Chapter 6

A Game of Wills

Rex took a wonder as he looked outside the window. The people 30 meters below all wore the same mask as him. Not one of them knew one another. The sight of the blinking ads and lights below really gave the impression of a Las Vegas avenue.

Though it was called underground, there were no signs of it being an untidy place. The streets where e-cars and e-bikes ran are all well maintained and no pedestrians are crossing the streets illegally.

In a complete sense of the word, it was a dream-like state for the messed up City of Manila. Rex thought, if only the world above could be like this…

Augustus had a contented expression behind that mask. Rex felt a chilling cold personality peeking on the curve line on his face. It was as if this man’s soul is a deep well that runs no end, abundant in resources, yet, he never cared giving away any of it. It was as if he exists only to sprout envy, wrath, hate, and gluttony to the men that surrounds him.

Unknowingly, he dragged his eyes on the man on his left, the bearded guy was intimidated by that smile and that gave Rex the impression that his thoughts were right.

They arrived in the dome and he saw other men and women in their own colorful set of masks. They were all looking around, a proof that like him, it was also their first time being here. He slowly dismounted from the limousine and the people who saw him all made an intimidated reaction.

Rex did not bother glancing at them, instead, he had focused his attention on the different entrance that their vehicle had stopped.

“You’re coming with me.” Augustus spoke and the bald guy put a heavy hand on his injured shoulder.

Taking a different path than the masked group and they ended up in a balcony, overseeing the stage and the crowd 40 meters below.

Rex immediately took his initial count to almost around a few thousands, maybe tens of thousands of the gathered people inside that big dome.

“This many people…their all the same.”

“Your intuition is sharper than I took you credit for. You’re right, these are all your competition. The same as the people on the other balcony.”

The moment Augustus said that, he saw a few men and women in the same level of balcony as them. Their balcony was in the slightly middle to the right of the center where a woman in a white mask was standing behind an old man, also in mask, in extravagant dotted coat. It may seem that the cloak itself was made from countless skins of dotted animals.

On the further left, there were two masked men with the same height and same posture standing behind a masked woman who’s, with all obvious fact, was a beautiful yet dangerously seductive kind of boss using a pipe. Their location was about 50 meters away from them and upon realizing that they were looking at each other, the woman sent a flying kiss at him that made him avert his gaze.

These people are just few of the many that he saw in the balcony areas. They are all VIPs with their own set of agenda and purpose for coming.

Basing alone on the level of their ability to gather and actually organize an event of such grand scale, Rex knew that whatever this man’s group is, they are a set of people who wielded a power the same as that of a country‘s leader.

Heh. He won’t be surprised if one of these days, they would announce of a war happening somewhere. Who knows just how much influence they really have. He don’t care. He was not part of their world.

To that thought, a drop of sweat on Rex’s temple woke him up on his big bizarre imagination.

As the crowd made their noise, the lights inside the dome turned off and they all went silent. A holographic countdown played on the stage but in truth it was directly fed into the masks they wore. The audio was clear and as the countdown reached zero, the real actual content started to play. It was a video that which Rex was fully familiar about.

“Terroa.” He spoke in a

From the starry filled space the video showed, a bluish planet just like Earth came with its moon. No, it was the camera itself that traveled fast and then slowed down on the blue surface of the planet.

The moon was slowly covering the star and Rex looked at Augustus’s back for he already knew what was coming next. He had seen this one many times in TV and in the ads in the streets.

This is RPG: Terroa, the Virtual Reality Game that his parents were hired to create the Neurolink Device for. Technically, it was a game created for the Dream Rift Console but due to the changes, it was converted into the now trending VRMMORPG genre played in his parents’ invention, the Neurolink Device.

But his anticipation was shattered. Rex’s assuming was put in the trash as the teaser video was actually way too different from what he had been seeing.

And although he felt that he already knew it too, there was something else in there that had grabbed his attention.

As the camera zoomed in on a continent, a swordsman was seen riding a horse into a cliff. He stopped and the view of the clear vast green land was breathtakingly beautiful, the people below all held their breaths at the same time. A blue wide river flowed and divided the green forest and from the angle of the camera, it looked like a snake traveling towards the endless horizon.

The swordsman looked up and five speeding people with their mechanical wings went passed him. The scene then changed into a scene inside a castle where those five men were like jets making an aerial show. This too, Rex knew, was part of Terroa. It has a flight engine that allows players to experience aerial travel on a limited time. When this game was released one and a half year ago, it was one of the features that earned a positive feedback.

The in-game citizens clapped their hands as the aerial show came to a climax and then the king appeared and waved a hand. The scene changed into a war and the swordsman riding the horse earlier was now leading a group into a war against monstrous beings.

Aliens and monsters, Rex knew of them.

This is the enemy that the players must defeat to gain materials and money in the game. There were no actual levels in Terroa. It was a bold decision by the developers to actually make the players experience how it feels to be in a real fight. And so, instead of levels, what defines a strong player is actually his own strength and athleticism.

Swords, hammers, halberds, spears, lance, all kinds of weapons, including use of magic, archery, and even modern inventions exists in RPG: Terroa. Its story revolve around a new living frontier for the humans that was then discovered as natural habitat not only for monsters, but also to a race of humans that uses magic.

Terrans.

These people, when the humans came, had a natural enemy, the Lagram Alliance. And they too, ironically, were the humans’ enemies that forced them to search for new living frontiers.

Eventually, the two races of carbon based life forms joined forces while all of these creatures joined forces as well. It was this storyline that created a boom in the gaming world. History, religions, artistic rendering, the places, familiarity with elements and some sci-fi things and the inclusion of the Periodic Table of Elements in a game was a real masterpiece. The diverse world created by RPG: Terroa introduced a vast universe of limitless possibilities.

Throughout the one and a half year since its release, Terroa’s secrets and feats were unraveled to have only reached about 8% of publication. Meaning, with all its vastness, only 8% were actually discovered.

Bold and daring, not only the experience was real, but players can also make real money inside the game.

Real money. Real cash.

As he thought of this, Rex looked at the back of the person who dragged him to this place. Rex wasn’t a player of that world but he knew how it worked since his parents were the ones who developed it. He could not count how many times they had told him to try and enjoy their work. But he still rejected the idea because at that time, he was busy defending his parents’ honor.

So, if the job that was supposed to be his job is this, then he may have been in the wrong place.

The video ended. It was just a few revelations of a few new feats and Rex felt that he had seen just the normal stuff inside the game.

One reason why his interest was not pricked is because of the fact that the reason why he’s been into fights defending his parents’ work is because of the developers’ bold decision to make the game 90% real.

Not only you can earn real money by playing the game, build things just like in real life, and actually fly like a bird with the same principles of physics applied both in the game and real life, but you can also get hurt real bad inside that game. For him who’s been through thick and pain in fist fights, there was just no sense if he add more pain to himself inside the game.

Plus, inside Terroa, once you die, your character is forever deleted.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.” Rex heard a familiar voice. A masked man appeared in the stage and his face was displayed in the large holographic display above the podium. “I won’t ask if you liked it or not, but if those of you who are already familiar with Terroa, you might notice that some of the things you saw there, doesn’t, or quite rarely exists in the actual game.”

Some of the people below nodded and Rex himself was also taken in deep thought. What did he mean by it doesn’t exist in the game? All of it exist inside the game.

“Can anyone give me a few things that he noticed?” The man lent an open palm. A few hands raised and he selected a long haired female wearing a mask.

“The swordsman in the beginning! He was using an imbued sword!” She yelled.

“Yes!” The man on the stage exclaimed excitedly. “You are correct! By far, there was no imbued sword ever seen in the game. Can someone tell me why?”

As he asked, a few hands were raised again and so he selected another long haired masked woman. “It is because an imbued sword, once broken, is lost forever and so with it, the tendency of the MOD(s) imbued on the sword to be lost or stolen is high.”

“Ah!” Rex let out a small sound.

That’s right.

MODs (Magic Ornamental Device) are attachments that give out special abilities to a player, or in rare cases, to the weapons and equipments. In Terroa where there is no actual level to determine old from new players, MODs can change that fact and can create a large difference when it comes to fights.

Since science and magic can make up the difference in strength in the game, if a player wished to lighten up his cargo, MODs are a big help.

For example, to achieve the ability quick step, with no MOD, around 50+ types of materials, 400+ items, and lots of money is needed to invent the equipment to enable a player to use the ability. That in itself was a hassle because of many reasons:

One, a player only has 200 slots in his inventory for the items that he needs. Any equipment consumes 5 slots. A typical user‘s head gear to his foot wear are normally a total of five sets so that’s already 25 slots. An accessory consumes only two slots but added that a total of 15 accessories can be worn at the same time, if the player is a conservative like the Mages who‘s weak in close combat, he’d have his eyes, all his fingers, ears, and arms filled with manna boosting accessories.

Although there is no limit in numbers of a single type of item, aside from those, everything else take up one slot in inventory space. But still, even with that big advantage, the number of items that can be stored in the inventory is limited.

Two, gathering resources and materials is no joke.

Rarity, classification, difficulty, and even the hassle expiration dates are ones to be considered. For a simple equipment that gives out the quick step ability, a single swift step closing a 10 meter long gap, the materials on making the equipment itself takes an absurd amount of time to be gathered.

If a player wants to prolong its expiration date, he’d have to freeze the items. And aside from the default private stash that has a fee of Z100 per deposit attempt, paying a separate fee of Z500 per day for the freezer is still a big cut on someone‘s earnings. Especially if he’s a noob.

Three, equipments that has abilities cannot be used that much in combat for they have low durability.

Weapons are a separate issue but equipments, like the footwear with the quick step ability, once used to kick an enemy, might shatter or totally break. They may provide comfort but they are useless in practicality.

And so, MODs, if worn, attached, or imbued by a player whether to his equipment or to an accessory, can actually boost his abilities and save lots of issues.

Even a noob with a quick step MOD as an earring or bracelet can defeat a long time player or any mobs who doesn’t have anything but weapons and armors. The only good thing those equipments does is provide protection from physical attacks but in terms of ability, the MOD holders held the higher throne.

A player can use those skills to take up the advantage in a fight. And so upon seeing that there was an imbued sword, not only it was a waste, like that woman said, but it was also a large handicap since once a sword broke, the MOD itself can also be lost. And for reference, MODs, though divided into 4 categories, are all but a huge issues inside the game.

Rare MODs has over 200+ types ranging from physical improvement to feats such as night vision. Though these feats can be replicated by inventions, having them can become a huge advantage since you can hide them from plain sight unlike invented devices. And each type of Rare MOD has at least 1000 each or even more, if not less than just a few counts.

Special MODs are those with specific purposes like the use of strong Magic. Tier 1 magic are those basic ones like burst (ignites an enemy’s part of the body into burning) and these abilities are instantly gained as basic ability by those wanting to be Mages at the start of their game. But Tier 2 magic, aside from being able to be created in the enchantment shops, are those Special MOD types that was an upgrade of Tier 1 magic. And that’s not all. Aside from magic, higher abilities and feats like air walk are also available in this second type of MODs. There are over 100 types of them and each type has only 100 available MODs.

Then there are the legendary ones.

There are only around 50 of them and each type of these Legendary MODs only has around 10 for each type. No records have yet been discovered of these MODs for if they are known in the public, hunters are surely to come their way and kill them for it. MODs after all are items that drops once the owner dies.

Finally, there are the Unique MODs.

There are only 20 of them, as announced by the developers, and each one is unique and there is no one that has the same type of MOD. That is why it was called a Unique MOD.

Like the Legendary MOD owners, Unique MOD owners never announced themselves in the public.

And then Rex suddenly thought, is this the job?

All the hairs in his body started to rise as a sudden cold chill touched his nape. The cold traveled on his skin and extended throughout his body as he saw the same cold smile emerged on the speaker’s lips.

“Yes. Yes you are right. Except that what you saw is a Legendary H-class Item: Excalibur.” The moment he said that, exclaims could be heard escaping from the crowd and all of them knew that what he said was true.

Excalibur, it was a legend that was discovered just a few months ago. A certain hunting team discovered a place that was infested by A-Ranked monsters and Type-1 aliens. In short, it was a place impossible to go hunting alone or even with an entire guild without any kind of MOD equipment.

But before Rex could even think of something else, the speaker in the stage spoke again and cut off his thoughts.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what you saw just now is the unapproved teaser trailer for Terroa. Supposedly, it should have been released five months ago but due to a certain incident, the release of the video was cancelled and that the video itself was put into the trash bin. Luckily, we were there and saw it so we picked it up.”

After he said that, a smile emerged on his lips.

Lies. Rex thought bitterly. You mean to say you picked up a trash that was supposed to be stored as a software? Only fools ignorant enough will believe that story.

As Rex formed a hypothesis in his mind, a few theory had formed in his thoughts.

This organization is aiming for something big. This job is aiming for the users with money and are willing to go as far as spending money to buy information or the actual MOD itself. Even Rare MODs, Rex recalled the news in the internet that he had once skimmed through, can fetch a price ranging from a few tens of thousands to over hundreds of thousands, depending on its function. And that’s still just a Rare MOD.

If his guess is right, then the actual job that he wanted Rex to be part of has something to do with hunting all these rare items in the game so that they can sell them off for real money.

As he thought of that, he decided. If that’s the case, then I can just hunt them all by myself!

But before he could even conclude the idea, a sudden realization hit him.

I can’t do it. There is not enough time.

It was this crucial fact that made him grit his teeth. And as his thoughts became the words in the speaker’s mouth, Augustus finally turned around to face him.

They had heard what they needed to hear and so the curtains on their private balcony closed off along with the sound outside. The dim yellow light from the ceiling illuminated the small room and Rex felt the tension rising on his throat as the pressure from his gaze started to swell up.

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