Inside the popular game, Overlord. Many players sat down inside a huge building. Without enough permission, not anyone can enter the building. But today, thousands of players had a meeting inside this building.
This is a building owned by Mercy Guild, a mid-ranked Guild inside Overlord. A burly man stood at the head of a seat with 'Gale' name above his head.
He knocks on the table and said "Everyone, I understand that every one of you here received a strange invitation from a game called Eternal Online. We already to agreed yesterday that this is could be an opportunity for us mid-ranked players, or a distraction from the top-ranked player."
"Now, is there anyone who wants to volunteer to test the game? None? Okay then, every guild master here needs to appoint some of their members to test the water. As for a few of you that are free player or streamer, I know that you didn't have obligation to listen to us, but if you willing to test the game, please share it with us the information."
All of the attendance presents nodded their head and agreed. Many guild masters then appoint a few of their members on the spot to test the water.
...
In a tiny apartment, a young adult takes off his VR helmet and leaning his body to the back of the chair. He sighed and picked up an invitation letter he received yesterday.
His name is Sung Woon, a university student. He is the second strongest player in his guild and volunteered himself after no one was willing to be a guinea pig.
"Sigh, let's see what is this all about then..." He stood up and booted up his secondary computer. He took precautions because his main pc is his lifeblood, and if the invitation was a virus, it's too late for regret then. He quickly enters the address that takes him to an impressive game introduction page.
"A VR game where you can do anything, a complete world with lifelike A.I, Every NPC is unique, 100% real-life simulated?!?" His eye bulged for every paragraph he read.
He then quickly register his id and presented by 4 basic class, Warrior, Mage, Thief, and Priest. He chooses his favorite class, thief, and tried to download the game, but the button doesn't work.
"I knew it. There is no way all of that is true. Phew, it is just a prank then..." He smiled and was relieved because he feels that those things the game claimed to be preposterous.
At the same time, a notification popped up that he needs to print something before able to download the game. He then shrugged and connect to the printer, he wants to see what kind of prank this website can pull off.
Soon a page of the agreement was printed in front of him. He read the agreement and find nothing out of sort. Maybe something strange about this was the scribble on the bottom of the page.
He thinks nothing of it and reaches for a pen to sign his name. He then scanned the document and upload it to the website. Now he just needs to wait for what kind of prank this website has for him.
...
In the middle of nowhere, on the Hinterland Eternal World. Joe's avatar stood in front of 100 unconscious people of many professions. He kidnapped them to become NPC for his 'newbie village NPC' game.
One of them was a Tier-2 Super old man war veteran. Joe decides to give this old man village head position. He then proceeded to erase all the villager's memories about their previous village.
He didn't forget about the class tutor and kidnapped a few Tier-1 supers and erase all their memories except combat experience. After that, he then woke them all up and urge them to build their village here.
Many of them were confused but soon realized that this man in front of them saved them from demon beast and told that they are a refugee. So they quickly build their village here. He then gives subtle hint to the village head that this village name will be 'Beginner Village'.
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An image popped upon his head with a faint connection to another world. Sung Woon's face then appeared beside Carmilla in his mind.
"So, the first player has appeared, eh?" He then returned to his main body and create the first player. After that, he arranged large scale one-way teleportation using mana stone to the outside of Beginner Village. He then imprints the soul inside the body so when Sung Woon logged in, he will occupy the body.
...
Sung Woon patiently waits for a few minutes while looking at his phone. Then a window popped up on his monitor saying that he can download the game and experience Eternal Online. He quickly downloads the game only to be greeted by a 100 MB program.
He laughed.
"Hahahaha! At least do a better job if you want to prank people! 100 MB VR game? Che.." But he quickly retrieves his VR headset and tests the program, because he still needs to report to his guild master.
A few seconds later, the program finished downloading and he opened the program called 'Eternal Online'. A pop-up told him to wear a VR headset and close his eyes. He did what the program told him as he enters deep sleep.
He quickly opened his eye but to be greeted by total darkness. He tried to move his hand but to no avail. He then heard a Ding sound in his head and a string of words displayed in front of him.
> [Welcome to the Eternal Online, Beta Tester!]
>
> This is once in a lifetime opportunity to change your destiny.
>
> This game still in the Closed Beta phase, so only 1,000 lucky players selected to experience Eternal Online.
>
> Please think your in-game name.]
Sung Woon instinctively thinks of his previous in-game name on Overlord, 'Gazelle'.
> [Gazelle was available
>
> Are you sure to choose this name?]
'Yes!' he thought.
> [Gazelle was chosen.
>
> Thief class was chosen.
>
> Welcome to the Eternal World!]
Sung Woon's vision suddenly brightened and he tried to cover his eyes with this sudden change. After his eyes adjusted to the light, he opened his eyes.
His jaw then hit the floor. The ultra-realistic landscape is presented in front of his eyes. Not only that, he felt the wind blowing his face. Every strand of grass, every blade of the leaf, every drop of water, every grain of sand feel real in front of his eyes.
The most frightening thing that this game doesn't lag! Even with his main pc playing Overlord, he occasionally gets lagged by the sheer number of things that happened around him. But currently, he using his crappy secondary pc and this game doesn't lag! He heard a gasping sound behind him that makes him snapped out of his daze.
He instantly crouched and touch all the grass and grain, he even pulls the grass and tried to eat them. His eyes widened in shock and disbelief. He can taste the grass! His breathing quicken as he yelled, "This.. what kind of sorcery is this!?"
Many players started to appear out of thin air around him and had the same expression. Disbelief. They are veteran gamers so they all knew what impact this game when the game launched! But the player is still a player, some mischievous player starts to undress and laughed maniacally.
"Hahahaha! This game has dong! There is no censorship! All hail Eternal Online!" Some players even tried to harass female players but got banned by the system.
> [Detected violation of behavior. The user has been paralyzed for 1 hour. If the user continues to misbehave, The penalty would be increased].
They then see the player lifelessly drop to the ground. Seeing this, many mischievous players started to behave. They still want to experience this incredible game.
Sung Woon suppressed his emotion and said "Status Window!" Many players heard him and followed suit. A string of text appeared in front of Sung Woon
> (Status)
>
> Name: Gazelle
>
> Class: Thief
>
> Title: None
>
> Level: 1 (Tier-0 Mortal)
>
> Exp Stored: 0%
>
> Free Attributes: 0
>
> Attributes: STR 1.5 AGI 1.5 END 1 VIT 1 INT 1 MYS 1 SPI 1 RES 1 LUK 1
>
> Health : 10/10 Regen : 0.1/Sec
>
> Mana : 10/10 Regen : 0.1/Sec
>
> Attack: 15 Physical Defense 10
>
> Magic: 10 Magic Defense 10
>
> Mind Resistance: 1%
>
> Traits: Innate Strength, Innate Agility
>
> Ability: None
Sung Woon then reached his bag and found some items inside. A mask, a dagger, and a beginner book. Because this game didn't alter your face if people want to conceal their identity they can use the mask.
Sung Woon then read the book to understand game mechanics and rules. This game has no real 'rule', you can do anything outside doing the main quest, which is conquering Hinterland Eternal World. If you are killed, you can choose to be reincarnated instantly but lose all your belonging and all of attributes and exp, meaning a clean slate. The only thing you can retain are Titles, Guild, Reputation, and Affiliation.
Or you can be brought to life by any priest player with 80% weakened status for 1 hour. It is also written that you need a complete corpse.
Or, if you only had half of your body left, you can buy 'Life Stone' aka. Joe's magic stone to rebuild the created body. It's only worked for the player's artificial body though.
Sung Woon understood this game is geared towards collective gameplay and does not suit for a lone wolf type player to play. Maybe it will be possible in the future after the game officially launched, though?