8 Chapter 8

[Beta Testing Online]

[Current amount of Players: 1000]

[Game Forums are Offline]

[Beta Testing will End in: 29d 23h]

'What?' Max was stunned.

'What is this? What is going on? What game? What beta testing? The fuck?'

He wasn't sure what to think of it as everything was as real as it can be, but the actually they were all a part of the game. 'How is this possible? You are kidding right?' He was in denial until he saw the name tags above some people.

[Urban_Goose]

[Mike Oxlong]

[Elsa]

[Iamfirst69]

They all wore a simple tunic and leather pants and They were all looking around curiously like it was their first time in Horizon.

'All of this is just a game?' He thought but then denied it. 'No. It is not. The people are as real as they can be. I refuse to believe it.' Then another series of notification came from the system.

[NPC System Active]

He took a look at his system interface and saw the new additions.

First, he had a new category named Blueprints.

[Blueprints]

Caladbolg III -> 50.000 EXP

Lucky Dagger -> 2.000 EXP

Iron Sword (Petty Fire) -> 1.500 EXP

Iron Sword (Petty Frost) -> 1.500 EXP

Iron Sword (Petty Lightning) -> 1.500 EXP

Arrow (Petty Fire) -> 1.000 EXP

Arrow (Petty Frost) -> 1.000 EXP

Arrow (Petty Lightning) -> 1.000 EXP

Iron Shield (Petty Magic) -> 4.000 EXP

Iron Shield (Petty Health) -> 2.000 EXP

The list went on and on. There were axes, warhammers, different types of swords. But the most expensive one was Caladbold III.

He could buy them if he had the currency which seemed to be EXP but, 'Where do I get the EXP? Is it through here?' Then he focused on the other new feature.

[NPC Features]

Shop

Quest

He chose the shop first.

There was a plus button on the top right. He focused on it and a new interface popped up.

-Items

-Memory Crystals

When he focused on the Items section, he saw his current equipment displayed right next to an inventory. 'I can sell equipment through this.' He thought and focused on Memory Crystals.

There he saw records named after their focus of story.

- Horned Rabbit

- Tortus Hunt

- Poultry Hunt

- Saving the Blue Pixie

- Wolf Hunt

- Minotaur Hunt

They were all his memories. Everything he had done that was worthy of note was listed there. And he could sell crystals of them to the players. Both himself and the players could earn EXP through them. 'Ah, so that's how.'

Then he focused on Quest option.

[Quest Creation]

[Daily Available NPC EXP: 500]

[Renown: 1]

The EXP recorded here couldn't be used by him. He could only give it to the players in exchange for a quest. 'What does Renown do?' He didn't have any information about it so he just left it be.

'This is starting to look more and more like a game.' He thought and started walking towards a player who was hanging around solo unlike the others.

"Max? Where are you going?" Marcus asked.

"I have something to do. Go without me first." Max replied.

"Got it." He nodded and the rest left.

Max looked at the tag above the player.

[Grid]

He was checking out the place curiously while looking at the people.

Today was the first day of the beta testing of the new game Gaia Online and he was excited as the hype was ridiculous.

99.9% realism? What the hell? How was that even possible? But now that he was in the game, the capsule he bought was worth it as everything was lifelike.

The NPCs were like real people who gave answers depending on different situations. The game has just started but quite a few people were arrested because of harassment. Some for disturbing the public because they tried to take their pants off.

The NPCs didn't give out quests immediately nor was there any indication that they had quests to give. They had to look for it themselves by talking to them.

'How did they do this?' He was checking out the place when suddenly he was called.

"Hello there."

He turned towards the sound and saw a kid with short auburn hair that had patches of white.

"Are you talking to me?" He asked.

"Yes. Can you help me with something?" The kid said.

'Oh my god! A quest!' Grid thought and replied instantly. "Yes yes I can. What do you need help with?" He asked and a notification popped up before him.

[Just Dance]

- Dance for 3 minutes.

Reward: 50 EXP

'What?' He was flabbergasted. 'He needs me to dance? And why is the reward so good just for dancing? Shouldn't I go and kill some monsters? Like avenge your father or something?' But of course he kept those thoughts to himself as he immediately accepted the quest and started dancing in the middle of the street while the kid clapped his hands.

The passersby were looking at him weirdly while a few of the players joined him in dancing. Some of them were smart enough to ask for the same quest while some of them were unaware of it and just danced for the sake of it.

After 3 minutes were up, they got their rewards excitedly as 50 EXP was a huge sum for them level 1 players.

When they went to interact with the NPC once more, they were shocked to find out that they could buy memory crystals for an instant dungeon.

The rewards depended on difficult as some of them could be entered as a group, and the rewards were amazing for them.

They could get equipment if they were lucky and even skills if they were super lucky and also if they couldn't get anything else, they would get some money.

The thing is, they were all being sold in exchange to EXP.

Some players hesitated while the others saw this as an absolute win.

Meanwhile the the kid in question, Max, had a single thought smugly in his mind, 'You gotta water them leeks every once in a while.'