17

As the time was approaching midnight, Christmas was coming to an end but the festivity didn't end as everyone was in their house waiting for the launch of the most popular game in the world.

Most of them were heading into their game pod, setting up their character before the launch, each anticipating, communicating with their friend through the game bod virtual chat. The veterans and those who saw the game just as competitive were highlighting the plans they had while entering the game with most big and small businesses looking to have an edge over their competition.

Ten minutes passed during the talk, it became 11:59, the virtual clock in the pod, and billboard all over the world was whining down the second with everyone both inside or outside were shouting when there was ten seconds before the launch

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The ones in their pod saw the virtual world in front of them, a flat world but they couldn't see the end of it from where they stood in space.

[Ina Winston POV]

When she saw it was midnight through the virtual clock, she said the word written in the manual when installing the pod.

LINK START

When she said those words she saw she saw a very wide world, a flat world but was vast enough not to know its ending after looking at the world she looked back at the virtual screen she ignored before.

WELCOME TO ERA,

A WORLD OF WEALTH

ONLY THOSE WITH POWER CAN KEEP IT

A DOG EAT DOG WORLD

BE CAUTIOUS, ALL YOU SEE MAY NOT BE WHAT IT SEEMS

After reading those words the virtual screen changed into a tutorial like every other virtual MMORPG game she read about it explained the ranking, soul stage,etc which she understood, later saying the word status to view her character setting.

[INA WINSTON]

Race: Human(Enslaved)

Cultivation rank: Mortal

Soul stage: Mortal 

Skill: Seduction lv5, Dagger art lv5, Combat technique lv5, Assassin art lv5, intelligence art lv5, Movement art lv5

Technique: White Family Dagger Art(max), Mix Martial Art(Advanced), White Family Assassination Art(max).

Talent: Darkness Affinity (S)

Remark: A being loved by darkness, it is your ally but with your power it is a waste on you, a darkness bound to emptiness that's what you are, be grateful little one you are on a path of glory or destruction. 

Looking at her status, she smiled when looking at her talent being S rank, meaning she is one of the most talented one in the world, but she frowned when she saw the word enslaved coming out of her status, this means that what Medes said was true concerning they couldn't betrayed him.

Clicking on the word enslaved, she learnt she couldn't do anything against Medes thought or physically, but Medes could do anything to her, his death also means theirs also. 

She shuddered at the thought of dying all of a sudden if she wasn't useful to him or him dying, she promised herself to strong enough to remove herself from bein enslaved or protect him in the shadows Yes!, if she cannot remove the slave mark she would follow Medes in the dark becoming a being terrifying enough to make him enemies to think of the consequences of approaching him. Vowing herself that she pressed the word transfer finding herself in a different environment.

Looking at her environment she found herself in a forest, its trees so big that it covered formed a canopy . 

She sighed, 'what was she expecting, a beginner village with NPCs filled with quests and beginner mobs outside she could kill to level up? No ERA was never like that, this was survival of the fittest only the strong rule while the week dies'

Her thought was far from the original truth but the only difference was that in the spawning of a player luck also play a role, luck was a hidden stat, a player with high luck will be transported few metres from the beginner village while a person with bad luck like her end up where she would have to survive to reach the beginner village. 

Luckily for her her darkness affinity boosted her in her current environment giving her enhanced sight and other but she couldn't know since to her the place looked like the day.

The same couldn't be said to everyone who spawned into ERA as a lot of them didn't have an overpowered talent or one that fitted to the environment they spawned on. 

So on the first day of the launch 75% of players who entered into ERA died, some spawning at boss grounds or high level zones, others to the environment like eating poisonous food, temperature, and others.

Many of them cursed but only a few quit because they were playing the game either for fun or their talent being so low, heck there was a post of a million dollar young heir saying his talent was slime control, and other commenting they got talent like butler, slave, and many other low end talents that meant they were mortal for life they thought.

For players with good luck, spawning close to the beginner village was also not easy with the lifelike NPC each asking where you come from and other questions, many smart players and many veteran players called themselves either merchant or cooked up various stories that made them less suspicious.

Not all of them were that smart though some with bad thought already but those thought were destroyed after seeing the town guard slicing in half a player trying to harass an NPC girl, thinking like other virtual games were only Boss like mobs and hidden boss could kill them players as part of their privileges.

Yes in other games because of the growing rise of AI in various field the United Union based a bill saying AI MMORPG themed game NPCs must not be programmed to kill player except a Boss and a hidden Bosses, even guards in kingdom setting could only imprison player indefinitely if they do grave crimes. 

These privileges game nefarious minded player the ability to do crazy act like raping and killing NPCs, posting it on their social handle with videos using the hashtags #Princess tasting# #MotherndDaughter# and with dark guild like The Cunt, Sleeping Princess and others making it their mission to taste every female they want, these made it normal to the gaming community.

Therefore carrying that mindset into ERA hoping they could do worse, the death of various of such players in various beginner villages gave both good, neutral and evil minded player a shock with some login out of the game to complain saying they will sue Riddle Cooperation if they don't go according to the United Nation act only to be replied by Secretary of the organization tweeting its all within their guidelines and they didn't break any rule causing a global uproar.