《Half-Blind Master(temporary title)》 Chapter /1\ Author''s word: Hello there people! This is my attempt at writing a story, it will not get updated often, at most a chapter a week since the chapters are so long and school is demanding it''s attention....but summer break is nearing so that''s that. Anyway, thank you for reading! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sigh as I lightly loosen my very tight neck tie, recieving a slap on the back of my head from my medical assistant, Selena. She''s been stuck at following me around ever since I took a flash bang grenade to save a whole squad of soldiers. Poor kids have been blaming themselves for that, even after I assured them that it wasn''t their fault. It might have come off as a threat to them since I was trying to surpress my screams of agony. My only name is Albert. Why only one name you ask? Well that''s because I felt like it. I sigh again, regaining my attention to the situation at hand. Currently, I am in the headquarters of the UW (United World) which was established during the World War IV which basically crippled all other countries economy (Including China which miraculously escaped economy crisis during World War III) leaving everyone but UW in poverty and licking their wounds. I, along with a squad of Spartans (the elite of the elite), almost singlehandedly turned the tides of the war when Russia was winning. You''d think that their generals would be more mindful of what kind of water they were drinking.... Ugh, my mind drifted off again. I need to focus, even though this is literally the most boring day of my life. I''d rather be back in the desert waiting 35 hours covered in sand for the target''s convo to pass by. Right now I was waiting for the leader of the UW to finish his speech about finally achieving world peace and congratulating generals for their achievements. Of course, he will also congratulate me and my squad....or what''s left of it. Pain flashes through my eyes when I remember the faces of my comrades dying.... I grip my fists tightly trying to combat the urge to smash something. Selena grabs my arm in concern. After all, she was there when I was screaming and crying in anger and regret while I was being haunted by my nightmares. Alas, I digress yet again. My attention is forcefully brought back to the room as a round of applause resounds inside the big room and when I am pushed from behind to go up on stage. It seems that it''s our turn to go up there and give a show to the civilians. The claps get louder and louder as I make my way up the stairs, and when I finally get up on stage the claps get even more intense, some people were even chanting the name ''''Spartans'''' like a mantra. In the middle of the stage stood Neil Conner, the founder and leader of UW, with his forever present smile on his face. I seriously think that his facial muscles are unable to move from that expression. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my immense pleasure to present to you, the people who have made all of this possible, the one and only Spartans squad!!" (Neil) As soon as he finished that, everyone stood up clapping and Shouting our names while the cameras were fixated on our faces. "Although to my outmost regret, some of them were unable to survive the extreme missions the Spartans went through, their names will forever be in our history as the people who made it possible to win the most brutal war in mankind''s history and also made it possible to unite ALL countries under one flag." (Neil) As he said that, he spread his arms and looked up at the sky, as if thanking the ones he mentioned. My FRIENDS and FAMILY. Emotions tried to surface yet again, but with my steel nerves that I developed under extreme conditions, I put a lid on the tunnel they were trying to rush through. "It is my pleasure and honor, to reward our heroes with the golden World Savior star, the highest rank achievement that a human being can achieve in our army!" (Neil) When he finished saying all that, some well dressed women came up on the stage carrying some pillows with golden stars on them. They were really showy, I didn''t like them. Neil then procceded to pin the stars on our chests (5 men in total, originally 10, including women). And when I thought it was all over, the bastard pulled a big one on me. "Now then, the moment I am sure most of you have waited for, a few words from the one and only legend, the captain of the Spartans squad, ALBERT!" (Neil) He shouted my name as he stepped aside, motioning me towards the microphones. I was stunned for one brief second, which he didn''t miss since I swear I saw his smile getting wider, but as a veteran I quickly came up with something and slowly made my way to the center of the stage. "Ahem, good evening ladies and gentlemen." I try to not give to many emotions in my voice. "It is my honor to be able to stand here in front of you all, although the way I see it, I have just done my duty and that is to make a bright future for you, your family, your children and grand children and all of the generations after that. I admit, when we first started off, it''s been harsh. We went through many battles and horrible situations, but we won in the end. And that is because we had faith, faith that we could change this world, and now, today, I am witnessing all our hopes and dreams becoming reality. And believe me, it will take a lot of hard work to stop us from making them reality after all we went through." (Albert) As I finish my quick speech, everyone stands up yet again clapping and shouting, some were even in tears. As I was about to get back in line with my squad, Neil signalled me to wait. Confused, I just stared at him while he signalled the reporters that they could start asking. I sighed, knowing this will be a long night. "Mister Albert, I have heard that you have been offered to serve as a guard captain for the headquarters of UW, how do you respond to that?" (Reporter A) A rather young reporter zealously asks me. "Indeed, I have been invited to that. But I refused since, as the saying goes, you can''t teach an old dog new tricks. I have been trained to kill, not protect." (Albert) I respond, and almost immediately I get bombarded with 10 other questions. I mentally sigh again. -------6 hours later-------- I lean back in the backseat of the limo that was currently driving me to my house deep in the woods. Selena was sitting next to me, looking out the window at the scenery fly by. I reach for the glass of champagne, but Selena slaps my hand without even having to look at me. "You''ve had enough alcohol for today. Remember what the doctors said." (Selena) She warns me, changing her attention from outside to me. Selena is a rather short (165-ish cm) with black wavy hair that''s held on the left side of her shoulder, resting in the area between her chest and shoulder, with black glasses and a heart shaped face, a hourglass type build that makes most men look a little bit too long at her and her long slender legs. She would most likely win a modelling competition without having to put make up on. She''s the type of cold beauty, and many tried to drag her in a dark alley only to recieve a few broken bones from me. And her black belt in JuJitsu. "Bah, back in my day-" (Albert) I start saying but she interrupts me- "Yes yes, back in your day most doctors would try to lie to you to make you buy more medicine, but this isn''t the 22nd century anymore. After the nuclear war, trying to cure the illnesses that came from the after effects made doctors to be looked up to, and anyone trying to rip off people would be imprisoned for life." (Selena) she explains to me patiently. She''s been with me for over half a year, but ever since she first found me crying in self loathe and regret in my bed, she''s been awfully nice to me. I sigh and lean back in my seat, folding my arms. I''m still mad at Neil pulling that thing on me. That young one has always been poking me to get a reaction from me. Hmmm...maybe I should send some of my friends that specialize in infiltrating to teach him a lesson....hehehehe..... I grin thinking of all the possibilities. "I know that you''re still grumpy, but please don''t make that face, I will start to feel sorry for Neil" Selena pokes my arm while looking at me amused. "Huh, he deserves it." I grumble. For those interested, I am a 187 cm tall well built male with a long white beard and mustache and long hair with a receding hairline that flows down my back in a mane like style, with sharp (as I''ve been told) green eyes and a scar running down the right side of my face. The only reason I keep my facial hair so long is because I look too damn young without it. It annoys me when people confuse me for a 25 years old naive man. "Eeeeh, you''re no fun....you''re always so serious" Selena pouts poking my arm again 2 times making me grumble and then leaning on my shoulder while casting her sleepy gaze back outside. "Can''t help it. There''s no time to relax on a battlefield" I respond. "Yea I know, but you''re not on a battlefield anymore...." Selena sleepily says before dozing off. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Today has been a pretty tiring day for both me and her. Finally arriving at the house, I take Selena in a princess carry style and put my sunglasses on even though it''s almost night. I don''t need my walking stick since I have a 3d map in my head of the perimeters of the house. I made sure to memorize every nook and cranny, even the secret escape passage that leads deeper into the woods to an underground shelter. I also made sure to fill that up with canned food and water that won''t expire for the next 400 years. After thanking the driver, I get Selena in her room, yes she lives here, and then close her room''s door. I go over to check my mailbox and suprisingly I find a single letter adressed to me. Being to tired to read it all (author being lazy) I only skimmed throught it, and found out the following: It was a letter from the producers of the first ever MMORPG in a Virtual Reality and they asked me to play their game and give some feedback. I was quite confused since I know someone from Spartan squad that would rather have that, and I was about to ignore the letter until I read the last lines of the message, saying that Selena would get a copy of the game too, to be able to monitorize me. It was quite well known that I have become half blind and I needed an assistant for walking and the like, so it didn''t surprise me that they knew about her. After some thought I decided to accept it, since I didn''t have anything better to do. And whenever I look back on that decision, I am not sure if I would choose something else. The next day, as usual, I woke up before Selena and fixed some breakfast. She stopped complaining about my habit of sleeping only 5 hours after she first tasted my cooking. And as usual I see a sleepy looking Selena drawing closer to the kitchen, enticed by the smell of freshly cooked bacon. She gives me the same disapproving glare before sitting at the table waiting for me to finish. "It''s still surreal to see a blind old man dancing around the kitchen like a house wife" Selena pokes fun at me, one of her many ways of payback for me annoying her. "I am only half blind." I lazily wave my hand with that short comment while scooping up the eggs and bacon from a frying pan. I hear her huff disappointed for failing to make me mad, and hear her stand up from the chair and going to the mailbox. "Did you check the mailbox last night?" she shouts from the front door, closing back the mailbox she had just opened. I grunt in response. "There was a letter, it''s on top of the microwave if you''re interested." I tell her who was by now back in the doorframe of the kitchen. I''d already placed the breakfast on the tables and now making some coffee. She goes to the microwave and takes up the letter, going back to her chair and grabbing the mug of coffee waiting for her. "Huh, they''re quite shameless aren''t they? Not waiting even a day for you to enjoy your free life and already bothering you with offers... And all those compliments of your feats... Honestly it looks more like a love letter from a fangirl then a serious letter from a prestigious company... And not even sending a person to send the message, but a letter?" She frowns while sipping on some coffee. I shrug listlessly while devouring my food. "I guess it would help aleviate some boredom.....and I''d be able to monitorize you.....I''ll have to talk to your doctors about this, but what do you think?" She asks me, putting the letter down and starting eating her now colder food while looking at me. "I don''t really have much to do now, right? And I am quite interested in what you youngsters these days enjoy..." I rub my chin and grumble. Honestly I didn''t want to let her know I was quite excited to try out the game. Before going to sleep I did some speed research on the game and I found some amazing things. First is that the world of the game, has 4 large continents that take up 70% of the land all together, the rest is just water. The next interesting thing is that over those 4 continents there are 3 huge factions that are constantly warring against each other for supremacy. Those factions are, The Reds, the Greens and the Blues. The reason those factions are warring against each other are ancient castle like buildings called Fortresses that once conquered makes you able to make a very tough to break bottleneck in the are it is in. A fortress is an ancient building, that once you conquer it will basically become alive, try to imagine it like this, in an advanced world, cities are dependand of electricity, so much that when the electricity runs out, it can''t function properly anymore. That''s basically a fortress, just that electricity is not there but magic, and conquering the fortress is like fliping the switch for the whole city to activate again. And that''s good for the one who conquered it, because at the time of activating a key appears at the core of the city, which is basically the place you have to reach in order to conquer it, and only the leader of the faction that conquered the Fortress is able to pick it up, and with it he can control basically everything in the fortress. Though, conquering is not only limited to factions. Which means that the leaders of the factions aren''t some arrogant fat kings that stay safely in their capital while their armies fight. The leader can also give some of these rights to other people for them to manage it, but only he can access a menu from which he can rebuild everything that the fortress once had. Why rebuild? Well that''s because fortresses are but a ruin of what they once were and through that menu the leader of the faction can order to rebuild anything, from towers with turrets (if he''s lucky) to decorational statues. For example if you manage to conquer a fortress that once was a military city, or a colony if you will, that''s close to a major highway, you could steal everything that goes through it and the people you stole from would need at least a 1000 strong army to even slightly shake your fortress. Currently, all of the factions were at a stalemate, only until players come in that is. The game hasn''t been released yet, but the producers have been giving bits and pieces of info to their fans, like a drug dealer giving some drugs to junkies. Anyway. What makes those factions so different between each other is the way they do things. The Reds, as you would expect, are battle junkies, always throwing themselves to the front lines and only listening to orders from someone stronger than them. It is said that their leader is the strongest man on that planet. Though they have a strong dog eats weak dogs mentality, they frown upon strong people oppressing weak people, so much so that whenever someone tried to do that, even their leader himself would come to him to kill him on sight. The Greens are folks that love nature, so much that they began developing magic revolving around it, and finally creating Nature Magic, that lets them talk with plants and animals alike, and bond with them through a special contract. They have perfected that magic so much that they can almost literally raise mighty walls of wood while throwing at you poisonous needles from plants. And last but not least, the Blues are, well to put it simply, they are water people. They live IN the water, the seas that is, and are most of the time a mix of fish and humans. Fun fact, there''s no discrimination between races in any of the factions, they just care about fortresses. But if you join their faction, you will get a costume which will let you stay underwater forever. Of course, they can live on land too, although their stamina is quite limited up there, since they have slight problems breathing. And that''s all I managed to research before sleepiness took me over. I am a human afterall. I sigh as I gulp down the last mouths of coffee left in my mug. Today I am scheduled to go see a few doctors that are trying to fix my eyes. They have offered me to give me a new pair altogether, but I don''t want to give them a chance to control any part of my body. "What''s the matter? If you sigh so much you''ll scare your luck away" Selena pokes at me, with a little concern in her voice due to my odd behaviour. "I was just thinking that I have to visit the doctors again....they just don''t want to give up" I say grumpily. "Awww, the big war hero is scared of some needles?" Selena smirks at me. "I do not enjoy having metal things in my body. It''s one too many times a bullet or a knife" I grumble, leaning back on my seat and folding my arms. "What about the times it''s not a knife or a bullet?" Selena asks, seemingly loosing interest in the conversation and going back to her food. "Those times it was when my partners wanted to...''''try something different''''" I shudder at the last part. Selena begins chocking on the fork she had in her mouth, looking at me with wide eyes. I give her a toothy grin, she walked into that one herself. She turns red as she realizes her blunder, and the rest of the morning goes by quietly, with me listening to the calming sounds of the forest and Selena trying to seem mad at me by not talking to me. -END OF CHAPTER ONE- Chapter \2/ Currently, I am inside the living room, reading a book while Selena is watching some TV. It was my last visit to the doctors since I am officialy retired, so I won''t be needing their help anymore. They even went as far as to beg me to let them change my eyes, but of course, I refused. They also said it was ok for me to try out VR as long as I don''t stay in too much, although I have a sneaking suspicion that they tried to make it sound like it''s ok for me to stay alot of time in VR, just so that I would have to come back to them. As Selena was browsing through the TV channels, she stumbles upon a news channel, just as they were transitioning to their newest show, news about VR world. She immediately got interested and kept watching on. "Hello ladies and gentlemen," starts a handsome male reporter " and welcome to our daily update about VR world," continues a pretty young woman in a slightly revealing dress. "My name is Tom Sparrow" The male smiles and winks at the camera, which makes Selena frown in contempt. "And my name is Louis Angela" The woman does a courtsy towards the camera. How do I know all this? Well, I am intently watching too. "Today we have a very interesting topic to talk about, don''t we Louis?" Tom turns towards louis, and starts having a normal conversation, completely ignoring the camera like a professional. "Yes indeed Tom, from today, there are only 24 hours left until the most hyped about game EVER, will be released. And of course, I bet you know what I am talking about." Louis does the same, and smiles at Tom while doing her best to sound pumped up. "That I do, Louis. In just 24 hours, the one and only RoyalRoadl will be finally released. But tell me Louis, why is this game so famous among the VR community?" Tom asks with a fake confused face, spreading his arms at the last part. "Well Tom, besides the fact that it''s the first MMORPG in VR, it does something that makes it very unique, and that is a couple of different things, and among those things are the abilities to do the following. Choose your own faction also CREATE your own faction later on in the game, choose your own race with near limitless choices, have a custom class made for you and only you, besides trying to conquer fortresses you can also dive into the different dungeons that randomly spawn across the globe and last but not least, the ability to conquer a fortress even though you have no faction. Yes, you heard it right, anyone and I mean anyone can conquer a fortress. I have heard that even monsters can do that making that fortress in a castle style dungeon." Louis finishes saying that in only one breath, showing that the word professional isn''t just for show. "Well Louis," Tom begins but stops with a confused face as he suddenly puts to fingers to one of his ears. You can clearly see that he''s listening to someone through a headset. "Ladies and gentlemen, while I would love to continue talking about this I just recieved the information that the game has released an official trailer!" Tom says while gradually rising his voice, obviously shocked and pumped up. Louis gasped, "You''re kidding!" she puts her hands over her mouth and stares wide eyed at Tom. "I kid you not Louis, in fact, we are going to play it right now!" And the screen changes to a black screen with a 10 second countdown. Once it hits 0 the screen changes again. The camera starts fixated on a bug, walking around peacefully on the ground when all of a sudden we hear a shrill cry and the bug is eaten by a bird, there from the camera changes to the bird''s perspective as it flies away into the sky and we see a ruin standing tall on a hill. Surrounding those ruins were 3 armies, each with their own banner. Red, a scorpion preparing to attack, Green, a deer walking gracefully through the woods and last but not least Blue, a fish, swimming freely in the water. Each of the army camps had 1 km distance between them, and you could feel them glaring at each other like some hawks looking at their next prey. In each of the army camps was one big tent surrounded by medium sized tents which in turn were surrounded by countless small tents. We could see soldiers bustling about, and guards keeping a good eye on their surroundings, suddenly the video goes into fast forward mode and we see the army quickly prepare for a battle. Soldiers getting in formation and siege equipment being pulled here and there. At the same time all 3 armies were prepared, and from somewhere a war horn resounded across the field, and with that all 3 armies became alive at the same time. With a big war cry they started running towards the fortress''s walls. The fortress has 4 gates, each gate facing towards one cardinal point and the armies were heading to it from 3 of them. But something odd happened, instead of attacking each others, the armies were completely ignoring each other, the answer for that soon made itself known. The Fortress suddenly became to life, mighty towers with turrets sprang up in seconds at started shooting like there''s no tomorrow towards the armies. The doors of the fortress audibly locked themselves and silhouettes popped up on the walls. On a closer look you could see that those silhouttes were actually golems with bows. The turrets were continously firing off light bolts that looked like plasma, only for them to get deflected by a dome shaped shield on top of each army, but you could see that their mages were being strained. Thankfully for the mages, they didn''t have to keep the shield up for long, since they quickly arrived at the gates and started battering them with a battering ram. Ironically, the armies managed to breach the gates at the exact same time and all hell broke loose. The 3 armies met in the middle of the fortress''s streets, which is a big plaza with a fountain in the middle. In that fountain was the statue of a figure holding a key. I say figure because it was a male mixed between a devil and an angel, it had an angel wing and beautiful face on one part and a horn and a leathery wing on the other side, while the camera was fixed on that statue, on the screen some words appeared.
IT''S TIME TO FORGE YOUR OWN PATH IN THIS UNFORGIVING WORLD. WILL IT BE ON A ROAD OF FIRE?
, at that the camera fixates on a man with red robes and a mage hat, holding an equally crismon wand towards an enemy, all of a sudden a giant fire snake appears, pouncing to that enemy, swallowing him in one single bite.
WILL YOU OVERWHELM YOUR ENEMIES WITH THE POWER OF WATER?
, now the camera fixates on a woman in blue robes, tightly wrapped around her hourglass figure, blue witch hat and an equally blue wand. All of a sudden a humongous wave appears in front of her, pushing dozens of swordsmen and mages alike on the nearby walls,
WILL YOU CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES WITH THE MIGHT OF THE EARTH?
, now the camera fixates on a mountain of a man, shirtless, leather pants and an armband on his arm. As he is about to get hit by the wave, he slams his foot into the earth, rising a huge wall, completely nullifying the wave. After that he collapses the wall and stones around him start to tremble as he raises his arms. All of a sudden, peebles and boulders alike shoot towards him, making an armor and a hammer of complete stone around him, and now he proceeds to squash every enemy that gets close to him.
OR WILL YOU SWIFTLY KILL ALL YOUR ENEMIES WITH THE SPEED OF WIND?
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. , now the camera fixates on the statue in the fountain, that is now kneeling hunched over the key. His wings tremble and flutter, and he visibly twitches everytime someone dies, as if he feels their pain. All of a sudden he rises with a savage howl, expanding his wings to their full wingspand, shooting tornadoes of air in all directions, stopping all action in the whole fortress. Soldiers of each army were flying everywhere, only 3 persons were left standing besides the statue. One man in a full plate crismon armor. He had a helmet that covered his whole face, but you could see fiery red eyes through the slits and you could feel battle lust emanating from his whole being. He had only some gauntlets, so you could see that he was using his raw power to fight. The 2nd person was a man in brown robes with golden edges. He had a staff that looked so old that it could break at any moment, but by the way it was stabbed in the ground and was holding the man despite the whole wind, you could clearly see that it would hurt alot to get hit by something like that. He looked like an old man, but by the look full of vigor from his eyes, you could tell that he still had enough kick in himself. And last but not least, the last one standing was a man in blue light plate armor, with a sword and a shield in his hand, he was slightly crouching with his shield in front of him to protect himself from the wind, but even from that position his entire being was emanating power, as it he was saying ''''don''t underestimate me''''. Seeing those persons still standing, the enraged statue throws the key towards the sky, where it starts floating in a bubble, and he focuses on the 3 persons that dare defy him. The battle with the statue ends pretty quickly, but the effects of the battle on the fortress are devastating. And at the long last, the statue gives a last howl of pain, before shattering into sand and dissipating in the wind. Though the battle was short, you could see that the 3 persons were tired. If you''re curious about the armies, each and every one of them are ok. After the statue dissapeared every soldier appeared outside the fortress''s walls completely fine, but they were blocked from entering inside by a magic wall and they couldn''t fight each other becuase whenever one of them tried, they would fall to the ground as if the world was pressing him against itself. Back to the 3 persons, now tired, they were looking at each other, waiting for one of them to make an opening. Suddenly the bubble broke and the key fell down in the middle of the circle they had made. They were all hungrily looking at it, but all of a sudden a bug falls on the key. They all look at it confused, and all of a sudden they hear a shrill cry and a bird dives down and eats the bug, taking the key along with it. Suddenly the barrier around the fortress shatters, and a huge text appears over the fortress saying
WINNER, AVIAN RACE, DUE TO WINNER RACE, FORCED EVOLUTION TO A SENTIENT BEING ENSUES.
Suddenly the the bird is grabbed by a magic strand from the castle of the fortress, and is dragged inside from where you can hear the desperate cries of the bird. Everyone was looking stupefied at the screen, until all 3 leaders fall on their backs at the same time and....they start laughing. Soon after the armies start laughing too, until you could hear the laughter from 10 kilometers away. The screen blacks out and the next words appear
WHAT WILL YOUR PATH BE? RULERS BUILD
, suddenly the view changes to a mega city seen form a bird''s view, the streets were teeming with human activity and you could see that it''s an important city of a very wealthy country/faction.
AND TYRANTS DEVOUR
, now the camera changes again to a dark city, with a huge castle in the middle. The castle had jagged towers that looked like saws, and the sky was constantly covered by dark clouds. You could see the citizens of the city, rushing about without much interaction, with dark expressions and ignoring pleading beggars. And then the video ends. The tv changes again, fixated on Louise and Tom. "Wow....just WOW" Tom says, taking his eyes away from the screen the video played on, and looking at Louise. "I couldn''t have said it better Tom...." Luise says, while taking her eyes from the screen too. "Well I think that will be all for today ladies and gentlemen,'''' says Tom after looking at his clock. "it would seem we ran out of time." "Thank you for watching our news this week too, and we''ll be sure to come with more informations next week, until then, have a nice game!" Louise snaps out of her daze, and recites an obviously memorized message. And then the news go back to normal daily life stuff from the smiling faces of Tom and Louise. "That was amazing...." Selena mutters. I slip back on my chair without her noticing, and pretend to continue reading the book. "Yes, it was indeed." I reply to her mutter, making her head whip towards my direction. "What are you talking about old man, you talk as if you saw the whole video" Selena asks with a smirk, trying to get a reaction out of me yet again. "You underestimate my powers young girl." I say in a mysterious voice. She just rolls her eyes and focuses on the TV again. The evening passes like this, and then we go to sleep. ---- In the middle of the night ------- My eyes flash open, and I silently get out of my bed. I slowly and soundlessly go through my house and equip the armor I had hidden behind the fridge, along with the weapons. I put my sunglasses on (yeah you guessed it, it''s Albert lol) and exit the house through a hidden door. I sneak up behind the person that was hiding in a bush just outside my house. It was a woman laying on her stomach, using some binoculars to look through the window inside my room. I point my gun at the back of her head and audibly load it. She vizibly tenses up. "Turn around slowly." I hiss in a cold voice. She fidgets at that and slowly turns on her back while trembling. As she turned around, I noticed her clothes. She was wearing a one piece suit and had a motorcycle helmet next to her, along with a suitcase, most likely holding a weapon. She also had a face mask. So it was her that I heard stopping while I was watching the trailer with Selena. "Who sent you?" I hiss again. She twitches and puts her hands up in defeat while avoiding eye contact. "I a-am Elite Unit, Lorena. I-I was tasked with guarding your residence M-Mister Albert." Lorena says while pointing at a pocked from her one piece, in which I could see she was holding a card. I snatched the card away, making her flinch at my ruthlessness and I saw Neil''s business card. -END OF CHAPTER 2- Delay....ouch Hello there my readers, I am truly sorry to tell you that this chapter will be delayed by maximum 2 days, since I can''t write. Why can''t I write? That''s because I can''t sit down for more than 2 minutes. Why can''t I sit down? Well that''s because my back went POP while I was running today, and all I can do to alleviate the pain is lay down in my bed. Don''t worry tho, the chapter is 1/2 done! And It''s gonna be one hell of a chapter! So stay tuned. xD Chapter \3/ Hello there my readers! I come bringing chapter 3! This chapter was not put through a spell checker yet, so if you see any mistakes please point them out! Enjoy! And this chapter is quite the shocker! Sorry for those who wanted romance between-.... >:^) -START OF CHAPTER 3- LOCATION: UNKNOWN DATE: UNKNOWN *SWOOOOSH* The wind howls in a deep chilly winter night. Upseting the flawless blanket of snow, in the middle of a field stood a ruined building. "She''s pregnant...." One of the persons shrouded by shadows weakly says. "Stay strong kid, it was to be expected. You know you''re not the only one which this happened to. Plus, these are harsh times for a man, you needed an outlet, and she was the same." Responds the other person that was walking along. "What about the child?" The first person asks, his breaths becoming sharper, you could hear he was panicking. *pat* "What do you mean [what about the child?]? We''ll win this goddamn war and let your child live in a happy world." The second person patted the first persons shoulder, and declared those words with a stern voice. *sigh*"Thanks Albert....I needed that. And you''re right. I''m leaving this up to you...." The first person stops in his tracks and grips the second persons hand and shakes it. "The Russians won''t know what hit ''em." Grunts Albert. A stray light from a blinking half broken neon lights the night for one split second, revealing the faces of the two persons. They were Neil and Albert. Just as Albert was about to leave Neon stopped him. "Wait....if it''s a girl, what would you name her?" Neil asks, already with his usual smile on his face. Albert, seeing that face, sighs in relief before putting on a thoughtful face. "Selene, I would call her selene." Albert grunts, before turning back and walking away, not even looking at the expression on Neil''s face. "Selene, huh?....what a beautifull name. And a big coincidence....it seems like we still think alike, don''t we, Big Brother?" Neil whispers while wiping away a tear from the corner of his eyes. Neil stood still watching the back of his brother fade in the dark night. *step step step* "Mister Neil, you''ll catch a cold if you stay outside any more. We need to move, the enemies are about to find our location." A soldier appears from inside the house and hands Neil an overcoat. Neil nods silently and follows the soldier inside the house. In one of the farthest back rooms, under a carefully hidden fake floor was a long tunnel with ages old torches to light the tunnel. After 15 min of walking, Neil hears a BOOM and the tunnel shakes violently, some torches even fall off from their holds. They start running. ============================================================================================================================================================== *GASP* I wake up with cold sweat pouring down my forehead. I sigh as I rub my eyes, trying to snap out of that half in reality half in dreamland state. I slowly get out of my bed and head towards the bath. I glance at the mirror, and I realize.....that I''m as handsome as ever. My smile widens as the image of my older brother rolling his eyes in exasperation pops in my head. I get naked and take a quick shower. Afterwards I go to my living room, leaning back on my sofa and opening my TV. "Ariel?" I raise my voice to the room. "Yes, mister Neil?" Comes a voice from the speakers around my apartment. Ariel is my personal A.I. that the UW has been working on for 5 years now. The finished product is already being used in military, I just snatched a copy for myself, plus another one, to stealthly plant in my brother''s house. My smile widens once again as I imagine my brother shooting up his house because he heard his A.I. greeting him. That old dog....he managed to make his house more secure than my own... I did succeed eventually..... I sigh in relief when I think of my daughter who is with him. "What''s the status of Elite Unit Lorena?" I ask Ariel. I hear a ''''Please Wait'''' and the calming sound of a waiting song, it takes only 5 seconds when Ariel answers. "She has been captured and is currently being held captive by Spartan Albert." Ariel responds in a slightly surprised voice. She''s always trying to sound like a professional to try and impress me, she''s still a kid in my eyes though.... "I see, it''s to be expected...after all it''s Albert we''re talking about, hahahaha!" I shoot up on my legs laughing heartily, my laughter gets even louder when I get reminded of a special race of dogs from somewhere around Carpathian mountains called mioritic shepherds. They, along with caucasian shepherds, are still being used in prison... "Did he read the letter yet?" I ask, finally managing to calm down. "Yes he did, we have yet to get a response....actually he just answered a few seconds ago. He says he accepts, but he isn''t happy about you ''''taking your sweet time'''' as he worded it." Ariel responds. "Did he find out that Lorena is his daughter yet?" I ask, with a little worry in my voice. "...? Yes, he did. He only had one comment about that, [Thank you....and we''ll have a talk about this later.]" Ariel diligently responds, confused at the sudden expression of horror on my face. I swallow hard and restlessly look around. "Ariel, ever since he responded, has anyone infiltrated the building?" I ask, fearing the worst. "U-um, besides the staff nobody has entered this building." Ariel reports confused. My face pales. "Ariel....since when do we have staff?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sigh, as I lean back on my chair. How am I supposed to break this down to the two happily chatting girls that are standing on the sofa of my living room. How should I explain to them that one of them is my daughter while the other one is my niece... "Really? So much happened ever since we last met!" Lorena exclaims while leaning back on the sofa and sipping from some juice. "Indeed. It has been such a long time....too long." Selena sighs. "....what have you been so quiet about old man?" Selena suddenly looks at me, making Lorena look at me. *sigh* "Girls...I have to tell you something." I sigh as I stand up and move to the sofa on the opposite side of them. Both Selena and Lorena had a confused face. "You girls....are my family." I say, looking them straight in the eyes. They both were even more confused. I gave them a few seconds to let my words kick in. The first one to react was Selena. "Wh-what are you saying old man. You know it''s not nice to joke around about things like these" Selena says, looking angry and about to stand up. But before she could do anything a voice resounds inside the house. "He''s not lying, you know...." A small voice is heard from everywhere. The next seconds were mayhem. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I jump from my spot and immediately scoop up both of the girls and put them behind the sofa, while also taking my Glock 18 that I had stashed in my clothes and start pointing it towards an invisible enemy. "U-uhm, I-i''m sorry for scaring you, I am Alice, an AI appointed by mister Neil..." Alices'' voice resounds from everywhere again. I freeze up at the voice''s words. "Show yourself....if you can." I hiss. The TV suddenly opens and on the screen a little girl no more over 5 years old shyly peeks from one of the edges, half of her outside of the screen. I can''t see her expression since she''s too far away. I relax and awkwardly go back to my place, both of the girls doing the same. "Ok. I need some time to process all this." Selena declares while standing up, and then she starts pacing around the house. Lorena was quietly looking down, not letting out any sounds. "Old man, you said we both are your family...if, if it''s true, how are we related?" Selena abruptly stops and asks me. They both deserve the answers, so I answer truthfully. "You are my niece, and Lorena,"she twitches and looks up at me " you''re my daughter." I say. They both stare at my face for some time, as if trying to find a lie on it. Selena starts pacing around the room again while Lorena looks at me in a daze. "Then...wh....who is my father?" Selena stops again and weakly asks. She sits next to Lorena and she grabs her hand. "It''s Neil, the leader of the UW." I say, looking straight at both of them. Selena twitches at the name, something must''ve happened between the two. Selena begins muttering to herself. "So you mean to tell me all those times....and I thought he was just a creepy stalker....." After some time of muttering, Selena''s head snaps towards my direction, as if she just remembered something. Lorena has been quiet all this time, most likely still processing the information..... "For how long did you know about us?" Selena stops again and stares back at me again. Lorena snaps out of her daze, and looks at my face, I could tell by the way she was intently starring that she was curious, but also afraid from the way she was griping Selena''s arm, fear to know the answer. "Only recently about Lorena, but I''ve had a hunch about you Selena ever since we met. It just recently got certain." I say as I hand her the letter that Lorena had with her. They both read it. After skimming through it''s contents they put it on the table. Suddenly they hug each other, I stand up and leave them some room. I''ve never been good at dealing with crying women. Alice has also been tactfully quiet. I exit the living room and go inside the kitchen and start preparing some lunch. Soon aftrer I hear both of them crying. Alice''s voice resounds through the kitchen, "U-um, it''s nice to meet you Albert...as I''ve said before, mister Neil has appointed me to this residence...a-and also, I don''t think it was a good idea to leave them alone.... " in a trembling voice Alice presents herself. "Hello there Alice, nice to meet you too....and you might be right, but I can''t pamper them all of a sudden. They''ve been strong all of their life, it won''t be good for them to suddenly change. While it might sound harsh, it''s not like I won''t care for them. Only, I will let them gradually open up to me. They both grew up without a father, it would be too weird for them to suddenly be cared for with overwhelming love. At least in my oppinion." I sigh. I haven''t talked so much since that speech I had to do. "....I guess you''re right...." Alice says before going quiet. "So, Neil appointed you to this house?" I ask, thinking if I should punish him more, or the ''''package'''' I sent to his house is enough.... "Yes, I was brought here yesterday while you were visiting the doctors..." Alice says, from her voice I could tell she had mixed feelings about this situation. "Hrmm.... what were your orders?" I ask, it''s not like Neil would just put an A.I. in my house for no reason. "U-Um, I was tasked with helping you in any way I can....." Alice says. This situation is getting more and more awkward, and I don''t know what to do. I need a distraction, and I need it fast. Thankfully, the phone rang at that moment. "I-I''ll get it!" Alice shouts quite loudly and the phone stops ringing, instead from all around the kitchen I hear the voice of someone else. "Hello, is this mister Albert?" The voice asks. "Yes." I reply with a grunt. "Wonderfull, excuse me for bothering you at this time, my name is Ray Jackson, and your 3 RoyalRoadL VR capsules have arrived, due to our policy you need to sign some papers-" "I''ll be right there" I cut him off, finishing up the food for the girls and washing my hands. "why 3 capsules?" I ask after drying my hands up. "Oh, mister Neil Conner has informed us that a 3rd person will reside there, so we naturally added another capsule to the order, along with a modem that will allow your A.I. to enter the game with you." Ray, his voice sounding more amused to the last part, as if expecting me to freak out. I put 2 dots together and- "So, the company you work at along with our military has worked togethet to create fully self aware A.I.?" I ask. It wouldn''t make sense otherwise. How would they know about her? How would they be able to allow her to enter the game? "Y-yes..." Ray respons, overwhelmed by my on point deduction. " Um, the men that will install the capsules are waiting at your doo-" "I''ll be right there." I grunt, interrupting Jay again. I exit the kitchen in the ''little'' hallway that binds the kitchen with the living room and one of the bathrooms along with a former storage room which has now been transformed in the room where the capsules will be placed, all decked out with a mini fridge and all the gadgets Selena said would be ''''essential''''. Unexpectedly she was quite the gamer. I open the door and immediatly see 3 buff men standing on my porch. "Mister Albert?" One of them asks, lifting his cap to look at me. We''re roughly the same height, but he''s a little bit taller. "Yes." I grunt, taking the tablet and pen he handed me, writing my signature on the white square on the tablet. He nods at the signature and signals the other 2 with his hand. They begin walking towards the mini truck that was parked on the side of the road. I go back to the kitchen where the girls are already eating. It seems they got tired of crying. The letter is on the table in the middle of them. For those curious, the letter is written by 3 different people, both of their mothers and Neil. "Well then girls, it seems that in 3 hours we''ll be able to start playing. Who''s up for a 24 hours tournament?" I ask with one of my rare grins. The girls looked weirdly at me, but it was to be expected. Why am I doing this? Well that''s because we all need something to get our minds off from the current situation, and allow us to come back to it with a more rational way of thinking. END OF CHAPTER 3 Chapter /4\ Hello there my beautiful readers! I am sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but it''s the end of an arc, and I have also been writing and rewriting it, trying my best at a heartwarming family bonding scene. Fun fact about your little Hysteric author, I SUCK AT PSYCHOLOGICAL THINGS. For the most part. Anyway, I didn''t run this chapter through a spell checker just yet, soooo, I hope you can forgive mistakes, and please do point them out!! P.S.: Hype for next arc! START OF CHAPTER 4 The workers are long gone, but none of us has entered the game yet. It''s been quite some time since the girls have read the letter. They''ve been talking a little, making sure I don''t evasdrop, and they chose which room Lorena will sleep in. Selena had the most agressive reaction to this situation. She was jumpy most of the time, mostly towards me. She was visibly upset about something. Lorena was more relaxed about it. She took it quite good, but it was still a shock to her so most conversations would lead to an awkward silence since she doesn''t know how to talk to me. Anyway, I also used this time to call up one of my old friends and ask her how to deal with this situation. Which is why we didn''t enter the capsules yet. Her name is Amanda Roell, she''s one of the best psychologist in the world. She''s also a huge sadist in bed.... "So that''s the situation?" She asks, her tone thoughtful. "Yes....is there any way you can help me?" I ask. I am getting nowhere by myself, so I might as well go along with her idea. "Hmmm.....there are multiple ways in which this thing can develop, and most of them are not good....the easiest way I can help you would be...hehe.... dear, do you still have that headset I gave you?" Amanda asks me, in a too cheerful tone. I am getting a bad vibe from this, but I am desperate. "Yes..." I say reluctantly. "Oh come on, you want my help don''t you?" She asks, with even more cheerfulness in her voice. I don''t like where this is goin, but I am desperate. ====10 minutes later==== "Girls, I need to talk to you." I grunt as I sit down on the sofa. They''ve been watching some T.V., waiting for me since I told them to hold up from going inside the capsules just yet. "Talk to us?" Lorena asks. She got used enough to this situation to talk. "Yes, I...I didn''t know how to ask you this before, but I decided to come clean to you." I repeat everything that Amanda tells me. You might be thinking that what I am doing right now is stupid. But, every one of my old friends are the people I trust most, and I would give my life to protect them. Same goes for them, so I don''t have any problem with this situation. "What is it old man?" Selena asks, audibly annoyed and confused. She must''ve been through a rollercoaster of emotions. "First, I want to ask you some questions." I say, looking at both of them. They nod, urging me to continue. "First question, how do you feel about this situation?" They were quiet for a little bit, before Lorena started talking. "W-well, my mother used to tell me stories about how great my dad was, how he was busy making the world a better place.....I just never even thought of imagining that it was you..." She says, while looking down. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Slowly she starts hugging herself. "I always imagined my father coming back home from the war, to take care of us....but he never came....YOU never came, you weren''t there when my mom died, you weren''t there when I enrolled in the army, you weren''t there when I was training...you were never there....then I convinced myself that maybe you were dead, but now I found out it was you....." She starts crying now. "It''s quite pathetic isn''t it? All of this feels like a dream to me right now, it feels like if I try to relax right now everything will disappear..." She''s now shouting, hugging herself even tighter. "You big dummy!" Selena shouts and hughs her. She starts crying even louder, latching herself onto Selena. What am I doing right now, you might ask? Well, I am standing above those two, with my arms open, about to give them a huge bear hug. I can feel both of them tense up, but they relax when I start talking. "I''m sorry for not being there. For both of you. There''s no excuse, but I hope you can forgive this old man." I say, Amanda only helping me a little at this point. After a while Lorena calms down. I would ask about her mother, who she was, but I feel that it would most likely be a sore spot for her now. We all stay like this for some time, and finally Selena starts talking. "Old man....u-uncle, why did my dad never come to visit me?" She asks with a trembling voice. "Oh, he did come to visit you. In fact, he was with you everyday. He just couldn''t tell you because he blamed himself for your mother''s death..." I tell her. "Why would he do that?" She asks, I could hear that she was confused and mad. "You should talk to him about that....even I don''t know his full reasoning." I tell her."Do you want me to arrange a meeting for you with him?" I ask her. "No...I will go on my own.....when I''m ready.." Selena responds to me. Lorena has been awfully quiet, and when I look down I could see her sleeping peacefully leaned on my chest. Selena also notices it and we both start laughing. Quietly of course. "I think we can both agree that it won''t hurt us to miss one day in that game?" I ask Selena. "Hah! You bet old man. But as a compensation, you will have to play 24 hours without break and power level us." Selena says in a haughty voice before audibly more happily trotting her way to her room. "But I didn''t do anything wrong..." I sigh. "Oh you old bear, don''t let her hear that or you will make your relationship with her sour." Amanda teases me. " And you''re going to try out that new game, eh? When were you planning to tell me!" Amanda asks me. I unconsciously shiver, I am getting a bad vibe from this. After I lay Lorena in her bed, I respond to Amanda. "You''re playing it too?" I ask her. "But of course! How can I let such a fine chance of observing humans reaction to unprecedent situations!" Amanda raises her voice while excitedly talking about that. I sigh, knowing that I may not have such a peacefull gaming life afterall. And so, the day goes. ---END OF LIFE ARC----- Chapter \5/ Hello there my readers, sorry for being late with one day with this chapter, but on the bright side, I found out that fermenting Elderberry juice, can indeed, make you drunk. Enjoy~ P.S. I haven''t run this chapter through a spell checker yet so please point out any grammar mistakes! ---START OF CHAPTER 5---- ---Start of Gaming Arc--- I wake up to the sound of chirping birds, one of the best ways to wake up. I close my eyes and expand my consciousness to maximum, one of the special ''abilities'' I have developed in the many encounters I had in my life. In the room I am in right now, nothing can escape me. I can FEEL every single little thing, even the tiny spider that is hiding in between my bed foot and the wall. It sounds crazy right? But you''d be surprised what can happen to the human brain under immense pressure. So much pressure that a normal soldier would die. Why do you think we''re called the elites of the elites? Well that''s because we survived countless nerve wrecking situations. Sure, we may be a little bit psychopatic, but that''s the cost of being an effective soldier. As long as you don''t tickle our old scars, you won''t wake up in a torture room, prepared to eat your own organs. You might think that that''s crazy, but it''s ok! We only did it 1...0 times! Anyway, I can also hear Lorena and Selena starting to wake up. I stand up and change in my casual clothes, a white T-shirt and some pants. I go to the kitchen and start making breakfast. A few minutes later Selena and Lorena come in the kitchen. Since Lorena didn''t know she would start living with us, she didn''t have any clothes with her. So Lorena went into my closet and managed to get 2 T-shirts that wouldn''t fall off Lorena. It looks like a one-piece dress on her. It''s not my fault I am bigger than her. She''s only 1 m and 59 cm while I am 1m and 87 cm. That''s quite the difference if you ask me. Lorena is a mature type beauty, I can imagine her getting along well with kids and many of them calling her Big Sister. She has the same green eyes as me (a little bit darker tho), only she takes after her mother in hair colour and face. She has brown red-ish hair that naturally flows on her back, she tied it in a long pony tail and let it rest on one of her shoulders. (kinda like this, but different hair colour and eyes Spoiler : this is what she looks like http://imgur.com/CvAXn4Y Ofc with a different hair and eyes colour. . She also has a rough heart shaped face, same as her mother. I sigh, remembering her mother, and making a mental note to visit her grave. I never got the news that she died. I''m mentally kicking myself over not thinking about her at the moment. Anyway, since Lorena doesn''t have any clothes, she and Selena will go shopping today. Of course, they''ll get my credit card. Fortunately, me and my brother have invested in so many things that even if they use millions daily, money won''t run out. I was going to go with them, but I couldn''t go against her when she was glaring at me. For a second I saw a phantom of Selena''s mother behind her, giving me that glare she would use to make me do whatever she wanted me to. Damn it all! She takes after her mother too...a bit too much. Lorena was just giggling at the whole situation while looking at us. Hohoo~ I see her guard is down. A little wake up call won''t hurt, eh? As my daughter, she needs to learn to constantly be vigilant. Now of course, I won''t strand her in one of the deadliest forests in the world as my dad did with me at 12 years old. "Hmmm, I heard this summer will get pretty hot, we might even get a Trip to the Moon alert, hehe." I say casually, dropping off a code we used in our army to warn our friendlies of drugged/poisoned food. Selena gives me a weird look, but Lorena freezes with food in her mouth. She gets paler by the second, looking at me. I think she doesn''t believe me, of course I would never drug my daughter''s food, but a little ''misunderstanding'' might change her mind. I turn my back to her, whistling while putting some coffe in my mug. I turn around to see a running Lorena and a confused Selena. A few minutes later Lorena comes back in the room, holding a syringe with her blood and a device telling her blood is poison/drug free. She shoots a glare in my direction, and I just grin, then she sits down pouting and continues eating her food. 20 Minutes later the girls are done eating, and preparing to go out. I wave them out with a smiling face, and once they enter Selena''s car and drive off, my smile instantly disappears. I take out my phone out of my pocket and speed dial one of my friends. I wait for the phone to connect, and when he answers the phone I can hear he''s at a party. "Guys, GUYS, stop the music, it''s our old friend Albert, THE Albert hahaah!" He shouts. His name is Joey, he was always an easy-going guy. He is easily the heart of all the parties, also a part time gigolo. I can hear the music die down, and hear one or two of my other old friends. Which is better for me, since I have a favor to ask of them. "Hey there Joey, how''re you doing you little brat?" I ask in an amused tone. Everyone starts laughing. "Aaah, our good ol'' Albie, snarky as always I see? So, what''s up? I s''pose you didn''t call me just to say hi. Hah, if you wanted to do that you would''ve come in guns blazing as always." Joey asks, I can hear in his voice he''s smiling. "You bet, I can''t let you youngsters forget to always be vigilant. I called because I have a favor to ask of you guys." I say, my voice turning serious towards the end. Obviously feeling that, the room gets grimly quiet. "What''s up old man? You know we''ll do anything for you, afterall, we owe you our lives." Joey''s voice gets serious too. This is why he''s a Spartan, he knows damn well when to get serious. "I suppose you didn''t hear it yet. I have found my and my brothers daughters." I hear a few gasps of shock. "Why are you calling us then? Where are they? We''ll kill the bastards that hold them after torturing them for 10 years!" He exclaims in a battle-lust filled voice. I hear a few grunts of approval from the background. "Oh no, nothing of the sorts. You know I would''ve killed them already if it were to that. I called you because they went out in town. I want you guys to protect them, anyone who gets too close to them, I want them castrated if they''re a male, and if they''re a woman I want to know everything about them." I say in a cold tone. There''s silence for about 5 seconds, until they all burst out laughing. "HAHAAHAH, Oh My God, this is too much!" Joey shouts, before I hear a few weird sounds. He most likely fell down. "What''s so funny?" I ask annoyed. "Oh god, we''re sorry Albert, it''s just that we knew you would be overprotective for you family, but we didn''t quite expect it to be this bad." Joey responds after he finishes laughing."Anyway, that''s off topic for now. So, who are the two angels we finally get to meet?" Joey asks, going back to serious mode. "Lorena and Selena Conner, you might be able to find them in our Database, I allow access of course." I tell him. Me and my brother agreed to give both of the girls our family name. His family name, I don''t deserve to use it anymore. I hold my mind from going into a flashbacks tunnel and wait for them to finish searching for them. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "Hmm, Lorena, sounds familiar. Let''s see here....hmmm, Gotcha n-" Joey suddenly stops mid sentence. "Old man, Lorena an ex-soldier by any chance?" Joey asks, with a shaking voice. I''m confused, but my questions are answered in the next second. "Hey Joey, isn''t that the girl that you trie-" "AAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHHHH" Joey interrupts one of our friends with a shout, but I got enough out of it to understand the situation. "Joey....I swear to God that if you-" "TSSSSKK, SORRY OLD MAN, I CAN''T HEAR YOU, I THINK THE LINE IS GETTING CUT TSSSK" Joey interrupts me before closing the phone. A few seconds later I get a phone call from Alex, one of the original Spartans, also the Vice-Captain of the team. "Hey Albert, I''m glad to hear you found your daughter and niece." He says, I can hear he''s grinning. "Why aren''t you with them though?" He asks at the end. "Heh, good to hear from you too Alex, although it hasn''t been long. Believe me I would be more than glad to be with them, but I can''t since my niece made me promise to play that new MMORPG VR game RoyalRoadl, since they missed the first day of playing it because of me. Also, where is Joey?" I ask "Heh, Joey, he just ran out of the room muttering something about moving to Mexico and changing his name to Martinez." Alex responds with an amused voice. We both knew he would come back after fooling around with a couple of women. "And you''re also playing that game?" He asks, a little bit surprised at the end. "What do you mean, you''re going to play it too?" I ask him frowning. How come everyone I know was going to play that game without me knowing. "Well yes, there isn''t much to do nowadays....I really didn''t expect you to start playing it. Knowing you I thought you would seclude yourself into some cabin in some far off woods next to a lake where you could fish daily..." His voice trails of at the end. While the idea does sound more than tempting, I was slightly surprised at how much he knew about me. He isn''t the vice captain for nothing. "Anyway, don''t worry Chief, we''re gonna make sure the girls don''t get even a scratch, also if you ever want, come to party up with us, all the Spartans already made an account and we''re planning to tackle every dungeon we find. Of course, the girls are invited too." Alex says. "I''ll consider it... and thanks." I tell him sighing. Next week is going to be so bothersome, I have to teach so many lessons. "Haha, don''t worry old friend. Good luck." Alex says, the last part in a more mysterious voice. I was about to ask him about it until the call closed. Annoyed, I sigh again, before closing the door and going inside. I noticed that Alice was awfully quiet recently. "Alice?" I ask while in the kitchen. "YE-Yes?" She nearly shouts at first, as if surprised by my sudden call. "You''ve been pretty quiet lately. Is everything alright?" I ask, concerned. I have a soft spot for kids. "Yes, I was just getting used to the house.." She answers shyly. "Well, I''m about to head into the game...do you want to join me?" I ask her. "U-um, do you wish me to be your personal A.I. in the game or do you want me to be a companion?" She asks quietly. I am a little bit stunned at her quesiton. "Alice, what kind of question is that?" I ask her. "A-ah, I-I''m sorry, it should have been obvious I am to be your A-" "Of course you''re going to be my companion!" I interrupt her, not expecting her to answer. She suddenly turns quiet. After a quick coffee for good measure, I go towards the pods that look like coffins, and enter mine. I sigh and relax my muscles as the lid of the pod closes on me, and then darkness overtakes me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ugh" I groan from the unexpected feeling I have in my body. It feels like I have woken up from some deep sleep. I am currently in a white room, sitting on a chair in front of a table, nothing more. Suddenly another chair appears and a woman soon appears on it. In a white robe tightly wrapped around her, to amplify her hourglass shape, with long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, and a face like a goddess. She starts speaking immediately- "Welcome to RoyalRoadl, I apologise for the delay, but we didn''t expect new players-" She stopped mid sentence when she looked at my face. "You must me Mister Albert?" She suddenly asks, with a little anticipation in her voice. "Yes." I give her a short response. Seemingly satisfied with my answer, she nods once. "Then this makes it easier." She says before waving one of her hands, making a window appear in front of me welcoming me to the world of RoyalRoadl along with a few information that I already knew. There are 3 Capitals. You would expect them to have some fancy names or something, but it seems that this world likes to keep it simple (Author being just lazy) making it easier for the people to navigate. The capitals had their owner''s color before the name Capital, also a number 1 under it. Then, towns and villages had just their owner''s name and a number. E.x., Blue Capital 1 and Blue city 2 and Blue Village 70. "Please select your starting village." The Goddes says. "Which village is close to a dungeon, but also has the best fishing spot?" I ask. She seems confused by my question before answering-, "Yes, that would be Green Village number 140." She answers me. "Then I would like to choose that village as my starting city." I tell her. She continues on with the conversation, "Would you like me to relay that information to Alice?" She asks me. "She can start wherever she wants." I reply to her. Her voice turns from a cold professional one to a warm one, making me suspicious of her relationship with Alice, but I let it slide for now. "Ok...done. Please select your starting race." She tells me before she waves her hand again and before me appear 3 choices. Demi human, Elves and Humans. "Demi human." I grunt. "Which variant?" She asks a little bit exasperated. "...wolf." I tell her. "Understood, please customize your character as you want. You can also ask me to help you with anything you want." She says before waving her hand and making a pannel appear in front of me. In that panned was a preview of a me, but with a wolf snout, tail and ears. All my facial hair was removed which made me frown before I tell her- "First of all, put my beard back on." She seems surprised by my voice, as she twitches she waves her hand and my beard appears back on. I nod once in content- "Now..." .... ... ... "Done." I grunt. The ''Goddes'' lets out an exasperated sigh, and lets go of the hair she was pulling up till now. "Please, ENJOY your new life. GOOD BYE." She shouts the last part before furiously waving her hand making darkness overtake my conciousness again. Damn, I was gonna ask her to make my claws shorter. Oh well. ---END OF CHAPTER 5--- While some of you may say that this is chapter shouldn''t be in the gaming arc, while you may be right, it seemed the best place to put it for me. Please leave your feedback, I can take constructive criticism, but I will delete hate comments!~ Release Schedule.... Hello there. I have a few things to talk about. First of all, there''s no schedule. I said that I will TRY to get one chapter out every week, but for the past few months my left arm has been hurting after staying at the PC for even half an hour. It hurts so much that I can''t write anymore, DON''T WORRY, I WILL STILL TRY TO GET ONE CHAPTER DONE EVERY WEEK. It''s just that it''s gonna be at random days. It depends on how my arm is. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. I hope you can understand, and also next chapter is coming out soon! My left arm is my dominant one FYI Chapter /6\ Hellouu there my dear readers. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I still haven''t put it in a spell checker so please tell me if you see any mistakes! Without further ado, please enjoy! ---START OF CHAPTER 6--- I am right now sitting in a tavern, enjoying a nice mug of ale next to me Alice is enjoying a simple kid''s meal . When I regained consciousness I was standing in front of a village, and not so many players slaughtering bunnies outside of it. There was however, a fellow that was doing that, and by the weird chuckles he was letting out, I could tell he was enjoying it. I passed him, making sure Alice stood as far from him as possible, and headed towards the village entrance, noting how life-like the guards were since they were starring at the guy in utter disgust. I nodded to them and they let me pass through without much trouble. My Character''s name is XxX_BlindShAdow_XxX......as if. My character''s name is Aasim. It''s a nickname I got once for protecting a village from a marauder attack in Africa. After going to the ''Training Arena'' and seeing that I am better at handling knifes than the guy supposed to teach me, I finished the basic training course in under 1 hour and just stood at the sidelines watching Alice whacking at a scarecrow with a wooden sword. It looked like she was having fun so I just stood at the sidelines watching her for about 5 hours until the trainer told her that she had a hang of the basics and that it''s now up to her to train in combat. After 4 more hours of doing odd jobs we had enough money to equip ourselves with decent armor and weapons, but also have some left for a good inn and a meal. It''s somewhere around midday, so we were planning to head towards the forest. We were both level 4 from the odd jobs. I was quite surprised to see how life like these so called ''NPC''S'' truly are. There were more than 1 woman going ''Awww'' at how cute Alice was playing around. There was one particular incident, where one man started approaching her. The women noticed that too, and were about to angrily head towards the man that was coming closer to Alice, until they saw me stand in front of the man. The man in question, annoyed by me, tried to push me away, only to find that he could not. Then he looked at me with annoyance, until he made eye contact. He saw that if he took one step closer he would miss something dear to him. To make myself more threatening I let out a soft, but angry growl. Being half wolf had it''s advantages. The man quickly left, a little pale, and the people around us who saw our exchange started looking at me with different gazes. Some (mostly women) were looking at me with warm gazes, others (mostly men) were looking at me scared and also avoiding eye contact. I have a sneaking suspicion more than one of them had the same thoughts as the man that tried to approach Alice. After all that I took Alice on a shoulder ride, which she enjoyed. For those wondering, yes, Alice has the psychique of a 5 years old. And you might be wondering, why am I letting her take up the sword instead of a bow, or a staff. Well that''s because she''s always going to have me by her side to protect her, and also she''s aiming to become an Elemental Knight, which wields the powers of the elements to aid them in their battles. Anyway, we are now on our way to the dungeon. This was a cave type dungeon, called The Blind Man''s Sorrow. Intersting fact about dungeons in this world, is that they are created by monsters or very strong humans. The stronger the human, the stronger the dungeon. This dungeon was created by a sorrowful blind martial artist. It is said that he had lost his disciples once he became blind, so he took shelter in this cave and trained until his blindness wasn''t a handicap anymore. It is said that after take on the world with a boom, he came back here in his last moments, and he created this dungeon with his energy. While on the way to the dungeon, I checked out the HUD of the game, which was very neat and clearly well organized. There was a map that updated itself with everything you explored, but it could also be updated with actual maps made by other people. There was also a friend list, to which I noticed that Alice was already added to it. She has the same name in-game. One thing I noticed is that skills from real life transfer to the skills in game. Among many others, my best skills are, Commanding master proficiency lvl 6, Assasiantion master proficiency lvl 9. I also had a ''debuff'' with a quesiton mark next to it, saying Short Sighted. The developers of this game wanted it to be realistic so the way you can see your stats is only through a sheet of paper. Soon, we arrived at the entrance of the dungeon. You would think that such a powerful dungeon would have an entire city around it. But you''re wrong, this dungeon is so hard, that everyone who entered, no matter the level they have, they died. This is what I wanted when I asked for the village to be next to a dungeon, but this will do. Besides, even if we die here we won''t get any penalty or loose anything, since that happens only after level 10. After we entered the dungeon, which was just a cave with a door, we were enveloped in darkness. No sound, no nothing. "Alice, close your eyes and cover your ears." I tell Alice. She does as I said, and immediately after that tens of screeches are heard as roughly 30 bats wake up and and fly deeper into the cave. I already sensed them when we entered so I didn''t get scared, but if Alice would''ve screamed, I am afraid she would''ve gotten the attention of stronger monsters that are deeper in the cave. Now you might be thinking, why are we heading in such a hard dungeon when we are only level 4? Well that''s because even though it''s so hard, the dungeon still has a 0-10 level recomandation. Why is that? I don''t know. After the bats were gone, I lit up a torch we bought back in town and tap on Alice''s shoulder. She slowly and carefully opened her eyes and uncovered her ears. "What happened? I heard some weird noises..." she asks, nervously looking around. "Nothing much, just some bats." I tell her. She seems to accept that answer as she nods and we begin advancing again. After walking for a little while we run into 2 wolves. They were both level 1, which was weird. I let Alice handle them. She easily dispatches of them with 2 well aimed slashes at their necks. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. After some more walking we run into 2 wolves again, but this time they were level 2 and one goblin was next to them, and he was level 1. "Alice, you handle the wolves, I''ll take care of the goblin. I say as I nock an arrow in the bow I had bought in town. It wasn''t cheap I might add. I take aim and shoot the gobling in the throat, resulting in an immediate kill. Alice levels up to level 5, and she adds some points to her inteligence and strength. She was smiling happily, but it looked quite weird with all the blood she had on her face. I just smiled and wiped the drops of blood on her face. After walking for a bit more, we encounter 2 wolves and 1 gobling again, but this time another goblin was riding one of the wolves. They all were level 3. I shoot both of the goblins in the throat, leveling up to level 5, adding points to my dexterity, agility and strength. I am stretching out quite a bit, but it''s ok. Alice quickly deals with the wolves again, there was one close call tho when one of the wolves circled around her while she was focusing on the other. After advancing, we run into 3 wolves, 2 of them had goblins on top of them and one goblin on foot. This one was a mage tho. All of them level 4. "M-master, may I fight the goblins this time? I want to try something different..." Alice asks me quietly. I smile. "Sure...let me knock down the goblins off the wolves first. Watch out for the one on foot, he''s a mage. And stop calling me master. My name is Aasim, it''ll make me look like a pedophile if you keep calling me that." I tell her. She noods with a smile then grins, excited for the battle to come. It seems like she''s quite the battle junkie. I rush towards the wolves. The goblins were the first to notice me, and the ones on top of the wolves growled and urged the wolves to run towards me. As I get closer to them, I abruptly speed up, and open my arms wide whlie running in between them. I hit both of them in the face, making them fly off the wolves backs. I keep running towards the last wolf that was cautiously watching me, and take out one of my daggers in a throwing grip. I throw it and hit it right in the eye, killing it instantly as my knife made it''s way to the wolves brain. I turn around to find the two wolves pouncing at me, and I drop down on my back and shoot my arms up, with daggers in both of them. The wolves fly over me, getting cut cleanly from their chin up to the begging of their tail. Insta kill. I level up to level 6. Alice rushes and starts fighting the two goblins who stood up now, and they notice her. They completely ignore me as they rush towards her. She swiftly slashes at the throat of the nearest one, killing him instantly. The farthest one sees her loosing balance for a moment from the strike and rushes up to her, punching her in the stomach. She didn''t expect that strike and she staggers back. I am currently dodging fireballs that are hurled my way from the gobling mage. Alice forcefully stops her staggering and takes a lunging position and strikes the gobling in its stomach. The goblin didn''t expect that and he falls flat on his back. He opens his mouth to start screaming, but Alice seems to remember my warning of not making any noise, as it might make stronger enemies from deeper in the cave come here, so she puts her foot in his mouth, before taking the sword out of his stomach and drilling it into his heart. After that she starts running towards the mage. Seeing that the mage focuses on her, but a tad bit too late, as she''s already 2 steps away from him, and she slashes his throat, severing his vocal cords along with his windpipe. She levels to level 6 after the goblin dies. "Nice job on keeping that goblin silent." I tell her, helping her to stand. Seems like the blow to the stomach shook her quite a bit. "Eheheh, thanks." She replies with a laugh. "So, how was your first time fighting a goblin?" I ask her. "It was...weird. I didn''t expect him to punch me in the stomach." She replies with a grin. I sigh, looking at her happy face. It seems like she''s starting to open up to me. We advance and meet more and more wolves and goblins. By the time we reached the end of floor one, both me and Alice leveled up to level 9. At the end of the floor one, there was a door big enough to fit two people my size, side by side. We open the door and we are greeted by a strong enemy- A level 10 Orc. It seems like he''s the one who''s been ordering the goblins and the wolves. When he sees us, he roars and immediately after 10 goblins and wolves pour out from behind him. "Alice, try keeping him busy while I kill all those small fries." I tell her. I take out my bow and arrows. "Sure! But make it quick!" She shouts before rushing towards the orc. During the past few fights she''s became able to talk to me normally. It''s quite amazing that friendships forged through tought times can do. I nock 4 arrows at the same time, and shoot them, hitting 4 wolves in the head. It was honestly a lucky shot. The others begin rushing towards me, completely ignoring Alice to the dismay of the Orc. The first to arrive were the wolves, as they began to circle me. I couldn''t let them do that so I backed against a wall. When the goblins arrived there were only 2 wolves left. The wolves retreated to lick their wounds, while the goblins tried to charge at me. All of them. With one strong sweep of my feet they were all sent face down in the earth. Then I proceeded to cave in their faces with my boots, leaving only the 2 wolves and the boss left. I throw some daggers to the wolves killing them, also leveling up 4 times, putting all my points in dex, agi and str and turned to the boss, only to see Alice on the ground with the boss above her, sword in both hands over his head- ---END OF CHAPTER 6--- ANNOUNCEMENT Guys....I cannot tell you how happy I am to finally say....I''M BACK!!! Now for those wondering, the past 5 months I have been inactive because my hard drive did not work anymore for some reason. One second I was writing chapter 7 (which is lost by the way) and the other a blue screen of death. And while I could have written the story on my phone or on a tablet, I used the chance to focus on my studies instead....Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. I will resume writing the story, but I am still a student so the chapters will come randomly, I will TRY to get one out at least once a week, but I don''t promise anything. btw yeah i just got a new hard drive, took a bit of begging my parents to achieve this.... my laptop is still jacked up tho, it won''t find the updates it needs and nothing seems to be working properly (And I was waiting to get back to playing Archeage and LoL too...)