Chapter 1: Omen Online
[Welcome to Omen Online.]
[Omen Online is a combination of four different types of games, a vrmmorpg game, a moba, a kingdom building game, and a strategy game.]
[Username has been selected as Razor…]
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[Your overall body shape is full of marks and scars and shaped by countless tragedies, Razor. You will regain ability of full movement in Omen Online, however, the marks that bind you to this world can never fully be deleted…]
[Would you like to enter into Omen Online?]
'I'd rather not, but if I don't my young fiesty wife might beat me.' An usual site of a man in his underwear wearing a headset that connected him to thousands of wiry tendrils thought. The Gaming X67 chair allowed him to fully immerse into the game Omen Online and come alive again after being torn up by life.
In the past, Baras Lawns had been named Razor by a few former friends that took turns stopping bullets as his pathetic self stormed a prison with a single knife. He shivered hearing the voices of thousands of dead allies that used to party with him every night, reliving those eternal memories made him smile, laugh and cry.
Baras' leg had been shot off and he still killed his target with a Razor blade. Hence, his nickname Razor. The artificial iron foot that replaced his real leg had rusted and the maintenance fees had gotten ridiculous for the old model.
His wife didn't mind wheeling him around, and he could either pay 5000 for a foot that let him hobble up a set of stairs like a slug in a garden, or use the money to purchase a game where youth became reality.
Omen Online.
The most expensive investment a veteran like him would consider splurging on with his five years left on the planet. Year 21XX let people live to 300, but it cost an arm and a leg and Baras' leg had been donated as a gravestone to hundreds of dead friends.
The Last World War had been fifty years ago, and then the great reformation happened and now the sun seemed to shine in the world for everyone. Except for the Veterans. Baras' morning and night routine had mixed in shots of nightmares and gin alike.
His young wife had come into his life a few years ago, and she regularly tried to be that sunshine he needed. Buying this machine, her idea. She had gotten used to his pension, his infrequent hopping, and his grey hair and bulging physique.
She hadn't gotten used to him screaming at night.
The answer for that? The wife ordered Omen Online, wasted his savings, all because a doctor thought some fun might help with the nightmares.
He laughed sarcastically, a bright light flashed .
[Logged onto Omen Online]
[Race has been set to humans.]
[The server has been experiencing strange problems… If you need to contact a game master, please open the menu and find the appropriate setting.]
'Whatever. Take me to Noob City. I played a game before.'
[The recommended town for beginners is currently at maximum capacity. Would you like to go to King's Road?]
'Approved'
[Welcome Razor!]
'Your mother,' Razor snidely responded.
Razor took a deep breath. Collected in the feelings of full immersion as his body felt shots of wind and air as he spawned in a green landscape that extended in all directions. The green waves from the grass touched by the wind stirred the small beasts preying on novice players.
Razor heard screams. It stung.
His breath calmed. His left leg moved. The door that had been locked on his right side, manifested in movement of his foot. He stumbled, fell, and rolled in the grass.
His balance hadn't returned. He hopped on one foot, tried to step down, repeated, and danced like a flower blowing in the wind. In thirty minutes, his hobbling turned into walking.
A new beginning.
'Great. I can walk. Now I guess I can go to that large town a hundred miles away.' Baras rolled his eyes.'Yes, make it so far away I can appreciate the beauty.'
Baras laughed and walked slowly as the wind spun him and tested his new balance. He oscillated, hopped, and kicked with vigor. He looked strange to the few players farming [Timber Calves] for [red rocks].
[Timber Calves]
[Level 1]
[Health: 42 / 50]
[Danger Level: Normal]
[Type: Normal]
Baras didn't get a class, and only had a dagger. His life had really rewinded. He had black hair instead of white, his muscles were full of vigor, and his voice when he cursed to himself sounded like a youngman's chatter.
[Tall Dagger]
[Level 1]
[Damage 5]
[Durability: 5]
[Abilities: None]
'It's not bad.' Baras felt like a child playing with the dagger in the setting sun as it painted rays of new life to all the new players.
He lunged at the Timber Calve and studied it's peculiar head. It looked like a hairy young cow with brown and white spots and black fur. It's golden eyes were like an innocent child's glance at it's father. Not a monster for a rookie like him that had seen flesh stew on the floor of his victims.
The [Timber Calve] carelessly lunged forward in a straight line. Boris naturally dodged and slashed its side. No blood shot out. It's hide did tear open and a number shot up over it's head.
[-150 health]
[skill in daggers detected]
[Strength + 1]
Boris held back his surprise and laughed.
He saw dead bodies gushing with blood as the [Timber Calve] mooed and disappeared. Nice sound effect. The scream of his dying friends somewhat subsided.
'Great, time to log out.'
'Where is the menu?' Boris opened the menu. A simple touchable blue box at the bottom of his screen.
[Menu]
[Status]
[Connection: Superior]
[Options: Locked]
[Speed: 50x normal life]
[Contact Game Master: Locked]
'What does it mean options, locked?' Boris reached down and picked up a small sword. His back didn't tense, nothing cracked.
"Excuse me. Why can't I log out?!" Boris talked to a beautiful blonde shimmering with a sword.
She spun with silhouettes of different techniques. Her body shifting three times in the air before ten [Timber Calves] were killed.
"You have to walk to the city first. The game has problems sometimes. The NPCs can fix it. Just find one."
"I have to walk there?" Boris' feigned calmness. "That wasn't in the manual?"
"This game is worth the problems," The girl rushed with glee to five dazzling [red rocks]. "It's worth the problems."
"Alright," Boris took a deep breath.
He sighed and turned to the side. The forest to his right gave him the creeps. It reminded him of the prison where he got his name. The sooner he logged out, the sooner he could thank his wife.
He wanted to return the headset, fix his leg, and then settle in the fact that his body had five years. Five years with a young wife, not bad. Her body still had a hundred in it, maybe 250 if she married rich after his impending demise.
"I'll take you." The girl tossed out a dagger that spun into three [Timber Calves]. "Strange stuff happens here. Hard to explain, but nothing to worry about."
"I appreciate it." Boris gestured towards the grass plains.
A bullet shot sounded, he turned. A man with a gun shot at a large [Timber Calve] that spawned from a tree.
'Calm down. Nothing to worry about.'
"That's the [Timber King]. I needed that kill, but I got love for novices." She shook his hand. "The name is Hilly. Be careful. I'm a higher level than you."
She pressed a button, her information displaying itself proudly as a blue box above her head.
[Hilly]
[Level 15]
[Health: 396 / 400]
[Class: Dual Dagger]
[Not in party]
"You think I care? This isn't real. I'm younger here, and you look like a star that somehow manifested the body of a human being."
"Compliments are nice. I really look like this. Rich father." Hilly smiled. "We are about to get to the bridge. They say strange things happen at the bridge."
"I don't believe such rumors," Boris reacted with a sigh before he realized it was a video game.
"What rumors?"
"They say that the legendary man who crosses that bridge will enter into a hidden land. A land where being human is a crime, and being a monster means your superior," Hilly's cute cheeks blushed with black curls of hair dancing all around her face.
The wind petting her white dress with the real perplexities of nature - it felt real.
"I think it would be more fun if this felt real." Boris looked at the winding bridge. "Maybe reality is what I need. I got problems, little girl."
"You're problem lies ahead of you! Cross the bridge," She said cutely, her voice as captivating as the view beneath the bridge. "The faster we get you across this bridge, the faster I can stop worrying."
"The novice goes first?" Boris laughed and walked across the bridge. It shook like a snake from a single touch, the ropes danced and the realistic feeling of death a step away followed.
It wasn't real, but it felt real.
He took a step, and suddenly the wooden board burst. His foot shot through it as the river underneath sang a warning of the distance between them.
"That never happened before. It's just a game, don't worry." Hilly reached to grab his hand, getting read to pull him up before a tendril of a monster shot out the side of the mountain. It attacked him. It sent black dark tendrils around his leg as he clutched onto Hilly's hand.
It sent a hundred more of its small tentacular arms towards Boris' body as Hilly froze. She had a thing about octupus'. They scared her to death. She stumbled and fell off the bridge. Spinning and spinning until her body turned to little shards of lights as a large beam of water shot up and sprayed.
Borris recollected himself and pulled out his knife. He cut through one tentacle.
[- 150 Health]
The tentacle fell down to the river below, but the creature had hundreds more at its disposal. It sent wave after wave of tentacles at his body, and finally restricted his leg as he lost his balance.
He smiled. It was just a game.
He let go and fell, pulled towards the large octopus' mouth as it's large teeth opened. Something seemed so real, so believable.
The feeling of intense panic finally surfaced as he entered into the octopus' mouth. He felt like he could really die! He had to escape!
Crunch!
He heard his bones break to pieces as the octopus' mouth chomped into his body. His mind went blank. Nothingness seemed to surround him as he watched his body in parts get swallowed into the monsters' stomach.
He still felt conscious, but couldn't move.
Thousands of people he once loved seemed to appear in front of him in an ocean of blood and guts. Right inside of the octopus' stomach. The stench pervasive, the feeling of hopelessness like a bridge stringing him down the river of darkness.
'This is just a game. You're still alive.'
Boris saw dozens of starlike flashes at the end of the dark tunnel. His head turned into the water and for a second water rushed towards his throat. He choked, gagged, and struggled before the darkness fully took over.
[You've unlocked a new hidden class.]
[Would you like to be reborn?]
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone