[VRMMO] Dead One

"…"

(What is going on here?) – thought the confused man, as he stared at the active screen of the machine.

(Is this a bug?)

(The servers should be still "frozen".) – thought the man as he reached for his phone.

"…"

"…"

"Yeah…. They should be still frozen." – said the man as he confirmed his suspicious with his phone.

(So why the hell does it says [Ready to launch]?)

(I don't think…. No.)

(It turned on its own.)

(When I've entered the room, it was clearly turned off.)

(I didn't forgotten to turn it off or anything…. So, what is going on?)

(The break phase where the servers are temporarily unfrozen isn't up yet.) – thought the man as he then began searching on his phone for the answers.

"…"

"…"

"Nothing on forums…. Or the official website."

"Maybe they messed up or something about the unfreeze schedule?"

"…"

"…"

(But even if the servers did became unfrozen, why the hell that thing activated on its own?) – thought the man as he stared nervously at the machine.

"…"

The man slowly began searching through the list of their contacts, before then quickly making up a call.

"…"

*Click*

["Hey, what is it?"] – asked the voice of the short girl through the phone.

["Did something happened?"]

"N-no… I just want to ask quick question."

"Your capsule. Did it… Turned on by itself? The one on your end?"

["?"]

["What-"]

"Just check. Please."

"…"

["No. It is still turned off."]

["But why are you asking that?"]

"Nothing… Just nothing… My capsule acted up a bit and wanted to check if only mine was doing weird stuff."

"Anyway, sorry for bothering you so suddenly."

["No problem?"] – said confused girl's voice before moments later the man ended the call.

"…"

(Is the capsule malfunctioning?)

(This is the first time ever this had happened.)

"…"

(Well, stuffs breaks and everything…. There is also the fact that I had been using that thing nonstop, so it isn't surprising that it started breaking down.)

"I guess I should maintenance."

"…"

(I say that…. But something still feels…. "OFF".)

(I'm not talking about capsule breaking…. Or more exactly…. A vibe?)

(For some reason when I now look at this thing… It feels…. Off.) – thought alarmed man, who was staring at the machine with suspicious gaze.

"!"

However, right as the man stared at the machine, the capsule suddenly shut down.

"…"

The man slowly and bit nervously approached the giant machine, before then turning it on.

[Game selected: Avriones]

[Status: Offline]

"…"

"What the hell?" – said confused man as he stared at the screen.

(So, was it just an error?)

"…"

*Sigh*

"I guess I'm starting to go crazy or something…. Why the hell I've found…"

"…"

"…"

"No."

(Something was clearly off about the machine just now.)

(Not only that, but that vibe…. It was…. Weird.)

(It was…. Familiar? Yet completely alien?)

"…"

"…"

<<I don't know why I did that… But I didn't called the maintenance later on.>>

<<I just didn't.>>

<<Logically speaking, I should, after the weird way this capsule acted…. Yet for some reason I didn't.>>

<<Was it because of that "Vibe"?>>

<<But what was it?>>

<<Honestly… As the days went by… I couldn't shake it off.>>

<<The capsule itself did not acted in any form of "weird' way again… And after the "break" period started between fazed of the tournament, I was able to log into the game without any trouble.>>

<<There was… "Nothing" wrong.>>

<<This "vibe"… I didn't sense it since back then.>>

<<Nothing is wrong and nothing is "here".>>

<<…>>

<<But why?>>

<<Why I can't shake it off?>>

<<Why is that vibe still "bugging me"?>>

<<Honestly, I would say that I'm just delusional or something…. But that isn't it.>>

<<I know it isn't it!>>

<<BUT THE HELL WAS THAT!?>>

<<Should I've just asked for the maintenance?>>

<<The capsule has a basic build in safety scan that checks the machine regularly for any irregularities or you can do the manual full scan.>>

<<I did both of those things… But there was no problem whatsoever.>>

<<…>>

<<*Sigh*>>

<<Honestly, I've tried forgetting about it, but for some reason it is keep popping up in my mind, like some sort of inching from mosquito bite.>>

<<But no matter what I would do, it wouldn't leave me alone.>>

<<…>>

<<Still, maybe a distraction will help.>>

<<The second phase of the tournament ended.>>

<<And some of our members made it through, with Wretch making the biggest impression out there with his whole "rage".>>

<<The same goes for the Tail.>>

<<Both of these bastards evolved.>>

<<Tail and Wretch are one of our key members of the Purple Hyena guild, and so we lent them necessary resources to do their evolution.>>

<<Securing the materials for their evolution was bit harder, since we already used up a lot of stuff for mine and Blueberries' evolution…. But again.>>

<<We had shit tons of souls of innocents and "living" materials after the war.>>

<<So, we were able to evolve both of them.>>

<<But at the same time, we want to experiment on them.>>

<<They are our test subjects for the evolution method.>>

<<For example, Wretch.>>

<<Wretch is combination of 3 races.>>

<<Hell Orc.>>

<<Forest Orc.>>

<And Death Knight.>>

<<Unlike me who undergone combined evolution dragonian and high lich at once, Wretch undergone each of his evolutions separately.>>

[Wretch – High Death Knight / Hell Forest High Orc] – [Undead/Demon]

<<The demonic race fused with his original race, since this what normally happens, like with Oron and GreyHunt who became demonic elf and demonic human.>>

<<However! His death knight race did not fused with his demonic race!>>

<<So… Here is a question.>>

<<Can you create a fusion race like mine or Blueberries', if you are already past specific stage? Or could he had only done that if he became high orc, high demon and high death knight at the same time?>>

<<How would that work?>>

<<But first thing first.>>

<<What is above "hell" rank?>>

<<Simple put the "Purgatory" rank.>>

<<And now here is next question.>>

<<How does it work?>>

<<Each evolutions has its own conditions that it needs to be fulfilled in order for the evolution to take place.>>

<<For the dragons, you have to either forge an evolution potion OR you have to undergone special ritual.>>

<<For undeads, you have to sacrifice both "life" and "death".>>

<<For the angels and demons, you can only conduct the ritual of "accession".>>

<<A form of… "Corruption" or "Mutation" would be the best way to describe it.>>

<<This method is pretty much about pouring a large amount of energy into the user body and trapping them in some form of cocoon.>>

<<Which forces a mutation.>>

<<Honestly speaking? The "heavenly" and "hellish" evolutions conditions seem… Bit weaker compare to the other evolutions…. Or more specifically, a less "specific" condition.>>

<<All you need to do is pour "power".>>

<<Compare to the dragon evolution? Uff! That bloody thing eats a LOT of freaking money.>>

<<Like, you need a lot of very expensive materials.>>

<<You can make some materials yourself as substitute, but that process itself does cost SOME money.>>

<<Meaning it ain't easy.>>

<<Now, for the race specific evolution conditions.>>

<<Well, the dragon potion or ritual I've said before is pretty much the universal evolution condition for the dragons like me.>>

<<But again: way harder compare to the other evolution methods.>>

<<Some specific race evolutions maybe easy or harder.>>

<<Some may have single path forward or sometimes they have multiple options.>>

<<Some may need to consume specific thing, like use a item or drink a potion.>>

<<While some people needs to fulfil specific conditions.>>

<<For the orcs?>>

<<It is the ritual fight.>>

<<The orc players enter a special form of a ritual where they have to fight ancestor echoes.>>

<<You win the fight, you get to evolve.>>

<<Simple.>>

<<Well, expect for the fact that these orc ancestor echoes are strong like hell and you suffer a heavy death penalty if you fail, for example losing multiple levels at one.>>

<<Still, Wretch will be able to clear the trial of the "Noble" orc.>>

<<But the question is, how do we conduct the triple ritual?>>

<<Can we corrupt the ritual with demonic energies?>>

<<Answer: No.>>

<<What about necrotic?>>

<<Answer: No.>>

<<We physically can't do either of those things.>>

<<And that is the problem… Since all 3 evolution methods involves a ritual.>>

<<We tried making something like "ritual potion", like the one for the dragons.>>

<<We did once drunk a demonic potion.>>

<<But obviously we didn't knew how to make one.>>

<<So, we reached to our friendly demon lord.>>

<<Obviously, we needed to pay a LOT of stuff for the creation method.>>

<<What she wanted were…. Some "special" materials our empire is able to produce.>>

<<Because our empire is "monster", "demonic" and "undead" in the nature, will all sort of things mixed in between, we are able to produce high quality monster materials.>>

<<Or materials with unique nature.>>

<<We can produce materials that can be used for many forms of craft.>>

<<Sometimes a powerful equipment.>>

<<Sometimes potions.>>

<<Or sometimes materials needed to conduct the ritual.>>

<<She wanted these materials and she wanted a LOT of them.>>

<<Well, it wasn't the first the first time we did the deal.>>

<<Because she is the reason why I could even archive my elder lich form variant.>>

<<Anyway, we were able to secure necessary crafting method as well as materials to forge to evolution potion.>>

<<But… How do we deal with the orc and undead evolution?>>

<<Orc will undergone evolution process as soon as they complete the trial.>>

<<There is no item version of the undead ritual…. So that sucks.>>

<<And we can't stack up two rituals on top of each other, since we tried that already.>>

<<So… We tried few things… But they had failed.>>

<<In the end, Wretch said that he is fine with just being the new test subject for the "Purgatory" evolution mutation with the "Noble Orc".>>

<<And so…. We did it.>>

<<Even if we couldn't really find a way to do the triple evolution, we can still do the double evolution and see hot it would go.>>

<<We started off with the demonic and orc evolution first.>>

<<…>>

<<…>>

<<But it failed.>>

<<Wretch failed to attain the mutation variant evolution.>>

<<And we did the same test with Tail.>>

<<We tried evolving him in both demonic and draconic way at the same time.>>

<<But he did not attained the mutation evolution.>>

<<Both of the experiments had failed.>>