TETHER
United Human Calendar Year 4701. Almost 5000 years after humans discovered they were not alone in the universe and began their long war with the other two intergalactic civilisations of Draconians and Dwarves. Suddenly, a sound seemingly as though reality itself was being torn apart was heard by every single intelligent life-form in the universe before a voice followed. The voice told them that it would create a virtual platform called Tether, where all the rates would conduct their conflicts with each other. From now on, any large-scale massacres or wars between the civilisations, which could regress the technological, cultural and intellectual progress of the civilisations would be considered treason, and they would be erased. to prove its point, the voice declared a leader from each of the three civilisations; who had conducted such massacres, as dead, and they died instantly, along with all their wealth and belongings. 20 years later, the entire universe is playing the game, not only due to being forced to do so by their governments but also the various rewards, both monetary and otherwise found inside. Jack, a normal human who lost a large part of his family, enters the game after a few years in the military, and a few months of being a free mercenary. However, he comes across a 'stone', which is both a blessing and a curse, giving him incredible powers in the game, but also making him the target of all the powerful and influential humans and other species. Ultimately, all the powerful humans band together, and first rip away his guild from the inside, before laying siege to his home base and finally seizing the item by killing him. ... However, the 'stone' seems to have powers beyond the game and brings Jack back to his past before he lost his family. What will Jack do? And how will he get revenge on those who caused him harm?
Z Grade
The Planet where the VR Academy was built was originally named something else. However, the entire planet was converted into the VR Academy after the order of the Council. The entire planet was terraformed in order to be safe and suitable for children from all walks of life. The core of the planet was cooled to the point that it could no longer be categorised as an active planet. Then, the surface of the planet was covered in various materials, which was called the base layer. On top of this base layer, various educational facilities, educational and sports grounds, residential buildings, transport facilities, farms, organic processors, etc., were built. All in all, the VR Academy became a self-sufficient planet, which could host up to 25 billion inhabitants including students, teachers, employees, and other staff members.
This was the introductory session that was given to all students when they arrived. After the session, the students were made to register their real-life details as well as their in-game details. Of course, the students were promised that all their details would be kept confidential, even if a member of the council requested it.
Jack trusted this information because there had been a case where the Frost Group had requested information about a certain player. Thankfully, the academy did not provide the information. In a twist of fate, the Frost Group offered a large reward for the identity of the player, and the best friend of the player sold him out. The moral of the story, the academy does not lie, and never trusts anyone completely.
Just like Jack had done with the Government connection with his in-game account, Jack, Ava, and Max had to do the same as soon as they entered the game. Ava and Max actually had to create their account first, then sign in, and then confirm the sign-in, which took them a lot longer.
Just as Max and Ava were about to tell each other their in-game identities, Jack stopped them, making them swear to never reveal this to anyone, including their parents, before telling them that their in-game IDs should be their closest guarded secret.
After confirming their identities in-game, the students were given physical key cards for their own personal rooms and told to rest for the rest of the day. Yes, they actually used virtual key cards, and the reason was that this was just that newly built, that they did not have the time to install proper DNA locks. But that would change in a few days.
For now, Jack returned to his room and took down the room numbers of Max and Ava, who were coincidentally in the same building, just on different floors from each other. Jack had somehow convinced them to enter the game and play it. Of course, he told them that there would be slimes, and the only way to beat them is to make weapons on their own. You need to first use a rock to survive the first few waves of slimes by ambushing them, and then, make a weapon of your choice. A sword is impossible, but you could make a spear, which was the ideal solution. He also told them to pick the Leon kingdom as their starting camp, and that he would tell them the reason later.
As Jack entered the Capsule, he read the new update information.
[Maintenance Completed]
[Update 1.01]
[Bug fixed regarding the disappearance of money greater than 10 gold in inn vaults. To maintain the balance of the virtual world, all parties who had lost any amount of money in this bug will be rewarded 100 gold for their troubles.]
[Bug fixed regarding spawning rate of goblins]
[Bug fix…]
…
[Introducing player leaderboard kingdom]
[Introducing player leaderboard racial]
[Introducing player leaderboard universal]
[Congratulations player, you are eligible for all three leaderboards. Would you like your name to appear?]
Jack found it rather odd to see a message specifically for him within the update notification. Still, he opened it and replied.
'Do not report by name."
[Affirmative]
[Introduction of the Auction house]
[Auction house: A building owned by the game will exist in every capital of every kingdom, where people can exchange items with gold, or other items]
[Un-owned Auction house will appear in every city after 2 days, and can be bought from the game for a respective amount of money stated at each location]
[Property/Land ownership will now be allowed. Players can now purchase and own property or land, and a guarantee will be taken up by the game to prevent 'frauds' and 'stealing' of said property/land]
[End of Update 1.01]
'Huh?' The currency exchange option was not here, meaning that the earliest it could come out was in only after the next 10 days. This was a rule or pattern which had never been broken. After every 10 days, and 10 days only, there would be a new update. However, it had never once been that before or after this period of 10 days had there been an update, even if the update was nothing more than just wishing the people of the universe all the best.
This was actually greatly beneficial for him.
[Logging in]
[Logged in]
[Welcome, Erebus, to the world of Tether]
Jack immediately signed in, only to realise that the mysterious old man was still waiting patiently in front of him. Now, Jack was stuck in a dilemma. He had been given a 10-day boost in terms of being able to purchase property within the medium-sized kingdom of Leon. Perhaps get his hands on an auction house. Or… he could gamble it all for this old man, and the benefits he might give Jack…
After a few minutes so deliberation, Jack sighed as he walked away from behind the old man. Immediately, Jack almost felt the old man's shoulders slump slightly.
However, he did not stop, and walked straight to the rack of books, and picked up one with general information about golems. The books on the ground floor of every mage tower were free to be read by anyone as long as they remained on the ground floor of the tower. Jack walked up behind the old man, sat down on the ground, and silently began reading.
Jack had already decided, that the auction houses and properties in the medium-sized kingdoms would be worth quite a bit, but the properties in the large-sized kingdoms would be worth several hundred times more. Furthermore, if he threw all his money into even the most profitable auction house, he would not gain any profit until after a few months. By then, the large-scale kingdoms would become the spawn locations for newbies, and the profits from even the auction houses would drastically fall.
Instead, if he waited and just collected his money until he found a way to get to Jerome, he might be able to actually earn some money in the long run.
Therefore, he would simply wait here. Of course, just waiting in one place for so long was a waste of time, and therefore, Jack decided why not use the time to improve on his sub-class. There are two ways to improve your subclass. One is to do tasks related to them, in Jack's case, that would involve tasks like creating weapons, and designing and building complicated tools. For a chef, that would involve simply cooking or preparing food.
Another way to increase your subclass experience was to read books on that subclass. For a chef, that would be reading recipe books or biographies of famous chefs. At the same time, for Jack, it involved reading the knowledge on anything related to building complicated structures, even if it was a building!
[Golem: The History of Evolution]
[The first golem was created….]
…
And just like that, after a few hours, Jack finished reading the book.
[You are the first to complete a book]
[+1 Prestige]
[You have completed reading the book 'Golem: A History of Evolution']
[+225 subclass experience]
However, seeing no reaction from the old man in front of him, Jack sighed as he stood up, walked up to the rack of books, and replaced the book in his hand with another book, about the basics of golems.
[Golem: The Parts involved]
[The basic golem has…]
…
This book was significantly longer than the previous one, and it had already become the next day, so Jack logged out of the game.
[Logging Out]
[Successful]
[United Human Calendar Year 4702, 9th of December]
On the Academy planet, the entire planet had been split into the academy region, where all students live, and the other regions, such that all the students would wake up at the same time as soon as the sun rose, as they were all squished into the same region, while everything else was spread across a very large area.
As soon as he got out of bed, he received a package.
[Congratulations on reaching 3rd place on the universal leaderboard. Your privileges have been updated. However, we advise you to behave normally to prevent your identity from being exposed. Below is the regular student uniform. There are also badges with your name on them for Player rankings from C, B, A, S, S+, X, and Z. Do not fear, this is an AI-generated message. No human has the right to this information, which was only received by this AI due to the linking of your in-game account. Of course, if you so wish for it, your identity can be announced to the whole human federation and allow you to immediately enjoy the benefits. However, based on the fact that you did not report your name for the leaderboard, it has been assumed that you do not wish for that to happen. Therefore, certain steps have been taken to protect your secrecy.]
"Good." Jack nodded in satisfaction at the AI system of the Academy. He then reached down and changed into his new uniform, which was essentially the same as the uniform of the military, except, instead of black all over with stripes of blue, this uniform was white all over with striped of blue along the shirt as well as the pants.
Jack then picked up the B badge, and put it in his pocket, before reaching for the Z badge and putting it in his other pocket. The Academy had already qualified him as a Z Ranked player, the highest rank it could even offer. However, he would not be able to access everything if he used any other badge other than the Z rank badge, or if someone else used it. Of course, the other badges worked and gave him that level of access.
That was why Jack took the C rank badge to use normally, and use the S rank badge in an emergency.