Stage01.NetGameSaga.ww\NOAH\Beta_Test
Level 01:\NOAH Russia\Esfirasya\Startup -Welcome to NOAH-
« Russia\Samara\Razlineyka Residence »
The cold wind caressed the apartments' windows in the city of Samara. Esfirasya wiped her round eyeglasses in front of her foggy window. The window is her other source of light, and a window to the mundane outside world, as she often fought many battles in online war games every afternoon. She heard the smooth hum of her computer's system unit (often called as a CPU, or Central Processing Unit), then she reminded herself that Asch's humming is such a music for her ears.
"Don't fail me now, Asch!" she whispered to herself, as if her computer's human persona showed in front of her.
She wore her cleaned eyeglasses, then sat at her computer desk. It's cluttered with four portable hard drives, two game controllers, and six anime action figures posed as her keyboard's guardians. Her black desktop computer, Asch, stood mighty among its computer peripherals with its blood red neon lights. She spent two school years worth of her savings to build & upgrade Asch, to enjoy the games at their best performance.
Above her beloved, well-guarded gaming machine, five gold, and silver trophies from different Call of the Battlefield tournaments, stood on the glass shelves. “Next time! New game trophy will be ours, Asch!”
Esfirasya clicked on the System Test button at the game's splash screen over her anime-themed desktop screen. A second later, she heard a loud whirring noise from her system unit. Her computer gave warmth to her pale skin, until her grumbling stomach ruined her mood. Nope, she won't go downstairs for a while.
Instead, she grabbed one of her action figures, then whispered at its face, “Should this red beast pass system test, Sinon, we'll play NOAH together!”
Her screen showed a large fleet of ships approached the humongous planet slowly. Around it, eleven moons circled around the hulking world like a slower merry go round, bound with pulsating smoke-like lines. In this new game, players will assume the role of new colonists, out to take over the planet. Tonight, Esfirasya and her friends will be the first batch!
Another second passed, her computer screen flashed a message, «Your system passed the first segment of NOAH Online System Test!»
“All right!” Esfirasya raised her fist to the roof, as her computer met the game's system requirements. She heard someone knocked on her door thrice.
"There are snacks downstairs, Pepper!" Esfirasya's mom said behind her door. No wonder, her mother called her Pepper, over her dedication to PC gaming, troubleshooting, and customization.
The smell of a certain food made its way through her door. Her stomach growled at the moment she smelled her mother's snacks. She usually won't come down from her 'battle station' until she shut it down, but that snack downstairs nagged her senses.
"Da! I'm coming, mom!" she said, as she headed to her closet.
Esfirasya wore her track jacket, then her yellow skirt shorts (skorts) over her black mid-thigh spandex shorts. Who would want to see her walk around the house in spats anyway?
She stroked Asch's towering red system unit, "I'll be right back, Asch! I gotta recharge, you know?"
She walked downstairs to their dining area, then she saw Antony ate a piece of a blintz (Russian thin pancake) with her mom. She overheard them talking about them being the Global Beta Test participants of NOAH Online. Her mom asked them, "You guys will be playing another game again?"
“Da, mom. I'm tired of playing those military games.” She sat beside Antony, “That's why I saved up three months ago for Asch's memory chips and GPU.”
“I thought you upgraded your PC for those games? Why did you lead us to anime game this time?” Antony tickled her sides, “Again, you've been treating your computer like boyfriend?”
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“Cut it out!” Esfirasya tickled Antony's armpit, “And yeah, they're always the same thing.”
Her mom's eyes widened, “I hope you're not wearing yourself down for your computer stuff, Pepper.”
“Don't worry too much, mom.” Esfirasya winked at Antony, “Come on, I bet you're getting bored at Call'Field too!”
Ten minutes after snack time, Esfirasya and Antony headed to her room. Her right hand flew over her glowing black & red gaming mouse. Her computer screen showed another message, «Your system passed the second segment of NOAH Online System Test! Your computer has exceeded the system requirements!».
The two leaped with joy, as their computers passed the system tests. Antony set his gaming laptop at her empty desk, then booted up the NOAH game. Five seconds after, they saw ten picture cards of different humanoid races on their screens.
Esfirasya quickly pointed her mouse at the Bahamun race card. It turned out to be human with a pair of dragon wings, and a metallic, segmented tail coiled at one of their thighs. She created her character which nearly resembled her looks quickly.
“I'm Fleym, dragon girl with short shorts, okay?” Esfirasya giggled at her character.
“I made an elf in the game, Asya! My name would be Zoloto Archer, by the way!” Antony said.
« Logged into NOAH Online; Global Test Server as Fleym »
Hundreds of colorful characters of different races and sizes appeared on a huge white room. Bright bluish grids carved on the walls glowed alternately, as if the whole room is a disco floor. Fleym heard chatter in different languages, then she looked at her own clothing. She looked like another anime character stereotype: Red track suit, and a pair of short shorts, but being a Bahamun made it cooler to wear though.
She stroked her bangs down, as she waited for further instructions from the game's staff. So, this is NOAH's tutorial area? It looked plain for me though.
Zoloto Archer tapped her shoulder, “Hey, how do I look?”
He has pointy ears, and fair skin. He wore a dark amber, balloon-sleeved shirt & brown puffy pants. He took a bow like a prince.
“Man, you looked out of place with that dress!” Fleym shook her best friend.
Zoloto Archer laughed at her, “I know, but this is a starting outfit anyway.”
“Do you think a rapier would still exist in the future? Future with oversized beam swords, bending energy beams, and—”
They heard another mixed chatter of Khulazes (child-like people) & Dwargs (brown dog-like humanoids) with normal-sized swords and axes. She pointed at them, “Halflings? Cute werewolf-looking creatures?”
Whose ideas are these? The gaming world got used to these colorful Japanese-influenced futuristic games, but the inclusion of those halflings, and furries? That's over the top. Forget it, a long-running online game called Second Life did that thing already in the past. However, 'twas mostly heard in America.
“I'm sure they have it somewhere, Fleym.” Zoloto approached a brown-skinned Celestian (a halo-less angelic person). “Either way, this game's awesome for being crazy already.”
“For real?” Fleym followed Zoloto Archer, until their left arms let out a holographic screen with a message: «Welcome to NOAH Online's 2000-person; 195-country Global Beta Test! You will receive some on-screen instructions as we start our combat training. »
“Hey, wait up!” the brown-skinned Celestian chased them, “Let's team up!”
« Switching client. Session to be continued... »