TIMELESS VOYAGE: Welcome to "Trial Of Times"

Chapter 02: Welcome to "Trial Of Times"

"How?" Asks the young man grimly as he suddenly stiffens and holds the door hinge tightly.

"Oi, Oi, young man calm down all right? if you break the hinge then even I can't save yo....." Says old man roy clearly in panicky voice.

"But how?" Asks jack in anger and disbelief, not letting go of the hinge and instead applying more pressure as if he didnt hear the old man.

"hmm? What is it?" Asks old man roy awkwardly as he was cut off midway.

crack!

"I asked how do you know my identity? Who leaked it?" Asks jack as he breaks the door hinge with anger getting to his head, his face devoid of expression and his eyes gives people the chills as for the first time, old man roy saw such an emotion in this young man that goosebumps started forming in his arms. This kind of emotion is something he has seen only twice on two people and those people were very extraordinary.

"Relax boy, You are breaking this old man's fragile heart. I bear no harm to you. Your information is something easily accessible to us. Secondly you are chosen by the game not me. So, don't blame me for it. I am just an agent to deliver you the message because if you are randomly pulled to the game and killed then it will be a waste of time for us. Thirdly you better pray my wife won't enter this room or else we are finished." Says old man seriously in a panicky voice.

"You said, the game choose me?" Asks jack confusedly but still with anger visible on his face.

"yes" Answers the old man roy quickly.

"Why?" Questions jack with anger.

"You can't have access to such information yet and I was also a chosen one just like you so I understand your Curiosity so, here is an advice, its better for you to find out for yourself why and you better calm down first." Says roy with a not so comfortable smile.

"You were also a chosen one? Then why do you give such an advice?" Asks jack as he calms down and realises that he can't leave even if he wants to do so specially with the old man's strength and getting more angry will be useless, it is very likely that he will be apprehended instantly so, anger will not solve the issue, he can only comply and find as much information as possible with a sound mind. As such he walks towards the sofa and sit on it after much contemplation.

"Like you, I asked for information on why I was chosen but the answer 'they' gave didn't help me because everyone's situation is different. So, I say it's better to find your own answer. My answer for example is that the game wanted me to become one of its agent and that I can still improve more so, if you were to follow that route then you can understand much more." Satisfied with jacks character explained old man roy with a mysterious smile and slowed down purposefully on the word improve as he emphasized it clearly.

"So, If I got it right.1st, I can't escape this game since it has chosen me but it has hosen me for a reason or to perform certain tasks. 2nd, I don't have much knowledge about the game you are talking about but the game knows everything about me. Am i right? So the last question is, who betrayed me in the army can you say it?" Asks jack after much contemplation.

"You are still thinking it narrowly young man. What if I told you that the whole empire of verona can't stop us, if we want an information on someone." Says old man roy with a mysterious smile.

"what? Impossible." After hearing that jack stood up in shock and subconsciously blurted out. Afterall from young age he knows how strong the servers of verona empire is especially as a former major general he knows many things normal people have no knowledge of. Imagine you believed that your country is the strongest in terms of power but out of nowhere someone says that 'meh' you are too weak to even bother us.

"Calm down young man things will become much clearer later and you have to play the game no matter what, I know you want to live long but once you play this game you will understand." Said the old man mysteriously. Jack took his time to calm himself down but still felt it unbelievable but there is no other way afterall no one would betray the empire at this time not especially to an old man.

"So ask me anything you want now." Says old man roy with a smile as he is satisfied with how fast the youngman calms himself down. {No wonder he could become a major general at such an young age. Leading 20,000-40,000 troops at such an young age is no joke.} thought old man roy.

"You said I will have to do something important for you. Considering that you are already an agent and you actually need help, I guess whatever that is will be very difficult right?" Asks jack after he came in terms with reality presented before him.

"Yes, definitely." Says old man roy with a smile not denying the possibility.

"Then you can definitely give me something like advice or hints and also specially instruments that may be of help. Right?" Asks jack with a probing gaze.

"Right" Said the old man roy with an xpressionless face but deep down he thought

{ What a cunning fox this boy is at such an young age even tho he served in the military, didn't they say military personals are little too kind, where is the kindness here, it seem I will lose some blood, ahh old woman you ruined me, if not for you, he wouldn't have had the courage to ask me such questions afterall, I showed him moves which should've humbled him but now it's ruined. Guess today is not my day. Leave it atleast I get what I want for cheaper compared to 'their' unreasonable demands.}.

"Since thats what you want then. First point Don't waste your time no matter which mission you go to. Secondly Knowledge is power. Thirdly Choose your traits as if choosing your life. Fourth point, Bewary of other players. Fifth point, Hide your identity as a player until your are strong enough, that includes your name. Sixth point remember after every game always join the cooling chamber it might cost some game point but entirely dependent on your server. There is an auction for in game items every 3 months on the 3rd day of the said month and the location will be given by the server. Keep a good relationship with your server. Hide your face before you are pulled to the game and your next game time will be indicated on the center of your interface. Find as many in game objects such as props, weapons and mysteries as possible and identify them through your servers as you can exchange them for ingame points. Remember the most important point, You are a solution to every problem and every problem has more than one solution and everything learned will also be with you in reality." Says roy seriously as he emphasized the last few ones again and again.

"This are everything I have to say so, think it over and ask me questions if you have any right now." Says roy seriously.

"What kind of Knowledge shoud I get? What is trait? Will I met other players instantly? What is a cooling chamber? How to hide myself, is there a way to hide my face in game? What is ingame point? Atleast I understand the the other objects but what is mysteries?" Questions Jack as he throws one doubt after another towards the old man.

"Wait, wait, you have got too many questions let's go through them one by one." Says roy as he gets a headache from hearing all those questions and starts explaining them one by one.

Sometimes later,

"So do you understand everything?" Asks roy with a tired smile.

"Yes" Nods jack seriously.

"Okay now let's go. Remember no matter what happens dont open your eyes and dont leave my hand." Says roy hurriedly as he stood up and holds the youngman's hand not even giving him time to question, suddenly an spatial fissure appears as they disappeares from the room as if never existed in the first place.

As the youngman closes his eyes and grips the oldmans hands, he feels a weird sensation like he is falling down and tries to open his eyes but calmed himself as best as possible in the last second as he remembers the old man roy's word.

"Open your eyes now." Says oldman roy with a smile.

As jack opens his eyes, he subconsciously closes them again as he was greated with bright lights, he felt weird bcz at one moment he was at the normally lit room and he felt like almost two seconds passed and moments later he is in some kind of club? {How did he do that?} Thought the young man jack as he took a curious look around his surroundings after his eyes got used to the light and affirmed his decision that this is some kind of club as people are seen drinking here and there on sofas and tables and some dancing on the dance floor perhaps it's his illision but he can't seem to see their faces and all of them are wearing the same kind of clothes everywhere.

"Welcome mister roy. What would you like? Oh my you got another young one it seems." Says a beautiful middle-aged lady with average height and willow waist as she greets the old man and jack breaks out of his reverie after hearing her voice.

"As sharp as always miss melina. Jack this is melina, my server. Melina this young man is Jack." Praises old man roy and introduces jack to melina and vice versa.

"Hello, I am jack. Nice to meet you." Says jack as he looks around suspiciously as if wary that someone else will hear his name.

"Dont worry boy, other than the servers and the players we purposefully communicate with, none can hear us, see everyone there? Can you recognise their faces? or their clothes? Same way you can't even hear their real voices. All their voices are fake" Answers old man roy as if reading what he thought and points towards the disco.

"Ohh, okay but her." Says jack as it affirmed his conclusions but he points toward the server confused.

"She is a server. So no one would dare to attack her bcz attacking her is the same as attacking the game. Same with me too, I am an agent so they can see my face too but not yours." Explains roy with a smile.

"Interesting one here huh! Boy let me give you an advice, don't attack anyone whose face can be seen bcz either they are a big celebrity with a backing here or are considered big shots. Now then let's get to business, register under me or someone else?" Explains melina to jack and questions roy with a playful smile.

"Obviously under you, I have learned my lesson alright?" Answers old man roy hurriedly as if remembering something bad and starts sweating buckets.

"Hmm, That better be the case or else, Give me your hand jack." Says melina with a deep gaze and turns back to jack with a smile.

Jack hesitant at first but decided to put his hand on the table as he have no other choice, suddenly melina pricks his finger with a needle that came out of nowhere and takes a drop of blood and then put it in some kind of bowl with mysterious lines {no it looks like runes on those tombs?} thought jack as he remembered something during his military expedition but suddenly the bowl shakes vigorously as his blood mysteriously disappears into the thin lines breaking jack's thought process.

Melina before him suddenly rolls up her eyes as her irises and pupil disappears as white sclera is the only thing being left in the place of her eye sockets and suddenly she starts speaking in an emotionless robotic tone : "Blood recognition: successful.Target name: Jack Evans, Target age:22, Target confirmed. Registering target information on the archive. Target successfully registered. Initiating game integration. Game Integration: 1%, 2%, 3%.....100%. Game integration succesful."

As the words were being spoken, jack started to feel weird and was creeped out by what he keeps hearing. As everytime melina speaks it felt like her voice kept getting closer and closer to him but melina neither moved nor her voice increased a single decibal. As the integration hit 100%, he felt her voice coming from inside his head as he was about to move his hand towards his head, a hand held him in place, unable to budge, jack accepted his fate and started accepting everything as normally as he could and thankfully to his surprise it didnt last long as moments later he heard a voice in his head:

"Welcome to the 'Trial Of Times".