Deus Ex Machina

Chapter 9

As the day closed by Machina didn’t feel rushed at all, instead, e was much more relaxed, his job right now is to make plans of rebuilding the Junk City, though, not on a big scale but a small scale, since Junk City is full of Junk and he lacked materials to build more things.

So, in his hand was a blueprint, using the system of link, he could map the Junk City, there, Machina could see the hills of junks and how high it is, etc, Machina first plan is to clear all of these junks around the mothership and the house of the two elderly.

There are about 5 hills of junk near the mothership and 3 around the house, and all of them were above 20 meters in height which is a little hard to clear but that could be fixed soon, Machina can actually command Link or the mothership to clean all of these hills but this hills of junk can be a repeatable quest for the players.

Machina sighed as removing these hills of junks will take a lot of time, but can’t be helped as these junks are also resources, Tanaka then continued planning, he may not be an expert architect but he had learned a bit from school and he could also reference from his past life, if there is a problem, he could ask Link or Ex.

It didn’t take long for him to make the plan so after he was done, he made his way back to the mothership. Arriving at the core of the ship, Machina could see lots of blue screens around the room.

“How is it going Link?”

“Its not going so well”

“How so? Does advertisement don’t work?”

“It worked ‌well actually at first, its just that it seemed like there is some interference blocking us, and so all of our advertisements were removed”

“Is someone attacking us?”

“No, I don’t think so, it seemed like we are noticed by the system of that universe and blocked us”

“Eh? Why?”

“Its natural because we are illegally entering their systems and we are lucky that we are just getting blocked, which is good.”

“Why is it good?”

“It means that the World Laws are not really minding us entering their verse but we have to follow the rules they want if we want to stay.”

“So what are we going to do?’

“The only thing I could do now is to post it as a game and enter the game market”

“Will we still get exposure?”

“The exposure will be low because we are going to post a shell game so incoming players will be slow, not many people may believe it but I think once we got a few players then nothing really matters”

“How about the last promotion? Did we got some from that?”

“Unfortunately, everything was removed so we are back to zero”

“Do we still have the data of the players who were interested? Maybe we can send them a private message”

“I will try, I’m not sure though”

“It's good to try, at least we can still get some players”

“Okay, I will post it now”

“Okay”

“...”

-Milky Way Galaxy, Planet Earth-

In a very messy room, it was very dark but there was light in the side, a young man was furiously shaking his right hand up and down while staring at the computer, he had sticky black hair from not taking a bath for three days and a tired like expression as he haven't slept for three days.

While staring at the screen, a window suddenly popped out, which made him stop his movement, he only stared at it for 5 minutes, before turning his head and looked at his right hand.

There was a bottle in his right hand, he opened the bottle and saw that his drink has been mixed, he then turned his head and looked at the window that popped in front of him.

[You have received a message]

“A message? Who?”

The young man was confused before clicking on the window, another window appeared after he clicked the message.

[You are invited to play the very first Virtual Reality Multi Massive Online Role Playing Game, Mechamagica Online]

“Mechamagica? What a strange name for a game but a VR?... its suspicious but interesting too”

The young man didn’t enter immediately and pondered for a while, he then shook his head before opening his favorite game Val, but the moment the client of the game opened, he saw that the game was under maintenance which made him sigh.

“Well, I have free time, so I guess I might as well try that game, I won’t lose anything anyway”

He then closed the client then opened the game store and typed Mechamagica.

“Eh? Only 40 MB? Is this really a VR Game?”

He frowned when he saw that it was only 40 megabytes, this game… is it a VR pong or something? He couldn’t help but sigh another time, but just as he was about to close the game store once again, he suddenly remembered that some officials have been telling players to report fake games and they will receive compensation once confirmed.

“Might as well try”

He stretched his head before installing the game, since it was only 40 megabytes, the d******d was very fast and only took a few seconds, once done, he opened the game.

“Do I need any equipment for this?’

He was confused but when the game opened in, the first thing he saw was some kind of magical circle, he stared at it for a good few seconds before he lost his consciousness and slumping on the chair.

“....”

“Huh? Why is it so dark?”

He was confused as he looked around him, it was pure void.

Just as he was wondering of where he was, he saw that his whole surrounding started to light up and he could see a lot of screens opening up, it was very sci-fi, one of the screens extended towards in front of him and he was able to see the words on the screen and a keyboard projection emerged out from the screen..

[Please enter your game name]

Curiously, he extended his hand and caressed the keyboard, he could feel touching some kind of tile and it felt very smooth.

“Ooh, amazing! It felt so real!”

He couldn’t help but exclaim from amazement, this kind of technology is far above the VR games he have played before! He couldn’t help but get excited of what this game has to offer more.

He had already forgotten that he wasn’t using any equipment when he entered this game but anyway, he typed his desired name on the keyboard.

[IamSixty9]

[Are you sure to enter this name? Once entered, you won’t be able to change your name]

“Okay, I will change it”

[Hezalom]

[Confirm?]

“Yes”

[Naming successful, Welcome to Mechamagica Hezalom]

Once he was done naming himself, everything around Hezalom turned dark once again and the next thing he knew, he felt his body being heavy and his eyes were closed.

“What is happe-?”

He wanted to speak but he felt a little bit of water entered his mouth so he immediately closed it out, Hezalom struggled to open his eyes but once he opened it, he found himself inside a tube submerged inside a blue liquid, he couldn’t see outside the tube.

Hezalom also couldn’t move any parts of his body as if he was locked by something but he didn’t mind as a floating blue screen appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to Character Customization, You may change the appearance of your avatar here]

Then in front of him, he saw his reflection started to appear on the glass tube in front of him, his appearance was of right now was his real life appearance, handsome and sexy(Self imagination)

He found that he can alter his avatar with his mind and imagination, just imagine the appearance that he wanted and his character will automatically change.

“Let’s alter some appearance, hair color is red, bla bla bla”

Hezalom spent quite a few minutes modifying his avatar and once he was satisfied, what appeared is a badass handsome avatar wearing some kind of sci-fi tight suit, he confirmed with his mind.

[You will now be respawning in Junk City].

Once Hezalom saw the pop up message, the liquid where he was submerged started draining and he could move his body easier.

*Psshhh!

The tube opened and Hezalom stepped outside.

The first thing he saw when he stepped outside is a huge hall, it was very sci-fi that it fascinated Hezalom very much, he looked around and when he turned back, he saw the tube that he came from, it was a 3 meter tall tube, and it was not the only one, there are about 50 more of those and from what he could see, all of those were still empty.

Just as he was wondering of what to do, a floating screen appeared in front of him.

[Quest: Make your way out of the Mothership and meet up with the Town’s Chief Machina]

[Description: Follow the signs to reach your destination, the map function is also available for use]

[Follow the instructions to summon the map]

Hezalom was an experience gamer so he knew the functions of the map, he then saw a screen appeared in front of him.

[To summon the map, you have snap two times]

“Snap two times? Wow, this is different from other games”

Hezalom followed the instructions and snapped his finger two times, after he snapped, a huge screen appeared in front of him, it was the map of the mothership.

“Hmm, this ship is pretty big, I want to go around it but I guess I must do the quest first, so I’m here at the Recruit Chambers, hmm, straight then left, fairly easy”

Hezalom left the room, as he walked, he curiously touched everything around he couldn’t believe how real it was, this was more real than real life, he also touched his body and it was no different from human body, it also functions the same, he could smell, he could taste, he could hear just fine, Hezalom didn’t regret trying to play this game! it didn’t take long for him to reach the door leading outside,

“Okay then, let’s see what is outside”

Hezalom stepped in front of the door and it automatically opened, what greeted outside is… pile of junks, a hill of junks, he couldn’t help but stare at the hill of junk in front of him, it took him quite a while to shake out from his daze.

“Well… it certainly is a junk city, hmm, the smell of oil and rotting garbage… thankfully, I don’t find it that unpleasant”

Hezalom didn’t feel uncomfortable with the smell thankfully, he stepped down from the mothership and curiously looked around, other than pile of garbage and junks, there is nothing to see, he then turned his head and looked at the mothership.

“This is a spaceship! I thought it was a boat or either an airplane wow!”

He couldn’t help but get surprised once again, but he couldn’t help but wonder why this out of place spaceship is placed in this place full of junks.

“Maybe I can get information from the NPC’s, lets do the quest for now”

Hezalom opened the map once again and this time, it showed the map of the Junk City.

“Hmm, the NPC is quite close, though, it might take a few minutes”

Hezalom then made his way towards his quest.

“...”

Machina was sitting in his workshop as usual but he didn’t work that hard since he just received a message from Link that the first player had come and was on his way towards him, and so while waiting, Machina decided to flex his battlesuit and pretend he was fixing it.

And it didn’t take long for the player to appear, but Machina pretended he didn’t see the player and continued working.

“Eh? How do I talk to an NPC?”

“Huh? Who is there?”

Machina(acting) turned his head when he heard a voice and when he looked behind him, he saw an unfamiliar face.

“Oh? Welcome an Eternal One”

“W-whoa, he looks so real!”

“Eh? What do you mean? I’m very real! Anway, my name is Machina, the … Chief of this Junk City”

“Ah! Yes, sorry about that, my name is Hezalom, I came here just today”

Hezalom felt excited as the NPC in front of him was like a real person! 

‘Seriously! This VR game rocks!’