“We are here live outside of the Mercedes Arena, which is filling up fast! With the release of Apocalyptic World tonight, everyone sure is excited!”

“That’s right, the first ever VRMMO and over a million players all ready to dive into their VR Pods! We have pros joining them from all around the world! Team Junction, Kitty Express, The Dark Reapers, Kill Squad and more! Viewers around the world are certainly watching with excitement tonight!”

“It is the first ever full dive MMO after all! For those that are just tuning in, Apocalyptic World is a team-based Player vs Player survival game set in a post-apocalypse world, where players mus-”

Looking up from the stream as the commentators continued to speak, I saw the filming team with my manager entering the room and smiled in their direction. Closing my laptop and taking out my headphones I stood up. Our manager is responsible for speaking to the stream, and letting him handle it I decided to escape to the VR room before they caught me for an interview.

Entering the room, I saw my team, each of them standing near their pods that laid on the ground, all four of them looking excited about entering this VR world. Glancing around the room, I saw a medical team on standby, who will be responsible for watching our vitals while we were deep diving. Walking over to my pod that laid in the middle, I looked at each team member that would be under my leadership.

My fiance, her in-game name is Winter. Her and I were the only two females on the team and were marketed by management as if we were prize possessions. We had made several complaints, especially after they revealed our engagement without our permission, and they had given us a rather large bonus, promising that they would stop the marketing. Thankfully they did, but it had left a bad taste in our mouths. In public she wore an expressionless face, rarely speaking unless spoken to. She is an extremely serious player, always pointing out details no matter how small that I fail to pick up on as captain. When the two of us are alone however, she becomes an entirely different person, as if a lovesick teenager. Seeing her glance at me, I give her a soft smile before looking towards my second in command.

Sheep, a charismatic man who enjoys flirting even though it gets him nowhere. He’ll flirt with Winter and me, and though he holds no romantic interest in us, he does it solely as ‘practice’ and we just go with it for a laugh. In-game however, he is the most reliable person, one who I trust with my back completely. He leads our little squad and because of his leadership skills in combat we can keep pace with professional competitive teams, though we do fall short due to skill. Our eyes meet as he winks at me.

“The new jerseys really bring out your looks, Midnight.”

Giggling at his comment, I looked him up and down. “Too bad I can’t say the same for you.” Sheep chuckles as I look at the next member, Ghost.

If you ever needed to shoot the shit, Ghost is the one to seek out. A chatterbox that loves talking your head off regardless of the topic, could be about his habits or about the gaming world. Whenever Sheep or I go down in a firefight, he will pick up the slack though, and he has promise as a leader, though he has no interest in leadership. He is excellent at acting as a mediator and remaining neutral in arguments, which is the best thing about having him around. Surprisingly as a chatterbox, he is very well versed in assassination in PvP or scouting and surprise attacks in PvE.

Our last and newest member, Lemon. A bit of an introvert, he tends to stick to himself and doesn’t speak first in a conversation. Sheep frequently tries to get him to speak and you can tell Lemon gets a bit annoyed at him, but never pushes him away. Ghost also helps him learn mechanics that he doesn’t understand and tries to get Lemon to gel into the party. At this rate though, we may need to replace him, even though he’s a genius in his own right. We simply required people who were outspoken because of the job we did. I adore him, he’s talented and smart, he just needs to know it’s safe to speak up.

Looking at the timer that we had on the wall, mainly to generate hype for the stream, we had about three minutes until the game launched. We could enter early despite the timer to join the queue however our manager wanted us to do it according to the timer. We belonged to an esports team, The Dark Reapers, and were considered an elite team, but not for competitive reasons. All those that were here were theorycrafting geniuses, being able to test and find abusable mechanics that we communicated back to our main competitive teams.

With about 200 players from our esports organisation joining, our job would be to heavily invest our characters to find the most overpowered meta builds and give that information to the competitive guys. We had four accounts each lined up for this purpose, with the ability to get more if required. We thoroughly enjoyed our work, it allowed the competitive guys to build their foundations with resources and money in the early stages while we rushed the game and figured out builds.

“Alright you four, a word before we head in. Best to do it before the film crew gets in here.” Winter, Sheep, Ghost and Lemon turn their attention towards me and put their phones away. “We’ve been beta-testing this game for a few months and testing the deep dive tech, so we have an advantage over the casuals, but remember that we weren’t the only org to have a play test. Each death causes a loss of experience and deleveling is possible, so don’t be overconfident dumbarses.”

Hearing the film crew enter the room, I switched to my usual professional tone without turning around. “Remember, we are an elite team of The Dark Reapers, and we will stomp those who face us. We’re doing this not only for ourselves, but the fans at home who are cheering us on, the sponsors who invest in us and of course our families. Show them and the world that we will not fail. We will reap.”

“We will reap.” The others spoke with hype and excitement in their voices. Internally we cringed at this saying, it is edgy and awful. It’s management’s way of hyping up the viewers and fans, and with most of them being young teens or adults, these sorts of sayings were popular. Holding back the shiver that ran down my spine, I looked at the timer and saw one minute and thirty seconds left.

“Alright, get your gear on and get in the pods, it’s showtime.” As the four move, I attach a band on each wrist that would monitor my heart rate, a helmet that monitors brain activity and a vest that is more for comfort than anything. The medical team would be watching our vitals as insurance, they had access to cut the power supply of the pods in case anything happened to us so we could be treated. Watching as everyone climbed into their pods, I turned to the camera and gave a strong nod before climbing into my own. Laying down, I placed my arms and legs into the correct positions as the lid of the pod closed.

Hearing the pod power up, I felt excited. I fell in love with this game while beta-testing it, and that wasn’t even the final product, with plenty more promised! A few clicks rang out as a short stinging pain came from my neck. Small needles that penetrated our skin that would intercept our nerves, allowing good control in game, though there would be a bit of input delay. Closing my eyes as the preparation finished, I spoke a command to the pod as my manager counted to zero.

“Deep dive, activate.”

It’s dark…my eyes are closed? With a moan, I open them slowly to find my head resting on a table, throbbing with the pain of a deep headache. I could smell gunpowder in the air, which I found strange, our sense of smell shouldn’t be this detailed. With a groan, I sat up and held an arm up to block the sunlight, finding myself in an abandoned room, a slightly rotten wooden desk in front of me. I sat on a creaky old chair. Looking around the room with squinted eyes, I found a bed in poor condition behind me and a mirror on a wall.

“Is this…the character creation room? No, that’s not right…” Holding my head, I looked down at my hand that is holding a revolver. A Colt Diamondback, rusty and uncleaned. We had taken the time to practise shooting at firing ranges and because of the safety training I knew that this gun had been fired recently. Touching the barrel, I found it hot to the touch. Standing out of shock, I realised another detail.

“There’s no input delay? H-how?” Placing the revolver down, barrel facing away from me, I moved my limbs and flexed my fingers. Incredible, there is no input delay at all, it’s like I’m actually here physically. Pinching my skin, I noticed the pain equaled the force, furthering my shock.

“Incredible. Isn't the pain a bit too much though? Regulations state that pain should be no more than a dull thud, yet this is sharp, like a pinch.” Looking at the revolver, I considered shooting myself in the foot to test the pain system to make sure it’s operational. Deciding against it after checking the chamber, with there only being five bullets in there with one slot empty, I called out the System.

“System Call: Status.”

Name: Midnight Class: None Age: 21 Class Points: None Clan: None Job: None Clan Position: None Job Points: None

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

A silver status screen shows up, causing my lip to twitch slightly as I sigh. I had set the default to be black in colour, I didn’t enjoy being flashbanged everytime I opened my status. Looking over the status in front of me, I found it strange. This isn’t at all like the one from the beta, it had my Age which is accurate and kind of creepy, but also “Class” and “Job”? I don’t recall those two. Finding everything strange, I closed the Status.

“System Call: Options.”

Nothing happened. Crossing my arms, I fell into deep thought as I ran through everything that had occurred. The controls were too good, no input delay is impossible from just game code, the pods inherently had a delay because the information had to be processed and sent to the server. Yet, with a thought I could move my fingers, toes and limbs with no delay. Upon entering the game, a character creation screen should’ve come up, our beta-profiles had been wiped for everything except Clan information, yet my status did not have a Clan listed. As theories came pouring into my mind, I turned my attention to leaving the game first, with Options not showing it meant there might be a bug.

“System Call: Exit Game.”

Once again, nothing came up. I felt my heartbeat speed up while I tried to remain calm.

“System Call: Help Desk.”

“System Call: Support Line.”

“System Call: Stream Chat.”

“System Call: Version Information.”

Nothing, none of the commands worked. Flustered, I felt my mind fall into chaos before remembering we had a medical team on hand, prepared for situations exactly like this. My elevated heart rate and brain activity should be setting alarm bells at this point, meaning they would be monitoring me carefully. Breathing out, I run through the emergency commands.

“Emergency Command, Priority 31 Alpha. Terminate Session.”

My heart sank at the fact that once again, nothing happened. This command is not for the game, it is a hard coded command for the pod. The pod records everything that happens in my session, meaning any words, actions or game play I do will be recorded by it. Once this command line is said, it will terminate all sessions by powering the pod down safely. This could not be worked around by the game, it’s impossible to do so. Sitting down on the chair as my body trembled, I calmed myself down while thinking rationally.

Two possible theories came to mind. An audio bug prevented the pod from hearing what I’m saying, an extremely dangerous bug because it meant I could not exit the game on my own will. The other possibility is that the server is lagging because of high traffic, but that shouldn’t prevent the pod from executing the emergency command.

A third possibility came to mind, one that made the most sense, but I denied it, it’s not possible for it to happen. Even if it is possible, then why would it happen? Standing as a feeling of foreboding enveloped me, I moved to the mirror and looked at myself.

[https://i.imgur.com/QxBZ9Ei.jpg]

A red haired girl stared back with amber eyes. A cute button nose, long eyebrows and pale skin, absolutely within my striking range. Looking down at my breasts, I cupped them and found them to be slightly bigger than my own in real life, about a C cup. Firm, I could feel a bra underneath the clothing, which consisted of a plain white shirt and a short black skirt. Looking at the mirror again, I ran my fingers down my cheek.

“I’ve never created a character like this.” I liked black hair and silver eyes on my characters as they reminded me of the night sky, and while I did love my red haired girls, this is not a character I’d create. Freckles dotted my cheeks lightly, making this appearance more cute than hot.

Turning away from the mirror, I looked over the room before my eyes settled on the revolver. If that third possibility is in fact what is happening here, I needed more information. Sitting down at the desk, I sat as I had when I woke up. Thankfully, my headache had faded away.

Instead of being stupid, I formed the hand that had held the revolver into a gun and pointed it at my temple, as if reenacting a suicide. Looking to the left, I saw a bullet hole in the wall, along with dried blood on both the floor and wall. The desk also had a pool of blood that had dripped onto the floor, both dried. My heart beat quickened as I realised that either this is some sort of backstory to my character or what I had now started to fear is true.

Closing my eyes, I calmed myself down while thinking over the third possibility. Overwhelming evidence pointed to it, this isn’t a dream either, I’ve never experienced or heard of a dream this detailed. Considering shooting myself in the hopes it would give me the respawn screen and possibly allow me to log out, I shook my head and decided against it. Standing, I decided the best course of action right now is to seek out the others if they were here. If this is indeed the game, they should have spawned somewhere nearby.

As I moved out of the room, my vision changed as a HUD of sorts appeared. A bit confused, I felt hope that this meant it is a game, but my mind recalled that in the beta and blog posts that there is and will not be a HUD. To my top left I saw a health bar, green in colour with a number, 100, underneath. Bottom right it showed a white image of the revolver I held, showing it had 5/0 bullets. Gulping nervously, I also saw blank portraits, four in total, underneath my health. A basic HUD, but it showed vital information and it isn’t the only projection. A wall of text also showed up.

Prime World, Iteration 471,283.

Entity: Ruby “Midnight” Piper

Welcome, Entity “Midnight”. You are one of the last survivors along with 1,029,492 others of the “Prime World”. You have been brought to this world to save it from an invasion that threatens all creation. Along with those who have arrived, you are to become strong, use technologies and magic of countless worlds and universes to overcome adversaries.

The loop has occurred 471,282 times, this is the final loop. You will be rewarded with what you wish for if you save the Prime World. This world has been abandoned, you will find no natives here, only their technology and resources. Be careful, enemies lurk within the cities and fields.

Entity “Midnight”, serve your duty to the universe and save the Prime World from the enemy forces.

Good Luck.

“Huh?” Rereading this lore three times, I felt my head spin. Prime World? Enemy Forces? Apocalyptic World did not have Player versus Environment elements at all. No NPCs, no “enemy” NPCs, nothing of the sort, it is simply a PvP experience with base building elements. The third possibility came into mind and I couldn’t deny it anymore. It’s the most logical choice, the one thing that I had laughed about from anime and manga. We’ve been isekai’ed into a new world! Fuck!

Eager to find the others, I sped out of the ageing house I’m in and opened the front door. The sun shines heavily on my eyes, causing pain as I shield them. As my vision clears, I see that I’m standing outside on a normal street, a bitumen road with a car in the driveway. From a glance I could tell the car is fucked, it wouldn’t work and the browning grass and wildlife growing along the walls of the house told me the street had been abandoned for some time.

Quest Received!

Prime World Survival Basics: I

Open the System: Done.

Find Wood: 0/5

Find Stone: 0/5

1/8 Tasks Completed.

A quest? The quest faded and the objectives showed up on the right side of my HUD, under the title of the quest. Why are there quests of all things?! Steadying my breathing, I focused myself and put my fears to the side. My friends and fiance were out here, hopefully, and I needed to focus on finding them first. Anything else needs to be forgotten about until I find them, they’re more important.

Stepping onto the street, I cleared my mind and focused my vision as I slowly moved along the streets. A flare would be very helpful right about now, though that might bring the enemies the System had talked about to me. Slowly moving towards the end of the street under the heat, my eyes quickly locked onto movement at the end of the street. Rolling painfully along the ground towards cover, the back of a car, I focused on listening while placing a finger on the hammer of the Colt Diamond.

I’d have preferred a longer range weapon, I much preferred sniper-based weaponry. Faintly, I could hear footsteps coming towards me, and from the attempts at hushing the sound I knew they knew I’m here. The footsteps stop two houses down from me, silence returning to the street.

“Friendly?” I heard a call from down the street. A soft, male voice that tried to keep their voice low.

“Identify yourself.” Calling back, I got ready for a gunfight. Because of the beta-testing and practise at the firing range, I knew how to handle all types of guns and felt thankful management had arranged it all for us.

“Ghost. Is that you, Midnight?”

“Fact?”

“You despise the competitive team because they give us no credit for their achievements. Fact?”

“You enjoy roleplay in bed too much.” Ghost had always, always overshared his love life, the same went with Sheep when the two talked. It didn’t bother Winter or I, we had no interest in men after all, it is just how comfortable everyone is with each other, excluding Lemon for the time being.

“Damn right I do! Me to you, or you to me?”

“Half-way. Keep an eye out!”

“Roger.” I stood as he spoke, keeping myself low and moved towards his location. I saw Ghost as well, though his figure had changed. Shorter than most men, he had short, brown hair and blue-green eyes. He had simple clothes on as well, with just a blue shirt and white shorts, no shoes like me. Tilting my head back to signal Ghost to follow me, we both moved towards the house I had come from since I knew it would be safe. Entering, I turned to Ghost as he placed his gun, a Desert Eagle, down on the table and looked at me seriously.

“Midnight, I think we’ve been isekai’ed.”