Chapter 1: The New Game

It was the year 2120, the 13th month of August.

Delta City was a dense forest of skyscrapers. While it seem to be doing well, it was far worse compared to it's two counterparts, Alpha and Beta City.

Cyan lived in a two story apartment. It was in a secluded place. His room was neat. There was a bed and a desk, there was a restroom just beside the entrance, and beside his bed was a piece of alien ware.

It was a silver capsule, nearly two meters in length. The logo had already faded, and time had left marks on its smooth surface.

Aside from this piece of device that seem out of place, everything else had a vintage taste on it. People in the current era would consider this room as archaic.

Cyan was in his bed. His old laptop with a pineapple logo displayed a forum page.

The title was "Planet Fantasy, Server Shutting Down"

The ambience of the forum was not unlike a funeral.

SwordManiac

- Although I have long expected it, but it happening still saddens me.

NoviceWarrior

- I have just begun playing it, why is it closing suddenly?!

Arcturus

- Above, there have been many decent VR games recently, why have you chosen a dying game lol.

KingFelix

- @Arcturus, PF is the best VR game at all times!

Planet Fantasy was the first virtual reality game, an MMORPG. When it was first released 5 years ago, it had garnered all the attention. Everyone rushed to buy a capsule to play the game.

Cyan remembered his classmates in college comparing their levels and classes and telling their exploits. 5 years have passed and the game have lost its liveliness.

Many VR games of similar genre have appeared during this time frame. Because PF was a hardcore and difficult game, most of it's players switched to the easier counterparts.

Cyan and few other loyal players remained, their goal was to completely max their level at 1000. This was a feat that no one has achieved for 5 whole years. This was one of the reasons why players eventually gave up this game.

Leveling was too hard!

The veteran players were all already above level 980. They seem close to the goal but the actual gulf was so immense that it seemed hopeless to ever reach the level cap.

Cyan also joined in the fun.

YourHoliness

- I'm gonna farm and raise my level as much as possible before it closes!

WiseMan

- Then why are you here?

YourHoliness

- @WiseMan, can't you stop contradicting me now? The game is about to shut down!

WiseMan

- No! Tell me your IGN and let me pk you for a hundred times at least, then I'll forgive you!

Arcturus

- @WiseMan, it has been a long time and you still remember that? lmao

WiseMan

- See, I've been grinding my rod for a long time so I can smash this asshole's face.

YourHoliness

- *Laughing emoji*

Cyan was sending tens of different kinds of emoji, yet his face was lax and emotionless. His eyes were like that of a dead fish. That's right, his forum name was YourHoliness.

The name was not without a cause, as he is a priest in the game.

NewbieWarrior

- I should log in first and wait for the server to shut down in-game

FlowerFairy

- @NewbieWarrior Heh, this tactic is too old. But I would like to try it as well!

User46276938

- me too

User68348835

- +2

SwordManiac

- Who knows, maybe you'll get trapped and never be able to log off again.

WiseMan

- What a weak imagination, what if we travelled to another world?

Similar discussions were happening in other forum sites.

Cyan found that their idea was interesting.

Of course, he did not believe this nonsense. But he stood up and opened up the sleek capsule and entered.

He had already planned to enter the game and savor the rest of his time inside. He definitely did not do this because of some childish idea that he would travel to another dimension or anything.

His sensations were lost and the familiar screen entered his vision. There were many game icons, but Cyan chose only one, Planet Fantasy, and logged in to the game.

A swirl of colors, and then he was led by the menu until he entered character selection. There was only one character in there.

A charismatic young man. The face was not handsome, it was average, but his features were unique, different from humans in real life.

His hair was white as wool, and his eyes were like sapphire. A very normal game character, as most gamers customize their hair to be white as well.

His clothes were gaudy and majestic. He wore a white robe, a vest with golden linings and embroideries, and an azure sash hangs around his neck and arms. On his head lays a crown of crystal, embedded with countless precious stones.

His feet was bare, and the ground was burning in holy fire as a special effect. His hand held nothing, there were no weapons.

This was his level 995 priest character, name: Enoch.

"Lets go, Enoch."

As soon as he spoke, his consciousness merged with his avatar, and finally entered the game map.

The skies were red as blood, the nasty stench of corpse lingers around. The land was also barren and one could see black figures scurrying around, some were jumping, some were screaming at him, others were crawling like lizards.

These black figures have bizarre and scary appearance and shapes, but they all have a human characteristics. Some have human faces but monstrous body, some had a monster head but a humanoid body.

The monsters saw the intense light coming from his avatar, Enoch, and they gathered around and encircled him.

Cyan was used to this scene. It doesn't look scary at all as he was completely aware that this was a game.

This map was called the Place of Dead, the monsters were of dark elements, and the races were undead and demons. This was the perfect place for a high level priest to grind levels and equipments.

Other professions would have a hard time in this place, the experience the monsters gave was quite high and the equipments were decent, but it was not efficient.

Only a high level priest classes could waltz in here like kings and queens because of the twofold increase in damage against these kinds of monsters.

A screen appeared when he just logged in, notifying him that the server would close down at a given time. Beside it was a timer, with more than one hour left before the numbers all turn zero.

The scenery in the map was not pleasant. It was not appropriate to wait for the server to close down in a place like this. The game had a massive world map and there would be bizarre and fantasy-like sceneries as well.

He opened his inventory and took a high-grade teleportation scroll. He scrolled the world map and tapped on a secluded island.

His body was wrapped in gentle light and disappeared. The monsters lost their aggro and acted as if nothing happened.

Cyan arrived at a new place. There was a blue sky and white clouds. He could hear the sound of waves crashing on the shores.

The oceans were behind him, and in front of him was a plain of grasses and colorful flowers. He smiled.

"I have arrived at just the right season."

From his place he could see a tall mountain in the center of the island. It was a massive mountain, Mt. Hermione. The first time he had attempted to climb to the peak, he spent an entire week.

He thought it was an easy task, but the terrain was not friendly to humans. The mountains were full of monsters, there were steep cliffs and jagged rocks. Then there were thorns that would cause DoT, annoying him to no end. At that time he complained that the game was needlessly too realistic.

But now he was different from the newbie before. He was rich and magnificent. What are mountains and seas to him?

He took out a teleportation scroll. This was a different kind, once that could be used within the range of a specific map. He tapped the area where the peak should be, and he instantly disappeared.

At the peak, it was a grassy plateau and one could touch the clouds that floated nearby. Far away from him was a massive beast that seemed like a mountain. This was the boss of this area. It was currently asleep.

Cyan only came here to enjoy the scenery, he had no intention to provoke the monster. He went near the edge of the peak and looked at the magnificent sight below. He felt like a deity looking down on all the earth.

The entirety of the island was visible to him. He could see the shores and the blue sea beyond. He could see a small village near the base of the mountain and the field of flowers growing in the plain as tiny clusters of colored dots.

Compared to the wonderful places explored by other places, this place could be regarded as merely average in terms of beauty. He wasn't an explorer, this was the only memorable place to him.

He sat down on the edge of the cliff with his legs hanging down and waited on the timer. He opened the chat and lurked as the other players started their ranting.

An hour went by unnoticed, the server was now a mere seconds away from closing down.

When the last number turned to zero, an announcement appeared to everyone.

"Dear players, thank you for staying with us for these five whole years. We have gone a long way thanks to your support. But now we have perfected the game, and we look forward to seeing you adventure the land of Erythia once again.

From the Developers"

Cyan merely skimmed through the letter and felt moved. After all, he spent his time in the game, he had invested so much and profited more, he naturally developed some feelings for it.

He opened the world map, there were still areas that were not explored yet personally by him, after all, he could not just go to every nook and crannies.

He closed the map and sighed. "Never mind."

[Attempting to Log out the player]

Cyan waited, he felt the familiar darkness flood his sight again. He was somewhat disappointed that nothing special happened.

[Logged out successfully]

The familiar mechanical voice said the same old lines.

[Logging In]

[Logged In successfully]

'Huh?' He did a double take. His heart also skipped a beat.

'C-could this be?'

Now those words were definitely unusual. However, he waited for a while but nothing happened. He could still feel his eyes that were closed, he was still in the real world and did not enter another virtual reality game.

He praised the developers in his mind as he opened his eyes.

'The developers are really clever huh...huh?'

His mind blanked out at the sight of a blue sky. After being disconnected from the VR gear, there would be some time before he could regain his senses. Now his senses returned like a sudden flood, bringing all sort of weird informations.

He could finally feel the tickle of grass on his back and the cold wind upon his skin. There was a cloud floating near his face, like a faint vapor. He could feel its moisture as well as the faint smell of dirt and soil around him.

This wasn't his apartment, and although the graphics in the game was not as real, he could still recognize the familiar feeling of looking at the sky from a high place, because that's exactly what he had been doing a few moments ago.

"This was the peak of Mt. Hermione." This was a place from a game.

He was feeling a rush of adrenaline right now, he didn't know if he was nervous or excited or both. There was a slight fear mixed, but it was overwhelmed by the idea that something amazing had happened to him.

He tried to calm down and think rationally. He sat himself up from the grasses and surveyed his environment. A meter away from him was the edge of a precipice where he was seating fearlessly before.

It was all so real. The graphics in the game was nothing to how things appear currently. Everything was dynamic. Even without any evidence or anyone telling him, he could be a hundred percent sure that this was reality. He was confident in his judgement, he wasn't a madman nor does he suffer psychological impairments that made him unable to differentiate between a game and a reality.

A transparent screen suddenly appeared out of thin air, right before his eyes. It used to be acceptable before, but now it appeared so unnatural.

-Welcome to Planet Fantasy. Please enjoy your stay.

Cyan clenched his fist and thought of the people in the forums.

"They must be jumping and dancing in joy right now."

They have somewhat won that ridiculous, imaginary bet.