“Rahhhh!!--”
A red knight charges across the battlefield, a long cape flows behind him. He's running towards the final boss >>Demon King<<. Before the knight can reach him, the Demon King fires off one of his strongest skills--- >>Mana Pulse<< and a bright red beam launches from his outstretched palm.
The knight is surprised and attempts to jump out of the way but his reaction speed is slow. Before the magic attack can reach him, a figure jumps between the knight and the attack at the last moment.
--KAABOOOOOM!!
A huge explosion rocks the surrounding area. The knight who had reflexively closed his eyes opens them to assess the damage. To his surprise he's taken no damage. As the smoke clears he notices the figure standing in front of him. A silver knight in full platemail, similar to his own, stands tall wielding a tower shield on each arm. A spirited voice comes out from under the silver knight's helmet.
“Oi, Oi, don't get reckless now man, he's almost finished. He's only got about 5% health left”
The red knight smiles and gives a retort.
“Thanks man, now--” the red knight stands up and gives the silver knight a slap on the back.
“--Let's finish this”
“You got it.” The silver knight says that as he charges towards the Demon King and activates his special skill <
“Hey you shitty Demon King I thought I told you to look at me!!”
The Taunt effect of the skill forces monsters to attack the user. The Demon King is no exception and turns his attention to the silver knight. He charges in an attempt to get into close combat. It's at this moment that the red knight yells out an order.
“All magic users, Attack now!”
A little ways behind the 2 knights, 2 groups of 5 people have their hands raised to the sky. One group is dressed in all red robes, many of which have golden trim. Some are gripping staffs, others wands. Above them, floating in mid air, is a fiery mass of molten Earth.
At the same time about 500ft to the left of them are mages in similar get-ups except blue with silver trim. They also have their arms raised towards the sky and above them is a Giant Icicle with the pointed end aimed at the Demon King. Upon the red knight's order, the mages throw their arms down towards the demon king in unison.
“<
“<
The mages all yell in unison and the two large masses blast towards the Demon King at a supersonic speed. There is a split second of silence as the attack makes it's way towards it's target and then--
--BAAKKOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!!
A massive explosion even bigger than when the Demon King launched his attack explodes causing debris to fly everywhere. Before the dust can even settle the red knight rushes in. He can see two figures standing close together. One is the Silver knight who was drawing the Demon Kings attention earlier and the other was the Demon King Himself. Both seem haggard but the Demon King looked to be on his last legs.
The red knight rushes forward and launches his strongest attack.
“<
The sword pierces the Demon King's chest and Engulfs him in flames. When the Demon King finally falls on his back there is the picturesque scene of the knight standing over him with both hands on the sword and his cape flapping in the wind with the setting sun as the backdrop. At that moment, everyone involved in the battle gets a system message.
The Demon King has been defeated
Everyone who sees the message raises their hands in triumph and lets loose a victory celebration.
“WE DID IT!!”
***
A rowdy celebration is happening at the largest pub of the capitol city. The red knight and magicians as well as others that had participated in the earlier battle are laughing amongst themselves and dancing to the music played by bards. Many have mugs filled with adult beverages.
The red knight separates himself and heads to the bar to get another drink. While doing so he notices the silver knight sitting by himself in a corner of the room. With his helmet off he is staring with cold blue eyes into the drink on the table in front of him.
The red knight grabs his beer and heads toward the silver knight's table. He pulls out the chair opposite the silver knight and sits down.
“Oi~, whats with the look?”
the silver knight doesn't respond and only continues to stare into his drink.
“Hey Gii!!” --CLAP!
The red knight raises his voice and stands up to clap his hands in front of Gii's face.
“--Wha!? ...oh, it just you Blaze...”
Blaze sits back down with a frown on his face.
“What kind of reaction is that? Why can't you at least look a little happier....there is a celebration going on you know..”
“haha...i'm just thinking about some stuff”
Gii let's out a half hearted laugh with a wry smile on his face in response.
“What could you possibly be thinking about right now? Crux just became 1 of 20 guilds to clear the final quest right? We're officially Elite now!”
Blaze exclaims with a smile on his face and follows up with a swig of the mug in his hand.
“well that's true...but...you know....”
“Haa~!” --Clunk
Blaze slams the mug down on the table and stares directly back at Gii with a reddened face and a Hazy gaze.
“What? Spit it out.”
“Well, I mean this is our last outing in Listonia Online right?”
“Hmm...now that you mention it...”
Blaze scratches his head as if just realizing the fact.
“this was the first vrmmo I ever played, so I was feeling a bit nostalgic about everything.”
vrmmo's have been popular for many years now ever since the technology was first invented nearly 3 decades ago. In that time the games have made great strides from the early games with no emotions and predictable AI's and NPC's. The genre seemed to have reached a bottleneck until researchers at the technology conglomerate CRIT, developed the “New World” dynamic AI system. It is a system that allowed AI's within a game world act with the same intelligence and self awareness as a real human would.
When they released the license rights for public use, new vrmmo's started popping up everywhere and the surrounding technology, such as how the players interacted, grew alongside the AI. Out of all the vrmmo games that were released in the last 10 years, one stood out. That would be Listonia Online. With a sprawling world and thousands of NPC's, it separated itself from the competition. However after 10 years of being on top the game is finally beginning to show it's age and the company that made it recently announced that the sever was being shut down so that they could focus on future endeavors.
“Hmm...if you put it that way, I guess I could see why you might be a bit down. But that's all the more reason you should enjoy this while you can!”
Blaze gave his thoughts while getting up and heading to the bar to get another drink. Gii smiled wryly to himself and jumped out of his chair and headed towards the bar.
“Bartender two drinks on me!”
Blaze turned around with a smile on his face and slapped Gii on the shoulder.
“That's the spirit!”
***
Darren blinks his eyes awake and stares at the dimly lit ceiling through the visor of his VR neuro-headset. He sits up and takes off the headset and places it on the edge of his bed, next to his pillow. After acclimating to his surroundings he steals a glance at the digital clock on his windowsill. It reads 9:35.
is it really past 9 already?
Darren gets up off of his bed and heads to the only window in his room. Splitting the blinds with his index and middle finger, he stares down to the street 2 stories below. It is only lit by a single street light. Having confirmed the time outside, he lets out a yawn and scratches his belly while heading to the kitchen.
The walk isn't that far considering the apartment is only 3 rooms. The bedroom and bathroom are the only separate rooms and come off of the main room that is a kitchen and living room combined which are separated by a half wall and a pillar.
Mumbling some thoughts under his breadth, Darren walks straight into the kitchen and opens the fridge to inspect his options. After observing for a few minutes he lets out a sigh and hangs his head.
“Sigh~~~there's really nothing left...guess i'll go to the store.”
With that, Darren closes the fridge and lazily drags himself to get dressed, although it's only putting on some pants and a jacket. On the way out he grabs the keys and wallet that are on the counter.
He heads out the door and zips up his jacket while heading down the stairs of the apartment complex. He blows on his hands and the steam from his breath warms them before he hastily shoves them in the jacket pockets.
Damn old man winter, can't you delay your arrival a bit?
Darren heads down his street and begins making his way to the convenience store a couple of blocks from his apartment. While walking down the street his mind begins to swirl with thoughts.
Man...what am I gonna do now?
Darren had just finished the last quest he would ever do in Listonia Online, the vrmmorpg he had been playing for the past few years. As an avid gamer he had always avoided mmo style games because of horror stories about people becoming addicted. However, when Listonia Online became popular, his curiosity got the better of him and he began playing it with some friends.
Darren instantly fell in love with the game and even after his friends had grown tired of it, he continued to play. He made new friends and even became the go-to tank character for one of the best guilds in the game. Together they cleared the final quest, A huge guild quest with many stages that ended with the final battle against the Demon King.
However, all that would end tomorrow when the servers for Listonia Online are set to be shut down.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
As Darren was thinking about such things he had finally made his way to the convenience store. As the door slid itself open a small sound played to mark his entering. Darren glanced over the counter to his right and instantly was reminded of the reason for the Listonia Online shutdown.
Behind the counter a TV was displaying an interview with a representative behind the tech Conglomerate CRIT, the company that was responsible for developing Listonia and the technology it utilized. Darren tried to move further away so he didn't have to listen but since speakers were located at strategic positions in the store, it was to no avail.
In split view, a blonde haired blue-eyed reporter on the left of the screen, grilled a meek looking man in glasses that seemed to have just stepped out of a computer lab.
“Many people believe the shutdown of Listonia Online to be premature. Some have vocalized that there is a viable market for expansions instead. What is your response to this?”
The man on the right of the screen clearly looked uncomfortable and wiped the sweat from his brow before responding.
“While we here at CRIT sympathize with those thoughts....the team and.....the company for that matter, felt it was much more important to improve the underlying technology to balance out the recent advancements in vrmmo game creation.”
“For clarification, you're talking about the statement released earlier this week by CRIT, that you will, quote, be releasing a new, improved and finished version of the New World dynamic AI system.....correct?”
The reporter looked down on the paper in front of her as if to make sure everything she just said was correct. The man responded before her gaze even moved back to the camera.
“Yes. If you look back on the initial release of the New World system, it was intended to create a completely independent virtual world that functions under it's own rules and laws. However at the time we simply didn't have the technology or know-how to complete our vision....”
The man paused briefly to wipe his sweat once again before continuing. The building excitement in his voice could be easily distinguished.
“At the time we thought we were at least 20 years away from seeing our labors come to fruition. But after the rights to the system were made available for public use, technological development and understanding of the software advanced much faster than we expected. The result is that we were able to complete the finished product in half the time we expected.”
“...I see” the reporter seemed amazed of the contradiction between what she was seeing and hearing. She quickly composed herself and continued on to the next question.
At this point Darren had realized that he was standing in the middle of the store with his food in hand and totally engrossed in the interview. This was the first time he had seen such an in depth interview so he became interested before he was even aware of it. The clerk behind the counter was more engrossed than he was and hadn't even noticed his presence, so he shrugged off his worry and returned his focus to the TV.
“This is all very fascinating but I’m sure I’m not alone when I ask what this new system has to do with the shutdown of Listonia?”
The sweaty man adjusted his glasses while giving his response.
“Yes, basically the situation is like this. Although we would like to transfer everything onto the new system, the fact of the matter is that the base code is just too different from the original and thus incompatible. At the very least all the character data on the servers would have to be reset.”
The man paused to take a couple breaths before continuing.
“In addition to that, it simply isn't feasible to keep both the old servers for Listonia running alongside the new servers for the finished New World system. Since we had to choose between the old and the new system, we obviously chose to move forward with the new system.”
“Well that certainly is a viable reason. Then, lastly, I'd like to ask if the recent announcement of a new vrmmo from CRIT has any relation to this new system?” The reporter gave of a smirk as if she had just let loose a curveball. The man simply smiled and wiped his brow while answering.
“To be Exact, they have everything to do with one another. As a matter of fact I would like to make an exclusive announcement right now....if that is okay with you?”
The reporter put her hand to her ear for a second before giving a wide smile and a response.
“Did you hear that viewers!? An exclusive announcement right here on our show! We would be more than happy to oblige. You have the stage sir~!” she gestured as if presenting something.
“Thank you. As I have just said, there is a new game we will be releasing and it will definitely be utilizing the finished New World system. The name of this game is Hero Chronicles Online or HCO for short. This game is going to be a mostly original story. I say mostly original because HCO is very much the spiritual successor to Listonia Online. The game is set 1000 years after the events of the final quest in Listonia...”
the man started going into more and more detail about the game but Darren couldn't hear anymore. He was only thinking to himself. A smile slowly spread across his face.
Looks like I have a new game to pre-order.
***
Darren was standing in a completely white space. Around him were thousands of other people walking around and talking amongst each other. Everybody was surrounding what could only be described as 4 floating TV screens that were arranged in a square. On the screen was displayed various messages and in the corner of each screen was a numerical countdown.
However, Darren wasn't paying attention to any of that. Instead he was making motions in the air in front of his face which were moving around small screens similar to the large ones everyone was standing around.
It has been 6 months since the announcement of HCO. In that Time Darren had used all his skills as a perennial internet lurker to dig up all the information about the game he could. The task wasn't too difficult because after the announcement during that interview, many of the Beta testers for the game came out of the woodwork and explained how they had been sworn to secrecy.
The reason behind Darren looking up information on the game by himself was because he had made a decision. He was going to play solo. It's true many of the people from the guild he had been a part of in Listonia Online were planning to start anew in HCO, but Darren felt like forging his own path, at least to start off. One of the reasons he had joined a Guild in Listonia was because the game was already well established when he had started. Usually when playing RPG style games, darren loved to be completely immersed in the world and sometimes even roleplay. Usually that would prove difficult to do with an mmo style game but HCO almost seemed to encourage it.
Looking at the clock on the big TV's, Darren wrapped up what he was doing and prepared himself mentally. Simply put he was waiting for the game to start. This white space was the waiting lobby for those who had pre-ordered the game. Everyone here would get a 6 hour head start on the rest of the world. More important for Darren however, was that everyone here would get first choice on avatar names. Because of the strain on the servers everyone was only allowed 1 character per account and Darren did not want to be left with a name that had some silly numbers or something attached to it.
While Darren was thinking about such things a Female voice suddenly started speaking.
“Hello to everyone here, Thank you for being so patient.”
“Before we start things we would like to remind everyone that this is a game and that we would like everyone to enjoy it no matter what play-style you choose. We have tried our very best to make things balanced and viable but considering the nature of the game, this might not be possible.”
“Please enjoy your stay in the world of Griston and remember, the future of this world will be carved and forged by you, the players. Be you Hero or Villian, make this game world what you think it should be!”
--DING!
Suddenly there was a loud bell and everyone surrounding Darren dissapeared. A small box appeared in front of his face.
Please enter your character name:
Darren hastily entered his name trying to avoid a worst case scenario of having it be taken. After a few seconds of a pinwheel turning a new message appeared.
Character name accepted.
Character Name: Gii
Darren let go of his breath he had been holding and allowed a smile to spread across his face.
“Whew~...the biggest hurdle has been cleared.”
Suddenly a character model appeared in front of him and various windows with adjustment options lined up on the edge of his vision. There were even options for different races. Since he wanted to keep his options open for classes, Gii went with the best all rounder race, Human.
After fiddling around with his character appearance to his liking he was satisfied. The final product used him as the base but he made some alterations to the overall look.
It's important to look badass.
The model still had his shaggy black hair but it was held back by a green bandana with a blood red skull detail in the center. He had tribal style bone earrings and a single red line tattooed over each eye that went from the middle of his forehead to each cheek. His green sash was enough to cover his chest but left his arms completely exposed. Since he was already taking so long he just went with some baggy green pants to finish up the look and left out the shoes.
Finalize Character Model?
Y/N
“Yes”
The character model and windows in front his him disappeared and suddenly Gii was enveloped by a white light.