A New World, an immersive game experience

To accomplish his mission, Axel had pressured Joren along with Qiren to create for them a special ops force inside the game. This force was made of a group of avatars who all had stats far and above normal, comparable to mythical beasts even. However, there was one caveat that they had not understood and Joren had not bothered to explain.

Their avatars appearance was common, almost like blank canvases. They had no distinguishable features, everyone was still the same sex as reality. But other than that they all appeared like clones.

And the caveat was that none of them could control their avatars. When they tried to move they would find themselves hurting each other. A simple gesture would result in broken arms, trying to walk would result in a number of people crashing into each other and setting off a domino effect. The air filled with the sound of breaking bones.

While all of their pain was greatly reduced by the system, it was still not a pleasant experience. Especially when they caved in their chests, not being able to breathe, even when the pain is reduced, it is still a terrifying thing to experience. It made many of them marvel at the endurance of the players. For them to be able to play through such truly horrifying experiences was a testament to their willpower. Or perhaps to their insanity.

"What is going on!?" Axel turned to Constantin and shouted in fury. His shout even caused his jaw to dislocate and his turn caused him to fly into a nearby house. Causing quite a comical scene.

"You asked for enhanced bodies. We thought it would be obvious that such bodies would not be easy to control. After all, you all had the records of Eldrian's struggle to maintain the balance. Often it caused him paralysis with his real body."

Hearing this, no one in the group dared move anymore. They had indeed read the report to better understand their target. It was fine if they struggled inside the game to move. But if they learned how to, only end up crippled in the real world. The thought sent shivers down their spines. Spines they hoped would never stop working.

Most of them were willing to place their lives on the line for their mission. But this, this was not the same as taking a bullet. It was far more terrifying.

"I'll give you all some time to get accustomed to your avatars. While you get accustomed I'll go confirm the situation."

"Hold it!" Axel shouted after having relocated his jaw. Luckily, their bodies also healed at insane rates or most would have already died. Axel understood well that Constantine and Joren had never been on his side and wasn't about to give them a chance to do anything behind his back. "Activate your recorder."

Hearing this Constantin sighed but did not argue. Quickly he activated what the players knew as their streaming camera. Though, in his case, only this group and those back at Miracle could what his feed.

With that done, Constantin moved out of Dvemoj. The group had spawned here since they knew this was where Eldrian was.

Thanks to Eldrian interference ability all the information they had was secondhand from the players who had come to help. Thus the general situation was not known and someone had to go out to scout the situation.

This was the only reason why Axel had not kept Constantin from doing so. He still had a feeling that they were hiding something from him but with the live streaming he was not worried.

Constantin arrived at the scene as Myropsis took action. He watched from a distance as things played out, when he saw Tovack arrive he quickly doubled his effort to hide.

Of course, he was not actually afraid of being spotted. He only did this since it was expected of him to not give away their mission. So he made sure to make his effort seem true, really he was just acting.

'This should be close enough.' He mumbled as he stayed low, though honestly there wasn't much he could hide behind in his current position. [Joren, is it working?] He asked through a special messaging system they had developed in secret along with the help of Ziraili.

[Yes, the rest is up to the system now.]

On Eldrian's side, he had just managed to stabilize his condition. While he was aware that something had been happening around him, he was only vaguely aware. All his focus was on his mana.

With the seven elements now in his body, nine total vortexes, he could feel them slowly wanting to move closer to one another. This was terrifying since as they did so they would totally ruin his mana network. Yet, Eldrian had no way to stop this.

Surrendering to this power, he could only grit his teeth as another bout of pain ensued.

It was at this time that he suddenly got a system message, one that made little to no sense.

[Can we meet? -Ziraili]

This message caused him to momentarily lose focus, which of course resulted in heaps of pain. Ignoring the message Eldrian tried his best to deal with this first. The elemental vortexes moved through his body like miniature suns. Ripping everything apart as they went.

They all came together around Eldrian's diaphragm, where mana normally collects in the body. As each arrived it immediately joined with the other vortexes there. After the last had arrived, Eldrian could finally breathe normally as his body was no longer filled with pain. However, he knew what would come next was the most crucial.

Eldrian did not let his focus stray. The effect was not the same as when he tried to cast Creation, the seven elements did not form a crystal. However, their mixture would certainly be highly unstable. It would not take long for it to explode and his body with it.

Luckily for now they were just rotating around each other, but they were moving closer and closer. Once they truly mixed Eldrian knew he would likely not be able to handle it.

As he was struggling to keep them apart, Tranquility suddenly spoke up.  'Go to the magic abyss now.'

'I'll die if I let my focus stray.'

'Not if she helps. You just need to lower your guard.'

Eldrian understood what Tranquility meant, not having any other hope he closed his eyes and quickly hopped into the magic abyss. He did not enter his special mental room, his soul, since it was protected from the AI's detection. He was not sure how, but he knew this was true after the message.

It did not take long for a wisp to appear before Eldrian. She did not speak but instead flew into his consciousness. Eldrian hesitated for a second but quickly decided to allow her entrance.

Immediately he found himself in his mental room. A space quite empty without Two. Truthfully it was a rather large but empty space, somewhere herein was the firestorm of rage, and so too the ice mist and Tranquility.

However, Eldrian did not search for them often. But when he wanted to he could immediately find them.

At this moment he was looking at the wisp who had quickly stopped all mana from entering his body. For the moment things seemed to calm down but Eldrian knew that this was only temporary.

"Why did you need me to enter the magic abyss?" Eldrian asked, he was most perplexed why Ziraili didn't contact him before. He had always expected she would 'knock' on his mental room when she wanted to talk.

"It's complicated but essentially GAIA did not want us to interfere with you. As a result, it is exceptionally hard for any of us to detect you. And when we do we can't come near you unless you make the first move." As she replied the wisp turned into a beautiful woman.

Her form was not as solid as Two's, but she certainly looked like a goddess. It almost felt wrong looking at her as not just her clothes but her entire body shimmered. It made her appear more divine, but also less real.

"Does that mean that all my actions have been hidden?" Eldrian asked, hopeful. Quickly moving past that Ziraili certainly looked beautiful. He assumed she could look like whatever she wanted, hence it was not strange that she appeared like a goddess.

"No. Your side is hidden, but the other is not."

Eldrian nodded, he understood. It was like a VPN, they could see something was being done but could not see by who or from where. But now was not the time to talk about this. "What is going on with me?"

"It's your bloodline. It was slightly awakened long ago, and with your mana network, it slowly started to grow stronger. Upon reaching Tier 5 it is likely going to surface superficially."

Eldrian should have felt exhilarated by this development, but instead he was caught in fear. "What about my real body? And why does my avatar have this ability, why does it exist in ANW? If it is a bloodline ability should it not be separate?"

"Bloodlines are not as simple as you might think. The name also does not correctly convey how it is transferred. There are indeed some cases where the power is transmitted through blood, but they are not the norm."

"As for your real body. It should be going through a lesser version of what is happening here due to how desolate Earth is. Your second is there?"

Eldrian nodded.

"Since you have not heard from him it should be fine. You should still be able to feel your connection." Eldrian paused, taking a moment to reach out. He did not want to bother Two, but upon noticing that the connection was still there he was content.

"Can you stabilize my condition?"

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continues to support the story by simply reading on Web, voting for the story, or sharing comments. It is all greatly appreciated.