Quick note: I'm sorry for the week-long delay. Took a bit of time off for health reasons. I'll have chapters back on the regular schedule. XD

  CHAPTER TEN

  Trickster Studios

  “So, how much trouble did y’all get in?” asked the tall, fair-skinned man in the white shirt tucked into straight-cut jeans.

  “Surprisingly, not much after Bram turned the crowd to his side.” Hajime accepted the cup of coffee being offered to him. “But it could have been worse, Chris-sen—”

  Hajime cleared his throat.

  “Chris…” After correcting himself, he added, “Our twenty-five testers could have died their first day playing the game.”

  Chris scratched the top of his sandy hair, which he kept short and neat despite the time constraints of the studio’s packed schedule.

  “Honestly, Bud, I expected we’d have one death by now…”

  His gaze drifted to the ten people sleeping snugly in their plushy, egg-shaped VR chairs.

  “But it looks like we got some overachievers in this bunch.”

  Each tester wore the sleek white VR goggles of the Visionary II over their eyes. They had on the high-end supplementary haptic vests, gloves, and shoes too—but all the swag was just for show.

  The Visionary II was turned on, certainly, but the testers weren’t using its system’s interface or playing a game with it. No, its main function was to induce its user’s brain into a meditative state that was as close to simulating sleep as one could get with a VR tool. Once this state was achieved, the VR goggles transformed into a ‘focus’ meant to establish the connection between two worlds much like the triskelion board Hajime had originally made on the night of Chris’ and Bridget’s otherworldly abduction had acted like a comms buoy that helped Rowan’s sorcery find the soda can that they sent to Aarde.

  That was back during the days of the summoning ritual’s first version. Summoning ritual version five had more restrictions to it.

  With this latest edition, the magic circle’s formula ensured that the chance of an Earther falling asleep and accidentally traveling to Aarde was no longer possible unless they were dream walkers like Hajime was. Unlikely since dream walking was such a rare trait that only the most gifted sorcerers possessed. Connecting with a Visionary II’s VR goggles was now required to return to Aarde, a measure made to reinforce the lie that people were playing a game whenever they traveled to Bram’s world.

  Of course, the O.G. traveler trio of Chris, Bridget, and Hajime were the exceptions. Since they’d been summoned by Rowan’s original ritual, they didn’t need a focus to return to Aarde. A bed or a comfy couch combined with a few glasses of wine were enough.

  “I wanted to stay, but Bram insisted we stick to the plan.” Hajime took a sip of coffee before continuing, “And you need me here for the testers’ post-game briefing.”

  His gaze was fixed on a male nurse checking the machine monitoring the condition of a nearby tester.

  It wasn’t just one tester being monitored, either. All ten testers in VR Room One were hooked up to medical equipment that monitored their bodies’ conditions while their souls were away. So far, nothing strange had happened to these testers’ bodies, though the medical team Chris had hired was looking out for any side effects that came with the testers’ out-of-body experience.

  “Besides, Rowan was there too,” Hajime explained further.

  “Yeah, alright,” Chris nodded appreciatively. “I doubt anything will happen if Rowan’s wrangling Bram…”

  Chris’ brow furrowed suddenly.

  So did Hajime’s.

  “Hold on… y’all had a scuffle with the Phoebus temple, right?”

  Hajime nodded slowly.

  “Then Bram may not be the one who needs wrangling…”

  “Oh no.”

  The same realization Chris just had dawned on Hajime’s face.

  “We should hurry up with the debrief…”

  Under any other circumstances, Chris and Hajime wouldn’t have been worried. They knew better than anyone how powerful Rowan truly was. However, according to her backstory, Rowan was the rebel trickster of legend who lost a war against the gods and was imprisoned by them for a thousand years. She hated the pantheon of High Heaven with a vengeance. Phoebus most especially.

  Of course, Rowan hadn’t caused any trouble inside the sun god’s temple while she and Bram demanded higher rewards from High Cleric Adrian, but Chris and Hajime didn’t know this yet. It would come as a surprise later. For now, however, they felt justified in their worries.

  “Sweet Christmas, we’ve already got that fight brewing in the north. We don’t need a religious war on top of that.” The fingers of Chris’ left hand traced over his horseshoe mustache. “Alright, I’ll head to room two. You take this room. We’ll go through the debrief quickly, and then we’ll log in and see if Bram and Rowan turned themselves into heretics.”

  “There’s the announcement trailer watch party too. Bridget,” Hajime cleared his throat, “Bridge wants to do a reaction video with the testers and devs.”

  “Right. Lots to do before we can head back to Aarde.”

  The Texan’s face turned contemplative.

  “Ah, there’s also the monetization meeting with Juan.” He frowned as if such meetings were a huge hassle for him. “Might be best to let our testers go to lunch first…”

  “It’s ten PM,” Hajime pointed out.

  “Dinner then. Night shift.” Chris slapped Hajime’s shoulder. “Just like the good old days.”

  “I thought we were leaving the good old days behind,” Hajime replied, sighing.

  A major reason why he, Chris, and Bridget quit their jobs at Biosoft was because of the unending overtime demanded by greedy corporate overlords who’d pushed for an impossible schedule for their next game’s release. Their new corporate overlords in the Trickster Studios were obviously a huge improvement, but Bram’s and Rowan’s schedule was even tighter than Biosoft’s. Five months…at that time, ten thousand players were expected on Aarde for the beginning of the game’s beta phase.

  “Considering Bram’s risking his neck for us, a little overtime’s not too much to ask, is it?” Chris asked.

  “No, it isn’t.” Hajime agreed. “And we’ve survived worse schedules.”

  “Ain’t that the sad truth.”

  Chris’ gaze swept through the room and its sleeping inhabitants.

  “Shit, we’ve really started something big, haven’t we?”

  Hajime nodded.

  “The scale’s getting bigger…”

  Hajime’s gaze also swept VR Room One, taking in its minimalist design of pristine white walls and paneled floors. While in his mind, he recalled how different this space looked when he first laid eyes on it because it was just that…a big wide space empty of furniture and VR rooms and staff areas. But, as Chris had promised back then when he’d dragged them to the old red brick building in DUMBO New York, this sixth floor office and its thirty-one-thousand rentable square footage—as well as the two floors below it—was also a space filled with possibilities, one where the dream of the great undertaking would come alive.

  BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY

  The darkly lit ruin whose faded bones were being eaten by the forest growing over it was an unfamiliar spectacle for most. For Hajime, however, it was a scene that caused his heart to thump wildly.

  Recent memories flashed across his mind. Ones so vivid he couldn’t help cringing as he recalled a giantess’s foot nearly stomping him into the ground.

  Hajime’s hands balled into fists.

  He didn’t like being reminded of how weak he felt back then, even though Bram and the others would’ve disagreed with him.

  The prince often recounted that Hajime’s contribution of trapping the mad nymph in ‘Quicksand’ had made it easier for Bram to cut her down. But for Hajime, his friend’s praise was undeserved. If he’d been a better sorcerer—if he could wield even a fraction of the potential Rowan claimed he possessed—then he could’ve done much more than trap Loveless’ foot. Hajime could’ve brought her down without needing the much younger Bram to risk his life wielding a dangerous power to get the job done.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Master’s wrong… I’m not talented enough. he sighed. I can’t even cast a chantless spell…

  A cheer rang through the room, drawing Hajime away from dark thoughts and perceived failures.

  The testers who sat in the front seats of the viewing room cheered at the sight of the scantily clad men and women who slipped out of their hiding places, the thick tree trunks or tall grass that had overrun the darkly lit hall that was once Loveless’ lair. They were tall and muscular, and some of them looked more like beasts than men.

  “Dude, this trailer looks so sick,” a tester whistled.

  Even seated, this tester wearing the baggy hoodie looked tall, with the back of his curly brown hair spreading up and out like broccoli. He was Johann Wordsmith, or Lore, as he preferred to be called in-game.

  Lore was a twenty-three-year-old college student with pale green eyes hidden behind large glasses who was aiming for a master’s degree in video game development from the same alma mater as the one Chris had graduated from.

  In his earlier debriefing, Hajime found out that Lore had been one of the few players who hadn’t been part of the event quest outside Phoebus’s temple. He hadn’t been upset at missing out, though. Lore enthusiastically explained that he’d been too busy exploring the nearby woods of Sundermount and relieving his youth as an outdoor teen who loved camping.

  “The NPCs in this game look so life-like,” replied another tester, a small man with a strip of white strands on the side of his dark hair. “They’re like actors in a movie instead of computer-generated characters…groovy.”

  Hajime resisted the urge to correct Tolv Osmund, whose in-game moniker was Dozen, which he’d explained in his earlier debriefing with Hajime was his way of not shying away from an identity disorder he’d been diagnosed with when he was a kid.

  Yes, Hajime could recall Dozen’s name easily enough, just as he knew every tester he, Chris, and Bridget had hired. Because it was his job, and if he couldn’t be a good sorcerer, then he’d be the best damn game designer Bram and Rowan could wish for. That was his promise to himself, and being reminded of it now helped him feel a little less like having a nervous breakdown.

  “Are we going to get a chance to play as another race?” a third tester asked, an olive-skinned, brown-eyed woman whose curly hair was tied into twin buns behind her head.

  None of the staff present in the viewing room answered her question because of the rules Hajime, Chris, and Bridget had put in place. Particularly Rule Two, which stated that staff members were to never give out insider information about Aarde to players because it was important that players made their own discoveries and formed real connections in the other world.

  Fortunately, none of the testers pushed for an answer. They were all too distracted by what was happening in the trailer.

  The camera panned forward, zipping past the length of the hall to reach the massive red pine at the other end. It was a tree that Hajime knew hadn’t been there when he and his friends raided the Red Ruin, but one Bridget had transplanted into the hall as a prop to replace the tree that was Loveless’ true form.

  On one of the red pine’s middle branches sat a young woman. Like the others, she was a wearg. But unlike the other weargs who’d transformed their bodies to pose menacingly for the viewers, she was far from monstrous. This she-wearg was a gorgeous flower who was the embodiment of desire, her long legs spreading just a little bit as if playfully enticing the viewers closer.

  “We did thirty-four takes to get Swiftheart to do it right, and that was just for the pose. Getting her to smile took longer,” someone whispered.

  Hajime’s gaze drifted to his left.

  Leaning against the wall next to him was a fit-looking blonde with almond-shaped amber eyes.

  “I heard Swiftheart ran away a lot, Bridget-san,” he whispered.

  “Bridge. We’ve talked about this.” When she frowned at him, wrinkles formed on Bridget’s wide brow. “We are friends, aren’t we?”

  “O-Of course!”

  They’d known each other for five years now. They’d even survived a couple of near-death experiences on Aarde together. It was about time Hajime did away with honorifics and became more casual around her.

  “Bridge.”

  “Good.”

  She slapped him on the shoulder.

  “Only my closest friends get to call me that.”

  “R-Right.”

  With the way Hajime’s cheeks flared crimson, it didn’t look like ‘close friends’ was all he wanted to be.

  The audience cheered again, drawing Hajime’s gaze away from his crush to a black screen with the fated words glowing out of the darkness.

  THE LOOM OF ILL FATES

  End of trailer.

  The applause was deafening.

  Bridget nudged Hajime with her elbow. “Come on. Time for Q and A.”

  As the pair made their way to the front of the viewing room, Chris stepped into view.

  “What did y’all think?”

  Chris pointed to an old man with fluffy gray hair seated in the second row.

  “How about you, Mr. Oak?”

  “Canelius. Or Cane, if you prefer. That’s the name I chose in your new world.”

  “New world,” Chris grinned, “I like that.”

  “Isn’t it though?” Cane smiled back. “That’s certainly how it felt to me.”

  Having arrived next to Chris, Hajime caught the sight of nearly a hundred people nodding to Cane’s words as if they too shared his views on the game’s realism.

  “That’s some mighty big praise you’re giving us,” Chris said.

  “It’s well deserved,” Cane insisted, adding, “I thought your trailer was good, but it didn’t quite capture the experience of playing the game. At least not enough of it.”

  Again, people around him nodded in agreement.

  “I’ve spent most of my life in the countryside around Stockholm, visiting national parks, and camping in the wilds… Walking in Aarde felt a lot like that. Like it was all real…”

  Cane went on to explain that he hadn’t stayed around Reise like many of the others. Instead, he went west and north, trekking across plains and hillsides until he found a farm that was selling—in his opinion—some of the best alcohol he’d ever tasted.

  Chris checked his tablet.

  “Sweet Christmas, y’all made it all the way to Gabriel Farm.” He looked up from his tablet with a bushy eyebrow raised. “Did you get drunk?”

  “I tried,” Cane admitted.

  “Uh-uh, old timer,” Chris’ gaze drifted to Cane’s neighbors, “in here we got a saying — there is no try…”

  He let the audience finish with, “Only do!”

  “I’ll remember that for next time,” Cane said, chuckling.

  Laughter ensued.

  Chris was good at lighting up the atmosphere and playing to the crowd. In this, he was just like Bram, though the prince was capable of beguiling an entire town square full of people with only his words and his confidence. Compared to Bram or Chris, Hajime seemed woefully inadequate. At least that’s what he thought now.

  I have a lot of work to do…

  To Hajime’s credit, he hadn’t given up. He was willing to do the work, though it would take time to break out of his awkward shell and gain the confidence the others possessed.

  “So,” Chris glanced over to Bridget who appeared on the other side of Hajime, “what’s the verdict so far, Bridge?”

  Bridget grinned. “See for yourselves.”

  As she said this, the giant screen behind the trio lit up once more, showing everyone a real-time analysis of the trailer’s opening performance on Wetube.

  “Is that good?” asked the olive-skinned, brown-eyed woman who’d asked about playable races earlier.

  “What’s your name?” Bridget asked.

  “It’s Beth La Rue,” she answered.

  Bridget shook her head.

  “What’s your other name?”

  A moment of confusion, and then, “Grace,” she answered.

  Bridget grinned. “Well, Grace, how about we check the comments?”

  (Everything written here is part of the Forum Event’s first scenario. Added into the story verbatim but with small fixes in grammar)

  Precognition: YOOO!

  Precognition: I've been waiting for a game that really takes advantage of modern VR technology. If this is half as immersive as it seems in the trailer they will be getting my money.

  Old Kohler: [IMG] Old man shrugging meme…

  Nihil: [Replying to Precognition] Eh, you know how deceiving trailers can be right? Until we get some actual gameplay I'm taking a wait and see approach. Can't be too careful when it comes to these games that promise you the moon and stars…

  Precognition: Yeah I know I know, but it’s been so long since there was an MMO like this that I'm huffing the opium. haha

  Nihil: Fair enough…it has been awhile since a good MMO has come out. The trailer was a little too scripted for my tastes but what are y'all hoping to see in it if it does live up to the hype? Personally, I’ve always been partial to beast tamer/summoner and shapeshifter classes.

  Old Kohler: [Replying to Nihil] I so~~o wanna be a bard/mage hybrid! You think it'll be possible?

  Nihil: [Replying to Old Kohler] Well, going by the trailer, it seems like bards are a thing, and obviously there’s gonna be mages too because what kind of self-respecting fantasy MMO doesn't have mages? So, I don't see why a hybrid class can't be in the cards…

  Precognition: NGL, I love me an RNG based class. Gambler or some kind of kooky rogue variant.

  Old Kohler: [Replying to Precognition] I’ll be praying for the downfall of you luck based classes!

  Precognition: I need RNG, or I get bored cause I’m too good at predicting ppl in PVP.

  AdamRaichu: Me personally, I just hope there’s options to blur out any sexual content. That one dungeon boss was a bit too seductive looking for my tastes. If I want to have sex, I’ll do it with my wife thank you very much.

  RockyRocky123: Do you guys think that bard guy will be someone we can interact with?

  RockyRocky123: He seemed cool!

  Precognition: [Replying to RockyRocky123] I dunno. I’m over like cute fop guys. He was kinda jacked so maybe I’m wrong.

  Keetarin: Anyone know what tech they're using; the trailer seems a bit... I don't know, too realistic. ??

  RockyRocky123:[Replying to Keetarin] I mean, it is that new VR tech.

  RockyRocky123:

  RockyRocky123: Maybe it's just that fantastic.

  The Enigmata: Oh, wow another game from a completely unknown developer that promises completely immersive multiplayer. It’s probably another quick pump and dump scheme like the last 5 similar games. With our current technology it’s impossible to even get the latency low enough to not be completely immersion breaking. Why do you think most releases have been single-player games?

  The Enigmata: As I have said previously and will continue to say every time another game like this is revealed, it’s not real. Do not get your hopes up.

  Nihil: Technically not a complete unknown? I'm pretty sure I’ve heard of some of the dev team's work somewhere before... Hold on let me look it up...

  Precognition: If you find it post it, I'm mad curious

  Nihil: Found it! Hajime Hideo Miyamoto used to work in Biosoft. Y'all might know him from Space Age? Apparently, he was one of the last OG staff that got the franchise going too.

  Nihil: Good on him for moving on, I think? I heard some not-so-nice things were in Space Age’s future, ‘shudders’ DLCs. Hope there’s none of that in this one.

  Keetarin: If the actual quality of it is like the trailer, then I'm thinking of getting a copy when it comes out.

  RockyRocky123: Same here…

  AdamRaichu: My sister's daughter's friend's cousin claims she knows someone whose family member was selected as an alpha tester.

  AdamRaichu: Of course, I can't help but assume that’s an exaggeration of a child, since any such testing would certainly be secret/under NDA.

  Needbettergamestoplay: Does anyone know when the game is gonna release…?

  Bridge-the-Huntress: Soon. Very soon… Look forward to it — and thanks for enjoying our trailer!

  Thanks to all the participants of the Forum Event’s first scenario: Game Trailer!

  To Precognition, Old Kohler, Keetarin, Nihil, AdamRaichu, RockyRocky123, The Enigmata, Needbettergamestoplay, Braeus, and Danielville777!

  Also, for the creators of Cane, Dozen, and Lore — thanks for making these awesome side characters. More to come!

  For those of you who weren’t included in the chapter, don’t worry. We’ll have more scenarios out soon!

  READ UP TO 20 CHAPTERS OF VOLUME 2 ON PATREON!

  DISCORD

  Level Up Hero: Vol. 1, Rebirth Link