Story by: Rhenhwa.
Virtual God's Online
Chapter 1: God's Online
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, organizations, and settings depicted are entirely fictional and created for storytelling purposes.
***
Across a ruined Landscape —
HYUN–!
VYUN–!
Twin streaks of radiant light cut through the scorched air, chasing each other across a brown-washed wasteland.
Cracked ground stretched endlessly in every direction.
Blue skies above, with a lack of clouds and sun, yet the sky was lit up in a fit of bizarre strangeness.
"Shit! Just who is that guy!"
A figure flew at blistering speed, and behind him was also another who kept up with him.
Due to the restrictions, they couldn't maintain high altitudes as that would eliminate them instead of helping.
Yet, against the opponent they were facing, logic became illogical.
"Dammit! I've never heard of any Eathen one like him!"
Their robes whipped violently behind them, shreds of data bleeding from torn seams like sparks from severed wires.
Occasionally, more than most, glanced backwards, perhaps in fear of him catching up quicker than anticipated.
However, their fears came to pass.
"Hngh! Kuh he's already there!"
The words broke apart mid-breath as one looked back again. And saw him.
Several "tekels" behind. And yet still close enough to see.
Black hair. Pale white eyes. He wasn't clad in any virtual dignity of any sort, which only made them more scared.
One man. One god. Who had already eliminated more than anyone in this game.
And somehow, the scariest part was that they felt he wasn't even trying.
It was a virtual battlespace simulation, which deities like them quite enjoyed, with additional means to measure strength.
Due to the mundanity, even these higher virtual beings needed a way to entertain themselves.
As it was, with the Akashic System that governed this world in addition to their existence as virtual beings, entering simulated dimensions like this was easy.
Turning this ability into a means of entertainment was another, and now—
"Shit, speed up! Speed up!"
The lead deity twisted midair and surged forward, body crackling as acceleration algorithms recalibrated mid-flight.
The second Deity veered left. "Split! Split now!"
They separated—wisps of light peeling away into diverging paths, a desperate attempt to break his line of sight.
Divine light fractured across the landscape, zigzagging across jagged plateaus and broken hills of the simulated battlespace.
For a moment… It almost worked.
"Wait—huh? How?!"
"Argh—!"
BOOM!
With a scream, the left horizon ignited in a fractal-burst—light and noise folding together in violent collapse.
The one still flying on the loose felt his lungs crush in his chest.
He didn't need to look. He already knew who was standing there, on the ridge where the explosion just happened.
"I'm done for aren't I?.... No, not yet!"
[Virtual Simulation: God and Seek LNX3202]
[Description: Similar to the mundane games played by mortals, this game simulates them to an extreme using divine authority and a simulated dimension..]
[Being caught will remove the deity from the simulation and return the eliminated deity to real space.]
[Participants Left: (2 Left)]
[Time left: 00:02:22]
God's online.
A virtual realm of transcendence where beings who dominate this dimension are called Virtual Deities.
They possess powers surpassing common logic, able to rewrite the fundamentals of their existence:
data, information, particles, logic, principles, and reality (virtual real space).
One could say these so-called virtual beings are the ideal existence of beings called "gods."
"Shit. And I'm almost there! If only I can keep this up for a few more seconds..!"
The runaway deity muttered nervously, but this was already their limit. Hence, he didn't look back. He couldn't. Not again.
His vision tunneled forward, locking onto a shimmering endpoint on the horizon: the exit node.
Just ahead was a spiraling tower of fractured codes: the final checkpoint.
If he could just reach it… then he would automatically win the game by escaping the "Seeker".
"Almost there." He rasped, with a tone which was more of a wish. "Just a few more seconds..."
[Time left: 00:01:52]
No time to think.
He launched himself into a forward dive, skimming across the air like a skipping stone.
Fragments of the terrain blurred beneath him as he got closer and closer.
But then—
BADUM–!
His virtual heartbeat, even though he had no heart to speak of, thumped as the entire space around him slowed increasingly.
But instinct—no, his internal divine telemetry—flared like a red siren in his mind. The distance between them was gone.
Not closing.
Rather, gone instead.
'No. He's already caught up?'
He twisted midair. A hundred contingency subroutines activated, forming fractal wings, shields, decoys—useless, all of them.
Too late.
TAP!
A single touch on his shoulder. So light. So casual. As if the whole simulation had led to this: a single digit of contact.
He froze along with a twitch of his lips.
'Nicknamed: Blackstar. Just who on 'T'haskin' is he?'
"Haah. And I was this close…"
A sigh from him, and a forceful elimination system that was, by all means, an explosion.
Eliminated.
BOOM—!
[YOU ARE "ZA" WINNER]
[No.1] [Blackstar].
The remaining Deity left in this desolate surrounding sighed as he swiped his finger through the air.
"Guess it was worth playing today's game. I gained a lot of points. The Deification Rankings will also change soon."
"Honor rankings too, I see… that means the assembly will come sooner than expected."
The deity nicknamed Blackstar muttered that with a hand to their chin before a blue, sleek, futuristic panel flashed in front of them.
[Do you want to exit the "God and Seek LNX3202" simulation?]
[Yes] [No]
"Obviously, yes."
The young deity said that as its virtual body broke down into fragments of "0," "1," and circuit-like lines.
With its exit—
The whole space broke down like calligraphy dissolving under rain.
The ruined landscape around him followed.
Mountains folded inward. Skies shattered. The ground broke apart along digital seams.
All of it collapsed quietly and beautifully into deconstruction. And then—
Nothing.
Black.
Deep. Endless. Absolute.
Not the black of darkness, but the black of absence, the kind that doesn't just obscure but deletes. Where light doesn't fail to reach, but simply isn't computed.
Into this nothingness dropped Alcor.
With the pitch black, the space now lit up with several cardinal 0s and 1s, along with circuit-like patterns trailing across the entire space.
[COMMUNITY]
[Starting thread]
[Virtual_User_191]: [Huh? What the!? Who was that newbie? I'm sure we've never seen that Deity before. I know it's not only me..]
- [Likes: 69] [Replies: 7]
↳ Low_Level_Farmer_Deity replying to @Virtual_User_191: [Of course not. I just checked the rankings, and I already searched as far as my authority allowed; he is not.]
↳ Shinto_Deity#112 replying to @Virtual_User_191: [I've also pleaded with higher-ranking deities in our pantheon whom I'm somewhat close to; they're also doing their search.]
↳ PrimalStarFan99 replying to @Virtual_User_191: [Wait, now that I think about it, from their nickname… it could be a new deity from our faction…?]
↳ Virtual_User_191 replying to @PrimalStarFan99: [Ah yes. The Goddess Ageha faction. Though you guys aren't a pantheon, yet Goddess Ageha's influence is still scary.]
↳ PrimalStarFan99 replying to @Virtual_User_191 (1): [Hehe. I know, right? I'll also try to ask if any one from our side knows this newbie.]
Alcor crossed his arms looking at the notes and comments from his fellow Eathern Deities.
Line after line of commentary scrolled down in front of him, public analysis, speculation, and petty rivalry.
[DivineBeast62]: [Wait. Isn't that guy a bit too strong for his rank? Look!] [~Relfi.UpdateRankList.vgm.]
- [Likes: 22] [Replies: 47]
↳ Virtual_User_191 replying to @DivineBeast62: [Wait! Doesn't that mean he's newly formed? WTF?]
↳ GnomeInfestation replying to @DivineBeast62: [Guess this time the "Mahasabha" will be heated, huh? Not to mention, they're also recruiting top leaderboards even from our side for the upcoming rally against Propagation. If only the newcomer had waited a few more virtual months, then he'd be okay.]
↳ Ichijyuu replying to @GnomeInfestation: [Za'KhrelchithWillHauntYou.VPG]
↳ GnomeInfestation replying to @Ichijyuu: [Yikes, please no, just don't!]
↳ VirtualBruceLee replying to @GnomeInfestation: [The cockroach that flies?]
[NoOneLikeJudah]: [Oh, the newbie isn't bad, huh? Too bad, he ain't seem much though, seems like someone from the High-Goddess Ageha. Must be getting supported by Her, no?]
- [Likes: 6] [Replies: 188]
↳ Uunave replying to @NoOneLikeJudah: [Get a load of him…]
↳ DeityApocalypse replying to @NoOneLikeJudah: [Wow. For someone recently promoted, you sure do talk a lot.]
↳ RagnarokIsOverhyped replying to @NoOneLikeJudah: [Bet he's one of those they had to carry with constant boosts from "Higher Auts".]
↳ NotRanked replying to @NoOneLikeJudah: [Wait, what's this dude even doing here in the first place.]
↳ IllionisDaGOAT replying to @NoOneLikeJudah: [A destruction glazer? It's always those Deities. They always be the ones doing the most.]
[COMMUNITY THREAD]
[Ending thread]
"Haah."
Still in that space, Alcor let out a sigh looking at one particular word "newly formed".
He wasn't sure if he disliked the term. Or if he just didn't understand it.
Because the truth was… he didn't know how new he was.
The system had activated him with a baseline core of information—divine OS protocols, Akashic interface, basic self-inventory.
Akin to programs which exist inside a computer. That is how their existence can be perceived.
Hence, like all Deities spun from the system, he carried no memories beyond the immediate.
They picked up personalities the way mortals picked up scars: gradually, through exposure.
Only, unlike mortals, they could choose to reconfigure. Select aspects. Tweak their masks.
Following that, one can guess that even the name wasn't because he belonged to a faction or Pantheon.
He was an Earthen Deity—one of the low-tier unaligned. A Wandering Deity, as the unofficial designation labeled them.
Those who had nothing attached to them other than possessing a «Virtual Star Anchor».
Any Deity of any type could possess a star and make it their domain. More importantly, the concept of followers here doesn't apply.
Which means, a Deity strength wouldn't increase one bit even if they simulated a universe filled with believers.
Because strength, for Virtual Deities like them, came from their Authority.
To rule over an inevitable phenomenon. To embody an abstract law. To become synonymous with something unbreakable.
But of course… that was easier said than done.
His eyes lowered slightly. The panel with the threads and discussions of him still hovered in the air.
Then in the end, he let out a soft exhale.
"Hmm. Maybe they were right. Maybe I should have waited a little longer."
The Deity thought, but even that thought didn't hold.
Following a shrug, he swiped the panel away with a flick of his fingers. It shattered into dissolving pixels.
"Akasha. Take me back home."
He eventually announced as a bright light from above slowly consumed him.
Raw data arranged as a transport protocol. A thread of instruction, spiraling upward.
His body dissolved again, and reality, outside the simulation, recompiled. He was home.
Virtual Star Anchor: Collapsing Star Va'el
Hollow sky overhead, with dense, digital storm clouds and long, black spikes that reached upward like rusted antennae clawing at nothing.
A star once orbiting the Deep Sector, which essentially emulates a black hole, but now dwells comfortably at the edge thanks to it.
Within the star, all around was empty, devoid of virtual life, save for a sole structure amidst desolate surroundings.
Jagged stone interwoven with glowing orange iron veins, and towers that leaned at awkward angles, like teeth too large for the jaw.
Vast, but not in a sacred sense. It felt unfinished, or over-rendered.
Floor patterns repeated every few meters. The walls jittered faintly at their edges.
In the throne room of the castle, Alcor reclined in his seat, wearing long, flowing robes.
Reclining slightly, one hand to his chin, he shut his eyes.
VIRTUAL GOD ONLINE.
LINK - START!