[Character Customization Options]

Mirrors materialize all around me and I see myself from multiple angles. Between the mirrors is a menu that says:

[Loading...]

A few seconds go by, and it changes to:

[Customization complete, proceeding to class selection.]

"What! I didn't get to pick anything!"

[Please select a starting Class]

Enforcer

Ranger

Artisan

Smith

Bio-Engineer

Engineer

Manager

Entertainer

Agriculturalist

Hunter

The screen displays some information as I select Enforcer and my outfit changes into loose fitting cotton pants, tight fitting shirt, no shoes, and tape wrapped around my wrists and knuckles.

[Enforcer]

Melee weapons and hand to hand combat specialists. By focusing on control and physical discipline, the Enforcer excels in close combat.

Skills available for Progression are:

One-Handed Weapons

Two-Handed Weapons

Unarmed Combat

Combat Discipline

It's not the type of class that I would normally pick, but if I start off as an Enforcer, I can pick up Ranger down the line and create a hybrid ninja or something. Excitement drives me to the 'Continue' button. The menu buzzes. I change to Ranger and hit continue. Same.

None of the classes allow me to proceed! I'm ready to back out of the selection menu when I notice a message above the menu.

[Deselect all selections to enter the game without a predefined class]

Tapping the latest selected class I see that it gets greyed out. Pressing next, the screen actually proceeds.

Around me the mirrors fall away and I'm standing in a massive open space with horizons that look like they stretch on for infinity all around me.

"Hello?"

"Welcome to DomeNET Online." A female voice announces from everywhere and nowhere in particular.

"Thanks?"

No response. I spin around and check if I missed anything. Then my clothing dematerializes and changes. I'm wearing pink pajamas with purple elephants and giraffes, tears and everything. The weight of pouch tugs on my shoulder and all the rest of my gear materializes.

"Uh..." I pull out the bow from it's holster and open it. It's the exact same bow. I shouldn't be surprised since I did login to the same game. But I still feel like screaming at someone, so I do, "Eden!"

No response.

Screaming does me no good as the world rotates and wind whips past me. I'm falling!

Clouds are sweeping past me. My screams of frustration turn into ones of terror as I flail my arms and force me self around.

“Eden!”

No response.

"Eden!"

Nothing.

Based on my experience with the wolves biting my arm and the damage to my shoulder just before logging out, I don’t want to hit the ground.

Reaching into my pouch I find the anti-grav unit and pull it out and see it still has a charge. A tingling sensation radiates from my shoulder as I attach it and turn it on. The wind dies down as the effects kick in. Panic subsiding I start to notice where I’m headed.

It’s a large circular building that resembles a Q with a tower on the stem. In the middle is several ships. One of them looks like a hammerhead shark with two massive air tanks attached to its sides. A line of people are walking in and out of it.

I hear a beep from my shoulder and look. A light if flashing on the anti-grav unit. The power cell is almost drained. Rotating the dial I start to fall faster.

Down below, people start pointing. More and more people look up and see me floating down towards them, belly button exposed.

I wave at the people below and see someone pull something out. Then they point it at me. I frown and cock my head as a woman in the crowd with orange and green hair shoves the person and a bolt of energy whizzes past me!

I tuck my myself into a ball to try and adjust the anti-grav unit so that I fall faster. The wind whips by as I angle by body towards the person. I put my elbow forward in hopes of slamming into them.

For once, my plans succeed.

A loud, 'Oof' lets out as I slam right into them. Unfortunately I didn’t think it through.

At the bottom left of my vision in small orange letters I see a notification.

[You have done 59 points of Physical damage to PerniciousDogs]

[You have taken 17 points of Physical damange]

Sand scrapes my face as I tumble to the ground. People around me watch as I pull out my pistol and shout, “What is your problem? Didn’t you see I was falling?”

PerniciousDogs is wearing a what looks like a 'newsies' cap with a visor over their eyes. Their mouth and nose is covered by a cup with vents. Baggy clothing leaves no distinguishable shapes to tell if it's a man or woman.

"Well?"

Instead of answering, they sweep at my feet so I jump back. A blue creature that looks like a deep sea angler fish mixed with a bull dog growls as I tumble into them. Dead eyes glare at me and I shiver.

A fist slams right into my face.

[PerniciousDogs hits you for 23 points of Physical damage]

The impact is enough to knock me back and this time I run into a woman. She pulls me behind her and goes into a combat stance.

"Bring it!" she shouts.

Cup face swings their right fist and she dodges, but they manage to follow it with a kick that slams into the womans shoulder.

She grunts, shoves their leg, and drops into a sweep. Cup face jumps into the air and pulls something from their inventory. It's a gun.

Dust kicks up as I dive to the ground and fire my pistol square into cup face’s chest.

[You have done 503 points of Physical damage to PerniciousDogs]

[You have incapacitated PerniciousDogs]

[Your Affinity with Vroma has decreased by 2 points]

“Whoa! Did you see that, he took them out with a single shot.” A voice calls out from in the crowd.

“Is that a special weapon?”

“What class is he?”

“Maybe that’s a special outfit or something.”

“It has to be, why else would anyone wear something like that?”

"Why isn't he finishing them off?"

Hushed murmurs start up all around me as smoke comes from Cup Face's chest. It rises and falls slowly. They aren’t dead.

"Come on." I hear the woman with fun hair say as she grabs my arm.

All around me there is alien races, players in strange outfits and guards wearing the same grey armor. Inside what I believe is the main room I see terminals.

This is a transport station. It was nothing like the place I had been before. Beatrice would lose her mind if she saw how much power these people were wasting.

"Why are we running?" I ask.

"I'm guessing you left them alive for a reason, right?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"You incapacitated them, but you didn't actually finish them off. When they wake up, they're going to come after you. I'm sure that gun is nice, but I'm also pretty sure that was a lucky shot."

"How do you finish someone off?"

"You perform a Kill Strike."

The crowd from earlier has dispersed and some of the aliens and players are staring at me as they walk by and mutter things to each other.

“How’d you get up in the air like that anyways?”

“What?"

"Earlier, you appeared in the air."

"I have no idea. I just logged in.”

“Just logged in? Are you kidding me?”

“Nope. I literally spawned up in the air like that.”

“How did you survive that fall? I mean, it looked like you suddenly slowed down and then sped up. Are those pajamas some sort of variable strength anti-grav outfit?”

“Not exactly.”

“Not exactly, ok. Then what exactly are you equipped with?”

[Trixi Erand would like to Inspect you. ]

“I’m not equipped with anything special.”

[Inspection denied]

“Then why did you decline my inspection?”

“Would you let just anyone inspect you?”

“Sure, go right ahead.”

[Trixi Erand has granted you permission to Inspect their equipment]

Several windows pop up around Trixi with lines pointing to her gear. None of it makes sense to me and I’m not ready to get into the details right now so I wave away the notification windows.

“Thanks but I’m not sure what any of this means yet. I really need to just get my bearing straight.”

“Sure.”

“Is there a starting zone or something?”

“Yea.” She looks me up and down and smirks.

“Ok?”

“I’ll help you out, but you need to help me first.”

“With what? I just started."

“Sell me your gun and I’ll show you the ropes.”

“My gun?” I glance down at my holster,”I can’t it's not mine.”

“So you stole it?”

“I didn’t steal anything. It was leant to me.”

“Ok, ok, don’t get your bantha all frazzled.”

“Bantha?”

“I’ll show you around, but you’ll need to get a ticket to Hajima first.”

“Sure, how do I do that?”

“These terminals accepts dims, you know what those are right?”

“Yea.”

“Ok, so just go through the menu and select Hajima from the options. This station only has access to Hajima and Sebo, so it’s not too complicated.”

“Thanks.” I head to the terminal and see Hajima is actually already selected so I check the price. 425 Dims. “Uh...”

“What’s up?”

“I can’t afford a trip to Hajima.”

“What do you mean? It’s only 425 Dims.”

“Yea, last I checked I don’t have that many Dims.”

“You start with 1000 when you login.”

“Really?”

“Yea, every user starts with 1000 dims in their account unless you purchased the limited edition.”

“Is there a chip scanner around here to see how many Dims I have?”

“Chip scanner, what are you talking about? You can see your Dims on your HUD, just open the inventory menu.”

Frowning I pull my arm up and try to call up my EDI.

Nothing happens.

“Why are you looking at your arm?”

“That’s how I pull up my HUD.”

"No it's not."

"What do you mean?"

"Do this." She makes a gesture like throwing a card into the air.

Frowning I do the same and a semi-transparent screen appears in front of me.

“Whoa!”

An actual interface. This was incredible! I can see my health as a red bar in the top left along with yellow and green ones. Above that is my name, 'Carrots Field'.

On the top right is a circular map that shows my location and light blue and white dots moving around me.

Bottom left has a chat box with tabs and bottom right has some icons that I'm sure are the game menus.

An icon that looks like a briefcase is pretty self explanatory, so I click it and the middle of my display is filled with an inventory screen! At the bottom right of the screen, under my items, I see my Dims.

[5040 Dims]

"Oh wow."

“What's up?”

“I guess I have money.”

“Good, get your ticket.”

“Umm."

"What?"

"How do I make the screen go away?"

She chuckles and puts her hand on my shoulder, "Guess I'll have to teach you basics won't I?"