Chapter 2 – Five Minutes Before Launch

Daniel panted heavily, wiping sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his cozy black turtleneck sweater. He probably should have shelled out the extra fee to have the delivery company also install the capsule. He thought he could handle it himself because all he really needed to do was plug it in and configure it, but the damn thing was so heavy that he felt like his back would break trying to lug it over to his bedroom.

At this rate he might have trouble connecting onto the server in time for the launch. Cursing under his breath, he gave the capsule another push with all his strength, moving it several inches.

*Pant* *pant*

Sweat dripped down Daniel’s forehead from the physical exertion.

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An hour and a half later, and after much hassle, including knocking down half of his bookshelf, he finally managed to install the capsule just twenty minutes before the game’s 9pm launch this Friday.

“Finally,” Daniel gasped, completely bent out of shape from the grueling process of trying to lug over a giant brick of a capsule. When he first saw the sleek and shiny white capsule on tv, he thought that it would be the coolest thing ever. But now, every time he looked at it all he saw was a heavy brick that gave him a sour taste in his mouth.

Bzzz.

Checking his texts, he saw that his group message was lighting up with talk about Edenquest.

Friend A: You guys ready??? I’m rolling warrior, no matter what.

Friend B: Hell yeah baby, warrior all the way!

Daniel: Finally got my capsule set up…

Friend C: How’d it take you so long dude?

Daniel: stfu

Putting his phone down, Daniel sped to the shower and took a quick rinse, then changed into his pajamas and stepped into the capsule. The capsule opened with a psssssshhh hiss as if it was one of those decontamination rooms in those sci-fi movies. Then again, with the rate at which technology was advancing these days, every new product that came out looked like it came straight out of science fiction.

After stepping in, the capsule closed with another gratuitous psssshhhh, and Daniel’s vision began to reorient into a log-in screen which was just his translucent avatar floating in the blue sky among the clouds.

Welcome to Edenquest Online

5 minutes and 21 seconds remaining until servers launch.

Daniel just floated around, killing time while testing out the new aged VRMMO technology. Even though this was just the log-in screen, it was mind blowingly realistic. Technology really came a long way since the days of mouse and keyboard gaming, which was still prevalent but not even close of a comparison to this kind of experience.

A whole slew of tool tips and other information was now showing in preparation of the game’s character creation launch.

Warning– due to the sexually graphic and/or violent nature of certain content, this game is for adults only. Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to play. Please provide a valid driver’s license or I.D.

Content may be disturbing to some players. Please play at your own discretion.

Daniel already had his driver’s license ready, its information floating in a box to the left of his screen. He heard from his friends that the game was eighteen or over only because of a multitude of reasons.

First of all, because of how realistic and visceral the gameplay experience was, violence was a lot more involved of an experience when compared to a normal mouse and keyboard game. It was one thing to experience being bitten in half by a werewolf on a computer monitor in a mouse and keyboard game. In comparison, feeling the sensation of being bitten in half by a werewolf in virtual reality was a lot different and could be mentally scarring for children. To cover their ass legally, making the game eighteen or over made sense. No company wanted to handle a lawsuit about potentially harming children.

Secondly, the realism of cutting edge VRMMOs meant that sexual content and nudity was unavoidable. Players could control their in-game bodies more or less the same way they controlled their real life bodies. Hell, if players were capable and willing of modding nude bodies into games like Monster Hunter World, it was clear that they would be more than willing to do the same for VRMMOs. Modding was not available, but there were other things that players could do…

Sexual content was certainly not the main point of the game, but it was of course a big draw. And so the company made the game eighteen or over to play. It made both financial and legal sense.

Moving those tooltip windows to the side, Daniel dragged over another one that talked about character creation.

Race and class selection in Edenquest may be a bit different than what you are familiar with. All new players begin as the human race, with access to certain basic class archetypes. Players will unlock new classes and races as their adventure unfolds, and the world will change dynamically. For example, certain events may unlock the ghoul race for all players, while other race change events might be player-specific.