「 WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RELEASE OF VENTUS ANIMA ONLINE. 」
「 PLEASE PREPARE YOUR CHARACTER FOR THE START OF THE GAME WITHIN 3 DAYS. 」
. . .
"Well, this is it. Let's hope that she adapted to everything in the past year."
"The player system will activate to bring her to the tutorial world like a regular player, so we'll get to see her in 3 days."
A woman with a chestnut braid updo and office attire tapped her fingers on the table's surface. Right beside her was another woman with straight, platinum blonde hair tied into a ponytail to her knees with a lab coat. Both of them were observing the screen that showed the text message of the game's world.
"Chelsea, when the group disappeared for ten years, who was developing the game by then?"
The chestnut-haired woman stroked her chin in thought before answering.
"It was my mother and their parents who helped further the development of Aresina Online in order to bring them back one day. As long as the game is in good hands with determination, the ones inside the game will eventually return to the real world."
". . .If only this game was in the right hands. . ."
"Dr. Fallon, while we may not have the right to alter the game without the CEO's permission this time, you must believe in the girl to overcome his twisted ideals in this game. After all, she has the Etherlight system by her side."
"You're right. I have to believe that she can make it through this game." The platinum blonde-haired woman looked back at the screen with subtle endearment in her expression.
'Please be alright, little gem.'
. . .
". . .Only 3 days left."
A female youth stared at the system message in front of her.
It was finally time for the game to start.
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= 1 year before the release of Ventus Anima Online =
"Excuse me! Coming through!"
A raven-haired woman with blue eyes ran through a crowd on the sidewalk to get to work as quickly as possible. She woke up five minutes late to her job as a newspaper print journalist and had to take a short time preparing only the foundation and lipstick of her makeup. When she finally got to the doors of her newspaper company, Deijavu News, the woman was right on time to hear her boss calling for her.
"Where is Nora? Where is Claire Nora?!"
"I'm here, Mrs. Fleckett!"
Claire Nora ran up to her boss, her hair slightly shriveled from running all the way. She gave her boss an article of a video game company revealing that they were working on their first virtual reality massive-multiplayer online role-playing game, abbreviated as VRMMORPG.
"If you can't get here on time again, I have no choice but to fire you, Claire. I know you're doing your best but that's the only thing you'll need to work on."
"Yes. I understand, Mrs. Fleckett."
Mrs. Fleckett heads to her office with the article as Claire walks to her office space with a sigh. Her current late attendance was due to a recurrent dream of her falling from the sky and disappearing into weird ghostly ashes.
It all felt so real to her that she woke up having to reflect upon the same dream every morning for a moment until looking at the clock to realize that she was always five minutes late to work.
The new habit has been frustrating her since three days ago.
"Haaah, time to worry about that later."
She needed to find more information about the new VRMMO game to write about in their news article even if there's barely anything. There were many of them since the surge ten years ago with the first of them all, Aresina Online.
Aresina Online was the legendary VRMMO game that people still play towards this day and onwards, which has become a part of daily life with fantasy-like businesses in and out of the game by real-life economy. The developers who made the game still pump out new and interesting content that other VRMMOs would mostly follow or copy in their own ways.
It's been an everlasting game.
But it's too bad that article isn't written by her.
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Hours later towards evening, Claire finally finishes work for the day. On her way home she visits her favorite bakery that has been running for more than forty years, eating their delicious strawberry scones while sitting next to the window. The young woman never recalled having a favorite food until she came across the sweet.
"Hey, have you heard? The Etherdark Company is making their first VRMMO and they're having beta testers to come test their game before it's actual release!"
"Really, what day? Do they have a booth?"
"Sadly, they're only inviting the popular gamers and the developers of the other VRMMOs to come test their game. We can't play it until it's official release."
"Man that sucks."
Claire listened to the two young ladies' conversation while typing out the information gathered from them with a scone in her mouth.
The Etherdark Company inviting big names to beta test their game?
Sounds like a big scoop!
She put tips in the jar next to the cashier before heading back home, but had stopped after one single step. The woman felt something weird when she looked at the door in the left to the employees-only area.
Out of curiosity and without knowing, she was walking to the door after seeing a ghastly blue glow leading her there in a straight line. When her hand touched the door, her focus was broken by one of the employees' voices.
"Hey, if you're looking for the restroom it's on the other side."
A young man with dark brown hair spoke to her while pointing towards the other direction of the restroom behind the counter.
"Oh! Sorry, I uh. . .I was lost in my thoughts and didn't see where I was heading into."
The man told her that it was alright and Claire thanked him, walking quickly to the restroom with a shade of red on her face from embarrassment.
What even happened there? She was about to head into the employees-only area!
The raven-haired woman then told herself to calm down and that she was tired after a hard day of work. As Claire washes her hands, the mirror reflects a different appearance that causes her to freak out in surprise.
It was only for a split second, yet she was able to recall the appearance clearly. Purple hair and emerald green eyes.
Whoever or whatever that was, she felt familiar with that instance. All of that was a sign that the woman needed to head home and sleep, so she bids goodbye to the male employee and exited the door to home.
The young man watches her walk away until out of frame from the window and went to the employees-only area to call someone on his smartphone.
"Hey Ronnie? Yeah, I think I just found an unusual person who tried to enter the "room". She's a usual customer here. Alright, see you soon!"
As the man ends his call, he looks at an empty wall in silence.
Claire finally reaches home, setting her bag down on her chair and going to her bedroom to just lay her entire body on the fluffiest bed filled with her anime plushies.
She set her times along the digits of 6 A.M, 6:30 A.M, and 7 AM just to make sure she was able to wake up earlier for work tomorrow.
So with the young black-haired woman drifting off to sleep, she hopes that she'll get to wake up early and write about the new VRMMO game.
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= WORLD ONE: The First Crystal World - Prologue =
= Progress 100% - COMPLETED =
= NEXT: The Beta Test Invitation =