Planet Master

Although the civilization was surprised by the discovery of the Scientific Inheritance in the form of the Fixed Planetary Fortress, they actually waited for some time for something else.

“Did you know that the first virtual reality game will be launched?” one high school student who was a dwarf asked.

His human friend replied. “Of course I know. I am frequently connected to the Internet. Do you think I am in seclusion and without connection to the Internet?”

“I just want you to know that the closed beta will be launched and the lucky person can even try it.”

Discussion regarding the first virtual reality became a hot sensation. It was because in previous years, attempts to create a virtual reality faced many setbacks and obstacles.

Only after reaching the other planets and developing some more, a prototype for the first virtual reality game was created.

-

“Hahaha…so this is what it feels like to be in the most realistic virtual reality.” One person laughed heartily when he perceived that he could sense as if he were in reality.

The sense of immersion increased drastically due to this alone. But as someone with curiosity about how real the world in virtual reality was, he needed to test it.

As he went and tried to strip himself of his clothes…

A sudden lightning strike struck him and disconnected him from the virtual reality world. Then an announcement was heard to the people in the designated region.

“Naked exhibition is prohibited. Punishment underway.”

Another tried to strip a female of her clothes and then…

“Sexual harassment is prohibited.”

Another lightning struck and another announcement sounded. The lightning was so accurate that it hit precisely the person who went against the rules of the virtual world.

Either the male or female who went and did it was punished by a lightning strike and ejected from the virtual world. They had a cooldown to enter the virtual world again and a serious warning.

“The censorship…is real.” A female Birdman who had entered the virtual world was stunned at the realization.

“This is for our own good. This setup is important for our own objective here. Trying to do those things prohibited will result in temporary ejection and if you keep at it, permanent ban.” One human with a white lab coat said.

He was one of the developers of virtual reality and came in to check how the people would react and he was not disappointed by the effort some people had made. He shook his head as he wondered why some people were just filled with strange thoughts.

“Wait, above our head is our ID!” one of them pointed at the name above their head and realized that it was their registered name in their ID.

“Of course. That is why we need your ID to enter the Virtual Cabin first and foremost.” The developer man said.

“Ah, are you perhaps one of the developers of this virtual reality world?” a lady asked.

“Yes. I am here to guide you all on how to treat this virtual world. Without proper guidance, some may even try the prohibited things like earlier. Please listen to me.” The man smiled slightly as he tried to get the attention of the people around him.

This was not unique to this region.

According to the place of residence, the region was set according to the real location of the residences of the people. Of course, only land dwellers got this first since the technology to develop it was still undergoing an experimental phase and could not be disclosed.

But whatever was disclosed was already surprising to the common people.

In the region near the border between the Hinon Federation and the Elves Territory, a new region in the virtual world was created to accommodate the Elves and the nearby settlements.

At this place and time, Tetsuya, Ame, Rihana and Sybil were entering the virtual world of their region.

“The sensation is really like in reality.” Ame clenched her hands before she opened her hands and repeating the process, trying to find any discrepancies in the virtual world.

“Mother, that’s why this is called virtual reality. There should be a sense of reality in it.” Tetsuya replied while already jumping and moving his legs spiritedly.

While Tatsumi had to accompany Charlene and Ivana on the Fixed Planetary Fortress, they remained on the Cerulean Planet to enjoy the first virtual reality.

“I heard that the people on the other planets will also participate through the Internet connection. I wonder what they will do.” Sybil enjoyed the sensation here despite there was no recreation of Ether in it.

“Whoa, this is so fun.” Rihana on the other hand, ran around the circle, enjoying it so much since here she was not bound by her identity.

“Be careful…” Tetsuya wanted to remind Rihana not to overreact and then she fell face first into the ground.

“That should be painful…isn’t it?” Ame looked at Rihana who fell and rose as quickly.

“Hahaha. The pain is not as much as I imagined it would be.” Rihana rose from the ground, supported by her hands.

“Our appearances are that of our real-world ones. I think this virtual world is for the civilization.” Tetsuya commented before a developer appeared.

“Wow, this region is mostly filled with Elves. Even if not many use the Virtual Cabin but the Elves' headcount reached forty percent of the people in this region.” The developer was actually a Dwarf, which surprised most of the people near him.

“Heh, don’t look down on me. Look, I even made a replica hammer.” The dwarf squinted his eyes when the people around him had a surprised look on their faces. He then retrieved a hammer out of thin air.

“Do you have something like spatial storage or inventory here?” Tetsuya was the first to react so he asked what was on his mind.

“Something like that.” The dwarf replied with a smug grin.

“If you want to see the inventory, just will it and the window panel will appear in your eyes.” The dwarf guided everyone to look at the inventory first since he demonstrated it for everyone.

“Oh…” Tetsuya already did as he followed the exact words of the developer.

On the right corner of the window panel was written ‘Inventory’ so that he could differentiate between the window panels.

But every box of the Inventory was currently empty since there was nothing that Tetsuya could bring to the virtual world.

Ame swept her hand in front of her, not used to the appearance of the Inventory window panels. She wanted to actually check something since she had an item that was in her inventory.

“Wait. Mother, do you have something in your Inventory?” Tetsuya asked since Ame kept trying to touch something in the same location from her perspective.

“Ah, for those who have an item, it probably is for Second Class Citizens and above. Please now select the item.” The dwarf was a bit embarrassed because the mechanism for that was not available until he mentioned it.

“Sir, by chance, do you set the mechanism for all of this with your words?” Tetsuya was the one who realized what probably happened and asked as a form of protest.

“Sorry about that. We developers are sent here to guide you so we need to do this step by step.” The dwarf apologized quickly since it was indeed a bit inconsiderate of him to ignore people whose curiosity even astounded him.

Tetsuya was actually someone who was almost promoted to the Second Class Citizen of the Federation due to his achievements but fell short. He knew that there would be a special thing for Second-Rate Citizens and above but to think that it was stored in the Inventory in the virtual world…

“Ah, it mentions that there will be a small correction effect.” Ame and those who were the Second Class Citizens mentioned something similar.

“Remember that this is a virtual world so something like a correction effect should be acceptable for those in higher hierarchy.” The dwarf commented while explaining a bit why they did this.

“Correction effect, huh. I have an idea about it but I don’t know the specifics. Well, just let the person have it describe it later, but now what are we going to do here?” Since Tetsuya spoke and the others respectfully did not interrupt him, he asked after thinking about the special thing some got.

“We are going to enjoy some entertainment, of course!” The dwarf then snapped his finger and something like an individual announcement was made.

“Transcendent energy simulation proceeds.”

“What!? Transcendent energy can be simulated too here.” One guy saw that a jade-colored mist suddenly rose from the ground.

Then the background suddenly had a black and white line for some time. Tetsuya thought that the virtual reality world was still incomplete from seeing that alone.

But the presence of the transcendent energy in this virtual world meant that the people could probably train their proficiency here without damaging their real bodies. Meaning that the people could experiment with their own ideas about transcendent energy circulation, increasing the probability of creating their own circulation techniques.

So they started doing exactly that.

A small explosion could be heard here and there but for Ame, circulating her transcendent energy became second nature and easy to do. She tried to do the same thing in the virtual world to test its ‘realness’ in real time.

She was surprised to find out that her energy circulation was almost as smooth as in real life.

But she noticed something. The micro particle of the Ether felt as if it had gained some sort of its own direction and went to the direction that she sometimes left alone but this was directed.

‘Wait. Correction effect. Is this one instance of it?’ Ame thought as she tried different circulation methods according to different circumstances.

She discovered that the Ether in her energy channel was flowing smoothly, no, too smoothly and that felt foreign to even her.

‘Although the correction effect is good for beginners, it feels restrictive now that you are on the highest position and knowledge. This is the benefit for those people, not for me.’ Ame forcefully made the micro particle Ether flow according to her will by exercising her mental power.

What was on the virtual reality world was part of her consciousness so using it would undoubtedly strengthen her. But this time, she used it to control the transcendent energy to flow according to her wish.

The result was that her own circulation method was more suitable for her. Ame had to admit that the correction effect strengthened the process but unfortunately, it was not suitable for her.

Tetsuya who was also a veteran in the Star Battle even though his task was mostly defensive in nature, saw the strange expression on his mother and guessed that the correction effect had an impact on the transcendent energy circulation method.

Even Rihana and Sybil was also affected and used their own understanding of their own method to do it rather than using the correction effect.

Since they were both the priestess and the king of a race, a suitable position in the Federation was apt for them and the Second Class Citizen was suitable for that important position.

That was why they got something in their Inventory called the Correction Effect and it could be used in the Transcendent Energy Circulation method, for example.

“Looks like not everything we prepare is suitable for those whose understanding of self and transcendence is high.” The dwarf placed his hand on his chin as he looked at some people like Ame, Tetsuya, Rihana and Sybil.

They had reached a point where they formed their own path and walked on it, trailblazing a path suitable for themselves. Even the realm above Core Formation was more of a reference than a strict guideline.

Yes, for example, the apex current transcendent known to the civilization. He had reached the second major realm or rank two transcendent. He had developed a way for transcendents with Ether and Undead Element to be able to cross to that rank and realm.

‘And I just stumbled upon possibly his family here, of all places. What are they doing here?’ The dwarf developer knew the registered ID and also realized that he had the family of the greatest transcendent under his care so he needed to be careful with how he proceeded forward in the operation procedure of the virtual world.

Then he could only watch as the misbehaved people started to get their own style and stopped treating this place as a mere game. Instead, they started to treat this an opportunity to learn and level up through their own effort.

Even though there was no status window yet, everyone in the virtual world knew that they had gained a great place to train their energy circulation method. They could even modify their won without suffering much risks in the real world because if they were mistaken in the virtual world, they would simply crippled or exploded but they just need to restart by emptying their health bar which was visible for everyone even without the dwarf developer saying it.

‘They even realized there is a health bar and that they could commit virtual suicide when fail in their attempt to create their own transcendent energy circulation method.’ The dwarf developer sighed in his heart.

He truly felt that the way the people caught things suggested that their insight was increasing. But the dwarf developer also realized that his own insight was developing and increasing too which baffled him.

Whatever the case, he needed to guide those newbies in the virtual world and he continued to do so.

-

“How’s everyone doing?”

A meeting was convened when the people entered the virtual world and experienced what they could do without fear of being crippled or killed in reality. That was one of the reasons why the virtual reality game was launched.

Although they labeled it as a game but anyone who entered knew that it was not a mere game. It was an opportunity to change their foreordained situation and make a stellar comeback.

This meeting was presided over by Tesna and some of the wise ones among the higher-ups of the Hinon Federation.

“As the president of the Hinon Science Institute, this virtual reality you proposed decades ago has become available to the public. What are your current thoughts about it?”

One elder was a man with a mix of black and white hair along with a moustache and a short beard. He also carried with him a walking cane which was made of black wood. That was the second strongest wood after the Sacred Wood made from a part of the Sacred Tree.

Tesna’s blue eyes looked at him and a respectful expression was plastered on his face.

“Elder Adrian sure likes to throw things my way. To reply to the elder’s question, my thoughts are that this thing should be developed further. Of course, some kind of guidance and restrictions are needed, and that is the reason why we send our developers who understand the general line of development for virtual reality to go to the field directly to act as a guide.” Tesna said after bowing slightly in Elder Adrian’s direction.

“What kind of restriction needed for the people in the civilization of the Cerulean Planet and the others to adhere to?” This time, another elder with a bald head and sharp eyes glared at Tesna.

“For example, no sexual harassment from male or female. Those who violate this will be struck with a lightning strike so precise there will be no error whatsoever.” Tesna smiled and let out a breath after seeing this elder.

“Jaegal, there is no need to glare your way in this meeting.” Adrian said while gesturing for Jaegal to calm things down.

“You know as well that the thing I hate the most is sexual harassment. Why do you think almost everyone agreed to this restriction?” Jaegal chided with a grin.

Most of the people actually agreed with Elder Jaegal in this aspect since no one liked to be harassed, especially sexually.

“No need for you to gloat over your achievement that everyone can relate to. So please let this bright individual continue.” Elder Adrian was clearly the most respected figure among the senior higher-ups, so even Jaegal had to listen to him in moments like this.

“I clearly propose that first, since no one mentioned it!” Elder Jaegal slammed his hand into the armrest of his chair.

The round table was filled with the wise ones while Tesna stood at one side of the room where there were projections from the regions that launched the virtual reality game.

“There is one more important thing to discuss. Have you already come up with the name of the game?” Adrian sensed that the time had come and decided to shift the discussion into the more results with just a few words.

Hearing that caused all the wise ones to murmur. They could not believe that the virtual reality game that was launched not only on the Cerulean Planet but also on Futuro Planet and Bultar Planet not to have a name yet.

That was truly unthinkable but the reality was that even Tesna did not come up with the name despite having the ideas for it.

Seeing that this topic came up, all the wise ones looked at Tesna expectantly.

Tesna gulped down the saliva that had gathered in his mouth and seriously pondered something before deciding to come clean.

“As for the name of the game, after a serious meeting between the developers, investors and minds of the people, it was decided that the name of the game will be called “Second Life”. Isn’t that the perfect name for the virtual reality game that has been introduced?” Tesna looked at everyone sitting at the round table with a satisfied expression.

As for the wise ones, they thought the name Second Life was apt, since that place would be the second life for everyone with a virtual reality cabin connected to the virtual reality world.