A God's Apocalyptic Entertainment 124 Game Star

I spoke to my mother as she sent me a worried look. I was sitting up inside the new pod that had been delivered to my house weeks ago. The game was about to release, and the servers where coming up in 10 minutes. I would be able to sit back and relax before I was sent in.

Jade was off to the side watching me with sparkling eyes, I had no clue why she was so happy, she wouldn't be able to see anything once the pods door closed. Next to her was one of my sisters and my mother. She was worried, even though we had talked about this before.

I gave her one more rea.s.suring smile before lying on my back. With that done I pressed the b.u.t.ton that was on the inside of the capsule and watched as the metallic roof closed up above me.

I did have to admit while I was lying here in complete darkness, that anyone that was claustrophobic would have a d.a.m.n hard time getting into one of these things. But after the first day it shouldn't be a problem.

Having been a beta tester I knew that once you were in the capsule and get relaxed you would instantly enter the game. I had no clue how it worked as there was nothing that had to be connected or hook up to the body for it to happen.

One second you were in the capsule the next you would be in the game, right where you left off. Of course I only had one life when I was testing, so I had no clue where you would appear if you died and came back to the game.

Some more information had appeared on the official game website that gave the general outline of what happens when you die. First off you would be ejected from the game for 2 days. A ma.s.sive uproar had appeared online when the news was released; some were fine with it, as instantly coming back to life in the game would ruin the suspense in some situations.

But the majority that heard the insane penalty for dying were outraged. 2 days was too long for gaming fanatics, I for one loved this as it would lend more weight to what a player was doing in the game. They would have to think about the situation and weigh the risk of dying against the penalty. It would stop hotheads, from doing something really stupid, while making the game more intense.

Secondly, you would lose a full level when you died, this had come out a day later, and also caused an uproar. This would set many people back when they died, and get rid of their hard-earned exp. I knew just how hard it was to level, so I knew this was very s.a.d.i.s.tic.

Just getting to level 20 had taken me around 2 weeks. To say that you would lose a level would set many people back, especially the leveling maniacs that were out there. I couldn't imagen the heart ache if you lost a level at end game.

If I was level 75 and lost a level I have no clue how long it would take to get that level back. But I could be wrong. When I was leveling with Liam we did level insanely fast, and it could be easier to level at higher tiers.

I guess I would find that out later. While I had been thinking to myself the 10 minutes where up and the blackness that surrounded me and blocked all noise from the outside was replaced.

I was now standing in a chaotic s.p.a.ce. I didn't have the right words for my surroundings so that's what I called it. There where swells of colors flas.h.i.+ng all around me as I stood in a sort of box type area. A sort of puppet appeared in front of me, maybe a mannequin?

It was a dim outline shape of a body. You couldn't tell what it was at the start, but as time progressed it started to change. Soon enough in the next minute it had shrunk itself into my exact proportions and matched my height perfectly.

Compelled by something in the corner of my mind I reached out for the puppet and touched it. Once my hand reached up and felt something solid the puppet began to change, brighten. Color was added, features where done. Soon enough an exact replica of me was standing where the puppet once was.

It was the exact same as the first time I played. The puppet was the outline of our avatar. Once a person touched it, the avatar would have all that persons features. Of course the avatar had no clothes, and I had been embarra.s.sed the first time I saw myself standing there naked.

I was now a lot calmer as I looked it up and down. Unlike other MMO's and RPG's that let you customize the character, AGAE was different. You couldn't change the avatar if you tried. Once you touched it, it would look like you, nothing could be changed.

I guess I could have cut my hair in game, and that would change the appearance, but that would be all. Also unlike other games, you couldn't; change races. Going in the first time I was hoping to become a different race, I even hoped to pick the elves as a starter race.

My hopes were dashed back then and I had gotten my hopes up when I first met a different race in the game. As it was a generic apocalypse genre game at the start I didn't expect other races, but that was soon proven wrong. But with the full release of the game, you still had to stay as a human. Plus after running into those elves in the forest I didn't want to change into one of them, maybe a beast kin?

I shook my head as a new screen appeared in front of me. It was my status screen that had been reset. I would have loved to start back off at level 20, but I knew that was impossible. So now I was back to level 1.

Name: Boosted KuroNeko

Race: Human

s.e.x: Female

Age: 18

Cla.s.s: Newb

Level: 1 EXP (0–40)

Entertainment Points: 0

Attributes: (10 Points)

STR: 10 (10)

END: 10 (10)

INT: 10 (10)

AGI: 10 (10)

SPR: 10 (10)

LUK: 5 (5)

Skills:* (1 Points)

(Chosen of G.o.d (Innate) LV(Fixed) – When death occurs you will revive after a set amount of time.)

(Player (Innate) LV(Fixed) - Can toggle amount of pain felt outside of combat. Set between 50 – 100% real pain).

Gear:

(Beginner clothes (Grey) – Not the best looking clothes, but it'll offer you some protection against the infected, although minimal. You'll only break a few bones if your struck wearing this. Special Effect: resizes to fit user)

(Wooden staff (Grey) – A really bad staff that will break after a few uses, but it'll be good enough to bash an infected to death. Get ready to see blood!)

I seemed to have kept my past user name, that really did help me out, I was afraid it might have been taken. I gave a sort sigh of relief as I looked at my status. Like everyone else that was starting, I had 10 points in all attributes except LUK. That would be randomly generated for each person, I had been lucky enough to start with 5. I remember that the last time I did this I think I got 1 for LUK.

The character would start off as a level 1 Newb and with that 1 level you would get 10 stat points, 2 abilities that came with the newb cla.s.s, which were 'Chosen of G.o.d' and 'Player'. As well as receive the basic beginner clothes and wooden staff.

Looking at the little amount of exp I needed to level I released a small smile. 40 exp was nothing, but with my stats right now, it would be hard. I didn't have to think though before I put in my points. I knew which cla.s.s I wanted to pick, it was more I had to pick the cla.s.s. And lucky for me, the cla.s.s was heavily based on physical attributes.

Because of that I quickly placed all my points in an even spread, between AGI, STR, and END. I could only imagine what it would be like to play a mage cla.s.s at the start. You would have to put more emphasis on INT and SPR which would make it harder to level.

With the new information that came out on the official AGAE page, they had released the stats required to learn a cla.s.s. If you didn't have the attributes for you preferred cla.s.s, you would have to wait and over level to get it, or pick a different cla.s.s.

Putting my points in, I gave my stats one last look.

Name: Boosted KuroNeko

Race: Human

s.e.x: Female

Age: 18

Cla.s.s: Newb

Level: 1 EXP (0–40)

Entertainment Points: 0

Attributes: (0 Points)

STR: 14 (14)

END: 13 (13)

INT: 10 (10)

AGI: 13 (13)

SPR: 10 (10)

LUK: 5 (5)

Finalizing the points I started to watch as the beginner clothes began to materialize on my avatar, the body that I was watching walked up to me and seamlessly merged with me. The avatar literally walked up to me and then merged.

My mind blanked for a second as I felt something tingle in my mind as this was going on; it was the same as last time. But it wasn't like the feeling was bad, it just felt weird.

After a few seconds I opened my eyes in my avatar. I raised my arm too look at it, covered in the beginner clothes and then looked at the wooden staff in my hand. Moving my body around to get used to it for a little while, it was time to finish up this character creation.

The box of swirls around me started to recede as I was now standing in the air, with a bird's eye view of the world. The world was based off our own earth and had all the continents that one would expect on them.

Except the land ma.s.ses had s.h.i.+fted. This was also the first time I was seeing the world map. Before I had no choice in where I was placed, but this time I could choose which continent I wanted to go to.

All players could choose which continent to start on, but that was all. Everyone after picking would be sent to random cities on the map. It was really the luck of the draw where you landed. This meant that guilds couldn't group up right away and lead to a level field when the game started.

But of course that would make it harder for me to find Liam. I knew which continent he was on, Australia, as I knew where I had been during the testing, but now it would be many times harder for me to find him on my travels.

With the amount of time between when I had died, and the games release, I had no clue how powerful he would be. I made sure to mentally check where the town we first started off in was. I knew the towns name; I just had to find it before I went down.

But before I did that, I might as well look at the map. Because even though it was the world I knew, it was so different.

It wasn't said what changed the continent on the website, but everything had changed.

The whole of Africa had been s.h.i.+fted down from where it used to be and was now connected to Antarctica. The same thing happened with Australia and South America. All were now connected to the giant land ma.s.s.

Between them was still a ma.s.s of ocean, but if one went down they could walk across to each continent, given enough time.

North America was still connected to South America and had wrapped around to come into contact with Europe, creating a giant ocean of sorts between Africa, Europe and them.

Down in Asia, all of the small floating islands had forcefully been connected to each other and formed a bridge between them and Australia creating another large ocean between them. While the small ocean between Africa and Europe had closed up forming a super continent.

The best way to describe it would be a sort of large circle, with a continent down the middle connecting both sides, which was Africa. While the Indian and Atlantic oceans, where now closed off, the Pacific Ocean surrounding it all.

Any and all free floating islands where connected to this landma.s.s. It was a very weird sight when looking at it. I continued to stare and note down anything that looked interesting before I focused on Australia.

This was where I was going to start, and I wanted to mark where Liam's town was. The strange thing was though, I couldn't see it. There were quite a few new towns that were placed about in the wreckage of society, but none of them where what I was looking for.

It took me another few minutes before I found the forest that housed the elves, and the city that connected to it. And I was shocked to discover that the town that was once there was gone. My mind blanked as what I was looking for was gone.

What had happened?

Was Liam alright?

My thoughts were in turmoil for a long while until I snapped out of it. Whatever happened to the town, I would find out by going there. What I needed to do now was get stronger. I was back to level 1 and knew I would need strength higher than a level 20 to start moving around from town to town.

It was time to get started.

I picked Australia as my starting continent and let the system take my avatar. I closed my eyes in preparation.

It was time to start!