NOVEL NEXT Prologue
*****
In a dark alley, faint voices could be heard. If one were to walk deeper into the alley, one would hear the loud angry voices of several grown men and the pained whimpers of a girl.
"How dare you try to steal a Full Immersion headset!" Shouted one man.
"These aren't for the likes of you slum dwellers!" Shouted another.
Just a peek around the corner behind the building would show what was happening.
Two tall old men were kicking and spitting on a young girl as she writhed in pain on the floor, her mouth bleeding and her arms bruised from desperately trying to protect herself. Yet despite the pain the girl was in, despite her pained moans and sobs, the two men only stopped when she showed no more movements. The girl passed out after one of them hit her on the head with the heels of his boots.
"Heh, serves you slum b***h right. Return to district fourth and never come back again!" The man spat out before turning back, his accomplice grinning in sadistic glee. "Let's go. That should be enough to teach the b***h a lesson. "
With a chuckle, the two of them left the alley, carrying the stolen box with them, and leaving the girl beaten up black and blue.
The girl opened her eyes, confirming that the two had left. With a pant, the girl struggled to sit up. The girl leaned on the wall as she pulled out what seemed to be a hard drive from inside her shirt.
Looking at the undamaged hard drive, the girl started to giggle manically before hiding the hard drive once more.
"Idiots…" The girl uttered with a rough cough as she slowly stood up, leaning onto the wall she slowly walked deeper into the alley. "We already have one of those… we just needed the hard drive of the game…"
Indeed. The girl had already stolen a headset months ago, she only stole another to simply put a front and hide her real objective, the hard drive, just in case she was to get caught.
Inside this hard drive is contained the game that changed the entirety of Masen, the single mega continent of the entire world. Seven years ago, this game was simply another one of the hundreds of VR games, that was until the game expansion that changed everything.
Along with the completion of the map, doubling the land mass, and quadrupling the storage the game took. The expansion added two more major cities and dozens of unexplored dungeons. Thousands of items, hundreds of weapons, dozens of skills, and tons of magic spells were added to the already huge content count of the game. But that was not what changed everything. This new skill that all of the players received was.
Skill "Collide." At first, no one knew what it did or what it was for, so the players tried asking the admins and developers. None of them answered. More surprisingly, the developers dropped everything that was needed to run the game onto the internet, giving away their monopoly of its headset manufacturing processes along with the codes and resources needed.
Even more surprisingly, it was rumored that after the expansion, no one was seen going in or out of their main building where the server could be accessed. It was strange, but people only thought that they switched to work-at-home after the completion of the game.
For a month, the game's player base as well as opportunistic business figures jumped onto this, completely forgetting about the skill "Collide" for an entire month, the skill being labeled as a decoration skill to commemorate the game's completion.
That was until a certain video was uploaded on YourUploads1Basically YouTube.
And then, all hell broke loose.
Reporters from all over the world swarmed around the building of the company responsible for creating the game. None made it inside, none managed to break inside. Nothing worked.
The news received billions of views in just a week. The game became the talk of all streaming channels, thousands of gaming content creators jumped at the opportunity.
And all because of this one video, tens of thousands of lives were saved while thousands were also lost.
All because of the skill "Collide."
But why is that you ask?
The video featured two overly excited teens. The giddiness was evident on their faces as they shouted at each other, telling the other to "Do it do it!"
What they showed took the internet by storm, but at first, those who watched it were skeptical, commenting on how well-edited the video was, even complementing it.
But then the next day, it was finally confirmed. By shouting the skill name "Collide" in the real world, players were able to transform into their in-game characters for a total of five hours each day, granting them access to their game menu, inventory, stats, skills, and magic spells. It allowed players to do all sorts of things, taking out items, casting magic, soaring through the skies. The impossible became the possible.
Thankfully, all items would disappear and returned to the player's inventory the moment they left the hands of the owners.
But there was an exception. The exception that tilted the whole world on this game. It was the fact that items labeled "Materials" would not disappear.
And that included magic cores, a drop found from all monsters. And most importantly, an energy source. Within a year, scientists and engineering experts were able to convert the magical energy within the cores into electrical energy with the help of players.
And that achievement marked the start of a new era. One that heavily relied on the game that was called "Reality Collision Online."
"With this… I'll be able to get my family out of poverty…" uttered the girl as she struggled to walk down the alleyway. "We'll be happy again… as a family…"
Access to the game guaranteed one's success in life, and those in power were quick to inflate the price for the necessities to play the game.
The wealthy became wealthier, while those who didn't have access to the game were thrown into poverty as the world changed and evolved, leaning on the game more and more.
"My brothers and sisters will be able to study again…" The smile of his kind older brother as he helped her whenever she did something silly and hurt herself, the soft giggles of her sisters as they held back from laughing out loud whenever they would pull a prank on her.
The girl took another step.
"… then I'll make ma stop prostitution…" Her memories of her wonderful cooking, chuckling as she told her children to wait a little longer. Her snarky comments at their arguments. Her loving embrace that calms her down within minutes whenever she feels down, her encouragement whenever she decides to do something, however small it is.
The girl tripped and fell, her head hitting the cold bricks.
"…and pa… too… we'll be able to get him out of the hospital…"
That not-so-bright father who would do all kinds of silly things with her, going back home together covered in dust and sand. His loud voice that wakes them in the morning, shouting some of the most sarcastic comments. His proud gaze and huge smirk as he brags about her and her siblings whenever they achieve anything, however small it is.
The girl's head started to bleed.
"We'll be able to enjoy life again…" Images of her time in the amusement parks rolled inside of her mind, together with her family, laughing happily at each other's silly antics. Of her time with her friends, messing around in internet cafes. Of her times with her grandparents, silently fishing while enjoying the view of their favorite lake.
The girl's eyes dimmed, and she breathed her last.
Finally, they would be able to go back to that time. If only…
If only, she made it back home.
"It's too early for you, gal. Come on, I'll give you another chance.
Better not waste it, I expect great things from you."
*****
