Creation Online

HELEN'S POV

It was official. I would kill those devs if I ever met them. I felt a blooming hatred for those white-cloaked men already.

Wait those were doctors. No, scientists also wore white coats.

"Ah screw the movies". Yelling I drew my sword free of my belt, its bright blue glare pushing the darkness away as I stomped to the hole like an eight-year-old with a primal vengeance.

Halting there I stared down and all my anger evaporated like the dew on a sunny morning. Fear replacing it.

This had nothing to do with my trauma. This was a pure normal humane fear of the dark. It was a thick one, very solid-looking darkness. "Just like the void".

So chilling it felt like a thousand ice spikes embedded in my spine and crawling up. How spikes could crawl was a lesson for another day.

I fidgeted then turned away.

"I'll just head back use my new insight to climb up the wall and then find a way off this lost world. " I nodded.

Looking up to the ceiling of the tunnels I shouted.

"Next time give an SSS to the mission ranking. Battling a dragon and then this is way beyond a measly S!" I was aggrieved. Totally. I honestly didn't want to walk back to that spot and then suffer that muck.

"Compared to you though. It's heaven" I mumbled eyeing the hole.

That was when it happened and I made one wish. For the government to legalize murder. Because the devs were seeking death.

Before my eyes, almost like it was mocking my plight the system's words flashed

[QUEST UPDATE]

[The Drop]

Coals of burned-out fire. Ever jealous of its elder's heat. Warmth eluding it. The last touch of heat was only but a long time ago.

[Rank - S]

[Rewards - Unascertained]

[Failure - Destruction ]

[YOU HAVE ENTERED PHASE TWO]

[Truth]

Umvit watched as Parvita played ever so carelessly near the Ozuni python. Its large fangs longer than the babe were enough to kill a full grown. So Umvit bore fear. To steer Parvita from dangers.

But Parvita showed something unexpected. Can you?.

[RANK - S]

[Rewards - Unascertained]

[Failure - Destruction

- 1 Level]

[YOU HAVE GAINED NO REWARDS FROM PHASE ONE]

"F**k your lore, this is bullying." I cried out in exasperation. The dark labyrinth silently absorbed my shout uncaring of my tantrums.

Behind me, the hole waited its dark edge strangely attractive despite the chills it wrought. Even as I gulped and dropped in I knew exactly what that feeling was.

The thrilling excitement for adventure. The desire of all MMORPG gamers. Blend in a mix of fear and I was almost shaking like a leaf as I fell deep into the dark gullet of the earth.

*****

The ground cracked as a player smashed into it, his feet creating a circular pattern of crisscrossing spider-like veins.

His skin flared as heat radiated off him the after-effects of the descent.

Erasmus whistled appreciatively at the sight around him. The eerie world gave him a rise of both apprehension and excitement. Just like the one felt by a certain player.

Soon he heard a sound. One that heralded the coming of something deadly.

Erasmus raised his Nodachi and stilled. His favorite quote playing out in his head.

'No one knows glory past the man who has survived the darkness'.

Then they came, with eyes of blue spectral light and bodies of ethereal fluids. He stilled, inhaled sharply, and as the first arrived he exhaled with a brutal swing of his nodachi. The shriek of the vile beings before him fueled his morale even as he plunged headfirst into combat.

*****

At different places in the game, a few such situations played out. Those who had it less harsh or even relatively easier were those not as inclined to suffer as others.

Mostly the pro players took to this harsh and unforgiving world whilst the streamers settled for the less hard but relatively entertaining worlds.

Those that were in-between went with easier worlds wisely choosing to take it easier and understand the game before losing their positions recklessly.

While there was no information as to what it meant to die at level zero the fact that one could only have one account since the pod scanned one's body before entering the game was enough to tell them not to be reckless.

With most if not all the Creator players on their planets the game was getting hotter and more competitive. Atleast for the pushers.

In the forum, the leaderboards constantly changed with names dropping and rising. Like a chart on forward.

Yet three names on top remained unmoved. While the fourth and fifth constantly moved but within themselves like a private competition. The game from the very beginning which seemed to have been crawling for the past two days exploded with players moving.

Somewhere in the vast networks of zeros and ones. A single line typed out slowly taking its precious time to compute the entire sentence.

[SYSTEM PARAMETERS ADJUSTED]

Whatever the parameters were the players were soon to find out.

*****

THIRD PERSON POV

The darkness felt endless, her screams were unending. Her throat was dry and her lungs strained from the calls of fright she'd uttered.

Then the wind left her lungs, knocked out of her by the thick hard ground greeting her face first with the force of her plummet to the ground.

A groan left Hilde's lips. Her arms dragged back from its splayed-out form setting beneath her and then pushed her body up.

"Uckk"

"The first taste in this game and it had to be this.. this...ground" Disgusted and annoyed by her ruined taste buds in the game Hilde had more reason to be pissed off. Still, it was obvious her words were merely said to cover the jitters of her hands and the trembles of her lips. "At least..." She spat more. "...it wasn't the muck".

The once pink thin lip was now a pale blue as it belonged to a corpse or one dunked in freezing waters.

The fall had been almost endless and the feeling of death at every angle was suffocating. The way the game was able to project such an accurate environment frightened Helen to no end. But Hilde shrugged it off as best as she could. She had to, warriors had to bear fear and deal with it.

While she didn't get what the point of suffering such suffocating pressure would be Hilde knew she had to move on.

The end of the hole which she fell into was surprisingly brighter. The darkness above though still seethed, still like a wall. Separate from the little light that kept the ground dim.

"This brings 'light at the end of the tunnel' to perspective" she grumbled then unsheathed her sword more for its brighter light than its use.

The blue glow of the Sword of Murre illuminated the expanse revealing a cavernous mouth as large or even larger than Molliwag's head. The ground here was less corrupted than that above and the air carried less of the death stench.

"I love and hate this realism all at once. " Hilde grumbled as she matched forward. Her boots made squelchy sounds on the ground alerting her to rhe dampness of the soil. It also made her register the new cold feeling on her dress.

Various steps later and she was in the cavern. The entrance felt like the maw of a beast. Within, the brightness of the room increased. Hilde knew her curiosity was getting as high as the brightness was, a testament to the cautious yet hastened steps she took to encroach into the place.

Finally escaping what she termed the gullet of the beast and out into what should now be its stomach. Hilde found what gave off the light.

Fortunately or unfortunately she found out what it was thanks to the system. The familiar updated information appeared before her as her eyes went from the information to the object and then back.

[QUEST UPDATE]

[Truth]

Umvit watched as Parvita played ever so carelessly near the Ozuni python. Its large fangs longer than the babe were enough to kill a full grown. So Umvit bore fear. To steer Parvita from dangers.

But Parvita showed something unexpected. Can you?.

[RANK - S]

[Rewards - Unascertained]

[Failure - Destruction

- 1 Level]

[YOU HAVE ENTERED PHASE THREE]

[Green Nest]

Molliwag wasn't always above. His blood and sufferings are a macabre memory to dine with.

Hell isn't always a place.

[Rank - S]

[Rewards - Ring of the Lost]

[Failure - Death

- 1 Level ]

Hildelith wasn't even bothered by this too used to the quest updates by now. No, what had Hilde's absolute attention was the mass of creatures that lay strewn all over this Green Nest. Creatures of various shapes, sizes, and features.

Worse still was the source of the glow.

Emitting a faint greenish light. One she recognized as the same light within Molliwag's eyes and the Unknowns. Not even larger than what she thought a classic dragon egg should look like and floating quite a bit off the ground the eerie wisps of cold ember divinity radiating from it.

'Apparently whatever I was supposed to do involved getting through all of these and getting to the sickly-looking core.'

Hilde smiled just a bit. After all, free exp couldn't be hated. The only problem was the huge amount of mobs. Unlike the Unknown, these creatures didn't seem to have any need for stealth or fast lunges. Which meant she'd be dealing with them en masse.

[YOU HAVE CLEARED QUEST - TRUTH]

[RECEIVE REWARDS]

[Y/N]

The devs had an itch for gifting rewards that helped with the next quest. With a smile now etched across her face and all the hate she had for the Devs now forgotten she tapped the yes. Watching like a five-year-old girl waiting for the promised Christmas gift she observed golden weaves forge her a new friend, one she'd come to use sooner than expected.