Nethersky - Chapter 14

‘Wait, if playing competitive games can net big money, doesn’t that mean other types of games could as well?’ Enlightened by that sudden thought, Yuning closed out of the ad and went back to the search bar.

Yuning really hoped what he was thinking was correct because he really needed it to be. Although he wasn’t a pro gamer, earning money via playing an MMO was something he could do.

Because out of everything that had changed in the world since his time, he was quite sure that some things never would. And one thing would be the many ways to make money in games.

Back in his day, people used to sometimes buy materials from other players, such as metals, produce, and things using real-world currency. So if they did it back then, they must still do it now.

After spamming the search engine with different keywords, Yuning discovered something interesting. It seems that nowadays, other than joining a professional team, the number one way to make a living by playing games is becoming a ranker.

A ranker is any player or guild who made it into a game’s top 100 for one of many reasons. Such as having the highest level, enormous wealth, PVP wins damage output, or even dungeon time completion.

But it’s a hard road because only the players or guilds in the top 20 will receive the prestige that came with being at the uppermost position. Meaning other players would look up to them, causing them to get sponsored.

Once sponsored, the game developers will recognize the players as someone they can use to promote their game, so they will showcase them on the game’s website.

This action will lead to more endorsements, making them even more popular with the masses until they become known as a gaming legend.

Knowing that there was no point in him even dreaming of being a ranker; instead, Yuning continued his search to see if being a material gatherer was still a thing in this day and age.

After finding an auction site catering to the buying and selling of game items and looking through its forums, Yuning learned that his assumption was correct but on a larger scale than he imagined.

He discovered that gatherers were a very much needed commodity in most games because many players had to go to work, so they didn’t have the time to gather the materials they needed.

After doing some more digging, he found out that other games had organizations like the competitive games that are so popular. But instead of going to competitions, they made they’re living off of collecting materials instead of fighting.

Yuning was ecstatic; he finally had a sliver of light in the darkness. He finally found a way to make money, and it didn’t require him to get a certificate.

‘But first, I need to find a game that I wouldn’t mind grinding materials in.’ Yuning thought while going back to the search page.

After typing in the keywords ‘the most popular fantasy MMOs,’ in the search engine Yuining quickly found a link called: The top 20 most played fantasy games in 2525.

Opening the link, he scrolled down past the usual introductory paragraph until he reached the first game on the list. It was called Universe Of War.

From the summary he read, Universe of War was a game where players traveled in spaceships to other planets and fought against a creature called the Zerg. They are a fictional bug race whose primary mission is to conquer every planet in the galaxy.

The players of Universe of War needed to pick a planet to colonize and fight back the bugs while trying to cultivate land and resources.

Yuning was genuinely interested in the game after reading the summary, so opening up a new tab, he began to search for some gameplay.

After finding a link to a video on a live streaming website called MMOGOPLAY, Yuning clicked it and played the video.

The first thing he saw was a man in army fatigues standing in a pill-shaped pod with a large group of men.

“What’s up, guys! Welcome back to another one of my live streams. This one should have better quality than the last one since I upgraded to the advanced VR headgear Risque Mouse 2.0.”

Pausing the video for a moment, Yuning was dumbfounded by what he heard. He had a feeling that the gaming equipment of this time would be advanced, but he never imagined they would have actual VR technology.

Although this shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was to him, since this technology was in its infant stage back when he was in his original body. It was just when he saw for himself how far it came along made him feel amazed.

Yuning was overcome with giddiness. Being able to experience a game first hand and not just through a monitor was always a fantasy of his.

‘And now I might have the chance,’ mused Yuning, his eyes filled with wonder as he restarted the video.

“Today’s stream is special! The Zerg are trying to seize control of the Tari planet in the E.Y129 solar system. I’m heading there now with my squadron to wipe them out, and you lucky people will see my prowess first hand.”

After a couple of minutes of the man describing the mission his squadron had to do, the pod finally landed with a quiet thud.

“Guys, we have finally arrived! Now watch in amazement as my squad, and I kick these bugs butts all the way back to their home planet.”

Yuning watched as the man and his squadron quickly exited the spaceship and sprinted across hilly terrain to arrive at a massive battle that was already in progress. He had to hand it to the man; he didn’t even falter when seeing the 8-foot bugs.

Instead, the man just pulled out a sword and ran straight towards the nearest Zerg. The man had some really excellent skills. Yuning could only watch in trepidation and awe as the man somersaulted onto the back of the giant bug and stabbed his sword into its head.

Yuning continued to watch as the man pulled the sword back out, only to shiver slightly when the man was sprayed with a green, slimy substance that he assumed to be the creature’s blood. That’s when he knew that this game definitely wasn’t for him and hurriedly clicked off the video.

‘Let’s see if the number 2 game is more my speed.’ Yuning decided while switching to the tab that had the game list on it.

When he scrolled down to the second most popular game, he saw that the pictures used for it were to his liking. The game was called Falin Saga, a fairytale based game with over 800 million players.

After reading the description, Yuning knew it would be something he would enjoy playing.

Sure enough, after watching some gameplay, he was confident that he would enjoy playing this game. However, he was still hesitant to choose this game to play.

Because when he was viewing the gameplay, he saw that the players had to speak when performing an attack. This discouraged him since he wasn’t sure how the game would work with his disability.

Putting Falin Online into the maybe pile, Yuning decided to read through the rest of the list and pick out a few more games before checking to see if his disability would be a hindrance to him.

Yuning had already found two other games that suited his taste when he saw a name that made him do a double-take. It was the name of the 10th most popular game which was called Nethersky.

‘Nethersky?! How odd, I used to play a game with that same name back in my time.’ Intrigued by the game with the same name as the one he played before, he clicked the link that would take him to its website and read what the game was about. ‘Shit, this is the same game I played. How could that be?’