《Pivot》


 Prologue : A Fulfilling Journey

    Under the dove grey sky when the colors of the world donned their winter coats, each hue becoming darker and richer than before. The river sparkled and crunched, like sugar underfoot, and the coolness of the breeze brought people right into the now, into the moment of life. This shooting atmosphere also brought forth a gravitas of emotions like happiness, joy and uppermost, the lust of the flesh. That time was when Preston was conceived and, after a heartfelt rollercoaster of emotions of the nine months, he was born.


    His father, Laboda, stood there in bewilderment. A tingle surged throughout this whole body. It was a rush of excitement he had never felt before in this life. When his eyes hit his little boy''s angelic little body, he froze and couldn''t think or acknowledge anything else around him. The world seemed to stop, hold its place in time, just for that perfect moment. The baby''s hands quivered as Laboda slowly reached down to touch his little fingers and feel the softness of his skin. He ran the tips of his fingers very gently across the baby''s smooth face, and right away, he fell in love. His wife, Selena, whispered, "I can wake Preston up if you want to hold him." He was euphoric, he was finally a father! As he held him, he stared into his gorgeous amber eyes and knew instantly that he would love and cherish him forever with all his heart and would be willing to go through a sea of boiling oil and run through a road of knives for him.


    Preston was born in the small remote village of Goleta near the Blackheart Mountains and Talon River where the spring weather washed in like the tide, advancing confidently with warmth and white sunshine one day, and retreating the next. Preston''s dad was a small merchant and his mom worked in the bakery. He had a humble but happy fulfilling life as he was loved by both of his parents. He always had a pretty little face, still instilled with baby fat, and always liked to roam the untamed wilderness of the Blackheart Mountains with his 3 friends, Mark, Roble, and Bubla. When he was 6 years old he finally saved enough money from selling pastries in his mother''s bakery to buy himself something special.


    "Yay, my own wooden sword, I can''t wait to show it to the others." giggled Preston


    He liked the sense of adventure and often pretended to have courageous travels, driving the dragon away when he was just herding the cattle, saving the princess from a high tower when he was just rescuing a cat from a tree etc. When he was 10 years old, he and his friends Mark, Roble, and Bulba found an abandoned cave and made it their own hideout. Mark and Roble were brothers and were sons of the local merchant. Mark was a tall kid for this age and he had a strong spirit for adventure. Roble was a little shy and timid and wanted to go to adventure to find riches in the world. Bulba was a charming little girl and often liked to hang with the group. She had even developed a little crush on Preston. They were happy and roaming around with joy and spirit with full of adventurous thoughts until one unfortunate night when they encountered "it".


    Though it was still silent like the how the Talon river was, in that darkness devoid of birdsong, there came a musky scent tinctured with rancid breath. Preston was awake as always, trying to figure out which activities to do next in the woods. The rumors of the werewolf pack were rampant in the village and though he thought it was just "nonsense", he kept the wooden sword next to the campfire they had set up. Suddenly he heard a crack of twigs being trampled, although skeptical, he nudged Bubla and placed a gentle hand over her mouth, he roused and pulled herself to sitting. Then slowly he made his way toward the end of the campfire that leads to the other 2 members of the group. He slowly woke each one of them and told them to go and retreat to the village. Preston turned to Roba and gestured toward the fire in the middle, it needed to go out. Roba nodded and went to put out the fire when suddenly a furry face appeared almost instantly from the darkness of the woods and he screamed. The figure stood among fire while Roba retreated to the group. From the shadows came a wolf, yet he was no ordinary predator. It gazed at them with almost human eyes and the spark of intelligence. Its muscular frame was also visible in the depths of it''s brown and black fur, it''s muscles containing its explosive strength. The only sound in the entire clearing of the forest was it''s breathing, it''s flaring nostrils as he took in Roba''s scent. It curled up its gums to reveal yellow stained teeth and then let out a low rumbling growl. The thing looked round with wolfish grins and stalked towards the group, glaring at Preston with his wooden sword. The group of people were already imagining their fate, in seconds their throat will be ripped out, her flesh consumed, blood staining the pale sheepskin rugs.


    The group stood behind Preston staring in fear. However, Preston stood resolute in the face of danger. His instincts and every cell in his body told him to run for his life, yet he stood resolutely for his friends.


    Then the thing spoke. "I don''t want you man, I want the woman - far more tender. Stand aside and live."


    In answer, Preston raised the sword higher.


    "It''s my time to hunt today and I only get to eat one per night. So you see, I have chosen her. If you want to fight so be it."


    At his words, a drool of saliva rolled thickly from his rubbery lips and he took a step forwards. Preston didn''t blink, didn''t move, didn''t speak. There was no negotiating with devils such as these, the only answer they were going to get was a face of nine-inch nails. He attacked, knowing no way in hell, was the werewolf going to let the others go anyway.


    That day still brought forth nightmares to Preston''s dreams. The thing played around with them for almost the entirety of the night. Preston attacked the thing with everything he had and yet the moment his wooden sword landed in his body, it broke like a rock hitting glass as the broken wooden shards were spread everywhere. Preston didn''t stop attacking even when his hands almost bleed dry. The feeling of helplessness instilled bone deep into his conscious and the worst part was that the thing just let him hit it as much as he wanted without moving. Its eyes were filled with mockery and pity towards Preston. However, after several rounds of Preston trying to hurt the thing, it was getting impatient. It, with its monstrous strength, knocked Preston away. It then moved slowly towards Bulba and grabbed her petite frame tightly and Bulba''s cries and struggling added more joy to it''s feeling. Preston''s body was filled with pain and bleeding among several broken bones but he clearly saw the scene of the monster savory devouring her and Bulba''s screaming and crying before he passed out.


    ____________________________________________________________________________________


    The villagers found the body of Roba, Mark and Preston''s body in the forest as they were getting worried about the kids not coming home. Roba and Mark had fainted out of fear when they saw the frame of the thing so they had not seen anything. When the villagers questioned Preston, he was like a body that had lost its soul, and could not say anything until someone asked, " Where is my little girl ?"


    Preston looked at the middle-aged women that had Bulba''s petite nose and lips.


    " She is gone" With a tremble within voice attempting to breaking free. He said, and cracking mid-way into a full-on wail "I could not save her, she''s gone. She''s gone."


    Preston swore that he would never feel the type of helplessness again and he would grow stronger and protect everyone he knew. From that day on words, Preston trained his body every day by doing strenuous exercises and trying to find qi in his body. He trained and trained and did everything to increase his strength. From sword fighting, maneuvering activities to parrying and dodging. He started to learn and practice every day without rest. After several years in training, he had heard of a knight that was passing through and immediately rushed to her living place and begged her to take him as a discipline.


    The knight had a hawkish air about her. Even her nose was curved and beaky. She had eyes of palest blue that fixed you in ice should you dare disagree or talk out of turn. Her hair wasn''t so much blonde as a washed out brown like it just couldn''t be bothered to be any color at all. She was willow-wand thin, so stick-like that it was hard to imagine her eating much at all, much less being the knight that were subject of worship because of their strength. After she helped Preston get up from the floor, she introduced herself as Maria, a rogue knight, who was going out for a mission for the Warrior''s Faction. After hearing Preston''s encounter with the werewolf and his heartfelt reason for becoming stronger, she was moved.


    Maria asked Preston''s family about taking Preston as a disciple and having him travel with him. Preston''s father and other first outright refused as they did not want their precious son to leave them. However, after some arguments with Preston, he was allowed to go. When he was about to leave the village, he invited his friends Mark and Roble for the last visit.


    "See you again. I will miss you guys."


    "Yes, see you again Preston. We will miss you so much." replied Mark


    " Yeah. Well, life has plans for everybody. See you again Preston." said Roble


    " Well, let''s meet once again in 10 years at our secret hideout to talk about our life and tell each other what life''s planned for us. In the 6th Day of Autumn Nirvana, let us drink once again."


    "Sure. Just don''t forget that you still owe me a 3 bottles Woodsupple wine Preston" smirked Mark


    "Like hell I do, you cheated in that bet and you know it. You, however still owe me a meal at Barbara''s place" said Preston with a smile in his face


    At 14, Preston set out to gain strength and adventure the world with his master, Maria. Preston was thrust into a whole new world of experiences. He met new people, made different bonds, trained regularly with his master yet never fought with any monster except the occasional Grey Rat.


    "Adventure, do I even know what it means? Perhaps it''s the daily errant I run for my master, or maybe the time when I have to explore the garden for the Nirnroot for the hundredth time of the day." thought Preston over the frustration of not fighting an actual monster


    After traveling for many months, Preston and his master, Maria, finally settled in the grand city of Thalmor where the majority of Preston''s training began. He practiced with different sword techniques and even tried to awaken his qi, but unfortunately was not able to succeed. However, even with that failure, he practiced harder and more often. He did some errands for his master in the mornings, practicing sword techniques and training his body in the afternoon and eating and sleeping in the night. The routine became the only thing in his life.


    However, that all changed until he encountered Amelia. Maria had assigned Preston to get some books for her and when he arrived at the counter he saw her. He was completely astonished by her beauty but managed to hide it and get the books his master wanted.


    He was in love with her. She never left his mind, she was always there; mentally if not physically. It was just incomprehensible. Preston never believed in "love in first sight", however, he begged to differ to his past self. He always made an excuse to go to the bookstore and talk and interact with her. She had that shy look young women often wore, but it was never morose. Always behind those slightly pursed lips was a smile just waiting to be tempted out. Sometimes she''d look his way and he generally pretended not to notice too much interest and he thought she would have run. But when he did return her glances he didn''t have to try to smile, it just came naturally. In those moments she would blush ever so slightly and he''d imagine her being his girl. But some people are worth the wait and she was of them. He didn''t even know if she was allowed to date. But that day he took a chance and invited her to the park in the city, he saw something flicker in her eyes when he asked her out that he never wanted to die. As the minutes turned in to hours, they slowly started to hold hands. The feeling was strange; it stretched throughout his whole body. It was overwhelming, yet made him feel him complete. It had no bound nor length nor depth; it was just absolute. It felt as though he was in a dangerous fire, yet completely safe at the same time. It felt as though someone had given him peace. It felt as though his heart was dancing around his chest; and a hole, he was never aware was there, had been filled. He felt so light like he was on top of the world yet his heart was constricting and felt as if there was no oxygen in his lungs.


    From there on, Preston''s schedule changed from the endless practice to some romantic time mixed in with Amelia. These times were when Preston''s life was most peaceful. However, all good things come to an end and Preston''s life came to a disaster when the war came.


    The neighboring kingdom of Palinista attacked and the peaceful times of the couple ended. The unwarranted order of conscription was that one even Maria could not stop, and Preston was unwillingly sent to the war front. Preston watched a pair of Knights striding in unison towards him like a robotic centipede, their armor clanking as they walked. He would be soon to join them to go the war and fight in the battlefront.


    War, war never changed. The constant smell of blood spread through the air and seemed to warn Preston about the gruesome task ahead. He was put in the 36th squadron of the 5th army and their task was to defend the borders of the country in the city of Halbur. There were constant battles going all around and they had been warned to stay away from Knights that had their qi awakened. In his first battle, when Preston saw the brains of one of his friends in the squad blown out in the trench next to him with a sword, he had dropped his own saber and ran. He had run from the battlefield in blind terror and panic, but he was found by the military enforcers and forced back to his position with force. He saw blood and gore and risked his life on the fields every day. The only reason he lived to see another was because of the practice he received from his master. Preston, with enough practice, had enough strength to crush a stone the size of his palm and although that was nothing to Knights with qi awakened, the strength led him to survive each day of the battlefield. Each and every single day, there a face missing and a new face added. With the constant cycle of battle and resting, writing letters home was the only thing he loved. Yet, writing letters home was the also most difficult thing he did. When he put pen to paper it opened up emotions inside of him that he had locked down hard in order to be able to do his job. It made him softer, more vulnerable. But at the same time, it was all that kept him going, to re-read his crumpled mud-stained correspondence, to remind him what he was fighting for. It was hard to know what to say though, he didn''t want to scare his family, Maria, and Amelia, he didn''t want to say so much he cried while writing it. Spelling had always been a problem for him too, so he was reluctant to use large words. In the end, it was brief, he ended it with a description of the battlefield at sundown that he hoped was poetic. He told Amelia of his undying love for her, his parents and his master about how much he loved them.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    After 4 years, the kingdom of Palinista stopped attacking and took back their troops, the soldiers were each sent back to their town where they had been recruited from. Preston came back from the torturous war and finally had the chance to meet his beloved Amelia. However, he was heartbroken to see her with another man. She came close to him and told him that she was seeing someone else and left. Preston, with his heart broken, fell on his knees and just started at the direction she was walking and eventually went back to Maria with many difficulties.


    "All I am is sadness, every other emotion pushed from my being. Where there was the love, the light, the laughter is an aching hollowness. I was honest, truthful and full of more love for you than you can ever understand. I have been soft, kind and gentle - yet why did you leave me?" cried Preston.


    "I came strong from the war for home but home was where I became broke. How ironic. hahaha" laughed Preston before exploding into a wail again.


    To let go of his pain, he went adventuring. The thrill that he thought it would give him was just boring and listless action. The experience of going through a war changed Preston''s view on the mindless slaughter of goblins and imps and instead, he sought to become a merchant. He went to the merchant''s association and started his training of bargaining, exportation, importation and many more. This type of learning experience was something that Preston genuinely enjoyed and soon he graduated to become a merchant. He was sent to be an apprentice to an old merchant named Gamile to gain experience. His daughter named Holice was an outspoken and often teased Preston a lot. The trio traveled towns after towns to trade and make profits and Preston enjoyed every second of the journey. Slowly, he started getting very close to Holice but was reluctant to start a relationship as he remembered the consequences of him giving his love to someone. There were also some problems in his head, there were days where his head just did not work. Sometimes he had vivid nightmares about killing people and he kept telling himself that he only killed because he was ordered to. The saber killed all those people. But his brain knew that he hacked the sword. Every night since he murdered those people, he was woken up from repeated nightmares of them. It has been many years since he left the war and yet the war never left him.


    He had one of those nightmares where he remembered the war and he suddenly woke up and he heard someone startled. He saw towels and a basin of water and Holice rubbing cold water over his sweaty body. A new relationship was the last thing he needed, not right on the heels of Amelia. But Holice wasn''t taking "no" for an answer. When he wanted to cry she sat down with him and held him against her chest and comforted him. When he woke up from those horrible memories of the past war, she hugged him and made him feel better. When he wanted to drown his sorrows with Amelia with alcohol alone she arrived with an extra glass and her smile. Every time he pushed back she gave him no resistance, but every time he fell she picked him up, no "thank-you''s" required. He didn''t want to rebound on Holice, she deserved something real, someone, to adore her until the end of time, not someone who didn''t love her. She was someone worth having your heart crushed for. He held her hand and wished to make her smile never leave her face.


    After many more peaceful years, Holice''s father Gamile peacefully passed away due to old age and she inherited the merchant caravan. With Holice and Preston alone, they traveled to different regions of the country and made unique memories together.


    One day, on the cuffs of their 5 year anniversary, Preston asked Holice to marry him. She, tearfully and repeatedly, said yes. Preston felt that their marriage had been inevitable from the time they met. They were inseparable. Each was the center of the universe for the other. They were so relaxed in each other''s company, so caring. Their love for one another radiated from them, touching the lives of everyone they knew.


    After another year of traveling as a merchant and making grand profits, Preston and Holice decided to get married and settle down. Preston convinced Holice to go to his hometown of Goleta and meet their parents and get married there. He also was nearing the end of the 10-year promise that he made with his friends and wished to meet them dearly. Through the Talon river, they traveled and eventually arrived at the Blackheart Mountain overseeing the medium sized village of Goleta. Preston met up with his parents and told them of his adventures, fortunes, and misfortunes and brought forth all the pent up emotions within him. He also introduced their new daughter-in-law and told them of the marriage he intended to hold. They were happy seeing Preston happy and at the prospect of playing with their grandchild.


    Preston strolled the familiar streets, eventually arriving at a certain house and going inside. There inside he saw Mark and Roble working on some papers. He hugged each one of them dearly and invited them to his wedding.


    The wedding was not something grand nor big but composed of all his love towards his lover, Holice. The room buzzed with excited chatter and children ran between the tables in a good-natured game of tag. Then the bride, Holice, and the groom, Preston entered, applause spread across the room. There was the scraping of chairs as folks got up for a standing ovation and the happy couple made their way to the head table, smiling and holding hands. They sat in front of a bouquet of baby pink roses and the priest started the opening ceremony.


    "Do you accept Holice as your wife Preston?" said the Priest


    "I, Preston, take thee Holice to be my wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God''s holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth."


    Facing Holice, the Priest asked, "Do you accept Preston as your lawfully wedded husband Holice?"


    "I, Holice, take thee Preston to be my wedded Husband. On this day I give you my heart, my promise that I will walk with you, hand in hand. Wherever our journey leads us, living, learning, loving, together forever."


    The groom and the bride kissed and there were cheers and someone whooped. After a few moments, Mark rose from his chair and everyone else sat down. The sound of his teaspoon rapping on the side of his wineglass signaled everyone to silence, except the children who were shushed by their parents.


    "May the bride and the groom enjoy their life to the fullest. I have known Preston majority of life and he deserves this happy life, more than anyone, " said Mark


    The joy in everyone''s eyes was apparent and the wedding was enjoyed by all. After the wedding and the wedding night, Preston and his friends gathered on their secret hideout and enjoyed their time together. They drank, spat foul language towards each other and discussed their life in the 10 years. As the darkness became thicker, Preston had to go to the washroom and he went to the bushes to do his business but his body did not let anything out so he returned to the cave early. He overheard the brother''s conversations.


    "Are we really going to do this, Brother?" asked nervously Roble


    "We have to. We need to clean all the loose ends. You know that don''t you bro?" said Mark calmly


    "I mean, he is our friend. I don''t want to kill Preston. I mean just because one of the Lunaral werewolves targeted us that night and killed Bulba, I don''t want to clean up their mess." said Roble


    "WHAT DID YOU SAY!!" screamed Preston from the dark entrance of the cave.


    Mark and Roble froze. Then they hurriedly made a fighting pose. Preston walked in the cave from the opening and slowly said, " You...You knew the werewolf that killed Bu-Bulba?"


    "We did not want to do that Preston, you don''t understan-


    Mark interrupted Roble and with a heavy tone, said, " Yes, Preston. Yes, we knew the werewolf."


    "Why, WHY, WHY!!!"


    "My father was not always a rich merchant Preston. We had to beg on the streets to survive. My parents begged on the streets every night to provide for us. With each new sibling, money got tighter and cut a little finer. The rest of my plate was potatoes and peas - and never enough of either and that was when my father and mother starved themselves to feed us. When the starvation hit my parents decided they only had enough food for one child. So at the next meal, they gave me both my meager portion and my little sisters and told me to eat. I cut it in half and gave it to her. My mother shoved it back. "You eat it all or she gets it all, it''s you or her." I almost choked on every bite, tears ran down my face. At first, she cried and made a fuss, but after a time she just became limp and listless. Her eyes became unfocused and then one day she simply did not wake up. Our mother sold her body and father his dignity to provide for us yet we were stuck in the cycle of suffering. The only reason we got better was when one of the werewolves saw our desperate situation and helped us. We owed them an important favor and the only thing they asked was being sheltered for a while. We gladly accepted the offer and unfortunately, Bulba suffered for it and we are truly for that. We helped her parents ever since anywhere we could and we have been trying to redeem ourselves for the mistake." said Mark calmly with many bottled up emotions inside.


    Preston was conflicted and with a head full of silent rage chuckled, " So you want to get rid of all the loose end now ?"


    Mark sighed and said, "This matter affects the life and death of my family so I can''t do anything, I am really sorry Preston. I am really sorry."


    Mark suddenly attacked with a concealed dagger while Roble threw a knife towards Preston. Preston, with years of battle experiences, dodged the thrown knife and the dagger strike and kicked Mark''s crotch. Mark was temporarily in extreme pain and Preston used that to his advantage and unarmed the dagger and used to it to stab Mark''s shoulders. Roble was shaking in fear and nervously pulled out another small knife and tried to stab Preston. Preston kicked Roble''s legs, making his strike miss, and punched Roble and making him unconscious. Mark looked at his bleeding shoulders and could feel the pain of his bones breaking. Preston looked with a conflicted expression while huffing and puffing and said, " Get out of this area. Get out of this town. Get out of my life." Mark painfully looked at Preston''s face and sighed before slowly dragging Roble''s body out of the cave and disappearing into the eternal darkness of the night.


    Preston screamed and slumped before finishing a bottle of alcohol in one gulp. It felt like someone stabbed a sword in his heart and twisted it. He felt lost in the lies. The only thing that was thereafter searching for so long was betrayal. It slowly seeped in how much of a fool he had been, living in his own dream world thinking the world was just black and white without the presence of grey.


    After the event, Mark and Roble''s family migrated to another village and everything was looking bright. Holice came up to Preston and told him that he was going to be a father. The grey clouds of distress and confinement in Preston''s life was overtaken by the bright news of him being a father. The next nine months of Preston''s life was filled with anticipation and happiness until that fateful day. The labor had begun and Preston felt like it was him that was giving birth, he did not feel his much nervousness even when he was in the war. Suddenly, newborn cries filled the room and Preston burst into tears of relief and joy. However, happiness never seemed to remain for long in his life as his wife was facing labor complications. He turned his glossy eyes to his wife and in a voice that''s was almost broken, told her they had a beautiful daughter. Through her exhaustion, she smiled, and she let her eyes leave his face to take in the baby that was being brought to like on her bare skin. Time seemed to stop for Preston as his wife gave the baby girl back and kissed him. She then closed her eyes and went back to her eternal slumber.


    The simultaneous loss and gain of his loved ones brought forth complicated emotions of happiness and grim sadness. To forget about his troubled life, he usually stared at his daughter. He looked at the tiny toes that peeked from her blanket, dangling in the summer breeze. Her head, a crazy mass of brown curls not yet rubbed bald from lying in her crib, wobbled beneath his supporting hand. He could not believe how tiny new humans were, how vulnerable, how awe-inspiring. He decided to name her Halo in the honor of Holice''s late mother. Preston''s father and mother also visited their house almost every day to visit their cute little granddaughter and assisted with babysitting when he went outside for work. The experience of raising the newborn and taking care of it was everything Preston desired but there still was an empty hole in his heart that could never be filled by anyone else but Holice. Years passed, yet the feeling in his heart did not fade away. He became very successful and opened his own trading center. He named it "Holston", combining his and Holice''s name to remind himself that they were still together even after death.


    One morning, after Preston was done feeding little Halo and preparing to go to his trade stand, he heard a knock on the door. There was nobody Preston was expecting at this hour but he hurriedly walked towards the door in his "Daddy is the best" apron as the knocks were getting more and more rampant. When he unlocked the door, the door suddenly flung inwards and Preston lost his vision in his right eye. Someone had right hooked him! He, out of instinct, kicked the person in his crotch but the expected retreat of the enemy did not occur but he got left hooked in his eye and lost his vision in both of his eyes. He did not worry about the complete darkness but was trembling in fear for his little baby girl Halo. He was punched in his stomach and he collapsed to the floor of his house and heard Halo crying in the background. Preston tried to cry and say, " HELP!!" but he felt something piercing his neck and the only thing that he could do was choke. Then he heard an unknown voice saying" I am extremely sorry." before giving up on his struggle and joining Holice in her sleep.


    Preston. A loving father and a caring husband. A competent son and a kind friend. A veteran of war and the sole discipline of Knightness Maria was killed by someone in his home.


    This story is about that someone.

 Chapter 1: A New Idea

    The darkness in the room was soothing. The room was like a place out of time, a place to rest without consequence. The darkness in that way was a sanctuary, a place to recharge and forget the things the world said had to be done. In that room, there were two shapes in monochrome, one relaxing in the element of darkness in its antique chair while the other kneeling on the floor. There was a strange look in the eyes of the kneeling figure, like something in the darkness was enticing yet oddly dangerous.


    " Please. I need your help." said the kneeling figure


    "Mr. Starn. Oh, Mr. Starn." chuckled the oddly young charismatic voice from within the blinding darkness.


    "In this darkness, everything and anything seems possible. No sight gives free rein to the imagination in a way that daylight renders impossible. You are driven by fear there Mr. Starn, fear, your primal brain taking control and coming here for hope. By coming here, you might very well know, every end for your actions is you, you lying dead in a bed that came thirty or so years earlier. So, why have you paved the road to your eventual destination this soon? "


    "Sigh, you already know and yet you still need a reason to ask me. I have some grasp of how deep your information sources are. I just need some help in dealing with my situation temporarily. Can you please assist me with this problem?"


    "Problem? Problem? What you have in your hands is a huge conflict, Mr. Starn. Not a simple, petty, little trouble. The audacity for you ask us to help you is, commendable but not something I would encourage. However, if you want help, we will gladly do it, we just need more than our discussed payment to solve the complication you have stirred. Mr. Starn."


    "I know. I know. I will pay extra after the work has been done and I will try not to mess up again. As for how much this "extra" payment is needed, I am sure you already have the answer." sighed Mr. Starn


    "We do not ask of anything too much. All we ask from you is your two territories up north and your wishes will be our command."


    Mr. Starn, quickly, with a nervous tone said, " You''re not serious right? I mean that''s how I get the majority of my income from. The farming agriculture is booming right now and I can''t afford to sell it."


    "Then we have no deal as I see it."


    Mr. Starn, confused and then visibly angry, said, " YES, we have no deal." Before getting up and revealing his face to the spot where the dim light shone on the room. He was a middle-aged man that had tousled dark brown hair, which was thick and lustrous. His eyes were a mesmerizing deep ocean blue, flecks of silvery light performed ballets throughout. His face was strong and defined, his features molded from granite. His dark eyebrows sloped downwards in a serious expression of anger yet he contained it for the fear of the consequences of the actions he might call upon himself. He bowed to the figure sitting on the chair and faced the other side, walking towards the door.


    There was only the sound of footsteps retreating before a tap of two continuous knocks in a rhythm broke the surface. There was a quick sound of air retreating, then the figure walking towards the door dropped down on the floor like a sack of ripe potatoes. There was an aroma of burning flesh coming from the corpse, but soon it was gone, like the winds of the north.


    "What petty little thing you just sprang forth. You said it yourself, we have deep informants. How could we miss the opportunity to take the two slave farms that you, so deliciously offered for us. Hehehe." chuckled the figure leaning back on the chair.


    "No.2, clean up the mess and invite Haizel here. Also remember to harvest all of his body parts, except the brain, everything should be sellable. He also said he was preparing the required amount of money, so remember to hack his account and clean all of it. He also has a 46-year-old wife and a 19-year-old daughter, sell the pair to the slave market and make sure to sell off their owned property too. Got that?"


    "Yes, boss." came an unnoticeable shadow from deep within the neverending darkness. It quickly took the body and went out the door of the room, dragging the body away in the hallway and completing it''s given task.


    A deep yawn escaped from the figure in the darkness as he clapped twice, igniting the room of darkness with light. Within the light, a young man sat lazily in his chair while murmuring something. Despite the perfect tailoring and the crispness of the suit, the man inside did not look a day over eighteen. His eyes were the green of fresh dew glinting in the sunlight off a leaf of green emerald. His lips were pale and thin and his nose slender and rounded. A prominent jaw curved gracefully around and the strength of his neck showed in the twining cords of muscle that shaped his entire body; strong arms, bold thighs and calves, a firm chest and abdomen. The only peculiar thing about him was his pure white hair that seemed to radiate its own light.


    There was a knock on the door and a middle-aged man wearing a light fitted dark grey suit came in. The man had a thin face, yet was handsome nonetheless. His bone structure was symmetrical, cheekbones high and prominent. His brown eyes and dark hair made the perfect contrast to his face and despite his pale skin, his posture and body frame radiated strength and respect. He stood three meters away from the figure sitting in the chair and waited for his command.


    "Haizel, prepare to support a new person in the Mayoral Election. This city lost another candidate. "


    "On it. I will also make sure this time, there is no interference from the central government because of our candidate''s action," said Haizel before looking at the figure sitting at the chair and, with anxiety. The young man and Haizel made eye contact with each other for a full minute.


    Haizel was trying to collect his thoughts before proposing the eventual question. He sighed and finally asked, "Are we really going forward with the plan?"


    The figure with glistening white hair nodded at Haizel. "That much is definite. We just need to talk about the move in more in-depth."Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    "Haizel, call the meeting of the Spark and organize it for the four of us in Sector X3." said the young man standing from his chair and heading out the door.


    "For all that it is worth, today is the day where our decision will make or break our organization."


    ____________________________________________________________________________________


    The conference room was currently the most secure room in the entire building. The outside of the room had the organization''s fully armed and trained private army "Coiled". They were wearing different types of offensive and investigative equipment and held the most technologically advanced firearms that were not even available in the black market. Coiled stationed one soldier per 102 meters and had different snipers placed at different parts of the building to counter any opposition of enemy snipers. The fifth squadron was sent towards the nearby buildings and was tasked to survey any possible sniping spots and eliminate any suspicious activities.


    The actual conference room was reinforced with various inviolable materials such as Magnesium F3 and Sulfur Adamantite that could block against any type of standard firearm. The inside of the room, nevertheless, was rather spacious and even had a fireplace located at the northeast side. The room''s wallpaper had a big golden coiled dragon in the front of the room, a vibrant red in Phoenix in the back, a pitch Black Tortoise on the right and a striking White Tiger on the left. Overseeing all of them, was a big picture of the 12 zodiac constellation on the ceiling. It also had four pairs of different samurai armor in the different corners of the room that had different weapons in their arsenal. In the middle of the room stood a black marble table with swirly patterns on the side of its corners and floating half a meter off the ground. On the right side and the left side of the table sat two men each and on the head of the table sat a man with vivid white hair.


    "So Boss, why did you all call us here?" asked a middle-aged man. His face wasn''t anything extraordinary or significant, and yet, his black eyes radiated a feeling of knowledge, making people attracted to him. The only distinguishing feature about him was a blob of a dark brownish birthmark on his lower jaw.


    On the head of the table sat a green-eyed man with a prominent jawline and a strikingly aggressive white hair, wearing a tight black tuxedo. He nodded his head and said, "Oh right, you were out of town. This meeting is very important and the topic is highly confidential, so we could not risk it to send it over the web, so here are all the details." He paused for a second, took a sip of water from the glass and continued, "We are here to discuss a new business opportunity that has severe consequences on our organization, we can either profit from it or be heavily suppressed by it. This meeting heavily influences which side we stand on at the end. So, Titus, we need to consider every aspect our step forward."


    Haizel, sitting next to Titus, said, "The information that we have is very secretive and we, if our information is correct, might be the first people outside of that organization to know about it." He specifically looked at Titus before saying, "People all over the world have had their suspicions on why the collective consciousness of over 100 countries, decided to support that organization. There are rumors and gossip going around, however, we have solid information on their agenda. This information is very pondering and can, potentially, change the lives of every single people in the entire world. Due to this reason, corporations and behemoths of industries will rise and fall. We are going to be one of the organization''s most impacted by this event and we need to have a plan to deal with our losses." There was excitement on Haizel''s face mixed in with awe and fear when explaining the details and the feeling was mutual among all the core member that knew the information.


    The old man sitting across Haizel yawned. He had a wizened face that seemed to brim with all the knowledge in the universe. His eyes heavily lidded and weighed down with some wrinkled folds, yet he was quite alert and full of spirit. His deep wrinkles seemed to carve a map of his life on his still agile and mobile facial features. His twinkling eyes were framed by thick white eyebrows and on his stubbled chin were white whiskers. His hazel eyes radiated a sense of dangerousness and yet, filled with care at the same time.


    The figure at the top of the table looked at the old man yawn before tenderly saying, "What do you think about this threat, Grandpa Hunt?"


    Grandpa Hunt looked at the figure at the top of the table and he gave a wholeheartedly smile that seemed to not match with his face, yet inexplicably made his face complete. "This old man is far out of the technology of this world and this business is not good for grandpa''s heart. I am just going to let the youngsters take care of this. You are in charge little Yama, you make the decision. This old bag of bones will support any decision you arrive at." he chuckled.


    There was a deep silence in the room as everyone started to contemplate about their next move, while Titus just looked confused and pretended to think as to not interrupt their chain of thoughts.


    "I think that we should not only treat this as a threat but as an opportunity to become more powerful and more influential. With this, we can have our grasp over the entire world''s economy and arrive at points of power unheard of," said Yama, enforcing each word of his sentence with a deep meaning. "If we do not act now or react a second late. We stand to lose a huge amount of profit."


    "That''s right," said Haizel. "Our general gross profit trend is increasing at 3.8% annually. We are doing better than all of our past years. However, the incoming event might drastically reduce our profits coming in."


    "What can we do other than move forward. If we do not do anything, we are at risk of losing everything we have," said Yama. He nodded towards Haizel and said, "Explain the details to Titus."


    "At our current state, we own 70% of the world''s drug smuggling trade, have a full monopoly over our prostitution and slavery markets and we have over 25% of the business shares on other activities. If that thing worked, we will lose the majority of our business as people won''t be as engaged in them as much. The drug usage is expected to decrease to about 15% as people will have another form of escape that is better for them mentally and physically and even the 15% that are left, they are going to be people that can''t afford the drugs. Prostitution and slavery are also expected to go down significantly. Violence and crime rates are also expected to go down. Overall, we are expected to lose 95% of our business in profits."


    Yama looked at everyone and said, "Our best bet is to act and use this information that we have to get a head start on the event."


    "I like the kid''s plan. We should be optimistic about this situation." said the rough voice coming from the man sitting across Titus and beside Hunt. He was a half shadow, every muscle on his torso flowing from the light into the dark. He was a living work of art, his brown skin so tempting to touch; every move giving away his strength. Every muscle in his body was brimming with intense strength, from the top of his bald head to his stubby toes. He wore a white shirt that could not hide the developed muscles within him compared to the suits of everyone.


    " Hmm..okay, I understand. However, what is the actual plan? All I have heard is this "threat" and this "opportunity" and I have no idea what we are dealing with, care to explain further?" asked Titus, feeling lost from the conversation that was occurring,


    "This opportunity and the threat are the same things, Titus. What we have come to discuss is the possibility, what can this "opportunity" and "threat" do to our organization and this "thing" we are talking is about is Underneath, the first immersive virtual reality game ever created."

 Chapter 2: A New Idea (2)

    The mere mention of the name "Underneath" stirred excitement, anxiousness, and nervousness among the people present in the room. Some people were scared of clowns, some of heights or falling, some were scared of the eventual aspect of death. These people sitting in the room were not scared of any of that - not murder, not slaughter, nor the prospect of endless torture. What scared them was wasting their lives work, the Halbringer Organization, and having it fall down and crushed by the torrents of the world.


    "How will this specifically impact our organization activities?" asked Titus. He was still confused about the "threat" that was mentioned. It was not like Underneath was the first virtual reality game that hit the open markets and introduced people to the new genre of gaming.


    "You don''t understand the magnitude of this project, Titus." said the muscular man. "The virtual games that we have seen in-flood the markets are like prototypes compared to the giant behemoth that is "Underneath". Although the virtual games are marketed as immersive, they impose heavy restrictions on what the player can do in the game, that is the sole reason all of the games are just single player based. The human being introduced in the game becomes an unrestricted variable that can, potentially, create an almost nigh-infinite amount of end results in the game. To make these game function, they have to restrict the majority of activities players can do. In most games, the player can only battle with a sword or a bow, follow a linear storyline and experience a limited amount of NPC interactions. However, this game offers the human player unlimited amount of choices like in real life. The players can do whatever they desire and the only limitation is their imagination. However, Titus, do you wanna know the most amazing yet the most frightening part of his game?"


    Titus was astonished by these revelations. He was the head of the internal affairs department in Halbringer, so he had no need to know about children''s game toy. However, even if unfamiliar with the topic, he could understand what this game could potentially influence. He gulped and asked, "What''s the most frightening part of the game, Hinite?"


    "This game is multiplayer."


    Those four words shook tremors in Titus''s mind. One could imagine what this meant. If the statement was true then it had the power to change the entire world''s economic, social and psychological state. From what Hinite said, Titus could infer that the games, even if not that functional, were popular beyond belief. If there was a massive game that was vastly better than anything in the market and could be enjoyed by everybody, it would create imbalances in the entire world''s system. This statement, coupled with Yama''s mention of "threat", instantly brought Titus up to speed on what was going on. Without a second to waste, he asked Haizel, "How much money will the financial department lose?"


    "The introduction of a virtual game that is that technologically advanced, can lead us to a lack of consumers. The introduction of a place where people can do anything with little consequence will reduce our gross yearly income from $48.9 billion dollars to a mere $2.4 billion. Our highest source of income are drugs and their sale will be the ones that will take the most impact." said Haizel calmly. He looked at everyone on the table and focused solely on Titus before asking him, "Do you know why people take drugs ?"


    "Yes, like all things that mostly interest us, it''s entire purpose is to escape from the clutches of reality! When you''re on strong drugs you feel nothing! You couldn''t care less if your best friend just got killed or if you''ve got people chasing you cause you''re in thousands of dollars in debt. All your body craves for is a hit, and you''d do anything for it. Because that state of no feeling, the state of being numb is fascinating and wonderful." said Titus.


    "Yes and when you already have a strong state of escapism like this virtual world, our sales are going to take a hit. This is the same with prostitution as the player''s lust can be stated inside the game. Slavery is also going to suffer as there is no need for excess labor as virtual reality will become more prominent than the real world. Fewer people living in this world means that fewer people need to do laborious work to make it as habitable as needed. Coiled is also going to suffer as they will not be lent anymore as wars and battles are going to be simulated and the winner will conquer the loser''s countr-"


    "Is that the reason for the United World to make the virtual world?" asked Hinite


    "The devastating results of the Highlander War brought chaos and destruction like never seen before and it crippled the world of its ten years of development. Ultimately, this helped Halbringer soar to its heights but it was devastating for everyone else involved. We infer that one of the reasons that the virtual world was created was to simulate a virtual war by counting the resources available for the country and finding a definite winner without the risk of people dying. However, the full reason still remains a mystery." answered Hunt


    "How can this game be so technically advanced than all the others? Even if all the countries polled in their supercomputers to help, the quantitative difference should not result in this much qualitative progression," asked Titus


    "From what information we have gathered, this "project" of the United World has been in development for hundreds of years. We suspect that the virtual consoles that we see today are actually early stages of the final project put out for the experiment." said Hunt


    "How can the United World keep this information from us for a long period of time?. Our information network is not as advanced as we''d like to be, it''s still really very reliable. How can we not have caught on quickly?" asked TitusUnauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "Don''t blame Grandpa Hunt for that, Titus," said Yama. "The sole reason our information couldn''t catch this news was that, from what we have gathered, it was only composed of a 10-member team and they resided in remote locations that were highly secured. The 10-membered teamed code-named "Source" were humanity''s most intelligent and brilliant minds at the time and were skilled in engineering, science and many dissimilar subjects. They eventually succeeded in making an artificial intelligence that, through the entirety of the 9 decades, made a better version of self and he kept on repeating the cycle to make itself become faster and stronger than before. The original members of the Source died off, however, the AI went through its evolutionary phase to be able to simulate and process the nigh-infinite amount of variables, enabling it to create Underneath. The whole process of making itself better was in an underground facility and only the top people of the UW had access to that knowledge." The information had been a shock to him as well. The development of AI was already a landmark in human history and yet it was concealed and hidden without anyone knowing better.


    "So how did we learn about this information now, when we were in the dark for a full century and didn''t have a clue about it," asked Titus


    Hunt coughed and with a smirk, started to explain," Lady luck was on our side this time. We accidentally found the general manager of the team that was responsible for the balance checks of the game through our interrogation. He was spotted in our radar when he owed quite a bit of money to our casino firms, we checked his bank account and he was practically broke. We wanted to make a slave contract with him for the credit he owed us, but unexpectedly he came to us with the money he owed. With suspicion, we tried to find a source that gave him the money and after a lot of misconceptions and misdirections later, we found the person giving him the money to be a WN employee. This raised more suspicion on the person and we started to follow him. After a couple of days, the only suspicious about him was that he went to work at Hybrid Co.D building as a janitor. He had 3 PhDs in science and mathematics and even if he couldn''t find a job suited to his field, he still had the ability to get a better job compared to a lowly janitor. So we followed him and eventually covered this truth of "Underneath". We got more in-depth information by kidnapping him and using his family as bait."


    Hunt looked closely to the group before going on to further details. "The AI can easily handle this type of work, however, human personnel needed to be situated at this kind of job to make sure the AI would not act against the WN and would not skew the balance of the game as it was very important. The job may have been perfect but needed to be verified by human personnel. How ironic, they set this person-in-charge to make sure there were no problems but in the end, he was the root of all the trouble."


    "Hmm...How fresh is the information?" asked Titus


    "Four hours, maybe five hours at maximum. After verifying the information, I quickly sent it to everyone here," said Hunt


    "So, when is this game going to be released?" asked Titus


    " Six months at earliest and eight at most. That''s from what I''ve gathered from the information we have received."


    "We have an early head start compared to our other rivals but we still needed to be cautious of this information spreading out," said Yama


    "Okay, I understand. However, how are we going to get profit from this game? I understand that in-game currency is going to be lucrative at later stages, but the profits we will get will be miniscule compared to what we earn today. We would be better off investing in a constant business like water or agriculture. I understand why we need to move our focus on ''Underneath'' as it''s a big opportunity, but we can only get so much currency by farming and grinding in the game. However, how are going to earn the missing amount of profit in-game compared to real life? " asked Hinite


    Yama nodded with Hinite''s criticism. "Everybody, the key to our success in the game is going to be similar like Hinata said but at the same time, completely different. The end result of getting in-game currency is correct but the process of getting that amount of currency, compared to how everybody might imagine, is different. Not only will our in-game currency come at a constant rate, but it''s also going to be in high quantity."


    "How?" everybody asked at once. This matter concerned their life''s work and their source of income.


    "Simple, we are going to get the colossal amount of in-game currency by doing what we are doing right now. Monopolization of the underground world," said Yama sternly.


    "Care to explain that further ?" asked Haizel


    "The way is simple. We make in-game currency by having a monopoly over all the shady activities in the game. We just do, what we do best, and apply inside the virtual world. We will be in charge of all the drugs distributed, slaves sold and prostitutes used. We will become the first word that comes to people''s mind when thinking of mass murders, selling illegal goods and stealing. We will specialize in contract killing, auctioning suspicious items and all other underground activities. This will lead us gaining a steady source of income in the virtual world just like we have in real life." said Yama with a devilish grin on his face.


    "How do you expect this to work in a game? How can the concept of drugs even exist in the virtual world? Slave trading seems reasonable but how will prostitution work?" Hinite started asking question after questions


    "Well Hinite, this can work in the game because it''s THAT immersive, every possibility you can think of is possible in that game. ''Underneath'' is open for every opportunity and we can do everything in the virtual world as we can in real life, with the addition of magic and other variables added. The concept of drugs is entirely possible because in the virtual world, all we have to do is make something addictive via alchemy and the virtual consoles will send the user into dopamine heaven. For the prostitution, we look for the players and NPCs hoping to make quick money or we could just blackmail them. Human nature desires pleasure and that never changes where it be in real life or the virtual one. As long as we use that to our advantage, we will be very successful in our plan." said Yama


    "For now, let''s just bring the scientist that was in charge of overseeing the balance of the game. He would be more appropriate to center all of your burning questions, especially concerning greater species and lesser creatures that are yet to come." said Yama smiling " Grandpa Hunt, care to do the honors?"


    " Hohoho. No problem, kiddo." grinned Hunt

 Chapter 3: A New Idea (3)

    The fear sat on him like a pillow over his mouth and nose. Enough air got by it, allowing his body to keep functioning, it''s crippling was all the same. He couldn''t breathe, it felt as if someone was choking him. His heart was racing and all he wanted to do was curl up into a ball and wait for someone to save him. But no one would no one was there. A choked cry for help forced itself up his throat, and he felt a drop run down his cheek. It seemed as if this was the end of the road for him. The adrenaline flew over his veins like a carp through the river, but he couldn''t move a single muscle, not even to scream. The absolute horror completely paralyzed him, and the more he thought about running away, or simply moving a bit, the more he felt discouraged and utterly terrified. He didn''t remember being this scared in his life. And that was just the beginning. That idea only made it worse. If that was even possible. He was going about his days normally when he suddenly felt an agonizing pain on the back of his head and then he passed out. The next thing he knew, he was rudely awakened by the feeling of freezing water being splashed at his skin.


    "Now I am going to ask you a few couple of questions. You better answer them honestly as much as possible with full in-depth explanations. Got it?" came a voice from in front of him. There was an old man standing there. In the dim light, he could not properly see the facial features of the old man, but he was terrifying nonetheless.


    The man was asked confidential information about the organization he worked for. He refused to answer as the consequences for spilling this type of details would be devastating if they were found out. He was not omitting anything, so he was subjected to gruesome torture. He had one of his nails ripped out each time the old man asked a question and he kept silent. After each time a nail was forcefully removed from his hands, then there was a liquid poured on his nailless fingers to keep them from getting infected and to furthermore extend his torturous pain. The man passed out several times before giving in to the pain and agreeing to explain everything that the old man wanted to ask. The consequences of his actions from the organization would have to wait as he was not willing to bear the horrendous torture ever again.


    He was furthermore threatened as the old man, without any emotion, said "If you have any funny ideas about not fully being cooperative with us or thinking of giving us false information. We will put your wife through the torture of our twenty best-skilled men until we break her, we will also torture your son as much as possible before killing him. You have a choice to make and do not make sure you regret it."


    After some more debriefing about the specifics of the game ''Underneath'', the old man stopped asking questions and clapped his hands twice. Then the man felt a blunt force hit his head and he passed out. The next thing he knew, he was chained to a chair in a beautiful room with five people looking at him. The intensity of their stares further broke the mental state of the man. It was like he was the prey and they were going to devour every piece of his flesh. His heart hammered and his brain was short-circuiting with anxious thoughts.


    "Please do-don''t k-k-kill me. Please l-l-let me and my fa-fa-family go." said the man. He desperately tried to hide how fearful he was. He could somewhat control the tremor in his voice to a degree. He could consciously will his body movements to be less stilted. He could make himself calm somewhat even if it looked pasted on. But his perspiration was a law unto itself and in no time at all there were two darkly staining patches under each armpit, exposing his fearful state.


    "What''s your name?" asked the muscular man sitting on the table


    "Ba-Ba-Bacus," said the man


    "Well, Bacus. We have some more questions regarding the game ''Underneath''. Would you be kind enough to help us?" said Yama grinning


    "Su-Su-Sure"


    "Give me some background information about the game. More specifically when the player first enters it. What''s the process and what happens?"


    "We-We-Well, when the player first enters the ga-ga-game, they are greeted by a white-haired elf na-na-named Qu-Qu-Quora-"


    "Is Quora going to be a reoccurring NPC in ''Underneath'' or she''s just going to be there for the introduction of the game?" interrupted Hunt. He had some knowledge regarding the nature of virtual reality games so he was the one asking the most questions.


    Bacus knew this voice. It was the voice of the man that tortured and blackmailed him using his family. There was the feeling of tightening in his chest. It''s was the way that when you open our lips, no sound could make it past or the way it robbed him of his senses and replaced it with something that made his muscles contract and eyes widen in dread. It''s was the desperation in a scream and panic in his eyes and the fear -- the pure, unadulterated terror. Hearing the man''s voice again, Bacus unconsciously started trembling and answered his questions in fear.


    " S-S-She is not a re-re-recurring NPC but she is going to pl-pl-play a major part in the ma-ma-main story quest later on."


    "The main story quest? Care to explain further," said Titus


    " Af-Af-After some conditions are m-m-met in the game, the main st-st-storyline in the game will st-st-start. This will allow pl-pl-players more op-op-opportunities to become stronger and gain fa-fa-fame in the world of ''Un-Un-Underneath''. For the actual st-st-storyline, I only have a ro-ro-rough idea as I was in-in-incharge of the overseeing the pro-pro-process of the bal-bal-balance in the game."


    "So how much of the story do you know?" asked Hunt


    "There are mul-mul-multiple stages of the st-st-storyline, I only know until stage one be-be-because we only the programmed the lin-linear series of events until then. The other st-st-stages of the game will take the va-va-variables from stage one and this can lead to vast po-po-possibilities on how the next stages are going to turn out. The ge-ge-general premise of the game is that a gr-gr-great evil will raise in ''Underneath'' and the players will be tasked to eli-eli-eliminate it. " said BacusYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    "Hmm... Okay, now continue from when the player enters the game," asked Hunt


    "After meeting Qu-Qu-Quora the players can choose their spe-species in the game. De-De-Depending on what species you ch-ch-choose, it''s going to affect your ga-ga-gameplay vastly. You have the option of ch-ch-choosing between a lesser creature and a greater sp-sp-species. The lesser creatures in-in-include goblins, imps, ratmen, mermen etc while the greater sp-sp-species include humans, dwarves, elves etc. After every cr-cross point at rank 25, 50,75 and 100, the pl-player will have a cross-species rank up op-opportunity where they will be able to be-become a stronger sp-species with better racial abilities and passives. Then at rank 13, 38, 63 and 113, the pl-players will advance to a gre-greater form of their current species, becoming st-stronger. There are at least th-three options every time you start branching out from your na-native sp-species and there can be more if you can fulfill certain requirements to unlock more. For e.g, a human that has dr-drank more than certain liters of blood can get the opportunity to become a va-vampire when ranking up."


    "Care to give an example of a species rank up, Bacus?"


    "Of-Of course, let''s say you ch-choose a lesser creature like goblin as your race. At ra-rank 13, you can advance to a ho-hobgoblin and at rank 25, you can become an og-ogre and at rank 30, a gr-greater-orge and so on. It, how-however, can be one or two levels off de-depending your adr-adrenaline levels at the time.


    "What''s the difference between choosing to start out as a lesser creature and a greater species? " asked Titus


    "This is going to be co-co-common knowledge when we release the game, so the players can ch-choose wisely. A greater species will-will randomly get te-teleported and start their adventures in one of the major cities and have many resources for their needs for e.g. a weapon''s shop, a blacksmith etc. Lesser creatures, on the other hand, start out in a middle of nowhere with their monster tribe with barely any resources. The ma-major cities offer protection from monsters of the wild while you will be in constant fear in the tribe, however, the experience can vary depending on the head el-elder''s level in the trib-


    " From what I see, what''s the point of choosing between them as greater species is vastly more advantageous?" interrupted Hunt


    "We-Well, when you ch-choose to become a le-lesser creature, you have mo-more options when choosing your sp-specific species and there are more evo-evolutionarily paths available when advancing. The people will get more ex-experience when playing as a le-lesser creature be-because there won''t be as much co-competition for the hunting fields. Ho-However, the most advantageous part about choosing a lesser creature is that you have on-one extra racial passive when co-compared to greater species."


    "Is getting an extra racial passive that big of a deal?" asked Yama


    "In the ov-overall field of play, there are ma-many opportunities to get racial abilities, so it''s not that pr-precious but in the be-beginning stages of the game, it can be really helpful," said Bacus


    "Can you become a greater species such as a human from a lesser creature ?" asked Hunt


    "Y-Yes, that is possible however there is no po-point of doing that as you can just choose it in the beginning," said Bacus


    "Hmmm, okay continue."


    " The gr-greater species have better sur-survivability rates from dying, better resources at their disposal and are mo-more friendly with other gr-greater species and their ranked up NPC''s. Le-Lesser creatures can be made to un-uniquely suit an individual''s type gameplay because they can un-unlock more unique species, they have one extra racial passive in the beginning and they are more fri-friendly with other lesser creatures and their ranked up NPC''s."


    "Is that the all the difference?" asked Haizel


    "There are others li-like racial quests and storyline bu-but this is the gist of it. This co-content will be told to players by Qu-Qu-Quora when people say "yes" when she asks if they are un-unfamiliar with the game. However, it''s not as in-depth as I have explained."


    " Do you know what species can rank-up to what?" asked Hunt


    "S-S-Sorry, I was more sp-specifically involved in the class ba-balancing section of the game, I don''t ha-have any idea about the races of the game," said Bacus


    "No problem, continue your explanation," said Titus nodding is head.


    "There are no-normal classes everyone can take by going to a job ce-center and learning from a trainer and they include warriors, wizard, assassins etc. They will be the cla-classes that the majority of the player base will select. Also, there wi-will be un-uncommon class have little mo-more unique play styles.


    Then there are ra-racial classes that have racial limitations such as being an elf or a ranked elf species to become a druid, a human or a ranked species to become a monk etc, a pe-person that''s a human can also become a druid but they will have 30% of the job''s status locked and level up th-their abilities slower. Then come ra-rare classes that can be ga-gained by doing a certain task, for e.g. completing a quest or finding an item/place that has the class. Th-Then comes the unique classes that can be unlocked through various achievements and items. Lastly, th-they have id-idiosyncratic classes that are one of a kind, where the player will have to complete a certain sc-scenario, in a certain place, with a ce-certain method and in a certain time. All the classes are not stronger or weaker than others as they are meant to be played by players with different play styles. Ho-However, the id-idiosyncratic classes are a little stronger than others and is an exception as they are meant for players that start out late to catch up to older players. They are meant for players that start out about two to three years after the in-initial game ." explained Bacus


    "Wouldn''t it be unfair for other players to get an idiosyncratic class? That totally breaks the balance of the game," asked Hunt


    "Well, the requirements for getting an idiosyncratic class are made in such a way that they can on-only be done completely at the later stages of the game releases. The market saturation of high-class items and potions should let the later players be able to get the clas-"


    "Can they be completed at the beginning of the game?" interrupted Atom


    "We-Well, it''s theoretically possible but very, very difficult to achieve. This is do-done to give newer players hope in and further pressure the older players. Th-This is actually pretty balanced as the new player might have an st-stronger class but can never hope to beat ol-older player with a normal class, this is be-because there will be more drastic ways to po-power up as more time you spend in the game."


    "So you worked in the process of making the classes and their balances in the game?" asked Hunt


    "Ye-Yes, I was the supervisor that was in charge of overseeing with the overall process of the creation of the classes and their effects on the game."


    Hunt grinned and said, " So, you must have all the data about the classes and how to get them."


    "Ye-Ye-Yes, I do."


    "Then, this is going to be fun. hahahaha" laughed Hunt

 Chapter 4: A New Idea (4)

    The five people started making plans together on the marble table and improving their overall strategy that they were going to implement in the game. After the discussion they had with Bacus, they knocked him out and told No.2 to further interrogate him regarding the information about the game. They had the most crucial parts of the intelligence, however some minor details needed to be learned. The group had learned to never look past anything as these minor details could be very crucial and could help in unexpected ways.


    "So, what''s the plan? asked Hunt "We have to have some sort of procedure to build our corporation from scratch in Underneath."


    "Grandpa Hunt, with the information we have available, there are some rough action plans that can be made. However, it''s probably not going to play out exactly the same as we don''t have all the information about different factors and variables that might affect us in the game," said Yama. He was in a deadlock as he needed more information to create a more solid plan but they only had limited intelligence. The organization could not risk kidnapping more employees of that organization and interrogate them.


    "Did you take into account our rival ''Zuburai''? They are probably are planning to try and establish their dominance in Underneath as I don''t see them sitting quietly. Although we think that they do not know about this change incoming, we have to be careful of them." said Hinite, his left eye twitching a bit. There was a brutal confrontation between Zuburai and Halbringer in the past, and even through Halbringer succeed in the end, they did not come out unscathed. Hinite was worried about the same conclusion happening again and halting their progress in the game.


    "Yes, they would surely try to gain a foothold in Underneath. We are also going to have some competition from other corporations like ''Brokolus'' and ''Hyptile'' as well. Although we have surpassed them in real life, it''s a free-for-all in Underneath and I can see them trying to clash with us to compete for monopolization of criminal activities in the game. Our advantage over them is our greater real-life resources and easier knowledge of the game. Although there are some countermeasures I have prepared, we need to use our time effectively to take advantage of this knowledge we have." said Yama. He felt pounding and throbbing right between his eyes and temples. The prospect of dealing with these organizations gave him a headache and he felt annoyed. However, he knew that with a flash of annoyance came bad ideas, so he cleared his head and started to make more corporal plans.


    "So what are we going to do?" asked Hunt.


    "Some of Halbringer members will participle in Underneath, except those that need to manage our real-life assets and affairs. So Haizel, Hinite, Titus, and Grandpa are going to take some people in their branch and go to Underneath. I will manage the overall process and oversee anything in the game and real life."


    "Yammy, YOU are going to participate as well? asked the shocked Hunt. The information of Yama going into the game also shocked everyone present in the room. They were stunned as this piece of information bounced around inside their skulls violently.


    "Yes Grandpa, I am feeling pretty bored these days and how can I lead these people when I am not even with them." smiled Yama


    "Is it safe to participate in a virtual game for someone that has a mental disorder? I recommend you let us handle everything," said Hunt worriedly


    "Don''t worry Grandpa, I will be alright. I can somewhat control them, you guys haven''t seen Catalyst and Hulumani these days have you?"


    "Well, it''s because no one would dare to upset you. You know after what happened in the Scarlet Decimation," said Hunt sighing


    "That was something else Grandpa," mumbled Yama


    "Ok whatever, I know I won''t be able to change your mind." sighed Hunt, sloping back to his chair.


    Yama looked at Hunt for a long time before continuing his explanation. "Ok back to the plan, everyone in here will be in charge of different sections of the organization in Underneath and everyone will be responsible for the same responsibilities you have in real life. Haizel and a total of 800 people from his branch will be accountable for the finances and resource distribution. Grandpa and a total of 500 people from his branch will be in charge of gathering information. Hinite and total of 5000 people from his branch will be responsible for Coiled. Titus and a total of 500 people from his branch will be responsible for internal and foreign affairs. Finally, I will lead and oversee everything that happens in our corporation."A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "Why not have all of our 20,000 people working in this company go in the game at once? Wouldn''t it be helpful if we have more strength in the beginning? " asked Titus


    "We are only going to have a total of about 6,800 people from 20,000 participating in the game in the start. We do not know how successful we are going to be in the game, only a fool would not have a backup plan if this fails. We are going to continue to add more people to our in-game organization as our success in the game becomes bigger and bigger. If the game plan does not work, we are going to expand our business more strongly to other branches like food and water to reduce the negative impact that we will feel from Underneath. It will also be easier to manage 6,800 people in the beginning than the total 20,000." said Yama


    "Ok, I understand. How are we going to progress from there then?" asked Titus


    "After logging in the game, half of Haizel''s, Grandpa''s and Hinite''s branch will choose to be a lesser creature and half of it will be a greater species. Coiled will become all lesser creatures. We need to have variety in the information affairs department but no need for fighting troops."


    "Why are all the fighting troops all lesser creatures? Aren''t the fighting strength of greater species and lesser creatures basically the same? By having all lesser creature, aren''t we are eliminating diversity in our fighting forces?" asked Hinite


    "Well, from what I have gathered. Lesser creatures are more geared towards professional players as they can have to suffer in the beginning but can make a character suited towards their playstyle. This benefits our troops as they will be allowed to utilize their fighting skills to the fullest."


    "That is true but the difference of having their own geared character by ranking up through a lesser creature and a greater species is not that great of a deal. It''s maybe a difference of one or two different branches of species but is it really worth sacrificing the diversity of skills and races of our troops? This is going to really impact our fighting strength, especially when we are fighting mass battles. By having more variety of skills, our troops can be more flexible and we can use more battle strategies. And the extra racial passive is going to be useless in the future anyway as there will many opportunities to get new skills and passives later in the game. Also the faster farming of mobs will only be useful in the beginning as the greater species players can go further to search more sparse hunting spots. By having lesser creatures and creature species in our armies, we also have more connections into both sides of NPC''s."


    "That''s a good point Hinite. Ok, then the Coiled troops will be split up a quarter in greater species and rest will be lesser creatures."


    "What about classes?" asked Haizel


    "No.2 should be arriving with the classes information and how to get them. After he comes, the information will be given to all of you here and you all should consider getting an idiosyncratic class for yourselves. I am putting a limit of 13 idiosyncratic classes being targeted to get in the begging of the game because we don''t want to be suspected by anyone if we suddenly get the unique classes in the game. After some time passes we can continue giving more people the idiosyncratic classes. I am taking one of the classes, so decide the other 12 spots for the unique classes between yourselves. The rest of the classes will be given to people in Coiled. For the rare, uncommon and racial classes, there are no limits and you can give the information to your troops and let them decide what they want to be."


    "Won''t the organization take actions against us, if they find out the first unique classes are from the same group. They have not become suspicious and take action against us. Do you really think the developers will do nothing while we are engaging in these activities? How are we going to defend against that?" asked Hinite


    "That''s the interesting part as the organization that maintains and runs the game will be forced to become a neutral party. Since there are over 100 countries involved in this cooperation, they have signed a treaty where the organization will never interfere in the game expect the maintenance of the game and distribution of the gear after they release the game. If the organization violates the terms, they will be eliminated by the combined military of those countries as the organization is too big of an influence and hold too much power." laughed Yama.


    " Haha, that''s kind of ironic." laughed Hinite


    "Ok, the meeting ends. Do all the tasks that have been assigned to you and we will chat in the next meeting" said Yama


    Everyone except Hunt and Yama got up and exited the conference room. The room was empty except the presence of Yama and Hunt looking at each other.


    "I seriously discourage you from going into Underneath, Yammy," said Hunt


    "Grandpa Hunt, I know you are worried about me. However, I will be fine," said Yama


    "Sign, I am just looking out for you boy."


    "I know, Grandpa and I am very grateful for what you have done for me" smiled Yama

 Chapter 5: A New Idea (5)

    The next couple of months were the busiest Halbringer had been in years.


    People were called from different branches and there was a lot of various information to process. The non-fighting troops of Halbringer were being trained by Coiled in terms of combat and, they, in turn, were being taught different basic knowledge regarding skills, items, and characterization. There was an atmosphere of teaching and learning throughout the whole organization. People were taught to have specialized jobs so that the balance of the Halbringer troops would be diverse and in-sync. They were each given a certain type of job to focus on and given instructions of how they should rank up their races. The core five members were also very busy in smoothing out any fine details. Haizel was busy preparing a team that would handle all the finances and resources of the organization in the virtual game. Hunt was also preparing his own team in-charge of information gathering and distribution. Titus was processing a large amount of information regarding different jobs and races in the game to give to the non-fighting and fighting troops. This was very important as they needed a balance of jobs and races to maximize efficiency. He and his team had to look at each person''s portfolio and select their best traits and tailor it to give them a job that would maximize their talent and performance in-game. Hinite was busy training Coiled and other troops different martial arts and fighting strategies. While Yama was supervising the overall process and would contribute to any task that was lacking manpower. They were doing everything in order to improve in-game while doing normal Halbringer activities.


    It was about 4 months before the release of the game. The focus of the organization had moved to training and practice as they were finished with their early preparations. The part of the organization, that was in charge of going in Underneath, had moved to the underground city owned by Halbringer. The entire underground city was called "Pity" and it was solely run by Halbringer. The city''s economy was solely run on illegal goods and services. It was a place of fast travel as no one stayed there for longer than they needed to. There were no decorations or unneeded infrastructure as everything was made to buy and sell. However, there stood a lone structure, reaching the sky. It was left disregarded with no one near it. overtime the bricks had weakened, the paint wore off and layers of dust coated over it. the building surely looked aged. It had been abandoned but was taken over by pigeons fluttering in the rooms and nesting by the windows, spiders building webs and bats sheltered here for the night. The city occupied more than half the entire town''s area that it was located in and it also had, in storage, enough food to feed about 10,000 people for a year. The organization members went into Pity and were located in a building that was colossal, to say the least. The atmosphere around it was evil and wary and there were grey walls everywhere. The most distinguishing thing about this building was that it was erect above everything else in the city. However, it was more of a fortress than a building. The balconies were like battlegrounds for snipers to hunt their prey and the spare open gym grounds were like training grounds used to recruit and train armies. Although no one said it, there was a very tense environment in the building as the future of the corporation was in order. There were also multiple contingencies that were formed and familiarized in case of different events like an enemy attack, earthquake, fire etc as underground was not safe of a place.


    It was about 3 months before the release of the game. The information finally leaked out about Underneath and most of the world''s organizations heard about it. Then the UW officially declared Underneath to be released in 3 months and 19 days. There was little time as the information was dropped quickly for the world to process and they needed more time to be prepared for the changes it would bring to them and their economy. There were many preparations and changes that were needed for these organizations to survive. The upper eons of the Halbringer organization just looked at the preparation they had done before and felt proud of themselves. They were ahead of any competition in terms of resources and preparedness. The release of the game would change the landscape of any economic situation and this would lead to many disturbances in the outside world. After the initial announcement, there was a demonstration done by the UW to authenticate the information about the game. The announcement showed the most immersive tech that the world had ever seen. The demonstration alone became the most viewed virtual experience in the world. Following the movement of governments, there were many gaming clans and studios that were in the process of training troops specifically for this game. Everybody knew the economic effect this would have on the world so no one was wasting any efforts. There were also many unseen forces of the world that were coming out of slumber for this event and many talented players were hunted and even killed for. The rival organizations of Halbringer also knew the importance of the game so they were prepared to fight each other to proclaim the throne of the underground king.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    In the 2 months before the release at the game. Halbringer was training troops and preparing them in more advanced aspects of the game, for example, hit ratio, skill development, stats distribution etc. Although the concrete information of the other mechanics of the game was a mystery, there were bound to be some similarities that could be used. All those information might be outdated, but it was still was better than nothing. While the educational aspect of the training was going on, the physical aspect of the training was also in continuation. The elite army of Coiled got faster and stronger while the ordinary troops and members of the financial and informational department we''re also getting better on their physical health as it would impact the overall success of the game very much. Not only that, there were many doctors and specialists that were covertly brought to Pity and made to make a specialized gaming schedule for the players to follow so that they would perform at their most efficient.


    It was a month before the release of the game. The virtual consoles for the game were finally being sold and they were being distributed by the organization behind the game and UW when working together. The organization behind the creation of Underneath introduced themselves as Ivie Co.D to the world. The virtual gear, although very expensive, was still affordable as the general premise was every nation would be able to participate and enjoy themselves. The idea of modern warfare through the virtual world was still present but still in its infancy. The virtual console was a big black box that was about five meters tall and half a meter wide and, although it looked futuristic with lights flashing around the glass cover, it had a wooden texture. There were blue lines going from the top to the bottom and the color of the flashing lights switch colors red and blue continuously. The inside of the gear was comprised of a helmet and several different syringes that were supposed to be inserted into the body of the person. They were present for safety and nutrition needs. Halbringer ordered the required amount of gear and had it assembled in a symmetrical line formation. Everybody was excited about the game and in just a couple of weeks the game would be out and would be available for everybody to play. The specialists warned that players had to come out of the capsules after every 24 hours. So, there were gyms and other entertainment set-ups that were stationed at the building to keep players at their best mental and physical state.


    It was exactly five hours before the release of the game. Everyone in the building was preparing for the initial chance to go to the world of Underneath and fully experience the virtual reality. The five core members of the organization were final checking everything and making sure everything was all right.


    "Are all the preparation on your part ready? Tell me all the details," asked Yama. He was overseeing the entire project, so he needed to be informed.


    "Yes," said Haizel. "The finance department is ready and we are prepared for the upcoming task. With my assistant, Guru, we are ready to start anytime."


    "Ya. Me too," said Hinite. " No.3, No.4, No.5 and No.6 are each responsible for specific part of the quadrants and are prepared to enter anytime."


    "The informational department is also on the clear," said Hunt


    "I tripled checked everything and we are fully functional for the movement," said Titus


    "Nice work gentlemen," said Yama happy. He knew how much hard work and effect needed to be expended. He was proud of his team. He clapped his hands twice and a beautiful woman carrying five champagne glasses came and put them on the table before promptly leaving the room.


    "Thank you Garmin," said Yama, looking at his personal assistant.


    The four glasses had a black liquid while one of was golden. The five of them held each of their drink and looked at each other.


    " You know, at least you could drink alcohol with us," said Hunt


    " For a millionth time Grandpa, I told you I don''t like alcohol," said Yama


    The five of them laughed and said " Cheers" while clinking their glasses together. After the drink, each of them went to their own quarters and disappeared.


    Four hours until the game started, the quintuple went over each of their tasks and went over their instructions with their troops.


    Three hours until the game started, the troops, both combat and support, had a little get together and a little feast.


    Two hours until the game started. Everyone went near their assigned virtual gear and meditation to clear their heads and focus.


    One hour until the game started. Anticipation was in everyone''s face.


    30 minutes until the game started. Everyone was looking nervous as well.


    60 sec until the game started. They started putting on the virtual gear and inserted the needed syringes.


    4 sec


    3....


    2...


    1..


    0..


    Ding!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Welcome to Underneath!</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>

 Chapter 6: Choice

    After the oddly charismatic, yet robotic, notification welcomed him, Yama opened his eyes from the glaring brightness that he was subjected to. He started to look everywhere and he came to find himself in a field of emptiness. The white world that he was in looked like it was without boundaries and ever-lasting. The blue sky seemed to be the only entity that was isolated from the white of this world. It was the type of ivory white that made you feel calm inside yet instilled a sense of foreboding creepiness inside you.


    Then there was another blinding light that came in front of him. This time, prepared, he closed his eyes and only opened them after he was sure there were no other unexpected surprises. When he allowed his vision to be returned, in front of himself, he saw a beautiful white-haired woman. She had beautiful features that included her blue big eyes in her symmetrically proportional face, her bright white hair tied in a ponytail, her two pointed ears, and a small petite body. Yama tried to move towards her when he noticed a difference in himself. He realized that his body had had no shape or form as if it just existed in a vaporous form. He could feel none of his limbs and when he tried to move, he felt as if he was submerged in a pool of water.


    "O brave soul, you are going to be born anew in a new body. I am your guide Quora and I shall give you a new form to roam in the world of Symetium. Out of countless possibilities for your next reincarnation, my soul, you have been chosen to be born this beautiful world. However, because of the different customs and cultures, I think you would be unfamiliar with the world of Symetium, so would you like me to explain it to you ?" asked Quora.


    Yama did not need any extra information as he already had all the needed knowledge. He did not have a mouth but he still tried to shout "No" with everything he had like Bacus had told him to. However, instead of hearing nothing, there came a deep growl from his soul-like body.


    "I see you are well informed, I shall not bore you with my speech then. I can give you the form of any species in this list. Please choose what you would like to be."


    Quora then waved her hand and an ancient scroll suddenly opened from her hand, unraveling itself and floating towards Yama''s current state. The scroll opened itself, revealing about a book page worth of surface area. There were many names inscribed within the scroll and it, according to Bacus, held all of the base species players were allowed to choose from. When Yama wanted the scroll to go up or down, all he had to do was focus. The scroll would automatically go towards that direction itself and reveal more options to choose from. There were more than a thousand different species to choose from and this astonished Yama''s mind. There were classical species like goblins, imps to mimics and other completely unheard names like viper hybrids, beetleoids, and Half-Blooded Raij¨±.


    When Yama focused on a certain name, there would be information about their basic nature, abilities, and history. Normally, it would take hours on end to look through the entire book to choose the type of species someone wanted. Luckily, Yama knew what to choose as he already had the time and the list of base species gathered from Bacus. The scroll presented the species in alphabetical order so he went to section n until he found the species he was looking for. After he chose the species, he looked at Quora and growled at her.


    Quora then looked at the option with one of her eyebrows slightly raised up and asked him "Whatever species you choose will impact your life in Symetium drastically. Are you sure you want to choose this ?"


    Yama tried to shout ''Yes" and there came a high pitch screech from his body. The scroll flashed and the ray went back to Quora''s forehead. She then put one of her hands forward before a small ball of white light radiated on the middle of her palm. Then she suddenly started chanting while her eyes simultaneously turned white and lighting ran through them. The wind started blowing through the field of whiteness while the blue sky was filled with dark clouds and thunder that seemed to be provoked by an unseen force.


    "Si go be no fo u ken, noe fo gre for. Hun na nan jod, Nyonye !" shouted Quora while the white ball in her hand turned light red and vaporized in gas before zooming towards Yama. After the gas went inside and combined with Yama''s vaporous-like body and another round of bursting light came through Yama''s body that he was not prepared for.


    Yama felt something inside him. Something, unknown force, slowly building up a force like a spring. It was making rounds in his vapor-like state, every time the force inside him made another round, it seemed to push his body closer together at a certain point. After each round, the pressure in his body built up a little more and each time his body started to compress, another round quickly followed after. Yama did not feel pain or discomfort but rather comfortable because of the sensation. After the 5th revolution of the force inside him, the pressure inside his body suddenly contracted and exploded. He felt a rush of helplessness wash over his body. He felt as if something from inside his body was expanding further and there was an unknown force mending the shape of the expansion. When the light faded down, Yama finally opened his eyes to realize that two things had changed. The bad weather went back to normal and his body had changed. Yama knew what was going to happen but even then he was still surprised, his soul-like body had changed to Nyonye Ngana Hybrid.


    Yama''s body was now about 1.5 meters tall and had the average body parameters of a 12-year-old boy. Also, he had a light red ant-type exoskeleton covering his joints, forearms, quads, and back. He had grown 2 front antennas that both curved and looped in front of his forehead as well as a pair of ant type legs. His fingers were also molded to give him claws that were exceptionally sharpened.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Ohh, you look pretty. What''s your name Nyonye Ngana Hybrid?" chucked Quora. She looked at his new body with curious eyes.


    Yama tried to speak with his newly formed vocal cords but made some weird hissing and coughing noise. He had trouble speaking at first but he quickly got used to it and with his best attempt, he said "Ya...Ma "


    "Ok, Yama. My work here is done and it''s my turn to return. I hope you like your new world and have fun " said Quora tapping her soft delicate fingers at Yama''s nose.


    Yama once again felt a rush of brightness blinding him, forcing him to close his eyes. He then felt a rush of movement pass over his new hybrid body that made him feel really uncomfortable. When the feeling stopped and he opened his eyes, he was in the middle of nowhere as he found himself alone in a jungle ahead of a cave opening. He looked at his pairs of hands and started feeling his newly changed appearance. He could walk fine with the newly shaped ant-like legs but had some difficulty using his pair of hands because of exoskeleton covering his various body parts. The walking felt normal to him while moving his hands simultaneously need his utmost attention and concentration. He tried running, hopping, punching and doing other various exercises to accustom to his new body.


    After working at his body, he started to explore his surroundings. He could not believe the amount of realism that he felt when looking at the dense forest. His five senses were bombarded with information in different shapes and sizes. It felt like an early autumn morning as a frosty chill hung in the air. The sweet surrendering scent of the morning dew filled the forest with a scent that seemed to not belong on earth. Autumn leaves from the tall trees lay scattered on the forest floor; each of them turning brittle brown; there was a sound like dried cereal being crunched underfoot, pushing their papery remains deep into the soft soil. The dark shadows of the voluminous trees and the surrounding bushes had become the backbone of the forest, standing as passive protectors of a peaceful place. The autumn sun rose in a hurry as if trying to make up for setting too early the evening before, blooming into the pale sky with a warm mellow glow, sending what was left of the moon packing until its next shift guarding the night. As the morning developed the sound of young birds filled the air: chirping, tweeting and warbling incessantly. Yama looked at himself and collected his toughs from the shock he felt. Everything felt, touched, smelled and tasted so real.


    Collecting himself, he thought of his choice of species. Yama chose to start as a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid because he needed a species that fulfilled certain criteria that he had and, fortunately, a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid fulfilled his requirements the most optimally. Yama did not need a species that had high strength, speed or stamina in the beginning as he only wanted a species with a high level of survivability. He would need to do some insanely difficult tasks at the beginning of the game to get his chosen idiosyncratic job and so his number one priority was survival.


    Nyonye Ngana was the eldest son of Creator God Bumba in African mythology. After the world was vomited up by his father, Nyonye Ngana wanted to make his mark in the world too. He noticed that all the creatures roaming the planet had evolved from the first nine animals which his father originally threw up. So thinking creating things were easy, Nyonye Ngana gave it a try. As a test of his manufacturing powers, he created a humble ant, intending to move onto greater things. He succeeded in making quite a few. In fact, billions, however, the effort was too much so he died of severe ant fatigue. The ants were grateful to Nyonye Ngana for making them so they scurried into the earth to give him a decent burial and legends say they had been busy doing that ever since. It was rumored that the hardest working ants were granted a blessing from Nyonye Ngana''s essence that turned them into giant humanoid ant monsters known as "Hymbros". Nyonye Ngana Hybrids were the result of the Hymbros forcefully mating with any other species and successfully copulating with them to conceive an offspring. The hybrids, no matter who Hymbros copulated with, all had the same basic features of looking like ant men because Hymbros gene was the most dominant. The hybrid did not share the features of both parents but they did share some random ability of the latter species.


    The corresponding species of the other half of a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid was selected at random so Yama needed to figure out his half bloodline to fully comprehend his abilities. That was one of the challenges of choosing a hybrid species. Depending on his other half of bloodline, that would either benefit him greatly or harm him in his growth. The species that you choose meant that when you leveled up, the different attributes such as endurance, intelligence, wisdom, strength, vitality etc were gained depending on the species. So, an Orc would get strength, vitality etc while a Fairy would get wisdom, intelligence etc when they leveled up. So if the other half of him turned out to be a magical species, it would make him well balanced and well rounded in his abilities. However, this was bad news as one needed a niche to progress further, being well-rounded was good but only by being specialized in a certain path would someone progress further. However, Yama chose this risk because out of all the species he ordered his employees to look over, a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid had the best abilities to stay alive. They could change the color of their body by consuming mana, so this contributed to him being hard to notice; which was especially effective at night. They also had a little control of the earth element and control small ants, however, their most important survival skill was the fact that they could use release certain pheromones to use in different situations. Nevertheless, they also had certain disadvantages as well to make up for their unique abilities as each base class had to be almost equally balanced. Firstly, they had the third-lowest combat power at the beginning of the game out of the thousands of species available to play. Secondly, they were solitary creatures as they were abandoned since birth, so they had to rely on themselves and no tribe or others to depend on. Lastly, they were the outcasts of the food chain and were hated by both Hymbros and other creatures of the wild, thus always making them a primal target for getting hunted. Yama needed to be especially careful to not get killed and survive in the wild forests.


    " Status Screen"


    ¡­.


    " Status Screen"


    ¡­..


    "Just as I thought," said Yama


    ''Underneath'' was supposed to be as immersive as possible, so the summoning of the status screens were not available in the beginning and had to be unlocked through special actions. However, he could learn new active skills if he kept repeating certain actions such as getting the running skill if he ran long enough, this would let him run faster and longer as his level kept increasing.


    "Time to grind," said Yama smiling.

 Chapter 7: Choice (2)

    Yama kept running circles around the clearing he found himself in. He ran at set intervals, running with high intensity when he had enough stamina and then switching to low intensity to conserve and preserve his endurance when he was running low. He kept running for hours on end, resting every 30-minutes or so. He nodded at himself in acknowledgment and followed the grueling pace without complaint. The warm humidity of the jungle made him feel sticky and suffocated. His clothes and white hair, slick with perspiration, clung to his hard exoskeleton. Sweat rolled down his exoskeleton in thick, salty beads. Yama could feel his heart throbbing inside his chest. His exoskeleton felt like it was roasting. He also began bouncing slightly as he jogged, which wore him out quickly. He was also vaguely aware of stinging in his leg because of overuse. Due to the routine, he was completely exhausted by noon. By then he had reached back to the stream where he started his jog. Yama went to his knees and drank from the stream, trying to catch his breath. His lungs felt like they would burst and his throat was so dry.


    To sustain and run a big organization like Halbringer, Yama was trained from birth both physically and mentally, so doing this strenuous and draining task was something that he could do for an extended amount of time. Yama was running because, in Bacus''s report, it showed that by running for four hours or more continuously, he could gain an achievement that could help him at the beginning of the game. After what felt more than five hours, Yama started to get suspicious, where was his achievement? However, he still kept running for an extra hour or so continually, until he was finally greeted with his reward for his work.


    Ding!


    Through certain repeated actions, you have raised your endurance by 1.


    The six hours of repetitive, boring and straining physical and mental torture in-game work was just greeted by just an increase of his endurance? Where was his achievement ?! This made no sense as he followed exactly what it said on Bacus''s notes that No.2 brought.


    "Hmmmm¡­.Unless!"


    Unless there were other circumstances that could be the reason this situation occurred. First was that Ievie Co.d discarded the idea of achievement between the 2 months Bacus was kidnapped and killed, this was very unlikely to happen. Another reason would be that between Bacus and No.2, someone had lied. There was no doubt about No.2''s loyalty so it was probably Bacus that pulled up the wrong information to misguide him. However, this also did not make sense as Bacus would not be willing to kill his family to just trick him. What was going on? Was Bacus really that stupid?


    "Grrrr"


    Yama''s body was tired and exhausted and on top of that, he was severely hungry. He could think on his train of thoughts later as he needed to act right now. The hunger was ever-present; from dawn to dusk it gnawed at him. He tried looking for fruits and other foods hanging on trees to eat but could not find anything. He went inside the cave opening to search for something to eat but it was just a hole in the wall that could only be used to rest. He needed to find food fast because he wasted his time running in the opening without thinking of food and other essentials needed for his petite ant-body.


    Yama knew to level up and get strong in ''Underneath'' was going to be hard, but even with six hours invested, he would only increase his stamina by one? This was just insane. The developers knew they had to make a long-lasting game, so the players won''t get bored of it. However getting more levels and more stats was going to be torture.


    "Grrrrrr"


    Yama''s stomach made more growling noises and signaled him to find food fast. Yama needed to be careful because he did not know the level of danger in the forest, so he started to explore it silently and carefully. He could not use any of his racial abilities like ant-control or turning his body green to camouflage himself as he did not use his time to learn them. He also needed mana for his ability to work and he had no idea how to use it. This was one of the major drawbacks of playing as a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid as he had no one to teach him his abilities and he needed to figure it out by himself.


    "Grrrrrrrrr"


    He had been walking for about 15 minutes in the jungle of trees. The whole forest was eerily quiet and the only living being that he saw so far were black and white striped rabbits with a horn on its forehead. Yama gave up the thought of catching it as he needed to conserve his weak stamina. He did not even know if he would be able to approach the rabbit without it running away. His stomach snarled and howled and from it came the not-so-subtle undertone of pain. It came in waves and it seemed as though his stomach was slowly digesting itself. Yama clutched at it, pulling it this way and that in an attempt to silence it but to no avail. It was a slow pain, eating away at his stomach and leaving him feeling drained and empty.


    "Grrrrrrrrrr"


    It had been ten hours since he arrived at the world of Symetium and he was tired, exhausted and had so many hunger pains that he had considered eating grass, but he still had his sanity that so he stopped himself from doing that. It was ironic considering an owner of a multi-trillion dollar business was starving to death. He had traveled in the jungle alone for a great distance but still only occasionally saw those weird rabbits. There were not even any worms or insects in the ground of the forest, which was really foreboding considering he was in a lush green environment that was perfect for bugs and insects to thrive in.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Grrrrrrrrrrrr"


    He would have been fine for without eating for this amount of time but he had exhausted himself and now his body was demanding nutrients. As the day turned into night, Yama had was so tired that he could drop down asleep at any time. He knew the danger of exposing himself to the environment unguarded so he tried finding himself a place to sleep safely and after 5 minutes of searching, he finally spotted a fallen hollow log. Gnawing hunger, famished, black hole for a stomach, rumbling stomach, feeling light-headed and empty legs from hunger, feeling shaky, hungry as a hippo, hungry as a bear in spring, half-starved. He went in from the top of the log and hid there before dozing off.


    "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"


    He woke to the sound of his growling stomach and the hunger pains in the morning of his second day in ''Underneath''. The time in ''Underneath'' and real-life was not the same as there was a 5:1 ratio time difference between them. So, this meant that 1 hour in real life was equal to 5 hours in ''Underneath''. Anyways, the ant-hybrid woke up hungry but he felt more rested and energetic compared to the day before. Yama did some stretches to make himself ready for the day and in the process noticed that his hands, torso, and legs had gotten somewhat thinner. The ant-hybrid were not as tough as humans or other creatures so Yama had already gone into starvation response. His body was already burning his fatty-acids, fat storage, and muscle tissues as well as reducing metabolism to sustain his body functions. He needed to find food fast otherwise his condition would continue to get worse and worse until his inevitable demise.


    Yama stopped moving ahead of the forest and decided to capture the horned rabbits to feed himself. He knew he had no chance to catch the rabbits if he chased them so he went to a place with a small clearing and started making traps. He started digging the clearing up with his four claws and made hole 1 meter wide and a 2 meters deep. This took him about 4 hours of work and this exhausted his already dying body. A few hours ago his stomach growled. However, now it was silent. He was past the growling point. Yama only felt a sinking emptiness, but strangely didn''t feel exactly hungry. He just felt empty, like a part of him was gone and he needed to get it back. He was tired and could not focus. Yama took some fallen leaves and dug some plants to cover the hole. He took a quick rest and started chasing the horned rabbits to make them fall into his trap as he had no bait to lure them. He had no success that day so he went back to his log and slept hoping for success the next day.


    The third day, he noticed that he had thinned himself further. He also regretted leaving his original location as he also did not have any water source to drink from. He could not even go back because he did not know where it was located. That day, he almost got a rabbit to go over the trap but it avoided it and ran somewhere else.


    The fifth day, it looked like he had burned all of his muscle and fat for nutrients as he looked like nothing but skin and bones. He also constantly felt sleepy and drowsiness coming to claim him. Fortunately, today he made a rabbit fall into his pit but the rabbit jumped that height like it was nothing and ran away, leaving Yama depressed.


    The seventh day, Yama did not even go out to hunt as he had no energy to spare and just laid in the hollowed log surrounded by plants. He often drifted into consciousness. And then back out. The world was a blur, and random images seemed to float aimlessly around the pool of his thoughts, as though they were being blown about viciously by a hurricane. He found himself sleepy all the time and knew that if he slept, he would die. Yama felt regret for choosing to become a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid and trusting Bacus''s report.


    "Badoom"


    "Badoom"


    "Badoom"


    It was so extremely silent that Yama could hear his own weakening heartbeat. He needed his utmost effort to even move one of his fingers and had trouble breathing properly. As his consciousness ebbed, his mind went into free fall, trying to swirl within the beautiful chaos of a new dream.


    Yama was regretting all of his actions, he should have just chosen a greater species to start with. ''Underneath'' was meant to be as immersive as possible so one person could only have one character in their iris scanner and they could not delete it. So Yama was stuck forever being a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid and if he died, he would further suffer from penalties from dying. He would go down by 2 levels and lose all of his accumulated experience towards the next level for his active skills. Yama did not need to worry about the experience for active skills however he was fearful of the drop of two levels. Every character started with level 1 and if he died, he would become more worthless as he would lose all his attributes for 2 levels and become a level -1 character. Leveling up in ''Underneath'' was really difficult and trying to survive in his forest with reduced attributes was suicide that would further drag him down, thus repeating the loop. The thought of getting help from his employees also never crossed his mind as he had no idea where they were and how they doing.


    Yama was phasing in and out of consciousness. He felt a type of blackness come over him. Like a blanket, but not a blanket of warmth but a blanket of coldness making him shiver. But somehow it was making his eyes feel heavier and heavier. He finally closed his eyes finally sending himself into a dreamless sleep¡­.Then, suddenly, his mind snapped. Red knuckles come from clenching his fist too hard, and gritted teeth from the effort to remain awake, his hunched form exuded an animosity that was like acid - burning, slicing, potent. His face was red not only because of his natural ant-hue but also with suppressed savagery. He reached out his hand and grabbed the first thing that came in his grasp, dirt. He compressed the dirt in his fist and forcefully shoved it down his throat and pressed it into his stomach. He ate so noisily, slurping and chewing the dirt like some kind of vacuum cleaner. If he could have opened his mouth any wider he would have eaten the mound hill in one bite. As it was he took off a quarter of it in one massive chomp of his gnashers. He then started eating plants around the log in the same manner. He shoved dirt and plants into his stomach for a full 5 minutes and then screamed loudly before dropping on the floor.

 Chapter 8: Choice (8)

    Yama slowly opened his eyes. As he roused from a heavy slumber, he was first aware of the coolness of the air and it''s loamy fragrance. The ground was lumpy and pitted with holes and controlled destruction. His body felt as damp as a flower in the dew of the dawn. He half wondered if he was still dreaming as he sat up with struggle to take in the shafts of light that burst through the gaps in the leaf canopy above. As he soaked in the view of the destruction around him, he knew he was awake, every thought in high definition.


    The whole area around the log was uplifted and filled with broken parts of plants and nearby vegetation. Yama could not believe it, he was still alive? There was a deep feeling of powerlessness in his body, however he was alive. What happened? How could be living? From the amount of nutrients he had left in his body, he should have been killed by his starvation. The game could not have made a simple glitch as it was a very advanced and it needed to be fully functional for its intended purpose. There could only be one reason he survived and that would be that something gave him energy needed to hold on to his life. Looking at the lack of vegetation around him and the feeling of mud on his tongue, he knew how he got it. He did not know what to feel.


    Suddenly, Yama felt another rush of hunger pains attacking his body. He knew he needed more nutrients to stay alive. He did not want to feel the touch of death once again. The feeling of pain that burned like fire fading away to an icy numbness. Black filling edges of his vision and the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat. His breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. Seconds passing as he laid there, waiting for the inevitable. Yama once again forsook his dignity and started to eat the vegetation around him. He grasped the nearest plant around him and shoved it down his throat, chewing it furiously then gulping it down to his stomach. The taste of the plant was unexpectedly not that bad, it even tasted a little bit sweet. The alkaline taste of the dirt mixed with the harsh and herbal juices of the plants was an unfamiliar yet not poor nourishment for his body.


    Yama did not have any energy to move, so he kept lying down in the ground and slept. His exhaustion came in both forms, physical and mental. His mind needed to rest yet his body needed it to move, to eliminate the eminent danger. He could, log out and make his autopilot body eat grass at interval times but this action would cost his auto-piloted body to waste 10 times the energy and be less effective. This was done to make sure players would not be abuse this function to do tedious tasks and gain rewards without them doing any actual work. All he could do now was continue to eat the vegetation around him.


    The first day of his routine, he didn''t have any energy after uprooting a single plant and its consumption. He had to rest about 30 min to digest it and start feeling strength on his limbs. After the repetition of eating and digesting, he had finished the nearby vegetation. He expanded his radius and kept continuing on his efforts. He kept trying to find new sweet vegetation but only encountered hidden horned rabbits.


    The second day, he had more energy so he started to get more meticulous with his choice of plants and parts. He specifically started to choose heart-shaped orange leaves as they tasted like sweet maple with a hint of honey.


    The third day, he took all the strength he had in his body and migrated to a different type of forest. He dragged himself to the bushier part of the forest near his log. However, he found a cluster of horned rabbits concealed inside the logs. He tried to catch one of them but they all escaped very quickly. So he sat there, eating the plants. He started to have enough energy to do basic movement but he would not risk exhausting himself by doing tedious tasks like running. Thank god, he did not chase the rabbits that far.


    The fourth day, he started to get more energized and was actually enjoying the processes of eating grass. "It''s one takes minty with a hint of sourness", " What! This one tastes so salty", " Hmmm..why does his not have any taste? "This feels just like eating cardboard."


    As the days kept piling on, the fat and muscles of his ant-body kept getting bigger. He made a full recovery from being almost dead to adequately fed. While his body kept getting bigger, his energy reserves and freedom of movement kept expanding.


    Suddenly, on the sixth day, he felt a qualitative change in the process of absorbing nutrients from his quantitative process. He was greeted with a surprise when was in the middle of eating the nearby tree leaves.


    Ding!


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">Through certain repeated actions, you have developed a new racial skill ''Chlorophyll Consumption''. You have used up one of your skill spots for a racial skill. You have 2 more remaining chance.</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Both shocked and curious about this new ability, he clicked the blue screen that popped out at him before arriving at another blue screen.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chlorophyll Consumption


    Mastery: Very Low (0/500)


    Grants the user the ability to absorb plants or any being filled with Chlorophyll and gives energy to the user. As the level increases, the efficiency of gathering more energy from the consumed increases additional abilities may be unlocked.


    Efficiency of energy gathered from eating: 5%


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Yama was surprised. He had managed to unlock one of the racial abilities of Nyonye Ngana Hybrid. The process of learning racial skills was a unique procedure in Underneath. They were not like any other virtual game where the player got an ability when they arrived at a certain level. In Underneath, instead of getting an ability, they were given slots. A player had 2 racial slots if they played as a greater species and 3 slots if they played as a lesser creature. After gaining a racial slot, the player had to do certain activities for an extended amount of time to develop that slot into an ability. They could be unlocked by using mana in a specific structure, doing specific activities and achieving specific goals. Depending on the activity done, the same slot could be developed into various and diverse abilities.


    Usually, players would be given instructions about how to develop their racial slot into a specific skill by an instructor. However, because Nyonye Ngana Hybrids were abandoned in the wild, he had no choice but to experiment and develop abilities by himself. This was a huge disadvantage as he had to learn everything by himself and could not use pre-existing knowledge. The only reason he even knew Nyonye Ngana Hybrids could control ants, change their color and release pheromones were that of information he and this team inferred from Nyonye Ngana''s history.


    One of the racial ability that he had developed was consuming plants and turning that into energy. This seemed to fit in with the information shown by Quora. Nyonye Ngana Hybrids were at least half Hymbros and they were omnivores, perfectly capable of digesting plants. The skill was very effective in helping him in his situation and, luckily, he developed a racial slot that increased his survivability. He still needed to be careful as his racial slots were limited in the beginning. There were set amount of slots received in the beginning and one was given at the intervals of 5 levels.


    After several more days of Yama restoring back the body weight that he lost, he started to slowly travel along the grass path. He was increasingly getting suspicious as there were no living beings that inhabited this region of the forest. He, occasionally, only saw the horned rabbits and it seemed they were fleeing away from something. Yama knew, in his current state, he was very weak and any presence that made the entirety of the jungle flee from their habitat would barely have to out any effort to kill him. He traveled along the jungle footpath to flee from the presence in the jungle in hopes of finding a place to safely log out. He already had been in-game for more than the recommended amount of time. He needed to get out to the real world soon. The average recommended amount of time for him to stay in-game to maximize his efficiency was 24 hours or 5 days in-game, but he was inside the game more from than 10 days. This is neither good for his ant-body or his real one at Pity. In fact, he had been awake for several hours. He had fallen asleep fast, slept heavily and woken too early...he had the classic pattern of trans-Atlantic jet lag or as his physician had told him, one of the symptoms of staying in-game for too long.


    The footpath edges were made shaggy by the undergrowth, already lying dark green from the summer sun. The mud was pale, almost the hue of clay with only the occasional lazy stone. The footpath laid from the jungle to the mountainous path towards the stony hills. On the way, he had been consuming the plants that he knew were safe and without harm. He was increasing his mastery while travelling on the trail.


    <table>


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="text-align: center">


    Chlorophyll Consumption


    Mastery: Very Low (48/500)


    Grants the user the ability to absorb plants or any being filled with Chlorophyll and gives energy to the user. As the level increases, the efficiency of gathering more energy from the consumed increases additional abilities may be unlocked.


    Efficiency of energy gathered from eating : 5%


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    He still needed quite a lot to level up.


    Suddenly, he felt the panic blossom like a cluster of spark plugs in his abdomen. Tension grew in his face and his limbs, Yama''s was mind began replaying the hidden rabbits. His breathing became more rapid, more shallow. In these moments before his personal hurricane, he understood something, something damming. He stopped the primal urge to flee and hid inside a log. He covered himself with dirt and flora and pretended to be dead.


    ...¡­..


    It was near.


    .........


    It was coming.


    ...............


    "SCREEEEEE"


    Bursting through the noonshine, With a wingspan of over twenty meters and a body as large as any warhorse, a gigantic pitch black bat bored an impressive sight. It was the color of the night, not a coincidence, but merely a function to stealthily kill its prey without mercy.


    Thank god, Yama had discovered something was wrong with the rabbits.