Magical Academy: Rise of the Supreme Magic Craftsman

Before Wallace left to cooperate with Drake's squad. He sent 30 finished products of his "Virtual Reality Pod" for beta testing. It is the registered name on the license he acquired from Yumi at the NMTI.

Aaron Schmidt, the previous Student Council President of the Leonhearts Academy, was one of the lucky magicians selected to be a beta tester. 

Today was the delivery of the latest simulator pod made by Traceless Hands. 

"Whoa! This device looks futuristic. What was it called again?" Aaron looked at the contract given to him as a beta tester. 

"Virtual Reality Pod or VR pod, huh. It has a nice sound." 

Aaron also noticed the "(For Magician's use only)" written as a warning on the document included.

"It seems that it's dangerous to have a non magician use this... or perhaps, there would be a VR pod for non magicians?"

Aaron mumbled as he read the papers.

The contract he had with him was of course about his job for being a beta tester. It is only three pages long containing some things about what and what not to do at the device and a simple non disclosure agreement.

Also, aside from enjoying the game, he had to create a daily report about his experience within the virtual reality, make constructive criticism about the gameplay, and give any suggestions he could offer to provide a better gaming experience. 

He observed the device and was mesmerized by this clean white oval-shaped pod. This white pod shines even more as the light at the ceiling of the room reflected from it. It looks beautiful and sexy if he described it himself. 

For only 5 million credits, anyone can purchase this amazing device made from an advanced technology once fully released to the public. The price wasn't too cheap or too expensive since the target market was the young adult magicians. 

It was even said in the contract that the gameplay of these beta testers will be used as an advertisement once the device was fully released to the public and they will freely receive some rare in-game items as a reward if their gameplay was selected. They will also receive a discount at the shop items if they contributed a lot during the beta test.

So they had to do their best during the 7-days of beta testing. 

Although it's not yet being sold to the public, Wallace selected these 30 magicians who had purchased his old version of Combat Simulator Pod to let them experience the new version of his device since they will easily appreciate the new changes or improvement he included once they operate within the new pod. These 30 should be enough to have good feedback on his work.

Aside from that, he had also asked assistance with Avalon to select influential people as a beta tester as much as possible. This would help him a little to promote the game. 

Aaron Schmidt was together with his bodyguard in his room as they helped him set up the VR pod. He wore the black tight suit included in the package and pressed the side of the pod. A sound of smooth mechanical gears and air release was heard as the pod opened up. 

"It looks just like the manual." Aaron couldn't help but praise. Every part of the VR pod seems to be made of expensive material to make sure that the experience would be comfortable for the body.

He slowly entered the pod and made himself comfortable as he relaxes his entire body. He wore the breather he found located on his right and lay down his head at the soft cushion of his seat.

Aaron took a deep breath before chanting the activation code.

"Start Link!"

Aaron opened his eyes as he familiarizes himself within the white room he was currently at.

This is the "Room of the Beginnings" as per the document he read. His avatar was a perfect copy of his real body wearing common clothes, a gray shirt, and brown shorts. The white room only has a body-size mirror, chair, wardrobe, a shelf, and a table.

He glanced at the reflection of himself and stretch his limbs as if he was trying to see if there's any need to get used to his new body. But much to his surprise, there is no feeling of discomfort and it feels like it really was his real body.

Aaron was now in front of the table and on it was a small gray sphere with the size of an adult's head. On top of it was a holographic screen where four options can be selected. 

He hadn't selected an option yet as he was still feeling amazed about the level of realism of this game. It didn't feel like an illusion and felt like he was using his real body. 

In the meantime, he wanted to make sure that he was not going to be trapped in this virtual reality so...

"End Link!" 

[ You are about to exit the game. Are you sure? ]

[ Y ] [ N ]

Aaron was satisfied at seeing this and selected the "N" option. 

He turned to the four options in front of him to start the game. He was familiar with the Battle Arena and he felt that there would not be a need for the tutorial since it's not his first simulation game, although the others where crude ones, it taught him what to expect during these kinds of simulations. As for the Practice Mode option, based on the document, it would help him fight any opponent he wanted to fight with. 

But during this beginning phase, he could only fight two computer programmed opponents. New and stronger opponents in Practice Mode would only appear if he met them in Adventure Mode and made a certain level of familiarity with them. In short, he skipped the Practice Mode for now. 

The Adventure Mode was the only left. 

"Alien Invasion, huh. Is it something like unknown beings from the northern continent would come and try to conquer the southern continent setting?" 

Nevertheless, he still selected that option and felt a bit excited about what was about to happen. 

He was covered by a bright light and as he opened his eyes, his view change from a high vantage point like he was an eagle observing the ground below. He no longer possessed his avatar so he was a bit lost at this sudden change. The ground was burning, several large craters can be seen, ruins of cities, burning towns and villages and even the tall mountains were destroyed. There were also mechanical floating islands that can be seen.

The sky was even red to add to the gloominess of the scenery.

Soon, a voice was heard as the cinematic scene started. 

[ Only 6 months had passed and the powerful empire from a different planet conquered the whole southern continent. Their weapons, even without magic, were so strong that it could easily melt even an Adept Mage by a single hit. Only those with powerful defensive Mana Artifacts can barely survive.

This is the Dorssia Empire, a highly advanced civilization from a different planet near our Magic Earth. They descended to our world and destroyed the previously prosperous cities and nations to peacefully acquire resources on our lands, the abundant Mana Stones, and other precious gems unique to our planet.

No one was spared alive whenever they saw a native from this planet. The previously 5 billion population of the southern continent was now a pitiful 100,000.

Some of them were left living deep underground, deep into the forest, and somewhere hiding at the cover of a large desert.

No one was willing to fight the Dorssia Empire as they knew how weak they are, even the combined power of the eight nations could do nothing to stop them. They could only despair and hate the powerful empire who stripped them their freedom and tradition, rights and honor, and finally, even their name was taken...

Seven. That number represents this whole world and people living on it.

After the six months of clearing this continent, whenever the empire's soldiers found survivors, they were quickly being killed and were only referred to as "left-over sevens" without any morality. 

But this is now over! The geniuses left in all nations combined their abilities and discovered a way to steal the alien's technology. They gained assistance from a powerful Artificial Intelligence called Freya that has been assisting them to build from scratch and fight against the powerful empire who conquered the world! We now have vital information about the advanced weapons of the empire! You, as a part of the resistance, has to study all this information to learn the weaknesses of the enemy!

Learn how the weak fight the strong! Join missions to fight a small number of patrols from the empire until we can fight a whole army of them!

Come and help us regain our freedom and oust these aliens living in our motherland! ] 

The introduction together with the cinematic scene moved Aaron as his eyes lit up. 

"This is it!"