A/N: A few notes before I get onto the story folks. First of I do not own Warhammer or Sword Art Online, I do own the plot and original characters though. Secondly this is a reimagining of the SAO universe where Akihiko Kayaba decided that instead of working in a universe of his own creation, decided to try something on a grander scale and with so many more willing fans to experiment on. That is to say he got the license to make a VRMMORPG of Warhammer Fantasy and traps a hell of a lot more players in his game. I would also like to say that after reading through Fairy Dance of Death by Catsy I was inspired to attempt to write a grand scaled Sword Art Online crossover with not only fighting but politics and game mechanics. I'm no where near as good writer as him/her, but I will try to write well enough for you to read it, though I appreciate the feed back you give me. Finally don't expect to see all the characters from the original SAO in this Fan Fic save for Akihiko for sure.
Also expect a few different changes to the game play as well from SAO, because when we're talking warhammer… we're talking Epic.
Edit: How you folks like the re-edited chapter?
/
November 5th, 2022
Somewhere in America
For almost 15 years now Rufus Adler had been an avid collector of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, ever since his dad picked him up Dawn of War when he was 12 years old. The world, no the universe, that the game took place in had gripped him from the very start. The epic battles, the struggle between 'good' and evil and of course the sight of dozens of super powered armored warriors crushing hell spawn had made an impression in his young mind. After playing through the game, he wanted to find out more about the universe this took place in and soon discovered that it was actually based on a table top wargame owned by Games-Workshop. This interested him despite being a computer gamer, he wanted to actually command and to hold his own army. So after some convincing on his part of his parents he started to collect models.
His first two armies being Imperial Guard, he had found that interesting how simple humans could face down the horrors of the universe and sometimes win was pretty cool, and for fantasy it was Empire. Like all wargamers just starting out he had to face some hurdles, the first being assembling the models, which resulted in some bad cuts from a craft knife, his fingers getting constantly stuck together from glue and the models looking… not as the company had intended. But he overcame that soon enough and next faced the challenge of painting which after finishing some models that would make the eyes hurt, he decided to just prime them.
Finally he met his enemies on the battlefield… or in this case at the local game shop and failed miserably at his first game, not even knowing how to build an army list correctly. But in the coming years of solitude, being an only child and home schooled at that really didn't give him much exposer to potential friends, he developed his skills at wargaming. Even when he went to college he isolated himself though he did precipitate in class and talked to people, it was mostly for jokes and could hardly ever look another person in the eye. The only friends he did make were buddies at the gaming clubs.
So after 15 years he was now on his own as an office worker and budding historian with no life outside his hobby... oh joy.
Today was a Saturday and he was excited as he walked from his car into the Electronic Boutique Games, today was going to be a fun day he was going to play a game of Warhammer fantasy later on, but right now he was going to pick up an item he had pre ordered months ago. It was something he and lot of other fans of Warhammer fantasy have been waiting for a few years now, the chance to actually go into the Old World. Sure back over a decade ago there was Warhammer Age of Reckoning, but World of Warcraft had killed that MMO after only a few years and you could only play as a bunch of single players instead of armies. But this new game, a collaboration between Games Workshop and a game designer from Japan who Rufus couldn't remember his name for the life of his mother, could remember.
Warhammer: Apocalypse of Old (WAO) was a game that took place in a virtual reality setting, what was once more revolutionary was that this that the virtual reality was tapped into the brain so the players could experience the game as they would in real life, though without the pain of being stabbed, shot, eviscerated, burnt to a crisp because of a spell etc. Beyond the personal aspects of the game there was also the ability to command armies of NPCs once a character reached a high enough level, which was missing from WAR.
He rubbed his hands together warming them in the early November morning before opening the door to EB games. The girl behind the counter smiled." Hi and welcome to EB Games, can I help you with something?"
Rufus answered, his eyes averting her own." Ayup, I'm here to pick up my copy of WAO. Rufus Adler, it should be in pre orders."
She did a quick check on the computer." I'll be back in a minute." She then left to go into the back, leaving him alone in the store.
While Rufus was waiting for her to return he was mildly surprised to see one of his gaming buddies walk in the store." Hey Steve, I thought you got your copy back on the midnight release?"
Steve, a man in his early fiftys with a white goatee and athletic body smiled and waved at Adler." Yeah, well I had work that night waiting tables, there was a party going on at the restaurant so wasn't able to get to the release. But I'm hoping to have my character ready by 'go time' tomorrow."
In order for players to understand the controls of the game and set up characters WAO had a release date, which was on Thursday at midnight, but an actual time that players could go online and interact with one another was going to be on the 6th at 1PM EST. In addition to players registering their characters early, which would give them a prepared way of quickly getting into the gameplay, it also allowed for the game designers to compensate for the flood of gamers that would log in. There was also a special message for the first 250,000 players to log into the game when it launched at 1PM the next day, so that was more incentive to buy and get started.
"Alright then, so what faction you going to fight for?" Rufus asked him with a smirk, knowing the answer already since Steve played as one faction in the actual table top game.
" Empire of course. What about you Ruffy?" Asked Steve. Rufus on the other hand usually played as one of three different factions. Empire, since that was his first army and one of his favorite bits of fluff, Dwarfs were another because they were crazy awesome with the guns and zeppelins, finally there was Chaos, if he was going to run solo and do an epic saga he would run with them. But since this was an MMO he would probably run with Empire and Dwarfs, after all who would be stupid enough to actually try and go solo in an MMO?
"Empire as well I suppose. So what do you think of there being no star- oh hello." He noticed that the girl had returned with his game. Since this was a launch title for the Nerve Gear Rufus had opted to get the special pre order ultimate edition, he couldn't believe that they would actually name it that. But he liked the bonuses that came with it, a real full sized Empire flag, a full game soundtrack both hard copy and digital, the ability to import your own track lists, concept art in a pleather bound book, a statue of an Empire witch hunter with pistol and sword drawn, some metal coins that looked like in game currency, over a thousand crowns in-game starting money and a customized nerve helmet that looked like a an Empire soldiers skull helmet with glowing red eyes when turned on. Sure it may of cost a grand, before the monthly fee, but it was worth it!
Like a tens of thousands of other players that were signing up Rufus was joining WAO because of it taking place in the fantasy world of warhammer. MMO's had been around ever since Everquest started back in the last century, but warhammer fantasy had been around an additional 15 years. Over the decades there were millions of fans who played the game with armies, some as small as a few dozen minatures, to vast armies thousands strong, all before the MMO gene really took off with World of Warcraft. Unlike the other MMO worlds, the warhammer world wasn't filled with hope or even an endgame, it was grimdark where the lucky just survived and the best thing to happen to it would be a limiting of demonic incursions.
He handed over his members card and she swiped it, confirming that he had pre-bought the item." Hey I'll see you at the Battle-Play in a few minutes Steve." Rufus told his buddy, who nodded." Sure thing." Taking his box of goodies Rufus left the store and went to his car. He put the Nerve Gear into his back seat, the rear of his car was where he stored his dwarf army. He then drove away, the hobby store only a mile away.
After a short drive Rufus made it to the store and started to unload his car. First to get unloaded was a fishing compartment box that contained the special characters warmachines and any other old metal models, he then placed a low but long cardboard box on top, this contained most of the army, the foot troopers, the Stone Ancestors and a steam gyrocopter. He carefully walked into the store cautious not to let the box slide or to drop them." Hey Poofy"
He said to the cashier, his real name was Cooper but most of the gamers preferred nick names, Poofy was a few years older than him." Hey Ruffy, I take it you're playing at the tournament?"
Rufus chuckled." I'm not here for best painted army. You playing?"
Poofy nodded." Yup, dark elves."
As Rufus walked down stairs to the game rooms he called up." Perfect monster target practice for my cannons!"
He then laid his army onto one of the gaming tables, he would move them off once he got his center piece unit. He ran back upstairs and out to his car, grabbing the flying stand first followed by the dwarf airship. It was a massive model, on the scale with a warhound titian. It was festooned with broadsides of cannons and of talismans and artwork. All was painted and ready for the battle field. Again he took the model down stairs setting it up onto its flying stand. He then went back upstairs to wait for more players." So Poofy were you able to pick up WAO?" Rufus asked him.
" Yup, already made a character to. Be on the lookout for a witch elf with the name Silith, trust me when I say if you see her do not try and hit on her."
Rufus smiled." Well if you're going to look at some ones ass all the time, might as well be the one you pick right?"
Poofy snorted a laugh." Might as well."
Rufus then saw that Steve had arrived." Hey I'll be right back, gotta see if he needs some help. See you on the battlefield!"
/
Somewhere in England
Roshi Petel laid on her bed and turned on the Nerve Gear." Link Start!". Her world disappeared and became a loading screen. Then the loading finished and she could see a title screen, that looked like a war torn battlefield with piles of skulls struned about the field. She could see the words 'Warhammer: Apocalypse of Old' in type gothic lettering. She could see herself as well as she was in human form save for the clothes she wore, beneath the title, she was dressed in a pair of tan pants and a white blouse. This contrasted with her dark brown skin and long raven black hair.' Nidal said to pick a race for me to play as.' She then reached out, which was strange since she was standing in front of herself, and touched the 'create a character' option on the main menu. A semi-circle appeared, each detailing a different faction within the game.
She scrolled through the options, selecting each one. The Empire was the first one to come up, she thought that it sounded interested but from what she understood from her nerd of a brother as that it would be one of the top three factions for players in game. She wanted to try something more unique and moved on through the other selections. The Bretonnians were more focused on male martial prowess and the only real option for her was a magic user, she skipped it and continued to look. The warriors of chaos and orcs were too… extreme for her tastes, the three fractions of the elves were pretty but then she thought about how many stories she had read about 'hot female elf girls' and decided to move on from that, not wanting to become eye candy for the more experienced players that she trusted would watch her back. The beastmen, lizardmen and skaven factions were interesting and non human, but she wanted to be a player who still wore clothes and wasn't out for destruction or murder.
Finally she came to The Dwarfs and this faction caught her attention. They were unlike any other dwarfs she had really heard about, on the surface they seemed like a bunch of beardy short guys, but when she looked at the fluff, their halls and stories she saw something else… she saw a race of half crazed, honorable and with mad genius spread throughout their history. They were also not all guys as well, she read about the story of Queen Helgar and saw that the dwarf men and women were perfectly proportioned and not disfigured or stunted.
So she selected the dwarfs to be her preferred race. After that another option came up, the selection of where her dwarf woman was from. Scrolling through the options she selected Zhufbar, it looked really cool and there was a good chance she could use some of the most modern, well by fantasy standard, firearms or other weapons.
Finally she came to the actual character creation and the first question she was asked was if she wanted to be a male or female. At which point she selected female because the thought of playing a male… well that made her blush hard at the thought of the 'extra equipment'. Then she came to the character creation options, she had the option to create a character that looked like a dwarf version of herself… but she wanted to create an original character. She chose a dwarf female body, one that was much bustier and curvy than her own and chose to have her a pale pink skin. She had a cute round face, with blue eyes and blond hair done in a pair of braids. She then selected a dress, which was in the colors of Zhufbar and was a combination of cloth and chainmail. Roshi then selected a name for her character, it wasn't a randomly generated name but something simple she created, 'Rin' was her name and she pressed the button to create her.
She was finished and despite the fact that her brother would probably call her out for choosing to play a dwarf instead of an elf or some other 'girly' race. 'If he does that I'm going to remind him who it was that insisted I play a game he won two copies of because of a stupid contest.' She sighed mentally at the thought, she may of wanted to do that, but it wasn't well looked upon in her house to question the men. Her brother probelbly thought he was trying to be nice… or to make fun of her to his friends. But at least in this game she could fight against her brother, even though he was the gamer of the family. She then found that there was a tutorial mode to the game, her new avatar smiled, she could get in some practice before she fought her brother in game. She opened up the tutorial and started to test it out the game.
/
Somewhere in Canada
Jacob Callaway was finding this game to be fun, even though he was playing the tutorial. Callaway was no longer the sketchy, pimple ridden 20 year old he was in the real world, instead he had become Krutz. Krutz was a chaos marauder, he had become a head taller than most men and his body rippled with muscle. He had chosen to stay neutral and instead of following one of the Chaos gods, he had instead decided to play as Chaos Undivided. It wasn't out of indecision but actually out of interest of creating his own story instead of being part of one of the chaos gods, he wanted to carve a path to glory… even if he could only do it for a few hours at a time.
He was currently playing the combat tutorial of WAO and he was loving every moment of it. His bear chested marauder was armed with an ax and had been fighting against an orc armed with a choppa. So far this was the tenth time he had done this and was finding more and more interesting ways of finishing of the greenskin. The first time he had killed the greenskin it was by slashing at it till its HP dropped to zero. Then he repeated the scenario and this time buried the axe in the beasts chest, then again by decapitating it. There was no XP for doing this, it was just a way to explore the skills and learn the ways to use various weapons. Now he was trying to see how long the orc lasted with various limbs cut off.
He knew how long other animals could last, he had done so in real life. He liked capturing them, luring the cats, dogs, birds or any other thing that crossed his path. Sometimes he was quick with the animals, a snap of the neck, a stab to the heart or breaking a back with a kick. Others he would keep around for months on end… altering them, breaking bones then watching them mend in broken and messed up patterns, slowly flaying them, or in the case of birds buring off their feathers. Others he would dissect, sometimes alive other times when they were dead. When they were dead he would put them in pickle jars or if they were the pets of a family, he would make a meat pie with their dear pet added in and serve it to the family. He had always been told his pies were great by those familys, though they never knew they were eating Fido or Fluffy.
With the orc he was playing with the it didn't matter how many limbs or legiments he cut off, so long as the HP bars were not at zero they could be cut and would not die. Up till now he was wondering when he would start practicing on humans, he was sure that he wouldn't be caught, no one had up in his small town. But this WAO game had given him a wonderful opportunity, he could kill and kill, even other players and do whatever way he pleased. This would slate his bloodlust… at least for a while till he needed to cut something with his knife again.
/
November 6th, 12:58 PM
Rufus smiled to himself as he looked at his character… well himself to be honest. When he created his avatar he decided to opt out of the usual steps of character creation and go right into carbon copying himself. So there her stood, 6'3 foot tall and almost handsome, self. His hair was still the same light brown, his eyes still the same shade of light blue deep set eyes and he still had his rusty colored burnsides. He was dressed as an Imperial Militiaman from Middenland, he wore a pair of white colored pants, an blue shirt, a pair of leather boots and a grey feathered cap. He was armed with a cleaver and hammer as a pair of starter weapons, which was what he could buy in the limited tutorial. He chose Middenland as his starter faction, besides the fluff, because of the bonus to weapon skill and strength, which combined with an additional weapon made a good close combat warrior. Once he reached a shop he was going to buy a pistol and at least a decent set of armor to give him an extra bit of punch at distance and staying power. For his in game name he decided to go with something easy, easy because it was his real name and sounded like it belonged in the game. His gamer tag was now Adler.
He tapped his foot waiting down the moments in the field of battle title screen till he would be able to log into the game proper. For the pass day he had been playing the tutorial with the online mode and reading the manual, getting to understand the mechanics. He was even able to leade some small detachments of soldiers in the game. He had scheduled a meeting with Steve once they were in the online starter area for the Empire, a town named Glumhoff. After that they were to be separated and sent to their respective city states, for Rufus that meant Middenheim and for Steve the capitol of the Empire, Altdorf. It was for fluff reasons why they were being separated after the initial meet up, Middenheim and Altdorf were separated by hundreds of miles and were different city states and sub factions. It was there that the players could start to make names for themselves without crowding a single area and hunting it clean.
That was another interesting aspect of the game, besides the initial faction selection and the racial stats that came with it, you start the game off with no class. You would start the game as the most basic warrior there was for the faction. In the case of Empire this was as a militia man. It was only at level five that you were able to start specializing and choose different paths for the character to take. For the Empire that meant one of several dozen different paths, the initial path was that of a member of the State Army where the player would raise in rank, from a trooper to becoming a sergeant, then a captain and all the way up to general or even possibly to an Empire Count controlling thousands of NPCs. The other paths included two different routes for followers of Sigmar, that of a witch hunter and warrior priest, battle wizards and for those who want to be skilled in crafting master engineers. Then there were even more options to a ridicules level.
As it stood right now he couldn't decide which class to go for an- the clock then hit 1 PM and he entered the game proper. In a flash of light he appeared alongside thousands of other players, surprised that the servers could handle all of these players without any lag. He then brought up a screen and selected friends, he had one in game so far and pinged Steve. A small ripple of blue light emanated from his body, that he could only see, after a moment of traveling the ripple stopped and he could see the white outline of a body, among the sea of other players. Rufus then started to make his way to the figure, with his weapons sheathed he pushed past the crowds. It indeed felt very real, he could feel the texture of the people's clothes, the touch of flesh as he pushed past them and of the smell of their bodies. There had to of been tens of thousands of players crammed into this space all playing the various factions of the Empire.
The city of Glumhoff was a gothic, Germanic, city that could of fit any fantasy setting from the middle ages up to and through the renaissance era. It was not a pristine example of architecture, the streets were dirty, the buildings slanted and a general sense of gloom. This city had a lived in and old feel to it that could be felt. Which was a credit to the game designers to create such a 'close' to reality game. The gamers that arrived showed up in bright flashes around the square and in the streets around it. Outside of the walls was a starter area where hundreds of players were organizing and hunting down mobs, goblins and wolves for the most part.
There seemed to be about and equal number of men and women in the city. Rufus had do a lot of 'apologizing' for trying to get past them, it was highly doubtful that most were actually female, but at least they felt real enough. After fighting through the hordes of players he eventually found Steve. He looked very different than when he last met him yesterday. He looked thirty years younger with the wrinkles and grey gone from his beard and hair, his hair was a consistent dark with a pair of brown eyes. He was dressed similarly to Rufus, but where Rufus wore blue and white his friend instead wore white and purple and he went cap less. Steve, who's gamer tag was now Stephan, waved to Rufus as he pushed his way to him." Hell of a party!"
"Yeah! Thing is it's going to take a few hours till we'll be able to go on the first quest with all these players." Rufus told Steve.
" Yeah… hey did you get that special message yet?" Asked Steve, before he opened up his menu, looking for messages. Rufus did the same thing, but sighed while looking through his inbox." Na. Welp there is nothing for it. I think that game designer might be sending his message when he gets his quarter mil players logged in, which at this rate doesn't seem long, not just when they come in piece meal."
Steve thought about it, cupping his chin." Well to be honest it could be one of two things. He could give a big welcoming speech, tell us how proud he is that were playing his game and send us on our way. Or do all that and give us all a special item." He smirked." Maybe something to use when they come out with the 40K MMO." Rufus lifted his arms up and shouted." Refractor Fields for everyone!" A few of the other players in ear shot turned to him at the mention of the 40K item. He lowered his arms and smiled sheepishly." False alarm."
Steve then asked Rufus." Hey remember that bet we made yesterday?" Rufus turned to him and nodded. The day before when they played a 4,000 point fantasy game, the pair made a bet about WAO. If Rufus won the game with his dwarfs Steve would hand over any magic items that he found in the first week of playing WAO, while if Steve's empire had won Rufus would hand over 250 gold crowns when they met in game. The Empire were the winners the day before so Rufus had become a slightly poorer player. He opened up the trade menu and gave Steve the 250 gold crowns." Here you go. So what do you plan on doing when you get to Altdorf?"
Steve closed the menu and smirked." I'm going to see about grinding my character and see if I can organize a guild, nothing to big while we get used to the game of course. Depends on how things go, who knows we might be allies or we will be going for each other's throat."
Rufus laughed." For now let's be friends and start killing something other than an orc." He then pointed to one of the stores, which had a ring of players around it." I don't think we'll be able to get any better weapons before tomorrow, unless you want to wait in line for Sigmar knows how long, so lets head to the gates."
As soon as they headed to the gates they saw that there was a block, apparently two players who managed to obtain carts and horses had an accident. One of the carts being over turned at thhe gate blocking the exit, while the other one was standing but the horses had to be put down. In addition to the blockade the two groups of players were arguing.
Steve turned to Rufus and said." Right, I think I'm going to have to call it early dude. After all what's the difference of a few hours?"
Rufus looked a bit disappointed, but with the long line just to start playing…." I think I'm going to join you. To many people." He and Steve open up their menu's and soon found that the log out button was gone.
Steve spoke, sounding pissed as he tapped the space where the logout button was." Dammit, now that just adds insult to injury."
Rufus added." Send word to the admins. It's probably a first day glitch." He then sent the message off. But an hour later they were still waiting, the crowd just getting larger and larger." Ahhhhhh! This is so stupid!" Rufus groaned out.
But seemingly as soon as Rufus finished speaking all the players in Glumhof, including himself, were transported out of the town in a mass of light. When the new citizens of the Empire arrived at their destination, they were not in any land of man, dwarf, elf or lizard. They were in the northern wastes and in front of them stood a gate not of this mortal realm. It stood a thousand feet tall and three hundred wide, its sides were bordered by towers made of bone and topped with gigantic skulls.
Over a hundred thousand players stood before the Chaos Gate and could see hell on the other side.
/
Roshi looked up at the gate and her jaw dropped at the awesome scale of it. Her brother had told her that WAO was going to an epic game, she didn't realize that he wasn't joking and over hyping the game. The scale of the gate was impressive, but what was on the other side was terrifying. Due to her size she wasn't able to see what was on the otherside like the humans or elves… and lizardmen could see. But she could look up high and see winged beasts and monsters on the other side of the gate. The monsters were impossible to behold, their joints and size should of made it impossible for them to fly in the air. Though the impact was lighten by two pieces of text in bright red letterings in front of the gate." Warning" and "System Announcement".
From out of the gate a figure emerged, it bleed out like blood and into the world. The blood like thing collated taking a shape of a gigantic red cloaked figure, at least 60 feet tall. She wished that she could find her brother, to ask him what was going on and if this was part of the game. She didn't know where he was though, she did know he was a wood elf, but what he looked like she wasn't sure. Roshi didn't even know why she had been taken from the Dwarf starter area or what the gate was.
Then when the gigantic figure was fully formed it spoke." Welcome to my world dear players." Roshi understood now, there was supposed to be a special event for the first 250,000 players and this was it." My name is Akihiko Kayaba, as of this moment I am the only living being with control over this world." When he spoke those words her reaction was of mixed feelings. Part of her was excited and the second part of her was terrified by the words." I am the only living being alive in control of this world." One man in control of a 250,000 players didn't sound good.
Kayaba continued." You have likely noticed by now that the log-out button has dissipeared from the main menu. This is not a bug, I repeat this is not a bug. It is a feature of Warhammer Apocalypse of Old."
"Da Hell?" She spoke. Truly she was not expecting that.
"From this point forward, you will be unable to leave to freely log out of the game until you accomplish this task." He then paused to let that sink in before continuing". I have gathered the 'good' and 'evil' sides of the Warhammer World in the city of Altdorf and in front of the Chaos Gate. I wish for each of you, the players, to see the one objective that good and evil players must accomplish. For the good players the objective is to destroy the chaos gate and for the evil players they must destroy the grand temple of Sigmar."
Roshi blanched and felt sick at those words. She was essentially trapped inside of a video game, she checked her menu and it was true… she couldn't log out. She wasn't the only one and hundreds of players were now making ruckus's as if their pleas would be heard, despite the fact that they wouldn't be.
Akihiko then continued." Furthermore I've set all the factions good and evil meters to neutral. It is up for the players themselves to decide what path they themselves will follow, good and evil is a choice for each player to make. But if the vast majority of players of one faction fall to one or other side of the spectrum, that faction is considered good or evil." That was the only bit of news Roshi took well.
"Finally WAO is no longer just a game. If your HP is reduced to zero, or if someone tries to remove your Nerve Gear a microwave pulse will eliminate from your Nerve Gear helmet scrambling your mind and killing you. If you die in game you will die in real life. Since WAO has launched 2046 players helmets have been removed and they have been deleted from the game and real life. I've since sent word to all governments and dozens of news agency's and will allow a two hour window where you will be moved to secure premises. " To illustrate his point Akihiko showed 8 different news casts from across the world, each from a country that WAO was launched. Those being Russia, Germany, Japan, Canada, China, India, United States of America and the United Kingdom, the news casts broadcasting that a quarter million players could not exit their game and that if anyone interfered with the gamers they would die. There was also a note on how rescue teams were scrambling to gather the tens of thousands of players and move them to hospitols.
That caused an absolute uproar from a hundred thousand throats, Roshi's own shout of hatred added to the roar. They had been tricked and now trapped in a game that may kill them. She was also shouting at her brother, cursing him for entering the damn raffle and winning both copies of WAO and the Nerve Gear! She didn't care if she was going against her family when she cursed him, this was beyond family honor and veered into life and death!
Akihiko continued to speak." In order to exit the game either the good faction or the evil faction must complete their objective, the faction that completes this objective wins the game and may leave." He then lifted up a gigantic hand bringing up his personal menu." I wish to give you all a parting gift, please look at your inventory and select the item." He pressed a button and Roshi had received a message that an item had been sent to her inventory.
She took it out of her inventory and looked at the mirror." Now play as your true self." She and hundreds of thousands of players looked at themselves in their own personal mirrors. Across the chaos waste thousands of players looked at their faces and then transformed in a flash of light, when they looked at the mirror they saw themselves as they did in real life, young became old, male became female and beauty became beast. For the humans, genders and appearances became like they looked like in their real life. The elves and dwarfs changed into their original genders and their appearance became much like it was in the real world, though still with their racial traits intact. The ones least effective were the Lizardmen and Beastmen, the males kept the same bodies as they did before, the females had a more human body with breasts and a curvier body, both had hair that was similar to what they had in real life. This caused a sudden gender ratio change where at most 15 percent of the players were actually female.
Roshi looked at herself, she was still at around 4 feet tall and had the same body as her character. But her skin tone had changed to her dark brown color, her hair had become raven black still done up in a pair of long braids, her eyes had changed to her wide pair of pretty brown eyes. Her face also changed back to her real life structure and it was a cute angular face at that.
As she lowered her mirror Akihiko spoke yet again." Now go and fight for survival and glory in WAO!"
/
Jacob felt the sensation of falling and saw the sight of the dome of the Grand Temple of Sigmar disappear and replaced with the sky. He was swallowed by darkness and felt, heard, saw and smelled nothing. There was nothingness except his own mind. For what seemed like an eternity, though only a few seconds passed, he laid suspended in air. Then light filled his eyes and he returned to the world. He was standing in a snow drift up to his knees, he felt the cold against his scrawny chest and the wetness of melting snow against his knees. For a moment he thought he was back in Canada, but he still could feel the axe haft in between his buckle and pants. He looked around and saw that there were 6 other gamers around him, each was a chaos player. He could tell because of the amulets of the 8 pointed star on two of the players, and an additional mark on each player describing the god they served.
One of them spoke, an obese man in his late twenties, who wore a female starter set of clothes, which because of him choosing to follow Slaneesh, the god of pleasure, was much skimpier than necessary and nightmare fuel inducing with its current wearer." What the hell is wrong with that GM!"
Jacob had an idea what was Kayaba's plan master plan was, but he kept it to himself, listening to the other players ideas as to what was happening." He's crazy, he has no right to do this, were people not some NPC!" The Nurgle player said, his voice slightly altered by phlegm in his throat.
" What about our bodies, we'll die in the real world even if we don't complete our quest because we'll starve." The Tzeencht player spoke up, he wore a set of blue and yellow robes, slightly better prepared for the cold than the other members of the group.
" Kayaba must of sent a message out to the news stations and governments. If he didn't his plan would be ruined because no one would look after us."
Jacob turned to that player, it was surprisingly a Khorne player, his chest carved with a glowing red skull icon of the chaos god against his red skin. He was surprised that the player had an actual answer than rather asking a question, he was also playing against type since in the manual the followers of Khorne usually were more about collecting skulls than thinking. Jacob spoke." That's a good idea... why don't you tell us your name?" If he was to survive this game and make it to the real world it meant he needed to make allies… if only temporary, so he had to put on a welcoming face.
" Gerry, but the gamer tag is Gestalt, yours?" Jacob smiled, his digital lips were non-threatening to the Khorne player.
" Names Krutz, I also have an idea getting out of the game."
The players turned to Jacob, the Slaneesh follower was the first to speak." Eh what's that?"
Jacob pointed to the south, or what he thought was the south and said." We destroy the Grand Temple of Sigmar… the GTS."
The slaanesh player snorted." Why do that? We can go north and destroy the Chaos Gate, it would be easier than going thousands of miles to the south fighting characters belonging to the other factions." Several players nodded at the gamers idea, except for the Khorne players who watched Jacob and the slaaneshie.
Jacob continued." That may work. But you see there is a problem with your idea."
The fat player raised an eyebrow." And that is?"
Now Jacob started to smile like a predator when it knew its prey was cornered." We're all set to neutral, the factions you see. This game has a karma meter for each player, this changes depending on what quests you take. Up in here in the wastes these quests would probably be much more inclined to 'evil' acts. Go ahead and read your menu if you don't believe me."
The slaaneshie player then did just that, opening up the game menu." What am I looking for?" He asked, looking up for a moment at Jacob.
" Chaos Wastes." Jacob said and as the player searched his menu, Jacob took out his axe.
"It says that there is eternal war in the north, with the various tribes of chaos worshipers battling each other to please the gods, that the various tribes only unite when a true champion of chaos appears to bring them under one banner. How does that help us?" Jacob smirked from ear to ear, his teeth like rows of polished daggers.
" We are freed when kill all those in our way, from the South… or the North." He then raised his axe up, the player didn't know what was happening and wasn't able to log out of his menu in time. Jacob struck, his axe coming down in an arc that sliced the players right hand off, artileral blood spraying from the stump." What the fuc-!" The players shout was cut off when Jacob cut upwards at the player's knee, slicing it off at the joint and causing him to collapse. The player managed to exit out of his screen, his health bar near zero after the vicious attack and tried to reach for his weapon, his face red with fear. But before he could draw his war pick Jacob delivered the final blow to the players neck, decapitating the player, killing him. His body began to dissipate, turning to blue diamonds, leaving behind a single bag.
The other five players had their starter weapons out, their faces were a mix of fear, hatred and questioning, except for Gerry who looked at him with a cold appraisal. Jacob had committed the act of murder, real murder not a simple player killing like in other games, when this player died in the game he died in real life. The Nurgle follower broke the silence with his phlegmy voice." Why did you kill him?" The question would sting a man of more heat than Jacob, but he had no heart.
" Look at my stats, do you see that my karma meter falling into corruption?" The players did so, looking up above Jacobs helmeted head. They could see that his karma meter had appeared and went down slightly, a brief glimpse of a fiery bar and a +10 Corruption floated over him." Right now there are hundreds of players looking at their karma meters and thinking the same thing. I must become good or evil in order to survive this game and return home. If we don't band together and start acting the way we were meant to play, as marauders and worshipers of the dark gods, we will be overrun by 'good do'ers' and never be able to leave the game."
"So what do we do? Kill each other off till there's only one truly corrupted warrior left?" Asked the Tzeenchtian. Jacob could see that in their faces gears were turning in the players head.
Gestalt sheathed his axe." No. He wants us to be united under one player and destroy the GTS. If we don't then we will be killed off." He then asked Jacob a question directly as the other players lowered their weapons." What do you want the name of our guild to be?"
At that moment there was another murder committed, not a player kill, not another murder of blood and guts. It was a gift to the gods, the murder of his soul. For Khorne was pleased with the blood spilt, Slaanesh was in escasty for the pleasure he felt, Nurgle revealed in joy at the rot in his soul and Tzeencht simply smiled at the change that had occurred and was beginning to see opportunity's open for this chaos warrior. Krutz spoke firmly and full of malice." The Third Wave."
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A/N: So what do you folks think? Ask questions please, I will try to answer them to the best of my ability and you also might help me correct mistakes, or keep me from getting full of myself.
