As the five could still hear the muffled cheers and applause of the crowd from inside the pod, all of them eventually closed their eyes at the same time, causing their senses to seemingly be transported into another world altogether as the five of them eventually arrived in their respective spaces of pure white.
After undergoing through their own respective character creation screens, the five of them were transported once more, all of them appearing at what seemed to be the center of a bustling city a few minutes later.
At the very moment they had appeared in this city center, all five of them could not help but be enamored for a bit, their mouths slightly agape at how realistic their surroundings felt. After that, the five of them tried to move their bodies around, instantly noticing that there was next to no delay between the thought in their minds and the action of their bodies.
“I don’t know what kind of trickery the company had done in order to achieve something like this, but this… I can get behind this.” A man among the five broke the silence surrounding them, to which some of them nodded in agreement once they understood what the man was implying.
In terms of appearance, the man did not stand out that much, being 5’7″ in height, having short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Nevertheless, even with the basic clothes that the game gave them after they were finished with their character creation, an air of nobility faintly radiated around him, befitting of the name that slightly hovered above his head, Tianshen01.
“I definitely have to agree with Tianshen on that one,” one of the women among the group of five replied, having ash blonde hair, gray irises, and slightly pointed ears. With the name Astra_Aeterna hovering above her head, she continued.
“We’ve all established our respective organizations ever since the second generation of VRMMO games came out, so I’m sure we’ve all experienced our fair share of games with latency issues between the mind and body. From what I’ve seen so far, I have a feeling I’ll spend most of my time in this game once the public version is released.”
“That’s good and all, but we’re here to collect precious information regarding the game, no?” said another woman in response, the name Moonlight_Desire hovering above her head.
“From the features the game has to offer alone, it’s no surprise that it wouldn’t take long for Greater Beyond to take the spot for the most played VRMMORPG on Earth. With that in mind, we should collect as much as information on the game as possible before the beta test ends, giving our organizations a head start once the game goes on public release.”
“Loosen up a little bit, Moonlight.” One of the five chuckled, being a somewhat burly man with the name Belial hovering above his head. “Didn’t you hear what that Azazel guy said earlier? We basically have a month’s worth of in-game time to collect as much information as we want for our organizations. Why not take it easy for today and see what the game has to offer us?”
“Speaking of what the game has to offer… have you checked if you could take your clothes off yet?” asked a somewhat lanky man in response to Belial’s words, the name Avaris hovering above his head. In response to the question, Belial and Tianshen looked at Avaris for a bit before proceeding to take off their pants, causing Moonlight and Astra to shake their heads as they turned around before letting out a sigh.
“Hahaha! This game is awesome! You can take off your pants!” exclaimed Belial in wonder not long after, eliciting a few of the passersby that came across the group of five to give them weird looks before proceeding to continue walking.
“Not just your pants, Belial,” Azazel and Tianshen said at the same time, causing the two of them to look at each other before laughing. Naturally, Belial asked the two of them what they meant by their words after that, to which the two of them replied that it would be better for him to discover it himself.
“We’re currently in Astella City, which is considered a core city according to the system map… whatever a core city might mean.” Once the three men had satiated their curiosity regarding part of the freedom Greater Beyond had to offer, Moonlight soon spoke up, prompting the others to take a look at their maps.
“Either way, this city is huge enough that it would probably take us a week to fully explore what it has to offer. I’d suggest we split up and ask some of the NPCs regarding where to gain experience, where to gain equipment, as well as the power system the game has.”
Hearing that, the other four agreed with her suggestion, making sure to add each other on their friend lists before heading their separate ways, exploring what Astella City and Greater Beyond had to offer at their own pace.
…
“Haah…” Feeling the warm rays of the sun peer through the window, Valyr could not help but toss and turn in his sleep, lightly frowning as he tried to avoid it. Unfortunately for him, the rays of the sun peering through the window expanded to cover his entire bed at some point, leaving him no choice but to get up, sitting upright as he let out a long yawn.
Then, rubbing his eyes for a bit as he stared off into nothingness for a few minutes, Valyr’s consciousness eventually became fully alert, lightly scratching his head as he got out of bed, thinking about the things he had to do today.
“Ah, right. The celebration is today.” Recalling the discussion he and Alfaera had the previous night, Valyr could not help but feel a tinge of regret at the fact that he had agreed to it. Nevertheless, as he had already agreed to it, he might as well see it to the bitter end, going through his usual morning routine before heading to the cafeteria to get some breakfast.
Surprisingly, at the very moment he had arrived at the cafeteria, though the number of people in it were sparse, almost everyone there were informed of what Valyr had achieved yesterday, with all of them congregating around him as they asked him if he could narrate what had transpired in the dungeon.
In response, Valyr asked them as to who told them what he had done, grabbing a light breakfast from the cafeteria workers in the meantime.𝒐𝑽𝐿xt.𝑐𝑜𝚖
Hearing Valyr’s question, one of the men there replied that the village chief had told them of what he had done, making Valyr feel even more regret for agreeing to the celebration. Lightly sighing, he sat down on a vacant table, only to be accompanied by the people that had congregated around him earlier, eagerly waiting for the man of the hour to start telling them his adventure in the dungeon a great portion of them had failed to clear.
Ding!
However, just as he was pondering on how he was going to tell the story to the others even though he wanted not to, a couple notifications appeared in his mind, prompting him to read through them as Valyr fell into an abrupt silence.
‘So, it has already begun.’ Inwardly muttering to himself, a light smile adorned his face as he read through the notifications, letting out a light chuckle soon after.
[Version 0.1b of Greater Beyond has begun! Remaining time: 30 days, 23 hours, 32 minutes, 42 seconds.]
[As Greater Beyond has entered its beta version, the Non-Player Character Advancement System has unlocked the Extended NPC Feature Set.]