After that, Arthur left the Shard Plaza and headed back into the city. The time was already well into the night and the Colosseum was seemingly still active with the cheers of people echoing across the entire capital.
Arthur, however, didn’t stop to listen as he continued on his path till he reached a good spot where he could log off.
‘I wonder what the others are doing now. Oh well, I will tell them what happened in a few hours. Time to actually study or I will be screwed.’ He thought to himself as he quickly logged off the game and exited the capsule.
Walking out, he stretched his limbs with a satisfied sigh and looked down at his body. Again, he noticed the subtle improvement in his physique and the minor increase in his height. The development was going as smoothly as ever or even better in fact.
“I wonder at which height I will stop. I hope I’m not just going to keep growing beyond 2 meters or worse. That will be counterintuitive.” He muttered as he hopped a few times, feeling immense energy coursing through his body.
After that, Arthur walked toward the bed and he picked up his device. “I should send Isla a message about to-“
The moment he opened the device, Arthur was met with several messages from all his friends.
Herculia: “Where are you, Arthur? Answer the goddamn phone.”
Emmy: “Arthur? Call me as soon as you log out.”
Isla: “Call me.”
“… Huh? What’s up with them?” Arthur muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. “Did something happen?”
Although Arthur was a little confused, he still checked the rest of his notifications and quickly, he started realizing that something was really off.
Since he was following many big media pages and newspapers, he would receive daily notifications about the biggest headlines in the world, mainly anything related to DO. However, at that time, the notifications were… odd.
“… Why are they all talking about Persona?” He muttered.
Every single headline had the name ‘Persona’ plastered on it. Slowly, Arthur felt a sense of coldness wash over his heart.
‘Oh no… What did I do?’ He asked himself as he quickly opened one of the random headlines as he quickly read through it.
Then…
“WHAT?!!” He yelled as he took a step back. “… 5000 Points in a few hours?! What… How did I increase that fast?”
With a dazed look, Arthur sat down on the bed and stared blankly at the screen. He was completely confused. After all, the headlines sounded completely ridiculous. If there was one person who knew how hard it was to get 5000 points, then it was Arthur. His first 5000 points took almost a week for him to get yet he somehow got the same amount in less than half a day.
“… I did kill many monsters. But, is that really enough to get that many points?” He muttered. “Or maybe it is because I met that giant? I mean, the game did say that it would calculate points based on actions we do and not just the enemies we kill. So, meeting a member of a supposedly extinct race of creatures does make the number more plausible…”
In either case, Arthur’s name had just exploded even more into the scene. Scrolling for a few seconds, he realized that he was the most searched name in the entire world on the search engine.
Everyone was talking about him, even the big media platforms that millions and millions of followers. Persona had become the center of all attention. Find adventures on empire
“A 20 million bounty had been offered by Technolink CEO for anyone who identifies Persona and brings them the proof… 20 Million?!! Give me the money! I will tell you where he is!” Arthur blurted out. “Wait, why would I tell them about my place? I’m Persona!”
Throwing himself on the bed, Arthur stared at the ceiling. “Great, I’m more popular than ever now. I wonder how long it will take them before they realize who I am. I mean, there aren’t really any leads I left behind. But, you never know what these people are capable of.”
Although Arthur was shocked that his name had exploded even more, he wasn’t really upset over it. After all, this was something he expected to happen sooner or later. However, his next step was still a complete mystery to him.
‘The world fame is very dangerous and I know nothing about it. I cannot take a decision blindly. I need to ask people who understan-‘
That was when it hit him. “People who understand? I know damn well who I should ask!”
Quickly, Arthur grabbed his device and entered his chatting app where he quickly tapped the call button in the group chat.
The phone rang exactly twice before the first person picked up.
“Arthur! There you are!” Herculia yelled as he opened the camera.
“Hey, big guy. Sorry, I didn’t see your message soo-“
“Enough with that nonsense! What the hell did you do, Arthur? The internet has been flipped upside down because of you!” He yelled. “Your name is literally on every news channel, video, forum! Hell, I have seen the pope talking about you!”
“Well, it’s a long story…”
“Then start telling me! Or actually, wait for the others, they’re going to pick up soon.”
A few seconds later, the second person answered and it was Emmy. She was as confused as Herculia if not more. Then, Danny joined and he looked as if he had seen a ghost with how pale he was.
“Where is Isla?” Emmy asked.
“She will answer soon,” Danny replied. “She said she had to make a quick call.”
Almost immediately, the fourth and last person finally picked up the phone.
“Isla!”
“There you are!”
“I have been waiting, Arthur.” She said.
“Haha yeah, a lot of stuff happened and I only exited the game a few minutes ago.”
“So, what did you do?”
Slowly, Arthur took a deep breath and then looked at the camera. He knew that there was no reason for him to hide anything from what he experienced and that made him feel at ease. He had people he could truly trust and could tell them everything.
“Well, just before I start. I will warn you, this is perhaps the craziest few hours I have ever experienced. So, brace yourself.” He said.
Hearing that, the four of them immediately tensed. For Arthur to say that this was the craziest experience he had was a huge statement. This was the same person who fought a burning monster on top of a wrecked skyship in the middle of nowhere and won. He had seen enough weird things to fill three lifetimes or more.
“So what happened was…”
Then, Arthur slowly went through every single event he experienced ever since he logged in and what he had done.
Everyone listened silently, trying not to cut him off when he was still talking. However, Arthur could see their expressions slowly shifting as he went through the story. But, right after he took his first step into the tower, the group simply couldn’t imagine what they were about to hear.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3