Today is the first day of my adventures in a whole new VR MMO. But first, I have to wake up.

My alarm buzzes and I groan trying to find my stupid phone under the sheets. Every night I forget to place it on the charging stand.

I silence the alarm and amble towards the bathroom. Yes, amble since I’m not awake enough to stomp or meander.

As I reach for the bathroom door, it opens, and out comes a cloud of steam and the smell of Old Spice.

"Morning, Carrots."

I hate it when people call me “Carrots”, but growing up my parents kept feeding me carrots. They insisted I needed it so that I wouldn't need glasses when I grew up like they did. It didn't work. The full Irish from my mother and some German from my father left me pasty, short, four eyed, and big ears to top it all off.

The person that greets me is my roommate Alexander Philanof. Tall, dark, and Russian. He has a solid foot and half on me, but then again most people are taller than me.

I'd met him when we were placed in the same dorm room Freshman year and we’d stuck together until now, our Senior year.

I grumble and push past him into the already steamy bathroom to get ready. Today is going to be an exciting day, but that doesn’t change the fact that mornings, suck.

Finishing up my morning routine, I head into the living room to find people rummaging through the cupboards. Butes and Suki are in the midst of making breakfast.

"Morning!" Suki says with a cheerful smile behind her enormous round glasses and expertly cut bangs. Her mother is a hairdresser so it's no surprise she's put together. She’s double majoring in biology and chemistry because her mother has taught her to appreciate quality organic, all natural products. Suki, however, doesn’t trust any brands and would rather make her own.

"Oh, he's awake? I thought ‘Carrots’ weren't in season yet!" Butes is more Alex's friend than mine. They met before we became roommates and she came along with the package. She has a faint Spanish accent that’s been washed away from her time living in Portland. Her parents were able to provide a good life for the family of eight, but that left little money for college. But Butes never gave up and hard made her way into college. Now she’s finishing up her degree in Business Administration.

"We're making gluten and dairy free, cardamon pancakes for breakfast. You okay with hemp milk or did you want me to get the batch of oat milk I just finished making?" Asks Suki.

"Uh, yea. Carrots choosing between, homemade oat milk or store bought hemp? That's a no brainer, I'm getting the half and half from the fridge. I'm pretty sure Alex has some in here." Butes replies.

Suki scowls at her while I sit at the counter.

"Are you just going to watch us cook?" Butes asks pointing the carton of half and half at me.

"Of course he is," comes Alex’s voice from behind me. "You cook, we clean. That was the deal wasn't it?"

“Oh how modern of you!” Butes exclaims as she set a plate on the counter with some pancakes and eggs.

“I’m a 20th century boy.” Alex says as he grabs the plate and sits on the sofa.

“Ha! Just eat your breakfast, we have a long day ahead of us.” Butes put another plate on the counter as Suki cracks a new set of eggs. Her fingers are nimble and she’s able to get them cracked with a single hit on the edge of the pan. Pink nail polish on her fingers looks fresh on all but her thumb where she’s bitten down the nail.

“Carrots!” Butes calls me out of my stupor and I grab the plate, cheeks burning.

We enjoy breakfast together as Butes and Alex joke. Butes then asks, “So, you all know the plan right?”

Alex snickers, “You think we forget so easy?”

“Yea, well, it’s an important release, okay?”

“Yea, yea, we get the point. You’re just excited to try out the smuggler class they’ve been talking about. Get some explosions and big guns in your hands.” Alex nudges me with his elbow and I force a smile.

“You looking forward to the game?” asks Suki.

“Of course he is!” Alex cuts in. “He’s looking forward to all the alien women he’ll meet online!”

I laugh nervously.

“Carrots and alien women? You mean all those guys that will roll female characters just to play dress up in VR with their ridiculously shaped bodies?” Butes says waving a piece of pancake at me.

This is the day we’ve all been waiting for. It’s the day that DomeNET Online releases. DomeNET is a sci-fi VR MMO, which stands for Virtual Reality Multi-Player Online.

It’s the spiritual successor to the game where we all met, Altera. When Alex and I met during Freshman year, we didn’t quite click until I pulled out my head set and logged in, only to be dragged out by Alex exclaiming, ‘You play Altera?’.

Since then, he introduced me to Butes and Suki online and started our raid group. The four of us were able to take on some of the largest raids and world bosses on our own. Butes was our tank, Suki the heals, with Alex and I ran as ranged and melee classes.

I’m not as much into damage classes, or DPS, but it’s the class I usually ended up playing. I miss playing games like Infinite Wars online, where you could level up your character freely and have a direct influence on the world around you without having to fit a specific role but IWO has been dead a long time and even the emulated servers don’t hold up.

Now DomeNET online is out, and not only will I get to experience a full immersion VR MMO, but the world is built specifically to be player driven from the ground up.

“He’s not denying it!” Alex digs his elbow into my side and I grimace.

“The helmets should be arriving by 8 pm today, so get everything ready. Pre-order instructions said that we need to get the DDCs ready before we go online tonight.” Butes is all business suddenly as she gets up to put her plate in the sink.

Deep dive capsules, or DDCs, are like multi vitamins times one hundred. They keep your body nourished for a few days at a time by releasing nutrients into your system on a timer. The details are beyond me, but Suki geeks out when people ask her about them.

Standing, I takes Suki and Alex’s plate to the sink and start to rinsing them.

“It said we need to make sure that we’re well fed and rested before going online during the launch tonight, so let’s get everything settled.”

Alex stands and grabs the glasses to put them in to the sink, “Your bladder bags ready Carrots?”

A fork falls through my fingers and clatters into the sink.

“We don’t want a mess when we wake up.” He chides, eyebrows bouncing

My cheeks flush and I glance at Suki who’s still sitting at the table looking at her tablet. Regardless of how close we’ve all become as an online group, it’s always embarrassing to talk about bodily functions. Embarrassing but unavoidable.

“They say you can stay online for up to 48 hours at a time using the new Dome DDCs!” exclaims Suki.

“Yup, that’s why I got us these.” Butes walks over to her bag and pulls out a box. She opens it and pulls out a sheet of pills individually wrapped with silver foil on one side and transparent plastic on the other.

“Whoa!” Alex dives over the counter to grab a sheet of pills from Butes. “These are the premium 48 hour DDCs! I didn’t think we’d get these right away!”

“How could you afford this!?” Suki rush to Butes side.

“Hohoho, you ask this as though you don’t know!” Butes is ever the show woman. “You all know we made a killing from our raids on Altera. Why are you so surprised?”

“Wait, what are you talking about? Did you...” I’m shocked as her words settle in, “did you sell your Altera account?”

Butes grins.

“You can’t be serious!”

“No way!”

“What?”

We are all shocked. It’s true that Altera is definitely not going to be our main game anymore since DomeNET Online is out. That doesn’t change the fact that Butes selling her account and all the items in Altera was still a major step. We’d all spent years leveling up our characters and gathering the best gear in the game.

“How could you just sell it off like that?” I ask.

“Easy. I don’t ever plan on going back. Do you?” Butes looks at me, puzzled.

“I...” Her words strike me. Do I plan on going back to Altera after playing DomeNET Online?

“Hahaha! That’s genius! I should have done the same! I’m pretty sure there is a flood in the Altera account market at this point though. Who would buy any of those accounts? They’re worthless now that DNO is going live.”

It’s true. With DNO going live tonight, all the legacy Altera accounts will be worthless. At least in a financial way. Regardless of the monetary value of the Altera accounts I’m too attached, to my character to let them go.

“How much did you get for your account?” Alex asks.

“Enough to get us a months supply of DDCs and some in-game currency.” She replies, clicking her tongue with pride.

“Whoa... that’s pretty incredible,” ogles Alex. “Much respect for the beauty of all Butes.”

“Hahaha.” Butes laughs. “Alright, let’s get everything ready. Do you all know what class you’ll pick to start?”

“Enforcer.” Alex doesn’t hesitate. I’m surprised since he’s played a Ranger in Altera, and a Sniper in IWO.

“Bio-Engineer.” Chimes in Suki. That one I do expect since she played a Priest in Altera, and Doctor in IWO.

“What about you, Carrots?” asks Butes.

“I not sure yet.” I reply. I looked over the starting classes they had announced so far and still hadn’t decided.

The Bio-Engineer class was interesting since it started with some basic stim packs and I could backup Suki, but I don’t know if I wanted to be a healer.

The Ranger really drew me in because it has the ability to handle all ranged weapon types from the start and plays well into my DPS roles. But I’m sure I want to be a DPS class anymore either.

The other options announced so far were Enforcer, Artisan and Citizen. Enforcer was like Ranger but with melee weapons, while the Artisan started with several schematics for items right away. Neither of those two options really appeal to me.

Citizen, though, has very few details revealed. In fact all we know is that it has a different starting zone and doesn’t have any perks like schematics or skills. It’s literally a blank slate.

“I’m going Citizen.” I say.

“What?”

“Huh?”

“Are you crazy?”

All three of them talk at once.

“That’s the worst class to start with! We know nothing about it.” Alex almost throws his sheet of DDCs as he gestures wildly.

“Not only that, you actually start in a different zone and people are saying you have to level up your perks enough to get off the starter island!” Suki speaks up.

Butes just looks at me, I wasn’t sure if it was disapproval or not but her expression wasn’t very good.

“Yea. I’ve read the forums, but that’s all speculation.”

“Yea, but you’ll take longer to catch up in leveling if you start at a disadvantage! You’ll slow us all down!” Alex actually throws the sheet at me.

“I get it! But I still wanna do it!” I say as I catch it.

“We don’t know anything about the Citizen class. What if it doesn’t just slow you down. What if they don’t have racial bonuses? Or what if the Devs purposely put in a class that would be impossible to enjoy unless you were a glutton for punishment.”

“It’s not that I want to suffer or start at a disadvantage. I just don’t want to be cast into a role until I get a chance to experience the game.”

“But you’ll have wasted all that time!”

“I know.”

Butes glares at me her expression pensive and curious, as Alex and Suki try to convince me to change my mind.

“You’re sure about this?” Butes asks.

“Yes.”

“Alright. You’re on your own to start then. No asking for power leveling later.”

“I know.”

A droplet of water splashes in the sink and a buzzing sound goes off. Butes pulls her phone out. After a moment she says, “They’re here! Time to get this show on the road.”