Chapter 2：The Day of Launch (1)

Marius woke to the alarm as it shrieked his nightmares away.

With a grumble, Marius rolled over and turn the racket off, rubbing salt and tears away from his old wrinkled face.

A week had passed since Rajan's unwelcome intrusion at The Rift and today was the day that he'd be entering the Shattered Lands.

Slowly, he dragged himself from his warm sheets and pulled on a robe and walked out of his bedroom.

In his younger years, he had built a small bachelor house. A tidy, two-storied building with a large master bedroom on the top floor and a smaller, cozier guest room down below. The living area was directly outside the guest bedroom and consisted of an open entertainment area with a kitchen that took up the far end.

For years he had lived there until he married. He'd rented it out when he and his wife decided to make a family.

After the Earthquake that took everything that mattered from him, of the many properties he owned, only this house was left. And it was where he had resided since.

Marius walked into the center of the entertainment area, memories of parties and functions that had once be conspired and executed here flashed through his mind. Many of the people that had attended those were now dead now. Either through old age or the tragedies that had befallen the country in the last five decades.

The superpowers of the world back then had been posturing as they did, making threats and demands. It was a common belief that the Earthquake was triggered by an armed bombardment that shook through the greater part of the Northern hemisphere.

The only saving grace was that nuclear weapons had long become obsolete, as explosive weapons made way for implosive weapons of mass destruction.

Technology that was developed to harness the natural power of the world had led the way to a new age of pure energy.

Fossil fuel was made redundant and countries developed at a speed unseen since the industrial era.

And still, the nature of man turned it into a weapon that saw the destruction of untold billions.

People had argued, what was more catastrophic? A nuclear bomb that would leave a nuclear wasteland and potentially cause a nuclear winter that could stunt the planets ability to sustain life or the earth-shattering bomb that tore the tectonic plate of the Pacific Ocean apart.

Marius had lived with the consequences of a near decade of aftershocks and changing landscape. Seen the reports of villages and cities collapsing as their foundations gave way, mountains rising out of the ocean and islands being swallowed by the sea.

The Earthquake that crushed half of his homeland had torn through the coastline of a dozen countries, leaving chaos and despair in its wake.

To Marius, the argument was unnecessary. It didn't matter which was worse. What was important was what had to be done about. After all this mayhem, Marius felt no sympathy for those world leaders that had launched those bombs. If anything they deserved much worse.

Even after all these years, there was still no complete record of the death toll.

Shaking his head, Marius dispelled those pointless thoughts and slowly began working through his Kata.

As a young man, he had been an avid martial arts enthusiast. Learning every martial art he could, spending years abroad studying everything from wushu to Brazilian Jujitsu. Kickboxing, Taekwondo, Karate and even swordplay from every continent.

In many ways, he had the discipline that he adopted, to thank for his success as it gave him a sense of self that even he did not fully grasp.

To him, the art of combat was less about using those skills to exert one's dominance on another, but to give one an advantage of confidence regardless of a situation. He had never been one to begin a fight and very rarely had he been drawn to anger enough to strike another. But anyone that had threatened him soon learned the error of their ways when they woke up on the ground.

Now, though his body was old, Marius moved through his forms, feeling a sense of peace and fluidity that had yet to escape him. His bones may be frail, his muscles too old for explosive movement with his eyesight and hearing fading, but he was still the master of his body.

For now.

For an hour he moved through his forms, slowly and precise. Letting himself fully embrace every movement and strain as he coached his old frame. feeling the sense of power that had been stolen from him over time.

drrrr drrrrr drrrr.

The doorbell echoed, and Marius lost the tenuous hold he had on his forms.

Slowly, he walked the few steps to the door, peering at the security pad. Outside the door, he saw a pretty young woman, a box of goods held to her chest as she waited.

"Good morning Elizabeth," Marius said into the intercom.

"Morning Mr. G." The young woman said brightly.

Smiling, Marius opened the door. "Could you put it on the bench?" He asked.

Smiling, the young woman quickly stepping in, taking the groceries to the bench.

"Another early morning training?" She asks as she places the box carefully on the bench.

"Haha." Marius laughed as he sniffed himself. He almost recoiled at the smell that assaulted him.

"It must be time for a shower." He said. "How's your mother?"

"Same old," Elizabeth replies, a smile on her face. "She is still adamant that she can become an author and refuses to believe that she can't do it."

Marius shakes his head. "She's been like that ever since I've known her."

Elizabeth grins. "It launches today right?"

Marius nods. "Still wondering why I agreed to play if I am being honest."

"Well, a lot of the guys that I know from University are going to be playing it. They're going to try and make a guild."

Marius silently pondered that.

Making an in-game guild would be a fun way to make some money. His experience in managing businesses would make it an easy task and since the game had a gold transfer system, in-game gold could be transferred into real life money.

Rajan's goal was to get people playing and Marius had to acknowledge that playing to people's greed was an excellent way of winning players. Unfortunately, every game that aimed at surviving in the current period of time had to have a similar system in place. It was difficult to create a way of drawing people and all Marius could see was the red ocean in the gaming world.

"So, you are going to play as well?" he asked.

"Don't know. The gear is quite expensive and I actually want to graduate this year."

Marius couldn't help but grin. This girl had a bright future if she kept that work ethic.

"Well, do me a favor and don't tell anyone that I'm going to play? I really don't too many people knowing that I am dipping my toes in the VR landscape."

Elizabeth stepped past him and twirled around at the door grinning. "No worries. Your secret is safe with me."

Placing a quick kiss on his weathered cheek, she left and Marius could only watch the young woman leave in her delivery van.

Shaking himself out of his reverie he went about putting his groceries away, taking a banana for his breakfast. When the kitchen was in order he turned back to his bedroom for a shower.

He still had a few hours before the launch so he went about going through the content that Rajan had left him. Over the week, Marius had familiarised himself with all of it, learning about the classes and the job types.

The typical choices were your physical and magical classes. Close combat Warrior class and Fighter class were a tempting option. Warrior class had a job promotion for a high defense tank Guardian or a high damage Swordsman.

Fighter class had the Martial Artist job promotion that had the highest speed among the physical close combat classes while Weapon's Master had access to a spear and the largest assortment of attack and defense choices.

If Marius was honest it was these two classes that drew his attention the most, much more than the ranged physical class of the Ranger.

The Ranger class had a slightly trickier promotion than most MMORPG's, giving it a Trapper and Hunter option. Trappers had access to dangerous traps that could deal massive Area of Effect damage while Hunters had the highest pierce damage and range of all the available classes.

The magic classes had only one close combat job which was the Mage which had the Battle Mage promotion. This was perhaps the more balanced choice, giving excellent damage and the option of close-range magic that could give the user a huge advantage depending on their way of fighting.

The other option was the long-range magic classes Sorcerer and Wizard. The Sorcerer class could be promoted to the Elemental Master which had access to all five elemental magic or a Summoner that could summon a variety of demons that also have elemental attributes. From Marius' point of view, the utility favored the more flexible Elemental Master but the demon's that the Summoner could use could deal much more damage but at a shorter range.

Wizards had the healer and oracle job promotion which spoke for themselves. Healers had the typical healing skills and could Debuff enemies while Oracles could Buff allies and could deal minor AoE damage. Both classes were effective at control but neither suited Marius' taste.

Unlike most games, however, the Shattered land had a Hybrid special class.

This class had two options, the Night Stalker, and the Assassin.

The Assassin, unlike most games, had much more flexibility with their builds, allowing both ranged and close combat capabilities with the addition of magic skills. The Night Stalker was similar, offering mid-range magic skills and close combat skills.

The only problem with them was that the gameplay required more finesse than the other standard classes. It would be impossible for either the Night Stalker or the Assassin job classes to hit as high as the other classes. This meant a reliance on chain skills to make up for the deficit.

From what Marius could see, Night Stalker and Assassin were the most powerful choices, giving the most utility of the eight main classes but would be trash if they were not utilized correctly. In other words, they were the most challenging classes.

It took only a moment for Marius to choose the Night Stalker and since then he had been researching battle tactics. Unfortunately, the move pools had yet to be released.

Looking at the clock, Marius saw that it was 11:45. Shattered Land would Launch at 12:00 so it was almost time.

Smiling, Marius moved to the kitchen and began making his midday meal.

12:00 came and went but Marius stayed his course, eating his lunch and cleaning his dishes.

At 12:30 his phone rang.

"Marius, how is the game?" Rajan asked when Marius answered.

"Haha. I haven't logged in yet." Marius answered honestly.

Rajan was silent.

"How many people have logged in?" Marius asked.

"A little over five million. "Rajan answered. "There are close to eight hundred thousand in the server you will be entering."

"And all of them will be running about, getting in each other's way and causing trouble," Marius said calmly.

Rajan's silence was deafening, making Marius smile evilly.

"Don't worry. I'll be logging on in a few hours."

"Ok. Happy gaming." Rajan said before terminating the call.

Smiling, Marius turned on his laptop, accessing the Game Forums. Sure enough, there was an explosion of activity as players chatted and mocked each other as old hands reunited and sparked their old rivalries.

Marius calmly spent a few hours scrolling through the forum, collecting information and taking note of the big guilds that had made themselves known in his server.

Once he was satisfied he walked to the couch and took his VR gear off the cushion. Placing it on his head, he lay back, comfortably as the world around him faded.

"Welcome to the Shattered lands."