NABC Chapter 5: ‘Calamity Online’, Coming Soon!
Chapter 5: ‘Calamity Online’, Coming Soon!
In an ordinary bedroom on Earth, a 14-inch OLED screen emanated a light reminiscent of the magic formation, lighting up a pair of square, rimless glasses.
A highly myopic youth sat in front of his computer, intently browsing through the mysterious webpage he had accessed via an unknown source.
He was Zhao Jinyan, an average high schooler.
If one had to point out anything special about him, it would be that his stature was slightly shorter, his glasses were slightly thicker, and his personality was slightly introverted.
But that was not how he had always been. He, too, had his peak.
Ten years ago, when he was in primary school, his peers used to respectfully call him ‘Brother Zhao’, but that nickname quickly turned into ‘Little Jinyan’ when he advanced to middle school, and whatever nicknames he had afterward were not worth mentioning.
Anyway, he had had enough of the trashy game called 《Real Life OL》.
While he was idling away on the internet with such thoughts, he encountered a suspicious ad.
【...The world’s first full-immersion, virtual reality online game will be entering closed beta soon! Do you want to start a new life in another world? Join us now!】
【’Calamity Online’ is coming!】
【Official site: NNN.XXX...X.ysj】
‘I have never seen this domain name before. It doesn’t even start with www... Is it a private server?’
Despite the dubious domain name, Zhao Jinyan, perhaps out of faith in his plug-pulling speed and computer-rebooting skills, clicked the hyperlink.
‘What if it’s true? It will be cool to see how realistic a so-called full-immersion, virtual reality game is.’
Zhao Jinyan didn’t know what had truly moved him was the ad’s next line—’Do you want to start a new life in another world?’
【Fleetingpast】
Zhao Jinyan registered under this username before rapidly scrolling down the webpage to examine the details. Yet, there was no game demo or advertisement video at all.
‘Closed beta my ass. I bet they haven’t begun development yet!’
Speechless, he tapped on the official forum page and quickly realized that he wasn’t the only one hooked by the ad. Many people were complaining on the forum.
Tourist666: “What kind of game is this? Where’s the game?”
Freenezy: “There’s nothing except for a dogshit site!”
Dontarguewithfools: “Oi! Where’s the developer? Say something!”
Developer: “Hey everyone, I am the developer. Our development has stalled due to our team members quitting. We urgently need money to continue development. Please send 5000 yuan to account number XXX. I’ll take you in as my godson and make you the crown prince once I build a country out of my army of 100,000 terracotta soldiers!”
【PSA: Account ‘Developer’ has been silenced for 6666 days. The forum administrator once again reminds players not to fall for such scams and privately send money to other players...】
“Woah, there’s an administrator here?”
“Hold on, that fellow is just meme-ing! Isn’t a ban too much?”
“I think it’s a problem with his account name. Bro, you should create a new account under another username.”
“...”
Zhao Jinyan didn’t expect a game with a dubious domain name and without a demo to attract so many people. New posts popped out every minute, and they didn’t look like they were from bots.
‘Maybe everyone has time to spare.’
He suspected that it could just be the initial hype. The crowd would likely disperse if there was still nothing concrete after a few days.
Everything he wanted to grumble about had already been grumbled, so he didn’t bother posting anything. Instead, he went to browse the official site’s game setting.
【In the distant First Epoch, the mortals of the Ors Continent created divine personas with the power of faith and sealed off the orderless transcendent powers. This started the era of legends.】
【In the era of legends, be it light, dark, life, death, or the elements, these transcendent powers belonged equally to every mortal. Gods diligently governed their jurisdictions, and mortals sang praises about their work.】
【But secular greed eventually brought the downfall of this great era. The surface believers desired the gods they served to be the greatest, and the ambitious nobles and kings stoked those ideas.】
【The Ors Empire was the first to shatter the balance.】
He would have to slowly figure out what was the use of players.
The system had an important stat called ‘Faith’. He could deplete his faith to raise his soul tier without any side effects.
Soul academics in hell theorized that a person’s soul tier determined the upper limit of the transcendent powers they could wield.
There were ways to raise one’s soul tier, such as by undergoing demonification or undead transformation, but these unorthodox means had huge side effects.
The most classic example of that was a person gradually losing their mind or turning into another person after infusing too many things into their soul.
To raise one’s soul tier without suffering side effects... only gods could achieve that feat!
While he was worried about Linte Isaac’s psychological state, this system looked to be beneficial to him. Through it, he saw hope of overcoming his bottleneck!
Meanwhile, Egor frowned worriedly when he saw Roan falling into a daze right after waking up. He waved his hand in front of the latter as he called out, “Hey, are you okay?”
Roan was first taken aback by the waving before snapping back to reality. He quickly replied with a smile, “Me? Haha, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.”
He was so caught up in exploring his mental world that he nearly forgot that he was still in the Demon Capital! This was a place filled with high demons. A small lapse in attention was all they needed to get to him.
‘Lucky it’s Egor beside me. No... I need to be wary of this fellow too!’
Egor, oblivious to Roan’s sudden heightened vigilance, was relieved to see him perking up.
“I’m glad you’re fine... I thought Senior Meykil or Senior Mia did something to you.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not that easy.”
He ended the topic with a bright smile before turning to the eerie castle before him.
That was the Demon King Academy’s assembly hall, where the graduation ceremony was going to be held. There were fighting marks on the castle’s battlements, said to be from centuries ago when this castle was still a fortress.
The entrance to the castle was a huge pair of black iron gates with ferocious sculptures and chilling runes inscribed on them.
Vicious gargoyles and armored dullahans stood by the pavement, keeping a close eye on everyone entering the ancient castle. It looked like they could come to life at any moment to rip apart those who didn’t follow the rules.
Forbidding and frightening—these two words were often used to describe this castle.
Roan usually kept his distance from this place.
It was neither because of the eerie atmosphere nor the lifelike sculptures, but because what flowed in their ponds and fountains was lava!
‘Which smart-ass thought decided to pour lava into the ponds and fountains?’
He had been annoyed about this since the first day of school... though it looked like he was the only one annoyed about it.
A huge crowd was gathered in the square.
Other than the fourth and third-year students, who were participating in the graduation ceremony, many first and second-year students had come to join the commotion and see their seniors off to the frontlines.
The bell was struck on the dot, and the castle gates creaked open.
“Senior, we should go now,” Egor reminded Roan when he saw the latter rooted to the ground.
“I know... Don’t worry about me. I’m fine,” Roan replied as he took out a crystal sphere and aimed it at the castle in front.
That was a recording crystal. It was more convenient than cameras, capable of recording anything reflected in the crystal once infused with mana.
Egor directed a perplexed look at Roan, but he didn’t say anything much about it.
It was normal for him to want to snap a photo to commemorate his once-in-a-lifetime graduation from the Demon King Academy. Other demons around them were also doing something similar.
Little did Egor know Roan wasn’t doing this to commemorate the occasion. He was working on the beginner mission he had received from the ‘Calamity’ system.
【Mission: Film a game promotional video and upload it.】
【Reward: From 1 to 100 closed beta slots, depending on the promotional video’s quality.】
Roan had no idea what the video’s criteria were, but a parade filled with demons should make a cool video!