Zoey grabbed a music stand and a chair and carefully set down the guide book that Ethan handed to him about 3 months ago. Today was the last day of school before spring break. Many people came and visited the band hall to meet their friends for the last time. Maddie Osborne was one of them. She played the same instrument as Zoey, the french horn. “Hey Zoey!” Maddie happily greeted Zoey. “Hey.” Zoey replied with a timid and insincere voice. Maddie realized something was wrong. Zoey would never just answer like that. She was the type of person who would gladly greet anyone with an open mind. But a person with a bright personality answering coldly like that? It meant something was wrong. No, different.
Maddie glanced at what Zoey was reading. It was some sort of a book. But it had a lot of images and labels. As if Zoey didn’t notice Maddies presence at all, she didn’t react to Maddie reading the book alongside her. Maddie was very confused on what the book was talking about. It had all sorts of words that she never even heard of. But there was a section where she was able to understand. It was the category, [Olympus]. She knew what that was because she once studied Greek Mythology for fun.
「Category 12-7: The Kingdom
That was the name of the head page that she was reading. With curiosity, she began to read the paragraph below it.
「Kingdom
Maddie didn’t understand why Zoey was reading this book. It didn’t seem like it was for educational purposes and some descriptions of the mythology were inaccurate. The book described the Olympian Gods as if they were real. It also gave an analysis of the Gods. Maddie continued to read as Zoey skipped to the next page.
「Among the 3 Founder Gods, Poseidon is the most dangerous constellation you should be aware of and watch out for. Meanwhile, Zeus, the absolute monarch of the constellation, is one of the least dangerous. It seems that he is not really interested in the things happening in the overworld so he never really does anything. This is the same case for Hades. Since he has no descendents, it really doesn’t give him an excuse to spectate the overworld. But Poseidon is different. He manages the sea of the overworld. If anyone bargains with Poseidon, they will be able to gain an overwhelming power.」
Maddie was intrigued by all of this information. She wondered who wrote these stories. Before she could read more, her friend, Claire, showed up. She lightly tapped on Maddie's shoulder. From the sound of Claire, Zoey also noticed Maddie’s presence. For some reason, Zoey didn’t notice Maddie at all until Claire showed up. Right when she realized that Maddie was watching her and reading the book this entire time, she rapidly took the book into her reach and covered it as if it was something Maddie was not allowed to see.
[Beta tester, “Maddie Osborne”, is currently manifesting a new ability.]
Zoey quietly stared at the message that just popped in front of her while Maddie and Claire were having some short talks. Ever since the day she obtained the guide book, these weird messages have been appearing for her. The thing is that this message is only visible to her, not anyone else. It was as if her life turned into a game. The weird systems and messages, the guide book and the information that Ethan told her about, everything was off. This was also the first time where the system mentioned someone else other than herself. The system would normally send messages like, “Your understanding of the
「Date: March 10th. There has been a new message that appeared. It is about Maddie, the freshman French horn player. This has never happened before. This could possibly mean that she has become part of the system or the [GTI SMP] server. Ethan has told me this in the past. “One day, everything in this guide book will become real. You have to prepare for that day. I don’t know why and how but the majority of the people in the band, including you will be transported to this other world where the server is based off of.” If my hypothesis is correct, the people who will be teleported to the server are the people that become part of the system, meaning the messages that pop up for me are also visible to them. They will unlock abilities and have a constellation become their guardian. But how will the entire band become part of the system? What even is the border line between being part of the system and is not?」
Zoey put down the pen and sighed. She sat back and closed the guide book. All of these things were so confusing to her. They were very complicated and were using words that she has never even heard of before. Like what the hell is a mana? What made her despair even more is that she hasn’t even finished ⅓ of the book yet. How did Luke even write all this? I thought he was just a silent nerd who does his own things…
She still remembered the day where she received a bunch of new information about the server and this entire game system thingy. A few days after that entire event, that's when the system first appeared in front of her. The system first asked some questions as if it was a survey. It asked weird questions like ‘What kind of skills would you like to learn?’ or ‘Which natural element would best describe your trait?’ Looking back at those questions, she now understands why the system would ask those questions. In gaming terms, she is currently in the tutorial stage. She is given time to study and prepare before she is actually deployed into action.
“...Oey…” The wound of a voice ringed in her ears faintly as if she was hearing a tinnitus. When she looked up, she saw Maddie waving at Zoey. “Are you okay? You looked… Stressed out. Very.” Maddie asked Zoey with a worried voice. “Yeah… I’m fine. It’s just that I slept late last night.” She replied. When she checked the time with her phone, it was 8:10, 10 minutes before 1st period started. “I’m gonna go to my class now. See you after break!” Maddie said goodbye to Zoey and started walking out the band hall with Claire. “I should probably go to my class now too…” She whispered to herself. Regularly, band was the first period for her so she would stay for her very first class but today was different. Because it was a half day, she would go to her 3rd and 4th period instead of the 4 classes she would go to for the regular days. Zoey packed all of her stuff and tiringly walked towards her AP biology class, which was located in the same building as Luke’s 3rd period class, astronomy.
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*
After the long 2 hours of class, it was finally 4th period, the last class of the day. Everyone in the band hall was excited to have their break. Students were talking about their plans for the break or complaining about the vast amount of homework they have over the week. Maddie quietly stared at the window and enjoyed the view of a thunderstorm. The sky was the darkest she has ever seen in her life. Great amount of rain dropped each second swiftly. The clouds were the color of coal. But it was beautiful. Word’s couldn’t really describe the sight of the sky. “What are you doing?” Claire came up behind and asked. She also grabbed a chair and stared at the dark sky. “I don’t know… I’m kinda bored.” Maddie answered. “I know spring break is coming up and I should be excited but I’m really not. I’m just full of boredom right now.” Ironically, she was in the same situation as Luke. Although she had many friends and could survive even without some stupid video game, she was bored, just like Luke. This was a problem that Claire couldn’t really solve for Maddie either.
The world was silent for her. Although people in the background were screaming and talking very loudly, her world was so quiet. She was drowning in deep thoughts. Then all of a sudden, she saw a hook that would save her. Maddie got out of her chair and started walking towards the lockers in the band hall. Claire followed her. She walked until she reached the lockers where all the french horns kept their stuff. Claire thought Maddie was getting something from her locker but she opened a locker belonging to someone else. She was searching for a particular item. After digging for a few minutes, she finally found the item that she wanted.
[Guide of the GTI SMP server, part 2 - Stories and Mythologies.]
It was the book that Zoey was reading this morning. She quickly opened the book and started reading the first few pages. “What are you doing?! Why are you Zoey’s book! Wouldn’t you get in trouble?” Claire asked. “It’s fine. She’s probably at home because of senior out. She won’t know.” Maddie answered. She then continued to read through all the pages. The book was full of details and illustrations. Although it was poorly drawn, she noticed that Luke took a lot of effort to draw this. She was amazed. The book contained every single detail of the server. It literally was the perfect guide book. Claire also took a glimpse and started reading. They were both very intrigued.
“Wait, is this..?” Claire carefully asked. “Yes. It is. The 2nd part of ‘That’ book.” Maddie answered her question. They both knew what this book was. Around 5 months ago, in mid October of the previous year, someone in the band leaked a book which was part 1 of this guide book. But when it first was leaked, people didn’t really care. This was because no one knew the context of it and the guide book was only shared to the freshmans. Because Luke wasn’t really close with the freshmans, he didn’t really care. Some people who read the guide book didn’t even know who Luke was. But Maddie was different. She carefully read through all of part 1 of the book when it was first leaked. If it was just a normal guide book like a dictionary, she wouldn’t have been able to read through all of it. But the reason she was able to was because the guide book actually had a story. It had a plot and a main character. She and Claire actually read through all of the book while most didn’t. One of the reasons why people couldn’t read through all of the book was because it was overwhelmingly detailed. Like a description of the food will take an entire page.
After remembering that Zoey wrote her own analysis on the last few pages of the book, Maddie turned to the pages where Zoey wrote her thoughts. Her analysis seemed like she didn’t understand the book very well. Maddie wasn’t surprised though. Anyone would’ve struggled to apprehend this book completely. Knowing that she couldn’t keep or copy this book, Maddie sighed and closed it. But on the very backpage, there was a QR code. With interest, she scanned it. When she scanned the QR code, it led to this file. She first thought it was a virus but it wasn’t. When she realized what the book was, she was stunned.
[Guide of the GTI SMP server, part 2 - Stories and Mythologies. Digital copy.]
[...]
[Beta tester, “Maddie Osborne” and “Claire Chilton” has completed the tutorial.]
[Now gaining access to the ‘Purple Moon System’.]
*
The fire of the underground city weakened itself after Loyd and Crimson successfully completed the revolutionary quest. The head revolutionist died and we have completed the quest. The only thing left for us is to find the elytras and go up to
[There has been an error in the quest. It will lead to the next quest following the side quest.]
Then, the color of the fire rising from level 3 soon turned into bright sky blue. It was weird. It was as if someone was artificially controlling the fire. This was no incident. It was done on purpose. While watching the fire turn blue, Loyd jumped and landed next to me. “The remaining revolutionists said that they witnessed a girl with emerald green eyes and blonde hair set the fire in the underground city on purpose.” Loyd explained. “Do you have a clue who that is?” I asked. Loyd silently nodded. “I do… But I don’t understand why she would do that.” We both watched the fire slowly extinguish itself. “I guess we will figure it out when we go to
[Constellation, “Archangel of the North Haven” urgently asks for help.]
[A new quest has been loaded!]
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[Catastrophe of Premonition ]
Quest type: Main
Quest difficulty: A+
Clear conditions: Kill the ‘Catastrophe of Premonition’ and liberate
Compensation: A legendary rated achievement and compensation related to
Time limit: 3 days.
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