Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

"The true ruler, as we call him, is the first person to become a ruler of the underworld. His plan was to control the entire kingdom and get a puppet ruler yet the oath with the first king prevented him from doing that.

The oath he had the first time bound him for the rest of his life. Every time there would be a new king, he would be forced to have the same oath with him. However, the true ruler was one of the first archmages of the kingdom and devised a spell to shift bodies.

However, even that didn't do anything. He was forced to switch bodies and go around that way for years until I met him." Hayden sighed before continuing.

"Once he met me, he realized that something about me was different as though I was a complete outsider. But when he entered my body, I realized how odd it sounded. Hundreds of millions of humans suddenly appearing on the continent out of nowhere.

Somehow, he could see my memories of the real world which he used to modify the entire place. According to him, my world was something considered as a lesser world since we don't have magic.

Though the science and advancement intrigued him, he wasn't able to see anything related to Hikari. I on the other hand have been a slave both inside and outside the game. But that ends now."

Hayden suddenly stood up as Zack felt a surge of power traveling through his body.

He immediately opened the rankings to see Hayden's name shot to fifth place as he turned level 40. However, Zack didn't stop scrolling through the list as he ended up seeing the names of all the players he currently knew and had in his guild.

'All of them are doing much better than expected. I guess this is the way things were meant to be.'

Despite seeing the success and growth of the players, Zack realized that Hayden had managed to learn a very important thing.

He now knew that something was wrong with the game.

"Hayden, can I ask you a question?" Zack suddenly asked while locking gazes with Hayden.

The latter just nodded as he was curious about the question Zack was going to ask him.

"Do you think that Hikari is actually a real-world and not fake?" The black-haired boy asked with a straight face.

If he had asked the question fifty years in the past, most people wouldn't give him a second thought. However, the current humanity had seen many things and gone through numerous changes.

Believing that a realistic game was actually another world didn't sound like a far-fetched tale.

"After seeing the true ruler's limited amount of memories and exploring the prison, I can easily say that this world might be real. Currently, it doesn't affect our world in any way so there is nothing to worry or think about."

Hayden replied honestly as he waited for Zack's expression to change yet the latter kept a firm poker face.

'But what if I told you that the world was going to change in a week?' Zack wanted to ask that question but he knew that doing so would make him look highly suspicious.

So instead, he just nodded and stood up from his place.

"I guess it's kind of late but we can still do formal introductions. My name is Zack and I am a count of the Eizenburgh kingdom."

"My name is Hayden Solanski and I am the new ruler of the underworld."

Both of them then extended their hands forward and shook them. They knew that the other was going to play an important role in the future.

"Hayden, would you like to become the vice-leader of our guild?" Zack asked casually while talking to Emma through private messages.

He explained how he had planned to get Hayden in their guild since the beginning since he would give them a huge advantage, not only in the game world but in real life too.

Though Emma was surprised by the sudden turn of events, she knew that having someone as influential as Hayden was going to make a make change for them.

"Well, I will not be active unless anything serious happens so why not?" Hayden replied with a smile as he had already calculated his future plans in his mind.

Due to the duo, he would be able to make connections with the CEO of Doogle which in turn would allow him to have a strong backing for his plans.

'Now I just have to find a way to beat his stupid guard force or else they'll butcher me and I will be executed.'

Hayden could not leave his house no matter how hard he tried. Every slip up he had to lead to some way of mental torture and he had grown up experiencing such things.

[ If you are thinking of somehow killing or disposing of your father, it's going to be pretty easy to do that in a week. Strike him during the night time and you will be able to survive bullet shots if you have high vitality. ]

Zack took a gamble by sending the private message to Hayden which earned him a strange look from the latter. If Hayden chose to believe him, his plan was definitely going to succeed and he would have two criminal empires under his control.

However, that would mean that Hayden would ask him many more questions about how he knew it and stuff like that.

On the other hand, he could just think that Zack was a maniac and was lying. That was also fine with Zack as long as he managed to get Hayden in his guild.

'But him not being able to learn the dark knight job class and neither being able to remove Puten is quite the blow.'

Despite what many might think, Zack was no hero, or at least that's what he believed. For him, getting things for himself and those who mattered to him was the priority.

"Count me in," Hayden replied with a smile though he said something else through private messaging. [ I'll believe you since somehow, you seem to make me think of someone I met though I don't remember where or when. ]

After that, Zack and Emma contacted Jonathan and told him that they were ready to bring Hayden back to the capital.

[ I have some news to share too so come back as quickly as you can. ]

Zack and Emma then exchanged a look as they wondered whether Jonathan had amnesia or not. The underworld's entrance was literally a few minutes' walk away from the palace.

'I wonder if he is stressed on something.'

After that, Hayden waved his hands over the trio as a black aura engulfed their bodies. Due to being the ruler, he was able to freely teleport anywhere inside his territory.

The trio appeared inside the bricked-up room from where they appeared back at the dumpsters to see a group of men gathered there.

However, they were dragging a half-drunk woman alongside them. It was clear from her expression and the knee-length dress she was wearing that something was wrong.

Before anyone could process anything, Hayden had vanished from his place and appeared behind the men.

"Vanishing void." In the blink of an eye, all of the men disappeared, leaving behind the woman alone. "They reminded me of my father."

He then turned around while carrying the woman as though she was some princess. Zack and Emma exchanged a glance before following.

The ruler of the underworld wasn't like his father at all.