Chapter 1 – AR Takeover

September 18 2032, 7:00AM – Malolos Bayan, Bulacan Philippines 3000 

Church Bell Ringing

One day on a peaceful normal day in the Lakanpura city, near the public market, civilians are covering their ears while they are running to go to the bus terminal. It turns out that all the church bells in the city rings at the same time. These bells ring so fast that puts people into panic mode. Every time that a bell metal collides, it puts a chill to everyone.

You can hear the clinging noise from the vendor’s items falling to the ground. These vendors abandoned their product and let it rolls on the ground.

People are screaming like it’s the end of the world.

Babies are crying.

The whole surroundings are acidic and musky in the nose. Their sweats are running through faces. Foots are smacking each other during the crowd running.

Disabled elders stumbled on the ground as runners hit them

A stranger’s blood from various injuries among them stained the floor. Some of these people stepped on hazardous materials that were felled on the ground.

<System: Updating AR engine >

<System: Installing AReality.js… >

Everyone on the street froze and stare on their AR interface. The solitary silent from the atmosphere turns to a chaos of whisper noise from the crowd.

There’s a one boy in the coffee shop minding his own business named Eichi. He was sitting on the chair and the drink was standing on the table.

This boy has a slim 162cm height leaner body. He has a youthful face with a green eyes and a green straight hair. He cropped his hair short on the sides and back, leaving longer, wispy bangs that fell over his forehead, covering his left eye. This style as known as peek-a-bangs.

The church bells are getting louder and almost unbearable to someone’s ears. Eichi bumped into the seat and the table shakes that stumbled his favorite drink (Dalgona Coffee). The white floors had a brownish stain.

As the bells start to rage, customers start to talk each other. Even the barista paused after doing their work. He looks around his surroundings and noticed a hissing noise behind him. Eichi tried his best to understand the conversations of a three guys beside him. These guys are in a one table. He understood some of their replies.

“I cannot believe that a corporate company can replace the real life thru a mandatory AR chip implant.”

“You’ve nailed it bro! 99.99% of the world population had this AR chip glued on our head skin since the worldwide smartphone phaseout program on 2030.”

One of the guy on the laughs.”2025 is full of blockchain, AR, and artificial intelligence nonsense. Now? It replaced the real grass. No one can say touch some grass!”

Bang!

A flying chair pierced through the glassdor of the coffee shop. Glass pieces shattered around the building. A guy that jokes about it got wounded by the shattered glass.

“Aw! I swear, that’s a joke!” He shouts while he is holding his wound.

As the time passes away, the church bell rang faster and louder. The noise was unbearable that people starts to cover their ears, including Eichi.

Eichi goes out of the shop while his index fingers are in his both ears. He scratched his eyes after seeing the bloody scenes on the street.

In a sudden, the atmosphere turns to a silence. The residents stand still for a while and staring at the sky.

< Worldwide Super Message: Announcement will start in a second! >

A red warning box appears on everyone’s AR interface. The UI has a blinking red on its sides.. The church bell stops ringing after a while.

Like a bleeding skin, the clouds and the sky are turning to a crimson red. The whole place has being surrounded by darkness as the sunlight was being replaced by mysterious changes in the sky.

Holographic red glass shards start to drop from the sky to the ground. It drops like a rainwater. Eichi noticed that the red covering was a piece of glass, some clouds have an enormous crack.

< Alert! Announcement Starts! >

“Hello Players! Welcome to AReality, a game that you suppose not to play with or it will give you a ticket to death!”

A big masculine voice shouts from the shattering sky. More children start to cry from fear. Adults are crying in despair, holding the picture of their loved ones.

“This is my final time, I’m so sorry son!” Eichi heard an agonizing father on his side.

The voice from the sky continues his talk. “Everyone will have an assigned Elemental Virtual Module (EVM), a soul bound invisible item inside of your AR head chip. Your Ginhawa (GNH) element will be based on your personalized data we collected for the last 5 years!”

Another notification appears to all people. But this one makes everyone scratched their hand.

< Legal Disclaimer: Everything you did in this new AR world would reflect on real world thru an advanced quantum syncing technology. The developers are not responsible for your action even if it takes someone’s life. Do you want to proceed? >

A voice in the sky cough for a while and laughs. “Yes, that disclaimer is true! I use an underground quantum technology that everything you did in the AR, even it’s supernatural, it would reflect in real life. The real world atoms and the virtual world are syncing each other, REAL-TIME!”

Crk…

An enormous crack and bang from the sky were audible. The man spoke again, but with the most terrifying voice. “If your HP drops to zero, every atom and pieces of your body will disappear in the UNIVERSE! Unless… someone got your dog tag within a specified time limit and do the tasks assigned to activate it.”

Eichi stumbled on the floor as he got shocked on the sudden noise on the top. He looks around and he saw a man with a microphone on the front of Lakanpura City Cathedral.

One adult man besides of Eichi points his finger to that man. “Hey… This life is ours, we are not a puppet that was being controlled by your strings!”

Ooh, this is a guy (Zarvazin) that was spoking to the whole world!

This man runs toward the speaking guy with a bare fist. He builds a momentum and Splunge his hard fist to the speaker.

“Who dare you?!” The speaker’s body glows a bright yellow.

< Skill Card Activated: Serious Enhancement >

A big pop-up information box appears beside of the speaker.

< Zarvazin >

< Level: lvl. 60 >

< Element: Desert >

*< Ginhawa (Life): 7,000

< Weapon: Sikuaen (Life Force Art) & Barong >

*< Fatigue: 1,000.1,000 >

*< Welcome! Every player in AReality will get a starter kit card. We personalized it just for you! > **

Zarvazin raised his fist to the sky. The veins on his arms popped out and his fingers were shaking. This ultimatum fist smacks the man.

< Thomas Crisostomo – HP: 0/5,000 DEAD!>

His HP appears to all witnesses. Most of the people run away and flee the battlefield.

Thomas lands on the ground with a full impact, a red digital glitter splattered around and his body disappeared.

Eichi’s eyes widen out as he saw the name with a word dead on it. His left fist clenched up while looking to Zarvazin.

Wait… Is this my best friend’s father?

“Don’t make my teeth grind or I will turn you to a dust!” Zarvazin smiles that puts a fear to the audiences.

“I don’t give a cents to your words!” Eichi shouts with his strongest emotion. Even his voice is too boyish, it echoes to the whole street.

Eichi raises his eyebrows while staring at Zarvazin. “Thank you for the starter kit! I can use it to break your limbs”

“Kid, respect your elders. Don’t pretend smart with your childish vocabulary!” Zarvazin grabs his kampilan on his back and sways it in front of the boy.

Eichi dodged the sword by turning his head to the left side. He grabs his opponent’s clenched fist and his eyebrows sharpen.

“I’m not aware why you do a crime, but you’re testing my patience! How a theft like you can be so cocky?”

“I don’t care about your ruberish opinions, kid!”

A holographic strange screen appears in front of Zarvazin and he smirks after he read its content.

Oh, this kid named Santos? I saw his personality on my data bank. Let me see if that’s correct!

“That’s what I thought!” Zarvazin said, his blade pointed at Eichi’s face.

Zarvazin sways his sword to Eichi’s bangs. In an instinct, Eichi kicks his opponent’s left knee.

They both step back. Their sweat is dropping on the ground. Eichi wipes a sweat on his cheeks and he smirks.

“My bangs are my damn life! Never ever dare to touch this or I will cut your face into a billion pieces!” His smirking face turns to a full-blown psychotic face. His both hands are clawing on his thigh.

The voice coming from him trembles on the entire atmosphere. A shout that it may come from a five-years old kid.

“Kid, we are a data-collecting company. We know everyone’s behavior as long as their Neurobone device was connected to the internet and sent us their brain wave telemetry.”

“I don’t give a shit. My bangs are everythin. You are ####.” Eichi drops a Filipino P.I. bomb.

Zarvazin claw on his face. He laughs out loud that his vocal chord almost pops out. “I’m just doing a business. What’s wrong with being an entrepreneur?”

“DAMN! Don’t change the topic, airhead.” He closed his eyes, and he bows his head.

Sikuaen-Type Skill Card Activated: Academic Expulsion

Dungan Cost: 250 DNG

In an instant, a strong green-colored wind force discharged from Eichi’s body. It pushed away Zarvazin like a paper blown out by a tornado.

A strong bang noise wides out Zarvazin’s eyes, a glitter splattered from his mouth. “Curse you, kid!”

A wall from his back creates a crack that resembles his whole body shape. His own pain and sweat stained it. Zarvazin was breathing shallow in front of the boy.

His body is shaking, and a tear of pain starts to stream on his cheeks. Zarvazin is still stuck on the wall. Any attempt to get out of it is a failure.

Eichi shows no sympathy to Zarvazin. In the worst case, he even crossed his arm and lift his eyebrows. “You attempt to cut my love of my life. Second, you steal someone’s intellectual property, and hack his AR device to remove the memory from his brain to forget that he developed it. What’s next?”

*< Healing Potion III 1x used – Heal 70% of HP >

As Zarvazin drinks the potion, he stood up and go back to his previous position. Every wounds on his back was gone without him, any scars.

“Why my father?!” Eichi’s best friend behind him, named Aaron Crisostomo, from shouts. Aaron was carrying an opened celebration gift box with a cosplay costume on it.

Gift from your beloved father. – Thomas

Zarvazin bites his lips as he stars on the box. “Oh, a gift from that blasphemous brat to you?”

Aaron grabs the costume in the box and put the clothes under his armpit to protect it. He throws away the packaging and a box. A tears start to stream on his face. “Yes, this is a last gift from him to me. But you take away his life!”

“God doesn’t give you a permission to take my father’s life, even your soul!” Aaron kneels down on the ground, the ground getting soaked by tears and sweat.

The audiences shout out of the fear and ran away from Lakanpura City Cathedral.

There’s a blood leaking from Aaron’s knees as it’s getting pressed by a hard-rock road ground. Aaron was still crying in this moment without noticing the physical pain. His hands are on his chest, asking a plea from Zarvazin.

“Please, give my father back. I’m willing to give up all of my cosplay resources for you!”

“What if?” Zarvazin dashes to Aaron, and, but he grabs the cosplay costume with a strong pull force that he managed to steal it from the armpit.

“Tch… That’s a last gift from my father!” Aaron shouts while his tears stream faster on his face. He tried to reach Zarvazin but he got stumbled on the floor again, his face hits the ground.

< HP: 16,000/ 19,000 >

“A last gift from that man who blasphemes the creator of this new reality!” Zarvazin said.

As his body was in the prone position, he closed up his both hands. “Please, sir, give the costume and my father back!”

“No!” Zarvazin crossed his arms.

“For the glory of my bangs, give the costume back!” Eichi points his barong to Zarvazin.

Bang…

“Are you ok, Eichi!” Aaron shouts as Eichi was punched by Zarvazin.

Eichi vomits a blood when the fists land to his stomach. Aaron closed his eyes at the sight of Eichi’s blood and turn around just to not see his friend.

Eek! I don’t have a vomit bag here, blood sucks!

Zarvazin starts to pack all of his things and put it on to his virtual backpack, planning to escape.

“Do you think will you escape by stealing this last gift?!” Aaron puts his left foot to the back, charging up a momentum, and dashed.

“Give it back! My father’s souls linger inside of it!”

“You Fool!” Zarvazin laughs while his body is disappearing.

< Zarvazin consumed 1x Teleportation Pass >

“We will meet soon to fight for the lost fabrics you stole! And the life you stole!”

A bright light shines as Zarvazin’s body disappeared for good.

While I cannot bring my father back, I can recover a fabric where his love resides.