Prologue: The Song That Changed The World
- 10 Years Ago
A drizzling rain is a depressing atmosphere, and lets not get on the fact the dead bodies lying around.
Surrounding me are the dead corpses of those who died because of me.
All because of the song, my family is dead.
The song of change…
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The year 2066, forty-four years until the 22nd century. Maybe by then people will forget about the song.
My name is Rhythm Game. Without any parents the orphanage gave me names that represent who I am.
I live in America and I don’t know who my parents are. I don’t really care, but I think I’m a mix between a european and an asian, mostly asian. I am sixteen years old and I go to public school like any other person my age.
Why am I saying this? Well thats because I’m currently being bullied by the majority of the school.
Everyone ignores me at school. I can understand if I’m ugly or weird, but I’m not. I’m average in looks, with a appearance that the workers at the orphanage would often say I gave off a feeling that calms others. Ever since I joined high school, no one ever talked to me unless absolute necessary.
This might be due to the fact of what happened on the first day I transferred…
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Class was starting for everyone. I was quite nervous when I transfered, but nothing really happened. It was okay until the end of the day. At 6th period, it was free time. I was just dazing off when I heard the melody.
Instantly awake, the first thing I did was tell the guy who turned on the melody, “Turn it off.”
Confused, the guy replied, “Why?”
“I don’t like the melody.” And thus, no one became close to me. Now to the readers, let me explain something first. In 2055, a video was released to the world. Hitting off on Y*u Tube the video became instantly viral.
The video was just a picture of a CD disk and played a song. The song had no lyrics, yet people could tell that it was a person making that unique melody. Now what was strange was that although the video lasted no more than a minute, no one was able to reproduce the same sound. When people tried to sing it, it always changed tone depending on the singer’s emotions, but none were able to recreate the original. Even pro-voice actors were stumped at this mystery.
If it was just that, then it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but the song was magic. The song strongly influenced the emotions, and the song was so moving that some small countries made it their anthem. Religion chanted the melody as their prayer. Kids started to sing it in the neighborhood. Even some birds started to sing it.
No matter where in the world you went, even to the most remote places, you could almost always hear the song. Eventually this song became known as “The Song of Change.”
What’s not known to the public is that the song inspired more than good. Religious fanatics were deeply moved by it, and saw it as a message from god. Acts in the name of god became more frequent, but at most it got a paragraph on the local news.
This was because of the song of change again. A man was so inspired by the song that he started to work on a virtual world dedicated to the song. Creating the technology for this, 10 years have passed since he worked on the world. As others used his tech, thousands of VRMMORPGs were introduced, but because of this no one paid attentions to the negative effects of the song of change.
Fanatics and religions started popping up in many places all over the world. Many religions centered around the song of change or the virtual worlds and saw it as a new age.
Back to me, so because of something I don’t like people avoid me. Crazy right! But that’s how it is, conflicts and isolation are always centered around petty reasons.
Walking home, I noticed the truck in front of my house. Due to several jobs I used to take, most not so pretty, I made enough money to support myself with a little extra to give to the orphanage that took care of me. It was enough for me to splurge on a small one story house in a peaceful neighborhood. If the police were on to me however, I would quickly have to abandon the state.
Seeing the people moving some boxes to my door, I walked up to them.
“Excuse me, do you need something.”
“Yeah, we’re looking for a Rhythm Game?”
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“That’s me.”
“Sign this please.”
Taking the clipboard, I sign several papers before giving it back to them. That’s strange. It seems that someone sent me a VR Machine.
“Okay, now please let us in so we can install the machine, afterwards we’ll be done.” Of course, due to my former line of work, I checked if they had any possible items on them that could harm me. After a quick inspection, I opened my door to them.
It took a while but they set up the VR Machine. Bidding farewells, I looked at the large egg shaped machine. It looked excessively large compared to the standard helmet like machine I had.
Entering inside, I entered the dive state that almost anyone knew how to do. Inside my virtual room, a blank room that is personalized for every machine when nothing is loaded, I noticed that I had a message.
Calling forth the message, an envelope materialized right above my hand. That’s weird. Even in the VR Machine it was hard to find people who still send handwritten messages. Opening the mail, I read the contents.
To: The Creator of the Song
Because of your song, I was inspired to create the new world I dreamt about. In one week it will be announced to the world, but until then you and several hundred people will be able to beta test it for 1 month real time. The official release date is 7/1/2066, a little over a month from now. The master code is needed to input for special character enhancements.
Have fun in New World,
Daimon Chase.
Why would Daimon Chase, the creator of VR himself, send a letter to me. I didn’t sign up for anything like this, not that I’m complaining.
Well, I might as well play the game. I opened the application for [New World] which sent me to the loading process.
Loading…
“The scan on your DNA states that you do not have an account. Do you wish to register?”
Yes
“Select the name of your avatar.”
Vocal
“Please enter the master code to continue.”
Now what would that be? It has to be something I know, and probably the other beta testers. Aw damn it, now I know why he referred to me as the creator.
Resigning myself to this, I started to sing the song of change. The original melody flowed out, creating a beautiful song that shook the soul. Lasting for about a minute, in the endless void my voice carried out forever.
Ending, the system replied…
“Master code recognized. Generating System Game Master settings. Unlocking all locked options.”
Eh, wait did it just say that I have System Game Master settings?
“Please choose a race. There are 5 choosable ones, but because of your GM account, you can choose from the original 472 races.
After that, a long list of options appeared in front of me. From the top were the common races: human, elf, dwarf, orc, and demon. Then it continued into many races like: dragons, beastmen, angels, etc.
I can’t decide. System Generate Random Race.
“Random Race has been selected. Due to your GM settings, you can choose from a wider range of choices. Are you sure about your choice?”
Yes
“You have selected the Unique Race: Slimen. They were the weak slimes that evolved to become more humanoid to become a sentient race.”
Eh, a slimen? Is that a form of slime? So wait, my race is a SLIME. Well it can’t be all that bad. If I remember correctly, around the times of 2015 slimes were often depicted as overpowered underdogs in fantasy light novels. Also, that was during the childhood of most adults now, so maybe they designed an overpowered race.
“Do you wish to customize your appearance?”
What came up were two things. First was my original body, which I didn’t bother to change. Next appeared my slime body. Honestly it looked like the membrane of a jellyfish covering a small sphere which I assumed was the core. It looked kinda cute.
Skip
“Do you wish to enter your race starting town or enter a random town?”
Well I’m not entering a town full of slimes as a noob slime. I know for sure that the current image of slimes dictate them as cannibals, so no thank you.
Random City
“Your account has been created. Please enjoy your time during the beta trial period. Please note that when the official game comes out, you will keep your character and all of the stats/skills but you will be unable to level up for one month real time.”
Eh, well that seems fair.
After that, my conscious faded.