[h]Remember the Name[/h]

I remember when I made my character. I gave it a name and I had a history to it.

The name PirateJing comes from the result of many different influences.

I started of Windia with a character named iShuriken, obviously being an Assassin, but never made it to 30. I then was all into the theme of the .hack thing. MapleStory and .hack kind of related in the way that the games are big MMOs where people meet people, party up, and fight, and such. You’d understand if you’ve actually watched the show or played the games.

Anyways, my main character was iBlackRose. I had some NX, so I tried my best to make her resemble the character BlackRose of .hack. Unfortunately, she ended up with green hair. After getting such horrid looks, I decided to quit that character for multiple reasons. Ugly character, boring, weak, and it was a female character. I was tired of pretending to be a girl. I was ashamed of being a guy and playing a female character. So I lied and pretended to be a person named Lily.. Months later, I found out lots of guys often openly play as a girl.. Who knew?

So skipping the mules I made after iBlackRose and before PirateJing, I’ll start off how I thought of the name PirateJing.

Already into the .hack theme, I wanted to make BlackRose’s closest ally, Kite. But the name Kite wasn’t at all interesting. Of course, if you are/were a .hack fan, you’d know iBlackRose‘s Character Class in MapleStory would be a 2-hand Swordsman.

Anyways, in .hack, Kite was a Twin Blade. In essence, a double dagger user. But in MapleStory, there weren’t any dual wielding classes, and of course, no Twin Blades. The closest class to this was the Bandit, the short dagger with fast attacks dealing decent damage. Sounds pretty much like the Twin Blade. So I sought after a good name to undertake. There was another anime/manga with a good name.. Jing.

Also, the Character from .hack, Kite, was a person who’d go out of his way to help anyone who’d ask him for help. I wanted to be a role model like that. As for King of Bandits, Jing, I wasn’t really too deep into the story, but I just liked the name. Jing was a powerful person who also helped the people and fighting evil, kind of like every other hero.

King of Bandits, Jing.. a good name to have. So I chose the name Jing.

Also, I once had a Chinese friend who told me the name Jing was something pure. She told me Chinese words stand alone, so it had to go with something, like BeiJing.. Jing was also the root of my promise to stay pure to the game, which was.. to not use outside advantages within the game. :X

Up to this point here in this story, I’ve only ever made two characters to level 35, VanilIa of Broa, and iBlackRose of Windia. Disappointed that I’ve been unable to ever reach a level far past that, I wanted to make a commitment. I wanted something to dedicate myself to. I had known that Level 80 Thieves got to wear the Pirate set, so I knew immediately that level 80 was my goal. Making a character and leveling it up to wear the armor that shows what I am, that was what I wanted to do.

The result, I wanted to be the King of Bandits, Jing. I wanted to dedicate myself to Level 80 and beyond if I had to.. Not to mention this was the mark of my first male character. This was something I could reflect myself upon.

Immediate Goals : Get to level 80 and then be known as the King of Bandits.

Level 80 Pirate Armor + King of Bandits, Jing = PirateJing.

I actually took a long time to think of this name. And it’s a name I’m proud of. It became the character where I could be myself. Not pretending and playing lies. And here today, I’m level 106, far better than I could have possibly imagined.

[h]Jealousy Conquers[/h]

I’ve gone through rough times. Every person needs a good friend to play with.

I remember playing with a girl I knew from school. We would come online after school and play together. She and I would fight monsters together, level up and hunt rare items together. We would stay up through late nights party questing in Ludibrium. Patches came out and new towns arrived and we would explore them together. I became so attached, I’d spill everything I felt. How my day was, how I was feeling and such. But then I told her I loved her. And she told me I wasn’t the boy for her. I tried to accept it.

But she met a friend, and they shared a bond. I was jealous. I tried to ruin everything between them, but their bond became stronger and I was shattered in jealousy. She left and I was left to stay in a world that didn’t exist. A world I came to escape from reality. But reality was just as close to me for we stopped talking like we used to.

The Hero met with Jealousy..

..and Jealousy conquered the Hero.

[h]The Side-Kick[/h]

I remember having a really close friend. His name was Brandon. We were the duo thieves. KingCor and PirateJing. The Assassin and the Bandit. Lord of Sins and King of Bandits, side by side, fighting innumerable monsters. We would hunt for Maple Items together, talk about problems guys would have. Like close brothers. We promised each other we’d hit level 100 together. We promised we’d be the two legendary heroes of MapleStory.

But he disappeared without a word one day. He just left. He even left his love he was with. I was alone in this fight. My friend was gone. The Lord of Sins was gone. I didn’t know what to do, so I just went ahead. I just fought this battle alone.

When I hit level 100, I felt slightly empty. I didn’t feel like I hit level 100 at all. I felt like I was missing someone. I was missing my friend, Brandon.

But mysteriously later, he appeared in front of my very eyes. I was shocked. He told me he was catching up to reality and had to leave this non-existent world.

Even a Hero can’t save their friends.

[h]The Betrayal and The Liar[/h]

I had something called a family. A family is a group of people you could share experiences and knowledge with. People you could trust. They could be family by blood, or family of friends.

I have a brother who once played MapleStory. He and I would help each other out often. Such as telling him to log on for me, or to LPQ while I was away doing something else. I would also do the same for him.

Then one night, I signed off and let my brother play. When I woke up and signed on, my guild member told me that my character was hacking at Pianus. Not believing this, I had demanded a screenshot. And when I received the picture, I couldn’t believe it. My brother logged on while I was sleeping just to hack a fish. The problem was, he was a hacker and I was not.

And I thought I could trust him. He even grew up with me since he was born.

Then Maple Snowboards came out. I had a friend who I knew even before I created PirateJing. I felt like I could trust someone I knew for so long. He was too weak to fight the Gobi fish that dropped the rare item. I was going to work that day. I decided he could go on my character and fight them because I wasn’t going to be able to play that day and I had just leveled the day before. I also had no mesos and no rare items for him to take. So what could I lose?

Well the next day, my same guild member told me what happened. I couldn’t believe it. A second time? Pictures were sent and by God, they were real pictures of my character taking Miss hits.

I couldn’t believe it. I thought I could trust a friend I knew for so long.

Family betrayed the Hero.

[h]Fighting for a Villain[/h]

I fought for what I believed. I played this game fairly. I never thought once about cheating. I chased hackers and I fought to keep my maps from these hackers.

I was proud to be legit.

But I bore one kind of person, the kind I usually fought against. An ex-hacker within my own guild. I was beaten down with questions. If I was truly legit, why would I bear an ex-hacker in a totally legit guild? Why would I not expel her from the guild? Because I was friends with the person. I wouldn’t let some stupid game tear our friendship apart. But consistently, I was being barraged with the same questions over and over.

Apparently, I already had invited her to join before I found out she was an ex-hacker. I grew to know her and couldn’t bring myself to get rid of someone I enjoyed talking to.

I even was considered a hypocrite of my own beliefs. They asked why an ex-hacker led a legit guild. They slammed me with questions I could only give the same replies to. Some didn’t believe my story. Some wanted me to rid of the ex-hacker.

I couldn’t decide between my beliefs or my morals. They intertwined and they contradicted each other so many times.

To my belief, I shouldn’t give a cheater a chance in a fair game.
To be moral, I should never let something so small tear friendship apart.

I fell in and expelled my own friend from the guild. I honestly didn’t know what to do.

The Hero tried to please the people..
..but the people beat the Hero.

[h]The Hero has no Hero[/h]

I remember when I was lower leveled, I had people to look up to. I wanted to be like them. They were the kind of people other people would look up to. I was one of their fans.

I remember looking up to CalvinRivera being the STR CB he was. I remember becoming friends with a guy named NucIear as well. They were pretty strong and well up there. It seemed like everyone respected them for who they were. I wanted to be a well respected person. I wanted to be someone who people looked up to. Someone to be inspired by. They were my inspirations.

But later when I reached their levels I met them at, I found out they were hackers. Who even knew the idols the people looked to were false? But they did more than just cheat. They did something better than most legit players can. And that’s to inspire people, and I was inspired.

Regardless, I kept going. I went and fought the impossible. I talked my way into fighting Zakum and fought my way to be respected by people. I even knew some would bring up my character’s dark secrets. But I would acknowledge what happened, and explain it wasn’t the way to go. Even people don’t believe excuses that are real.

I became everything I wanted to be.. but I lost motivation to be more than that.

The Hero is Tired and Uninspired.

[h]The Greed of Power[/h]

Being the strong character I was, I wanted to be stronger. I hoped that if I were stronger, I could do much more than be a tool to explode things with Meso Explosion. I wanted to be stronger than the rest. I became willing to do anything for power, and I even fell to the dark side. I became greedy for power. I wanted to have power. I was willing to give up almost anything for it. That was when I scrolled my shield.

At first, I made a nice shield. It was a +7 LUK Maple Shield. I put another 70% and it broke. I was upset. I wasn’t happy with losing my shield and I demanded it to be replaced because I lost power.

I spent all my mesos and borrowed mesos from my friends to scroll a new shield. It came out to be better than before. It was a +12 LUK Maple Shield. It wasn’t satisfying enough. I wanted to be stronger. I had to be stronger. I ran across a 30% Scroll for Shield for ATT. It was 14,999,999 mesos and I had roughly a bit more than 15,000,000 mesos on me. I bought it hastily and scrolled my shield, but it exploded. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to do now. I just lost so much power. I was willing to settle with a +10 LUK Shield this time. I just needed to get my strength back. I couldn’t stand being weak.

I borrowed even more mesos from different friends. I attempted to make new shields, but no shield ever got past one 70% Scroll for Shield for LUK. They always broke, failed, or exploded on the second slot. I lost all of my mesos and I had no shield.

I am now in debt of 40,000,000 mesos and I am unable to sell anything. I’m working my hardest to repay back my friends that I borrowed from. But I still want to make a new shield too..

The Hero made a bargain with the Devil and lost..
..But the Hero wants to barter some more.

[h]A Lost Friend’s Word[/h]

Quite recently, I’ve become the age from whence my friend, Brandon (KingCor), quit. Apparently, he told me reality was catching up to him. I didn’t think it could happen to me, but it did. I’ve lived two years in a world that didn’t exist. I lived in a fantasy world where I was the Alice of Wonderland. But I’ve become so obsessed, I lost a hold of reality until it bit me from behind. School was priority and my future was dependent on my choice in life.

In the end, the Hero realizes it’s just a dream.

[h]The Fallen Hero[/h]

The Hero met with Jealousy, and Jealousy conquered the Hero.
Even a Hero can’t save their friends.
Family betrayed the Hero.
The Hero tried to please the people..
..but the people beat the Hero.
The Hero is Tired and Uninspired.
The Hero made a bargain with the Devil and lost.
..But the Hero wants to barter some more.
In the end, the Hero realizes it’s just a dream.

[h]The Epilogue[/h]

I’ve decided to end my story here. I think I’ve made my mark in MapleStory deep enough. I hope that I’ve inspired people the same way I have. I hope I’ve changed MapleStory well enough.

I thought, if I can become something great from whence I had nothing, then why can’t I do it in reality? If I can dedicate myself to a game and become a hero, I can become a hero in real life with just a little more dedication too, right?

I’ve realized the necessities of life is more important than a world that doesn’t exist.

And so it ends tonight. Goodbye MapleStory.

~PirateJing of Windia

I called myself a hero because I am the protagonist in my story. If you were writing your own story, you’d be the hero. ;D