Creation Online

Using the custom template was a very risky decision to make. Creating a Form that would be scattered and hard to figure out was a bad idea. Which was why I suspected that many would go for the local templates. Why ruin your universe with a bad idea when you could just use the local and call it a day?

While I could do that I suspected that it would be bad. Like some teachers in schools, I suspected the devs wanted us to be free and creative. The local template was just a trap to give us a way out. I wasn't sure of it but I was certain something along the lines was the idea. Baby Haero lay in his crib floating by my side while I held the fur in my grasp. In front of me, the custom template panel for my Universe Form shone while I explained my idea to the system.

I don't know how long it took. My ideas kept getting tweaked and adjusted, and mistakes and errors were accessed before finally I was done.

The system in agreement sent a notification to me.

[Would you like to apply this template to your universe]

[Once confirmed it becomes irreversible]

[Y/N]

I hesitated. Of course, I would. This was a do-or-die affair in this game. If the rumours of death were true then this character was a one-time thing. Plus the system was saying this would be permanent. I had to be sure. I mentally appraised the idea once more. I thought of why I used this idea, how It would affect me, how it would grow, how it would bring players into this story.

'No takebacks now Helen'. I clicked yes and everything changed.

A slew of notifications assaulted my mind, my body shivered and solidified while my powers somehow grew as my body began absorbing and processing Primordial Chaos once more. Yet before I could even see the changes to anything or understand what was going on a new red notification in bold italics shone over my face in English.

[A Player has Completed the Tutorial Phase]

[The game will now be halted to launch an update]

[Players have ten minutes to log out]

[Creator 79 has been forcibly logged out]

The universe dimmed and I felt my senses fading just as much as they had when logging in.

"What," I spoke. My voice was the first indicator of my eviction from the game before anything else. I frowned as I took off the helmet and the pod doors hissed open while the liquid I had been submerged in drained away. To where only the makers knew.

I exited the pod and stepped on my floor. Surprisingly the liquid had dried up faster than expected and no print of it was left on the floor when I walked. The click of the machine sounded out as it shut behind me. The fresh reality air greeted me.

"Probably lack air because I'm in the void". I commented while standing there in a daze and feeling the difference between both worlds. It was just incredible. After a few moments of taking in the sensation, I turned to my door.

Saying that something had changed in me with just the short amount of time I had spent inside that game was ridiculous. Yet it was the truth. Haero had shown me or should I say made me understand just what it felt like to be in my parent's shoes. Sure he hadn't shunned me or acted like my presence was a death sentence or I was a monster. But I could already think about how it might feel.

Guilt ate me up right now as I stood there. Yet I refused to bulge. I was unsure of what to do. How to do it. Or how to even begin.

Perplexed I found myself sitting at my table powering up my Holopad.

Browsing the forum and website I found a lot of information. These players were fast. Many had already uploaded their experiences and few even announced their administrator races.

Most had already created all their administrators while few after choosing the Infant god had regretted it before choosing the adolescent for the remaining five.

Then there were those already selling Form Templates to the other Creator players who hadn't made their templates or joined.

The Forum was a busy place. Yet as I watched several non-players purchase templates I couldn't help but sigh. It wasn't assured that all would come in as creators. Also even if they did there was no way these Creator players would sell their good templates to them.

"The game has barely been played for one night and the war for the top has begun. Humans" Shaking my head I couldn't help but feel peeved off with them But a thought sounded in my head that I too was holding back my races. "Guess we are all cut from the same cosmic dust. Ha. One day in that game and I'm talking like some all-knowing goddess'. I chuckled at myself.

Navigating straight to the main page I saw a post. Creator player leaderboards.

"The competition had already begun huh".

Uninterested I shut down my Holopad and exited my room, my brain filling up with anxiety as it sensed what I wanted to do.

The question wasn't if I wanted to do it, but if I could do it.

*****

Daniel Williams was a pro, not just in games but in his everyday life. Atleast that's how he loved to see himself. Fortunately, while it didn't make him a jerk it did give him confidence, a little too much confidence.

It was this very reason that made Keller shocked as he stared at the leaderboards on the forum homepage. His eyes widened as his brain fought the lack of sense in what he was seeing.

"How could this be?" he barely realized how many times he had asked himself the same question in ten minutes since he began checking the leaderboards.

Anyone with him there would have surely said the same thing one too many times for it to be healthy.

Daniel couldn't help but find the list an effrontery against him. Skipping the fact that he wasn't even in the first position as he rightfully should be, Keller wasn't even in the first three. His glorious name found a spot in the fifth position.

"Fifth!!! How?!!"

The man couldn't help but shudder. His mind made a replay of the last time he had known the number five in a score. His hand twitched as he found the memory yet his brain was quick to repress it.

"NO". He had no reason to accept this result, it was a calculation error on the Dev's part. It had to be.

"I'll be sure to bring this up at the meet" he scoffed incensed.

"Though I wonder what this update is all about. The game is barely up to an hour old". He frowned at his words then sighed when he had a new thought.

"Does this have something to do with the end of the Tutorial Phase. Or must be adding monsters. Found it wierd that there were none". Looking at the new timer that counted down to log in he shut the laptop off.

"Best to get in my reps and stay healthy before logging back in".

*****

Carmella watched as her daughter stood by the stairs eyes locked on her husband. The man had yet to notice the girl if not he would have already excused himself from the room. Her attempt to warm him had been rebuffed by Helen with a head shake.

Carmella while perplexed was sensible enough to ready herself for any potential panic attack. It wasn't the first time that her baby girl had attempted to face her fear and meet the males of the family. Each time though led to the same result.

One bad moment almost had the poor girl go to the hospital.

While her attempts were appreciated she was stopped from such trials. Now it seemed she was back again.

'Did something happen in the game.?' was all Carmella could ask herself as she watched painfully while her daughter dragged herself closer to the man she called father.

It was heartbreaking to watch, the struggle to fight something like that. Carmella watched none the wise to the single drop of transparent liquid rolling down her cheek.

Finally, the girl arrived and a new battle commenced. Standing behind her father her palm raised she hesitated.

Any who didn't know the real story would have found the sight comedic yet it wasn't in any way funny for either mother or daughter.

It took quite a few hand jerks and breathes, mantras and encouragements even the silent nods and smiles of Carmella for the young raven-haired girl to finally set her palm on the man's shoulder. A tingle of fear shot up her arm and raced to her spine as she froze rigidly.

'A man's body ' her eyes narrowed and her pupils dilated. It was rushing up like a tidal wave ready to crash through the dam of her mind and flood her senses.

Yet before it could happen her palm was removed and a smiling Carmella hugged her while smoothing her hair. Sniffles and chokes escaped Helen as she buried her head in the crook of Carmella's neck apologies escaping her lips.

"Don't blame yourself for anything girl. It wasn't and will never have been your fault." Carmella soothed.

Helen's lack of a response as she sobbed made it impossible to see an escaping Daniel Furrow his eyes red with the same unbridled rage he always felt whenever this event happened.

He always escaped not from his daughter but from her fear. Giving her the room she needed to heal without constant terror of him or males.

It was something he was now used to. However, that didn't stop him from keeping an eye on his little girl when she was unaware. He hated it, but it was the best he and Dester could do.

But this time he was stopped, a hand grasping his, Carmella shaking her head while mouthing a 'stay' to him.

That night was a sad one in the Furrow household. Well, another sad night, happy days had rarely been available to them anyway.