The day of the launch came, it was important and even though a despondent Cole would have very much preferred to spend the entire day lying on the ground surrounded by wrappers of instant noodles; he had to connect to the Titan Rising servers and log in through the neural dome. Now normally you would need hardware that could store the game you were connecting to, but after revolution of cluster cloud storage and servers 87 years ago, the need to download games or any sort of content was completely eliminated. All you needed to do was just connect with your neural dome and you can have access to it, this pretty much revolutionized MMO as a whole. But even at that Cole did not need to move from his position and while it would have been better for him to get into a comfortable position, the earlier mentioned despondence would definitely not let him do so.

“Morgan Log In to Titan Rising event server.”

[As you wish Master Cole, now logging in. connecting 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0! initiating cloud bridge, testing connection, connection secure! Logged in! Have a pleasant gaming experience Master Cole]

A stadium, or at least that was what Cole thought it was. Instead it seemed more like he was in some giant coliseum, one that was so large it could comfortably sit 5 million people and then some. The roar of the crowd that he was suddenly now a part of was annoying as it was inducing a headache. Cole ignored the people animatedly talking around him and paid attention to the giant holographic letters, spelling out WELCOME, before focusing on the stat sheet prompt that followed, triggered by the welcome message.

[Aspirant Cole: Utilizing Base Figure with No Cosmetic Alteration]

[Aspirant Cole: Ethnicity African, With Asian Ancestry By Way Of Maternal Grandmother.]

[Aspirant Cole: B.Sc. in Behavioral Science, And Theater Arts. Masters in Political Science, And Psychology. Two Time All Nigerian MVP Champion of Pro Soccer, 1 Time Golden Boot Winner of the 97th International Under 20 Pro Soccer Awards. 7th Dan Black Belt Holder in Jujitsu, Muay Thai, Capoeira, and Tai-Chi Enthusiast.]

[Aspirant Cole: Heart Condition at 6 Years Old, Underwent Cardiovascular Cybernetic Surgery. Was Formerly Engaged To Sports Reporter and Blogger Sarah Cassidy Banks.]

[Aspirant Cole: Please Attend Orientation While A Stat Template Is Being Made.]

This was the shit about Titan Rising that both drew people to it and made others wary. Of course they always said that all information relayed was confidential, but being able to call out life information and secrets at the drop of a hat seems extreme, and it would spook anybody looking to the play the game for the first time. Titan Rising was different, there were no set templates of classes or races, instead it would be narrowed down for you based on your history and personality, but even at that it’s not fully locked in until you’ve reached Level 10, and you have slotted Prisms into your Stat nodes. And even at that the stats your receive are randomized, playing on your personality and character. So there would be no expectations of the traditional Strength, Agility, etc.

You might get it, but sometimes you won’t. You might have all mental stats for your 4 primary, then you’re allowed to pick a secondary to at least try and have a semblance of balance or you could still play to your strengths and specialize. By level 10, race and class options will be given, and it will be based on play style so far, stats, the Prisms that might have been gained and the skills they bestow. All characters are unique and even though two people had the same class, they’d have different races and different set of skills to have unlocked the class, making for an extremely diverse and unique character.

“Hello everyone and welcome to Titan’s Rising last and final event!”

The booming voice drew Cole out of his musings, even more so followed by the screams of excitement he just heard. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to be around people right now, but he had to be here. This was probably the only thing that made sense in his life right now. Like his grandmother always taught him, he had to be like water, go with flow and adapt to his situations, just like Bruce Lee has said.

“Not much information has been given about this new event, but now I’ll let you in on just what you’re all here for!”

Again there were more screams, the person giving the message was some disembodied specter like head, massive, probably the size of the moon or something, floating in the middle of the coliseum and completely black and white. it sort of reminded Cole of that guy from that old anime about a bunch of kids stuck in a game, he hoped this doesn’t turn out to be something similar, he had nobody to look after him, so his body will probably just die.

“This Event has created not just a whole other server, but this server is a layer. A practical tower of 25 floors, with each floor differing in scope, size, theme, and challenge. Each person has 10 lives for the whole of the event, of course there are certain treasures, skills, classes, even races that can help you get more lives, at a cost of course. But none of that is on this floor. Either way, you die ten times and you are stuck on the floor your life got finished on, until it’s destruction and you’re eliminated from the event.

Now listen very carefully to the rules of this event, every floor, regardless of scope or size has an endgame. There are tons of quests to be completed on each floor, tons of treasures, weapons and prisms to be found, not to mention the Easter eggs. Some of the rewards you get have real world consequences, such as earning a voucher for ten million dollars! Or winning a house or a trip off world to the colonies and space stations. Nevertheless each floor only exists for a little while, you all have to actively try to find the way to the next floor, while constantly surviving. On each floor you will have to survive against its denizens, invaders, or other Aspirants. Nevertheless one thing should be made clear to all of you.

Alliances are allowed, teams and guilds can be formed and made, but in the end for this event there can only be one Winner. Everyone you see is a potential ally, but more so than that, they are all definite enemies. Either way you all should have fun, and give the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy a show that they deserve. Take note my Aspirants that this event will change the course of history for humanity as a whole, the world, even the entire universe itself will change as a new Era would be ushered in. It will be an era of chaos, war, destruction and creation, heroes and villains, and you 5 million out of 67 billion humans across the universe has been chosen to be vanguards! The event officially starts now, and your adventure into the final calls of Titan Rising and opening songs of a new era begins… now!”

Cole blinked his eyes as the head disappeared, the cheers that followed was quite deafening, and it was more than annoying to boot. There was something about the speech that was just given, honestly he couldn’t put his fingers on it, but it seemed positively ominous. But since he couldn’t figure it out, he shrugged his shoulders and tried to hunker down as his stat Page was finally accessible to him, and probably everyone else as the cheers of 5 million people slowly ebbed, into small chatters that were all still quite loud.

Aspirant: Cole Night

Handle: Prometheus

Class: N/A

Level: 0/10(0/50)

Race: N/A

Titles: N/A

Money: 100 Tibons/ 100 Tisons/ 100 Tigons

Energy: 0/0

Buffs: N/A

Primary Weapon:

Secondary Weapon:

Primary Armor:

Secondary Armor:

Party:

Team:

Guild:

Alliance:

Lives:10

Alignment: Neutral

Charisma: Bronze I(0/10)

Perception: Bronze I(0/10) ．

Intelligence: Bronze I(0/10)

Dexterity: Bronze I(0/10)

Attunement: Bronze I(0/15) (chosen stat)

Augments:

There were dozens of stats that Cole could have chosen, but the best was attunement. It didn’t make a magical acolyte as choosing the magic stat would have done that, or a psionic like the mind stat would have. Attunement was a grey area stat that covered almost anything, giving him connection with practically anything and anyone. The more high his attunement, the more he would be contact with everything that made the world move. More encounters, not being limited to only one energy source, and overall just being more applicable to a lot of things in general. It wasn’t a stat that saw much use or gave an edge during the early stages of the game or even the late stages, specialization was the key to success in Titan Rising, your build matters. But if you were someone like Cole who wanted to avoid everyone else and just be on his own, then Attunement worked just fine. And then a rip in reality appeared, and from it a massive tentacular appendage flew out and smashed into a section of the bleachers, quite a few people turned into streams of light as they were killed suddenly.

[[1st Floor Main Quest! The Merrell Coliseum Space Station Is Being Invaded By The Nijat Alien Race. Survive and Find A Way Off The Base Within The Next 72 Hours Or You Will Be Destroyed Along With Station(Floor)/ Rewards: Based On Performance, Iron Rank Prism Guaranteed Drop For First 10,000, Silver Rank Prism For First 1000, Gold Rank Prism For First 10, Diamond Rank Prism For First Person. 71:58:44]]

[[1st Floor Side Quest! Escape The Coliseum! Bonus Objective I: <Save 10 People> Bonus Objective II: <Betray 10 People> Bonus Objective III: Kill One Nijat Alien of Any Species/ Rewards: 50 Trisons, 1 Bronze Rank Prism, <More Rewards Applicable For Completed Bonus Objective>]]

“And so it begins.”

*Rooooaaaaarrrrrr!*