Heaven's World

The Forest Of Light. Mob Level, 200+

"Cast the invisibility spell, now!"

"On cooldown! 20 more seconds!"

"Are you serious?"

"I-I used it on Jericho!"

The warrior took out his last bottle of potion.

"This is our last chance to escape. Do you have any mana potions left?"

Silence. The mage didn't respond.

"Answer me, newbie!"

'Ti-ding'

"Player Mastermerlin has disconnected. Banned from using this character for two days."

"That son of a bitch..."

The warrior gnashed his teeth together in rage. From now on, he was on his own.

"Hawk's Blessing!"

An identification spell class-bound to warriors. For the next three seconds, hostile mobs and players were visible on his mini-map.

A circle made up of six red dots.

'They have surrounded me.'

The blessing went out.

"!"

A notification.

"Richwafer."

He pressed on the mail.

"Give up and let us kill you."

"Motherfu-"

A red dot appeared on his forehead.

"Die."

"Leave me alone!"

He swung his sword forward, cutting through the arrow before it could reach him.

"Berserker's Sacrifice."

'Behind me.'

The attack range got mapped out.

"PVP was never your forte, God-san."

Dressed in red armor, the next assailant used his dual axes and spun around violently.

'-2300 HP.'

He lost a large chunk of his HP.

"Bleed effect applied for 10 seconds."

'-200, -200, -200...'

"I should have dodged it-"

Wait a second.

"A blue circle. Debuff!"

The mage had coordinated with the berserker to use a speed debuff spell.

His HP reduced from 28000 to 23700.

'Hidden passive, whirlwind greaves, activated!'

The Debuff got canceled.

'Spartan Assault!'

Leaping high into the air, he descended onto the berserker with his sword.

'-8000 HP! Critical Hit!'

In one stroke, the warrior reduced 2/3rd of the berserker's health.

'Hercules' Roar!'

'Paralysis inflicted. Duration, 3 seconds'

'Immortal Slash!'

The silver color of his sword got enveloped in a dark blue light. Swinging it towards the berserker's head, the warrior held nothing back.

'-20000 HP! Critical Hit! Player Killed, Bloodsucker221.'

The character avatar vanished into the air.

'Red alert! High tier spell!'

The ground around him turned red.

"Oblivion Dawn."

A huge outburst of black flames engulfed his body.

'-10000 HP! Burn Inflicted!'

'Passive, Jewel Of Heaven, Activate!'

Invincible for 5 seconds, all skill cooldowns refreshed.

'RichWafer.'

A skeleton dressed in light purple armor was standing in front of him.

'I changed my skills to be weak to the dragons. At this rate...'

"Might of Lothar!"

Two rock formations rose from the ground, covering the undead warrior.

'-2000 HP.'

It barely did anything.

"Immortal slash!"

'-6000 HP.'

The undead warrior didn't move.

"Curse of Iannis applied. Total time for all buffs has halved."

2.5 seconds became 0.

'Weakened state applied. Attack and Defense reduced by 80 percent!'

"Told you, god."

"You bastard! What did I ever do to you?"

"You made the mistake of being at the top. I will drag useless ass fools like you down to the depths of hell."

"I am a PVE Player! Leave me the hell alone!"

The seventy-second time that he had been killed by this group. Before locking horns with them, his death count was zero.

"That isn't going to happen. Delete your account, or keep dying to us. We can do this all day, every day, for the rest of our lives. Killing a wimp like you will always be satisfying."

The cooldown was over.

"Oblivion Dawn!"

'-18000 HP!'

'You have been PK'D by RichWafer. Would you like to spawn back to the revival point?'

No.

'Would you like to exit the game?'

'Yes.'

"Conscious Safely Ejected. You may plug out the Kessler chord from the back of your neck."

The lid slowly opened up.

"Fuck off."

'Real-life was already exhausting, and now even the game world is hell-bent on throwing me out.'

Jin stepped out of the black and white capsule, scratching his unkempt beard as he walked toward the desk.

"Those bastards at Enigma are taking this too far."

He took a cigarette and a lighted out from the desk.

"That merger will be the death of this game."

After placing it in his mouth, he pressed the button on the lighter and lit it up.

The year was 2031. After evading some close chances that concerned the third world war, Humanity and the people in power had decided to shift their focus to technological aspects of the planet. The automobile and technology group Kessler was at the forefront of this new revolution. In the past ten years, they had managed to evolve a simple brain chip that determined the users' thoughts and preferences into a full-blown market that focused on providing access to multiple virtual worlds. They opened up a new market for people interested in creating new worlds people could visit, especially with a new sense of freedom of interaction.

Heaven's World, a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or a VR MMORPG, was one of the first of its kind in the market. Launched alongside a VR enabler known as the Kessler Capsule, it allowed gamers to experience a brand new world crafted by an elite team of developers known as the Enigma Dev Team. They were the first company to get a firsthand experience of the potential of the Kessler conscious transfer system, and they used this experience to make a game that would sell around 3,000,000 copies within the first day of preorder, despite the lack of technological access to the market and a 12,000 dollar base price.

'Phew.'

Jin created a small ring of smoke by making an O shape with his lips.

2 months ago, Kessler decided to buy out Enigma. An acquisition that Enigma had been resisting for 5 years now. This merger led to a shift in the previous paradigm of the pro scene. Monetization to aid beginner leveling and increased weapon odds from dungeon rolling with the 'Heavenly Blessing' subscription package, quest dilution, and reward reduction to increase player activity times through grinding, etc.

Plus, they were also actively buying out the top players to advertise and hype up these changes and appeal to the new breed of gamers that were more influenced by the hype of being a part of this game, i.e the casual players, rather than the competitive aspect which made the game and those top players popular in the first place.

"Kessler wants to rig the competition and control the market."

Within its last seven years of operation, Heaven's World has constantly improved on its solid foundations and given users an exceptional experience of an open-world RPG. The evolution-based system absorbs several samples from real-world and fantasy data instances, which got used to create new mobs, areas, dungeons, weapons, NPC's, etc.

Despite its variety of classes and races, ranging from dragons to the undead, the core gameplay is divided into two parts.

PVE and PVP.

Two distinct categories. One type attracted a multitude of competitive players that wanted to test their skills and progression values against other real players, and the other type was more focused on grinding levels and learning boss patterns to clear dungeons as fast as possible, getting the local, regional, national or international record.

Amongst the mythos of the community, there was the legendary F2P God Account. An account that had around 27 national solo dungeon titles to its name, along with a record 12 international dungeon titles. Jin Kaido, a 20-year-old Japanese hikikomori, was the sole person behind the astonishing success of this account.

Starting three years after the initial launch, he was known to be ruthless when it came to acquiring dungeon titles amongst his competitors. Two years back, he was able to capture 7 different titles in a single day, without dying even once.

His level 250 account stuck out like a sore thumb to the new and improved Enigma Dev team, however, who had approached him to acquire his services as a bold marketing decision.

"I play this game for enjoyment, not to be a puppet in the hands of a soulless corporation."

Jin looked at the photo frame placed on the top of his desk.

A father, a mother, and a son.

"I am not in this for the money. I am..."

Facing the mirror on the almirah, he observed what had become of the son in that picture. Overgrown beard and hair, dry and cracked lips, dark circles around the eyes, a creased up tracksuit, and an above-average body frame and height.

"...Ah, forget it. Who am I talking to anyway? You both aren't here to listen to me."

Exhausting himself from the grind helped him take his mind away from his problems with the outside world. But now, he felt like that would be taken away from him.

He took another puff, looking back to the frame.

"I am old enough to smoke now. Don't look at me like that."

After finishing up his cigarette, he took out a small box from underneath his bed.

"Marble Nutrition capsules. 100 pc, chocolate flavor."

Popping two of the oval-shaped capsules into his mouth, he slowly savored them with his tongue. The bitter and sweet taste of chocolate started to mix with the saliva.

"Hikari, open the calendar."

"Yes~"

The hologram calendar appeared ahead of him, powered by all the cameras fixed in the corners of his room.

"13th February, Friday."

'Inauspicious.'

"The gift must be here."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

'Dear Jin.

A small gift from the idiot that still cares about you. I hope that you enjoy it.

Love, Iruna.'

"Pandora's Dominion."

'Alpha edition.'

"Finally, a proper gift."

Over the last five years, she had sent a baseball bat, anime mascot-themed flip-flops, 1 TB worth of old mafia films, an RC toy monster truck, and a special edition book set of harry potter.

"The cover looks okay."

Characters from different races and jobs, standing in front of a dragon. They had raised their weapons in the air, all of which were glowing in different colors.

"Hikari, search 'Pandora's Dominion' on the net."

A window popped up, showing all the relevant search results on the game.

'8/10. A breath of fresh air, with something for everyone.'

"Sounds casual."

'10/10.'

"A massive world with no limits to exploration. Highly recommended to players of all types and preferences."

Tags, VRMMORPG, Adventure, Fantasy.

"Let's check the lowest review scores."

Top reviews could be deceptive.

'5/10.'

I can't progress further. Leveling is too hard, and the monsters in high-level areas kill you almost instantly. Graphics are excellent and fetch quests are enjoyable sometimes. New players play at your own risk!

'4/10.'

I am stuck inside the second city! Unable to progress further into the job quest! Coop is disabled! Please help me, devs!

"Active Player Base. That might show a better picture,"

'2.8 million active monthly users.'

To be honest, that was a solid number. Still nowhere near the massive 80 million concurrent monthly player count of Heaven's World.

"Forums are pretty active. Beginners guides, leveling tips and tricks, weapon grinding tutorials..."

Publishers, Krisis Software.

"This has been around since..."

One year?

"2.8 million players in 12 months?"

'Sounds like a niche game by today's standard.'

He decided to keep his distance away from the gameplay videos and images.

'Ding!'

"Notification, Heaven's world."

A small message icon appeared with a red exclamation mark on the top.

"Open."

'Sender, RichWafer.'

'PVE Pro gets executed by the top PvP team, Moneyhounds.'

"4 million views. Posted 15 minutes ago."

"Close, delete. Disable communications."

The bar disappeared. He was going to be flooded with new emails after that.

"They are making money out of my suffering."

He looked at the box in his hand.

"7 years of grinding, just to be humiliated by some rich kids."

'Unacceptable!'

"Hikari, open the Heaven's World companion app."

The UI of the app appeared in front of him.

"Profile."

User profile.

F2P God.

Kills, 800. Deaths, 272.

Level 250.

Gear-

Chaos Sword+10(Mythic)

Whirlwind Armor Set+10(Legendary)(three pieces set conditions active, +50 to speed)

Jewel Of Heaven(Mythic)+5

Bracelet of Spartacus+10(Legendary)

Blessings of Cadmus, Passive applied. +30 percent attack boost against dragon-type enemies.

Human, Warrior. (Mythological Legend, +500 reputation in all human territories.)

Combined Battle Power(CBP)

3287229 BP.(12th Regional, 910th World)

Time active-2715 days, 11 hours.

"Fuck this game. I don't need this shit."

For the past month, he hadn't done anything worthwhile in the game. As a PVE player, stopping the grind is equivalent to suicide.

'Delete character.'

He was doing this on an impulse.

"Are you sure?"

The system asked him, as though it knew that he would regret this decision later. To him, however, this was a taunt.

"Yes!"

"All of your progress will be lost. Are you still sure?"

His hands started to tremble uncontrollably.

'Don't look back. This is the right decision.'

He would rather leave for good than be left behind after all the time and efforts he has put into his character. No hiatus, no comebacks.

'Let them have their titles!'

"Yes!"

"Your character has successfully been deleted. Thank you for all the memories!"