Nova started screaming after seeing that he was falling from the sky. As a reflex, he closed his eyes immediately, and the wind stopped.
But his body also stopped moving. Even when he tried to move, he couldn't. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though, since the familiar intro started playing in front of his eyes.
***
It is rumored that long ago, the gods lived in these lands.
They loved, they fought, they fell.
Today, no one knows who fought them or on whose hands they fell, but it has been prophesied that they would come back to these lands.
Only one hero could save the world from their hands, but no one knows who this prophesied hero is...
***
When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting on a chair inside a shack-like building. It was a familiar view, but he instantly started checking his body.
"Sh*t, did I fall?"
There was nothing wrong with his body, no injuries, not even scratches. But... his body was obviously different.
He looked around. Inside the shack, there were weapons. An axe, a staff, a mace, a sword, a long-sword, a short-sword, a katana, double swords, etc...
There were exactly 49 weapons in this place since this was where the characters chose their classes.
But he had never fallen from the sky before, no matter how many times he started again.
"Was it a hallucination? Did I not sleep well?"
Wondering about it, he first got up from the chair and approached the edge of the shack. Since the players came here right after character creation, there was a mirror here. Also, some people chose their classes according to appearance.
When he looked at the mirror, he didn't see himself. Well, except for the one time he played as himself, he never did.
But it was a surprise even for him to see a fifteen-year-old boy looking back at him. He had blueish black hair. He was already at least 175 according to the height lines beside the mirror.
His eyes were crimson. The eyes scared him a bit since they seemed intimidating, but he could get used to them.
But he still didn't know why there was only one character that couldn't be changed. And the reason why that character turned out to have this appearance here.
"Is this an easter egg?" he wondered as he moved to get his weapon.
Normally, whenever he played, he chose a sword. Even though each class and weapon had its own advantages and disadvantages, the sword was the most balanced weapon according to Nova.
But, since he would delete this character later on, he decided to go with another weapon, which was the staff.
If a player chose the staff, they would become a mage, receiving mana and spells. To be honest, the mage class was Nova's favorite in this game. But they fell short later on, so he couldn't play as a mage.
After taking the staff, he rotated it in his hands a few times and swung it around as if he knew martial arts.
Then, he left the shack. When he turned back, there was nothing behind him. This always happened. After the player chose their weapon and class, the shack disappeared.
Actually, no one knew if it was a shack since no one had seen it from the outside before. But inside, it looked like one, so they thought it was the case.
It was still morning outside, meaning it was also morning on Earth. Since the game time was the same as Earth's time when the game was started, he knew that was the case.
Did I sleep for a whole day?
It was also morning when he was banned. Assuming he slept right after that, he must have slept for a day.
But... I don't need to use the restroom yet...
Since the game was only half-immersive, he still needed to stop the game and... do everything he needed to live by himself.
But he didn't want to leave the game yet. Since this was probably an easter egg, he could wait until at least after the first step was done.
He started walking toward the beautiful city that could be seen from where he was. It was the starting town, Elarith.
On the way, he thought about the intro of the game. Godfall: Ascension Protocol was an RPG with a lot of mobs and enemies in it.
When the character reached the age of 20, the zombies were the first ones to attack. It was an easy game in the first stage. The players just needed to defeat all the zombies.
Of course, NPCs also helped. There would be fights all around the world. But the player needed to cover some of them. Then, the first stage would end, and the second stage would start.
The second stage was the same. Instead of zombies, though, there would be monsters. Still, it was easy like the first stage. As long as the player killed the monsters and protected some of the key NPCs, the second stage would end.
The issue started with the third stage. In the third stage, demons started attacking. But unlike the zombies and monsters, they were intelligent.
They didn't mindlessly attack the borders. They infiltrated the cities, acted like humans, and tried to win the war from inside. This stage was the first obstacle in front of the player until Nova beat that stage. Yes, Nova was the first one to beat stage three, making his debut.
From then on, everyone who played GAP knew his name. And he didn't get caught up in the fame. He sincerely tried to develop himself.
Even though he wasn't a speedrunner, which was something that didn't make sense in this game, he learned speedrun strats and applied them in his gameplay.
That was how he came this close to beating stage four, the invasion of the angels.
If only those b*stard developers didn't prevent me...
Of course, in his mind, the reason he was banned was because the developers couldn't put a proper anti-cheat system in place and instead allowed anyone who beat stage four without getting damaged.
Even though no one knew what came after stage four, they knew that, at some point, gods or god-like beings would come since the name of the game and the intro mentioned them.
"Halt! Who are you?"