【December 31, 3030. South Panacea. New Year's Eve.】

A young woman sat down on a chair, a transparent glass mobile in her hand. Stretching her arms, she noticed red marks around it. This indicated her good nap for the first time in a while. Yawning, a soft and familiar sound immediately grabbed her attention.

【New mail received!】

Upon opening the notification, another event announcement emerged from the game she's currently interested in. Despite her not so low Era rank, she frowned.

[Note: Era Rank - level or ranking of Players in Plate Apocalypse.]

“This new 2.3 Major Screening is a little hard to beat alone.”

The woman started playing a year ago, and approximately there have been ten Major Screenings on its version one update. Meanwhile there's two previous versions of Major screenings at version two. The 2.3 update just came earlier this dawn. 

[Note: Major Screenings are either timed Events or Special Permanent events that give a huge amount of useful rewards, loot, level up boost and even game recognition.]

Looking at her own friend list, none of her friends were online. Clicking the co-op icon, she scrolled for a much lower world level owned by lower ranking players. In this game, when someone's world is lower, the easier it is to clear the event as long as the latter meets the requirements for unlocking the event.

【Player: Pers (UID:@Persephone.15)】

One name caught the young woman's attention, the player's bio wrote; “PVP :D?” 

The random player's world level was one, the second lowest, and is currently at Era Rank twenty-three. The woman thought that it was a good place to beat the event, and take the rewards. Both of them would have advantage, she would be able to beat the event easier, collect the loot, split evenly and thank the other player for letting her farm.

Clicking the button for “Join World” a swift response immediately answered as she was loaded inside the game, her mouth opened a little. Most of the time, people tend to reject world invites from higher Era Ranked players since they are scared of being judged for their damages.

“...”

All ended well and the loading screen finally faded.

Currently in the very first map, the young woman found herself near the map's Cathedral. The lower Era Ranked player stood in front of her.

The chat box showed a small red exclamation point, signing that someone sent a message.

[Pers: Hellooo]

She decided to check the full details of the map. Sighing, seeing that the place where the event will commence was still closed due to the low exploration. Looking at the chat box, the young woman typed:

[Swallowtail: Do you need help?]

Her username appeared on top of her own message.

The latter answered after a while, [Pers: Yeah, I need help to open the 2.3’s Major Screening pivot point in both district one and two.]

[Note: Pivot Point - the central point of Major Screenings, aka portal to open/trigger Major Screening Maps. It's either one of the kitchen utensils you see at home or an appliance in bright neon green color. It has different forms for each map, and events. The developers have such questionable taste!]

Swallowtail, who was hesitant, finally released her breath. That was her intention from the start. The current event of the game was titled “Major Screening 2.3: Alpha Ursae Minoris” as its first half and “Major Screening 2.3: Sigma Octantis” as its second half ranging of twenty days each. These are also called First District and Second District respectively.

All players around the game can open the Pivot Point to start the Event but the level of difficulty available that can be accessed is strictly adjacent to your Era Rank. Well, unless you have a higher Era Ranked player by your side, all of these restraints are lifted. Lower Era Ranked players would be able to access higher levels, and higher rewards irrespective of their Era Rank.

For example, the difficulty level is 80 so it's also 80% hell but all of the players in co-op are Era Ranked 90, the game would immediately raise the difficulty into 90% but the rewards are the same for Level 80 Domain. A petty system, honestly, so just choose an Event Domain Level with the same level as your Era Rank.

So why did Swallowtail say that it would be easier running the domain with lower Era ranked players?

It's because the game would also calculate all the players’ Era Rank. If Swallowtail alone would enter the difficulty level 45, it would be 45% hell. But with Pers, who's an Era Rank 23, the game would adjust the level difficulty to 34% even though the Event Domain Level is 45 due to division.

She doesn't know if any players figured that trick too but it works.

Looking at the coincidence, Swallowtail replied.

[Swallowtail: Okay, follow me.]

Was what she typed but bit her tongue in regret.

Right... The map is not open due to low exploration.

...They need to navigate blindly.

After trying to locate the Pivot Point of 1st and 2nd district without an opened map, Swallowtail activated her character's weapon to thaw away the half solid dust and rocks engulfing the two Pivot Points.

A purple light flashed from Pers’ screen, rendering her blind for a few seconds. Before the player could tell whether it was a weapon infused with skill or something else, once the scene cleared, Swallowtail’s avatar was already staring at her.

There was nothing on their hands anymore.

[Swallowtail: Open it.]

Opening the Pivot Point was quite simple, an icon would pop up, touch it, and it would automatically lit up. Once it showed those signs, the blank map would open. Swallowtail didn't expect to encounter another problem delaying her goals of farming the event:

[Pers: I can't]

In front of the screen, the young woman clicked her tongue. “They can't open it since I'm inside their world, huh...”

[Swallowtail: I'll exit and come back. I'll see if you opened it.]

[Pers: Okay]

Looking at the menu screen, the young woman's fingers moved with ease. Leaving the world in a few seconds. A minute or so passed, and the newbie still hadn't chatted her back. Swallowtail looked at her recent co-op games and clicked the message button of the very first player.

[Swallowtail: Is it open?]

[Pers: I'm sorry it didn't idk how to open]

The young woman in the real world stared dumbfounded at the screen.

What's the problem this time?

[Swallowtail: Try kicking any co-op members and enter solo mode.]

[Pers: oh okok]

A minute ticked by as a message finally arrived, [Pers: I did it!]

Joining the world once again, the young woman adjusted her point of view and looked at the glowing Pivot Point.

[Swallowtail: So you did it, congrats the event is now accessible.]

[Pers: Thank you!]

Another message:

[Pers: Do you have a DC?]

A messaging app.

[Swallowtail: Yes.]

The young woman typed her ID number and pressed the send button. Afterwards, she realized that the New Year’s Eve was getting near and no longer remained inside.

[Swallowtail: Let's do the event together, tomorrow.]

[Pers: All righty :D]

After bidding their short goodbyes, another friend was added to Swallowtail's friendlist. A notification of someone adding her account also appeared, seeing the same ID number of the former playmate. The youth lied down and took a good look outside her window, a new year is about to come so celebrations are booming outside.

“Hesychia, get out of your room! Your friend's here.” Her roommate yelled from the other room, “Don’t forget to message the landlady that you're going out of the boarding house!”

Hesychia turned off her game with a sigh, she stood up.

Her feet swiftly moved, turning into corridors before a hand pulled her towards their gate. A bubbly looking person smiled, “The fireworks are about to start!”

Hesychia looked at the darkened sky and the smoke coming out of small fireworks. Taking a mask from her pocket, she slid her feet into her sandals and nodded.

“Where are we going?” Hesychia looked at the younger person.

This is Elara Selene, a friend Hesychia had from the University. A junior, younger by one year.

“My house,” A swift motion of being pushed towards the car door made Hesychia tumble, the lack of sleep made these fast movements blurry. The car engine started after Elara swiped her hand over the hover car’s sensor. “Let's go!”

They arrived fast, the vehicle stopped soundly soon after. Hesychia’s body was dragged towards the woman’s house, opening the green gates and their house's main door.

Being manhandled by the latter was one thing, but looking at the stairs in front of her was another. Elara's house consists of three floors and each stair step was high. It would make someone's knees go weak, and it isn't good for Hesychia to feel physically tired.

Hesychia wanted to cave in her room instead of interacting with anyone but another face surprised her with a tray of sushi, “Go upstairs. The view is starting to get good.”

Another woman appeared, her dyed pink hair looking shiny as ever. 

“Artie, you're also here?”

The woman named ‘Artie’ went up first, “Of course. It's been a while since we’ve seen each other.”

It’s not that they did not meet each other “literally”, the three of them were just busy with their own agendas from time to time.

Hesychia’s back was pushed forward by Elara, urging her to take a step. Whilst doing so, the younger woman was reminded: “Don't take off your mask, it's going to get a little smoky up there.”

Reaching the rooftop gave a breezy feeling, the cold air entered Hesychia's nostrils allowing her to breathe despite the thick mask hiding her nose and mouth. Other people started setting up their own cameras towards the sky as Elara’s most outgoing visitors greeted the new wave of people.

Hesychia had long noticed these visitors were not family members but a bunch of friends, acquaintances, and colleagues from the same department. Maybe, some of them are Elara’s part-time work mates. It had always been like that for the past two years, turning three on April 11 3031. Hesychia did not ask about this nor Elara, not once it was brought up.

Looking at her own device, Hesychia saw the clock ticked to 12:59. One more minute, another wild ride for this new year will come.

At the corner of her eyes, a gray smoke emerged somewhere from the dark horizon. The end of the object flashed red before exploding into thousands of colors, the fireworks surrounded the sky as a few more batches followed suit.

Loud noises of trumpets murdered Hesychia's ears as booming shouts of “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” gave her a sense of dissociation. Her eyes moved once again, noticing a porcelain plate about to fall from the side. Hesychia silently tried to catch it yet failed to do so. The plate's sound was masked, no one noticed beside the young woman. Shards of white appeared near her foot, an ominous feeling heightening somewhere.

“It's time to eat!”

Elara once again grabbed her thoughts and took her back to reality. Hesychia glanced at the place where the weird white porcelain plate fell and found it gone, as if it never existed. The young woman felt perplexed, scratching her eyelids.

「...Few days without sleep must be getting me.」

Ignoring the encounter, Hesychia took off her mask and greeted softly both Artie and Elara:

“Happy new year.”