Prologue: Alukarum Online

“Ten thousand years in the past, the world of Alukarum was besieged by an enemy only known as the Demon King. In order to combat this foe, the various races of Alukarum forged an alliance to summon three otherworldly heroes descended from a legendary now-lost race. These noble figures managed to end the Greatest War and bring peace back to the land.

Now, in the present day, the same ancient darkness stirs once more. As the Demon King of Destruction slowly reawakens from his grave, the three kingdoms of Alukarum have once again summoned heroes to fight. You are one of these warriors, the chosen hero of the Kingdom of Aluric.”

–such is the introduction to the full-dive VRRPG Alukarum Online. Set in a vast European-inspired continent, AKR, as it was known by fans, was marketed as a new step in gaming technology. Utilizing the latest generation of quantum computers, it boasted a hyper-realistic world in which all five of the basic human senses could be replicated with up to 70% realness and NPCs that were indistinguishable from humans. Furthermore, the game allowed players the freedom to do anything they desired, barring a few certain actions. AKR contained a few tens of races and five hundred unique classes, from ninja to sorcerer to gag-classes like cabbage merchant. Each profession fell broadly into three categories – warrior, mage, specialist – and was ranked on a 6-star rarity system, with players able to spec into one main class and three subclasses. When obtaining a class, one could freely designate it as either their main or subclass, allowing for billions of different build combinations.

Of course, despite the high level of interactivity of the digital world and NPCs, players still yearned to test their skills against other players. The developers of AKR anticipated this fact, releasing the battle royale-style AluClash gamemode as a free DLC. The only caveat was that it only allowed the usage of classes that a player had already unlocked in the original game. Despite this frustrating a small minority of players, the AKR franchise quickly soared to the top of the gaming market. It gained worldwide praise for both its incredibly immersive world and shattered records for concurrent players.

And of course, the endless potential of spectacle and strategic counterplay made AKR an immediate hit in the e-sports community.

– – –

Explosions shook the walls of the magically-raised fortress, the various spell runes on the outer wall shining brightly as it faced the seemingly endless bombardment of fireballs. Three figures sat in a large hallway, their eyes fixed on a magical projection of the outside.

“Sil, how much mana do you have remaining?”

One of the figures, a twin-tailed girl with one blue eye and one red eye, spoke urgently. Grey wolf ears perked up anxiously atop her head, and a fluffy tail swished aggressively as she maintained the projection spell. The floating words above her head revealed the nickname _moonpetal.

The second figure, silmancer, grimaced and brushed back a lock of the long white hair typical to her species while reading the slowly-climbing number on her mana bar. “8000. You, Moon?”

“12 000 and dropping fast.” Moon grit her teeth, reaching for a bottle on the table and chugging it down. “Tako, thoughts?”

The final figure, a black-haired man with sky-blue eyes bearing the username takoyakitori, chuckled nervously. “One of their players is spec-ed as a Mana Sink in their main class. There’s no way the mage could keep up a bombardment like this otherwise.”

“So we drop All Protect 5 and rush him?” Sil offered.

“Hell no. If someone included a Mana Sink on their team, you’d best bet they're running either a Cockroach build – Master Acrobat or Ninja Master, maybe something like a traditional tank with Undying Hero and High Energy Mage. We should rush the DPS before worrying about them. And then there’s the third guy who hasn’t even shown his face… maybe they’re running an assassin-type character?”

Moon shifted uneasily, her eyes still firmly locked on the projection. “So what’s the plan, then?”

“Tch…” Tako clicked his tongue. “Sil, how long until you reach half mana?”

“Uh… 8600 mana, 57 mana per second… forty-ish seconds?”

“Forty seconds, then-”

Tako froze, his expression turning weird. Turning over to Moon, he tapped her gently on the shoulder. “Gonna use the washroom. Hold the fort, yeah?”

“Are you serious?” Moon frowned. “Actually?”

Tako ignored her question. “Sil,” he called. “Stack Zero Presence 4 and Ignore Phenomena on me.”

“I’ll be down to basically nothing if I do that!” silmancer complained. “Just go quickly.”

“Thirty seconds left before I’m out of mana,” Moon interrupted, casting an annoyed look at the two of them. “Just buff him.”

“...” silmancer waved a hand dismissively, a series of complex spell circuits manifesting over her palm. “What a waste,” she mumbled gently.

“Thanks~” Tako checked his status as he waved and disappeared from sight.

Silence descended upon the room, muffled explosions still sounding in the distance. Although, the delay between each boom was much larger now.

“...so, how much mana do you have now?” Moon asked after a moment.

“1073, barely enough to dodge instant-death spells-”

~BOOM

silmancer’s eyes widened as she was suddenly sent flying into the nearest wall, though the impact was far less painful than it should’ve been thanks to the in-built safety settings. Coughly lightly, they tried to get up before being roughly grasped by the neck and forced back into the wall. Spell circles quickly bound her limbs as Moon approached and thrusted her sword into her arm.

“Why?” silmancer croaked, unwillingness written all over her face.

Her main assailant, Tako, merely smiled mockingly as energy built in his hands. “You suck at acting.”

Before she could respond, Tako quickly cast Heart Implosion. Now lacking sufficient mana thanks to his first attack, the instant death judgement was ruled as successful, and silmancer's screen faded to black as her character was unceremoniously killed.

– – –

“I’m sorry!” Sil clapped her hands over her head as she bowed down.

“No, no, it’s fine.” Moon waved her hands quickly. “It’s not your fault for getting ambushed. In fact, I should’ve noticed it.”

“It’s just the way of the game,” Tako added lightly. “And I got to use one of my code phrases, so I’m actually pretty happy.”

“You’re still a weirdo for choosing ‘Gotta use the washroom’ as code for ‘One of us is a doppelganger,’ y’know.” Moon crossed her arms, huffing to herself.

The three of them were currently floating within a futuristic indoor stadium. Thousands of glowing blue lines covered the walls and ceiling, transporting nodes of pulsing light towards the central Jumbotron as the results of the previous AluClash match were tallied.

“But still, how did you notice that I was replaced?” Sil asked, tilting her head slightly.

“We exchanged class info at the beginning of the round, remember?” Tako stroked his chin while closing his eyes as he began to recite. “‘High Support Mage, running Illusionist-Grand Priest-Mana Sink subs.’ High Support Mage has a natural mana capacity of 15 000, the subclasses add a total of 6000 extra mana, and Ascendants get a bonus 1.5x multiplier on top of all that… assuming everything is maxed.” Tako posed dramatically, And since none of us had found any gear that reduced or increased mana load, when the fake said half their mana was only 8 000, it was obvious that someone had used Perfect Doppelganger on you! Q.E.D.!”

The look on Sil’s face screamed her confusion, but Tako couldn’t tell if it was due to his impeccable logic or if she didn’t know what “Q.E.D” meant. Not that he knew either.

“Hey, Tako…” she began slowly. “When was the last time you went outside?”

“Outside? I literally don’t remember,” Tako replied back with something that almost sounded prideful in his voice.

Moon laughed at Sil’s dumbfounded expression. “I told you not to underestimate this guy,” she reminded her while jabbing an elbow into Sil’s side. “He even managed to beat my sister once!”

“You beat a genuine pro player?!” Sil’s eyes widened even further.

“Ahem…” Tako looked away, scratching the back of his head. “I was trying a new type of playstyle and caught her off-guard. She beat me up nine times to make up for it afterwards.”

~BING ~BONG ~The results are in!

As the chime signalling the final tally sounded, Sil swallowed the rest of her questions as the three of them turned their attention to the Jumbotron.

~Third place: Team Darkflow, earning 300 points!

A trio of avatars posed on the giant screen as a shower of confetti was deployed from seemingly nowhere, littering the stadium with dots of color.

~Second place: Team Starvalley, earning 450 points!

Another three avatars and a second confetti shower, this time accompanied with trumpets.

~First place: Team IDK637, earning 600 points!

Spotlights suddenly shone down on the three of them as a triumphant symphony started playing in the background.

~Congratulations to the players of Team IDK637 for advancing to the Semifinals! The details will be sent to your personal mailing address within one working day.

Suddenly, the spectator stands were also illuminated, revealing a huge crowd of NPCs erupting into applause. Tako sighed in relief as Moon and Sil cheered along with the crowd.

Finally, he thought. My part’s over. Bringing up his personal interface, he quietly left the party the three of them were in.

“Hm?” Moon looked over at him, apparently having received a notification about his actions. “You’re already leaving?”

“Mmhmm. Have fun at the Semifinals.” Tako waved goodbye before disappearing in a pillar of light.

“Wait, Tako isn’t joining us for the Semi’s?” Sil questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“He never was,” Moon sighed. “He was just subbing in for my big sister, since she apparently had something come up this morning.”

“Boo.” Sil puffed her cheeks. “A nerd like him would’ve been so useful against the real tryhards. Where’d you even meet that guy?”

“Ahem.” Moon coughed. “We met a few years ago in AluClash. He’s not a bad guy. I’ve met him IRL too-”

“Hold on.” Sil held up a palm. “You met an online friend in real life?”

“He’s the same age as us!” Moon protested, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. “And I was the one who asked him to meet up!”

“Oh, you…” Sil groaned, covering her eyes with her hands. After a small moment, she peeked an eye out. “Was he at least cute?”

“Well…” Moon smiled awkwardly.

– – –

“Ughhh…” Hasegawa Takeo yawned as he stretched his arms. “What time is it now?”

The seventeen year-old boy floated within an infinite black void – the default home menu of most full-dive VR consoles. His real body was still lying in bed, connected to an endless array of machinery. A heart monitor, an IV pump, a respirator, his VR headset, and a few more that he never bothered to ask about.

Of course, most of these machines weren’t the norm. Most people only had the headset and possibly a vitals monitor if they were especially concerned. The reason that Takeo was hooked up to so many machines wasn’t particularly related to VR.

Rather – Hasegawa Takeo was dying.