| Rise of the Demonic Sect |

| Eternal is Path | Silence is Direction |

| ACT 1: Way of the demons |

| Chapter I |

“Rock! Paper! Scissors!” Four men voiced out together, their voices laced with intensity, ripping apart their opponents' hopes and gaining victory in the glorious battle of 9 p.m.

“Dammit! How did I lose?”

“For fuck's sake! I lost!”

The groans of defeat echoed through the cramped, dimly lit room. Filth was the first nature of the room, and filthiness was its second nature.

Zayn glanced sympathetically at his friends who'd fallen short in the epic battle of 9 p.m. of rock, paper, and scissors. The victor, as per their wager, would claim the coveted first use of the brand new gaming helmet and dive into Heavenly Ascension, the hottest game of the 24th century.

"Alright, looks like Allen and I are out," Kate sighed, rolling his lips together. "You two get first dibs. We'll take our turn tomorrow."

The four men who fought the great battle glanced at each other, and after a moment of silence, laughter erupted, with slurs and mockery for the losers.

"See, this is how it's done, suckers," Niyor declared, a hint of amusement in his voice. But his demeanor quickly shifted as he added with newfound seriousness, "It's been eight long months since the game launched. We grinded our asses off to afford these helmets, but grinding wasn't enough. We researched, strategized, anything to get a head start and dominate once we logged in."

Zayn raised his hands and interrupted Niyor. “Yaar, they will play from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. tomorrow; you remember that, right? Let's save the pep talk for tomorrow when it's their turn.”

Niyor chuckled. "One last thing, guys. We might be taking turns playing, but our goal remains the same: to reclaim our workshop's glory and crush those corporate bastards who stole our thunder."

A chorus of determined nods followed. They were once a top gaming workshop in this era of virtual gaming, but refusal to conform to a large organisation's demands landed them in their current struggle, forced into manual labor to make ends meet.

"Alright, enough talk, time to game!"

Zayn and Niyor applied a cool, tingling nanobot gel to their foreheads and necks before carefully placing the VR helmets over their heads. They settled onto their makeshift beds, the helmets lighting up with a pulsing glow that seemed to travel down their spines.

Inside the helmet, a scanner passed over Zayn's closed eyes, and then… darkness. The familiar whirring of the ventilation fan faded, replaced by an unsettling silence. The stale air of their cramped room was replaced by… nothing. The hard bed beneath him vanished, and finally, he was in the VR zone.

Heavenly Ascension boasted the most advanced VR technology ever created, eclipsing everything that came before. It had taken the VR community by storm, amassing a billion users within its first month. Players raved about the game's mechanics and unparalleled realism.

Owning a VR helmet wasn't the only requirement for entering Heavenly Ascension. Players needed to receive a Nanobot injection developed by the Scarlet Organization. This injection allowed the helmet to fully integrate with the player's nervous system and create a truly immersive experience.

Zayn found himself enveloped in an unsettling darkness, cold and unwelcoming. Unlike other VR games he'd played, the wait in this endless void sent shivers down his gel-coated neck.

[Welcome to the VR world of Heavenly Ascension.]

A monotonic female voice reached Zayn’s ears; this was the type of thing he was familiar with due to his experience with VR games—a welcoming voice.

[Registering nanobot-acquired DNA.]

[Neurological scans are complete. New player detected. Customize your character.]

Zayn looked ahead, and a spitting 3D avatar of himself stood in front of him. This was unlike anything he had ever seen; even the most promising game—Dawn of Mana—wasn’t this fantastical in virtual graphics and paled in comparison. It was almost too real.

However, due to the Kingdom's policy enforcing uniform player appearances – same face, same build – his customization options were limited to hair color and clothing.

Zayn glanced his spitting 3D avatar up and down. Underwear was the only piece of clothing it had. His thighs were robust like concrete, with his hands having biceps and different ceps showing. The veins on his hands were thick as pencil graphite, his skin was as pale as white, in contrast to his eyes, and his hair had the same ashen grey colour.

He was the only one in the region who looked like this. Getting weird stares was just a normal thing. The muscles on his body were shredded beautifully but lean, making his build athletic, all due to the physical labour he did.

Zayn changed his hair colour to dark black, which was one of the most common hair colours in the Southern Continent, which he planned to spawn. His friends and he were not only grinding so they could buy VR gaming helmets, but they also kept themselves updated with all the news and events, geography, political systems, different types of sects, and other different minor and major details that would allow them to grow rapidly or just earn enough so they could make their comeback in the VR gaming world.

Zayn would have loved to rock his usual glossy white shirt and dark pants with boots, his signature look in previous VR games. But anonymity was key in this new world. He couldn't risk drawing unnecessary attention. So, he settled for the standard Southern Continent attire—a simple dark robe devoid of any embellishments.

[Character Customization Complete.]

Zayn’s vision blurred for a second like a glitch, and then a weird feeling of power coursed through his veins as if the strength in his body had increased exponentially. As he thought of this, a hand suddenly appeared in front of him, and then there was another, and he could control them. He understood; he was now in his game avatar form. The weird feeling slowly vanished as he moved his legs, hips, body, and different parts. There was still darkness around him, but in his line of sight, there were new words that hung in the void.

[Please choose a username.]

Names were the most important thing, Zayn believed. They represented one’s values and principles and the way one wanted to show themselves to the world. Though one never named themselves in the real world, one certainly did in the VR world as a username.

With practiced ease, he typed his chosen name on the virtual keyboard that materialised in the void: Ye Feng.

[Username: Ye Feng]

[Confirm?]

A click on the confirmation button finalised his character creation.

[Character Initialization Complete.]

[Connection to Camlet Server established.]

[Will you like to proceed with the tutorial?]

Now, this was a tricky part for Zayn because if one proceeded with the tutorial, they were guaranteed to get a cultivation technique of a certain rank, and there were chances that those techniques would be exclusive to the player. However, if one didn’t proceed, then they would get a mystery gift box, which, when opened, could contain anything. However, after much deliberation and the data they obtained regarding the probability of which option gave the better starting gift, they discovered the chances purely depended on the player’s luck. They didn’t get a definitive answer, so in the end, they decided to take a gamble.

Niyor was to choose to proceed with the tutorial, and Zayn was to skip the tutorial. As planned, he clicked on the ‘Skip’ option, and a new set of words appeared in front of his line of sight.

[You have decided to skip the tutorial.]

[You have obtained a mystery box.]

Please select the continent you would like to begin your journey from:

• Northern Continent

• Southern Continent

• Eastern Continent

• Western Continent

• Central Continent]

‘Duh!’ Zayn selected the Southern Continent without hesitation. Other continents were just not for them. In-game, Zayn and their group wanted freedom—freedom of fun. Other continents were just like their kingdom, filled with rules and regulations, though the continents were more than 100 times larger than the largest continent in the real world. This was also one of the things that the Scarlet Organisation proclaimed loudly.

[You have selected the Southern Continent.]

[You have 3 minutes before you will be teleported to one of the beginner cities.]

Those words hung above, and the three minutes were given to players to open their mystery box and go through their status bar. He tapped on the old, rusty-looking mystery box and waited for the animation to be over and the mystery box to be opened.

[You have opened: Beginner’s Mystery Box]

[Ding! You have obtained...]

Lemon_MILK

Thank you for reading!

If you find any mistakes or have any thoughts/ suggestions on the story, please let me know in the comments!