"Did you buy the new Seven Kingdoms game?"
Katherine looked up. Nicknamed Kat by her friends, she wasn't your average gamer. She had straight black hair and brown eyes, and she wore a small amount of makeup. Nothing too flashy, but enough to add to her natural beauty.
"Age of Chaos? Of course I did," Kat replied to her friend Jessica. Jessica was slightly more outlandish than Kat. Jessica had short brown hair with red highlights and hazel eyes to match. The two girls were walking home from school together.
"I'm super excited to try it out. The last three games were epic," Jessica said.
"Totally, right?" Kat agreed. Seven Kingdoms was one of the most popular video games ever made. It was created by a Japanese Company named NerveGear. The game used a helmet which was placed on your head in order to fully immerse the player in the game. Seven Kingdoms was an RPG. It was centered around choosing a class and teaming up with friends in order to take over as many of the seven kingdoms as possible. Once a player or guild became a high enough level and took over enough kingdoms, they received crowns and were moved onto a special bonus level. Kat and Jessica had beaten the last three games together in a guild called the Hunting Dragon.
"Remember Seven Kingdoms: Diamond Peaks?" Jessica asked. Diamond Peaks was the second game made.
"Of course I do. The Seventh Kingdom took forever to find," Jessica remembered.
"I heard that Age of Chaos is supposed to have the toughest bosses yet. According to Gamers R Us, you know, that website with all of the theories, there's supposed to be some sort of hidden kingdom. Maybe even more," Kat explained.
"You planning on starting up the Hunting Dragon again?"
"Nah. I think I may go solo for a bit this time."
"Good luck." Kat nodded. At that moment the girls reached Kat's house. Kat walked up to the door.
"See you on the screen," she called.
"See ya," Jessica replied. Kat went inside and threw her backpack on the bedroom floor, and then picked up her NerveGear helmet and Seven Kingdoms: Age of Chaos game. She plugged the microchip into the helmet, which she placed on her head, and then she lay down on her bed. Her vision went dark, and then it returned displaying the start screen. Kat selected start, and a menu opened up.
"Which class will you be?" a woman's voice asked. Kat scrolled down the list. There was barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, warlock, and wizard. Kat smiled. In the previous game, there had only been fighter, wizard, and ranger. Usually, a player was only allowed to choose one class, but Kat had won a raffle which gave her the VIP microchip. That meant that she could choose as many classes as she wanted. Kat smiled even wider. Why not choose all of the classes? She quickly selected each and every class. Her vision darkened momentarily, and then returned in full.
Kat was standing in a town square, surrounded by other players. The graphics were flawless. Kat almost believed that she was actually here. She opened her menu and checked it. The game creators had upgraded the menu as well. There was inventory, guild, friends, bounties, quests, map, skills, inbox, settings, and rule book. Kat went to settings and changed her class from ranger to fighter, and then equipped a basic iron sword and a black cloak. With that, she headed for the village square.
Many other players were already there. It looked like the vast majority of the players were fighters, but there was at least one player from every class. Players were talking, messaging, friending, and forming guilds. All of these players were first timers to Age of Chaos. Everyone was. Age of Chaos had just been released today.
Kat wandered around, checking out the graphics and gameplay. Age of Chaos was by far the most advanced game NerveGear had made. Kat had heard rumors that they were designing a game called Sword Art Online. It was getting great reviews from the beta testers, and all of Japan was buzzing about it.
"Hey," a voice said. Kat turned around. Behind her stood a different player. He had black hair and gray eyes. Kat could see that he was a fighter, just like pretty much everyone else. He was a level one, just like Kat, and he had a green icon above his head. That meant that he hadn't harmed another player yet.
"Can I help you?" Kat asked.
"Awesome graphics, right?" He said. Kat nodded.
"Better than Diamond Peaks even," she pointed out.
"The name's Blade. What's yours?" he asked. He could see her name, but obviously he was asking to be polite.
"Kat," Kat replied. She had known better than to put her real name in her profile.
"A pleasure. Have you joined any guilds yet?" he asked. Kat shook her head.
"I was thinking about going solo for as much of the game as I could. In all of the last games I was in a guild," she explained.
"Oh. Well, if you ever want to build a guild with me . . . look me up," he said. Kat's inbox flashed as he walked away. She opened it and saw that he had sent her a friend request. She glanced up again, but Blade was already gone.
"Yeah right," she said. She closed the menu without replying to the friend request. Stranger danger. Kat wondered if Jessica was already here. She doubted it. Jessica usually liked to do her homework before she did any games.
Kat wandered around town a little, getting used to the game mechanics, before finally deciding that she was going to log off. Jessica probably wasn't even going to play today. The teachers had assigned an awful lot of homework.
Kat opened her menu and went to the settings, then pressed the logout button. Suddenly a video of a dog chasing its tail filled Kat's vision. Kat clicked the cancel button frantically, and after the tenth click the video finally vanished. Kat felt her heart sink. The video could only mean one thing. Hackers.
A video appeared in Kat's vision, blocking out the screen. It showed a table with thirteen people seated at it. Each person wore a black cloak that completely hid them from view. The middle person spoke.
"Hello players. Welcome to Seven Kingdoms: Age of Chaos. And what good is a name if it doesn't follow through? So to add to the experience of the gameplay, we added a little chaos," they said. Their voice came out electronic sounding, so it was impossible to tell what gender they were or who they were.
"We are the council of hackers. Pleasure to meet you," said a different robed figure. Their voice was exactly the same.
"Most of you have noticed an issue with the logout button. The more you click it, the longer that our cat will stay on your screen," a third figure said.
"None of you will be allowed to leave the game," a fourth figure said.
"Serves you right for wasting your money on a video game," a fifth figure said.
"A couple of new rules for this game. The only way for you to leave this game is for you to find all seven kingdoms, as well as the hidden kingdom," the first figure said.
"Number two, this game is for reals. If you die in the game, you'll die in real life. The NerveGear helmet will fry your brain," the second figure explained. Kat stiffened. She would die in real life?
"Number three, if anyone tries to save you in real life by pulling off the helmet, you will also die. You might notice that several players are missing. They are the result of removed helmets," a sixth figure said.
"That is all for the moment. We will be giving you periodic updates. Good luck players," the first figure said. The video vanished, and Kat glanced around. All of the other players were standing still. Apparently they had received the same message. Then the first screams began.