Aaron stared out the window of the speeding bullet train. The sunlight was high in the sky, but the whirring of hollow wind as they sped through the countryside caused him to close his eyes in slight discomfort. He gave out a short sigh but gave his best intention not to get frustrated. Getting to this point was already a pain. Entering the country already gave him headaches. That, along with the press, border checks, and several other legalities he had to sign was not the best start to his morning.

Poke.

He blinked.

"Hm?"

Aaron turned to his side. It was Yoona who poked at him.

She had a round face, fair features, short hair dyed a light cherry blossom colour, and an exciting face beaming with happiness. She pointed at the window, which Aaron looked dye to her request. He raised his eyebrows as the view of the main capital spread out onto his view. Skyscrapers of lights and tall buildings jutted out through the ground, and the scenery reminded him of something idyllic. 

 "Pretty nice, isn't it?" She smiled.

"Yes." Aaron nodded, "It gets better as the years go by."

"Are you ready?" She leaned towards Aaron.

"I hope," Aaron replied, wrapping his hands around her.

"I'm sure it will be fun." 

"I know it will." Aaron chuckled, "But the competition is going to be fierce."

"That's the joy of it."

"That's fair enough." He chuckled.

"Maybe you can do what you always wanted to do."

"Three-peat?"

"No, get married." She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "Of course a three-peat, you dummy."

"Well, I do want to get married too."

"Is that a proposal?" She raised her eyebrow

"Does it sound like one?"

"I hope not." She pouted.

"In the future, perhaps." He nodded.

"I'm sure we'll find the right time." She closed her eyes and took a rest on his shoulder.

"Maybe after I three-peat?"

"Ah," She paused, "So never, then." 

"Alright, let's not get too carried away." Aaron raised his hands.

"I'm kidding!"

"Get some more sleep, we'll be there in an hour."

Ding.

Aaron slowly opened his eyes and rubbed his temples. He found out Yoona was already gathering their belongings with just a quick glance. The train had fallen to a standstill, and the shuffling noises of the people inside the train indicated they arrived at their destination. He looked around, as there was an assortment of faces, mostly young adults with the exception of one or two old souls. Aaron stretched his back after standing up.

"Welcome to New Korea." 

The train announcer spoke in a monotone voice over the intercom. 

"We're here," Aaron said.

"Help me with this."

"Sure," Aaron replied.

After grabbing all of their bags, they shuffled out onto the massive city. The bullet train network put them straight in the middle of the city, and there was a lot to take in. Over the past one hundred years, they had rebuilt their infrastructure from scratch and eventually prioritized the advent of gaming as a cultural sport. Large brand deals, stadiums across all the major cities, and even collegiate clubs were widely recognized.

"Taxi!" Yoona raised her hand, jumping up high and low to grab the attention of several cabs. Aaron suggested they used a phone app, but she didn't care enough to look, saying that they shouldn't waste any more time. After several attempts, one of them decided to stop near.

"Where to?" The driver said in a broken English accent. 

"Pyongyang Central KeSPA Dome." She took out a small brochure with large Korean letters. She circled the time and date of the event, which was happening later today. Aaron also wanted to note that they were going to run late with all the traffic, but since his Korean wasn't all the best, he didn't want to impose.

The driver squinted at the paper before nodding vigourously. That, along with an enthusiastic shake of his hands ushered them both into the back seats. Aaron tried to throw his bags at the back of the trunk, but he insisted that he would do it instead. Aaron shrugged, nodding and entering in with Yoona, not wanting to waste time.

"Are you excited?" Yoona perked up.

"For the event?"

"For the new release!" She tapped both her legs in unison, "We've been waiting for three years for this game."

"Yes, I realize." Aaron nodded.

"Doing dailies and reclears on our old game was getting tiresome, wasn't it?"

"The farming and selling weren't too bad."

"Right, but you would always ask me to help you with pugs."

"Because my teammates were trolling me!" Aaron exclaimed, "I don't know what you want from me."

"Alright, alright." She smiled, "You want me on Support when we play?"

"For the new one?"

"Yeah." She pointed at the brochure, "Apparently they have this game government-backed. It's their biggest one yet."

"I think it's a bit more complicated than that."

"I hear they're gonna tell us at the event."

"I really hope," Aaron replied.

The taxi drove past several large skyscrapers and through the bustling epicentre. Lights and holographic pictures of advertisements jutted out the sides of buildings in grandeur, and the commotion rang out through the air like heavy rain. While there was plenty of greenery, it was all covered with specks of people waiting to get in.  It seemed like the location attracted a lot of press, as they were lining up outside the Dome with their large cameras in hand, waiting for everyone to shuffle in.

Aaron luckily had prepared for the worst, bringing in sunglasses and heavy clothing to disguise himself. The same could be said for Yoona, as they exited outside of the taxi with thick clothing. They arrived at their destination, quickly slipping into the building, their bags and suitcase flinging at their sides. They weren't going to be late for this conference, even if it meant delaying their stay at a nearby hotel.

"Hurry." Yoona said, "They're getting started soon."

"Do you have our event cards?"

"We have our guild emblem," She replied, "We can just show them."

"Fair enough."

After moving around several different venues, they arrived at the main event. A large stadium with several guards was surrounded at the entrances. The lines were long, but as soon as Yoona showed some ID, along with her Guild Emblem, they ushered both of them inside. Their seats were carefully placed near the front, and they had arrived just in time for the event to start.

The lights dimmed, and everyone's attention was focused on a middle-aged person in the middle of the stage. There was a large screen at the top of the dome, displaying his face on all four corners. He was the Director of Egharam Games, but most people knew him as the President of New Korea. His features looked to be around his late forties, but his demeanour was that of an enthusiastic child just about to show off his science fair project.

"Welcome!" He replied with vigour, "Today I show to you the fruits of our team's labour!"

He pointed to the top of the screen, and a visual name appeared.

Perfect World Online.

The words alone caused everyone to clap with amazement. Aaron couldn't help but chuckle, before applauding lightly himself. This really was something that everybody was anticipating. It was hard to believe that the economy could support such a project, but even the leaks he had heard from insiders from the company said they were pulling in large amounts of overtime designing the game.

"This game will be the first game in our Gen7 full immersion NeuralDive technology." He spoke, "We will be working with our Science and Technologies division to monitor anything that happens, and make further adjustments with our time dilation technology."

Aaron heard about this one too. The game worked on a two-time scale. That meant that every minute that occurred inside the game, only thirty seconds would pass in the real world. That meant that you could fit two days filled with time in a single day. Their pitch was that you could be a standard working citizen and still pull twelve hours of game time each day. For Aaron, it meant he could pull a solid thirty-four hours.

"Game premise this time will be very simple." He continued, "This game is set in the Tree of Fantasia. You are to enter the game at the base of the World Tree. There will be one-thousand floors, with a secret boss, the main boss, and a standard floor clear condition for each floor."

Several hands raised into the air almost simultaneously.

"I will answer everyone at the end." The director raised his hand, quieting the bustling noises of the crowd, "You can treat the World Tree as a sort of tower. Each floor will contain a biome according to the theme of the floor. The scale of each floor could be as small as a city, or as big as a continent. There will be many things to explore, such as bosses, raids, and PvP content. Each floor's clear condition can be as simple as clearing the main boss, or as difficult as solving the floor's main questline. The main questline might include slaying a huge world boss, or working with other players on the floor to complete the unique conditions."

He clicked his pen, and the screen at the top changed. It showed pictures of several biomes. Scorching volcanoes, large ocean expanses, tropical islands, and evergreen forests. The snapshots were beautiful, and several thunderous roars could be heard soon after. He waited for the noise to die down before continuing.

"We have heard your feedback on Guild implementations, so we have implemented Guild Territories. On each floor, you may purchase land for your guild, and anything within that land can be monetized to create income. For example, if your territory has certain ingredients, plant biomes, or unique dungeons, newer players who have discovered these must pay a small fee to generate income."

Several other hands raised, despite what the director said earlier.

"Now now, settle down." He lowered his voice, "We will be working closely to restrict the number of fees that can be taxed on land. We will also be implementing ways to reclaim that land or take it over. Some of them include Guild Wars, trading, or rapport missions."

Aaron sat back as he continued to speak. Yoona was jotting down the information on her notes. Even though it would be posted to the website in a couple of hours, Yoona was always the type to handle Guild related things. She would have notes on just about anything.

"Now that you understand a little about the setting, it is time to move on to classes." 

He clicked his pen again. Six silhouettes appeared on the screen.

"There will only be six basic classes in the game." He pointed out, "Archer, Warrior, Assassin, Mage, Gunslinger, and Brawler."

The screen revealed each class in an eccentric manner.

"Our Guiding Skill Tree system will allow you to mix and match these classes, having the main class and a secondary class. We have also implemented our Guiding Skill Seed system to give players a multitude of ways to customize their skills according to their class. There are hundreds of subclasses, and we are excited to see what new classes players can discover within their respective categories."

He continued on. 

"For your PvP enthusiasts, we will be hosting the Season One Grand Tournament of Champions in the next three months. All gear will be equalized, and everyone will be given the base stats. We will be using player data in the next upcoming days to balance each class in PvP. Look forward to our cash pool prize of one hundred million US dollars." 

The crowd roared thunderously at the announcement, and an abundance of press and media could be heard typing on their computers and clicking their large cameras. As if on cue, the Director posed and a huge trophy the size of a large human descended from the top of the stadium. It floated down until it was at the centre.

"As for your PvE crowd, we have something in store for that as well. Each dungeon on each floor will have a Normal, Hard, and Hell mode. We will also be giving Challenge modes for certain dungeons, as well as providing secret dungeons. There will be a clear ranking leaderboard, and every ten floors of the World Tree, we will be hosting a Race for World First event. The cash pool prize will be ten million US dollars each World First Event!"

This time, Aaron perked up. This was something he was excited about. Yoona smiled as well, and they both looked at each other with the same expression. They immediately knew what they wanted to do. Both of them had the same idea of getting several World First raid clears.

"Now, that covers most of the basis of the game. I will be opening up questions to the press."

Several hands were raised into the air and one was selected at random.

"Hello," he tapped his microphone, "I'm Walter from GameRank News. What are your plans for monetization for this game? Will this be backed by the government? Or, will it be a closed economy?"

"This game will be backed by the New Korean government." The game director replied, "All items and currency can be exchanged for USD. The ratios will change based on inflation and market accessibility, but each item has a unique ID and the main currency in the game can always be exchanged both ways. We will be closely monitoring the rates, and implementing our own game-exclusive shop to curve down any rapid inflation."

Another question was asked as a woman raised her hand, "Ashley from Koriza Esports. You said this game would support cross-game platforming with your previous MMO titles, how do you plan to implement this?"

"Any title or rank obtained in our other MMO titles can be transferred to this game. You may get special bonuses or certain skills based on the achievements you have obtained in any of our previously created games, or previously backed games." 

"Are you able to exchange any items?" Ashley continued.

"No, items and currency may not be exchanged. Only titles and achievements can be transferred. We want to support our hardworking players from previous titles, but we do not want to affect the new player experience. These skills and extra bonuses will be balanced around our new engine, and they will be modified to fit that."

"Do you think it would be unfair to newer players who do not have access to these titles?"

"There are also many titles in Perfect World to obtain, so they will be readily acquainted."

"When will the game be released?" Someone blurted out.

"The game will be released in three days." He responded quickly, "We will update the release schedule along with our roadmap on our website. Stay tuned and make sure you have fun!"

After several other questions which went over the basics of the game, the event ended. The Director did some closing statements, and everyone shuffled out of the arena. Aaron and Yoona stayed behind just a while longer, waiting for everyone to leave.

Yoona had taken several notes, enough to theory craft their plan for the release. She had also gotten out her laptop, looking at the site for various information regarding anything that could be helpful for progression. She was the type to make spreadsheets and guides for the fastest advancement, so she looked at the new information they had just put up regarding the game.

"What's your plan?" Aaron asked since he knew she was already thinking. 

"We're gonna call some friends." She handed Aaron her phone, "Make sure you tell them."

"Tell them what?"

"We're reviving our old world progression guild."

Aaron smiled, "Damn, I've been waiting for you to say that."

Wintertime

Fun little hobby project. Will probably finish Volume 1. Don't expect too much after that, unless things pick up. The estimated length is 150,000 words. Daily updates (unless I get busy.) Thanks for reading.