Is this really a Game?!

“I know a lot of you are wondering why I and Jack gathered you all here today,” Eldar speaks to the crowd who were looking at him curiously. It was true, even though a lot of people have managed to activate their abilities they were still in the minority as about 60% of the players that fought still had no ability.

“It’s of course because of the new announcement, to be frank, I didn’t expect to have this discussion with you so soon as the system usually lets more time pass before giving the players access to their true abilities.”

“True abilities?” Shadow asks in a low tone as he looks at Eldar with the others.

“Well, first let me explain a bit more about the game, you see this way of doing things is quite different compared to the past, in most planets we would slowly introduce mana to their inhabitants in a couple of different ways,” Continues Eldar as he stands atop a platform in front of everyone.

“Some planets would get access to a real game where they would find an incredibly high level of realism, there they would fight against monster and learn how to use mana, the game would be a copy of their own world and after some time the events from the game would begin happening in reality and because most people had played the game, they would be able to quickly improve and fight against the monsters.”

“Other planets would have rifts that would spawn monsters at certain places, after a couple of years many more would be present on the planet before a situation like here would happen, others would be teleported to other planets where they would be taught how to fight and use mana before being sent back to their home planets where they would fight against the monsters for survival.”

“Unfortunately the Alliance is in a war, our enemies use brutal methods to convert new planets and they are becoming stronger each day, the system is present in the whole universe and it strives for balance, as such we now have to use this way of converting planet Earth, this game that you are all a part of.”

Everybody looked at Eldar with wide-open eyes, they never knew that the game was different on other planets, and after listening to Eldar they realized that Earth was simply unlucky to be chosen now. Luckily for them however it was the Alliance that found Earth first and not the Dark Ones, the difference between the way they treat other planets was vastly different.

Safe zones for one didn’t exist on the planets that the Dark Ones chose, the inhabitants of the planets were forced to survive in the most difficult situations and most of them died, but of course, the difference was that the ones that survived were incredibly strong.

“Now for the abilities, most of you probably realized that it’s not only the appearance that has changed with your abilities but the feeling of using them, the familiarity that you have with them, all of it is different now.” Jack suddenly chips in before looking at Eldar.

“There’s of course a reason for that, the abilities and powers you have used so far were not truly your own, they were simply copies that the system gave you so that you can familiarize with them and with mana.”

“Now of course that has changed, your true abilities have been unlocked and with that come benefits, but also great risks.” Eldar suddenly looks at everyone solemnly as he continues speaking with a solemn voice, “It is easy for people to suddenly improve their ability greatly in a short time period now, but most that do that will find themselves unable to control their ability and in turn, they will be consumed by them, their body and soul completely destroyed by their own power.”

Everyone gulped in fear as they listened to Eldar talking. Some of them have in fact felt that their abilities have become easier to control and they were eager to use them in battle and improve them, but after hearing what Eldar had to say they were now incredibly skeptical in doing that. Other people however had the opposite experience, after the announcement they found themselves in a bit of a pinch as their abilities suddenly became harder to use and less powerful.

“Looking at your expressions I can see that some of you had a different experience, your abilities became weaker and harder to use after the announcement, don’t worry about that so much, even though you feel weak now you are actually in a better position compared to the others, the fact that your abilities responded in such a way means one thing, you actually never truly understood them, the way you used them previously was simply too crude.” 𝐨𝘃𝗹.

“I and Jack will be training you guys from now on, if any of you lose control we can stabilize you and for those that have their abilities weakened we can show you how to use your mana more efficiently and help you understand your powers more, of course, the bulk of the work still has to be done by you.”

“Umm, captain?” One of the players from the crowd puts his hand up as he calls Eldar.

“Yes?”

“What about those that didn’t experience any of those two, and what about those that don’t have abilities, what are we supposed to do?”

“Ah, great question, well I still think you should stay here with the others and train with us a bit, the reason is simply because of mana, you can train mana control with the others, in turn, that will help you out in the future when you do get an ability, as for those with an ability I still recommend that you stay and familiarize more, of course, those that believe that they already have a high enough understanding are free to go.”

Eldar steps down from the podium as Jack takes over, all of the players had luckily decided to join the training session, after all, it was a rare chance to learn from Jack and Eldar, not to mention that nobody wanted to risk losing control of their own ability while fighting against a monster, even if their ability didn’t kill them the monster would.

“Captain, can we have a word?” Reign walks over to Eldar with the others. Eldar smiles at them before noticing the solemn gaze they all had.

“What happened?” Eldar asks them as he turns serious, seeing them looking like that made him immediately know that something important happened.

Reign narrated what happened to his lightning after the announcement, Eldar seemed undisturbed after listening to him and learning of the event.

“I guess I should have known that something like this would happen, I just thought you would have more time to learn how to control it, but it seems that in the end, you did manage to control your ability, that’s good, that’s really good.” Eldar pats Reign on the shoulder as he looks at him with a solemn gaze.

“If you die then my promotion will be in jeopardy.”

Reign blinks in confusion a couple of times as he looks at Eldar who suddenly smiles.

“Alright, go to the center of the training grounds, don’t worry, since you were able to control it before it shouldn’t be dangerous, and if it does become a bit too much I can help you.”

Eldar goes over to Jack and they move the players out of the training grounds, everyone was confused at what was happening before seeing Reign move to the center.

“Alright, make some room you guys, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Murmurs could be heard coming from the crowd as people were still confused at what was happening, was Reign going to demonstrate how to control ability or mana?

“Reign, please use the normal one first.”

“Mhm.” Reign nods at Eldar before releasing his lightning. The lightning flashed around him before moving to the surrounding area, soon everything in a circle of 3 meters around Reign was filled with lightning as it crackled and buzzed. Everyone looked at him with amazement as an incredible amount of mana could be felt coming from him and the lightning.

“Alright, that’s enough, now use that.”

Reign deactivates his lightning before turning solemn, he focuses and feels the black and white lightning hidden in his soul. Eldar and Jack suddenly put their hands on the ground as a transparent barrier was made around the training grounds, the barrier was there for the other players as Eldar didn’t want to risk them getting injured or even killed by Reign’s power if it did go out of control.

Suddenly an intense pressure was felt coming from Reign, the players felt as if the air itself became heavier as they looked at the person that was without a doubt the strongest amongst them all.

Suddenly lightning erupts from him in a violent fashion. The black and white lightning acted differently compared to the blue one, instead of simply surrounding Reign while branching out slightly around him, this one was just going everywhere, everything in a radius of 6 meters around Reign was covered by the lightning as the ground was charred.

It didn’t seem to be stopping as the lightning was slowly expanding further out, even the air above Reign was filled with numerous arcs of lightning.

“Seems good so far, how do you feel Reign?” Eldar looks at Reign with a slight smile before asking him.

“I feel normal, it’s just that it’s hard to control it compared to the normal one.”

“It’s alright, try to use a skill, attack the barrier, don’t worry, it will hold.”

“Alright” Reign puts his fingers together as he uses his lightning bullet skill. The bullet hits the barrier momentarily as slight ripples could be seen on it.

“Alright, use a stronger one.”

This time Reign puts his arm up as the lightning around him started getting pulled towards it. A black and white spear made of lightning was in his hand, Reign inspected it before throwing it at the barrier with full force. This time the barrier shook a bit, it was clear that the power of this skill was far stronger compared to the bullet.

“Alright, can you deactivate it?”

Reign nods before closing his eyes, he focuses a bit before the lightning suddenly stops. All of the lightning arcs around him suddenly disappear as they all go back to Reign who was standing on the charred ground while panting slightly.

The sounds of gulping could be heard from the crowd as all of them looked at Reign with their eyes opened wide.