John lay back on the bed at 9:55, just five minutes before the launch. The servers had opened spawn location selection and class selection an hour ago, along with some background and history. John skipped through the class introduction and immediate confirmed Thief.

He appeared in the location selector with a three-dimensional map in front of him, like a god watching the land below. A small countdown timer reading four minutes and a regional chat appeared in the corners of his vision.

He focused on the familiar landscape in front of him. In RISE, the servers were roughly isolated by continent or by groups of countries for most of the early progression. As such, each region's population was similar. Later, competition would be allowed to expand globally as player factions gained strength and ambition.

In his hands lay the vast Hiar region, twenty thousand miles long and half that wide. A peninsula surrounded by an ocean of unfathomable scale, the only link to lands unknown was the Reikg glacier in the far north. There was no other exit. On the edge of his palms – the Duyaivk falls – even the waters met their end with a drop into nothingness below.

To the fertile western plains stood the great cities of the Human Empires, sheltered from the tainted central lands by the Bulwark which ran from coast to coast long before any humans settled. Down south were the desert nations, safe from the evils, but always thirsty and consumed in their internal strife.

Where the Bulwark met the northern seas, rolling hills became a sheer wall of granite that formed the Tarvei Range. It tore through the otherwise calm earth, drawing a distinct line from north-west to a point far east. Hailed the greatest mountains in all of RISE, Tarvei was the father of the eastern coastal peaks which the Dwarves called their home.

Fatefully, only a week's journey on horse from the iron forges and boundless mines came the trunks of the Lavie Woodlands. A vast wooden barrier that covered thousands of square miles in the eastern corner, the Elven Commonwealth built up a formidable civilization.

The Simak, the ocean's inland rival, from tributaries through this forest – oddly away from the ocean – dominated the landscape in the region. It was the only feature that matched the taint which polluted its shores, only diluted by Simak's great size.

A natural and cultural beauty to explore: a new world. And Hiar in all its majesty was in his hands like he could crush it at any moment.

John zoomed in on the edge of the human territories, where the plains met with the Bulwark in the mid-west. Here, the defensive formation jutted out like basalt from the sea floor, merging with a large butte. However large though, it could not quite contain the chaos of metal atop it.

As the view grew closer, the skies grew murkier, a draft from the Taint. It was noticeably day, but it was dreary brown and unpleasant and on the ground, like the remains of a noxious wildfire. It was on both sides of the Bulwark, contaminating the human plains for miles before fading. Through the muck, a conglomeration of platforms and walls appeared, somehow held together atop the butte.

This was the city of Gyead, an outpost against the taint which would periodically attack the walls. It stood a couple of hundred feet tall, above the scorched earth below and remained ever vigilant. It had a small militaristic population of a few tens of thousands, but a huge density.

Originally, a small early warning camp, after the First Great Dissemination and the fall of the early human territories, the outpost was expanded upon with the receding Taint. Following the successive disseminations and fortifications of the Bulwark, Gyead grew in size and population. It reached its current behemoth nature in the aftermath of the recent Seventh.

As militaries moved in so did a similar army of merchants, craftsmen, and civilians. Around the third expansion or so, the butte's surface was completely covered, and people had turned the ramparts of the Bulwark into accommodations that stretched for miles. Eventually, though, people learnt. When you couldn't build out, build up.

Thirty disjoined floors of mayhem, Gyead was known as the city of dark water. Drainage could only go down and the sulfuric rains created an everlasting drip of sludge on lower levels. And it was dark, very dark. Many residents never saw sunlight for months, even if all they would have seen was a brown blur. Below, the air was so damp that torches often refused to light, making the expensive magic stones the only reliable illumination.

If police forces could barely catch criminals in wide modern streets, then this city was undoubtedly lawless. Sanitation was non-existent at best. And education? The only lessons here were those of the harsh life.

Although crafting still had its place, Gyead was one of the best combat spawns. Quests were all for blood and there was plenty of that to go around. It was where John had first spawned and where he would first spawn again.

John selected it as his location with seconds left to spare and the players in chat exchanged their final words of encouragement. Common and empty words. The screen went monochromatic and faded into the familiar spawn sequence.

The fountain of Gyead was located at the summit of the disorder and could be said to hold the only clean water in town. As the uncomfortable warmth cooled, hundreds of blurs could be seen near the bottom, thrashing.

It was the sudden panic of being unable to breathe and the coldness that punched them. Who would expect a sensation so real when playing a game? In a flurry of violent bubbles, the players rose, gasping for breath, not unlike the trailer.

John pulled himself out of the pool, soaking wet and collapsed in the pile of cursing avatars. In RISE, the seasons matched that of the real world. The tainted lands offered no warmth and the summit, even less protection against the winter winds.

"Cold, too damn cold," John muttered. But he still stood, exposed to the drafts, to gaze upon the endless stretch of drab land of ash-like dust. Full of craters and blackened crust, it appeared like a wasteland, although more than enough life occupied the expanse.

The collection of players huddled their way down the icy steps and into the first room they found. There were racks containing the starting weapons and of every class for players to experiment with and in the corner, a hearth immediately attracted the weary.

The group each picked out a few weapons for their class and gathered in front of fire expectantly, like children waiting for their teacher. Where was the tutorial NPC? Shouldn't there be a quest now? People often got lost in unfamiliar environments.

John wasn't one of the crowd now. RISE had a tutorial, but it didn't really mean much. They had tried to implement one, but it wasn't really good. There were no controls other than the mind. New players were like toddlers. How do you teach a toddler to walk? The fastest way was to guide them with some general instruction and watch them learn the rest for themselves.

And so, when he was dry, John disappeared down a set of stairs and back into the winter. As he went, he made a quick gesture, bringing up the familiar layout of the stat page. It was too bare, though: most stats were hidden at this moment.

[John]

Class: Starter Thief

Level: 1 (0/1000)

HP: 100/100

Strength: 9

Vitality: 9

Agility: 12

Dexterity: 12

Intelligence: 8

No one except a young man with the tag Helios noticed as John quietly slipped outside. He frowned and quickly followed behind. "Hey, where are you going?" Helios asked.

John turned around, surprised. "To level."

"What about the tutorial?"

"You can wait with them if you'd like."

A face with long blond hair and pleasant features, one of the few females to spawn at Gyead, popped out from the doorway at this moment. The name floating above her head read Selene. "Gram, come back, you'll miss the tutorial."

"Don't bother with that: I think I've found a beta tester."

"Beta tester?" Selene said and John thought simultaneously.

"Well?" Gram asked.

"Kinda, I guess?" John said, bemused.

"Exactly, he can boost – or teach us rather." Gram said.

To this, John couldn't but cough. 'Way too blunt'

And so, one became three as two followed along. The trio climbed down the countless levels with filled with people of all facets of life. Vendors sold foods and weapons. Weaponsmiths opened up and restaurants filled the halls with warm smells. Gyead might be uncomfortable and always on alert, but the hostility made the community well-knit – above the lower levels at least.

Of course, John had plans for his debut in RISE: an assortment of skill, guides, hidden quests, exploits, and lots of little bugs here and there. But in an effort to help players adjust to the new environment, an acclimatization period, later coined assimilation, was implemented for the first few levels. Most quests and features were locked off, guiding players towards developing necessary movement, comfort, and mentality for the core gameplay.

In these short levels, the best thing for rapid progression was to power level. Hence, John didn't mind bringing along a group – that and the fact that he missed the early game. The start of such a game was often the most enjoyable, where players innocently discovered new mechanics, moments John hadn't really felt since the third year.

"So, do all beta testers get early access?" Selene asked as they descended.

John thought for a second before replying. "Can't say, non-disclosure agreement."

"That's covered too? I guess yours would be even stricter. And I thought ours were bad enough."

"They expect big things."

Gram responded this time. "Well, it's a big game. The detail is astounding. It not just the visuals, but the chill the air or the feeling of wet clothes on your back."

"And how about you?" John asked Gram. "How'd you get in?"

"I'm a streamer, and Jodie here is too."

"Yes, we're partners," Jodie said, sounding annoyed with Gram's lack of association. "We have a channel: Sun and Moon Streams."

"Sounds familiar," John said. And truly familiar it was. John could vaguely recall a famous healer-tank combo by that name.

"We have an okay following," Jodie shrugged. "But we'll probably have to switch to VODs. No one would watch a stream of an accelerated game in the middle of the –"

She was interrupted by a thud sound. It was at this moment when the trio came across a set of sinister sliding double doors. The had reached the bottom of the habitable levels.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Didn't you watch the way?" John smirked. "You shouldn't blindly follow strangers."

"Oh, shut up," Jodie said. "Gram hasn't been watching either, have you?"

"We… Er... went down many flights of stairs... Should be near the bottom now."

John chuckled towards the young duo's banter. "Yes, that's right. We are near the bottom."

"And so, these doors?" Jodie asked.

"That's the Cage," he said as he sent a party invite.