The Immortal Player

"Kring!"

Pedro noticed his phone that started ringing. He grabbed the phone and saw the name of who was calling. It was Annie.

'Why is Annie calling me? didn't they cut ties with me 6 years ago?'

He hesitated to answer the phone call from Annie.

After the event that had happened after the "God Dragon" killed them 6 years ago, Annie and the other players were so furious that they started pointing fingers and blamed each other.

This ruined their friendship and separated them in their ways.

With this incident, Pedro had a hard time establishing 'Ares Guild' at the start of Bearth Online. He had to take a certain amount of precautions before fully trusting on to other players.

'Did they got the news about me being electrocuted? I guess... They left past things in the past.' He thought as he pressed the answer icon on his phone.

"I finally got through!" Annie muttered with a relieved voice.

"... What's up, Annie?" He asked.

"What's u~up? How can you be so calm when you almost died in-game?" Annie replied with a confused voice.

"Died in-game??" Pedro was astonished by the reply of Annie.

'How would I die in-game? From the gist of it, I don't even see a VR Box here in my room. Besides, I have never encountered Annie in Bearth.'

"Was your head kicked by a pony? Did you have Amnesia... or you are just messing with me, guild leader?" Annie started to become annoyed with Pedro's answers. She was not sure if he was messing with her or not.

...

"..." Pedro was rendered speechless.

Analyzing everything that Annie said, Pedro became quiet for a moment.

'Died in-game? Died in-game, Died in-game, Hmm...' Pedro rubbed his chin as he went into deep thought.

'As far as I can remember, I only died once when I was playing the Dragona Online. The game that I played with Annie. That is the "God Dragon" experience.'

'However, if that's the case... Annie won't even bother calling me. Else... If I remember correctly, there was also one time when I almost died on Dragona Online. Luckily, I was able to force log out of the game, after stalling time for Annie and the gang to escape the ambush by a group of unknown assassin players. And... this was around 7 years ago.'

"Hello? Hello? Are you still there? Hello?" Annie kept bugging as Pedro remained unresponsive for almost a minute.

'It can't be!'

Still unsure of the current events, Pedro deduced that this was the event where he almost died on Dragona Online, approximately 7 years ago.

"Annie, I need to hang up. Something just came up. Sorry!" Pedro immediately ended the call and checked the calendar on his phone.

To his surprise, He was right. It was 7 years ago.

Still unconvinced, Pedro rushed to his computer to check the date online to confirm that everything that is happening was legitimate.

'My phone might be malfunctioning of some sort. It might be a possible occurrence. But... Online Net time, It won't be the case! No matter what, It is always right!'

"Haah! Haah! Haah!"

Pedro exhaled heavily after he confirmed that the date was correct. He, somehow, time-traveled, back to 7 years ago.

Although the time on the Online Net Time was credible, he has still some doubts and suspicions as time-traveling was an impossible feat in his world.

Though he was not fully convinced, Pedro got excited as many thoughts and ideas surged into his mind.

'Calm down. Calm down. If all of this is real then... The closed beta of Bearth Online will happen a year before its official release. The registration for the closed beta should be around these days.'

He calmly searched at 'Glogol', an online searching website, about the game Bearth.

'Boom!'

He was right. He was able to access the website of the game Bearth Online. The website contained an advertis.e.m.e.nt about the closed beta of the game.

~~~~~~~

Registration for Closed Beta Players is ongoing!

Limited slots only!

Closed Beta will start on February 1, 2031!

~~~~~~~

"February 1? Wooh... There's just a week left!" Pedro panicked.

Scared of losing a slot and being able to enter the game earlier than others, he quickly registered online.

"Tok! Tok! Tok!"

He tapped the table with his fingers while anxiously waiting for the confirmation email that signified he was qualified to participate in Bearth's closed beta.

For others, playing in the closed beta of Bearth is just like having an upper hand on information and contents of the game, like what weapons and equipment should they invest.

They also aim to determine hidden quests and such.

However, the overall advantage that they get was to experience and familiarize themselves to the new game mechanics imposed on Bearth Online. Other than the fact that Bearth can only be played with the VR Box, It boasts a new game mechanics that made it different from other AVR game.

In Bearth Online, there were no classes that were specific like other usual AVR games.

Players get the freedom to choose the set of skills they want to use, whether the skill of an assassin, "stealth-type" skills, was combined with the skill sets of a healer.

This was one of the common skill combinations of regular players who played healer roles in the past life of Pedro. Imagine a healer being invisible in the PvP battles. Safely healing the party without the fear of being targeted or ambushed by the enemy.

Unfortunately, this type of skill set has a drawback. In PvE, healers that had this skill sets had the most casualties based on an annual survey made by the developers.

That is why after a week of the 'official release' of the game, Players considered this as a "cheat code of the beta players" or "the trap of the developers".

Other than that, Bearth also implements a new game mechanic where players can get the skills in any way in the game, either through quests, NPC, treasure boxes, monsters and even after killing fellow players.

~~~~~~~

You've got mail!

~~~~~~~

Pedro's computer sounded after waiting for minutes. In that period, he was able to think and brainstorm what he should do during the 'Closed Beta' phase of the game.

A huge smile appeared on Pedro's face after he read the content of the mail.

~~~~~~~

Greetings Mr. Pedro Armaz,

We are glad to inform you that you have successfully registered for the closed beta of Bearth Online! We are pleased to inform you that you are qualified to participate in the incoming Closed Beta phase.

Kindly check the information below and secure the gaming utilities required including the VR Box before the start of the closed beta on February 2!

Good luck and we hope that you enjoy the game!

~~~~~~~