[ Daily Mission : Rescue the Civilians ] completed!

Smoke and dust began to lift as the ringing of gunfire ceased.

Then, silhouettes wearing bulky combat exoskeletal power suits - combat exosuits - with camo paint jobs among the stone rubbles and debris slowly rose to their feet and moved to regroup in caution.

Radio comm instantly connected between them.

"We did it guys, GG!"

"Good job, guys, GG. Now, we're finally done for the day. Whew!"

"GG."

"GG well-played!"

"Gtg now, see you guys tomorrow!"

"He's been holding his piss forever, hahaha!"

"Guys, uhm we'll review this mission in D*scord tomorrow, we'll take one-day break then, everyone's okay?'"

"No probs."

"Sure!"

"Nuel, should I schedule a meeting event in D*scord then?"

"Yea, do that. And send our newbie an invite link, he's not in yet."

.....

Nuel removed the headset that he had been wearing for the past three hours as soon as he exited the game. His scuffled hair was even shaped by the band of the headset.

He stretched his arms around and flexed his taut shoulder muscles as he yawned.

He then moved the cursor of the mouse over to the Notepad icon on the desktop and double-clicked it.

He began typing in an entry; a log summary of some sort for the mission he and his party had completed just now.

It was his acquired habit as clan leader for the past six years ever since he started playing the game,「 ex Umbrae Online 」.

「 ex Umbrae Online 」 was an Open-World, Hardcore MMOFPS RPG game, meaning it's a role-playing shooter game with zero respawnability, on a huge continuous map with many other players, allies and hostiles.

It came out six years ago and was initially offered only to the first one million players worldwide.

With limited gaming slots, the fervent demand for the game drove its value sky high - once a slot had had been auctioned off up to the price of a five-hundred square meter mansion.

Nuel chortled to that.

He was fortunate enough to have insider's information beforehand and pre-ordered his slot before the hype hit trending.

Of course, throughout his six years of playing the game, the gaming slots were subsequently increased per the game patch and expansion updates.

A unique feature of「 ex Umbrae Online 」 was that the in-game currency, Credit ₢, could be converted into real money with a nominal rate of around 1 USD for each 1000 ₢, varying depending the game company's profit margin for the day.

And this was how Nuel had made ends meet right after finishing college, he grinded daily completing repeatable missions just to barely cover for his rent and bills.

Despite being on a wheelchair, he managed to take up waitressing during the day at an Italian two blocks away, and at night, he took daily missions to earn some Credits.

The deep-black OLED screen of his smartphone suddenly lit up; it's three sixteen a.m. .

F**k! It's already three?! I'm so going to be late for tomorrow's shift.

Nuel steered his wheelchair to the side of the bed after he put his workstation into 'sleep' and then he remotely switched off the lights in the room.

He then carried his body onto the bed, huddling himself within the slightly odoriferous blanket, eyes closed.

I really have to send this blanket for laundry soon...

...

.....

....

_____

...

...been partially adapted to match the current...

Your [ Name ] has failed to be set due to system restriction...

...successfully set to [ Class : Civilian ].

Your [ Race ] has been successfully set...

...points have been partially adapted...

...[ DMG ] Stat is being calcula...

...a moment...

Your [ EVA ] stat is...

...wait for a moment.

...calculated based on the [ Attribute ] points...

...Please wait...

Your inherent traits have been adapted into the [ Deviance : ... ] ...

...[ Act 0 ] is initialising...

...countdown in.

3.

2.

...

_____

....

.....

...

...-wuu.

weee-aaaw-aaaw-aaaw-wuu.

Ding!

Weee-Aaaw-Aaaw-Aaaw-Wuu.

Ding!

WEEE-AAAW-AAAW-AAAW-WUU.

Ding!

The noise of a blaring siren was slowly yet irritatingly getting louder.

F**K, oh, my GOD!!! Can't I have just a quiet night to sleep! Please...

"...just SHUT UP!!!

Nuel screamed into sobering.

A strange scene welcomed him.

He was lying behind a cracked glass wall, inside an enclosed and cramped space, and his supposed bed was now lukewarm, wet and sloshy?

The loud sound of the siren wailed stupidly in the background.

Wha-where the hell is this? Where the f**k am I?

Nuel tried moving around but there seemed to be restraints on his limbs and his neck.

Panic rushed into his nerves as his eyes rapidly darted around.

He was close to an anxiety attack when suddenly-

Beep-beep.

"Greetings, Subject-023. The cryogenic freezing serial number 2094CI-023 has achieved one-hundred percent retrograde resuscitation. Health check-up is now in progress. Please wait for a moment."

A female voice sounded eerily within the liquid-filled capsule-bed, stunning Nuel.

A gentle whirring then followed after, all the while the unknown watery liquid tingled at the skin of his entire body.

The background siren no longer bore onto him any sense of urgency.

Nuel broke out of his panic-gripped fervor and asked,

"Uhm, miss, what happened here? Where am I? Where's this place? Did-did my apartment caught on fire, and I was trapped in it, and then I was saved by the firefighters and sent to the hospital and now I'm in the ICU? Is that it?! Is that what happened...?"

"..."

"...Oh, my god, I f**king survived a house fire!"

"Negative. Accessing log, serial number 2094CI-023. Loading log, reading log entry. Facility, Sector Thacon Epsilon, Ryvius Psiobiology Research Facility. Date, March 9th, 2094. Entry, Subject-023 was successfully put into cryogenic sleep. Biological and neural signals within nominal margins. Starting irradiation of hyperhedral polycrystalline silicon, sequence-α157395. Duration till critical irradiation, 189215999.42 seconds. Select [ More ] for more subject information. End of entry, zero edits made, storing log."

"The fu-what, Thacon...??? That Thacon THACON...?!! No, no, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait..."

Nuel's pupils slowly dilated in angry disbelief.

"...that can't be, that's impossible. Wait, no, haha, I can't be-"

-I can't be possibly INSIDE the game!

"Health check-up complete. Musculoskeletal atrophy at 26 percent. Biological and neural signals within nominal margins. Subject-023 is functionally healthy and may proceed to tissue regeneration therapy. Does Subject-023 consent?_"

Ding!

A familiar holographic screen of translucent bluish tint immediately appeared before him, it was his [ Character Status ] screen attached with a [ Missions ] tab below it, showing the ongoing [ Main Story Mission: Rise from Cryostasis ].

_____

[ MISSIONS ]

[ Act 0 - Main Story Mission : Rise from Cryostasis ] :

- select to open tab -

_____

F**k NOOO!!!

A loud explosion suddenly echoed through the walls, interrupting his already disordered train of thoughts.

Alarmed, Nuel's gaming instincts kicked in and he quickly made up his mind.

He knew what that explosion was all about, and it was nothing but bad. Real bad.

"I say again; Does Subject-023 consent?_"

"Yes, I consent. Yes ,yes. Now!"

Beep-beep.

"Tissue regeneration therapy starting. A slight discomfort may be experienced throughout the therapy session. Please remain calm."

Another explosion followed by screaming of otherworldly origins resounded, but Nuel was already distracted by the discomforting pain that was wrecking and tearing his flesh and bones apart, inside and out.

His entire being was throbbing in agony, his heart was jumping out of his chest, his cries was choked at the back of his throat as bulging veins popped everywhere - it was pure torture.

It did not actually last that long though, only two minutes at most.

But heck it felt like an eternity.

F**K! There's no way this is the f**king game...

"Subject-023 has completed tissue regeneration therapy. Discharge procedure in progress. Please wait for a moment. Discharge procedure completed. Thank you for your full cooperation. We from Ryvius are grateful for your service to mankind."

The rounded glass cover of the cryostasis pod dislodged from its two centuries of immobility and opened up as the lukewarm liquid was drained away.

Cold air filled in his lungs as the siren sounded louder.

Nuel sat up and slowly reached out to the edge of the pod, pulling himself up despite the still-throbbing pain in his arms.

Then, he realised he could feel with his legs, and he could move them too!

Oh, my god! Don't tell me-!!!

Nuel rose to his feet.

Surprise, followed by joy filled him. He smiled and laughed and he jumped out of the capsule pod, albeit landing a bit unstable.

"Hahaha. I. Can. Walk! I can f**king jump! Hahaha..."

Ding!

The holographic screen before him was updated once again, showing the status of the mission [ Rise from Cryostasis ] to be completed. Below it stated the mission reward.

_____

[ Act 0 - Main Story Mission : Rise from Cryostasis ] Completed :

You have resuscitated from a 200-years cryogenic sleep and are bewildered. You have a feeling that your revival is not simple.

- [ Base Attribute : Random ] +1.

- obtained.

- obtained.

Do you wish to learn now?

-- YES / NO --

Do you wish to learn now?

-- YES / NO --

_____

I guess, yea?

There were also other prompts to check his [ Character Status ], [ Abilities & Skills ] and [ Talent Trees ] which were glowing in pulses, waiting to be selected, but Nuel was too preoccupied with processing the situation he currently in.

Ding!

Ding!

Another two missions were already been triggered with their details hung silently below it, like the small-print of a T&Cs.

The moment was cut short though, another huge explosion shook the entire room, followed by soul-stirring monstrous wailing.

I can't believe I f**king spawn as one of the civilian NPCs in the mission we did last night.

Originally, the players' mission, the [ Dungeon Mission: Rescue the Civilians ] was a monthly mission issued by the NPC faction, the .

It was a search-and-rescue type of mission where players have to raid the 'dungeon' within a given amount of time while fighting against a set amount of monsters, the formless hyperspatial alien monsters, called the Umbrals, though known colloquially as the Shadows.

And the mission was only to be taken on as a party with a minimum of two players regardless of levels.

Inversely, its difficulty and item drops differed greatly depending on the party's average levels, skewed slightly to the higher level players.

Yet now, he had activated a never-seen-before [ Act 0 - Main Story Mission: Survive till Rescue Arrives ] and the player's [ Dungeon Mission: Rescue the Civilians ].

Did I actually triggered an NPC story mission AND a player's mission???

And guessing that he was in fact the players' objective in the dungeon mission, it meant that he had to survive for at least half an hour before the players could reach his location.

F**K!

Nuel looked around the dimly-lit room, there were two other cryogenic pods beside his. The five-by-five-meter square room was messy with strewn about with medical instruments of sort, its white metallic walls shone bleakly as the space was lit by a single daylight fluorescent ceiling lamp.

There was no dust in the air contrary to the visuals that greeted him, both from when he did the mission as a player and now, as an 'NPC'.

In fact, the air tasted clinical and dry.

However, he could innately sense that the other two lying inside the cryogenic pods beside his were as dead as wood, they were not emitting any mental presence anymore.

They had passed away during their cryogenic sleep.

Wait. How did I know that...?

Nuel's eyes lighted up. He immediately opened up his [ Character Status ] screen and began scanning through the items on the familiar holographic interface.