Where It Started

Where It Started

Ali was the standard high school students like others. He went to school, came home, and played games. On the middle of Ali's the first high school year, a new RPG game introduced by Mathesta.

Scandia.

Scandia was a very versatile game thanks to the countless class and magics. The story had many starts, there were many races along with different traits, countless main and side quests, weapons, magic, monsters, etc.

 A new player had to choose a starting point. Starting points were different for each region and they were many, yet four of them were popular than the rest.

First one, you would become the trash son/daughter of the Baron of The Theocracy of Mariatle. You could escape, or prove your power, or kill all the other 'inheritors' to get stronger and get into a position.

Politics in game was hard, so few able to achieve that. That start even got an award for the most realistic political warfare in any fiction around the entire world.

 People of the Theocracy of Mariatle mostly use holy power of Mariatle. The country ruled by a religion, and the god and people were unforgiven to people who was not in their religion and sinners.

In the game, Mariatle would consider as the most racist country. If you went outside to the kingdom, most NPCs would avoid, diss or pick a fight with you since Mariatlers were fanatically religious people who killed and burned any people who was not human or believing an another religious, labelled them as heretics.

Second one, you would become a were-human in The Western Beast Empire like Ali's character Kaplan. You had to choose one of the Animal, Lizard, or any other race as part of your character. Kaplan was a were-tiger, one of the strongest demi-human races ever exist.

In that scenario, you were an orphan who lived on streets. Your family killed by unknown people, and you had to climb the ladders by yourself. They were many another starts as well, but most popular one was that.

 In the game, demi-humans were extremely popular pick. The avatar could use magic, not like elves or anything, but it still could; they were extremely good at martial arts and weapons thanks to their natural raw strength and instincts. Also, stealth players liked to play with demi-humans since they were a lot of stealthy races.

They were currently in peace treaty with another kingdom; the kingdom also a demi-beast kingdom; The Beastistan. You could also start there and become a merchant. Yet, it was not as popular as other picks.

Third one, you would be an elf. Elf kingdom Vallonde was next to The Theocracy of Mariatle. They were constantly in war in last 345 years, and even though the elves were extremely good at using magic, the Theocracy of Mariatle's holy magic was extremely destructive; hence they were acting with cautious.

Their natural protector the Phoenixes were living on the World Tree, the biggest tree of all Scandia. The phoenixes were living in harmony in the capital of the elven kingdom. They are sacred beast for elves, and mostly peaceful creatures.

 Elves also a popular race in Scandia. Their natural mana regeneration, and their own unique elemental summons were extremely popular. Their magical archers were one of the most annoying classes in the entire Scandia since they could shoot you without getting seen while the enemy was engaging with an or multiple elemental golems.

Fourth one was the hardest, but most powerful race, Demi-dragon. In the game, Dragons were the peak predators along with Phoenixes.

 You will start in The Empire. Empire was a formidable force with Dragons' backup. But Dragons only there to protect, not attack, thanks to certain curse forced upon them by the gods; after all the destruction they have done thousands of years ago.

Dragons divided into two factions; one faction was the evil one, and their Ruler was Sangal who wanted to kill all humans; the other one was Bükrek who was the holy dragon of The Empire who protects humans.

Sangal did not appeared in last hundred years, hence Empire thought he was dead like real idiots. Ali could not see Sangal in the game either, but he was sure for the story's sake, Sangal was alive and plotting something.

Aside from dragons, The Empire about to start a conquest, and you were born twenty years before that. Your character considered as a taboo. No human could have a baby from a dragon, and prophecy said if one with human and Dragons like appeared; the time one of the mightiest ends would come soon.

The part of 'one of the mightiest ends would come soon' meant either Bükrek or Sangal would be dead. They thought Sangal was dead, and The Empire did not want to risk Bükrek, so They tried to kill you. But your mother saved you on last second and put you on a sail, saw you vanishing through the thick mist before she had found and killed.

The story started there, and you would be the strongest if you could manage to save yourself from The Empire's assassins, and Sangal faction's followers.

There was another kingdom too. in the south there was the Famil Kingdom which merged with ice. The Mathesta said there would be a DLC for it, but it never came.  People was disappointed, but the game had too many quests anyways. Hence, they did not pressure them much.

They were demons and they were using demonic magic as their core magic, but it never explained much. It would appear Scandia exhausted the Mathesta a lot. They never showed in game; no captain accepted to travel there, the barrier stopped either boat or beast to enter their domains.

Mathesta explained that they were peaceful species, but they also said never anger a demon. It stopped there, but only God knows what to do with that.

Even though you could use magic in all the avatars, even warrior build; magic was a rarity in Scandia. Not many could use magic; aside from the elves, not majority of the NPCs used magic.

It was not like magic made you strongest; a strong warrior could easily win against a magician. Yet, the magicians were more useful in wars thanks to the area effects, fields, enchantment, food production, etc.

"It indeed reminds the memories," Ali sighed. He used a lot of his time on that game in the high school, but that later changed. He had to study for a good university, but he could not manage to get in a good one possibly.

...The test results did not reveal, but Ali knew he did not do well.

In the end, Ali sighed. "At least I can play Scandia a little bit more," he murmured as he got the Virtual Reality Helmet.

Scandia was an exceptionally large game. The story of the game was enormously big that only cinematics have 670 TB volume on the device. That was why a special virtual reality helmets built, just for Scandia.

Kaplan opened the helmet and looked at the main screen. The thing he saw there was disturbing...

On the screen, an old guy was dancing like a freak, and two, arguably same choices were on the screen.

[Would you like to have fun?]

[Yes...] [Also, Yes...]

"What is that?" He wondered and clicked the yes.

[Meanwhile]

"Agent Truck, the target has been found," a woman's voice came from the radio.

Mr. Truck sighed. "Roger that," he said and jump from the cliff, directly towards the Ali's room.

On that day, the news wrote that...

A truck crashed a room at 11th floor and killed a person.

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