September 21ST, 2063

Nimbor – North-Eastern Corridor of Ring Two

Last Day of Closed Beta

A loud screech broke out across the early morning plains, followed by the sound of glass shattering. As the spinning shards of polygons floated towards the orange lit sky a raven-haired young man rose from his battle stance, spear and shield held defensively.

“I guess we’re done. Hard to believe the game is going live tomorrow,” the young man said mostly to himself while watching the shards disappear.

But Alex, We haven’t even gone beyond the Second Ring yet!” a youthful female voice said from behind him.

“True Little Bird, but think of all the time we’ll have to see what is beyond those massive stone doors once Nimbor does go live.” Was Alex’s response while his forest green eyes continued to stare at the darkened environment.

As the massive corridor came lit only by the many blue flames that were mounted upon the pillars that lined the walls, the ringing of a bell echoed throughout the corridor. Both Alex and the young girl he called Little Bird snapped their eyes to the top left-corner of their vision.

Time:

2335 (11:35pm AEST)

Day:

1095 of Closed Beta

Location:

North-Eastern Corridor, Ring Two

Wind/Temp:

W, 15 degrees

Player:

Alexios – Tier: Rookie, Rank: 5, Level: 23

Mount:

None

“Well Alex, I guess we’ll be seeing each other tomorrow as planned?” came a second female voice.

Alex turned to face the new speaker, in front of him were two young women. On the left was the older of his twin sisters, Katelynn or Kate as she preferred with her dark auburn hair was placed up into a loose ponytail. Standing next to Kate was Alex’s only female friend, Elizabeth who was sporting the blonde and blue-eyed look. While standing on his left was the younger of the twins, Lara or Little Bird who matched her sister in hair colour but had hers in a French braid that reminded Alex of the Disney character of Elsa from the frozen movies.

“As if I would stand you up Liz, the main marketplace of Ever Hold as planned,” Alex said with a little chuckle.

Elizabeth flashed a smile at Alex before touching a finger against a tattoo upon her left forearm and calling up a transparent menu. Elizabeth scrolled through her menu before tapping her finger against a transparent button. As a distortion of light wrapped around her, Elizabeth waved the siblings goodbye as the light turned into pixels and within seconds she had disappeared.

“Well Hard to believe dad’s game is at long last going live tomorrow, wonder if we get to keep what we’ve earned so far?” Kate said.

“Relax Kate, I’m sure dad will let all the Beta Testers keep their hard-earned gains,” Alex answered.

The bell chimed once again as the siblings looked at the in-game time, which showed that they had twenty minutes before the beta servers would be shut-down. A light breeze caught Alex’s shoulder-length shaggy hair as a notification icon flashed before his vision.

With a quick tap against the triple circle tattoo upon his left forearm, a transparent screen appeared before his eyes. With an upward swipe of a finger, Alex watched as his menu scrolled down to where the in-game option and system notifications were. With practised ease, Alex navigated to his messages and to the new arrival.

Alexios,

On behalf of all of us here at Obscure-Mystic Media, wish to thank you for playing the three-year-long Closed Beta Event. As a reward for your dedication, you will receive the following items. These items can be retrieved from the closest Inn once the servers go live.

Weapon Proficiency (Spear): Tier: Rookie – Level 2: 825/1600 Weapon Proficiency (Shield): Tier: Rookie – Level 2: 855/1600 1x bronze helmet with plume 1x hardened leather cuirass 1x hardened bracers (Set) 1x hardened leather Greaves with leather sandals (Set) 1x leather belt 1x bronze-faced shield 1x Tunic, Knee-length, Color: Grey 1x Custom Cloak, Color: Grey 1x bronze-tipped Spear 1x Scythian Bow 1x Leather Quiver with 30 arrows 2x bronze Kopis (Short Swords) 1x Title of Nobility – Lord of Noble House 1x Book of Blueprints 1x 48 hour XP Boost 2x leather bags with 5,000 Drachma each

Once again we wish to thank you for playing Nimbor: Labyrinth Survival Closed Beta and wish you good luck in your continuing adventures.

Marcus Forrester,

Head of Testing and Development

After reading the message, Alex looked up at the in-game time.

Time:

2355 (11:55pm AEST)

Day:

1095 of Closed Beta

Location:

North-Eastern Corridor of Ring Two

Wind/Temp:

SE at 11 km/h, 15 degrees

Player:

Alexios – Tier: Rookie, Rank: 5, Level 23

Mount:

None

Five minutes before the game servers would shut-down and reboot as their father and the development teams around the world would be gearing up for the launch. Alex watched as his sisters both touched their tattoos and navigated through their menu screens before they shimmered and pixelated out of existence. With two minutes left Alex tapped at his tattoo and swiped down to the options section to the Log-Out Button, as the shimmering light engulfed him and his vision pixelated the world around him disappeared into the darkness of the void.

***

Obscure-Mystic Media

Sydney, Australia

With the servers world-wide starting their reboot process, a shadowed figure slipped into the main server control centre. Connecting and tapping upon a keyboard the figure navigated through the millions of lines of code until they reached a single piece of code. Their fingers dance across the keyboard as they worked quickly to rewrite the code that would transform the game forever.