Bandung, September 29 2012, 7:15 am.

Aria spent his morning installing Seption’s game application after having breakfast with green bean porridge. The boarding house where he lived was not too crowded as it only consisted of three rooms in a small house on the second floor. In contrast, the first floor contains a house rent for one family.

Not only himself, but also a family and the other owners of the boarding house have their Personal Computers, so hearing various voices to interact or record content for the virtual world is no longer unusual. It's no wonder boarding houses and house rent with wifi facilities have become in high demand in this technological era.

The size of the game installation was no joke, totaling 17 GB, so 4 DVDs with a capacity of 4.5 GB each DVD were required. He imagined how vast the world of Seption would be that he would explore.

While waiting, he read and replied to WhatsApp messages that had been going on since last night. He started responding to messages this morning.

From Espion to Seption (Group Title)

Rhinoceros : Here, my name has changed to Rhinoceros.

Wing : It's only changed to English.

Rhinoceros : Yes, our names are now all in English. It's not awkward to call me “Badak”.

Velocity : So you guys have been promoted to rank C?

Wing : I did, but I took the Trickster Class. I want to try a different class, as I'm bored with Wizard again.

Rhinoceros : You guys are already on the Seiryu server, right?

Velocity : Where else do you want to go? The servers are set up with each player's continent.

Velocity : Asia and Australia = Seiryu, Europe = Genbu, North America = Byakko. Middle East and Africa = Asuka. Finally, players who live in South America should choose the Suzaku server.

Velocity : So, when do you want to play together?

Rhinoceros : The next week seems fine. In addition to having an assignment deadline for Monday, we can also increase our level before that.

Wing : It's hard for me to play together this week as well. I've been doing my daily missions alone at night. I had to go to the hospital for a check-up.

Velocity : Are you okay Wing? You're in good health, right?

Wing : I have regular check-ups with my sister.

Velocity : Okay, but if you're not well, tell me.

Rhinoceros : So, did Velo really meet a female player?

Velocity : If the voice isn't faked, it's really a girl. She said she wanted to play with me again.

Wing : You haven't changed. When will Rhino actually confess to a girl?

Aria laughed as he read the next messages. It was text debates yet illustrated their long-distance friendship. The three of them lived in different cities : Bandung, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta. Wing himself was born in Bali and followed his mother's family to Yogyakarta. They met each other in Espion Online and continued to exchange messages even though the game had closed its services.

Aria had to wait for some game files to be downloaded. He went to Seption's official website to look for new information. He read the latest Blog article from the development company or developer named Genesis, with their alias as Scion, who were testing for S rank Classes and the maximum level in the game had been implemented at Base level 230 and Job level 60 at S rank, although the game itself did not allow for players to reach such high levels until S rank was implemented.

The Seption game has a total of 108 Classes if the S rank is counted. Except for the Magician Class which branches into three types of Classes, each Class will branch into two different classes at the next rank. This means that 3 types of Classes at rank D and 7 Classes at rank C which further branch out to a total of 56 Classes at rank S. Currently the Seption game only facilitates up to rank A. Each player can only choose one branch when promoting Rank. Not only that, with certain quests the players can learn the portion of other class’s skills.

Aria looked at his digital clock and decided that he could play the Seption game until the afternoon, with a break for Zuhr’s prayer. The installation of the game was completed. He just needed to log in now. Sometimes he didn't want to log in right away because of the game's login screen that had spoiled his ears with the game's login background song. He is still searching for the language sung in the song on the login screen. He started to get distracted by the large continent in front of the login screen. When he entered the character screen, the scale of the continent would shrink and show his character's last location, where Velocity was.

Aria put on the Headset in his ears and began to enter the game. He remembered Salvadore's words earlier as his character was still stuck within Ifrit. He should have been able to move his character by now. However, as he headed towards the screen to enter his character, he saw Velocity who was in the location titled Home. He waited for the Loading Time—the waiting time of moving between places in the game, wondering if he was in a home now.

After waiting for Loading Time, Aria found Velocity on the bed instead. Velocity started to wake up from his sleep and mumbled, “Where am I?”

“Good morning, Master Velocity,” said the small dragon figure that approached him.

“Huh? Who are you?” asked Velocity confused. He had just seen a small purple-skinned dragon flying around him like a fairy. “Why am I here?”

“My name is Pyrus, I am a familiar who has been assigned as a servant in the Master's home,” replied the little dragon. “Maester Pendragon sent you here while you were asleep.”

“Familiar? Home?” exclaimed Velocity, getting even more confused, as again something unexpected happened when he logged in. Yesterday, he jumped straight into the battle to help Vestalia after he had created his character and done the tutorial against Draco. Now, he was at home asleep in his pajamas.

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“Master can read the information from Mobius,” Pyrus continued. “Now, you should change your clothes and have breakfast. Once you wake up, Mobius will automatically send a message to Maester Pendragon. He will visit you as soon as possible.”

“Errr... alright,” Velocity said automatically. His character then automatically performed activities such as taking off his pajamas and going to the bathroom. He was a little surprised to see his character's body while undressing as there was a small bruise that also existed on his real body.

Velocity started reading the latest tutorial instructions on his monitor. He now had a home and a familiar— the Scares that he could tame by carrying the Tamer Item. He could create many home furnishings that could increase combat factors such as Attack, Defense, Magic, Hit, and many other factors if the furnishings were registered into the Mobius data storage. The home itself can be expanded, and some furnishings can also be used for instant activities such as teleportation (which is expensive). He could also recruit many different types of familiar that could be automatically divided into tasks that could help him obtain certain items automatically.

If he thought the Seption game was just going to be a rehash of the features in the Espion game then he's badly mistaken. The home feature was new and the familiar was now much more useful than the pet in the Espion game where it was mostly a collection or display.

Velocity was done with his bath and he was dressed in his Magician uniform. With an automated scene, Pyrus had escorted him to the dining room and now he was devouring the macaroons that were already available.

A few minutes later, there was a knock and a familiar voice from outside. “It's me Pendragon, may I come in?”

“Come in, Pendragon!” exclaimed Velocity. He was amazed to hear his automated voice and his mumbles indicated to actually eating the macaroni.

“Ah, you're eating,” said Pendragon, approaching Velocity and then sitting at the table. “You really gave me a hard time yesterday, you know!!! You just went into hibernation mode!”

“Yeah, yeah. I apologize... thanks for bringing me home,” Velocity replied lightly. “Then what are you here for?”

“Lot of Stuff!” snapped Pendragon fiercely. “We haven't really been greeted, have we? After you eat, I'll also have to explain a few things to you during your Savior education.”

“I see,” Velocity said nonchalantly. “Well, I don't need to introduce myself other than my name, do I? Then what should I know other than your name?”

His words should be good. Unlike his interactions with Savior, it felt strange that he had to introduce himself in detail to Survivor.

Pendragon began to introduce himself, “My name is Pendragon, my title is Maester, my class is Mechanic, and from now on I will be your guardian.”

“Guardian???” Velocity was surprised. He recalled a Maester being some sort of leader or president of a Tribe from the information on Seption's official website. It seemed that the seven characters on the game's cover were Maesters. It made sense since all seven were from different Tribes.

“Yes, and you are the only Savior I have to serve. Survivors, even at the Maester level, usually have more than one. Even my own wife Windy has three Saviors or so,” Pendragon explained.

“Errr... greetings, I guess,” Velocity groggily responded to Pendragon. “So, all Saviors have Survivor guardians, is that right?”

"That's right. We Survivors will be serving and asking for your help for all kinds of work here. However, you must first graduate from Savior education by being promoted to B rank," Pendragon said.

After Velocity finished his macaroni, Pendragon took out his Mobius and began explaining the tutorials on Velocity's monitor. There were a lot of new tutorials that he had to learn, though some things were already familiar to Velocity. The new things he had to pay attention to were EP and Savior Points, abbreviated as SP.

"So, I have to spend Energy Points before the moon phase changes?" asked Velocity.

"That's right. For your current rank and level, there aren't many quests and activities to spend your EP on. EP will always reset on the 1st and 16th of every month at six o’clock in the morning and we will always have 11000 EP in a phase. So for now, just grind or Auto-Pilot against monsters as much as you can. One minute fighting monsters will reduce 1-4 EP depending on how much you use the Acceleration Book," Pendragon replied.

Velocity already knew the said item from the Espion game. The book served to increase the income of EXP, Money (Sepilith), and item drops that fell by killing monsters, but for the Seption game, it also accelerated EP consumption.

Pendragon began to explain about SP now. "You can see some objectives that appear inside your Mobius now. These ones can be repeated every day and you can collect SP up to 4000 points every moon phase. You can exchange SP for rewards in the Savior's association and there are also free rewards when you collect 4000 SP such as Silver and Gold Powder."

Velocity began reading and listening to Pendragon's explanation again, this time about the field studies that would help him unlock many features in the Seption game.

"During your Savior education at Rank D and C, you can choose field studies in each town and village that consist of various quests. There will be a Survivor who will be the instructor and in charge of these field studies."

Pendragon paused for a moment, waiting to see if Velocity would ask or not from the emoticons he could make in response. He continued after there was no response.

"The point is that after the theory at the academy and the introduction to combat modes with me yesterday, you have the freedom to choose the types of field study until you graduate from this Savior education. Make sure you have a party when undergoing this field study, a maximum of seven people."

The next few explanations Pendragon gave were the basics of RPG games that Velocity already understood. Hoping there wouldn't be too many more tutorials to read (they could be reread on Mobius, he thought), he was relieved when Pendragon ended his teaching session and opened up the question session.

Velocity started the one question that had been nagging at her. "This uniform of yours is a bit different from the ones I've seen, are you a promotion of the Blacksmith Class?"

"The Mechanic is the rank S branch of the Blacksmith Class for the male gender. Meanwhile, the female ones become Mistress. The Maesters and some Survivors who have fighting talent are on S-rank probation right now. You can only reach Rank A for now. You'll get a tutorial on Rank S later, because not all classes are restricted by gender," Pendragon replied.

"Uh, but you're not wearing a shirt today, just a vest," Velocity commented at the difference in Pendragon's attire.

"That's on working shift, when I'm in free hours like now, I'm more comfortable like this," Pendragon replied in a dismissive tone.

Velocity used a nod emoticon. His answer matched the Blog from the game developer who was testing rank S. He then began to ask again, "So, how much do you know about us as...Saviors?"

Velocity looked at Pendragon who squinted. But he began to answer, "We Survivors treat you as newcomers to our world. We only know about the world called Earthes from the Supreme and the Scions but we do not know what kind of world it is, only the information passed down from old to new generation. You have the power that Mobius facilitated to work with us."

"I see," Velocity simply nodded at the words Supreme and Scion. "Ah, one more question. Do you understand what language I am speaking in?"

Pendragon looked surprised. "Huh, what kind of question is that? I can understand your words clearly. You're speaking in Septian. Is something wrong?"

"Err... no," Velocity replied. There was something wrong, but he thought that maybe in the game the language they spoke was actually the same, but it wasn't referred to as Indonesian. There were a few seconds of silence until the questioning session automatically ended.

"Well, in closing I'd like to welcome you to the World of Seption, Velocity!" exclaimed Pendragon. "I hope we can work together for as long as you can. Saviors have come and gone during my days as Maester."

Pendragon extended a handshake that Velocity accepted. The next few minutes passed with an automated scene that ended with Pendragon's departure from his home. Velocity began to sit back on the couch drinking tea and he began to wonder what exactly the description of Savior was in Survivor's eyes. Pendragon treated him like a foreigner. However, Survivor was just an Artificial Intelligence. He must have been programmed by Genesis staff to serve players like himself who were called Saviors without much suspicion since Pendragon himself directly addressed the Supreme and the Scions. He could have met the developers and the main project leader who also had characters in this world.

He began to think of other things that seemed strange. Pendragon had brought him to this home yesterday because he fell asleep, didn't that mean when he was logged out? He would likely have to ask one of the three players who were with him yesterday to confirm his theory.

One more thing, he had noticed Pendragon during the tutorial session earlier by twirling the camera on his monitor. He had been watching Pendragon since yesterday but had not given it much thought due to the intense battle with the two powerful monsters at that time.

Pendragon's uniform as a Mechanic was only a shirt and vest which meant that if he only wore the vest like earlier, his body would be bare-chested when the vest was opened and his midsection could be seen by his eyes. There were several scars in the form of scratches or cuts, bruises, and burn marks on that midsection and he imagined that the scars would spread and revealed even more if the vest was opened. Pendragon also well-built body compared to him, making him wonder if Pendragon was designed by a military soldier who had been through many wars.

Velocity felt foolish to even think about something so unimportant. With an automatic scene, he finished his tea. "I'm going out to Dragavar City, Pyrus!"

"Take care, Master. Have a nice day!" said Pyrus who was preparing at the exit.