Nido: Apocalypse

New World

The group slowly looked around and noticed they weren't at their computers, but outside.

Everyone looked around and noticed they were their avatars they had created before this event. They look similar to themselves, but Nitro and Power both no longer needed glasses like they did in real life. They all spawned in an open field surrounded by trees. They could tell this was the first location they all spawned at when they first played the game. They were in Baton Rouge nearly an hour outside of New Orleans. They were all shocked to see they were in the game. Nitro and Swift were both in military style combat gear, Power seemed to be in an armored jumpsuit, Grimm was wearing robes and carrying a staff, while Lazy was in a mix of civilian clothes with some armor pieces on his shoulders, torso and knees.

In front of them, only they could see, a screen appeared with a message.

[ Welcome all!! I’ve watched your game as you all played and found it very fascinating! I’ve only pulled in five hundred people here!! Do not worry, once this is all over, you can all choose to be sent back to your real world at the exact moment I pulled you out. Your real world time has stopped for my entertainment. I’ve restarted you all at level one and can’t wait to see how you all survive. Do not worry. If you die here, you will respawn after twenty-four hours at a resting point. Every player has a resting point they may build but it requires an hour to do so. So do so wisely. You will have to survive through the World Events and make it to the end! Become the Champions I know you can! You must all survive for 20 years!]

Nitro was the only one cheering!

“Oh f**k yeah!! This is going to be amazing!”

“I don’t know, man. Twenty years?! I was supposed to get married.” Power said somberly.

Lazy patted him on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry man. You’ll be sent back to the exact moment and we’ll all go to your wedding.”

“Yup. Although I still have to plan for your bachelor party”, Grimm said while laughing.

“Ah f**k,” Swift called out. “This is some donkey doo doo. Well at least we are in a game that’s fun. Welp, since we are all starting at level one. Are we still all picking the same classes we decided on?”

The group all decided to stay with the same classes they picked. Lazy stated he would roll his last to make sure everyone could fill a needed role incase he got a terrible power. The group spend the next couple of minutes picking their classes and other minor details.

SwiftCodex picked Pugilist and wanted to specialize in dual wielding two swords. NitroWarrior also went with Pugilist but was limited in his starting ranged weapons. He decided to go with a crossbow over a black powered g*n. PowerPlays wanted to specialize in the foundation and enchantment sections of the Craftsman class. Grimm settled with the Light and Dark type magic specializations in the Mage class. He wanted to have both healing magic and curse magic.

Swift pulled out his two swords and channeled his energy into his aura. Surrounding his weapons was a bright neon green aura.

“Oh s**t yeah!”

Swift quickly took off towards a tree. He jumped into the air twisting is body almost like a top spinning. With both swords he was able to cleave a tree in two!

“Oh daddy like!”

“Let me try” Nitro called out!

He then channeled his aura through to his crossbow, without a bolt, and fired off a black or his vibrant yellow aura. It struck a tree almost sounding light thunder. He fired off another handful of shots till he was able to break the tree.

“Now let’s try with a single bolt.”

He loaded a bolt and aimed at another tree. As the bolt flew through the air the aura moved from the entire bolt to just the tip. It landed in the tree with a thud. For a single second, nothing happened.

BOOOOMMM

The tree exploded, leaving a huge crater where the bolt was. The top half of the tree violently fell back to the ground.

The group all panicked and laughed at the sight they had just witnessed.

“HOLY f**k! That cost me nearly half my supply of energy! That’s great!”

Lazy picked the Esper class that showed in his hub while the others tested their powers. A bar started to spin like a slot machine for dozens of seconds before stopping.

[Esper Power: Energy Manipulation: Power Shield]

Lazy tilted his head as he read.

“What the hell is this? Power Shield? What does that mean?”

Another screen popped up in his eyes.

[Level 1 starting ability: able to create a 1x1 foot large Power Shield that is .1 inches thick]

“Ah, that explains it.”

“What did you get”, Power asked?

“I got Power Shield. I can make, I guess, force field like shields? Check it.”

Lazy extended his arm and within 2 inches of his open hand a 1x1 foot light purple Power Shield appeared. The group were slightly confused by the shield but thought of ways it could be useful.

“Let’s see how far it can go.”

Lazy focused on the shield and made it move forward. It went 15ft away from him till it stopped. He then moved it in another direction and noticed it would only go 15ft.

“Let me test how sturdy it is!”

Before Lazy could say anything, Swift poured his aura into his swords, jumped into the air and slashed down on the shield in front of Lazy.

CLANG

Swift pulled back as he landed on the ground. The Power Shield was perfectly fine without a scratch.

“Ooohhh” the group said.

“Now let me try!”

Again, before Lazy could react, Nitro readied an arrow and shot it filled with his aura into the shield. It landed and exploded, causing everyone to be pushed back from the blast wave. As they all got up to their feet, the Power Shield once again didn’t have a scratch.

“Oh, I like this” Lazy said. “I don’t think it’s a Black Listed power but it’s definitely an advanced one. Let me see what else I can do.”

“Can you spin it like a saw?!” Power chimed in.

“That’s a good idea!”

Lazy made the Power Shield start to spin before he ran close enough for a tree to be within his 15ft range. He used his arm to chop the air, having the shield follow his movement. The shield cleaning sliced through the tree at an angle. The group watched as the tree slid and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

The group was awestruck.

“That was f*****g cool” Nitro called out!

“Right?! I thought that power of yours would have been more defensive, but it looks like it’s good with both”, Power added.

Swift clapped his hands to draw everyone’s attention.

“Now that we all have our powers and have tested them. We need to figure out a game plan for the future. Do you guys remember the world events that happened? We are stuck here for five years and need to figure out what to do.”

“I remember my first event being Rising Tides. With Atlantis and Pacitis. Lazy what was before? You played this first”, Power asked.

“The first event was Crowning of the Goblin King, then Rising Tides, Wrath of the Dragons, Rift Outbreak and the final event was Crashing Stars. Granted, there were also minor events between them, but I don’t remember them all. And with this new update, I have no idea what the final world event will be.”

“If I remember, wasn’t Crashing Stars with space invaders” Nitro asked?

“Oh, I remember that! That was shitty! The moon base was fun but the invaders were tough as f**k” Power said.

“Don’t remind me. I tried to block that memory”, Swift said with a chuckle.

“Well, we all know what’s happening in the future, so we can plan. Although we have that civil war happening between the Golden Empire and the Nevu Republic,” Lazy added.

“Guys. Time out. I’m super lost right now. This is my first time and I need you all to explain”, Grimm said with minor frustration in his voice.

The rest apologized.

“I’ll explain” Lazy said.

“So when it was a game, a World Event was the major update. Something for the players to do. A minor event was something like the civil war. The Golden Empire follows their religion of Power by following Godin, the Golden War God. The Nevu Republic is a bunch of city states working together. We are on an American server which was based off of America. From California to the Rockies is the Golden Empire and the Appalachian Mountains to the coast is where the Nevu Republic is. The land between is called The Wildlands. Monsters roam and make camps. Normally, players can join a faction to help expand and eventually have a war between the two nations for one to rule. So we have to pick a side and help.”

“Well, what about this Goblin King event”, Grimm asked?

“That’s the World Event. There will be hordes of goblins moving to some random location and will migrate if this location is on a coast. So say the location is New York. Any goblin horde that lives on the other coast will travel there instinctively to witness the Crowning of the Goblin King. As players, it was our job to stop this event and slay the king or if we failed, the king would unleash his gigantic horde on the land trying to wipe out the Golden Empire and the Nevu Republic.”

“f**k. That’s a lot of info,” Grimm said.

“Don’t worry about it! Lazy likes to bombard you with information.” Swift said to Grimm.

“Ah right” Lazy said embarrassingly. “Yeah. I’ll keep a lot of information for the future. Don’t need to explode on everything now. Swift, are we going to side with the Golden Empire again?”

“Not sure. They are a bunch of religious zealots-“

“But they are more powerful and organized than the Nevu Republic” Power said, interrupting him.

“Don’t forget that the Nevu city states are at odds with each other as well,” Nitro added.

“True. I don’t know. We can let Grimm choose?”

“Oh. I have no idea. If the Golden Empire is stronger, we might as well go with them.”

“Although New York is easier to fortify and make a launching point for the next World Event” Lazy chimed in.

“Let’s figure it out one at a time-“ Swift said before pausing.

“What the f**k! I’m getting a call from someone.!