The world of 2138 was a bleak one. Many had lost hope for the future with one look at the decrepit world they found themselves in. Smog covered the majority of the world, making the air practically unbreathable, and any spots that were clear of contaminants were seen as luxury tourist traps, and cost so much that an average person would not be able to go there in their lives.
The majority of the population sought to alleviate this despair by losing themselves in DMMO-RPGS and other virtual escapes. This, however, was a way for corporations to keep everyone in check, by providing ways to enjoy themselves, they could cause the masses to feel comfortable with their predicament. "As long as I have this, I'll be fine." and so on were the types of things they longed to hear.
Others who did not engage in these activities choose to lose themselves in work. With the false promise of rising higher in the corporate latter to have a better life then the one they lead. This was the other way they kept the world in there grip. The cogs in the machine would keep turning if they had sufficient motivation. A carrot and stick.
These were the two archetypes you would tend to find in this now destroyed world. Those who would strive to escape there bleak future through Games, and those who would try in vain to escape that future, reaching for a goal they would never Attain.
Indeed, this was how the people of earth would spend their short lives. Some would try to hide from reality, and some would give their best to serve. And others–
"Aw yeah, that one's going in my favorites."
–Would utterly waste them.
"Let me just save that one, lets see... 267296... Alright done!"
This man, known to his confidants as Peroroncino, had just finished what he would call, "Living." While in the future, pornography was still a market, it had somewhat stagnated due to it shifting toward virtual reality. Many would agree that this was worse than the old 'Manual' way of doing it, as touch had not been well developed for VR yet, and in the end, not much would be felt for the recipient.
As such, men of culture, such as himself, would scour the Internet in search of old relics that had been left behind. While They were still being made today, the sheer number of them meant that valuable masterpieces had been lost to time, and it was people like him, who sought to find them for himself. Be it H-Games or in a manga, he thoroughly enjoyed the hunt.
"Well now that that's done, what should I do fro the rest of the day?"
Peroroncino was somebody who liked to deal with things as they came his way, and rarely planned ahead, so his daily life reflected that, essentially acting on whatever his desires wanted at that moment. So he often hopped from one thing to another.
"Maybe you could actually be useful to society for once Onee-chan?"
The Childish voice that had said this cutting remark, was a girl who inhabited the same house as him, something rarely seen with his kind. This girl was known to the masses as Kazeumi Kumi, a extremely popular Voice actress for a variety of anime related things. And would also happen to be the older sister of the man.
'Your one to talk! Your voice some of these things, why criticize me for enjoying them huh?!"
"Because what I do is actually a job, and what you do in sink further and further into degeneracy. I really don't even know how your making money off that."
Peroroncino would often blog about some of the treasures he found on popular sites that were filled with similar people to himself, while he did make a small amount of money from donations, he also worked as a translator for such works. Therefore he often times had a ample amount of money on hand, since his needs were relatively low.
"Hey just because I can appreciate the finer things and you can't doesn't make me any less of a human."
"You sure? Honestly... just keep your habits in your den of degeneracy and keep it away from me."
"Yeah Yeah."
Seeing that he had his fill for the day, he went downstairs to enjoy himself in some other way. While he had some ideas, nothing seemed to be truly appealing. While he may ask Kaze for ideas, he would most likely get a sarcastic comment in response, so he held his tongue.
Welp, time for old reliable, go to VR and scroll through Until I find something better to do. While he rarely played games, his Headset was filled with every Visual novel imaginable. He would usually play one, then proceed to not shut up about it for a week, bugging his sister with his newest Waifu, and then get bored after seeing a new one, and thus, the cycle would repeat.
As he began to flip through the Library of "Literature", his sister had interrupted his session. "What do you think your doing? I was planning on using that you know?"
"Don't you have your own? Why bug me about this now?"
"Because mine is getting repaired after what YOU did earlier. So suck it up and give it."
What she was eluding to was what happened a week ago during one of there scuffles. She had asked him to grab her purse which was near him and in response, he had hap-haphazardly thrown it to her which he claims she could have caught easily. It however, hit the table behind her, which her VR set was resting on, which had caused its ruin. And both sides continue to argue on whose fault it was.
"I think you mean what you did. Don't blame me because you can't catch something to save your life."
As he began to drown out her uproar of comebacks, he had noticed a very familiar icon hidden within his stash. YGGDRASIL? How is that here? From what he remembered, it had shut down roughly 2 years ago. If so, was this a Second version? while it was hardly rare for popular games to get sequels. They would not come out this frequently. Then if that wasn't the case, what was it?
I hope it is. And besides, once I'm in, she can't argue with me anymore, cause I'll already be using it. Ha!
His course set, he made to open the DMMO and enjoy his the rest of his day. And at the same time, his sister had grabbed the helmet away from him to end the argument then and there.
"Really a useless brother like you should just liste..."
And then, Darkness came over him.
.
.
.
"Alright then, lets get this started!"
As a avid player of YGGDRASIL early on, Peroroncino was quite excited to have a new version out for him to play. A game where you can only become strong through trial and error always is a exciting thing. You would either improvise, or you would falter. And the race always thrilled him.
"Now then, where is... hold on, what?" as he went to go to the start menu, he realized that he was already put into the game, and not only that, but he also was in his old characters avatar. Which could only mean that this wasn't a new version. But if so, then why was he already in the game?
"That's pretty weird, but not only that, this doesn't look like a starting area. What is this place?"
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing alive on this mountain of rubble and ash. Skeletons of various animals and humans littered the ground, while dust blew in the wind, as if to show the fate of all that enter this place. It was barren of anything that possessed life, even plants would not grow here.
Peroroncino did not know this, but this place was known as the mountain of the dead, a place that even adamantite adventures feared to travel near. All who entered this place were said to perish and would never be seen again. Some believed it to be a curse. Others thought it was mere superstition. Only a few select individuals knew the truth about this place, and they would rightfully fear it.
Indeed, for this was the home of a world shaking calamity.
"Hmm this is probably a trick from those shitty devs, what is having people spawn in a random area of the world there idea of exploring now? Wow, they really are shitty aren't they."
All games would have you spawn in a hub, or at least a low leveled area to get your barrings, but it would seem that YGGDRASIL's devs were more unforgiving than he remembered. He honestly never thought they would go this far.
"Is this supposed to be a punishment to experienced plays? Like, "You know how to play, so try and find your way out"? That's so unfair!"
Assuming that he was now level 1, since the game had shut down, it would be far to unfair to have him thrown in areas that were likely to have high level enemies or inhospitable environments with dangerous effects. And it would seem he had landed in an area that had met both of those requirements.
As he was considering if he should just respawn and try to land somewhere better, the ground beneath him began to shake, and boulders that were resting on the incline above him started to roll down, creating a avalanche or rubble. It would seem that the cause was of pile of rocks that he had noticed slowly growing in size and crumpling with each new bit of elevation. Just as it reached its peak, an explosion of rubble showered the surrounding area with shredded rock, and the figure hiding under it had made itself known, wings outstretched.
At first glance, one might be forgiven for thinking that it was a skeletal dragon, a dangerous threat in its own right, but comparing a mere pile of bones to this monstrosity would be a most foolish coarse of action.
A black fog covered most of its body, sparkling like the night sky, and it seemed to be taking the form of the dragons scales. as it covered the entire top of its body, leaving only the stomach and bottoms of the legs to show off its bony carapace. Two green eyes, glowed with a roaring hot malice, seemingly lit by a flame that not even the coldest of waters could put out.
Its wings were also made of bone, but a ethereal, purple substance – Presumably Negative energy – served the purpose of its wing membrane, which also had the side effect of damaging any living organisms caught in the wind they picked up. A truly fiendish creation that would make one question if a god even existed to allow such a creature to exist.
.
.
.
Guphandera Argoros.
This dragon had been born in the peak of the dragon lords power. While he had not been as strong as his siblings, nor did he have access to wild magic, and therefore could not even come close to the power of the dragon lords of the time, he was almost unrivaled when it came to knowledge. He learned about the world and all things that would exist within it. Not for any reason like storing power or practical use, he simply found it interesting.
This was how he had chosen to live his life, but he did not regret it, the others respected his choice, as strong dragons were a dime a dozen, therefore none forced him to seek out power, and as such. He never did.
That is, until the eight greed kings came.
With there unrelenting might, they cut a bloody swath across the world, destroying nations and species underfoot, and with there mighty artifacts and abilities, even the dragon lords were no match, and soon found themselves falling to them as well.
Due to this, the dragons all decided to put there differences aside, and would team up to slay this menace that now populated there world.
Save for one.
As Guphandera was not powerful, the other dragons saw him as merely a hindrance, unable to fight, and with no magic, they had cast him away from the few that were left, with some even suggesting he be used as a sacrifice.
With no way to defend himself, he was forced to oblidge them, and had left them to there own devices, to retreat onto a lush mountaintop, where he would choose to reside for the rest of his days. But this isolation did nothing to quell the burning anger within his heart. The beings he had lived with his whole life, and some he would even dare to call friends, had cast him from his home despite not doing anything wrong.
How dare they.
They deserve to die.
They would all die by his hand.
Of course, this was seemingly impossible for one such as he, for without the primordial weapon known as wild magic, nor the artifacts of the kings, he could never even get close to one of them. However, as fate would have it, his wish may still be able to granted due to one thing.
Tier Magic.
The one thing that he was thankful the kings had done, they had used a unknown method to bring a new type of magic into the world. Not only was it easier to learn that wild magic, but anyone could learn it, regardless of race. The more intelligent you were, and the more you knew about magic, the more likely you would reach a higher tier. And luckily for him, that was his specialty. Not only that, but the other dragons hated its existence, so it would be the ultimate irony, destroyed by the thing they shunned.
However it was a known fact that the tier magic was largely inferior to wild magic in many ways. Even the kings had to use there most powerful spells to overcome the dragon lords. Thus, he had to learn and become as strong as he could. Secluded in his cave, he practiced his spells day and night, and was able to reach the third tier after very little time, but he soon hit a roadblock. While his spells were quite powerful, they were not able to reach there true potential, as he rarely studied the art of combat.
However he had learned that due to his race, a black scaled dragon, he was able to cast negative energy magic with increased proficiency. Armed with that knowledge, he began to undergo a ritual that would allow him to become a undead, and with his powerful knowledge, race, and racial abilities, he was able to become a creature of legend. One of the most powerful undead. A night lich.
With his newfound power, he began to absorb the lifeforce from every living thing on the mountain in a effort to grow stronger, be it sentient or not. The mountains once luscious greens turned to dull browns and grays, as the world around it withered away. If anyone attempted to stop him he would devour them too. Over the course of 300 hundred years he would ebb away at the planets lifeforce, bit by bit making him stronger. If one were to rank him in terms of difficulty rating, he would be at 150 by now.
With his enhanced might and collective knowledge, he managed to break the borders of the known world and create a entirely new form of magic that used brainpower as opposed to magical might. This "Psychic Magic" was extremely deadly to foes who lacked defense against mental attacks, and through his mastery, even managed to reach the mythical realm of the 8th tier, where his ultimate attack resided, he was confident that nothing would be able to survive unscathed. Though this was the only spell he knew of such a high tier, even the 6th or 7th were beyond his normal abilities.
And this is how he had lived, waiting for the day he felt strong enough to reach the domain of the dragon lords to make them pay for there actions.
And it would seem that some new prey had entered his domain.
.
.
.
What, IS that thing?
Despite knowing a great deal about the world, he had never encountered a species like this one before, it appeared to be avian in appearance, yet it seemed to be wreathed in gold with pure white feathers, almost appearing divine in nature.
While there were species of demi-humans that had features of birds, none came to mind that matched this ones appearance, and if his instincts were correct, it was a strong one.
Wonderful... I'm certain that his lifeforce will cause my strength to soar, how marvelous. Though he could see it was strong, it certainly wasn't at his level, and so he allowed his voice to reach the quivering lower lifeform.
"Behold peon! You stand before the great Guphandera Argoros, master of un-life, and the strongest of all undead, repent the folly of stepping into my domain!"
The result was always the same no matter who approached, be it adventurer or trader, all had fallen before his might and only existed to fuel his growth.
What will he do now? Will he shout his intent to rid the world of my evil? Or will he try to negotiate for his life, those are always my favorites, pleading with the undead? How foolish!
While he had seemingly heard every type of response known to man, what was said next were completely outside the realm of his expectations.
"YOU SHITTY DEVS!"
….What?
That response was so far from his assumptions that he could only stare in shock for a moment. Honestly he didn't even know what he had said, for instance, what were these, devs?
'Of course just making tons of unfair game design wasn't enough for you was it! You just had to make starting out a pain as well huh!? Well fine, I see how it is, I've got quite the strongly worded email for you when I leave here!"
As the creature began to ramble about things he couldn't even understand it seemed to pick up a stone from the ground for whatever reason and began to talk again.
"What are you saying just fend for yourself with whatever lying around? Fine I can beat a giant dragon with a stone, watch!" and with that he tossed the piece of rubble straight at him.
Hes delusional...
For one, he had been talking nonsense the entire time as if not paying attention to the main point of interest, himself, this entire time. Either he was already crazy, or his fear had caused him to lose his mind. The second was the preposterous idea that a mere pebble would cause him harm. It merely flew a few feet in the air before falling harmlessly to the ground, allowing him to get a clear shot and subsequently devour its soul.
At least, that's how it should have gone.
Instead the rock flew through the air faster than the eye could see, and smashed into the side of his head with the force of a war-hammer. The sudden shock caused him to roar in pain while stumbling backwards. Part of his skull had been reduced to fragments after that strike, leaving a billowing smoke to escape from the openings. He was losing energy, and fast!
I need to retreat and restore my energy before I die here!
He no longer cared about the creature that attacked him. Clearly it was stronger than he could imagine. He was smart, nothing would matter if he died, he just needed to rest, and return to his cave to restore what he had lost.
And with that, he burrowed into the ground, the fear of death still fresh in his mind, and with a new object of his ire.
.
.
.
"huh?"
That was all Peroroncino could think after that had gone down. He had expected himself to die there, so he was acting all sarcastic before he did, since it was all he could think of at the time, but in the end, the opposite of what he was expecting had occurred. His strike had grievously wounded his opponent. While it was true that such arm strength was possible, that was only the case if he was...
"Am I still level 100?"
Certainly that would explain the events that had just occurred, but if that was the case, why? YGGDRASIL shut down, so how could he retain his character?
"I'll just check the menu then... what!?"
However as he went to motion for his UI, he soon realized that it was non existent. Even his health bar and map were no longer there.
"What the hell is going on!"
He was beginning to panic at this sudden revelation. And the more he was realizing that things were not normal, the more he began to notice. For instance, why could he feel the breeze blowing against his feathers? Why was the chill in the air so biting? Why was...
"No way..."
Had he been transferred into YGGDRASIL? That couldn't be the case, could it? Its simply impossible. But if it was, then what was here with him.
As he now tried to familiarize himself with his surroundings, he found that he was extremely high up in the mountains, thus he activated a skill which could only be taken by a birdman who had taken points in archer classes, [Eagle Eye].
This skill allowed him to see 5 kilometers out, and even possessed a optional crosshair for him to use as he saw fit.
The land around him was seemingly just as barren. Snow filled mountains made up the majority of his vision, with nothing that would signify any sort of life. As he was beginning to lose hope, he spotted a fortress near a large crack in the ground, inhabited by what seemed to be very short people.
Aren't those dwarves?
Dwarves were certainly a race in YGGDRASIL, and what he saw here certainly fit the description. With there stout bodies and long beards, it would be the image anyone would think of when they heard the word "Dwarf"
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration soon hit his mind as he began to realize the implications of his situation.
If I'm really in YGGDRASIL, doesn't that mean that races like succubi, sirens, and all other kinds of women are real now? Is my fantasy finally a reality. Is this heaven!
"Oi, dumbass brother of mine. What exactly are you looking at?"
Or not...