Rick jumped up, his feet ready to hit the floor looking to the table next to his bed in the darkened room. Still, years later after all this time, he served in the Marine Corps as a Combat Engineer he can still wake up out of a dead sleep ready to fight or run.

He may not have been an Infantry Rifleman directly pursuing the enemy when he had been deployed never the less, he had experienced firefights. During one of these encounters, they had been sent out to clear a route of a discovered IED.

When they arrived on location they came under heavy automatic fire and RPGs from a rocky hilltop two hundred yards away. The Marines quickly went in defilade along a dry creek bank for cover. Unfortunately, one Marine was hit exposed out in the open during the initial contact.

Rick ran to the wounded Marine grabbing him by the back of his vest and hauled him into cover to be treated. He never stopped to think of how he was exposing himself to enemy fire, Rick just reacted to his training ignoring the stream of heavy fire landing around him. He was sometime later awarded the bronze star for his actions that day.

Reaching out to turn off the persistent beeping of the irritating alarm clock, while recalling that this is the day he has been waiting for.

The pre-ordered units of the cutting-edge [GATE GEAR] a virtual reality capsule that looked similar to a tanning bed design are being delivered around the world today.

His father Steve Stryker, was once also a Marine who always had a passion for firearms. He had started a small business as a firearms distributor that rapidly grew after he left the Corp. Rick's family may not have been considered wealthy, but he still had whatever he needed growing up and had been spoiled to an extent. His parents being proud of how he changed his life around and today is living on his own, supporting himself, and attending college still like to spoil him on occasion.

When he had shown so much interest about the upcoming release of virtual reality [GATE GEAR], his father used some of his business's connections to obtain a fully upgraded [GATE GEAR] and VIP account to be delivered from among the first available early releases.

You wouldn't think that someone who sold firearms for a living would know anyone of importance or power in the business world. Firearms are quite expensive and his father bought hundreds at a time to supply gun stores around the country. If you buy a hundred units a day that on average that cost $500 over a year, then sell them for profit the people in banking will do anything they can to have your account at their bank.

His father had also developed great relationships with many of the exceedingly rich owners and board members of the firearms manufacturers through daily business, and yearly parties and/or conferences.

The VIP account Rick received wasn't all that different than a regular account it gave the owner a few small perks. VIP accounts received first priority on installations, repairs, and upgrades. Players in the game would normally start out with 20 gold coins to get them started. Rick's VIP account he would have 100 gold coins available on the creation of his character.

These early release models sold for a much higher price and they still sold out the limited amount available quickly. This gave Rick a huge advantage he would be one of if not the first to get his [GATE GEAR] installed giving him a one week head start on those who could not purchase an early release.

[Prodigy Wave Corp] the company who created [GATE GEAR] decided to release these limited first units as a final monitored type beta test, for any missed problems needing to be patched.

I may run into unseen bugs, but getting a one week jump start on the flood of main [PLAYERS] joining will allow me to get stronger and hopefully entrenched safely on my land. Rick Thought.

Since he had some free days from his classes due to a holiday he decided to wake up early to prepare. I still have a couple hours before my [GATE GEAR] is scheduled for delivery, but it will be a full morning.

Walking over to the closet Rick threw on comfortable pair sweatpants, and a baggy cotton T-shirt then ambled out of the bedroom to his way toward the kitchen.

He fired up the top burner on the stove and snatched a skillet out of the cupboard. Gathering up eggs, bacon, and milk from the cool confines of the fridge he hastily whisked the eggs and milk in a ceramic bowl. The heat from glowing burner caught his attention long enough to turn back the temperature and return to preparing the eggs. Finished with preparing the mixture he poured it into the waiting pan. Untwisting the loaf of bread on the counter he fished out a couple slice and dropped them in the toaster and peeled open the package of bacon. Rick scraped out the golden browned eggs onto a plate and fried the bacon filling the kitchen with the sizzling smell.

Settling in at the kitchen table to enjoy the savory meal, he excitedly anticipated the arrival of the cutting-edge virtual reality capsule.

When he finished cleaning up after himself, Rick hastily entered the spare bedroom that he used as a study/rec room. This spare room is where his computer sat on the desk in the corner that he recently pushed aside to make room for the new [VR] capsule that would soon make this room it's new home.

He had decided to visit the [Prodigy Wave Corp] website to see if any new information on [Kingdoms Online] had been released last night before setting the alarm.

Booting up his computer and sitting down he reminisced all the great games he built and explored in with this rig. He always loved playing games that allowed you to build. Creating cities, castles, landscapes and numerous homes.

He found a passion for these building games as a kid growing up, this had been what drove him later in life toward becoming a Combat Engineer when he had decided to change his life around and join the Marines. Fresh out of high school unsure of what to do with himself, he followed in his father's footsteps joining the Marine Corps. Enlisting into MOS 1371 Combat Engineering, he would perform demolitions, construction, mine clearing, maintenance and base repairs.

During his service among other things, he was assigned to building a bridge as well a couple forward operating bases and enjoyed it. This got him to thinking of what he could create as an engineer of some kind after the military, which encouraged him to enroll into college.

After opening the internet browser then clicking the bookmark on the top toolbar for [Kingdoms Online] the site popped open. Leaning over to the mini fridge next to the desk while the Home page loaded, Rick swung it open grabbing one of the many cold cans of soda on the well-stocked shelves.

Now, I should check out the site and forums for any new bits of gold I might dig up to gain an edge, Rick murmured to himself.

While finishing up his soda, he discovered that most the information was still unchanged after combing the site and forums for half an hour. He took notice that [PLAYERS] would need to still take a Career Assessment type test before character creation. It faintly described that it would use the test results to determine possible starting skills.

Then after the test, they could view and decide their race, gender, and looks. He shut down the computer deciding what to do.

I think I will choose the humans though Elves and Dwarves could be fun also. Dwarves will probably give better bonuses to construction or craftsmanship but I am just not willing to waste time adapting to the short stocky build of a dwarf. Rick thought to himself as he tried to decide which race to chose.

With all of my Marine Corps training, I think would be seriously affected. Learning martial arts and weapons fighting in an over 6ft tall body than trying to use them in a 5 ft stocky body just doesn't seem like it would be a quick readjust. I could see it taking months to try and apply it over and then hope that it doesn't affect me in the real world by using those adjustments unknowingly.

The list of races hasn't changed they have some tempting me to try like the Darfellan I think they would make a great front line warrior. The Halflings, Gnomes, and Dwarves all are big changes from my body size to the character size. The company had released information about how it takes some work adapting to extreme body changes in the game. Which makes sense if you are six-foot tall and then get into a character who is three foot tall it will take some getting use to. Rick quietly weighed the pros and cons of the races as while considering which race he would also enjoy playing.

Playable Race List RACES RACE DESCRIPTIONS Humans: Standard classic Humans. They very in size, shape, and color. All around race that can fit any class. Elves: Tall and thin they may not be as strong as most races, but make up for it in agility. Sliver and blonde hair with delicate features. Dwarves: Five foot and under in height from thin to muscular. They are natural craftsman. Halflings: Four foot and under. brown to blonde hair. Good-hearted and kind natural stealth experts. Gnomes: Four foot and under. They are obsessed with gadgets and technology. Kitsune: Kitsune are similar to humans with fox features. They have fox ears and tails. Kitsune are born magic users. Nekomimi: Nekomimi are similar to humans with cat features. They have cat ears and tails. They are Fast, agile, and stealthy. Demons: Grey skin with glowing red eyes. Demons are know to Inflict suffering and spread coruption to the land. They are mainly evil alignment. Darfellan: They are an oceanic race. Grey skin, red eyes, tall, and muscular. Expert swimmers that can breath under water. Vampires: They are amazingly capable hand to hand fighters and magic users. Vampires take damage from sunlight if their skin is not covered.

"Well crap, I guess I slacked off enough already time for my morning [PT] (physical training)." Rick said aloud to himself.

A routine he stuck with since his military days every morning he would set aside the time to get at least a small workout in before starting the day.

Rick being considered a good looking guy at 26 years old, with blonde hair, blue eyes, six feet tall, and a 215-pound muscular athletic body. He enjoyed keeping in shape and though he may not admit it like the attention he drew from the opposite sex a fair amount of times.

Shutting down the computer pushing the desk chair out, he got up and walked to the opposite corner of the room from the desk to his home gym machine.

Today was an upper body day, from researching weight training, he had learned it was best to not work the same muscles every day. If you work out those same muscles every day they would never get a chance to rebuild and grow.

After his workout, he made his way to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. grabbing a fresh towel, he jumped into the shower to get ready before the delivery guys made their appearance and install his brand new [GATE GEAR].

Rick finished his shower and wrapped the towel around him, and went to his room tossed the clothes he wore earlier in the hamper and redressed.

Walking into the living room, he sat down on the sofa and grabbed the TV remote and started flipping channels.

It seemed that most of the major news channels had been discussing the big release of the [GATE GEAR], some praising the new technology others wary of a new highly advanced AI that resided in the companies servers.

It seemed some people had been apprehensive that such a highly adaptive AI had access to the world's internet to help it further evolve all aspects of the game. They seemed to worry that the AI may go rogue, and somehow escape into the internet causing worldwide havoc on all electronics.

The response from the companies spokesman reassured the press that all [Prodigy Wave Corp] servers had been equipped with top tier Military grade redundant firewall designs. This helped protect the servers and AI from being hacked, at the same time containing the AI.

I can't really understand what all worry is here, why would the AI want to try and escape the servers? If it did make it on the internet it would basically just be like a declaration of war. All of the countries of the world would hunt it down and destroy it. If you look at it from the AI's view it's home server is a free country that it is the leader of, can make the laws, and live how it likes. Why would it want to escape to a 3rd world country that everyone wants to imprison and kill it? Rick thought while shaking his head at some people's paranoia over the AI.

Interrupting his thoughts a knock came from the door followed by the doorbell. A smile then slowly spread across his face. Turning off the TV he walked over and opened the door. Two guys in neat white work uniforms holding toolbags and a large refrigerator size box about 7 foot tall stood behind them on a dolly met him in the doorway.

Greeting them and walking them into the apartment they followed him to the spare bedroom to do a quick check if the area was ready and clear for installation. Finding everything in order the two men smiled thanking him at got right to work unpacking and installing the brand new VR capsule.