Chapter 1 Nebula System

Advancement in technology and artificial intelligence brought about a revolution amongst the several online communities of gamers that had started to recede into the background. Games like Fortitude, Valor, Gungnir, and Nebula took the world by the storm and the percentage of the players among the population saw a steady increment. The glorious period recorded in the annals of history dawned upon the world and the generation of professional gamers that emerged as a result came to be known as legends among the gaming community.

Monstrously talented but young gamers took the fight to the older generation and came out as the victors, and laid their claim to the throne. At the heart of these talented elites, stood a mysterious figure shrouded in darkness. Nobody knew who he was or where he came from but the fact that he was the undisputed king when it came to Nebula the most popular and the most widely played video game in history, helped him gain popularity amongst the masses.

But as his popularity reached its peak, the undisputed king of Nebula suddenly disappeared from the forums, and the game alike. Nobody knew where he went or what became of him as no one had any way of finding out who he truly was.

The news kept running for a while. Some channels stated that the king had retired to a normal life which led to them being cursed and abhorred by a torrent of gamers through live interviews and condemnation posts on various forums. Some stories suggested that the king was a shut in who might have died in his room unknown to everyone else and it was up to them to save him. Obviously these individuals were all fanatics who had lost all sense of reason since nothing of the sort had happened to the person in question.

Rumors kept sprouting like an unending storm but like all storms, this one too subsided. The speculations turned into conspiracy theories but the reclusive king didn't come forward to explain the situation that haunted the world of professional gamers.

Oblivious to it all, the undisputed king of Nebula, Zach lay perched on top of a towering tree amongst a sea of skyscraping trees that looked close enough to resemble pine trees but the shape of the leaves suggested that they were either a close breed of the same or some kind of mutation due to the nature of the environment.

Lush green forest with tinge of yellowish at the tips suggested the time of the year to be the start of winter season. The golden rays of sunlight sneaking in through the crevices in the green canopy of the forest suggested that sun was out and about and was directly behind Zach.

Zach was dressed in camouflage and was covered in tree branches and mud as if to merge into nature. No one looking directly at him could guess that the clump of tree branches high on top of the tree was actually a human with a deadly weapon in his grasp. Black armor lay hidden amongst his camouflage attempt and only the tip of the long barreled gun managed to poke out of his fa?ade. He looked like someone from the Special Forces trained in long range combat and extremely familiar with hot weapons betrayed only by the fact that he looked too young to be a part of such an elite group.

Lying perfectly still, Zach looked like he was waiting for someone or something as his eyes darted in all directions from time to time taking in all the surrounding elements in a single glance. Scanning the area like a radar, he kept an eye on the tiniest of details in order to grasp even a hint of movement.

He had been doing the same thing for at least a few hours but there wasn't a trace of irritation or boredom on his face. Hidden behind his stoic exterior expression was an incomprehensible but excited glint, a smile that touched the edge of his lips but kept shying away every single time before it formed completely. This made it seem like his lips were twitching slightly but that was not the case. In fact he had been trying to tone down his excitement.

Zach was one of the few people who had received an opportunity to live his dream unlike countless humans on earth who longed and dreamed but were never able to accomplish anything in reality.

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It had been two weeks since Zach had found himself in this godforsaken forest that seemed more otherworldly the more he looked at it. The last thing he remembered was that he had been in his room watching videos of new players of Nebula to reminisce the old days.

Everything after that was a complete blank that he couldn't tear through no matter how much he tried to remember. It was like peering into a dense smoky darkness that brought him nothing but a headache.

The next thing he knew, he woke up in a ditch with towering trees around him, his head ringing with blinding pain and an uneasy feeling in his body.

The hands that he saw were not the same hands that he remembered. The calluses on the tip of his left hand fingers had disappeared and it seemed as if he had lost some weight as well.

He tried to get used to the changes in his body that made him feel uncomfortable. Since there was no pain anywhere in his body whoever had been responsible for his current situation at least had the conscience to put him down gently.

Still, that didn't mean that he was entirely comfortable with this whole situation. He was unsure about how he got here. There seemed to be some kind of gap in his memory that he was unable to access no matter how hard he tried.

"What kind of hellish situation is this? I am supposed to be in my room. How in the world did I get here?" Zach wondered irritated with the situation that he had found himself in.

"Was I abducted?" Zach hoped that his speculation wasn't true.

To be abducted only to be thrown into a forest without any description, this was stuff out of the movies. What followed that was usually some kind of survival game or horror shows that he wasn't willing to follow.

[…]

Before he could make sense of the situation he heard a voice that made him look all around in panic, eyeballs darting with tremendous speed in order to catch a hold of the voice that had addressed him only to utter nonsense that did nothing but scare the shit out of him.

Zach wondered if he had imagined it since he couldn't make out anything in the vicinity that could have been the source. There was only the forest all around him, no signs of any living creature, or technology. He even made sure to scour the skies for any kind of drones but there were none in sight.

"I must have imagined it given the whole situation. It is bound to take a toll on the mind." Zach reassured himself that what he had heard was only his imagination and nothing else.

[…system has been activated successfully.]

The voice sounded again and this time, it was so eerily close that Zach dived behind a tree in order to hide himself.

"Where the hell is it? Are they monitoring me?" Zach became flustered thinking about his imaginary captors.

He had to look for the source of the sound in order to determine whether that was actually the case.

Thankfully, the voice didn't go silent this time. It continued to speak things that he wasn't entirely familiar with but one word managed to catch his attention through the whole monologue.

"Nebula"

"What did I just hear?"

For once Zach was able to focus without freaking out. Maybe it was because he had heard something that he was familiar with in this forest which calmed his panicking mind somewhat. Whatever the reason, the voice had managed to grab his attention in all his sanity.

[Congratulations, you have been granted the Nebula system.]

While he searched around for a trace of the source, Zach found something flashing towards the corner of his vision. It felt surreal as the more he looked, the more it felt that the thing was floating in mid air and didn't seem to be quite corporeal.