Eriol Clowphengire
Member
~The Novelization~
"Right now, we're playing two MMORPGs, one's the Real World, and the other's the digital world"
~Kyte Sullivan
~~~~
Episode 0, Chapter 1 [NGCSPV0001]: The Next Big Thing
Room 206, Emerald Maple State Academy
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
It's 4:00pm, the school bells rang in chorus, filled with utmost excitement, same as how students are eager to go home. Majority of the students left the room, after their Algebra class. Well, except for one boy with crazy blonde hair. The math teacher with navy blue hair called the blonde-haired student,
"Mr. Sullivan, come here"
"Y-Yes ma'm, why?" answered by the blonde-haired student.
The boy approached his teacher's desk and she replied,
"Mr. Sullivan, I'm disappointed at your performance lately. Your quizzes are declining quick, such that you've taken a landslide failure"
"Eh? May I see?" Mr. Sullivan asked.
The teacher showed the class record to him, with his falling quiz grades written in dreaded red ink.
83, 81, 74
The teacher stressed,
"You better pass the final two quizzes and you better not flunk in the final exam or I'll inform your parents"
"Y-y-yes... ma'm" Mr. Sullivan stuttered.
"You'd better be serious about that, Kyte" the teacher strongly replied.
After that, Kyte left the room, leaving the teacher fixing her things.
~~~~
2F Hallway, Emerald Maple State Academy
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
As Kyte walked his way out from school, he mumbled,
"Math ticks me off big time, such that I want to get rid of math teachers..." he sighed, "How I wish there's no math subject even just once" he added.
As he unbuttoned his polo uniform, he saw a girl with silky white long hair, with a cat bag, singing a Japanese song,
"Warawanai sora e
purachina na sumairu de
gomakashite wa kizutsuketari
otona ni narenai mama toozakaru..."
"What are you? A Japanese?" Kyte asked the white-haired girl.
The white-haired girl stared at him and showed an angelic smile.
"I'm an American-Japanese, and I'm Kimiko Collins, section 2" the girl answered.
"Ahh... no wonder you sang it fluently..." Kyte praised Kimiko's voice.
Kimiko just smiled at him, seeing him amazed at her voice. So, Kyte asked,
"What does it mean? I think I've heard that song somewhere and... can't remember it"
"To the sky that doesn't laugh with a platinum smile. Everytime I cheat it, I would hurt it, forever unable to grow up, I'd become distant..." Kimiko replied in depressive tone.
"That sounds emo for me" Kyte said to her.
"Say, why not we walk our way home together then?" Kimiko asked,
"Wh-what? That's odd, and I've not told my name y-y-yet" Kyte suprisingly stuttered
"I heard your name awhile ago, Mr. Kyte Sullivan, no need to reintroduce yourself, unless I forget it" Kimiko softly replied.
The two walked away from school...
~~~~
Central Tower, Ouvellos Complex
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Ouvellos Complex, a moderately-grand residential & commercial complex made up of 8 residential towers and 1 high-end commercial tower in the middle of the inter-connected residential abodes. Each tower in the complex have 13 floors, and the tower has a 5-floor basement parking area.
The Central tower comprised of 2 floors filled with fast food chains and restaurants, then at the lower ground floor, there are internet cafes, Western & Eastern pop culture specialty shops, and some arcades. The rest are either offices, or elite shops, or whatever the wannabe-simple aristocrats and other residents fancy most.
Kyte and Kimiko stopped in front of the Central Tower, and found a flyer of an upcoming online PC game. Kyte picked it up and was amazed,
"Wow, this must be one of my must-play games this year!"
"Oh... so you're an net-game otaku then eh?" Kimiko said to him,
"Y-yup, why?" Kyte asked,
"I... I have a strange feeling about this" Kimiko mumbled as they looked at the flyer.
"Eh? How'd you say so, Kimi-" Kyte got interrupted.
"I just don't feel playing it, not unless they're anime-styled, and not another clicky" Kimiko said
Suddenly, a handsome yuppie approached them, with the same flyers he had in hand, and offered,
"Hello there, do you want to try the Seeds of Orion Online PC RPG?"
"Sure!" Kyte excitedly volunteered for the game.
"Good one! Now, all you need to do is to register in net-cafes with Seeds of Orion official posters for the closed beta test. After registration, you'll receive your CBT card and a free game client from the chosen net-cafes" the yuppie instructed them.
"So, shall we try?" Kyte asked Kimiko, and she smirked. The two moved on to a nearest eligible net-cafe.
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, LGF, Ouvellos Complex [CENTRAL TOWER]
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, an internet cafe owned by a Filipino-Australian internet cafe tycoon in Philippines, and now expanded in Neustralian lands, and this internet cafe's often full of EMSA students and yuppies. The internet cafe consisted of 3 servers, and 40 PCs, running on a powerful DSL connection speed of 6mbps. No wonder some of the hardcore gamers can enjoy playing other games while letting their RPG characters sell virtual goods in another game without connection hassle.
The walls of the internet cafe were almost wrapped with different MMO posters, including the upcoming Seeds of Orion, and there's even a Seeds of Orion character standing beside the entrance, indicating that there's a beta test going on. So, the two went inside and Kyte inquired to the attendant,
"I'd like to sign up for the Seeds of Orion beta"
The attendant nodded then picked up a clipboard with a registration table for the closed beta test. While Kyle's registering for the game, Kimiko watched other players of the said game. Kimiko thought,
"Wow! They almost have different fighting styles in this game!"
Kyte finished their registration in the game, though unluckily, there are no available computers to try out the game as of this moment...
18F Room 1807 <Vexel Entertainment (Neustralia HQ)>, Del Marthe Towers
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
A blonde man in green tuxedo looked at the cityscape, thinking about their company's sci-fi fantasy game's success. While envisioning their game's future, another man with blue hair, dressed in blue tuxedo came into his office.
"Oh, Mr. Kanzaki, what brought you here?" the blonde man asked.
"I came here to report the GODMODE's effectiveness" then he gave a blue folder containing the report.
The blonde man briefly browsed through his report as Mr. Kanzaki explained,
"It's working accordingly, we've tested its hack detection when we've pitted 50 notorious MMO exploiters to do various hacking techniques. Good thing, this AI game master we've programmed counter-attacked them quick"
"Impressive as usual, the Knights of the Round, keep up the good work, Hirohito Kanzaki"
Hirohito Kanzaki shook the blonde man's hand then left the room.
The blonde president thought,
"I bet this game will shake the entire MMO industry, this game deserves to be reckoned by other developers"
30 minutes later...
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, LGF, Ouvellos Complex [CENTRAL TOWER]
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Kyte finally gained a chance to play the game. So he created his character and finally, he's on the game as a Newbie named KytEdge, and Kimiko registered as Hanaken0522.
Planet Sol > Boot Camp Island > Entry Hall
KytEdge and Hanaken0522 teleported in the middle of the entry hall, filled with other Newbies and strange machinery that made their teleportation possible. Most of the newbies surrounded the NPCs, but good thing that some of them left them immediately.
So the game begins for them!
"To begin your journey, to move your character, please use the arrow keys. The movement type is set in walk mode by default, you can run by holding Right Shift button or set it on your actions screen to enable running, unless you're a graduate from other clicky RPGs" the instructor on-screen said.
"The controls reminded me of Lineage 2 at that time" Kimiko thought.
So their characters moved forward and the instructor on-screen spoke again,
"To interact on other-"
"Stop that, that's a usual MMORPG drill, 'nuff of that!" Kyte mumbled.
Their characters rushed outside of the Entry Hall...
Planet Sol > Boot Camp Island > Training Ground
The Training Ground is filled with hundreds of other Newbies fighting alot of steel spheres with camera lenses, and four-eared rabbits.
The on-screen instructor spoke again,
"To fight these monsters, press S to attack. Your damage varies depending on your weapon"
Kyte mashed the S button thrice then his character performed 3 strikes to the four-eared rabbit.
"Whoa! How I wish other MMOs thought of this before!" Kyte was amazed.
The four-eared rabbit he's fighting was called Rappy, a mutated rabbit that exist in Planet Sol. Then the steel sphere with camera lenses was actually a tamed and lightly-armed Trainer Surveytackers to train Newbies.
Seven minutes of joyful button-mashing, they finally leveled up to Level 2, and the on-screen instructor told them,
"All right! You guys just leveled up, and first off, access your skill menu and then, assign the Active skills from buttons 1 to 0! Those buttons I've told you will be handy for quick skill usage!"
"Now this is a real change from clickies!" Kyte excitedly mumbled.
KytEdge and Hanaken0522 now have Powered Thrust, Rest-Heal and Shining Cut on their quickslots.
"Try using the Powered Thrust and Shining Cut on 5 Trainer Surveytackers, by the way! You can use the Shining Cut first then followed by the Powered Thrust, and you got a combo!" the on-screen instructor suggested.
The Newbies were able to perform it, such that they're like dancing with blades.
"Guys, remember, you may lose alot of SP and HP when fighting, be sure that you also placed some usable items on your quickslots so that you can save yourselves without any clutter!" the on-screen instructor yelled.
"Oh my, the instructor has some personality... weird huh!" Kimiko spoke to Kyte.
After learning the basics of the game, they were taken to a starter town... So far, Hanaken0522 (Kimiko) is now Lv5 and KytEdge in Lv5 as well, then logged-out.
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
It's 4:00pm, the school bells rang in chorus, filled with utmost excitement, same as how students are eager to go home. Majority of the students left the room, after their Algebra class. Well, except for one boy with crazy blonde hair. The math teacher with navy blue hair called the blonde-haired student,
"Mr. Sullivan, come here"
"Y-Yes ma'm, why?" answered by the blonde-haired student.
The boy approached his teacher's desk and she replied,
"Mr. Sullivan, I'm disappointed at your performance lately. Your quizzes are declining quick, such that you've taken a landslide failure"
"Eh? May I see?" Mr. Sullivan asked.
The teacher showed the class record to him, with his falling quiz grades written in dreaded red ink.
83, 81, 74
The teacher stressed,
"You better pass the final two quizzes and you better not flunk in the final exam or I'll inform your parents"
"Y-y-yes... ma'm" Mr. Sullivan stuttered.
"You'd better be serious about that, Kyte" the teacher strongly replied.
After that, Kyte left the room, leaving the teacher fixing her things.
~~~~
2F Hallway, Emerald Maple State Academy
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
As Kyte walked his way out from school, he mumbled,
"Math ticks me off big time, such that I want to get rid of math teachers..." he sighed, "How I wish there's no math subject even just once" he added.
As he unbuttoned his polo uniform, he saw a girl with silky white long hair, with a cat bag, singing a Japanese song,
"Warawanai sora e
purachina na sumairu de
gomakashite wa kizutsuketari
otona ni narenai mama toozakaru..."
"What are you? A Japanese?" Kyte asked the white-haired girl.
The white-haired girl stared at him and showed an angelic smile.
"I'm an American-Japanese, and I'm Kimiko Collins, section 2" the girl answered.
"Ahh... no wonder you sang it fluently..." Kyte praised Kimiko's voice.
Kimiko just smiled at him, seeing him amazed at her voice. So, Kyte asked,
"What does it mean? I think I've heard that song somewhere and... can't remember it"
"To the sky that doesn't laugh with a platinum smile. Everytime I cheat it, I would hurt it, forever unable to grow up, I'd become distant..." Kimiko replied in depressive tone.
"That sounds emo for me" Kyte said to her.
"Say, why not we walk our way home together then?" Kimiko asked,
"Wh-what? That's odd, and I've not told my name y-y-yet" Kyte suprisingly stuttered
"I heard your name awhile ago, Mr. Kyte Sullivan, no need to reintroduce yourself, unless I forget it" Kimiko softly replied.
The two walked away from school...
~~~~
Central Tower, Ouvellos Complex
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Ouvellos Complex, a moderately-grand residential & commercial complex made up of 8 residential towers and 1 high-end commercial tower in the middle of the inter-connected residential abodes. Each tower in the complex have 13 floors, and the tower has a 5-floor basement parking area.
The Central tower comprised of 2 floors filled with fast food chains and restaurants, then at the lower ground floor, there are internet cafes, Western & Eastern pop culture specialty shops, and some arcades. The rest are either offices, or elite shops, or whatever the wannabe-simple aristocrats and other residents fancy most.
Kyte and Kimiko stopped in front of the Central Tower, and found a flyer of an upcoming online PC game. Kyte picked it up and was amazed,
"Wow, this must be one of my must-play games this year!"
"Oh... so you're an net-game otaku then eh?" Kimiko said to him,
"Y-yup, why?" Kyte asked,
"I... I have a strange feeling about this" Kimiko mumbled as they looked at the flyer.
"Eh? How'd you say so, Kimi-" Kyte got interrupted.
"I just don't feel playing it, not unless they're anime-styled, and not another clicky" Kimiko said
Suddenly, a handsome yuppie approached them, with the same flyers he had in hand, and offered,
"Hello there, do you want to try the Seeds of Orion Online PC RPG?"
"Sure!" Kyte excitedly volunteered for the game.
"Good one! Now, all you need to do is to register in net-cafes with Seeds of Orion official posters for the closed beta test. After registration, you'll receive your CBT card and a free game client from the chosen net-cafes" the yuppie instructed them.
"So, shall we try?" Kyte asked Kimiko, and she smirked. The two moved on to a nearest eligible net-cafe.
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, LGF, Ouvellos Complex [CENTRAL TOWER]
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, an internet cafe owned by a Filipino-Australian internet cafe tycoon in Philippines, and now expanded in Neustralian lands, and this internet cafe's often full of EMSA students and yuppies. The internet cafe consisted of 3 servers, and 40 PCs, running on a powerful DSL connection speed of 6mbps. No wonder some of the hardcore gamers can enjoy playing other games while letting their RPG characters sell virtual goods in another game without connection hassle.
The walls of the internet cafe were almost wrapped with different MMO posters, including the upcoming Seeds of Orion, and there's even a Seeds of Orion character standing beside the entrance, indicating that there's a beta test going on. So, the two went inside and Kyte inquired to the attendant,
"I'd like to sign up for the Seeds of Orion beta"
The attendant nodded then picked up a clipboard with a registration table for the closed beta test. While Kyle's registering for the game, Kimiko watched other players of the said game. Kimiko thought,
"Wow! They almost have different fighting styles in this game!"
Kyte finished their registration in the game, though unluckily, there are no available computers to try out the game as of this moment...
18F Room 1807 <Vexel Entertainment (Neustralia HQ)>, Del Marthe Towers
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
A blonde man in green tuxedo looked at the cityscape, thinking about their company's sci-fi fantasy game's success. While envisioning their game's future, another man with blue hair, dressed in blue tuxedo came into his office.
"Oh, Mr. Kanzaki, what brought you here?" the blonde man asked.
"I came here to report the GODMODE's effectiveness" then he gave a blue folder containing the report.
The blonde man briefly browsed through his report as Mr. Kanzaki explained,
"It's working accordingly, we've tested its hack detection when we've pitted 50 notorious MMO exploiters to do various hacking techniques. Good thing, this AI game master we've programmed counter-attacked them quick"
"Impressive as usual, the Knights of the Round, keep up the good work, Hirohito Kanzaki"
Hirohito Kanzaki shook the blonde man's hand then left the room.
The blonde president thought,
"I bet this game will shake the entire MMO industry, this game deserves to be reckoned by other developers"
30 minutes later...
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, LGF, Ouvellos Complex [CENTRAL TOWER]
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Kyte finally gained a chance to play the game. So he created his character and finally, he's on the game as a Newbie named KytEdge, and Kimiko registered as Hanaken0522.
Planet Sol > Boot Camp Island > Entry Hall
KytEdge and Hanaken0522 teleported in the middle of the entry hall, filled with other Newbies and strange machinery that made their teleportation possible. Most of the newbies surrounded the NPCs, but good thing that some of them left them immediately.
So the game begins for them!
"To begin your journey, to move your character, please use the arrow keys. The movement type is set in walk mode by default, you can run by holding Right Shift button or set it on your actions screen to enable running, unless you're a graduate from other clicky RPGs" the instructor on-screen said.
"The controls reminded me of Lineage 2 at that time" Kimiko thought.
So their characters moved forward and the instructor on-screen spoke again,
"To interact on other-"
"Stop that, that's a usual MMORPG drill, 'nuff of that!" Kyte mumbled.
Their characters rushed outside of the Entry Hall...
Planet Sol > Boot Camp Island > Training Ground
The Training Ground is filled with hundreds of other Newbies fighting alot of steel spheres with camera lenses, and four-eared rabbits.
The on-screen instructor spoke again,
"To fight these monsters, press S to attack. Your damage varies depending on your weapon"
Kyte mashed the S button thrice then his character performed 3 strikes to the four-eared rabbit.
"Whoa! How I wish other MMOs thought of this before!" Kyte was amazed.
The four-eared rabbit he's fighting was called Rappy, a mutated rabbit that exist in Planet Sol. Then the steel sphere with camera lenses was actually a tamed and lightly-armed Trainer Surveytackers to train Newbies.
Seven minutes of joyful button-mashing, they finally leveled up to Level 2, and the on-screen instructor told them,
"All right! You guys just leveled up, and first off, access your skill menu and then, assign the Active skills from buttons 1 to 0! Those buttons I've told you will be handy for quick skill usage!"
"Now this is a real change from clickies!" Kyte excitedly mumbled.
KytEdge and Hanaken0522 now have Powered Thrust, Rest-Heal and Shining Cut on their quickslots.
"Try using the Powered Thrust and Shining Cut on 5 Trainer Surveytackers, by the way! You can use the Shining Cut first then followed by the Powered Thrust, and you got a combo!" the on-screen instructor suggested.
The Newbies were able to perform it, such that they're like dancing with blades.
"Guys, remember, you may lose alot of SP and HP when fighting, be sure that you also placed some usable items on your quickslots so that you can save yourselves without any clutter!" the on-screen instructor yelled.
"Oh my, the instructor has some personality... weird huh!" Kimiko spoke to Kyte.
After learning the basics of the game, they were taken to a starter town... So far, Hanaken0522 (Kimiko) is now Lv5 and KytEdge in Lv5 as well, then logged-out.
Kyte's Residence, 5F, Rm. 505, Ouvellos Complex [TOWER 2]
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
It's 7:15am, Kyte woke up and he heard a news article citing his newly-played game,
"In today's news: an online role-playing game named Seeds of Orion began to take over the world by storm due to its trend-shifting features that other companies should have known beforehand. Now, the game's running on a worldwide closed-beta test where only 50 lucky players per country can play"
"Eh? Isn't that early to get the game to the news?" Kyte asked himself.
Kyte heard his mother's call for breakfast then he went down for it. While enjoying his egg sandwich, Kyte's mom asked,
"I thought you're supposed to be home by 5pm, Kitey. Where'd you go yesterday?"
"Uhm... err... to my friend's house" Kyte answered, with slight hesitation.
"Really?" his mom asked again.
"Yeah mom, I went to Kimiko's house, s-she invited me there" Kyte replied.
"Hmmm..." then she showed the Seeds of Orion CBT card found in Kyte's desk and asked,
"Oh, where'd you get this?" his mom asked, waving the card in front of him.
"S-she gave it to me just before I went home after studying there"
"Oooh, now that's something, a friendship started with common interest" his mom smiled.
"And so, both of you were one of the 50 people volunteered to play the Seeds of Orion, huh?" his mom added.
Kyte happily nodded, and his mom advised,
"I hope that this game won't drown your academics down this time, and don't waste too much cash on this game, okay?"
"Y-yes, mom" Kyte answered.
18F Room 1807 <Vexel Entertainment (Neustralia HQ)>, Del Marthe Towers
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Hirohito Kanzaki, and a girl in pink blouse & slacks walked towards the president's desk, and then the president informed them,
"Mr. Kanzaki, the game's working well and your AI helpers are doing the right thing!" and followed by a cough, and he added "As for you, Miss Asuncion, without you, the AI helpers wouldn't look so friendly for our players... and so, good job to both of you!"
The two nodded and then took their seats for a talk.
"Sir, what's with the 50 players per country CBT program anyways?" Miss Asuncion asked.
"Yanna, it wasn't me who really proposed this kind of program but it's one of your colleagues. According to him: 'with limited players, we can immediately crack down the potential cheaters that will disrupt the game's security and overall stability'. With that thing said, I immediately approved it, hands down" the president riposted.
"You know Mr. President, that suggestion's too useful but at the same time, it caused a major disappointment to the rest of the aspiring participants for this game. Checking out the global forums, out of 2,560,060 registered members, 96% of them are ones who really wanted to try the game! But look, there are only 8950 players play-testing our game, which isn't enough for media to make a buzz about this!" Hirohito remarked the president.
"Hmmm... you're right about that, Mr. Kanzaki. But that's life, there are only few lucky people that got into the game, life in this wailing planet is damn unfair. Say, why don't we get 200 more per country then?"
"You're serious about that, sir?" Hirohito and Yanna exclaimed.
"Yes, for the sake of other aspiring testers worldwide, we'll do this. Okay, time to bring this thing to the board room" the president replied.
18F, Board Room<Vexel Entertainment (Neustralia HQ)>, Del Marthe Towers
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
The board room is filled with flat-screen HDTVs, and a giant HD LCD flat-screen is placed in front of the tables. The room got populated by the branch board members, staff, representatives of the Knights of the Round and the president.
The president sat in the red desk in the center then began a meeting,
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen of Vexel Entertainment Neustralia, I'm glad that the first game we've made returned outstanding results, all the way from promotions, and now we conducted our first limited closed beta test, and it's now Neustralia's most anticipated MMORPG ever made"
The board members, the staff and the representatives applaud to the opening speech. After their applause, Vexel Entertainment Neo-Filipinas', North Neo-America and Nihon Neon's presidents appeared on screen. Then, Vexel Entertainment Nihon-Neon's president spoke,
"We are glad about it too, Mr. Robinson. Apparently, the Knights of the Round, and our staff were preparing more content to make Seeds of Orion more appealing for all audiences. For now, the artificial game master systems are being improved in preparation for further CBT slot increase"
"Mr. Ichihima, we, at Vexel Entertainment Neustralia, suggest to increase CBT slots to accomodate other players worldwide, as suggested by two of the Knights in our branch" President Robinson suggested.
"Mr. Robinson, I don't think that's advisable as of this moment, the initial plan for the program is for them to pinpoint every bug being encountered in the game, this ain't the stress test right now" President Alwina Mitra of Vexel Entertainment Neo-Filipinas declined.
"I agree on Mr. Robinson's suggestion, I've been seeing this scenario for a long time, one of these days, this game will be flooded by cheat-hackers and bots for goodness sake! However, increasing the CBT slots will help us trap any potential cheater, hacker and bugger that will tarnish the game's integrity" President Reagan West of V.E. North Neo-America supported Mr. Robinson's suggestion.
Mr. Ichihima sighed for a moment and he inquired everybody,
"Are you in favor of this suggestion? We've heard some of the pros and cons about it, and now, your decisions are vital for this game's further progress"
Everyone in the board room voted YEA, and moments later... Mr. Ichihima voiced his final decision,
"So, we decided to... increase the CBT slots, from 50 to 3500! I know it's a shocking number but it is done in order not to disappoint our players worldwide, Godspeed to all!"
"Actually, we'll be undergoing on stress tests as well, and widen our crackdown against cheaters and exploiters" Mr. Ichihima added.
Room 206, Emerald Maple State Academy
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
The students began to talk about the increased CBT slots for the Seeds of Orion, Kyte and Kimiko met their geeky brown-haired schoolmate and he asked,
"Kyte, are you one of the first 50 testers representing Neustralia?"
"Yup, and Kimiko too, Dylan" Kyte replied.
Dylan playfully shook Kyte like a doll, being amazed,
"Geez! You're so lucky enough to score a girl friend huh? I envy you!!!"
Kimiko smirked due to Dylan's slight weirdness, and yelled,
"Stop that, you're lookin' yourself gay, Dylan!"
So Dylan stopped shaking Kyte, and then he asked everyone loud,
"Anyone of you have their Seeds of Orion CBT cards?"
Out of 53 students, 7 have their CBT cards and then he yelled,
"With this! We may now form a guild that will represent Emerald Maple, and as Neustralia as well!"
After that, their teacher arrived, and then Kimiko left their classroom. The teacher face-palmed when he heard about the Seeds of Orion craze and said,
"Sheesh guys, what's with you guys gettin' crazy over the Seeds of Orion?"
"It's an online game supposed to own every other game that came before it!" one student replied.
"Eh? Even World of Warcraft?" their male teacher asked.
"Yup!" Kyte and the rest of the players replied in chorus.
"Oh shi-! All right, that game may win your interests but be sure not to lose your academic levels, k?" the teacher advised.
After class...
Dylan called out other players and said,
"All right, let's all take our 1st Job quest tonight, but we have to work as a party!"
"PARTY CALL!!!" screamed by another player with purple spiky hair.
Kyte patted Rob's shoulder and spoke, "Ugh! You still have the Arad Senki hangover eh, Rob?"
"Hehe, Kitey! Say, if there's a cosplay event here in Emerald Maple, I want you to dress up like Kite, okay?" Rob suggested.
"Dude, I don't watch .hack, sorry!" Kyte declined.
"C'mon! PARTY CALL!!!" Dylan called the attention of the rest of the players.
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, LGF, Ouvellos Complex [CENTRAL TOWER]
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Thirty players were filling up survey forms for their CBT cards in a nearby table, while Kyte and others paid first before they play Seeds of Orion.
Most of them are now Lv5 to 8, now questing and grinding to reach Lv10 and take their 1st Jobs. Dylan's known as xX-Drake-Xx, Rob's name is SunStarSlash, three more female players appeared named named respectively, K1n0n (Kinon), Sh1n0n (Shinon), and R4n0n (Ranon).
Planet Sol > Hailgreif Island > Naraheim Town (starter town)
K1n0n and her party members went to an item merchant and sold their loot, for more HP & SP potions.
Describing the "-n0n" sisters, K1n0n is a glasses-girl with cerulean short hair. She has apple green eyes and has a pair of BSC knives, and its player was also a glasses-girl who also looked like Kinon of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Sh1n0n, on the other hand, is a pink-haired girl with two ponytails wearing a Lv4 BSC battle suit set, pretending to be a Sora Kake Girl. Sh1n0n's player was a 14-year-old girl that liked magical girl genre. R4n0n is a long red-haired girl with white complexion, armed with a BSC javelin, and is played by a red-haired girl named Annie May Harris.
xX-Drake-Xx whispered the lead of the "-n0n" sisters,
"Girls, let's go for a mini-boss hunt! Get yourselves ready"
"What are we going to fight now?" K1n0n asked.
"A Mother Rappy!" xX-Drake-Xx answered.
"Eh? Don't tell me that I'm gonna lure that mother rabbit, or I'll beat you up outside, Dylan!" K1n0n yelled.
[full location undisclosed]
Yokusuka ,Neon Nihon
In a large room with 36 desks in circular arrangement surrounding an 18-foot CPU as if they're worshiping the machine, the Knights of the Round sat on their chairs and a holographic teenage white-haired man appeared in front of them. The white-haired man spoke,
"Welcome back, my loyal Knights! You've just made our game high and mighty from the rest!"
Then an Neustralian member of the Round spoke,
"GODMODE, you'll surely make the game friendlier and secure, and you'll be a role model for vigilance! I guarantee it!"
"Sssssshh! Don't call me that, it makes me too boastful, just call me Arthur would be enough!" the white-haired digital entity replied.
"Sure, but that would be disrespectful for you, if you just allow us to call you by name" Hirohito answered back.
"Hmmm... yeah, I'm a 13-year-old king! How amusing and funny enough. I had enough of that medieval formality, let's just be one happy family instead! You're all my fathers and mothers instead!" Arthur happily suggested, followed by a cat smile.
"That tells me that you've been watching May Bukas Pa in one long sitting, eh?" a Filipino member said to Arthur.
"Yup, and I love that F-Drama, like I wish to be human, but destiny didn't grant to"
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
It's 7:15am, Kyte woke up and he heard a news article citing his newly-played game,
"In today's news: an online role-playing game named Seeds of Orion began to take over the world by storm due to its trend-shifting features that other companies should have known beforehand. Now, the game's running on a worldwide closed-beta test where only 50 lucky players per country can play"
"Eh? Isn't that early to get the game to the news?" Kyte asked himself.
Kyte heard his mother's call for breakfast then he went down for it. While enjoying his egg sandwich, Kyte's mom asked,
"I thought you're supposed to be home by 5pm, Kitey. Where'd you go yesterday?"
"Uhm... err... to my friend's house" Kyte answered, with slight hesitation.
"Really?" his mom asked again.
"Yeah mom, I went to Kimiko's house, s-she invited me there" Kyte replied.
"Hmmm..." then she showed the Seeds of Orion CBT card found in Kyte's desk and asked,
"Oh, where'd you get this?" his mom asked, waving the card in front of him.
"S-she gave it to me just before I went home after studying there"
"Oooh, now that's something, a friendship started with common interest" his mom smiled.
"And so, both of you were one of the 50 people volunteered to play the Seeds of Orion, huh?" his mom added.
Kyte happily nodded, and his mom advised,
"I hope that this game won't drown your academics down this time, and don't waste too much cash on this game, okay?"
"Y-yes, mom" Kyte answered.
18F Room 1807 <Vexel Entertainment (Neustralia HQ)>, Del Marthe Towers
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Hirohito Kanzaki, and a girl in pink blouse & slacks walked towards the president's desk, and then the president informed them,
"Mr. Kanzaki, the game's working well and your AI helpers are doing the right thing!" and followed by a cough, and he added "As for you, Miss Asuncion, without you, the AI helpers wouldn't look so friendly for our players... and so, good job to both of you!"
The two nodded and then took their seats for a talk.
"Sir, what's with the 50 players per country CBT program anyways?" Miss Asuncion asked.
"Yanna, it wasn't me who really proposed this kind of program but it's one of your colleagues. According to him: 'with limited players, we can immediately crack down the potential cheaters that will disrupt the game's security and overall stability'. With that thing said, I immediately approved it, hands down" the president riposted.
"You know Mr. President, that suggestion's too useful but at the same time, it caused a major disappointment to the rest of the aspiring participants for this game. Checking out the global forums, out of 2,560,060 registered members, 96% of them are ones who really wanted to try the game! But look, there are only 8950 players play-testing our game, which isn't enough for media to make a buzz about this!" Hirohito remarked the president.
"Hmmm... you're right about that, Mr. Kanzaki. But that's life, there are only few lucky people that got into the game, life in this wailing planet is damn unfair. Say, why don't we get 200 more per country then?"
"You're serious about that, sir?" Hirohito and Yanna exclaimed.
"Yes, for the sake of other aspiring testers worldwide, we'll do this. Okay, time to bring this thing to the board room" the president replied.
18F, Board Room<Vexel Entertainment (Neustralia HQ)>, Del Marthe Towers
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
The board room is filled with flat-screen HDTVs, and a giant HD LCD flat-screen is placed in front of the tables. The room got populated by the branch board members, staff, representatives of the Knights of the Round and the president.
The president sat in the red desk in the center then began a meeting,
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen of Vexel Entertainment Neustralia, I'm glad that the first game we've made returned outstanding results, all the way from promotions, and now we conducted our first limited closed beta test, and it's now Neustralia's most anticipated MMORPG ever made"
The board members, the staff and the representatives applaud to the opening speech. After their applause, Vexel Entertainment Neo-Filipinas', North Neo-America and Nihon Neon's presidents appeared on screen. Then, Vexel Entertainment Nihon-Neon's president spoke,
"We are glad about it too, Mr. Robinson. Apparently, the Knights of the Round, and our staff were preparing more content to make Seeds of Orion more appealing for all audiences. For now, the artificial game master systems are being improved in preparation for further CBT slot increase"
"Mr. Ichihima, we, at Vexel Entertainment Neustralia, suggest to increase CBT slots to accomodate other players worldwide, as suggested by two of the Knights in our branch" President Robinson suggested.
"Mr. Robinson, I don't think that's advisable as of this moment, the initial plan for the program is for them to pinpoint every bug being encountered in the game, this ain't the stress test right now" President Alwina Mitra of Vexel Entertainment Neo-Filipinas declined.
"I agree on Mr. Robinson's suggestion, I've been seeing this scenario for a long time, one of these days, this game will be flooded by cheat-hackers and bots for goodness sake! However, increasing the CBT slots will help us trap any potential cheater, hacker and bugger that will tarnish the game's integrity" President Reagan West of V.E. North Neo-America supported Mr. Robinson's suggestion.
Mr. Ichihima sighed for a moment and he inquired everybody,
"Are you in favor of this suggestion? We've heard some of the pros and cons about it, and now, your decisions are vital for this game's further progress"
Everyone in the board room voted YEA, and moments later... Mr. Ichihima voiced his final decision,
"So, we decided to... increase the CBT slots, from 50 to 3500! I know it's a shocking number but it is done in order not to disappoint our players worldwide, Godspeed to all!"
"Actually, we'll be undergoing on stress tests as well, and widen our crackdown against cheaters and exploiters" Mr. Ichihima added.
Room 206, Emerald Maple State Academy
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
The students began to talk about the increased CBT slots for the Seeds of Orion, Kyte and Kimiko met their geeky brown-haired schoolmate and he asked,
"Kyte, are you one of the first 50 testers representing Neustralia?"
"Yup, and Kimiko too, Dylan" Kyte replied.
Dylan playfully shook Kyte like a doll, being amazed,
"Geez! You're so lucky enough to score a girl friend huh? I envy you!!!"
Kimiko smirked due to Dylan's slight weirdness, and yelled,
"Stop that, you're lookin' yourself gay, Dylan!"
So Dylan stopped shaking Kyte, and then he asked everyone loud,
"Anyone of you have their Seeds of Orion CBT cards?"
Out of 53 students, 7 have their CBT cards and then he yelled,
"With this! We may now form a guild that will represent Emerald Maple, and as Neustralia as well!"
After that, their teacher arrived, and then Kimiko left their classroom. The teacher face-palmed when he heard about the Seeds of Orion craze and said,
"Sheesh guys, what's with you guys gettin' crazy over the Seeds of Orion?"
"It's an online game supposed to own every other game that came before it!" one student replied.
"Eh? Even World of Warcraft?" their male teacher asked.
"Yup!" Kyte and the rest of the players replied in chorus.
"Oh shi-! All right, that game may win your interests but be sure not to lose your academic levels, k?" the teacher advised.
After class...
Dylan called out other players and said,
"All right, let's all take our 1st Job quest tonight, but we have to work as a party!"
"PARTY CALL!!!" screamed by another player with purple spiky hair.
Kyte patted Rob's shoulder and spoke, "Ugh! You still have the Arad Senki hangover eh, Rob?"
"Hehe, Kitey! Say, if there's a cosplay event here in Emerald Maple, I want you to dress up like Kite, okay?" Rob suggested.
"Dude, I don't watch .hack, sorry!" Kyte declined.
"C'mon! PARTY CALL!!!" Dylan called the attention of the rest of the players.
Supah-Click Internet Cafe, LGF, Ouvellos Complex [CENTRAL TOWER]
Emerald Maple, Neustralia
Thirty players were filling up survey forms for their CBT cards in a nearby table, while Kyte and others paid first before they play Seeds of Orion.
Most of them are now Lv5 to 8, now questing and grinding to reach Lv10 and take their 1st Jobs. Dylan's known as xX-Drake-Xx, Rob's name is SunStarSlash, three more female players appeared named named respectively, K1n0n (Kinon), Sh1n0n (Shinon), and R4n0n (Ranon).
Planet Sol > Hailgreif Island > Naraheim Town (starter town)
K1n0n and her party members went to an item merchant and sold their loot, for more HP & SP potions.
Describing the "-n0n" sisters, K1n0n is a glasses-girl with cerulean short hair. She has apple green eyes and has a pair of BSC knives, and its player was also a glasses-girl who also looked like Kinon of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Sh1n0n, on the other hand, is a pink-haired girl with two ponytails wearing a Lv4 BSC battle suit set, pretending to be a Sora Kake Girl. Sh1n0n's player was a 14-year-old girl that liked magical girl genre. R4n0n is a long red-haired girl with white complexion, armed with a BSC javelin, and is played by a red-haired girl named Annie May Harris.
xX-Drake-Xx whispered the lead of the "-n0n" sisters,
"Girls, let's go for a mini-boss hunt! Get yourselves ready"
"What are we going to fight now?" K1n0n asked.
"A Mother Rappy!" xX-Drake-Xx answered.
"Eh? Don't tell me that I'm gonna lure that mother rabbit, or I'll beat you up outside, Dylan!" K1n0n yelled.
[full location undisclosed]
Yokusuka ,Neon Nihon
In a large room with 36 desks in circular arrangement surrounding an 18-foot CPU as if they're worshiping the machine, the Knights of the Round sat on their chairs and a holographic teenage white-haired man appeared in front of them. The white-haired man spoke,
"Welcome back, my loyal Knights! You've just made our game high and mighty from the rest!"
Then an Neustralian member of the Round spoke,
"GODMODE, you'll surely make the game friendlier and secure, and you'll be a role model for vigilance! I guarantee it!"
"Sssssshh! Don't call me that, it makes me too boastful, just call me Arthur would be enough!" the white-haired digital entity replied.
"Sure, but that would be disrespectful for you, if you just allow us to call you by name" Hirohito answered back.
"Hmmm... yeah, I'm a 13-year-old king! How amusing and funny enough. I had enough of that medieval formality, let's just be one happy family instead! You're all my fathers and mothers instead!" Arthur happily suggested, followed by a cat smile.
"That tells me that you've been watching May Bukas Pa in one long sitting, eh?" a Filipino member said to Arthur.
"Yup, and I love that F-Drama, like I wish to be human, but destiny didn't grant to"
Oh my, I think I need a mouse script to emulate it... and it may suggest the latest Mr. Mo's ABS.
The "CORPORATE" scenes can be optionally turned off in the game, not unless you're so eager to know the game in every angle.
And the entire 18th floor of Del Marthe towers are occupied by Vexel Entertainment Neustralia branch
Oh yeah, if I'll post chapter 9 onwards, the older chapters can be read on my deviantART account, (soon to an NGCS-exclusive dA account)
In response to uncertain incidents, expect lots of unexpected series of "Tayong Dalawa"-ish drama & action stuff.
The "CORPORATE" scenes can be optionally turned off in the game, not unless you're so eager to know the game in every angle.
And the entire 18th floor of Del Marthe towers are occupied by Vexel Entertainment Neustralia branch
Oh yeah, if I'll post chapter 9 onwards, the older chapters can be read on my deviantART account, (soon to an NGCS-exclusive dA account)
In response to uncertain incidents, expect lots of unexpected series of "Tayong Dalawa"-ish drama & action stuff.