Chereads / Ranker's Quest / Chapter 5 - Open!

Chapter 5 - Open!

The video stayed on a black background with 'Welcome to The Greylhad' text for a minute.

It made people think that the video has already over.

As the viewer number began to drop, the video began to change it's still frame.

The scene changed to a deep dark wasteland. For the previous game's player, the scenes were familiar and not at the same time.

"That is.. the main city in the previous game, 'Earth'."

"Hm? What does it mean?"

"I don't know either. Let's watch it first.

The familiar scene has begun to show the top-ranked player from the previous games.

It showed the PvP and PvE scenes, and a lot of players from all continents

"Woah! It's your character!" Viro exclaimed.

The video showed a battle between two top unique legendary class.

'Shadow Paladin' vs 'Lightning Empress'.

"Hm? I never met her tho. There was some cross-continent arena event, but I never met her."

The battle began with the female character throw one of her spears that dodged by the male character by a close call.

After the male character avoided the spear, he began to charge with his shield lifted up.

The female character avoided to the left and attack him with her left spear.

Her opponents countered with his sword and both of them began to exchanged attacks.

After a few hits exchanged, it showed how the male character had the upper hand at close combat.

A lot of effects appeared as the spear collided with either shield or sword.

Of a sudden, the screen slowed down. The shield was about to collide with the spear.

Once the scene returned to its normal speed, the spear disarmed. With that advantage, the male character about to land the finishing attack.

But, the female character was changing her body swiftly like a lightning and appeared in her first spear she threw earlier.

She quickly picked both of her spears in the ground and appeared at the male character's back.

The scene appeared only for a frame.

As the female about to strike her enemy, the male player disappeared like a shadow and appeared quite a distance.

The two fighters stared at each other after that. They put a stance to prepared for another clash.

But, a rumble appeared from the sky. Both of them gazed deeply into the sky.

A frame after that, the scene filled with a bright flash that quickly changed to a black screen. The black screen appeared as it was devouring the light.

A second after, pair of eyes appeared on the screen. Followed by another two and gradually showed about a hundred pairs as the screen zoom out.

A silhouette appeared showing the body of each owner of the pairs of eyes.

One of the silhouettes showed a female distinctive character with two spears in each her hand.

The other shows a familiar male silhouette with a shield and sword.

And the frame changed to a black screen with a sentence.

'Face Them!'

The video ended with that closing sentence.

"Is that.. the main antagonist? Your character? And the Lightning Empress?"

"All of the silhouette.. that should be the 120 players from all continents. 10 PvP and 10 PvE top leaderboard. From the 6 continents." Arie answered and continued the talk.

"You know Vi, 'Earth' has no antagonist. We only spam the new dungeon provided every week or month for materials or set records."

"Then now, I'll have chances to battle your character!" Viro pumped up once again.

"Well, let's just scrolling through the forum. It still has 2 more hours." Arie shrugged.

"Or you gonna dive to DICE to calibrate?" He added.

"Calibrate? Nah, I don't like the crowd."

"Yeah.. Central City would be so crowded. I do really hope they split it so the forum can only be accessed via the outside world."

"The forum really gonna explode. I can't even read a single line of live comments."

"Aah~ I can't wait for the game." Arie imitating his brother's gesture.

"Hey! That's my line!"

....

For the next hours, the siblings only scrolling through the forum, began a discussion, or doing anything they could to maintain their adrenaline.

As time goes by, the main forum showed the countdown time.

10 minutes.

Live comments were passing through the top and bottom of the countdown.

Made this way so it couldn't cover the countdown screen.

"10 minutes."

"Let's enter the DICE. Don't worry, won't be in Central City."

Arie showed his tablet phone. A message from Berdian to met on DICE in a certain place.

The sibling came to their own room and began to enter The Capsule.

"Hehe, I'm playing a new game with a new device too~" Viro chanting happily as he entered the capsule.

He laid down on the capsule and began to exclaimed.

"Woah, it's more comfortable than the previous version."

After the capsule closes completely, Viro's views are filled with the digital screen.

"A calibration will proceed for the first time use. Will begin for a few seconds." A robotic sound echoed in his ear.

'Ah! So this is what he meant by calibration. I forgot this is a new device and will take some time to calibrate.'

"The calibration complete! Choose your destination!"

A popup screen showed the DICE world map and each of its sectors.

"Sector 1."

"You will be sent to your coordinates now. You can travel to another place inside by choosing other coordinates or clicking a map. Proceed?"

"Yes!"

"Welcome to DICE!"

Viro's views have gradually changed to another landscape. It showed an area filled with a high forest surrounded it.

A small hut appeared in his vision. The landscape was totally filled with the green color of grass and leaves.

"Hey, Vi!" Berdian surprised him as he successfully logged in to the virtual world.

"What th-!"

"Haha, I always love the expression. Re has already immune to it so it's not fun anymore."

As Viro regained his composure he began to ask questions.

"No Uncle Den?"

"He will come soon," Arie answered.

After he spoke that, Harden appeared gradually near them.

"Did you guys scenario it? How can he appeared with perfect timing?"

"Yep, wasn't it cool this way?"

"Even Uncle Den join in?"

"I can't believe it either." Harden shooks his head.

"Okay then, what we gonna do?" Viro asked again.

"Nothing. I just wanna see the VVIP feature." Berdian answered.

"What is that?"

"Uncle Den and Re have become a VVIP member of WoS. That's one of the exclusive rewards he got."

Berdian answered and followed with another explanation.

"This area and Uncle Den's places have become an exclusive area. And since they gave you permission and invited you, you teleported here directly amidst any sector you chose."

"Stop calling me 'Uncle Den'!" Harden said with a stern face.

"Hm." Berdian only shrugged with an annoying expression.

"How about me?"

"You.. technically allowed."

"Okay, Uncle Den!" Viro said it bright and 'Uncle Den' can only leave out a sigh.

"So, only a permitted person enter this area? It answered why Uncle Den appeared in perfect timing." Viro asked again.

Berdian and Harden looked at each other and smiled.

"Nice conclusion!" Berdian showed a thumb up.

"4 minutes. Since we have no agenda, I'll just continue scrolling through the forum." Arie interrupted them.

"How about the last video?" Berdian asked.

"Well, the video isn't really that important to me," Arie answered.

"I thought you have some theories in mind. I agree it's not important enough for now."

Since no one found another thing to discuss. Viro and Berdian were only chatting casually.

Harden and Arie talked about the trivial matter in the forum.

"30 seconds. We will be transferred automatically. I will chat you in 8 hours in real-time." Arie said while looking at the virtual screen.

All of them nodded.

"Wait, I'm not setting up any alarm," Viro said in a panic.

"Click it manually then."

"Bye Vi!" Berdian waves his hand with a bright smile.

"It doesn't matter if you left a few seconds late. We will surely spend hours at the character creation.

"Bye!" Harden also waved his hand with a bright expression.

Viro started to become more panic as he scrolling through the virtual screen in front of him.

He turned his head toward his brother and only found him began to gradually disappear with a wave and bright smile left before he's gone completely.

"You- Aah! I'm pretty sure they have planned it."

...

...

...

"Welcome to the Ranker's Quest second title. Ranker's Quest, Path."

A robotic voice welcomed Arie into a fully white room. The room was filled with a 3-meter rectangular pattern.

Every side has 10 rectangular that indicates the room has a 30 meter cubic in size.

"As you bought a new version of The Capsule, you got a bonus of Personal AI for free.

"Press the button on the platform to draw your personal AI!"

"Gacha!" Arie exclaimed. "What will I get from the draw?"

"An AI"

"..."

"..."

"Tell me examples of what I can get from the gacha."

"You will draw for the gender, nature, voice, appearance, and many more in a single button. Basically, you draw for how they look.

"All has the same rates. If you want to freely able to customize the AI, you can buy an item. It costs $500."

"Hm.. Ok." After pondered for a while, he has prepared mentally to press the button.

For some reason, he was always nervous when it came to gacha.

A screen popped up and showed images jumbled for a few seconds.

And then, the screen covered with a curtain.

After quite a delay, a robotic kid appeared from the curtain.

"Hello, Mr. Arie! I'm your personal AI."

The robotic kid was about 150 cm and appeared in casual clothes.

Appeared like an elementary student but instead of human flesh, it appeared with a metallic silver skin.

It also had the voice of a male normal kid. It didn't have a robotic voice.

A screen popped up. It appeared with a keyboard.

-Create a name for your AI.-

'Ah! I hate naming things.' Arie exclaimed in his though.

He spent a few minutes thinking.

"Let's call you Silv." He decided the name and began to type 'Silv' on the keyboard.

"Okay. Mr. Ar-"

"Call me Re."

"Okay, Mr. Re I will take over your character creation in the game.

"Now, you will pick your race. These are the 4 different races available to pick."

A screen popped up showing 4 different bodies. Words appeared above every one of them.

Human. Elf. Dwarf. Beastkin.

The human body showed the reflection of Arie but with a cartoonish style.

The elf showed a body with a flat face and a bald head. Its ear is pointy.

The dwarf is short. Slightly higher than half of Arie's height.

The Beastkin appeared with skin thicker than the others. Appeared to be fur covering them.

"Every one of them has different racial skill and physical build-"

"Show me the racial skills." Arie interrupted.

Silv nodded and showed a virtual screen in front of him.

-Racial skill-

[Passive] Greed With Luck

- Item drop rate +10%

-Racial skill-

[Passive] Fast Learner

- Civilian skills exp rate +10%

"Ah! The exp rate doesn't affect adventurers!"

After he exclaimed with his discovery. He continued to check the other racial skills.

All of them had 2 racial skills.

The Elf had 'Yggdrasil's Blessing' and 'Quick Hunt'. It reduced elf energy consumption by 15% and adventurer's cooldown skill by 10%

The Dwarf has 'Civilian Dignity' and 'Equipment Expertise' which increased occupation skill and equipment stats by 10%.

The last, Beastkin has 'Dark Vision', a toggle skill that gave Beastkin an ability to see better in the dark.

The other skill was a passive called 'Beast Instinct' which gave the ability to avoid a killing blow. It had a 24-hour in-game cooldown.

He pondered quite a while.

"I'll choose human."

'I chose to skip the intro for my reward to quickly enter the game. It's not appropriate for me to stay here longer.' He thought.

"I will confirm it and transform your physique to the character."

His body began transforming to be more cartoonish style.

"Now, we will have a trial to try all of the adventurer's class available-"

"Skip!"