Prologue – Alpha and Omega

"Your soul is strong. Become who you were born to be." -???

"Etch this onto your very soul. No one is allowed to break the laws of the system." -???

The world system is active. Transfer link being initialized...

"In accordance to the contract ensure the system is not breached." -???

+++

I open my eyes to a white ceiling. Glancing at the clock, it shows 6:57PM. I try wiping the crusts from my eyes and force myself to get up, whilst stretching. Looking out the window, the sun seems to be going down. I'm still having leg pains, after standing around at work last night, doing an eight hour graveyard shift.

I work part time at WuDonalds, a popular fast food chain. While it doesn't pay well, it still pays for my hobbies and other miscellaneous expenses. I am currently freeloading at my family's home. I don't have to pay rent, which is very helpful.

As a twenty-nine year old Asian-American man living in San Jose, California, being single is truly the worst. With my sub-par earnings, my family's opinion of me is pretty low. My name is John Nguyen, but people usually call me Johnny, since my real name, being Vietnamese, is hard to pronounce for most people.

I'm 164cm tall, or roughly 5.4 feet, so I'm pretty short for a man. Maybe it's considered average for an oriental man, or so I keep telling myself. I have black hair and brown eyes, the common color for a person of my race. I have pale white skin, due to always staying in-doors, which is sad, being to the fact that I practically live in a city on a beach.

There isn't much to say about myself. I have an average sized body, with a bit of belly. Due to always sitting on my butt and not getting any exercise. Anyway, enough about my personal looks, let’s talk about what really matters. That is, playing the virtual reality MMORPG game Arlenia Fantasy Online. It is my escape from my boring reality. Living in a world of sword and magic allows me to feel free.

Moving my ass to the computer table, I turn my desktop on. Putting on my VR helmet as I boot up the game, I go through a bunch of window screens to finally log on into the game, which is always an annoying process... They really need to shorten that. The game is over ten years old now though, so I doubt TraingleSoft, the creators of the game, will fix the issue.

The second addition of the game is coming out next year. Arlenia Fantasy Online is pretty much supported by a skeleton crew, since all of their focus is on Arlenia Fantasy Online II, which is to be released next year.

The game was released when virtual reality was first implemented, so the graphics and what not are very old. Arlenia Fantasy Online II will have superior graphics, with an engine that pushes the limits of current VR technology. It is the reason why everyone is anticipating the new release.

This means that Arlenia Fantasy Online, the original, will probably be shut down soon. It is losing a lot of subscriptions, being as it's an old and outdated game. All the years of work I've put into my avatar in this game will someday disappear into oblivion. It makes me depressed, but what can you do?

Finished logging into the game, my avatar, whose name is Dasas, is right where I left him. He is in my personal home, a large mansion, that some would consider a castle. Around five years ago, TriangleSoft implemented the patch that allowed players to have their own personal zones, after completing the quest to unlock it.

A personal zone is an area where only the played is allowed to enter without permission. In order to be allowed into a specific player's personal zone, you must first be in a party with them, and then receive permission. These personal player zones start out as empty plots of land, whose players can customize to their own preferences, such as building houses, parks, and much more.

The buildings and other accessories for these personal zones can be bought, traded, or made. Only crafters with the Woodworking skill are able to make them. This means that when the patch was first released, the Woodworkers got rich very fast.

I wanted a custom designed mansion from the Ancient China era, as I loved watching wuxia movies where crazy martial art experts existed. I had to dish out a large sum of in-game money, which was gold coins, to pay for the Woodworker to build my house, not to mention all the custom furniture I wanted. I wished to pretend being an Emperor. After my castle of sorts was complete, I put it on-top of a small mountain that I created in my zone.

TriangleSoft really gave a lot of customization options in personal zones. I went crazy with it. The mountain is around ten stories high, with stone steps leading from the mansion all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. I also placed a large sturdy gate at the entrance of the steps. I wanted it to look as majestic as possible, as if I was some sort of God, looking down upon the world. I prefer to call my personal zone Mount Tai, because it sounds bad-ass.

My avatar is currently on the fourth floor of my mansion, which is the top floor. It is a place I consider to be my workshop. My craft is Goldsmithing. I maxed out at level 100 with a support skill of Smithing, at level 50. My workshop consists of a smithy, and a storage room, which contains all of my crafting related materials. This includes silver, gold, platinum, and mythril ingots, as well as various other precious gems and stones.

The store room looks more like a dragons treasure hoard. Even if all the items in it are considered easy to obtain and not worth much, it's what the materials can be made into, that matters the most. High level crafting skills are required to make worthwhile items, after all.

The reason I am currently in my workshop, I'm finally ready to turn in all my items to create my God class weapon. I completed all the difficult previous steps needed for my weapon, now all I needed to do is pay the gold coins to the game system, and turn in the required items, to complete my weapon.

My main job class is Summoner, so the weapon I am making is a staff. Not only can it be used for casting, but it also double's as an offensive weapon. Three years of in-game work gathering the needed items, making money, was finally about to be rewarded.

I made most of my money from Goldsmithing. I farmed all the items myself, instead of buying them, to maximize my profits. The big name items required to create the weapon drop from Named boss monsters. They require an alliance of eighteen players to kill. In order to obtain these items, I relied on RMTs(Real Money Traders) to kill these bosses for me, and purchase the drops from them.

I am a solo player due to all pet related jobs being unpopular, making it so I couldn't join any parties or guilds. I was forced to rely on RMTs for my in-game items that exceeded my personal power to obtain. Sticking to the job Summoner really had many downsides, although the power to solo most stuff that did not require an alliance was the perk of the job.

A "Ding" sound reverberated around my workshop, indicating my weapon that took three years to complete, was finished. The feeling of excitement was intense. My God class weapon, The Khatvanga Staff appears with a message box telling me:

Congratulations player Dasas, on receiving The Khatvanga Staff. This is the 38th God class weapon to be completed in Arlenia!

I hold the golden colored staff with my two hands, feeling bliss as the nightmare of farming for items is finally over. The staff is about 175cm long, with a sharp point tip at the top, similar to a javelin, which allowed for piercing damage. Ten centimeters down from the tip are three skull shaped heads stacked on top of one another. The entire staff gives off a blueish glow, making it look even more epic. It was totally worth the time and effort I put into creating it.

The staff is level 200, and requires a summoner to be at-least level 100 to equip. It is a two-handed weapon, and the physical damage is also somewhat good, although not being the main purpose of the staff. The bonuses to the Summoner job class were what truly made the staff shine. It allows me to have spirit summons, without consuming MP. In other words, free pets!

The staff also doubles the stats of my spirit pets, increasing the Hp and Mp, not to mention, it also gives my spirits a slow heal over time. A nice feature, considering there are no ways to heal spirits, unless I dismiss and re-summon them, or wait until they are killed. I can now consider myself a godly Summoner! I'm totally psyched! While basking in my excitement, a message box suddenly appears and says:

Congratulations player Dasas on obtaining a God class weapon. This gives you the qualifications to become a World Administrator, meaning you have the option to be in a management position.

Will you accept?YesNo

The [Yes/No] option appears at the bottom of the message, making me think this is some sort of mini quest. Maybe it’s a title promotion, for completing a God class weapon. I decide to accept it. I press the [Yes] option, and suddenly, my surroundings start to collapse, as a blinding light seers my eyes.

+++

Author's note: TheCrabPpl assisted in PRing this chapter.