Steel Soul Online

Back in TriDa games, Santiago Torres left a capsule and stretched his body until he heard popping sounds coming from his joints, then he got up walked into a room full of people in different attires: some of them were wearing suits, other lab coats, some of them were even in pajamas, but all of them solemnly watching a single monitor in the center with the "anomaly" Called David, when Santiago coughed the monitor was turned off and everybody looked at Santiago's direction.

"I know what are you thinking about all of this, it's a complete mess" Santiago shrugged his shoulders, "but it can't be helped, that player was lucky enough to select that path and the system did what it thought it was correct in that situation"

"You sound like you don't care about it..." grumbled a bald guy in a very expensive suit with a little golden label with his name: Jorge Bonilla, he looked very displeased and he didn't try to conceal it, "You know the time we have to invest in this? do you know how much this is gonna cost?"

"Not only that," a young woman with bags under his eyes said before yawning loudly "...I think I speak for everybody saying that...we need a proper sleep"

"Agreed"

"Yeah...I'm tired..."

"My family is waiting for me..."

"I know that all of you need rest and I will not deprive you of it" he said with a smile before putting his AR glasses on, when everybody did the same Santiago tapped the table a couple of times and the cave were David "spawned" appeared in front of them, "and I have a plan to do it, we'll call this little project "Dead men mode"

"Dead men mode? like RuneScape? Jagex could sue us do you know?" Jorge crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, seeing this Santiago coughed nervously.

"Obviously it's a name that we'll use internally", he straightened his clothes tapped the table again, "anyway, we need to put countermeasures to all of this, Dead men mode a possible solution to this inconvenient, we'll duplicate the server, a back-up in case he succeeds in his adventure, if he doesn't then nothing will change in the end and everybody happy, Natalia, please explain them about this in detail"

[Understood, director Santiago]

A feminine mechanical voice sounded in everyone's ears but no one reacted to it, some of them even relaxed a little hearing her voice.

[Project Dead Men mode was a solution the council made to this anomaly, other solutions were killing the player, use teleportation to take them to another place and deleting their character]

The room breathed in relief when they heard some of the options didn't pass, they could get into a legal battle that they might lose, and even if they didn't, their reputation was at stake.

[Project Dead Men mode consists in creating a back-up server for the game if the player "Heart of the Abyss finishes the path weaved by the system for him, consequences are: the total destruction of the underworld, the partial destruction of the beginner planets and there will no "afterlife" anymore, meaning, reincarnation and resurrection will be impossible]

[The back-up server will replace the first server, players will get an opportunity to transfer their accounts to the back-up server for a limited time, after that, no account will be able to "leave" Dead men mode server]

[Then, the rules will be changed, player Heart of the Abyss will get the mission to corrupt the entire universe and extinguish all life, while the other players will get the mission to exterminate him and protect the universe from its almost inevitable extinction, Neither players, nor NPC, nor monsters will be able to resurrect]

"That's actually a very nice solution, good job", Jorge nodded his head and looked at Santiago, "But the problem persists, we need to make it fair the guy and for that, we need people, money and time"

[The council will take the lead in this project if the director, producers, investors, and leaders of all departments approve it, we will take direct responsibility from any consequences from our acts]

"Well... I'm honestly too tired of sleeping here, the design department approves"

"Anti-piracy department approves"

"History department approves"

"Team A approves"

"Team C approves"

...

Everyone approved the decision, there were some who were against it but eventually, with enough benefits, everyone was happy with the decision, 2 long hours of discussion about how to proceed with the project later, the AI disappeared.

"Let's get to business then", everyone nodded at Santiago's words and left the room shortly after.

---

David fiddled with the interface for a while and discovered useful things, the "Units" had the inventory, and a combat sub-tab that sorted his units by race, role, and attributes, with a "chibified" portrait of the unit before its name, even if just the skeleton was available, David clicked it and a notification popped up.

[Please choose a name for the unit]

"Hmmm...Skeletor?" when he said that the screen disappeared and was replaced by a larger one.

[Skeletor]

[Level: 5 (124 XP left to Lv 6)]

[Race: Lesser abyssal skeleton]

[Role]: None

[Spiritual Force: 70]

[Mana points: 60]

[Attack: 15]

[Defense: 15]

[Dextery: 15]

[Agility: 18]

[Intelligence: 1]

[Abilities]: (^)

- Soul devour (Lv 1)

- Beginner Swordsmanship (Lv 1)

[Affinities]: (x)

"Nice stats, but i should think a better name next time, sorry little boy" The skeleton looked upwards as if it were trying to find the origin of the voice, then he gave up and started to poke a purple crystal with its bony hands. "Huh, that explains the terribly low intelligence stat", David chuckled and resume his fiddling.

The research tab had various sub-tabs: the scientific research and the magic research tabs had a little text that said "no available knowledge", a map, that was very incomplete, and a bestiary with only one creature: lesser abyssal skeleton. The Journal had the quest he had accepted and every important feat he has ever done, the "Appretincementship" quest failed for obvious reasons so it didn't show up on the interface, instead, there was a new one:

[Abyssal novice guidance]:

[Reach the Abyssal church.

Requirements:

- have at least 5 units under your control.

Rewards:

- Access to the Abyssal church reputation system.]

And his only important feat was:

[Only i matter]

"As i said, you could be a little more subtle with these things...I'm sorry", he said that to the air as if the developers were listening to him, he sighed and closed it; next was the social tab, it had a 'Friends' list, an 'Ignore' list, and a 'Reputation' sub-tab, he only had Kevin for now in his friend list, none in the second but in the third...

"What the...how?"

33 different cities had marked him with the lowest reputation possible: 'Kill on sight', he was about to complain but swallowed his insults, he was a corrupted being now and maybe that's why everyone hated him now, he sighed again and closed it.

The last one was the "help" section, he could submit questions about anything or suggestions to be added for him, but none of them were approved.

He stretched and let out a yawn, closed the menu and directed his attention to his skeleton, who was on the floor watching the ceiling of the cove.

"Stand up, now".

The Skeleton stood up and stretched his bones.

"Ehmmm...let's do this" he equipped Skeletor with the shortsword he forged and it appeared out of thin air, he grabbed it and swung it a few times before nodding.

['Skeletor' has equipped the "Reaver of souls"]

['Skeletor' has been assigned to the "Melee combatant" role]

Then, he instructed him to start exploring his surroundings and stop poking the crystals, the skeleton complied and walked a couple of meters, but David received a notification from the hospital and Alex appeared in front of him.

"Hey, David! i need to log you off for a couple of minutes, the time distortion makes it hard to communicate!"

"Ah, sure, go ahead" David shrugged and was engulfed in darkness in the next moment, a couple of seconds later he appeared on the grassland where he met Alex.

"Hello again! Mr. Emiliano and Mrs. Katia are waiting for you!"

"Dad and mom? well, i expected their call a little sooner, but it's fine, contact them"

"Okie~" the boy made the same strange gestures and a screen appeared in front of David.

"Hey, Dad! hey mom!" he said with a smile to his parents.

His father had a caramel skin color, white hair, a shaved beard, and a big nose like his older brother, his mom had a more white skin color, light brown hair with white tones and a small nose like David, the brothers had the same skin color as their mother but each one took after one of the parents. They looked very worried behind the screen in their hotel room, but they sighed with relief when they saw him.

"Hello David," said His mom with a raspy voice and her eyes were a little swollen, "how are you? are you feeling better? Do they take care of you?"

"Yes mom, yes, they take care of me...you don't have to worry ok?" He smiled at them and felt a little warm in his c.h.e.s.t. "How's your trip? Spain is treating you well?"

"Yes! it's a nice country, a little hot but we're accustomed" the old woman said with a smile and the old man interjected "we're returning to Colombia the next week"

"You don't have to, Andrew is taking care of me"

"We don't care, we almost got a heart attack when they called us and said that you were in a coma and your mom didn't sleep well last night, we'll return the next Monday, end of the discussion," said His father in an authoritative tone, David sighed in defeat, "we are doing this because we love you and we are very worried, ok?" his father's tone softened a lot and sighed too.

"I know...i love you too, i just don't want to end your vacations and make you worried..."

"Nonsense! we'll be more worried in another country than at your side!" the old man looked angry but David knew it wasn't the case.

"We're here for you, we are your parents so it's natural that we get worried about you." His mom smiled and his dad sighed before smiling too. "Get well soon"

"Thank you, love you, mom, love you, dad" the call ended and he was smiling happily.

"What a lovely family~" said Alex with a little smile.

"Yeah...I feel fortunate to have them" he lay down on the grass and closed his eyes for a moment "What time is it?"

"It's almost noon, the hospital will "feed" you in a couple of minutes, it may feel a little weird but you'll get accustomed in a while"

"When they'll start with the surgeries?"

"In a couple of days, you'll get a notification an hour before the surgery" Alex was reading the information from a little "book" that he summoned with a swipe of his hand "there'll be a few of them, then you'll rest for a couple of days and start rehabilitation, don't worry, the insurance covers the cost."

"Thank you"

"It's my job, don't worry" the boy smiled and waved away the book "Want to reconnect?"

"Yes, please"

He was feeling a little happy about his visit to grassland, happiness that was stolen from a striking red sign in front of him:

[YOU HAVE DIED]

[Your last unit will respawn with you]

[Your last unit will have -20% XP upon respawn]