Ascension: Online

"Devils aren't born. They're made."

*****

My name is Igarashi Kaze, and I am nothing more than a high-schooler simply wishing to escape from reality.

How many of you have done the same before? Wanting to go to a new world, hoping to live in a new reality, dreaming to be able to start anew.

The world is a tough place — sometimes, such impossible wishes are necessary in order to retain our sanity. Sometimes, although they will never be answered, irrational wishes such as these could act like a distant goal to work towards, keeping us alive and pumping.

But my wish — was answered. And perhaps… for better or worse, I may have gotten myself into a little more than I had originally hoped.

It wasn't just a matter about my return to Earth anymore.

It was now a game that concerned all of reality and its inhabitants.

This, is Ascension: Online. One reality plane amongst many in the endless sea of space and time.

Life and death. Creation and destruction. Emotion and sin.

All two sides of the same coin.

*****

Soon after, Hina-nee returned to the room. I assumed the other two went into their own respective rooms as well to get ready for sleep.

"Done your 'talk'?" I asked, smirking.

She sighed, placing her hands on her waist. "Yeah… though it wasn't all that useful."

"What did you talk about anyway?"

"Oh, nothing you need to know about~" Hina-nee immediately changed her tone and smiled.

"… Well, in any case, I'm going to go take a shower," I said after some hesitation, standing up.

"Mkay, I'll be waiting~!"

I headed into the bathroom and stepped into the shower. The hot water felt nice and comfortable on my skin, warming my hollowed heart.

"Was my decision… the right one?" I murmured to myself.

A world cleansed of all sin — no murders, no thieves, and no violence. The ideal universe, forged by will and reason.

Certainly, this all seemed great on the surface. In all honesty, looking at this from an objective perspective, I could say this was in fact a 'good' thing. Even if it meant having to purge this current reality and create a new one, the benefits this would bring and the perfect world it would create would outweigh such consequences.

The quality of life in this new world would be exponentially higher than what it currently is. No one would have ulterior motives; everyone would work together to form the best world there could possibly be. There would be no evil, no conflict, and no bloodshed like there is in both Earth and Ascentia.

All around, it was perfect. No flaw could be found in the ideology of the Creator.

Emotions? Such things were unnecessary in a perfect world. Emotions only led to ruin, sooner or later. One day, someone will lose control over their emotions and do something stupid, like commit a crime. There is no need for something like that in the perfect reality that will soon be born.

And yet…

… If said emotions were really erased, could we really still be called humans at all?

What is life without feeling? What is living without emotions to accompany it?

The world the Creator seeks to create may be perfect, but it was not truly alive. Mistakes were necessary for people to improve - for people to truly live. Without growth, life has no meaning.

Yes, the Creator's plan had no wrong.

Yes, the perfect world was truly perfect.

But so what? I didn't care.

I didn't want to die. I still wanted to live, together with Hina-nee.

Selfish? Perhaps. But I realized now that being selfish was also part of what makes us human, just like evil and sin.

Turns out, my decision was the right one after all.

If the Creator is a god, perfect and divine…

… Then I will be the devil to rival him.

*****

After getting out of the shower, my thoughts straight and mind cleared, I decided to spend the AP I had. I also wanted to take a look at the hidden arts book Ming Hong had put together for me, but I could hardly do that indoors. I had been busy lately so I didn't have time, but I was pretty excited to see what it held inside.

"Hina-nee, if you want, you can go to sleep first," I said. "You can turn off the lights, I don't need them."

She yawned cutely. "Mm… okay~ don't stay up too late, alright?"

I nodded in response as she pulled the sheets over her and shut off all the lights in the room.

I headed for the bathroom and switched on the light there as to not disturb Hina-nee's sleep. Then, I opened up my System and selected the Skills tab.

"Let's see here… there was an art I had my eye on… ah, here it is," I said, smiling as I spotted what I was looking for.

[Name: Many Must Fall]

[Category: Assassin]

[Type: Active]

[Description: Dash directly through an enemy within ten meters away and at least 5 levels below yourself. This skill kills them instantly. For every kill made with this skill, gain another charge instantly (MAX: 7). Must have a melee weapon equipped.]

[Cooldown: 60 seconds]

[Cost: 4 AP]

I bought it without any hesitation. This was an incredibly useful skill to have for farming XP and getting through groups of enemies to target the leader instead. I haven't tried out this skill yet, but I was planning on doing so whenever I got the chance.

As for the remaining 4 AP I had…

I set my sights on a brand new class, different from all my other ones.

While hidden arts were useful, they were mainly focused on mid-ranged battle, aiming to take out batches of enemies all at once or just pure versatility, from defense to healing.

What I needed was a precise, single-target weapon that could be used at range. This could open up endless new possibilities when it came to stealth missions and whatnot.

And so, as a result, I decided to explore the Marksman class.

"Hm…" I sat on the edge of the bathtub in thought as I looked over the class's skills. I spotted a few that seemed pretty powerful, so I chose to go with this in the end.

First things first, I purchased the base skill needed for this class:

[Name: Way of the Marksman]

[Category: Marksman]

[Type: Passive]

[Description: Passively increases your INT, DEX, and LUC stats by 2 each.]

My stats now looked like this:

[STR: 290]

[AGI: 300]

[INT: 162]

[DEX: 172]

[MAG: 210]

[LUC: 67]

Looks like all of my stats went up after consuming that Blight today, in the final reality rift. I gained 10 for each stat, it seemed. The numbers kind of bothered me because they weren't nice round ones, but I wasn't about to complain.

I also bought one of the three skills that stemmed off from Way of the Marksman:

[Name: Focused Vision]

[Category: Marksman]

[Type: Passive]

[Description: Greatly improves focus, eyesight, and hearing.]

This may not seem like much on the surface, but as an Assassin, these traits would help me as well.

Besides, my true goal in getting this skill was in fact the final skill at the end of this branch:

[Name: Everlasting Radar]

[Category: Marksman]

[Type: Passive]

[Description: Grants a radar in your mind that detects nearby enemies, up to a radius of 100 meters. The radar will alert you automatically when someone gets into the 10 meter range, and tell you which direction they are coming from. You can also check the radar at will, whenever you wish.]

There was still a long way to go before I could get this skill, but it was definitely something I wanted to work towards. With this, I would pretty much never end up surrounded, and also almost always get the first drop on my enemies rather than the other way around.

For now, I spent the final two AP I had on the following skills:

[Name: Tactical Roll]

[Category: Marksman]

[Type: Active]

[Description: Perform a deft tumble in any direction. Automatically reloads your currently equipped marksman weapon.]

[Cooldown: 20 seconds]

-

[Name: Empowered Shot]

[Category: Marksman]

[Type: Active]

[Description: Empower your next shot from a marksman weapon, causing it to deal more damage and knock enemies back.]

[Cooldown: 60 seconds]

I didn't currently have a marksman weapon, but I assumed I would be able to get some at Qilian City as long as I asked around.

I went to sleep soon after, not wanting to stay up too late.

*****

- The Next Morning -

Sunday — the final day of the Annual Qilian Regional Competition.

The mystery of Ming Yi was still not solved, but either he was a different person with the same name, or he just had his own reasons for not wanting to reveal his true identity. Either way, I didn't really care enough to investigate.

There were only eight contestants left in the running. In the morning, that eight will be narrowed down to four, and in the afternoon, the four narrowed to two. Then, last but not least, at 8 PM in the evening, the finals will take place and the champion will be decided.

I was obviously going for the top spot. The reward of any wish I wanted was indeed extremely attractive. I made a deal with Koroth beforehand to get him his herbs, but he would probably be accepted into the sect anyway - that was why I had him perform a little during his fight with Furuwa, after all.

So, why am I doing all this?

Because I wanted to use my wish to make sure a certain something happened, just in case it doesn't happen already.

After waking up Furuwa and Nadeshiko, we headed out.