Project Athena: Dawn of War Season 1

New Game, New Beginning

Dana

I walked while being filled with amazement of the place. It was pretty simplistic and neat, but the fountain in the middle was made of pure gold with jewels under the pool. The golden fountain reflected golden light illuminating the rest of the room, which was basically empty save for the fountain. Golden rays of light forming a hologram compensated for the emptiness quite literally.

The golden hologram light displayed trees and other vegetation. Even an evening sky was emulated with thin wispy clouds in it. The texture of the grass was accurate down to the very last detail, except it was gold. They didn't flicker when people touched them, rather they moved as if they were the real thing. If I remembered correctly, Wylver referred to them as holograms with motion detection system. Nerd stuff. Nevertheless, the technology was still impressive.

"I wonder how much this tech costed them." I tried to start a conversation, but Wylver was still pissed about the event at the festival. It was pretty embarassing after all. Even I would have melted if faced with such humiliation, but I doubted that Wylver would appreciate the extra push down.

"If my calculations are right, then I would say it costs about a hundred million tokens." Elrin also awed at the wonder before him.

His friend loosened up a bit about their own failure when they saw Wylver's. Creating an explosion is one thing, completely destroying a city is another. —It actually sounded cooler when it was phrased like that, like a villain annihilating the city, but it wasn't as cool when it was unintentional. Yet, Maeve wasn't the talkative type, so Elrin just kept talking to me since they got inside the building.

"Wouldn't it be awesome if someone created a holographic device than can be controlled mentally?" Elrin asked, but it was more of a question to himself.

"I would love a holographic bar where I could see what the customers do with the holograms, then use that information to blackmail them into giving me money.," I jested, but Elrin seemed to have taken it seriously.

"You run an extortion racket?" Elrin's face tried to hide his terror, but his eyes betrayed him.

"Relax. I'm a good girl." I picked up a candy wrapper. "See?"

I tossed the wrapper to someone's head, but instead it missed and fell on the ground.

"Anyway, do you really think they'd give us that much money just for playing a game?" I gazed at the crystals in the pool.

"I think so? I heard that they are using the game to create an even more advance artificial intelligence, one that can think like a human but is a hundred times smarter. They are using the players to create out-of-pattern events to see how the people inside the game would react. I think they will pay, but they will only keep us until the research is successful, so not a good idea for a regular job—wait, you aren't planning on stealing those, are you?" Elrin was interrupted when he noticed me staring longingly at the expnsive jewels.

"What? Of course not..." I took a second, then turned quickly. "Maybe."

"I better hope you don't. They wouldn't be one of the best innovators and tech giants if they couldn't install a few security cameras." He pointed at drones soaring in the artificial sky barely recognizable due to their abysmal size.

"I could still those drones instead. Imagine if you could get your hands on one of those."

Elrin scratched his chin, as if also contemplating the possibility of taking the piece of technology. "Perhaps, I could make a scout drone out of it or even use it to extend the range of my neurotransmitter, but Exodus might not be fond of its workers stealing."

"You said they only intend to keep us till they finish their research. Maybe we could still them after."

"Really, you're just gonna rob these people blind?" Maeve finally spoke, motioning to the other security drones.

"Maybe we could use your friend's EMP to disable them?" Elrin looked at Wylver, who groaned at the mention of his device. "Or not."

"Hold on, no one is stealing anything from anyone." Maeve stepped in while partially raising her hands.

"Come on, it'll be fun." I purred.

"It's just a joke Maeve. You don't need to be serious all the time."

"Yeah, judging by your look, I thought that you'd be more of the rebellious type." I looked at Maeve's ripped jeans and punky leather jacket covering her purple shirt.

Maeve crossed her arms. "Rebellious?"

"Yeah, like the adventurous type?" I walked as the crowd started moving again.

"You do look rebellious." Elrin agreed.

"No I don't."

"Then why the punky leather jacket? I slipped as I said those words, stepping on the same wrapper that I threw earlier.

Elrin made a pained expression when he saw me fell on the ground, but Maeve seemed to ignore my clumsiness.

"It provides decent protection against fire and low-voltage electricity, and even knives if people still used those."

"I don't see how torn jeans protect you from anything other than looking neat and clean."

"It has sentimental value. It gives me lots of memories," Maeve protested.

"Why don't we make more memories to add to that collection then?" I made two finger guns and narrowed her eyes as she stood up.

Maeve's eyes widened in confusion.

"Dude, that's cringe, and that's something coming from me." Elrin scratched his head.

The conversation—an my moment of awkwardness—was cut short when we reached the other room.

It appeared that we weren't the only group participating since dozens of groups of the same size as ours started coming out of the other doors. They easily amounted to nearly a hundred thousand. To think that only five hundred of them would be selected, we really had a slim chance of making it.

The first one to attract attention was the enormous globe glowing with blue light at the center of the room taking over half of the space, and that was saying something since the room itself was the size of a football stadium. Instead of showing the continents of the Earth, it showed different land masses. It might be the world where the game takes place. To create a game world of this scale was no basic feat.

Lining up the walls were several levels of floors, each of them containing rows of semi-cylindrical human-sized apparatus, probably the stations where the players will stand and enter the game world.

The room also had holograms like the previous room, but less. They were only for utilities and not for design.

In front of the oversized globe was a man with long white beard. One would mistake him for a wizard from the game if it weren't for his white-striped blue tuxedo. He stood on a platform elevated a few inches of the ground as if it was floating.

"Magnetism." Elrin noticed her looking curiously at the platform. "The opposites attract, the likes repel."

The man in front cleared his throat. "Normally, I would start announcing the details myself, but since here in Exodus Inc. we keep evolving like our ape ancestors..."

"I stand on the belief that we are actually artificially created organisms manufactured in a lab by a group of a superior race of aliens who are so advanced in the concept of genetics." Elrin whispered, but Maeve shushed him.

"We will give you these neurolink headgears that will connect your mind with the artificial intelligence system called ATHENA. You will gain access to all the information you need." He motioned for the staff to hand everyone their own devices.

I took one from the staff. "Wait, isn't this like that wireless controller helmet that you use on that robot?"

Elrin studied the headgear. "Neurotransmitter helmets are old news, thoug I'd admit that the design looked a bit like ours." He shrugged. "Probably just a coincidence?"

I wore the device and a holographic screened popped in front of me, as was the same for everyone judging from their looks of surprise, though only they could seem to see their own screens.

I touched the screen and it responded. It showed a menu of options.

I pressed the overview, which I scrolled past quicklly as soon as I realized that it was just some history of the device and sort of stuff.

Tutorial.

The pods will transmit your conciousness to the game system through a neurotransmitter like how you are accessing this device. This will allow for controlling your in-game body with your mind just like how you are doing it with your physical body, putting away the need for contollers.

The system has reached the point of advancement where you can control every bit of muscle of your character, making your movements more fluid and natural.

The system will also transmit feelings felt in-game INCLUDING pain. This is a necessary part of the research, so it cannot be removed. You will not receive injuries in the real-world by geting it in the virtual world, but the pain can temporarily remain as a kind of phantom pain, though this does not last for more than a week.

Your attributes and physical characteristics in the real-wolrd will reflect on your attributes and characteristics in the virtual world. For example, if you are a strong handsome man in the real-world, you might be a strong handsome elf in the virtual world.

Your attributes will have an effect on the race and character background that you will be given, but it is mostly random and picked by our system. If you are ugly, then you might get a race with an ugly face. Laugh emojis.

Only races that highly resembled humans are available as to avoid encountering problems. As stated, your look in the real-world is also going to be your look in the virtual world with minor changes. Altering it too much can cause errors in the system.

Your race will enhance your attributes. For example, being an elf increases your agility further if you are already an agile person.

Attributes. Like most games, you will have attributes including the ability to level them up. There countless attributes reflecting real-world abilities, but the main ones are: Strength, Dexterity, Perception, Wisdom, Intelligence, Constitution, and Charisma. Knowledge in fields such as magic can also be learned. The rate which you learn things is based on specific attributes.

Objectives.

You are not a member yet. You will be after you past the initial test by completing the objective given.

You will be divided into groups of two, but it is not forbidden to team up with other groups.

For this test, you are tasked to retrieve a ring from a centaur. In case of a group having more than two members, each duo will still need their own ring. A centaur herd will be located in four days travel from the starting location. From which direction, the players should figure out on their own. Everyone will be given a week to finish the task, else they will be considered as failing the test and will be asked to leave.

Your choices will affect events in the virtual world. You are encouraged to do so, but focus on the objectives.

More objectives will be given after passing the test.

World lore.

The screen presented snippets of information about the world's locations, monsters, history and other important information. The snippet of informaton expanded into a whole screen when pressed, showing a more detailed information.

The screen ended abruptly as the announcer cleared his throat yet again. "Time is up. We now ask you to get into your designated pods."

The number 7999 appeared in front of me along with a line of blue light seemingly leading me towards my destination. I followed the path laid in front of me and was surprised when Wylver followed me. "Headed in the same direction?"

Wylver nodded. "8000"

"7999." I grinned. "I guess we're still partners after all."

"The numbers might not be exactly a hundred thousand, you know." Wylver climbed up the stairs into the row of pods.

"Well, there's only one way to find out." I stepped inside the pod. It closed with a barrier of light.

The space was a tight fit. I wondered how larger people fit.

I rested on the cushion provided for players to lay back on. My headgear automatically linked with the pod's system as soon as I rested her head.

The surroundings shook, then flickered. Soon, it became a flash of light.

When I opened my eyes, the light pierced through them, but it wasn't from the pod. It was more natural, like the sun.

I looked at my surroundings. I was in a medieval town, as usual in fantasy games. The streets were bustling with people wearing fancy noble clothes both walking and being carried on carriages pulled by horses.

I looked at myself. I was wearing a dress typical of a noble of that era, though the lack of fashion ornaments suggested that I was on the lower-end of the nobility class, yet still a noble. That's better than being some lowly peasant plowing the fields of a slave working in the mines.

A stats screen appeared in front of me, just like how the menu from before did.

Stats:

Name: Danara Selville

Race: Fairy

Sex: Female

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual

Social Class: Lower Nobility

Noble House: Satravon

Attributes:

Strength: 2

Dexterity:-2

Perception: 5

Wisdom: 3

Intelligence: 2

Charisma: 4

Constitution: 1

*Note: Level zero is the average stat of a person. One level above is better than average, one level lower is worse.

Skills

Mechanic: 2

Equipment:

Fairy Wand

Fairy Dust

Amulet of the Forest

50 gold

30 silver

Group 3500th

The screen closed. I pouted at seeing my dexterity to negative two. I was that clumsy.

"Hey," a voice called from behind.

Wylver wore a merchant's outfit, meaning that he was a class lower than me but probably has more money. This annoyed me as I valued money more than silly class systems. At his side was a longsword. "Group 3500th."