Chapter 124: Not a Chapter I'm sick and I'm sorry!

sorry guys I'm really sick so there's no chapter today. however I have to update at least 1500 words a day or I'll not be getting paid month end. so this is the first two chapters of a virtual reality massive multiplayer online role playing game I had planned. I've written ten chapters of it, I'll just post it to make up for the lack of chapters today. tomorrow I'll edit the chapter clearing the two chapters of these novel and then upload the proper one along with tomorrow's chapter. please I apologise for the inconveniences.

[[[[[∆]]]]]

[The age old question that everyone askes themselves… who am I? am I good person, am I a bad person. What does the world think of me? Should I give back to the world, stand for truth and justice and honestly and try my hardest to be great amongst the masses, to fit in and be loved.

Or do I want to take, and take and take and not have to give a damn about what the world thinks about me. Do I give in to my desires and let it consume me, do I make the world… or do I break it? The answer to those questions are now laid out in front of you. In After Earth online you can be the hero or the villain, or do you just want to sit back and experience the ease and carnage of a modern society where super powered heroes and villains are the norm.

There are no filters, no restrictions except for those under the age of 18. A world where you can have absolute power, be the absolute symbol of good, or the most supreme figure of evil… or if you so choose… the unsure who treads the thin line between both sides. Welcome one and all to the World of After Earth online, where your deepest and darkest desires, becomes your REALITY!]

Leonardo stared hard at the teaser trailer for After Earth online, it was just elaborate words on a holographic screen, and it was released months ago so it didn't matter much, however he just couldn't help but to watch it again, especially now that the pod was lying down in his bedroom and the servers for the game were about to open in the next fifteen minutes.

Unlike how stories like this go, after earth online was not some big revolutionary VR game, it was amongst the hundreds released every year, so it was sure to be buried under the waves of other games. Except of course this particular game was catered for the older audience, from what the beta testers had posted, any from racism, murder, burglary, ****, corruption, serial killers, alien invasions, demonic invasions etc. were the norm.

There were no filters, curse words could be used, female players and the NPC AI's could be raped or killed. And it would all be experienced in its full, bloody and gory details. That information alone had made After earth online the most controversial game of the year, its release was delayed due to many petitions against it for its very brutal contents, and while many people protested against it, there were many who wanted it to come to light.

This was a chance for their deepest and darkest monsters to be unleashed, there was no need to role-play like other games, the evil or the good in you would be brought to the forefront and you could live just like you want. Restrained and unrestrained by the rules and laws of society. Leo was playing this game because he really didn't have a choice, there was a potential to earn money from every game in the Market, and After Earth online was the cheapest Leo could get.

For one even in 2072 Africa still had the highest rate of poverty in the entire world, and being born to poor parents in Nigeria was even worse as the nation had gone through several civil wars in the past thirty years. It was only just settling down recently and rejoining the rest of the world. But its economy has been severely impacted with only the rich and their ilk having control over the money flow.

Crime was rampant, and it was a horror show as Nigeria had really become a third world country, but even that 21-year-old Leo had been able to make ends meet for himself and two younger siblings. And now more than ever he needed to find a way to make more money, his nineteen-year-old sister had been a victim of rapist a few months back, and now she was an expectant mother.

Their younger brother Collin was a budding soccer player and had a chance to be drafted into the junior national team in three months, except of course to get a spot in the draft pick you needed to buy you way in. the 15-year-old was devastated, but Leo was not going to let them down, after earth online was the only choice he now had. While he wasn't so sure about equipment, he knew VR games with modern themes thrived on materials and information, and that's what he was going after.

He needed to buy the spot for the draft pick for his younger brother, and raise enough money for his younger sister and her baby. Especially now that his sister also had to apply for a scholarship to study off world at a prestigious university on one of earth's colonies on the moon. A chance to change their family's situation and it was looking right at him.

The odds were stacked against him though, frankly speaking he would be competing against players from countries like the USA, India, China, Korea, The UK, Russia, Australia etc.

basically any country other than an African country have proven themselves as the best of the best when it comes to the games they play. But he was not really aiming for the best in this case, he just wants to make some money before perhaps making a transition to a better game after building a reputation.

Leo read through the scant few information posted on the game's official page before getting back up to his feet. He walked towards his sleeping sister and moved the book she had placed on her head to the table besides her. He looked at her bulging stomach and smiled, he wanted that child to be born into a world without stress, free like the wind and able to reach the sky in a single leap. He shifted his gaze to the family photo that was a few years old, a deceased mother and a father serving a life term for crimes he didn't commit.

So many wrongs to make right and so many futures to make brighter, he had so much that he had to take care off and he was desperate. So while other players might have skill and talent none of them had even a smidge of what he did, and that was desperation. Nothing and no one would stand in his way, he swears it.

[[[[[∆]]]]]

[New user detected… registering ID… Verifying Identity…Identity Verified. Scanning and Inputting Biometrics… Initializing Retina and Finger Print scan… Account Created. Welcome Leonardo Adebayo. Proceed to character creation?]

[Yes No ]

Leo chose yes as the blue screen in front of him changed completely and he found himself facing a mirror image of himself. There was a plethora of races to choose from and a chance to hybridize certain races. At the moment not much was known about the game, so whether or not going the hybrid path would mess with you build down the line, not much was known. But Leo knew exactly what he wanted.

He needed to be fast and silent to be able to get the information he wanted, he wanted to go the Anti-hero route, being able to mingle with both the villains and heroes. He didn't need to be in the spotlight, but he wanted to be able to get rewards from committing crimes and stopping them should the need arise. So he needed speed and silence, but at the same time he needed a significant amount of power to be able to defend himself. The body has to be adaptive too, in the end that brought him back to the human selection, but he was able to hybridize combining it with a similar looking humanoid race.

{HYBRID RACE}

{HUMAN}

[The human race is the most common race, boasting of supreme intelligence and adaptability, they're compatible with any and all energy source. Rumors have it that humans are the first race to ever exist in the cosmos as their DNA have been known to contain pieces of the genes of every other race in existence.]

{Gain passive skill[ Adaptive] and the active skill [Analyze] }

{TECHRONMAN}

[The Techronman race are almost indistinguishable from humans, except of course their silver hair and pale metallic skin. Their veins and minds are capable of carrying massive surges of electricity, making them capable of intercepting and creating all sorts of connections with technology. they're inventors, and information brokers and are known to some civilizations as techno mages.]

{Gain the passive skill [Technopath] and the active skill [Shock]}

That worked well for him, with the Techronman race he would be able to get information from anywhere and he could even control machines. These was the best possible outcome, at least for now anyway. As soon as he accepted the race, the mirror in front of him changed, and he was looking at himself with silver hair, and protruding cheekbones with a single blue band running from his cheekbones to his jaw.

He looked like himself, but honestly if someone who knew him saw him like this, he could guarantee that they wouldn't recognize him. His height remained the same as 6'2 and he was still lanky due to lack of proper nutrition. His fingernails were also silver, and he was dressed in grey cotton trousers and shirt along with a grey coat with a hood and some black boots. He looked like those padawans in those old Star Wars movies, he hoped the clothes were just there for reference, the colors were a bit too dull for his taste.

What came next was the choice for an ability, there were a few categories from which someone could choose his or her ability. And a person could only have one, combine it with your chosen race and you would have a few tools under your belt. The categories were Magical, Cosmic, Technological, Scientific, and mutation. For Leo technological and scientific were out.

Technological had to be about those that made their techs or had their abilities from gadgets, the scientific were those who got their abilities from experiments like Spiderman, the incredible hulk and captain America.

His race actually covered the technological aspect, and in his opinion the scientific hardly had a chance for growth, of course this was a game, but he didn't want to turn I to an enormous green rage monster whenever he gets angry.

Cosmic sounded cool, but he was not one for it if he had to be honest. He wanted to stay out of the limelight, which left mutation and magic. Now he could go for mutation which was actually the best, he could get speed or invisible mutation which would help him, but then again he would be limited by a single mutation. He wasn't aiming to be the best or the strongest, so he didn't want to focus on a single build, what he wanted was to be the jack of all trades who can get out of any sort of situation.

His hybrid race was a living breathing walking electric rod, the [Shock] skill made sure of that. So for sure he had the mutation angle down. Which left magic, and so he chose that. Magic was divided into a few different categories too. There were mages, wizards and witches which was greyed out for males, sorcery, warlocks and mystics.

Mystics were the crystal ball see I to the future read your palm kind of magic, mages were catered to the elements, wizards were the reality altering kind of magic, like illusions and magically locking a door you can't open. Sorcery was basically the scientific part of the magic side, with rituals and potions and catalysts needed for spells. Warlocks were the bad guys, the summoned familiars and demons and did the bad juju. And that was why he chose the warlock route, because unlike the others, he wasn't limited to just using his magic to fight as he could have companions and could use weapons as warlock spells are near instant though they don't have as much damage.

{WARLOCK}

[Warlocks are masters of black and summoning magic, drawing power from the infernal and the dark, they're the most likely to hang around demons and go to hell.]

{Gained the passive skill [Arcane Sight] and the Active Skill [Black Bolt]}

After that all he had to do was just a name… that alone was hard if he had to be honest. Unlike most gamers he had grown up being taught that names had powerful meanings, that there was power in a name no matter how obscure or generic it sounds. He thought back to the reason why he was here, why he was doing this, to his family and to his sister's unborn child, he smiled as he decided on his name.

(Welcome to the Game: Leo Freewind!!

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