“Welcome to your stream of dreams! Here to update your cerebral cortex about the latest news on DVR!” the announcer’s voice faded as the stage appeared, a single legged chair lay empty in the middle with two screens behind it.

“With us today we have!” the announcer began to introduce today’s interview “CEO of Lucid and Co! Professor Conrad Ivanov!” the left screen turned on showing the professor in his fancy office wearing his signature rainbow business suit, the suit accompanied with his dark skin and gelled back silver hair would make him stand out in the strangest crowds.

“Joining him will be head developer at ComicGamePlay entertainment Kanye J Dewford!” Dewford appeared on the right screen where he appeared to be in the main office of his company, multiple employees rushed from side to side while interacting with AR windows and utilities getting everything ready for the game’s grand launch.

Kanye J Dewford was wearing a simple button up grey shirt with the company’s logo on the chest pocket, his bald head gleamed underneath the unplanned lighting within the office.

Silence filled the stream momentarily as he remembered to close out the stream’s subscriber chat just in case someone decided spoiling was worth more than being in the chatroom, Kyle tapped at the top left of the window to open another and from the main menu opened Discord to join his usual chat room. The chat was somehow going faster than the stream’s own chat with the usual seven friends of Kyle’s going at it like normal that included talking shit to each other along with random changes of the conversation.

Birse;

Soren;

Birse;

SkillShot99;

DeathChilled;

Silva;

Kyllix;

Sly;

Soren;

Sly;

Birse;

Sly;

Soren;

Birse;

Sly;

Kyllix;

Sly;

SkillShot99;

Birse;

Sly;

Soren;

Kyle looked away from the chat room just as the war between the usual began, the stream had continued with the usual awkward silence but it appeared that the host had finally chimed in. He turned the volume back on and slid the bar at the bottom back a couple minutes since he missed the start, the stream skipped back to when the host walked in.

The announcer announced her “Ladies, Gentlemen and possible evil sentient AIs, your host for today’s show! Amy Dean!” as if out of thin air a middle aged woman suddenly appeared sitting on the chair “Let’s get to it then! Conrad! Mister Dewford how nice of you to join us!”.

They both nod in greeting as Conrad began to speak “My pleasure Amy, what questions might you have for us today?”.

“Well if you insist! Our viewer’s most asked question today is what are your thoughts on the sentient AI system being added to the complex MMORPG game genre?” with a smile Amy rests her chin on her wrists as they rest on her crossed legs.

“I understand that only a small percentage of your viewership is from the gaming community so I’ll make this simple, for decades the MMORPG genre has lacked a key feature no matter how in-depth our coders forged it. Within this genre there are non-player characters simply referred to as NPCs, these entities have set responses answering set questions, That the player may choose from. With the creation of sentient AI developers such as Kanye here can now set patterns of speech for the NPCs that respond to even the most advanced question in some way or another” he gestured towards Kanye.

“Kanye if you can continue from there” the man nodded back and followed up “Indeed I can Sir. With this capability the NPCs now can respond utilizing not only speech recognition but facial and emotional recognition from the player, you could ask the most absurd of questions and the NPC would respond accordingly, according to their personality of course” he made a twirling gesture with his index finger and a window showing a merchant NPC popped up “For example if a player tries to haggle too much with this merchant then the merchant in turn might just put that player in a black list, on the other hand if the player proves to be respectful and pays in full for a long period of time the merchant might begin to value the player as a good customer along with the benefits that would provide.” He swiped away the window making another appear.

“Again on the other hand let us say your journeying from one town to another but you are stopped by this unsavoury hooded individual who holds a knife to your back, he asks you to drop all your belongings for obvious reasons, I presume they are obvious at least…” Amy stifles a laugh by coughing while Conrad simply rolls his eyes with a smile “If the player fights back then depending on the amount of strength shown by the player it could scare away this thief, this also has to do with an in-depth stat system along with the fear and reputation stats but I’ll leave that to the tutorial” he waves away the window.

Amy follows up with her usual response “Fascinating, I’m sure we won’t be having any unorthodox occurrences then?” after a short chuckle she continues “On to the next question then! Our viewership is also very curious about the time condensation system you have implemented into the game”.

A cough is heard from Conrad’s side making him momentarily look elsewhere “Ah…I’m sorry but that information is one we cannot give out to the public yet”.

Amy gives a disappointed expression “Oh..I guess we’ll have to skip that one then, on to the next!” but quickly recuperates her smile, “How about this one? Wha-” the sound cut off as a ringing sound echoed through-out the house. Kyle swiped away the stream and grabbed hold of the chat room then rushed out of his room with a grin plastered on his face, he re-joined the chat as he rushed to the door.

Birse;

Sly;

Soren;

Birse;

Kyllix;

Sly;

Kyllix;

SkillShot99;

DeathChilled;

Sly;

Soren;

Kyllix;

Birse;

Soren;

Sly;

SkillShot99;

Kyle shut off the chat with a chuckle as the war recommenced, he stared on at the six triangular robots hovering while carrying a large box with metallic arms entangled around it like rope.

They followed him into the house and up to his room “Twenty left, ten front, drop” the robots followed his commands and then dropped the box after untangling their arms from around it, “De-crate” at his command the robots grabbed hold of the crate and hovered down onto it. Suddenly the crate began to disappear as if melting away and being sucked into the robot’s arms, within the crate was a see through tub filled with a green solid liquid.

Right by the tub was a see through table with a helmet, clothes and gloves on top of it. “Delivery complete, leave” he glanced at the robots and they began hovering out of the room, he followed them to the front door as they waited for him to open up for them. He let them out then closed the door behind them, he sighed “It’s here…” with a clenched fist he walked back up to his room.

He took a deep breath as he stared down at the tub, the intricate wiring beneath the tub protected by the nanite hardened glass same as the tub. He took off his pants and shirt then grabbed the clothes from the table, he held them up looking them up and down “The sensor suit…touch, pain…Can’t wait to see Birse beat up Sly and Soren for all the shit they talk…” with a grin on his face he put the suit on and the gloves after that.

The suit along with the gloves were completely black “Their product design team must have been pissed when the cooler designs where given a pay wall…this is too bland…” he picked up the helmet, it was more of a visor with a thick white band that goes around the head while the black visor itself covered the eyes, nose and mouth leaving a little bit of the chin.

He put it on and the helmet activated “Welcome to the DDC tutorial, would you like the quick tutorial, full tutorial or skip altogether?” a feminine voice spoke into his ears, “Skip tutorial, activate dream dive capsule” he had already acquainted himself with the DDC more then enough months ago.

“Awaiting user entry, please make yourself comfortable inside the tub” the voice spoke again as Kyle stretched out his arms, legs and neck right after popping his back, (“Alright…in we go”) he thought to himself as he stepped into the tub. A flat surface welcomed his feet as he stood inside the slime like liquid “Gahh…why does it have to feel so disturbing…”, he bent down and straightened himself inside the tub.

As he did so the visor opened up from inside and covered his mouth and nose then pressured onto his face, around his ears the band opened up and morphed to cover both ears like an egg shell. He saw nothing at all and felt his way down into the liquid, submersing himself. (“Ugh…still not used to the slime...”) he dispersed his thoughts and took a deep breath to make sure the equipment worked right “Alright…here goes…Dream, online”, “Dream online, user found. Select application please” a menu dropped down in his peripheral vision listing four options; Logout, Settings, Store and Grand Adventure Online.

“Grand Adventure Online, activate” he spoke out his selection, the selected option flashed blinding his vision.

Kyle opened his eyes and was welcomed with more darkness, “Welcome to Grand Adventure Online! Adventurer! I am Lillia!” a high pitched voice spoke from behind him making him turn around. A bright small being beamed a smile at him, a tiny humanoid with bright blue butterfly wings on her back, the fairy continued to speak “Adventurer! What can I call you?” suddenly a tab opened in the middle of his peripheral vision with a keyboard underneath it. He entered his usual in-game name then spoke it “Kyllix”, Lillia gave a brighter smile “Welcome Kyllix! Let us begin your initiation!” she fluttered her wings and backed away a bit.

She quickly raised both her arms making her blonde hair shake behind her, the naming tab disappeared from Kyle’s view and two more appeared on each side with multiple settings and menus.

Lillia spun around in place “Welcome to the character creation screen! Your body has been scanned and your likeness has been copied! Shall I introduce you to any option?”, Kyle checked what options he had to pick from and was surprised to find two racial selections and no class selection “Tell me about the races”.

Lillia flew over to the tab that held the racial selection “Alright listen closely now! There are five pickable races within GAO, each having separate bloodlines called categories! The races are Human with Esfeltran from the main kingdom, Kalran from the northern fortress kingdom Kal and Jalran of the Jal islands. Then we have Elves who’s categories are Dark Elf from the shadow kingdom, Wood Elf from the Fae woods and Tundra Elf from beyond Kal” as she listed the races an example of each race in fully body with basic clothes appeared behind her.

“Then we have the Dwarf race who’s categories go as Esfeltran from the main kingdom, the High mount Dwarves from the mountain kingdom and the Dark-Dwarves of the shadow kingdom! Also you may pick from the HalfBeast race who’s catagories are bear, wildcat, tiger, fox, wolf, lion, monkey, squirrel and rat! Last but not least there are the Scalarians with Serpent, Lizard, Salamander and Mer you can pick as category!“.

Lillia momentarily stopped and took a deep breath then fluttered closer to his face (“Do I even have a face right now?...”) Kyle thought to himself before Lillia continued, “You may pick a main race and a sub-race! Or even pick one and leave sub-race empty if you wish! Once you have made your choice the racial talents will be shown on the left tab! Picking two races will grant your character four passives and a single active! Picking a single race will grant you two passives and two actives!”.

Kyle eyed the different selection of races seriously, character creation wasn’t always his thing since he always tried to make his character look as similar to himself as possible so he was happy to know that the game copied his likeness and further change to that required something to be done in-game later on.

“Lillia, tell me about the class system. Why can I not pick a class?” at his question Lilla seemed to become even more excited although at first that seemed impossible, she clapped her hands multiple times and began to explain.

“Oh oh! Yes classes! Within GAO players do not pick a class but instead gain one through their actions! I do not wish to spoil it for you so I shall use the most basic class as an example! The fighter class! To become a fighter like any other class you must possess three active and or passive skills that align with that class! To gain skills you are required to have knowledge of how that skill would work, visualize it’s effects or see it being used! There are two main types of skills! Free use skills that can be learned by any class and locked skills that can only be learned by a specific class and or classes!” she fluttered back and made strange gestures with her hands as sparks of light danced around them “Let us say you are a human who wishes to gain the fighter class!” an NPC character with my likeness appeared next to her “To do that you require three of seven free use skills! One of these is stance!” the NPC takes a combat stance “Taking this stance to prepare for combat gains you the skill! Free use skills are very basic and utilizing logic you should easily be able to discern what to do to gain them!”.

She fluttered closer to Kyle “Now I understand that you have played our previous game! Rune shock!” she winked “For a loyal customer I will give you a hint! Classes also have two main categories they go under apart from combat style! There are free use classes that can be gained by anyone and number in the thousands! Then there are unique classes that can only be gained by one player! Unique classes also require three free use skills to be gained but only have three options unlike the seven free use classes have. Be careful adventurer! Once you have gained a class you are required to reach level twenty for a class change at the cost of gaining a sub-class! If you do change then you’ll have to wait till level thirty to gain a sub-class!.

Kyle was simply flabbergasted by this system and stared speechless at the fairy. (“It’s as if I can feel Sly’s eyebrow twitching…he’s going to hate the character creation…”) with a grin on his face Kyle raised his right arm to see it appear as a curser in his vision and picked his main and sub races then suddenly he realised something “Do both races account for what I’ll look like or are there exceptions?”.

Lillia was gawking at the strange combinations Kyle was going through and jumped when he asked her a question, she gave him a disturbed smile “Some bloodlines over write others…can’t have both a wolf and a lion tail…The main race is always the primary for appearance”.

With that in mind Kyle changed around his races “There I’m ready” , Lillia nodded in acknowledgement “Preview your selection and acknowledge them please” she turned back to him and flicked her fingers making a window appear in the middle of his vision;

IGN; Kyllix

Main-race: Beastman

=Category: Fox

Sub-race: Elf

=Category: Tundra Elf

Passive Racial Talents

---

[Elf] One with the elements (Lvl 0 - Tier 1): Your elven lineage earns you respect from elementals;

Elemental resistance + 0.5%

Elemental hostility - 0.5%

---

[Elf (Tundra Elf)] Frost ancient’s descendant (Lvl 0 - Tier 1): Your ancestry to an ascended being imbues you with power;

Ice resistance + 5%

Cold immunity

Ice elemental and subspecies hostility - 10%

---

[Beastman]Beast's Aura (Lvl 0 - Tier 1): Your beast lineage induces fear into others that do not share your primary race(Includes players and Npcs);

General hostility: - 5%

Fear chance + 5%

---

[Beastman (Fox)]One with the blood (Lvl 0 - Tier 1): Your lineage with a beast earns you their respect;

Agility + 1

[Beast]Fox hostility - 10%

Active Racial Talents

---

[Multiracial(Beastman(Fox) + Elf(Tundra))]

Frost Aura (Lvl 0 - Tier 1):

Release your presence on surrounding beings inducing fear and lowering the temperature;

Mana cost; 2 per 1s

Radius; 2 meters

Effects;

Fear chance + 1% per second (Max = 20%)

Temperature - 5°

Radius - 1% per second (Min = 0.5 meters)

Passive Skills

--- Wow much empty

--- Active Skills

--- Wow such empty

---

“I acknowledge my choices, what now?” the window disappeared from his vision.

“Look yourself up and down first silly” Lillia beamed a wide grin at him and he looked down then looked back up in surprise, he was now looking into a mirror and began to examine his character’s body. White fox ears slightly longer than his palm but not as wide grew out of his head, behind him he saw a furry white tail, both he seemed to be able to move and twitch with nothing more than a thought as if they had always been there “This is amazing!”.

He played around with his tail a bit before Lillia cut in “You have some basic appearance settings you can choose from, as described on our website though further changes have to be earned in-game!” she backed away with fluttering wings and gestured beneath her making all other tabs disappear and making a single wide one appear at the bottom of Kyle’s vision. “Hair style, hair colour, eye colour, fur colour, facial hair and clothing colouring” he spoke aloud the list of options given to him then began to tinker with them.

When he was finally done he looked over himself, he kept the white furred ears and tail but decided to clean shave his beard deciding it didn’t fit in then also changed his hair colour to his signature snow white hair most of his characters had which fit in very well with his ears and tail. He also changed his eye colour although he was disappointed he couldn’t appoint different colours to each eye he figured it would be an option later on in the game, he set both eyes as silver.

As for clothing he currently wore brown cloth pants and a button up grey shirt both having some fur linings giving it a more tribal look, he set the main colour of his clothes to dark grey and the fur to white. (“I take it back, Sly won’t be done with his character for a couple days…”) smirking at his own joke he glanced at the ecstatic fairy “Yeah I’m ready now, anything else?”.

Lillia shook her head then waved goodbye as an almost evil smile curved her lips “Enjoy the world of Chaoz, adventurer…” after that one grim sentence she then bowed “And watch your step…”, Kyle frowned in confusion at this sudden change in character “Watch my ste-” suddenly gravity pulled down.

“STUUPIIID BIIITTCCHHH!!” and so his adventure began, quite literally dropping into a new world.