Arc I - New Beginnings

[Chapter 6: Adjustments]

Stepping forward CuteCuddlyKitten ashamed of her previous inactive and inability to help in killing the boar spoke out. "I nearly forgot this was a game it felt so real all of a sudden. Sorry for not being able to help."

"Ah no, I also was scared by the boar, this game is super realistic." Standing up from his exhausted sitting position Autumn Winds collects himself and his jittery nerves patting away the dirt.

"Now that we have collected ourselves we should decide our next course of action." The group looks over to Ice Prince. "I believe we should continue cautiously since these boars are fairly easy to kill.

Kage: "I'm still hurting my health is slowly regenerating but I still want to keep exploring. After all if I die I will respawn back at the base there is no reason we should head back."

Frostbite: "I think the boar knew who to tackle and I think it's really smart."

Kage: "What are you trying to say!"

Ignoring the other two Ice Prince questions the group "Anyone else has any other thoughts." The whole group shook their head besides the archer Wilson who rose his arm. "Yes?"

Wilson: "Well I agree on exploring I just want to point out what should we do with the dead boar corpse? Do we have to dismantle it ourselves or can we just place it in our inventory."

Ice Prince: "Autumn Winds since you killed it you take the loot."

Autumn Winds: "Thank you!" Placing his hands upon the dead boar corpse thinking about placing it in his inventory a prompt showed in front of his face.

Store 《Forest Boar》?

Weight: 90 kg

Quality: Fair

Placing the boar in his inventory he felt a weight over his entire body staggering with the extra 90kg of weight spread evenly across his body. "This boar weighs 90kg and when I placed it into my inventory I feel heavier."

Ice Prince: "So there is a weight system are you okay?"

"Yes I feel that the entire weight is spread over my entire body so I can still move normally just a little heavy everywhere."

"Then we will continue our exploration we have around two hours and thirty minutes left before we need to be back at base."

Maybe because this game has real time person to person interaction that Ice Prince was able to use his charisma and leadership in games to collect a massive group for a united goal minutes after a new experience where most would want to do their own things. Possibly coupled with the knowledge that the world would reset in some way after the beta ends.

As they traveled through the forest their team chemistry grew on each other just enjoying the game. Discovering cool and interesting plants, views, and killing more mobs as they continued to explore their nerves and reaction slowly was changing to adapt. They added each other as friends once the found out it could be used to text and call to each other making communication much easier.

After travelling back from their expedition as they were the 15th group they didn't have anyone to rotate with instead going to collect the nearby tree logs building. As said before from Ice Prince's speech they previous collectors cleared the middle while placing materials in piles not building anything yet.

Immediately getting to work they start to chop down trees those who are weaker classes rolling it to the location the stronger ones working together to carry it.

"I didn't expect a game would want us to do physical labor this isn't fun at all!"

Ice Prince noticing the vast amount of people complaining about doing labor they pile of materials located at the middle was disappointing only each team did at least one tree log some did two or three before giving up and sitting playing with their weapons or testing their skills. It has been a couple hours and almost six hours in which meant the wolves would attack in two hours he thought if he had everyone work together they would be able to make a decent standing base in one hour.

Autumn Winds still continued to do hard work and labor while forgetting he still carried the boar in his inventory. Thinking as this game is realistic if he could gain a skill by doing the same actions over and over again. Swinging his sword into the bark of the tree slowly chipping off materials he repetitively did this actions tens of times.

As he cut enough for the medium thick tree to fall as soon as it did he found out a surprising message.

Gained New Skills*

[Feller] {Passive, Common} Level: 0

(Your have a deeper understanding of cutting trees down)

[Chop] {Active, Common} Level: 0

(The act of chopping away material)

+50% Damage

SP Cost: 10

*gasp! Looking at his system message with an open mouth. "I knew it this game is so awesome!" Jumping in joy he feels rewarded for all the hard work he did to achieve this result. As people continued doing the same actions over and over they found out how to gain skills, which was to do repetitive actions as soon as word was spread people who was resting after using up their stamina started to follow suit and soon many people were bragging about how many times it took for them to gain the skill.

As they were preparing the camp making a wall of logs with a ditch around the circular makeshift base CuteCuddlyKitten walked up to Autumn Winds. "Hey I think it's surprising that everyone here is working together I would think that it would be more of a solo thing after all."

"It's most likely because of the reward and how staying in a large group provides protection. Not only that but this island is pretty small we covered around 1/3 of this island by walking for an hour so those solo's might come back and join in after all we don't have 80 players yet."

"It's amazing seeing how teamwork is so powerful in just a few hours this grassy field now is a wooden base although it is small with only one entrance."

As the group of players worked together a few solo's outside came back to see a base already being built.

=== Solo's POV ===

"They already built a base in a couple hours?" It doesn't look to bad I explored the entire island and besides slimes and boars there was no other creatures so how will the wolves come? Whatever I should join them after all I tried killing a boar and died twice before finally killing it on my third attempt and the drops is so disappointing do we have to do everything by scratch.

Reading the thoughts of the players I thought to approach this should be different.

"I messed up big time system."

"What do you mean?"

"Wanting to make them do everything by scratch from the beginning to teach them some survival skills was a failed insight. Why should I revert all of humanities current progress to the stone ages also I have given them too much freedom in gameplay time. This will not make them focus on the real world which the events will happen."

"Ha~ Thankfully through this beta I found this mistakes of mine that I will fix."

As Ray found these massive detrimental mistakes through the week exploring each event, idea, dungeon, and system she slowly morphed the real version to better incorporate the real world. "I made it too free trying to make it inclusive that is a mistake as well the machines will now cost money as well as the headsets at a cheaper price but at a less perfect response."

"So once this week ends I will close the game make the company more real by having machines and energy nourishments drinks for prices. Not only that I will make it more game like no need to make it super realistic to ease the people playing this game after all a majority decided to not do anything once they found they had too much options."

Throughout this beta Ray was changing everything and no longer as naïve as before knowing that she couldn't include everyone nor give it out for free to help the people as they wouldn't cherish it growing lazy. As a week passed a major announcement came out changing all previous announcements.

!!! MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT !!!

First off, thank you for all participating in the Beta Test.

We liked your feedback as it helped us understand what we did incorrect we have gained a lot of data during this week. Although we did say previously that it would be a month along with added players we will have to take back that statement.

We will be prematurely ending our Beta Test but not to worry it will come back soon.

Thank you for your patience!

Ice Prince back to playing MMORPG's felt bored out of his mind although that week was tiring it was such a new experience he couldn't forget it willing to look over the annoying hard work it takes to do anything. Tapping away the livestream he showed during his play of the game Another World gained him many new fans with skeptical people.

Having been a son of a famous rich Korean family he has connections to get knowledge and found out during the past quiet month that a new company has started buying land from each country setting up with a simple logo. A black VR on a circle white background that looked like the planet earth.

That new fast growing corporation was able to get permission from each government so quickly it's horrific and my father has sent word to watch them and see what they are competing in. They created another building with the same logo but a swirling effect with a word underneath reading nourishment.

From then as the days grew on it somehow made its stock public but what was the most shocking is that the top major business people in the world all invested into this mysterious corporation. Father said that the corporation was incredibly clear on their stock when you buy it you invest in the company but you do not gain any creative or power over what happens. The only thing you gain is their products and yet that made them invest into it.

After the days passed I noticed my father regaining his life after asking him he told me that he invested because what they showed was unknown futuristic technology no man could make only a god. And now with the smooth help of the government along with the help of businesses VR started creating massive worldwide advertisements of all kind, videos, pictures, billboards, and it was on New York Times Square massive screens for days and still ongoing.

Ice Prince watching the outside from his giant urban home looking at the streets "What are you?" looking straight at the new giant buildings in high traffic areas. The game name no longer Another World has changed to Cosmos the game art contained an epic animated scene glimpses of different worlds, areas, the slogan under read "A place for everyone!"

On their homepage held information for the date it would officially launch along with much different changes.

Ice Prince: "It will officially launch tomorrow." For the past week the sales of the VR Headsets, Gaming Pods reached an all time high even if you couldn't access the game you would be able to use the internet many people were greatly skeptical until they entered their own home space.

Ice Prince: "I cannot wait for it."