The trio trickled through the throngs of shoppers as they made their way towards their destination. Emily’s eyes flitted over the posters of a man holding a golden sword in his hand and facing off against a dragon.

‘Darkness fills the land. Zodiac: Releasing today’

Zodiac, the game they’d been saving money to play for ages. Emily could lie and say that she’d been looking forward to this game for years and years. That it’d be the revolution in virtual reality technology they’d all been waiting for and that the last one hundred years of popular games would never compare.

“Heck yes!”

“Woo!”

Emily sighed.

She could give any of those as the reasons that she’d joined. But more important than any of those things, her friends were extremely competitive and wanted to play in a game that was brand new so they could rank up faster than other people.

Ana and Andrew nudged by each other constantly while trying to power-walk toward the virtual reality section holding all the Zodiac games. They weren’t the only ones. They’d come only a minute after the store had opened, but there were already people slowly forming a line to purchase Zodiac.

Andrew beat Ana to the game and lifted it to his chest happily. Emily could practically hear the victory trumpets going off in his head as he joined the line.

“I’m going to beat his ass when we get in there.” Ana joined up with Emily and passed her a copy of Zodiac.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Feel free to leave me behind. I just want to play.”

Andrew turned around, “Playings for suckers. We’re here to win.”

“Yeah!” Ana smiled as she replied and Emily laughed at their enthusiasm.

A few minutes later they parted excitedly, Emily lived a few minutes away but the other two had to take the bus home.

“Mum, Dad, I’m home.” Emily barely glanced at her parents as she bounded up the stairs into her room.

To others, the virtual reality capsule probably wasn’t the best feature to put in such a small space. She had to get one to fit her body size and alongside the complicated installation process it took up a good chunk of her living space. But to her it had already become second nature to overlook it entirely.

She gently opened up the Zodiac cover, placed the CD into the slot in the VR capsule and then stepped into it.

She turned around and closed her eyes as the scanning process began. It was always a strange sensation when opening up a new game. The full-body scan was fine but the brain analysis and submerging of her consciousness into the virtual reality space was a trip.

Feeling the familiar tingling sensation lessen, Emily opened her eyes and smiled as she found herself standing on a well-crafted stone platform. She had studied the games lore beforehand and could already vaguely recognize the etchings of four gods in gold onto the stone floor.

Varsha; Goddess of War

Krushnav: God of Death

Verm: God of Light

Toshna: Goddess of Balance

A single blue screen appeared in front of Emily and she blinked.

[What would you like to name your avatar?]

A keypad appeared in the air in front of her and she moved her hands without hesitation.

[Please confirm, would you like to be named; Seven?]

She confirmed and the screen disappeared.

Next, she chose her avatar, which looked exactly like her, and also her race; Elf.

[Would you like to take the tutorial?]

“Hell yes.” Seven grinned as the floor began to shake and rattle.

Stone chips broke off of the four etchings of the gods and suddenly found themselves shrouded in small clouds of darkness. Out of the clouds, small round creatures with short-clawed hands emerged. Each one had wisps of darkness emitting from their bodies and floating into the air.

[The corruption has spread deeply into the land]

Seven took a step back as a powerful voice began narrating and the creatures slowly walked towards her. The platform was fairly big, but they would reach her in a few seconds.

[Heroes emerged to fight the encroaching evil. Some have become legends, others have fallen to the dark tides.]

A blinding light flashed around Emil, forcing her to close her eyes. When she opened them four objects were floating in front of her; A sword, a wand, a bow, and a shield.

[Choose your weapon.]

A text box popped up in front of her instructing her on how to move. It was the same with every VR game so she had no problems getting used to the feeling of moving at a thought.

Seven walked towards the wand. She and Ana had already worked out their plan; she would be a Mage or whatever the game’s equivalent was.

[The wand of the Zodiac. A powerful tool given by the gods to fight against the creatures that would threaten the world. The symbol of the Magi and Priests that roam the world. Are you sure that you wish to wield this weapon?]

“Yes.”

Seven grinned as the wand dropped into her hands. She could feel the warmth of the magic that spread across her body. The four creatures were already half-way towards her.

A screen appeared in front of her telling her how to use her weapon and at the corner of her sight, she could see the icon of a person casting magic with a wand appear. She simply had to utter the name of the skill the wand had equipped or click the icon in her vision with her fingers to use it. She decided to ignore the icon.

Seven pointed the wand at the nearest creature. “Fire.”

A bright burst of flames formed a ball and flew towards the creature, causing it to scream out in pain and explode into wisps of darkness and fire.

“Awesome!”

The other three creatures sped up when she destroyed their friend and a new text window appeared in front of Seven.

[Destroy the creatures until none are left. 1/4 destroyed]

“Fire, Fire, Fire!” Seven walked back calmly and shot flame after flame at the creatures. Each one took a second to form and another split second to reach its target. The creatures exploded instantly, but she found that there was a short recharge of around half a second between each basic attack.

The last creature burst like a pimple and Seven grinned. The graphics were incredibly detailed so far and she felt satisfaction course through her with every fireball she shot.

[Explore the remains. 0/1 Discoveries made]

A small light twinkled on the floor where the last creature died.

Seven walked towards it and a new menu appeared in front of her; only it was green instead of the usual blue. It listed a single item; A key.

[Collect Mysterious Key? Yes / No]

Seven pressed the ‘Yes’ option and the light disappeared.

[Open your inventory.]

A new icon appeared on the opposite side of the ‘Fire’ icon. A small backpack. She knew the drill by now.

“Inventory.” She decided it was a lot cooler to say the word rather than click the icon. At least while nobody was around.

A small screen with blank squares filled her vision. There were only twenty squares, but one had a small glowing key floating inside it. With a single thought she could make the screen less or even more see-through. This would come in handy if she ever needed to use it while in battle.

She took out the key and the platform began to rumble. In front of her the floor churned and four doors emerged from the ground. Each one was far above her height.

[There are four factions within the world of the Zodiac]

The voice continued above her.

[The Faction of War that worships the Goddess Varsha and resides in the Kyrgios Continent. The Faction of Death that worships the God Krushnav and dwells deep in the Underground. The Faction of Light that worships the God Verm and inhabits the Zhalnor Continent. The Faction of Balance that worships the Goddess Toshna and roam the world.]

Seven smiled. Whichever Faction she chose and even her starting continent wouldn’t impact her too much, however, Ana and Andrew desperately wanted to rank up quickly and even join a higher ranking guild if they could. They had all decided together that they would choose the Faction of Light and start in the Zhalnor Continent. The reason was simple; Andrew intended to become and priest and the Zhalnor continent was most likely to hold the best priest quests because it was the central location of the Church of Verm.

Ana was going to be a warrior and she and Seven would be fine on any continent, so making it easier for their priest player was the best solution for them.

[The continent of Zhalnor, once ruled under the iron hold of the Mad Titan Zandor. God Verm decreed to the world that the Titan’s tyranny would end, and so his priests and paladins descended upon the monster-infested lands and freed the inhabitants from the terrible fate that befell them. Peace has long reigned across the continent, but now evil has once again threatened the peace and the voice of Verm has not been heard in centuries.]

The scenery shifted around her and Seven found herself floating above a gigantic world. She could see cities rising and falling, the sea churning and fighting to gain dominance over the land. Civilizations rose and fell, and as the world rotated around her two continents slowly formed from a single mass, she was dragged towards one. The surrounding land continued to change until it was filled with monsters. She could almost feel them kicking up dust and emitting killing intent as they fought against humans covered in light. Magic rained down on both sides but slowly they pushed the monsters back, and they erected a large city in the distance.

Before her over a thousand shimmering lights emerged across the human-occupied side of the continent, each light was a starting village.

With a prompt from the game, Seven chose one of the starting points that she’d searched up before with her friends. The starting points themselves were mostly irrelevant, so long as they could all meet up within the game. She picked a village that was fairly close relative to the others to the capital city. It was a coastal village that was almost fully surrounded by water and forest.

[Tutorial completed.]

[You have reached the starting village of Torkay]

Seven screwed her eyes shut as she began to descend from the sky towards the village.

“Hello? Miss?”

Seven blinked and squinted as bright rays of sunlight hit her face. A calm-looking young man in a white robe was staring at her intently with a smile on his face.

“It’s good that you’ve finally arrived!”

“Arrived?” Seven looked around at the shabby-looking houses that composed the village. “You were expecting me?”

“Well, I was definitely expecting something,” The man said with humor, “I didn’t think it’d be a person.”

‘Oh,’ She didn’t think the NPC would be so responsive.

She decided to play it a little more tactfully, “How can I help you… Mr?”

“Barnacle’s my name. My parents were probably hoping I’d grow up to be some kind of fisherman, but I felt the call to Verm. Sure made for an awkward conversation. The villagers call me Father Barnacle.”

The priest clapped his hands together. “But I’m not here to give you orders or anything. I just… felt that today something would appear and it felt awfully important. Kept me up all night.” He looked Seven up and down and frowned, “That feeling led me straight to you. We don’t get visitors often you see, but I’m not so sure that your anything special from the looks of you.”

‘Ouch,’ Seven felt that, ‘Are all the starter village NPCs this blunt?’

Barnacle coughed lightly at her expression. “Sorry, I wasn’t raised with too much tact in the ol’ noggin. Fisherman’s son and all that. Well, I’m not too sure what that feeling was but it told me to bring these to you.”

He brought out a few copper coins and three other items; A sword, a wand, a bow, and a shield, “Unfortunately the village doesn’t have too much to offer and due to recent monster attacks we can only spare a few coppers and one of these weapons for a visitor.”

“Thank you very much. That’s more than generous enough.”

Seven could see that she had received 10 copper coins from Barnacle and was being given a choice to pick up one of the three items just like in the tutorial.

“I’ll take the wand thanks.”

Barnacle handed her the wand and she saw an icon appear in the bottom left corner of her vision. It said ‘Magic Blast’ when she hovered her finger over it.

Barnacle followed her pointing finger. “Is there something on my shoe?”

“Umm.” She realised that he was reacting to her and hesitated. “No, nothing. Thank you so much for the wand and copper.”

“You’re welcome.” Barnacle smiled. “I get the feeling that maybe we’ve met a little too early. I’ll tell you what though, we’ve been having some trouble with rabbits lately. Pesky little critters keep getting into the food supplies. Maybe you can give us a hand with them afterward. Just ask village chief for the specifics.”

“Absolutely. I’d love to help.”

“I appreciate your solid stance towards rabbit destruction.” Barnacle smiled and began to walk away. “I’ve got to head off now. I’ll be at the temple if you need me Seven.”

“Sure.” She responded to him on reflex.

‘Hang on, did I tell him my name?’

Seven decided it didn’t matter. He probably knew it because he was an NPC. But damn, he was eerily realistic.

‘The game is definitely a home run so far.’

She whistled as she walked towards the village center. There wasn’t any reason she had to wait for her friends to log on and do the tutorial. She’d go off and kill those rabbits.

The village was pretty simple, with wooden houses shabbily put together and several small pastures and spots filled with vegetables on the periphery of her vision. It was pretty realistic and even the NPC’s seemed to be walking around and doing their own things, giving her the occasional odd look that anyone would give a newcomer.

She quickly reached the village center where they'd set up a small stall with some shabby-looking daggers and potions on display. She could also see a slightly bigger building surrounded by three or four players. In front of the building was a man she assumed was the village chief.

Over the man’s head was his title and name; Village Chief Lehandre.

“Oh hello there,” Lehandre greeted Seven with a smile. “So many new visitors to the town today. Barnacle told me that you could help with our rabbit problems, is that right?”

[Quest; Rabbit Culling. Torkay is infested with rabbits and Village Chief Lehandre would like to request your help in culling the animals. Slay 15 of the creatures and bring back their pelts. Would you like to accept his quest? Yes / No]

A screen popped up and Seven accepted the quest, receiving a heartfelt thank you from Lehandre.

“There are so many of those pests that they’re popping up in the grassy area right outside our houses.” Lehandre spat on the ground in disgust. “Get about fifteen of them for me and bring me their pelts and that should be fine. Thanks again for this.”

She nodded her head and started walking towards the edge of the village. She had only gotten about halfway out before she started seeing a sea of white fluff crawling and bouncing in the grass.

There were too many rabbits!

She walked towards the nearest rabbit and pointed her wand towards it. “Blast.”

She was relieved to see that even when she abbreviated the name of her attack it still worked. Her wand lit up and a small spark of white-blue light glimmered towards the rabbit and spattered against its fur.

-3

A red number and a health bar appeared on top of the rabbit. About 1/3 of its health had disappeared, so Seven assumed it had 10hp in total.

The rabbit turned towards her with a menacing glint in its eye and let out a shrill cry before jumping straight at her face.

“Oh my god!” Emily stepped back as she suddenly lost a portion of her health, “Blast! Blast!”

The rabbit sneered at her as she missed the first blast couldn’t activate her second one due to the cooldown. It counterattacked by gnawing at her leg and she lost more health.

“Blast, damn you!”

She hit it with another wisp and suddenly the rabbit decided running might be the best option as it skittered across the grass. But by the time it had turned around and hopped a few steps, she let out another two attacks and it fell to the floor dead.

“Hell yeah.” She felt satisfaction wash over her as the body disappeared, her experience rose and a glimmering white light signaling an item appeared. It was a rabbit pelt.

According to the press releases, there were a few different types of item rarity that they could get and each had a corresponding colour. The most basic was white, but then there was blue, yellow, orange, red and gold. She’d heard that if a mob dropped multiple items the light would be the same colour as the rarest item.

She became aware that there were a few new icons on the bottom right side of her vision next to her inventory. Settings, her status page and a menu she could use to log out. She could even access the in-game shop if she wanted to.

The settings had a few interesting options. She could minimize or shrink the icons in her vision if she wanted to, or she could even just make certain ones such as her ‘magic blast’ disappear. That would come in handy later on when she started hoarding more abilities and they impacted her vision.

Her status page was pretty simple as well.

Name: Seven

Health: 16/20

Mana: 16/22

Vitality: 10, Strength: 10, Dexterity: 10, Intelligence: 11, Wisdom: 10

These were the four base stats that she knew she’d have at first. But apparently unlocking different classes or even having a different species could gain you a few new stats.

Thanks to her Elf lineage she gained an extra starting intelligence point and for every 5 levels, she would gain an extra one. Luckily that meant she had two extra mana to spare, and when each basic attack cost 1 mana, that was two whole more attacks.

She finished checking out the different options and picked up the rabbit pelt. Then she turned towards its fellow fluffy critters that were staring at her.

“Come here you little fuckers.”