1 A New World

AN: This is an interactive novel based on my original book World Gate Online in the past. Interactive meaning you, as the reader, get to choose the path our MC will take!

At the end of the chapter is a list of choices. All you need to do is to do a PARAGRAPH COMMENT on your choice which I will count. Only 1 account can vote for 1 choice. If I see 1 account vote on 2 different choices, all his votes are not counted.

By the time I write the next chapter, I will start counting and write the verdict on the next chapter.

Also, this novel is up in Scribblehub which has a poll function so I'm going to add the two sites' total count for the choice. Feel free to also vote in SH...not like I can stop it...

*If it gets too hard to count votes here, I'm gonna stop posting on this site and just focus on SH XD

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"Haaaaa...."

A young man sighed as he woke up and scratched his messy hair.

He got up and prepared to eat a simple bread with butter for breakfast. He was too lazy to cook when he had just woken up.

As someone living alone in a small apartment and completely single without a trace of a girlfriend in his life, the apartment was quite messy and all sorts of stuff were littered everywhere.

It wasn't that it was too dirty though. He still kept it relatively clean and just couldn't be bothered to place his things properly.

Anyway, he knew it best if he left it like that. If he were to fix his things, he wouldn't know where his stuff is placed the next day. For example, his ID was placed on the dining table.

On it revealed a young man with black hair and a plain face. Below it was his name, Lucas Lauwers.

If he hadn't thrown it on the table and instead kept it somewhere neatly, he would definitely forget to bring it for work the next day.

As he ate, he turned his smartphone on and started to scroll through his news feed.

"Hm?"

As he scrolled, he saw one particular post that grabbed his attention.

[Join the raffle to become one of the winners to take home the new Virtual Reality device, Portal! Along with it is the first-ever Virtual Reality MMORPG, World Gate Online!]

[Click the link below to see the details on how to join!]

"..."

Honestly, it looked quite dubious and unbelievable.

The Portal VR device is something that everyone dreamed of having. However, it was simply too expensive for normal people to get and only well-off people would be able to get one.

To put it in simpler terms, while normal people can still buy a PS7 after saving for a while, Portal costs around thrice the price of a PS7!

That's why, even though Lucas wanted to get one so badly, it was simply impossible for him who has only just graduated from university and still in the middle of finding a stable job.

The VR device Portal is unlike the past generation of VR devices. You wouldn't need to be awake in order to use it as your own thoughts and mind are turned into data and loaded in a virtual world.

Right, it is exactly like the ones you'd normally see in animes, novels, or movies.

A full-dive virtual reality device!

Naturally, everyone wanted to have it at all costs!

Looking at this post, Lucas' hesitated.

"Should I...?"

After hesitating for over a minute, Lucas sighed and gave in to his desires.

Anyway, he had nothing to lose. Might as well try and join. Who knows, it might be legit and he could win.

Lucas laughed at the thought and shook his head.

Even if the raffle was legit, he is not likely to be the only one to join. He has always had bad luck, especially with gacha games. To get chosen as one in a million...even if it's one in a thousand, he wouldn't be the chosen one.

But as he said, he had nothing to lose. Might as well try.

Like that, Lucas clicked the link and followed the instructions.

He liked the page, shared, and subscribed.

He even commented as instructed.

[Don't hack me, just let me win please!]

Lucas typed his comment and laughed as he hit the submit button.

After that, he closed his phone and stopped paying attention to it.

After finishing up his breakfast, Lucas stood up and started to go work on his part-time job as a convenience store clerk.

The convenience store he worked at was nearby which saved him with travel expenses.

Overall, it was a boring job where he only tended to the needs of the customers and cataloging the products.

He didn't experience any exciting events like someone robbing the store or shoplifting...actually, maybe someone did shoplift and he just didn't see it...

The most memorable time he had working here was probably when a beauty passed by and bought five packs of condoms. That time, Lucas was so shocked and his imaginations ran wild for the whole day, causing him to be unable to sleep...

Well, other than that, it was pretty boring every day.

Today was also the same.

A few hours had passed since he started working, he was about to end his shift in a few more minutes when a few students arrived.

There were three guys and two girls. They all seemed to be in a group as they chatted and went inside the convenience store.

"Come on, let's just grab some snacks and get back. We still need to clear Rayn's Dungeon."

"Don't be in such a hurry. The dungeon isn't going anywhere. And the first clear has already been taken a few days ago."

"I hope we can get the rare bow drop. I really need to change my weapon."

"I just want to level up fast."

"Shut it you damn whale. You already have good equipment unlike us!"

Lucas heard their conversation and thought of the game he was dreaming about. World Gate Online.

World Gate Online is a standard fantasy type MMORPG. As the only VR game out there, its popularity is so great, even national disputes are settled in the game.

Various companies rose and fell due to their connection with the game. Top ranking players had popularity equal to that of celebrities and actors in the past years.

It seems that these five students are one of the well-off families who can buy their own Portals and games unlike him.

Feeling a bit jealous, Lucas sighed and remembered the raffle he entered earlier. He sighed again thinking that he would probably lose anyway.

After settling the things those five students bought and paid for, Lucas' shift ended and he left to work on his second part-time job.

This was his daily routine.

Sleep, wake, eat, bath, work, work, eat, work, eat, sleep agian.

It's boring and tedious. However, there was nothing he could do about it.

He wasn't particularly an honor student and he just passed his tests and projects barely. It was hard for him to find a job with his capabilities.

As the day ended, Lucas turned in for the night and slept.

As he did, his phone buzzed as it vibrated, signaling that he had received a message.

[New Message]

[Congratulations!!!

You have chosen as one out of 10 lucky people which were given their own Portal device together with the game, World Gate Online!!!

Your prizes will be shortly delivered after 5 hours upon receiving this message!

Thank you for your time and good luck adventuring!]

...

*Ding Dong*

"Mmh...Who is it...waking me up so early..."

Lucas groaned when he heard his doorbell ringing.

He picked himself up and dragged his body across his apartment as he approached his door.

He looked out the peephole and saw a guy wearing a white hat and was holding a package box.

Still feeling confused, he opened the door.

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Ah, yes! Are you sir Lucas Lauwers?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Good! This is a package for you. Please sign here."

"Err, okay..."

Lucas was still confused.

What package? Did his parents send him something?

"Wait, do I have to pay anything?"

"Haha, no need. Everything's been paid for. Have a nice day!"

The delivery man smiled and bowed slightly before turning around to leave.

Lucas looked at the box roughly the size of a basketball in his hands.

He closed the door and opened up the package curiously.

As he got rid of the brown cardboard box, he saw a white clean box inside.

On it were words written in a neat and slender font.

[PORTAL]

The instant Lucas saw these strings of letters, his heart nearly stopped beating and his hands loosened for a bit.

Shocked that he was about to drop the most expensive thing he had ever held in his hands, he threw himself forward and caught the box, making sure it didn't crash to the floor.

Lucas sweated.

He had nearly destroyed such an expensive thing...although it probably had paddings inside, he'd rather not leave it to chance.

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Lucas carefully unpackaged the box.

He swore he would kill the person who sent this if this is just a prank...

As he opened the box, small visor-like glasses appeared before him.

This is the VR Device, Portal! It's really the real thing!

As Lucas removed the visor out of the box, he carefully looked at it from every angle. After making sure there wasn't any scratch on it and that it was intact, he placed it on the table carefully.

He then took out the rest of the things inside the box.

Charger cable, present.

Data cable, present.

Instructions manual, present.

World Game Online game, present!

Lucas held a small rectangular flat box in his hands which had the words World Gate Online written on the cover, along with an image of dragons and other races drawn on the background.

It looked like the standard case one would see in other game consoles, however, it isn't something that you can open.

Instead, there is a small port below it which you can use to connect to the Portal.

Lucas held the data cable that came in with the Portal and attached it to the game and Portal.

Then, he wore the Portal on his head and booted it.

He could see the screen load. After a while, it finished booting and he was asked to enter his credentials or make a new account.

He focused on the new account option with his eyes and it showed a new page.

As the visor was transparent, he could still see his surroundings. A holo keyboard appeared in front of him.

The visor tracked his hand movements and could tell which keys he had pressed even though in reality, Lucas was merely typing in mid-air.

Lucas forgot the fact that it was 3 am in the morning and that he only had 5 hours of sleep as he excitedly made his account and finished setting up his Portal.

Once everything was set up properly, he saw an icon on his dashboard with the logo WGO.

He focused on it with his eyes on it and it showed a downloading progress bar.

Seeing as it might take a while, Lucas left it for now and removed the Portal on his head.

He settled it back on the table and got ready for the day.

Lucas didn't go and resign on any of his part-time works yet as he still needed money and it would take a while to earn money in the game.

In any case, he can play while he slept so at most, he would only have less gaming time than the others.

While Lucas ate breakfast, he opened his phone again as he searched for various information on the game.

In the game, players are asked to create a character first. However, you don't get to choose your class immediately as you can only do so once you reach level 10.

You can freely allocate stats below level 10 without minding your future stats when you've chosen a class since stats are reset after choosing a class. It isn't too late to allocate them again according to your class.

At the moment, Lucas decided not to think about his class for now as he wanted to observe the classes for a while.

For now, his main decision is which race and continent to start with.

The world in the game is called Harus. It is composed of five main continents but only four to choose from.

Northern Continent - a land filled with monsters and dwarven mountains.

Eastern Continent - a land home to the werebeasts. Half-human, half-animals.

Western Continent - a land where elves rule and hunt. Occationally, one could also see fairies and pixies.

Southern Continent - a land with various countries and kingdoms of humans.

Central Continent - the unknown continent where the various races strive to conquer.

As one can tell, your continent would depend on which race you choose from.

"Now...which one is good...?"

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Next chap will probably be on Friday this week or next week Tuesday.

VOTE:

Dwarf - Northern Continent

Werebeast - Eastern Continent

Elf - Western Continent

Human - Southern Continent