Within Avelon, Beta Tester 3390 was known as Nerco Chaos: Bane of the Phoenix. It was interesting how they were able to just give themselves a title on their own. Rather than having to earn them somehow, even if it was for something simple or basic. As some titles were given merely for playing a game alone, it made Nerco wonder what they were to do if they actually earned a title that was not one they had created for themselves.
Though the reasoning that they went with the Bane of the Phoenix title was because it was what they were told to do by their family, after all. There was no one here to directly monitor them, after all. It was to be a pretty hands off beta test, from what they were told. Their family having direct connects to Kynatech meant they knew a lot, but they did not know everything there was to know about The Decagon beta test, though. This was overall as much a mystery to them as it was to everyone else that was taking part. So the only directive they were given by their family was that they were to pick themselves a name and nickname that would align with the family creed and motto. Thus, they could be discovered once they were within the video game world if they did not meet up in the facility itself.
Nerco was not that interested in meeting up with any of their family members within Avelon, as there were various reasons for that. Though the starting area for region eight, where Nerco was, might have been the ideal place for the toxic obsessed family they belong to. The starting area for Region Eight was a polluted area where the air quality was so bad that they did not have any device or instrument to see that, as they looked out in front of them to see that it was the case.
There was not a place with the place within the entire eighth region that could be considered to have truly clean air within it. As the quality and level of pollution, both natural and manmade, started out as bad at the very edges of the region and then progressively worse and worse until the reaching it reached its apex at the starting area itself, where it was the most polluted. In fact, it was so polluted that everyone actually got a debuff just for being within the starting region itself.
Nerco could only sigh, as this region itself was probably one that a member of their family had a role in. It was exactly what they would expect someone from their family to do if they were given the chance to do so. Thus, Nerco wondered just what they really meant for their families being involved with this project and exactly what they were supposed to do within it themselves. They were just being left to their own devices, after, as they were not told what to do exactly. It was all left up to them to figure out and do on their own, as that seemingly became known as to why when they discovered there were no NPCs of any kind within Avelon itself.
Pollution driven by emissions, agricultural burning, and geographic trapping. Along with frequently severe dust storms and high particulate concentrations. The air pollution (consisting of many things other than just particulate matter & smog) that was so bad that it contributed to just being here giving an instant debuff. The players of Region Eight were actually amongst the last to discover there were no NPCs within the Avelon. That was because the industrial and chemical pollution was so bad that they had to think that someone was actively contributing to the worsening of the entire region, especially where they were all starting out from. They eventually found out this place was just that bad, that they all placed themselves into somewhere that they would have never expected to be.
This would also lead to those of the eight regions to venture out the fastest, even beyond the region that would be known as the traveler's region. That was just because of how horrible a state their own region was in. Getting out here was the first order of business for everyone who continued staying within Avelon, as they decided. Though they would discover they were landlocked twice over, starting area being surrounded on all sides by mountains; the natural basin geography traps air. During temperature inversions, cold air near the ground gets trapped under a layer of warm air, accumulating natural dust and sea salts, along with any lingering emissions. That was just for the starting area, as it was eventually discovered the same condition existed for the entire border of the eight region itself.
Making just leaving the starting area itself a massive trek for native players of this region, and then again if they ever wanted to leave entirely. Thus, their starting area was the least populated amongst the ten regions that existed. The only ones that really remained were those that felt they had to stay behind, as some of them had to personally run the vital areas for them to even be able to properly leave the starting area and maintain themselves out there. Though it was actually a very small amount that stayed, making the eight region the one where the things were more populated as you reach the borders instead of getting more populated like everywhere else. That's probably because the passive debuff they get from just being within the region only gets worse the closer they were to the starting area overall.
Though in contrast, as a result, they were probably the first region to discover the true nature of The Decagon before the others, as escaping from how different their starting experience was compared to the others. It allowed them to realize things faster, as they tried to get away from the worst area of their region and had to cross over a mountain just to do so. This led to the discovery of that bit of information when they allowed themselves to realize it.