The sound of dramatic fantasy music blares throughout the empty apartment. A single light source illuminates a tired face on the day of New Year’s Eve.
The music drowns out a defeated sigh, but at least the breath of suffering let out some pent-up frustration within Jalen’s body.
‘Another ruined campaign huh? Well, I figured it would come out this way considering half of my party gave up after 2 weeks.’
Jalen has spent the past 6 months spending the latter half of his days playing the newest RPG game to release, The World of Darandia. The World of Darandia is a revolutionising game that gives players an authentic experience of living in an ever-evolving world. You are grouped with a party of 100 players per world, and the way it works is that as each day passes in the real world, a month passes in the game.
You can allocate your time during your month to train, socialize, do quests, and so much more that it was very frustrating to play the game in the beginning. You could go out and start a farm, you could join a revolution, you could even get a lover and have children. This made every campaign extremely fresh, and the game’s replayability was like no other.
There was only one thing consistent with every campaign no matter what, and that was the World Quests. Each World Quest would happen so far into the game, and if your party of 100 failed the World Quest, your campaign was over. On top of that, if you died, you were deleted from the campaign. You could always start another one the next day, and each new campaign also started at 7 am.
It is thought that the campaign would end after 36 days or 3 years in the game. No one has yet to make it past the quest on day 33, known as the Awakening of the Demonic God, so the 36-day theory is just that, a theory.
Jalen and his newest group made it to day 33, however, he too failed in overcoming the Demonic God. In fact, he fell at the boss you encounter before you even met the actual Demonic God. That’s right, Jalen hasn’t even made it to the Demonic God.
The boss that has ruined his run for the third time now is named Xironia. She is a fellow student of yours in the game if you decide to go to Herald Academy. At first, Xironia seems like an innocent girl with a cold personality, but she later shows her true colors and burns down nations one by one if not taken care of quickly. On top of that, the game won’t let you interact with her as every time you do, your character just says ‘It’s too dangerous, maybe I should do something else’.
“There has got to be some way to beat this game.”
While moaning in frustration, Jalen hears his phone ding. Looking down, he can see a text from his manager, Christina.
“Hey. Boss is getting really tired of you coming into work exhausted. Are you okay? I know being a Chemist wasn’t your first option, but you could at least come to work with a smile. Anyways, I hope you have a Happy New Years. If you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask me for help.”
Jalen lets out another defeated sigh before tossing his phone to the side and walking towards his bed. As he is about to pull back the covers, a chirping sound echoes throughout his room. A message appears on Jalen’s screen through the system of The World of Darandia. Turning around, Jalen sees a message from someone within the group he was paired with in the most recent campaign.
OWKAMI: Frustrating isn’t it?
Jalen tilts his head as he doesn’t remember communicating much with this other player. Most players kept to the parties they made within the group of 100, however, Jalen didn’t make a party this time and tried to handle the game solo.
Though Jalen doesn’t understand why someone was messaging right after a loss, Jalen wasn’t cold-hearted enough to ignore an invitation to a conversation about his new obsession.
The chair squeaked and the glowing keyboard clacked loudly as Jalen responded.
Kaiser: Not really. I messed up early and couldn’t recover since I was trying to do a solo run.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
OWKAMI: I saw what you trying to do something, but I couldn’t understand it. Can you please explain Day 7?
“Ahhhhh, I see.”
Information was king in RPG games. It seems this person had seen Jalen during his first incident. Thinking back on it, Jalen laughed at his humiliating experience.
Kaiser: I had heard that there was a secret quest that lead to a way to learn Alchemy.
Kaiser: I decided to follow on this information and found myself with an old man, who promised to teach me if I did a few… Humiliating tasks.
OWKAMI: Is that why you walked around on all fours with a leash attached to your neck? Because an old man said he would teach you Alchemy?
Jalen chuckles when thinking about the ridiculousness of his failures, but there was always next campaign.
OWKAMI: In fact, what makes you even want Alchemy? Even the people within the world don’t even pursue it much?
Kaiser: That’s the thing. Most traditional methods of the game have been min-maxed so far that it is obvious the NPCs do not directly know a way to win the game. The only thing left is obscure things that seem impossible.
OWKAMI: Then why Alchemy? Do you not know what happens Day 14?
Of course Jalen does. Day 14 is the whole reason he got addicted to the game.
On day 14, an Alchemist discovers a way to create a way to make runic inscriptions on potions. These inscriptions made it so he could cast any spell as long as he had the Curia to do so. The idea of being able to actually bend reality to your will had interested Jalen so much that he would never miss that quest.
“Maybe it’s because I wish I could do that in real life.”
After discovering this power on Day 14, the Alchemist goes crazy due to extracting the Curia of a psychic demon and burns down the Feronian empire. The group of 100 are tasked with hunting him down.
Kaiser: Because what happens on Day 14 makes me believe that Alchemy is the answer to everyone’s problems.
OWKAMI: How would you get passed the side effects of extracting powerful Curia?
Kaiser: Unfortunately, the game won’t let me figure that one out. I’m a chemist in real life so maybe I could find something around it…
OWKAMI: How about we bounce ideas off of each other.
Kaiser: Okay sure… I was thinking if you could make a mechanism in which the person could extract the Curia themselves.
OWKAMI: We already know everything that can be made, so there’s nothing like that.
Kaiser: I know, but just theoretically. Maybe if you find the Curia that is an opposite typing of what you want, you could drink that to be able to extract the desired Curia.
OWKAMI: Ohhh, that’s a good idea. But maybe you need something simpler.
Kaiser: If you want to go that simple, just be immune to any sort of Curia.
OWKAMI: Exactly!
The sound of a bell being struck in the distance rings out as it turns midnight. The sound of fireworks exploding in the distance floods the town.
OWKAMI: If someone is born with an Anti Curia. Anti Curia would make it so you would never be harmed by actual Curia. That would make you the greatest Alchemist ever!
Kaiser: I don’t know about that.
OWKAMI: What do you mean?
Kaiser: Chemistry is hard enough, I’m sure Alchemy is just as hard. There are specific interactions between Curia, and there are probably certain amounts that have to be mixed together to create the preferred potion. That is just the bare minimum basis, I’m sure there is even more to it but I can’t be asked to go further in-depth over text.
The bell strikes a second time.
OWKAMI: Do you think you could do it? Do you think you could be a good Alchemist?
Kaiser: A good Alchemist? No.
Kaiser: I would be the greatest Alchemist to ever live.
Kaiser: I would be an Alchemist so powerful, I would change fate, and defeat the Demonic God.
The bell strikes for a third time.
OWKAMI: Perfect. You have three years to do so. Good luck Kaiser.
As the third toll of the bell finishes, Jalen feels his body become numb and a blankness permeates his mind.
An unknown amount of time passes before Jalen can feel the blankness leaving his mind. A blinding light forces Jalen to cover his eyes. The sound of people talking and murmuring is deafening.
Jalen sits up and looks around, seeing more than thirty people surrounding him. They all are wearing the same robes. The most eye-catching part of these robes is the green star symbol on their chest, known as the Star of the Herald.
‘Huh, so I’m at Herald Academy…'
Everyone continues to stare at Jalen as his mind finally fully process what has happened.
"WHAT??!!!"