"If we're going to rob the most heavily monetized museum on the entire server," Walter said, projecting a glowing holographic blueprint of the Louvre into the damp alleyway, "we must treat this not as a battle but as a heist."
The party gathered around the glowing holographic schematic. Kai chewed his lip, Maya shook her spray paint cans, and Grom dutifully took notes on a crushed café napkin using a stolen crayon.
"The front gates are guarded by Level 50 Premium Enforcers," Walter continued, pacing like a mastermind in a heist movie. "Their anti-hack protocols mean Kai’s 3G-throttled Sudo-tag is useless against them, and the 10K shard entry fee means we can't walk through the lobby. Therefore, we split into two teams: The Gentleman Thief, and the Maintenance Crew."
"I shall be the Gentleman Thief!" Gideon proclaimed, puffing out his breastplate. "I shall charm the guards with tales of my noble lineage!"
"Gideon, you look like a cosplay weirdo," Maya sighed. "You'll trigger an aesthetic violation fine before you even reach the pavement."
"Maya is right," Walter said. "The Monetizers respect one thing: generational wealth and unearned arrogance. We need someone who organically exudes the aura of a billionaire whale. Someone who views normal people as entirely beneath them."
Every single person in the alley slowly turned to look at the haughty aristocrat in the damp tuxedo.
Viscount Pigglesworth scoffed, adjusting his monocle with a manicured finger. "Please. As if I would stoop to thievery. I am a noble of the Aether, I simply reclaim assets that rightfully belong in my estate."
"Exactly," Walter grinned. "Pigglesworth, you are going through the front doors. The entry fee is 10,000 Shards per user. But you aren't a user. You're an unbound Aether NPC. To the server's automated logic, you are classified as an [IMPORT ASSET]."
"A magnificent asset," Pigglesworth corrected.
"Your job is to march into the museum, find the Monetizer Auction House, and demand to bid on the NFT Mona Lisa. Cause a massive scene, berate the staff and demand champagne. Draw the internal security algorithms entirely to the main atrium."
"Consider it done," Pigglesworth sniffed. "I have been berating the lower classes since before your guys existed."
"While Pigglesworth creates a localized distraction," Walter pointed to the side of the holographic Louvre, "the rest of us will scale the exterior wall and enter through the second-floor [SERVER VENTILATION SHAFT]."
"Scale the wall?" Terry asked, looking at the sheer, thirty-foot drop of historic French masonry. "We don't have a ladder, Walter. And if Kai tries to build one, it'll take four days to buffer."
Maya grinned, tossing her can of matte black spray paint into the air and catching it. "We don't need code. Kai, have you ever seen that French heist show? Lupin?"
Kai blinked. "The one where the thief steals a necklace from the Louvre?"
"Exactly," Maya nodded. "He uses disguises, misdirection, and whatever physical props are lying around. It's a classic bypass exploit. Follow my lead."
Ten minutes later, the most absurd heist in the history of the Paris Server Node officially commenced.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
At the front of the museum, Pigleas Foggybottom( his passport name) strode majestically out of the alley and approached the massive Level 50 Premium Enforcer Mechs. The giant, white-gloss robots instantly lowered their energy cannons, scanning the approaching entity.
[SCANNING... NON-USER ENTITY DETECTED.] [CLASSIFICATION: HIGH VALUE AETHER ARISTOCRAT.]
Pigglesworth didn't even flinch. He marched directly up to the Mech's glowing optic sensor and tapped it sharply with his silver tipped cane.
"Out of my way, you oversized toaster," Pigglesworth sneered. "I am a Viscount. I have a scheduled viewing of the NFT Mona Lisa, and if I am kept waiting another second, I will buy the factory that manufactured you and have you downgraded to a blender. This establishment claims to house the greatest art on the server, yet I see no sommelier. Are you people barbarians?"
The Mech paused. Its internal logic whirred, completely unable to process a non-player character possessing this level of weaponized entitlement.
[VIP ASSET RECOGNIZED. ENJOY THE EXHIBITION, MONSIEUR.]
The golden turnstile clicked open. Pigglesworth strode smoothly into the Louvre, successfully infiltrating the most secure building in Paris without spending a single shard.
He swept into the grand atrium and took one horrified look around.
Players in glowing Monetizer armor were taking selfies with the rotating NFT Mona Lisa while a floating kiosk offered [LIMITED-TIME: 5,000 SHARD PREMIUM FILTER PACKS].
Pigglesworth slammed his cane on the marble floor.
"Is this a museum or a marketplace?" he thundered. "Where is the curator? Where is the champagne?
A nearby Monetizer security drone whirred nervously.
[ALERT: VIP COMPLAINT REGISTERED.]
Within seconds, three more drones descended from the ceiling and began scanning the atrium, their security protocols scrambling to placate the enraged aristocrat.
Meanwhile, around the side of the museum, in a narrow, un-monetized historic side-street, the Maintenance Crew was getting to work.
"Hurry up, grab another one!" Maya hissed.
Terry and Grom were currently sprinting back and forth from a nearby closed café, carrying armfuls of expensive, wrought-iron patio chairs and wooden bistro tables that they had “borrowed”.
Because the Earth Server's physics engine allowed for absolute, rigid object permanence, Maya was stacking the café furniture on top of each other, creating an incredibly precarious 30 foot tower of tables, chairs, and parasols leaning against the Louvre's exterior wall, leading straight up to the glowing blue [SERVER VENTILATION SHAFT].
"This is madness!" Walter whispered, holding the base of a bistro table as Grom gently balanced a wicker chair on top of it. "It's a furniture ladder! If a server admin sees this, they'll patch it immediately!"
"It's not a bug, it's an emergent feature!" Kai whispered back, testing the weight of the bottom table. "The collision meshes hold! Come on, before Pigglesworth runs out of insults!"
Kai began to climb. He stepped onto the first bistro table, then hoisted himself onto a wrought-iron chair, then scrambled up a stacked parasol.
Halfway up the tower, a wrought iron chair slipped an inch sideways and the entire structure shuddered. Walter let out a high-pitched squeak from the bottom, but the video game collision meshes miraculously held the absurd tower together.
Behind Kai, Maya scrambled up, followed by a deeply terrified Walter, then Terry, and finally Gideon, whose heavy armor made the entire tower sway. Grom remained on the ground, acting as the foundation anchor with his good arm.
Thirty feet in the air, Kai reached the glowing blue ventilation grate.
[ACCESS RESTRICTED. ROOT PRIVILEGES REQUIRED.]
Kai raised his wrist. The yellow Sudo-tag was still warning him about 3G roaming charges, but he wasn't trying to rewrite reality this time. He just needed to trigger a basic "Open Door" command.
SCREEEEE-BING-BONG. The dial-up sound echoed softly against the historic stone. The grate clicked, buffered for five agonizing seconds, and then hissed open.
"I'm in," Kai whispered.
He crawled into the metallic, heavily air-conditioned server shaft, pulling Maya, Walter, and Terry in behind him. Gideon brought up the rear, his armor violently rustling as he squeezed through the narrow gap.
Inside the shaft, the air was freezing cold. Glowing purple data cables pulsed along the walls like digital veins, all converging toward the center of the museum. Somewhere deep in the museum, a low digital hum pulsed through the metal ducts the heavy, rhythmic heartbeat of the Paris Server Core.
Kai looked at his party. They were covered in alleyway dust, freezing cold, and highly unprepared.
"Alright, crew," Kai said, an adrenaline-fueled grin on his face. "Let's go hack the core."
Dragon Keeper: And the Eternal Quest for Rent Money
by Wyatt_Wriots
Stuck out of place.
Stuck out of time.
You really f’d yourself now, Ike.
Alone.
Forgotten.
Dragons-eye. Just beneath its silver surface, an ancient being slept—now awakened by a portal leading to another world.
? What to Expect ?
- [+] Weak → Strong → VERY STRONG!
- [+] Portal-hopping to different worlds.
- [+] Powers, powers, and more powers.
- [+] A S*** talking Dragon.