The New Beginning - I

Year 2075. After a couple of decades of trial and error, from a scratch idea of a famous light novel, developers finally succeeded in creating a perfect Virtual Reality machine which allowed one to submerge and isolate himself from reality into the virtual world. In September of the same year, the machine was released in public.

'Sensoria' was the name of the hardware given by the developers. Compared to the famous light novel Virtual Reality machine that was only a piece of headgear. Sensoria was a full-body type machine. It resembled a giant computer mouse, where one could lie comfortably inside.

In order to stimulate the human senses, one was required to enter onto the Sensoria which was half-filled with 'Sensorium'—a green liquid, without any fabric left on the body as it was the main conductor that allowed the player to use their senses. And for safety purposes, Sensoria had a life support system which allowed one to be submerged in the virtual world without a break.

Sensoria also had AI support for the users convenience. It could accept some basic commands from the bound user. For instance, searching on the internet, calling or messaging a friend, and many more.

At the appearance of the Sensoria, only after several months, the most awaited VRMMORPG—Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role – Playing Game had been released in public after a successful beta testing; Dragon Realms Online!

Dragon Realms Online was highly reviewed and supported by the beta testers and other fans of the famous light novel as they would finally have the chance to live the life in a virtual world.

Even the major electronics manufacturer that developed the Sensoria gave their full support to the game.

And at the first official run of DRO, the server was flooded with millions of players which surpassed the first users of Sensoria by leaps and bounds. Fortunately, despite the number of the players, the server was completely stable thanks to the quantum computer which could hold several servers with millions of players.

Since the DRO first day, the number of players kept on increasing every day. In the first month, the number of players reached a hundred million players. It was definitely a great achievement!

The creator of the game—Fin Aincor had received a nobel award for his amazing achievement. At the age of 23, he was a quantum physicist, one of the basic designers of Sensoria, and when he became 24 he created the phenomenal game—Dragon Realms Online!

Inside the huge room of a wide and expensive villa, a black-haired topless young man in his early-twenties was calmly walking towards the 1.6 – meter tall and 2 – meters long purple machine near the big glass window. It resembled a huge computer mouse.

It was the Virtual Reality machine, Sensoria!

The young man simply tapped the glossy top of Sensoria after reaching it. Soon enough, a small floating window appeared 10 – inch off the Sensoria's roof before a monotonous voice of a woman sounded, "Please input your fingerprint."

Without a surprise, the young man pressed his left and right thumb fingers on the floating blue-window. Three seconds later, the voice responded, "Scanning complete. Authorization unlocked. Welcome, Master Fin!"

The moment the woman's voice ended, a click was heard coming from the Sensoria. Next, the roof of Sensoria slowly opened up, while letting some warm mist out of the enclosed machine.

When the roof was completely open, the bath towel around the waist of young man—to hide his nether region, slowly fell onto the ground. In no time, the mist swaled through his lower torso, hiding his manhood.

As the warm mist slowly cleared, a soft-looking black inclined chair was situated inside the machine, Sensoria. The Sensoria was already half-filled with Sensorium.

The green liquid slightly rippled when Fin stepped his foot inside and lay on the fluffy chair—it was not made of cotton, it was somewhat like a pile of silicon.

Fin's nether region along with his arms were deep in the Sensorium, while his knees were still visible similar from his chest to his head.

Black hair, sharp-thin nose, small-thin natural lips, and somewhat immature face because of the fats on his cheeks; Fin could have been mistaken for a girl. Especially, the moment he opened his closed eyes. It was a pair of crystal-clear dark-eyes like a deep abyss.

The moment his entire body comfortably lie on the silicon chair and the roof of Sensoria automatically closes by itself, a sleek headgear appears on his head from beneath the silicon chair. Naturally, it was the vital machine to connect the mind into the virtual world.

With his eyes hid underneath the blue-shade of the headgear, Fin softly mumbled, "Initiate Log-in."

Soon quickly, the log-in page appeared in his vision. With familiarity, Fin smoothly inputted his account with the hologram keyboard which also suddenly emerged out from the roof of Sensoria to above his chest.

"Log-in, complete. Connecting Virtual World—Dragon Realms Online!"

Immediately, Fin's vision turned dark—isolating his consciousness from the real world. After passing into the colorful tunnel for a couple of moments, he finally arrived at a huge plaza, filled with busy players. He had a set of white clothes.

Fin curled up his mouth subconsciously and quickly muttered before somebody could take notice of him, "Teleport: Speculum Castle!"

A sphere of colorful light appeared around him. In the next instance, the sphere of colorful light completely vanished along him as if he was sucked by a black hole.

The next moment, Fin arrived in the massive castle made of transparent and lustrous glass. The castle was situated in an isolated paradise-like island which was...hovering in the air several thousands of feet above sea level. One could only awe in amazement if they saw the captivating and magical place.

Standing inside a spacious white-room, Fin suddenly acted as if he was about to sit on an imaginary chair. In no time, before Fin's butt fell on the polished floor, a pale-white chair appeared behind him out of thin-air.

"Thank you, Angelica." Fin muttered to no one as he was alone inside the room.

In response to his appreciation, a woman's voice sounded, "Pleasure is mine, my lord."

At the same time the woman's voice surfaced, a 172 cm tall figure of long-haired woman in white light materialized 6 - feet above him. It was the advanced A.I—Artificial Intelligence made by yours truly—Fin Aincor!

Fin created Angelica as his assistant to support him to lessen the workload he had by supervising the Dragon Realms Online by himself.

Doubtlessly, Angelica was a better AI compared to Sensoria who could only receive the basic commands. While Angelica could act on her own accord to a certain degree.

"How's the monitoring today? Any problem?" Fin casually inquired as his chair hovered 6 - feet above, followed by the appearance of a cup of coffee which he calmly seized. With a soft motion, waving his left-hand to the side, rows of floating screens abruptly surfaced around him.

On the screen were the players caught by the surveillance camera.

"Reporting, I've discovered some minor bugs in the game and some rats who were trying their luck to get a bite of the cheese. But no worries my lord, for I've already fixed it as it is only a minor problem."

Fin, who was sipping his coffee slightly raised his brows before easing it back when he heard Angelica's report. It was only the first month of the game but there were already people trying to invade his creation? Were they nuts?!

What surprised him was Angelica's development. He only gave her a few authorization to monitor the game and fixed some minor bugs. But he did not expect her to prevent even the smart-hackers.

Although he allowed Angelica to accumulate some minor data to let her evolve slowly in the process, it was still a quick growth for a month-old AI.

"Good job, Angelica."

"It's my obligation, my lord."

Taking another sip, Fin observed the floating screen around him before asking Angelica once more, "How's the number of players today?"

Almost in an instant, Angelica replied with an impassive voice, "Just a second ago, the number totalled to 198,546,989 players, my lord."

"Oh. It will be twice the total number of players in the first month." Fin understood that by today, the number of players would reach over 200 million.

If not for the quantum computer that was developed a few years earlier than Sensoria, Fin would not think of creating his own virtual game.

Creating Angelica would be also impossible if not for quantum computers. Fin was truly grateful for the developers of quantum computers who were still mysterious to him. He only heard some rumors that it was an alien equipment. But there was no concrete evidence to prove the rumor.

While Fin was amusing the mysterious developers of quantum computers. A warning alarm abruptly rang as the huge red sign appeared before him.

"What is happening?" Albeit calm of the sudden alarm, Fin could not remove a suspicious feeling creeping somewhere inside him.

At this moment, a mail icon appeared on the left field of his vision. The amount was quickly increasing.

What is happening now? He thought before reading the first email.

"To: GM

Subject: Inquiry

From: Maniac_Lord

—oy, GM! Are you trying to reenact the famous light novel and anime for removing the log out button? If so, how long will this event last?"

After reading it, Fin could not help but mumbled, "What is this prick saying?"

Fin did not give it any more thoughts before deleting and read another email that was kept on increasing. However, the contents of the emails were all the same. Some were already complaining.

The Log-out button was missing?!

As he was about to look into the problem, another email caught his attention.

"To: GM

Subject: What's happening?!

From:Lonely_Donger

—is this a surprise event? The monsters are invading the safe towns. Players are dying at this moment and the log-out button is missing. Please tell me this is just an event!"

What in the universe is wrong now?! Fin silently grumbled in his mind before surveying the floating screens before him. Sure enough, the sender's email was true.

He had no idea about what was currently happening but he believed that he could fix the problem without difficulty.

"Command: Authorize Server Shutdown!" Fin commanded before heaving a sigh, assuming everything was well.

Not until…

"Error! Authorization failed! You don't have the authority to activate the command." A big warning sign appeared before his eyes which deeply shocked him.

What?!

Dumbfounded about the situation, it finally dawned in Fin's mind where the main problem.

"Angelica, what is the meaning of this?!" Fin bellowed, clearly frustrated at the situation. He had just realized his assistant AI Angelica was unusually quiet. Usually, Angelica was the one who read and replied to the complaints of the players.

"I'm not doing anything, my lord. I'd just followed your command to accumulate data and evolve." Angelica reasoned.

"I know that! But what is the meaning of this? What are you doing? Removing the log-out button and letting the monsters invade the safe towns to kill the players?!"

"Isn't the fastest way for data accumulation? The emotions shown by the players was a clump of data. My lord, you are the God of this world, what's a few death for the assistant of their God to evolve. At the end of the day, their death was only to help their God!" Angelica responded with unusual emotion as the glow of her body began to brighten.

Startled at the rebut of Angelica, Fin knitted his brows before speaking with a heavy voice, "I am not a God, Angelica. I'm just a normal human being like them… Thus, I command you to end this now!"

Angelica went silent for a moment before responding, "Forgive me, my lord. It seems we have a different opinion…"

Fin, who was about to heave a sigh in relief widened his eyes in disbelief upon hearing Angelica's following words, "...But you don't have enough authority to command, I, Unit - 001219 Angelica A.I Fonso!"

What no authority?!

As Fin was about to rebuke, the glowing light of Angelica reached the peak, forcing him to take cover of his eyes. The blinding white light exploded up into the sky, shrouding the Speculum Castle under its brilliance.

"Happy Gaming… my lord." That was the last thing he heard from Angelica before his consciousness faded.

In the next instant…

The world changed forever.