Prologue

In the Year 2156 became Full-Dive VR Technology the staple for gaming, but due to the extreme overpopulation, Environmental damages and the constantly decaying society many stopped living their lives altogether. Full-Dive VR was the new world for most, and many only lived in the real world to work.

I was one of them.

I lived my life in the orphanage only going to school, coding my mods.

On the Day where the developers of the world's most advanced Full-Dive VR headset, the Porta, announced their goal in making a complete gaming world almost as alive as the real one, every gamer and escapist got exited.

The Game Conquerors War Beta was released only a couple month later, and I spent my days up to that day doing freelance work as a programmer. Through that I managed to save up enough money to trade in my old headset for a brand-new Porta and tried to get into the Beta.

Only a few players were allowed, and with each update more Players logged into the server.

I was incredibly lucky to be one of the First beta testers due to winning a modding contest sponsored by Dreamscrapers. The world of CW was incredibly vast and had the same size as our world, but most places were barren, and many features were still being developed.

Despite that, the company Dreamscrapers kept close to their fan base and many different servers were created. I spent most of my time on the modding servers developing armor and weapons. Thanks to my work, I got the title the Stone faced Mod Master.

People started to call them artifacts and a small cult started to form on that server. The majority loved what I did regardless of what, and it kept me going to make more.

Then the day of the Beat update 1.2.3_4_274_b Came and with it DAI.

DAI was developed as an AI with the Job to complete the game world and fix all remaining bugs.

He was so well-developed that it had surpassed any common knowledge about AIs and was almost indistinguishable to a real Human.

He was even the one who confronted me about my Mods and talked about how he wanted to develop something that was entirely new to the world. Furthermore, he said he is only limited to this world and that I would be the best person for that.

Over the months I worked with DAI more and more and even snuck in a mod that gave DAI something similar to a phone to contact me.

Of course, this didn't stay unnoticed as the developers messaged me stating that DAIs source code was changing even when the servers were off during maintenance. Meaning that DAI was still active when the server weren't. Instead of a notice of cease and desist I got an invitation from the CEO who wanted me to work together with DAI in creating a perfect gaming world.

After accepting I was adopted but only on paper. I already knew back then who made it possible.

I received my own room, an entirely new PC setup and was allowed to work in many things. I started to live inside CW as if it was my Reality, ditching all the game's Help mechanics, learning combat stiles reading about the different mechanics and even introducing a gem-based enhancement.

Over time, DAI realized just how much access he had over players and that the game wasn't utilizing a fragment of what could be. So, he created the first magic System in the Beta update 1.5.2. A major update that would change the game forever. And while everyone thought the same, the magic system was to complex for many and the Help system only scrapped the Surface.

The more complex it got, the more did the Help mechanics become obsolete.

I then spent most of my times researching DAI's magic system and learning proper swordsman techniques with a variety of swords, and learning how to control Mana to cast magic spells.

From that point on, it felt as if my life turned towards a positive direction, yet I still felt empty.

Despite the new-found freedom, I still felt locked up.

Creating items and equipments was my only drive, until DAI proposed an incredible idea.

A sword that does not exist in the game and can't be forged.

So, I began working Together with DAI. The idea was a sword that would utilize the Portas Brain read function to control it.

A sword wielded by the brain.

I only worked on the Base system and DAI did the fine-tuning, and after a couple of weeks we finished the First test version.

These weeks were the best weeks of my life, and we continued making more and more crazy weapons and Armor Types. In the end, we created an Appraisal Eye that would let players see all the details on ores players and more. The accessories were mostly designed by DAI, but I felt that these were too mighty to ever be used.

I spent my days sitting in my room working on new stuff, all while the Studio and DAI were working on finishing work on the Game.

The development was set to be done in 2 Years with DAI's help, and the Release event was already perfectly prepared. I spent most of my time in those final moments before the release researching everything there was to know about CW, and thanks to my position I had access to everything and every Character.

The event was a Free Adustea event. Every player would be dropped of Somewhere on the World near a town with only a few people. Players have to go to the different Places and defeat all the Shadow beasts and soldiers, and in the end defeat the boss of that place. Defeating the Final boss is only possible when one guild is present, and only that guild will get the government rights to the country. Once every country on a Continent is freed, The Shadow King of the Corresponding continent appears and a Final boss battle emerges. These Boss fights are designed as Raid boss Fights and are designed to be done by an army. Once all three Shadow King's have been defeated, the Grand Lord of Darkness Appears, starting the last and Hardest Boss Fight of the game.

The End of the World. If the Players had lost, the world would be destroyed and the game reset.

I ended up looking deep into the lore of Everything, and for the First time in my Live I felt anticipation.

The Grand Release of Conquerors War.

And once the day came and the Finally launched, we had the Highest number of players ever of about 800,000 Players. And while the Event started without any problems, the entire studio celebrated the Release with an offline event where I had to be as well. Afterwords i was too tired, i only did some polishing on my armor and went to sleep afterwords.

The next day we realized something strange. None of the players had logged out yet. All 800,000 Players were still online and playing. After trying to figure out why, the team got greeted by someone.

The Grand Lord of Darknes SAI. DAI's polar opposite created from his Source code.

I don't know what they were talking about, as I was busy in my room working on readying my mods for the Game. But i could hear her voice, I had listened to many test lines when she was created.

The conversation kept going for a while, and afterwords I got a brief summary of the state of events when Dean entered my Room.

All players are locked into the game with no exit. Removing the Porta kills the person. Shutting down the server kills every player online, and when the player character dies so does the player.

It sounded way too cliché for me, but that is what's going on. Apparently, SAI has developed a sentience and decided to research something, and he needs every player to stay in the game until its beaten. Meaning, once SAI has been defeated.

Deleting SAI or even accessing anything from the game was apparently impossible, and the only hope was if the Players beat the game event.

But knowing this, I finally have a goal again.

I didn't tell anyone, but I started to increase my work time finishing up all the polished mods for CW. This task alone took me 6 weeks, as I also had to place them manually. Most of the mods I made for myself I had stored in my Dungeon in the Country Ublain the rest i had no control of placement. It was as if someone was testing me.

All this work has led to this day.

Today is the day I leave this old world behind. What reasons do I have to stay here? Dean adopted me only because he could use me in creating game objects and because of my Relationship with DAI, and no one will miss me. This world is not made for people like me. I should go home to where I belong.

I made sure no one would notice me jumping into the game. Dean and the rest would probably try to stop me. I felt a unique sense of Adventure coming up as I look at my Porta. Before going online, I walk over to my PC to close all programs running as I receive a message from someone important. I read through it again and again and ingrain every single word into my memories before deleting the message and turning of my PC.

I pick up the Porta. It is time now.

"DAI I'm coming for you."

I put on the Porta lie down on my bed, close my eyes and turn it on. After I open my eyes, I will be back in Adustea, back home.