New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Although the insult stung him a little, Khalor only showed disappointment. He wanted to make himself feel above the others, but Astaroth saw through him.

"Tch! You\'re no fun."

Khalor walked down the two steps to the dais and sat on the last one. The other officers gathered around him, so he needn\'t shout.

"Okay. Here\'s what I can tell you about the incoming update. First, the first player to reach level fifty will get a special item that will help in the rest of the game going onwards."

Phoenix interrupted.

"What kind of item? Is that why you were trying to reach level fifty before anyone else?"

"Please don\'t interrupt me… It\'s an item that will be needed, to beat back what\'s coming. It doesn\'t need to go to me, but I mainly wanted to make sure the one that reached level fifty the first last time doesn\'t get it again. It\'s wasted on him."

"Can you describe what it does, at least?" Astaroth asked.

"Sure. It\'s an amulet. And it will be needed to seal away the first wave that will strike at the world."

The other officers thought he meant New Eden, but three of them knew better. Astaroth, Phoenix, and Violette understood the importance of such an item.

"It is an item that is best used by someone who can wield holy mana, so I think it would be best if kiddo over here got it."

Saying that, Khalor pointed at Silent Light. That suddenly put the teenager under the spot, and he loved it.

Plus, the prospect of saving the world appealed strongly to his chuunibyou brain. He would gladly take on the role of saviour.

"But that isn\'t the most important part. The reason I brought you down here to close this rift was something else entirely. The update will hit New Eden with a time skip, and leaving that here, to fester, would have been bad for us if we want to keep the base."

Astaroth looked puzzled. By the looks of it, the red tear could have been there for a while, before the miasma reached anywhere near the surface.

And there was no way to know what it would do once it got into contact with the natives. But it wouldn\'t be before a long time had passed.

Looking at Khalor, he asked what was on everyone\'s mind.

"How long of a time skip?"

Khalor looked at him gravely.

"Ten years. Long enough for these things to settle in and open up for real. That is when the next patch brings us to. That is why we needed to close this one."

They sucked breaths of air all around. Ten years was a long time, and many things could happen in such a period.

All of them were wondering what the game world would look like ten years from now. But something else was troubling Astaroth\'s mind.

If Khalor\'s information was right, and his observations concurred, then how would the game advance ten years without them going forward at the same time?

Khalor saw the silent question in his eyes and shook his head slightly. He immediately sent Astaroth a private message.

\'We will discuss this away from all of them. They don\'t need to know, yet. I also don\'t know which one of them I can trust just yet.\'

Astaroth nodded ever so slightly, his move escaping everyone else\'s attention. Khalor then resumed his explanation.

"When the first player to reach level fifty does so, a counter for twenty-four hours will start. Once it reaches zero, the system will forcefully log every player out of New Eden, and the game will be offline for a week."

"Speaking of which, shouldn\'t we give out that level soon, before another guild does it before us?" Violette asked.

Phoenix agreed with her statement, and looked at Khalor, who only shrugged. Seeing he didn\'t have any objections, she opened the interface and went to the guild tab.

In that tab, she tapped the Exp vault icon. From there, she could select a player in the guild, and give them Exp.

She asked Silent Light for his missing amount to reach level fifty, and he replied, \'All of it.\'

Since they had locked the gained Exp from the war, and he had already been at zero Exp in level forty-nine, he was missing the whole amount.

She rapidly scanned her own Exp bar and sent the amount at the end to Silent Light. As he received it and levelled up, a world announcement resounded.

*Congratulations to the player Silent Light for reaching the level 50 milestone first! Silent Light will be awarded 5000 world reputation points, and a special item for his achievements!*

***

Across the world of New Eden, a certain gnome was just reaching his base, where he was about to give himself all the Exp accumulated in his vault that he could spare. The rest would go to bringing his members back to their previous levels.

When he heard the notification resound, his mind went blank before he exploded with anger.

"Who the fuck is Silent Light! Fuck him and Fuck Paragons! FUUUUCK!!!"

Now, even if he dumped all the Exp on himself, it wouldn\'t matter. He had lost this achievement to a no-name player. Azamus was enraged beyond compare, and furniture flew around in his office, shattering against the walls.

He felt like everyone in New Eden was trying to screw him over at every turn of the game, and it was rubbing him the wrong way. He would have stopped playing this stupid game already if his sponsors didn\'t have him by the balls.

***

Back in the tree palace\'s hidden basement, a shiny box the size of a jewel box had just appeared above Silent Light\'s hands. As he grabbed it, it stopped shining.

He couldn\'t wait to open it and scan its contents. But he controlled his eagerness, waiting for Khalor to finish his little expose on the update coming in twenty-four hours.

The ghastly man nodded at him in approval.

"Now. Where was I? Ah, yes. The ten-year time skip."