Dystopian Tales Online

A lion and a rabbit.

Everyone watched the comedy skit. Each of them can pull these people apart but somehow they wanted to see something entertaining for a while. Even the rabbit trembled and is calling for someone to save his life, nobody dared to listen and just watched.

"Ah... I will... I will tell Clover..." Xav-11 almost cried, thought, the threat remained empty.

Jung-55 remained, glaring at the small creature making him tremble more. With no words to speak, Xav-11 started spamming him with a crying emoticon. Tears and such don't exist on the virtual world but a certain command can create a "crying face" image.

"You guys sure like to bully him," Ari-05 said, serving drinks to the other players who happened to pass by for some food before returning to the mess hall.

"It's because of his reaction, that's why," Melon-45 pointed out.

The teasing continued with these two that some players are now betting on it. Just in time, a group of people easily teleported inside the guild, appearing in a flash near the door. Everyone ignored the flash, though, they greeted the players who just came in. One young girl hurriedly ran towards the bar when she saw some seats being occupied.

Rios-96 noticed the young girl glaring at him. He looked at her, then back to the counter. But the glaring is too much that he can feel holes being stabbed on his body. He decided to face the girl with a forced smile.

"You wanted a drink?" He asked.

"You shouldn't give drinks to kids."

He looked behind to see who just talked and found a man on the same race wearing some expensive, yet, tattered robes with necklaces hanging around his neck. He also have a lot of piercings and some tattoos are evident on his collar bones. Rios-96 just smirked while showing his glass of drink.

"Is that a way on how you treat your superiors?" Rios-96 asked.

"One, you're not my superior. Two, you are sitting on her seat. Three, I don't really like that drink so I won't take it," Leon-36 replied.

Rios-96 just shrugged his shoulders. The other members of Sora decided to have some luxury on the bar when they found an animal being suppressed by a beast. Watching, Leon-36 and Shin-18 both raised their bets on the stronger beast.

"Hey stop that!" Xav-11 cried. He saw Aud-01 coming in view. By just simply brushing Jung-55 away, he dashed towards the player and anchored on his arms. Aud-01 almost jumped in surprised when Xav-11 appeared unnoticed.

Though, what struck the other players dumbfounded is the way how this elf managed to get away from the beast's lock by just simply brushing him away. Does it mean that those weak looks are just for show? That only one who voted for Xav-11 won the bet.

"Hey? What's the problem?" Aud-01 asked. He just arrived at the scene so he didn't know what happened.

"Aud! They're always picking on me. Help me! Help me!" Xav-11 complained. Aud-01 looked at the crowd and found his group and the guild leaders. He patted the elf's head.

"You did a good job. That's okay," Aud-01 said with a smile. Xav-11 was almost blinded by the smile and attacked Aud-01 by giving him a hug while rubbing his cheeks.

"Why are you so cute! You're so cute! So cut-"

Xav-11 was halted when somebody removed him from Aud-01 by picking him up from him. Xav-11 looked at the person who is holding him and found a familiar person. He sparkled and gave him a welcoming smile.

"Oh, it's you Frass! Hello," Xav-11 joyfully greeted.

While Xav-11 spammed Frass-02 with greeting messages, Aud-01 approached the guild leader. Jung-55 clicked his tongue and looked away. Melon-45 and Allen-38 just snickered while Rios-96 finally moved to the chair where he will not be glared.

"I never know that the Cassaianne hold such task. That must be the reason why none of this guild created a hole on the TV," Melon-45 started.

TV is the term used for appearing a player's name on the screen as if advertising. Everyone worldwide will see like how announcements are being aired in televisions. And anyone who appeared on TV held a special spot on the game's scoreboard where the places to be announced are those who belong on the top ten. Or when bosses killed for the first time and the shortest time for a dungeon to get cleared.

Leon-36 and Shin-18 appeared once on TV on the second server when they are able to kill a Hidden Boss on the dungeon. Ari-05 also appeared a lot on TV before with awards for killing floor bosses and clearing the dungeons for the shortest time. Actually, a few of the high ranking officers in Cassaianne owned a place in the TV once but not on the current 5th server.

"The task is just to help all the players to reach one hundred to open a new server, right?" Allen-38 muttered. "If Clover just asked us, we could have done it two years ago."

"Well, it is true that leveling up in the 5th server is hard. Can you imagine, we both reached the level of four hundred and yet we can't go further up due to the demands of the game. It takes a lot of quests and dungeon," Melon-45 complained.

"Clover probably have his reasons," Rios-96 commented. "That guy is pretty aloof. He just do whatever he wanted to do. If he needed our help, he will just ask with no shame."

Aud-01 and Frass-02 sat on their chairs to listen to these Guild Leaders. Aud-01 already told his group to go have fun on the hall. They immediately left them and joined the people from the other guild to have fun. Though, they both remained like the usual. They are never the party people type.

"Why are you guys all so serious when it comes to this! You should enjoy and have fun!" Xav-11 said, now on the circle of conversation. "And here I prepared the venue with all my designing skills."

"If you wanted to say that your decoration is great then sad to tell you I didn't like it," Jung-55 said straight on.

"Who needed your personal opinion about aesthetics! A primitive like you will never understand true art!" Xav-11 cried.

"Huh? You think this is aesthetic?" Jung-55 gave him a sharp glare. Xav-11 trembled and ran behind Aud-01 to hide.

"You think you can beat me? GO! GO, Aud will save me," the rabbit trembled.

Aud-01 looked at them and just smiled. He patted the trembling rabbit again to assure that he's safe and nobody could hurt him here. Though, nobody will really try to attack Xav-11. For the person who has the access of all the rooms and the ability to teleport anyone who he dislikes outside the guild, Xav-11 is like a hidden boss you should not let to get angry.

"It's okay, it's okay," Aud-01 said. "Well, isn't it time already? All the casts are complete. I heard you prepared a program for everyone."

"Oh right," Xav-11 quickly earned his grace and remembered something important. He smiled and hugged Aud-01 once more, earning a growl from Frass-02 beside them. "I guess I have to go. See you later, sweetheart."

The elf left the scene. Aud-01 watched the player dash towards the stage where some people are already performing. He snatched the microphone to whomever was holding it, creating a sharp static. The players covered their ears from the loud noise and protested to the person standing in front.

Xav-11 just smiled.

"Good day everyone!" Xav-11 yelled, doubling the static from earlier. "How are you?"

Another set of complains erupted. However, their faces showed something close to gratefulness. Just the sight of this elf really makes everyone feel light-hearten. They could never held a grudge to this kind and rabbit-like person.

"Well, well... I assume that everyone knows the reason why we are all gathered here. Anyone from the crowd wanted to answer?"

"Free drinks!"

"Free food!"

"Beautiful girls!"

"Free party!"

"Mou! That's not the reason why we are here!"

The elf earned an earful of laughter from the crowd.

"You guys sure like to bully him," Aud-01 commented on the sidelines. Ari-05 just chuckled when he remembered saying the same thing earlier.

"Seven years ago, the game Dystopian Tales Online was released. In the same time, the inside-game Virtual Reality was also introduced," Xav-said.

"Virtual Reality is just a prototype game where we will be able to play games while sleeping using the Dream Simulator. The test is still going on, requiring at least five hundred players to complete the first part. Two years ago, we finally reached that number."

"Upon the release of the fifth server where the fifth string players entered the scene, the Cassaianne Guild was given a special task of helping these new players to reach level one hundred in two to three years time. That is, no new server will be introduced not until this task is done."

"Well, I know you can tell that the fifth server has the maximum difficulty from the previous servers. While expanding the level cap up to five hundred, it also increases the level of monsters and dungeon floors. That is the reason why we are taking a hard to time to level up. It took us two years to progress."

"But now, marking this day as the start of the final days of the fifth server, I declare through the authority given to me that Virtual Reality players will proceed to the second phase of the experiment!"

Everyone cheered after hearing the words of the elf. Xav-11 proudly claimed the achievement. And as a present of this celebration, he prepared something grand that almost all of the people inside the guild paused to see it.

As an elf, it is natural for him to use magic powers. Xav-11 raised his arms up, activating an enchantment. He started to glow, with series of circular spells appearing one by one under his feet, moving and circling in a beautiful and majestic rate. The radius suddenly erupted almost occupying the floor of the mess hall. The players raised their feet up by surprise, while some gazed down on the floor to witness such a wonderful sight.

"What is this?" One female player asked.

The glow from the floor is almost hypnotizing making her reach down to touch it. And just by that, as if changing the waters through a water drop, the whole scene rippled to a place closer to an underwater aquarium. The players loudly expressed their awe as their eyes wandered through the whole scene.

"He's a high leveled elf after all," Rios-96 commented.

This enchantment is very familiar to him. He can also do it if he wanted to, though, the scale of Xav-11's magic is too large. He can't create an illusion as large as this. It must be due to the settings they are in.

"Everyone! Let's start the party!"

After the signal, everyone bursted their cheers out. The scene went back to the mess hall but in a grandiose manner. The spell remained showing the faint illusion that only increased the party fever around. Loud music started playing and drinks are served. Performers come one by one representing their guild while the others cheered for their friends.

Despite having different races, everyone is enjoying.

From the behind, Aud-01 silently watched them. Ari-05 found the player looking at them, shifting his gaze towards the group of players, then back to Aud-01. He though that this player only shows little of his emotions. Even now, you can see his only poker face. But his eyes showed otherwise.

Both are glinted with a spark of happiness.

"What?" Aud-01 noticed Ari-05 chuckling. "Is there something funny?"

"Hmmm? No, no," Ari-05 shook his head. "It's just that you look like a parent looking at his kids grow."

Aud-01 paused, though, accepted the thought as if a compliment.

"Ha ha ha, maybe... A bunch of old kids," Aud-01.

He's smiling! He's smiling! Ari-05 thought.

The guild leaders remained on the bar. Some players also stayed on the solemn place.

"Now that we are done on the last part of the first phase... Then does it mean that the sixth server will be opening soon?" Melon-45 suddenly opened a topic.

"Probably. By just what the elven announced earlier, the sixth server is ready to go," Allen-38 nodded.

"Sixth server huh... "

"Like what they did for these five servers, I think they will be adding new floors and a new cap level. New monsters and maybe some new features. They are aiming for the sense of taste and smell this time."

Everyone agreed to the hypothesis. Actually, Virtual Reality only holds three of the five senses. It is true that they can drink and eat in the game but that is due to the illusion that they are actually eating and drinking. If you ask the players if ever they feel hungry in the game, they do, but that is because of the manipulated static from the Dream Simulator. In real life, they are not hungry.

And if they can taste and smell food, they are not definitely defined. They know the smell and taste because they have eaten and have smell the object before. For example, a player knows the smell and taste of a curry. So when he ate a curry in the game, the Dream Simulator activates an illusion that he is really tasting and smelling the curry.

However, if you ask another player to eat curry but never eaten curry before, he will never recognize the taste of it. the taste must be bland, or salty, or sweet, as one of the common taste recorded on the brain. It's as if you are told to imagine a new kind of color but everyone knows nobody can imagine a new color.

The night went smoothly. They enjoyed the celebration until a loud alarm flooded the whole place. The maintenance system started counting down announcing the time the players should log-out. Everyone wanted to continue partying but they can't offend the rules. If the system tells them to leave, then they leave. Or else their accounts will be erased.

NPCs appeared from the sides of the mess hall as under a command. These NPCs are not owned by the guild, rather, by the system. When the players leave the game, these NPCs take good care of the cleaning, returning the whole place to its neutral appearance.

They are the one cleaning the game.

"It looks like we have to go," Melon-45 said, sighing. "And I have to go to work in the morning. How tiring."

"Ha ha ha, that's okay," Allen-38 patted him on the back. "See you guys later!"

"I'll be taking my members to the guild for the last minute assembly. I'm heading out first," Jung-55 said as he vanished to teleport somewhere.

"I'll head out too," Rios-96 said. He looks over the counter and saw Aud-01, Frass-02, and Ari-05. "Sad to say that I can never ask you join my guild again."

"You already have a lot of talented members. my addition will only mean nothing," Ari-05 said.

"Oh well..." The elven leader just chuckled. "Then bye guys."

One by one, the players logged out from the ir accounts. The members of Sora already message their farewell and exited the game. Frass-02 headed out first while Aud-01 waited the last set of players to go out. After knowing that the only players left are Aud-01 and Ari-05, they decided to log out together.

"What a tiring night," Aud-01 stretched out.

"But a happy night," Ari-05 said. "I'll head out first so you can lock the guild."

"Sure, see you later."

"Then, bye."

Ari-05 vanished and the system announced that he is currently logged off. It is now Aud-01 turn to open his interface and log out when a message suddenly popped out. He still has ten minutes left so he opened it to read. That's when the new announcement came into view again.

SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION: VIRTUAL REALITY AI

MEETING AT FOSTER RESEARCH BUILDING: XXXX XX XXXX

YOU ARE INVITED. CLOVER. THE TOP ONE PLAYER OF THE GAME. CA.S.SAIANNE GUILD LEADER.

CA.S.SAIANNE GUILD LEADER