[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]In an undiscovered mountain range in NeoPangea[/col][/box]

“Say, do you really think this is a good idea? I believe we’re close to where the giants spawn…”

“No worries, we’ll be fine!”

Another one just sighed and shook his head.

A party of 25 players made their way through a valley. They wanted to take a shortcut to the neutral city beyond the mountains. Pressed for time the merchants they were escorting had unwillingly agreed to travel through the undiscovered path that had lead them here.

The merchants were so-called NPCs, a short term for non-player characters, who hired the players as escorts for their dangerous journey. They were inside a game world. Which meant that said merchants were merely part of a program written for humans’ enjoyment. This however was not obvious from their actions. You couldn’t tell which people you were talking to were real humans and which were part of the game, that’s just how amazingly detailed the programming had been.

The party was made up of humans and some angels, who were surveying their surroundings carefully. Some angels had taken to the sky to get a better overview and scout ahead. The merchants had chosen a group of the most experienced players to guide the caravan but even so he slowly started to doubt if they hadn’t gotten in over their heads with this shortcut.

The monsters they encountered had gotten stronger with each encounter, which had driven sweat to the NPC’s foreheads. They themselves were absolutely helpless after all. Each of them was a driving a fully loaded wagon covered by a huge linen cloth secured with ropes which were pulled by sturdy oxes. The escort were flanking the carriages carefully, always keeping an eye out for new enemies.

Far above them, a figure wearing a black sleeveless coat was watching them with cold eyes. The hooded person was standing in the entrance of a deep cave engulfed in shadows. The figure waited until the caravan arrived at the exit of the valley where tall cliffs flanked the path, making it narrow. The party of players now had to change their formation to a straight line and continue behind each other due to the cramped space. The wagons only barely managed to pass through, the oxen had to use more energy to pull their weights as the way led slightly upward.

The figure took something from its bag and raised its hand to place it on the wall right next to it. Concentrating and murmuring an incantation, the cavern shook and the walls started glowing with dark energy. As the tremors grew the figure smiled. The incantation had been successful.

The tremors spread from the cave to the surrounding area and soon the ground shook violently, causing small rocks to come lose and roll down the mountain.

The growling of the earthquake had also caught the attention of the caravan below, but they couldn’t pinpoint where the sound came from. The high walls around them caused echoes and confused their senses.

The figure stepped out of the cave as it started to collapse. Then the ground around them cracked open and in its stead a large dragon appeared, shaking its lithe form as if it had just awoken from a deep slumber. Stone pieces flew off its body as it roared out its first cry. It seemed oddly happy as it made its presence known to the world. Then it noticed the dark figure and lowered its head to it.

The figure next to it took out a small knife and cut into its own hand, letting the blood drip out. From the blood a red wand materialized. It was slightly curved and formed into a claw at the end. The figure raised its hand above its head and dripped some blood onto the dragon’s forehead. Then it gave the new-born Mithril dragon the order to attack the caravan.

The dragon’s white eyes turned red as its master’s blood dripped onto its forehead and it let out another mighty roar, taking off into the sky before diving down towards the party below.

The caravan was in turmoil. They were trying desperately to retreat into the valley behind them and regroup while avoiding the stone avalanche that had reached them in no time. Their panic only increased as the first roar of the dragon resounded, but they were too slow.

The dragon had already landed on the cliff above them, its long neck bending down into the opening and it snapped at them with its jaws opened wide, swallowing an ox whole.

Horrified screams could be heard from the female users but the dragon ignored them, reaching out with its sharp claws and wiped out 6 players with a sweep of its tail as they tried to dodge its head.

Its rampage went on for less than 5 minutes before all the players and merchants had turned into red light, only leaving behind the deserted carriages of the caravan.

Oddly enough the wagons hadn’t been harmed at all, but scared cries and sobs could be heard from within.

The figure that had been watching the spectacle smiled. It hurried down the mountain and entered the path the dragon was now peacefully relaxing over. The figure quickly walked towards the carriages.

It raised its hand and took off its cloak, revealing its features.

She was a young girl with long black hair and clear red eyes. Her pupils were slit like a reptile’s and two curled ram horns were growing out of her temples. She was a devil.

The girl sighed audibly, hoping without conviction that her suspicions had been incorrect.

Then she raised her staff and with a small swing the covers over the wagons fell down, revealing the large steel cages within.

Anger welled up inside the girl. She had caught some slave traders. Again.

She had found many of them over the past months, merchants selling normal wares on the surface, but engaging in illegal slave trading behind the scenes. The worst part about it was that ‘players’ didn’t even know about it, nor would they care if they did. After all the slaves were just ‘programs’ without feelings…

She gritted her teeth in helpless rage as she helped the half-starved devil NPCs out of the cramped cages. Her schedule was delayed.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]A short while later on the General forums of NeoPangea[/col][/box]

There was a thread that had gotten quite a bit of attention lately. It was about a specific ‘player’ in NeoPangea Online (NPO), someone called Zayvin. Another new post was made on this thread.

Hey… we just escorted a merchants caravan and were attacked and completely wiped out by a huge white dragon. The notification we got when we died was…. –You have been killed by Zayvin –

Seriously, I can’t figure this one out, we swear to god there wasn’t any player around there and we were all killed by a monster. Are you absolutely sure it’s not a bug?

Nah, Zayvin always kills like that… Last time it was a tiger I think…

The Dev has confirmed it’s not a bug… seriously, we’ve been hunting this player down for ages and no one has even seen them. They’ve ruined HUNDREDS of missions or dungeon runs already. Honestly, I don’t get how he keeps doing it.

Yea, that guy is seriously messed up, I mean what’s his problem? We were just questing, for god’s sake. Guess some people just enjoy messing with others…

The question is… what kind of demon is he to just casually wipe out a party of 25 of the highest ranked players just like that…

Dude… you give me goosebumps, let’s just not go there. I want to believe it’s a bug.

…

The girl - Zayvin - had become the most infamous character in the game.

On the other hand the Devils’ forum was deserted. In fact not even 1000 players were playing as Devils anymore. The reason? Simply because all the other races antagonized them. Even Quests were handed out to kill them. Therefore no one had been attracted to the race since it came out. The creator Furan Corp had now started intense discussions how to handle this dying race. They had foreseen that this race wouldn’t be as popular among the general player base due to the intense PVP forced upon them by the game, however, not to this extent.

They simply hadn’t expected the players to give up that easily. The PVP was supposed to be a perk of the race for players who enjoyed combat, but that idea had thoroughly backfired.

The executives and creative heads of the company had been working on a solution ceaselessly and were going to introduce their ideas now.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]The conference room within Furan Corp[/col][/box]

“Alright, quiet down everyone!”

The room grew silent as the product manager of Furan Corp. raised his voice.

Then he began the conference.

“Alright, guys. I really don’t need to remind you about what we’re talking about. So let’s just get to the point. Mr. Eden, I’d like you to start, what ideas did you gather?”

“Of course, sir.” A man in his early 30s stood up and went to stand in front of his colleagues.

“Actually me and my team have been working on a way to save the devil race. As to why – we believe the initial concept is worth saving. A lot of players enjoy PVP, there is no argument on that.”

He looked at his colleagues that were murmuring nervously and continued.

“The problem was simply how we went about introducing the race. This is what we came up with to give them another chance. It’s actually quite simple. "

"Firstly we’d like to introduce a forced stalemate between the races for at least 1 year. This way the devils can build up their strength to some degree so the same situation as last time won’t happen again.”

The murmuring grew more intense as the others quietly discussed his words, a few people sent some very sceptic remarks his way, but he didn’t let it bother him.

“However”, he continued, “this will only work if there are enough players willing to convert to this race. Which is why we need to make starting or re-starting as a devil more attractive.”

Someone finally couldn’t hold themselves back anymore and asked loudly.

“Why don’t we just close the devils as a starting race? They obviously weren’t a big hit with the players and we have no guarantee this will change, despite our efforts.”

“A valid question.” The Community Manager (CM) of NeoPangea didn’t lose his cool and answered patiently. “This is because there are still a few hundred users playing as devils.”

“I didn’t mean to erase existing ones, just close them for new players.”

“That…”, biting back a sarcastic comment, he asked back. “So you wish to antagonize only a few hundred players against the rest of the races?” The CM stared coldly at the person that had just spoken.

“Also, what if those players wish to play with some friends? When they recruit relatives and their race is closed just what do you think will happen?”

Hushed murmurs could be heard within the meeting room while the CM surveyed the room. He decided to continue and opened a flipchart.

“Which is why we will introduce… Grell! A pet that will stay with the user until they reach their 3rd job advancement. It will be in the form of a small black wyvern that will serve as an assistant for the user. There will be a support version for healing and buffs and a combat version that the players can choose from. If they fight alongside the wyvern their experience gain will increase and she will even pick up item drops from slain enemies and place them into the players’ inventory automatically. She is truly a useful little helper.”

Approving comments could be heard from the room. But…

“Are you crazy?? Pets are supposed to be rare to obtain, even for Beast Tamers it isn’t easy to train a pet to that extent, but you want to give them away just like that?”

Of course there was also that.

There was a point to that statement. Not many players actually knew about the existence of pets.

“That’s exactly why. We will reveal a small secret of the game, making our plan more tempting. Plus, it won’t be a permanent pet in that sense so the advantage a beast tamer has won’t be lost.” Of course Mr. Eden hadn’t been unprepared for the question.

Indeed, if it was until the 3rd job advancement then that would mean lvl 150. Having AI support until then shouldn’t be a problem for the company since the largest amount of players ranged in the early 200s. Therefore new players as well as the ones below the average would be very tempted to try out the devil race because of the AI. Of course the AI wouldn’t be granted to everyone. They had decided to just grant the first million players to convert after the implementation a chance of obtaining this pet.

After an hour, they had further refined the plan and the head of marketing department was rushing down the corridor with the necessary information. The announcement would be made within the week. He had to hurry.

***

Two days later the announcement was made. The stalemate and implementation of Grell would be set into effect on the first of next month. This gave the players enough time to read and discuss this new development between themselves.

As expected the announcement caused quite the uproar. Furan Corp had never done anything like it before. This just showed the seriousness of the situation.

The news spread like wildfire, after all NeoPangea, or NPO for short, was the most popular as well as most realistic online Full Immersion Game. Users had only dreamed of true virtual reality games and then Furan came out with NPO. The hype after the announcement that NPO would be a MMORPG was unbelievable.

So there was no surprise that people everywhere could be seen discussing the new announcement.

Hey, if it’s this much… should we convert?

Hmmm, I don’t know… Grell looks really cute and if we weren’t close to even lvl 100, so maybe...?

Discussions like this took place everywhere, the limited amount of personal AIs peaked their curiosity even more. And so more and more players were waiting for the next month in excited anticipation.

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[A/N]: Hey there guys~

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter :D

Leave any thoughts you had while reading or any comments/criticism in the comments, I'll read them all :D

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EDIT: Check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here