Return

Meanwhile, far way in an unknown location on one of the Monster Continents, a dense canopy of overarching trees blocked out the sun, serving as an impenetrable barrier to the sun's glare. Shrouded in darkness, sunlight was completely forbidden from entering this part of the forest.

Deep within the forest laid a huge 8 meter altar with strange symbols carved into it. In this pitch black place, the only source of light was the blinding golden light that was shining on top of the altar! With the illumination of this golden light, three figures could be seen on either sides of the three sided altar. One of the men wore a black robe and looked to be in his fifties. A strand of deep black hair hung down from his forehead to rest alongside his cheek, accentuating his handsome and resolute appearance.

The other man was bare chested, standing about 3.5 meters in height with huge bulging muscles and scars all over in body. His golden hair that seemed to also illuminate the darkness was another striking feature about him.

The last person was actually a woman. Her fair and delicate skin was faintly glowing under the illumination of the golden light. Her shoulder length blond hair was tied into a ponytail, winding down from her shoulders. She was truly a sight to behold!

A short distance away from them stood several people of varying heights and sizes. Among the also stood several strong looking beasts. What was strange was that these people and demonic beasts were standing together without attacking each other. They had all sorts of appearances, but one common trait among them was their expression: an expression full of excitement and expectation.

"Is it time?" the strong bare chested man asked in a deep voice.

"Almost…." The beautiful woman replied while looking at the sun whose rays could barely penetrate the forest canopy.

Almost at the same time, the golden light that was illuminating the forest from the top of the altar suddenly began to die out.

Everyone who was at the scene right now began to display anxious expressions. They had all waited or this moment for a long time and this ceremony would finally define their fate.

The beautiful woman looked deeply at the golden light which was gradually dying out and said to her other two companions, "The moment the light dies out, insert your hands into the hand impressions in front of you and channel your energy into the altar. This is the only way to open the portal. If we fail this time, we would have to wait another hundred years for another opportunity!"

They both nodded their heads and continued to watch attentively as the light got dimmer and dimmer. The moment the last rays of the golden light went out, the beautiful woman shouted,"Now!"

All three of them immediately inserted their palms into the palm impressions on the altar. At the same time, began to channel their energy into the altar through the hand impression.

"Booom!"

An explosion was heard at the top of the altar and as these three figures continued to pour their energy into the altar.

A crack in space started to open at the top of the altar and continued to expand as the energy continued to fill the altar. The site of this crack caused the beasts who were watching anxiously at the back to howl in excitement.

But something strange happened when the crack opened to about 1. 5 meters. No matter how much energy they supplied, the crack could not expand any longer. After two minutes, the three figures that were closest to the altar noticed this and displaced anxious faces. They mobilized the entire energy contained in their bodies and frantically poured in into the altar. They couldn't afford to fail now.

But this didn't change anything. Rather the 1.5 meter wide space crack began to gradually close again. The three figures, especially the woman's anxiety could be seen as she opened her mouth and spat out a pure white core. She looked at the core once again and decisively pushed it towards the impression.

Before she could insert the core into the hand impression, something strange happened!

"Booooooom!"

A huge shockwave blew from the space crack and blew all three figures who were frantically supplying energy into the altar about ten meters away. When they finally steadied themselves, they raised their heads to look at the crack and saw two huge dark golden claws immerge out of the crack and hold both sides of the space crack preventing it from closing further.

That golden claws were covered in numerous golden scales each one refracting light to create an astonishing splendor. That pounding sound and chilling atmosphere that came from that crack brought an incomparable oppressive power that made all living beings on the scene kneel reverently.

All three figures were looking reverently at the crack and shouted, "Welcome back, Your Highness Athena!"

The altar began to shake violently as the claws began pulling apart the space crack. Unbelievably, the creature on the other side of this crack was relying on brute force to open a space crack.

"Booom!"

The altar exploded forth instantly, releasing a powerful aura that even caused all these ferocious beasts to bow their heads in reverence! A blurry figure suddenly soared out before landing heavily. Its speed was so fast that none of the creatures here could catch its path.

The temperature around the altar started dropping rapidly after this figure appeared. The blinding white light around it also prevented anyone from looking straight at it.

Everyone around this altar had their heads bowed down; even the unruly beasts that had no intelligence did so out of instinct.

"Finally, I'm back!" a pleasant voice from the figure suddenly echoed around this forest!

...…

After riding the public transportation train for about thirty minutes, Alvin finally arrived at home but when he arrived at his door, he found a strange delivery package at his door. The name on the senders address surprised him quite a bit since it was the last place he was expecting a package to come from. It was the Thunder Gale College, the place where the previous body's grandfather used to work before he mysteriously disappeared about ten years ago.

He picked up the package and entered his room. After entering his room and placing the VR set in front of his computer, he once again picked up the package. This package was not big and it was not that heavy either!

After he tore open the wrapping, the content that was revealed was quite unexpected. There was a strange light blue fist sized stone that seemed to be a kind of high leveled demonic core placed in the box. His first reaction was excitement as he knew that the amount of money he had on he would not be sufficient to buy more monster cores as well as cater for the cost of living. If the stone was really a high level monster core, then it had solved some of his financial problems for now.

But what was baffling him was that, he didn't know anyone who was currently working at Thunder Gale Institute apart from his grandfather who disappeared about ten years ago. So who sent him this package? Is it some of his grandfathers' friends?

Even though he was confused, he still decided to not think much about it since he wouldn't get any answer even if he brainstormed for the whole day.

Currently, the time was 4:00 pm so there was two hours left before the VR Game, 'The Pirate King' was supposed to get online. He paced the gift that he had just received together with the VR set and left to the bathroom to wash up and prepare for his first entry into the VR gaming world!

After having his supper, Alvin picked the manual that came with the gaming set and began to set it up. The helmet came with its own network connection interface so there was no exterior connection needed.

The helmet was light blue in color, like what one would expect from a motorcyclist's helmet. There was a push-button on the helmet. The push-button allowed someone in reality (outside the game) to alert the one immersed inside the game. There were also instructions on how to set up the bracelet and insert the monster core which would power up the device.

The moment Alvin inserted the monster ore that he received from the package, the bracelet shook for a second and the monster core began to emit a blinding blue light. Because of sudden appearance of this light and its intensity, Alvin almost dropped the while device.

After a few seconds, the light dimmed to reveal the demonic beast core embedded in the bracelet as if it was originally a part of it.

Alvin frowned when he saw this. According the instruction manual that he read, this wasn't supposed to happen. He once again tried to remove the core but it failed to come out again.

He picked up the VR set and switched it on and surprisingly, it had turned on meaning the power source was functioning. He shook his head and decided to visit the forums that the Ares Corporation had established for the 'Pirate King' VR game. After opening the official forums, he discovered there was more information about the characters that players would use in the game.

The Ares Corporation had implemented some procedures to allow gamers more playing time as well as prevent the game from affecting the daily lives of players. The first measure was to restrict the playing time from 6:00 pm to 5:00 am every day meaning players only had 11 hours of play every day. They also announced that the time speed in the One Piece world flows faster than in the real world by a ratio of 1 hr: 4 hrs; with every hour in the real world, four hours would have passed in the One Piece world.

This would allow players to spend a maximum of 44 hrs per session in the one piece world. Like every game, every player would start at Level 0 in a beginner village where every player would have to slowly grind until they are strong enough to leave. The other things were various things that players were supposed to expect when they entered the game. after that he opened the websites of other VRMMO websites to read the experiences of other professional gamers on what to expect in such a VR game since this was his first time.

After browsing through all this information, Alvin checked the time and it was 5:50. There was only ten minute away before the game officially opens. Alvin, wearing the VR helmet and power bracelet on his hand, was now lying on his bed, waiting.

He turned on the power. With his vision going dark, he entered the game.

[Beep!]

[Checking irises, DNA identity verified]

[Generated serial number: 55524581545023. Serial No bound to DNA. Welcome Mr. Alvin Taylor to the World of 'The Pirate King'! Enjoy!]

A lovely female voice sounded in Alvin's ears!