Twilight Templar (The Eternal Journey Book 1) Read online

  TWLIGHT TEMPLAR

  Eternal Journey Online, Book One

  By C.J. Carella

  Published by Fey Dreams Productions, LLC

  Copyright @ 2020 Fey Dreams Productions, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright holder. For permission, contact [email protected]

  Cover by: SelfPubBookCovers.com/ HighPing0

  This is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/

  Books by C.J. Carella

  Warp Marine Corps

  Decisively Engaged

  No Price Too High

  Advance to Contact

  In Dread Silence

  Havoc of War

  Warp Marine Corps (The Complete Series)

  The Bicentennial War

  To the Strongest

  They Shall Not Pass

  Victory or Death

  New Olympus Saga:

  Armageddon Girl

  Doomsday Duet

  Apocalypse Dance

  The Ragnarok Alternative

  New Olympus Tales:

  The Armageddon Girl Companion

  A Crucible of Worlds

  Outlands Justice

  Short Story Collections

  Land of Gods and Monsters

  Heroes and Rogues

  Beyonder Wars:

  Bad Vibes (Short Story)

  Shadowfall: Las Vegas

  Dante’s Demons

  Prologue: The Rapture of the Geeks

  Did you ever think that life is maybe a game? There is no difference between life and a game, you know.

  - Robert Anton Wilson

  When you play a game of thrones, you win or you die.

  - George R.R. Martin

  LEEEEROY JENKINS!

  - Leroy Jenkins

  Eternal Journey Demo Hits Two Million Downloads

  Kimmy Roach, Gamer World News (May 11th) - Eternal Journey Online has already made a huge impression in the gaming community. A free demo of the game has been downloaded over two million times in the two days since its release. Initial reactions to the newest entry in the MMORPG market have been overwhelmingly positive, with Hugh Wakaneko of PlayStop Reviews saying “While on the surface EJO is a throwback to such traditional MMORPGs as World of Warcraft or Everquest, the quality of the demo’s graphics and its immersive – almost hypnotic – gameplay and atmosphere make it stand out. I for one cannot wait for the game release.”

  Eternal Journey Online is the first release of Laughing Man Productions LLC, a new (and rather secretive) company based off Stockton, PA. LMP’s creative team has not given or accepted requests for interviews, communicating solely through press releases and social media announcements. How this small indie company has been able to produce a demo that matches or surpasses the quality of a Triple-A game remains a mystery.

  As the demo’s opening cinematic reveals, EJO players assume the role of Eternals, quasi-immortal beings able to resurrect after death (which provides a nice in-game explanation for respawning), and who can learn any skill and either multiclass or specialize heavily in one class as they rise in levels. The game can be soloed, but its numerous dungeons and raids are geared towards teams or large parties. Player characters will start on the Common Realm, a large setting spanning four continents and a variety of regions. As characters advance in power, they will unlock higher realms or dimensions, each more difficult than the last, until reaching the Realm of Gates, where they will confront godlike beings for “control of the universe,” whatever that means.

  Eternal Journey Online is scheduled for release in September and will launch on all major gaming consoles as well as PCs. The game will be free to play, with a cash store offering cosmetic items and vanity pets.

  EJO Launch One of Biggest in History,

  But Questions Remain

  Kimmy Roach, Gamer World News (September 15th) - While the veil of secrecy around Laughing Man Productions continues to frustrate journalists, the game’s release has broken records across the world. An estimated seven million players signed up for the free-to-play MMORPG and, despite fears to the contrary, the launch has gone off on schedule and without a hitch. There have been no long queues to enter the game and servers have remained stable despite hosting hundreds of thousands of concurrent users. Veteran game designer Sid Sherman considered the lack of issues to be “nothing short of amazeballs.”

  Initial ratings on Vapor-net and MegaCritic have a reviewer and user average of 93%; most players are enjoying themselves enormously. A growing number of questions remains to be answered, however, mostly regarding the owners and operators of Laughing Man Productions. A small company with no other previous releases, LMP has built its overnight success via word of mouth and social media promotion. None of the game’s designers have any previous credits in the industry. Insiders are befuddled at the indie designers’ achievements, even as some pundits predict the game’s expensive graphics will prove too costly for a free-to-play model.

  Despite their detractors’ concerns, LMP’s game continues to be a success.

  Hundreds Go Missing Over Weekend

  Dan Knout, Yohoo News – (September 25th) A rash of unexplained disappearances has broken out across the US over the weekend, leaving authorities mystified. Several hundred people have been reported missing over the September 20th-22nd weekend. Most of the missing were last seen at their homes. Allegations that many if not most of them were playing console or computer games when they vanished are rising in number, but have yet to be confirmed.

  “One minute he was in the rec room. The next, he was gone,” says Martino Hirsch, 27, roommate of one of the missing. “I went to meet the pizza delivery guy at the door, and when I came back to the room, he wasn’t there anymore. Only way out is through the front door and none of our windows are big enough for him to climb out. I don’t get it.”

  The number of missing persons continues to grow. Hundreds of reports have been filed all around the country. The FBI is said to be investigating, although no official announcement has been made.

  50,000 Disappearances Linked to Online Game

  Dan Knout, Yohoo News – (December 4th) An FBI raid on the offices of Laughing Man Productions has resulted in seven arrests but garnered more questions than answers. As of the date of this article, 53,182 people worldwide remain missing in what one pundit has described as “the Rapture of the Geeks.” The mysterious vanishings have been linked to the now-defunct game Eternal Journey Online, although an explanation for the seemingly impossible occurrences remains to be found.

  “As far as we can tell, those people sat down to play a computer game and vanished into thin air,” a private investigator hired by the families of several missing people told this reporter. “For all we know, they were abducted by aliens.”

  A federal investigation in the US found only one common link among the missing: they were all playing Eternal Journey Online on the day of their disappearance. Interpol’s own investigation found the same correlation in other parts of the world. About half of the reported disappearances occurred during the game’s debut weekend in September, with the rest happening in the days following its release.

  Laughing Man Productions officially canceled the game on October 3rd, citing financial issues as the reason. Thousands of people continued to play the game, however, relying on pr
ivate servers that sprung up by the hundreds following the shutdown. Officials suspect that Laughing Man personnel aided and abetted the creation of those servers by releasing the game’s software to a number of file-sharing sites. Hundreds of additional disappearances have been linked to those “pirated” versions of the game.

  Inside sources in the FBI report that the only people arrested so far were clerical and custodial employees of the gaming company. LMP’s owners and managers were using false names and stolen social security numbers belonging to deceased people. Their true identities remain unknown.

  Where Are They?

  First Anniversary of EJO’s “Rapture” Offers No New Answers

  Kimmy Roach, Gamer World News (September 29th) – No bodies. No forensic evidence. No confirmed sightings. Over sixty thousand people remain missing one year after the fateful launch of Eternal Journey Online, an event that shook up the gaming community and continues to haunt friends and relatives to this day. Despite an extensive FBI investigation, congressional hearings and billions of dollars spent on the fruitless search, no answers have been found. And despite the best efforts of the authorities, pirate copies and servers for the game can still be found online and have led to a continuous trickle of disappearances.

  “The people still playing the damn game are suicidal or otherwise mentally ill,” cybersecurity expert Zach R. Mayer said. “They believe those missing geeks are in a better place and want to go there as well.”

  Whatever that “better place” may be, no government or private agency has been able to find it, any more than they have been able to locate any of the missing people or the allegedly responsible parties, the owners and game designers of Laughing Man Productions, who remain at large. The apparent impossibility of sixty thousand people vanishing without a trace, despite living for the most part in densely populated parts of the world, continues to baffle law-enforcement agencies and the science community.

  Conspiracy theories have grown exponentially over time. Alien abductions, black holes, subliminal messages that convinced the victims to kill themselves without leaving a body behind, spontaneous combustion and demonic possession have all been alleged. The theories continue to be fiercely debated on social media to this day. None have been confirmed.

  One rumor that sparked a great deal of interest involves government experiments in which volunteers proceeded to play the game while being closely monitored by teams of scientists. In most cases, nothing happened, just as only a small fraction of the millions of players involved – under one percent – went missing after playing the game. The rumors claim that in some cases – in some variations of the tale, only one; in others, six or even a dozen – test subjects were engulfed by something described as “black light” or “black smoke” and disappeared. Alleged videos of the event(s) in question have been circulated widely – and been debunked, over and over again, as nothing more than amateurish CGI productions.

  The first anniversary of this dreadful event has come and gone without an answer to the increasingly desperate questions of those left behind. Only one fact is known: thousands of people from all walks of life, ages fifteen to sixty-three, sat down to enjoy a video game and were consigned to an unknown fate.

  Where are they? Why would anyone do this? What happened to all those people?

  We may never know.

  One

  He began his Eternal Journey naked, screaming and covered in blood. In a way, it was a lot like being born.

  Falling. Just a few seconds of plummeting through the dark, but it was long enough to make him scream in terror. He landed on something like a wet mattress full of wooden sticks. Something that stunk like day-old roadkill. The fall hurt, but the pain was nothing next to the realization he had landed on a pile of corpses. His flailing hands touched a cold, clammy face and he recoiled with another scream. He stumbled down the mound of bodies, his naked back sliding and bouncing off unmoving arms, legs, and torsos. Finally, he ended up on a cold, dusty surface. Sand, and stone or concrete underneath, flat and unyielding. He stopped screaming and was violently sick for several moments. It took all he had left to roll away from the mess and curl up on the sand-covered floor.

  He didn’t know how long he lay there, paralyzed like a child having a nightmare. Finally, he stopped reacting and began thinking.

  What happened? Where am I?

  The last thing he remembered was eating a couple of Hot Pockets and guzzling down an energy drink while he finished creating a character for Eternal Journey Online. He clicked on the LET’S BEGIN button on the screen. Then this happened, whatever this was. Falling through darkness. Dead bodies! Nothing made sense.

  He looked around. It was dark as sin, no source of illumination anywhere in sight, but he could see, kind of; everything was shades of neon blue, but he could make out every detail, including the pile of bodies he’d landed on. The sight, combined with the pervasive stench, triggered another bout of nausea. He got himself under control after a few dry heaves, thankfully, and he forced himself to take another look.

  The bodies appeared to be adults, both male and female. All naked. Several of the corpses had unusual features: pointy ears, heavy brows, abnormally long fangs. Inhuman. Or maybe just non-human. Besides the pile of corpses, all he could see were four walls, about sixty feet apart, a domed ceiling overhead, and an open archway on one of the walls. The ceiling had holes in it, more than big enough to pass a body. He must have fallen through one of them.

  A floating question mark began to flash yellow on the right corner of his field of vision. Just like in dozens of games he’d played, except he wasn’t staring at a screen; the symbol was there, in front of his eyes, remaining in the same relative position even when he turned his head side to side.

  This was no game, though. The smell of blood and human waste, the feel of his heart pounding against his chest or the cold air that had him on the verge of shivering, they felt all too real. He had never experienced anything like that in a game. He was thirsty and in pain. This was utterly, agonizingly, terrifyingly real.

  The question mark kept flashing, seemingly as real as everything else around him.

  “What the hell?” he said out loud. His voice sounded funny to his ears, but most of his attention was on the floating shape in the air. The moment he focused on the question mark, it was replaced by a hovering square of black text on an off-white surface:

  GREETINGS, HAWKE LIGHTSEEKER

  Welcome to the Eternal Journey! Please remember to check your inventory and equip your weapons and armor before proceeding. While death is not a final state of affairs for Eternals like yourself, it has several debilitating effects. And if you perish too many times, you will cease to be, permanently.

  Your first quest can be found on your quest log. You can access it simply by mentally ‘clicking’ on it. Be aware that this is not a game, except in the sense that war and the struggle to survive are games. The trials you face are quite real, as will be their consequences. Do not go into danger lightly or you will live to regret it.

  Finally, you must know one thing: you cannot return to your old life, not now and perhaps not ever. Only those with true power can undo the transformation you have undergone. If you are strong and cunning enough to prevail, you will do well. Otherwise, you will eventually lose yourself. Such is life on the Eternal Journey.

  Best of luck,

  Arbiter Primus

  He read the message a couple more times. As he did, he noticed three images had appeared next to the floating text box. A stylized helmet, a backpack, and a white question mark. Like the original question mark, they stayed in his field of vision no matter which way he turned his head or focused his eyes. Long years of gaming left him no doubt that those were icons: the helmet could lead to his character stats, the backpack to his inventory, and the question mark – could that be any more obvious? – to his quest log. Just like a damn game. And the message had used the name he’d chosen for his character.

  “Ridiculo
us,” he said, but the word held little power against the smells, the aches and pains of his hard landing, and the feel of his bare feet on the sandy ground.

  No virtual reality system could even begin to simulate any of this. The best rig he’d heard of could only affect sight and sound, and to a limited degree at that. In any case, he hadn’t been using a VR system. He’d been playing on a standard game console linked to the fifty-inch plasma screen he’d splurged on a couple of months before.

  His name was Ben Velasco, age twenty-six. He worked as a plumber, had recently completed his apprenticeship, and was making good money at it. In his spare time, he played computer games or tried to pick up girls at bars; he was mildly successful at both pastimes. He’d downloaded a free copy of Eternal Journey Online at the insistence of his gaming guild, which was quitting World of Warcraft to try out the hot new game. He’d loved the EJO demo and had been more than happy to join in. At least until everything had gone dark and he’d landed here. Hawke Lightseeker was the name of his WoW Paladin (or rather, given WoW’s character name limits, it’d been Hawkelights). He most definitely didn’t want to be him for real, however.

  It all feels real, though. Might as well treat it that way.

  Being naked in a cold dungeon was proving to be a lot more unpleasant in real life than in a game. Using the same mental ‘mouse click,’ he opened his inventory. The backpack icon and the floating screen expanded into a thirty-two-slot grid on the left side of his field of vision, four columns with eight square slots each. He’d seen grids like that a gazillion times before, but never as a ghostly screen in front of him, one that turned translucent when he tried to peer past it. There were eight items in the inventory, each taking up a slot. He recognized all of them; he’d selected them during character creation. As he focused on each item, a text box appeared displaying information about it.

  Ordinary Clothing

  A set of woolen trousers, undergarments and padded shirt. Can be worn under armor.