'Players'

Author Note:

Before you start this chapter I'd like to say a few things – I'll keep it short and to the point. From here on there'll be a few 'exceptions' where Bailey won't be the main focus of the chapter, of course, most of the characters I introduce outside of Baileys' perspective can be considered minor characters with near to no importance. Bailey is the *only* main character of this novel and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

Thank you, enjoy! :)

Start of Volume 2: 'Players'

World of Keilan, announced a year ago it was going to be the biggest technological advancement in gaming of the century – the first fully virtual reality game to ever be released.

A year prior the company behind the release of the game had released a trailer showing the realism of the game, of course, there was some skepticism behind the authenticity but overall people were more willing to believe than harbor doubts.

Within weeks the playable 'races' had been leaked by an inside source causing an uproar in the gaming community – Demons.

Players who entered the game would have their race randomised among the different types of 'demons' leaving their entire starting point down to luck, the company, however, did promise that players would be able to customise their characters with a 50% deviation from their original looks.

Some were excited to play as a race other than the standard human and other fantasy races that usually accompanied these types of games whilst others were hesitant about the idea of playing as a demon rather than a human.

Unsurprisingly the company behind the game, Axtem, were subject to backlash for months prior to their announced release date with many of the backlash coming from religious sources.

The company gave a simple reply to the matter, 'If you're offended are we forcing you to play it?' Of course, this response caused the company to receive more complaints than ever before which they simply ignored.

The months passed and people eventually seemed to forget it existed until on April 29th, 2044 – The game was released.

Within the hour every gaming capsule on the market disappeared…

'Let the Game begin.'

"It's so realistic!" Jack shouted in surprise as he stared at his hands, but in place of where his hands should've been were sharp claws.

Of course, he wasn't too surprised by this, the system had told him his race was Bae'ro – a flying race of demons with sharp claws to perform aerial attacks.

The craziest part, however, was that there was no limit on how long he could fly, of course this only meant cool down time – flying would still consume stamina but he did a quick calculation and it'd take almost a full hour before he'd have to come down.

This wasn't taking into account stamina used when attacking in the air however, so the real time he could remain airborne was much shorter.

Looking around he was in a forest surrounded by trees that reached far into the sky – around him were surrounding players who'd appeared in rays of white light.

Their appearances varied greatly from one another, Jack saw some other players that'd been given the Bae'ro race of demons but there were only one or two – in comparison the races he didn't know the names of seemed to be far more common than his own.

This realisation caused him to exclaim in joy, the rarer his race was the more guilds would try to rope him in, in the future.

Jack heard a bell-like sound in the sky, turning to look into the sky he saw a system notification written in bold,

[Attention Demons!]

[The World of Keilan is ruled by humans, many years ago they conquered this world by destroying the Beast Kings who controlled the Forest of Beasts, the Forest of Beasts is spread across several continents and you demons have been spread across them this day.

Today is the day of the Beast Wave, humanity is currently fighting outside of this forest – you have only one order: Kill!

Fight, Kill and Destroy. Conquer the continents and you shall be this worlds master!]

After the main notification had faded another one appeared replacing it causing greed to flicker in the eyes of everyone as they scrambled in the direction their map was pointing them to like a pack of coyotes.

[World-Event: Assist the Beast Wave in exterminating the Army of Humans!

Mission Details: Fight! Kill! Slaughter! The humans have been arrogant for too long, remind them of their rightful place.

Mission Reward: Exp Reward depending on the contribution to attack.]

…

They quickly found themselves on the edge of the forest looking at the vast ocean of humans – of course to them they were simply lines of code that gave experience points, some hesitated to attack human opponents.

But most, most gave into their greed and were the first to rush out of the forest, hidden behind the wave of beasts and using them as cover.

The ones hesitating quickly made up their minds and followed, cold-indifference had replaced their hesitation after all – they were only killing lines of code…

"What?! These soldiers are level fifty!" A group who'd rushed towards the central army screamed as they were cut down, hearing this the players averted their attention to the sides of the main army – discovering that these soldiers only had levels of 5's and 6's making them easier opponents.

The players didn't notice the shock in the eyes of the veterans as they saw these unique 'beasts' or did they notice the fear in the eyes of the recruits as they charged at them, they were all simply blinded by their own greed…

On the frontlines with the recruits the girl that Bailey had helped earlier began to tremble again as she stared at her new enemies – they were gruesome, to say the least.

They had human-like faces but their bodies had claws and wings, she began to tremble as she looked at these abominations the fear she'd felt earlier today reappearing like a venomous snake.

"Calm down…" She seemed to hear a voice say but no one around her seemed to have opened their mouths to speak but the voice seemed to help in a strange way, it was a comforting voice in the darkness and that was all she needed.

Regaining her resolve she held her spear tightly and stabbed towards the nearest abomination, strangely it fell in a single hit.

Jack observed this from the air, several archers had tried to shoot him down but he was quick to dodge their arrows, from above he looked at the masses of demons mixed with beasts and an idea appeared in his mind.

"Let the beasts tank their hits! Make sure you get the last hit and you'll be fine!" He shouted as he flew across the battlefield, of course he had no idea how much he'd shocked the humans fighting for their lives on the ground with this simple shout.

"It can speak?! A Beast King?!" Many of the soldiers shouted in surprise and with fear in their eyes, even the veterans began to tremble but they retained their stances and continued to attack.

"Let the beasts tank their hits! Make sure you-"Jack was just returning to the other side of the battlefield when he spotted him. He was simply standing there in the air, looking at him.

"Interesting." He muttered as he stared at Jack, Jack felt a chill down his spine as he looked back into the mans' eyes – he tried to turn and fly but it was as if an invisible barrier had blocked his way.

The man looked around and his eyes seemed to shine as he spotted several other flying creatures, Jack turned and recognised them as the other Bae'ro who'd charged out with them, unlike him they'd focused on attacking the human troops.

But in one instant they were flying happily laughing as they landed the final hits on quite a few soldiers, in the next their bodies fell lifelessly to the ground as if they'd each been hit by a truck in the air.

All Jack saw was the man wave his hand and they fell, frightened he quickly accessed the menu and clicked the logout button.

As his body shot up in the game capsule he didn't know that his 'demon' body had simply slumped down unconsciously.

The man looked at this and with a slight nod waved his hand and the body disappeared in the distance, floating in the air as if trapped in a cage – it flew back in the direction of the capital.

"Does the world really want the extermination of my human race that badly? Has it really bred such abominations to wipe us off the face of this planet?" The man sighed, his already aged face seemed to age several more years as he looked at the chaotic battlefield.

His hand moved slightly but he quickly stopped himself, he shook his head and sighed before disappearing from the spot. No one had noticed his entrance and similarly, no one had noticed his exit.

This was the day the Race of Demons made their introduction to the Humans of Keilan…