“ElizadeathMotherf: @ElvenBroThomas12 Anthony, change of plans. We’ll head to you through the sewer system. Don’t worry, with the player map, we should be able to reach you without much of a hitch.”

*Ping* A reply was quickly given.

“ElvenBroThomas12: Okay, then head here immediately. We found some buses used by what seems to be Marines of sorts, they’re in pristine condition and there’s more than enough buses for all of us.”

“ElizadeathMotherf: Mhm, we also lost MotorideKiller.”

*Ping*

“ElvenBroThomas12: Take good care of the remaining and make it back here in one piece.”

The chat ends and the people in the camp immediately prepare to enter the sewer when they hear sounds of rotors approaching them. ElizadeathMotherf runs to one of the roofs of the buildings next to their camp. She sees silhouette’s of helicopters in the distance. She opens her player tab and materializes a telescope from her inventory. She sees about fourteen UH-1Y Venom transport helicopters and six AH-1Z Cobra’s rapidly heading to their position. She looks right on top of her and sees a Reaper drone flying overhead.

She immediately runs back to the camp and signals everyone to enter the sewers immediately as they’ve been found out. The surviving Knights and grunts orderly enter the sewers and their walk to the Bus terminal begins.

Only the bus terminal was just recently manned by the Marines, ElvenBroThomas12 has his chance now to take the enemy on before more soldiers appear. The busses are parked on the furthest part of the terminal and Marines started bounding to the terminal, taking their turns and scanning each and last cranny of the parked busses. reeman45 sees this and prepares to ambush the Marines headed towards the Terminal while ElvenBroThomas12 takes on the ones on the right side of the bus terminal, scanning the open exit and entrance for the buses.

The squad of Marines were about to look into the entrance when the Elves ambushed them. One of the Marines was able to unload an entire Mag on one of the Elven Knights but was only able to damage its specialized armor; the Knight cut down the Marine with ease. The shots ring out on the terminal and the Marines in it suddenly shift their stances into a more combat oriented one, guns up and looking with their sights. ElvenBroThomas12 takes the lead with his Sword and Shield.

One of the Marines with an M16A4 assault rifle with an underslung M203 grenade launcher fires one at the shining Elven Knight. It didn’t even move him, and with a stoic stare at the Marines red glowing eyes, he ran towards the Marine, tanking his shots with his shield while his Knights took on the ones on the ground.

Meanwhile in the Terminal, the Marines are fully aware of the presence of the enemies in the sector, they throw the flashbang and tactically enter the terminal. The covered Knights await their turn. As the Marines entered the main lobby of the terminal, one of the Knights cast fire and multiple Marines was set ablaze. The Knights of Libertus then unsheathe their swords and start fighting the burning Marines in close quarter combat. As they slash and slice, the burning Marines show no signs of stopping till they drop the last one. reeman45 lost multiple Knights to the attack.

reeman45 orders his Knights to continue on and support the Elves attempting to capture the busses, and just as they were about to open the door that leads to the back of the ticketing desk, a Marine with an M4 Benelli semi automatic shotgun burst through the door, quickly blowing apart the chests of the three Knights near the door. reeman45 and the Knights quickly cut down the last Marine and quickly ran to the main parking lot.

There, they see that the Elves have valiantly won against the Marine Corps. The Knights of Libertus check the buses and reeman approaches the Elven Knight.

“Wow, I guess I should’ve expected just as much from Keyneth’s Hero.”

“They fought well for being a bunch of bones wearing body armor.”

“Should we take their guns? My mens swords are starting to get dull. Slicing through bullet proof helmets and body armor isn’t really helpful.”

“Don’t even think of touching their equipment. If you touch those guns, you basically admit defeat.”

“Dude, this has been nothing but an absolute slaughter house. We could barely fight back. Magic is all that gives us a fighting chance. I’ll take my chances and grab a sidearm and some grenades just in case.”

“Then do as you will, Libertus has its reasons but know that you're basically letting them win.”

“As I said, I’ll take my chances and get myself a firearm. Knights, you too. Grab the assault rifles if you wish.”

The Knights of Libertus grab some assault rifles from the corpses of the Marines before they fully despawn, some even grab Kevlar vests and grenades.

Elizadeath and the survivors of the camp run through the tight sewers of the city. They could hear the heavy tracks and wheels above them, after running for a few more minutes nonstop, they entered a large Flood Discharge Tunnel underneath the city, they spotted Russian VDV Airborne troops with US Army Engineers unloading what seems to be unneeded essentials that they found from the dead. The dump trucks exit through the large entrance which leads to the city’s Flood Canal. Ech0esofsneeed curiously asks the Sword Saint about what he’s seeing.

“Those equipment they dumped, they seem to come from both ours and Libertus and those patches on their arms… Rostock Guild and Eldwood?!”

“Keep your head low. Those skeleton soldiers could spot you if you peek out too much.”

“Of course ma’am. Let’s continue, if the map is correct, the exit should be near.”

ElizadeathMotherf leads the group across the Flood Discharge Tunnel, going through the catwalk high above the soldiers below. As they continue moving on, they exit the canal. They’ve walked into the city’s flood control canal. As the silence of the city slowly dawns on her and the group, they hear rotors once again and this time it's approaching them rapidly. She looks above and catches the glimpse of a drone inside the clouds high above them.

“EVERYONE! RUN!”

The group starts running through the canal, following it as it leads through the last sewer entrance they need to get to and it's a straight shot to the bus terminal. As they run, two MH-60L Blackhawk with a MH-47G Chinook transport helicopter appear, the helicopter's door gunner opens fire with its mounted M134 Miniguns.

The shots landed near but none hit. But it made the ones lagging behind run even more frantically. The tandem rotor helicopter faces backwards and lands, its ramp opens and a squad of Black Ops soldiers exit, a player named PilotMan then follows, with his hands behind his back. He looks at the survivors running for their lives.

Elizadeathmotherf looks at her back to check on the group and she notices the blue glowing eyes of a general. She immediately thinks “that’s no ordinary skeleton.” She stops running just as she is about to enter the sewer. She takes a long and hard look at the person and makes a cross, the player's name pops up. “PilotMan”, she gives him a stern look, as the survivors run past her. The two stare at one another. Behind PilotMan, the MH-60L Blackhawks starts fast roping two more squadrons of Black Ops soldiers. She notices this and gives a smirk at the Knight General before disappearing into the darkness.

PilotMan signals his troops to move forward. He casually walks towards the sewer while his skeletons jog past him, guns up and their killer intent is felt through their movement. At the entrance, he gives the sewer a thousand yard stare and goes in.

“M’Lord, I don’t recommend this.”

A soft, womanly, and motherly voice came out of his jacket’s inner pocket.

“Don’t worry Bahamut. It’ll be fine.”

“I sense great danger in that Hero.”

“We all do. The Hero Title comes along with it the Heroic Skill. One of the most arduous and hardest to achieve in this game. In such a dark and dangerous game, playing nice and goody two shoes is not something to be laughed at as it actually takes time and skill and most of all, patience.” He then lifts his hands, gesturing that he doesn’t really care. “That’s why I got the title of Dark Knight. It's way easier to just kill and destroy things.”

“I understand but please, do be careful Master.”

“No worries. Just rest. I’m sure we won’t need you till the last minutes if Libertus actually manages to send a response force.”

Inside, the only source of light comes from the manholes from the streets above, and you can only hear the thumping sound of the boots as it splashes the water inside.

The Black Ops soldiers stalk the survivors through the dark sewers, with their Night Vision Goggles down, the Black Ops soldiers keep a good distance away from the survivors as they near the bus terminal.

The group finally reaches the manhole that leads to the bus terminal, and there’s no signs of the skeletons following them. ElizadeathMotherf with Ech0esofsneeed wait at the base, letting the survivors exit first, above the manhole, the Elven Knights help up the survivors. Three buses wait on the street guarded by the remaining Knights of Libertus.

As the final survivor exits the manhole, ElizadeathMotherf takes one long hard look at the sewer, as if she’s waiting for the soldiers to pop out and ambush her. Ech0esofsneeed taps her shoulder and signals her to go up the ladder.

The two safely exit the manhole and enter the buses ready to drive out of the retaken city. She enters the third bus and as it drives into the highway, a blue reflection catches her eye from the passenger side mirror, there she can see PilotMan standing on top of the manhole they exited from, blankly staring as the busses leave.

The three buses drive off onto Highway Zero One, the city behind burning and its skies full of helicopters and fighter jets flying over it. As they’re about to enter the tunnel that leads to the outskirts, two AH-1Z Cobra performs a low flyby over their convoy.

On the other side, the concrete road slowly turns into a dirt road and the city’s skylines disappear behind them. Everyone in the group, from the Knights to the Grunts breathe a sigh of relief but ElizadeathMotherf and ElvenBroThomas12 aren’t celebrating. They know this is just the beginning. The two immediately open their Guild group chats and start messaging and typing.

Inside a derelict Police station near the town hall, it's been turned into a makeshift forward operating base. In the main lobby, PilotMan is talking to someone through a long range radio.

“This is Manager actual, the guests has left the hotel.”

“Affirmative Manager. Air Taxi here confirms that the guests have left the building, out.”

“Mhm, good show. Now, let us start the counting of the enemies’ losses.”

FirstHashashins commanding old voice silences the High Command Frequency, then another player butts in the conversation.

“Amazing comrades! The Vostok Group thanks you for this wonderful show!”

“Thy Knights of Eldwood thanks thee.”

“We’ll be pulling back our troops. We shall return to the European server with this victory in hand! Please do call us if you ever need anything.”

PilotMan turns the knob of the long range radio, changing it from 178.9 to 155.4. Immediately, voice is heard:

“This is Delta, we’re RTB to the airport. Requesting helicopter transport at LZ Charlie.”

“Affirmative Delta, a Venom from the courthouse is being redirected to LZ Charlie. ETA 1.4 Mikes. Be there, out.”

“Roger that Boathouse.”

“This is Manager actual, I can confirm that the Knights have left the city. You have a green light for the bombardment of the surrounding villages, over.” blackjackpecker, the commanding Officer of the Navy Air Force replies.

“Good copy on that Manager. I’ve scheduled the flight of six F/A-18 Hornets armed with GBU-13s and One-Three Tomahawk Cruise Missiles at Fifteen Hundred Hours to destroy the surrounding NPC villages and prevent the two Kingdoms from staging a counterattack. Admiralty Out.”

“Good copy to all Admiral. Good hunting.”

PilotMan puts the mic back on the radio and stands up. He then walks up to a squad of US army soldiers idling inside to follow him. He looks at his watch and stares at it for a few seconds, he sees that it's 2 hours before the strike commences. He boards a Humvee outside the Police station and heads off to the frontline to perform a visit on the checkpoints posted throughout the possible entrances to the city.

As the squad drives him into the highway, a transmission breaks through the radio inside.

“This is Alpha 1-4, callsign “Duncan”, we have what seems to be a player at Checkpoint Foxtrot. He’s currently being uncooperative with us. We don’t know what he is saying, some sort of messed up English.”

“Affirmative on that Duncan, I recommend you fire warning shots and force him to turn back, might be some foreign player from God Knows what trying to cross into the city, over.”

PilotMan instinctively picks up the mic and speaks

“This is Manager actual, I’ll be heading to your checkpoint Duncan. I want you to keep that man there till I arrive. Good copy?”

“Roger, Manager, we don’t even speak the man's language. We’ll sit tight, Out.”

The Humvee veers off the road and heads off into the Northwest side of the city and takes a small road that heads off into the dense forest. There, a checkpoint is placed, made out of HESCO and concrete street barriers to guard the dirt road. The topped a wagon drawn by two horses. The Humvee stops when it reaches the back of the checkpoints command tent and PilotMan exits.

“Are you callsign Duncan?”

“Yes sir. Our Sentries had stopped a stranger speaking an unknown language.”

“Where’s your player name? There’s nothing on top of your character when I open my Player Menu.”

“Same to you sir. Your player name has also disappeared. Might be a glitch, is the server under maintenance or update?”

“Weird. What time is it in the real world? One in the night? I don’t remember any scheduled maintenance from the Devs.”

“No idea sir.”

“Ugh, we’ll take this on later. For now, what the Hell is this? How did this guy get through the air patrols with a carriage?”

“I apologize sir, but I contacted the aircrafts nearby and they didn’t spot him go through.”

“Okay, I want you and your squad on me. I’ll talk to the guy.”

PilotMan walks into the main road from the command tent and sees a man attempting to communicate with the NPC skeleton soldiers. PilotMan notices the Woman on the wagon and what seems to be two children inside, peeking through the top of the seats.

“Okay, who the Hell are you?”

The man looks at Paul and speaks in a very anxious tone.

“Elloh rish, Tis Gibson Dertruit mormd teh village egallige eof Talmur. I em…”

Paul cuts him.

“The what now? The only surrounding villages here are Johnson, Reverick and Piotus. Where is this Talmur?

The soldier then cuts him.

“Wait sir, can you understand him? How? The guy is speaking some sort of gibberish.”

“What? No, He is speaking perfect English. I can understand him from the first to the last words.”

“Huh?! Wait what?”

The man wearing a ragged tunic butts in between the two, between the confused soldier and general, he tries to politely interject between them.

“Uhhh… sir, me and my family have been traveling this road for decades now. It's always been like this.”

“What kind of sick joke is this? What’s with the children? Why would you bring children into a game like Dark World? Do you know this is against the rules?”

Gibson becomes baffled by the words the man speaks to him.

“I apologize but I do not know these words. I do not know demon culture.”

“Drop the roleplay and answer me. What are you doing here and why the Hell are there children? There’s no children in this game for a reason. It's already banned in some countries for its extreme and realistic depiction of medieval violence for pete's sake!”

“Sir, this is not a game. I do not know what you're speaking of.”

Paul takes a long hard look at the man and stares him at his eyes. He can see that his man is either lying in an ingenious way or is mentally ill. After some seconds, Paul makes up his mind to talk to the deranged man further.

“Look, are there any more children? We can’t have those around.”

“Oh my, what would you skeletons want from children?”

The woman in the wagon screams

“I WON’T ALLOW YOU TO TOUCH MY CHILDREN DEMON!”

PilotMan then tugs the radio mic of Duncan next to him and speaks

“This is Manager actual, I got a bunch of deranged players here with children. I don’t know how they did it, probably a glitch with one of the spells that shrinks a person. I need transport and reinforcement.”

“This is High Command, all call requests are halted. We have a situation developing, all units are to continue their current objectives, out.”

“Damn, did Breznick and Libertus make a move already? That’s not what we planned.”

“Uhm sir, may we pass now? Please believe me that we have nothing in us that goes against the Demon Lord.”

“Again, your roleplay is incredibly cringey, please stop.”

One of the children suddenly stands up and taps the mother shoulder

“Momma, that dead man is saying some funny words.”

“Honey, step back inside the wagon and keep your head down.”

“Okay, enough with this bullshit.”

Paul bends over the checkpoint pole, going underneath it and heads over the wagon to see if the children are either players or NPC.

“PLEASE! STOP! NOT MY CHILDREN!”

In panic, he pulls out a knife and stabs Paul. In sheer disbelief on what just happened to him. He looks the man straight in the eyes.

“Pull the knife out. I’m not joking this time. My patience has been diminished with this messed up roleplay of yours. I will legit contact the Devs and get you all banned permanently for this messed up shit. People get raped here in Dark World, why would you bring children here? This virtual world has aged Twenty One plus for a damn reason.”

Obviously shaken by what he just did, Gibson’s hands are frozen as he grips the knife tightly.

“Okay, fuck this.”

Paul punches Gibson straight on the face. The light punch makes him fly a few meters. The woman on the wagon is shocked by what just transpired. It took her a few seconds for the confusion and fear of what just happened to sink in. She hurriedly steps down the wagon, protecting her husband and dragging her to the back with the children.

“Look, that’s a light punch. I’m sure only a portion of his health is taken.”

Gibson, although shaken, stands up once again, obviously bleeding from his nose and his face all red from the punch. Paul could only stand at what was in front of him. He takes a step back and translates what he’s seeing. Duncan in confusion looks at Paul.

“Uhhh sir, are you fine? I still can’t understand what he’s saying.”

“In all my years of playing this game, when you hit someone, they don’t bleed like that. You only remove a portion of their health and bleed a little. Wha… that also looks… oddly real…”

“Then, wait…”

The squad leader in the checkpoint checks Gibson who was bleeding and notices the texture of the blood is not of a game. Though Dark World has real life-like graphics, the gore and blood can be spotted as fake when up close. This one though, it's obvious that it's real blood. He had to take a few steps back to process what’s happening and hearing the children crying and panicking only confuses the soldier even more.

In absolute horror to what he just did, Paul steps back inside the checkpoint. He looks at his hands in shock at what is happening. Unable to take in what just occurred, even though his skeletal form doesn’t show his current emotion, his body's stance shows the panic and confusion he’s in. After collecting himself, he walks out of the command tent. Duncan and the soldiers look at him in silence.

“Call for a medic and have the Admiralty on the radio.”

Paul walks to the man with his nose bleeding profusely and offers him a handkerchief.

“Okay, going by what you told me. First business of the day is that I apologize for punching you. Secondly, we’re not from the Demon Lord's army and Third, We can’t allow you to pass due to a city that we built. It’s currently locked down from a war.”

Though he said that in a stoic and straight manner, his hands buried deep inside his pockets are shaking from the confusion. Gibson holds the Handkerchief to his nose to slow down the bleeding.

“But my family needs to reach the Imperial Capital of Melirious. Please, let us through. The Kingdom of Rose, the Vampires have been attacking people! They came out of nowhere and destroyed our village!”

“Okay, let’s meet halfway. Is there another route you could take that could maybe go around this one? And Kingdom of Rose? Vampires? There shouldn’t be any Kingdoms here… let alone Vampires… they don’t roam this continent as it has a shit ton of Divine players…”

“There is, but it's dangerous. Wolves and Orcs litter the alternative route and this is the most straightforward one and how do you not know the Kingdom of Rose skeletor? From what I heard, they have some of the best wine in Threa.”

“Okay, wait one, on that thought.”

Paul looks at Duncan and takes the radio mic once again.

“Hello, High Command, is anyone there? This is Knight General PilotMan, I need some assistance, over.”

“Hey Pilot, Mustard here, important update. The land has changed, we’re requesting all units to RTB to the airport. Officers are to abandon their current objectives and all posts, return to the airport, this is an emergency. No buts. Out.”

Paul puts the radio mic back at Duncans kevlar vest and heads off to the Humvee. The checkpoint opens and the skeleton soldiers start loading the sandbags and equipment back into the trucks behind it. On his way back, Paul notices that the Hill and tunnel is gone and the abandoned city is sitting out on an open plain. Even more confused to what has happened, a mass exodus of land and air military vehicles exits the city all rapidly speeding back to the airport.

“And here I was looking forward to adventuring with you Bahamut and going through your storyline…”

“Master, something is happening. I advise you to return immediately. The land, the air, the mana. It's all different, the smell of the land has changed and the skies are different.”

“I-i-i don’t know… what’s happening? How… did… the something flip? Did a player open up Pandora’s box or something?”

Paul with his little companion takes the Humvee back to the airport, the entire landscape has changed. The once hilly and forested land of Eldwood has turned into a massive open plain. The road he took had a direct and open view of the city, the old and aged skyscrapers to the bridges and highways. He could see it all and what makes his jaw drop is the ocean was no longer there, replaced with a large pond that has basically landlocked their Navy surrounded by giant mountains.

“Ho-holy shit…”

The player driving also couldn’t believe his eyes.

“S-sir… wha-what-what happened?!”

“I don’t know… I don’t… know. Soldier, did you understand what Gibson was saying?”

“Gibson? Who is that sir?”

“The village guy on the checkpoint.”

“What? Sir, I was Sentry there when he first arrived. We couldn’t understand jack, what he was saying. It was some sort of a gibberish backward version of English.”

“Eh?!”

The Knight General opens his jacket to speak to his companion.

“Bahamut, did you understand that man?”

“Nay, I’ve ever heard of that language before.”

“Eh?! What the fuck? What in the.. huh?!”

Nearing the airport, its entire tarmac is full of parked helicopters and F-16 lined up on the taxiway. The Humvee drives up on the once empty airport parking lot, now full of vehicles, but even the massive space was not enough to park all the vehicles and some are littered on the street and the soldiers idly roam the airport terminal. The Humvee stops at the Arrivals and Paul immediately walks to the security wing of the Terminal. As he does, the soldiers around him start unloading sandbags and M2 Browning machine guns. Putting them around the terminal and upping up its defense.

Paul enters the hallway and sees John outside the security conference room with Trevor, talking to one another. Paul interrupts the two conversing.

“What the Hell happened? I’m very scared and confused. What the fuck guys?”

“Don’t worry, we’re all scared and confused. My Delta boys just returned and the entire landscape changed. Uhhhh… guys? What’re we gonna do?! The navy is landlocked, the fucking forest of Eldwood has changed into plains!”

John was already trying to get everything together as everyone panics.

“Paul remember, I’m Mustard, he’s BleedingHearts. We’re all in skeleton form right now and identifying each other without name tags is confusing.”

“Yea yea, and I’m PilotMan. Look, is this meeting gonna commence?”

“It will. Just wait.”

“Fuck Trev man, I can’t believe this is actually happening, did we just disappear from our beds and seats back home?”

Paul on the other hand could feel his heart beating out of his chest from the weight of the situation. His hands twitch and shake frantically as he tries to read the entire occurrence without going nuts.

“No idea bro, look one thing is sure. We somehow got transported here by some miracle or something. Full dive VR is good, but it’s not this real. Never this real, everything has a level of authenticity to them that we have yet to achieve.”

“Ahhh man, I need to get back home. There’s no quit button or log out.” Frantically standing, the man in uniform trembles the more he thinks. While John was scared but still calm.

“Calm down Trevor, I’m sure there’s a way back home.”

Paul’s eyes were looking at everything, the walls, the ceiling, his fingers, the chairs.

“If there’s a way in, there’s a way out. We just have to find it.”

John and Trevor were also just as scared but were doing a better job at being calm, processing the entire ordeal.

“What if we die though?! I can’t die here guys. None of us should die here, so far from our loved ones and family.”

“Look, we don’t even know if death is finality here. There’s still the player tab, that means there’s a chance that we’d just respawn.”

“You gonna test that out?”

“Heck no. I have my thoughts but I’m not gonna transform back to human form and jump off the roof.”

But then, Paul remembers, they’re max level in the game. He translated this as having power far from a normal human. As they are all Death Knights.

“But guys, aren't we, like max level? Would jumping off roofs even kill us now?”

The two other Generals also realized, this means they’re more powerful and hard to kill.

“You have… a point. I think we’ll have to reserve our magic and Eldritch Knight powers as a last resort. I don’t like fiddling with this. I don’t want to accidentally kill someone.”

“That’s true, with the game’s system now gone and us in real life, We have to be weary, we have to respect life. We have to switch guys, this isn’t a game anymore. Remind yourselves of your powers.”

“Dark World VR’s playerbase has some of the most hardcore nerds out there, none of this sounds good. I feel like a new Evil just dawned on this unknown land.”

“Look, one problem at a time. Don’t let this linger for too long. We have to gather and talk about our next move, how we’ll react and operate.”

“True, I guess having modern weapons is both a blessing and a curse.”

Paul was already busy plotting on how they’ll have to reorganize the entire army.

“Per Eldwood Player, it’s seven skeleton soldiers right?”

“Yea, and for Pilots, Two is just enough for the mission they need.”

“Guys, we have an undead army. Would… the people of this land ”

The atmosphere suddenly turns methodical as the three men realize their position and the immense power they now hold that has real effects in the world around them.

“Okay, we’ll see about that. If the local native population has a Demon Lord, I’m sure we’ll be grouped together with the guy and also get attention.”

“Yes, and not the good kind of attention.”

“Oh God, we’re gonna have war in our hands won’t we?”

“Crap, let’s not do that okay? I’m not ready at all to kill thousands through guns and bullets.”

“I’m pretty sure we’ll have to mentally prepare ourselves for survival, this world is gonna be at our throats.”

The three anxiously wait in the hallway and as they idle, Eleven more High Ranking officers join them. It's the entire high command. From the Admiralty to the Air Force command all waiting for the permission to enter the conference room. After a few more tense minutes of waiting and lingering aimlessly about the hallway, deep in thought as millions of things come into their minds, the conference room door opens slowly, and the leader of the Knights of Eldwood is revealed.

The Generals sit at the large table. One sitting in front, five on each site and another one in the back. The room is full of screens and military boards full of plans and routes. The air of the dark room, only lit by the televisions. It slowly becomes tense, as the skeletons wearing modern general uniforms lean into the table. Even though unable to show facial emotion, their body language shows the severity of the situation they are in. The man in the front then opens up, with a heavy sigh, he starts talking.

“In around fourteen hundred hours, the landscape on our maps, and surroundings suddenly changed. Without a warning, we’ve been transported to somewhere else with our equipment and the things we made.”

His tone seemed old and weary, tired and depressed. He continues.

“I requested all of you here to plan our next route. I’m willing to accept questions and queries about the land and what we got ourselves into.”

KrankenWagen, with the real name of Escobar first opens up.

“Sir Hassan, what exactly did you mean that we’ve been transported here?”

“As exactly as I said, we got teleported to an unknown land. I’m sure many of you noticed the strange terrain that filled our surroundings.”

“Knight General Paul, I can confirm this. I came from Checkpoint Foxtrot and on my way back, the entire landscape has changed. Even the Hills covering our city have completely disappeared and its skyline could be seen miles away.”

“Knight Admiral Elmer here, I’m one of the first ones to report this. My fleet’s radars suddenly found random pots of land in the open sea, new elevations were suddenly popping up out of nowhere and the winds shifted, the weather also became more calm as we were escorting our Russian friends.”

“Which I confirmed. Knight General John, My F-16s and B-52s suddenly found the terrain to be different and the weather formations to suddenly change. As if out of nowhere, the terrain instantly shifted, the entire air wing reported that we’re in an entirely new continent.”

“And Checkpoint Foxtrot is our first contact with the inhabitants of this world?”

“Yes, a man with a family, women and children. I couldn’t believe it at first, I thought maybe it was part of some update or something. There’s never been children or such realistic blood in Dark World VR.”

“Knight General Escobar, I still haven’t wrapped my head around this entire situation. Have we gone insane from playing this game too much?”

The conference room falls silent as the Generals try to take in the entire situation, confused and scared.

“Look, we cannot mope around like this. We have an entire modern military in our hands that has cruise missiles and tanks. We must assure that this equipment doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. We have to find our Allies, like the Men of the Woods..”

“How are you so calm about this entire thing? We have a family and things to do, you know. Paul has a company to maintain, John has to graduate University and I have a business venture to attend to! My entire life is on the line with that!”

“What about me? I have two nephews to look after and I’m not panicking. Look, the best we can do right now is figure out what this place is about, who are the inhabitants and are we alone.”

“What do you mean by “alone”?”

“If you and the entire Guild of Eldwood including its two thousand four hundred members get transported here, what about Breznick and Libertus? Heck, what about the Wizards Guild or the Sages Department? We have bigger problems to attend to here. If we reveal ourselves, who says they’re still not out for blood?”

“Shouldn’t we prioritize contacting the Men of the Woods? Heck, if we can, let us send a plane to Woodstock immediately and get President Grahame to meet with us.”

“Escobar, do you even have an idea where they might be? Right now, we have nothing but local signals with our antennas and radars. Unless we get satellites which is basically impossible unless the Spaceman Guild or the nerds that love Rockets have actually built working ones. Even then, we would need to set up a network. We have no idea where they are or if they are even here.”

“Then what about finding a way home? And what the heck is the Kingdom of Rose?! Or even yet, Vampires in the area?!”

Hassan slowly stands up, as if he’s an old man. He puts his right arm behind his back and with a slouch, he points at the large screen behind him.

“If you look closely at the map behind me, this is a rough outline of the new terrain. It's entirely different, though good news for us is that the Port is still in water, though it's no longer open seas but a large lake.”

“Not only that, making the Carrier group stay inside such landlocked water is a death sentence. Right now, my ships are mooring into the Port but we’ll have to immediately send scouts and see where the lake heads off to and if the entire length, it could fit the Nimitz and the Iowa class Battleship.”

“Let us not get ahead of ourselves Admiral. We’d first have to perform an all heads count, we have thousands of tons of equipment and logistics with players who also want to go home right now, so we should be able to continue our operations for a while but we must first check if the game mechanics still work. We have to find out if we can still manufacture spare parts and munitions.”

“I’ll immediately talk to our friends at the logistics department and see if we can still make those. In terms of fuel, we have to see if we might have to synthesize them from the ground up.”

“I’ll immediately ground all our aircrafts. The B-52s and KC-135 Stratotankers would have to make a pilgrimage back to our Airbase as it's only one of the two places we have right now that has space for them. The airport is currently full so here's hoping the direction is correct.”

“I’ll send my Special Forces to help out in finding places for resources.”

“What about the upkeep of our facilities? We already have maintenance vehicles from the Engineer and Logistics Corps but I don’t think we have enough to maintain the city and the airport.”

“Sorry, if I was quiet the entire time like the other guys. Knight General Francis. I’m buried in the player tab right now, figuring out the logistical challenge that has been thrown at us. One thing is for sure, this isn’t even a player tab, it's some sort of a Magical Interface.”

“Are the functions still the same? Did anything change?”

“Yes, some stuff is missing here including crafting, Though I’m sure there’s a lot of changes here that we haven’t seen yet. If we’ve been transported here, I’m sure that the functions we have right now have risen to a variety no game or system could comprehend but I also fear that the longer we stay here, the more there is a chance for it to disappear as our body and soul get accustomed to this foreign world.”

“Good thing we voted to have an Army Materiel Command. For now, we’ll set up a defensive perimeter outside of the airport.”

“Good, everyone, you know what you’ll have to do. I know a lot of you haven’t been able to speak but for now, we’ll do this. Our time is short and we must act quickly. Meeting e-”

Just as the Five-Star General was about to end the meeting, the entire airport and the city became frozen. Out on the horizon, six figures are seen flying high above the ground. It’s the greatest player Mages of Dark World VR. They’ve casted a spell of gigantic proportions. A seal that puts the entire military to sleep through ice. Even with the high levels of the generals in the meeting room, they’re unable to quickly move to cast protection spells on themselves. Their glowing eyes slowly fade out as the ice engulfs them fully. Turning everyone into statues, stuck in time. But before General Hassan fell, he let out one last deathly whisper to the Mages that did this to them.

“Hear… me… mages… we shall not fade into the night… without a FIGHT.”

The entire airport falls silent. The runways, the aircrafts, the tanks, the streets and equipment are all frozen in place and the skeleton soldiers not moving an inch from where they stand. A deathly aura was casted into the damned army, as they waited for a chance to awaken from their sleep and explore the new world that awaits them. Snow falls turning the place into a lonely cold Hell.