2140, Earth

Asjad Iqbal exited the game with a frustrated and defeated face and started the update for the game PubG: VR Online.

PubG was currently the most popular game in India. The number of players was practically overflowing. It occupied a staggering 36% of the overall Indian VR game market. Its level of simulation had reached 40%. It was rich in content and had a very wide audience across all age groups in India. I mean, who wouldn't like sky diving to land on an Island, then getting involved in a PvP alone or in a squad, killing the 90+ other players with the most high-tech, state of the art weapons in a Virtual Reality environment.

It was the best stress buster and Asjad was one of the most loyal PubG fans! But the fact was that it was not an MMORPG game. Since the time Asjad came into contact with ancient games like World of Warcraft or Star Wars: The Old Republic on his PC, he had been absolutely obsessed with them. He had always found himself unknowingly pondering about what affect would an almost real MMORPG VR have on society!

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game! As in all role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a character (often in a fantasy world or sci-fi world) and takes control over many of that character's actions.

MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game. With concepts like NPC, GNS Theory, Dialogue tree, Player Character, Status, Quest and Social Interaction in MMORPGs, it would be an epoch making game!

Even in the ancient MMORPGs on PC, Social Interaction would take the form of in-game communication, virtual behaviors, and the development of interpersonal and group relationships. In massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), cooperation between players to accomplish difficult tasks is often an integral mechanic of gameplay, and organized groups of players, often called guilds, clans, or factions, emerge.

Sometimes the relationships players from within the game spill over into friendships or romantic relationships in the material world. In other instances, romantic partners and groups of material world friends find that playing together strengthens their bonds.

If there was any VR game almost similar to reality! It would be less of a "game" but more of another world altogether!

He went to grab some Doritos for snacks, then scrolled through his browser looking for a new VR game and randomly picked a new gaming website that his personally coded crawler found online. When he saw the game introduction, he was shocked!

"What a coincidence! I was just thinking about a VR MMO with near perfect simulation and I find this!? What are the chances?" He suddenly laughed out loud and choked on his Doritos, almost coughing it out.

[ Eve of Gods : Visit the World of Maugus, a land of pure magic, mystery, gods and mythical creatures.

Tread the path of a Champion of God Maugus who seeks glory and power! Battle for your right to exist!

This game has been carefully developed by this website for a period of 3 years, almost achieving a 100% near perfect simulation.

Genre: MMORPG

Price: (Beta-version) Free to play

Storage required: 5 TB ]

A game of 5TB(standard memory for all VR Games) that has reached almost 100% near perfect simulation, and this was confirmed by the small gaming company itself, not to mention the free beta entry. If it was any other day, he might have immediately closed the tab after abusing in the comments!

But, Asjad Iqbal was a typical Indian and he firmly believed in things like coincidence and superstitions!

“The most that could happen was it would be a sham! But if it was real, then it would be a great find which could probably change his life!”

With this thought, Asjad willingly pressed the button to download the game.

5TB was nothing compared to the current speed of the internet, it was only a matter of minutes before the download was complete. He stuffed the rest of the cheese nachos into his mouth and put on his virtual reality headset.

A list of game icons appeared on the lens of the headset including the still updating PubG: VR Online.

He moved his pupils to the side to skim through the icons straight to the one for Eve of Gods. Asjad smiled, fully preparing himself for what could be another great disappointment. As the game started, the body of Asjad in the real world lost control.

However, in his mind, an icon of a formation of Om(Aum) character appeared right before him and a feeling of weightlessness greeted him.

When he finally opened his eyes, a bright light emerged with a ringing sound.

[Welcome to the World of Maugus!]

[Generating game account, please wait a moment.]

[Synchronizing your brainwaves and bio-metrics to your account. Please note that only one character can be created per person! If you wish to create another character, you must delete your current character before you can create a new one! Once you have created a new character, you cannot create a new one within the next month and a new character cannot be deleted within its first week!]

[Account creation successful!]

[Welcome to the Eastern Islands! Champion of God Maugus, the Church is in dire need of your assistance! After God Maugus lost in the war over faith between the Supreme Gods Trinity.

His religion has been cornered to their last bastion and is on the verge of destruction.

Seek glory and power, battle for the church and your right to exist!]

A scene played out in front of him. Countless humans and different races fighting in a war over faith. Soldiers on both sides dying in massive numbers. God Maugus fighting with the other two gods; Brom and Siva, inside his Divine Kingdom. God Maugus's believers killed mercilessly even while losing with no signs of surrender until his eventual fall. After which, they were one sidedly slaughtered to the last man by the alliance army of all the other gods!

“Please select your class!” said a soft, feminine voice of the system.

After the story-line faded away, three templates of character classes surfaced before Asjad’s eyes.

A powerful knight with an enormous one-handed sword, a wizard with a staff, and a rogue with a dagger stood in front of him.

Asjad was stunned for a moment. Then, he reached out and chose the one with the powerful knight’s figure.

“Character, Knight confirmed!” the voice continued. “Please enter your character’s name!”

“Asjad Iqbal.”

“Character name, Asjad Iqbal confirmed.”

As the system sound paused, the scene changed and a figure that was a mirror image of him appeared. “This is the character created based on your physical characteristics, you can modify and change the facial complexion by using the system’s user interface!”

Even though adjustments could not be made for the body, since Asjad had always focused on exercising and gym, in addition to his height of 176cm, he had no complaints about his character’s physical appearance, so he selected ‘Confirm’.

[Character creation complete, please wait patiently for the connection to establish! While waiting, you may check your character’s ability guide to ensure a more thorough understanding of your role for a better gaming experience! Good gaming!]

A character interface appeared in front of him. The character that he had just created was wearing a set of worn-out equipment and had an enormous sword strapped to his waist. 

Currently, he only had 3 pieces of equipment.

[Worn-out Chest Plate] (Bronze, Armor)

Defense: +2

Level Requirement: 0

[Worn-out Shin Guard] (Bronze, Armor)

Defense : +1

Level Requirement: 0

[Beginner’s Giant Sword] (Bronze, One-handed Sword)

Weapon Attack: 2-6

Attack Interval: 2 seconds

Level Requirement: 0

Checking character's ability guide, attack interval determined the frequency or rate of attacks. After performing a normal attack, the period before another attack could be initiated would be the Attack Interval. Dagger weapons would have the shortest interval time, followed by one-handed weapons and ranged weapons. The longest attack interval would be the two-handed weapon type.

[Game starts in 3, 2, 1!]

When Asjad opened his eyes once again, he was taken aback by the scene before him.

Under the glow of a bright sun, a gust of wind blew on his face, making him feel as if he was in the real world and not in a VR game.

Everything before his eyes was so realistic that Asjad had to pinch himself to make sure that he was not dreaming. Although he felt a slight pain from that, atleast he was almost convinced that this place was real.

“How can this be, how can a standard 5TB VR game create such a realistic virtual world? At the start I thought, that the character selection was it and the rest of the game would be an empty nutshell. But such a scene is unimaginable!”

Asjad was stunned by the whole setting before him. He bent down and scooped the soil, examining the soil particles. Unexpectedly, the graphics and feelings were so clear and detailed that it left him in a daze once more.

"This is really cool! Finally, I have found the VR MMORPG of my dreams!!!"

***

Meanwhile, thirty minutes ago.

Ahan, in his Divine Kingdom, was deciding the final details of the game, such as the settings of the character class templates which were similar to that of the distribution of faith energy absorbed when the player kills a being from the other world.

For instance, when the player has chosen a character class, say, a knight, the faith power collected when a being is killed will increase the abilities of a player, mostly by their strength with a bit of agility. A wizard would mostly increase their intelligence, while a rogue's ability would be increased mostly by their agility and with a bit of strength.

Suddenly, a message popped up in his mind.

[Player Asjad Iqbal has registered into the battle server!]

"Hahaha! Now this world will know of the greediest, most cunning, and horrible beings —Players." Ahan smirked while madly laughing out aloud.

***

[New Quest: Slaughter ten wolves. The reward is 10 faith coins.]

Asjad was excited when he received the quest.

He was already becoming addicted to this well-made game.

He followed the instructions, opened the map, and saw that he was currently in the [Eastern Islands] which was encircled by the field boundary of the [Himalaya Mountains]. However, the land further away was shrouded by a dense fog. Meanwhile, the top right corner showed Exploration in Eastern Islands 0.01% complete.

Standing tall like a knight, he gripped his one-handed sword with a heroic spirit and headed to the outskirts.

As he followed the map, he was also scouting his surroundings. He was still in awe of the game’s simulation, as the graphics were so fine and detailed that it felt almost impossible with the current technology of the world. It felt like a whole new world!

As he explored further down the path, he encountered a ferocious wolf.

Although he knew that it was merely a game that he was playing, Asjad still walked forward with wobbly legs to attack the wolf.

The wolf pounced towards Asjad. His heart was hammering against his chest when he saw all of this, but after all, he was just a character in this game. With this thought comforting him, he gripped his sword tightly and threw himself at the wolf.

“BAM!” He struck the wolf with his sword. At that moment, a ‘-10’ in red appeared on top of the wolf’s head, showing the amount of damage inflicted. The place where the sword had landed was also replaced by a stab wound.

Since there was no health bar available, Asjad had no idea how many more strikes he would need to successfully kill the wolf.

When the wolf pounced on him again, he quickly moved sideways and tried to dodge most of the wolf’s attacks. But, when he was finally unable to dodge fast enough, a bloody value of ‘-5’ emerged on his head due to the wolf's bite.

“Judging from this slight sensation of pain that I feel, the creator of this game must be an absolute genius!” Asjad exclaimed out loud.

The fight continued. But, the wolf relying on his flexibility, kept pouncing on Asjad until he fell on the ground. Asjad quickly looked up and before he could pick himself up again to dodge, he saw the wolf pouncing on him again, it’s sharp claws tearing him apart.

“Damn it! There is just no way I can solo it!” Asjad was in shock.

Bloody numbers popped up one after the other on top of his head, then everything went pitch-black.

[You have been killed by a wolf!]

Ahan buried his face in his hands with shame when he saw his first player's pathetic end.

Asjad took off his virtual reality headset and slammed his fist on his bed.

“That son of a bitch wolf dares to kill me, I have to go back and have my revenge!”

Asjad who was mad with anger reached straight for the button and re-launched Eve of Gods.

[You have died in the game, please wait for 2 hours to re-spawn.]

[You are a Bronze Grade player. The cost of your re-spawn is 100 faith coins.]

[NOTE: With every increase in Grade, the cost will multiply tenfold(10x).]

Asjad took off his headset once more, his face now calm and devoid of emotions.

'I need a party to be able to efficient farm monsters in this VR MMORPG!'

Though, there’s even a time-span for re-spawning, and the creator charges in-game currency for resurrection!

The creator must be a highly principled and rich game developer with sufficient funds! He still hasn't seen real poverty and is still lacking in the ways of the world to earn a fortune. However, Asjad had high hopes for this game because he was sure that all the netizens, gamers, scientists and businessmen would go absolutely mad at this sudden appearance of a VR game that appeared to be decades ahead of its time with its sentient AI NPCs and near perfect simulation almost similar to a reality.

The technology behind this game which the small gaming company called 'Pantheon' grasped had very wide ranging affects if it were to be shared with the public on Earth! He had a hunch that this game was going to go worldwide soon.

A notification popped up on his virtual reality headset, reminding him that the update for PubG: VR Online was completed, but he no longer felt bothered by it. As a professional player, he had a sixth sense for gaming. At this moment, he decided to go all-in for this new game!

As he was thinking about his bright future, the notification from his whatsapp group rang. It was from the members of his squad prompting him to go online, inviting him to EVO Grounds Challenge in PubG.

Asjad smirked and wrote in the group chat: “I’ve found my dream game, so I’ve decided to quit playing PubG!(tears_of_joy.giphy)”

Abduleria: “(ConfusedDog.giphy) Bro, wasn't PubG: VR Online your dream game?”

PandaBubble: “Don’t talk nonsense or I will kick you out from our squad.(BloodyPistol.giphy)”

Asjad laughed at the lively group chat, he immediately shared the EvG game link with the group.

“It’s called Eve of Gods, you won't believe me until you play it yourself!”

Seeing that Asjad had recommended the game himself, a few of them clicked on the link and after going through the game's official website, the group chat became active once more.

Sandy: “Verification done. Asjad-san has gone mad!”

ChitwandeepKaur: “Are you ready to bet on this, you dumb idiot?”

Asjad’s eyes grew larger in anger as he read the message sent by Chitwan.

Then, he went ahead and hammered his fingers through the keyboard: “To all others except Chitwan, I need a team in the game to farm efficiently! Come over. Chitwan let's bet 1000 UC on it.”

PandaBubble started screen recording.

ChitwandeepKaur screenshotted the text. “Installing already! I’ll be back in ten, and will be waiting for my UC to come to Mama! You also owe me a chicken wrap from BK in Square One! (cute_cat_face.giphy)”

Under Asjad’s persuasion, his whole squad started to get ready to play Eve of Gods!