In 2029, a company called Primordial emerges seemingly out of nowhere, swiftly consuming major tech companies around the world. Within a single year, it becomes the largest tech corporation globally. Its most anticipated release is the Portalis, a cutting-edge virtual reality gaming capsule that resembles an indoor tanning bed.
When Primordial releases the Portalis, it also launches Dawn of the Dauntless, a VRMMORPG that promises a fully immersive experience. News of this revolutionary technology spreads quickly, sparking a wave of excitement. Players flock to buy the Portalis after hearing that the game offers a 100% immersive environment, where they can speak with NPCs using their own custom dialogue, making conversations feel as real as talking to another person.
The game's popularity skyrockets due to its unprecedented freedom, allowing players to create unique skills without relying on pre-set systems. They soon discover that as their in-game skills progress, their actions within the virtual world begin to mirror those in real life, blurring the lines between the digital and physical realms. In just two years, the active players reaches 1.8 billion players playing every day.
In just two years, the game's active player base reaches 1.8 billion daily players. As they explore, players realize that the world within Dawn of the Dauntless is far larger than Earth itself. Even dedicated streamers, some of whom have devoted every waking hour to exploring this vast digital realm for years, still have no idea just how immense it truly is.
Dawn of the Dauntless also includes kingdom-building mechanics, allowing players to establish their own countries, build personalized homes, and even recruit NPCs into their armies. Virtually anything is possible, as long as players have the creativity and skill to discover it.
The game world is a chaotic, ever-shifting landscape of conflict and conquest. Players wage wars, conquer territories, and attempt to rule over NPC populations. Some succeed, establishing powerful domains, while others fail, crushed by more formidable NPC's. Amid this chaos, a single guild rises to dominance, a mighty force that stands above millions of rival guilds, claiming the title of the strongest in the game's history.
They call themselves The Heartless Guild, a multinational coalition of the world's most dedicated gamers. Its members hail from every corner of the globe, united by a shared obsession with the game and the financial freedom to pursue it without limits. Despite their ominous name, The Heartless Guild refrains from harming NPCs, believing them to be more than mere code. A strange theory binds these elite players together, a belief that the game itself is not just a simulation, but a gateway to another reality, controlled by powerful, and god-like entities. To them, every NPC might be a living being, trapped within the digital world, making their conquests a path to uncovering a deeper, hidden truth.
As their bond with the game world deepened, members of The Heartless Guild began to form personal connections with the NPCs. Some players even went as far as marrying these virtual characters, convinced of their sentience and driven by the theory that Dawn of the Dauntless was more than just a game.
One day, the six leaders of The Heartless Guild, the most powerful players in the world, each ranked at the top of the global leaderboard, gathered at their headquarters. After a long, intense discussion, they made a bold decision: to carve out a true nation within the game's vast world.
They declared the formation of a new nation, The Republic of the Heartless, a realm that would stand as a testament to their dominance and unity, built on the belief that the world they had conquered might be more real than anyone had ever imagined. It became a place where players and NPCs coexisted in harmony, each side shaping the other in a world without clear boundaries.
By the third year of the game's existence, every member of The Heartless Guild had reached the maximum level, their names firmly entrenched at the top of the global rankings. With unmatched power and influence, they transformed their nation into a thriving empire, a beacon of strength that towered over the countless other factions struggling for control in the vast, ever-expanding world of Dawn of the Dauntless.
For three months, the developers of Dawn of the Dauntless went silent. No minor patches, no major updates, and not a single hint of what was to come. The game's vast community grew restless, speculating about the future as rumors spread across forums and message boards.
Then, without warning, an official announcement broke the silence, a major update was coming. It promised a raised level cap, new mysterious features, and changes that would reshape the world of Dawn of the Dauntless.
For five tense days, players eagerly awaited the arrival of the update, servers buzzing with anticipation. Finally, the developers confirmed that the update was complete, and the game world, already massive and full of secrets, was about to expand once again.
One by one, the players logged into the game, their minds filled with anticipation. They expected new locations, fresh challenges, or perhaps a grand event to mark the latest major update. What they didn't realize was that this update would change their lives forever.
As the servers came back online, a chilling sequence of events unfolded. One by one, players across the globe began to vanish without a trace, their physical bodies disappearing the moment they logged in.
It started slowly, a few isolated cases that were dismissed as technical glitches or strange coincidences. But as the hours passed, reports flooded social media. Players were vanishing in their homes, in gaming cafes, even in the middle of crowded malls. Panic spread like wildfire. Families, unable to reach their loved ones, scrambled for answers, frantically calling emergency hotlines, but receiving only confusion in return.
News networks picked up the story within hours, broadcasting live footage of empty Portalis capsules, their hatches wide open and their interiors eerily vacant. Governments rushed to respond, deploying military units to investigate, while scientists scrambled to understand the sudden wave of disappearances.
Then, the full scale of the catastrophe became clear: 1.8 billion players nearly a quarter of the planet's population had vanished in an instant. Every one of them had logged into Dawn of the Dauntless just before disappearing. Entire families were torn apart, cities fell silent as millions vanished without warning, and the digital world that had once been a place of escape became a terrifying unknown.
Inside the game, the world felt different. The air seemed heavier, the digital sun casting sharper, more defined shadows, as if the code itself had taken on a new, more sinister form. Players quickly realized that they couldn't log out, their usual menus glitching or outright refusing to respond. Fear turned to dread as they grasped the full horror of their situation, they were trapped, cut off from the real world, their bodies missing, and their lives hanging in the balance.
The world watched in stunned disbelief, leaders scrambling to understand the crisis, as the largest mass disappearance in human history left the planet forever changed.