No Respawns

"Haha, you're a nerd."

Joon, sitting beside the hospital bed his father was laying in, replied, "What? Huh?"

18 year old Joon had black wavy ear length hair, dark red eyes, a black earring in his ear, and a scar under his left cheek.

"Ya heard me, brat. You're a nerd! Haha!"

Joon's dad's name was Baek, he had shoulder length dark brown hair, gray eyes, and a beard.

Joon stood up out of the chair, walking around, saying, "Shut up! I'm not. It's just…the nostalgia is getting to me, you know? And there's a cash prize so like…stop saying I'm a nerd."

"Haha….NERD."

"Tch! You…"

On the TV hanging on the wall, showed a game convention, but it wasn't just any convention, but the announcement of a remastered version of a game that came out 10 years ago, called ; an rpg game that took the world by storm.

The television showed a bunch of cosplayers and regular gamers in a big building, with posters and merchandise of the King of Gods game. There was a room with chairs set up in front of desks that had computer screens on top of them. A reporter was interviewing the head of the entire convention, asking him, "Well, Chujong Park, And what is this room supposed to be?"

"This room is for the ones who really KNOW the game, players who are already familiar with the gameplay itself, the elements, the level up system, the items, and the deep…deep lore! In just 30 minutes, we're going to have players come up and play the demo version of the remastered game! And whoever completes the demo with the most kills wins 131800552 won! Here's how it's gonna work: all the players will be put in groups on different parts of the entire map. Where they are, it will be swarmed with hybrid creatures or mythical beasts or whatever in waves. There will be trying to survive 5 waves of these monsters until the end, and whoever survives along with the most kills, will win the grand prize."

"Oh that's big! Any specific reason why you're doing this?"

"When I was a boy, I always felt like a champ when completing games I found extremely difficult. I know back when the King of Gods game first came out, it took all players at least 400+ hours to beat it. It was extremely difficult, but once they beat it, I know they felt satisfied. So the reason I'm doing this is because, well, I know how much hard work these players put into the game years ago, so I want to give them a sense of satisfaction that will make them feel like they truly earned the victory."

Joon said, "I remember when mom first bought me that game, it was just a few days before she passed away out of damn nowhere. Pfft."

Joon sat back down in the chair, and sighed.

His father said, "Yeah, I remember. After she passed, you played that game every single day to distract yourself. You cut everyone and everything else off, just so you could take your pea-sized mind off the situation."

"Shit was crazy back then."

"And thennnnn you started getting bullied for being super emo, and thennnn I hadda teach you to stand up for yourself, and thennnn you started picking fights with everyone, and then you started getting in trouble, and THENNN-."

"Oi, at least I graduated high school, old man."

"Oh I forgot you did. You're a smart brat, so of course you did. People graduating high school in this family is few to none. I barely did. And with the way everything fell into place in your childhood, I'm surprised you still did. I'm still proud of you."

"Yeah."

"You find out what you wanna do with your life? Perhaps if you win some money at the convention, you could pay for your tuition in college. And have money left over."

"Old man, how many times do I have to remind your ass? I'm paying for your medical treatments. If I had to choose between you and school, it's going to be you. I can't lose you as well."

"Awww how noble, brat. But I've lived my life. You don't need to put your life on hold for me. Remember how I mentioned earlier how you were smart? Yah? Don't make me take back what I said. Don't make dumb decisions. Your education is important."

"Huh? What are you saying? Your health is important too."

"My future has already been lived, and you, your still a kid, your still a little wittle wolf pup, your life has only been lived 10% of 100. You'll do good in life, I know. You can go find you a nice pretty wife, have kids-."

Joon panicked, and he stuttered with his face flustered, "W-Wife?!"

"Heh? You like men or something?"

"No! I don't! Damn you!"

"HAHAHAHA!"

Joon chuckled a little bit, then got rid of his smile.

"Old man, you know I can't connect with people."

"Haha, I said the same thing once. And then your snot nosed ass appeared."

"DAMN YOU!"

"HAHAHAHA! Ow, yer making me laugh too much."

"Oi, oi, take it easy."

"Yeah yeah. Don't you gotta go? That little game thing is going to start in a few minutes. And you already signed up for it online."

"Shit! Yeah I forgot."

Joon stood up, and said, "I'll be back, alright? I'm gonna win this hella fast, and then I'm coming back here."

"I'll probably be asleep by the time you come back."

Joon and his father fist bumped, and Joon walked out of the room, making his way down the hallway.

Minutes later, he was outside, getting on a bicycle, and pedaling away from the hospital.

(7 minutes later)

(King of Gods game convention)

Joon walked in, looking at everyone heading to the game room, heading the chatter, music, and laughter.

"Damn. This place reeks."

A man in a suit walked up to Joon, asking, "How are you doing today sir?!"

Joon looked at him up and down, "You work here or something? Why are you pestering me?"

"Sorry if I startled you! And yes, I work here."

"Oops. My bad. Can you point me to the-."

"If you're here to play the demo version of the King of Gods for the grand prize, and if you've already signed up, then you can go to any computer and sit down. And if you've already signed up online then there should already be a computer with your name assignee to it-."

"I was gonna ask if you can point me to the bathroom. I gotta take a shit."

"REALLY?! I'M SORRY!"

"Ew, stop."

"On your way to the game room, the bathrooms would be there, so that's super convenient. Have a good time, and thank you for your patience!"

"Thanks, I guess."

Joon started walking straight forward, and he made it to the bathroom. He used it, left, and started walking straight into the crowded game room. There were dozens upon dozens of computers sitting on top of desks, and people were sitting down in them, and there was a crowd of people surrounding them, watching.

Joon thought, 'Fuck. I forgot I was claustrophobic. I'm leaving.'

"Annnnnnd call all the players get in their seats at this time!" An announcer said.

Joon said, "Guess they don't want me to leave."

Joon started walking around the computers, looking for his name along with some other players.

Joon finally found his seat, and he sat down, leaning back in the chair.

He sighed, thinking, 'A remastered version of a game I played when I was a brat. This is gonna be interesting."

Everyone was sitting in their chairs, with their computers booting up on their own.

At the front of the room, was Chujong, the head of the convention and the game itself. He was standing on a mini-stage, with cameras pointed at him.

He said, "Now for the main event! I know all of you are excited for this moment! One of the biggest moments in history! Think back to when you were all little pups, playing King of Gods every day after school, either by yourself or with friends. It's time to relive that moment! King of Gods was an rpg, but the remastered version is making it an MMORPG. It will have an vast open world portion, which took years upon years to make and detail, and it will have many characters, lore, Easter eggs, and more! With stunning bgraphics and new weapons and relics and a ranking system! It will follow the same story as before, but it will be ten times harder, which I know most fans loved about the original King of Gods game."

The players around said to each other:

"New weapons and relics? Alright!"

"-And a new ranking system!"

"More challenges!"

"I've dreamed of this moment!"

"An MMORPG sounds interesting. Glad I came to get a little taste of it."

"Haha! I'm winning the cash prize!

Joon thinks, 'This is definitely a nerd convention. Let's just get this started already please.'

Chujong continued, "Now then…let's get this show on the road!"

The crowd around them clapped, and Joon thinks, 'I feel like I'm famous.'

Chujong said to all of the players, "Once you are ready, press start on your screens, we're going to get right into it!"

Everyone had a message pop up on their screen, reading: "Start."

Everyone was clicking start, and Joon took a deep breath, and he clicked start. But as soon as he did that, everything went blank; his vision, his hearing, his senses, it's like they were being pulled out of him.

He gasped, and a system of window appeared in front of him in the darkness, reading :

[Now entering the Shattered World]

'Uhhh?'

….

Joon opened his eyes, and he was laying on the floor of a pub. Water was being thrown on him to try and wake him up. Joon sat up fast, saying and coughing, "ACK! What the fuck?! Where am I?"

They were in a bar, but it was a medieval looking bar.

"He's awake!"

Joon stood up, and he recognized some of the people were players that were in the gaming convention with him. He saw that he himself along with everyone else was dressed like peasants in dirty clothes.

Joon looked down at his hands, then he said, "What the fuck…I can feel the water? Is this VR? Wait, can you even feel in VR? I feel like I'm in another world or something. We didn't put on any headsets or anything…we were in a computer room..? This is sick…!"

The other players said:

"I know right!"

"It's like we're in the game! It's so cool!"

"It feels so real!"

"I can breathe and taste shit!"

"Look! I'm bleeding! How cool is that?! I can actually feel the cut!"

Joon was in shock, and he backed up a few feet, looking at his hands, saying, "This is insane…so this is where the future of technology lies…"

There was a girl leaning against the wall, with her arms folded, looking down with her eyes closed. Her hair was red and white, and it was in a bun, but she had two long red and white braids coming from the side of her hair. She had dark purple eyes, and she had freckles, her name was Duri.

Joon looked around, thinking, 'I kinda remember this tavern from the game….it's called like, the pub tub of Mitchum or something like that. But there's no NPC's here. When I played when I was a child, I used to come in here all the time to feed my character before he starved to death. There should be a big lady behind that counter.'

One player named Ho-Seok sajd, "Everyone! We can check our stats and stuff! Just say stats with your right fist closed!"

Everyone did it, and Joon even did it.

[Name : Joon]

[Level - 0 (Rank - Low Tier)]

[Skills - 1 (Abaddon's Blood) - Rank of Skill (God Teir)]

[Mana - 100 (Rank - Low Tier)]

[Strength - 100 (Rank - Low Tier)]

[Speed - 100 (Rank - Low Tier)]

[Defense - 100 (Rank - Low Tier)]

Someone looked at Joon's stats, saying, "HAHA! HOW THE HELL ARE YOU A LEVEL 0?!"

Some of the other players laughed, some saying:

"I know it's a demo, but some of us are already level 10! Your stats are so low!"

"What the hell…"

"The devs must not like you!"

Joon replied, "Oi, you wanna talk shit? You wanna go outside and fight?"

Ho-Seok stood in between them, saying, "Guys, guys! Haha! I'm pretty sure the devs are watching us right now! We can't act like children!"

Joon responded, "Pfft! Tell those bastards that. Damn nerds."

"I admit, Joon, your stats are pretty low, but it seems to be something odd in there. You have a God tier ranked skill. And your a level 0 player. Isn't that odd?"

"Doesn't make sense, does it?"

'Seems the ranks are still the same in this game as well. I still remember them clearly, as everyday I used to grind ranks for better shit in the game, better loot, armor, weapons, relics, potions, runes, and all that. Ranks can be raised with training, gathering runes and relics and stuff. But it can also be raised by gaining XP. And to gain XP, you can easily do that by traveling to places you've never been, killing anyone and anything, but the stronger the thing you kill, the more XP. Raiding dungeons, and uncovering lore, and doing quests and tasks from NPC's or the game itself. With each XP level reached, you gain a skill point where you can spend it on your stats.'

[Ranks: Low Tier (Power Levels 0-1,000) Mid Tier (1,001-10,000) Top Tier (10,001-100,000) Zealot Tier (100001-1,000,000) God Tier (1,000,001-above)]

The other players said:

"A God-Tier ranked skill and he's a level 0? Is there a glitch in the system or something?"

"Well this is a demo, they could be treating this like it's a beta test or something."

Ho-Seok said, "Ya get it now? There's no need to be assholes in a demo game."

Joon started yawning, saying, "Yawnnnn. I'm ready to fight shit so I can win money."

"Are you going outside?"

The other players asked:

"Isn't there a wave of enemies supposed to be coming?"

"They didn't give us a countdown like other games do."

"Maybe it's apart of the challenging gameplay they promised earlier."

Ho-Seok responded, "I feel like everything is going to hurt, we have all of our senses in this game. Which is super strange."

Duri, leaning on the wall still, said, "…I'm bored."

Joon opened the door, and once he did it, he saw a busy medieval town, with everyone working, horses walking around, with shops all connected to each other.

Joon smelled the fresh air, saying, "Smells like cake out here."

'I remember some of the old lore of the story. The world of King of Gods was in harmony, everything was together, nothing was separated, and some dark forces called Fallen Angels would try and take over it. And us as players were tasked to grind our ranks, level up, and get stronger, killing our way to the Fallen Angel king, and saving the world. In this remastered version, it's definitely going to be the same thing going on, but this time it's more realistic I'm guessing.'

Some of the players inside of the tavern said:

"I wanna go outside too!"

Duri scoffed to herself, "Tch. They're going to make us hold off waves of enemies while it's a busy town? I've never seen this before in the old version."

Ho-Seok, "Yeah, but if we work together and try to protect these townspeople while gaining kills-."

"Stop being so loyal. It's a game. These are NPC's. They aren't real. Your ass came here to win a cash prize, right? While everyone is off getting kills, your gonna be off saving lives, getting overlapped by all the battle junkies. And I for one, do not intend on being left behind."

"Hoh?"

Joon was leaning against the wall beside Duri, adding, "I agree. I totally agree."

Duri and Ho-Seok looked at Joon.

Duri said, "Who the hell are you? Who told you to stand beside me? Do you know who I am?"

"Don't know who you are, don't care who you are. I heard something I agreed with and came over here."

"I hate you already."

Some of the players went outside to try and enjoy the fresh air, until a loud voice went off throughout the town, saying with a deep tone, "5….4….3-."

Something dashed through all of the buildings, blasting them in the air. Wind, building pieces, wood, and bodies flung in the air with blood attached to it.

The ground rumbled, and Joon was under a pile of wood, bleeding from his head, coughing.

"Ahh! What was that?!"

Duri was on the ground too, with half of her body wounded.

But laying in front of Joon, was Ho-Seok's dead body, looking right at Joon.

Joon said, "I feel everything…I feel everything…"

Duri was slowly sitting up, saying, "Who…did that…? Agh!"

She fell on her knee, thinking, 'This pain is excruciating…it feels real as hell. Why do I feel like I'm dying? I feel everything…'

There were many dead townspeople in puddles of blood, and there were dead horses and animals out there as well.

Some of the other players were dead as well, but some of them were standing up.

"What…was that?!"

"So many people dead, bro!"

"What the hell?!"

"Look around! Look around! Do you see anything?!"

"Nothing!"

"I got nkthing from this end!"

"Is this the start of the waves?!"

"It has to be!"

The same voice came back, saying in a deep tone, "5…4…3…2-."

A red flash came through again, and it sliced the other players in half as well, blasting rubble and wood and wind all over the place.

Joon, Duri, and some other players blasted through walls, rolling on the ground and landing in puddles of blood.

Joon said, "AGH! Is this the wave?! Why would they make it this hard?"

Duri didn't say anything she stayed silent, also confused on what's going on.

Other players getting up said:

"What difficulty is this on?!"

"I know they mentioned a challenging experience, but this is extreme! We're too low level for this!"

"This is like an A grade test or higher!"

Standing on top of a half destroyed shop, was a 15 foot red Minotaur with black tattoos all over his body, and he had red glowing wraps around his fists and forearms, and his fingers were sharp. He had to ur black horns on his head, glowing red eyes, and had a piece of sackcloth covering his privates.

There was a long red health bar above his head, and his name above the health bar. It read : "Bolgor The Destroyer".

Joon red his name, saying, "Bolgor?! I don't recognize this character…does anyone else? His health bar is pretty fucking long too, he must be a high ranked boss…"

"No!" The other players replied.

Duri says, "Fuck no."

Bolgor said, "….You peasants know my name. How? Are you maybe from the future? Children of the Fragment Lords?"

Joon thinks, 'Fragment Lords? Who are they?! This wasn't from the old version either! Did the devs change everything?'

Some other players said:

"What kind of villain NPC is this?! I've never heard of an NPC trying to figure out how we know their names as soon as the game starts!"

Joon, Duri, and the other dozen players were standing, and they all got message on their system that popped up in front of them, and it read:

[Kill Bolgor the Destroyer. If you die here, you are dead forever. Players remaining in the Fragmented world - 89,780,022/100,532,116]

A shiver ran down all of the players bodies, especially Joon's.

"Players remaining?!"

"I thought we were the only players here! From the convention!"

Joon thought, 'Other players dropped with us…how is that possible? What's really going on?'

The voice from Bolgor said, "5…4-.."

He dashed through again, blasting everyone away again, with a red aura swarming through the air. Some of the players were killed, dismembered on impact. Duri was bashed across the ground, and some of the players barely survived, but most of them were almost, dead, with their mana levels low just from the attacks.

Bolgor had a black spike stabbed through Joon's chest, and he was smashing Joon through other walls. Blood splashed from Joon's mouth, and Bolgor said, "Expalin how you know my name, human. And I'll kill you fast like your human friends."

Bolgor pineed Joon against the wall, and Joon had blood leaking from his face, mouth, and head. Gagging slowly.

Joon thought, 'Why do I get the feeling….that I won't respawn?'