Cursed Earth Online (First Cycle)

1: Beginning of the End

The street was festive and everywhere, there were posters and stalls filled with merchandise advertising the 5th year Anniversary of PSEUDO Inc's game; Cursed Earth Online.

And as with most sensations of the world, dark rumors also surrounded it.

"The Ragtimer", a supposed entity that caused the recent deaths of the numerous missing players during its "Patch Periods".

Supposedly, these players would disappear right after receiving a free update chip for the game known as "The Invitation".

The chip, unlike most of the games updates, would come unmarked and often the only clue to it would be the piece of paper that came with it; the dead give away would be that instead of it coming from "PSEUDO Inc", it would say that it would come from "The Ragtimer".

As of now, there are currently no confirmed reports of these supposed chips and also no confirmed reports of players going missing or receiving any of these free chips.

The dirty blond boy waited in the cafe as he enjoyed a strawberry parfait, wearing the holographic costume that his in-game avatar used along with his username (Slitheen3) floating right above his head as he finished reading the article.

A pair of night-vision goggles adorned his face as well as two Chinese hook swords hung from his waist with a circular blade serving as his belt buckle and bandages around both his arms; a Denizen-aligned avatar that a lot of players would easily spot.

Though only holograms, the circular blade and the hook swords felt real to the touch, well at least to Slith's hands. Anyone else that touched the weapons would cause their hands to go through the projected image.

Across his table were a pair of brothers, both brown-skinned and had almost identical features; one of them was tall and wore a grey winter coat that was probably also holographic while the younger one wore a simple white dress-shirt and looked to be around ten or eleven years old.

"Here you go Jamie, a strawberry parfait", the older brother said as he gave the glass to his little brother.

Moments like these, Slith was jealous; he was the youngest in his family and always wanted his own little brother.

"Looks like I'm the first one to arrive, Slith", came the gruff familiar voice of one of the people he came to meet up with as the boy turned around and found a man wearing military attire with a purple beret and handkerchief covering his face along with the username (Joseph0014) above his head.

"It's just you, Joe?", Slith asked as the other nodded, causing the dirty blond boy to sigh.

"Sorry we're late!" two voices said in unison just a few moments after the soldier's arrival; one wearing a black hoodie with the hood covering her face and another wearing black leather and a hockey mask over her face.

"Vetalyni and yours truly, ThatClassicLady have arrived!" the girl in the hockey mask said proudly as the red usernames above their heads made people passing by look at them and with good reason; they were red players; people who targeted other players in-game and also were quite notorious in-game.

Here, however, they were Slith and Joe's old friends. Well, friends might be going a little too far.

They were more like casual acquaintances in the game that have more than once, assisted with his quests and fights.

"Vee, Lady; we've missed you guys", the guy in the military attire told his friends as they also took their seats in the same table and started rifling through the shopping bags they had.

"It might be a bit early, but Merry Christmas guys!" Vetalyni said as she handed Joe his gift and Lady handed Slith one as well.

"You guys do know it's only September right?" Joe began to say while he nonchalantly opened the small box in front of him.