Chapter 2: Dying Rhythm
A body the size of a child, with little to no muscles that showed the structure of the bones and a heavily wrinkled body, laid on a hospital bed, equipped with a headset that covered parts of his upper head and eyes. James Albertstein was diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease that left him unable to control any of his nerves. After equipping him with a headset that could transmit the brain signal to a 3D projection, scientists and doctors could tell that the boy is still able to think.
With nothing else to do and waiting for death's call, James Alberstein requested to play the newly released Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Era of Demigods. Era of Demigods is a game where the player starts off as a lowly mortal human and can work themselves to ascend to be a God. Players have the option to create small empires or kingdoms like city-states, or large empires and kingdoms. Players also have the option to not become a monarch or leader of a nation, instead, they can create bandit armies, made up of either NPCs (Non-Player Character)* or other players, or
The game quickly erupted after the public release, making the game come first place in VR games on 2036. After the Era of Demigods was released, James Alberstein, only 5 years old at that time, was diagnosed with a disease which left him in the hospital bed for life. Sad, angry, and lifeless, the only thing he wanted to do was to now play the game.
It's been 13 years since he played the game when he was 5 years old.
In the game.
A young teenager with black and white eyes and hair and a medieval noble clothing was walking towards a large door made of emerald. Behind him was another young person, but this time a beautiful girl with wavy blond hair whose length reached to her ankles. Oh right, her breast is also big. The woman is wearing those bright colored dresses commonly found among nobles during the Medieval Era.
The young teenager is James Alberstein's avatar in the Era of Demigods. And the young beautiful woman following behind is an NPC he married to, in the game of course. In the Era of Demigods, his avatar's name is called James Albert Stein, a name entirely adapted from his real name, and his NPC wife's name is Lyna Albert Stein.
James opened the door to a long, magnificent throne room. A red carpet with gold borders stretched from the door to the steps below the throne. It was made of gold, diamond, emerald, ruby, and obsidian.
Standing beside the red carpets are other NPCs equipped with a golden armor that covered the head with a red cape around their necks. The Royal Knights, the golden knights with red capes, were holding long spears with a flag of a ferocious black and white dragon coiling around a spear.
When the large door fully opened with a loud sound, the Royal Knights raised their spear and pointed the spearhead about 45 degrees from the ground. James set this type of knightly salute because James loved history, especially the empires and kingdoms in ancient and medieval times. This is the royal procession practiced during the medieval era.
(A/N: if you don't get the reference, that's okay.)
James used a feature called, Castle Editor, where players have the ability to edit the people inside their castle to how they like.
James proceeded to walked towards his throne with Lyna following behind him, still expressionless. He walked up the steps and sat on his throne. Lyna stood beside him.
The Royal Knights brung down their spears to their original place and moved beside the throne, forming a human wall with a space that shows James sitting on his throne. This was also a setting James had set.
James slump down on his throne, feeling dizzy and slowly losing his life. He is currently 18 years old, and those who have the same disease James had, all died around 10 to 13 years old. Yet, he is 18 years old. However, his body has finally given up after a few days on his 18th birthday. The sign of death coming closer, James fully devoted his remaining time to playing Era of Demigods to the point when he almost fainted from playing nonstop for about 3 weeks.
Today, his life is finally coming to an end. James could already tell as his consciousness slowly drifts away. He can already see a speck of light like what the scientists have said when people are on the end of the bridge of life.
He looked up at the ceiling with beautiful paintings of both western and eastern dragons. He smiled before closing his eyes, he can hear his heartbeat slowly decrease like a dying rhythm as darkness took over him.
In the hospital room.
Doctor John Jiang was holding his clipboard, watching through a glass wall. Inside the room, seen through the glass door, laid James Albertstein's frail and very wrinkled body equipped with many extending tubes and medical equipment.
(A/N: The name John Jiang is placed in western naming thing, so John is his name while Jiang is his surname, okay?)
John sighed, before sitting down on a nearby bench. He leaned his back on the wall, looking down at his clipboard.
James Albertstein-
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Birthdate: July 4, 2031
Birthplace: Phoenix, Arizona
Notes: Diagnosed with Coraline Disease on October 9th, 2036. Expected death on October 11th, 2046.
The notes ended there. The "Expected Death" part was scratched out due to the fact that James did not die, but lived way past his expected death date.
John sighed. He opened a door beside the glass wall with a sign above saying, "LIFELINE ROOM", and entered the hospital room where James is at.
John took out a black knight chess piece out of his pocket before placing it on James's very small hand. He closed his hands as if making sure James carry it to heaven and prayed to God. He then left the room and left the hallway where rare disease victims were kept and nursed.
(A/N: A reference that's not from any anime or webnovel is found above :v)
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In a large palace.
An elderly man wearing a magnificent, bright clothing is seen sitting on a throne made of some kind of white stone. The elderly man is also wearing a golden crown. Beside him stood an elderly woman wearing a long sky blue dress with glitters on it as well as wearing a golden crown.
Obviously, they are a king and queen duo. The king's name is Francis cal Eargol and the queen's name is Elizabeth cal Eargol.
In front of these duos stood a man in the prime of his life. Although it is very disrespectful for someone to stand in the presence of the king, this man is actually the Pope of the Balance Church, Lewis Actre. The king and queen are believers of the Church, and they're fanatics too.
"Your Holiness, what brings you here?" asked the king politely.
"I came here to inform you of something very important."
"Oh? How important can it be to be shared with me, though?"
Lewis smiled faintly and said, "A Demigod will descend to aid us against the Demons."
Francis's eyes widened in shock. Elizabeth also has her eyes widened.
"You mean, a Divine Being will descend here? If so, when and where?"
"Please calm down, Your Majesty. It is unknown when and where Lord Demigod will descend to. The message from Lord Immoly stated that he will send a Demigod to deal with the Demons and hectics. However, Lord Immoly also said to not control Lord Demigod, or else we will suffer his wrath."
When Francis heard this, his face became gloomy, and then regained back his normal expression.
"I understand, we will not even dare control Lord Demigod." Although Francis said this, in his heart he really wanted to control the Demigod that will soon descend to this world. Why? Benefits, it's all about benefits. Although a religious fanatic, he still chase after benefits, blindly too.
Lewis did not notice the oddity or the motives of Francis, so he continued on.
"Well, this is all I have to say. I do hope Your Majesty and Her Majesty a pleasant day. May God bless you."
Francis stood up and bowed towards Lewis, Elizabeth also followed along. "We wish Your Holiness a farewell."
Lewis smiled, turned around and left.
Francis sat back down and pondered about something.
Elizabeth looked at Francis and said, "Dear, I think we should not try to control Lord Demigod but to try to make friends or at least ally with Lord Demigod."
Francis turned around to look at her with a complicated expression. "You are right, Eliz. However, our kingdom, the Odel Kingdom, is losing to the Khan Dynasty. I do not even know how they have become powerful in such a short period of time, but they did it. These easterners sure are powerful huh."
"Well, we can't blame them. The East Continent is still unknown to us 'til this day. Their architecture is weird and so are their clothing and culture."
"Heh, they look like dirty snakes to me. We should prepare to welcome Lord Demigod once he arrives at the capital." (A/N: Intended joke by an Asian author.)
Elizabeth smiled and replied, "Yes, dear."
(*In case someone who don't play/know much about games, I'll be adding what the game terms/abbreviations mean, okay? Okay.)
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Countern
Countern I'm gonna be busy with school and programming from now on. Chapters will be released slowly :(.
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