7. Announcement

I calmed my breathing, I had begun to hyperventilate before I got himself under control.

[System Notification! All Players please report to the nearest town or city for an important announcement from the GM!]

This was starting to feel more and more like Sword Art Online and what happened in that anime wasn't good from what I could remember. Thousands of people, trapped, unable to escape until the game was cleared. But this game didn't have a clear condition.. There was no main story that would just end the game. Mythic Legends was made to be an endless game. There were no limits to it, that was the point of the game. So if the players were really trapped here, then did that mean they would never get out?

I made it to the road and went to the next town. As I reached it, I saw that quite a few players had already reached level 10 and were gathered in the town square, waiting for the announcement. I found a spot at the back of the crowd and tried to stay unnoticed, which wasn't hard to do when there was panic taking hold and a palpable anxiety in the air that could be cut with a knife. I also saw that there were more than a few players staring vacantly into space.

*BOOM!*

*CRACK!*

There were some sounds of explosions and upon looking up, everyone saw the fireworks marking the official opening of the game. 'Some game.' I thought to myself. Suddenly, the sky parted and a man in red and black robes stood above the entire world.

"Welcome players to Mythic Legends! I am your game master, please note as many of you have already figured out. That your log out button is missing. I assure you this is no mistake. Now you may be thinking, this isn't an anime!, and you are correct. This is very much real life and with the way Mythic Legends is built there is now way to clear the game. So what does that mean for you? Well I am sorry to inform you that your bodies in the real world, in fact every single person on the planet, are dead. Those of you that chose this game have been saved, the rest, well they just died."

At this point the man waved his hand and the crowd saw video clips of fiery death around the world that all ended in static.

"I'm sure you all have a lot of questions and I assure you that this was never the intended use of this game. A cataclysm has rocked our earth and we can never return... But you may all live on here. In this world you can have some semblance of life. Though be aware that just like the anime that you are all thinking of, you will not be able to respawn once you die. This is your new life, as much as it is mine and all the people that worked for Infinite Realm. We were able to save many during the last moments, but not everyone. So please, explore this world, perhaps you will find your loved ones out there. We are all shocked to the core by this sudden turn of events. There was no early warning nor was there time for preparation. All we can do is make the best of it. That also brings me to my next announcement. Due to the destruction of our world we are not on servers. What that means is we have all been transported to the universe that this game was built on. I am afraid that this is no longer a game. The NPCs are real people, the same as you or me. We are still trying to figure out what happened but your systems should stay intact for some reason so we can all at least communicate with each other. This is no longer about becoming a top player or playing a game at all. There are no more pain inhibitors or settings in the menu. We are looking into it but it seems that every other part of the system menu is working correctly. If you have any questions after this announcement please contact one of the game masters, though we can't be called that anymore. We will be as transparent as possible with the information we have and we will now truly be among you all. This world appears to be exactly the same as that of the game world so there is no need to worry about strange anomalies. Though if they do appear please share your information. That is all."

The Game Master then descended from the sky and landed in the middle of the people gathered in the town square. I looked around and, for the first time, I notice all the people in town that would have been NPCs were looking at the scene like everyone gathered here was insane. I walked up to one of the gawking citizens and she shook her head before turning to me.

"Yes?" She asked, still with a confused look on her face.

"Sorry I'm new in town, what's going on with all those people?" I asked, playing off that I had just arrived and wasn't one of them. This would tell me, for sure.

The young woman shook her head, then shrugged, "I have no idea what that man was going on about a "Game" or "NPCs" but it seems like either all those people have gone crazy, or one of the Divines saved them from a disaster. Instead of hysterical, they should be grateful. At least, I would be." She shrugged again and turned to walk away.

'It's true, we really aren't in a game anymore.' I thought to myself. Which meant that what the game master said was true, everyone had died and somehow been transmigrated to this world, this universe. I decided to go to the inn and get a room. I had some thinking to do.