It seemed like the air stopped moving when he heard those words, and he turned to face the man who had spoken. Koenig was steadily staring ahead, looking at nothing in particular.
“But — but monsters don't exist!” Mikel screamed the words out, panic filling his voice. “They never have!”
“Have you ever heard of No Blessed?” Sean asked quietly, interrupting him.
Praise flinched when she heard those words.
Mikel stopped his shouting. “The video game?” he asked warily.
Sean nodded.
“Yes,” Mikel answered, internally pulling up data on the topic. “In spring last year, Nuroh began releasing special scenes of a promising game that would blow off the charts, one that would take gaming to another level. But soon after, they suddenly stopped, and the game was said to have been cancelled.”
“Yes,” Koenig replied. “Do you know why?”
Mikel didn't answer.
“We were set to make No Blessed hands free, no gamepads or joysticks. Instead, players would attach body sensors to their person and use special three-dimensional goggles,” Koenig continued, still staring off into space. “However, something went wrong with the programming of No Blessed and testers who tried it out began disappearing and somehow ending up in the game itself.”
“What?” Mikel asked, a tremor in his voice. “How?”
“We don't know,” Koenig placed his hands behind him. “No Blessed appears to have become a world of its own. However, at the final level of the game, the game can still be shut down by overwriting its entire program.”
“Why can't you do it from the real world?” Mikel asked, as he began to truly understand why he had been hired by Nuroh Inc. “Why does it have to be from inside the game?”
“We tried once, by destroying the program and software,” Sean interrupted again. “All we achieved was opening a doorway from the game and bringing that thing here.”
He gestured towards the snarling monster in the corner, a vague shift of his chin. “In No Blessed, it is known as a Kakketsehatsu, one of the higher level demons. Before you ask, we cannot kill it, as all materials needed are fictitious elements that exist only in the world of No Blessed. In the end, we had to open the program again, to prevent more doorways.”
“I'm in a horror film,” Mikel muttered, burying his head in his hands. His eyes stung with unshed tears. “So, I'm the next victim you're going to send into No Blessed, aren't I?”
“Personally, I prefer the word 'Volunteer'.” Koenig said as he motioned to Praise with a wave. “But you are right, you will be sent into No Blessed. Usually, those we have sent are imprinted as a secondary character, and depending on the game, you may be imprinted as a warrior, animal, monster, healer or in a random faction. You might even be powerless. Give him the file, Praise.”
“The only thing we can control is sending someone into the game. From the time they are imprinted, it is all up to them whether they survive or not,” Sean said as Praise approached Mikel. “That contains all the facts on No Blessed including the factions in it, the kinds of monsters, difficulty levels and the general path the game is to follow. However, No Blessed has experienced many anomalies so it may have deviated from the original story line.”
“How can you do this to people? To me?” Mikel asked as Praise bent down beside him. “Out of all the people in this city, why me?”
“As Mark said before, the final level of the game allows the player to overwrite the program and for that we will need a programmer, and an excellent one.” Sean replied, with a shake of his head. “I did say I was interested in your notable grades.”
YOU ARE READING
No Blessed ✓
Fantasy- Completed - For Mikel Ark, being offered a job by the world's biggest gaming company is a dream come true, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will launch his career as a hotshot programmer. But what Mikel hasn't been told is that his employer's...
