"Big mistake! Y-you are a dumb man, a dumb dumb man.... Dumb ways to die…. O there are so many dumb ways to die" Leo started to hum as his mind became light and dizzy from all the hard work.
Apparently, Leo had not taken into consideration the importance of the 'Stamina' stat and how important it was for movement within this game, as after short bouts of about 20 minutes of labour, Leo was forced to rest for 10 minutes to regain some stamina and work again.
The job of breaking rocks and carrying them was too much for a level1 player, and although because of his excellent experience in real life as a repairmen, Leo did manage to break chunks of rock, exactly the size that he wanted it to be, he struggled a lot to keep a consistent work rate and was much slower at the job than he had anticipated.
Leo was certain that several hours had passed since he started his labour and although he was eager to complete the task, he also did not want his brother to worry. Thus, he decided to log out at once and continue the quest at a later date.
"Hey system, I wish to logout" Leo said, hoping to get out of this narrow mining vent and come back later, however, the system denied his request.
[ System Notification:- Logout is not permitted within dungeons! Logout request refused!
Please escape the dungeon to Logout ]
"Motherfucker" Leo cursed as he banged his fist against a wall and took -2 points in damage.
"Aghh, Dammit" He cursed as he blew air over his knuckles in hope of easing the pain, however, it offered little to no relief.
He was apparently stuck inside this dungeon with no means to logout as the only way to logout was for him to make his way out of the dungeon entrance that was probably being guarded by several wolves.
With no weapon at hand, Leo felt like his chances of evading the wolves and managing to escape were slim to none and hence although he felt like logging out, at the moment he had no other choice but to keep playing the game.
Thankfully, the Arc Ship attendants did say before Leo logged-in that since it was the first day onboard the ship, everyone had the full day off from work, which meant that it was going to be fine if Leo played for a few more hours since he did not have real world obligations to fulfil, however, he was still not sure how Luke would feel about it in the real world.
***********
( Meanwhile Dark Emperor )
Dark Emperor was the player who had the first worldwide announcement under his belt, achieving a remarkable milestone in the game's history.
In less than 2 hours since the game started, he unlocked his class, setting a record as the first player to do so in the entire game.
His real identity was Cervantez Divinorum, an individual hailing from the S tier of the Arc Ship, residing alongside the other urban elite.
As the sole heir to a prominent business conglomerate in the USA, he was a central figure in elite society who was well known and well liked by all.
However, his most guarded secret was his identity as a reincarnator, a fact unknown to anyone else in the world.
Sent back in time by four years to the day before the ship took off, he held the knowledge of Terra Nova Online's secrets and the true agenda of the aliens who made the game mandatory for all humans.
He was already aware of all the important events and players that were going to rise in the future and had his eyes set on creating a guild and recruiting them from the start.
PurpleRock
SkyLion
BlackFlame
FirstEmperor
RamenKing
Andheri
BigDaddy
He wanted to claim all these talents for himself, but most importantly he wanted to get in touch with the strongest player in the history of the game 'The Boss' who was notorious for being the only solo player throughout the game.
Despite how important joining a guild was since it gave access to countless guild missions and territorial benefits, The Boss never joined an organisation and nobody was able to figure out his identity in the four years that Cervantez played the game.
In this second life, he was determined to change a lot of mistakes he made in his past life and punish a lot of opponents that stood in his way.
Since he already knew the main objective of the game Terra Nova Online, he wanted to prepare for the event that was to come 4 years from now right from the get-go so that unlike his past life, humanity could avoid making a big mistake this time around.
This time, he was determined to claim all the legendary objects!
Monopolise all the hidden quests and speedrun all the important dungeons!
He was determined to surpass 'The Boss' as the number one player and enjoy the benefits of being at the top of the levelling chart!
But most importantly he was determined to win over the love of his life PinkJade and prevent her from turning cold and cruel.
He was already level 7 and wanted to be the first one to reach level10, however, little did he expect that before his future knowledge even began to come into play, his first worldwide notification would start a chain reaction and a butterfly effect that he would have never anticipated.
The lazy Leo Skyshard, who would not have started his first quest till 2 days into the game, made a rash decision to explore a dangerous dungeon solo because of Cervantez's world notification and as a result he was on the cusp of achieving the impossible and exceeding Cervantez's calculations.
As he determinantly killed the slimes near his spawn village, slowly levelling up, Leo kept constructing his wall, cutting off the oxygen supply to dozens of high level wolves.
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/// A/N - Bonus Chapter for hitting the Powerstone Target last week, good job everyone!
Check author notes below for this week's targets ///
For this week, I will give a bonus chapter for every 100 PS that we hit!
At our current pace we hit this target every 2.5 days so we can potentially have 3 PS bonus chapters this week
( Leo Skyshard's POV )
When Leo finally placed the final rock to cover the last air hole leading towards the main shaft below, he breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the floor completely exhausted.
"Too hard….. my lungs, agh my lungs hurt, MOTHER...damn I miss mother" Leo cursed as he rolled around the floor while clutching his head as if he was suffering from severe vertigo.
The game 'Terra Nova Online' was way too realistic!
Leo had noticed it first when he logged in and the freezing cold of the mountain winds brushed against his skin and then again when he visited the village chief's home, however, those experiences paled in comparison to how hard performing labour was within this game.
Usually, games were supposed to be fun and easy.
Especially the games on Earth were always made around the idea of spoiling the customers with a rich experience where mansions could be built in hours and chopping a tree was nothing more than 20 seconds of animation, however, Terra Nova Online was different.
Performing tasks in this game was as difficult as performing them in the real world if not harder since there was a stamina bar always hanging over one's head.
Real life problems like vision doubling, knees trembling and headaches due to lack of energy were all a reality in this game and experienced by Leo on the very first day of logging in.
Especially once his stamina bar depleted below the 15% mark and the debuffs kicked in, he understood quite clearly that this was more than just a game for pleasure.
[ System Notification : You have cut-off the air supply to the main shaft below. If the shaft is not re-opened, all the wolves hibernating in the main shaft will die of asphyxiation in 60 minutes from now ]
" YESSS! LET'S GO BAYBAY" Leo cheered loudly as he pumped his fists in the air while staring at the ceiling of the shaft that he was in.
This was precisely the result he was hoping for and now that it was achieved, Leo finally had the chance to sit and calmly explore the game mechanics while he waited for his prey to suffocate and die.
Bored, he noticed things that he had absentmindedly glanced over before, such as the chat icon that appeared when he opened the mini-map on the bottom right of the system screen.
[ Please select the chat server you wish to join.
Private chat- (0)
Global chat
Guild chat - (0)
Regional chat - (0)
NPC chat - (0) ]
Leo analysed the options and observed that Global chat was the only option available for chatting at the moment as the other options appeared in light grey and were disabled for selection.
Selecting Global Chat, Leo was suddenly bombarded with a series of messages as the chat moved faster than what his mortal eyes could follow.
'DarkEmperor Sucks Dick!!!!!!'
'I'm going to become the best player y'all, believe it!'
'DarkEmperor wears my mother's dirty panties'
'Guys… How to find monsters or weapons in this game? I have logged in inside a rainforest and the NPC village here has no blacksmith shop'
'Hey guys, are the NPC in this game retarded? I tried them to give me a quest, but they just won't'
'DarkEmperor must be some hidden boss from sector S, I wouldn't defame him openly because it can be traced back to us'
'How do you unlock your class though? It shows that my 'soldier' class is locked in the system panel'
Leo felt his head hurt from reading all those clueless messages as he quickly decided to close the global chat and save himself from the common man's stupidity disease.
He had not spent more than two minutes reading the global chat and what he understood from reading it was that
1) People hated DarkEmperor for no apparent reason. He was arguably the best player in the game right now, yet he was made public enemy number one.
2) Everyone had spawned from a random starting location that varied greatly from person to person. Some started in rainforests, some in deserts, ice deserts, mountains, small outskirt villages and the like.
3) Many had noticed that this game was way too realistic and were in awe of the graphics, however, most could not figure out how to level up or how to find monsters and kill them. Although everyone wanted to make the most of this starting period and make a name for themselves, almost everyone had absolutely no idea how to achieve it as unlike Leo most common players were not given a quest upon their arrival.
"Ha….. stupid commoners" Leo smirked as he indulged himself in a fantasy where he believed himself to be above those basic fools.
As the inheritor of a unique class, despite the downsides and the death threat should his identity be revealed, he believed himself to be a player that was destined for greatness.
" DarkEmperor! You're a fool, you shouldn't flex in front of jealous mortals when they think they can reach upto you….. you should only do it when the gap between yourself and them is too big to even fathom" Leo spoke to himself as he thought that if he was put in the same position as DarkEmperor, he would never announce his accomplishments while the game was in its early stages.
Just like that, 60 minutes passed by in a flash as a series of system notifications popped up on Leo's screen.
[ System Notification: You have successfully killed 'Adult Direwolf' (Level 14), You have killed an opponent over 10 times higher than your own level, EXP Reward is quadrupled ]
[ System Notification: You have successfully killed 'Adult Direwolf' (Level 16), You have killed an opponent over 10 times higher than your own level, EXP Reward is quadrupled ]
[ System Notification: You have successfully killed 'Adult Alpha Direwolf' (Level 20 ), You have killed an opponent over 10 times higher than your own level, EXP Reward is quadrupled ]
.
.
.
.
[ System Notification: You have successfully killed 'Adult Direwolf' (Level 16), You have killed an opponent over 10 times higher than your own level, EXP Reward is quadrupled ]
[ System Notification: You have successfully levelled up! ]
[ System Notification: You have successfully levelled up! ]
[ System Notification: You have successfully levelled up! ]
.
.
.
.
.
[ System Notification: You have successfully levelled up! ]
[ System Notification: Congratulations player 'The Boss' to become the first player to reach the level10 mark in 'Terra Nova Online'
It's an accomplishment that will go into the history books and provide you with a special reward!
Do you wish to announce this accomplishment via a worldwide announcement?
YES
No ]
[ System Notification : Since you possess the actor class, you cannot deny any worldwide announcements related to you! ]
[ WORLDWIDE PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENT - Player 'The Boss' has become the first player in Terra Nova Online to reach level 10!
Congratulations player 'The Boss']
Leo looked at the slew of notifications and was absolutely dumbfounded.
Just moments ago he was laughing at DarkEmperor for becoming public enemy number one, yet somehow, just moments later he ended up publishing a worldwide announcement of his own.
"WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T REFUSE ANY WORLDWIDE ANNOUNCEMENTS…..?" He cursed, as the joy of levelling up 14 times at once was quickly replaced by disparaging sadness.
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/// A/N - Hey guys, author here with a humble request. If you're enjoying this book so far, please drop a review!
Thankyou in advance! ///
I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, hopefully you guys had fun reading it