The Geared Immortal

The Merging Realms Part 1

/*unedited*/

In a dark corner of an alley stood two men blocking its path if one would walk closer one can hear moaning and muffled sounds. The two guarding the alleyway could not help but sneer at the sound from behind them.

"It seems that the boss is at it again. Those unlucky couples… hehe…"

"Well, it's their fault for venturing to this side of the city."

The two said in a hushed tone.

Suddenly the two heard another sound.

It was a shrieking sound of someone in pain. However, it seems that the voice sounds familiar.

The two look at each other and said at the same time.

"Boss!"

They immediately turn around and ran in the darkness.

Right as they were about to go deeper inside, the two were met with a figure flying towards them. It was too late for them to dodge as the pudgy man hit the two well-built guys.

Bam!!! Crash!!!

The three people hit the garbage dump beside the wall of the dark alley.

The pudgy man is already unconscious while his two men are having a hard time standing up. The two felt like being rammed by a running car, luckily their boss is pudgy hence it lessens the impact.

"Who… who dares!" shouted one of the men, but soon he found out that the other people with his boss is already lying in the ground while groaning in pain.

All of them are tied up like cattle.

Then from the farthest back he can see the shadow of a man and behind him hides the couple. The woman had her clothes ripped and in tatters while the man has a bruised face. The couple is comforting each other behind the tall man which seems to be wearing a face mask.

The man then slowly walks forward and without any resistance, he subdued the two men with ease.

Not long later, Shin Jiao left as the couple followed him out. The two told the authorities on what had happened and the gang was taken to custody. As promised they never tell the authorities about the mysterious man who saved them.

In one of the rooftops…

"Good work! I guess this is your real self. It either you are lucky or unlucky that you have forgotten your past. For hopefully you can build a new future." Genie Yu said while patting Shin Jiao's back.

…

The next day, was another day for Shin Jiao as he continues to work on the Virtual World. Actually the programming is already finished because he didn't need to write codes. All he needs to do is input his spiritual Qi and initialize the downloading of the scenes in his memories.

However, no matter how Shin Jiao looks at the places and the sceneries in the downloaded world, it seems that he could not really remember that place. It's like there is a dark cloud surrounding his memory of that place preventing him to access the deeper reaches of his brains.

The advertisements and the date of the release for the game have already reached a peak in terms of subscribers and people ordering the gadgets.

But as per the condition that Shin Jiao said. For the first month, they will just release 1,000 visors as a trial run for the game. Each visor is priced at $500.00 SRP, however, that's not the only way to gain money. In-game, one can gain materials and that materials can be gathered and sold with real money through trading using the A.I. system.

This was thought up by Susan Tang as a way for the business to grow further by getting tax deductions. The game is balanced because it would not require a player to spend money just to grow stronger. One should work hard, be a boss, be mercenary, and be an assassin, a merchant, or a guard to earn money and grow.

The aim of the game is like the merging of the earth and the cultivation land.

And of course, media advertisements and personalities are considered to enter this phase as the world has a chance to see what's inside the virtual world.

And since the goal is to portray a second world merge with the earth, the game is named 'Merging Realms'.

The aim of the game is for players to stop the demon clan from invading the vast Empire of Xi. And they are given 2 months to grow before the 2nd phase of the 'Merging Realms' would be released.

With the plan already on hand and Shin Jiao already done with the gears, system, and the servers. They are just waiting for the time of the release along with the excited players all over the world.

Those lucky few who were able to order their own visor waits for the countdown as they excitedly check it out. They have already experienced the interface and the basic system making them truly excited.

NXT Element has also chosen ten media companies both locally and abroad to experience the first-ever virtual world.

…

The day has come…

Many media personnel are standing in the lobby of NXT Element Company, as they waited for the press conference to start. This press conference will also show the launching of the game itself.

Nobody has seen the servers, even the employees and the administrators have not seen the physical server itself in the company. The only person who has access to this is Shin Jiao. This is because he didn't want everyone to see the tech yet. Earth is not yet ready to see its unique appearance while looks like that from a sci-fi movie.

Shin Jiao is currently standing beside Susan Tang who is filled with happiness in her heart. When they released the Visors in the market, it was a pure landslide. The 1,000 pcs were all bought in just the first day and the next day, the order they received has gone up to a hundred thousand.

This and the still-growing orders they are receiving all over the world have already gone up to more than a million. But of course, since this is just the first release they decided to do a hunger marketing first. In truth, Shin Jiao has already created a manufacturing line for creating the visors. In the secret underground lab of the NXT Element Company, a machine working non-stop is spewing the visors with the speed of 1 visor per minute.

"Central, is everything ready?" Shin Jiao asked in his earphone.

"Yes, Master Shin… 'Merging Realms' is already online." The woman mechanical voice of central replied.

"Good, send the feed to the large monitors on my signal."

As Shin Jiao said this, the whole place suddenly turned dark.

The muttering of the reporters immediately stopped as everyone held their breath in anticipation. They knew that they are seeing the future right at this moment.

Suddenly within the darkness as a figure of a beautiful woman draped in white gown with silver glitters forming patterns slowly floated to the stage. This scene stunned everyone, almost all of the reporters had their jaws on the ground, and even the staff didn't expect such a thing to happen.

The woman like a mystical goddess walks in the center and smiled.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am central. I am the administrator of the game 'Merging realms' the server is now open and will be launching in one minute. I advise all players to put on visors and experience a world like no other." she said as she faded through and disappears.

Then the lights turned on as everyone recovers from their stupor. Everyone watching this scene did not expect such a thing. The current virtual figures are not like that. The virtual woman named Central is like a real person, her skin, her hair, her clothes, everything… it's all real, but at the same time, it's not…

"How can that be? How can a CGI be lifelike? That is impossible."

"This is NXT Elements technology… truly awesome."

"Look the countdown is starting. I can't wait to see what's inside the so-called virtual world 'Merging Realms' if what they say that it's like another world and the monetary system is true then I will buy one."

As people began to discuss their eyes are glued to the screen where a countdown is happening.

Meanwhile, while everyone is busy outside.

Some figures are lurking in the shadows. They seem to have entered the NXT Element Company building through some of the staff. Because there are spies within the staff of the company, these people were able to enter the place with ease. Their direction and target is the place where the servers for the 'Merging Realms' are located. And on their hands is an electronic map of the building itself.

From where they got it, one can already suspect.

As the countdown falls to seconds, the figures have also reached the inner corridor where the secret underground passage is located.

Only a door is standing between them and the virtual world technology of NXT Element Company.

A grin can be seen to the faces of the people who infiltrated the building.

"Hehe… if we disrupt the launching and steal the tech, then this company will fail and we can complete our mission. It's their bad luck for being too loud and provoked the wrong people. Hehe…" the man said with a glint of greed written all over his face.

"Open the door now! Use explosives if necessary. We're running out of time!" shouted the man who seems to be their leader.

The countdown then falls down to…

6…

5…

4…

3…

Boom!!!

2…

1…

Then everyone was stunned at the next thing they saw.