《M.M.O (Massive Multiverse Online)》 An Open Invitation
Welcome Citizens of Planet Earth. Your civilization has been selected to be Player¡¯s in our newly created Multiverse Gaming System. This is a voluntary invitation, so you are free to reject the offer. Any and all individuals will continue living in an unaltered instance of your Planet Earth. Those of you who accept shall be removed from your home world and sent to the Tutorial. Neither group will interact with each other afterword. If you join the MGS server, you will be granted near limitless opportunity to gain strength in various ways. Technology and abilities seen in only fiction will be cheap commodities, with grander and more powerful tools to be seized by those worthy enough to claim them. But be warned, as any gift is not without its risks to be gained. For further information, please join the Tutorial. Do you wish to enter?
Yes No
The range of emotions you feel are vast. Confusion. Curiosity. Excitement. Fear. You look at the floating box in aw, bewildered by a hologram like screen floating in front of your face, following your gaze lazily regardless of which direction you face. Even closing your eyes dose not banish it, always present no matter what you do. You turn to look at your surroundings, the screen not entirely obscuring your vision. There are others like you, seemingly looking at nothing. Their reactions are far more dynamic and diverse. Some speak religious verse, seemingly attempting to banish this unnatural event. Others seem to read the words over and over, each with their own mixed expression. A few are conversing amongst themselves, validating what they see between each other, some even begin to raise their voices as arguments of weather to accept or deny the offer springs up. Even taking a glance at the sports channel in the restaurant shows this is happening worldwide. A sports game has seemingly ground to a halt, as everyone is preoccupied with things other than the game. The cameras have stopped moving, the cameramen obviously distracted themselves. The crowd and players stay in place, looking around, possibly hoping for someone that could have answers. The spokesman, in a shallow attempt to maintain some sense of normality, is trying to follow a game that is clearly not happening. By happenstance, your eyes leave the screen and land on a family of three. The parents argue, one denying the whole situation while the other is clearly fear stricken by the unnatural experience overall. But they aren¡¯t what grabs your attention. It¡¯s the little girl, seemingly forgotten by her parents, who is looking at the screen with interest. Her hand rises into the air, up to nothing from your point of view, and you just know she has it in front of the screen. Her eyes wander, and you both lock gazes. It is but for a second, but it feels like an eternity. Before you can react in any way, her finger moves. And in a flash of light, she¡¯s gone. Silence befalls the restaurant. It weighs heavily on everyone. Some look around, having missed the origin of the lightshow. Other¡¯s like you had looked at her just as she vanished and can only stair at where what essentially could be considered teleportation took place. Everyone stands still, unable to process what events had just transpired. Then the mother screams. And like a damn breaking, chaos erupts. People fully panic, the underlying stress everyone was feeling breaking their composure. People begin to yell, fold in on themselves in rejection of realty, or attempt to escape physically as much as they can. Tables are flipped, cutlery and food thrown to the floor, bodies press against each other as a swarm of bodies move. You observe all of this in a disconnected manner, only able to see the now tipped over chair of where a child used to be. The mother is on her knees crying, wailing at her lost daughter. The father holds her in his arms, more in control but also as shocked as her.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. And then more flashes of light start mixing into the crowd. The mass panic stops for a moment as everyone turns to look at the direction it came from. An empty spot in a group of teenagers. One of them speaks quietly but is still heard over the subdued panic. ¡°It worked...? So, its true? We-we can be stronger...?¡± As their words drift off, you see an expression you have yet to see on anyone¡¯s face. Wonder. Completely and utter joy at the thought that crossed their mind. And then their eyes harden, resolution taking hold. They rase a fist in the air, a war cry screamed loud and unmistakable. ¡°I won¡¯t be weak anymore!¡±. The fist falls, a hammer deciding his fate and the screen a chisel that shall carve out their new life. Other adolescents around him cry out, attempts to dissuade their associates seemingly rash decision. But in a similar flash, before the words can fully leave their lips, they¡¯re gone. The chaos returns with a vengeance, a far more violent tone then before. You see fights break out as people start shoving their way to the exit and others retaliate at the unprovoked physical contact. You even see a rush of people outside through the restaurant¡¯s windows. But more personal conflicts come out from inside. A group of men are holding down another man, and the fight is becoming bloody as the man becomes more desperate with each second. ¡°Fuck you! I can leave this shithole if I want! You can¡¯t make me stay with that bitch and those parasites!¡± One of his hands goes free and grabs a fork on the floor. He shoves it into a man¡¯s eye. He screams, clutching his face and releasing the other man¡¯s arm in the process. He slams his hand onto the invisible screen in front of him. Like the others, he¡¯s gone in a flash, the group of men holding him down falling to the floor shortly after. Someone crashes into you, pushing you to the ground. You hit a table on your way down, a relatively hard hit as it leaves you breathless. It takes a moment to breath again, the pain and constant noise of chaos making it hard to focus. Blurred eyes look upon the TV once again, and you can see the same anarchy has taken the stadium. Numerous flashes are appearing, piles of bodies as free for all fights are taking place, and just a flood of people trying to find a safer place then where they are. You struggle but eventually manage to stand up again. An explosion rocks the ground, the sound itself overwhelming the shouting of those around you. The panic has fully set in, so no one even reacts. Having focused on the blast from outside, you are able to pick up even more disturbing sounds. Broken glass, smashed cars, cries for help and full of despair, all bundled up in one endless song of terror that is taking hold of the world. Your eyes return the blue window. The one responsible for all this undesired insanity that has taken hold of your world. You wonder, in a moment of insignificant peace what you will do. If it is to be believed, everyone who disappears in a flash has been sentence somewhere else. Where they will have an opportunity to live out a fantastical life that they could only ever dream of. And if it¡¯s truly the multiverse, things man kind could never have thought of. The possibilities would be endless. But at the same time, what about the inherent danger? What about all the unintended consequences if you do go? Most games have lose conditions. The more realistic or authentic the game, the more brutal and numerous the ways to fail a game there are. Hell, most games have you dyeing as a constant game over. Do you want to put your life in that clear open sort of danger? Are you brave enough to face something like that? And what about everyone else here? You have a life here, family, friends. Could you throw all that away for the chance of a wish fulfilling dream that may not even be worth it? But-but what if they already left themselves? What if they saw the opportunity and took the chance themselves? Your parents aren¡¯t as young as they used to be, and this may be a chance at a second life. And your friends, well they have always dreamed big. This could be the golden ticket you have all been waiting for. You could leave and never see them. You could live your wildest fantasies with the push of a button. You could die horribly in the process. You could have been lied to and this screen is a way to sell your soul to the devil for all of eternity. You could stay and keep the life you have. You could watch as the world is forever changed by today¡¯s events. You could find yourself alone, everyone you have ever known already leaving for better lives. You could put this all behind you and live a normal satisfying life. You could do so many things and face so many unexpected consequences because of your choices. What are you going to do? Select Yes Select No Call someone before you choose. Find somewhere safe before you do anything. Try to take care of anyone injured first. Limited Time Offer You need to leave. You can¡¯t stay here. This is too big of a decision to make stressed out as you are because everyone else is freaking out. You need time to think. And you aren¡¯t going to be doing that in a place like this. You stare at the screen for a second longer. The possibilities its hold endless and entrancing. And then you turn to look at your surroundings, having to face reality first. The restaurant has emptied out during your inner monologue. Other than a few stragglers, people that seam to have overloaded from the back to back truth bombs, you find its much easier to move around right now. Unfortunately, you are no safer now than you where a few moments earlier. A fact reinforced by a motorcycle crashing through one of the building¡¯s windows. You lunge to the side, screams from the other people around you mixing with your own voice filled with terror. The front wheel turns to the side and the bike slams into its side, tumbling further into the restaurant. You slightly roll on the ground, the motorcycle narrowly missing a leg as it slams into the bar in the back of the room. Hundreds of alcoholic drinks shatter and drench the now mangled bike. You lay their shocked for a moment, having narrowly avoided what could have been a sever injury. Possibly fatal. Another crash from outside the building brings you back to your senses. Your earlier decision reinforced even further. You need to get out of here. With a grunt, you push yourself back up. Heading to the front door, you take one last look at what used to be your favorite restaurant for a lunch break. The place has been torn to shreds. The motorcycle carved deep cuts into the floor and ruined the bar. Numerous tables and chairs are thrown around in disarray, with quite a number broken or entirely shattered. The room stinks of alcohol and motor oil, with a slight stench of smoke, something probably burning in the kitchen. There are only a few people left that you can see, two of them starting to head out like you, the rest still in shock. The outside doesn¡¯t look any better. As all the noise had hinted at earlier, numerous accidents had occurred while you where inside. In an intersection, three cars have made a pore attempt at building a pyramid, piled on top of each other as they were. Other vehicles had either ben abandoned, faced smaller crashes, or had seemingly been abandoned. Not a surprise, considering the number of people out on the street. Some people looked to be having fist fights for unknown reasons, others where yelling names looking for people, and even the occasional looter was breaking a store. A vast majority of people seamed to just be trying to find some place away from the chaos. And all the while people where still vanishing. Mostly people you could see who were losing fights, trying to escape the beatdowns they were getting. You also saw a few people that had possibly given into their curiosity or simply thought it was safer to be anywhere but here. But the last group of people you saw vanishing where the ones you wished you hadn¡¯t seen. Running in the streets, adrenalin pupping in your vain, you where still aware enough to see the bloody or broken bodies of men, women, and children disappearing.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. You try to push these images out of your head as best you can. It¡¯s a damn shame every street is the same. More accidents, more screams, more fights, more blood, and more and more with every step. The panic, the anarchy, the violence. Its all too much. You run farther and harder, but you just can¡¯t seem to get away. You are acutely aware of everything and nothing, as everything just blurs together. You run into an empty alley that seemed to have been abandoned, not entirely sure how you got there. You lean against a wall, gasping for air. The run along with the stress o the whole situation draining you. At the very least, you found somewhere away from people and hopefully safe from any fast vehicles. How much of a break you have is anyone¡¯s guess. You can still hear everything that¡¯s going on, even if it¡¯s a little subdued since you¡¯re not in the Downtown area anymore. In this moment of relative peace, you can¡¯t help but think about your situation. Such a drastic shift from the serene and relaxed atmosphere you experienced only minutes beforehand. Its bizarre how quickly such permanent and extreme changes could happen in less than an hour. And this is happening everywhere? God, the destruction and number of lives lost. The world population is going to take a hit from the casualties alone, not to mention what percentage of the population is going to say yes to the offer. You flinch as another screen pops up and covers the first one you saw. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Greetings Potential Player¡¯s We have noticed a significant portion of you have yet to select either option presented to you. While we respect Player choice and the freedom to do with your life as you will, we have a limited timeframe on our hands unfortunately. In light of these events, our superiors have elected to visualize the deadline being placed on you. You have until the timer reaches zero to reject or accept our offer. If you have yet to make a decision by the time the timer runs out, the choice will be made for you randomly. Choose wisely, or the choice will be made for you. You have 1 hour.
As you finish reading the window, it automatically closes. The new timer could be seen underneath the original screen, ticking down as the hour in which you must make the most important choice in your life must be made. Where your current life will end, or you might miss the greatest opportunity you¡¯ll ever have. No pressure. What do you do? Spoiler: Choices Select No Select Yes Call your parents Call your freinds Try to leave the city Find something to preotect yourself Partake in the looting Rescedualing ¡°God damn it, I didn¡¯t sign up for this kind of heavy shit.¡± Your struggling with the multiple decisions going through your head. You can¡¯t just leave everything behind just to live some fantasy, at least not at the drop of a hat. But you also can¡¯t just stand here and go in circles trying to figure out what¡¯s the best decision to make, considering how utterly crazy everyone is getting. The newest message is clearly going just kick up the madness another notch. If you¡¯re having such a hard time making a choice, you can only imagine how other people are reacting. An explosion goes off in the distance. Turning in its direction, you can see one rather large ball of smoke climb into the air, standing out next to the other ash pillars rising into the air. Your eyes widen as you realize that was the same direction you just came from, more than likely very close to the restaurant you just left. You can only guess what caused such a huge explosion, but your just glad you weren¡¯t in that area anymore. Your stomach twists at the idea that there where still people there when you left. Fuck. Reaching into your pocket you pull out your phone and start typing out messages. If you are only getting one hour to decide whether to leave planet Earth or not, you damn well are going to get one last goodbye sent out to the people you care about. Its also a good distraction at the strong likelihood quite a few people just died. The first one is a mass group text to everyone you have in your phone. You don¡¯t have enough time to call every person you know, so text message would be faster. Not to mention the strong possibility there may be interference with everything that¡¯s going on, the phone lines being overloaded with calls or the entire system being down itself. Hell, you might not even be able to send out these messages in the end. But if the world is ending in one way or another, you are going to damn well try. Everyone who¡¯s downtown, try to get out of the city. People are losing their collective shit over here, and it¡¯s not a safe place to be. Stay in doors if you can or just get away from heavily populated areas. And for those of you thinking about the offer and haven¡¯t decided already. Be careful. Don¡¯t say no just yet, but I think it¡¯s a possible lifeboat. I¡¯ve seen people near dead flashed away, so it might save you if you¡¯re in a pinch. Whatever happens, I hope everyone comes out alive after today. It wasn¡¯t everything you wanted to say, but you hope it got the message across. Cycling through the profiles, you find your parents. Conflicted feelings fill you as you see their names. You have so many things you could say to them. But you don¡¯t have the time to spend thinking about what could be the last words your parents will ever hear from you. You decide to keep it simple. I love you. You pocket the phone, pushing your thoughts about your parents away in an attempt to pay attention to your current situation. The chaos has quieted down by some degree, what with the number of people in the city decreasing every minute. For one reason or another. Unfortunately, fires where beginning to spread while the roads whore being barricade by cars and accidents. Unless it started raining, there was a strong possibility a majority of the city would burn down before the day was over.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. And with emotions high as they were, you don¡¯t feel too safe coming across strangers in such a dangerous environment. Reaching into your pocket, besides your wallet and phone, you also have a multitool. It has a small knife on it you could use for self-defense. Well, you could try anyway, but in all likely hood you¡¯d be taken down by anyone with a gun. With a sigh, you turn your attention back to the countdown on your window. The timer is still ticking down and you hope the texts and the inner debate didn¡¯t take too much time. You blink. It takes a second to register the numbers your seeing. 94:76:23 That didn¡¯t look right. The math was completely off on the damn thing. You shake your head. Maybe these interdimensional beings didn¡¯t know how to translate the proper timetable from their existence to Earths. Regardless it looked like you had more than just an hour before the big decision is made for you. Your focus drifts to the yes button. You can¡¯t really hide your honest feelings now that you¡¯ve had time to calm down. Your tempted. You don¡¯t know why or how anything is happening today. But you¡¯ve seen for yourself the level of control the people who sent this message have. Teleportation, direct mental communication, and all of it on a potentially global scale. You can only begin to imagine the number of opportunities agreeing with people with this level of power could grant you. What would be the point of staying in a dangerous environment when you personally want to jump at the chance? Sure, you could try to defend yourself by finding some protection and finding a much safer place to be. But if your going to say yes already, why waist time? You already said what you wanted to say. Meeting them would just be unnecessary effort. You remember all the injured people you ran away from in your pursuit of safety. You grimace at the seemingly selfish actions you took. Even though most of them were already being cared for or flashed away shortly after, you can¡¯t help but feel a bit guilty about it. But either way, you already proved you care more about your own safety than just strangers. With a bit more resolution than before you, your finger is raised to press yes on the window. You are interrupted by a voice. ¡°Put your hands in the air and gimmy all your money.¡± Confused, you turn to look at a man in ragged clothing holding a knife. He looked stressed, sweet on his face and a wild look in his eyes. He had the knife pointed at you, but even you could tell he had no real training with the damn thing. Not that you needed much to rob a person. Doing as he says so as to not antagonize the would be criminal, you raise your hands slowly. Before either of you could do anything else, another window pops up.
Greetings Potential Player¡¯s As it has been brought to our attention, we have failed to properly convert Multiverse Time to your Earth time. We apologize for the inconvenience and will rectify that issue immediately. Please act with the updated timeframe accordingly. (1 Hours = 100 Minutes = 10000 Seconds) 2:37:56:23
You don¡¯t really read the screen, the man in front of you having your full attention. He jumped when the window appeared, and he¡¯s still busy reading it. It would appear you still have a moment to react before the man remembers what he was doing. Spoiler: Spoiler Select No Select Yes Run Pull out the multitool Talk Cooperate Fight Bloody Transfer You could fight the man, wrestle the knife out of his grip and flip the situation on its head. Try to fight him anyway. You¡¯ve been in a couple fights before, even took a class or two, but not enough for you to be comfortable with a real knife fight. So, while fighting is a tempting option, you¡¯d rather run if you can. You are not in the mood to get stabbed or robbed. Considering the wild look in the man¡¯s eye, you¡¯re likely to get both unfortunate circumstances. At the very least he¡¯s distracted enough for you to make a run for it. Still keeping your arms up, you try to slowly sneak away. You get a couple steps away, but as luck would have it, they remembered you exit. With loud ¡°Hey.¡± You turn and try to run. You can hear the foot falls as the man begins chasseing you. You run for a couple feet before you feel a sting in your shoulder, pain flaring as the man behind you grunts. The fucker stabbed you, apparently being faster than you. The pain is enough to slow you down as you instinctively turn around to face your attacker. Just in time, as see the man going in for another swing. You reflexively rase your arms up in a poor attempt to protect yourself. By chance, you manage to wrap both hands around the man¡¯s wrist. In the process, you trip over yourself, indirectly pulling the man down with you. You grunt as the hard ground aggravates the wound on your back. The man isn¡¯t kind enough to let you get a moment of rest, beginning to push the blade down into you. You resist, straining your mussels to keep the blade from cutting into you. You can only do so much unfortunately, the man beginning to put his whole weight on the knife, inching it closer and closer to your face. You hear your blood rushing in your ears as you try your hardest to keep the blade from sinking into your face and killing you. The man looks ravenous, a barbaric glee in his eye as he snarls at you. You can¡¯t keep this up for ever, the adrenalin in your blood barley doing anything as it slowly inches towards you. Your eyes shift to the screen, the bold ¡®yes¡¯ seemingly your only opportunity for a quick escape. Seeing as its basically in your head, you attempt to mentally accept the offer. Nothing happens. Fuck. You would need to have to actually touch the damn thing to get any reaction. And since your hands where occupied at the moment, that wasn¡¯t going to happen anytime soon. Unless... God this was going to hurt. With some effort, you stopped pushing back and tried to shift the knife away from your face. What transpired was a planned but incredibly painful opportunity that you needed. The knife had sunk into your shoulder, digging deep and catching on bone. You are dazed for a moment by the pain, what little confidence you had not preparing you for the experience. But it¡¯s enough. A hand free now, you slam it on to the yes. Instead of a blinding flash rescuing from danger, you are taken surprised by the stream of windows that pop up.
Warning: Interloper Detected, Attempting to Purge Foreign Entity from Player Account. Processing...
Attempt Failed: Escalating Defensive Measures: Beta Level Purge Processing...
Attempt Failed: Escalating Defensive Measures: Priority Breach Detected: Tactical Security Subroutine Engaged. Dual Approach: Tracing Hacking Origin, Disabling Player Safety Protocol. Processing...
You are unable to read the disturbingly colored windows any further as a fist strikes your face. You see stars as you feel the man begin to punch you into the ground. You kept one arm on the knife and kept the man from pulling the knife out to use it against you, making him use the other. You feebly raise your one free hand to protect you from the onslaught of your would-be robber.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The action barely protects you but gives you a moment to see the mans face suddenly brighten up for some reason. The man turns his head, stopping his near endless swings, taking an interest in whatever he¡¯s looking at instead of you. You are in too much pain with your vision beginning to swim to really take notice what¡¯s going on at this point. Except for a new window that remains crystal clear and readable.
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The last thing you hear is screeching tires and a man screaming, before a deep pain enveloped your entire being. It overwhelms you entirely, blocking out any other sensation besides the agony you are experiencing. Its not too long after you pass out, your mind finally succumbing to everything its been put through.
You wake up on the floor, head throbbing. You groan and try to stand. You flinch as a pain shoots through you, originating from both shoulders. A quick glance shows that you¡¯re still wounded, al be it with closed cuts at the moment. You grimace, finding the still bloody knife next you. With so effort, you reach over and pic it up. You stare at what could have been your death in your hands. You don¡¯t really know how to feel about the whole experience. ¡°While I do understand many individuals have a hard time transitioning, I believe it would be in your best interest to have some situational awareness my child.¡± With small hop, you stand hurriedly, facing the direction the unexpected voice came from. You notice two things immediately. You appear to be in a gray seemingly endless void with no horizon in sight. The other thing is that you are in fact not alone here. A man in a gray robe with a cane stands before you. You can tell he is of considerable age by the number of wrinkles on his face and the gray color of his goatee. You hold the knife up, unsure how to feel about the stranger in front of you. ¡°Come now, you where the one that agreed to become a Player. Is it really necessary to face the first being you come across in such a hostile manner?¡± He grins, the wrinkles on his face almost completely obscuring his silver eyes. ¡°Although I can clearly see you had a very unappealing experience coming here. It is pleasing to see you did not die in transit.¡± The corners of his mouth drop into a frown. ¡°We have had one to many failed applicants that way.¡± He shakes his head, his ponytail swishing behind his head. ¡°But regardless, let us not dawdle on other participants. We are here to focus on you and only you.¡± With a tap of the man¡¯s cane, he turns and begins walking into the empty void. After he walked a couple steps, the old gentleman turns to you, an eyebrow quirked and a small smile on his lips. ¡°Well? Do not just stand their child, come! You volunteered for the opportunity of your lifetime did you not?¡± Not waiting for your response, the man continued walking. You don¡¯t move. The entire experience is just too bazaar for you to so easily place your trust in a weird guy you just met in a land of nothingness. Could be a trap. Could be he¡¯s leading you astray for whatever diabolical reason your frazzled mind can come up with. Hell, this could be some sort of test with unforeseen consequences if you fail. But at the end of the day the old man was right. You signed up for a whole new experience, or at least thought about it. Even if your hand was forced at the time, you can¡¯t really turn back if the window is to be believed. With a deep breath, you grit your teeth and follow the strange old man. If nothing else, it gives you something to do other than wallow in all the dark thoughts in the back of your mind. You speed up, maintaining a foot of distance between yourself and your guide. ¡°Myldir.¡± The old man says suddenly. You are confused for a moment, but he continues speaking. ¡°My name child. Something to address me as other just an old man. And I think it helps start a conversation.¡± He turns his head, a smile on his face as his eyes seam to pierce your soul. ¡°Now, its only fair if you tell me yours no?¡± You hesitate for a moment, but as Myldir¡¯s eyes bore into you, you have an indescribable feeling that its best you answer him. ¡°Sam.¡± Myldir¡¯s smile grows, a small chuckle as his head face forwards once again. As soon as you break eye contact, that indefinable feeling disappears. You can only frown at the entire experience. ¡°It is a bit of a distance before we arrive at our destination, so I believe some conversation will alleviate any boredom that may befall us.¡± He raises a hand, ¡°Before you feel the need to ask one of the hundred of questions you most certainly have Sam, would you be so kind as to tell me about yourself. If not to just satiate my curiosity, I can promise you it would be to your benefit for what is to come.¡± The strange feeling return, although far weaker than before. Your starting to feel like you don¡¯t have much of a choice when he asks his questions. What¡¯s your story? Spoiler: Spoiler Are you a boy or girl? Do you tell the truth? Lie? Half truths and vaige answers? Haunting Images You answer his question, although you opt out on extensive detail. You need to answer him, but you feel the need some of the more personal facts to yourself. If anything else, Myldir might already know everything about you. Considering everything that¡¯s happened so far, it wouldn¡¯t be much of a surprise if you already got background checked. Your names Samantha Dragotlovic, although you just went by Sam for most of your life. You were just a girl going to college after a short stint in your country¡¯s military. Not that it gave you much of an advantage when the apocalypse came. Then again, no one really expects a cook to be the best survivalist around. That¡¯s what you think anyway. If you knew things would have gone this bad, maybe you wouldn¡¯t have been aiming for a culinary degree. Myldir listened in silence. No response, no probing questions, not even a grunt of acknowledgment. You keep going regardless, the weight on your soldiers still ever present. When you spend what little information you are willing to give, you coincidentally arrive wherever you where heading. Nothing changed in this empty gray void but Myldir finally stopped walking. ¡°Well, I believe that is as much information as you will give me. Now on to the real meat of the matter.¡± Both hands on his cane, Myldir taps it on the ground. With a far louder and deeper sound than it should be possible to make, the ground cracks as a large stone wall rises from the ground. Made of deep blue material, there are plates of varying colors on it. From top to bottom, they follow a rainbow pattern of green, yellow, orange, and red. Stepping forward, Myldir turns to face you, a smile on his face. ¡°Now, before we make any other significant choices, we must first have you do business with the Sacrifices. And before we can even face those, you must pick what level of Sacrifice you are willing to take. This is simple but important step in your long journey in the MMO.¡± Myldir¡¯s smile dims a bit, his eyes focusing on something in front of him. Considering you can¡¯t see what he¡¯s looking at and the way his eyes move as if he¡¯s reading something, you can only guess it¡¯s another System window. He sighs, mumbling something you quite don¡¯t hear. Then, as if nothing happened, his smile returns. ¡°What are Sacrifices exactly? A Sacrifice is the act of giving up something of yourself in exchange for something else of value. They are a method for you to gain Character Points that will be spent later to give you a boost when you start the game. Not all Sacrifices are equal, some being more demanding and personal than others. As such, the greater the Sacrifice, the greater the compensation.¡± Myldir raises his cane and taps the green plate with it. Images of Earth fade in and out of existence on it. Different cultures, people, and maybe even different points in history? ¡°This level of Sacrifice will have little to no impact on your experience with our MGS server. All these will be primarily focused on your old home world, although still related to you in some way. As such, the compensation is quite minimal. 1 point per Green Sacrifice.¡± The cane moves down to the yellow one. The dame thing that happened with the green plate happens again, only the images are different this time. They seam to be focused on you from a third person perspective. Different points in your life, from childhood all the way up to your more recent years. Some are simple, like birthdays and time in school. It¡¯s a bit embarrassing when ever some of your more personal moments appear, like your pet dying or your first sexual experience. Myldir doesn¡¯t even look at them, much to your relief. Still doesn¡¯t take away from how invasive the whole experience feels. ¡°The next level, Yellow Sacrifices are more personal, while still not limiting your capability to play. These are still primarily related to your old world but will have a more noticeable impact on you. It may take some time to properly cope with the changes, but nothing you can¡¯t overcome completely. The compensation will be below average. 2 points per Yellow Sacrifice. ¡° Shifting down to what you assume is the Orange Sacrifice plate, the images on this one are more disturbing. They show you in various states of you in pain and suffering. In one you are kneeling on the ground bleeding from your gut. Another you are hospitalized, appearing sickly and weak. You are in a room, fetal position and crying as shadows converge on you. You are having sex but remain limp and unresponsive. On and on, more scenes of you in distress appear. Some are familiar, actual experiences you had in life. Other¡¯s you are positive never had happened. The images are unnerving all the same.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Myldir seams mostly unaffected by these scenes, all but his smile dimming being his only reaction. ¡°Now here is where the Sacrifices begin to hinder you in some way, shape, or form. Depending on which Sacrifices you select, there may be significant changes to your lifestyle. Some of these will be inexplicably difficult to overcome, much less reverse. You will be greatly compensated if you select any of these Sacrifice. 3 points per Orange Sacrifice.¡± Myldir puts the cane down, taking a far more serious demeaner than he¡¯s had the entire time you¡¯ve known him. ¡°Before we go to the next one, there is a point I need to stress, for everyone¡¯s benefit. You have volunteered, willingly accepted of your own volition, to become a Player. For whatever reason that may have been it does not matter. Not at the beginning, possibly never at all depending on the choices you make. It is a decision you will forever be unable to take back.¡± His eyes bore into you, their silver sheen taking a penetrating feature, as if to carve his words into your very soul. He has yet to blink once during his speech. Your chest tightens, an invisible hand grasping your heart. ¡°No mater how undesirable the Sacrifices may appear, no matter how personal and invasive the trade for power will be, it is necessary. If you want the capabilities of surviving, much less thriving in this new reality, steps must be taken to insure you are even capable of succeeding. How far you are willing to go and give much you are willing to give is your choice. But be aware, everything has its price.¡± His eyes leave you, and you release the breath you didn¡¯t even know you were holding. You flinch as Myldir taps the red plate with more force than you expected to be capable of. As the new images filter through, they hold far more variety than the previous ones. Some you are present in others you are absent. They are all make your skin crawl. A village is being raided, the bandits mercilessly pillaging without mercy. Villagers are killed, raped, or collared, some experiencing all of them in varying orders. Insidious energy invades their corpses, forcing them to rise in a poor imitation of life. It shifts, now looking upon a child running in the woods, alone and terrified. A beast prowls in the shadows, malformed and multilimbed. A parody of a wolf, limbs too long, fur too black, movement too erratic, it pounces on the child and feasts. It turns, almost aware that it is being watched, and you see the face of the monster. A mockery of your own visage stares back, smiling as blood and meat leaks from your mouth. More and more of these twisted images pass, each one a horror after the other. But the worst one is the last one. You see your parents. Joys on their faces as they look off to the side. You walk into frame, arms stretched for a hug. They return the gesture, love in their eyes and warmth in their hearts. The moment is lovely and soothing after everything you¡¯ve just seen. Its cruelly broken by a flash of light. Where once your parents stood, alive and whole, now they lay dead. Their corpses mutilated and broken; you can clearly see the horror on their faces. Their murder stands above them, cold and analytical. Not a drop of shame and sadness to be found. Such a strange thing to see on your own face. Your doppelganger looks in your direction. You know without a shadow of doubt she knows you are watching her. She smiles a sad smile. A smile of acceptance and pity. A smile that promises more horrible things to come. And with that the plate is back to its simple sold red color. Myldir speaks, not giving you a moment to understand what you just saw. ¡°These are the be all end all Sacrifices. Selecting any of these will have permanent changes to your character. There is virtually no way to recover from any of these Sacrifices, as the System will restrict any attempt to resolve them, by you or a third party. That is assuming you are physically or mentally capable of attempting such a feat. You will be compensated to the full capabilities of the System. 4 points per Red Sacrifice. ¡°Now, the rules are as follows. You must select what level of Sacrifice you are willing to go up to. You will be required to select at minimum one Sacrifice from that level, the number of required Sacrifices doubling for every Sacrifice bellow it. An example: You select Orange Sacrifices as your limit. You will require one Orange Sacrifices, two Yellow Sacrifices, and 4 Red Sacrifices. This also functions as your limit for sacrifices. You can have no more and no less for the selected Sacrifices.¡± He taps his cane on the ground, four pillars rising up in front of you. Each one has a similar color as one of the plates on the blue wall. ¡°Now tell me Sam. Just how much are you willing to give for the sake of power and your own survival?¡± What do you do? Spoiler: Spoiler Green Yellow Orange Red None Multiple Ask Questions Unfavorable Choices Its too much. You¡¯ve seen so many horrible things in far too short of a time. You need a second to breath. It¡¯s a few minutes of internal chaos as your mind tries to process what you¡¯ve seen and the implications of it all. You weren¡¯t mentally prepared for this. You don¡¯t know what you were expecting when you signed up for playing a videogame that could literally mess with your so easily. But it wasn¡¯t this. Now obviously a sacrifice is going to be, well as sacrifice. But gods be damned the degree of how much a Sacrifice can take rattles you. Its not as daunting as the question that comes to the forefront of your mind. Why? Why would you ever need to go this far? What could possibly push someone so hard that they would even need to think about some of these Sacrifices? Who would even think of taking some of these more invasive offers? When did your own life get so complicated that you found your self in such a position? Where were you going that this much would be needed to even survive? The more you thought about it, the more the underlying terror in you grew. You couldn¡¯t take it. You began hyperventilating, the nonexistent walls beginning to close in on you. Your vision swam, the world spinning around you. You needed time, to think, to breath, to deal with this whole situation in some way. You reach out with your hand, trying to find something solid to ground you to reality. You come to regret that decision when you realize you¡¯ve placed your hand on the red pillar. Your blood goes cold as the red ink on the pillar begins to flow up your arm. You struggle as the red slowly beings to overtake you, your body growing heavy as inch by inch everything becomes red. You scream as it arrives on your neck, allowing the viscous fluid to slip into your mouth. The taste is horrid. You gage as you learn the flavor of something clearly never to be consumed enters you. You struggle and cry, your movements becoming more sluggish by the second as the red weighs you down. You look to Myldir begging, hoping, for some form of salvation. All you get back is a passive look, colored with only mild interest. Soon enough, your eyes are covered and all you see is red. And then you are crushed by the unexpected pain that takes you. Its sudden, a needle piercing you without warning. But the needle doesn¡¯t stop digging in. More needles follow as well, each one carving itself into your very soul. It escalates endlessly, getting to the point it is all you can focus on. Unconsciousness never comes. It is just a long and blind moment of continuous pain. It isn¡¯t until you feel something inside you break that the agony begins to finally recede. With that, you fall to the floor, gasping. You vomit on the ground, your body discarding what little food you¡¯ve eaten today. The smell of partially digested food reaches your nose. And it is nothing compared to the small hell you just went through. A window, simple intrusive as ever, appears. You have selected Sacrifice: Red, as your starting bonus. Your pre-selected Sacrifices have been selected and assigned the appropriate level of Sacrifice. Please select any additional Sacrifices that are required.
Red Sacrifice: 1Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Fideicide: Kill what you love.
Orange Sacrifices: 1
Machine: Remove your capability to experience any kind of emotion.
Yellow Sacrifices: 3
Selective Disability: Left leg experiences nerve damage. Nameless: Abandon your identity. Homeless: Forget your home world.
Green Sacrifice: 0
None Selected
You require 1 Orange Sacrifice, 1 Yellow Sacrifice, 8 Green Sacrifices. Please select from the list below the appropriate ones required.
Red: 0
Inhumanity: Abandon your nature and become something else. Slave: Become an unquestionable servant to another being. Invader: Conquer the entire server. Completionist: 100% your server.
Orange: 1
Rejuvenation: Begin as an infant of your species. (Major)Injury: You have a crippling injury. Addiction: Required intake of a random substance. Insomnia: Peaceful sleep is not an option Skill-less: Forget all knowledge and abilities related to Skills. Formless: Randomize your species. Patron: You will follow the dogma of a random deity. Obligation: Quests can no longer be denied. Host: Another being will depend on you for survival.
Please Select Orange Sacrifices before continuing.
You can only stare in horror at what you just did. What are you going to do? Spoiler: Spoiler Demand a reselection. Ask why there are already preselected Sacrifices. Reject your Sacrifices. Go mad. Give into despair. Select your other Sacrifices. Colored Questions You stare at the more colorful screens for a time. You can¡¯t quite process everything that¡¯s being presented to you. After what feels like an agonizing eternity, you take in the full context of your preselected Sacrifices. None of them are a pleasant read for you to go over. Selective Disability seams rather tame when compared to the other four. While you can¡¯t tell the full extent of the damage that may cause you, it should be manageable to some extent. At the very least it¡¯ll be easier to deal with in the long run when compared to Nameless and Homeless. That¡¯s going to be a serious blow to you mentally. Probably. You aren¡¯t a psychiatrist but your pretty sure losing vital information like who you are and where you¡¯re from can have unexpected consequences. Not as much as Machine. That is going to damage you on so many levels. It doesn¡¯t help considering how vague all these descriptions are. What exactly constitute as emotions? How exactly are your capabilities for said emotions going to be removed? Lobotomy? Magic? Indoctrination? Whatever methods were going to be used, it will definitely be invasive. Fideicide. Your mind quickly pushes the word to the side, desperately denying the implications of that Sacrifice. You try to find something, anything, to distract you from the dark thoughts beginning to gnaw at the back of your mind. Fortunately for you, you¡¯ve had a burning question that came up when you first saw the Sacrifices. ¡°Why are there Sacrifices already picked for me? I thought these sacrifices would only be chosen by me.¡± Myldir has been silently watching, rather patient for an old man seeing someone almost loose their shit. ¡°At times the System running MMO decides to preemptively make decisions for the Player. A bit rude I am told, but in the end, most would agree that those decisions would have been the ultimate result when it comes to said Player. Regardless of how unreasonable the choice may seem at the time.¡± Your heart sinks at those words. All the other ones you could understand. Even Machine, as damaging as it could be, makes some sense. You have no idea what you¡¯ll be facing but being unable to feel fear could be a benefit. But Fideicide... You can¡¯t resist but speak allowed your thoughts on the matter. ¡°So, I would have chosen to kill my parents?¡± There is something in your voice, maybe hope, maybe acceptance. You can¡¯t quite tell what your feeling or why you¡¯re asking. You don¡¯t even know why you¡¯re asking Myldir of all people. He¡¯s clearly biased considering he was the one to great you in the first place. He shrugs, having little else to say on the matter. His response, or lack thereof, weighs on you. You look back to your options. You are clearly burying your emotions and thoughts on the matter, preferring to distract yourself from the truth of the matter. Weather it works or not, you still have to focus on the rather important choices set before you.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. None of these choices seem appealing, mostly because of the unintended consequences they might bring. You kind of need sleep, you¡¯d rather not forget practical skills on top of all the other memories your going to lose, and you sure as shit don¡¯t need another injury along with the nerve damage to one leg. In the end, only three of the Sacrifices are appealing to you for their own reasons. Addiction seams like a bad choice at first. Well, it¡¯s a poor choice regardless but it might be to your benefit. The name implies some sort of drug, but that might not necessarily be the case. With how open the interpretation may be of ¡®substance¡¯ there¡¯s a chance it may be something harmless. Might be something you were going to be taking regardless, like air or water. Host might have some unintended benefits as well. It won¡¯t be as controlling as having a patron would be. They could be just some sort of symbiotic creature that just harmlessly exist. Depending how intertwined it¡¯ll be to your own life, it might try to keep you alive for its own sake. Hell, if its intelligent enough to talk to you, it could provide some insight to this whole charade. If they are part of MMO, they could give you tips to make the transition easier. And then there¡¯s the most appealing Sacrifice. Formless. I mean, who hasn¡¯t wanted to be more than human? With this Sacrifice, you could be anything else. An elf, an orc, a dragon, and so many more options. You probably wouldn¡¯t even be limited to just fantasy races, being one of the millions of fictional races you¡¯ve probably never even thought. Of course, you could just be a cat. Or a rock. Honestly if you could be anything other than human, needless to say there are quite a few bad apples of the bunch to pick from. You are as likely to get some bad rolls as some good ones. But that goes for the other two choices for you. Could be a soul parasite that drains you constantly, or you could be addicted to a drug that isn¡¯t available where your going. You mull over the choices before you. Your mind goes back to the dreaded Red Sacrifice. For a moment. But that¡¯s all you need to settle on Formless. If your going to throw away your humanity for power. If that¡¯s what your really like deep down. You might as well abandon everything that makes you human. With a touch, you select Formless, the screen scrolling down automatically. You see the next tier of Sacrifices in Yellow. The number appears to be the same. But they also don¡¯t seem to be as debilitating as the last choices you were given. Hopefully, this choice won¡¯t be as hard.
Yellow: 3
Faceless: Randomize your physical appearance. (Minor)Injury: You have a limiting injury. Naked: Loose all your home world possessions. Sponsored: You will be given additional quests by a sponsor. Quota: You will have a daily quest that must be completed. Amnesia: Loose your personal history. Wanderer: Lose any personal connection you have to your home world.
Please Select Yellow Sacrifices before continuing.