All the preparations are complete and all the subjects are active. Wave 1.0 will officially launch in 37 minutes as of writing this. This will be a great milestone in the history of VRDD and our creation, Malregia. I will monitor the situation and keep you informed.
Chu Hua Wu
Within the span of a breath the complete darkness evaporated and is replaced by blazing light. Not that fake blueish light from a screen but real light, sunlight. It bathes everything. Before my eyes adjust, I can hear voices, so many voices.
Slowly the contour of people takes shape. Some lay on the ground others stand up, looking quizzical. There must be hundreds of us. It takes a minute before I regain my senses.
Red dust, no, red sand is everywhere. My white shirt collected a good deal of it in that short moment, wrong day to wear white.
“Fuck!” A tall guy yells. “This is bad, we’re in the desert region. I’ve heard about it but I was never here. Hey, all betas come over here.” He waved his arm to get everyone attention and spoke purposefully loudly.
A cluster of people gathered with the loud guy. They seemed clearly different from the rest of us. First of they didn’t look like tourists looking for direction and their equipment is different. Many of them have fishing poles attached to their backpacks and I can see a decent amount of them have axes, for some reason. The most striking difference however is their hair. Men and women both have either coloured stripes in their hair or they’ve dyed their entire hair in colours like blue, red and turquoise. As for the rest of, I see large unwieldy swords and overproportioned muscles. I think I understand what ghost child was getting at..
“Okay, listen up!” The loud guy yelled. “We are beta testers so we have at least some clues about this world. The best thing will be if you listen and do as we say. We drew the shit ticket, were in the desert. Step one will be to find some shade, I don’t know about all of you but I don’t like being grilled by the sun.”
He has a point. The climate here is unreasonable, we have only been here for minutes and I can already feel it. Close by a guy, probably 2 metres tall, is dressed in a thick leather armour. He doesn’t look too happy, or comfortable.
“Ooww” “What’s up with this sand?” People gazed over to the woman who shouted. “What do you mean?” another asked.
“The sand hurts, like its sharp or something.” She bemoaned.
One with colourful hair knelt down to feel the deep red sand. “Damn, ye seem like there are sharp shards of something sprinkled around in the sand.” She raised her voice, “everyone got shoes, right?” Hundreds of voices responded either in conformation or that they didn’t hear her.
The betas came to the decision that it would be best if they each lead a group of greens, that is the people without experience. The betas went around and took the greens they wanted in their party.
“You, white haired girl, over here.” A pretty Latina woman waved at me.
“Yes?”
“I’m Julia, a beta tester, your part of my group now.” She moved away, probably to look for others she could claim. It looks pretty funny, most people like me, stand around and look dumb while a few go around tagging us.
“I’m part of Julia’s party too.” A young man explains. He wears a breezy and good-looking white shirt and a pair of short-pants. Clearly one of the few men who dressed for this heat.
“I’m Emma, nice to meet you.” We shake hands and exchange a few words. Slowly the parties are more or less complete. A couple betas argue about who claimed someone first and some trade greens amongst themselves. Are we a commodity?
“Wow, you’re big! You probably spent a fortune of resources. The ghost child must have been on you about it, right?” The woman whom I directed my outburst at looked as if I was crazy.
“Ghost child? And no, I’m just tall.” Her face was curled in frustration.
Ooh, crap. “I’m sorry for presuming, that was rude of me. But you really are big! Ohh, in a good way of course, in a good way.” I scratched my head nervously, fully aware I was making a fool of myself.
Her ebony skin glistened as a small drop of sweat ran down her forehead. Her frustrated expression softens somewhat, with a generous interpretation one can almost see a smile on her face. “I’m Dina, we’ll be teammates, it seems.”
Shirt-guy steps forward and shake Dina’s hand. “I’m Lee, glad to have an amazon on the team.”
The laugh he expected didn’t come, only a prolonged awkward silence. Eventually Dina responded coldly. “..Sure.” And walked away a bit from the group.
“Seriously? Read the desert!” I hiss.
He throws his arms out in an exaggerated manner “It was obviously a joke, I didn’t mean anything bad by it.” Saying that he still cast a troubled glance at where Dina was standing.
Julia came back, a grin playing on her face, with two men in tow. “Let’s introduce ourselves. These gentlemen are Ron from Belgium and this one is Trevor from the US.” The first one, Ron, has a serious and almost professional impression. Brown hair and a perfectly groomed beard. The other one, Trevor, is blond with short stylized hair.
Julia continued: “It seems the three of you have already gotten to know each other, good, in a few minutes we will take off.” Everyone in the forced together party nodded to each other in turn and exchanged a few words. Dina came back, not looking particularly angry.
“I picked you all, most of you, because I think you got what it takes to survive. Let me tell you this, whatever mental preparations you’ve made is nothing compared to the real deal. Do you know how many beta testers died the first two month of starvation?”
Lee chimed in. “You?”
“Ahhhh.” Julia moaned. “You looked competent from afar.. No, I didn’t die from starvation, I used the safety protocol to eject myself from the simulation because my camp was surrounded and assaulted by creatures I really didn’t want to be captured by.”
Julia grinned in satisfaction as Lee suddenly found the sand interesting. “I’ll answer questions later, if we find a place to stay for the night. I will assume you all have food and water.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The total group of heroes who spawned in this location was counted to 231 and out of those 29 were former beta testers who would serve as group leaders. The effect of the sun was palpable as some people were drinking greedily from their waterskins. A loose sort of organization had been established as groups of 6-7 people were lumped together. Beta testers had another meeting to discuss their plans. Any ambitious green who tried to join was laughed away.
Trevor cracked his knuckles. “This is pretty amazing, people dying from shit like starvation! This really isn’t the normal boring game. That’s what were here for right? To test ourselves and what could be better than starting in a fucking desert!” He took out his two-handed blade from his scabbard on his back, almost. He’s still wearing his backpack so the sword gets stuck before it comes lose with a snap. He almost falls forward but saves himself the embarrassment with quick footwork.
“You know how to use that thing?” Ron said with a doubtful voice.
“Did I swing around a sword back home? No, cuz I’m not a crazy person.” Trevor produces a large swipe with his sword.
All the heroes eventually moved out, to me it seemed like they just picked a direction at random. There are no roads or any distinguishing landmark. Just plenty of great sand dunes that create huge hills of sand so the walk is anything but smooth. Occasionally someone will fall, one woman fell from a large dune of sand and rose with a face covered in blood. Those sharp little things hidden in the sand are vicious.
Progress is slow. The unstable footing, the egregious heat and the fact everyone carries heavy backpacks resulted in slow steps. Common sense dictates to use the water sparingly but it’s a constant battle not to take a large swig.
The energy to communicate was largely absent, eventually though Ron decided to get the ball rolling. “What kind of primary weapon do you all use and the natural follow-up, do you know how to use it?” His own weapon was obvious to the group since he used it as a walking staff. It was a large spear with a wicked spike in the front and a round metal heft on the back end.
The first to answer was Trevor. “You’ve seen my sword. I may not be an expert swordsman, yet, but I intend to become one. When we face whatever enemies there is in this place, I’ll protect us.” The beta tester Julia sighed but didn’t comment further.
“I’m Emma, from Sweden, my main weapon is this bow. I don’t know how to use is yet but until then I have this cool dagger.” I pull out my dagger. The sun reflects on the clean metal blade.
“A bow is good and all but-“ Lee smiles conspiratorially. He stops walking and picks something from his backpack. “Tadaa”. He presents the barrel part of a musket. I dash forward. “Haa you really bought it. I saw it but it was so expensive, I want to try shooting it later!”
“Sure, when we make camp, I’ll assemble it so we can try it out. What do you think, chief, like my firepower?” Lee was a little hesitant when speaking to Julia.
“Good do have a musket I guess.” She unbuckles a small one-handed crossbow that was hanging from her backpack. “It’s small and doesn’t pack too much power but it’s easy to use and often enough to dissuaded conflict. I have a dagger and an axe too.” She shrugged her shoulder and indicated for the group to keep moving.
Dina had a short spear attached to her backpack. She hefted it up and played with it in her hands whilst everyone walked. “That’s a nice spear.” I declared. “Not a spear.” Ron chimed in without further comment. “It’s a javelin, its for throwing.” Dina explained and offered the weapon for me to hold.
It’s surprisingly light. “You know how to use this?”
“I threw some in school, I also have a sword.” The sword was in a scabbard attached to Dina’s belt.
The sun eventually dipped and with it went the worst of the heat. Hours of slow marching had stolen our collective energy but as the temperature became more humane, we picked up our pace. Rather, we were simply following the group ahead of us as they were moving faster. We reached the highest point of a large sand dune and realized why the group ahead had moved with such haste. In the middle of this red land of sand was a couple trees and bushes and more importantly a source of water.
“Good” Julia declared. She then whistled loudly and it seemed like groups both ahead and behind echoed the noise. “We agreed to use it as a signal if we found a good campsite.” Hundreds of heroes soon stood around just shy of the oasis, some rather eager to get to the water.
The loud guy from before took the lead, again. “Everybody waits until we know it’s safe.” He outdid himself in terms of volume. I elbowed Dina lightly. “What do you think they worry about?” Dina’s stature forced her to look down to face me. “Don’t know, they’re probably just careful.” Everyone stared as Mr Loud Guy and a couple of betas moved with careful steps. They all held weapons at the ready, as if a great threat would suddenly jump out.
They stabbed at bushes and glanced with suspicion up at the tree crowns. One of them even stabbed at the water. All in all, it was a rather small bit of nature in the otherwise barren land. A handful of large trees and a couple small ones and some thorny bushes sprinkled around a body of water. No apparent life it seems.
With the go ahead everyone pushed and showed to get to the water first. Hours of exposure to mind numbing heat can remove any semblance of politeness. I’m not above shoving myself forward but I kind off lack in mass compared to most of ‘em. The better solution was obvious, glue myself to Dina’s back as she moved and suddenly the sweat scent of water wafted ever closer. Amazon indeed.
“Aahhh” All the people who had formed a circle around the water threw themselves backward. They crashed into other thirsty people causing panic. Everyone started screaming and moving away from the oasis. Most of us didn’t know why, neither did I, but a loud scream of anguish indicated we were right to panic.
“There’s something in the water!” “Look!” “Everybody move away from the water!” The panic was complete until the loud guy managed to restore some order. “It just some animal in the water, just wait further back and we’ll deal with it.” He shouted at the top of his lungs. They carried a man away from the water. He was pale and one of his feet was missing. Blood poured down on the already red sand, his whimpers and cries caused everyone around to whisper in horror. Our group stood as statues, watching in silence. Men and women with colourful hair took it upon themselves to deal with whatever threat it was.
The group all had serious expressions, Trevor had his sword in his lap, holding the hilt tightly. “Don’t worry.” Julia said. “There are plenty worse things in this world than some water creature who like feet.” She smiled ominously.
“What will happen to him, I mean he lost his foot?” I asked silently. Before anyone had time to answer the loud guy came out of the oasis with an animal in his arms. A black and greyish creature. He held it up, almost triumphantly, so we could see the large yellow fangs, the short and stubby tail. It had four small legs and a thick body. It resembles a crocodile only smaller and without that long jaw. It was bleeding from a huge hole in its back.
“Don’t worry, the waters safe now. We made sure there was nothing else in there so we can fill up on water and make camp here tonight.” Another beta took over. “Let this here be a warning, always be careful when you don’t now a place.”
Lee raised his arm and stared at Julia. “Ehm, so how do we make camp exactly?” Julia snorted derisively. “Just use whatever blanked or sleeping bag you have, just stay close to the group. If you make me look for you, I might accidentally lose you later on.” Her tone made it clear it would be nothing accidental about it.
We refilled our waterskins and I splashed myself with the room temperature water and we made a little space for ourselves on the outskirt of the oasis. Dina even had a small tent that she assembled. A tent? I had considered it but I can only carry so much. Dina crawl into her tent, the small tent is probably a little cramped for her but I’m still jelly. I don’t even have a sleeping bag. I’m stupid, that’s why, really stupid.
Julia and Ron had matching sleeping bags, undecorated brown. Myself, Lee and Trevor used our backpacks as pillows and some clothes on the ground to prevent the damn sand from stabbing us. I hope this isn’t some kind of marker, a division between the well-prepared and the plebs. I’d rather not be the pleb, if you mind.
I survived day one, at least, that’s nothing to scoff at if that guys from introduction are to be believed. I’m sore and tired but I have two feet so that’s obviously a win. My musings were interrupted by Lee’s loud snore. His chest heaved as he took deep breaths. Trevor’s eye meet my own as we watched the sleeping form of Lee, I averted my eyes only to see a guy peeing a couple of metres away.. That’s just.. Bad manners.
A tent, huh. I wonder how I’ll go about getting one of those out here.