A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 1: Prologue: A New World is Release

'Today is the day. It is finally being released for beta testing. I can't wait! I still remember the trailer from 3 months ago.' Eldrian thought as he excitedly waited for the delivery in his apartment.

The trailer scene released by Miracle Corporation had indeed been very special. Instead of focusing on gameplay, the trailer showed a siege. The thing which made this scene strange was that no players have entered the game yet. So, how could there be a battle in-game?

Certainly, this was one of the things that people -such as Eldrian- took note of most. The other key point was the graphics showcased in the scene. It could be argued, that due to the presence of magic, the city looked more like an art piece than a city.

The scene was introduced as if the viewer took the place of a bird. First flying over the city looking at the strange actions of the humans. Before curiously going closer to observe their actions better. As the view neared the city beautiful light flashes were occasionally seen from strange towers that laid behind the city walls. Soldiers scrambled about on the walls trying to ready their defenses, while the streets of the cities were empty.

Soon the viewpoint was inside the city, making it possible to hear the unnatural silence reigning over it. Only the clatter of metal hitting something hard was heard from time to time.

'Next our bird's eye view flew around the city, trying to give us time to take it all in.' The marble white walls looked massive. Towering over the houses inside the city. The only thing taller were those strange towers. A total of eight equally distanced from each other, seemingly placed strategically. These towers looked shabbily built, any person from the modern age would say this. Strangely combined with the beautiful flashes of light the towers ended up looking far more imposing than the massive city walls.

Looking on further from a higher viewpoint again a stranger scene was shown. From the current perspective -directly over the city center- it looked as if the city was not built for functionality. Rather it looked like it was built to look like an art piece. 'The roads seemed to form a specific pattern, maybe it is an array of sorts?'

Moments later the viewpoint changed, instead of a bird's eye view, it was now from the perspective of a member of some council. The room was dimly lit, alluding to a gloomy mood. The council included two females and two males. All having their own strong characteristics.

One of the women wore a full set of plate armor, making her look far more imposing than she would have in normal clothing. The other woman had a beautiful blue and white robe on. For some reason this robe exuded grace and strength.

One of the men stood in the room, seemingly exhausted. His clothes were torn and some pieces of his leather armor were missing, as if he just barely survived an attack. Shockingly even with his attire in tatters no visible cuts or blood were seen, other than the dried blood on his clothes. The last person was someone you feel like you can just forget. Eldrian couldn't even remember this man's features. Be it what he wore or how he looked.

"But Princess Ariella, we cannot repel. Not with just us here. Most of our commanders had gone to the central land. The same is true of all other nearby kingdoms, everyone went to discuss how we can fight back against the monster invasion. How are we supposed to hold out when our numbers are lessened?" The man in tattered armor asked, looking in the direction of the viewer.

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"That I do not know Vardic, but we will have to try. If we fail in holding Ariel then our kingdom will be as good as gone. All of us present will have to try our best to hold out until news can travel to the alliance meeting." Responded the princess, knowing that even if news spread so quickly they still would likely fail.

"While that is true Princess we must try and ensure casualties are minimalized. Why don't we start evacuating the civilians who have no combat strength?" Asked the mysterious man.

"Jake you know I would love to, but with the monsters are followed by an organized army or so the reports say. I doubt even veteran soldiers would be able to make it out, only elites would stand a chance. You all know that more than one Beast King has been spotted, meaning that there is very likely a Beast Emperor controlling the monsters. The army leader either has control of this Beast Emperor or he made a pact with it."

"I am afraid the most we can do is try to increase their casualties." Said the woman in full plate armor.

When she finished the rest fell silent. The strength of the monsters was far too much for them to handle. Even if they still had their missing commanders here, the chances would have been slim.

As the council fell silent the view changed again. This time zooming past the city to the surrounding area. From this vantage point, a massive black mass could be seen advancing in the direction the city lies in.

As the viewpoint neared to black mass Eldrian could make out more of what the mass comprised of. Many, many beastlike monsters were in this mass. They looked mostly like mutated wolves, some even pleasing to the eye. Yet they all had one thing in common, they had an air of ferocity surrounding them.

Behind these beasts was a more traditional styled army. Except that this army was majorly compromised out of orcs. The orcs did not look hideous, rather they looked barbaric. With most of them having close to no armor, or even clothing. The females present didn't even bother to cover their chests unless they wore breastplates.

The orcs marched in a semi-orderly manner as if they were part of a well-trained group. At certain places in this orderly army was chaos. As soon as Eldrian's eyes were pulled to these places he saw some truly massive creatures. With a height of almost six meters, the closest description Eldrian could give them was that of trolls or giants.

This chaotic black mass and the orderly army marched towards the city in a strange kind of balance. Chaos in front and order behind.

After a suspense-filled minute or two -during which the view changed from the soldiers frantic on the walls, to the citizens praying in their homes- the siege finally began. The beasts charged crazily at the massive walls.

Soon after they started charging, commands and captains screamed at the top of their lungs, telling the soldiers what to do. Hearing the screams the soldiers jumped into action, more thorough training than conscious thought. Launching ballista bolts from ballistic, and stones from trebuchet installed on the walls.

Every ballista bolt would reap the lives of at least three beasts. The stones flung from the trebuchet, even more, leaving a line of mangled bodies. But this did little in stopping the beasts, rather the smell of blood sent them into a frenzy. Making them seem even more vicious.

Just seconds after the first physical defense machines attacked another type of defense joined the fray. It joined in the form of ice spears firing out of those strange towers. Each spear was the size of an adult man. With a spear being fired from, tower to tower, the first to fire firing again after the last. Making the duration during which they didn't fire seem nonexistent.

The destruction and damage of these attacks were immense. Craters of over a meter forming after each hit. Unfortunately, this did not stop the frenzied charge of beasts. Soon they reached the range where normal archers and mages could release their attack.

Followed which a massive wave of arrows sailing through the air. The effect of this was simply amazing, the monster mass seemingly stopping for a few seconds. Not due to them becoming scared but rather the number of monsters that died to the arrows.

But after this first wave of arrows, the next came too slowly and the monsters quickly started scaling the walls with their claws, digging them deep into the stone with every move. When the beasts had reached about halfway up the soldiers started pouring oil down. Shortly after some men in robes chanted a bit before launching fireballs into the mass of monsters coated in oil. This caused a massive blaze of heat to assault both the defenders and attackers.

Regrettably even this did little to decrease the beasts' numbers.

"Princess Ariella we have to retreat. While we might be able to fight to a standstill for a few more hours. I can guarantee that our ammo will run out in those few hours, after which the orc army will make their move. We cannot allow our citizens to end up in their hands!" Vardic almost screamed the last part, the trauma of the victim's situation still haunting him.

"I know you are right Vardic, yet I do not wish to condemn my people to death. Is there really no way we can change the outcome?" Princess Ariella asked her voice cracking as she tried not to cry. She knew that all of her people living in Ariel will die today. At the very least she should offer them this. Being taken captive would bring them misery with no bounds.

"The situation is too dire, we have to retreat soon or we won't be able," Jake said as he kept looking out of a window, soon he saw the monsters reaching the top of the walls.

"I understand, we will go now. Gather the Hippogriff-guards. We will leave as soon as the magic towers activate Eternal Freeze. Hopefully this way we can spare the citizens of our capital from suffering, and take out most of those darn beasts!" Princess Ariella said as her eyes showed her resolve.

'The very least I can do is ensure that they die painlessly.' She whispered to herself, Eldrian could only hear this because the scene had zoomed onto the princess's face, showcasing her grief and her strong will.

"Yes." The others answered immediately exiting the room to go give out the commands. Eternal Freeze was a forbidden spell only intended to be used if victory was impossible. It would turn the magic towers into output devices without a limiter. Coupled with the city array and core this would cause a massive freeze blast. Killing all the city inhabitants and making the city a frozen hell with temperatures below a hundred kelvin for a few days after.

Due to the city core being part of this spell, the city might stay at this temperature for far longer. Month or years being a possibility.

Less than a minute after the towers stopped firing an aura of frost was released. This aura fell slowly from the tower creating soft white mist as it traveled. Spreading increasingly faster as time went by.

As the monsters saw this aura they started panicking and stampeding away from the city with many of them dying in their own stampede. Only the faster monsters would be able to avoid the frost aura.

As this aura was descending a group of 15 hippogriffs and their riders flew into the sky from the center of the city.

After the activation of this spell a last scene of the town was shown and the audience was then given an incredibly sad scene. The soldiers started crying, some hugging their battle sworn brothers. The citizens hugged their family, with fathers crying, yet relief on their faces.

They all knew what the frost mist signified.

It was an indication that the city was deemed lost. In order to preserve the kingdom's strength, damage the enemy and give all citizens a peaceful death their city's forbidden spell had been used.

And within a few seconds of the aura reaching them, completely freezing them in the blink of an eye. Just five minutes after the spell's activation all that could be seen as a beautiful ice city.

The city now looked like a piece of art made out of ice, in the middle of a war, where the citizens hugged their loved ones. Looking as if they are praying that the soldiers will repel the enemy. Then looking at the soldiers, crying and hugging each other on the walls. The view than looking further, showing the frozen retreating monsters. You could be mistaken in thinking that the soldiers were crying due to the monsters giving up.

Only the orc army was left unaffected. As if they had predicted that this may well happen.

This was the trailer that everyone was shown. Not only was it very controversial. As it showed the good side being defeated. But it also depicted the emotions of the citizens so well, all the viewers had felt sad after the ending.

'How was this a trailer and not a tragic movie', many of them thought. The entirety of this trailer was just short of 30 minutes. But the impact the viewers felt was massive, everyone asked why this was shown. The response from the game creators, Miracle Corporation, was even more astonishing.

"This was not a staged event. But rather how the game really runs. We have been simulating the game in this state for the past six months. We had some alpha testers join the game to test the deep dive technology and how they felt after going to sleep via the headset. They have not played the game all that much, only testing if everything worked from a technical standpoint."

"The true game test was six months of simulations with only the NPCs in the world."

"From the time the program started we witness the NPCs growing far more than we expected. Soon cases like these started due to the event of a monster invasion. They even started preparing to make an alliance. This scene was chosen as it happened two weeks ago."

"'Why did we choose this scene,' you asked, the answer is simple. It shows best how realistic and sad this game can become. How insignificant the weak are to change their fate, and how the strong could control an entire city's death."

"But most importantly the emotions the NPCs showed. We hope to let everyone know that A New World [ANW] will be different from all other VR games. The NPCs feel, they think, they will do their best to survive just like players."

That was the day on which Eldrian swore to himself that he must play A New World. The world looked so vivid. The events too impactful to even be thought of as a game. This is why today he was so excited.

Finally, they were releasing their personalized headset. This headset has been optimized for A New World, and while you could access it via the older models. This headset has an edge that all people craved.

The ability to play the game as you sleep.

The concepts were you would enter the game as if you are experiencing a vivid dream. You would have full control of yourself, being able to do what you want in the game. Be it working, learning, or just playing the game.

The reason everyone craved this was that on average this would give everyone an extra 8 hours to spend as they want, every day. Giving people around half a day extra, seeing as normally one would just be awake for 16 hours.

Of course, due to this function, the headset is not cheap. Eldrian had to save his money for a very long time. In fact, due to the trailer only being three months before release he had to take a job to make the money on time.

Luckily, he was always a person who saved his money rather than spending it as if it was just water. Thus, in only two months of working as a waiter, with his normal savings, he earned the extra 500 dollars he needed to afford the headset. The total cost was 5000 dollars.

Eldrian was now eagerly waiting for the delivery to arrive.