n

n

n1178 The Day of Release

nEarth, Year 22XX.

nBeep! Beep! Beep!

n“Mmh…”

nInside a small apartment, a young man began to toss and turn as the alarm beside his bed went off.

nFrowning from the noise it was making, he eventually let out a sigh of relief after he was able to snooze the alarm, allowing him to return to his rightful slumber not even a minute later.

n…Beep! Beep! Beep!

nYet, as if the world was conspiring against the young man, the alarm began to resound throughout the room once more, causing irritation to appear on his face.

nIn the end, the young man got out of bed after snoozing the alarm a few more times, being reminded that he was the one who made the alarm go off that many times in the first place.

n“Wait… why did I set it so early again?” Muttering these words to himself, the young scratched the back of his head for a bit as he gave his mind the time it needed to fully rouse itself from slumber.

nAfter that, he opened his phone, only to pause as he took notice of the date that was written on the screen.

n“Ah… right,” said the young man to himself, deciding to finally go through his usual routine after being reminded of what prompted him to wake up so early.

n“Today’s the day Greater Beyond finally releases.”

n…

n“Now let’s see…” By the time he was done with his usual morning routine, the young man proceeded to head to the kitchen to fix up a bit of breakfast for himself.

nOpening up his refrigerator, a wry smile soon appeared on his face after noticing that there was not much left inside. “A few slices of bread and a couple of eggs…”

n“Well, definitely better than nothing.”

nGrabbing the remaining items in his refrigerator, the young man went ahead and utilized his amateur cooking skills to its limits as he opened up his laptop on the side.

nThen, with a short voice command, he opened up the TV, introducing a bit of noise into the previously quiet room.

n“Mr. Silvers! As the CEO of Blackflower Company, what can you say about the excitement everyone is showing around your company’s new game?”

n“Hahaha. Well… what can I say? I guess I’m really glad that everyone is more than eager to hop into the world we’ve honed and polished all this time.”

n“Indeed. Almost every store that has your company’s game in stock has people lining up at its entrances for minutes on end. We’ve even heard that some stores have lines that go on for hours!”

n“Hours? If that’s the case, I’d suggest they order it online, then. After all, Greater Beyond could also be bought through our official digital channels. There’s no need for a physical copy whatsoever.”

n“That’s what I did, actually. However, I’ve heard that those who get a physical copy of the game would receive a small bag of goodies once they enter the game for the first time?”

n“But of course. We don’t want people to think that all the waiting they’ve done was for nothing, after all.”

n“Well, you’ve heard it here, folks. This is Antoine Caelius from Second Reality News, keeping you up to date with information on Greater Beyond.”

n“…I guess everyone’s waiting to get their hands on the game.” By the time the show was finished with its current segment, the young man was finished fixing up a plate for himself.

nMoving closer to where the TV was, he brought over the plate of food, as well as the laptop he opened before digging into his breakfast with great gusto.

n“As far as I know, there’s still an hour or so before Greater Beyond goes on sale.” Finishing his breakfast within a matter of minutes, the young man soon went ahead and opened up his e-mail, only to open one up that brought a smile to his face.

n“I knew it was the right decision to sign up to their mailing list beforehand.” Seeing that he received an e-mail from the company itself in advance regarding the sale of the game, he went ahead and clicked on the link attached to it, changing the contents on his screen to that of a typical website for online shopping.

nHowever, unlike the other online shopping sites he’d gone through, the site in front of the young man only sold a single product to its customers.

nOf course, that product was none other than Greater Beyond.

n“…” Seeing that there was still over half an hour before Greater Beyond was available to purchase on the site, the young man decided to pass the time by watching a bit more television, keeping himself up to date on information regarding the game.

nConsidering the fact that there were those who were able to play the game during its closed beta, it was no surprise that a list of basic information was compiled by the various shows, telling those that were tuned in all they needed to know to get started.

nSwitching through a few more channels after some time, the young man soon noticed that almost every channel was covering the release of the game, prompting him to return his attention to his laptop at some point.

n“There’s still a minute left.” Letting out a wide sigh of relief after realizing he hadn’t missed the exact time the game went on sale, the young man decided to shift his attention away from the TV for a while.

nAfter all, seeing as almost everyone wanted to get their hands on the game as much as possible, it went without saying that he’d be fighting against thousands of other people to get his hands on the game itself.

n“3… 2… 1…”

n“Now!”

nWith the timer on the site finally gone, he went ahead and hastily refreshed the site, only to then furiously click on the Buy button as if his life highly depended on it.

nSeeing that the game had been added to his cart, the young man felt as if the heavens were finally shining down on him, letting out a hearty laughter as he proceeded to checkout.

nHowever, just as he was about to input his credentials to finally secure his own copy of the game, a line of text appeared on the screen that immediately caused the young man’s excitement to fall to rock bottom.

n“Sold… out?”

n“That can’t be… right?” Skeptical of the text on his screen, the young man proceeded to return to the previous page before adding the game to his cart once more.

nYet, just like before, he was met with the same line of text once he tried to head to checkout.

nContinuing to do the same thing a few more times after that, it was only then did the young man accept his current situation, spewing out a long string of profanities as a way to vent his anger.

n“Damn those **ty bot users…” As these words left his mouth, the young man soon took in a few deep breaths to calm himself down before proceeding to search for other places where he could buy a copy of the game.

n“With the closest physical store being over an hour away from where I am, there’s no way I’m heading out right now,” said the young man to himself as a slight frown began to appear on his face.

n“Let alone the wait times… the chances of me heading there, only to find out they’ve run out of stock is incredibly high.”

nWith that in mind, the young man set his sights on the various online shopping sites, knowing that they’d cash in on the excitement Greater Beyond generated during the past couple months.

n“Sold out… out of stock… unavailable…” Unfortunately, no matter how many online shopping sites he went through, the young man was unable to find one that still had a copy of the game in stock.

nRealizing that he had to get his hands dirty, the young man let out a low sigh before entering a site that he considered as the very last site anyone like him would enter. S~eaʀᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

n“…Those goddamn scalpers.”

nTrying his best to keep himself composed, the young man went ahead and looked up if there were copies of Greater Beyond on sale, only to find multiple copies of the game by the hundreds.

nSeeing that many of them were charging a price that was at least three times as much as the original price, the young man gradually began to feel an urge to punch the laptop in front of him.

nThough, in the end, he was able to calm himself down, allowing him to find a copy of the game that had the lowest price among them not long after.

nGetting a confirmation a minute or so later that the copy he ordered was finally on its way to him, the young man let out a wide sigh of relief, only to then rub his hands in excitement.

n“I made sure to pick the fastest delivery option so I could get my hands on it as quickly as possible.” Checking on the receipt he received through e-mail, the young man began to wonder how much time it would take for him to get his hands on the copy.

nFortunately, a bit of searching around was more than enough for him to find the answer to his question… though he began to furiously scratch the back of his head because of it.

n“Tomorrow? The earliest time I’ll be able to get it is tomorrow?”

nAt that realization, the young man let out a sigh once more.

n“I really hope there’s a way to earn money in this game,” murmured the young man as he resigned himself to his fate.

n“…With how much money I spent on this copy alone, I don’t know if I’ll even be able to eat next month.”

n“Now that I think about it… would I even be able to pay for utilities this month?”

nShaking his head for a bit to discard the thoughts plaguing his mind for the meantime, the young man decided to shift his focus back to the TV in front of him.

nGoing through a few of the channels that were doing a live broadcast of the game’s release, he eventually stopped on a channel that seemed to have gained early access to the game itself.

n“This is Antoine Caelius from Second Reality News, bringing you live into Veldanyr, one of the starter worlds Greater Beyond has to offer.”

n“Huh. They upgraded the graphic quality from the beta.” Wanting to make the most of his time while waiting for the copy to arrive, the young man decided to collect a bit of information on the game, hoping to use it to get a head start once he arrived.

n“As you can see, all of the players are in the process of familiarizing themselves with their current surroundings. The sight should be no surprise to all of you, considering the various True Immersion VRMMORPGs that have appeared through the years.”

n“However, we won’t be focusing on any of that for today.”

n“Instead, here at Second Reality News, we’ll be giving you firsthand access to the latest information we’ve received on the game.”

n“With that being said, we’ve received reports of a unique NPC staying in Daffors Village, one of the starter villages players of the game could choose.”

n“But the question now is… why is the unique NPC staying in such a village?”

n“Let’s find out, shall we?”

nAnd with this, Volume 3 has officially begun.

nHonestly, this is one of the longest chapters I’ve written for the novel so far. Nevertheless, it gives you a good idea of what to expect for the volume.

nAs well as what not to expect, probably.

nHope you enjoyed the chapter! If you did, please vote for the novel with your power stones and golden tickets! I’d highly appreciate it!

nAlso, join the Discord: .gg

/FU7fdYwaau

nHope to see you there!

nTrueDawn

nSearch the ηovёlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

n