February 1st, 2113.

Ever since the Capital of Indonesia moved to Borneo in the 2020s, the island experienced massive growth in infrastructures and facilities. Although Ketapang is a small coastal city, it now also boast major facilities including the military training camp and Arang just arrived at the military training camp to report for duty.

With a forest surrounding it, the training camp gives a rare scenery in the modern day. Development sacrificed nature on it’s process, and the forest surrounding the training camp is one of the few remaining forests. Arang breathe the fresh air before continuing to enter the big building in front of him. He reported himself, got a tag and uniform, before proceeding to enter a big hall where every new cadets gathered.

“Hello everyone, I will be your head instructor during your time here.” A cold looking middle aged man greet the cadets when everyone has gathered. He is standing in front of the cadets, together with 6 other people, 5 males and 1 female. Arang guessed they are the other instructors.

“As all of you already know. Ever since the Great Disaster of Climate Change happened a few decades ago, our country has been pressured by various countries to submit and become a major nature conservation area for the world sake.” The man continued.

“We had struggled during that period. We refuse to become their scapegoat when they were the ones who started the disaster in the first place. How come they able to enjoy the development and riches, when we were forced to halt our own development?! We fought them, and now it’s your turn. We can’t get complacent even when we have survived the Great Disaster and find the solutions for the climate change.” The man said coldly.

After his speech, the middle aged man ordered the other 6, who are instructors like Arang guessed, to start counting the cadets and separate them into 6 groups. Each instructor lead one group. There are a total of 534 cadets on this batch and Arang got into group 4, lead by the only female out of the 6 instructors. She then led her group to their dormitory before telling them to gather back in front of the dormitory in 30 minutes to start their first training.

Arang search his room based on his tag and found that he will share a room with 3 other guys. All three are older than him since they finished university first before registering for military service, the common occurence in the community unlike Arang who go straight after he become an adult. The first one called Tito is 25 years old, the second and the third is both 23 years old and called Toni and Fendy.

After 30 minutes the group 4 members already gathered in front of their dormitory. Now that they will finally start their training, most of them look nervous, including Arang. He is worried that if he cannot follow the training well the government might cut his salary. The first training is actually testing the physical capabilities of the cadets, although it is a bit hard, Arang managed to pass the physical test with good scores. He is thankful all the years of hardwork doing odd jobs helps him with his physique.

As the life in the training camp continues, it is now April 1st, the day when “BORNEO” is officially launched. The sale of the gaming equipment has started from last year when the game first announced, and today based on GUPA report there are already more than 100,000,000 units sold. It is a small number compared to Earth population which are more than 30 billions, but considering it just a pre-launch sale, the number is astounding. Don’t forget the unit costs IDR 150,000,000 (about USD 10,700) and the game also required monthly fee of IDR 4,000,000 (about USD 285). The opening day of such a game definitely attract attentions and created an uproar from the players.

A few hours after the server opening, some players started to make a post explaining how the game is very realistic. The game itself have a 4:1 time ratio, so 4 hours in game equal 1 hour in real life. Then came the uproar from the players. The GUPA company actually played a prank for the players on the 1st day server opening, an April Mop joke according to the company.

The players were allowed to choose class and change classes during the game. There are hundreds or thousands of classes available to choose. At first the players thought it was normal and started experimenting with various classes, fighting with various monsters but once a players spent 12 hours in-game they will got a notice that it was an April Mop joke and they will move back to character creation area with all stats reset then they will proceed with the actual game by choosing a starting area and starts as a classless character.

“I was whipping a succubus as Whip Master...” a player complained.

“Thank GOD! I was trying Dragon Knight when a group of dragons suddenly come to hunt me to release my dragon mount.” Another player was trembling when interviewed about his experience before the character reset. He seems traumatized.

“The-they suddenly doing it in front of me, th-th-the thing is s-s-so hu...ge.” A female player was stuttering and blushing furiously when interviewed. Turns out she was testing Monster Tamer class riding a female Centaur she tamed and travel around, everything is normal until she came across a male centaur in heat.

“We want to provide a glimpse of the available classes for the first players as thanks for their belief in us. Hopefully with this experience they know what classes they can obtain since we won’t provide any other information. This experience will only be given to first account played in game capsule bought before the game launch.” GUPA explained this joke during a press conference in the evening. Arang saw this during a short break, at that time he didn’t interested at all with the game.

After the uproar that now called “Huge Early Bird” by media and enthusiast, 3 months has passed. The game “BORNEO” is rising fast to dominate gaming industry, with the total units sold now reaching 1 billion. GUPA company become a major dominant financial force in the world. Countries with major players in the game experiencing increase in their honor, prestige and tax income thanks to these players. The amount of money circulated among these players are stunning the world, with a new rich person appear at least once every week from these players. The money in-game converted into real life money in hundreds of billions rupiah every day.

Some governments now considering to utilize “BORNEO” as a way to raise their honor, prestige and income. They start giving advantages to their players and also trying to poach the major players from other countries. Indonesia also went a bit further by using the military service cadets as their workforce in the game. The government will provide gaming capsules for the military camp, with the cadets are expected to play and reach at least level 200 during their service duty. At the end of their service duty, the gaming session will be considered as one of the aspects to be scored, with less than passing grade might make them extend their service duty period up to 6 months.

The government are hoping with this gaming session they can find the talented ones to bring honor, prestige and income to the country. They also considered that with at least level 200, the cadets can be useful in case when there is a country war in the game later on. They predicted the game might actually replace war in real life based on how it progressed so far. After all death in the game, is unlike death in real life.

After announcing their plan to include gaming session in the military training camp, the cadets got a 3-day vacation so the government can install the game capsules in the camp. Arang went back to the orphanage for his vacation.

“Arang!” The two little ones are the first notice him coming back around noon since they are mostly spend their time in the orphanage playing in the front yard. Arang pick them up while they hugging him.

“Hello Ham and Linda. Are you two being a good kids? Where are the others?” Arang ask the little ones.

“I’m a good kid, but Ham is being naughty. Last week she eat my cookies.” Linda complained to Arang.

“Everyone is inside, Arang. Oh, except Kasih. She just went out to visit doctor this morning.” Ham tried to ignore Linda’s complain and answered Arang’s question.

“Huh? Kasih went to see a doctor? What happened to her?” Arang asked again.

“We don’t know, she won’t tell us. But she has been visiting doctor a few times during this month.” Linda seems to forget her complaint and informed Arang.

Arang then put the little ones back and tell them to play again, not forgetting to remind Ham not to take others’ things. Ham a bit sulking but soon forget it as she play again with Linda.

Inside the orphanage Arang meet with the other orphans, Allyn in particular look more charming after a few months not seeing her. Siska still with her devilish body and teasing gesture hugs Arang with a glare from Allyn. Will, Tan, Herman and Leo also come out from their rooms and give him a hug. Arang gave a curious stare when he saw Herman and Leo looks thinner.

“They are going to work nowadays. Herman in a construction site and Leo as a store clerk. The oprhanage is not in a good situation, we just found out after you’re leaving. Why didn’t you tell us, Arang?” William give the information and questioned Arang why he doesn’t share the orphanage problem with them.

“Didn’t my salaries are sent here to Kasih? Why did you guys still need to work? I thought it was enough?” Arang ignored Willy question and ask back.

“Kasih need the money for her medicine, Arang. We told her to use the money from your salary to go see a doctor. It was lucky that Tan saw her when see fall unconscious in the vegetable garden last month. So we work to get money for other expenses here. Willy and Tan actually wanted to work too, but we told them to stay and take care of the orphanage instead. We also worried to let Allyn or Siska working, this area is not really female friendly, especially for the young ones.” This time it was Leo who answered.

“Alright, I will stay here for 3 days and help you guys. Next time please let me know if something like this happened again.” Arang said to the other boys.

Kasih come back in the afternoon, she meet Arang and told him not to worry. Her illness is not that serious, she was only too tired and need time to recuperate. Arang accepted her explanation, but still ask the other orphans to take care of Kasih and watch her.

Meanwhile, in GUPA Company HQ.

The Indonesia representative is meeting with GUPA President, Bodo Bale. They are going to finalize the agreement which require Indonesia to buy 1,000,000 game capsules with higher price, but in turn the GUPA Company have to make sure those capsules will have the players using it automatically got their income in-game cut by 20% and transfer it to the Indonesia government.

“For BORNEO!” Both sides are having a toast after signing the deal.