Hail to you, who are of strong will. Hail to you, a man of faith. Hail to your strength, your courage and your life. Deliver us, from this terrible end. Deliver us, from these wretched demons. Twelve men, with twelve goals, stood together, side by side, hand in hand, against the unholy wave. Shall you take up your weapon, Shall you be our saviour? Armageddon Chapter 1 By Shinieris

"Team Alpha has been wiped out. I repeat, Team Alpha has been wiped out," came a voice through my headseat.

"Pull back, Team Bravo. Team Charlie will cover your retreat," I said as I trained my sniper rifle to the direction of the approaching demon army, "Gungrave, you and I will pick off individual demons. Nutcase, blow up as many demons as you can when you see them clumped together. Asshat, take care of anything that got past the bottleneck."

"Roger," they said together.

"Here they come," I stated as soon as I saw the first of Team Bravo came out of Teutoburg Forest. I shot one of those demons who came too far to the front. Between Gungrave and I, we picked off those demons that had managed to push in front of the main body of the demon army one by one.

"Hey, which of you idiots shot me?!" one of the gunmen in Team Bravo complained.

Neither of us admitted it, but I was very sure my bullets didn't stray. It must've been him, Gungrave. He was a good sniper, but his aim could use a bit more practice. It wasn't long before our suicide bomber Nutcase started racking up the kills with his well placed [explosive trap] placed in every object in the area. Together with his grenade launcher and anti-tank weapons, he was our greatest damage dealer. I wondered why Captain Darkling of Team Alpha didn't bring him along, would probably help them against impossible odds.

"Gyahahahahahahah! Kill kill! Die die!" Nutcase cried in ecstasy as he scored tens of kills will his traps.

Now I have an idea why Captain Darkling wouldn't bring him along. He would most likely bring down a whole mountain of demons on them on his own.

"Team Charlie, we're almost through to the warp point. We can handle it on our own from now," the CO of Team Bravo said through the mic as he stepped into the circle around a huge crystal that would allow him to escape to another area.

"Thanks a lot, guys. The mission's a bust, but it's nice to escape with our XPs intact. You guys should escape too," one of Team Bravo said.

"You guys go ahead. I'm gonna stay behind and pick up my loot," then I turned to the other members of Team Charlie, "You guys go ahead too."

"Nah, I'm having fun," Gungrave said.

"I'll leave as soon as I detonate every bomb on the battlefield," Nutcase said as the whole approaching demon army got shredded by the bombs that exploded one after another. When Nutcase was done, the whole place was nothing more than a wasteland. "Gyahahahhaahah, take that you devils!" he said before using one of the rare [escape crystal] to warp to a preset warp point.

"What the hell, man? You just destroyed our loot! This is god damned annoying! I'm leaving," Asshat said as he jumped down from the 4th floor of the building he stood on and approached the warp crystal. Then he disappeared in a trail of light.

I fired a headshot at the last remaining demon on the battlefield as the rest of the invasion army retreated back into the forest, probably to wait until the Hellgate generate more demons. I waited for a few more minutes to see if anymore stragglers were coming out. When I was satisfied that they had all left, I jumped down from my sniping point and sprinted towards the battlefield. I looked at each loot, examined each before throwing them away. Every loot had HP points, so it was totally possible that it could be destroyed. Nutcase's bombs just now destroyed hundreds of loot.

"Finally!" I exclaimed as I saw a sniper rifle in good working order. I identified it with my Level 6 Identifier and was very pleased with the results, "Woot! Uncommon sniper coilgun! Nice!"

A sound near me alerted me to something akin to danger. I looked to my left and saw the barrel of a sniper rifle pointed at my head.

"Sorry sir, I'll be taking that rifle now. Have a nice death, man," he said right before he blasted my head to a pulpy mess.

"Goddamnit!" I said as I dropped the gamepad before taking off the VR goggles, "I am never teaming up with another sniper again!"

"Ria, come have dinner!" my mom called from the kitchen.

"Coming!" I said as I put away my gaming hardware and combed my hair to make it look less like I just spent the past 4 hours on the bed. Unlike other people, I always prefer to play my games in complete comfort. My desk is almost exclusively used for study purposes.

"Finally! You should stop playing so much games. Exams are getting near," my mother said when I sat at the dinner table.

"I can pass my exams just fine," I said as I scooped some rice onto my plate.

"Passing and aceing your exams are two complete different things. Tell her, dear," my mom turned to my father for support.

"Me?" my father said.

"Yes you. Who else?" my mother said.

"Uhh, ummm, listen to your mother," my father said.

"Is that it? It's all because you're so soft with her that she's spending her entire day locked up in her room playing games!" my mother yelled.

"Please dear, not in front of food!" my father said.

------

"And so, the Portuguese invaded Malacca on 1511 to spread their crusades into Islam-dominated Southeast Asia. It needs to be understood that the fall of Malacca was definitely not because of Portuguese naval power, since Malacca as the dominant nation in Southeast Asia had a much bigger standing naval fleet than the invading Portuguese. De Barros and Albuquerque's son even stated that Malacca as the strongest nation in Southeast Asia had about 8000 matchlock rifles of such unrivalled workmanship even in Portugal and 2000 bombard cannons, enough to destroy the entire Portuguese fleet a thousand times over. In fact, the Portuguese themselves claimed that the reason they were able to hold on to Malacca even against the might of China's retalliation was due to the weapons they captured from Malacca. So class, what are the actual reasons for the fall of Malacca?" our history teacher, Mr. Abu asked.

"The Siamese raids on Malacca's northern territories?" one of my classmates, Nanya Anak Labu said.

"That is a very good critical thinking on your part. It was indeed true that the Siamese harrassed Malacca's northern borders and seeing as Malacca's infantry was neither well-trained nor well-armed, it proved a constant pain to Malacca. But that's not written in the textbooks," Mr. Abu replied.

"Ming Dynasty's refusal to send military aid?" another of my classmater, Yasmin Farid answered.

"It was true that Malacca requested for aid from China's Ming Emperor after finding out that Alfonso de Albuquerque set sail with an invasion fleet to Malacca in April 1511. Being as China considered Malacca their tributary, it was only fair that they sent aid. Nevertheless, Ming Emperor refused such aid, as they had by then dismissed most of their naval fleet and was suffering from internal strife due to corruption and the eunuch's roles in Ming's court. However, they did send orders for the Siamese, Vietnamese and Java to send help, of which they all refused. The Ming Dynasty then blamed Malacca's neighbours for Malacca's fall. Anything else?"

"Treacherous Hindu merchants in Goa?" I guessed.

"Yes, after Albuquerque's failed attempt in June, he lost not only ships, but also the morale of the Portuguese fleet. He immediately sent for aid from the Portugese in Goa, but they had no ships left to send. It was the merchants who volunteered ships to aid the Portuguese to break Islamic influence in the formerly Hindu-dominated Southeast Asia."

Just then the bell rang and everyone happily packed their bags.

The teacher looked shocked and took a peek at his watch. "No way, it's time already? Class, please review chapter 5 for next class starting from the Malacca section."

I doubt anyone actually heard him. Everyone was so eager for lunch break. After the class thanked the teacher, they didn't even wait for the teacher to leave the class. Within less than a minute, the class was empty. I was always amazed at how much my class resembled the ninjas of Chuck Norris's movies.

I did my rounds while eating my bread in silence. Prefects, like me, can leave class early during lunch breaks, as we are in charge of keeping order and discipline during lunch break. I chose not to leave early, as I needed the study time. It wasn't like I studied much at home anyway.

It was while I was patrolling the D Block that I came across three girls bullying a lone girl. I didn't know the girls, but from the uniform, I could guess that they were all seniors. I finished my bread intervening the bullying-in-progress.

"You little shit," one of the girls pushed the lone girl hard, "Does it make you feel good making others look bad?"

One of the girls grabbed the other girl's long twin ponytail as she said, "Can't say anything, huh? Bet you don't feel tough now without a teacher to watch out for you."

The other girl kicked the lone girl's shin as she scolded, "Say something, bitch! You had a lot of lip in class, why not say something now?"

I cleared my throat, which got their attention, before yelling, "Big sisters over there! Let her go!"

The first girl, who I assumed to be the leader turned to me and said, "Piss off, junior. This doesn't concern you."

I pointed at my skirt. "What colour is my skirt?"

"Get out of here. I'm not interested in playing 20 questions," the lead girl said.

"I asked you, big sisters, what colour is my skirt?"

"Red?" one of them answered.

"Exactly, so what does it mean when I said 'Let her go?'"

They looked at each other, and probably out of spite, the lead senior pushed the lone senior hard until she hit the wall. Then the lead senior said to her, "You're lucky this time, this isn't over."

"Oh yes, it's over. If I see you doing something like this again, I'll make you write lines until you get Parkinson. Now shoo, go enjoy your lunch."

The seniors looked at me as if unsure whether to beat me or do something worse to me. In the end, they turned around and left us alone.

"You okay, big sister?" I extended a hand to the senior who was bullied.

She slapped my hand away and ran off.

"You know, a thank you would be great!" I yelled to her back.

I sighed. Incidents like these normally required me to make a disciplinary report on the offenders with their names and classes. Unfortunately that would be too much trouble and I would have to stay back a couple of hours doing the paperwork as well as watching them write their lines. I wasn't going to do that, I have always been naturally lazy.

------

I was about to plug myself into the Virtual Reality game 'Armageddon' when I heard someone knocking on my door. I got up from the bed and opened the door, only to see my stupid little brother grinningat me. "What do you want?" I asked.

"Hee, can I play with you, sis?" he said as he held up a VR goggle and gamepad set.

"Where did you get the money for that? It's expensive."

"Angpows," he said, referring to the money gifts children receive during cultural celebrations.

I sighed. "You were supposed to save those money for college. Oh well, since you've already bought it, come in."

He dashed inside as soon as I opened the door wide enough. Then I took his VR goggle and gamepad and showed him how to plug it into the VRPwr mainframe. The one I owned was VRPwr2, the most current of the VRPwr series. It required internet connection and as well as a good fan. The first version was a good gaming platform, but the triple-quadcore CPU generated too much heat that they eventually recalled all VRPwr1 and gave customers a discounted price for VRPwr2, which came with advanced liquid cooling but still suffered overheat from time to time. To overcome this, I always kept it cooled with two deskfans pointed straight at it. I heard some of the more tech-savvy players added their own liquid cooling system to the device.

That was how I got this VRPwr2 for cheap, a friend of mine was annoyed with them asking him to pay more to get VRPwr2. Then he sold me his VRPwr1 and told me to use his receipt to get a discount for VRPwr2. He just wanted his money back. New VRPwr2 with one VR set sold for USD4000 in stores. With my discount, I got it for less than USD1500, including what I paid to my friend.

"I forgot to mention. I only have Armageddon Europe, is it okay?" I asked as I showed him the DVD cover.

"Yeah sure, whatever. Let's get it on already!" he said as he jumped onto my bed and laid down with his VR goggle already on.

"Why are you lying on my bed?" I asked.

"Oh come on, sis! Don't be so stingy, there's plenty of space on the bed," he said without taking off his VR set.

I grabbed my own VR set and slapped his thighs away. "Scoot over," I said before I laid down on my bed and put on the goggle.

"Press start," I said as I saw his status as 'Not Active' in the startup screen. When I saw his status turned to 'Active', I chose the game Armageddon (EU) and soon after, the screen changed and we were transported to the world of Armageddon.

"Ah, it seems like one of you is new," the voice in the game said, along with the accompanying subtitle.

"Would you like to guide your friend to start his life in the world infested with demons, or would you prefer to jump in on your own?" the voice in my goggle said.

"Ril, choose new character," I said as I chose to guide my brother into the game. Seconds later, my goggle showed the 'New Character' screen, as my brother looked at each description of the classes.

Welcome to Armageddon. Please choose who you were at the start of the demon invasion.

Student: - Can advance to become Professor, Doctor, Priest/Monk/Nun
- Bonus to Intelligence

Soldier: - Can advance to become Sniper, Gunman, Suicide Bomber
- Bonus to firearms skills

Craftsman: - Can advance to become Fisherman or Mechanic
- Bonus to Critical

Thug: - Can advance to become Skirmisher, Brawler, Getaway Driver or Villain
- Reputation does not affect skills

Shopkeeper: - Can advance to become Cook, Businessman or Waiter/Waitress
- Extra 100 reputation at start.

Neet: - Can advance to become Swordsman, Twin Swordsman or Mage (snicker)
- Bonus to agility

"Woah! I can become a mage?" he said as he moved the indicator towards 'Neet'.

"Stop! Don't!" I said as I froze his screen.

"Why not? I'll eventually be able to use magic, right?"

"Wrong! Wrong! This isn't one of those fantasy games with magic in it. Mage here refers to a 40 year old man with no girlfriend, no job, no money and relies entirely on his parents. He does not have magic!" I explained.

"Then why'd they put that in there?" he argued.

"I don't know, it's a beta class. Maybe for the gags? Nobody has chosen it yet. But what we do know is that its skills are basically praying to God for a better future, which does zilch in combat!"

"So what should I choose?"

"Depends on what you like."

"What did you choose?"

"Soldier. I advanced to Sniper when I reached Rank 14 in Rifles and Rank 6 in Ambush."

"Woah! Cool! I'm taking Soldier then," he said as he unpaused the screen and picked 'Soldier'.

"Suits yourself," I said as the screen changed to skills allocation, "Here is where you decide what skills you want to focus on at first. Soldiers have 3 stat point and 4 skill points, with double yield for any of the firearms skills. For starting soldiers, you need high strength and just dump everything into pistols. You won't be using rifles often for now."

Then the screen changed to 'Appearance' and I let him choose his own appearance. He seemed to be playing a lot with the genders. He would make a girl appearance and played around with her clothes or he would uncloth the doll. He seemed to enjoy looking at the girl avatars in their undies.

"I will tell mom," I said, to which he immediately chose a male appearance and started the game.

The screen changed to a cinematic telling how a cult of demon worshippers found an ancient grimoire and started practicing the unholy teachings inside it. Soon after, they were possessed by demons and made the first Hellgate, from which demons assumed mortal form and rushed out to terrorize humanity. The screen then showed an angel falling down from Heaven as a meteor and gifted 12 individuals with the power to banish demons.

Hail to you,
who are of strong will.
Hail to you,
a man of faith.
Hail to your strength,
your courage and your life.
Deliver us,
from this terrible end.
Deliver us,
from these wretched demons.

Twelve men,
with twelve goals,
stood together,
side by side,
hand in hand,
against the unholy wave.

Shall you take up your weapon,
Shall you be our saviour?

These 12 people then fought off the demons until they arrived at the altar where the first Hellgate stood. Together with the angel, they destroyed the Hellgate. However, the cult members managed to escape and from then on, they erected Hellgates in many parts of the world. Before long, demons overran the civilized world and the world's military could no longer stop their rampage.

The 12 original demon hunters then separated, making their own sanctuaries where humans will be granted the power to fight demons as well as the headquarters for demon hunting in their respective regions.

Then the screen gave him a choice of which starting city he wanted to go to. Berlin and Athens were greyed out.

Paris (267 players in city)
London (3548 players in city)
Berlin (5019 players in city) - Invasion in progress
Barcelona (135 players in city)
Bucharest (296 players in city)
Austria (1207 players in city)
Milan (331 players in city)
Stockholm (445 players in city)
Zagreb (122 players in city)
Athens (1006 players in city) - Invasion in progress
Dublin (462 players in city)
Moscow (583 players in city)

"Why can't I choose Berlin?" he asked.

"Because it's being invaded by demons right now. It's greyed out because it will be impossible for new players to live during an invasion. After you're killed by a demon, you will return to Berlin, which is still under an invasion. So you'll be killed over and over with no way of levelling up."

"Wow, so is London good?"

"Should be okay. It's strange that there's over 3500 players in the city though," I said as the screen changed and we were transported to Westminster Abbey.

"Whoah! This looks so real. What is this place?"

"Westminster Abbey. It's a newbie training area. You just go inside and ask to speak with Father Roberts. Just follow his instructions."

"Where are you going, sis... woah! You're a guy?"

"Yes, I chose a male avatar."

"But you're a girl... Even your voice is manly now."

"This is a game, you dolt. You don't have to follow your real life gender. Nobody will say you're gay or lesbian inside a game if you choose an avatar of the opposite sex. As for the voice, you can choose to use a voice changer when making your character," I said right before noticing 26 mails in my inbox.

"What the heck? I'm resetting my character then," he said right before he disappeared in a flash of light.

I shrugged, then proceeded to open my mailbox.

From: Absolution
Subject: Monster Event

Hey, have you heard? They're having a monster event in Trafalgar Square in London. Looking forward to see you there.

---

From: Asshat
Subject: Monster in London

Sniperoo, they're having a monster event right now. Heard it's pretty strong. Mail me when you're online.

---

From: Nutcase
Subject: Monsterous!

Dude, you need to be here, in Trafalgar Square. This boss's tough! Not only does it deal a damned lot of damage, it's extremely hard too. I had suicide bombed it three times now, and it doesn't even fall. Remember that time when we fought Asmodeus? It's exactly like that, dude.

You gotta be here.

What is it with this monster? I asked myself, Every single one of these mails are about asking for me to be there.

"Oh well, I'm curious how strong this monster is. I think I'll just go ahead and have a look," I said to myself as I took one of the buses heading to Trafalgar Square.

The moment the screen changed, I saw the ground was littered with the bodies of hundreds of dead players. I read the description on the sky and realized that if I die here, it will take me 4 minutes to get the chance to revive, as opposed to one minute as usual. This was a very bizarre event.

Then something crashed a few meters to my left. I looked at the thingy and was shocked at seeing this creature. Its whole body was red and covered in something like crystalline armour that glowed with a red flame. It's posture was humanoid, except for its large tail that smashed at an approaching swordsman with a loud crunch as it destroyed armour and bone. On its spine were jagged ridges that looked extremely sharp.

When it turned its glowing red eyes at me and bared its fangs, I panicked. I ran away only to have it following close behind on my heels. I took out my Desert Eagle gun and fired blindly behind me, which gained me a PVP (player versus player) point. I probably accidentally got a headshot against one of the players instead of the monster that was chasing me.

"This is crazy!" I yelled at those guys around me who were watching me being chased while healing themselves, "Somebody get this mob off my back, damned it! I'm a sniper, not an Olympic runner!"

"Just keep on running. The English Coalition is organizing troops to take it down," one of the priests said.

Some of them did get close and tried to get the monster's attention but the moment the monster turned its eyes towards them, they scattered in all directions. Despite their cowardice, they managed to buy me enough time to put some distance between me and the monster. I managed to barricade myself inside one of the buildings, but not before taking a massive HP (lifepoints) hit when it clawed my back.

I rested with my back leaning on the wall, thinking I was safe, but no. It was that moment when I was catching my breath that the monster chose to crash through the door and chase me again. I ran from room to room, but the monster kept on chasing me, while crashing through walls and pillars, almost bringing down the entire building on our heads. It was pure luck when its razor-sharp spines got stuck behind an overhead beam, thus allowing me escape through the open window.

I took a bus back to Westminster Abbey, looking to escape the carnage and rethink my position. Instead, the damned monster chased after the bus and that started the 'Bus chase' minigame, where I use my weapons to try to slow the monster enough for the bus to escape. I almost failed, but a lucky shot stunned it and allowed us to escape. The moment I arrived at Westminster Abbey, I tried to formulate a plan, that would allow me to hit the monster without the monster hitting me back. As I looked around the area, a thought hit me and I quickly changed my gear to my 'Urban Warfare' set, which allowed me blend into the surrounding walls, making it harder for anyone to see me from afar.

Then I got up to the Clock Tower in Parliament Square and squeezed myself into the smallest hole possible that overlooked Trafalgar Square. I smiled in satisfaction as I saw the monster in my sights. I activated my 'Ambush' skill, which allowed me to become invisible while giving me triple damage for my first attack.

I fired one shot with my S12 sniper rifle, giving me a damage of 2000 as it hit the monster's head, bleeding it. 2000 damage headshot isn't enough? I wondered to myself as I stayed silent while the monster looked around, trying to determine who shot it from the back. When my ambush timer ended, I reactivated ambush, and aimed for its head again. When I got a clear shot, I fired again. I was shocked when it turned around and looked straight at me as my bullet punched through its right eye and into its brain, causing a damage of almost 5000.

Congratulations to Doomgunner for defeating The Monster. The people of London thanks you and all who took part in defeating The Monster. For all who participated, please check your mails for Raid rewards.

Wait, I won? I thought as hundreds of mails congratulating me came in. I didn't bother reading after the first two, which included the system message informing me that I was granted a Pulsed Plasma Sniper Rifle Mk1 as well as a money reward, event medal and the Hero achievement.

I took off my goggle, feeling very good about myself. Then I sat at my study desk and started studying for exams while waiting for dinner. My dopey looking brother was still on my bed trying to finish the newbie tutorial when our mother called us down for dinner.

*Hi all, sorry for not updating my stories. Been pretty busy helping the volunteers in trying to find MH370 in South China Sea. When they moved search area to the Indian Ocean, there no longer had a need for unskilled volunteers like me. So I'm back to writing while waiting for news of the MH370 just like everyone else.
**I'm looking to use both this story and Escape as my debut into Kindle publishing. Kindly tell me if you think it will work for this one and maybe how I can improve. I know this kind of story sells well in Japan, but I won't be selling this in Japan, so I'm not sure what the market will be. I know this is only one chapter, but I'm interested to know what my readers think about this so far.
***As for the other stories, unfortunately they're all stuck half-way, about the same point. So, I don't know... it is entirely possible that there will be a week when you will see the name Shinieris spamming the storyboards with 3-4 different stories. We'll look and see.
****As usual, please leave your comment and feedback. Praises help me to write faster. Constructive criticisms help me to write better. Thank you for reading.