It was all about dragons. 

The moonlight creeped in through the cracks of the roof of the titanic cave where a big kingdom sat peacefully on its wake. Every house was made of rock and rock formations, rarely of crystals and gems. Gigantic stalagmites rose like towers reaching up for the sky. At the end of the cave and the kingdom resides a reddish brown palace made of pure garnet. Its shaped formed a head of a dragon, with the entrance baring fangs. It was the central government of all the territories of the Earth Kingdom. The capital of the Earth Kingdom. 

It was the City of Garnetia, Hoseok's home territory. 

Wearing his casual clothes─long-sleeved sweater and some sweatpants, Hoseok was monitoring the activity of the city. He knew every person, or rather username, that resided in the city. He also knew the visitors coming and going. He knew all of the trades and stocks of the city. He had to know. He was the Alpha, afterall. 

Like real life animals, the Alpha had the control of everyone in the kingdom. He was the leader of all Earth Dragons, and the highest rank in the game. Ever since Hoseok was a child, he worked hard to strengthen himself and achieve the Alpha status. He had to defeat an NPC (non-playable character) dragon that had the Alpha status. But he perfectly knew that with the Alpha status followed a big responsibility of running the whole kingdom. 

Technically, Hoseok had already completed the game by achieving the Alpha status, yet he was still driven to continue the game. He enjoyed being the Alpha. He enjoyed leading others and helping them through the ranks. Although there were some users who challenged him in an Alpha Battle, where they could get the Alpha status, Hoseok defeated them all. That was how powerful of a gamer Hoseok was. 

Hoseok stretched his arms upwards and groaned a little. He stood from his seat and went to the terrace of the palace to look over the kingdom. Yes, he was living in the palace. He was the Alpha, after all. He smiled. Everything was peaceful. 

A small ring resonated through the room. He returned to the monitoring room, reached for his neck and pressed a button on his GML. A virtual screen appeared in front of him. He used his hands to swipe and check his notifications for any new emails or missed calls. 

The game mechanic was composed of two things: social networking and battling. During social networking, one could talk to anyone on the planet as long as they were connected to the Internet and logged in the game. A roleplaying game where anyone can interact with anyone, with their virtual avatars. Battling, well, every last one of it was intense. There were three avatars: Normal (customized to the player's liking, not necessarily the real image of the user), Battle (customized with armors and weapons) and Dragon (given by the AI of the game based on the overall characteristics of the player). 

The AI gave Hoseok an Earth Dragon. And that time, he was the Earth Alpha. It gave him a sense of completeness and responsibility. That was how much he loved the game. 

He looked through his contacts at the screen and saw a missed call from the user LeeMinmungie. A smile broke in Hoseok's face as he swiped the air in front of him. A menu appeared as he swiped down and he reached to press the word 'Log Out'. 

It was around 10:00PM when Hoseok logged out of the game. His body was lying down on his bed when his vision cleared. He sat up and swiped the air in front of him. A small menu appeared as he went through his contacts once again. He clicked the username LeeMinmungie, giving him a call. He went through his backgrounds and picked the default: a small cafe. 

As he heard the ringback tone, the GML changed the scene. From his bedroom, he was easily transported to a small cafe. He peacefully sat at one of the chairs and looked outside, listening to the ringback tone and waiting for the other to answer. 

The ringback tone stopped as the cafe doors open. A blond male entered while wearing his pajamas. Hoseok smiled back in greeting and waved his hand at him. 

"Hyung! Why weren't you answering my calls?" the other male began as he went to sit down across Hoseok. 

"Sorry, Minhyuk. I was monitoring the city," Hoseok answered with an apologetic smile. 

"If I knew being an Alpha is difficult, I would've just resorted in being Level 10." 

"Wow, look who's talking! The new Alpha of the Electric Kingdom!" Hoseok teased. 

Minhyuk had a contorted expression and almost reached out to hit his hyung. The older just laughed it off. What Hoseok liked about himself was he didn't let go of the real world. Even though he stopped going to school, his friends still gave him notes to study and he even aced his exams with ease. Not everyone could do that. 

"Anyways, hyung. You wanna battle? Three on three? I'll call the others!" 

"Why not? How's the team formation? Surely enough, both of us needs to be on a separate team." 

"Hyungs versus 'saengs?" 

"Call! You're lucky tomorrow is a Sunday. No school for you guys." 

"For us," Minhyuk corrected with a grin, "I'll end the call. Let's meet at the Great Walls." 

"Alright, see you there," Hoseok answered with a smile, waving goodbye to Minhyuk. 

Minhyuk waved back as he swipe down the menu in front of him and pressed 'End Call'. The cafe faded and returned them to their respective rooms. Hoseok looked at the clock and it was thirty minutes after he logged out. It wouldn't hurt to have dinner first, would it? 

"If they battle like before, Yoonho would take the left lane and Seokwon would be the right lane. Minhyuk would be the middle, for obvious reasons. It's safe to do it one versus one in the lanes," Kwangji suggested while they were transported to the battle arena.

"They could change their gameplay, though. The two maknaes have a lot of surprises," Hyunwoo added. 

"I could jungle for mana so you guys can transform more quickly. I think towers will hold long enough to get enough mana and gold as well," Hoseok continued.  

"Okay. I'll go for left lane where Yoonho would be, but I'll check the middle lane as well. Hyunwoo goes to the right lane. Hoseok would jungle for mana until we could transform to Dragon. Drastic measures, Hoseok would defend the base. Questions?" Kwangji concluded with a grin. 

"None. Let's do this,"  Hoseok grinned. 

A few seconds later they were already transported in the arena. The arena was composed of lanes, the number depending on the arena. The lanes directly lead to the enemy base. While the lanes were clear, the lanes were inside a jungle, which would be packed with NPC monsters. Those monsters could be defeated to gain bonus gold and mana. Gold would be used to buy items and temporary upgrades in the armor; it would disappear after the battle. Mana would be used in special skills and transforming between Battle and Dragon avatars. When a player loses all of his life points, he would die on the spot and be revived at the base after regeneration time. 

Kwangji's Battle avatar was a cyborg panda. It could stand on its two legs properly, and one arm was made of metal. One of its eyes was changed to a scope for critical hits. His main weapon was a cannon, which came from his cyborg arm. He was great in long range attacks and ambush, but not that great in melee. That would change in Dragon, wherein he had a lot of melee weapons in store. 

Hyunwoo's Battle avatar was normally him, but he was covered with shiny silver armor. At his back were gigantic feathery wings he would use in flying at great speeds. His main weapon was his bow and arrows. Another range weapon, yet different with Kwangji; when he would transform to Dragon, he would only be a range player. 

Hoseok had it simple─brown leather armor. His main weapon was a shield thrice the size of him. His defense was almost unstoppable. He would defeat anyone by charging straight on with his shield. In Dragon, ever since he gained the Alpha Status, he could cover half of the lane. That was how big he was. His defense would still be unstoppable in Dragon, and he would succeed in stealthily wrecking the base of the enemy. 

"Stick to the plan. Let's go," Kwangji spoke before he ran towards his lane. 

Both the other men nodded as Hyunwoo spread out his wings and flew towards his own lane. Hoseok stared at the middle lane and waited at its entrance. He waited until his mana had generated enough, before he used one of his special skills. With a stomp of his feet, a thick wall of earth shot up from the ground. He grinned before he ran towards the jungle. 

And the battle had begun. 

Author's Note

Hi everyone! It's a Sunday so here's an update. Basically this explains most of the game, so that readers will not be confused in the later chapters. And yes, I will use all No Mercy trainees. (I love Kwangji-umma too <3, and YoonhoxSeokwon for life) I am also using their real names so don't be confused! That's it ^^ Thank you for all the subcribers! Read lots, love lots, comment lots~