I Will Carry You finally pressed the [Match Game] button.
Instead of the instant load-in she'd expected, a cold waiting screen appeared, showing the player count: 1/64... 15/64... The progress crawled at an agonizing pace.
The chat was already getting antsy, spamming "Is it frozen?" and "Does anyone even play this game?" It wasn't until three minutes later that the counter finally filled up.
[Match Complete. Map: Tival. Faction: Tival Defense Force (Defenders). Objective: Repel the Imperial assault and hold the core energy array.]
A flash of light, then a sudden sensation of weightlessness.
When her vision cleared, I Will Carry You found herself standing behind a decrepit metal barricade.
The air was thick with the stench of rust, machine oil, and some indescribable burnt smell that stung her lungs when she breathed it in.
She'd been randomly assigned to the rebel faction, the defenders.
"Whoa... this..." She instinctively looked around.
Crumbling concrete fortifications, corroded pipes, dark green puddles pooling on the ground... everything was disturbingly real.
In the distance, the outline of a city shrouded in smog, broken transit bridges, and towering, dormant macro-cannon turrets silently testified to the ruin of this place.
Compared to the colorful, pristine "war games" she usually played, this looked like a junkyard... or rather, an actual battlefield.
The system prompted her to choose a starting class: Assault, Medic, Engineer, Scout.
Looking at the simple icons and descriptions, I Will Carry You hesitated for a long while.
Assault meant charging forward (she didn't dare),
Engineer meant building things (she didn't know how), Scout meant going in alone (she was afraid of getting lost)...
"Whatever, I'll pick Medic. At least I can heal people. Should be safer..." She finally made what she thought was the safest choice.
The chat immediately launched into "expert" commentary:
"Liora picked Medic? Planning to smother enemies with med-packs?"
"We're doomed. Everyone in this match is on their own."
"Liora, remember: you're supposed to be an angel of mercy, not a walking kill feed!"
I Will Carry You had no time for the chat's mockery.
She was completely absorbed by the atmosphere around her. That cold, death-laden oppression somehow reached through the VR gear and made her hands and feet feel slightly numb.
The other player-soldiers around her, each with their usernames floating above them, mostly wore the same mix of curiosity and confusion she did, but more than that, there was an involuntary tension painted across their faces by the environment.
She noticed a player next to her with the ID "User114514" clumsily fumbling with his laser rifle.
The metallic texture and weight of the weapon came through the haptic system with startling clarity, giving her an unprecedented sense of unease. This wasn't a toy.
"Hey man, how do you even play this game?" I Will Carry You sidled over and asked quietly, her voice thin against the noisy background.
User114514 turned his head, his face equally bewildered. "Huh? I have no idea either. This is my first time too. But this looks... way too real, doesn't it?" His voice was tight as well.
Just then, a booming, rousing voice rang out nearby, drowning out all other sounds:
"Listen up, boys! Warriors of Tival! Eyes on me!"
I Will Carry You, User114514, and every player and AI soldier around turned to look.
A middle-aged man in a dark gray officer's uniform with prominent shoulder insignia stood atop a broken low wall, holding a sleek laser rifle high above his head.
"We, the people of Tival, have lived on this land for generations! We bled and sweated to build our home!
Why should we hand over the fruits of our hard labor as some damned 'tithe' to the bureaucrats back on Terra? Why should we sacrifice everything for some far-off corpse on a throne?"
The officer's voice rang with fury and defiance as he waved his arm.
"We demand independence! We demand self-rule! We will no longer be slaves to the Imperium! Pick up your weapons, not for that cursed Golden Throne, but for the home behind you!
For your parents, your wives and children! Defend Tival! Show those Imperial dogs the power of free people!"
"Defend Tival!"
"For freedom!"
"Death to the Imperium!"
The NPC soldiers erupted first in fervent shouts, and then the players were swept up in the atmosphere, instinctively raising their weapons and joining in with ragged but equally passionate roars.
I Will Carry You felt a surge of adrenaline rush to her head. She forgot her fear, raised her tiny medic laser pistol, and shouted along with the crowd: "Defend the planet!"
In that moment, she even felt a bit immersed, like she'd actually become a warrior fighting for freedom.
However, that fragile spark of enthusiasm was utterly crushed the very next second.
"SHRIIIIIEK...!!!"
A piercing, eardrum-splitting whistle screamed from far away, closing in at an indescribable speed!
"BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!"
The world exploded!
Just a few hundred meters from their rally point, a massive mushroom cloud of fire and dirt shot into the sky!
The ground convulsed violently like a sieve! I Will Carry You felt the earth beneath her feet lurch upward.
(/n: Damn thats one way to start a game)
A massive shockwave mixed with debris and searing wind slammed into her.
She didn't even have time to react before she was thrown violently to the ground, landing face-first in a muddy puddle.
Her ears were filled with nothing but a sustained high-pitched ringing. Her vision blurred, the world spinning.
Filthy water rushed into her nose and mouth, choking her into violent coughing fits.
The position that had been roaring with fervor just moments ago was now plunged into deathly silence, leaving only the crackling of flames and the agonized groans of the wounded.
"Wh... what?" I Will Carry You lay sprawled in the muddy water, soaked through, freezing and pathetic. Her mind was blank, her voice nothing but an unconscious mumble. "What... what the hell was that..."
In the livestream chat, the barrage froze for a split second, then absolutely exploded:
"HOLY SHIT!!! ARTILLERY!!!"
"They're actually doing carpet bombing?! Right at the start?!"
"Where's Liora? Is she still alive? The camera's shaking like crazy!"
"What about that officer shouting slogans? Did he get blown to bits?"
"This game... they torture you from start to finish!!"
I Will Carry You struggled to get up from the mud but felt her whole body go limp.
That earth-shattering blast hadn't just destroyed a corner of their position.
It had completely shattered the naive little spark in her heart that thought this was just a "game."
Real war never gives you time to prepare.