A schsool was surprisingly quiet in city L, the only sounds being heard were the rustling of the leaves with a rhythm guided by the wind flowing around them. One could hear the occasional sounds of teachers explaining in the classes. As for the students, they were either sitting looking blankly or sleeping. Some were even staring down at the wall clock above counting each second with a frustrated expression.
An investigation will show that this isn't happening only in this school but throughout the schools in city L. Each school was silent with students waiting for the closing bell to ring.
''Dong!, Dong!!, Dong!!!". The bells rang.
As soon as the bell rang, cheers of excitement resounded all over the schools with students hurrying to get out of their classrooms, some students even resorted to jumping windows! Even the Timekeepers kept their bells after a few rings as if they couldn't wait to leave! students filed out in crowds and fled like prisoners who escaped execution at the last minute. The teachers who were supposed to caution the students were surprisingly also among those who were hurrying to get out of the school!
In less than five minutes, the school quite down as if no one had been there before.
Why was this happening?
It was the day the latest virtual reality game, the REALM OF SPIRITUALITY was to be launched officially!
Realm of Spirituality is a reality game developed by Floating dreams studio with a reality rating of 99% achieving an earth-shattering record and sending other reality games crushing to rock bottom even before it was launched.
According to beta testers, the Realm of spirituality was a massive world about four times the size of Earth with thousands of Empires, Kingdoms, dungeons, and legacy lands to explore. One could grow stronger by acquiring weapons, equipment, and legacies with ancient storylines.
What made the game so frightening and widely accepted is that the time flow rate is faster in-game compared to Earth's, with a temporal rule of
1:3. That means, I minute on Earth is 3 minutes in game, 1 hour is 3 hours and 1 day (24hours) is 3 days (72 hours) in game. The opportunity to spend thrice of their lifespan in a realistic game gaining long life, enjoyment and incredible powers made the game a highly valued one all over the world!
According to records, since 9 AM the game was launched, players headcount already reached over 100 million matchings that of old games, and this number is still steadily increasing. The game was a free for all. As long as one is not an infant or a child, one can play. This explains why students and teachers are rushing home to join the game. With students arriving home and joining the game, the player count saw a qualitative increase in magnitude...
Xuan Yuan slowly packed his books and left the school. On his way home, he thought to himself.
"What's so special about a reality game? Just a game and it's receiving such exaggerated attention! What if it has a 99% rating? it still can't compare to the real world after all!"
As he reached home, he ate lunch, did his chores unhurriedly and returned to his room with a helmet-looking game console sitting on his bed.
Looking at the console, he sighed. He had been against playing this game but his Mother went ahead and got the console despite his disagreement. He had no interest in playing at all.
Xuan Yuan had always been bullied since young and so he had no friends. The person closest to him was his Mother, Xue Yao and no one else. He had a traumatic childhood life and always stayed alone paying no interest whatsoever in interesting things despite the efforts of his Mother.
His Mother saw the game as a way to make him more sociable and so made him play.
"I'll play only because of Mum then". He muttered and laid on his bed wearing the console on his head and logged in...
As Xuan Yuan chose to enter the Realm of spirituality, a strong suction force descended upon
his mind and his consciousness left his body into the boundless space.