As the light faded, a tinted glass pane replaced the darkness. There was a grogginess to him now, the kind that he’d normally feel after waking up at the wrong time from a nap. It was for the better, because the space he was in was too cramped to even wiggle his feet comfortably. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but full consciousness in that sort of situation would still have made him extremely uncomfortable. Now, all he was really feeling was how tired he was, something his mind registered as strange, but his “body” felt was perfectly normal. He didn’t have time to ponder that detachment, as his thoughts were interrupted by a hissing sound. There was a rush of pressure, and the glass lifted from him slowly. Cool, crisp air replaced the stale air from before, and rather than the tinted glass from before, he was now staring at a ceiling made from what appeared to be a muted grey steel. Then, out of the corner of his vision, he noticed someone peering over at him.

It was a woman, unassuming, with brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a lab coat and pair of glasses, and true to the air those clothes gave off, she was looking at him with dispassionate, calculating expression. That expression soon changed as she met his eyes, shifting to a smile that was surprisingly sincere.

“Good morning awakened one.” she said, deepening her smile.

He didn’t give a response at first, waiting to see if there was anything else the woman had to say. She didn’t, and her smile turned to a confused frown as he just stared at her. The woman was either an NPC or a really good role player, but the latter seemed unlikely just because the prospect of someone spending all of their time just waking others up was highly impractical. Still, for a NPC there was enough of an uncanny air there that made him pause.

“Morning,” he finally said. He didn’t know if it was the right response, but then again what was?

Nodding at his response, the woman lifted a device - a tablet from the looks of it - to her hand and swiped a few fingers across it, “Number 45567, Gabriel, correct?”

He nodded.

While the woman was distracted by her device, Gabriel took the time to stretch out, letting out a grunt as he felt his muscles spread out. He was actually really surprised he felt anything, he hadn’t expected that kind of detail. Then again, if the game was detailed enough for him to feel the soft cotton-like texture of his shirt, then this level of sensory detail should have been expected. He sat up after wondering at that little detail, a smile on his face.

“Number 45567? How many awakened ones are there?”

She tapped a few more keys on her pad, “That, I’m afraid I can’t answer,” she motioned to the chamber around her, revealing that his pod was one of many similar ones, slotted to numerous grooves in the wall. Each pod had its own attendant, and he was not the only one that was in the process of “waking up”.

“This is just one chamber of many,” she explained, “Each with new pods every day. Generally we keep count of each chamber specifically, but I’m sure that there is some total number somewhere…” She peered into her tablet again. The expression on her face was too genuine, indistinguishable from any real life person. The obvious address of Awakened One was enough to tell him that she was programmed to live in this world. It was either that or the other option. Someone that was way too into roleplaying.

“Nevermind,” He said, “Not really important.”

She shrugged and then tapped the tablet multiple times, turning it’s display toward him. It was a screen of varying shades of blue, with the silhouette of a hand at its center.

“All we need is your handprint,” she said, flashing him another smile.

Nodding, he placed his hand on the screen. On top of the series of beeps that produced, he felt a slight buzz as a line of white light scanned across his hand. A final, louder beep sounded from the device, and the woman took the tablet back.

“And that is…” she flicked her hand a few more times, “everything. Are you well enough to walk, or do you need a moment to reorient yourself?”

“I think I’m good,” he said, pushing himself off of the pod.

He quickly realized his lack of shoes as his feet touched the cold, metallic floor. It brought about a shiver, though more so at how real it all felt than the actual feeling. In reality it was quite soothing, though he hardly expected to continue his adventures in Aelios without any shoes.

He shook his head.The woman was already walking towards a door on the opposite end of the room, and he rushed to catch up, getting a glimpse at some of the other players that were waking up. Some were human, but there were a few that really caught his eye. First, there was a Dwarf, a woman from the looks of it. She had a stockiness to her, with thicker limbs and squarer jaw than the usual human woman, but there was a softness to her features that was somewhat pleasant to look at. She was also shorter than him by about 2 feet, though her presence had hid that from him at first.

Next, he saw a muscular man with darker, almost clay-like skin. He was shirtless for some reason, with his torso covered in a number of white, metallic growths, that matched to color of his hair. It was a common trait of the Petra, from what Gabriel could remember of the minimal research he did on the game. This particular player chose to have his metallic growth emphasize the contours of his body and shape of his muscles. It was an obvious attempt at being vain, but he had to admit, it did look cool.

The final player that caught his eye was a woman with red skin. Beyond that obvious detail, there was also the long tail that was waving as the woman examined her own body. Black scales covered parts of her red skin, forming an almost collar around the woman’s neck. A small pair of horns peeked from her long, black hair. Her eyes were a bright yellow, with small, vertical slits for pupils, like a snake. As far as he could tell, the woman was an Infernal, and he must have been staring too long because she directed her her gaze towards him. She flicked her tail and winked at him, a playful expression on her face. Gabriel smirked back, waving as he caught up to the woman in the lab coat.

“You know, I never did catch your name,” he said to to the woman.

“Ayla,” she said in a distracted tone, her eyes more focused on her tablet rather than what was in front of her.

“So Ayla, mind telling me where we’re going?”

“A handler is waiting for us at window 3. He’ll be handing you your starting gear and point you in the right direction.”

Before he could respond, the door to the chamber beeped and slid open, leading to another, larger room. There were quite a few more players in this room, all dressed in the same clothes as him. They were all sitting in the middle of the room on chairs, much like an airport lobby. Along the walls of the room were a series of windows that had large numbers underneath them, occupied by an assortment of clerks that ranged from Humans to Dwarves to Infernals. It reminded him of a large pharmacy of sorts. An older man was waiting for him at Window 3, middle aged from what Gabriel could tell. He was human -his height gave that away-, but the stocky, generally rugged look about him, combined with a thick, bushy beard made it easy for someone to mistake him as a Dwarf from a glance. Ayla approached him and held out her tablet.

“I’ll take it from here Ayla,” the man said, accepting the tablet offhandedly. There was a grizzled edge to his voice.

“Understood,” Ayla said. She turned to Gabriel, “I do hope you enjoy your stay in Gram.”

He smiled at her, “I hope to, you have a nice day.”

With a final smile, she left.

As Gabriel approached the window, the man regarded him with a tired expression.

“Gabriel?” He asked with half a sigh.

“Yes sir.”

“Don’t call me sir son. You’re making me feel older than I already am,” he grumbled.

“Ah, my bad,” Gabriel said with a small chuckle. The clerk reminded him of his old drill instructor. He was much older and had a little more bulk to him, but that gruffness was just the same.

“So, Freelancer huh?” the clerk said as he looked over the tablet’s screen.

“Yep, that why I was called up here so soon?”

He nodded, “Plenty of you Awakened Ones tend to be in the pursuit of some class nowadays. Not many choose to be Freelancers. Kind of streamlines the process a bit for you guys.”

“Oh, well that’s convenient for me then,” Gabriel said with a smile.

The clerk snorted, “Sure, I guess.” He tapped a the tablet a few more times before pushing it to the side. He reached under his counter, pulling out a rectangular object the size of his hand. There was a black hexagonal pattern in the center.

“Place your hand on the pattern,” He said, sliding the box closer to him.

Gabriel did so, feeling the same buzzing feeling from before as his skin touched the box. It beeped just like the tablet, and when he took his hand from it he noticed that the pattern was now glowing with a soft blue light.

“That’s your Smart Box,” the clerk explained, “as far as we know, it only reacts and works with Awakened ones. Why the Ancients designed it that way, I have no idea, but consider it your lifeline. Communication, Inventory, all that jazz. If you need to do it on the fly, that's the device you need.”

Gabriel nodded and held the device up, examining the sides and finding a few buttons on the side. He pressed the top button experimentally, and almost jumped as the pattern at the center of the Box shimmered and shot forward a holographic display.

+++

Status

Inventory

Compendium

Map

Social

Ethernet

Options

Log Off

+++

The display itself worked much like the text boxes from character creation. There was a tactile feedback from each option, a buzzing sensation as he pressed the Status option. The window slid to the right, a new page taking its place.

+++

Name: Gabriel

Class: Freeform

Title: N/A

Health: 100

Mana: 10

Hunger: Sated

-

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Constitution: 10

Speed: 10

Wisdom: 10

-

Total Attack: 10

Total Defense: 10

-

Combat Fame: 0

Merchant Fame: 0

Craftsman Fame: 0

+++

The information was pretty self explanatory, everything except the Title category, which, while certainly not a new thing to videogames, let alone RPGs, but it left him wondering at what he had to do to get a Title, and what having one meant. It’d be something he’d have to look up later.

“Easy enough to use,” he said as he closed the screen with another press of the top button, “I’m guess the other buttons are shortcuts to the other menus right?”

“Beats me,” the clerk said with a shrug, “I can’t use one.”

He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it. “Right.”

“Just hold up your Box here,” the clerk said, tapping the counter in front of him.

Gabriel did as he said, and the clerk reached under the counter again and pulled from it a folded set of clothes with a clean set of boots stacked on top. He held the stack of clothes over the Smart Box, and again the pattern flickered, shooting out a cone of light that scanned over the clothes. As the light passed over them, they started to fade away, into small specks of digitized light as if nothing was there in the first place. Another symbol, a grid, appeared on the box, but rather than a holographic image this one appeared at the corner of the Box, drawn in blue light that contrasted against the grey metal of the device. There was a small number 1 at its corner, much like a notification. He opened the main menu of his Smart Box, noticing that the Inventory option also had a small number 1 at its corner. He selected the option, bringing up a new screen that, much like the symbol suggested, was a grid-like window. There was an object at the top left hand corner of the grid, the stack of clothes that were scanned in. He selected the clothes, bringing up a smaller sub window.

+++

Citizen’s Garb

Stats:

+5 to Defense

A simple set of clothes worn by civilians of Gram. Provides enough cover from the elements and a slight boost to defense. Note: Not wholly recommended for combat.

Would you like to retrieve this item?

Yes/No

+++

He selected yes, and the icon disappeared. A moment later he felt a slight tingle around his palms, like he’d brushed it against a bed of pins. The sensation was strange to him, but he didn’t have much time to focus on it since the stack of clothes materialized in his hands in the same specks of light as before.

He whistled, “Nifty.”

“Great,” the clerk said dryly, “Changing room’s over towards the back.”

The clerk pointed towards a doorway that led into a room that was lined with stalls. Gabriel took the nearest unoccupied one, and quickly changed. It was only after he did so that he felt strange about it. It was a game, yet beyond his Smart Box there was little to the world that make it “game-like”, though he was expecting plenty of that later. He shook his head and took a look at what he was wearing. Starting gear consisted of a dark brown jacket with a hood and a pair of tan pants that were similar to military fatigues. He knocked his heel against the wall, shifting his boots into a better fit for his feet. There was a tan shirt that came with the set, but he opted to keep the white shirt from his wake up on. It was just more comfortable. It didn’t have any affect on his stats, so he assumed that the defensive buff was probably coming from the jacket. He did, however, have two new items in his inventory.

+++

Citizen’s Shirt

Stats:

None

A simple set shirt worn by civilians of Gram. Comfortable, but not effective for much else.

+++

+++

Pants

Stats:

None

A pair of pants worn by Awakened Ones in their previous slumber. Made from a soft, smooth material, but beyond that they’re just a simple pair pants.

+++

He wasn’t too sure if he liked how the inventory was separating the items -he could see a lot of clutter in his future-, but at the very least he’d have a change of clothes should his current ones get dirty. If that was even going to be an issue, he didn’t know, but he was more distracted by the fact that all his clothes fit him perfectly even though he was never measured. That, he supposed, was just going to have to left to game logic.

Conveniently, there was a clip on his waist that he could fit the Smart Box into, buttons facing up for easy access. Sliding his Smart Box into place, he took another look at the mirror in the stall and smirked.

“Looking good.”

When he left the changing rooms he saw the clerk from before looking at him expectantly. Gabriel made his way to him, noticing that there was a map placed on the counter. Judging from the circular shape and district labels, it was a map of Gram itself.

“Go ahead and scan this,” the clerk said, sliding the map closing to him.

“Sure,” Gabriel said, unclipping the Smart Box from his waist. He held it over the map, symbol facing down towards it, but nothing happened. They stood in silence for an awkward amount of time, before the clerk rolled his eyes.

“Bottom button,” he barked out.

“Right, my bad,” Gabriel said, clicking the button. Doing so triggered another cone of light to shoot from the device, one that scanned over the map, but did not dematerialize it like it did with the set of clothes. When the process was finished, a small text box appeared right above the smart box.

+++

Map: City of Gram, downloaded

+++

“Sweet,” he said, “How’d you know to do that?”

“It’s what everyone else did… tell me son, do you have any military experience?” the clerk asked.

That made Gabriel pause.

“How would you know that?”

The clerk threw up a hand dismissively, “You just seem to have that air about you is all…” he drummed his fingers against the counter, “tell you what, if you need yourself a combat skill go on down to the barracks and ask for Cera. Tell them Dom sent you.”

“Barracks, Cera, got it,” Gabriel said, “should probably learn something to defend myself, right?”

For the first time, Dom cracked a smile. It was strangely jovial, which made it all the more off putting. “Oh she’ll do more than that son. It ain’t gonna be a walk in the park.”

“Oh I dunno, I’ve seen some shit old man,” Gabriel said, a smirk of his own tugging at his lips, “but thanks for the advice.”

Dom barked out a short laugh, “Not a problem, gotta help out a fellow military man when I can. Give it hell.”

“You got it.”

The sudden shift in the clerk’s mood should have been jarring, but Gabriel knew well enough that people like Dom were often more friendly than gruff. That gruffiness was a barrier to weed out the people that weren’t worthy of their time. The fact that all of this was coming from what he assumed to be an NPC, however, raised a ton of questions. How life like were these NPCs? How varied were their personalities? How in the world did Dom know that he’d been in the military? That, one, he could answer. There was an optional questionnaire that players could fill out playing before playing. The game recommended completing it for a more “tailored” experience for the player, but he hadn’t imagined it would have went that in depth with its implementation. The implications of that sparked another string of questions, ones that preoccupied his mind so much that he didn’t notice the two attendants standing at the exit.

“We hope you enjoy your stay in Gram, Awakened One,” one of them said, a practiced smile on her face.

He paused when the door opened, the sounds of a bustling city leaking into the comparative quietness of the building. He smacked his cheeks as he stared out into the city.

“Focus,” he said. There would be time for questions later.

He turned to the attendant that spoke to him, “Thank you.”

“Best of luck to you wherever your journeys take you,” the other one said.

He have her a smile at that, and before anything else could distract him, he stepped into the sunlight.