Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

010.10 | The Five Grand Bosses of the 200th Floor

Many things changed on Earth after a thousand of years. Many mighty seas had dried up while new rivers were made. Mountains had replaced its inhabitants while volcanoes closed up to develop islands. Many creatures had undergone change to become better while some completely stopped existing.

Change is the only process that will never change.

Yet, the planetary cycles remained as before.

The days still consisted of twenty fours and each hour stipulates sixty minutes. There are even twelve months with the respected number of days assigned per name. The weeks, the days, and years - everyone still follows the ancient calendar that recorded humanity's bountiful history.

The key moment the night sky changed from the dark vermilion blue to a pale blue sky where the dancing aurora dwells is also the time when the Earth is the liveliest. Even though the lively nights were also sleepless, humans still desired to sufficiently rest at night therefore only people that express a different preference would remain awake at night.

Most of these people are workaholics that went overtime or social workers in night shifts, and student-aged people heartily enjoying their gallant youth. This can be narrowed down to a specific group of people - the gamers.

In a certain part of the world where synthetic ideas dwell is a crowd of people having heated discussion. It is the [Gaming Genre] section in the Star Network that is mainly populated by young people. The coordinator of this section created many interesting channels updated every hour.

The topic about gaming is quite extensive.

It is not limited to topics about game plans but also to the process of creating games. Essentially, there is even a channel where beta games coded by the students were posted. There is also an art channel where artists post their favorite game characters or the character design they created for a game.

These are only the familiar ones. More topics are equally interesting.

During the early hours after midnight, a well-known game blogger with a huge following base posted a content update. The blogger merely written a few operative words carefully introducing the game and some description then attached a small video and the link for the full content. The followers were familiar with the blogger's usual content posting so they thought this one was just one of their interesting gameplay.

There is not a lot of traffic since people are still sleeping so the post was instantly covered with new updates coming from the other timezones. Only those loyal followers took time to investigate on it.

However, there is a sudden change in the weather.

The night owls that are just passing time by looking over articles and stuff noticed that the post has been repeatedly shared by their mutual friends. It started with a few numbers until the hundreds become thousands and currently has been shared with the other prominent accounts.

The curiosity delivered these people to click the video.

The title showed that it was the gameplay from Dystopian Tales Online. It is a famous game, so even those people that are not playing it know it well. The game is often aired in the public after all, so anyone will really get familiar with it.

Many people guessed that the gameplay would be all about the Thunder Beast's new dungeon exploration strategy or the Arcana's character builds. It could conceivably be another joint quest undertaken by Artisan's Guild and Merlin's box. The names and figures of the famous guild leaders hovered in their mind as they waited for the video to load.

Just then, the words [BETA TESTS SIXTH SERVER CLIP]

When the words showed, several bullet comments floated on the screen. Everyone is aware about the new server, so the initial impression changed to enthusiasm. The comments flooded the screen, so they have to turn the bullet comment option off to see the content of the video.

The first part of the video exhibited the recent features of the sixth server. There are terrains, new monsters, additional world gates, and the Hal's Grand Dungeon on the Zwene Floor. When they thought it would end with just that, the scene changed to a gloomy cave.

There are many familiar players inside the cave and all of them are crowded in a certain area. The focus of the camera shifted to a player with bartender clothes then quickly loomed forward to highlight the figure of another player preparing to attack a silver armored boss.

It ended with a music cut after a rising c****x. It is a cliff hanger.

Nobody dared to complain as they quickly moved to the link to see the whole video. It steered them to Disboard that is already heated as of the moment.

Despite the increasing viewers, the hubbub remained small. After all, most of the players are not playing in VR and so are sleeping on their beds. Only the few people that are on the other side of the Earth and the night owls excitedly rapped their keyboards to share their sentiments. All of them are sure that this trivial event will become a trend next day.

It wasn't an understatement. Dungeon clearing is indeed just a minor event as compared to guild wars and seasonal special quests. After all, defeating floor bosses is very common and only those small organized groups that wanted to try defeating the boss will keenly watch it.

Many guild uses this as a measurement of skills too. The dungeon monsters are much clever and stronger compared to ground monsters so more players clear dungeons to quickly increase their levels. Since the setting made it possible for constant failure and death, only few people would dare to broadcast it.

Nobody wanted to see a video of players dying and the player would also not want people to see their mistakes.

Last night's activity also fell in the same category. It's just that the actors playing the game are quite distinguished.

The most active players that even held a public viewing are the formal members of the Cassaianne Guild. These are the people that pledge alliance to remain in the guild even after attaining a high level. Players with the Cassaianne Guild's symbol of four leaf clover chatted the most on the Disboard's general channel.

They enthusiastically praised their guild leader. Even in the middle of the broadcast, they are commenting about how good is that kick or that Clover's punch could kick their seven dear souls. After a series of mindless praising, the players suddenly become sentimental, saying it has been long for their guild leader to go back in the limelight again, and he should act like a proper guild leader and work like this.

These thoughts have been shared many times not only in Disboard but also in other social media sites. The sleepless night continued until the sun gently wakes the world up. Most of the people look at their social media accounts upon waking up. The night owls retired to sleep and accepted the crown to the morning people to continue the fanfare.

All of these are happening unknown to the people who participated in the game. The VR players required to sleep during the gameplay so obviously they wouldn't be aware of the results of their successful expedition. Though Leon already predicted it in his heart, most of them altogether wanted to take a break after the nerve wracking battle.

Clover defeated the enormous tarantula in one strike.

There is no surprise. They have been notified by the system about Clover reaching the required chain combo and have expected it to end like that. They were indeed surprised that Clover would use a chain combo to defeat the boss. It is quite risky and prone to cause death than power.

Well, who has the guts to chain combo a powerful boss? And the boss isn't just a low leveled one; it is the boss that is past a thousand levels. Only players like Clover that has a hundred percent confidence could do such a death seeking thing.

Anyways, the second boss has been defeated but they weren't qualified to confront the third boss. The system notified the players that it is time for maintenance so they have to abandon the game. The cave has been forcedly opened that ended Clover's gameplay.

It is such a pity but they could not do anything about it. Five hours is not really enough to defeat those high-level bosses. But it already satisfied many players. They are aware that Clover was pulled in to play with the other people resulting in a game without a definite plan.

The similar person, [Airplain-103], made a heartwarming post summarizing the last night's escapade. It highlighted the most thrilling parts of the battle into words that almost looked like a novel on the making. Many people praised his divine words that even the admin pinned the post for everyone to see.

It says:

===================

[AIRPLANE-103]

It was such an exhilarating night! The world is so cruel, and I am just a lonely guy yet I was blessed with such a good rendition of a god in play. I wanted to make a new list of tallies but realized that only our god, Clover, made a decent kill last night. Hence, instead of giving numbers and statistics, I am to narrate the event that transcended the views of mortals wanting to cross the realm of the gods...

===================

It is a very long post - very long that even the newly awakened Clover shuddered after leafing through it. Every word is so greasy and slick that Clover almost wanted to give the poster an award for creative writing. Why play the game as a professional player, ba? Just become a writer and surely you will gain millions with that talent!

The tick of courage brought by the half awoken mind made Clover respond to the message.

[CSSNN GUILD - CLOVER] : What are your dreams and aspirations in life? I am fully impressed.

Nobody expected for Clover to suddenly send a message to the general chat so everyone lagged for a while before greeting him good morning. They expressed their congratulations very quickly that covered the message he sent. Still, the person whom he replied was notified and responded with heartfelt words.

[AIRPLANE-103] : I am so honored! My god noticed me! Good morning, sir! This unqualified person wanted to become your servant. I am so happy, geeeee!

Clover sent a smirking moving emoji with a message:

[CSSNN GUILD - CLOVER] : @Airplane-103 Of course, you are free to become my servant. There is still one position empty. Hey, @CSSNN GUILD - ARIES are you ready to get fired?

Many people sent a laughing reaction then tagged Aries many times. It only took a minute for the tagged person to reply. Though, instead of a message, Aries sent a moving animation of a person asking for a fight first.

[CSSNN GUILD - ARIES] : @Airplane-103 Let's go to the arena :Fists:

Airplane released a series of crying images. Many people sympathized with him while a few groups of people highlighted Aries' jealousy. Clover thought of playing on the general chat for a while to tease players when he received a message.

It is from the player with the name [Yiel-30].

=======================

[CSSNN GUILD - YIEL]

Good morning, sir. Congratulations to your bountiful harvest light night. We were scouting the Redwood Valley last night and triggered a chain quest. The tasks are quite challenging but we completed it before time. The prize of the quest is a map of a temple. We went over to check the object and discovered this.

- Image.jpeg –

We didn't collect the object since Charm and I don't have any harvesting skill. I am requesting for the guild master to see it. I have already appraised the object, and it held quite a good effect. I attached the comprehensive appraisal of the plant. Wishing the guild master good luck.

=========================

The message ended with an attached document. Clover examined the time and found out that it was sent two hours ago. He read the content of the document and pondered on what to do. He had been thinking deeply that he didn't notice his hand moving to send a message on the [SORA] party channel.

[CSSNN GUILD - CLOVER] : Heads up if you guys are busy tonight. We have something to check.

Aries has been hovering on the general chat so when he saw Clover's message to the [SORA] channel, he swiftly changed channels.

[CSSNN GUILD - ARIES] : Am I allowed to come over?

[CSSNN GUILD - CLOVER] : We will still be okay even if you don't.

[CSSNN GUILD - ARIES] : I feel so threatened. Will you allow me?

Clover wondered why Aries was chatting with him.

[CSSNN GUILD - CLOVER] : Why do you have access in this channel?

[CSSNN GUILD - ARIES] : What do you mean by why? Naturally, it is because-

A notification popped out on the announcement chat.

[PARTICIPANT CSSNN GUILD - ARIES HAS BEEN BANNED FOR ONE HOUR. THE PARTICIPANT WON'T BE ABLE TO SEND ANY MESSAGES...]

"..."

The people dallying on the general chat did not expect the sudden announcement. Seeing that Aries can't send any messages, they inadvertently encouraged Airplane-103 to seize the rare chance. It had become rowdy on the chat that expressed their upbeat mood very well. Clover conveniently ignored the events on the chat and focused on the topic with the Sora Party.

Leon has been online a long time ago, so he had seen the message. He also witnessed Aries' shameless approach so he messaged Clover privately. Clover had expected such specific behavior. He sent the message he received from Yiel while erasing the name of the sender and such.

Leon : Such a priceless item exists? This is too good to be true.

Clover : I know, but the object has been appraised many times.

Leon : So, you're planning to see it later?

Clover: Yes. I also wanted to know if we could get it.

Leon : Probably, it requires a specific equipment to harvest.

Clover : If we can't get it, we will just place some array around so other player could not loot it. So, you're joining?

Leon : Sure, I have nothing else to do regardless.

They chatted for a bit then Leon excused since his class is about to start. Clover allows him to go then checked the chat. The other members responded positively. He closed Disboard then slouched down to the chair. His conscious mind looped the critical information of the found item while his eyes subconsciously wandered to a small figurine standing beside his personal computer.

The figurine possesses the identical feature of the item found.

Clover raised his frail hand and covered his gaunt face. He remained silent for a while before a gentle chuckle slipped from his bloodless lips. He muttered, in a low voice:

"Finally... I found you..."