All Chapters of The Word Is A Game: Rise Of The Limping King: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
12 chapters
Death in aNarrow Alley
“Bugh!”A heavy blow landed square in Rian’s solar plexus, knocking the breath out of him in an instant. His thin body was thrown backward, slamming into a pile of foul-smelling garbage sacks in the corner of the narrow alley. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.“Where do you think you’re going, shrimp-brained cripple?” Gardo’s hoarse voice echoed, followed by the crude laughter of his two lackeys.Rian tried to get up, but his withered left leg buckled uselessly. He could only crawl across the slick asphalt, leaving a pitiful trail behind him. In the real world, he was nothing but trash. Nothing like when he sat in front of a monitor, where he was a feared king.“Please, Gardo… I didn’t mean to bump into you,” Rian whimpered. His voice trembled, nearly swallowed by the roar of exhaust from the road beyond the alley wall.Gardo stepped forward, grabbing the torn collar of Rian’s shirt and lifting him until the toes of his right foot barely touched the ground. “Didn’t mean to
Compensation Of The Crippled
The six-legged monster glided through the air, its shadow swallowing Rian’s body as he leaned against the concrete wall. The stench of rot, like decaying flesh mixed with sulfur, burned his nose. In front of him, one of Gardo’s men, a heavyset guy who had laughed the loudest earlier, did not even have time to scream."Argh!"The sickening crack of bone echoed through the narrow alley. The creature landed squarely on the thug’s shoulders, its kitchen-knife-length fangs plunging straight into his neck. Fresh blood sprayed across the wall, splattering Rian’s face as he stood frozen just inches away."Run! Gardo, help me!" the other thug shouted, but his voice cut off the moment he saw Gardo already ten meters ahead, sprinting for his life without looking back."You bastard, Gardo!" Rian shouted, his voice still hoarse.The monster’s red eyes shifted. It released its lifeless prey, letting the body slam onto the asphalt. Its forked tongue licked the blood from its snout, then focused enti
Gathering the Losers
Three hours had passed since the sky over Jakarta split open, and the city was no longer a place Rian recognized. The once-smooth asphalt now jutted upward like the broken teeth of a giant. Black smoke billowed from towering buildings, and the wail of police sirens had been replaced by the howls of creatures that should not exist on Earth.Rian moved slowly through the ruins of a shopping center in Central Jakarta. His left leg still dragged, but every time his foot touched the ground, a pulse of energy supported his weight. In his vision, a small status window kept blinking, informing him that he had reached Level 6 after taking down several “Gutter Rats” along the way."Help... someone... please!"The cry was faint, nearly swallowed by the rumble of collapsing concrete. Rian stopped and sharpened his hearing. As a pro gamer, he was used to picking out the sound of enemy footsteps amid the chaos of exploding grenades."Over there," he whispered.Rian shot forward. Phantom Step activa
Boss Pattern Prediction
"I’m starving. It feels like my stomach’s about to explode," Budi complained, clutching his growling belly.Rian glanced at the law student with a flat expression. "Hold it in. If you can’t handle hunger, you’ll end up as food for whatever’s waiting ahead."Siska, limping beside Rian, pointed toward a wrecked convenience store at the end of the intersection. "There... there’s an Alfamidi over there. But something’s weird. Why are the doors shut tight when all the glass is already shattered?"Pak Kus wiped the sweat from his forehead with a grimy towel. "Maybe someone’s hiding inside?""Not someone," Rian replied coldly. He stopped, narrowing his eyes, which could now see faint lines of energy thanks to his Player status. "Something big is behind the cashier counter. I can smell the stench from here.""Shouldn’t we just find somewhere else?" Dodi asked, his voice trembling. "We just need bread and water.""Every convenience store within a two-kilometer radius already has a ‘keeper,’" R
It Begins
One day had passed since the iron giant shook the ground of Jakarta, and for Rian, the old world already felt like a distant dream. He stood on the rooftop of the convenience store building they had barricaded. The morning wind carried the burnt stench of melted plastic and a strange metallic tang."Rian, you haven’t slept since last night?"Siska stepped closer, holding a slightly dented juice box. Her face looked cleaner than yesterday, though the dark circles beneath her eyes could not be hidden."I don’t need much sleep anymore," Rian replied without turning. His left eye still glowed faint blue, a sign the system was actively scanning the surroundings. "My Stamina stat has gone up. Two hours of sleep feels like eight in the old world.""Level twelve... you’re progressing too fast, Rian," Siska whispered, glancing at the status window Rian had intentionally shown her. "Pak Kus, Budi, and Dodi are still at level four. I just reached level five this morning after practicing Glass Sh
The Resurrecrion Of The Lame
The roar of the helicopter engine slicing through Jakarta’s quiet morning sounded like a saw grinding against the eardrum. On the rooftop of a three-story shophouse, now converted into a makeshift fortress, Rian Arka stood motionless. The powerful gust from the rotor blades of the military Bell 412 whipped his black T-shirt violently, yet his body remained upright, unmoving.His left leg, once weak and withered, now looked sturdier, wrapped in a crudely stitched guard made from monster hide. Even at rest, he still leaned slightly to one side, but the aura he radiated was no longer that of a bullied teenager. There was a cold sharpness in his eyes, the kind that only came from slaughtering hundreds of monsters over the past two weeks.“Rian! They’re landing!” Siska shouted from the rooftop access door.The girl jogged toward him. In her hand was a short wooden staff with a chunk of glass-like crystal embedded at its tip, her new weapon after reaching Level 18. Behind her, Gardo looked
Viruses in The System Core
A dense gray digital fog swallowed the heart of Jakarta, turning the skyscrapers into flickering silhouettes, breaking apart like corrupted pixels. Rian walked forward slowly, the drag of his left foot muffled by the static hiss saturating the air. Behind him, Siska gripped her staff so tightly her knuckles turned white.“Rian, my mana sensor is going haywire. This place... it doesn’t feel like the real world anymore,” Siska whispered, her voice trembling.“Stay behind me, Siska. This is the Dead Zone mentioned in that manifesto. A point where the laws of physics and system logic overlap in a rough collision,” Rian replied without looking back. His left eye, glowing blue, spun rapidly, processing streams of code that flowed through the air like inverted rain.“But look at that!” Siska pointed at the wreckage of a car floating calmly three meters above the ground. It slowly unraveled into strings of hexadecimal numbers before reassembling into a warped shape. “Why would the system allo
King's Consequences
Cosmic dust still drifted through the dry air, scraping against the remnants of lightning energy that had just torn across the sky. In the middle of the scorched expanse, Rian Arka stood motionless. His crippled leg trembled, not merely from physical exhaustion, but from the weight of millions of lines of code he had just forced into his soul."Boss? You... you’re still alive?" Siska’s voice broke the suffocating silence.Rian did not answer right away. He stared at his palm. Faint blue lines glowed beneath his skin, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. Each beat triggered a transparent system window that flickered at the corner of his vision, displaying an endless stream of data.Synchronization: 88%. Status: Integrated Entity."Rian!" Siska ran toward him, but her steps halted about three meters away. A cold aura radiated from his body, a pressure that made the hairs on the backs of the other Noob Slayer Guild members stand on end."Don’t come any closer yet, Siska," Rian murmured.
Reading Creator Code
The holographic screen before Siska trembled violently, radiating a harsh orange glow that strained the eyes. A week had passed since Rian claimed global authority, yet the echoes of that day still lingered like an open wound within the Noob Slayer headquarters. Inside the "Dead Zone," now outfitted with layers of monitoring instruments, the air felt static and cold, as if the laws of physics themselves were holding their breath."Can you lower the decrypter’s intensity, Anton? The frequency is starting to throw off my heartbeat," Siska said without taking her eyes off the cascading lines of code."Sorry, Sis. But the data from the remnants of the Architect is stubborn. The harder we push, the harder it resists," Anton replied, one of their best analysts, wiping sweat from his forehead. "This isn’t normal encryption. It’s more like... organic code trying to heal itself."Siska rubbed her tired face. The dark circles under her eyes were proof of sleepless nights. As a Glass Mage, her p
An Unexpected Alliance
The sound of explosions on the horizon still left tremors running through the base floor when the front steel door was forced open. Siska immediately raised her staff, but Rian stopped her arm with a slow motion."Kenzo," Rian murmured. His deep red eyes fixed on the figure stepping inside with heavy strides. The leader of Elite Vanguard looked like the remnants of fading glory, his once gleaming armor now marred by deep scratches and dried bloodstains."You look pathetic, Rian," Kenzo said, his breathing strained. "A lot of people say you’ve become a god. But all I see is a cripple who’s gone half mad from swallowing the wrong code.""And you?" Rian forced himself to stand upright, even as his crippled leg trembled violently. "Where is that glorified elite force of yours? Where is the government you defended so proudly?"Kenzo clenched his fists until his iron gauntlets creaked. "They’re dead, Rian. Erased in seconds when that pillar of light appeared. Now all I have left are people