Chapter 2 – The Fire Pit’s Hidden Charm
My brother gets out of a coma after four years and the first thing he wants to do is play a virtual reality game. I mean it’s not like I know anyone who doesn’t play them. Everyone who can afford to has played RR at least once. But still he could at least act like he wants to spend time with his family who thought they had lost him for good. My friends have been complaining to me for the past four years that I am not playing, but they never push me too hard because they know that I blame the game for putting my brother in the coma. (Don’t worry I am not going to make her fall for her brother like Suguha/Leafa from SAO)
But now that he is back and starting a new game I might give it a try. I asked my mom to order two headsets so I could also play.
When my friends heard they got so excited and are getting the game for themselves, well most of them at least, some have to wait for their birthday, or keep trying to convince their parents if they can’t afford to get the game themselves.
Ok I guess it’s time to start playing, my brother’s been in for about an hour. After calling all my friends and telling them I am starting the game, I put the helmet on, and boot up the game.
-Your brain waves and iris scans don’t match any of the Royal Road data bases would you like to create a new account for ‘Founding Eden’
“YES!!”
(This paragraph is almost literally cut out of the first chapter the rest is different except for what the game says) All of the sudden I felt like the flooring beneath my feet disappeared and I let out a startled yell expecting to plummet. I was falling not fast but just a nice slow comfortable descent. I could feel some air coming up so I knew I was going down but it felt more like I was floating than falling. I looked down and saw an old looking clock face that looked like it was falling apart but that only made it look even cooler like a giant antique you could see gears from behind it some moving but most not (maybe they were just going so slow I didn’t notice. Both the hands of the clock were on the 12. That must be the in game time since it was like four twenty (<- only difference) when I logged in like 2 minutes ago. As it got closer I noticed the top half was even more corroded and decrepit then I thought and it was collecting a lot of dust but the bottom half looked broken and maybe burnt and there was maybe even some blood on it. The clock was probably broken for good so I guess that isn’t the time.
I landed directly on the center of the clock and a new message window just popped up in front of me.
-New players have to choose their alignment. This determines what classes you can start with and where you start in the world. You can choose Demonic, Humane, or Angelic.
After looking up the details of each group I figured my brother most likely chose to be a dragon. Well first of I think every boy would choose to be a dragon, but if my memories of what he was like four years ago, four years is a long time especially since I am only 11.
“I would like to go with Demonic”
-Is that your final decision? You will not be able to delete this character unlike in Royal Road so every decision you make is final from here on out.
“Yes”
The time on the clock slowly starts moving faster and faster. The hands go all the way around three and a half times, maybe four and a half, and ends with both hands on the 6, well I guess the hour hand stopped first and the minute hand had to catch up. There was a second hand on the clock that wasn’t there before that was also pointed toward the six. When all three hands of the clock were pointed at 6, A black skeleton hand comes out of the blackness that surrounded the clock comes out and rests on the five of the clock and starts to push down. The clock face starts to tilt down at the 6 and rise up at the 12. Flames start to rise over the edge of the bottom of the clock. I hold on to the clock as best I can as it starts to get steeper and the fire gets higher. I guess that’s why the bottom of the clock looked burnt earlier.
The hands of the clock start to sink into the clock until it become completely flat at the same time the clock reached the vertical position. Out of reaction I start franticly trying to find something to grab onto as I slide (fall incredibly fast) down the face of the clock toward the fire. I feel incredibly hot it has reached the point of torcher after reaching the point where I can no longer scream out the pain while still falling, everything goes dark.
I feel an intense yet numbing stinging over my entire body reaching the point where I almost can’t feel it at all, that is until a cool breeze comes over me. At first it was easing the pain, but it got colder and my body was so sensitive it felt like the most intense frost bite/stinging coldness I had ever felt before
…I blacked out again. One thing I won’t realize until later, I have yet to choose my class. If this happened for choosing a demonic alignment, what will happen when I choose a demonic class? (It’s the only options I have left)
***
As the sun starts to rise the parents of the two new virtual reality players wake up, and get ready for work. Before they leave they go to wake up the kids for breakfast.
A few hours later the house is filled with police and members of the IT department from the Unicorn Company. The conclusion reached was a virus on the LAN (local area network).
What had happened was the parents could not get them out of the game through the messages they sent from outside (there is a feature where you can type something into the computer the head gear is wirelessly hooked up to and they get the message in game), and nothing happened when they tried to hit the manually log out button on the helmet. They had called tech support for help thinking that the button was broken and they just weren’t logging out, but as they explained the situation over the phone they got more and more worried. The IT members would take an hour to get there and the parents called the police also as they got more and more worried.
Eventually the decision was made move them to a hospital by switching the helmets over to a portable wireless hotspot so they could safely move them. They set up a special secure network that was separate from the hospitals to avoid the virus from spreading while they tried to get rid of it.
The security system on Unicorn Network devises was tested to be more than 100 times better than any national security system out there. If someone was able to hack it there was no telling what would happen. It was made to be kept a secret so the world doesn’t go into panic.
***
Detective Harvey Walksin was the first to the house when this happened. It was not something he would normally be called to but he lived close by, so he knew them not well but he still kind of knew them, and he was good at calming down people so he decided to head over after asking permission from his police chief.
Later when it was asked who wanted to work on the case he was the first to volunteer, because it peaked his interest.
The first thing he did was go online and watch the game trailer. The trailer was a voice over while showing mountains dungeons monsters and much more.
“The passage of time has ravished the continent, cities submerged under floods, great lakes turned to desserts, forests overgrowing the world with trees reaching the heights of mountains and other forests turned to nothing but long fields of ash and brimstone with lakes of lava, but civilization is still holding on. It started four hundred years ago when the great tree at the center of Eden fell. The country was through into chaos, the emperor died and his empire was split into many kingdoms. Trade has become nearly impossible between kingdoms due to the wild ever changing landscape. Now in a world with Gods fighting Gods for followers and land, demons fighting gods and other demons just for the Hell of it how will you learn to thrive. Start your adventure all over again in this world of turmoil. You and your friends can find a new God to worship and start a religion, or help one of the bigger religions takeover the all of Eden and restore order. Or build an army, concur kingdoms, and become the new emperor if you can make it to the top. Anything is a possibility”
Well I might as well log in to check to make sure I can get out safely.
-Welcome to Fallen Eden
- Your Royal Road character will be copied over and reset to level one
-your character is human named ‘Law’ so please choose where you want to start your adventure?
A large map was displayed in front of me. The map was popping out with the trees and mountains and such. Huge mountain ranges, lava pits, great lakes and deserts, everything you can think of, but the weirdest part was the mountain, and pit in the center of the map. The pit is on the east side of the mountain and it is huge and black but the mountain looks even stranger. It is the largest feature on the map big enough that you should be able to see it from anywhere on the map. There is a plateau stretching out to the west/southwest of the mountain, or maybe it is a mountain range that combined to form one long mountain. The plateau itself is taller than any of the mountain ranges on the map by far and reaches into the see. The whole thing almost looks like a tree that has fallen over and pulled its roots out of the ground with it, but at the same time it looks mountainous, cold, and eerie.
Most of it was slight grayed out still leaving color though, showing either an unavailable kingdom or an area under no one’s control because it was too dangerous (most of the map). There were 7 greyed out Kingdoms and four available kingdoms to choose from each had 3-5 of their bigger cities lit up as choices to start in. The kingdoms that were available were to the south eastern region of the map and looked to be the most normal region in the continent. There were no names above the cities or the kingdoms but from others playing it would probably be posted online somewhere. There were a few locations marked with stars throughout the map. The key said race special ‘optional’ starting locations. The human one was of on a little island far away from the main content to the south east. Other stars were located on a mountain, in a forest with trees the size of mountains, in a hilly plain, and many other places throughout the map.
Ok since these four kingdoms are going to be the main starting areas and it looks like the focus of the game for a while where would the best place to start if you want to look for a missing person? I guess the center would be best but what if they chose a race other than human, they might have different starting areas, or they might have chosen the special starting area. I won’t go for that because it is isolated and I will not be able to gather as much information from there.
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“I’ll go with the center most city of the kingdom on the north west end of the available kingdoms”
You have chosen to start in Histrothor’s capital city Felaheart.
Lights appear all around me and then when my eyes have adjusted I am in what seems to be a rather busy town square.
I look down at myself it was my Royal Road character except in beginner clothing. I was a rather big and tall guy with lots of mussels. It wasn’t a very hansom character but it did have a very stocky build that would fit well with a tank/guardian type character, which is how I played RR. This time I am going to be a paladin. After watching the trailer I decided it would be easier to obtain power and knowledge of the world while working with a church.
“Log out”
Are you sure you want to log out?
“Yes”
I sit up and remove the helmet. Well that’s good I can log out.
So the main job I have to do is find them in game and keep them from moving around in the world. I was told it would be easier to isolate the virus if they are not moving around in game too much. But I want to find them for the reason of being there for them as someone who knows what is happening in to them and can help them through this. I know this could put them through a lot of stress and mental trauma and I want to help them through this.
I go through and contact most of the people close to me and tell them that I will not be available very often for a while and I tell them if they need to contact get in touch or spend time with me they will have to get ‘Fallen Eden’. I give my report to the police chief about my plan for the case and how I want to find them as fast as possible. I am leaving most of the out of game work to my partner and I will be spending all of my work hours and free time in the game because I need to be a high level if I want to find people with ease.
I will be going in to the station once a week to give a report on my progress and spend every Monday working with my partner on out of game work, like tracking down the maker of the virus, looking in to conditions behind them being stuck in game, and possibly try to find out if there are any other reported cases of the game virus appearing anywhere else in the world. He will also be looking into the special starting areas and putting requests on dark gamer websites for information about any irregular players who never log out / NPCs that act like players.
Now that I have everything settled its time to log back into the game and get started on my hunt.
No matter how many times I have played RR, when I log in I am always amazed that a world like this can be created by a computer.
So the first thing I need to do is see if I can get a job right away at a church. It is a good way to make money and create the faith stat early on in the game and it is easier to become a paladin if you are already working for the church you want to serve under.
Now I need to figure out a few things, which church is most powerful in this area, which I want to join, and what churches don’t get along. Oh and what the requirements are needed to become a paladin for that church.
***
Going back to the sister
After passing out from pain at least 50 more times. That could be an exaggeration or an understatement since it was so painful I only remember the first two very well the rest I’m not sure if I woke up or just had fuzzy head filled with pain. I must have been out for week’s maybe even months. It was just a long painful experience. I don’t know how I’m alive let alone if I’m awake or not since I have yet to open my eyes. Ahhhhhh!!!! It hurts it’s like my eyelids have been fused together. That would make sense, never mind it doesn’t if I had actually been burned as much as I was I shouldn’t be alive so it wouldn’t matter if my eyelids had connected. Nothing actually hurts except for when I just tried to open my eyes, which is still in excruciating pain by the way don’t get me wrong. I guess I’ll try to sit up. As soon as I start to move my arms I let out a scream of pain and blackout again (not that it wasn’t already black).
After going through that uncountable more times I eventually was able to sit up and force my eyes open through the most agonizing pain you can imagine. Scratch that worse than you can imagine. And what I saw when I opened my eyes was me naked. Well not ‘me’ the skin was a very beautiful but pale slightly light greyblue tinted color with very dark reddish purple hair. The whole thing was slightly ghostly while still solid, full, strong, and mysterious looking. As soon as I took my concentration off it, the pain came flowing back so suddenly I blacked out again.
I was able to sit up again using extreme will and concentration. Opening my eyes was easier this time, still unbearably painful, but easier. But what I saw before me this time was different. I still think it was me with the height and shape but this one was scaled mostly red but the stomach up to the neck and down between the legs was orange yellow. The face was also distorted into more of a lizard shape. I try to pick up one of my hands to reach for it or something but with the injuries to my body my other arm cannot support making me fall backwards. Not sure if I blacked out before or after my head hit the ground.
I wake up and before I try to open my eyes I realize I have yet to look at myself and to see the injuries but I am afraid to see how horrid the burns are. The fact that I am able to wake up and move some must mean they aren’t too bad (I hope). But before I look at me I should see what the other me looks like this time. I’m just too afraid to look at myself. I look forward at the alternate self. I nearly threw up only to be forcefully stopped by the tremendous pain caused by me leaning forward causing me to black out again. This time it was me the actual me except with rotting flesh and bones showing through. I couldn’t catch anything else due to losing consciousness so fast again.
This cycle continued for a while until I was finally able to hold myself together for a longer period of time. I don’t know if I am getting better or just getting used to the pain. I had seen mostly ugly ones during this time like goblins trolls and such. There was one that did catch my attention though. It looked younger than me, the legs turned scale like from just above the knees down ending in big talons, and instead of arms it had wings. It was the only winged one I had seen so far. I finally remembered I was in a game after seeing a few text boxes floating around.
The top one said something about a character selection thing. I quickly looked at the rest and it was just an endless list of warnings about falling unconscious.
I closed them all. Maybe if I choose a class and create a character I will enter that body and be rid of this pain.
I think I am going to go with the first one I saw it was beautiful and mysterious, strong yet fragile. I will have to go with that one.
“Go back to the first race”
The alternate self that was in front of changed from a skeleton to one that it was currently on to a new one. It was me with red skin horns a forked red tail ending in a triangular point. It had my hair made darker making it completely black. Since there was no sex appeal added I am guessing it’s just a normal demon and not a succubus.
That was definitely not the first one I saw. It changed every time I blacked out so maybe it was already constantly changing when I was slipping in and out of consciousness before the time I was able to open my eyes.
“Next”
A different one came up it was also new.
“Next”
Again a new one came up”
“Is there any way to auto flip through them faster and I can just say stop when I see it”
It then started flipping through it at a fair speed. Half of what we passed were just monsters that had no resemblance to me either and no two seemed similar. ‘Are there really this many different races to choose from I mean this is absurd. Wait was that it “WAIT STOP!!”
“Go the other direction” “Stop”
That’s the one I remembered. The skin almost looks like snow but still has a little grey/blue tint to it making it look a little less pure. The body looked younger than me but more mature at the same time. The eyes were the same color as the hair except a little darker and the redness was less noticeable leaving mostly purple, they looked deep and dark filling the face with beauty and mystery, but at the same time with an innate look of sorrow, and pain adding to the exquisiteness of the emotionless face that had yet to obtain an inhabitant. The body was the most unlike the rest by the fact it looked fragile all the others didn’t necessarily make me big and huge or anything but they all looked strong. It also looked like it was barely touching the ground almost like it was weightless.
With all the pain and the yelling to stop my body started to drift into unconsciousness again and I didn’t have enough strength left to say anything. But I think the game new I had made my decision. I felt the pain melt away as I seemed to drift up above my actual body and flow toward the other body. When I was right in front of it a box came up telling me to choose a name.
END of chapter 2
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Going back to Steve/ Urek’s story (the main story) next chapter. I just finished this chapter first I was working on both of them at the same time (so it won’t be as long before the next chapter (hopefully))
I think this was a good place for this chapter, it was needed early on, it explains a little of Eden.
Don’t know why I split the sister’s story up maybe to build suspense or something it just seemed to flow that way as I wrote it.
When I first showed this chapter to my friends they said I was a terrible person, the parents finally get their son back only to lose him and his sister again to a video game, and they loved the story, so I hope you guys like it too.
And most of all thank you for reading my story and I hope you enjoyed it. Sorry for the long distance between chapters I have a lot of work to do at college "which is more important" even though I like doing this work more. but over winter break whenever that is I will hopefully speed up with my releases.
Help!
I need a name for the sister IRL and in game they can be the same (can’t be Elizabeth I’m using that as another person’s name but that is basically the only unavailable name at this point)
I also need a name for the Detectives partner
I need help deciding what kind of mobs there will be to fight in heaven. (Won’t need these for another two chapters)
One last thing out of the 3 characters so far whose story are you most interested in?
[th_092_.gif] you want to help me...