[Other FULL] CLOUD v2.0 [T] [IC]

Skymin · Jun 30, 2014

OOC THREAD // IC THREAD

Hello! Bonjour! Merhaba! こんにちは! Hola! Ciao! Hej! Здравствуйте! Hallo! 您好! Pozdrav! Hei! Labdien! 안녕하세요!
Welcome to CLOUD!
Hello! Bonjour! Merhaba! こんにちは! Hola! Ciao! Hej! Здравствуйте! Hallo! 您好! Pozdrav! Hei! Labdien! 안녕하세요!

After ICARUS' annoucement, the crowd went beserk, leaving you and your life completely changed. Whether or not you were given a coloured key is irrelevant right now, your survival is necessary if you want to keep your identity or get it back from ICARUS. The teleporter was the only way out and lucky for you, you made it. The fate of those still in the foyer is now unknown to you. Did the fighting continue until only one DAEMON remain or was peace somehow formed? Whatever it was, you're not apart of it anymore. Now, you're on your way up the 100 floors of the castle.

CLOUD's story so far

the CLOUD revolution - the first day ♪♫ - posted june 30th, 2014

Spoiler:

FLOOR 1: PLAINS ♪♫

03:06, 25th May 2025 (JST)
As you jump through the blue portal, that familiar feeling of teleporting overwhelms you and you find yourself… outside. It's still dark but you can see the orange glow on the horizon -- the digital sun will rise soon.

Despite the darkness, you can see the world around you quite clearly. It's a field and a rather large one too. You don't recognise it exactly, but it seems like the kind of field that might spawn in a low-levelled STORM dungeon. The words "FLOOR 1: PLAINS" hover over your HUD for a second before disappearing, alerting you of the name of this place. Wow. How original.

It seems you and whoever you teleported with have appeared in a random place in this field and you can see yourself on the ingame map. It looks like there are key places on your map, but they haven't been discovered yet, and only their names are seen when you interact with them. To the north is something called 'DEEP FOREST', to the south the point reads 'FOYER DUNGEON', to the east 'LITTLE TOWN', and to the west 'GREEN HILL'.

It seems fairly stock standard, but you won't find out anything if you stay here. You can see other members appearing in the distance around you so you better get a move on if you want to discover these places first! Or, if you're not close to an enemy, you can teleport back to CLOUDLAND in CIRRUS.

Current Quests

Help stranded villager!
How to begin: Find NPC Genevieve in the DEEP FOREST!
Quest has been activated: Once. (Corona, Terrigan, LGDClaw)
Located in a small cottage within a small clearing in the forest. NPC Genevieve (rat-like DAEMON) will task you with escorting a NPC bird DAEMON to outside of DEEP FOREST. NPC has no defending items and cannot attack. Susceptible to ambush.
Quest Reward: ???

Currently Unknown Quests

Spoiler:

miscellaneous

image references

Spoiler:

songs:

the cloud revolution - the first day: our demons by the glitch mob (feat. aja volkman)
floor 1: plains: it's time by imagine dragons

css: made by myself, best viewed in google chrome.

OOC THREAD // IC THREAD

Nakuzami · Jun 30, 2014

Colette Alise Faraday // Lady Raptor
Viva La Revolución

Colette stared down at the now purple key that she held in her hand. "Well this sucks."

Her nineteenth birthday was in two months. She was still technically a teenager, even if she was a legal adult. She didn't really have too much that she couldn't fix if she failed to retrieve her key, but it was still an inconvenience. She could cancel her one credit card if she needed to, assuming that would work, and she didn't have too many websites that she used, and the ones that she did were simple things like Facebook and Tumblr. Her social security number, though? She still wasn't well versed in the ways of adulthood, but she knew enough that to lose her social security number was most definitely not a good thing, and she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do to protect that or retrieve it if it were to be lost. There probably wasn't.

On the other hand, her key was in the possession of the Game Master. She doubted he would do anything so petty as to commit identity theft. She doubted that he would do anything with her information at all, except use it to manipulate her into playing his little game. That was okay with her. This way she didn't have to protect it from anyone else. If she lost the colored key, she would just have to either try and reclaim it, or follow the others to the top. That was something of a plus. It was the best consolation that she would get in this mess.

Colette pocketed the key to prevent anyone else beyond her friends from seeing it. They all still had their normal silver keys, but they were all at least in a similar position as her. Losing their keys would suck, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. It probably wouldn't. Hopefully.

Colette clenched her fists, taking a deep breath. "Okay, let's get to that portal."

"I-is that the best idea?" Videl stuttered.

"It's better than sitting around here," Wyatt added. The others nodded, and they all charged forward. They would fair better together, at least.

♫☮♫☮♫

"Kill all the Goblings!"

"Guess your bad habits came in handy," Colette grunted at Liam as she tore through another monster that blocked their path. With Liam, Wyatt, Jason and Videl fighting beside her, it wasn't difficult to cut a path through the crowd. For the most part they just shoved other Daemons out of their ways, having no interest in taking their lives or identities. There was one Daemon that had gotten in Colette's way, probably hoping to take her key, so she had been forced to kill him. Now she had a colored key and one extra key, and she still wasn't sure what she planned to do with them.

By now they were only a few meters away from the portal. Colette no longer had access to her sword, so she was forced to punch her way through the monsters. She crushed another Gobling and surged towards what would be their exit.

"Out of the way!" Colette suddenly felt herself tumbling sideways after someone rammed into her. "If anyone gets to the portal, it's going to be me!"

Colette stood up and brushed herself off, glaring at the man. "You do realize that more than one person can go through a portal, right?"

"I don't care! I'm getting out of here alive, even if I have to kill all of you!"

Colette frowned. "Genius, we're in a game! The stakes are high but they're not life or death!"

"Yes they are! I can't go down here!" The man was unreasonable. He was visibly panicked, and Colette didn't think she was going to get through to him.

"Then how 'bout you walk through the portal and get out of here, rather than getting in my way?"

The man lunged at Colette, punching wildly. "Give me your keys!"

She stepped to the side and let the man fall on his face. "You're just stupid, aren't you?" she asked flatly.

"Come on, Colette, just leave him." Wyatt and the others were now standing around the portal, ready to dive through it. She turned to leave with them, and they all jumped through ahead of her. Just as she was about to, a hand wrapped itself around her ankle.

"I said give me your key!" Colette kicked the man's hand off of her, but he leaped to his feet and grabbed her by the neck.

"You have . . . some serious issues . . . dude," she chocked out. She reached her arm up and grabbed the man's wrist, attempting to pry his hand away from her. When that failed, she opted to knee him in the stomach and then kick him in the groin. He dropped her and doubled over, and she took that opportunity to bring her fists down on his neck. His health dropped to zero and he de-materialized. She took the key that he left behind, and grinned at the fact that her Unarmed skill went up.

But when Colette turned back around, the portal was surrounded by newly spawned monsters.

"Great. Guess I'm on my own now."

Swolligator · Jul 1, 2014

[title="Fletcher 'Fletch' Davis"]

[/title]

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

1:42am AUST, 25th May, 2025
Song: Doomsday - Atreyu (Lead Sails Paper Anchor)

"Seems like Doomsdays come early this year,
The last angel has gone.
I can't remember the last time I cried,
The last angel has gone home"

Fletch screamed the chorus from the top of his lungs as he sped down the deserted stretch of road. He was pumped to see the band as they toured Australia during the 'End of the World' Tour in a couple of weeks' time. With windows wound down the wind whipped his hair about as the cool summer air stole the words from out of his mouth and into the starry night. He felt like he was on cloud nine, on top of the world, even bulletproof as he pushed his Honda Civic past 120 kilometres per hour and up to 140. Safe in his knowledge of his proficiency at driving, Fletch had zero qualms about breaking the speeding limit when he felt like it. At this time of night though, he felt most alive having just come from a mutual meeting with his latest booty-call by the name of 'Jenny'. She was by far one of his more adventurous 'friends' and had done this thing that completely blew his mind. Even his gentlemen 'friends' who should know the area well hadn't ever managed to do something so amazing.

Looking at his phone he felt a rush of urgency as he remembered his brother's cryptic text about logging into Cloud in just fifteen minutes time. The Nokia Lumia 1820 vibrated angrily on his passenger seat as the reminder to log into Cloud in the intervening fifteen minutes flashed on his display. Earlier in the evening, before he had headed out, the guild chat had been rife with chatter about the upcoming event. Not that he really had much to do with the guild other than being 'just another member', but rather having it open while he worked on his assignments provided a brief respite. The way he figured it, he could be home and online in time for the announcement, then log out and head to bed before his 9am accounting lecture when the assignment was over.

Pulling into the driveway of his flat, Fletch killed the engine of his car and grabbed his school bag and phone from the passenger seat. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he idled up to the pitch black flat, fiddling with his keys until he found the right one that would unlock it. It was a nice suburban house, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large living room/dining room area. His parents had bought it years ago when the economy hadn't been so strong, but after they had fixed it up and moved to Sydney, they allowed Fletch to live there rent free while he studied at university. While he took the master bedroom, Fletch rented the other two rooms out to his friends; Geoff, a Welsh punk exchange student he had met in their first year of university and Ellie, a half-aboriginal honours student from Perth. More than likely both of them were busy in Cloud waiting for the announcement which was later confirmed as he snuck past their bedrooms and could see the faint blue glow emanating from beneath their respective doors.

Flicking the light on in his room, Fletch let out an exhausted sigh as he dumped his back on the foot of his bed and emptied his pockets on the bedside table. Coins clattered on the hard wood surface, keys, wallet and phone soon followed. The phone he picked back up, connecting it to his dock-port alarm clock where it began charging and playing a premade list of Atreyu, Breaking Benjamin, Dark Tranquillity and a whole range of other Alt Rock and Metal bands. He booted up his computer before passing through into the bathroom to take a leak and brush his teeth. In the mirror he flattened his wind swept hair and quickly took his shirt off to reorient it after putting it on backwards when leaving Jenny's house. For a moment he paused and flexed his muscles in the mirror, turning around and noticing the red scratch marks running down his lats and traps. Flexing some more, he sized up his muscles in proportion to the rest of his body and figuring out that his next gym session should include more triceps workout.

Putting his shirt back on, Fletch slid the bathroom door shut and fell into his desk chair before turning around to begin typing on his computer. Logging in, his first instinct was to check his email and bank balance, but when he logged into Cloud to access these services, he was forcefully booted out and told that the login portal was closed until the release of the announcement. The guild chat was rife with contemplation on what the announcement was about and rumours ran rampant throughout the chat. Picking up the stress ball sitting beside his LCD screen, he began bouncing it against the far wall of his bedroom which had the living room on the other side. When the clock finally ticked over to 2am Fletch tossed the ball and turned to his computer, letting the ball fly past the back of his chair and bounce under his bed. Forcefully logged in, he went to teleport his character to the Cloudlands to check his email only to found that the entire UI had been disabled.

What was stranger was the bizarre castle that the millions of other users were trapped in. Even though he barely used Cloud, Fletch still had a decent idea of the different places in Cloud and if this wasn't some high levelled dungeon, then it was nowhere within Cloud. Looking around he was amazed at the sight of the amount of users stuck in this place; with so many in one place he wondered how the Cloud megaservers hadn't already destroyed themselves. They could handle a lot since Cloud was practically international but this amount of players was just insane. Before he could talk to anyone around him the lights flickered and a large red humanoid Demon/Dragon thing spawned in the middle of the castle. Immediately he identified it as the Daemon of Icarus.

"Greetings, CLOUD members! I am your host, ICARUS, and I officially welcome you to your new home! Today marks the day of revolution, the day that CLOUD truly changes the world. To celebrate this wondrous occasion, we have prepared something special for you, our members who have supported us for every single second that CLOUD has existed.

CLOUD has always worked to meld the line between our online selves and reality and now, what we do behind a screen will have so much more of an impact on our lives than ever before.

You may recall receiving a special item last week; a silver key which is individual to your DAEMON. Your KEY is no longer just an item. It is your identity. Embedded within the coding of your KEY are your details, and not just your name and birth date. Passwords, bank accounts, social security numbers, credit card details... everything you have ever done is now recorded in one location. Just by equipping and using the KEY as a regular item, you can access all of this. And not just your own. By equipping and using another member's KEY, you are able to access their details just as easily as your own. As they are non-trading items, the only way to obtain another member's key is by killing their DAEMON."

Fletch flicked through his inventory seeing all his little amount of items suddenly gone except the silver key he had received like Icarus had said. Bringing up the details of the item in his HUD he noticed that the name of this item was his Avatar's and in the description it had everything Icarus had spoken of; email, bank account, TFN, debit cards, everything. Around him people struggled to get out of their seats but unable to do so and an American user two seats in front of him began swearing off a list of profanities at Icarus. Fletch's own heart start racing as he began to panic about other people obtaining his key. Hiding it back into his bare inventory, he was ready to fight tooth and nail to keep it, but with his Avatar's small stature and agility he would easily be able to avoid most of the massacre.

"Other important changes have happened in CLOUD. All levels have been reset to zero and all items aside from your KEY have been removed and deleted from all accounts. Your DAEMON has been reset to factory settings. All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which will boot you out after an hour after entering. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON. However, if you are killed and your key is taken from you, you will respawn in CLOUDLANDS and you are free to try and win your key back.

Are you unhappy with your new world that I have so graciously given you? Fine! Come face me then! CLOUD has been converted into a new domain, a hundred story castle! Right now, the CLOUD you know resides on the first floor. Once you defeat the boss which rests within the new STORM dungeon, the stairs to the next floor will reveal, granting you new opportunities to protect yourself, or to make yourself stronger to defeat and take from others. I will be waiting for you in the hundredth-floor dungeon. Defeat me, and take back what you held so dearly, what you took for granted."

"There is however, a catch. I have spread out amongst yourselves unique, coloured keys. These have been given out to several random but now special players. These coloured keys are important for unlocking the doors to bosses and all of these coloured keys will be required to open the final door. To you players who have my special keys, I have given you no choice. I have your key. Your identity is mine. Come and claim it back."

Fletch had already discovered his deleted items, but pulling up the overview of his Daemon in the HUD he noticed that Icarus wasn't lying; he was in fact level one again. The only good thing that had really come out of this though was that is K/D ratio had also been reset, allowing him to no longer have such a dismal rate. He wasn't quite ready to take on Icarus' challenge, he would need others for that, but even the Cloudlands sounded like they would be a danger zone as no doubt campers would sit outside waiting for the lower levelled Daemons to be booted out after an hour before mauling them to death. Perhaps he could band with such people but Fletch doubted they would be as friendly and would more than likely turn on their own crowd. He wasn't quite sure about having his own key as opposed to Icarus having it. While he had his own, he still had access to his identity but it also meant that if someone else killed him they could access it as well. Then again, how likely was Icarus going to meddle with those keys as opposed to someone else? Were those keys even safer with Icarus than with their owners?

"So, which has become more important to you? Your online or offline self? Do you protect what you have or rebuild your identity from scratch?

Thank-you for your time and enjoy yourselves at our new update celebrations. Have a nice morning, day, night and evening."

At the close of his speech Icarus logged out. The locks around Fletch's Daemon set him free and he was able to move about, but as he tried to follow suite he noticed that the log out button had been disabled. Chaos erupted around him as Daemons began running in every direction or started to attack one another. It was complete Anarchy and Fletch began focussing on moving his Daemon between the legs, talons and tentacles of his fellow Cloud users as he searched for a viable exit. Going to Cloudlands now would be ultimate suicide, as would staying here, but a blue glow from the centre of the foyer provided another way out; a portal. As he scurried for the portal, he noticed an ensemble of feet exit the portal as a mass of scary monsters now surrounded the portal. Retreating out of Aggro range, Fletch hid in the shadows of an arch before jumping to the guild chat. Now he regretted having a white Daemon, but if he could group up with some other guild members, he would have a higher chance of survival.

>Daemonhead Guild Chat
[erika149]>Help meeeeee!
[chaosblu3]>Die, ****!
[dogeee]>Where is Silver!?!?!?

Fletch quickly entered a message:

[/GUILD]>LFG, Portal, 1 Tank

The message was soon buried beneath the cries from his other guildies but Fletch continued to send the message every minute hoping someone would notice it and group with him. He wasn't well renowned within the guild, but a couple of the higher levelled members had taught him the basics of tanking; he had no trouble taking a hit. Turning away from his computer, Fletch rolled over to his bedside table where his phone sat, pulling it off the dock and stopping the music before pulling up the installed messaging app.

To: Silver Davis
Re: Cloud
>Dude, what the ***?!?!
>Txt me back asap.

To: Silver Davis
Re: Cloud
>Silver, stop being an ***.
>What did you get me in to???

To: Silver Davis
Re: Cloud
>Haha, you're so funny, ****.
>You better get on, stuff is messed up.

Three texts and five calls later and all Fletch could deduct was that his brother has his phone off and refused to take the call. Which was odd, his brother never turned his phone off, even when he was meant to. During their dinners at home he was always receiving calls at any time so why now would he turn it off? Figuring his brother was a lost cause, Fletch turned back to his screen noticing that he was suddenly taking damage. Taking off into the crowd, he quickly lost his attacker, hiding in another arch shadow in a more desolate place of the foyer.

Skymin · Jul 2, 2014

Rosalee Bennett // PumpkinXO
>> Level 1, Unassigned Class, Cloud Nine
>> 25th May, 2025
>> ??? & Manchester, England

A small gasp escaped Rosie's mouth as the key in her inventory changed from a silver to a deep red. Somehow, out of the billion or so members who were registered to CLOUD, she had been 'chosen'. She was special, important or some other crap. But more importantly, she had nothing. No name, no money, nothing. Just a red key and her Daemon. How long would it take before she was kicked out of her home, until her possessions were repossessed for some strange reason? How long did she have until the world realised that she was nobody?

Inside the DREAMSCAPE, everything just felt so much more… real. It was why Rosalee had bought herself one in the first place. Most people bought it for the RPG edge or for some kind of advantage during battles or something. Rosie, however, wanted to lose herself. Yes, she mainly used CLOUD for shopping, chatting and attending events but it all felt so much more relevant. Like she wasn't wasting her time in a game, but spending her time somewhere else. She had never regretted buying it.

But now, watching the madness that ICARUS had left behind unwind, it was like watching a natural disaster happen right in front of her eyes. The shoving from her left and right, she could feel. When the crowd moved around her, forcing her forward, she felt suffocated and claustrophobic. If she had done this from her computer, Rosie would have easily been able to just… get her head into gear. To find her goal and move. Right now was the only time she regretted her DREAMSCAPE.

"H-help!! Please, help me!" She wailed, but her voice was lost throughout the crowd. She had been in virtual moshes before, but never a crowd this violent and panicked. She was pulled down amongst the much taller Daemons around her, drowning in a virtual sea of people. She hadn't noticed yet, but her treasured clothes, the items she had spent money, real money on were gone, replaced with default rags.

Her legs buckled and she fell to the ground, curling her fingers so they wouldn't get stomped on. Half of her wanted to just sit here and wait for someone to attack her and the other half wanted to scream and run for her life. Choosing which one to do felt like choosing between death by drowning or fire. For someone who had never died or had even come close to any sort of danger within the game, the idea of it sounded so scary. She had nothing to lose, but she was so afraid. Did it hurt like real life?

"Get a hold of yourself!" Rosie slapped her hands on her face, scrambling to her feet. She couldn't do this on her own, she had to get someone to help her. She moved with the crowd, unsure of where she was going, scrolling through the guild chat. Many of them were expert players, but like her, many of the 'inexperienced' players had flooded the chat with cries for help, none of which received any replies. She would have flicked through her friends list if she had the time but UI disappeared as she was shoved out of the crowd and to the ground, somehow to a spot where feet weren't surrounding her. She looked up, a stone golem for a Daemon pushing through the crowd to her, fists clenched with a ugly look on his face.

"You look rich. Give me your key!" He growled. Rosie would have noticed the obvious voice changer if she wasn't scared out of her mind. When she whimpered in response, he shouted again. "Give me your KEY!" He swung his foot, colliding with her stomach. She let out a wail, even though the sensation she felt wasn't really pain. The system detected a fight and automatically slotted a weapon into her hand (something it did if it recognised the user had not fought before). The only thing she had was her key, which materialised in her hand from pixels. The golem's eyes widened, growing more greedy.

"You have a coloured key! Give it to me! GIVE IT TO ME!" He roared at her. Not knowing what else to do, Rosie sat up, holding the key defensively but knowing it wouldn't do any good if he lunged at her.

"Get away from me!'

Pepperton · Jul 2, 2014

Alfie Happer

Indian Wells, California
May 25th, 2025

Unfortunately, the kitchen was almost empty. After being home alone for almost a week now, both Alfie and his sister had forgotten to go out and buy any groceries - it simply slipped their minds, probably due to all the excitement surrounding Cloud's upcoming announcement. Dinnertime had already gone by, and nothing had been prepared. The only thing Alfie could find was a horrifyingly rotten banana and some stale Rice Krispie treats. He was about to call out to Jade, but she beat him to it.

"Don't worry about it Alf, just come in here and log in! It's about to start!" He turned his phone over and checked his twitter feed; sure enough, the update would be announced in a few minutes. Grabbing the treats and throwing the banana in the trash, he entered his room, where Jade had been waiting on his bed. He plopped down on to his chair, and Jade immediately came up to sit on his lap. She had a character of her own, but not nearly as powerful as Kuoto, so she preferred to watch Alfie play. Oddly enough, the screen automatically logged him in, and then, for a second, showed that he had spawned in a Clooudland lobby, but then the monitor seemed to glitch, causing Jade to gasp.

Within seconds, the screen changed again, and Alfie's Daemon materialized in a whole new area, one that he had never seen before. As a fairly high leveled character, Alfie was familiar with most, if not all of Cloud's areas; every nook and cranny was in his memory banks, but this place didn't register at all, and that scared him deeply. His Daemon took a quick glance around, and found himself even more frightened by the fact that this castle-like building was completely packed - everywhere he looked, thousands of Daemons seemed to clutter the stands, fidgeting constantly, some shouting and crying, others totally still and quiet. Quite the sight to behold, and Jade watched the screen with wide eyes.

"Uh, Alf... What's going on?" Almost subconsciously, Alfie shook his head, because he truly had no idea. After what seemed like a century of waiting, a gigantic, demon Daemon appeared towards the center of the grounds. All of the other personas seemed puny in comparison to this beast; its arms looked strong enough to take out a hundred Daemon in one swing. It could only be Icarus. He was so engrossed in what was going on in-game, Alfie didn't even notice that Jade had suddenly left from her spot on his lap.

The speech that Icarus began to recite was long, full of information, and as it went on, Alfie became more and more anxious. Looking around, the Daemons around him felt similarly; one specific giraffe-looking persona was creating quite the racket down on the lower levels of the castle. He checked his inventory, and sure enough, all of Alfie's precious rare items and equips were gone, and all his money had been drained. After double clicking on his Daemon, he also confirmed that he had in fact been reverted to level one. He tried to check Cloud Nine's guild chat, but it seemed to only lag the game terribly due to the huge amount of messages flying back and forth between other nervous members. Suddenly, a blinking light caused Alfie to turn his attention back to the inventory box. A key had been added to his list of items. Icarus explained the purpose of this peculiar item. The next part of his speech ensued:

"There is however, a catch. I have spread out amongst yourselves unique, coloured keys. These have been given out to several random but now special players. These coloured keys are important for unlocking the doors to bosses and all of these coloured keys will be required to open the final door. To you players who have my special keys, I have given you no choice. I have your key. Your identity is mine. Come and claim it back."

Almost on cue, Alfie's key turned a unique color that he couldn't seem to describe. As Icarus closed out his speech, the Daemon around him became positively rancid with anger and confusion. Slowly, the chains that had been holding them back from moving dissolved into thin air. Alfie was still out of wack from the words Icarus had uttered. Hadn't he said something about killing Daemon? He was pulled back down to Earth when a beep came from his computer. It was a message from the rowdy giraffe Daemon, directed to Alfie, but it was public. Everyone could see it.

[1:07:11] HarukaKage: Everyone, @Kuoto has a colored key!

Alfie shouted at the computer in shock. What had he ever done to that disgraceful little avatar? Nevertheless, Daemons surrounded him, taking notice of his precious item thanks to the giraffe, who had used the aversion to run off, probably now safe from any attacks. Grumbling, Alfie slammed his fingers rapidly on the keyboard, orchestrating Kuoto to swiftly move out of this dangerous area in the castle. He found a small crevice that he felt safe at, so he stopped and hid from the crowd that had become insane, and was able to regroup. What did this all mean? He tried to access Cloud Nine's guild chat again, but nothing seemed to work. Screams were heard in the distance as unassauming Daemon were slaughtered for their keys. Chaos had officially broken out. He tried to find Jade's hand while still looking at the screen, and finally realized that she had left.

"Jade! Where'd you go?" He got up to find her, but the abrupt, sickening sound of a blade slicing through the air and landing a fatal hit turned his attention back to the screen in a heartbeat.

CourageHound · Jul 3, 2014

Samuel "Sam" Green

May 25, 2025
Atlanta, Georgia

There was an immediate queasy feeling in Samuel's stomach as ICARUS had finished his explanation of the special colored keys and their eyes were no longer seemingly locked. With a sense of dread, he tentatively checked his inventory to indeed find that his previously silver key was now a deep sapphire; a favorite color of his. They key's small and intricate design shone dimly, yet beautifully as it materialized in his daemon's paw. Quickly snapping out of his trance, Samuel realized that the glowing metal was not something to be admired, but rather an ugly curse; a foul part of some sick game administered by ICARUS. He hastily stashed the key back into his inventory, swiftly darting his head left and right to assure no wandering eyes had discovered what was in his possession.

As ICARUS spoke on, the more Samuel attempted to shut him out to no avail. For one thing, he could barely move under the lock administered to each of the daemons so he couldn't cover his ears. Sam's own thoughts could barely overpower the booming voice of ICARUS that asserted its dominance over the entire enormous foyer. The most daunting task presented before him now was to keep his rising outrage under control to attempt to rationalize what would be the best course of action. The lion tail of his daemon lashed back and forth with indignation as more and more of ICARUS' speech soaked in. All of his possessions, money, credentials, and hard work...gone just like that? All of the effort he had put into CLOUD to expedite his efforts at profit and business snatched away. Even the time, effort, and materials he had both gathered and expended in CLOUD's virtual world; the game he had actually come to love and enjoy now too, had been but laid to waste. There was barely time to think about all the real world repercussions, including his body, before ICARUS final words rang through the room like a mournful forecast coated with shameless sarcasm.

"So, which has become more important to you? Your online or offline self? Do you protect what you have or rebuild your identity from scratch?"

"Thank-you for your time and enjoy yourselves at our new update celebrations. Have a nice morning, day, night and evening."

As ICARUS faded away, the locked on the countless CLOUD user did the same. Sam was so accustomed to the forced immobility that the immediate shoving and animated panic caught him completely off guard. Several shoves from either direction almost toppled him over. In this situation, it was both extremely beneficial and detrimental to be quadruped daemon. It was easier for him to keep his footing, yet he took up more area and was being constantly collided into. Since his daemon was restored to factory settings, he could no longer transform his cape into wings to escape the crowd. Samuel felt his best hope at getting some breathing room would be to slow back his way up into higher ground that would be less dense due to the many users fighting their way to the portal in the center. To his relief, after a few minutes of shoving his way backward, there was a somewhat manageable amount space available. However, it was just his luck that he would be called out as soon as he entered the open.

"Hey, you! Big guy! Maybe you're the lucky guy who got a colored key, hmm??" A small, green-black imp daemon approached Sam from behind, pulling on his tail. Its small stature was nearly dwarfed by Samuel's powerful lion daemon. Despite that, the creature had a smug, devilish grin on its face that suggested it knew exactly what it was doing. What shocked Sam was that the little demon had four silver keys casually swung about its fingers; probably ones he stole from other people and possibly killed to do so. "C'mon, I already have enough silver keys as it is. Show me you don't have a colored key so I don't have to go wastin' my time takin' another silver key from ya."

Sam was immediately disgusted with the rude creature, but could tell that pint sized imp meant serious trouble if he could could take multiple keys in such short time. Acting as if he was in a hurry to get a move on, he proceeded to ignore the daemon and began to approach the crowd again as means of escape.

The imp however, flailed its arms and stomped its foot in frustrated protest. "Hey are you KIDDING ME?!? I know your stupid cat face can hear me! Your ugly mane must have what I'm lookin' for if ya just gunna try and walk away like that!" A few more futile insults and Samuel as almost merged with the swarm of panicking CLOUD user again. Suddenly, the imp cupped its hands to its mouth and screamed as loud as possible, which was frighteningly audible considering the mass hysteria all around them. "HEY EVERYONE!! That lion there has a COLORED key!! GET HIIIMMM!!!" Almost immediately, every daemon within several meters of the imp, had their eyes locked on Samuel. Every gaze was unwavering with hostile blood lust.

"C-come now guys, we can settle this like civilized people, right?" Samuel started backing away from the daemons in front of him as if he already anticipate the answer.

An ugly witch in rags outstretched a lanky arm."Give me the key! I deserve it most!"

An unarmed knight in rather dull armor then violently threw her aside. "No, back off!! That key is mine!"

"No fair!!" Shouted someone behind him.

"I just wanna go HOME!!" Wailed another.

At this point most of the aggressors stopped arguing among themselves and charged Samuel all at once, but lacked any sense of coordination in doing so. Darting to the side, he avoided an avalanche of daemons and then leaped overhead, literally diving back into the massive crowd of still panicking people. It seems that now his only option would be to fight his way to the mobs guarding the portal.

Quest · Jul 7, 2014

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

1:13am AUST, 25th May, 2025
Song: Seven Lions - Worlds Apart (feat. Kerli)

1:13... 1:14... 1:15...

The time ticked away as Julie flicked her wrists back and forth, cycling through the few chats she had open. Whether it be in the guild, her stream, or private chat, the number one topic seemed to be be all about the event. What exactly the event was was a mystery to everyone both on and off CLOUD. The company often did things like this, but very rarely did they not give out any information on it. Typically, the higher-ups would've 'accidentally' leaked some of the information. A glimpse here, a teaser there, rumours everywhere. All of those would usually be commonplace by this time. This time was obviously different and absolutely no one knew whether or not it was a good or bad thing. Everything seemed to be left to speculation. Hell, the number of confused people within the chat rooms seemed to grow with each passing minute.

The magnitude of such an event like this was simply awe-inspiring, or it would be if Julie didn't have to wait so long. Patience was not something that the girl was known for and the light tapping and constant flicking between chats seemed to explain that perfectly well. There's still forty minutes to go, thought the girl with a sigh. Typically, she'd be asleep right now, her DREAMSCAPE device around her head so that she could play at the same time. However, with forty-five minutes left, there was nothing the young woman could do but wait.

The girl sighed once more before standing up to make her way towards her bathroom. Turning on the cool water in the shower, JJ looked towards the mirror, once again activating a part of the Lenses HUD. She wasn't quite used to them yet, particularly the green circle around her eyes that only seemed to form when the device was activated. Nonetheless, she couldn't get over just how useful they were. With a quick flick of her hand, the chats seemed to hover in the space in front of her. Still no news, she thought. Might as well kill some time. Flicking her hand upwards, the chats disappeared once more as the Lenses turned off. Focusing now on the pitter-patter of the water against the wall, the girl stepped in upon removing her attire.

Despite the cold water that now touched her skin, the brown-haired girl's mind still wondered about the event. Her impatience seemed to have no bounds. Could it just be another item giveaway? She immediately thought of the key that she was given last week. Odds were those keys would unlock something today, after all, what else is a key used for? If there's a key, there must also be a lock.

The next half hour went over quite like this, even after getting out of the shower and getting into more comfortable clothes. The event was almost upon all of CLOUD now and despite Julie's many guesses, she couldn't help but admit everything was still a mystery to her. Lying down in her bed, she placed the DREAMSCAPE helmet over her head and counted down the seconds before she was entirely logged in.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Within milliseconds of the countdown, Julie opened her eyes to see thousands of DAEMONs surrounding her in what appeared to be a large castle. She had never seen so many players at once, even in the clubs at ALTO. It seems like everyone is here. With each passing second, more and more CLOUD members entered the huge mega server before a large red, demon-like DAEMON appeared in the center of the large building.

"Greetings, CLOUD members! I am your host, ICARUS, and I officially welcome you to your new home! Today marks the day of revolution, the day that CLOUD truly changes the world. To celebrate this wondrous occasion, we have prepared something special for you, our members who have supported us for every single second that CLOUD has existed.

"CLOUD has always worked to meld the line between our online selves and reality and now, what we do behind a screen will have so much more of an impact on our lives than ever before.

"You may recall receiving a special item last week; a silver key which is individual to your DAEMON. Your KEY is no longer just an item. It is your identity. Embedded within the coding of your KEY are your details, and not just your name and birth date. Passwords, bank accounts, social security numbers, credit card details... everything you have ever done is now recorded in one location. Just by equipping and using the KEY as a regular item, you can access all of this. And not just your own. By equipping and using another member's KEY, you are able to access their details just as easily as your own. As they are non-trading items, the only way to obtain another member's key is by killing their DAEMON."

To say the least, JJ (or tornSHADOWS depending on how you look at it) reacted accordingly. She immediately flicked her wrist in a fashion not too dissimilar from what she did in the real and opened up the inventory. Her eyes lit up in shock to see that her items slowly began to disappear before leaving her with nothing but the key. Her weapons, potions, clothes, all of them were gone. Julie looked down at her DAEMON's body, finding nothing except for what appeared to be a simple nightgown. The base clothing? she thought, not being able to remember when she last wore these. All of that hard work.

"Other important changes have happened in CLOUD. All levels have been reset to zero and all items aside from your KEY have been removed and deleted from all accounts. Your DAEMON has been reset to factory settings. All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which will boot you out after an hour after entering. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON. However, if you are killed and your key is taken from you, you will respawn in CLOUDLANDS and you are free to try and win your key back.

"Are you unhappy with your new world that I have so graciously given you? Fine! Come face me then! CLOUD has been converted into a new domain, a hundred story castle! Right now, the CLOUD you know resides on the first floor. Once you defeat the boss which rests within the new STORM dungeon, the stairs to the next floor will reveal, granting you new opportunities to protect yourself, or to make yourself stronger to defeat and take from others. I will be waiting for you in the hundredth-floor dungeon. Defeat me, and take back what you held so dearly, what you took for granted."

"There is however, a catch. I have spread out amongst yourselves unique, coloured keys. These have been given out to several random but now special players. These coloured keys are important for unlocking the doors to bosses and all of these coloured keys will be required to open the final door. To you players who have my special keys, I have given you no choice. I have your key. Your identity is mine. Come and claim it back."

ICARUS logged out of CLOUD and with it, an uproar from the entirety of the castle. DAEMONs all around broke into fighting and for a moment, JJ was glad she knew what she was doing when it came to PvP. Now that everyone was back to level one, she could easily take most of them as long as they didn't team up on her. With a sigh from her avatar, she flicked over to the guild chat. Maybe Silver would be on for once, she thought. He did want me here after all.

[erika149]>Help meeeeee!
[chaosblu3]>Die, ****!
[dogeee]>Where is Silver!?!?!?
[Atreyu]>LFG, Portal, 1 Tank

Everyone seemed to be confused and lost in the situation and hundreds of messages came in every few seconds. The only calm one appeared to be Atreyu, Silver's kid brother. He wasn't the best player, but he did understand the basics. Not to mention he told me to watch him. She skimmed over the chat once more, finding nothing from Silver. With a sigh, she settled on the next best thing. His little brother.

Starting a separate chat with him alone, she sent the message:

>On my way, where r u?

Rather than trying to orientate the both of them, Atreyu thought of a better plan. Selecting JJ's name in their individual chat, he brought up a pull down menu which produced a selection of other options.

>Report
>Add to Party
>Friend/Unfriend
>Block

Clicking the button 'Add to Party', his HUD changed to show a picture of his avatar in the top left-hand corner; a small crown emblem sitting atop the picture showing that he was the leader of the group. Below his picture and name with accompanying health and stamina bars was a picture of JJ's avatar and accompanying details. With the party created, another tab in his chat opened up to display their typed messages. Grabbing his headset from it's position lying on his desk, he placed it over his head, pulling the attached microphone down to beside his mouth. The headset had been a birthday gift from his brother last year; one he hadn't used frequently but now came in handy.

"JJ, can you hear me?" he tried the party channel, hoping that she would be able to voice chat with him to alleviate the burden of having to stop to type to each other.

"Loud and clear," JJ replied as she grabbed the key from the inventory. Luckily, she could use it as an attack item, not that it made much of a difference.

"Tank, DPS or Heals?" He asked, noticing a green party aura envelope the distant figure of JJ's avatar on his screen.

"You should know that by now," she told him. "DPS. Are you still training at being a Tank?" She held back a laugh for a moment. At this point, most people didn't think any of this would matter, but no one realized just how helpful it would be. If the two were able to get someone who can heal eventually, they'd be set. "Regroup and we'll figure out what to do from there. If we can get someone who can Heal by the time we leave, we should be set."

Choosing to dodge the many attacks that were being thrown around, JJ made her way towards the blue blip on her radar.

"Yeah, I still remember a thing or two. Hold on." Cycling through his DAEMON's ability, all had been reset and the same for his key commands. Finding the one ability he had left, he quickly shortcut it to his F1 key, before cancelling the window and turning back to the main HUD. Hitting the button, he watched as his DAEMON turned from the small, fluffy, agile DAEMON he was used to into a large, fearsome wolf-fox-dog hybrid thing. Holding down both his mouse buttons, Fletch's DAEMON began bounding forward from the shadows, heading towards JJ's and pushing every DAEMON in it's path to the side.

It didn't take much time for the two to meet up as they headed closer towards the center of the castle. It wasn't hard to get through the crowds with everyone being reset, no one has any items or armor. They had no idea how to cope. Moving beside one another, the two made their way farther in, watching the many DAEMONs be put down by others. Left and right, keys were being lost. For the most part, they ignored the rest, focusing on their own well-being.

"Get away from me!' The two heard from in front of them. Quickly halting in their tracks as JJ attempted to look in to the circle that formed. She was horrified to see a way too familiar avatar within the circle. The pink, winged DAEMON in rags whimpered beneath a large, stone golem. Without hesitation, tornSHADOWS jumped in front of the almost defenseless DAEMON, her key apparently stopping the monster's blow.

There was a loud noise as the golem collided with JJ's key and he stumbled back, wailing in pain. His eyes seem to boggle in his brain before he focused on the new DAEMON in front of him. He growled loudly, brandishing his own key -- a coloured one at that. Rosie went wide-eyed at the situation in front of her, recognising the DAEMON who had saved her digital life.

"... JJ!" Rosie said, her eyes flicking between the miko and the golem DAEMON. She was torn between thanking her, asking her what she was doing here or asking her if she was going to take her key, but no noise came from her mouth. Instead, she rearranged the key in her hands, scrambling to her feet.

Seeing JJ leap into action like that, Fletch tried to do the same, sending his DAEMON on a direct impact course for the golem DAEMON. From what he new about tanking, he was the one who would take the hits while the others played safe and attacked with all they had. However this took him on a collision course; his wolf-hybrid DAEMON crashing into the golem DAEMON sending them both sprawling. Atreyu immediately began utilizing his basic skills; biting and slashing in flurries of fury.

Letting the DAEMON behind her stay behind, JJ felt her avatar body jump forward at the enemy. Using her key, she swiped at the beast multiple times, only stepping backward to gain some space before attacking again. She was used to magic when it came to fighting, but when all you're given is a key, you're forced to make due. Working side-by-side with the wolf DAEMON, the two pummeled the golem, only taking a few hits here and there due to their teamwork. With time, the last blow was dealt by tornSHADOWS. A message flashed across her HUD.

You defeated Fedz125. Earned: 1x Seafoam Green Key.
LEVEL UP! You are now level 2!

Rosie exhaled -- honestly though, breathing here wasn't entirely necessary -- and looked up at her saviors, smiling weakly. She had never been in a battle before, let alone a PvP match. It seemed stressful and hardly fun, how did people do this in their spare time? Although admittedly, they didn't do it for the other person's entire identity (Rosie had to remind herself she didn't have one now). "Thanks Torn. And," she glanced at the stranger's username, "Atreyu. Thank you. I would've been dead if you hadn't come along."

"Don't mention it," Fletch spoke weakly into his mic, adding her name to an invite to their party of two. With a swipe of her , Rosie accepted the request, Torn and Atreyu's name appearing in the top corner of her HUD.

Shaking her head at Atreyu, Torn reached over at their new comrade before pulling her hand back. She didn't expect her to already be standing. "I wouldn't be thanking us yet Pumpkin." She had half the mind to call her by her real name, but kept it to herself. "We've still got to make it to the portal and past the guards." Rosie nodded then shook her head sadly. A part of her wanted to snicker at the Australian accents in her ear but she knew there was a little bit more than that on her mind.

"But... I don't know how to fight. I've never done any of the RPG Cloud or fighting or PvP or anything. I don't even know how to use this thing." She swung the key in her hand. Swords were definitely not something she learned how to use at school. "Won't I just slow you down?"

"Don't worry about it," she told the inexperienced player. "This guy has no idea what he's doing either." It was mostly the truth, he did hold himself during the fight, but at the same time, it was as if he was merely button mashing. "You can learn as we go, you just have to be sure to stick close to me and Atreyu here. You do that and we'll be okay for a short while." For a moment, she was amazed no one was attacking them, this place was a battlefield, and yet they seemed to still have the time to talk. With a sigh, JJ opened up her inventory and slid down to the new key that she had obtained. Part of her was glad that the Seafoam Green Key didn't have anyone's identity. On the other hand, she felt as if this was a brand new weight on her shoulders. Equipping the key to her free hand, she couldn't help but laugh. This felt like those old Disney games from the 2000's. The third one was meant to come out this year sometime.

"Okay." Rosie nodded, giving herself a boost of self confidence and gripping her weapon tightly in her hand. "How do we get out of here?"

tornSHADOWS pointed towards the center of the great hall. She half thought the bright tower of light would've given it away, at least two those who were used to dungeon crawling. She silently scolded herself for forgetting. "Just over there. There is a lot of enemy monsters guarding it." We beat a few of them and we be able to go through get out of here. Of course, I have no idea where we'll be going." Rosie followed her finger, noticing a great lot of people had also seen the blue light, but hardly as many as were still quarreling over the keys. She wondered how many of them were like her and didn't recognise what the light meant.

Atreyu scanned the foyer, seeing that many of the players had since disappeared and many more hovered just out of aggro range from the mob of monsters encircling the blue portal. If they wanted to fight more players, then they were in the right place but the players dropped nothing but keys, and so, after JJ's suggestion, he headed off towards the nearest mob. With JJ and the new girl, Pumpkin, in tow, they soon came upon a large creature, its health bar above its head with the name Kobold Brute emblazoned above that.

"So JJ, any ideas?" He asked as the Kobold Brute started stomping over towards them.

Leaping forward he slashed, bit and mauled the Kobold Brute in the same style as he had the user: key spamming. When they were younger, Fletcher and his brother had a Playstation 5; Silver would spend hours on it while Fletcher would only play occasionally. Often he like to reminisce how angry his brother got when Fletcher beat him just by mashing buttons. Since then, any CLOUD fight he had been in he used the same tactic; sadly it hardly ever worked. Now against a regimental mob, he was able to truly get into the spirit of button mashing and soon, witnessed the Kobold's health bar drop to zero.

"At the moment, we just need to attack. They're the same level as us. They should be a lot easier than that golem guy." She attempted to give her two party members a reassuring smile before turning towards another rat-demon hybrid that came marching . Moving forward as fast as she could, Torn used her two keys to attack and block in turn. She hadn't expected the strength of the mob to be where it was. The fight was over quickly but she had taken a few hit here and there.

Rosie on the other hand, swallowed and felt like she stumbled into this fight rather than run gracefully like Torn and Fletch had done. She swung her key wildly, targeting one of the closest mobs (unintentionally activating the in-game targeting system), which noticed her immediately and charged back at her. She yelped, her courage disappearing as large, frog-like enemy made inhuman noises at her and charged in for an attack. She mentally encouraged herself and swung as the frog leapt, the two attacks colliding at the same time. She was thrown back and felt a peculiar feeling wash over herself. Her vision, mainly her HUD went red for a moment as she noticed her health bar in the corner dip. It didn't hurt, but it sure felt like it should have.

The frog mob was frozen for a few moments and Rosie took her chance to try and get the upper hand, swinging at the frog. Numbers appeared above at each attack, its health bar slowly dwindling down. Its frozen status didn't last long, as the frog swiped at Rosie, knocking her back as it got back up on its feet. She copied, scrambling up, exchanging blows. Tunnel vision set in as she continued to slash, ignoring her health bar. Soon, the frog mob had fallen, and Rosie was victorious. But, it seemed her health had dropped to just about halfway. She cringed, but her health was soon forgotten as she picked up an item the mob had dropped.

1x item(s): White Mage Class Starter Pack
LEVEL UP! You are now level 2!

Looking to his own health bar, Fletch noticed that he had lost significant health in his battle; much more compared to the likes of JJ and Rosie. Then again, both had been fighting with their keys while Fletch had opted for a more feral approach. When the monsters struck the ground and dissipated in a shower of pixels, Fletch noticed something lying on the ground. Touching it with a claw, the item disappeared only to reappear in his inventory.

1x Item(s): Paladin Class Starter Pack
LEVEL UP! You are now level 2!

Equipping the item, Fletch watched as basic chainmail armor customized itself to his DAEMON alongside a shield in one hand and what looked like bladed claws in his other in lieu of a blade. "Hey JJ," he called out over the microphone, excited for his prize, "I look pretty badass! It dropped some starter pack thing!" Fletch made his DAEMON wander in circles, attempting to 'show off' his new additions to her.

"Oh, I got one of those too." Rosie went through her inventory and clicked on the starter pack she had received, equipping it like she would an item of clothing. She was now rid of her basic rags, instead in a basic robe with a staff and a headband. "What's a white mage?"

"It's what I like to call: A lifeline," the experienced player said to her. "In the long run, your class will keep us alive." Looking where the rat monster had been defeated, JJ reached down to grab her own new pack.

1x item(s): Fighter Class Starter Pack
LEVEL UP! You are now level 3!

Immediately selecting it from within her inventory. a bright light appeared around her before her clothes magically changed once more. Now out of that horrid nightgown, she looked down to see her new garbs. The leotard and overalls were one thing, but the steel breastplate, gauntlets and headband really ruined the look. Part of her wished she could have her old miko clothes back, but for now, she'd have to do.

"Are you guys ready? I highly doubt any of us want to stick around this place any longer." Directing the two to jump in before her, Torn turned once more towards the rest of the castle. The number of DAEMONS had quickly diminished with the fighting, meaning more and more had lost their identities completely. She sighed, afraid of what could happen. They were lucky to be able to get out of there in one piece after all. Turning once more, JJ jumped into the portal with her keyblades in tow. Where are we going? She thought as light became the only thing in sight.

Nakuzami · Jul 7, 2014

Lady Raptor // Master Spark
May 25th, 2025 :: New York, New York, USA // Baltimore, Maryland, USA :: 11:17 am EST
Level 1 :: Unassigned Class // Level 1 :: Unassigned Class
Forever Alone

Group Chat Lady Raptor, Killer Ivy, Necrolord, Shadow Panther, Wargrár

[Lady Raptor] wow, WAY TO LEAVE ME BEHIND GUYS
[Killer Ivy] Sorry, we thought you were right behind us!
[Lady Raptor] I was until that freaking guy grabbed me asdfghjkl;
[Necrolord] Just get out of there, you'll be fine.
[Lady Raptor] No thanks to you, LIAM
[Shadow Panther] We'll figure out a meeting place later. Just get to the portal for now.
[Lady Raptor] well no duh, Wyatt
[Shadow Panther] I came out here to have a good time, but I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now
[Lady Raptor] shut up -.-; I'm going to kill a few more of these guys and hope to find some items. See you all in a bit.
[Wargrár] Good idea. We'll find some items on our own. Catch ya later
[Killer Ivy] Be safe!
[Necrolord] Bye
[Shadow Panther] See ya!

Colette closed the chat and returned her attention to the creatures in front of the portal. She glared at them. They deserved death. The despicable little creatures. She had a sandwich once, and they destroyed it. Well, actually, they surprised her one time when she was a new player, causing her to drop her sandwich. She mourned it for two minutes before crushing them all. Now they were going to pay for that sandwich again. And for getting in her way. And because she was just generally annoyed.

"Come and get me, you Gobling scum!" All Colette had to fight with was her fists, which was really awkward. She didn't recall a time that she'd ever used any unarmed skills. Still, these enemies were weak enough, and she was usually a pretty quick learner.

"I wish I had my guitar. This would be so much more epic with some background music." She ran forward and slammed her fist into the face of another Gobling. She followed through with a right hook and then she kneed it, dropping its health to zero. It disappeared without dropping any items.

"You worthless freaking thing!" Colette yelled, punching her way through a few more Goblings as she raged. With her luck, they wouldn't drop any items.

"Ow! Stabbing people isn't nice!" She defeated a third Gobling with a roundhouse kick, jumping a few feet backwards to safety once it dematerialized. Still no item. "Come on, I'd be content with at least getting a Freelancer class or something!"

Colette's previous class had been heavily customized, being a conglomeration of skills from classes such as Performer, Black Mage, and Swordmaster. The items that she had been wearing also gave her major boosts, and they were pretty rare enchantments that she had placed on her clothing herself. Now she was stuck in these horrendous rags, classless and restricted to unarmed combat. She was going to kill that guy Icarus, even if it took her years. All the time spent on this game, wasted! Sure, sometimes it was nice to restart and feel challenged again, but it's not like she had been anywhere near feeling unchallenged. CLOUD just wasn't that kind of game!

♫ϟ☮ϟ♫

"Whelp, this probably wasn't the best idea..." A slightly frazzled Master Spark said to himself. "Go off on your own, I said. Then again, Kainz was being a real pain in the rear..." Spark spoke to himself as something of a defense mechanism, he was actually actually quite cautious. After the lecture they'd gotten about the keys, Kainz freaked out. He was practically inconsolable. Spark ended up leaving him alone and heading towards the teleporter. It may have seemed like a cold hearted thing to do, but he knew that he would just be dragging a sulking Kainz along, otherwise. After all, Spark was never that good with contacting his maternal instincts. Though Kainz and Spark were close, he knew that there were other members of the guild that were better up to the task.

So there he was, surrounded by some low level monsters. It was his own fault, really, having aggroed a good number of them and running, only to run into a wall of them. "Perfect," he said, again to himself. He wasn't too far from the others, but it didn't really seem like anyone was willing to help. After all, him being dead was a key lost; it was hardly any of their concern. He clicked his tongue and made to run, charging for one of the lower level monsters and zooming passed it. Suddenly, he received a message.

To: Master Spark
From: Yukari Yakumo

You can't keep running from all of your problems.

Spark tensed with anger and deleted the message outright. He knew that Yukari was watching somewhere, laughing at his pitiful situation- a situation that everyone was in. It made him a little angry that she seemed to be just slightly better off than everyone else, since she was able to make jokes so casually. But she was right, to some extent. He did kind of create the issue by running from it, so there certainly wasn't any way that it was going to solve itself by doing the same. Spark thought for a moment. He knew that trying to fight all of the monsters that were chasing him, even with his skills, was pretty much instant death. As such, he considered whether it might be smarter just to push the issue onto someone else.

He scanned the area for players that he could run into. It wasn't the most ethical idea to spread his problem to push his problem onto others, but he had a lot to live for. Well, probably as much as most of the people playing the game. Or less. But what he had was his, and he'd be damned if he was going to give it up because he died to some level ones.

Master Spark ended up focusing on a girl who delivered a nice roundhouse kick unto one of her assailants. Whew, capable even without a weapon. Looks like I've found my first partner. So as to ~~force~~ convince her to join him, Spark intentionally ran directly into her.

Colette grunted as she was knocked to the ground. "What the hell?" She got up and dusted herself off out of instinct, even though there was really no need to in the game. "Watch where you're going, dude!" She glared at the man that had rammed into her. "Who are you, anyways?"

It was then that Spark realized that his plan might not have been thought through completely. "D-do we really have time for introductions?" He pointed at the pursuing monsters behind him. "Just help me fight these things." He took a quick glance behind him, not having considered that the monsters were aggroed to him specifically. Maybe he could have stood to be a bit nicer to the person that would be saving his bank account information. "They'll kill us both if we don't cooperate!"

Colette frowned, looking at the man and then at the creatures. "I guess we don't have time for introductions. Not like I really care, anyways." She watched the creatures move closer, but now they were mostly ignoring her. "Wait a second . . . did you come over here just because you had a high aggro level? How nice of you." Colette took a step forward and kicked another one of the Goblings away. She was a New Yorker: she'd taken a few self-defense classes, and they weren't useless in this game, thankfully.

Spark awed at the way Colette fought. It was as if she had nothing to lose. Spark's thoughts weren't even on the current situation. He was more worried about what he was going to have for dinner or how he was going to pay rent. Losing his identity was equal to losing his life, and he could only go for so long without a key. But this girl had spunk. It really made his own cowardice seem unbecoming. He looked over his shoulder and then looked down. "I guess it's do or die." He turned around to the surprise of three Mole Men (which were essentially small, anthropomorphic moles that used pickaxes as weapons). Still, they attacked, and Spark made to backstep. He evaded, and the three of them collided with each other. Ah, the joys of level one monsters, Spark thought to himself. He took the opportunity to stomp them down and turn them into delicious experience points.

"At least you're not useless," Colette mumbled, punching through another Gobling. "But don't think we'll be sticking together. Once I find a class mod, I'm out of here." She ran forward and into a small group of Goblings, separating herself from the irritating man. She kicked one of the Goblings into the others, causing them all to stumble. She then simply began attacking them all at once until their health bars reached zero.

"D-H-Hey!" Spark turned from his adversaries. It seemed that the woman was trying to gain distance between the two of them. He couldn't let that happen. He was a confident fighter most of the time, but even with his slight boost in courage he was a little frantic. He kept his attention on his foes before darting in the woman's direction, with the monsters following his lead. "Hold on, mon chéri. We're in this to the death." He nodded his head towards her. "It's like an arranged marriage or a court order, you don't really have a choice."

"Excuse me?" Colette yelled, stomping on another Gobling as she looked back at the man. "For one thing, ew. Secondly, I'm not helping you. I'm just going to find a class mod, get some experience, and then I'm out of here. And thirdly, you're a grown man and you can't take care of yourself? Goodness." She finished her thought by snapping the neck of another Gobling. This time, the creature dropped something when it disappeared. "Finally!"

1x Item(s): Fencer Class Starter Pack
Level Up! You are now level 2!

Colette equipped the class mod and watched as her equipment changed into a set of light armor, with a shield materializing on her left arm and a rapier in her right hand. "Finally, a sword!" Colette immediately turned around and sliced through another Gobling. "Oh my goodness, this is so much better!"

Yup, the less aggressive probably would have been a lot better...and a lot less of an ego hit, Spark thought, grinding his teeth. He kept with his strategy of dodging and counterattacking, and eventually gained a level-up of his own.

1x Item(s): Animist Class Starter Pack
Level Up! You are now level 2!

"Oh...wh-WHAT!? NO!" Egal raised his hands in frustration and let out an audible "WHY" that resonated throughout his apartment. He heard some a few aggressive knocks come from his wooden floor; probably an angry landlord. He looked down in spite and then returned to his screen. He sighed as he outfitted himself in a vest and black suit pants, as well as a bell. The bell being his weapon. "Of all the..." He took a deep breath and calmed himself. The worst part of the deal was that he didn't have a pet. Animists are monster tamer's first and foremost, but their early skills, as far as he knew, were mostly buffs and debuffs. Even a Beastmaster would have been better, because at least then he would have been able to tame one of the less intelligent monsters.

He turned to Colette and used a lesser spell, Wool Armor, to fortify her defenses, moving towards her, grasping the bell as if it were a sword and treating it as if it were a dagger, slashing at one of the Goblings and promptly elbowing another that jumped up at him promptly afterwards. It wasn't a blade, and it certainly wasn't the next best thing, but it'd have to do. He turned to the brazen woman and said, "Fine then, if you won't help me, let me help you."

"If you insist," Colette muttered, slashing through a couple more Goblings. "I'm leaving now. If you want to follow, then follow. If you want to form a party, you'll have to prove yourself a bit more useful first. I don't exactly trust you after you tried to use me to get a few extra monsters off your tail."

Colette took a few steps forward towards the portal, turning to the man at the last moment. "Coming?" she asked before taking one final step backwards and disappearing.

Spark looked away, she was right not to trust him. What he did was pretty despicable. But he did want to make it up to her somehow. He looked back and under his breath said, "Kainz...please be okay," promptly following Colette into the portal.

Arsenic · Jul 8, 2014

Adrian Mason
Venice, Italy
May 25th, 2025
"Wave to Yesterday"

Adrian parked his car and hopped out. He'd just got back from, what he saw as a very successful business lunch. He pulled the briefcase from the passenger seat and walked up to his room. It was getting close to five again and just like last week, he was in a bit of a hurry, just out of curiosity as to what it would be that is announced.

The door slid open with a pneumatic hiss and Adrian walked into his home. He ran to the kitchen and grabbed a soda and left the briefcase next to the counter. then hurried to his office and booted up his PC and Dreamscape headset. Soon everything was powered up. He hooked up and waited for the clock to hit five.

The clock finally tolled and Adrian was logged in automatically, which was surprising. He was whisked to a zone he'd never seen before. It was all castle-y. He figured it was just a DLC area. As he tried to move he realized he was frozen to the seat, just like last time, and his tail again wedged very uncomfortably. He looked ahead to see that dumb looking dragon again. What a goof. The dragon started talking..

"Greetings, CLOUD members! I am your host, ICARUS, and I officially welcome you to your new home! Today marks the day of revolution, the day that CLOUD truly changes the world. To celebrate this wondrous occasion, we have prepared something special for you, our members who have supported us for every single second that CLOUD has existed."

Adrian didn't like where this was going by the tone of ICARUS' voice. He switched view to his monitor and turned off the head set. He got up and ran to his front door, made sure it was locked as tight as possible, then got the briefcase and ran back to his PC to see Icarus was about to start again.

"CLOUD has always worked to meld the line between our online selves and reality and now, what we do behind a screen will have so much more of an impact on our lives than ever before."

Adrian felt the tension building up in his stomach.

"You may recall receiving a special item last week; a silver key which is individual to your DAEMON. Your KEY is no longer just an item. It is your identity. Embedded within the coding of your KEY are your details, and not just your name and birth date. Passwords, bank accounts, social security numbers, credit card details... everything you have ever done is now recorded in one location. Just by equipping and using the KEY as a regular item, you can access all of this. And not just your own. By equipping and using another member's KEY, you are able to access their details just as easily as your own. As they are non-trading items, the only way to obtain another member's key is by killing their DAEMON."

Adrian immediately reached to his side and pulled the unloaded pistol off the top of his gun rack and began making sure it was all clean and ready to use without taking his eyes off the screen. He slid the magazine in and placed it on the desk next to his monitor. He grabbed the next and repeated, then another, and so on.

Icarus started once again, "Other important changes have happened in CLOUD. All levels have been reset to zero and all items aside from your KEY have been removed and deleted from all accounts. Your DAEMON has been reset to factory settings. All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which will boot you out after an hour after entering. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON. However, if you are killed and your key is taken from you, you will respawn in CLOUDLANDS and you are free to try and win your key back.... Are you unhappy with your new world that I have so graciously given you? Fine! Come face me then! CLOUD has been converted into a new domain, a hundred story castle! Right now, the CLOUD you know resides on the first floor. Once you defeat the boss which rests within the new STORM dungeon, the stairs to the next floor will reveal, granting you new opportunities to protect yourself, or to make yourself stronger to defeat and take from others. I will be waiting for you in the hundredth-floor dungeon. Defeat me, and take back what you held so dearly, what you took for granted."

Adrian could hear the yelling and unhappiness which only motivated him to work faster.

"There is however, a catch. I have spread out among yourselves unique, colored keys. These have been given out to several random but now special players. These colored keys are important for unlocking the doors to bosses and all of these colored keys will be required to open the final door. To you players who have my special keys, I have given you no choice." ICARUS grinned, showing the audience a set of silver keys, one of which looks extremely similar to your own. If you look closely, even your name is etched onto the side! "I have your key. Your identity is mine. Come and claim it back."

Suddenly Adrian felt like he was being stared at and focused center-room only to meet the gaze of Icarus. Adrian glared back as he looked at the key Equinox was holding, a darker shade of cyan. He checked it to see if the dragon was bluffing. He wasn't. Just like that, a a*****e game developer had taken his fortune, his happiness. Adrian's hands shook with both fear and anger.

"So, which has become more important to you? Your online or offline self? Do you protect what you have or rebuild your identity from scratch? Thank-you for your time and enjoy yourselves at our new update celebrations. Have a nice morning, day, night and evening."

Icarus logged out and the freeze was lifted. Adrian put the last gun, on the pile now formed on his desk of pistols, sub-machine guns, and a couple rifles. He knew things in real life were about to turn into a giant mosh-pit, just like this castle foyer. With all this firepower, let them throw thieves, raiders, rioters, or serial killers, they'd all end on the ground. Just like a certain game developer, probably sitting in his moms basement.

Adrian snapped back to reality and picked up the Dreamscape and a sharpie. He crossed out "DREAM" and replaced it with "NIGHTMARE" on both sides then felt witty and wrote "Let darkness protect us all..." On what would be the helmets left temple.

He put it on and popped up from his seat and was instantly charged at by a deamon of a tiger. Equinox could still feel the rage of loosing his entire life and charged up his punch. As the tiger pounced Equinox swung, connecting straight with its jaw and sending it flying a good 3 to 4.5 meters back. He felt some of the anger leave with the punch.

He looked around quickly, without as much anger he could think a little bit clearer but it was hard to think while being shoved around like 12 year olds at the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 67 release.

Suddenly he heard a kid yell "HEY GUIZE LUK TAT UGLY LZARD HZ E KE CALOR!!!! GET HIM!"

It was the saddest example of English and Equinox figured that kid learned speech in CoD but it did the job as every player within hearing distance whipped around and stared at him. The crowd took a step forward and Equinox took one back, bumping against the seat. He scanned his inventory for anything of use that may have been missed from the take but all he had was the damned key. He equipped it and flipped it so he was holding the shaft and got into a defensive stance.

"You wan't the key? You're gonna have to fight for it."

SkyisUmbreon · Jul 8, 2014

Raymond Hughes
AKA ShinobiOnigiri
San Francisco, California

Raymond watched with barely hidden amusement as Caleb stormed out of their dorm room, still fuming about the mess Ray had left behind. It wasn't like he had done it on purpose; more like it was something that would just passively happen. Coming home from a day of classes or a day at the gym he would just jump out of his clothes and into the shower, not really caring where they flew. It was a bad habit that had followed him from home and he felt somewhat guilty for making Caleb suffer through it. He sighed, rising from the bed and starting to pick up his clothing that littered the floor.
The bus ride had been a little longer than expected, so he had ended up arriving back at the dorm at around 9:30. Still, Caleb had insisted that Ray completely clean his side of the room as he couldn't stand to look at it that dirty side any longer, and Ray not wanting to spurn on another rant, had complied.

By the time the last sock had been picked up off of the floor, the digital clock by his bed read "11:30PM." He collapsed into the chair at his desk and let his head roll back over the edge of the backrest, staring at Caleb.

"Are you happy now? Sheesh…"

His room literally sparkled from wall to wall, and he hated to admit that he actually liked it.
Too bad it wouldn't last for long.

Caleb scoffed, taking a look across Ray's side of the room with a satisfied smirk.

"Yeah, I am. This place was completely filthy before, I'm actually surprised the stench didn't pollute the air and kill us both. I know you know how bad sweat smells after five days, and I definitely don't want to find out again! And it wouldn't kill you to put things where they belong would it?"

Ray groaned and sat up, flipping open his laptop and booting up the outdated system. He then stretched both of his arms, later lowering them and taking hold of the DREAMSCAPE helmet that rested atop the second level of his desk. It had been a really bad idea to buy this helmet for gaming instead of an updated laptop that he would actually need for school, but despite this he was for the most part infatuated with it. It definitely felt like real life; as if he had only blinked and opened his eyes to a completely different world, only this time he wasn't just viewing it from the other side of a screen; he was in it. But it wasn't quite time to use it yet so he set it back in its place and pulled up an internet browser, resolving to look through several forums and sites to see if there were anything else he could unearth about this mysterious update.

* * *

A half an hour later Raymond lay in bed, his head now covered by the DREAMSCAPE and already having begun his ascension into CLOUD, only this time it was different. He wasn't anywhere near where he had last logged out, in fact even his gear was missing, as if someone had stolen it right off of his DAEMON. Also, he could do nothing but look at his new surroundings, which seemed to include a grand foyer of a mansion, or perhaps a castle… not to mention what looked like every active DAEMON in the entire game, also facing the same problem. Ray watched and listened as the one called Icarus appeared and began his "grand announcement", his eyes narrowing with every sentence. At the news of everything he ever owned or was being recorded on that useless key he had received, his eyes widened and he began his struggle against the force that held him there, but to no avail.

He grit his teeth in frustration at his helplessness as the malicious avatar continued it's speech.

"Other important changes have happened in CLOUD. All levels have been reset to zero and all items aside from your KEY have been removed and deleted from all accounts. Your DAEMON has been reset to factory settings. All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which will boot you out after an hour after entering. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON. However, if you are killed and your key is taken from you, you will re-spawn in CLOUDLANDS and you are free to try and win your key back."

Well that at least explained what had happened to his gear… but everything reset?! It would take way too long to regain what had been stolen from him! Not to mention he was a college student, and losing his identity at this point in his life would ruin him.

"There is however, a catch. I have spread out amongst yourselves unique, coloured keys. These have been given out to several random but now special players. These coloured keys are important for unlocking the doors to bosses and all of these coloured keys will be required to open the final door. To you players who have my special keys, I have given you no choice." ICARUS grinned, showing the audience a set of silver keys, one of which looks extremely similar to your own. If you look closely, even your name is etched onto the side! "I have your key. Your identity is mine. Come and claim it back."

With a few closing remarks and a challenge, Icarus disappeared, this action also seeming to have triggered a release on the players seats.

Instant Chaos.

The now free players had almost immediately begun attacking each other, searching for the colored keys Icarus spoke of, and Ray could already see the messages through the chat that showed deaths already beginning to pile up. He swore sharply as he took out his own key only to see that it had changed color to match those of his eyes, and attempted to hide it from view as quickly as possible. Not quick enough.

"HEY! I SAW THAT KEY! GIVE IT HERE YOU LITTLE SH*T!

As the shadow of what looked to be a large DAEMON loomed over him, he turned to face his aggressor. Making his expression impassive, he stared down the anthropomorphic lizard that had called out to him, though he had to look up. The guy-er, lizard was at least 6'2, which didn't compare to his 5'8 nicely at all. He opened his mouth to speak and his voice, while mostly even, carried the whisper of a challenge.

"We both know I can't do that."

The creature drew himself up and puffed out its chest, attempting to intimidate him he guessed.

"I WASN'T ASKING PERMISSION, KID!" roared the reptile as he pulled back his left arm and swung, aiming for Raymond's stomach. Now normally for Raymond, an arrogant opponent like this would be cake, but of course he had just received a hard reset. At least he remembered some of the moves. He danced out of his opponents reach to dodge the wide swing and took out his crimson key, which he then proceeded to jab into the lizards exposed side several times in what he hope were tender spots.

Lucky! The reptile collapsed on the ground holding his left side in pain. Unlucky. Several people had seen the attack, or more specifically the key, and were now heading towards him… great. Attracted by a movement at the edge of his vision, he saw where Icarus had stood what looked to be a portal with several low leveled regular monsters guarding it. It also seemed that people were getting some class specific starter gear as they faced off against the imps, later disappearing into the portal's light. Destination spotted, the only problem being the horde of angry, panicked players that stood in his path.

Taking a deep breath, he pocketed his key and broke off at a sprint towards one of his enemies. Taking advantage of this, the bearlike DAEMON lifted a paw and swiped at him.
Only to slash at air.
Raymond slid on both knees leaning backwards between its legs, gritting his teeth at the slight burning from friction. He didn't wait for himself to stop however, and once he was clear of the DAEMON, he sprung right back up and tore off towards the portal.

Ozymandias · Jul 10, 2014

Kiernan Carney / Rorschach

"Usually my luck is good when it comes to these types of things. Guess all my time spent in the lightning dome has used it all up, eh?" Kiernan playfully poked the frightened daemon sitting beside her in the ribs. The bipedal elephant shivered a bit before covering its face with its hands. "Hey come on buddy there's no need to be down." The confident young woman moved her avatar to wrap a comforting arm around the neighboring player. "Here, as a show of good faith i'll give you my key. It was one of those specially colored ones that guy was talking about."

The elephant quickly raised his head with a bewildered expression. "I thought that we couldn't trade keys."

With a devilish grin, Kiernan whispered quietly in his ear. "You're right."

Before he could even react the white haired avatar beat the unsuspecting daemon to death with her bare hands.

You defeated DuMb0dore. Earned Item(s): DuMb0dore's Key
Level Up! You are now level 2!

Rorschach tossed her prize in the air to herself. While she didn't really want the poor guy's identity or what came with it, she had learned over the years that stocking up on assets was the best strategy in most situations.

"Now... time to leave this mess." The crowds of daemons had mostly swarmed towards the light in the center, just out of range from the mobs that surrounded the exit. Kiernan moved her avatar swiftly towards the pillar of light, occasionally stopping to pick off a straggling daemon.

The throngs of panicking players proved to be the most difficult maneuvering that she had to do as it took her nearly ten minutes to push and shove her way to the front.

Standing before Kiernan were two Goblings which may have been absolutely pathetic if she were at her original level, but alas she was now at level two.

"It's either now or never." she muttered under he breath before sprinting forwards towards the monsters. Mustering up her best Ronaldo impression, the young woman slid on her knees as the monsters swung their swords where her head would have been had she been standing. She popped up behind them and as they whipped their heads around they each received a key slamming into their face.

They burst into a flurry of pixels, each mob leaving behind an item. With an accomplished smirk Kiernan reached down and grabbed the one closest to her.

You defeated 2x Gobling(s). 1x Item(s): Thief Class Starter Pack
LEVEL UP! You are now level 3!

Immediately equipping the item from her inventory, the drab rags that she had been donning were replaced by a tan long sleeved shirt that was slightly too large for her. A pair of brown shorts, cut off at the thighs, and knee socks complimented the tunic quite nicely. And as a class distinguishing touch, a green cape covered her shoulders and a bandanna wrapped itself around her head.

As much as Kiernan would have loved to stay and admire her daemon's new outfit many of the surrounding mobs were starting to take notice of the player.

Without a moments notice, she sprinted forward, dove into the pillar and in an instant was swallowed by the radiant light.

css by: cordelia

Lt. Col. Fantastic · Jul 10, 2014

Micah "Shaka Shaman" Roran
Age: 24
Net Worth: $6.8 Million
SSN: !#^&@)($
CLOUD Level: 1 (401 before reset)
Status: Alive*
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America
Kickass theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IAFUzmgSU&feature=kp

The world erupted around Micah's Daemon, but everything was calm surrounding his desktop. He sat there, staring betwen his webcam and center monitor screen. He was streaming the event, and unlike usual the comment box was quiet, possibly due to viewers frantically trying to save their identity.

"Well, sh♥t." He said, mainly for anyone who was still listening. His key was one of the colorful ones, being fiery red. He shoved the key into his basic tunic that was left on his character, and ran down the stairs of the foyer to ground level.

"Soooooo, if anyone is hearing this, I suggest protecting yourselves, and if you have a colored key, I reckon we'll meet on floor 2, assuming thats where this portal leads..."

/Guild hey guys find each other and band together, I'm going to try and fight the bosses and whatever, ICARUS has my key. Worry about protecting your own identities, I'll be teaming up with the other colored key people.
HarBINDER: k boss
lewlcatz: dont have to tell me twice

Micah rubbed his forehead. This was really inconvieniant. Hopefully, ICARUS wouldn't, you know, drain his account and whatnot, leaving Micah without internet access or 4G and unable to reclaim his key. Moving quickly through the crowd, the Shaman found his way to the portal that was surrounded by monsters.

"Tch," Micah said over the mic. There were about 5 monsters standing between the portal and him, and he didn't exaclty have a good weapon to try and take them on with. He backed up a few steps and bumped into another Daemon.

"Hey!" A gruff voice said behind him. Turning slowly, Shaka Shaman retreated from the person he just bumped into.

"Wait.." the brute of a daemon said, fungal spores covering most of his body in some sort of twisted-zombie-plant kind of way, "You're Shaka Shaman!" Working it out in his head, the Fun guy decided taking the key of a millionaire was beneficial to his bank account. Unfortunately for him, the key was already in the hands of ICARUS, and doubly unfortunately for him, the Shaman was no stranger to unarmed PVP. As fungi dude swung a haymaker at Shaka Shaman, Micah pressed CTRL+f2 to start recording the stream to his "YouTube material" folder.

STREAM DERP #34: "WHAT A FUNGI" - [ACTIVATE]

Micah opened with a basic O>O>M>B>R>B combo, which effected to two left hooks, a right jab, left uppercut into a leg sweep. Fungi Guy picked himself up, only to be b*tch-slapped into pixelated bliss as his character evaporated from the foyer floor. His key fell to the ground, but Micah didn't bother picking it up. Surely there would be more attackers to follow and time was of the essence. Turning back to the monsters, it seemed that a few had been aggro'd and ran amuk in the crowd. Two were left, a plant-like demon and a bipedal grizzly bear. Low level goons that dropped beginner items. Perfect.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to proceed to the next level," he said into the webcam, "I'm your host, Shaka Shaman, lets delve into the inner mechanics of combat, shall we?"

Wasting no time, Micah sprinted at the monsters, exhausting some stamina, but he executed a running smite on the bear, clothes-lining it to the ground. As his stamina bar recharged, he circled left behind the plant demon to dodge its one and only attack animation. Behind it now, he did a quick 1-2 punch (Q>Q) and kept circiling, dodging the attack again. Another 1-2 broke the poise of the demon, but the bear had gotten to its feet again. Not wanting to risk an execute with a bear charging at him, Micah instead rolled right to get behind the bear. He then punched the plant again, causing it to explode like the fun fungi guy.

"The key to PVE combat is aggro. Keep one enemy either stunned or too far away to attack when holding the aggro of multiple enemies, so you can focus on one at a time. Usually attacked both at the same time isn't a good idea, because you'll be taking double damage for the whole fight instead of single damage for a longer period of time after you finish the first one off."

With just him and the bear left, Micah was able to do a full G>G>W>P combo without being interrupted, finishing off the HP bar of the bear. This time the mob dropped a starter pack, somewhat of a rare drop (approx. 13.5%).

1x item(s): Dragoon starter pack!
Level Up! You are now level 2!
Skill learned: Medium Armor Equip, Spear Equip!
HP: 500>514
STM: 200>226
ENG: 100>110
ATK: 1>3
DEF: 1>2
ABP: 1>2
ABD: 1>2
SPD: 1>3

Dragoon, one of the harder but more rewarding melee classes in cloud. Perfect. Not as kickass as Monk or Blood Mage, but hey, at least he got spears. Micah was no stranger to any class on the servers, but Dragoon was definately his specialty, if not his favorite.

/EQUIP>Bronze Spear two handed
/EQUIP>Bronze chestplate torso
/EQUIP>Bronze Grieves feet
/EQUIP>Bronze Helm Faceless head
/EQUIP>Bronze Bracers arms

Looking at his Daemon, Micah had flashbacks to the glory days when everything in Cloud was new and there existed enemies that nobody could beat yet. The world was open for any meta, anything was possible, and everything was for fun. It was kinda cool, being able to kick it back to the beginning. Grinding, farming, mining 'rare' items....

"Well, here goes," Micah said into his webcam for anyone dumb enough to be paying attention to him, "I got a colorful key, so my quest is straightforward. I always hated dungeon crawling..."

/ACTIVATE Portal

Skymin · Jul 12, 2014

??? // RENU0xu

>> Level 1, Unassigned Class, ???
>> 25th May, 2025
>> ??? & ???, ???

"Oh mon Dieu. Well, this is a bit of a pickle." RENU0xu, or Renu as most online referred to him as, furrowed his brow, taking a step back from all of the conflict to get a good look of what was going on. There was so much violence going on right now, it was sad that so many people had resorted to it. Renu just wanted to go up and hug or pat each and every member on the back, tell them it was going to be okay and that they should all work together to try and beat the 100 floored castle so they could go back to normal.

But, knew if he tried that, he'd get at least a few unhappy punches to the face and most of them would probably try to kill him.

"Greed changes people." He gave a dramatic sigh and decided on his new path: he, if no one else would, would have the common sense to see through this ICARUS' deceitful words and be an outstanding role model to his fellow CLOUD members. Yes, that sounded perfect! Magnifique!

As he predicted, members had started attacking the coloured key users most of all; to have that much power, a key that could reverse things back to the way they were (at least ICARUS claimed it would) was something that anybody who had any kind of confidence in themselves and any kind of will to keep their identity wanted.

Renu himself had not received a coloured key, which was both a good and bad thing. Good, because he was not so much in the lime light. He was a speck of sand compared to the importance of these coloured key bearers, but bad because if there was one thing that Renu loved more than himself, was attention. Of course, there were other ways to grab the limelight but to become so important in mere seconds just made his heart swoon.

No matter! He would strive on to become a beacon of hope for his admirers! And his first act of righteousness in this new world? To save the digital life of one of these coloured key bearers! If he would not be a bearer himself, he would make sure he could path the way for these bearers! Be known in a different light! Bien sûr!

"Wait for me, I will rescue you, mon cher!" He tumbled into the fray, spotting the closest person in distress, a red, dinosaur-like DAEMON with the name Kuoto floating above his or her head. A crowd had already started to form around the DAEMON after a particular one shouted the fact Kuoto had a coloured key into the public chat. The dinosaur, far faster than Renu expected, pounced away, finding itself away from danger. Renu was about to change targets before he spotted two other DAEMONs chase after the dinosaur in the shadows, stalking for prey. They flanked the poor dinosaur, approaching from both sides.

Renu ran in, running on all fours like the fox he was and scooped up the dinosaur under his arm, jumping out of the crevice as the incoming DAEMON sliced down his key, using it like a weapon. The attack missed Kuoto, instead landing a fatal hit on his accomplice DAEMON behind them. "Haha! Nothing is impossible for the great Renu!"

He spotted another DAEMON in trouble rather quickly, this one closer to the centre of the foyer. He landed his jump perfectly, landing next to the lion with his key own silver key brandished, deflecting an attack from an oncoming DAEMON. He let Kuoto back onto the ground next to the lion, standing defensively in front of them both like a knight in front of his king (or kings).

"Have no fear, for I, the courageous Renu, have come to your aid! Ha!"

Pepperton · Jul 13, 2014

Alfie Happer // Samuel "Sam" Green

Indian Wells, California // Atlanta, Georgia
May 25th, 2025

Alfie's heart was beating in such a rapid manner, his head began to feel light and his eyes didn't seem to work properly. A dizziness fell over him, and all of the commotion around him tuned out. Something was terribly off. He slapped his forehead, trying to get his brain to work. His ears, unfortunately, were working perfectly fine, and he was able to hear the disturbing noises coming from around the foyer. Soon, his vision had returned and he saw a gigantic Daemon with long, sharp claws slicing a player to his right, narrowly missing his own character. Quickly, Alfie's Daemon jumped out of way, catching its foe off guard with its agility.

Seemingly out of trouble, Alfie maneuvered through the increasingly large crowd, when he saw out of the corner of his eye that two more Daemon were following him closely. The crowd has gotten so thick, there was nowhere to run, jump, or hide in. Cornered, Alfie's body shook violently. He checked his characters stats - no luck, all of his hard grinding, still down the drain. Alfie's Daemon was a complete beginner, and although his opponents were as well, these two characters had size and strength on his. A small crevice sat behind Alfie's feet, and he made his way into it as the other Daemon closed in.

Suddenly, a blur of red fur erupted across the screen, and the chat read something unintelligible, as Daemons around couldn't make out what was happening either. It was hard to see with one of the Daemons bringing their key down towards Alfie's character, a fatal blow, no way around it. Alfie closed his eyes. His journey was over before it had even begun.

And then, a miracle. Alfie opened his eyes, because the 'Game Over' jingle had not played yet, to see his Daemon in an safe area with a masculine, tall fox-humanoid character, smirking in a confident way. He took a glance behind the fox, to see the Daemon hit its accomplice in the head with its key. Then, the fox grabbed Alfie and bounded down towards the center of the foyer, where another Daemon was gathering a bit too much attention.

Samuel was at first shocked at the scene unfolding around him. Two other daemons had suddenly appeared before him; one a fox, one a rugged looking reptile. He wasn't sure how to react and instinctively took a defensive posture.

The fox upon seeing this glanced back at him briefly before returning toward his gaze to the hostile daemons. "Have no fear, for I, the courageous Renu, have come to your aid! Ha!"

Samuel blinked in surprise. He was relieved there was at least one decent person among the chaotic crowd that wasn't trying to attack him. However the fox did seem a bit...odd. Nonetheless he took a step forward, standing beside both the lizard man and the fox. "Do I know you two? Errm, even so, thank you for the help."

Alfie responded quickly, "You're in the same boat as me, bud. I have no idea who this guy is." The fox turned at that moment, and winked. Whoever he was, the character exuded a level of confidence and expertise so high in such a dire situation, Alfie was awe-struck.

Renu grinned at the two players at his side and swung his sword in a flurry, obviously confident with his abilities.. With an expert lunge, he used his key to disarm and knock back one of the the two DAEMONs in front of them. As if on cue, Samuel charged, tackling the second one. His adversary was a large ape in rags. He wasted no time in pinning the primate down and going for the throat, killing the player. He ignored the fallen player's key (though didn't notice it immediately appear in his inventory) and instead turned to Renu and Kuoto, the dinosaur daemon. "We need to hurry to the portal guarded by the mobs. It looks to be the only way out."

Though still slightly traumatized from what had taken place earlier, Alfie managed to remain somewhat calm and got ready to help take on the enemies, but Renu and the lion Daemon were having no trouble at all defeating the beasts surrounding them. A blue hawk came in from the blind side of both the lion and Renu, but Alfie swiftly bounced into the air and used his key to smash it to the ground, knocking it out in a single blow. It was obvious their work wasn't done - thousands of Daemon were scattering around the foyer, and chaos remained prevalent. It was only a matter of time before another quick alliance was made and came after the trio. Alfie nodded at the lion. "I know this isn't really a time for formalities, but mind telling me your name?"

Samuel gestured his head toward his username hovering just above him. "The name's Gallo Leo. Real name is...err," Samuel hesitated, mulling over whether or not he should offer his real name to the stranger. "Well yeah, that's my username. We should hurry and make it out of here in one piece. We can talk and strategize undisturbed once we have accomplished that."

"Renu. At your service. Enchanté" The fox said with a bow. "As much I love to watch the two of you fight with such vigour, I would suggest we hurry to the teleporter before we lose an arm. À la hâte!"

SkyisUmbreon · Jul 14, 2014

Raymond Hughes
AKA ShinobiOnigiri
San Francisco, California

"I WANT THAT KEY!"

A DAEMON with the body of a gorilla slammed into him from the side, knocking Ray down and sending him sliding a few feet while the enemy DAEMON advanced. Ray rolled away and bounced to his feet as the floor he had lain was pulverized by the raging primate, and took advantage of its slow recovery, taking a few strides before jumping towards the avatar. With a savage yell Ray slammed the key with both hands into the back of the gorilla DAEMON's head, repeating this action twice more as he landed on its back. He stood up and stepped off of the fallen DAEMON's body, his face grim with the full knowledge of what he had just done to some other poor human being; he had ruined its life.

You defeated BoogieKong. Earned Item(s): BoogieKong's Key
Level Up! You are now level 2!

Ray winced as the notification popped up and did his best to shake off the guilt as he stooped to pick up the plain key the DAEMON had dropped and broke off once more at a sprint towards the portal, which, thankfully was only a few meters away.

The instant he reached the outskirts of the goblins aggro range they were upon him, or at least those who weren't already accosting the other player who had gotten close enough. Still, numbers were a problem, and since he didn't have any of his old stats or equipment save for some dumb key, this would probably be a little more difficult. His train of thought was derailed suddenly as a goblin decided to play baseball, swinging a club at his head with all the enthusiasm of the Great Bambino himself. Startled at first, he regained his posture quickly and ducked forward, which only invited the other two to come in swinging at his face once more, only this time like golf clubs. He grit his teeth and dove to the left, twisting so that his shoulder took the brunt of the hit; he preferred taking one hit rather than two.

Rolling, he came to his feet and quickly lunged at the first goblin that had attacked him, jabbing it in the chest so that it keeled over, then following up with a hard heel that connected with its temple and killing it. He ignored the experience messages as the other two ran at him snarling like wild dogs. Jumping to the right, he dodged a swing at his injured shoulder and struck with the key at the goblin's side same as he had done with that lizard and jabbed at its side several times, although this time with more enthusiasm since it wasn't a person he was harming this time. As he watched its health bar shrink to nothing the other came in and clipped the side of his chin with his fist, giving Raymond's head a good shake. When he came to his senses he growled and grabbed the fist of the monster, calling on whatever strength his DAEMON had to throw it over his shoulder, and into the raging mob.

He took hold of his injured shoulder and rolled it to assess the damage; not a sprain or anything bad, just some annoying lingering bruise damage. He was about to turn and walk through the portal when he stopped and looked down at one of the dead goblins to find an item message lingering over the body. He bent down and grabbed the loot, causing the body to lose its purpose and fade as floating words appeared on his screen.

1x Item(s): Ninja Class Starter Pack
Level Up! You are now level 3!

He grinned as a black ninja shozoku took the place of the worthless rags he had spawned in and welcoming the familiar weight of a ninjato that equipped itself to his back. Raymond came back to his senses quickly, remembering the riot that was taking place all around him, as well as the goblins that were beginning to change targets. Without another word he turned and jumped, diving into the portal.

Skymin · Jul 14, 2014

??? // RENU0xu

>> Level 1, Unassigned Class, ???
>> 25th May, 2025
>> ??? & ???, ???

Leading the way, Renu sprinted towards the center of the castle, his legs taking him as fast as his agility level allowed. If he had been running in game a few hours ago, this distance would have been nothing. Now, it was like running in real life; slow, painful and would probably give him cramps.

"We are almost there, mes amis. Just a little bit further and--" He stopped dead in his tracks as he just slipped over the line of a monster's vision range, an oversized rat, as the monster's eyes glowing red and focusing on Renu. He had forgotten his detection skills had ceased to exist after the level reset. Usually, he could be right in front of a monster and dance around and it wouldn't notice him. "How foolish of me. No matter! Prepare to meet your maker, monster! En garde!"

Renu flung his hand out, his key materialising in his hand to initiate battle mode. Two other monsters, a bug-like monster and a slime, had noticed him now and Renu turned back to his comrades.

"Three monsters, and there are three of us! This should be cake compared to your courage and valour against the other players. Luttons!" Renu ran in, swinging his key in a flurry of silver and swiping down at the monster. He laughed, this time not holding back as he had against the players, bringing the key back up for another swipe, the monster's health reaching yellow.

The monster, however was not unprogrammed and reacted to the damage, the rat swiping upwards at Renu. He jumped back, catching a slice from the rat, watching his health dwindle slightly. He would have to be careful: the fight against the players had worn him down. But only slightly.

"Is that the best you've got, you furry fiend? Prenez cela! Et ceci!" Renu slashed and slashed again, the rat's health falling into the red. He finished his combo, jumping into the air and bringing his key into the rat's head, exploding it into pixels. "Eh bien combattu. But you are no match for me!" Renu laughed, collecting his bounty.

1x item(s): Black Mage Class Starter Pack
LEVEL UP! You are now level 2!

"Sacrébleu! A mage! Out of all the classes…" Renu sighed. Mage was in fact the class he was worst at. His speciality lied in Ranger or Thief classes. "No matter. No class is too great for the great Renu!" He attached the class, equipping a basic staff, robe and magic bangles. He wore it proudly, though on the inside he felt horribly embarrassed.

"Let's fly, mes amis! Before more monsters slash at our backsides!" He shouted to his comrades, the portal in clear view. He waited for Kuoto and Gallo Leo to finish fighting themselves then bounded into the blue light by their sides.

Pepperton · Jul 17, 2014

Alfie Happer

Indian Wells, California
May 25th, 2025

Alfie shrugged at Gallo Leo, and they both began to follow the fox. It had ran through Alfie's mind that in such a tense atmosphere, he shouldn't trust anyone in Cloud, but this Renu seemed to only want to help Alfie and Gallo Leo himself seemed not bad himself. Either way, if they wanted to kill him, they probably would've tried by then. Using Kuoto's agility, he swerved his way through the foot traffic, keeping an eye on the back of Renu's head.

As they made their way through the avatars, Alfie noticed that the portal wasn't far; probably fifty more paces, and they'd be there. Things were looking up in such a chaotic day! He smiled at Gallo Leo, who seemed to realize that they might make it out unscathed as well. Renu suddenly stopped in his tracks, causing Alfie to crash into his back. This alerted Alfie that things weren't exactly peachy just yet. A gigantic rat had locked eyes with their foxy companion, and now seemed to have attacking intentions. Alfie began to back away, when two more monsters, a bug and a slime creature, halted the two. Renu took an offensive stance, began to do battle with the rat. Alfie turned to Gallo Leo.

"I got the bug." Alfie zoned his two companions out, and put all his focus on the winged beetle creature that loomed above him; piercing, insane yellow eyes glaring into Alfie's soul. With a gulp of nervousness, he pulled out his colored key, and darted to the left, so suddenly that the monster was momentarily caught off guard. Alfie took this opportunity to jump onto the beetle's back and slash it with his key, causing it to fall over, hitting the ground with a loud, obnoxious thud. Alfie triumphantly jumped to the side, admiring his kill. For some reason, he hadn't received a notification of his level up though. Before he could put two and two together, the beetle threw one of its legs into Alfie, causing Kuoto to trip over.

Startled, Alfie resumed his battle stance. He couldn't believe that his strike hadn't taken out the foe, but regardless, there was a battle to be won. Renu had already taken care of the rat scum, so it was down to Alfie. He faked a jump, and then slid underneath the beetle, using the surprise factor to land a clean hit onto the bug's back, driving hard. The beetle screeched and writhed in pain, falling over yet again. This time was the charm. Alfie tossed his key into the air with happiness, smiling at his companions.

1x item(s): Thief Class Starter Pack
LEVEL UP! You are now level 2!

Alfie nodded, and wondered where he would be if he hadn't come across such helpful people in a time of turmoil. Even though his original character wasn't from the Thief class, it was also exciting to try something new out. Things were starting to look up, after all!

"You know, I'm really grateful that I found you guys, without-" Alfie began. He was interrupted by the fox - Renu motioned towards the portal. He followed close behind Renu. As they entered what they hoped to be a realm of greater peace and safety, Alfie took one last look at the castle foyer they were leaving behind. Everywhere he looked, avatars were fighting maniacally over keys, monsters ran rampant through the crowds; no one was safe in the midst of such mayhem. As thankful as Alfie was that he seemed to have found a way of staying alive in Cloud for at least a bit longer, there was something tugging at his brain that he couldn't shake. Something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. And then, it hit him all at once.

Where did Jade go?

<Challenger> · Jul 21, 2014

Adrian Mason and Kazuki Takemura
Venice, Italy/Osaka, Japan
May 25th, 2025
"Killing is My Business, and Business is Good!"

The crowds seemed to part as a titan of a Minotaur pushed his way through them. "Everybody, out of the way." Kazu typed on his computer almost rapidly, sending out messages to his lower leveled friends to stick together and get the hell out of here. He sipped his coffee casually as he tapped away on the keyboard. ATLAS was nearing the scaly beast in the center of the room. That guy knows how to pick a fight with everybody... Kazu grimaced as he looked at the numbers against him. "Damn...He needs help," The writer mumbled to himself. He neared the crowd, and instead of attacking them from behind, just walked through them. ATLAS was literally waist deep in enemies.

The Minotaur managed to make it through the crowd, as they thought he was going to be their champion, but that was quite the contrary. ATLAS walked up to the scaly beast and took a defensive stance beside him. "You like you're in a bit of a spot, friend. I'm here to help with that." The massive Minotaur put up his fists and looked around at the surrounding players. "These guys don't look like a threat, but their attacks combined could prove...fatal." He looked to his scaly friend and grinned. "You got a colored key too, I see." He held up his own. "They call me ATLAS."

Equinox looked to his side to see a large figure approaching. He shifted slightly towards it and held his key like a battle hammer. He preferred swords but that option wasn't available. The crowd parted, letting what he recognized as a Minotaur into his little ring of death. Equinox was ready to strike a blow but instead the large beast decided to make a stand with him.

"You like you're in a bit of a spot, friend. I'm here to help with that. These guys don't look like a threat, but their attacks combined could prove...fatal." The Minotaur took notice of Equinox's key and gave off a grin "You got a colored key too, I see." The player held up his own key "They call me ATLAS."

"Equinox. We can have a formal introduction after, kay?" Equinox lowered his voice a little "My plan is to keep the big boys distracted so the little ones have a better chance to escape, you in? I could definitely use the help. Got a little bit more attention then I was hoping for." Equinox raised his key hammer again and got ready to fight. He hoped his former hand-to-hand training would pay off now...

At first, Kazu thought that the scaly beast was going to attack him, but he dropped his key hammer shortly after. ATLAS gave a grin of approval as Equinox decided to accept his help. The Minotaur put his key away and held up his fists, eager for a fight. "You're right. Introductions can wait." His eyes moved over the enemy forces quickly. "I think we can pull this off. All we have to do is fight smartly." His fists clenched in preparation. "I don't have to worry about my weapons being gone."

ATLAS heard a flurry of movement from behind him. He spun, letting out a bull's roar as he did so, and slammed a ferocious back-fist into whatever it was, which happened to be a werewolf sort of thing, sending it across the room. "These guys mean business. If they start to overwhelm us, we can always retreat." He danced from foot to foot eagerly, fists still cocked. "But, I don't intend on retreating." The horde seemed to be growing restless. "They'll charge soon enough...Should we beat them to it?"

Equinox turned his head to a noise to his six. ATLAS must've heard it too as he spun around too. He let out a roar and took out a large canine adversary. The wolf ended up on the other side of the room. "These guys mean business. If they start to overwhelm us, we can always retreat." The large beast said "But, I don't intend on retreating."

"What they don't know is this IS my business, and 'Business is Geewwwd~'" Adrian wasn't sure if he was even old enough to get that reference but whatever. "I hope you're experienced in the tactic of Attrition Warfare, because that's what this comes down to, and we're on the less resources side..."

A knight in boring armor decided he'd try his luck and charged. Equinox dodged his sword, grabbed his hilt right above the sword and used it as leverage to force him down into Equinox's knee, then bashed him over the head for good measure. The knight faded into pixels, back to the great void of the respawn. Equinox got back into a defensive position after the knight disappeared. He kind of wished he had taken the time to find a class before all of this so he could get some XP towards it. All of this fighting was going to be wasted experience wise.

"I say we wait, ATLAS, let them come to us. Your call though.. So, shoot."

ATLAS nodded and glanced at his scaly companion. "That sounds like a plan to me." He grinned at the man's reference. "Megadeth. I approve." He slammed his left palm into the face of a nearby Anubis like creature. "I'm familiar with it...Wear them down until they run out of supplies." A grimace came across his face. "We're gonna lose one of those." ATLAS looked around. "Maybe we can rally some help...I say we fight it out. You're right. Let them come." His position switched from Guard to Wall position. "They might have numbers, but we can take these guys out, no problemo."

"More numbers on our side would be nice though, to be honest..." Equinox replied to his new friend. He paused wondering when the crowd that was getting more and more restless was going to charge. Couldn't be much longer with how bad the uproar was getting. He said in a lower tone "You ready, I think the sh!t is about to hit the fan."

ATLAS nodded slowly, eyeing the restless crowd. "They sure are eager to tear us to pieces..." A grin came across his face. "Let them come. I could use a good fight. I count at least forty...Do you have any friends who might help us out? I'm not too keen on doing this alone." This time two jaguar-human hybrids charged, both of which caught a roundhouse to the side. As they burst into pixels, the horde charged. "They're coming!"

Equinox dodged a strike from some kind of lizard as the horde charged. He spun in around and gave it a very strong kick in the gut then brought the key down on it's head. The lizard crumpled to the ground and disappeared into a cloud of pixels as his buddy charged to try and save him. Equinox punched him in the throat and took out his leg with a low sweep then pounded his face into the foyer's cobblestone flooring. "This is NOT how I wanted to spend my day!" He yelled out to his bull friend.

ATLAS looked at the portal, and then to his friend. "We need to get out of here! Now!" He punched a demon-esque thing square in the jaw with enough force to break a boulder, sending him soaring into the crowd. The impact caused a hole large enough to break through..."FOLLOW ME!" The minotaur charged forward, battering aside anything dumb enough to get in his way. His horns were made use of. Soon enough, he was near the door. "LET'S GO!"

Equinox followed in the trail of destruction. No need to get his claws dirty when his friend was paving the way. Suddenly he remembered! He still needed a class again!! Close to the portal he trailed off into the monster infested grounds. He picked a group of skeletons, they looked easy enough to defeat. A flurry of claws caught one of them off guard. It spun around and began to attack, easily dodged by Equinox. He roundhouse kicked it in the head and it dropped to the ground. He moved on to it's buddy and got a couple good swipes in before finishing with and uppercut to it's (former) chin. He kicked the last skeleton in the chest and elbowed it in the jaw. It fell and join his friends in a cluster of pixels. He picked up all of the loot they dropped, three classes! As he was about to choose one he was attacked by a player. He dispatched of him quickly and headed back to ATLAS.

"Hey! Find a weapon somewhere we're gonna need it! It's probably gonna be even worse on the other side of that portal! And finding one in real life wouldn't hurt either, people like to riot when the bank isn't open, never mind when they've lost they're whole life!"

In a rush to grab a class, the Minotaur rushed over to the skeletons his friend had chosen, picked one up, and carried him back to the portal like a football player. Once he arrived back at the portal. The skeleton had been clawing him, every so slightly taking his health down, but now it was halfway to non-existant. "Damn it!" He bopped the skeleton on the head until it poofed away from existence.

1x item(s): Defender Starter Pack
Level up! You have reached level 2!

ATLAS sighed in relief as he got to the portal. He quickly equipped a basic bronze two-handed sword, some heavy bronze plated armor, including greaves, a helmet, a breastplate, and gauntlets. "Come on, Equinox! Let's get out of here!" With that, he leaped through the portal. Hopefully his ally would come soon.

Equinox quickly opened his inventory and looked at the classes. he dropped all three then picked one back up and equipped it

1x item(s): Warrior Base Class
Level up! You have reached level 2!

He quickly equipped his new sword than sprinted for the portal and dived in. "Wait for me"! he yelled after his current partner.

CourageHound · Jul 22, 2014

Samuel "Sam" Green

May 25, 2025
Atlanta, Georgia

The farther the three moved on, the more fidgety Samuel became. Not to mention agitated. This whole situation and how he could have even a moment to stop and reflect on things was starting to get to him. It was as though nearly every daemon in the dome had lost the ability to rationalize and instead opted to act like barbarians. As he pushed his way past more and more people, he noticed that Renu stopped. Looking around, he noticed that they were almost upon the portal. That meant they also had to dispatch the mobs in their way as well.

Renu was the first to engage what was a giant rat. "How foolish of me. No matter! Prepare to meet your maker, monster! En garde!"

"I got the bug." Kuoto stated as he too stepped aside to defeat his monster.

All that was left was the slime monster. It was strange and somewhat worrisome to be level one again. All his previous skills and attributes were gone. Sam cautiously circled green slime until he was toward its backside. He could no longer charge at his enemies with brute strength and shrug off any damage inflicted upon him, so a more cautious approach was vital.

Lunging at the creature, he swiped with his bare paw, initiating battle mode. Unfortunately, due to the gelatinous properties of the slime, he found himself unable to easily dislodge himself from its body. "Arrgh, let me go!!" He grimaced as he struggled to free himself. The monster growled back and raised its arms to counter-attack. Sam quickly kicked back with hind legs, dislodging himself from the slime's grip just in time to avoid being struck.

He was reluctant to use his colored key weapon due to the very real possibility of attracting other players willing to kill him for it. However, he felt there wasn't much of a choice at the moment considering the resilient properties of the slime creature. Plus, they were already upon the portal anyway, so a swift escape would be easy enough. Summoning his blue key, it materialized in his jaws and he readied himself to charge once more. Wasting no time, he was upon the slime again, running it down with the blade. The key now stuck inside the mob, Sam pushed it straight through with his forearms, the slime's health plummeting from yellow, then red, to empty. Withdrawing his key, the green ooze dissolved into pixels and was replaced with his reward.

LEVEL UP! You are now level 2!

Sam didn't even bother to open his class pack. He simply snatched it up sprang to Renu and Kuoto's side, leaping into the inviting blue light of the portal.

moon · Jul 22, 2014

Terrigan / Tegan
Level 1 // no class

Sounds everywhere. People were flailing around Terrigan, as the cat Daemon remained seated in her spot, staring in front of her. She had not been taken notice of yet, possibly because the key she was holding up in disbelief in front of her face was silver colored and had her name engraved on it, while there was a poor mimiga Daemon with a marine key running in circles in her vicinity, trying to escape the frantic other Daemons who had noticed it. Terrigan just wasn't a target yet.

It was difficult to immediately grasp what this meant. She was holding her real life identity in her hand now. All her passwords, numbers, facts... But what did that mean, really? That if someone took it, she wouldn't be able to go to school anymore? Of course she would. The teachers wouldn't stop recognizing her just because her name might have been wiped off some database somewhere. If it even would be - who was to say that whoever took her key from her would actually use it? Maybe they'd just collect it. To have something to bargain with, or some extra source of credits if they were running low.

But Tegan didn't have much credits in real life. She didn't have much of anything at all. She didn't have a job, no meaningful connections... All that she really was and cared about was inside of CLOUD these days. And now she couldn't log off. So what did that mean then?

The rabbit-like Daemon was luckily a lot faster by default than the Daemons chasing her, probably in part because the lot were pushing each other around as well as they tried to corner the smaller creature. Everybody wanted the colored key for themselves, after all.

It meant that Terrigan could lose the key and not suffer badly from it. That was what it meant. She could keep living in CLOUD without many worries. Somebody might defeat her and steal her identity IRL but... No, hang on. Terrigan wasn't often defeated. She was nowhere near a master battler, and had never been successful in the arenas, but she didn't like losing. And she never gave up if she could help it. Terrigan was Tegan's furry self, her ideal person. Tegan put all that she wanted to be into Terrigan. She didn't want to be a coward. There was no way she was just going to sit idle by and wait out this turbulence - CLOUD was her world and she was going to live it to the fullest.

She crouched down deeper into her seat and put her key back into the inventory before pulling up the contacts menu quickly. After a quick look at the Daemonhead guild chat, she decided that there was no chance she'd get a proper message through there. Instead, she messaged one of her closest friends: the rainbow turtle.

"Karista, where are you?" She spoke out, but the system made sure that the only one that could hear her was the selected contact. Not even the people standing next to her would know what she was saying.

"I'm sneaking along the back wall, near the green part of the ceiling, do you see the green part?"

Terrigan glanced up. "Yeah, it's right where I'm under."

Just then, a high-pitched squeal made her turn around. The bunny Daemon had been slayed by what looked like a red crocodile. As the little Daemon dematerialized, the croc was parading the marine key, threatening the Daemons around him with it. Terrigan shuddered and began to move away, back towards the distant wall, as fast as she could.

"I'm moving in towards the middle! But it's really scary, I feel so weak without my Knight gear and with this key..."

Terrigan felt her digital heart speed up. "With your name on it, right?"

"No, it's bright yellow. Not exactly easy to hide if I have to battle. You know, it's the only thing I have in my inventory so it'll become my weapon unless I chose to go martial arts and this avatar wasn't built for - oh!"

Terrigan leapt over a bunch of crying Daemons as she adopted her four leg stance to go faster. Her dark figure still didn't attract much attention, but in the crowd ahead, she saw a brightly visible rainbow turtle, fending off an angry teddy bear with a golden key in her hand. That digital heart of Terrigan's sank. Her friend had a colored key - that meant that her identity was stolen by ICARUS.

She ran as fast as she could, but there were people in the way and she couldn't see properly...

"Karista!"

The message got an error. A big robot Daemon moved out of the way to reveal the teddybear standing with a yellow key in his hand and a relieved smile on his lips. Terrigan came to an abrupt stop and came back up on two legs, just a few meters from the bear. He had killed Karista.

Terrigan didn't know what she felt. She wasn't the most emotional of people. But right now, in all this confusion and chaos, she didn't hesitate one second too long before she jumped the teddybear from behind and clawed with her basic fighting ability of scratching, at his face. She noticed that her own silvery key had materialized in her hand though. Whatever works as a weapon counts as a weapon, the rule of noobs in CLOUD.

The teddybear threw her off himself and lounged out with the yellow key at the cat. But Terrigan either was a lot faster than him or had lucky strike of evasiveness, because she managed to jump out of the way before hurling herself forward to ram her own key into the bear's face. He dematerialized almost immediately.

2x item(s): Yellow Key, Ponka33's Key
Level up! You have reached level 2!

Terrigan had to stand still and breathe for a moment. Few downsides with using the Dreamscape, but one was that it felt much more real. In many ways. And she had just killed someone. It had happened before, of course. She quickly looked around to see if anybody had noticed the sudden exchange of keys, but this particular part of the huge space where all players were in was mostly consisting of people grieving and trying to avoid looking at any violence going on around them. She didn't pick up the Yellow Key from her inventory, instead she tightened the grip on her own silvery one and tried to sort out her thoughts.

"Karista, are you there?" There was no longer any error message.

"Yeah. I respawned in CLOUDLAND. There's a lot of people here already, we're talking."

"I have your key."

"You do!? Oh you're fantastic, Terrigan! I knew you'd do it!"

"But your own identity... ICARUS has it, right?"

"I suppose so... I have to take off the Dreamscape and check out things IRL."

"You can't log out."

"I know, but I can stay in CLOUDLAND for a while before I'm booted out, and I'm safe here, so I better check now."

"Alright..."

"What will you do?"

"I'll..." Terrigan looked around her. In the middle of the huge room, there was a blue light... She climbed up on the edge of a seat to look more closely. Monsters were spawning around the light, but people were moving towards it anyways. It had to be a portal. "I'll keep moving on," she said.

"To where? You've still got your identity, haven't you?"

"Did I ever have an identity?" Terrigan mumbled.

Karista didn't reply for a moment, as Terrigan began running on all four again, towards the light in the middle. They seldom discussed real life, especially Terrigan had been very restrictive about mentioning any of it at all. Mostly because there wasn't much to say. Her guildmates already knew that she spent almost all her time awake in CLOUD. They didn't need to know the exact situation of her life.

"I'll use your key," she continued.

"Will you get my identity back from ICARUS?"

Terrigan almost paused in her running for a moment, but sped up again as a particularly nasty Golem with four silvery keys in his hands turned to look at her.

"Won't you try to get back out and level up?"

"Maybe... But like I said, there's planning and talking going on here. We'll try to form something proper! But I really have to go now, off of my Dreamscape. Talk to you soon, Terri!"

And she was off. The huge room was less crowded by now - so many had already been killed or escaped somehow. Terrigan saw groups forming among the now wrecked seats closer to the portal. They were teaming up to get through this. Some probably with the intention of stealing all colored keys for themselves. Others maybe to get as many silvery keys as possible and steal all their real life money or something. Terrigan wondered if there were any decent people left here at this point. She herself had already killed someone's Daemon too. She wondered what Karista and Ponka33 would say to each other if they met in CLOUDLAND.

As she reached the outer line of weak NPC monsters, she got back up on two legs again. Time to see what had been her class and gear and what she could actually do with her own instincts and skills.

[Other FULL] CLOUD v2.0 [T] [IC]

More options

Skymin

Nakuzami

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]

Swolligator

Butcher of the Sands

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Skymin

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Alfie Happer

CourageHound

Trust & Courage. Nothing More

Quest

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Nakuzami

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]

Arsenic

[div=font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Kaushan script

SkyisUmbreon

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Ozymandias

i'm going on a journey

Lt. Col. Fantastic

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Micah "Shaka Shaman" Roran
Age: 24
Net Worth: $6.8 Million
SSN: !#^&@)($
CLOUD Level: 1 (401 before reset)
Status: Alive*
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America
Kickass theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IAFUzmgSU&feature=kp

Skymin

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<Challenger>

Goodbye PC...for now.

CourageHound

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[Other FULL] CLOUD v2.0 [T] [IC]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Alfie Happer

Trust & Courage. Nothing More

Veteran Roleplayer

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwlpePA.png[/img]

[div=font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Kaushan script

But it Refused

i'm going on a journey

The Arianator

Micah "Shaka Shaman" Roran Age: 24 Net Worth: $6.8 Million SSN: !*#^&@)($ CLOUD Level: 1 (401 before reset) Status: Alive Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America Kickass theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IAFUzmgSU&feature=kp

Alfie Happer // Samuel "Sam" Green

But it Refused

Alfie Happer

Goodbye PC...for now.

Trust & Courage. Nothing More

Micah "Shaka Shaman" Roran
Age: 24
Net Worth: $6.8 Million
SSN: !#^&@)($
CLOUD Level: 1 (401 before reset)
Status: Alive*
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America
Kickass theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IAFUzmgSU&feature=kp