Jian Online

"Title?! damn you lucky brat!" praise Chandra to Yuli.

Title is something that really hard to obtain in-game. Getting one is almost impossible for a new player.

"Hehe..." she laughs half-heartily. Couldn't understand what it is about. She asks him, "what is this 'Heavenly Amazoness Constitution' ?"

"Don't know..." said him honestly since it was his first time seeing the title. Continuing after correcting his glass he said, "But to my Experience 'Heavenly Amazoness' is a race of 'Third Empress of the Song realm'. It was an ancient and almost extinct race."

"Umm please forgive me if I being rude. But I don't understand the game story. This third Empress of the Sing realm, I don't know her." Asked her timidly.

"You! It's song realm! s.o.n.g, don't misspell it!" He corrected her pronunciation with an exaggerated hand movement.

"Y-yes... I-I really don't know about this si-so-song realm." Answer Yuli stammering. She felt that this Superior of her is too invested in the game to even mad at her slight mistake.

"Umu... So I will explain to you the basic." Chandra is pleased with her reaction. He grins inwardly.

It's good to tease your subordinate.

"This is the first game that had a chaotic genre. First of all, do you play 'Open World-RPG'?" Probe him.

His subordinate this year is half of his age. He expects her to knew or play some of the old game.

"U-um... I played 'DragonNest Online' back in the days." Answer her honestly.

"That wasn't RPG, It was a 'Hack n Slash Dungeon-RPG' game!" corrected him. although there's an ongoing dispute about 'DragonNest Online' genre Chandra believes that the game wasn't an open-world at all.

"O-oh..." she could only agree to the passion that her superior gave her about the game. Then she remembers playing another game. She said, "I played 'Ragnarok Online' too."

"In that case, this game is easy for you to understand." He said then continued to explain, "That 'Ragnarok Online' is 2.5D games where you couldn't move the point of view freely, you could only rotate the 3rd point of view that had been designated by the system. But this 'Jian Online' although only 3 years apart from 'Ragnarok Online' is in fact a 3D game. Where you could move your point of view without any restrictions. There are many features that they had too. Like this, 'Building' option where 'Ragnarok Online' lack of."

"Heee..." she let out-breath in interest trying to digest the information.

"Then let's play from the beginning." said him while pointed at the game that played on Yuli's laptop. He explains, "This place where your avatar first created, its called 'Creation Realm'. To start your journey you move the characters to that winged NPC."

On the screen is her character that had been created abruptly without much thought.

It is still cute though, with a normal everyday outfit— a white shirt and blue pants. The chibi avatar looking menacing with her big round eyes and smiling mouth that is the game's 'default' expression.

The avatar was in a circular platform high in the sky. The platform had many broken white pillars that had a golden carving on them. Sea of endless yellow-colored clouds painted the background. Not far from Yuli's avatar is a winged NPC that had its face and body covered with a white robe that had a golden lining embodiment.

Strangely, the wing didn't look like a wing at all.

"That's a wing?!" exclaimed her, surprised.

"Yes... that IS a wing." sighed him sadly. Then Chandra continued, "Because the graphic couldn't cope with the design the supposed wing looks more like a snobby tentacle. The NPC was supposed to have like millions of wings in his/her back."

He also thought that the NPC wasn't an angel at all when he played the game for the first time. He thought it was some beginner quest to kill tentacles monster or something.

Yuli nods two times in understanding. It was an old game after all and the past game didn't have good graphics.

"You first started as a normal Human in an 'leveled-up World'. What is that? the world where your avatar resides was in the progress of 'Ascension'. You, as inhabitants will be given a quest and mission to make yourself stronger. It is crucial as the leveled up world will have a different kind of species and power in it." Chandra explains the world background of the game to her.

Yuli nods. Now she was really interested in the game. It was her first time hearing a complex RPG game like that.

"First let play it a little bit, shall we?" asked him leaned closer to Yuli, Chandra had a warm smile on him. They almost had a skin-to-skin contact that made Yuli's eyes open wide.

"T-too close!" stammered she said. She tries to push Chandra with her purse out of her 'No Touch' zone. There's a slight tint of blush on her face.

Chandra was too excited of prospect playing with other people, he forgot about personal space. Hence he leaned to her. The moment Yuli pushes him with her small purse, he snap out of his dream.

"S-sorry..." he apologizes while scratching his cheeks.

"Please don't do it again! I almost-" she stop herself from continuing, almost got her secret leaked out.

"Almost?" Chandra raised his brows.

"Nothing! Please, let just play the game. Please!" Said her while moving her body to the laptop to get in a gaming position.

Chandra was smiling ear to ear looking at her, he was moved. He almost let out tears of happiness.

"Now that is the spirit of gamers! disciple Yuli Graham!" he let out his thumb to her. he continued to instruct her by pointing the NPC "Click the 'Tentacle Angel'. and you will be designated a spawn point."

Yuli right-clicked the NPC and her avatar move to it with a cute animation movement. Her avatar stopped in front of the NPC and a bright light cocoon engulfed her avatar.

Not long after, her avatar is in some sort of room in an abandoned high-rise building. The environment is very different from the place earlier.

The room had many broken floors and big holes in it, there's many pillars that supported the building broken in half or quarter. Yuli moves her avatar to the windows to take a look at the outside. The city isn't in great condition either. There's many broken and destroyed building, other high rise building was covered in moss and looks very bad. There's some sort of blue barrier circled the city parameters.

The city was dead calm and had an eerie atmosphere to it. With a white mist that surrounded her vicinity, it looks creepy. She felt the game had a 'Resident evil' vibe to it.

"Damn! you got placed in the city. what a luck." said him cursing his subordinate luck.

"Hmm? Isn't it normal?" asked her.

"Normally, the new player will be given a random place to spawn. I myself was spawned in the sea! haha... I remember getting chased by the shark." said him.

"But! The city had more perks to it. Look we found a gun!" pointed him to the left side of her avatar.

There is a sniper rifle that leaned towards a window frame. Yuli clicks the gun and the name appeared above its body.

<Barret M82>

"You gotta hoard faster. Since the first mission will be given after your invincibility wears off." Said him pointing to other goods that could be seen scattered on the cracked and grass filled floor.

"Invincibility?" asked her.

"Yes, you got some kind of beginner pack for about 1 minute. and after that you will be given first missions of the world." explain him then he pointed at the screen right corner. He said, "Look at the upper corner of your screen."

[Beginner Invincibility - 00:49]

Yuli nods her head in understanding. She looks at the middle screen and sees some numbers she asked while pointing to it, "Mr. Satrio what is that?"

[Time until server shutdown - 00h : 10m : 54s]

Upon hearing her question and tracing where did she pointing at, his face darkened. He sighs and explains to her, "Well the game is on its last day of service... That's why I want you to play with me."

"This interesting game is?" she asked in disbelief "I can't believe it..."

Chandra shrugged his shoulder. He knew where's the problem with the game's popularity was and tried to contact JiO Dev. But they denied all of his suggestions.

"Since the game is already completed by me you could instantly go into higher level." he said to her.

Realizing something he go to his laptop and tries to type something on it.

"How? No, rather the game had different level?" asked her which got some grunt that is an affirmation from him. "Ho-oh"

"Let just imagine the world of JiO as a tower with many floors. Your avatar currently on the first floor, which is 'Ascension Realm'. My avatar is on the topmost of the floor. You could say that I'm on the rooftop of the game." explains him to her while still typing on his laptop.

"At the top?" she raised her eyebrows. then continued to ask, "How many floors this game had?"

"Hmm... 1000?" answer him casually, he still busy typing something on his laptop.

"1000!" she closes her mouth with her hand and exclaimed in surprise. Realized that she couldn't meet with him she asks in concern, "The 10 minutes isn't going to be extended just for me right?"

"Hahaha... you could've just skipped the story-line if you had a referral code." hearing her question he wish that could be true, but the developer of the game is stubborn at a time like this(update and adding new features). With a loud click on his laptop keyboard, he said, "Done."

<User 'GanGan69' invited you to his party>

On Yuli's game interface appeared a pop-up notice.

"Accept the party request." said Chandra. which Yuli answer by accepting it.

Seeing Yuli accept his request. Chandra click her

in-game name that appear on his laptop.

<User GanGan69 summons you to his locations>

<Accept?>

<Y / N>

After accepting it Yuli's avatar is once again engulfed in a blinding white light before transported to someplace that is different from her previous Apocalyptic world.

<User Yuli78 got invited to the higher realm. All 'Mandatory Quest' has been disabled.>

A notification chimed in.

"Whoa the scenery is different!" exclaimed her in awe.

The environment that her character currently in was vastly different from the apocalyptic world. Her avatar was in a lush and beautiful flower garden. With a creature like a deer and a butterfly roam within it. The sky is bright blue and it certainly looks very beautiful for a mere 2000s game.

"How is that? we called this place 'Eden'." asked Chandra his voice carried a satisfied tone.

Chandra avatar wore a bright blue ancient Chinese robe that had a golden lining to it (Zhiduo). His avatar had smiling and closing eyes expressions on its big chibi head. The avatar wore some sort of accessories on his head that looks like a silver crown.

'We?' hearing him using plural to call the place she raises her eyebrows but shrugs it off. She rather asked, "Paradise? well paradise was supposed to have a river of wine and milk."

"We have that. Look to your left." Said him. His character doing a pointing animation in a direction to Yuli's avatar left side.

There's a waterway with two different colors in it. half colored purple and half is milky white. she clicks it and a name popped above it.

<Half-Milk, Half-Wine Heavenly River>

"Whoa that's true..." said her. when doing so she noticed something beside her avatar name. she asked, "Hmm? what is this 'eye' icon meaning?"

There's bellow her name was an '𓁿' icon and some random numbers in its left.

"I don't know. In the early game period when 'JiO' was popular, there's a rumor that it is a number of views. But to my knowledge 'JiO' didn't have any streaming on any website. For me it was a chance to succeed on the upper floor. The bigger number beside that 'eye' icon the bigger chance that you will get on the next floor." explains him casually before continued, "You've already on the top. that number is useless now."

"If you say so..." she said in resignation. she asked, "So what am I doing on this floor, sir?"

"Aren't we going to spend time together until the server shutdowns?" Chandra said like it was an obvious thing to do.

"Okay..." she felt happy hearing him says that, she let out small approval noise. Chandra didn't look at her as he only said, "Follow my avatar."

They move from the garden to a clearing that is filled with low grass. On the center of the clearing was something that didn't match the environment.

<McLaren 720S>

"A car? it doesn't match your clothes, sir." said her bluntly.

"I know... but it is the fastest thing on this game for a node of transportation. appearance didn't matter if there's a function to it right?" said Chandra.

"Indeed..." Yuli voices her approval. She also thinks that a purpose is more mattered than appearance.

Both of them mount the car and move in a direction that Chandra chooses. It takes some time before Yuli could see a big gate that looks bigger each time her avatar moves closer to it.

After arriving at the front of the gate her avatar looks tiny compared to the magnificent black gate that had some sort of engraving to it.

"This is my humble abode." said Chandra after the car suddenly disappeared when they stopped.

The huge gate is opened and from it an NPC comes out.

The NPC had a tint of a red dot on her cheeks. her big chibi face had the same expression as Chandra's avatar. With a bright green hanbook, she had it covered with same green robe with white lining. Her skirt had some flowers pattern on them. She had her hair decorated with some sort of golden ornaments that tie her black hair into a bun.

"It's cute!" she exclaimed before asked, "Who is this cute 'NPC'?"

Above NPC is two green lines that act as an identification for the NPC.

<First Lady of Pang House>

<Pang Wubi Luse>

"My wife." said him casually. His avatar moves closer to the NPC.

"Oh..." she said absentmindedly.

Hmm? it seems like her hearing is not quite right.

"Excuse me?" she asks him to repeat what he had just said.

"In this game, you could marry an NPC." added him.

"NPC?!" exclaim her in surprise. She had a look of disbelief on her face.

---

A/N:

Hanbook is a traditional Korean garment.

Zhiduo is a type of hanfu (Han people clothes/Ancient Chinese garment.)

NPC : non-playable characters/mob.