As the corporate gears rotated, [Maldea Saga] was only days left to its fruition.

Yes, that’s the name of the game.

 [Maldea Saga].

A game that took place in a world called Maldea, populated by many different races and religions, with large-scaled conflicts occurring on a daily basis.

A world with nature that  as beautiful as it is dangerous, one could claim lives at any moment if its explorers dropped their guard.

The game’s graphics and physics system could be said to rival reality, with details both realistic and dazzling at the same time.

 [Maldea Saga] is a game like that.

A title with gameplay that would overshadow the best triple-A games, while embracing a completely new mechanic.

Full-dive MMORPG.

The pinnacle of gaming technology.

The story went like this.

Conceived decades ago by a group of genius scientists and engineers, led by a mysterious ‘Miss X’, they came together to make the great leap forward of the gaming industry.

After 20 years of research, they finally stabilized the technology enough for mass consumption, and ready to announce their first revolutionary full-dive VR pod, along with their first full-dive MMORPG title, [Maldea Saga].

Needless to say, this news rocked the world.

‘Miss X’, the lead researcher became the president of Universum LLC, a subsidiary of the famous Octopus LLC. Its stock price skyrocketed overnight. Investors were scrambling and fighting till they bleed to buy stocks from the newly listed company.

Octopus is not a third-rated company, so their word held some truth.

The advent of a full-dive MMORPG broke the Internet.

It topped the discussions in every forum, with search results rising by millions each day.

For the first time since 2013, Booble’s server crashed.

It was also listed on Speam’s market, and its server crashed the following day.

It was not until Universum’s spokesperson announced only 500 pods could be released that the Speam’s server stabilized again.

The discussions then moved into other channels.

Mostly complaints about how they could never enjoy the good things in life.

 

[#16823]: Only 500 testers… damn, that’s more competitive than being an astronaut...

[#16824]: Want to guess who will luck out? 

[#16825]: Nah, probably who pays the highest, prolly billionaires and some Tubers, at most. Octopus loves its monies

[#16826]: Still, full-dive MMORPGs? I thought it would be in like, what, 2100s? Can’t believe it’s already out

[#16827]: I want to be reborn as a child of a billionaire, don’t stop me! Uahhhh!!!

[#16828]: Have ya’ll seen the trailer!? It’s da shit man! 

[#16829]: Yeahh, VR pod is crazy enough, honestly I don’t care about what game they will go next, but that game do be lookin’ fire not gonna lie

 

Of course it would be good.

I abduc-hired the best editors on the planet after all.

Sipping a cup of tea in my god space, I calmly browsed the discussion forums.

The trailer was a long work process.

Real footage of Maldea was recorded by myself, and I simply threw all of them to Earth’s editors, who I invited over for a cup of tea when they were dreaming.

Maldea’s residents probably didn’t know what a video is, so it’s natural to rely on Earth's taste for its own product.

A world worthy of being created with 2,000,000 million power points and handcrafted by myself, Maldea is a stunning artwork.

Plus, it had gone through several stages of evolution just like Earth, so everything is natural and realistic, even though it had the kind of ethereal beauty often seen in RPGs.

Earth’s players won’t feel uncomfortable or uncanny here.

Through the feedback I received online, I can conclude it’s a design success.

However, I still had work to do.

Not on Earth, but Maldea.

All the gaming shenanigans had cost me 3 power points, leaving me with only 7.

It’s nowhere near sufficient, but I need to improvise.

“You need to land on Maldea first.”

“Land on?”

Rina was chugging on a milk carton I materialized for her. It was carrot-flavored.

She seemed to like Earth products.

“Yes, you need to materialize a manifestation of yourself on Maldea. No, it won’t alert other gods. With 10 power points, I bet it wouldn’t even wake up nearby insects. Your existence will be conspicuous to other gods when you have more power points, but at that time you would have the power to actually fight back.”

“Your manifestation and the area around it should act as your ‘home ground’. On your home ground, you’re practically invincible, unless you faced a much stronger god, that is.”

“Ahh, so it’s like a territory thing.”

I clapped my hand together.

“Yeah … kind of. You can have many manifestations, but your first manifestation will be your original, or core one. You should never let other gods destroy it.”

“What will happen when my first manifestation gets destroyed?”

Rina rolled her eyes at me.

“Game over screen and credits roll?! Not really, but your power points will plummet so much that your soul is vulnerable to be eaten.”

“Ehhh, scary~”

“Yeah?! That’s why you should protect your first manifestation at all costs.”

“Understood! But how do I manifest myself on Maldea, exactly?”

Rina squeezed the milk carton to draw out the remaining content. After a loud burp, she threw it away. It disintegrated into tiny particles.

“Want another?”

I asked her with a smile.

“Sure, make it carrot and blueberry flavor.”

“Right up.”

I waved my hand and on my palm, a milk carton appeared. Rina snapped it away, plugged the straw in and took a large sip. Afterward, she let out a satisfying noise.

“To materialize in Maldea, you need to have preparation. First, choose a form.”

“A form?”

“Yeah, it’s like those games you always mentioned. You choose a starting character, right? It’s the same deal. Just pick a physical form you like, and it should be somewhat static. It’s your homeground after all.”

“Hmmm…”

For a design enthusiast like myself, this is quite troubling.

What form do I like?

A flower? No, too small.

A big ol’ tree? No, too boring.

A totem? No, too serious.

Plus, it’s not cute.

Ehhh, what do I choose?

This took me back to when I first created my RPG character.

It was in an unpopular game.

But I was a kid, I don’t really care.

Funny how your acceptance barrier is much lower when you were a kid.

The game was pretty fun to me at that time, I spent about two hours customizing my in-game character.

The end result was not remotely appealing, and I knew it even as a kid.

But the process was satisfying.

“Anyway, the cost of creating your first manifestation would be 5 power points. The cost of moving souls is negligible, so 500 bodies would be another 5 power points, which brought it to a total of 10 power points, exactly what you have left in your inventory.”

“EHHH!?”