Chapter 2 : The Fire that starts the Misunderstanding
I'm Really a Cheater! Not a Pro Player!
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure
Chapter 2 : The Fire that starts the Misunderstanding
"You want to know how things ended up like this?
Then let's rewind it back, to the moment days before Chrono frontier close it server. To the moment I decided to cheat."
In 2031, an announcement showed up that shook the entire Chrono Frontier community.
> "Thank you for playing with us all these years.
With a heavy heart, we regret to announce that Chrono Frontier will be shutting down its servers in one year."
The news sent shockwaves through the player base. How's not? For them, CF is a world where they had spent thousands of hours to building characters, making friendships, and creating memories that could never be replaced.
Then, the developers followed up with further details:
> 1. All accounts inactive for the next six months would be permanently deleted. This action was to give the loyal players time to reorganize their progress, and request refunds for their in-game purchases if they wished.
2. After six months, only active accounts would remain until the final shutdown.
3. No new account registrations would be allowed.
4. During the final six months, the servers would continue running, but no new content updates would be released. This would be a period for players to enjoy their remaining time in the world of Chrono Frontier.
Because of this. Many players chose to quit early and take the refund. Major guilds disbanded one by one. Community leaders posted their final farewell messages. As time passed, the number of players logging in dropped sharply.
After six months, fewer than ten thousand active accounts remained.
Every other account had been wiped from the servers. Those who stayed was the only loyal one.
As the end drew closer, even that number continued to fall even more. Players who once said they will stay until the very end began to lose motivation. Because No new event and no updates. No real challenges or progress left. The once vibrant world of Chrono Frontier slowly became hollow.
By the final two weeks, only around two thousand players were still active.
Out of the hundreds of million—perhaps even more—who had once roamed this world, only those who truly wanted to say goodbye remained.
Among them was a player named Arka.
He wasn't famous. He had never appeared on the global rankings, never earned a Mythic Achievement, and never joined elite guilds. But he was loyal.
From the day the game first launched, Arka had been part of Chrono Frontier. He was a casual player, content with enjoying the journey at his own pace. He hunted monsters, explored dungeons, and spent idle hours chatting with friends in the city.
Now, all of that was coming to an end.
And even though Arka understood that this fate was unavoidable, something inside him felt unsettled.
An emptiness.
A lingering thought that the game shouldn't end like this.
Then, seven days before the servers were scheduled to shut down, something unexpected happened.
Whether driven by nostalgia or a desire for a final farewell, more than fifty thousand accounts suddenly became active overnight.
The forums exploded with reunion posts. Old guilds gathered one last time. Veterans shared stories of their glory days. It was a beautiful sight and filled with emotion.
And in the middle of all that sentimentality, Arka had a very ... funny idea. Atleast for him.
A reckless thought that would change his fate forever.
"If the game's going to shut down anyway… why not do something completely insane? Something I always wish can do before!"
And with that desire, Arka begins to act.
Using a third-party program and a bit of his coding knowledge, he infiltrated the system's code and drastically altered his account parameters. Also he used a privately purchased third-party cheat server to avoid detection by the game's AI,
And because all of that.
His damage output was raised to absurd levels.
His HP became virtually untouchable.
He turned himself into an unbeatable entity.
It took him five full days to complete the cheat setup. By the 2 day before the shutdown, everything was active.
And Arka began to have fun, tearing the system apart. Something that he always want to do before.
He enjoyed every second of it.
> [World Announcement]
World-Class Boss "Titan of Oblivion" has been defeated by [ArkZurei]!
> [World Announcement]
World-Class Boss "Seraph of Ruin" has been defeated by [ArkZurei]!
> [World Announcement]
World-Class Boss "Abyssal Sovereign" has been defeated by [ArkZurei]!
The notifications flooded the global chat.
And yet, no one cared.
Why?
Because almost no one was taking that seriously anymore.
Those still online were veterans simply spending their final moments in the game. At that point, only around three hundred players were active. No one paid attention to who was killing World-Class Bosses. They simply assumed this was ArkZurei's way of saying goodbye to the game. And it's not just Arka, some of them doing the same thing too with their guild for the "last raid". It's just, people didn't notice that player ArkZurei doing it all alone.
There were sixty-four World-Class Bosses in total.
Monsters so powerful they normally required dozens—sometimes even hundreds or thousand—of players to defeat. Each one dropped exclusive items and Mythic Achievements that could only be obtained by soloing them.
Now?
They meant nothing to Arka.
With his absurdly amplified damage, he slaughtered every World-Class Boss alone.
One by one.
From the dense forests where the Primordial Behemoth lurked,
to the volcanic peaks ruled by Ifrit, Lord of Flames,
to the vast oceans haunted by Leviathan Abyssal.
All of them fell.
In a single day, Arka defeated all sixty-four World-Class Bosses and obtained every Mythic Achievement.
Only one thing remained.
The final boss of Chrono Frontier.
The Endbringer.
A monster that, in seven years of the game's existence, had never been defeated solo.
No matter the level.
No matter the equipment.
No matter the strategy.
It was an enemy deemed truly impossible.
But for Arka—whose power had surpassed the game's own limits—nothing was impossible anymore.
"…Alright," he muttered.
"Let's finish this."
And so the battle began.
A full 2 day without sleep.
Arka stayed awake, driven by a desire he had carried for years for this game. A player who had never once touched the leaderboard, finally standing at the peak.
Aftwr some times, Without realizing it, His level reached 179.
Surpassing the number one player on the leaderboard, who stood at level 170.
His inventory was overflowing.
Exclusive drops from every World-Class Boss.
Legendary armor.
SSR+ equipment—some even Mythic-tier.
Relics meant only for players of the highest achievements.
Even his in-game currency doubled down the richest player on the leaderboard.
If the game were still running, he would have been the single strongest player in its history.
In the final minutes before the servers shut down, Arka proudly displayed all his Mythic Achievements and equipped his Mythic Title.
He even equipped the one and only tittle no one ever had, Mythic Title in the game:
[Let Me Solo the Last Boss]
That should have been the end.
The game would close.
Everything would disappear.
No one would remember what he had done.
And Arka logged out.
Although he had used a privately purchased third-party cheat server to avoid detection by the game's AI, that didn't mean the system couldn't read his actions.
Ita just needed time.
With most of the game's systems and core AI already deactivated, it would take an estimated three to seven days for ArkZurei's account to be automatically banned.
"It doesn't matter," Arka thought.
"The game's shutting down anyway."
He didn't bother thinking about it any further.
To him, it was nothing more than one last act of mischief before goodbye.
***
A few hours after creating his new account, Arka officially gained a new identity in the world of Chrono Frontier: The Legacy.
Under the nickname PhantomArk, he hoped for a quiet beginning. A beginning that free from attention, rumors, and the shadow of the name ArkZurei. A clean slate. A chance to exist as just another player among countless others.
That was all he wanted.
What Arka didn't realize, however, was that the name he had chosen casually, without much thought. Would soon become a focal point of attention.
Not because of what he did.
But because of what others believed it.
›› TO BE CONTINUED ‹‹
~ KS
