Chapter 814 - 814: Just Left the Starting Village?

With all preparations complete, Cloud, Barret, and Tifa set off on their journey to rescue Aerith.

They obtained information from Zangan on how to reach the upper levels of Midgar.

Reaching the high wall at the border, they used a rope gun to ascend towards the upper levels from the Great Platform that had once fallen.

"What the hell? Is this entire thing just a climb?"

This part of the story truly scared Ben out of his wits.

In the original game, this section was just a short climbing sequence. One reason was that there was too much content, so they didn't need to waste too much time here.

Another, and the most significant, reason was that the technology at the time made it difficult to create that kind of breathtaking, exploration-like feeling.

As a VR game, other mazes like the sewers or towns could be simplified.

However, Lucas decided to keep these spectacular high-altitude scenes. He would just reduce the number of minor enemies, keeping the combat at a level that wouldn't annoy players. He also planned routes where players could directly choose to skip the soldiers.

Ben, as a player, was unaware of all this. All he felt now was the urge to pee.

As someone who's a bit afraid of heights, this was Ben's least favorite type of game segment.

Games like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed were okay because controlling the character to overcome challenges distracted him a bit.

But Final Fantasy was different. Apart from combat, most of the content was cutscenes.

And by now, the game had already played on this fear of heights before. Sneaking into Shinra at night with the Jessie trio, the last way out was by parachute from a high altitude.

Shinra's surprise attack on AVALANCHE, and then escaping from the tower with Barret using a cable.

Now, they had to climb all the way from the bottom to the very top.

After some effort, they finally reached Shinra's headquarters, but the gameplay was a bit different from what Ben initially imagined, which was supposed to be all stealth.

While the heavily guarded areas did require stealth, Shinra's headquarters wasn't as expected; it was surprisingly relaxed, as people from Midgar often visited Shinra.

At the same time, Ben got to experience Shinra's VR technology here.

He witnessed the scenery of the past planet.

Playing VR within a VR game was indeed a surprising experience.

During this time, Cloud met someone who recognized him, which almost made Ben think he was exposed. Fortunately, it ended without incident.

The journey to rescue Aerith had felt completely calm and uneventful until the appearance of one character.

If there was any character Ben hated the most in the game before this, it was undoubtedly Zangan. Next was Heidegger, who plotted to bring down AVALANCHE, and then the Shinra executive who decided to let the Great Platform fall, killing the Jessie trio.

But with the appearance of the character named Hojo, Ben realized that those people he hated before were nothing compared to him.

His lecherous appearance and deranged ideas made Ben want to kill him with a single blow.

"As a sample, she's not as good as her mother. Based on data comparison, the difference rate between her and her mother is 18%, meaning it will take another 120 years. We might not be able to complete it in our lifetime, and the sample's lifespan won't last that long."

"So I'm thinking of finding a mate for her and breeding a sample that can withstand time-tested research."

From the cutscenes to actually seeing him, to the dialogues, and the obstacles designed to test Cloud's combat strength, Ben's anger kept building.

He swore that not to mention Final Fantasy alone, but in all the games he had ever played, if there was one NPC who was truly annoying, this scumbag Hojo would definitely have a place.

Midgar's mayor had been turned, ordinary employees would betray with a scare. Through this widespread betrayal by all, Cloud and his companions managed to find Aerith in Hojo's lab without any major issues.

However, in the lab, besides Aerith, Ben also met an old acquaintance.

It was Red XIII, whom he had seen before in Advent Children.

Also, through Red XIII's introduction, Cloud and the others gained a deeper understanding of the secrets of the Ancients.

It turned out that the Ancients were a race who called themselves the Cetra. They were now believed to be completely extinct, except for Aerith. And even Aerith wasn't a pure Ancient.

Thus, another character joined the protagonist group. With Red XIII's help, they could now access places they couldn't before by opening corresponding switches.

Inside Shinra, Cloud and the others also saw some strange experimental creatures.

But in the end, Cloud and his companions fell into Shinra's trap, and special forces soldiers like Tseng, Rude, and Reno of the Turks captured them and threw them into a holding cell.

"So, I'm finished? How do I get out of here? Who's going to save me!" Ben was dumbfounded, looking at the locked door.

The only good news was that he was locked up in the same room as Tifa.

But the crucial question was, how to get out?

All five members of the protagonist group were locked up. AVALANCHE had fallen apart, the Jessie trio had met their end, and Marlene was just a little girl.

Ben couldn't think of anyone who would come to save him.

Or perhaps the characters who appeared in Advent Children?

But before Ben could figure it out, after a simple conversation between Cloud and someone, there was a click, and the door opened directly.

"What's going on? The turncoat mayor? That soldier who knows Cloud?" Ben guessed what might have happened.

But as he passed through the holding cell door, Ben found that things had become strange.

Because all the soldiers in Shinra seemed to have been killed, the scene before them was like hell.

The bodies were strangely contorted, and although there was blood, no wounds were found. It was as if the blood had seeped out of their pores.

The glass cell holding Jenova in the laboratory was also shattered, and Jenova's body had vanished.

Following the trail of blood towards the upper levels of Shinra, when Cloud and his companions arrived at the Shinra President's office, they were all stunned by the scene before them.

The Shinra President was found face down on his usual office desk, a silver long sword, about two meters long, piercing his abdomen and pinning him to the desk.

Who could have killed the Shinra President in Shinra's headquarters?

Barret and Aerith were puzzled.

But Tifa and Cloud seemed to have seen something incredible.

"Sephiroth is alive?"

"Only Sephiroth would use this sword."

Hearing Cloud and Tifa's words.

Ben was also stunned.

In Cloud and Tifa's eyes, Sephiroth was already dead?

What was going on?

And wasn't Sephiroth a Shinra special forces soldier?

Ben's mind was full of questions.

With a head full of confusion, after defeating Rufus, the former Shinra president's son, and the Shinra soldiers trying to capture Cloud.

Tifa, Barret, and Cloud successfully escaped to the wilderness outside Midgar.

Cloud decided to begin his pursuit of Sephiroth.

Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, and Aerith all stated they would follow Cloud.

Since they were still wanted by Shinra, the five-person team was too conspicuous. Barret proposed splitting into two teams.

Of course, they called it splitting into two teams, but in reality, players could still choose which characters to use in the system interface.

However, for the player, this seemingly multiple-choice question was actually a single choice.

No one would choose Barret over Tifa and Aerith, right?

Hearing Barret's official remark, "I knew you'd choose this," after selecting Aerith and Tifa, Ben couldn't help but smile.

But setting that aside, the most astonishing thing for him was that after leaving Midgar, the game unlocked a new map.

Although many areas were shrouded in mist, Midgar only occupied a small portion of it.

So, he had only just left the starting village?

(End of Chapter)