Trapped

[Confidential]

Inside a large, dim boardroom, multiple figures sat around a massive screen that allowed them to observe the many players in Last Reality Online. Sitting at the edge, a middle-aged man with blonde hair patiently took a puff of his cigar.

"All of the chosen are accounted for, general." A soldier on the farthest side announced.

"Good." The middle-aged man's voice was gruff and slightly hoarse.

Leaning forward, a massive scar revealed itself across his right eye under the faint light, stretching down to the middle of his cheek. The left side of his chest was decorated with various medals.

Another figure stepped forward, revealing a woman in a labcoat and glasses. Her brown hair and dark skin gave her an exotic look.

The most prominent characteristic of her features was how tired she looked, with visible dark circles under her eyes. "We can begin the test now, sir."

"Our countries have nationals from the enemy's side." The general gave her an intimidating glare. "Are you sure these players won't betray us, Alma?"

The Blackstone researcher, Alma, gave a brief nod as she replied. The difficulties of cultural diversity.

"I performed 5 levels of security checks. All of the chosen are individuals who were either born here or immigrated at a very early age. There's no issue." She slammed down a huge file folder, filled to the brink with the personal information and pictures of countless people.

"Will they still think the same if they find out that we're the ones behind this?" Seeing her proof, he still wasn't completely convinced about this project. "We're the ones pitting them against each other."

"We have the scapegoats ready for the media and the public. There's no issue." Alma reassured him again. "Even if any outliers occur, they will fight for us one way or another."

Hearing her words, the man sighed. "I trust you, as do my colleagues."

"We need the chosen players to win us the war, for freedom." The general sat back and allowed Alma to start her program. "You may begin."

Getting the approval to proceed, Alma stepped to the screen and typed in a command on a keyboard.

[Approved]

[Commencing Operation: Artificial Selection]

...

"Ahahaha! No f*cking way!" Kevin's laughing voice echoed through the voice chat as Li Shi Ming explained his story. "You actually fatfingered your username! Haha!"

"Follow da wae." His voice was smug and fake accented as Kevin pointed to his username above his head. His character had red hair and large muscles, seemingly about to burst out from the starter gear.

It reminded Li Shi Ming of a certain meme with a red echidna. "Why don't you know da wae, my brotha."

Seeing the same smiling emoticon beside his name, Li Shi Ming wanted to facepalm hard for not thinking of this. This would've most likely worked if he copied Kevin's emoticon usage, instead of now being stuck with a randomly generated username.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Shut up." Li Shi Ming rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I think we're here."

The "central square" of the town was actually the entrance to a ridiculously large coliseum. As both players made their way there, Li Shi Ming noticed that the town was based on ancient Roman design.

He recognized the aqueducts that controlled the movement of water through the town, and the designs of various buildings that lined the area. NPCs are seen busying in their daily lives, such as the women hanging up clothes out to dry or the children playing.

Everything was detailed and realistic like the other features he experienced. It was as if both of them had gone back in time to ancient Rome.

"Holy sh*t. That's a lot of people." Kevin whistled in amazement once they arrived. Li Shi Ming nodded his head in agreement as even he was shocked by how many people there were.

Many players had already filled the seats, and it seemed like thousands of the Alpha testers were present. In the middle of the coliseum stood a spherical countdown timer that had about 30 seconds left before the official announcement.

Unable to find a seat and not willing to climb up a large number of stairs, Li Shi Ming and Kevin opted to crowd near the entrance with several others.

[5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

Suddenly, the sky darkened before revealing a floating golden castle above. Hooded figures descended from the castle, wearing robes in various colours. Li Shi Ming was able to make out the [DM] titles above their heads, at an unknown level. [Level ???]

"DMs. I'm assuming they're the dungeon masters." Li Shi Ming commented.

Finally, one of the figures stepped forward. They were wearing white robes and had a petite stature.

"What?" Li Shi Ming deadpanned when a female Japanese voice began speaking.

It sounded like one of those typical anime girls, and he couldn't understand a single word aside from a "yokosou" that meant like welcome or something.

Li Shi Ming wore a concerned face as he looked around in the game settings. "Where are the subtitles?"

"Oh. They're just beside the logout button." Kevin informed him.

"Where's that?" Li Shi Ming looked around but couldn't find it. Being an experienced player of different games, he thought it was weird that a logout button would be able to hide from him.

"Huh?" Kevin's character gave him a weird look. "It's just under the sound options."

Li Shi Ming managed to find the subtitle and sound options, but he still didn't see a logout button. Weird, but maybe it was the announcements that prevented them from exiting the game or something.

"I found it." Li Shi Ming pressed the button and was glad to see English text filling his screen. "Now I can't find the logout button though."

It was the standard schmick of welcome to Last Reality Online and whatnot, and this VRMMORPG has limited resources and rewards for players to earn. Many quests also had limited completions before they expire.

The goal was to reach the final world and they would have chances to challenge the DMs themselves to officially beat the game.

Each world was guarded by various stages. Only when players have found all 5 keys in each world would they be able to open a portal to the next world. There was a catch though, since each world was massive and contained various biomes that could be considered as a "small world" themselves.

More important information was given, such as character stats. The initial values are representative of the player's normal physical capabilities.

Point increases to any stats will also buff those characteristics, such as increasing AGI and STA will allow the player to run faster and have higher endurance respectively.

Finally, points into different stats also provide hidden bonuses to other stats, similar to how ACC would buff the damage of ranged users. Points into AGI will provide half of that number in hidden values for STA, and vice versa.

Li Shi Ming was happy to find out that DEF also provided a similar bonus to HP as he checked his character screen again.

[Username: Guest 4355]

Level: 1

[Stats:]

HP: 10 + 5 -> 15/15

ATK: 1

DEF: 12

CRT: 1%

CRT DMG: 0

ACC: 3

AGI: 1

MAG: 1

STA: 1

"What the f*ck?" Kevin's loud voice distracted him as his friend looked through his own settings. "You're right. That's really weird man. The logout button isn't there anymore."

"Maybe it's because of the announcements." Li Shi Ming shrugged. Kevin agreed with his thoughts, and they both didn't think much further on it.

"There are also many other features waiting for you to be discovered." The female voice continued in Japanese. "But, here is the true goal of this game."

Her voice suddenly turned ominous as the golden skies darkened to red and then black. Various demonic eyes began appearing from the sky, peering gleefully at the players who seemed like mere bugs underneath.

"Starting now, there will be no rules." Li Shi Ming and Kevin were stunned when a wave of energy blasted down towards them and the other players, enveloping them with a dark light.

When it finally faded, Li Shi Ming opened his eyes and was stunned to see Kevin transformed. He knew that Kevin was also Chinese, but was much younger than he initially believed. "Kevin?"

"Snowcat?" Kevin gave him a weird look as well before he looked up to the top of his head. He was slightly shorter than him with tanned skin. "Or... Shi Ming?"

Confused at how Kevin knew his real name, Li Shi Ming opened his character screen name again and was met with another shock. Instead of Guest 4355, it was now replaced with his real first name, and his avatar was reverted to a replica of how he looked in real life.

On top of Kevin's head was still Kevin, but the emoticon was gone. Everything immediately erupted into chaos when everyone noticed the changes.

Li Shi Ming glanced around and saw many players reverting to realistic looks. The worst victims were the catfishers, especially those who used a female avatar.

"I can't log out" A panicked voice caused another wave of commotion. Many other voices soon joined them as they realized they couldn't leave the game. "Let me out!"

Some players began shooting at the white figure in anger with the starter weapons. Their arrows and spells harmlessly bounced off an invisible barrier surrounding her.

"There will be no escaping Last Reality Online." The anime voice gave a sinister giggle. "If you want to leave, complete the game."

"Oh and, if you get hurt the pain will be realistic." A blast of white energy was shot at a group of the players who attacked, causing cries of agony as they were sent flying. This caused the rest of the angry mob to freeze in terror.

"My arm!" A man's voice screamed as he clutched his broken arm, which dangled limply beside him.

"If you die here, you'll actually be dead." The white figure laughed darkly. "Some of you are special, but the weaker ones can expect to stay here forever."

"What in the actual f*ck. This b*tch is f*cking insane." Li Shi Ming could hear Kevin spew profanities beside him as they watched the madness unfold.

"To make it fair, all of you will be separated before being able to kill one another." She took off her hood to reveal white hair and looks resembling a porcelain doll.

However, her eyes were haunting and seemingly lifeless as an evil smile stretched itself across her lips. "There will also be a beginner's package along with a surprise for each of you to get started. Now for my final message to you all..."

"Welcome to Last Reality Online. For many of you, this will be your last reality." The loli's face contorted into an even more inhuman and twisted look. "Have fun and byebye~"

The other DMs standing behind her placed their hands together and began to chant ominously. Li Shi Ming couldn't move as his body began to disappear into pixels with the other players.

In another flash of light, the once populated coliseum became abandoned, leaving nothing behind.