Dean blinked against the fading light as the sensation of falling stopped and his stomach slowly settled in place. He hoped that spawning wouldn’t feel this way every time he respawned. Once his vision cleared, he found himself staring at wooden planks, supported by thick wood beams, through a hazy layer of smoke.

A semi-transparent notification popped up in front of him. The smoke slowed visibly, the curling tendrils almost coming to a standstill, suggesting that time had slowed in game.

Please Choose an Immersion Level:

Level:

Default Settings:

Amateur

Recommended for First-Time Players, this setting is designed to acclimate players to the Dive system.

*Required for Players 15 years old and under

· Pain Suppression – Max

· Full HUD Display

· Enable All Notifications

· Enable Tips and Tricks

Novice

Recommended for Players with some Dive experience, this setting is designed to acclimate players to game specific mechanics.

*Must be at least 16 years old

· Pain Suppression – High

· Full HUD Display

· Enable First Encounter Notifications

· Enable Tips and Tricks

Apprentice

Recommended for Players with moderate Dive experience, this setting is designed to provide a balanced immersion level.

*Must be at least 18 years old

· Pain Suppression – Moderate

· Moderate HUD Display

· Enable First Encounter Notifications

· Disable Tips and Tricks

Journeyman

Recommended for Expert Players, this setting is designed to provide a deep immersion while maintaining basic gameplay elements.

*Player must be at least 21 years old and agree to the Health Monitoring Agreement.

· Pain Suppression – Low

· Minimize HUD Display

· Disable Notifications

· Disable Tips and Tricks

Master

Designed for players that want an authentic in-game experience. Recommended for expert level players only.

*Player must be at least 25 years old and agree to the Health Monitoring Waiver and Full Immersion Indemnity Agreement.

· Pain Suppression– Off

· Disable Status Bars

· Disable Notifications

· Disable Tips and Tricks

He ignored the two higher settings completely. Even if this wasn’t his first dive, there was no way he’d want to play with that level of pain. He doubted that getting stabbed in game would feel like he was actually getting stabbed, even at the Master Setting where pain tolerances were set to zero. There was no way the game would allow that. Nobody would choose to play at that level if the pain was identical to real life. Except, maybe Will, but then again, Will was an adrenaline junkie, and might enjoy the rush.

Dean selected the Amateur level, figuring he could change the settings later if the notifications got in the way. The screen winked out, and the speed of the game returned to normal, as several new objects appeared in his vision. In the top left were three different colored bars. He guessed red was for health, blue for stamina and green for mana, each one with a reading of one hundred out of one hundred. At the bottom left was a small map, detailing a small room with various pieces of furniture in it. Across the top was a bar with a large ‘E’ near the edge, probably a compass. The bottom right had a circle with a fist in it, and several smaller circles radiating out in all four cardinal directions. Considering he was currently unarmed, it might be some kind of favorite weapon or a quick equip menu. He had no way of knowing until he found a weapon.

A moment later, his other senses returned, bombarding him with sensations that his brain struggled to process. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, giving himself a chance to focus on each of his other senses.

He was laying on a something soft and warm, his head propped up. It felt like a bed, if a rather lumpy one. Next, he heard the soft crackling of a fire, probably in a fireplace somewhere nearby, and his nose confirmed the smell of woodsmoke. He tasted ash and thought that someone forgot to open the flue.

So, this is what a full dive is like? It feels so real.

He opened his eyes and studied the wooden beams. The graphics were still computer generated, but incredibly well done. The level of detail on the smoke’s movements was beyond anything he’d seen in a video game or movie to date. If the rest of the game was this detailed, he’d could easily see how some people buried themselves here over the real world.

He glanced down at his body, naked except for a pair of white boxers, and noted that his stomach was flatter, the beginnings of his beer belly gone, and his muscles were slightly more defined, similar to a swimmer’s build with lean muscles. He was about to sit up when a notification popped up.

Tutorial: Movement

The Dive gear is designed to intercept mental commands, and translate it to in-game actions, such as walking, running, and crouching. Certain actions are dependent on in-game stats, such as Stamina or Endurance, and may be different from real world capabilities. Increasing the necessary stats will improve a player’s ability to perform those actions.

He read the message quickly, briefly wondering who would need that information to figure out movement in the game. Did anyone actually log into the game without a basic concept of how dive gear worked? He wasn’t an expert by any means, but he’d read up on dive gear and the game as much as possible before logging in. If this is what the beginner setting looked like, he was going to have to switch to the higher level.

There wasn’t much out on the game yet, since it was brand new and Omnisense had kept a tight lid on it. Other than the name, The Demon King: Fallen Realms, there wasn’t much else out there about the game. Even the plotline had been kept a secret with the developers only revealing the fact that the Demon King was the main antagonist. Otherwise, they’d claimed it was a game with infinite possibilities and replays. They hadn’t elaborated on it in the interview, not wanting to give too much away, but hinted that there were different areas in the world with unique settings and capabilities. He’d seen a rumor that there were multiple spawn points throughout the world, and that each civilization had unique environments and gaming elements, but it’d never been confirmed. The only thing he specifically remembered from the article, because he thought Ryan would be interested, was the rumor that players could purchase and captain boats around the coastal areas, upgrading them and hiring crewmembers with unique traits and capabilities.

But he was finally in the game and could find out whether those rumors were true. He just needed to get moving so he could get past the tutorial.

He sat up slowly, swinging his legs over the bed, as he tested how well his limbs responded in the game. Movement felt natural, no different than moving his own body in the real world.

He jerked his bare feet off the floor in surprise. It was warm to the touch, hot enough to surprise him, but not enough to burn them. Or maybe it was, and the pain suppression software was stopping him from feeling pain. Prepared this time, he put his feet on the ground, checking his health bar to make sure it didn’t move. Satisfied that he wasn’t losing health points, he stood up to start exploring. His face hit a cloud of smoke, causing his eyes to water at the sudden sting. He ducked his head and wiped a hand across his face.

Where’s all the smoke coming from?

Aside from the bed tucked into one corner, the room was scarcely furnished. There was a chest at the foot of the bed, opposite a wardrobe, and a small vanity with a water jug and washbasin on it along the wall with the door. No fireplace.

He flung open the dresser doors, hoping to find some clothes, especially a pair of boots. Sure enough, there was a brown and black set, both made of soft leather, along with shirts and trousers of various colors.

He went with an all-black outfit because, despite typically picking the good choices in video games, he always preferred the anti-hero. Not only were their outfits badass, they were more believable. He could understand characters like Batman or the Punisher, heroes fueled by vengeance and determined to beat the enemy at all costs, even if it meant breaking the rules.

But a character like Superman? Was he really supposed to believe that Superman had never abused his powers? Hadn’t used his x-ray vision to peek at the college cheerleader squad while they showered? Or win Lois Lane’s heart by being a bumbling idiot? Bullshit. Yeah, with great power comes great responsibility and all that, but even Spiderman used his powers to impress Mary Jane and stage photos to sell. That was at least believable, but there was just something about anti-heroes that made them badass, in Dean’s opinion.

It wasn’t his fault that most video games had choices resembling a decision between the Jedi or Sith. Of course, he’d choose Jedi, who wouldn’t? Especially when the Sith were stuck to red lightsabers and the Jedi could choose from multiple colors. Now, if the only way to get a purple lightsaber meant dancing with the devil in the pale moon light, then he might consider learning the tango. No, he totally would.

He searched the rest of the dresser, finding a small coin pouch and a hunting knife. He attached both to his belt, a pop-up window at the bottom of his screen stating that he’d ‘Acquired – Coin Pouch’, ‘Acquired – 18 Copper Coins’, and ‘Acquired – Hunting Knife’. He was a little surprised that the knife didn’t pull up some kind of item window to show him its stats. Maybe it’s a utility item?

He searched the chest and vanity, only to find them completely empty. He took one last glance around the room and opened the door to leave. A gust of hot air ripped the door out of his hands, smashing it against the wall, and whipped his clothes around.

A raging inferno greeted him on the other side. Flames licked at the walls and rolled along the underside of the roof, which had collapsed at both ends of the hallway, as a soft rain of burning embers swirled along the hallway. At a second glance, he saw a small opening in the debris leading towards the stairs just large enough for him to crawl through.

Quest: Tutorial Pt. 1

Reward: 15 XP

Description: The inn is on fire, find a way to escape

He suppressed the well of panic surging up through his chest, reminding himself that this was just a game, and the tutorial at that. Nothing would happen until he triggered it, probably halfway through the debris while crawling to the stairs. Until then, he could explore the rest of the floor for loot.

There were five other rooms that he could get to, and he started searching them one at a time, ignoring the fire and cracking timbers. Even the partial collapse of the ceiling in the next room, causing the bed in the room above to crush the one below, only startled him. He laughed at himself for jumping, amused that the programmers were trying to scare him into leaving, and moved to the next room.

As he knelt to examine the chest, one of the beams groaned and cracked, then splintered apart. He glanced up just in time to watch it collide with his face. His vision faded to black and a single line of text appeared.

You Died. Respawning in 60 Seconds.

Thankfully, there wasn’t a sensation of falling or the blinding white light. His body felt like it was floating for a few seconds, before he felt himself settle into the lumpy bed and shadowy outlines started to appear amid the black. The shadows gained shape and color as the room continued to brighten, until he recognized the wood planks and beam from his starting point.

He climbed out of bed, changed back into his clothes and collected the coin pouch and knife. He opened the door to the same wave of hot air and went back to searching the rest of the rooms. He found a locked chest in the fourth room, and tried to unlock it using his knife, up until one of the walls collapsed on him.

After respawning again, he searched the final room before going back to the locked chest, and spent another life trying to find a way to open it.

While the respawn timer counted down, he decided that he wanted to test a theory. So far, the building had collapsed around him while searching the rooms. Obviously, there was some sort of time limit to how fast the fire burned, but was it programmed on some kind of trigger as he believed, like opening the door to the room, or was it timed to the moment he spawned.

He spent the that life staying on the bed, waiting to see if the ceiling would eventually collapse around him. Waiting was boring and seemed to take forever, though it probably only a few minutes before the roof collapsed and he died again.

Fine, he thought as the timer counted down again, time to get out of the inn. Not like I have any lockpicks for the chest anyway.

He spawned, yet again, on the bed. He got up, dressed, and crawled through the debris. The stairs leading down had collapsed, so he worked his way up the stairs to the next floor. The damage was worse here, the flames had almost consumed everything, and each floorboard groaned and bent under his weight. He followed the only safe path through the fire into one of the rooms, where a partially collapsed beam provided a path into the attic. He was forced to crawl his way through the attic to keep the thatch from lighting his hair on fire, until he reached the other side of the building and found a hole in the floor. He swung himself over the lip and dropped onto the bed beneath it.

He quickly searched the room before opening the door. The hall was blocked from this side, leaving only one other room to search, also empty, and a set of stairs leading down. He took the stairs, pausing at the floor below long enough to see that he couldn’t get into any of the rooms there, before reaching the kitchen.

“Thank the Goddess, you made it,” A short, stout man with a booming voice said as Dean entered the kitchen, “I was worried you wouldn’t, what with the front stairs collapsed.” The man wiped his brow with a dirty kerchief, only succeeding in smearing the soot across his face. A name appeared over his head, identifying him as Cedric. There three others in the room, a woman and two kids, identified as Mariam, Godfrey, and Adam. Dean ignored them, since they were all huddled in a corner and didn’t move. Another notification popped up in front of him as the man slowed down, his mouth still closing from the last word he’d spoken.

Tutorial: Communicating

The Dive gear is designed to intercept vocal commands and translate it to in-game speech. Certain actions are dependent on in-game stats, such as Charisma, and may be different from real world capabilities. Increase the necessary stats will increase a player’s ability to unlock new speech options.

Dean closed the tutorial notification, the thought of upgrading to the next level crossing his mind yet again. A second window popped up at the bottom of his screen, highlighting various suggested speech options.

Suggested Topics:

1. Who are you?

2. What started the fire?

Dean ignored the first option, considering that the game had already provided an icon stating the man's name was Cedric, and was probably the Innkeeper. Still, Dean needed to play along to move the game forward and meet up with his friends after the tutorial, so he asked, “What caused the fire?”

“Bandits,” Cedric replied bitterly, “They’re attacking the village.” He studied Dean for a moment, “Say, you look like you could help.”

A notification popped up, updating his current quest.

Quest: Tutorial Pt. 2

Reward: 15 XP

Description: Help the villagers repel the bandits

Dean closed the window and waited for a new set of speech options. After nothing appeared, Dean decided to try his luck anyway and asked Cedric, “Do you have a weapon I can use?”

“Never needed one before,” Cedric said as he shook his head, “Haverton has always been peaceful before today.” His body jerked oddly before he said, “You have to hurry. The bandits are attacking the village.”

Interesting, Dean thought. The game had recognized his question but hadn’t provided suggested a speech option for it. Does that mean there are multiple speech options the game doesn’t mention? Or is it generating a response to his question? He tried a few more questions but each one was answered with a unique statement, followed by the innkeeper asking him to hurry.

Dean decided the game was generating the answer but keeping to the basic response of hurrying up. He only had a limited amount of time before the inn collapsed around him, and his friends wouldn’t wait around all day for him to finish the tutorial, so he tried the backdoor. It only budged a few inches, a pile of burning rubble blocking the other side.

The innkeeper said, “The door’s blocked and we can’t get out. You have to help us.”

Dean rolled his eyes, wishing the man had said something before he’d tried the door, as another notification popped up.

Optional Quest: Save the Innkeeper

Reward: 20 XP

Description: After escaping the inn, find a way to clear the backdoor to rescue the innkeeper and his family.

Dean read the description a few times. It suggested that he couldn’t escape through the backdoor and would have to find a different way out. Probably through the burning tavern, he thought.

He walked over to the door leading into the rest of the building. The innkeeper said, “Be careful, the tavern is on fire.”

Dean ignored him and opened the door to another gust of hot air and embers. The next room was a tavern, with a long bar on one side, a staircase on the opposite wall, and tables scattered throughout. The entire room was blazing and crumbling as the fire consumed it, but Dean spotted the path he was supposed to follow.

He worked his way along the path, ducking under fallen beams and around piles of burning wood. He stepped too close to one pile and his health dropped a few points, but he didn’t have any other problems reaching the door. He laid a hand on the handle, expecting to get burned in the process, but only felt the same uncomfortable warmth he’d experienced when he first stepped out of bed. Dean could only imagine how excruciating it would be for anyone playing on the master level difficulty and thought that the developers had to design the tutorial to keep players from choosing it. Even Will wasn’t this insane.

Dean took a deep breath of fresh air as he closed the door behind him, the roar of the fire being replaced by the sound of swords clashing and screams of pain, anger and terror. A few guardsmen in red and black tunics were fighting off bandits wearing various pieces of leather armor, each wearing a yellow sash around their arm, as villagers fled with terrified screams. There were several dead bodies littering the ground, and piles of debris.

Dean saw a sword laying on the ground a few paces away and rushed to grab it. Another notification popped up as he did.

Tutorial: Combat

The Dive gear is designed to intercept mental commands and translate it to in-game actions. In order to fight, use a weapon exactly as if it were a real-world action, such as swinging a sword or firing a bow. Certain actions are dependent on in-game stats, such as Perception or Agility, and may be different from real world capabilities. Increasing the necessary stats will improve a player’s ability to perform those actions.

Dean decided he was going to turn off the notifications as he closed the screen. Before he could, he heard roar behind him, whirled around to see a bandit charging him, and raised his sword just in time to block the attack.

The blow sent a shiver up his arm, numbing it, and forced him to take several steps backwards.

A series of smaller notifications popped up at the bottom of his vision, stating ‘You’ve learned the Skill: Melee Fighting’ and ‘You’ve learned the Skill: Blocking’ before fading away.

The bandit squared off in front of him, and the two circled each other for a few seconds before Dean attacked, stepping forward as he stabbed at the bandit. The bandit flicked the sword away, but Dean pressed the attack, swinging his sword in what he imagined a trained swordsman would do.

In the process, he learned the ‘Skill: One-Handed Swords’, but ignored the notification completely. He focused on fighting the bandit, attempting to dodge any attacks while stabbing and slashing at the bandit with his own.

Several of the blows landed, and the bandit’s health bar dropped as a small number floated above it with each strike, until the bandit collapsed to the ground. Dean stared down at the body, his breath coming in ragged pants as his health bar slowly recovered. To his annoyance, another notification appeared.

Tutorial: Looting

In order to loot a body, place a hand on it to pull up the loot menu.

Dean cleared the notification and immediately pulled up his status page in frustration. He didn’t bother checking his stats just yet since he hadn’t leveled up yet and switched over to the settings page. He turned off both the Basic Dive, speech suggestions and In Game tutorial notifications.

He closed the menu and knelt beside the body. He placed a hand on it, and a small window appeared listing the bandit’s equipment.

Bandit Inventory:

Item:

Description:

Coin Purse

Gold x1

Silver x3

Copper x10

Leather Breastplate

Quality: Poor

Rarity: Common

Damage Resist: 10-12

Durability: 15/15

Weight: 5 lbs

Attributes: None

Iron Sword

Quality: Poor

Rarity: Common

Weapon Type: One-Handed Sword

Range: Melee

Damage: 6-8

Durability: 10/10

Weight: 3 lb

Attributes: None

Iron Dagger

Quality: Poor

Rarity: Common

Weapon Type: One-Handed Dagger

Range: Melee

Damage: 3-5

Durability: 10/10

Weight: 0.5 lb

Attributes: None

Wooden Bow

Quality: Poor

Rarity: Common

Weapon Type: Ranged

Range: 200

Durability: 10/10

Weight: 3 lb

Attributes: None

Iron Arrow (x16)

Quality: Poor

Rarity: Common

Weapon Type: Ranged

Damage: 3-5

Durability: 2/2

Weight: 0.1 lb

Attributes: None

Yellow Sash

A yellow piece of cloth

He looted everything, and equipped the leather breastplate and bow. They appeared on his body, the sudden feeling of added weight making him grunt. He closed the menu and glanced around.

The rest of the bandits were busy fighting soldiers, so he raced around the inn. In the back, he found a small, cozy sitting area with a few tables beneath large, shady trees, nestled between the inn and a stable, surrounded by a waist high stone wall dividing it from the main road He climbed over the wall and spotted the burning debris blocking the back door. He sheathed his sword and tried to move it, but his health started dropping the moment he touched it.

He searched for a way to put out the fire and found a small trough in the stable with a bucket on the ground. He filled the bucket and ran back to pour the water over the fire with a loud hiss and cloud of steam. He repeated the process until there weren’t any visible flames and tried again. It still felt warm to the touch, but it didn’t affect his health. He tossed each piece aside until he could wrench open the door.

Cedric bustled out and before Dean knew what was happening, the innkeeper hugged him, squeezing his chest so tightly he couldn’t breath as the innkeeper said, “Thank you, good sir. You’ve saved our lives. Thank you.”

“Can’t breath,” Dean barely managed to say as his feet dangled a few inches off the ground. The innkeeper let him go and Dean stumbled to keep his balance. “You should get out of here while the coast is clear. But be careful, there’s probably more bandits around.”

“We will, I assure you.” The innkeeper said, “And thank you again.”

Cedric led his family down an alley, stopping at the corner to peek around it before moving on. Dean shook his head as he rubbed his chest. That brief exchange had felt natural, and while the hug hadn’t hurt, it had certainly squeezed the breath out of him and that hadn’t felt comfortable. Which, Dean realized, meant that the game didn’t negate uncomfortable feelings, just painful ones, and he could still get stuck in a situation that would suck.

He drew his sword as he ran back around the building and attacked the first bandit he encountered. The bandit was engaged with a soldier, so the blow took him by surprise. It scored an automatic critical hit and killed him instantly. The soldier glanced at Dean, taking in his raider armor before glancing down at the body, and shrugging. Together, they moved on, killing each bandit they encountered along the way and gathering soldiers, until the street was clear.

“Thank the Goddess you showed up when you did,” One of the soldiers said as he approached Dean, an insignia on his chest. Dean glanced at the man’s name, Lt. Caldwell, and the man said, “The bandits took us by surprise and had us on our heels.”

“Glad to help,” Dean said as he clasped arms with Caldwell. “I take it bandits aren’t normal around here?”

“No,” Caldwell said, “Not this far north, at least. Most bandits stay further south where the loot is better and they’re not so near the Boundary Wall.”

“What wall?” Dean asked.

Caldwell looked at him in shock, “You must be a stranger to these parts if you’ve never heard of the Boundary Wall.” Dean nodded and Caldwell continued, “It’s the divide between the kingdom and the Badlands to the North. Not many people, bandits or honest folk, want to sleep that close to Orcs, even with the wall guarding the pass.”

“Then, I guess the question is what’s different about these bandits.” Dean said.

Caldwell smiled, “Aye, you’ve got a good mind on you. They’re members of the Yellow Band, a rebel faction aligned against King Logan. They’ve never been active this far north before, though. I can’t say I’m surprised, though, since most of the garrisons this far north have been stripped to support the war. I don’t know what it means, but the Captain needs to hear of this.” He looked Dean over before saying, “I can’t spare any of my men since we need to search the nearby woods, but would you be willing to carry a message to the fort?”

“Sure,” Dean said, guessing that this would update the tutorial quest. Sure enough, a notification popped up at the bottom of his screen informing him that the next part of the quest was to report to the Captain at Fort Blackwood.

“It’s settled, then.” Caldwell nodded, “But I would suggest changing armor, otherwise the guards might mistake you for a bandit and kill you on sight.” He glanced at one of his fallen men with a sad sigh, “I don’t normally condone disturbing the dead, mind you, but it can’t always be helped.” He closed his eyes for a second before coming to a decision and gesturing at the body, “Take Gill’s armor. He won’t be needing it now and it might save your life.”

Dean nodded before bending down to collect the armor. He absently looted the body as he thought about what Caldwell had told him. Orcs to the north, bandits to the south and the kingdom was at war. All in all, Dean thought, it sounded like a bunch of conflicts for a game to exploit and a player to make a name for themselves as a hero.

But before he could really start exploring the world, he needed to report to the Captain so that he could finish the tutorial and meet up with his friends. He just hoped his early deaths as he searched the inn hadn’t delayed him too long or he’d never hear the end of it.