The bytes were transported in the virtual reality of Last Byte. Dr. Fenix looked down into the bodies of these silently sleeping patients whose minds and souls were being teleported in the metaverse. The bytes were flabbergasted on what they observed. They glanced at one another with awe as they couldn't believe the sophisticated interior structure and design of the place. They appeared like standing in a huge vault or spaceship with mixtures of black, red, and blue dominant glowing LED lights.
"Where are we?" Elle's question made her shake her own head while glancing at Dayen, a woman at whom she doesn't know yet. Dayen glanced at her with an hesitant look plastered on her face. She constantly rubbed herself and tried concealing the bruises she had on her body even though these were totally visible even in the eyes of the blind.
Elle rolled her eyes and sighed, "Are you deaf?" asking with irritating thralling down her voicebox. Dayen's shoulders were startled as she stepped one step back while resting her head on her hand. She hid herself from the woman by bringing down her long, messy hair.
"I-I honestly… ahm, d-didn't k-know," she whimpered in the softest voice possible that only she can hear.
Elle just crossed her hands in front of her chest and shook her head. She was tapping her toe on the floor while looking at the surroundings. Dayen quickly went to the side and sat down. She almost slipped from her situation and almost cried in fury. her foot against the floor because of her situation and gritted her teeth with the spring of pain felt from her foot but the people just looked at her with nonchalant faces.
Except for this one individual who goes by the name Andrew. He approached the lady while extending his hand in a gesture of assistance and uttering the words, "Let me help you." He took hold of the unlucky woman's wrist and back with his fingers and directed her to sit in the proper spot.
As both of them squatted on the floor, the blue lights suddenly flickered—somewhat blinding the audience from their vision for a moment of seconds. They all gasped and were flustered. Some were even thinking of how to escape. When the flicker stopped after a few seconds, a single loud clicking sound can be heard.
Then, eight distinct numerals began to appear aligned on their shoulders all the way down to their elbows on the left side of their body. These numbers glowed in a robotic font in a manner like a dim light system, giving the impression that a flashlight full of numbers had somehow dropped on them.
"What is this?"
"Oh? Am I having a virus?"
"What's this for?"
The surroundings were filled with questions echoing against the walls. Riel was stunned seeing such floating words sprinkling his eyesight. He suddenly jumped in the air and shrieked after it appeared like a radiated figure which gave her a headache. Those figures appeared like ghosts! Because of this, he accidentally bumped into the back of a man named Daniel Robar. When the two of them faced each other, Riel's soul had almost gotten out from his body with eyes shivering. His mouth slowly opened to say sorry but he felt frozen in the middle.
Daniel's body is full of delta triangles, a section sign, scales of justice, and a lady justitia tattoos. He didn't utter a word and just stared down at Riel.
All of the fifty bytes were left flabbergasted, with some mouths slightly opening a little, by the numbers that they have seen.
Riel Dizon had a number of 00100100. Andrew Evangeluista with 00011000. Elle Robces with 00100111 while Dayen Aquila has 00001100 with her. Daniel Robar, on the other hand, gritted his teeth with a slight annoyance after seeing numbers 00001110 covering his tattoo of pride.
"The hell…" Elle suddenly muffled in disappointment while using her fingernails to scratch these numbers away.
While on the other, there is this little girl that roamed around the vicinity with joyous smiles. Her eyes shined as she scrutinized the figures like how she looked at her favorite barbie dolls at home.
"Cool!" she rejoiced.
"Good day, bytes."
Silence became the noise when the PA spoke.
"Each of you were assigned to your respective binary numbers depending on your registration count. This will be your permanent identity throughout the game."
"Binary numbers?"
"I… also do not know… But, it sounds aesthetic so I guess it isn't a bad thing," Elle shrugged her shoulders.
"Now, you need to choose your own heroes depending on the role of your choice. You can pick either of the following: a mage…."
The woman's voice coming from the Public Address (PA) system explained the different classes of heroes that the players are going to have the opportunity to choose later on, beginning with the mage. Then, she began to gradually present the additional heroes of Last Byte, which included a marksman, tank, fighter, support, and assassin. She also briefed them on the standard gameplay principles, and those who were already familiar with the MOBA gameplay system had a distinct advantage over the rest. They celebrated their advanced triumph by clapping their hands and beaming with happiness.
However, those people who had little to no knowledge about the game like Dayen and most of the aged people, had curved their mouths upside down. Elle messed up her hair and stomped her wrist at the side. "Ack! It's been a long time since I played Last Byte! I shouldn't be defeated in this game for kids!"
After the public address announcer finished speaking, the players stood up as a holographic screen that was about the height of a person materialized in front of each of them. The majority of them seriously considered picking their heroes and even reaching out to touch these flying lights. Those who are acquainted with the game and are experts on their own definition can be identified by the excitement that is written all over their faces, in contrast to those who have no knowledge of the game and were hesitant to put a finger up in the air.
After Andrew chose his hero, he noticed that Dayen had not chosen hers yet. Confusion was written all over her face.
"Do you need help?" he asked with a wrinkled forehead.
The woman nodded without looking at her, still, covering her bruises. The waiter slipped the sight of these injuries away and immediately helped her.
When all of the players had finished choosing their heroes, the outfit of the heroes they chose appeared in their bodies like a hologram. Still, they were wearing the same white outfit. It's just that they were floating lights around their bodies. Those who chose marksman and assassin jumped in excitement. They grabbed their hologram swords or bow and arrows and played around like little kids.
"Woah! We can hold our weapons and manipulate them through gestures!" That little girl exclaimed.
"Dang, it feels hollow holding nothing," Daniel complained.
After all of them had picked their heroes, the PA reappeared.
"Congratulations for picking an excellent hero of your choice! At this stage, you need to form a group of six bytes—"
"Bytes? Am I hearing this right? This woman is calling us bytes?" Daniel wondered in a suspicious tone while indirectly speaking towards Riel.
"You have a minute to do this task. Failure to comply would result in elimination. The timer starts now."
The space that had been almost completely calm was suddenly bustling with a cacophony of voices and footsteps. Elle uttered a moan as she landed her hand on her waist. hoping to remove those numbers. "Damn! "I didn't realize that being cured would be this energy-expensive," she grumbled out of the blue, making the people surrounding her criticize the way she made the corridor appear like a runway.
Elle thinks of escaping, but then she remembers that the contract says once the patient decides to join, he cannot beg to get out of this game anymore. So, she left with no choice but to interact. Well, she's good at capturing people's affection as what she thought.
Andrew glanced at Dayen who, still, looked like she wasn't on herself. It seems like he already knows what he is supposed to do.
"Do you want the two of us to form a group?" Andrew reached out and Dayen slowly nodded. Andrew forced a smile after seeing that the woman still didn't bother uttering anything.
"Alright, you stay here and I'll go and find more members."
Andrew Evangelista
I roamed around the space and had noticed that most of the people had already formed a group of five or six members. Since this gameplay consists of 50 players, then there should be at least seven groups at all. But, I guess, the game needs to stick at five members to make ten groups in total or else the other players will play with no group at all.
I recognized the guy who was standing at the door with the other man who had an adequate amount of masculinity. It was usually him that I encountered in the café almost every day. He studies at BMU.
"H-Hey bro—"
After he gazed at me in the air like he already knew who I was, I was speechless and my jaw dropped. So, I developed a level of confidence in my purpose to recruit him.
He came closer and smiled. "I-I always see you at The Bliss…"
"Of course, I work there," I answered.
I immediately invited him to join our team even though it was a bit embarrassing for me. Fortunately, he immediately agreed. It turned out that he also knew a man, who turned out to be that masculine guy, so I brought him along too. I also introduced myself to him.
Now, there are four of us. We need two more.
"I wonder what we are going to do after this," Daniel suddenly questioned, which surprised me.
"Isn't everyone playing Last Byte? It's like that's what we're going to do. After our team is formed, we will fight against other teams to destroy their turrets."
Daniel gritted his teeth as he spoke. "I wish I had that ample of time to play that game. I'm too busy with other stuff," he reasoned out.
They helped me look for other team members until we saw a woman standing alone in a far corner. We immediately went to her and asked her to come with us.
But, she scrutinized us from head to toe and doubted, "If I join your team, we'll win?"
Daniel wanted to answer but I immediately stopped him. I don't want to make this commotion bigger.
"We'll try—"
The woman gasped, rolling her eyes.
I let her attitude slip away by saying, "Also, look, the time is about to run out," I replied pointing to the timer above.
It didn't take long, the woman immediately joined us even though she was forced. All right. The important thing is that we form a team.
"Let's search together. We only need one—"
"Ten seconds remaining..."