Three days after the lottery and party, Drake was overseeing the installation of his brand new VR capsules. While VR wasn't a new technology, these capsules were a lot different, in that they transferred some of the physical improvements he would get inside the game to his real body. It also allows him to sleep and eat ingame, and have it still count as food in real life. As the delivery men carried the old VR capsules out of Drake's house Drake couldn’t help but sigh. His moment of melancholiness was quickly dispelled as all of Drake's friends came in with him to their collective game room to see the setup.

"Well holy shit," said Matthew with a satisfied tone. "This looks awesome!"

Indeed it did. The VR pods were a nice silver tone, and were lined up in a row, plugged directly into the power lines in the wall. The group milled around them for a while, before each person picked their own capsule. They looked at each other.

"Now what," Nick asked. "We still have a day before GreenTree Online is released, what do we do until then?"

Drake gave a wry smile and replied, "You didn't look at the deluxe key features, did you? We get to create out characters a day early, which means we get to get to claim our usernames and whatnot earlier than everyone else."

With that Drake got in, and booted up the VR pod. His friends stared at him for a minute before exchanging a collective shrug and following suit.

Initializing VR Capsule. Registered user recognized as Drake Castro

Drake smiled until suddenly everything went black. Before he could react he was standing in a giant white space, with nothing around for what appeared to be miles. That was until he heard a voice.

"Hello."

Drake whirled around to see a tall man in a nice suit standing behind him. The man smiled and said, "I am the AI of this game, Jonas. Welcome to the character creation. I assume you are one of the five premium players currently logged on?"

Drake nodded and replied, "Yes, I'm here to create my character early. The other four are my friends."

Jonas smiled at that statement, before saying "I can bring them here so you can strategize if you want. However know that no matter what, if you don't select the same or a similar race you won't be able to start in the same area or meet up until you are level 5."

"No thanks, I'm ok. We made sure to strategize beforehand."

"Very well then." Jonas proceeded to step back, and then a screen appeared in front of Drake with over a hundred different Races. After looking at it for about thirty minutes, Drake had narrowed his choices down to three different races.

Race

Description

Bonuses (the stats only affect starting stats, nothing else)

Dragonkin

Proud descendants of Dragons and Humans, these Dragonkin are a strong race, but not the smartest. They do seem to have more luck than most other races.

+20% STR, VIT, LUK

-20% INT, WIS, CHA

Ability: Dragonblood, Dragon's lungs

Void Elf

Descended from the regular Elves, Void elves are Elves that have mastered the art of magical teleportation, and through their constant travels through the void have evolved into a new species.

+20% WIS, INT, DEX

-20% STR, VIT, CHA

Waypoint teleports can be paid for with mana

Abilities: Blink

Human

The most common and populous race on Terra, Humans are an adaptable race that has shown itself to be capable of surviving anywhere.

+20% EXP

No bonuses or penalties on rough terrain

Drake thought his options over, before finally making his decision.

Race selected. Dragonkin

Please select a class

Class

Description

Gunner

A class focusing on dealing either high damage at a slow pace or low damage at a fast pace. This class focuses on DEX, LUK, and VIT to keep moving and hitting while dodging and rolling

Warrior

The standard hack and slash class, this class focuses on STR, VIT, and DEX in order to dish out as much damage at close range as possible while taking hits in return

Guardian

The classic yet powerful tank, this class focuses almost solely on STR and VIT in order to keep itself strong enough to take any hit and stay standing

Rogue

Hiding in the shadows and hitting from behind, this class focuses on DEX, CHA, and LUK to sneak up on its enemies and disarm traps

Priest

A devout worshipper of the gods, this class focuses on WIS and INT in order to heal its friend and defeat its enemies.

Wizard

Destroyer, manipulator, and conjurer, this class focuses on raising its WIS and INT to devastate the battlefield with powerful attacks.

Ranger

Nature expert and hunter, this class focuses mostly on DEX and WIS to snipe its enemies with the bow.

Warlock

Demon summoner and master of darkness, the warlock focuses on its VIT and INT in order to fuel its dark sacrifices

Drake didn’t think too hard, as he had already decided beforehand.

Congratulations, you have unlocked the Gunner Class

Please enter your Username for other players to know you by:

Drake took a couple of seconds, but he had thought of his name before entering the pod, and he had no intention of changing it.

Welcome, Player “Grim”. Due to the nature of your name, creating a name for NPCs to call you by is deemed unnecessary. Would you like to do so anyway?

Drake thought about it, before deciding against it. In his mind it would be far cooler to be called Grim by everyone he passed by, regardless of whether they were an NPC.

For the final step, please customize your character.

“Oh yeah, shit’s about to get real” This is what Drake was waiting for. He quickly changed the Drake-resembling draconian into a slightly taller build, with a more pronounced chin and less crooked nose. He made sure not to change too much, as he knew it would make it hard to adjust. Soon he had a full character set up. He clicked confirm.

“AHH SONOFA BITCH” he shouted as a bright light blinded him, followed by darkness.

“What the hell? Jonas? What happened,” Drake asked while slightly panicking.

Fortunately, Jonas was still there. “Relax,” he said, “Its part of the transformation process, just give it a minute.”

Drake relaxed, and shortly afterwards he could see again. He looked down and found himself in his avatar’s body.

“Holy shit! This is awesome!”

Drake quickly began to do various stretches, then he began to run around and test out his new body. Finding it satisfactory he walked back over to Jonas.

“So what now,” He asked.

Jonas looked at him. “Now you wait,” he said before waving his hand.

Time until GreenTree Online servers are active: 12:35:57 real-life hours.

As Drake watched he noticed that the timer was ticking down about once every five seconds, which seemed to fit with GTO’s supposed 5:1-time acceleration ratio. He sighed, there was nothing to do for another 12 hours, so he logged out.