The first player event had turned into a great construction war between the beta players and all of them were waiting for the results with bated breath! After the completion of the Great Port City Anneliese and the ascension of God Maugus' Divine Kingdom to a star in the sky or what the players called the official game trailer, a sacred sound of bells ringing, like church bells on a Sunday morning in the Mortal World marked the end of the first player event!

[The Construction War has ended. The rankings are as follows]:

[ First place: AsjadIqbal

Second place: Mihirsss

Third place: Abduleria

Fourth place: Sandy

Fifth place: VanditTraveller

Sixth place: ChitwandeepKaur

Seventh place: Lavanya8

Eighth place: PandaBubble

Ninth place: ParthArora

Tenth place: IshitaQuiet ]

[Thanks for the players’ constant support to our game. These ten players with outstanding performances have earned special rewards!]

[The players ranked eighth to tenth will win a Level 25 Silver Weapon or Armor (based on player’s choice) of the player’s respective class. The players ranked fourth to seventh will be rewarded with 300 faith coins. The top three players will gain 500 faith coins. Last but not the least, the Champion will be additionally rewarded with 1,000 faith coins and be crowned with the event title, the Beta Version’s Star.]

[Note: The Beta Launch of Eve of Gods will end in an hour. All the levels of beta-players will reset to 0. However, Pantheon will bind the faith coins and equipment to your accounts so that you can retain them when you login after the official launch! Pantheon will officially launch Eve of Gods in a week. For all the beta-players, there is a celebration event in Anneliese's biggest bar.]

[Everything is on the house! ~ Have fun. (Pantheon)]

After the event had ended, all the beta players headed to the bar. However, the top ten beta-players on the leader board were especially jubilant and the Champion Mr. AsjadIqbal was already running around shouting 'Allah hu Akbar' as a greeting to everyone he met on the way! Meanwhile, in the bar, about a hundred beta players sat down together with the NPCs they got close to during the Construction War Event, the top ten sharing their rewards of the day while boasting to one another on how hard they worked to coordinate the workers in the event.

This was the first time for these beta players to be able to relax so freely in a VR game which felt like another world. They enjoyed this kind of warm atmosphere. The relationship among the various beta players was complicated; some were supportive comrades while some were notorious enemies and some even being a group of gaming buddies in real life who happily savored on the free delicacies and crude ginger beer in the bar voraciously. 

But, this sincere attitude of treating one another straightforwardly with open heartedness in the game was not only comforting but also a very memorable event. Removing their preconceived superficial masks of reality here in this magical world might have enhanced their crudeness, but what was there to be afraid of in this new reality with no consequences?

With amplified voices, mouthfuls of ginger beer were gulped down as words were spoken freely under the pretense that beta version was coming to an end. When Saintess Nandini joined the celebration, the atmosphere instantly reached the peak! Friendly challenges were held between the players to chuck a whole jug of beer in one go to impress the Saintess. 

As the celebration ended, all of the drunk players were casually thrown out of the game by the lurker Supreme God Maugus!

***

2140, India

As soon as AsjadIqbal logged out, he downloaded the Game Trailer VR recording, screenshots and third person clips he made later on to his PC and made a new category on his VRtube channel called 'Maugus World's Exploration Journal'. He completely edited the VR video with the VR Pinnacle Studio software and added an otherworldly background music throughout the video which would enthrall the audience.

VRtube is an Indian online VR simulation video platform headquartered in Connaught Place, New Delhi. Almost everyone in the world used it to play VR videos with close to 70% simulation on their virtual reality headsets with its annual revenue being 30 billion USD or 207,750 crores INR. This platform was a massive International giant! 

All the famous VRtubers just like the Youtubers of the the last century were very rich celebrities! In most cases, the average revenue per 1,000 views for any given VRtuber would be around Rs 100 to 250. However, if you had a hardcore audience which watched every video till the very end, you could expect to earn Rs 250 – 500 per 1,000 views or Rs 2,10,000 – Rs 4,90,000 per 1 million views on a VR video.

Asjad hit the 'Upload' button and finally released the first episode of his new category on the VRtube platform!

Maugus World’s Exploration Journal: Beta Version

...

AsjadIqbal had a bit of a reputation in the VRtube Gaming Community as a pro PubG player, and the moment the VR video was released, his die-hard fans and curious lurkers immediately clicked into it.

“Finally, this should be spicy!”

“A surprise release!”

“The subject is that new perfect VR simulation game in its beta phase. Has Asjad switched over!?”

The VR Video was released and the video traffic was huge. With the addition of old viewers watching, the number of viewers increased quite a lot. The opening titles consisted of the promo edit of the Character Selection in the start and some VR screenshots of the scenery of the Himalaya Mountains and other monsters in the game like Gajodhar and Tendua before the video began. The first thing that appeared was the third person’s perspective of player AsjadIqbal in the game.

The background was Great Port City Anneliese. Asjad waved in the direction of the camera and his opening line was a soliloquy.

“This world built on science! Fake emotions in the form of pills, psychological warfare in the form of virtual reality, mind-altering chemicals in the form of nutrition supplements, brainwashing VR videos in the form of media, controlled isolated bubbles in the form of social media networks. Real? You want to talk about reality? We haven't lived in anything remotely close to it since the turn of the 21st century. However, this game right here is the opportunity for you to remove the superficial masks of reality!

Welcome to Maugus World’s Exploration Journal. I am Asjad and Allah hu Akbar!!!”

A barrage filled with ridicule followed.

“What is this arrogant know-it-all soliloquy‽”

“Is this new game this good!?”

“How confident! If the game isn't as good as he is saying, I am gonna sue him!”

Asjad continued in the video. “There hasn’t been a new upload in a long time. Being the first episode of the EvG game series, I’ll share VR videos which I recorded in-game and let everyone have a taste of the beta players' experience! I suspect that this would also be the official game trailer in the future!”

“Wow, awkward talking time, I salute you! Respect++”

“Finally, his soliloquy ends!”

“That’s what we originally came here for!”

The lens switched over to show Asjad’s perspective during God Maugus' Divine Kingdom ascension to a star in the sky. The official content began now. The video content consisted of the recording done by Asjad, and it became different segments after rounds of editing. The special effects and the narration were then added on later. Asjad used a humorous style, explaining how his squad went to rescue Saintess Nandini and how comically they decided to finally help out after getting a divine intervention from God Maugus himself!  

How Saintess Nandini single handedly planned out the construction of the Anneliese City and gathered all the resources for it.

How the beta players worked with 100,000 NPCs to construct their own player city for the official launch! He also showed off his rewards as the Champion and his title of Beta Version's star!

How God Maugus, player faction's God, finally ascended once again! Saintess Nandini praying was absolutely breathtaking and instantly had a surge of fans in the VR gaming community!

He ended his video with the friendly beer competition to impress Saintess Nandini and with the drunk, but happy laughter of all the players!

After watching Asjad's video, driven by curiosity, all the viewers clicked on the Eve of Gods website as they wanted to see the brief introduction of the game as well as the company behind it!

100% near perfect simulation, almost similar to reality? Is this game for real?

It was made by a new but small gaming company called 'Pantheon'!?

Everyone was baffled upon seeing the introduction and just as they were about to trash talk on Asjad's VR video comment section, famous pro players from different popular VR games in the gaming community also started commenting on Asjad's video.

ParthArora: “I have to say, you will probably miss out on an epochal VR game if you are simply judging it by the brief introduction on its main website and on the suspicions about the new small gaming company!”

IshitaQuiet: “Found it by accident, but no regrets! This is my new reality.”

Mihirsss: “My experience in the game was extremely similar to reality, I was appalled by the level up sensation as I had the distinct impression that my body was also getting stronger. What kind of feeling is that? I chose to be a rogue and I could feel myself going at lightning speed in the game, like Flash. I’m addicted to the feeling of being a superhuman.”

VanditTraveller: “I’m a man of immense curiosity and love traveling! In order to explore the game, I did not follow the instructions of the first quest to go the Himalaya Mountains to hunt wolves but wandered around the game in wanderlust instead. Apart from the scenery and places in the game that looked extremely real and left me in astonishment, I’ve made friends with a lot of NPCs. I fully feel that they are actual intelligent species in another reality standing before me, rather than just an NPC. This game is too terrifying, they are probably using advanced AIs as NPCs. Oh yeah, a reminder in good faith, don’t try to mess with the NPCs in the game out of curiosity, I was fucking killed! These NPCs are ruthless and very strong!! [Triggered.giphy]”

These beta players were very famous influencers in the VRtube gaming community. Their highly complementary remarks had certainly incited the curiosity of all the viewers and the video views kept on climbing up crossing 10million. It reached trending #1 in India!

With time, almost all the beta players had commented on the video and had been pinned to the top by Asjad.

Abduleria: “Impressive. Never in my life did I expect to come across such an awesome game; I firmly give my vote.”

Sandy: “Where is the Pantheon at, care to explain what the heck is the 2-hour respawning period for?”

ChitwandeepKaur: “We want the top up function after the official launch! #FortifiedByRupees”

Lavanya8: “Crimson Lily guild has officially decided to enter the game and is recruiting pro players in advance!”

PandaBubble: “My vote goes to this game, and I hope you guys won’t overlook such an awesome game.”

The video went viral! All Indian pro players were collectively planning to switch over as soon as the game was officially launched!

m_augus00

I have been setting up a Discord Server. 

I also made a Patreon account for any kind hearted readers who ever felt like donating!

There is also an Instagram account for the novel now. @eveofgodsofficial Follow for Fanarts and other cool content!