Two Koreans were sitting at the local inn drinking ale, with friends, colleagues. The town, Cheon Chilbaeg, existed in no small part due to these two individuals without detracting from the efforts of the group as a whole.

Hahn Hyun Ki, formerly known as Evaklik and Bae Mal-Chin, formerly known as Crowd, Korean born Real-Time Strategy (RTS) and City Builder champions of the multi-award winning games Troubled Worlds and Metropolis Unbound. The two, at first competitors in RTS games, had become close friends, learning they shared a love of city building strategy simulations. Each had earned in excess of three million dollars during their gaming careers prior to being offered beta testing positions in Powered Unlimited Reality Group's (PURG) newest Full Dive Neuro-Sense Reality (FDNSR) game under the working title, Powered1.

They and 2362 others using FDNSR who were also pro-gamers had been taken out of eSport circulation across multiple genres to participate in the beta. Impressive, considering their net earnings power and the catch which went with becoming a beta tester for the new game. Powered1 required an extreme level of commitment. Remunerations were substantial however and so the beta recruitment numbers could only be considered impressively successful.

Depending on the pro's genre of expertise, these testers performed vastly different duties compared to others of their cohort. While the vast majority came from fighting simulation, combat simulation, sport simulation, battle arena and role-playing both fantasy and science fiction genres. Like, Hyun Ki and Mal-Chin there were also Real-Time Strategy, Turn Based Strategy, City Builder and Virtual Artisans. This second group had the important role of world development and crafting components, items, and structures within the Powered 1 environment.

A forum thread, started by the beta liaison and development team had lead to the inn full of testers who were more than eager to celebrate the announcement.

Beta Testers,

CONGRATULATIONS!!

All beta test milestones are now completed and the development team has been extremely satisfied with the compiled results.

Everyone should be aware that a previous thread regarding a little end of beta fun was used as candy to help keep motivation and performance levels, sufficiently focused. This announcement is now confirming, the candy is being delivered.

Without further adieu, check out the interactive map now accessible to you.

Now, this map contains the total compiled explorations of the beta team to date and is updated live to all, from all, until the end of beta. The unexplored remainder of the map is of course under the fog. You all didn't go far from the start, well I guess it seemed like you did but as you can now see, our current world map is really big and this two-year beta has not even exited the safe zone.

Now, for the real candy, the interactive map has a green band across the fog area. This is where you can add your blind pin. Each person can add one blind pin, prior to 8am on the 3rd November 2120. This is the second last day of beta, at 10 am there will be a pin roulette that you will all be able to watch on the interactive map. Whichever pin is highlighted at the end, will be the selected location to convene the end of beta scary fun times jaunt. Hehe!!

At this time, each player will have a portal open next to them. This portal will lead a safe area as close to the highlighted pin location as possible. From this safe area, fixed portals will be available between the location, Spawn Point and Cheon Chilbaeg. You can all go forth together into the unknown from this random unexplored point, where mayhem will undoubtedly ensue.

So make sure you get your pin placed on the map ASAP!

Have fun,

Good testing,

Your friendly PURG beta liaison

Dan

The final week passed the beta testers quietly, a couple of combat groups tried pushing out as far as they could. One managed to push a little more than four hundred kilometers further than they had been but it made little impact on the map they now had live access to. Worth noting, these combat groups could only branch out so far, limited by their support needs met through towns like Cheon Chilbaeg and way stations, few of which had been established.

The rest of the beta testers mostly went through the motions or discussed improved strategies to develop at the start more efficiently. It was part of the contract agreement these testers would remain PURG employees after beta.

Further, they would all start in the same location, Shard Zero, a pre-assigned start zone reserved exclusively for PURG employees and it wanted a high-performance territory established since it could never compete with the raw quantity of population larger countries had.

Experience within the game meant testers were now well versed with the emphasis placed on world developing and crafting in Powered1.

When everyone first arrived, the spawn point, didn't have a functional starter town with shops to aid in early progression. There were no Scripted Emulations (SE) otherwise know as Non-Player Characters (NPC) in games across the ages. The testers started on a flat grassy plain and the paved stone area they portaled in upon. With nothing but some cloth clothing on their back and a single gathering tool in their Personal Dimensional Storage (PDS), a crystal fused into the center of their upper chest.

Wood, stone, ore, plants and weak animals were all close at hand to construct a basic town and survive that earliest period. Amusingly, those persons that hungered for combat were exceedingly grateful to become gatherers and crafters, assisting in making that first town.

Hyun Ki and Mal-Chin had become invaluable in calculating efficient pathways to build the infrastructure that allowed the crafting of arms and armor. Without such infrastructure, the combat oriented could barely progress. Fighting with bare knuckles or crafting tools was not effective compared to combat with weapons such as swords, mace, bows and so forth.

That first town took almost six months, going from nothing to proficient crafting output levels was an excruciating period for many. It was a labor of patience when everyone was incredibly frustrated, just wanting to get out and explore. A continual stream of forum posts made by the testers venting their frustrations towards this pointless game mechanic and developers in general. The words 'NOT HAPPY DAN!!!' along with descriptors of 'POINTLESS CRAP', 'BORING ARSE SHIT', 'WORST FUCKIN START EVER' were regularly posted on those forums.

Once the items were crafted then players with skill and knowledge of how to use them were in good shape to finally test the combat component in the game. Still, not all testers were experienced with fantasy based weaponry, these people continued to struggle even after the necessary tools become available. They simply did not have the skills to be effective. So common melee and magic training facilities had to be built for these people to be taught basic proficiency in combat skills. This, of course, took even more time and so the frustration continued.

Yet, now almost two years in, the beta was concluding, testers discussed these issues more calmly and rationally. That huge hurdle of a start had been overcome, the game had been an unexpectedly grueling sandbox and testers were well aware that some of the mechanics of the game were hidden from them.

The testers had taken ten more months traveling the seventeen hundred kilometers from the first town Spawn Point to Cheon Chilbaeg, the second NPC town big enough to contain higher level facilities.

Cheon Chilbaeg, where Hyun Ki and Mal-Chin were currently residing, along with the majority of the builders and crafters. They had been shepherd through the lands so they could be closer to where combatants were currently exploring. The fact that two wild dungeons and stronger creatures were prevalent, provided convenient higher quality crafting resources and experience.

These resources allowed construction of the Crystallisation Ritual Cauldera (CRC) used for the conversion of Mana Glands (MGs) into Mana Crystals (MCs). These blue crystalline objects would become one of the most coveted commodities in game, not so important in the beta but the second to last milestone for the world developing and crafting tests. Producing sufficient quantity of these MCs enabled completion of the final milestone. Using the CRC and MCs to create an Environment Control Core (ECC), a crystalline artifact which has some built-in creation functions.

ECC's, are really amazing, they can be used just like their naturally forming counterpart, the Dungeon Core to create an environment capable of producing stuff through mana conversion.

There was a catch though, having the skills to efficiently convert MGs to MCs to ECCs was, like all things in Powered 1, a process. Constantly performing the same repetitive task to gain experience in it, thus enabling an upgrade only to repeat the process until the skill became efficient enough to be considered viable.

In the end, the team had been completely successful, their ECC had one square meter area of control. Within which they created a plank of timber, an iron ingot, and a rat. Each time they wanted to produce a new item they had to go in and adjust the creation functions available, feed the ECC a template then feed it with their own mana to power it. But it worked. Further, with the crafters who focused on this project their skill had developed sufficiently to gain the second stage of converting MGs. They could now produce Mana Recharge Crystals (MRC). This meant that the formerly known MCs were now being called Mana Storage Crystals (MSC).

These achievements where the reason Hyun Ki and Mal-Chin along with the other testers at Cheon Chilbaeg involved in world development and crafting were currently at the inn drinking ale and celebrating what they thought was a grand achievement. Yes, creating a rat that could only move around within a meter area if someone poured enough mana into the ECC to create the thing was, in fact, a grand achievement in this world.

Looking back since that forum message, the last week of beta went by very quickly. Most just went through the motions and enjoyed the world, some participated in planning for live launch. Most put an opinion across, or ten. Some were busy compiling lists, arranging and rearranging priorities based on these forum discussions and strategy sessions that the testers held.

Eventually, the beta team chose to form a pact to enact their strategies and work together as a single unified team focused initially of infrastructure gains and shared experience to aid the establishment of towns and crafted items.

* * *

The 3rd November 2120 finally arrived, the entire beta team logged into the forum and watched. The countdown timer declined second by second until 10 am. The interactive map lit up with red lights from all pins before going dark again, after a second they began lighting individually in green at an incredibly rapid pace that no one could follow. Several seconds later a single pin remained alight, along with a system message.

Seconds later almost 1500 luminescent red egg shapes gradually came into existence near individuals or groups of people. They began shifting from red to green to red as people passed through.

Stepping through the portal the testers were greeted with another system message.