Nathan reached for the remote and turned off the news report that was currently playing on all the major news channels. He sat quietly thinking over the shocking video he just watched.

Downloading a consciousness into a virtual world that allows you to live free of disease, abnormalities, handicaps, and even death? Could it really even be possible to do something so advanced in this day and age? He contemplated before reaching down to move the chair.

Nathan maneuvered his wheelchair down the hallway and into his bedroom to look at the shiny new chrome plated [Virtual Pod] next to his bed. “Can this really offer me a new chance at life away from this damn chair?” He softly whispered to himself

Nathan Bryant once lived a normal happy life despite the fact that he was alone for the most part. He enjoyed the outdoors often camping, hiking and hunting with his friends in remote wilderness locations for days or sometimes even weeks at a time. He had even enrolled in a local Colorado college that specialized in natural resource management to become a Park Ranger so that he could help preserve his outdoor passion.

Unfortunately, this dream came to an end on a rainy night on his way home when a drunk driver ran a red light and smashed into the side of his car. When he came to days later in a hospital room the doctors broke the news to him that his legs were paralyzed and he would never walk again.

The person who had hit him was a wealthy and influential businessman who bought his way out of it. Nathan received an enormous settlement that was enough to live off the remainder of his life.

This is when he found a new passion in PC gaming. Nathan enjoyed games he could immerse himself in taking him out of his chair to some far off world where he could become anyone or do anything.

This was the reason he had purchased this new virtual reality capsule in front of him. It would allow him to be able to walk and run again through an endless wilderness. He could travel through a new undiscovered world full of conflict and adventures.

Originally Nathan was upset that he had his physical therapy session scheduled for the time of the new game Dawn of Antiquity’s opening ceremony that was to have the creator Hugh Morgan attend and speak to the players at the starting city in the game.

While being driven home in the hospital’s van from his physical therapy session he was growing excited to get home and finally play his new game. The radio then caught his attention when he heard the game mentioned on the local news station the driver was listening to. He just caught part of the news castor explaining that people who joined to attend the opening ceremonies were now downloaded into the game via their VR capsules. When he got home Nathan couldn’t believe it as he turned his TV on just in time to catch the video that Hugh Morgan recorded and had delivered to the major news stations.

Like Mr. Morgan said in his video I have a choice to make now stay in this chair and try to make the most out of life or climb into that capsule and leave this world for a new one. A new world where I can continue to grow strong if I work at it. While here in this world I work at trying to get strong and I find myself actually growing weaker over time. I was once strong and in shape, I could climb mountains and cross forests now I get out of breath just putting my pants on in the morning.

Today I am currently 135 pounds compared to the fit 185 pounds I once was, and I am forced to eat muscle relaxants like jelly beans every day. When I think about it I start to believe this may actually be a blessing. It's not like I am leaving anyone behind my parents both passed away and I have distanced myself from my friends because it is too painful to hear them living the life I use to love. What is the difference between this world and a virtual world? You have all your same five senses, but you are free from lasting injuries and permanent death.

Rick moved his chair over to the [Virtual Pod] and pushed the power button. He was already familiar with all the features on it having studied the manual in his excitement to play as soon as he got home today. It had been torture having it all installed in his room the past couple days and waiting on the game's official opening to finally be able to log in.

When the blue light on the power button turned green the lid on the capsule slowly opened revealing a comfortable looking mattress inside. Rick sat there for a few minutes nervously contemplating what he was about to do. He felt in a way that he was killing himself, but also at the same time about to start a new life.

Ahhh, screw it! He thought working up the courage to proceed.

Nathan anxiously gripped the armrests on his chair with his palms sweating and arms shaking. He heaved himself up onto the capsule’s mattress and brought his legs to the side of the pod. He grabbed a hold of each of his legs individually and hauled them up into the capsule and laid down slightly winded from the exertion. Nathan reached up and pushed the close button and the lid came down to seal him in darkness momentarily.

After laying in the darkness for a couple of seconds, Nathan heard a female voice speak to him. “Please remain still your Virtual Pod will now scan your body you may still make alterations in the game this is only used as a reference before your character creation.”

“Are you ready to proceed with your scan now?” The voice asked him.

“Yes!”

A light bar lit up at his feet and gradually scanned him from his toes to the top of his head and then stopped.

Once again he heard the same voice. “Your scan is now complete do you wish to connect to Dawn of Antiquity now?”

Rick let out a long shaky sigh and answered. “Yes!”

Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die.

As he chanted to himself his eyes sluggishly closed and it felt like he was falling asleep. Nathan’s eyes suddenly flashed wide open to find himself in what appeared to be a brightly lit white room, but he couldn’t make out any surrounding walls, or a ceiling above him. Even the floor he stood upon was solid white with no discerning features. As Nathan recalled everything that just happened, it was then that he realized something important Nathan had missed up until finally recovering from this shocking event.

“Wait a minute I'm standing!” He yelled out in excitement as he began lifting his feet up and down feeling his weight shifting from one to the other.

“I can’t believe it I must be in the game, or maybe I really did die?” Then a smile appeared on his face and he broke into a run for what felt like about 20-30 yards and turned to run back laughing out loud the whole time.

A voice that sounded like it was right next to him stopped him in his tracks.

“You are in the game and you did not die. Your body is in a sleeplike state in you virtual reality capsule right now but your consciousness, or... your soul is here in the game”.

Rick began craning his head around looking for whoever was speaking to him.

“Who are you? I can’t see you.” Rick called out to the disembodied voice of the hidden man.

Right before him, a middle aged man shimmered into existence with a slight smile on his face. Nathan knew instantly who this man was he had seen interviews and photos everywhere online of him for months before this meeting.

“Hugh Morgan the Virtual Pod and Dawn of Antiquity creator and developer, I can’t believe it!” Rick said in shocked awe.

“Haha, Yes I am Hugh Morgan, and you are Nathan Bryant, age 26, attended college to become a Park Ranger, outdoor enthusiast turned gamer, no siblings, both parents deceased, and left a paraplegic from a drunk driver, and also the first person to willing download themselves into my virtual world. Well besides myself that is.” Hugh answered Nathan with a laundry list of his personal information.

Nathan stood there silently with his mouth agape while the man before him listed off all his personal details.

Hugh started to laugh at Nathan's reaction and explained. “I may be in this world but I still have access to the internet with my developer tools and my AI was able to retrieve your information as you were being integrated into the game world. I was quite curious to meet you since you made a conscious decision to enter the game knowing full well the consequences.” Hugh told Nathan as he looked him over.

Nathan silently listened as Hugh continued to speak. “It seems we have a few things in common Mr. Bryant we were both alone in the real world and looking for a new life free of our enduring destinies.”

Nathan then spoke up after Hugh paused with his comparison. “It was a nerve wracking choice to make, but as I thought it through I could only come up with all pros and not a single con. Even so, right before I hauled myself out of that chair into the [Virtual Pod] I almost lost my nerve to go through with it. I just couldn’t continue to live my life trapped in that chair anymore when a new world was waiting for me to explore on my own two feet.” Nathan explained his thoughts to Hugh.

Hugh gave him a sad smile and responded. “I know the feeling even though I had maybe a year or two left it was still a difficult decision to make, but like you, in the end, I was also ready to be strong again and free of that cursed disease,” Hugh said dolefully.

Nathan momentarily shook his head with a grave expression at the similarities before replying.

“Well, I guess then this makes you like...my second father then. We have so much in common and you are the one who brought me into your world and have given me a new life, haha. That is no less than I ever received from my real father” Nathan a little embarrassed explained with a downcast look to Hugh also feeling a connection after only just meeting him.

Hugh was shocked at Nathan’s words, he never had a chance to have a child of his own, and even though he didn’t show it Nathan’s comment made him happy.

“Well, I have delayed you long enough, are you ready to start that new life now then?” Hugh asked Nathan.

With a roguish smile, Nathan replied. “Hell yeah! I can’t wait to get out there and explore your world!” Nathan exclaimed excitedly.

“Excellent, then let me explain, normally my AI takes care of all this, but I wanted to meet you so I took over her job this one time, haha,” Hugh said with a mischievous look as he continued. “This world is setup somewhat different than most RPG games. For starters, In this game classes are called "Jobs". Jobs are very similar to an RPG class, but we have a little more flexibility with them. ” Nathan flashed Hugh a questioning look.

Hugh smiled and held up his hand. “Let me explain if you wanted to become let’s say a Blacksmith you would go to the employment bureau that is located in Terminus City,” Hugh explained to the attentive young man while continuing.

“At the employment bureau, you can choose from a list of jobs that can be assigned to your status similar to classes that give you extra abilities like forging blades or smelting iron that you can improve as you use them. Now if later you changed to a new job and didn’t like it, or for some reason decided you wanted to go back to being a blacksmith again all your blacksmith abilities you had improved before your switch will have not of changed and will be exactly the same as before your switch.”

Nathan then spoke up. “Then that means I could switch from one job to another and always keep my gains I made in those professions?” He asked Hugh.

“Exactly there is no penalty for switching jobs as much as you wish. Then at level 20, you are allowed to hold two jobs at once. This will continue for every ten levels you gain, for level 30, 40, and 50. In the end at level fifty you can hold five total jobs even though you can still level up higher,” Hugh continued to educate Nathan on his game’s mechanics.

“Next the attributes will seem similar to what is used in most RPG games with Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, Agility, and Charisma. Now, even though there is an intelligence attribute, Dawn of Antiquity does not have mana or magic. The intelligence attribute is used in conjunction with your skills and also determines how quickly your virtual brain can process information and situations.” Hugh thoughtfully paused a moment to make sure Nathan didn’t have any questions and then continued.

“I will now show you an example status menu to familiarize yourself with. This has the standard skills, weapon proficiencies, attributes, status, currency, and any jobs, or titles you may earn listed here.”

A menu then appeared just below Nathan’s line of sight with all the information Hugh just explained was displayed and neatly listed out in an interactive menu.

YOUR NAME HERE Skills Skill Level Weapon Class Proficiency Acrobatics: 0/25 One Handed: 0% Athletics: 0/25 Two Handed: 0% Blocking: 0/25 Polearm: 0% Equestrian: 0/25 Ranged: 0% First Aid: 0/25 Thrown: 0% Foraging: 0/25 Custom: 0% Pitch Force: 0/25 Pull Force: 0/25 Stealth: 0/25 Strength: 0 Swing Force: 0/25 Constitution: 0 Defence: 0/0 Intelligence: 0 Health Points: 0/0 Perception: 0 Satiety: 0/0 Agility: 0 Level: 0 (0%) Charisma: 0 Skill Points 0 Attribute Points 0 Currency: Gold: 0 Silver: 0 Copper: 0 Jobs: (none) (none) (none) (none) (none) Title: (none)

After allowing Nathan a moment to look over the menu Hugh carried on with his demonstration.

“As you can see I have designed a streamlined menu that has all your important stats listed without needing to dig through countless menus to view them. If you wish to view more details to touch for example the jobs buttons and the system will bring up a description of that job and the skills related to it, and your progression in each of those skills.” Hugh finished his breakdown on the menu and continued on.

"Another thing that you should be aware of is that every player has a Fast Travel option. These options are used with [Mark Location] and [Return]. These options were added to allow players to easily return to their home without having to cross vast distances. If you were to find a place you wanted to live you would use the [Mark Location] to set a waypoint on your map. Then later when you wanted to go back home you would open your map click on the waypoint and choose [Return]. The only time you can not access this option is when you are currently in combat. If you have attacked or been attacked this option is deactivated for two minutes. If you continue to attack or are attacked the two-minute timer will continue to reset itself." Hugh explained.

"So, I need to either defeat the attacker, die, or escape combat for two minutes for it be reactivated once again?" Nathan asked.

"Exactly, this is so that players can not escape PVP or dangerous situations. If everyone could just teleport away just before death it would defeat the whole purpose of fighting to become stronger." Hugh said.

Nathan quietly nodded in agreement. It would be quite annoying if you tracked your enemy down after days for him to just zip off on you or see if you PK decided to jump you and could also teleport off if things were not going the way he thought they might. You would have the world full of PKs then because no one would have any consequences for their actions. Nathan pondered over reasoning.

"Now for the last part about the [Mark Location] option I need to demonstrate. Open up you menu option and try to use [Mark Location] in this room."

Nathan did as Hugh asked and when he attempted to set his waypoint for the room on the map they were currently in a window popped.

Access Denied! You are not permitted to save your location inside of restricted zones!

"It says that I can not save my location inside of restricted zones," Nathan said.

"This is to stop players from using their [Mark Location] inside of businesses, restricted buildings, or player homes that have been set as a restricted area. I knew that someone at some point in time would begin to use [Mark Location] option to teleport into places after hours and rob them blind without anyone ever knowing they were there. This way it stops them from walking into a bank to make a deposit and covertly setting a waypoint to come back at night and empty the safe out." Hugh explained.

“That should about cover most of the basics that you will need to know when getting started. Now we can move onto your Character creation and name.” Hugh pressed a few buttons on a large menu he was reading, but was invisible to Nathan. After swiftly surfing through the menus, he was able to prepare the character creation process for Nathan.

Hugh looked up from his menus when he was finished as a perfect copy of Nathan then flashed into view next to both of them.

Hugh then gestured to Nathan’s immobile clone and proceeded to acquaint him with the creation process. “This is clone is part of the character creation the menu that I will now open will allow you to alter your clone’s appearance and body shape and also change your name.” I designed this so that a player could see what they will look like as they alter their appearance.” Hugh said as he then opened the character creation menu for Nathan to make his alterations.

Nathan then asked Hugh. “There is one thing I am curious about I remember reading that there are other races in the world, but Players do not have a race choice option. Not that I would want to change my race, but I would think a lot of people would have liked the option.” Nathan asked Hugh having been always curious why players could not change their race.

“That...The thing is I had always planned on keeping everyone who joined this world here permanently against their will for my own selfish reasons. I thought that was bad enough without telling them, let alone trapping them in the body of some fantasy race until the day that this world might somehow meet its end. Even though I have taken precautions for that not to happen.” Hugh explained and he seemed to not want to talk about the subject any further.

Nathan let it drop at that and focused on the character menu. “I really don’t need to make that many changes. I do want to make my appearance resemble what I looked like before that jackass crippled me.” Nathan revealed with a scowl and began to test out the different slide bars and numerical adjustments.

First, he added the weight and muscle mass he lost giving himself the athletic build he once had at around 180 pounds. Then he lightened his hair for fun making it look more blondish Brown then brown and liked how it looked on the clone so he left it like that. Then he adjusted his height by two inches making his clone six foot, one inch tall.

That should be good enough, now what name should I use?

He thought about it for a minute then began to type with the virtual keyboard combined into the creation menu.

“If I am starting a new life I should start it with a new name. From now on I will be known as Alaric Brightblade. A fantasy name for a fantasy world.” Nathan said as he finished entering his name and closed out the character creation menu.

Nathan suddenly felt himself shift into the clone body he just altered and a slight wave of dizziness was felt for a couple seconds before it completely faded.

“Now you are all set Alaric Brightblade I will now send you off to Terminus City. If you ever have any problems or just want to talk you can look in your friend list I have added my name there. We may even bump into each other in the world but I will look much different than I do now for obvious reasons. After I informed everyone of their circumstances at the opening ceremony I became the most hated person in this virtual world.” Hugh said with a sad smile.

Alaric hadn’t really thought about that until now he was the one who made the choice to join, so he didn't have a problem with Hugh, but if he had a life like he once had it would be a different situation entirely.

Alaric knew now why Hugh wanted to meet him and gave him his contact name. He was probably the only person that Hugh could be himself around and not be despised. This made him feel sad for Hugh, so he made a mental note to keep in touch with him from time to time.

“Thank you, Hugh I really appreciate that you created this world and allowed me to be a part of it.”

Alaric reached out and shook Hugh's hand with an excited smile then he shimmered away in front of Hugh to be teleported to Terminus to begin his new life.

Hugh stood in place for a minute after Alaric had left. “Good luck...son” Hugh whispered as he also shimmered away leaving the bright white room empty once again.