### The Game - Mythica ###

Back at the hospital Zero sat in a recliner besides his siste,r thinking about his next steps. After coming back he had found out that his sister was out of danger and was sleeping currently.

First things first he needed to go over the report by Thirteen.

The report was a page long concise and to the point, military style.

"Mythica was introduced as world's first virtual reality game. It was not really the first but it was the first one with full body immersion and over 80% realism. Gamers everywhere were overwhelmed by the surreal atmosphere of the game and question of being first or second vanished; what remained was only astonishment. Before the advent of Mythica, MMORPGs were the hot genre, however Mythica bankrupted each and everyone of these gaming companies. Game making companies were either absorbed or collapsed making Mythica an overnight sensation.

The game makers of Mythica were quite smart, they powered individual helmets with an advanced quantum computer each running a smaller clone of the game AI; thereby reducing the load on the servers. In a short span of time the game had become self sustaining and "Maya" the AI of the game omnipotent. Since Maya was part of each individual player, the game itself could be bent by the AI to provide a more challenging experience for the player.

An average gamer does not care about all these things but for them what really set apart Mythica was the setting. It was different from normal fantasy genres because it could very easily be the truth.

Mythica was set 300 year onto future in a post apocalyptic earth. Due to a large scaled nuclear war Mankind has dwindled in numbers. Although hospitable, the geography of earth has drastically changed. Due to the radiation and changed atmospheric composition animals and insects have undergone rapid and devastating evolution at the DNA level. Reptilian species being the most resilient of all have emerged as the species on top of the food chain. Some reptiles have evolved into dinosaurs and some unknown species even have managed to evolve into dragons. Monsters were ranked according to their strength are varied from E,D,B,C,A,S to SSS. There were also rumours of X ranked monsters but no one had seen them and stories about them were generally discarded as myths.

Humans evolved to become stronger and faster. Some even gained racial traits. Even humans hiding in the bunkers were not spared from the radiation. Some of them with weaker chromosomes could not resist the radiations and were deformed. They were then called Lepers and casted out of whatever human society remained.

Power became everything. Hunting and eating monsters made humans stronger. Humans also could subdue and train monsters to become their servants.

Civilisation were now turned to cities. But the cities themselves could not be protected my mere humans. To protect the cities humans made use of Aura stones. Aura stones as the name suggested created an aura around the city repelling all monsters from that area. Stronger the monster bigger the size of the Aura stone and larger the area it protected. A person with possession of an Aura stone could setup a city anywhere.

The uniqueness of the world of Mythica did not stop here. Where other games boasted of classes unique and hidden the players of Mythica had none. You do whatever you have to do to survive. The pain setting for the game were set at a staggering 50 percent which means that people had to eat, sleep and shit in game if they stayed in for longer hours. This also meant that the players only had humans as a starting race.

Whatever be the reason; people flocked to Mythica like addicts. Since the game boasted a 1:4 time dilation people understood that if they wanted to master their own professions Mythica was the way to go. Mythica was especially popular amongst the Craftsmen and the marital artists for the same reason.

Mythica did not have magic in game. However due to the human evolution they gained a deeper insight into psions. A person skilled at manipulating psions can bend physics to his will manipulating elements or even affecting the weather.

"

It was close to 3 AM when Zero finished the report. But for him the night was still young. He picked up the red helmet provided by 13 and proceed to the visitors rest area.

After a couple of seconds of procrastination he put on the helmet and switched it on.

To his surprise after a couple of darkness he got a message in front of his face saying

Welcome to the world of Mythica!!!

Now he was standing in front of a very pretty lady wearing a red dress, surrounded on all sides by white nothingness.

Zero was suddenly made aware of his fatal weakness, he was very awkward talking to any lady except his mom or sister.

Suddenly the lady giggled "Oh My My when Thirteen told me that you were good looking he was just being jealous wasn't he? So speak handsome what do you wish for?"