.

.

.

————

/Step step step…/

/Fwoosh…/

After receiving the message that he had leveled up, Dale ran in direction of a secluded nook of the town and began to examine his notifications.

[Player’s online 3/100]

[Refreshing…]

[Player’s online 2/100]

“…”

‘I anticipated this a lot, as we speak’s morning we had lower than 6 individuals taking part in.’

The very first thing he observed was the variety of gamers. After almost 4 weeks of Beta, virtually all gamers had stopped taking part in.

Individuals had their very own lives, and so they could not spend all of it taking part in a sport that has virtually nothing to do with it.

Even when they had been content material creators and streamers, this sport was simply the Beta in any case, and truthfully talking, irrespective of how affected person somebody was, there was little to no content material to undergo on this place.

The quests had been all low Degree, so even with the XP increase, it took a complete week to develop into Degree 20, and much more to develop into Degree 30, which was in regards to the time most stopped taking part in.

And within the first 1 and a half weeks, actually, every thing there was to the Beta had been executed. Particular missions, Dungeons, Raids, they did all of it.

New content material would solely be seen later when the sport launched.

The Beta was sufficient for many to grasp what the sport could be, there was no level investing further time in it.

Dale and Jelly had been the one lively gamers now.

And this had been the case for a short while now, as a result of, since final week, the variety of lively gamers was round 9, with the opposite 7 being those that had been simply exploring issues to try to see if they might discover one thing secret.

In spite of everything, it did not take a lot for individuals to attach the dots between the video games, and like Jelly, others quickly discovered extra secrets and techniques… Although they weren’t as passionate as him.

These gamers approached them, however each Jelly and Dale didn’t share what they knew…

Dale had his egocentric causes for it, he would solely commerce information for more information, whereas Jelly was merely offended at them on account of their shamelessness.

When he tried speaking with them, they didn’t reply that eagerly, however ever since he efficiently accomplished a ritual from the final sport, they began approaching him?

They needed to be taught what he had executed, and he would not share in any respect as a result of they had been impolite and selfish.

Fortunately, they stopped ultimately because it wasn’t something important, to start with… Or so that they believed.

Nevertheless, it was true that they ultimately realized that the 2 video games had been certainly related not directly, though it was troublesome to say if that is additionally an easter egg dropped by the builders or some a part of an even bigger secret…

Upon requested, the Builders wholeheartedly denied all claims of any attainable connections between the video games, that every thing was simply a part of a…

Easter Egg.

And at first, Dale believed their phrases… Partially.

This would not final lengthy, nonetheless…

“So! What do I acquire for being the very first to succeed in Degree 100?”

Dale went over the sport notifications as soon as once more.

[You have Leveled Up!

[Current Level 100]

[The first chain has been broken through by accumulation and hard work]

[Your Status is changing]

[Your Class is changing]

[Your Skills are changing]

[You did not achieve a Status Evolution nor did you achieve enlightenment]

[Status Ratio has changed from 1:1 to 1:5]

[A penalty has been enforced due to your lacking achievements and qualifications]

[Status Ratio has changed from 1:5 to 1:1]

[Your Class doesn’t meet the requirements for LOCKED]

[Your Skills don’t meet the requirements for LOCKED]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Loc…]

…

[A new Quest has been generated, Over Limit!]

[You don’t meet the requirements]

[Over Limit!, Quest has been removed]

When Dale completed studying the messages, he felt as if he had been blue balled.

All of that work for this?… Over half of the messages had been locked on account of some unexpected variable!!

Although, it already defined fairly a bit… That there was certainly one thing to anticipate from Degree 100 and presumably even past it.

/Inhale…/

/Exhale…/

Respiratory out and in Dale thought… Seems to be like the top sport of Azimuth could be… Fairly entertaining.

“Sigh…”

/Print!/

With a little bit of anger and even some lingering disappointment, he despatched an image of this to Jelly so they might talk about within the subsequent few days what all of this meant.

In spite of everything, on the finish of the day, this was data unique to them!

Data was key, by figuring out there have been issues that needed to be achieved earlier than one may rise past Degree 100, one may monopolize the sources of these achievements.

Or at the least capitalize on them, VR was certainly a really worthwhile enterprise…

Although Dale’s causes for this had been removed from the plain and easy wealth accumulation…

However to his shock, it wasn’t the top but!

[DING!]

[You have acquired the Title: Failed Transcendent]

[You have acquired the Title: The most pitiful Transcendental]

[You were the first to achieve Level 100, would you like to record your name in the Hall of Fame?]

[DING!]

[You have received a message from: Elden Throne]

With a distorted expression, Dale grabbed his Standing sheet with confusion.

“!! What? There was extra?”

“And what does it imply with ‘Elden Throne’? Did I acquire a message from the freaking builders?”

Checking his Inbox, Dale quickly noticed the unique watermark from the builders…

It was certainly true.

“Cool… But in addition eerie, I uh… I will not get my account banned proper?”

‘It is fairly costly to purchase a brand new account, all of my allowances will probably be going to that new pod…’

Dale checked the Titles and so they had been simply beauty Titles.

Actually, most Titles had been like that.

In Azimuth, Titles did not give their holder any form of increase and their sole goal was to look cool towards different gamers, though… Each he and Jelly confirmed that some Titles do have an effect on how the NPCs view the participant.

As such, there’s a risk Titles may carry out particular roles and capabilities inside the sport apart from being a bragging proper for the neighborhood.

/Press press press…/

Dale skipped the system query since he did not know what the Corridor of Fame was but.

And though he had a reasonably large thought of what it was, he nonetheless jumped it to learn the following message…

[Dear Player Kindred Flamingo, it has come to our attention that you accomplished something we deemed impossible.

We are baffled by this achievement, and reactions have been… Varied.

Do not fret though as your account won’t be banned or suspended, instead, we are here to congratulate you on your efforts…

Bla bla bla…

Hence we would like to give you a reward… And a deal.

We from Elden Throne see our endgame content with extreme care and love, and it would be a shame to have it fall into our player base’s hands earlier than intended.

It could even lead to confusion and widespread dissatisfaction from the player base by receiving a piece of content they aren’t yet ready to experience.

We have seen how you shared this info with your friend, player Jelly Donuts without Sugar, and although we incentivize friendship and a warm playing environment, we have intercepted the message in your stead.

We are deeply, deeply sorry for having to resort to such a thing, and it will never happen again once the game starts for real on February 1st of next year.

However, we hope this action reflects the importance of this event and that, albeit we love to see our players come together to face greater challenges, some mysteries are better found and solved by oneself.

First, regarding your reward, we would like to present you with the chance to buy one of our Ultra Augmented Reality Pods at a 90% discount, these are currently still in their prototype phase, and we would be more than glad to properly discuss this deal with you at a later date.

A proper document regarding everything discussed here today will be sent to you today before 11:59 Pm, so stay tuned!

Second of all, you will be given access to our game, 10 minutes before everyone else! Just log into your account and the game will open for you 10 minutes before the planned time.

To represent this special authority, a unique redeemable token will be sent to your account. Upon so, your account will be linked with the token and a countdown will start, once it reaches 0, you’ll be allowed to join in the servers.

So do pay attention to not redeeming it in another account as the token is linked to your biometric values, so it is not tradable.

Third…

…

]

/Bzzz… Bzzz…/

“?!”

Nevertheless, on the time he learn the third message, his sport display screen turned darkish and his pod turned off by itself.

[WARNING: OVERHEAT]

[INITIATING EMERGENCY SYSTEM LOGOUT]

/Splash!/

“HAAA!… Haaa… Whatefuck!”

Dale awakened taking deep breaths whereas he felt his total physique sore and in ache.

His head particularly harm quite a bit, it was a well-known ache, it was the ache of being forcefully returned from a time dilation with out being given sufficient time to sync in…

The Neuryne Resolution inside his pod did not have the time to be flushed into the system and as a substitute made a multitude on the ground of his room because the pod’s seals had been undone.

“Haaa… Haaa…”

Dale gasped for air as his arms loitered round, on the lookout for a small compartment subsequent to the pod…

/CLACK!/

Inside, he grabbed one thing and pulled it to his face.

“Haa… Fuck… What a multitude…” He mentioned slowly as he breathed contained in the Oxygen masks

/Clang!/

Dale kicked his machine in anger.

“Why did you resolve to do that now, of all instances?!”

[Information transferring… Complete]

“?”

Dale heard one thing and turned to his beeping machine, asking:

“Are you able to repeat that tin can?”

/Beep Beep…/

However the machine solely beeped, it didn’t reply to him in any respect.

“Was it making an attempt to obtain one thing and it received overheated?… Might it have been… A malware?! Please no, this was my 18th birthday reward!”

‘The probabilities are low however… What if that wasn’t an E-mail from Elden Throne however only a well-made malware?’

‘Dammit! I knew it! This was too good to be true…’

[Accessing… Re-adjusting configuration… Parameters have been set]

He as soon as once more heard the mechanical voice, however this time, he realized the voice was that of a girl, totally different from his pod’s robotic male tone.

“What’s it this time?”

‘Who mentioned that? The home AI?’

Dale checked his room, and even his clock, it could not have been his brother since he have to be on the summer season camp along with his mates.

“Howdy? Somebody there?”

[I am here Dale] The home AI replied as a small mild lit up within the ceiling, indicating that the AI was now being attentive to Dale

“Did you say one thing earlier than?”

[Negative, I was with your mother just now]

“If it wasn’t you…”

Then what was it?

[Processing, it seems you’ve been forcibly disconnected from your Pod, this may result in…]

However the extra she spoke, the extra silent all of it turned.

“?”

‘Every part’s so… Low… Oh God… Am I about to dip?…’

‘I want to seek out my mom…’

[$^%#%^]

/Splat!/

A loud, acute noise instantly blasted his ears, sending him off steadiness as he fell onto the bottom amidst the Neuryne resolution.

“ARG, my ears!” Dale exclaimed as he tried to stand up once more

[… Calm…]

‘The AI was making an attempt to say one thing, however he could not fairly make it, the world was spinning and plenty of sounds fused collectively inside his head.’

‘He was extraordinarily confused, however Dale tried to maintain himself calm.’

“Did I get some form of psychological downside from being ejected so brutally?…”

/Creak…/

“What is that this mess, son?” His mom requested as she entered the room, instantly noticing the Neyrine resolution on the bottom

[Dale has…]

Whereas the AI defined what had occurred, he seemed to the facet to see his mother with a anxious look as she inspected the messy room.

And upon realizing what had occurred, the very first thing she did was rush to him to assist him up.

“… Mother…”

‘My head hurts… However the world is not spinning anymore.’

As his sense of steadiness returned and the ache lessened, Dale turned extra assured about his present well being.

So after a short while to catch a breath, he correctly defined what had occurred.

“Sigh.”

After listening to it, his mom simply set free a sigh and mentioned he was unfortunate, as every thing he described was a part of the attainable signs of his scenario.

She saved touching his face and twisting it as she seemed for different signs however Dale did not really feel every other type of discomfort even after a short while.

So she had him go take a bathe and relaxation, and if he feels any discomfort in a while they’d search out a physician.

So along with his ears nonetheless ringing from the earlier noise, he went to the toilet to try to calm down.

…

/Within the toilet…/

“Dammit, now I’m interested by what the builders mentioned… However then once more, it may’ve been a spam message and I received tricked… Shit, it was manner too sudden.”

Dale eliminated his particular go well with and seemed on the mirror, his eyes had been a bit sunken in on account of his many days taking part in, however he was fantastic general.

“I look drained as hell… As soon as that is all executed I’ll ship a message to Jelly and apologize, I may even verify if that was a real developer message or not…”

“That’s if my machine nonetheless works.”

Elevating his arms to the sky, Dale prayed, ‘Budda Amitabha make my Pod survive!’.

However the second Dale was about to show away from the mirror, he noticed one thing unusual in it.

“Hm?”

A small inexperienced sq. was now within the nook of the mirror, it appeared like a sticker however on the identical time not…

“Was that at all times right here? Did that fool stick one thing else right here? I assumed he stopped placing stickers within the mirror over a 12 months in the past…”

‘Due to his obsession with stickers, we needed to keep a complete hour cleansing the mirror a 12 months in the past, I do not need to undergo that once more.’

So Dale went to drag it out… However his finger handed proper by it!

“WOW! WHAT THE…”

Shocked, he pulled his finger in a rush and the inexperienced sq. trembled like water.

Dale however had jumped to the opposite facet of the toilet out of concern, grabbing a shampoo bottle to make use of as a weapon because it was the closest factor close by.

This was a traditional response to your mirror instantly turning into water…

“Phew… What was that?” He mentioned in a decrease tone as he inspected the mirror from a ‘secure’ distance

/Clack!/

He walked to it once more, however the inexperienced sq. was nonetheless there, so this time, he tried to make use of his toothbrush however there was no response as if it was painted within the mirror.

It merely bounced off the mirror as physics proclaims, the mirror wasn’t a portal to a different world, it was simply…

“It is not an issue with my imaginative and prescient, and it is not neither paint nor a ticker. So what is that this? Did Dad purchase some form of geek gadget and put it right here as a prank?” He spoke as he rubbed his eyes

‘Does not appear to be the case… I by no means even heard of something remotely resembling this…’

Dale investigated it a bit extra earlier than he manned up and touched the sq. once more… Very reluctantly as he felt concern for his index finger.

His finger handed proper by it and it felt like he was touching water…

The sq. was solely large enough for one finger, sadly, or luckily.

“OUCH! MY… “

Dale’s biggest fears flared up when he instantly felt one thing prickle his finger, and he pulled it out rapidly like a lightning bolt, and when he did so, the inexperienced sq. disappeared, abandoning a faint spiral sample.

It was as if the field had been sucked into itself…

There was a single drop of blood slowly falling out from his finger, proof that one thing did occur.

“That is getting out of hand…” He mentioned as he cleaned the sweat from his brow

‘No less than my finger is unbroken.’

[Biological Core has been processed. Parameters have been recalibrated]

“!!”

Dale instantly seemed across the toilet in a rush, however there was nothing there.

“Who’s…”

[Initiating]

“!”

‘Mild…’

All the sudden, Dale felt the world shake and his physique weakened…

/THUD!/

Dale fell on the chilly ground of the toilet and shortly sufficient, his mother and father rushed inside and carried him to the hospital…

…

.

.

.

Notes

That is just about the place the plot begins, from right here on we simply go ahead.