《Hidden World Online: A LitRPG Story》Prologue 2
Advertisement
Mickey reached his townhouse home some fifteen minutes later. It was a short bike ride from the college—a welcome convenience and a definite factor in Mickey’s decision-making process when he’d decided to attend.
“Grandma, I’m home—Oh. Right…” Mickey lowered his voice and his shoulders slumped. “Gran isn’t here… She’s still in the hospital.”
Mickey sighed and took off his shoes, tucking them neatly beneath the shoe rack. He placed his bookbag on its hook and went to the small living room where he kneeled before a hutch with four urns inside.
“Hey, I’m home. I hope you guys are still at peace and up there with the little angels…”
Mickey continued reciting a short prayer, one for his departed family—his parents and two younger siblings—and one for his ailing grandmother. He wasn’t particularly religious, but like his grandmother had said to him, “It wouldn’t hurt to wish them well.”
If his family still existed in some form and if a short prayer, not even thirty seconds long, could make their afterlife easier, well he would be remiss to not give them that much. Mickey observed some silence, sighed, and went upstairs to his room.
The room was a small 9x8 foot dwelling, with bare and muted walls. There was a single bed and a desk with two monitors and a computer on top of it, opposite the bed. Against the wall, between the desk and the bed, was a bookshelf with all of Mickey's video games, tabletop books, and programming books.
He sat at his table and turned on his computer, tapping on the desk as he mulled over the card that promised prizes. He pulled it out of his pocket and tossed it onto the desk.
Cash prizes, huh? If it was in a USB drive, I would have tossed it out immediately.
Advertisement
Stories of tech sector employees ruining their computers and networks because of USBs they’d found in parking lots were popping into Mickey’s mind, each one getting a chuckle out of him.
I really shouldn’t be buying this, he told himself.
But yet, he couldn’t fully bring himself to disregard the card. His grandmother was sick and if she got worse—which was a likely possibility— she would need more drastic treatment, more than they could cover with their dwindling finances.
What Mickey was experiencing was the desire to take a leap of faith, fueled by his desperation.
Checking out the game wouldn’t be the worst thing, right? But I should do due diligence.
Mickey jumped onto the web and ran quick searches, querying what exactly was "Hidden World Online." To his surprise, what he found were webcomics or web novels made by random users on various content-sharing sites. There were no records of a game by that name popping up. If anything, all Mickey learned was that Hidden World was a popular name.
Annoyed that he spent a little over an hour looking for information, Mickey relented and checked out the download site, Tralasportal.com.
Interestingly, the site didn’t show up when Mickey tried looking with a search engine. He tried five others and still nothing. The only way to access it was to go to the site itself.
For a second, Mickey gained hope. It’s hidden? Is that by design or because they neglected to get indexed by the search engines?
Mickey pondered as he waited for the site to load. If access to the game was by invitation-only, he could come up with reasons why not being easily search-able would be desirable.
The website loaded, however, and Mickey’s hope took a hit.
It looks so cheap.
All Mickey was greeted with was an image of a portal he could swear was ripped off from another popular game and a big, obnoxious “Download Now” button.
Advertisement
Mickey groaned, cursing how far this card was taking him. He clicked the button and went along the motions of installing the new browser. Along the way, he also scanned the files with every tool he had on his computer. While waiting for the installation to complete, he also brushed up on what precautions someone should take when surfing the darknet.
Sounds easy enough, Mickey thought as he prepared his environment. I’ll just check things out for an hour max.
Putting a time limit on it made everything feel better. He would check out the nodesite, and if it was as sketchy as the download site, he’d burn the card then and there without scratching off the access code.
The install was done. He opened the new browser—the landing page was as typical as any other browser’s landing page and it had all the typical search features.
"Tralas," huh? I wonder who made it…
Mickey found the bookmark for the HiddenWorld Node and with a shake of his head, clicked it.
Mickey’s body throbbed. “Oww!”
He looked all around his room like a deer caught in the headlights. He then inspected his body passing his hands over every part.
What was that?! he wondered, terrified.
He looked at the screen—it was still loading, with a “Connecting” message on the screen.
Mickey took one more look around the room, and then at his mouse before finally looking at his hand.
Was that just a weird spasm? Maybe I’m nervous?
As he calmed down, a ding and the sounds of an angelic choir singing scared him again, causing him to jolt out of his seat.
“Oh. It loaded… It’s prettier than I thought.”
The site had loaded. Before his eyes was the landing page for Hidden World Online. The title was in big bold letters superimposed over an image of a stone gate in front of a waterfall. The production value was high—way higher than that travesty of a page he saw earlier.
The “Sign-Up” button appeared at the foot of the gate and other links appeared along the top of the page.
I’m surprised they don’t have flashy characters on the screen. Let’s see, what are these links?
Along the top were the labels: Game, Explore The Hidden World, and Support.
“Let’s see, what should I do? There’s no point in looking at the game requirements or going to support if I don’t like what I see. Let’s ‘explore the hidden world.’”
Advertisement
The Perks of Immortality
This story will no longer be updated. After living decades and dying hundreds of times, Kegan has learned that he has finally passed some test that the cruel spirit had given him. Now, Kegan has the ability to gain “perks” that can make his life much easier. He is looking forward to finally having an easy life with the new perks he has earned. Rules to keep me honest for the perk system: Spoiler: Spoiler 1. The purpose of perks is to help the MC live longer and do new things each life. 2. The perks can be unlocked by getting hurt or killed. 3. The perks can be unlocked by putting in a lot of effort that isn’t easily duplicated in a new life. 4. Perks are generally beneficial enhancements to the MC’s body. 5. Perk costs can be lowered with more impressive achievements to unlock them. 6. Perk costs can be lowered by repeated death or injury from something the perk protects against. 7. Perk costs are increased for quality of life improvements that don’t benefit survival. I want to avoid one of the pitfalls I see for other LitRPG stories where the game elements barely relate to the story, or offer very little information. If people are skipping over and not reading the perks then I'm doing things wrong. So I promise to try and make the perks interesting, sometimes humorous, informative, and relevant to the story.Cover art by http://dertypaws.com/
8 124Of Frost and Steel
After being kicked out of home by her own parents, Emily found herself living in the house of an old woman while working as a plumber to help pay the bills. Her slightly unusual but still very normal life came to an abrupt end one day when an incoming car crashed into hers. When she next opened her eyes, she found no ambulance or hospital room waiting for her. What she found were instead the faces of beings much larger than her who were not entirely human, and the opportunity to live a new life, free of her old one. WARNING: This fiction is dedicated to a friend of mine who spent twelve years of her life hiding who she was because she feared the reaction of her family. For this reason it contains LGBT themes, although they won't be the sole or main focus of the story. The story contains sexual themes, but I will try to keep them to a minimum or make them "fade to black". Chapters will be around 1000 words long and without a fixed release schedule, for the moment.
8 193Black Carbon
It has been eighteen years since the Goron Empire invaded earth, enslaving all of humanity—or whatever is left of it. Ethan wants to change the fate of humans from inside the system. Della wants to change the fate of humans from outside the system. Two inseparable siblings, and two separate paths. Three days after Ethan’s and Della’s father is forcibly banished, they separate to go on their own journeys. Will they meet again, despite following completely different paths? And if they do, will they be friends or foes? 1) It's a dual MC novel -- there are always 2 PoVs in every chapter (Ethan and Della). 1k~2k words for each PoV.2) It's soft sci-fi. I will explain world-building in the best way that I can, but it's not necessarily explainable by physics.
8 212Title of True God
Every person tends to have an emotion inside them but not every single one of them can show them properly, 17-year-old Aoi Kichiro is sensitive but incapable of showing his emotions like normal people around him, because of this, his social skills are almost at zero. He is a high school student and has no friends. But one day something happens to him, a change to his life that changes everything for him. The way he looked at his life, They way he looked at other humans. Updates On This Novel Are Slow, Really Slow! Cover Art Credit - ??? Thank you for making this beautiful Art :)
8 199Rise of the Last Star - A LitRPG Adventure
As multiple worlds and dimensions converged, humanity was met with the Unknown. A mysterious System forces it to play its part in a death game, and through the workings of a higher power teleports every human to a deadly Tutorial Zone. In order to save himself and others, Liam must reach his full potential as the last hope.He must become the last shining star that guides his people. This is the story of a man's desperate attempts to save humanity from certain extinction, as well as find out who's behind it all. He dreams of creating a fairer, more just reality and through the System, finds a ray of hope. Follow his journey as he struggles to build up his power while withstanding the trials of Fate. *While the story is fast-paced, it is also a slow-burn in terms of character building and development. Characterisation happens as the story unfolds and different plot points come into play. Beware if that's not your cup of tea.
8 187float with me | IT
Lara Lewis moves to Derry at the wrong time. Not only does she catch the attention of the infamous Patrick Hockstetter, children are disappearing and a dark entity that takes the form of your deepest fear is terrorising the town. Can Lara and the Losers Club take down Pennywise before it's too late, Or will they float too?
8 64