Battleships surrounded a dark-green planet, performing an Orbital Bombardment. Constant flashes of light on its surface depicted mass explosions. Communication from the ships are being relayed to its one and only viewer.
>>Command. This is 991 Pod. Permission to drop.<<
>>Wait! Scanning for any surface interference.<<
>>Lasing target! Lasing target!<<
>>We're under fire! Requesting.... Uaargh!!<<
Erik watched the battle unfold from the Vult feed with little interest. He slumped back to his sit and waved a hand. The broadcast zapped leaving the ancient room back to normal.
'There it is. Xenocide.' He thought and swirled to his desk only to find an incoming video call.
"Receive," He ordered and a window appeared above his desk, displaying a gorgeous woman.
"If it isn't my dear Selena." He poetically greeted, eyes surprisingly calm despite seeing one of his competitor.
Selena, a council and representative of the Cedar Syndicate eyed him with suspicion before she said, "It has come to my attention that twelve personnel... No, more precisely, Agents, disappeared from the supervision of AI Core, Geniva."
Erik only answered with a smile.
"I know they're yours, Erik." A sly smile crept on her face. "And I also know you didn't send them to the war." Her eyes intensified, "So where'd you sent them?"
"Guess where.." Erik replied nonchalantly, and poured a tea then gently took a sip.
A moment of thought, Selena gave up and called out to him with a much calmer voice, "Erik? Tell me where they are." She winked at him, "Tell me, and I'll let you have me for a night."
Erik immediately spat out the tea and looked at her in disbelief, "A woman of your stature shouldn't act that way."
Seeing how he reacted, she can't help but let out a satisfied chuckle, "Isn't that a man's wildest fantasy?"
"I prefer a more decent woman." Erik narrowed his eyes.
"You're no fun at all." Selena pouted, "How about this?" Another sly smile crept on her face, "A test of power."
"Hmm.. Interesting." Erik rested his cheek on a fist and gestured her to continue.
"We will give the people a show..." Selena stated, a dangerous glint in her eyes.,"a show of our newest model of mobile suits."
Upon hearing it, Erik's face instantly paled.
<<>><<>>
>><<>><<
E D G E
The only thing that is visible in the total darkness are these letters written in fire. These letters would vanish within a few seconds, followed by a dot of light that slowly expanded. Boom! Streaks of light slowly faded from Jikein's vision.
A moment passed and he is standing on tiles of white that expanded as far as his eyes can see. No air. No heart beat. No temperature. A nausea suddenly occurred to him which he didn't give in to.
>>Connecting to Server<<
>>Synchronization Complete<<
Please choose a destination.
Jikein started to scroll at the options. Ka'ampf. Personal Space. Alternate Earth. Alternate AI Earth. Archive. . . . . . . . . . .
Multiple places to choose. Jikein felt bored. He had been in the Edge for a century. It's not because it has limited features but he already exploited them all. Finally, he vividly recalled Ender mentioning Infinity Connected and decided to check it out.
After scrolling for a while, he didn't find Infinity Connected. He was about to give up when he found a new option.
>>Switch to different alternate Virtual Reality<<
Jikein immediately chose the option. Then another window appeared showing all the available VR, but there is only one; Infinity.
As soon as he swiped the tab, he felt a sensation of being flung into space at the speed of light as he passed through countless of stars with streaks of lights bathing him. He slowly came to a halt then a voice, composed of thousands, greeted him.
>>Welcome to Infinity!<<
Stars, planets and other celestial bodies passed Jikein's sight.
With the aid of the Vult, Infinity has connected people from different fleets.
A list of the fleets that are currently using Infinity appeared in his vision. He could only chuckle seeing all the year 2218 series of colony fleets are under the list.
>>Infinity emphasizes 50% reality and 50% fantasy.<<
Jikein could only raise a brow.
>>Hundreds of systems and planets to explore. Hundreds of races to choose from.<<
Species of different features came to view.
>>Infinity is only limited by imagination!<<
Jikein turned around right after feeling a breeze on his face.
You can now start your career!
A huge red planet materialized in front of Jikein. He was gazing at it in awe while floating beside it like a satellite in orbit.
-----
The newly released Tyonian Race!
- The name of their race came from the god Tyon, their main deity of both creation and destruction. Tyonians are a bit redder in complexion, humanoid in form but has four arms which makes them more efficient in some way. They are larger in physique than most of the other races. Their main elemental affinity is fire.
-----
Jikein instinctively swipe a hand and another planet came to his view displaying an information of another race. He explored the list while carefully deciding which to pick. There are elves, human, dwarf, beastmen and so forth.
A dark planet finally came to view which he took interest in. After reading every information about the races, he still couldn't decide so he decided to log out from Infinity and return to the Edge.
>>Infinity awaits your return!<<
The dire voice stated as Jikein was transported back to the Edge. When he was once again standing on the white-tiled floor, Jikein immediately swiped a hand and started to search the Archive, where information from users are bundled up. It's more like Google.
The first thing he saw on the first forum he visited, is that Infinity was constantly releasing new races every month, and most of them are time limited event. Due to players dying often, this feature makes up for the player's dissatisfaction of the game's one life rule.