Knights & Mages Online; The Lightnovel

Chapter 2 "The Death Game"

Seth was killing a group of mobs aka Cursed Ducks with her small hunting knife when she heard the announcement;
"All players please gather around the nearest Fountain to you. There will be an announcement from our founder Lee KyungJae. All players please gather around the nearest Foun..."
Seth put her wooden staff and knife back to her items then, after she collected her loots, she started to walk back to the nearest fountain to her.
When she arrived the city center, she saw that there were already thousands of people in there. She looked around to see if she knew someone, people were talking with each other.
"Wow, I didn't know there were THAT many people in here." a boy who looked like he didn't get much sleep said to his friends.
"Well, obviously. I waited in that damn line for 6 hours." one of his friends, a girl with seaweed green hair, dark purple shirt and round silver glasses complained.
"Yeah! I waited about that much too!" agreed another one with.. cat ears..?
'Well, lucky you..' Seth thought and looked somewhere else. This time she spotted 4 players, 2 guys and 2 girls talking.
"Wondering what the creator will tell us." a guy said, smirking.
"Probably a welcome speech." other one offered. Seth couldn't help but chuckling his Player ID: TheKingOfHell.
"Do we have to hear the speech? We should go to the Beginners' Forest and level up." the emo looking girl, who had a lollipop in her mouth (where did she get that much money so quick to buy herself one) said while the shorter, long pink haired girl was giggling.
"He might give us some tips for the game though." 1st guy commented again.
'Oh, he won't..' Seth pouted when she remembered what kind of a person Mr. Lee was. As she was deep in thoughts, city lights suddenly got shut down.
"What the Hell?!" someone shouted.
"What happened?" another person asked around.
"Is everyone okay?"
"Did we crashed the game?"
Then when couple of red lights dropped from the sky, a cloaked person appeared as a projected image. His ID was Kami-sama. The God.
'Really, Mr. Lee? Such arrogance..'
"Welcome, brave Knights and powerful Mages! I'm your Kami-sama, the Creator of All.  Are you all having fun?"
While the light turned back on, the crowd filled the city with cheers and whistles with joy.
"That's good, that's good. So, let me give you a little briefing;
The world you're in is called Savillon, which consists of 101 main floating islands.
On each island, there are couple of large cities along with few more small scale towns, villages, forests plains and lakes.
Only ONE Island Gate link each island to another and those gates exist beyond the Boss Room of each Dungeon.
The City teleportation Gates of every unlocked cities are connected to one another. You're currently in the first island of Savillon, a main island called Ailana..."
As 'Kami-sama' explained the basic stuff, carefully, not giving any tips just like Seth guessed, Seth took a look around her. Some people weren't listening as well, probably other Beta Players. Seth noticed a girl saying 'Goodbye' to her friend who was one of the non-listeners;
"Haa.. It's already 18:15.. It's dinner time at my home. I gotta go~"
"Don't worry~ I gotta go back soon too. See ya later!"
The girl clicked her Settings then went to the Log Out section but even though she clicked the 'Check' button, she couldn't proceed. The 'Check' which should've been neon blue was clearly grey.
"Huh? It's weird. I can't confirm my Log Out."
"Really? Try Account Settings."
"I've already checked."
"Me neither, it must've been a bug." another friend of hers stated.
"Are you sure you two are doing it right?.. Wait.. Mine is also grey. Eeeh..!"
"What? Are we really gonna wait until someone takes off the Headset?!"
"Oh right! We'll be alright if dad just takes off the Headset." her friend laughed, "He should be home soon."
'Bzzt!'
Behind those, another person was standing. Out of nowhere he started to scream, holding both sides of his head like he's in extreme pain, fell onto his knees and black cracks covered his body and face while the 'Game Over' tag appeared above him. Then.. he thrown into pieces.
People around the vanished player started murmuring before it happened again.. and again.
Seth turned to Kami-sama with widened eyes. She was about to say something but another person cut-in;
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"
Kami-sama stopped his briefing and sighed;
"Ah. I was getting there actually." he took a short pause before continuing, "There's no getting out of the Savillon in this moment. I disabled all log out actions after you all logged in today. Also there won't be any new logins since the game is already sold out.
And if someone tries to take off your Headset, or it runs out of the battery etc., your brain will be burned down by the set. Poof, toast."
'What.. It can't be..'
Wave of panic hit hard to the crowd; the crying and screaming, booing and yelling..
A couple of monitors appeared around Kami-sama as more people screamed and cracked in pieces.
"Look, those people who'd just died are on the news~! We gained international attention, don't you think?" he grinned.
News from all different countries were on the monitors. Crying parents and people who were still wearing the headset getting into ambulances.. News headlines were endless;
Seth thought she saw herself getting in an ambulance for a second, not sure if she'd imagined it or not. Then the monitors disappeared.
There was a dead-silence until Kami-sama broke it;
"The good news is.. there IS one way of getting out. If you defeat the Boss on the 100th main island, you'll all be logged out automatically due to finishing the game. Well, I mean the ones who are still alive by that time. The thing is, If you get killed in the game, you'll be dead for real, a strong electromagnetic pulse will be emitted from the Headset and fry your brain.
  On top that, unfortunately, not all of you are equals. Besides from the random rank system, there are also 20.000 Beta Players among you. They know most of the maps, tricks and weaknesses of some Mobs and Bosses. Plus, they've been given Legendary Items Gift Boxes in return of their help in Beta Test.
'This is bad,' Seth thought, 'if they find out that I was a Beta Player, they can see me as a threat and come after me or at least my items.'
  "But FIRST, let's put all the seriousness behind for a second. I want to show you something." Kami-sama clapped his hands twice and all the players started to glow, then their looks changed into..
"You'd all been scanned once you put the Headset on so, these are your real looks, am I wrong?" he asked.
"Oi! I thought you were a girl!" a ginger teen exclaimed to a blonde boy who was wearing a female gear, looking quite disturbed.
"A-and you're an old man.. you said you were 18!"
"Kray..? But you are.."
"OHMYGOD! Aren't you Song Kiseung from AoS?!"
"AoS?"
"What? An Idol?"
"Seriously.."
"I've heard he was a gamer.."
"I thought this way it would be more.. realistic, considering everything. Anyways enough about that!" Kami-sama shouted. Everyone turned to look at him again with fear on their eyes. He ignored the looks and started searching through the crowd while muttering;
"Where is my Winner.. Let's see~" in an audible voice.
Seth felt the tension grew all over her body. Then as soon as their eyes locked;
"There she is!" laughed Kami-sama.
  As he was lifting his hand, Seth felt she was also being lifted from the ground. She was trying so hard to stay calm.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you; Sethstiel, The Winner of the Knights and Mages Online Beta!"
'So much for staying hidden.' She knew everyone was looking at her.
"You didn't even change your ID Sethstiel! So, tell me how is my favorite player doing? Are you shocked? Scared?" he grinned.
"Just fine." she managed to say while looking directly at Kami-sama's light blue eyes. His hair was long, reaching his waist and the same color as Sethstiel's former dark purple. He was tall, had fair skin and long white cloak with golden features. He was literally saying he had the power in here just with his looks. It was terrifying.
"Haa~h! Just as I expected from The Winner. You're really.. something. I wonder if you'll also be able to finish this one.. or get hunted by the players. What do you think?"
"I'll be okay-"
"- OR- or are you gonna be a Red-Player?!" he interrupted her with a loud laughter while Seth wrinkled her face in disgust.
Red-Player meant a player who's a Player-Killer. But for this game it meant a killer for real since the players'd die if you kill them in the game.
"Since you're the most powerful player currently.. You know.. being both Knight AND Mage at the same time is pretty adventurous."
People who beneath her started to murmur.
"Well, we'll see I guess." he let go of Seth and she fell on the ground. As soon as she touched the ground an item appeared in her bag.