbled and looked to be on the verge of tears.

"I would suffer more if I didn’t see you or Rook. You two are the only light in my life. I don’t want to lose that."

Elena said with a smile.

"Mom..."

Della hugged her mother tightly, and when she felt her hand lightly patting her head, she closed her eyes and sighed in contentment.

"Enough of that. What have you been doing? Is Rock doing anything? How’s the streaming been going? And is there any boy trouble~?"

Elena asked with a giggle.

"Hmph... It’s been doing good... Like I told you last time, I expected Grinding Grief and Monsieur Rascal to attack us soon.

"They did, but we got rid of them... Rock’s been doing alright, but he has gotten his eyes on a new student. I haven’t seen him that interested in anyone since the days of Leon D. Hardt and others."

Della said.

"Oh, is that so? Who is that young man?"

Elena asked curiously.

"Fang Raon... He is a new member of the guild. He is the team leader of the 4th line, and he played a very important part in the guild war as well.

"Without him... I don’t think we would’ve survived.

"Poor him. I heard Rock is planning to take him to one of those crazy training camps of his. I hope he doesn’t get too scarred.

"Maybe I should go with them to make sure that Rock doesn’t go too far. You know him, he doesn’t know when to stop."

Della kept rambling.

Elena, with a smile on her face, listened to Della while lightly patting her head and noticed that she was speaking very passionately about this young man.

She seemed to care about him greatly.

"I’d like to meet this Fang Raon. You’ve piqued my interest. He sounds like a wonderful young man for my beautiful daughter to care about him so much."

Elena said with a giggle.

"I-I don’t care about him that much. He is just a guild member of mine. I care about all my guild members equally!"

Della nervously corrected her, but she couldn’t fool her mother’s eyes, and Elena was just smiling knowingly.

"Sure~ Sure~"

...

A few hours later.

"Buzz... Buzz... Players, head over to your tables. The round of 64 matches are about to start!"

A magical voice traversed throughout the Tournament Hall, and players started streaming into the hall.

It was noticeably fewer players now since nearly two hundred players had already been eliminated in the previous rounds.

’Table 1... Table 1...’

Fang Raon soon found his table.

It was the first table in the hall, and he sat down on the chair—he was the first one to arrive at the table.

’The first table...’

He thought.

In that moment, he heard some buzzing from the back, and the spectators—they were whispering about his opponent.

"...It’s him..."

"...Maybe this tournament will finally be his... He’d been suffering some soul-crushing defeats lately to his rival..."

At that moment.

A middle-aged man named West sat across from him. He garnered a lot of attention. In his vest, he wore several pins and medals from past tournaments.

Tournaments that he had won.

’It looks like I received quite a troublesome opponent.’

Fang Raon’s eyes narrowed.

’...Shit... His opponent is West?’

A few tables away, Rock noticed his student’s opponent and had a really grave expression on his face.