Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

"We are traveling on these…" Pearl\'s jaw dropped when she saw the large eagle with black feathers circling over the forest.

Icarus immediately snapped to attention as he sensed that Zack and Emma were close. After bending down towards the duo, the eagle landed in front of them.

\'Who this new girl? Zack, are you picking up chicks left and right? As expected from the one who contracted me and my brother.\'

Zack facepalmed at the eagle\'s words before introducing him to Pearl.

"Pearl, meet Icarus. He is her partner beast," Zack pointed towards Emma. "Icarus, this here is the only daughter of the duke of the southern region of the Eizenburgh kingdom."

After the introductions, all three of them climbed on top of Icarus before the eagle shot towards the capital.

"What are your names?" Pearl asked while keeping her head low. Otherwise, she feared that her emotions would be on public display for the duo to see.

"My name is Zack."

"And my name is Emma."

"Nice to meet you both," Pearl bowed her head down. "As you know, my name is Pearl Henson. Please call me Pearl."

"Then Pearl, can I ask you a question?" Seeing her nod, Zack went ahead and asked the question. "Why wasn\'t anyone there?"

"You mean in the mansion?" Pearl raised an eyebrow as Zack nodded. "The reason is simple, there are only ten people who live there. Most people can\'t break free of the illusion. There are other members of my family but left on their journeys."

After hearing her words, Zack realized that the only reason they were able to do that smoothly was because of the lack of people in the castle as well some luck.

Now, they just had to go to Jonathan and get their titles of counts.

While traveling, Zack opened the forums. And the top article made him sigh. What he had been expecting had already happened.

The world was now going to witness a revolution. Something that would be remembered for centuries.

After a few minutes, they finally reached the capital as Pearl stared at the giant palace with tears spilling down her eyes.

It had been a really long time since she had left the Henson family residence. If not for Jonathan getting the news, Pearl was sure that she would have been held as a prisoner until her aunt and uncle decided to put her to use.

\'It was you big brother, wasn\'t it?\' Pearl looked at the stars as she remembered the old monk she had encountered a few weeks ago. She had told the monk about her imprisonment before she had been brought back to the mansion.

\'Big brother Neji, I am very thankful for what you did. Hopefully, I will meet you some day and thank you personally.\' Pearl then looked at the palace as Icarus gently landed on the ground.

However, if she knew that Neji was actually someone Zack knew, she would hug the boy in joy. Maybe, she would get to meet her big brother sooner.

After landing on the ground, Pearl\'s eyes widened when she saw Jonathan standing at the entrance of the palace with a sad smile on his face.

"Sorry I couldn\'t do anything earlier."

Pearl immediately jumped down from the eagle and hugged Jonathan before burying her face in his chest. The king of the kingdom looked like a father consoling his daughter as tears rolled down her eyes.

Jonathan then looked in the duo\'s direction with a nod as notifications appeared in front of them.

[ Count of the Eizenburgh Kingdom: This title makes you a worthy noble in the Eizenburgh kingdom. You have all the benefits of a noble except those of higher ranks.

- All the nobles below your rank will have to follow your order.

- You have a major say in decision making.

- You can have numerous lands under your name and take taxes from them (50% should be paid to the capital.

- You can access other features available in the kingdom for free ]

After receiving the titles of counts, Zack and Emma sighed as they left the place and entered their guild.

They moved through the white room to go towards the roof and glance at the stars from there.

"Maybe, we will have some peace now," Emma muttered as Zack chuckled humorlessly.

"Emma, when we return, you will see a new world. A world that solely runs on a game."

"Huh?"

Emma didn\'t understand what Zack meant and the latter clearly didn\'t want to explain anything. After all, he wanted Emma to enjoy the peace when she still had it.

A few hours later, the two of them stood up as Zack realized that it was time.

"Emma, let\'s log out." For the past few hours, both of them had talked about random things while looking at the stars.

But now, it was time for her to look at the reality that was staring both of them in the face.

After logging out, Zack asked Emma to wait for a few minutes as he opened the projector inside his phone watch.

Suddenly, a new channel hologram appeared in front of them and the news reporter was showing breaking news.

"Oracroft just exposed that their VR pods can look into the memories of a person and capture them! All over the world, people are being shocked at this revelation!"

"What?!" Emma\'s jaw opened slightly when she heard the news reporter\'s words before she continued on.

"Now Oracroft is saying that they will either release the information to the public or resell it to the person for a large sum of money or for working with them."

The news then continued on in a more detailed style however Zack closed it. He then looked at Emma\'s expression as she realized what it meant.

"If they manage to get even 30% of the world\'s population, they\'ll have an army inside the game while being rich here."

"Yes and with that many people, many things can happen." Zack then sighed as he wondered whether he could have done anything to change the incident.

However, he was only reincarnated on the day the game had been released. To bring the entire company down, especially one that hadn\'t even been formed, he would have at least needed ten years.

\'But now, everything is going to change in both worlds.\' Zack then looked at Emma before a smile appeared on his face. "Now, it\'s do or die for us."

"But the difference is that it\'s the same in both worlds…"

"At least I have you, partner."

"Who wouldn\'t want to have me?"

Despite what happened, the duo smiled at each other. Their relationship was much stronger than what it had been a few months back.

And with this relationship, they will battle all the challenges coming their way.

Whether in real life or in Hikari.

***

At the Oracroft Headquarters...

"Hey old man, what if we go ahead and blow up Ray\'s residence?"

"Hmm, why not."

The two CEOs of Oracroft were currently sitting in their office while pondering on what to do next.

"You know what. Let\'s bomb both the places. We have nukes now anyways."

"Taking them out of North Rokea and freeing the citizens to hire them as players was a good idea.

"Then let\'s bomb Doogle Mansions and Ray\'s location."

"Don\'t forget Evangeline\'s headquarters."

With that, the two CEOs pressed a bright red button on their tables.

***

End of volume 1