Dusk Chronicles

Chapter 1

“When the sun falls from the highest place, everything freezes.”

“When the prophecy becomes paper, all beings become confused.”

“When the gods are silent, when your dreams no longer shine, bow to the devil in your heart, that is your last hope."

Melyan closed the book and silently watched the golden light in the distance gradually dim.

“Mr Syaiful, have you not rested?” A sweet voice breaks the silence.

He turned to look at the master of the voice, a sweet girl dressed in waitresses with two fluffy brown ears above her head smiling cunningly with a broom in her hand.

It is a pity, this girl is just a non-player character, he thought with regret. At the same time, he also hates the company Valve, the producer of the game Era Dusk.

As a game company known for its realistic style, epic plot, and realistic characters, it adds Japanese-style catgirl to a Western-style fantasy game full of "swords and magic" absolutely disgusting for fans of online games.

However, the game has been popular for 6 years and has gone through 11 expansion packs, and is a giant as well as the originator of online games whose game time has lasted more than 40 years is coming to an end. The server will be permanently closed within 4 hours. At this time, perhaps only Melyan is still nostalgic, 99% of other players are estimated to have been waiting in line for Valve's new game, Era Light.

It's pretty ironic. To attract the attention of players, they let the new game completely replace the position of the old game that has contributed greatly, and say that this is the “legacy of the old game. No wonder all the time there are so many players blaspheming them on the internet.

"Mr Syaiful." The female servant cat waved her hand as she looked at Melyan pensively. "Although Elisha was very cute, do not look at Elisha like this. Elisha liked swordsmen with eight-pack bellies."

This sentence really sounds stupid when spoken by a non-player character.

As a scholar, Melyan was disgusted.

"Don't you joke, do you think people whose brains are not contained and only muscular will come to a place like the Morrowind Library?"

The Dusk Era, a western game themed on sword and magic, has a large selection of professions. In addition to common professions such as warriors, magicians, priests, knights, and thieves, there are also other professions such as scholars, poets, even dancers and chefs for those who do not like to exercise or who do not like to fight. Players whose profession is non-fighting can also receive assignments in their own field, earn rewards, and then improve their skills to enjoy the game. They can also earn rewards by providing services to other players.

Example Melyan. For special reasons, in addition to mealtimes, he can ignore the 12-hour gaming restrictions and go online all day. Hence, he had long since become a legendary scholar who knew almost everything. It doesn't matter if it's "Battle at Hogarth's Peak" two years ago, or a crusade against the last boss of "Alduin the Destroyer" in the final expansion pack "Age of the End", he also participated, and was protected by many other great players. He is only responsible for breaking the puzzle and translating the dialogue of leaders filled with clues and secret information.

To this point, the Twilight Era was very close to real life, as there was no internal testing and big data from the game producers, so any information came from the game itself. The boss's weaknesses may be hidden in the casual dialogue of non-player characters, remote rural myths and legends, or the vague row of ancient books in the library. Let alone paid games, even if it was a free game, the average player did not have the time to read hundreds of thousands of words to find out which giant dragon weakness was on which side, the, what range of attack power was needed to destroy the defense and not upset him, all of this was completely unrealistic.

Precisely because of this, scholars like Melyan became very important in the game. Hence, many strategists of the team called him "Teacher Syaiful", there were even some players who had a good relationship with him giving him Light Era exclusive cards, which he called out to be, and make a pact to meet in the next world to fight again. Now that special gold-plated black card was placed on top of Melyan's gaming chair.

The undergraduate profession is very popular, but why do so few people choose the profession?

The answer is clear, boring.

Very-very boring.

School and learning in the real world has been so boring, now still have to learn in the game world. The purpose of playing the game is to relax and seek pleasure, only strange people will choose such a profession.

And even if there was such a person, such as a nonviolent parent, or a quiet girl, they couldn't play all day either, let alone reading ancient books and learning elusive words. As Valve's company was underworked, they recruited many linguists to design dozens of languages to enrich their game databases, and notified players in early demonstrations. You cannot possibly master the language with just a click in the Twilight Era, here is no different from the real world.

This one word alone made many players stop to try.

What about Melyan?

He's actually a cripple. Although various things need to be taken care of by others, but because he liked to read since childhood, and thanks to this habit, his nature was very mature at his young age, he did not hate his own fate. Six years ago, in order for Melyan to feel the feeling of running like other children, his parents used their life savings to buy an expensive gaming chair, and opened the door to a new world for him.

Once he entered the game, the scanning system automatically captured his body information. Strength, agility, and physical endurance were all at number 11, that meant his body was detected, but unable to move. A healthy person in the number 5, the system determines that he needs the virtual world more than a normal person, so the system cancels the time limit of the game and gives him the ability to move.

Of course, all of this is not given away for free. He could not choose any fighting profession and he had to be online all day.

"How many times have I said it, in Morrowind, you have to call Lord Shayful Guru Shayful, Elisha, you are naughty again."

A grizzled old man wearing a white robe inlaid with gold suddenly appeared behind the two of them.

"Mr Wynn," Elisha widened his eyes in surprise, and hurried away with his broom.

“Ckck, Mr Wynn as the legendary wizard and principal Morrowind bluffing a little girl?” Melyan smiled meaningfully, then stood up and hugged her.

Syaiful had never attended school, but he spent nearly four years in Morrowind, a total of thirty-five years in the game world, ranging from ordinary librarians to the legendary scholars of today, aside from his own efforts, this principal was also an important driving force for him.

But he felt sad at the thought that he could not meet his old friend again in four hours.

However, Wynn seemed to know his own destiny. Not only did he not dodge as usual, but he gently patted Melyan on the shoulder, "It's okay, Mr. Syaiful, see you in the next world."

“Non-player characters are already so smart?” Melyan's sorrow disappeared instantly upon hearing those words. "Tell me, what was your profession in the Light Age?"

“This is in breach of confidentiality agreement.” Wynn spread his arms helplessly. "I'm saying all this because I like you. Whether you can find me or not depends on your ability."

What Wynn Garcia said was true, if she was an unmarried woman, with Melyan's reputation in place, the two had been married from the very beginning. At the same time, this also reflects his high intelligence, and this kind of feeling of liking is only used by online game players.

“Oke, even if you change professions in a new world, I hope you can still be the father of these loli-loli,” Melyan said in a good mood.

Wynn smiled and sighed. He only received over 30 young orc girls who were exiled to the Morning Star kingdom. Obviously that's a good thing, but why does it sound so strange when those words come out of Syaiful's mouth.

He glanced at the book in Syaiful's hands with the word Dusk Chronicle written on it.

"There's still less than four hours left, you still haven't given up."

"The only words left by Alduin. I want to see what happens in the end."

Alduin, the exterminator is a giant dragon with black scales, and is the final boss of the final expansion pack, "Age of the End". According to legend, he followed his older brother, Partunax, the soul-shaper, and secretly devoured the soul of the intelligent creature his older brother had formed. She was seriously injured and disappeared after it was discovered by her brother.

In online games, generally game designers will re-call a long-lost boss. And Alduin lived up to everyone's expectations, it became the final triumph of this soon-to-be-ending game.

Melyan still remembered the battle. The three most powerful “Bintang” unions, "dne" “do not exist”, and "Blood Legion" merged to form the most luxurious group of strategists in history with a total of 400 members. Melyan himself led a group of scholars consisting of 10 people.

For a weak scholar like them, a scholar needed the protection of three people, and ten scholars needed the protection of at least fifty people. They still needed to be equipped with a priestess who had fighting skills such as "awakening the dead".

However, even a great team like this had to suffer a month of destruction, and with a total of 253 losses, their team had only managed to defeat Alduin according to the plot where Alduin died at the hands of his brother.

The scene where hundreds of millions of souls are devoured flies out of Alduin's corpse at the end of the game is like celebrating victory with fireworks. If it wasn't for the words "Wow, like 200 million tadpoles looking for mama," it made the atmosphere disappear, the moment would have been better.

Before Alduin died at the hands of his brother, he gave a very domineering speech, "You lowly worms dare to bite me, I will show you my true strength, but before that, let's start with a poem.”

Part of the poem known as "Tight Nose," is the opening paragraph of this story. As a scholar familiar with almost all myths, epics and legends, Melyan never understood the poem.

What is the devil in my heart? There were no underground creatures like cavemen, drow elves, and sulfur demons in the Rokhan continent in the Twilight Era. In the past six years, he had not had the slightest clue. Where did this phrase come from? Or is this just some crap from a game designer.

As for the Twilight Chronicle in his hands, it was his personal hobby. As a legendary scholar admired by so many fans in gaming forums, how could he not make a small contribution to everyone? A summary of the great battle he has been through, in which he recounts as much as possible from the third point of view rather than from the player's point of view, and also mixed in with the many interpretations of the myth, which he has been quoted as saying, speculation and analysis of the relationship between gods and so on.

This work began when the last expansion pack came out last year, and it will end soon now. This chronicle of over 900,000 words can be considered a summary of his gaming career over the years.