It was the year 2189…

Somewhere in the far reaches of the cosmos stood a gigantic space fortress.

Surrounding this space fortress that spanned hundreds of kilometers both in width and length was a formidable blue protective energy shield.

At the perimeter of this energy shield, multiple warships patrolled.

Hundreds of formidable-looking warships patrolled the perimeter of this space fortress, their hulls wearing the famous sigil of one of the advanced civilizations of the universe.

It was a symbol of a Phoenix soaring into space amidst a backdrop of flames.

This was the widely recognized sigil of the Arcade Civilization.

As for this space fortress?

This was the palace of the King of the Arcade Civilization.

In a gigantic floating hall inside the space fortress, some of the highest-ranking figures of the Arcade Civilization gathered to celebrate their victory.

"Victory is ours!" They cheered.

"Glory is ours!" They cheered on their King.

"We've defeated all of our fiercest rivals, including the Qhicurids, all that remains now is to fight the battle of Newgate".

"Once the Fverns are taken from the picture, victory is ours".

They all raised their synthesized bottles of wine towards their King. "To the King who shall become an Emperor!" They all cheered.

Seated on his throne that was made from the heart of a dying star, the King of the Arcade Civilization looked down upon his subjects.

Just like every other Arcadian in the universe, the king looked amphibian. He had blue skin with hands and legs that had what felt like an amalgamation of a fish's fin and a bird's wings attached to them.

His eyes were a pure vermillion color.

At this moment, with his scepter of authority, the King of one of the strongest advanced civilizations of the universe who was currently riding the momentum of their superior war advantage gave the order to commence the final battle.

"Fight!" He ordered.

And that was all it took.

For the next 12 weeks that followed, across multiple space stations of the Arcade Civilization, hundreds of thousands of warships were mobilized towards the Star Cluster Newgate, the home of the Fverns.

They were the last survivors not called Arcade who were part of the advanced civilizations, now they were put to the sword.

The Fverns put on a valiant struggle but in the end, the shadow cast by the Arcade Civilization was simply too big.

After 12 weeks, the Arcade Civilization became the last survivor among the advanced civilizations of the universe.

They won the colonization war, colonizing multiple galaxies.

Most star clusters across the universe submitted to their rule without fight.

That week, from a mere advanced civilization, they became the Arcade Empire and their King became an Emperor.

Not satisfied with most of the star clusters though, the new Emperor of the world wanted the whole world so he pushed his advantage.

For the next 5 weeks that followed, the Arcade space army went about from star cluster to star cluster, colonizing every race and civilization.

By the end of 5 weeks, all races who survived the colonization became the pets of the Arcade Empire.

After that, a long period of peace followed, but peace never lasts.

Many decades later…

In one of the many council meetings of the Arcade Empire, one of the high-ranking officials who was present, a scientist who was a war hero of the colonization war, a hideous looking Arcadian became bored.

Immediately after the council meeting, as the others went about trying to accomplish the orders of the emperor, he left to his space laboratory.

Throughout the journey back, he soliloquized.

And once he got back to his cave inside his space lab, with a grumbling expression on his hideous face, he said it. "Peace is boring".

He had a lazy look on his face.

But looking around his state-of-the-art laboratory comprising technology from the Arcade Empire and all that was scavenged of the dead advanced civilizations, this scientist's eyes suddenly regained some light in them.

His eyes regained some light because he suddenly had an idea.

His eyes lit up. "Let's spice things up".

He stood up, pacing around his laboratory with a crazy look in his hideous eyes. "Let's create something exciting from our pets".

"Hehehe," he chuckled maniacally. "Let's make their lives hell and throw them a straw to survival".

He looked out through the transparent screen of his laboratory at the empty void before him. "The carrot and stick method".

And so it started, project excitement!

Suddenly recruiting some of the best VR technology experts across the universe from multiple races in just a single day, they started work on the most ambitious game project ever.

The mad scientist, Magedon didn't want to create a virtual reality game, that was too fake for his liking.

Rather, he wanted to create a hyper realistic game, a game that mixed elements of a virtual game with reality.

A game whose characters would be living people.

A setting with game elements, enabling characters to have all the details like health points, mana points, stamina and all that yet making it possible for the characters to be real living people in real life.

Magedon yearned to create a fusion of something born of game and reality.

And by gathering all the best VR technology experts across the universe, he was able to achieve his goal in just a single week of experimenting.

On that day, he created the hyper realistic game that would soon take the universe by storm.

He was excited. "Hehe, what should I name it?"

"Run for your life!" He exclaimed before shaking his head. "No, that's too basic, I need something more captivating".

"The Death Runners?!" He grinned. "Sounds exciting but not my thing yet".

"What of…?" He scratched his creepy-looking head in deep thought, and then, his eyes suddenly lit up. "Runners; Survival".

"No," he grinned. "Runners; Survival and Glory".

"This is it!"

And so, the name of the game was decided.

For the next few weeks, with permission from his Emperor, Magedon started gathering game characters from the pets of the Arcade Empire, people from different races who were to take part in his exciting game.

Despite everything, the mad scientist was still not satisfied.

"I have so much technology available to me".

"Stopping at only this feel like I'm not doing enough justice".

"Why should I settle for the best runners from just one era?" He rubbed his chin in thought. "What if I can unite the best runners from multiple eras?"

"What if I can unite the best runners from every era?" His eyes gleamed.

And that was when the crazy idea came. "I need to create a time machine!"

6 months later, the first time machine was created.

With a look of pure excitement on his face, the mad scientist got prepared to suck the first souls from the whirlpool of time as he inputted the settings.

>Preference<

{Talents: speed, acceleration, …}

{Reputation: best speedster, renowned as runners, …}

Beep!

The time machine activated!