How many days have it been? To a person who eagerly waited for time to pass, everything seemed to last even longer than the usual. Whether it was due to the placebo effect or disillusionment, humans often wasted their time doing something unnecessary for unnecessary needs unrelated to their benefits.
For one, a person who strongly supported the idea that humanity must become more efficient and self-introspective, was sitting behind her work desk. Her brilliant hazel eyes dirtied by sleep depravity and there were even eye bags showing clearly.
Her skin tone was also pale to the extent of as pale as a corpse, and it looked as if blood was not running within the skinny limbs. Veiling the petite yet bountiful figure exuding adult charms was a very, very long straight blonde hair too lazy to even receive a haircut for three years.
The odd thing would have been how the hair could stay smooth and straight without any problem whatsoever but as if the subject was concerned about it. Rather, would it kill you by simply having long hair like this? Of course not but it was definitely bothersome for others excepting her.
“……haa… that damn Chief. As if a game which utilized hundreds of AIs working together could have its net of security be hacked through. Just what is he worrying anyway?”
Fiddling with the multi-keyboards surrounding the desk, the petite woman… or one could say, the Genius Programmer who perfected Virtual Space grumpily complained. A white lab coat draping over her minuscule tank top with mini skirts which bordered immorality, and a tag displaying the name ‘Angelica W.’ was attached to the left chest area of the coat.
“Be it the system AIs, the servers, and the databases are working without any problem. Both the logs and data reports checked periodically are also showing no significant numbers other than some freaks who liked to do ill-humored things within VS. Oh, let’s just track a few and give Thanatos a list to be glared at. But which child should I relay this message…?”
The woman pondered, a finger at her cute rosebud lips. With a smile as if she brought the innocence of the world to view, she typed on the keyboards in a frightening pace.
“Well, Veenia usually relayed my message. And I scarcely gave orders to the boys. Let’s give a task for the most inexperienced one, which is Luna this time.”
As she decided to give a command through her authority as one of the Administrators, Angelica hummed a tune. It was always this kind of work that she met, doing nothing but boring stuffs. For her who was regarded unparalleled in intellect and way of thinking, people would find her as a madman or perhaps an eccentric.
Even so—it was better than being a normal human. As the current humanity was drunk with the VS and all there was to it, people became blinded by the magnificence of new world, immortality and desires just like how their predecessors came to be.
In fact, there had been increasing amount of crimes and cases related to the misuse of VS. Some cooped their selves within augmented reality and ending up hospitalized due to malnutrition. Others became serial killers or rapists who obtained everything they wanted because what they did were in the realm of ‘Game’ and not ‘Reality’.
Excuses. Excuses. Excuses. So many lies piled together it made her sick of socializing with her co-workers. if there was anyone who she could tolerate talking to would be her family and her boss but sadly enough—
“………now that I think about it… has it reached him yet…?”
Silently murmuring, the woman rotated her head to the side. Far from the desk. In the dark office where messy documents and books scattered around… there was a photograph of a family residing at the corner of the shelves. It had long been forgotten and it was never touched ever since the fallout of the house years ago.
……all because of a kid who did not show excuses, lies, answers or denials and instead, sinking into the lightless abyss without anyone noticing it.
How could that boy turn like this? Just what kind of pains did he suffer for him to lose his heart like that?
Angelica was, perhaps… the smartest person throughout the world at the current era. Even so, what she could never understand was what humanity often coped with ever since the beginning of their history. Such a simple thing and yet it could cause a disaster unprecedented to all.
A black box—could be the correct term to call it. She was intrigued, and yet she was also sickly worried about her little brother she doted for so many years.
His smile. His vigor. His spirits which brought life and colors in her monotonous life were no more. Now… all that remained was simply an empty husk. A bag of flesh and blood breathing and devouring like a cattle.
The more she thought about him, the bigger the pain throbbing in her chest. But as she was also a sister, she was also a supervisor of a monstrous game which combined the properties of military, medical technology and wishes of many.
Even the Capsule she delivered to Steve… was one which was a prototype to create a Cryogenic Hibernation Capsule to save those who could not be saved using current technologies. Not to mention it functioned as a connector with the VS, it was definitely a mean to achieve immortality while still being a mortal.
Angelica just hoped that her little brother knew nothing about this information else he would definitely chose to sleep forever. And she did not want to see him getting further and further away from everyone.
(…it’s wrong… it’s wrong… it’s wrong if we are not together, Steve……)
In her mind, she imagined her family having fun together. Both the mother and father cooking barbeques, Steve running from John with a proud smile after playing a prank, and Angelica who was laughing as she watched her two younger siblings from a moderate distance.
It was so vivid. It was too vivid that her eyes moistened. Angelica turned away from the photograph, pulling herself together as a small hope remained in her heart.
(…not yet… Maybe it’ll be long before everything could return to how it is… Even so… my children…… please help my little brother to escape the cruel fates given to him…… Please save Steve.)
All that was left was a Virtual Space which was connected with the military nations in search of talented individuals to be added into their ranks.
All that was left was an Augmented Reality which was connected with thousands of people who might never be able to wake up again.
All that was left… was a Game which held the possibility to return the smiles some who had forgotten how to do so due to the Joker who twisted their lucks around.
Angelica did not believe that fate existed. Otherwise, some people would be predestined to have misfortunes and washed by the cruel reality. Otherwise, that meant she accepted the current Steve who suffered despite being innocent. Otherwise, turning a blind eye saying ’that’s just how life is’ proved as the most correct despite such view being too messed up to accept.
Because of her mindset, she earnestly studied in the effects of Virtual Space for the psyche of humans. She met various people in her field of works and within this CYBERION Corps, she was granted a position that might have been the key to unlock her dreams.
Now at the age of 25, Angelica finally attained a mean and that was through the use of a worldwide online game preserving all the aspects of struggle, mending and nourishment of a life. It was the perfect opportunity to cure Steve.
Through it, various procedures were set up. It even reached to an extent of ordering FDG for each of her family members. Angelica also had one back in her apartment where she commuted from to this company. But it was very hard to make sure her little brother to not notice her intentions as he had already rejected all kind of helps before.
Therefore—the last mean to cure him was to force him with medication regardless of his intentions. And Angelica was prepared to even drag all of her acquaintances and family in order to achieve miracle.
It was cruel indeed. But there’s no way a sibling bound by blood and strong bonds forged from past experiences could be permitted to drown in despair. No siblings could ever watch their younger siblings losing the vigor of light after the injustice the world gave to them without doing anything.
That’s why she prayed. She wished for a miracle to occur. She wished that fates never existed. She earnestly prayed, for whoever it was that could hear her, to grant happiness back to her dearly beloved younger brother. And she would make it happen if no one else could do it.
He suffered enough. He anguished enough. I don’t want to lose him anymore so please grant him a second chance.
“Please don’t let him be like this. Oh God, wherever you are and whomever you are…… please hear my wish… Save my little brother……”
As she prayed, she did not notice a monitor at the corner of her vision was displaying a log of recent activities within the vicinity of a certain town. Because of the powerful realism given form by multiple AIs working together to ‘create’ a world, many threads of data must be processed in high speed with incredulous accuracy.
Because of that, even the debugger programs were half monitored by Users and AIs in a cell of two.
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However, for the prodigious woman who could literally edit thirty-two threads of command scripts and logs all at the same time, she simply left unnecessary matters which included recent logs of NPCs to the AIs. It was because the data which did not inhibit extreme interactions with players could never have their firewalls and surveillance be broken by nonexistent hackers.
After all, the AIs were the ones who observed these NPCs personally. They were very trusted and Angelica considered them as her clones if not her children who would never make a second mistake. And so far, they had done nothing which should be glared at.
Oblivious to her current concern, it proved how wrong she was to ignore the smallest problem in a framework equal to the system governed by humans in the futuristic Earth. For the smallest fire was always capable of burning down an entire castle in one night as long as the required circumstances and conditions were met.
Little did she know that her dreamless hope had already vanished in a matter of several hours before her prayer escaped her lips. And she would soon realize it in the most unthinkable way.
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A world of its own, located within Virtual Space which was holding an artificial Reality. It was in a way, ironic and meaningful for electric signal was channeling the thoughts of billions from another world into a projection from an extremely advanced computer circuitry.
However, before it was what it is now, the world did not only extend to an island.
From the beginning, this world was not supposed to be entered by Voyagers. It was a simple world where less people, animals and plants lived without understanding anything except through the guidance of the AIs. And because of that, it was decided by the Creators to develop this simple world to be filled with infinite wonders and varying life-forms.
Therefore, the passage of time accelerated. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of years went in a blink of an eye to make the world rich enough for the Voyagers to struggle in.
After so many wars. After so many rises and falls over the course of time. After so many creation and destruction reset history… finally, the artificial world which was supposed to encompass the land and the sea and the sky… were consumed in the ravages of wars.
Nobody knew what war had happened. But existences transcending life, death and time refused to tell anyone and thus slumbered. Seeking for eternal peace as well as tranquility rather than watching over the repeating history.
In the end, what had remained of the world was a slab of land floating in the sky, abundant with water and nature with races strong enough to survive the blank period of history. However, even though the island had set sailed to cross the world by traversing within the line between the heaven and earth……
Mortals struggled to survive. Immortals were awakened to be defeated. Conflicts spread and chaos thrived, as if mocking the descendants who had forgotten the tragedy of the past.
Struggle as they might, suffering would appear as long as people with ‘heart’ continued to live. Even more so—for a race known as human.
“Haa…! Haa! Ha!!”
In the vicinity of towns which were called as ‘Frontier’ by a few, usually, there existed Dungeons large enough to be titled Raid Dungeons despite there having no Raid Boss. Even among the network of information within the forums, a few of these Raid Dungeons were also tricky enough to change every day or perhaps every hour.
Not to mention the monsters which would spawn indefinitely were capable of growing stronger if left alone. These Raid Dungeons existed as a trial for the Voyagers to test their might, teamwork and wits other than the bountiful rewards. But for the NPCs—these places were called as Forbidden Regions which one should never set their feet in to.
“Kyah!” –a shriek was heard. Tumbling down a depressed part of the land, a figure rolled down within the sea of green grasses extremely roughly.
Not even luck was on her side as her back struck a fallen dead tree bark, the dry impact spread a profound sound with her insides being rattled by pains. Air left her lungs, her vision blurred and she curled in fetal position. Her entire will permitted not to cry notwithstanding her shivering youthful body.
But before she could recover, quick footsteps arrived in her vicinity. She heard low glowering sounds full of filthy desires. Fear struck her nerves, but as someone who was abandoned even by her parents and was sold off as a slave, pain was something she gotten used to.
Therefore she looked up, even though every single cell inside her body screamed to run away.
Therefore she gazed up, knowing that truth was even more painful than gentle lies.
There were five pairs of eyes. Those dull yellow eyes without a figment of intellects stared back at hers. Their exposed skinny torso were showing dark green color, albeit some muscles were present as they could lift swords and bucklers along with crude wooden armors.
They were goblins. The monsters infesting many areas within Daedalus. But those which possessed enough knowledge to arm their selves were known as Hobgoblins. Of course, this wisdom came from blabbering mouths which passed by when her cage was returned back into the storage due to her being never bought by the nobles.
Then one day—she was bought by one before being beaten up without a cause. Framed as a criminal, she was also exiled and now she was about to die after running tirelessly from the dangers lurking within the darkness outside the protection of a town.
Scary. Scary. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die like this. Not like this. Her thought uttered repeatedly like the chimes of bell. Loud, dizzying and hurting. Even so, what else could she do other than pleading now that her body had lost any energy necessary for her to struggle, much less to escape.
One step… the Hobgoblin approached.
One step forward…… the heart thumped so fast she felt it was going to explode.
(……Ah… so this is my end……)
That thought flashed as her mind stopped working. Surrendering to the cruel fate that was ready to take her away—
“Oh, what do we have here…?”
Suddenly, there was a slashing sound. It was definitely coming from a blade being swung, she thought. Her body jolted as she thought the end had arrived… and yet after five counts, she was still… breathing.
Darkness concealed her view. It’s not that she was blind, but the girl was so afraid that she thought she was blinded. However, as the echoes of screams and slashing sounds did not come to a stop, she pretended to be a corpse.
Ten counts… thirty counts…… the moment silence shrouded everything, the girl finally encouraged herself to open her eyes. In fear of being found out she was, yet the will to see truth toppled over her instinct to remain ‘dead’ in front of the adversaries.
However—
“Khaaa!?” –with a strong kick striking her abdomen, the girl flew and bounced over the ground. A sudden question over what had happened crossed her mind but the pain was immense.
Too much to bear as a lump of coagulated blood rose from her throat and she vomited the crimson fluid out. If one were to look at her carefully, one could see how broken bones and ruptured organs must have been the causes for her to be in such state.
“—To think you’re still alive despite looking like a skeleton and with those wounds… Praise your tenacity for making it this far, slave girl.”
A voice interrupted her inner confusion. The girl instantly looked up, as if realizing it was a voice of a person. No, she thought it was coming from a human and she was correct. Although……
“Hm… an NPC, huh…? Though you already have your share of troubles, but…”
With his lips curled downward, forming like a creepy crescent moon, the person stood over piles of dead bodies. Those bodies were butchered cleanly, and yet no blood was flowing from them despite how cleanly sliced their flesh and bones were.
“Hello there, piece of shit which has not even an ounce of value in life. Do you want to die right here and now…”
His bloodied clothes proved his foreign origin. His tall stature was menacing to even look at. Exposed above the ragged tunic was a neck with a huge scar as if his head was once decapitated and then reattached back.
With the pair of golden pupils under his dark long bangs gazing at the girl… It was as if those eyes were piercing through her soul.
Danger. Danger. He's dangerous. He's dangerous. I will be killed by him. I am going to die...!
In panic, she gasped. In immense fear of the unknown who has saved her, she trembled. Even as she hyperventilated, no voice could come out as tears streamed down her dirty cheeks and sticking black hair.
Then—in one breath, the Blood Smeared Devil said.
“…Or… do you want to live as my test subject till there’s nothing left of you?”
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A/N: Now there are two new characters! What's this? Heroine's entrance? And who is the Main Heroine in this series? Well... you should read on if you want to find out!! Muahahahahaha!