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After receiving the message that he had leveled up, Dale ran towards a secluded corner of the city and started to check his game system.
[Player's online 2/100]
The first thing he noticed was the number of players. After 4 weeks of Beta, almost all players had stopped.
People had their own lives, and they couldn't spend it all playing a game that has almost nothing to do with it.
And in the first 1 and a half week, literally everything there was to the Beta had been done. Special missions, Dungeons, Raids, they did it all.
New content would only be seen later when the game launched.
Dale and Jelly were the only active players now.
And this had been the case for a little while now, because, since last week, the number of active players was around 7, with the other 5 being people that were just exploring things to try and see if they could find something secret.
They approached them, but they did not share what they knew… Dale had his selfish reasons for it, he would only trade info for more info, while Jelly was simply angry at them since they bothered him ever since he successfully completed a ritual from the last game.
They wanted to learn what he had done, and he wouldn't share at all because they were rude.
But they stopped eventually since it wasn't anything significant to begin with… Or so they believed.
However, it was true that they eventually realized that the two games were indeed connected in some way, although it was difficult to say if this is also an easter egg dropped by the developers or something with a bigger secret…
"So! What do I gain for being the very first to reach Level 100?!"
Dale went over the game notifications once again.
[You have Leveled Up! Current Level 100]
[The first chain has been broken through by accumulation and hard work]
[Your Status is changing]
[Your Class is changing]
[Your Skills are changing]
[You did not achieve a Status Evolution nor did you achieve enlightenment]
[Status Ratio has changed from 1:1 to 1:5]
[A penalty has been enforced due to your lacking achievements and qualifications]
[Status Ratio has changed from 1:5 to 1:1]
[Your Class doesn't meet the requirements for LOCKED]
[Your Skills don't meet the requirements for LOCKED]
[Locked]
[Locked]
[Loc…]
…
[Over Limit! Quest has been generated]
[You don't meet the requirements]
[Over Limit! Quest has removed]
When Dale finished reading the messages, he felt as if he had been blue balled.
All of that work for this?... Over half of the messages are locked!
With a bit of anger and even a lingering disappointment, he sent a picture of this to Jelly so they could discuss in the next few days what all of this meant, after all, at the end of the day, this was information exclusive to them!
But to his surprise, it wasn't the end yet!
[DING!]
[You have acquired the Title: Failed Transcendent]
[You have acquired the Title: The most pitiful Transcendental]
[You were the first to achieve Level 100, would you like to record your name in the Hall of Fame?]
[You have received a message from: Elden Throne]
"!! What? There was more? And what does it mean with 'Elden Throne'?! Did I gain a message from the freaking developers? Cool… But also eerie, I won't get my account banned right?"
Dale checked the Titles and they were just cosmetic Titles, they didn't give any sort of boost and their sole purpose was to look cool towards other players, although he and Jelly confirmed that some Titles do affect how the NPCs view the player.
He skipped the system question since he didn't know what the Hall of Fame was yet, although he had a pretty big idea, so he jumped to read the message…
[Dear Player Kindred Flamingo, it has come to our attention that you accomplished something we deemed impossible.
Do not fret as your account won't be banned or suspended, instead, we are here to congratulate you…
Bla bla bla…
Hence we would like to give you a reward… And a deal.
We from Elden Throne see our endgame content with extreme care and love, and it would be a shame to have it fall into our playerbase's hands earlier than intended.
We have seen how you shared this info with your friend, player Jelly Donuts without Sugar, however, we have intercepted the message in your stead.
We are deeply, deeply sorry for having to resort to such a thing, and it will never happen again once the game starts for real on February 1st next year.
First, your reward, we would like to present you with the chance to buy one of our Ultra Augmented Reality Pods at a 90% discount, these are currently still in their prototype phase, and we would be more than glad to properly discuss this deal with you at a later date.
Second of all, you will be given access to our game, 10 minutes before everyone else! Just log into your account and the game will open for you 10 minutes before the planned time.
Third…
]
However, at the time he read the third message, his game screen turned dark and his pod turned off on its own.
[WARNING: OVERHEAT]
[INITIATING EMERGENCY SYSTEM LOGOUT]
/Splash!/
"HAAA!... Haaa… Whatefuck!"
Dale woke up taking deep breaths while he felt his entire body sore and in pain.
His head especially, hurt a lot, it was a familiar pain, it was the pain of being forcefully returned from a time dilation…
The Neuryne Solution inside his pod didn't have the time to be flushed into the system and instead made a mess on the floor of his room.
Dale gasped for air as he held his oxygen mask.
"Haa… Fuck… What a mess…"
/Clang!/
Dale kicked his machine in anger.
"Why did you decide to do this now, of all times?!"
{Information transferring… Complete}
Dale heard something and turned to his beeping machine and asked:
"Can you repeat that tin can?"
/Beep Beep…/
But the machine only beeped, it did not reply to him at all.
"Was it trying to download something and it got overheated?... Could it have been… A malware?! Please no, this was my 18th birthday gift!"
{Accessing… Re-adjusting configuration… Parameters have been set}
He once again heard the mechanical voice, but he realized the voice was that of a woman, different from his machine robotic male tone.
"What is it this time?"
Dale checked his room, and even his clock, it couldn't have been his brother since he must be at the summer camp with his friends.
So what was it?
{$^%#%^}
A loud, acute noise suddenly blasted his ears.
"Ouch, my ears!" Said Dale as he fell to the ground
"Did I get some sort of mental problem from being ejected so brutally?... I'll take a look on the internet after a bath… And I'll call mom to…"
"What is this mess, son?"
Dale looked to the side to see his mom with a worried look as she looked at the messy room.
"... Mom…"
Dale explained what happened and his mother just let out a sigh and said he was unlucky, she said for him to take a shower and rest, and if he feels any discomfort later on they would seek out a doctor.
So with his ears still ringing from the previous noise, he went to the bathroom to try and relax.
…
"Dammit, now I am curious about what the developers said… But then again, it could've been a spam message and I got tricked… Shit, it was way too sudden."
Dale removed his special suit and looked at the mirror, his eyes were a bit sunken in due to his many days playing, but he was fine overall.
"I look tired as hell… Once this is all done I will send a message to Jelly and apologize, I will also confirm if that was a true developer message or not… That is if my machine still works."
But the moment Dale was about to turn away from the mirror, he saw something strange in it.
A small green square was now in the corner of the mirror, it seemed like a sticker but at the same time not…
"Was that always here? Did that idiot stick something else here? I thought he stopped putting stickers in the mirror a year ago…"
So Dale went to pull it out… But his finger passed right through it!
"WOW!"
Surprised, he pulled his finger in a hurry and the green square trembled like water.
Dale on the other hand had jumped to the other side of the bathroom out of fear. This was a normal reaction to your mirror suddenly turning into water…
He walked to it again and the green square was still there, this time, he tried to use his toothbrush but there was no reaction as if it was painted in the mirror.
"It isn't a problem with my vision, and it isn't neither paint nor a ticker. So what is this? Did dad buy some sort of geek gadget?"
'Doesn't seem to be the case…'
Dale investigated it a bit more before he manned up and touched the square…
His finger passed right through it and it felt like he was touching water…
The square was only big enough for one finger, unfortunately…
"OUCH! MY… "
Dale suddenly felt something prickle his finger, and he pulled it out quickly, and when he did so, the green square disappeared.
There was a single drop of blood slowly falling out from his finger, proof that something did happen.
"This is getting out of hand…"
{Biological Core has been processed. Parameters have been recalibrated}
Dale suddenly looked around the bathroom in a hurry, but there was nothing there.
"Who's…"
{Initiating}
"!"
All of the sudden, Dale felt the world shake and his body weakened…
/THUD!/
Dale fell on the cold floor of the bathroom and soon enough, his parents rushed inside and carried him to the hospital…
…
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Notes