Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any persons that have the same names and/or characteristics as those described are purely coincidental.
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Chapter One
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“So you want me to play ‘OWO’ for the sake of ‘world peace?’” Tom asked flatly inside a library study room, staring at one of his childhood friends, Megumi, who was beaming at him with a grin only her friends could hold any kind of tolerance for.
“Well, more for resources than anything, but yes,” Megumi, who was opposite of him, cheerfully exclaimed, which elicited an exasperated sigh from Tom. Tom could not help but notice how Megumi’s baggy shirt dropped to reveal the valley of her chest due to the way she leaned forward.
“How the hell did I get here?” Tom thought as he once again found his opinion of the sanity of his oldest friend steadily decreasing.
Thomas Williams was a normal student at the University of California, in Los Angeles, or at least he liked to think of himself as ‘normal.’ He was black, grew up in a middle-class family home, took up hobbies in basketball and games, and wanted to live his life pursuing computer software development. Tom stood at five feet and eleven inches and was stocky thanks to his muscle mass. He had hazel-colored eyes and his espresso-colored skin, to which he would jokingly claim made him “quite the treat to drink.” His dark brown hair was given a butch cut with a shape-up line to blend in his barely visible sideburns that bridged into an equally short chinstrap beard. It was early October, so Tom wore a black T-shirt and blue jeans, and black sneakers, along with a golden watch that he wore on his left wrist.
“So, are you gonna explain why your girl is trying to f*** my life?” Tom turned his attention to Chris, his other childhood friend and the one person Thomas could truly say he trusted with his life. Tom only referred to Megumi as “Christopher’s girl” when he was generally annoyed at her, and he was. The game Megumi was trying to get Tom to play was “OWO.” OWO was a “virtual reality massive multiplayer online role-playing game” (VRMMORPG) that was created and implemented as humanity’s response to the near disaster that could have been World War Three.
The third World War became an extremely real possibility in November of 2072, which was almost fifty years ago, as a response to the “social media flame war” that began in the United States because of the general spreading of misinformation on social media over the US presidential election. The misinformation that was spread ultimately created a riot between the Democrat and Republican parties, which resulted in the igniting of a civil war. With US attention turned away from the rest of the world, North Korea launched a surprise nuclear strike upon South Korea and Japan. However, the nuclear strike was averted thanks to the resurrection of Ronald Reagan’s long dead Strategic Defense Initiative. The resurrection of the Strategic Defense Initiative led to the development Laser-Star Satellite technology between joint efforts of NATO, SEATO, Japan, and South Korea, which became known as the Pan-oceanic Alliance. Upon the failed strike, North Korea then deployed a biological weapon, which was its true goal, that spread a pandemic known as Covid-72. Covid-72 was originally to be developed against the United States, but it was later discovered that North Korea had also developed the virus enough to formulate a vaccine to keep itself from the dangers of the virus. However, the information of this vaccine was leaked to China, which declared war on North Korea and conquered it while the United States was finishing putting down its own civil war.
China, despite now having the vaccine to Covid-72, used it to bargain with the world for a greater political and economic position. While the United States refused to give into Chinese demands, the United Nations served as a mediator that struck a deal everyone could agree to. The Covid-72 vaccine was riddled with nanobots which could replicate by harvesting iron from blood cells and could attach themselves to reproductive cells to spread future generations. The goal of the nanobots was to combat global warming by decreasing the human population by killing those who were of the age of fifty-five or older, which was basically the agreed upon age that women could no longer give birth with rare exceptions. Naturally, when people found out what the collective governments of the world had done, there were riots, but there was nothing that could be done to rid the world of the nanobots.
Ironically, the civil wars that erupted against the governments of the world contributed to the establishment of a sort of “world peace,” and new governments were formed to further unite Earth under a single world government that largely let each country handle their own affairs. Because of the advancement of technology, nanobot parasites were able to communicate with computers to report a person’s health. It was soon after discovered that not only could the nanobots construct new nanobots from the iron found a person’s bloodstream and attach themselves to reproductive cells, but they could also wire themselves to electrical impulses in the brain to read what a person might see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. As a result, the nanobots could tell a computer any and every piece of information about the people they inhabited. When it was discovered that the world was beginning to run low on certain resources, the world once again found itself with the possibility of having a war to gain these resources. It was proposed that to avoid unnecessary death, that the nanobots be used to determine who might be considered “unproductive” to society beginning at the age of eighteen. The VRMMORPG, called Omega War Online, was proposed by the newly reformed world governments to determine what country might have rights to those limited resources for that decade, and that these “unproductive gamers” would be the ones to fight wars for those limited resources. Failure meant death, but those who participated, especially those who volunteered, were considered “heroes of world peace.”
Tom’s two childhood friends, Megumi and Chris, were considered such “heroes.” The armies of each country were composed of a team of ten players. To some gamers, OWO was the Olympics of the VRMMO gaming world. To others, particularly the volunteers, it was a way to strike it rich. Only four volunteers, via a tournament, were chosen amongst gamers who were not considered “unproductive” to society, and those gamers were as passionate about their beloved hobby as they were about their own lives. It should not have been much of a surprise as to what Chris’ answer to Tom’s question was when Tom asked: “So, are you gonna explain why your girl is trying to f*** my life?”
“What, you’re telling me you don’t want to kick ass in front of an adoring audience, buddy?” Chris as with a smirk. Tom did begrudgingly have to give credit where credit was due: he did very much love to make it know that he was, as he liked to quote, “the very best like no one ever was.”
“No, I’m saying that the possibility of dying doesn’t exactly appeal to me when I haven’t gotten to tap Syd yet,” Tom returned the smirk.
Sydney Jackson was Christopher O’Connor’s half-sister by his mother. Chris’ father was a rather notorious womanizer, so he knew that he must have had a few other half-siblings out in the world. Chris would be his father’s final son before the nanobots took his life at the age of fifty-five. Chris’ mother married Syd’s father to marriage four years after the Chris’ father died, which was about she discovered that she was pregnant. Sydney looked nothing like her brother, who stood at five feet and eight inches, was lean, had sandy-blonde short and straight hair, and brown eyes. Syd, on the other hand, had long, curly, fiery red hair that reached down to her waist, blue-green eyes that reminded Tom of the sea, and pouty, full, pink lips that kept him up at night. She was short, standing at four feet and nine inches, and skinny, but she unquestionably had the body of a woman in every way. Unfortunately for Tom, she was still only seventeen years old and therefore still a no-go.
Yoshida Megumi, Megumi being her first name, along with Chris and Tom, was twenty-two years old. She was of Japanese descent and her family had immigrated to the United States after the leader of North Korea, as she liked to put it, “finally went f****** nuts.” Supposedly even American Republicans and Democrats could both agree and approve the idea that a failed nuclear strike was reasonable grounds for immigration. Megumi was short like Sydney was, also at a height of four feet and nine inches, though Sydney arguably had far more curves than Megumi, though Megumi did certainly have an ample chest and, as Chris liked to comment, “a cute, bubbly ass.” Megumi, however, “Meggy,” as she sometime liked to be called, had the skin and appearance of a porcelain doll, except for a freckle that was on the right side of her cheek, though it was agreed by everyone who knew her that freckle made her face even more beautiful. Her hair was long, naturally curly, and like midnight black silk. She often liked to wear her in a way that part of her hair was made to be twin tails over her shoulders, part of her hair was made a ponytail in the back, and the rest flowed as carefree as she was. Her sense of style was certainly unique, but it was part of her charm. If it were not for the fact that Megumi and Chris were together, or unless Tom just wanted to be a general asshole, he would have gone after Megumi. The young woman had a way of just oozing raw sex appeal even when she was being completely innocent, but Tom put blame on the fact that Megumi’s sex appeal lay on the fact that she was a pervert when she wasn’t being serious. Whether or not Megumi being a pervert was accidental was a completely different question, but no one could deny she was a good girl with an extraordinary personality who would do anything for her friends.
“I mean, your family would be well compensated if you did die,” Meggy said with a small laugh. This was true, families of volunteers for the OWO tournament were very well compensated simply because the volunteers were expected to have a future. Usually that money went to a sibling to get a complete college free ride.
“That’s not the point,” Tom sighed in exasperation as his hand went to his forehead. “I just don’t find those sorts of games very appealing anymore. I haven’t even trained for OWO.”
Omega War Online was certainly a game that was unique, but not the first of its kind. It had three different modes on two different servers and took its inspiration from an MMORPG called “Dark Age of Camelot,” which had functions for Realm versus Realm, Player versus Player, and Player versus Everyone. The private server, which was truly “Realm versus Realm,” was, as those who were fans of the “Sword Art Online” novel series liked to refer to it, the actual “death game,” and was reserved only for those who got the official world government invitation or draft after individual country tournaments were held. The public server, however, served as a way for future death game players to level up a character and understand combat against other people through Player versus Player mode, though some Realm versus Realm was allowed if countries were willing.
“It’s a VRMMO,” Megumi rolled her eyes and laughed. “You don’t need to be in the military to play, you just need a functioning brain!”
What Megumi said was true: one most certainly did not need to be part of the military to play OWO. This was mainly because the military of “United Earth” was more or less now used for either public safety, since there was no stopping natural disasters, or for space exploration. After the completion of the Lunar International Space Station on March of 2102, United Earth launched the colonization of the Moon, which proved necessary for the Mars colony started in 2115. This act, of course, raised the philosophical question that if all the super-rich left Earth for the Moon, which they did after saying to themselves “Earth is screwed,” would true communism or socialism have been obtained since “wealth was now more evened out?” This idea was later rejected considering that all the suckers left on Earth were still working under the boot of the super-rich anyway. That said, despite the fact that the military was in charge of space exploration, there were no mysterious space Elves from planet Vulcan to help establish warp engines for space travel, there was no war with a bunch of stupid lizards, cats, spiders, hamsters, and God-knows-what-else over the technology of a long extinct star faring super race, and there was no physical development of lightsabers to promote peace across the Solar System since it was collectively agreed that one needed 1.21 gigawatts of energy just to power a lightsaber. Humanity, as far as it knew, was still very much alone.
“Not to mention that everyone has an account on the PvE mode anyway,” Chris added.
Everyone across the world did indeed have an account on OWO, just so people could have an equal opportunity to train with their preferred classes just in case a person happened to be drafted for the tournament. PvE, “player versus everyone,” was the easiest and safest mode to train for the game. PvE did have mechanics the mechanics of PvP (player versus player) and RvR (realm versus realm) but PvE had the benefit of not being part of the death game. If one happened to get killed in PvE by a monster or another player, one merely lost experience points and one could even lose levels, though there were certain requirements for level loss.
“Only that class that my chosen class was a Wizard,” Tom sighed with frustration, which earned Chris and Megumi giving each other concerned looks.
OWO took its character class specializations from the old tabletop roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons, which obviously meant that there was a magic mechanic in the game. The only problem was unlike with Dungeons and Dragons, or any other role playing game that allowed you to create multiple characters of different classes, one could only choose one class when first starting OWO. To make matters even worse, almost no one who played OWO chose the Wizard or Sorcerer classes. The reason why the Wizard and Sorcerer classes were so widely rejected by players had nothing to do with the idea that they were weak class choices, any character build could become ridiculously strong, but rather it was because the Wizard and Sorcerer were the two most feared classes in the game because of the “Wish” spell. Wish was a spell only those two classes could perform, and the spell could do almost anything with some exceptions. If Wish were to be performed correctly, the wielder of the spell be able to win every tournament every time. Though there was a major potential that a Wish spell could go horribly wrong and outright kill the user of the spell, the potential danger of the spell made players collectively agree that if one was a Wizard or a Sorcerer, that person was collectively targeted with no questions asked. The only other classes that were danger of the “kill that poor bastard first” stratagem were the Cleric, Bard, and Druid classes due to their abilities to cast resurrection magic.
“Well, s***,” Chris sighed. “I was hoping you’d be able to team up with Meggy as a tank. Having me as the Cleric class already puts a target on our backs.”
“Actually, I kind of like that we have a Wizard,” Megumi said cheerfully, earning surprised looks from her friend and boyfriend. “I mean, no one has ever maxed out the Wizard or Sorcerer before, why can’t we do it?”
“Because I’ll get insta-killed the moment another player sees me,” Tom said flatly. “The only time Wizards and Sorcerers are safe from being gangbanged is when they multiclass.”
“Yeah, multiclassing does lock a player out from some of a class’s most powerful abilities, that is true!” Megumi stifled a laugh after hearing the word “gangbang.” “But, hey, can you imagine what legends we’ll be if we pull it off?”
“Yeah, legendary corpses,” Tom rolled his eyes. “We’d have to have some kind of b******* anime protagonist power or luck first!”
“Well, we may not be far away from that,” Chris said slowly after a pause, which earned an inquisitive eyebrow raise from Tom. “About a month ago, when Meggy and I were out grinding experience points, we happened to find a legendary class magic scroll.”
“Which was a Limited Wish spell!” Megumi shouted proudly, forcing Chris to close the distance between them, put is hand over her mouth, and hush her in annoyance.
“Limited Wish?” Tom repeated in a whisper as he moved closer to his friends. “As in the ‘you are allowed to cast any spell except for Wish’ Limited Wish?”
“The very one!” Megumi smirked.
Limited Wish was a single use scroll spell that was available to players via random treasure chest drops, which had a drop rate of one one-thousandth of a percent. It was mainly coveted by players since it could be used to cast True Resurrection, which could bring back a player with all their stats and experience points intact. The only problem with the two resurrection spells was that such spells required a full hour to cast, so players were allowed a six-hour limbo before their brains were fried. There was something about the idea of waiting for one’s imminent death that truly made players believe that the OWO developers, and therefore the collective governments of Earth, were all a bunch of sadistic bastards. Of course, if the world governments were full of sadistic bastards, the fact that people actively went along with OWO effectively civilians full of masochistic bastards. Though, that was more of less true of the relationship between a government and people since the start of civilization.
“Damn it all,” Tom sighed heavily. “Alright, fine, I’ll help. I’d rather you two idiots not get killed without me. When is the start of the tournament?”
“The start of next summer,” Chris answered with a grin. “We have eight months to get you trained up.”
“And the best way to gain experience is to fight other players,” Tom continued the line train of thought and pointed out the obvious.
“Well, that may not be entirely true,” Megumi said slowly after there was a pause of silence between the free friends. “Monsters do have certain conditions in which they are more powerful than normal outside of specialized dungeons. Usually, night fighting has the monsters with the best experience output outside of dungeons.”
“Great, so I get to sacrifice sleep! Sign me the hell up,” Tom rolled his eyes.
“Charming sarcasm,” Megumi giggled. “But I’m being serious! Plus, the game basically puts your physical body to sleep anyway, so most your really have to worry about is going to the bathroom.”
“Though you probably lose deep sleep,” Chris added with a shrug.
“Shut. Up,” Megumi growled slowly and shot a glare at her boyfriend.
“Meggy, you don’t have to worry about selling this to me,” Tom groaned. When Megumi was in the mood, she could bicker with others for a long time, which Chris thought was cute, but Tom honestly did want to see their weird way of flirting. “I told you, I’m in. I honestly do want to see a Wish spell in action, anyway, even if the scroll isn’t as powerful as the actual spell.”
“Sweet!” Megumi jumped excitedly before giving Chris a high-five. “Alright, so we’ll meet up in game this evening, then. Say, eight this evening?” Megumi looked at her smartphone and hummed to herself. “That gives a little over three and a half hours to get our s*** in order.”
“Geeze, now you’re the one making it sound like we’re arranging our own funerals,” Chris chuckled. “But Meggy is right, we have a lot to prepare for, and part of that includes eating like it’s our last meal!”
Tom did have to admit that food sounded incredible at the moment, and all he could think about was to sink his teeth into was some cholesterol inducing cheeseburger that would likely contribute to him having a heart attack before the nanobots could kill him off. Somehow it made sense that a clown and a pig-tailed, redheaded country girl were amongst the top of the fast-food business: good food made one not care quite as much about death. After the trio of friends went their separate ways to prepare, a fast-food joint was exactly what Tom went for an hour later. Even though the world was suffering a general shortage of resources, thankfully food and water were not part of those shortages. Still, Tom had to wonder why scientists could not progress with cold fission enough to the point that radiation would no longer be a massive problem for fission as an energy resource. Though, Tom did have to admit that science was not his strongest subject, and any answers would have likely gone over his head.
The only problem with fast-food, of course, was that one had to pay an extortionate amount for ten minutes of tastebud orgasmic bliss, and the damned ice cream machine still did not f****** work. However, Tom did have the luxury of taking his time to eat while he would also look at his OWO account. Like many other RP games, OWO required a leveling system so players could make progress in the game. The leveling system, much like the old “Dark Age of Camelot,” required ten tiers of experience progress before a level could be advanced. Only after level advancement could one start the process of specializations, which were what allowed one to gain access to various skills, spells, and potential subclasses. Level advancement also offered status point advancements, another feature not new to RP games, though OWO did take special care to emphasize the fact that every stat was important in some way. The stats went as such: Attack, Defense, Hit Points, Mana, Stamina, and Crit. The stats were self-explanatory, though it was worthy to note that mana was a stat primarily for spells while stamina was primarily for skills. A Fighter would more likely use Stamina since a Fighter’s abilities were skill based but would require Mana to enhance skill damage through enchantment. A Wizard’s abilities, on the other hand, were Mana based, but Stamina dictated how long a Wizard would be able to keep up casting. However, since non-caster classes did not require as frequent rest, caster classes did enjoy naturally higher Crit stats than non-caster classes.
Tom sighed as he looked at his stats from his phone before he took a bite of the burger he ordered. His Wizard avatar was, indeed, still level one. He had never imagined himself as taking part in OWO, so Tom dedicated himself to at least being a productive member of society so he would not ever have to be drafted. Though, Tom did have to admit that the idea of his friends potentially dying while he sat back and did nothing was most certainly not appealing.
“What’cha doin’?” a playful, feminine voice asked behind Tom before he felt a soft chest press against his back.
‘Damn it, why didn’t I pick a booth?’ Tom thought with a sigh. There was only one person he knew who was so careless around him. “I thought you went back to your dorm, Meggy.”
“Oh, I did,” Megumi giggled. “But I got hungry and thought I should get Chris something as well.”
“What, is Chris broke, or is this your attempt to imitate third wave feminism?” Tom snickered.
“Nah, I’d start crying on social media about how all men are scum, get drunk, ride some other guy’s dick, and then make a rape claim, if I were imitating third wave feminism,” Megumi said proudly. “Ninth wave feminism is far saner!”
Megumi moved away from Tom to the seat next to him with a grin plastered on her face. She had an obviously full backpack clinging to her body. “Besides, Chris and I always get takeout before we play games together. It just happened to be my turn to get food and I wanted some exercise.”
“Ah, my apologies, then,” Tom chuckled. “Remind me again, though, why don’t you just move in with Chris? Isn’t it a pain lugging your VR equipment to his dorm and back?”
“Totally,” Megumi smiled. “But I don’t mind. Sure, we want one of the co-ed dorms to open, but isn’t the old saying ‘distance makes the heart stronger?’”
“Something mushy like that,” Tom nodded. He appreciated that Megumi and Chris were in the type of relationship that just went with the flow. Though, Tom did think, despite the fact he liked the relationship between his two best friends, that they were little bit crazy. “I don’t think living in separate dorms on the same campus counts as a ‘distance,’ though.”
“Hey, poetic language is still poetic, jackass,” Megumi pouted and gave her friend a soft punch at his arm before hearing a shout that her order is ready. “That would be me! Don’t wuss out on us, dude!”
“Trust me, Chris would punish me by teasing me about your constant sex lives,” Tom said with a roll of his eyes. “Wussing out is never an option when it comes to you two.”
“Glad to see we still push you to try,” Megumi smiled before bolting off to pick up her order.
Where Megumi got her boundless energy, Tom had no idea, but he had to admit that energy could be contagious. Still, Tom did worry that Megumi’s carefree attitude would get her killed one day. Such was the joy of having friends that were close enough to be considered family. He took another look at his stats. Mana and Stamina were always going to be the two most important stats to the offensive caster, along with the Attack and Crit stats, but a buffing caster would want to be more balanced stats. Then Tom would have had to consider the sub classes, which consisted of the Summoner, the Enchanter, the Elementalist, and, arguably the most dangerous to the user, the Hex Mage. The first three subclasses were fairly self-explanatory as the Enchanter was designed to buff allies and debuff enemies, the Summoner was hybrid of an offensive caster and support caster while focusing buffs on the Summoner’s pet, and the Elementalist was purely an offensive caster. The final subclass, the Hex Mage, was a bit of an oddity insofar as it was a blend of the offensive and supportive casters, but the Hex Mage’s stats should completely focus on Hit Points. The Hex Mage essentially depended on sacrificing those Hit Points to cast a wide range of magic that would then convert Hit Points into other stats for either the caster or the party. Of course, that did mean the caster was easily killable, but the Hex Mage was all about getting in the lucky one-hit kill shot. All these points culminated in the basic fact that the Hex Mage was the least likely chosen subclass of the already few chosen Wizard and Sorcerer classes.
“But maybe that Limited Wish scroll would turn the seemingly impossible around,” Tom thought, despite his initial pessimism. “Well, this can’t get worse, so let’s get this over with.” Tom muttered under his breath before he finished his burger and left the table. Whether he was ready to or not, it was time to face the music, which was poetic because thunder clapped overhead the moment he stepped outside the burger joint and rain began to pour.
“Well, at least the rain won’t last long,” Tom sighed and bolted back in the direction of his dorm.
Tom’s dorm was on the top floor of a five-story building that overlooked a decent portion of the university campus. Ever since virtual reality became a more advanced technology, however, many students opted to take classes from the VR helmets inside their dorms while those who physically attended classes either did so for the express purpose of seeking guidance from professors after class or because said students just wanted the exercise. Of course, such easy access to classes from the comfort of VR also meant that many students also opted to just take classes from home. While energy needs became greater in demand because of the shortage of resources, technology became an even more vital mode of bringing people together. Still, the fact that there were no hover cars that used garbage as fuel like in the old, classic movies Tom found mildly annoying. It didn’t help that such an idea was put out there, but a bunch of politicians threw a proverbial “bitch-fit” and declared that the conversion of garbage into fuel would “utterly destroy the ozone layer” like every other thing would.
Tom lived alone in his dorm, which he had to admit allowed him to live life with a little clutter, but that clutter was filled with care packages from home and school supplies. On Tom’s computer, other than schoolwork, was a library filled to the brim with old movies and video games just as his tablet was filled with eBooks of the classics and some more modern books that Megumi had shared with him such as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To OWO,” which, much to Tom’s disappointment, did not have the words “don’t panic” on the digital cover in large, friendly letters. By Tom’s computer were his high-definition audio gaming chair that he often used to lay back in, and the virtual reality helmet that was responsible for the world uniting in world peace only to fight over the last shreds of dinosaur s***. Tom took a deep breath and stepped closer to the helmet to pick at it. How long he stared at it, he was unsure, but it felt just long enough to wonder why he was having some clichéd moment of a protagonist meditating about their life choices. Tom shook his head and sighed before donning the helmet and sitting back in the chair.
“Welcome, Thomas Williams,” a feminine robotic voice said in Tom’s ears after he pressed a button on the side of the helmet.
“System, access OWO under the PVE server,” Tom commanded after a moment of silence.
…
Author’s Note: Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for reading Omega War Online, which I plan on posting a new chapter monthly! If you enjoy my work, and want to further support future content, please consider looking into my Patreon at patreon.com/longstempipewritings. I look forward to posting more content and I hope to see you again next month. Happy reading!
