Obi logged out of Eternal Awakening and entered his Virtual Box.

"Hello again, Emma."

"Welcome back, Obyn."

"Ah! You remind me too much of Dern. Change Profile name to Allestein, Obi."

"Profile name changed. Welcome back, Obi."

"Thank you, Emma. Dive to my personal workspace, please."

"Initiating Dive..."

Obi felt as if he was accelerating through the tunnel. The white room broke away into pieces and dissolved into the walls of the tunnel. Once again, everything faded into a dazzling white and Obi closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes to see his dull, grey room appear before him. It was a messy sight. His notes on strategy littered the room, some crumpled, and others neatly stacked. There was little to nothing on the walls, only a notes-board, and a holo-screen.

There were 3 workbenches in all, one that he used for planning, one that he used for socializing or reading, and one that was used for some kind of big projects, or tasks. Though the latter was mainly used to sort through all the papers he had lying around.

Today, he would be spending most of his time online. Obi walked up to the holo-screen and switched it on. He sat down on his plush chair and put on his V-Glove.

A V-glove allowed Obi to type using his fingertips, touching his thumb to his index would be A, touching this thumb to his second finger would be E, and so forth. Double-tapping would change the letters. Obi had learned to use this very efficiently and had even reverse-engineered another glove for his left hand, for tasks like hitting 'Enter' with 1 tap instead of touching his thumb to his palm.

He pinched the air with the glove to move the cursor and opened up his desktop. Obi had never been in a guild, never thought it would be necessary for him.

He went onto a social networking site, Flick'n'Flit, where most of the gamers on Eternal spent their free time on. Obi only had a following of 30 because he didn't post very much, but that doesn't matter in F'n'F where a message can reach almost everyone regardless of follows.

Obi started composing a post.

---

To all Fighters,

I'm assembling a team for a tournament coming up. If you're above level 50, and would like to fight ~ Instamessage me.

- @Obi (Obyn Allestein)

---

He pressed 'Post', and the message was sent across the 9 Towers. Obi sat back in his chair and rocked. It was time to wait and watch. He slapped on his earbuds and opened up a random podcast.

Announcer: And those were some sick beats from AJ. Now we have our history segment from Barrie. Stay on for the ride through the epics!

Barrie: Thanks, Ned! Don't worry folks, this won't be boring! Today we have the age-old story of how the New World came to fruition.

A smile spread throughout Obi's face. He loved this story. Getting up, and materializing a cushion, he sat back down and kept listening.

Barrie: Life wasn't always like how it is now. There used to be 7 continents, and nearly a population of 15 billion in the entire world. Our predecessors were not as advanced as we are now. They used the ground as their main transport, and never utilized the skies properly.

Their governments were constantly at each other's throats, and peacekeeping organizations could not resolve the issues.

One fateful day, an asteroid was spotted hurtling towards the earth. It was massive, and the UNSO predicted that it would land in what they called the Pacific Ocean. The United Nations Space Organization took it lightly, they didn't know what would happen when the impact was absorbed by the earth.

When the concave asteroid entered the atmosphere, it began to spark due to entering the atmosphere. Pressure built up inside the concave area of the asteroid, nearly increasing to the pressure of 12 atmospheres.

As the asteroid made an act with the ocean, the tonnes of pressure explosively released, creating a shockwave that sent water flying. In minutes, coastlines were flooded and water seeped inward, affecting not only the area near the Pacific Ocean but the rest of the world as well. The next day, a lot of land had been lost to the Tsunami, even completely eradicating the giant landmass of Australia from the map.

Islands were lost in an instant, even what people considered high ground on the mainlands were sunken beneath the surge. Panic ensued, and records were hazy from that point on. What we last knew of the Old World was that small patches of land had survived. Refuge for the minuscule amount of people still left alive.

The world population dropped from 20 Billion to 7 Million across the globe. Reconstruction began, leading into the New World. A central tower was built in Asia.

These towers were extremely tall, each around 4-5 thousand feet tall. They all had a main cylinder going down the center of the massive constructions. A support structure spiraled around the main cylinder, connecting to platforms that were separated by only 30 feet each. On the platforms, houses were built, and that is how we came to know life as it is now.

A rail system was first developed, to bring transport people up and down the massive building. It was later abandoned for a recently developed hovercraft system that was much more efficient and quick.

In the spirit to uni-

*Ding*

Obi was jolted back into reality with a ping from F'n'F.

He had received a reply from his post earlier. Then he saw, not 1, but 3 replies. He must have really zoned out while listening to the podcast!

The first reply was as follows:

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Hey @Obi!

I'm a cross-class character, 60% Assassin, 40% Elementalist. I'm at level 78 right now, and I would be very willing to join! I've been in the game since it was in Beta, and I'm sure I could help you out. In-game name is EmilyE. I'd be happy to grind if you need me to.

- @EmilyE (Emily Evergreen)

---

Emily sounded promising. You really didn't find cross-classing these days. She was definitely on the team for now.

The second reply was as follows:

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@Obi,

My in-game name is Melissmarine, and my character is a level 48 Aquatic Coryphee. Don't count me out so soon. Meet up with me, and I'll show you what I can do.

- @Melissmarine (Melissa Cennt)

---

Obi was a bit skeptical about Melissa, but he'll have to wait and see.

The third and final reply was as follows:

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Heyo @Obi!

I'm a longrunnin' old dude from Tower 6, up in Europe. My characters a bullet and a half, a level 70 Gunslinger. I'm up for any task ya got for me, and I was a veteran in the Megapolis War. I can help command a team. So what? You up to take me in, boy?

- @Tuggernaut (Tug Himmer)

---

Obi wasn't so sure about Tug either, but hey! He'll take whatever he gets. Obi started creating a common reply to all of them. He could see the potential.

---

@EmilyE, @Melissmarine, @Tuggernaut,

Thank you for replying. Meet me at Fern Forest at 2 O'clock, 2 days from now, in real-time. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you.

- @Obi (Obyn Allestein)

---

Obi sent a quick message to Cole about the replies, and told him to come to Fern Forest too. Nearly nodding off on the workbench, he decided it was time to take a short break.

He took some time to consider sleeping right then and there, but Dern's harsh scolding yesterday was still fresh in his mind. He took off his V-gloves and shut down the holo-projector.

He was about to leave when he found a picture of Sara lying in a corner. Picking it up, Obi smiled and pinned it to the board. Picking up a tablet, he scrolled through the feed. He opened the Board and went to the tournament page, where the prizes were shown. It said that the tournament began in 10 days.

Obi knew he should start preparing. Maybe get to level 100 with Cole's help. He logged out of the Weld for now. Once again, Dern took off the headset.