Writer's Note: This story was already rated based on other stories and not this one. Wow. People wanted a story more in tune with virtual reality gaming, modern Earth, fantasy, and all that causing havoc as it became real life. Releases are random as it is a side story. I just want to say that if you criticize writers on this site, at least be one or give constructive criticism. Thanks for reading.
Prologue and Chapter 1: The Red Sky
The beta phase of the popular MMO, Fallen Divine Online, had its popularity spread world-wide. It could only be played on a special hand-held device that were mysteriously distributed all over the world. The believed number of beta testers was ten thousand.
Why was it special? It was the world's first legitimate virtual reality game where your mind actually enters the game as a player character. You could also choose to play it as a hand-held game if you preferred playing in third-person. No one knew where the game came from, save that the game had the logo of a company named World Tribulation Gaming. It was a game with a world the exact copy of Earth and combined fantasy and science fiction into one.
The game allowed players to play as a warrior, mage, or rogue class. A total of seventeen classes were available to choose upon reaching level 10. The warrior classes were knight, berserker, gladiator, cultivator, and monk. The mage classes were elementalist, summoner, templar, cleric, and sniper. The rogue classes were archer, assassin, gunslinger, thief, pirate, beast master, and engineer.
No matter the class, each person was randomly assigned a soul core. These cores had thirteen ranks, each giving their own power, skills, and buffs to be unlocked as you progressed in the game. The core ranks were coal, bronze, iron, steel, silver, gold, black gold, diamond, mithril, adamantine, dragon, saint, and demi-god. To the cultivator class, the higher the better as their level progression speed depended on it. It did not matter for any other class. They only cared about the power, skills, and buffs.
The game had a total of a hundred levels and ten prestige levels. In other words, you are reverted back to level 1 but gain a unique skill, weapon, or armor only you could have or use. As it was the beta phase, level progression had no difficulties and less than fifty reached the eighth prestige.
In the game, classes used what were called divine arts. This was the name of the skills used by each class. Players also had the option to choose which elements they wanted affinities to. Some classes and races restricted having some elements which was not necessarily a bad thing. The more element affinities you had, the more versatility in combat. However, your affinity would decrease with each additional element. These affected the chance of learning some skills in the game that had affinity level restrictions.
This was the reason the cultivator class was the weakest at the beginning but had the most potential as they relied on their cores to progress and gain higher stat increases compared to other classes.
The best part about the game were the five races. The race you chose determined your racial traits, abilities, story, and how the world reacted to you. Six races were offered, one of them a beta only race. That race was the celestial race. The other five races were the high human, elf, cyborg, angel, and beast.
High humans are able to be any class and gain affinities to all nine elements. Their stats were balanced all around and foes they kill dropped in-game currency by 1.5 times. At higher levels, the racial ability would definitely make them the richest race to play. Many players chose this race as you could only make one character in the game from the start of the release.
However, the beta phase character had the option to make one permanent character and one test character that could be created and deleted an infinite amount of times. The test character would be deleted upon the official release while the permanent character would gain a unique item upon the official release of the game upon reaching a certain level. Thus, people experimented with the other races before leveling their permanent character to the required level.
The elven race was divided into four subcategories, each with their pros and cons. The elven races were divided into blood elf, high elf, wood elf, and dark elf. Those who chose the cyborg race had higher health and defense stats than others. The problem was that they could not play pure mage classes: elementalist and summoner. They could still be clerics and templars, but cyborgs had double damage modifiers if they played modern Earth classes, such as pirate, gunslinger, engineer, or sniper.
The angel race comprised of angels, fallen angels, nephilim, and devils. Angels automatically have light affinity with no dark affinity allowed, fallen angels had both, nephilim could make their wings appear or disappear, and devils had opposite affinities and restrictions to angels. Devils could also customize part of their body or turn all of it into a monster in humanoid form.
The beast race were humanoids with the appearance of animals. They could be any animal they wished, the game sometimes taking a moment to update an animal it did not have registered prior to the request. It was the most diverse class and was best suited for warrior and rogue classes as they had less divine energy than others. Mages, warriors, and rogues used divine energy for all their divine arts. The beast race also had higher stats dependent of the physique of the beast they chose.
Then, there was the beta only race. The celestial race was one that transcended the boundary of the in-game Earth and the spirit world, fusing with a spirit and gaining its power. No matter how many elements they chose, one element would be at one hundred percent affinity. Not even those who only chose one element passed the ninety seven percent affinity range. They could also customize their bodies as they wished. This was the gratitude given by the company for beta testing.
Upon reaching the next prestige, one could customize the character from scratch before becoming level 1 again with higher stats. The only thing you could not change was your name. The nine element of the game were earth, water, wind, air, lightning, wood, light, darkness, and the neutral element of arcane. They could also be changed, but the prestige item or skill might sometimes be tied to one element. Thus, the customization options were truly appreciated then as the players would be more experienced and experiment new playing styles to revolutionize the current trends.
The revolutionary game changed virtual reality gaming, and the rest of the world was envious of those lucky ten thousand. However, they could not foresee that such a great game had such a terrifying price. On the day of the official release, the world changed. January 1, 2077 was known as the Red Sky Incident for it was the day of the official release. People found out, then, how they would receive a copy of the game.
From ten thousand to three hundred million and ten thousand. Those players soon became mankind's one and only defense and offense in the days to come.
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"Five minutes to New Year's! Everybody dance!" the DJ at the Circus Circus Adventuredome Theme Park in Las Vega shouted, turning up the music.
Everyone was packed and excited inside the Theme Park. Children laughed and parents took pictures for the memories. It was really festive and everyone had a great time as they waited for the minute countdown to start. A group of freshmen college students were also celebrating as they sat in front of a hot dog stand, one boy seated at a table nearby.
"Dude, where have you been?" a teen named Jorge Rivera asked as he saw another teen with jet black hair and blue eyes walk toward him.
"Sorry. The charger for my handheld was running out," Magnus Wang sighed. "I just wanted to reach the seventh prestige before the official release. I now have seven prestige awards. I'm all set. When the official release comes, I'll get my beta phase reward and choose my new affinities."
"I stopped at third prestige and became level one again. Relationships take up time," Jorge laughed as they waited for the countdown.
"Where's your girl, Melissa?" Magnus asked.
"She's not good with crowds and is back at the hotel with her kid brother, Alexander," Jorge shrugged. "He couldn't stay up and just clocked out for the night. When's the official release anyway?"
"The game said New Year's so in about thirty seconds," Magnus answered as the crowd looked at the clock and cheered.
"5....4.....3.....2.....1...HAPPY NEW YEAR!" the DJ and the crowd celebrated and Magnus brought out two shots of beer.
"Where did you get those?" Jorge asked.
"Nicked them off a guy who was counting down. Cheers," Magnus said and they drank the shots, grunting a little due to the taste. "Let's go to your girl's room. She'll want that kiss."
"Shut up," Jorge laughed as Magnus Wang turned on his game. It was in third person mode, the virtual reality helmet in his bag back at the hotel. He was in the game's interface and choosing his race and affinities.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"Whew, that's a relief. My core is finally above black gold for once and the sword manual seems interesting. Legendary items cannot be deleted as they are one-of-a-kind items you have to slave for days to get," Magnus sighed with relief as the duo arrived at the hotel and took the elevator to the eight floor.
He really worked hard to get the Legendary Palace Dimension. It even came with water spirit servants and terracotta guards. He had to subdue and replace his spirit with a Great Spirit in the end. That Great Spirit was Undine. Only one Great Spirit existed per element and spirits were the same for each character unless you replaced with with another spirit. They determined how powerful a divine art you could learn in regards to the element of the spirit.
"Soul Refining Cauldron?" Magnus frowned and inspected the item.
"It's kind of like a lottery item. I suppose that's good?" Magnus shrugged as he and Jorge entered the hotel room.
"Hello Jorge. Hello Magnus," a blonde girl smiled as she saw them enter, kissing Jorge as Magnus sped inside.
"How's Alexander? Still sleeping?" Jorge asked as he held Melissa in his arms.
"Yeah. Happy New Year," she smiled.
"Yeah," Jorge said as he held her in his arms. "Happy New Year."
"What the fuck?" Magnus said as he tapped his black handheld.
"What's wrong?" Jorge asked as Magnus never cussed. They were neighbors for ten years and even attended the same college. Magnus never cussed unless something wrong happened in the game or something really bad happened in real life.
"It says the game Fallen System, the game system, says that Earth is being modified and the appropriate players will be awarded with the game soon," Magnus said. "The game says that when the red sky dawns during the night, the Hellion will return to Earth. That doesn't make sense. How does day dawn at night?"
"The suns not out. Virtual reality can't happen in real life and the Hellion are already in in-game Earth," Jorge laughed until Magnus rushed out to the balcony and gazed at the moon.
"Not if its a lunar eclipse. Look, the sky's turning red. It's not possible. Mankind does not have access to that technology, even in the game!" Magnus cried as he fell on his knees in shock.
"No way...." Jorge said as he and Melissa stepped outside, hearing Melissa shriek as a ball of light appeared. Magnus and Jorge paled in shock as a pink handheld, similar to Magnus's black and Jorge's white handheld, appeared before her.
"Oh my god," Jorge gasped as he received a similar message. "This is the main phase?"
"My head!" Melissa screamed and passed out from the pain. Gold light shined on her. Jorge passed out soon after reading an invisible system message.
"My brother is....is..." Magnus said before a pain flashed in his mind and fell on his knees, struggling to stay conscious. Only Jorge and Melissa knew he was a Beta Survivor, like Jorge, as both denied playing the game.
They even lied to their parents, mostly so they could still play but Magnus never told his little brother. While he left Los Angeles to celebrate in Las Vegas, his brother went with his friends to New York. He could only imagine the chaos before darkness took its hold.
