BZZZZZZZ….

“…….ugggghhhhhhh….” Eli groans as he hears the doorbell ring. He tosses and turns, trying to groggily unfold himself from the mess of blankets wrapping him like a mummy.

BZZZZZ…BZZZZZZ…

Finally unhinging a hand, he looks at his watch and notices that it’s almost 7AM. His alarm hadn’t gone off as it should have.

“…Probably shouldn’t have taken those sleeping pills.” he mutters while rolling out of bed.

He walks down the hallway going for the door.

BZZZZZZ…… “WHAT?!?” He almost screams as he swings open the door.

“I have an order of one capsule for a Mr. Elijiah Pierce? I’m assuming that would be you, sir, going from the address?” A brown uniformed delivery man asks while standing in the middle of the door entrance.

“Sorry, who are you? And capsule? What capsule?”

“Name’s Jay Lukas, didn’t the secretary explain anything about the Animatus over the phone?”

Eli takes his time looking him over. He's tall, rail-thin, and has a cunning look in his eye that says he's more than just a delivery man. Eli wasn’t going to risk whatever the delivery was over his supposed animosity at being woken up on his day off.

“She said that an Animatus would be here the next day. Usually packages arrive in the afternoon, not nearly this early!”

“Well I have you on expedited delivery, and a capsule is just what most everyone calls these things,” Jay states while looking at this tablet before handing it to him. “All I need is your signature and SIN so we can begin the setup.”

“I…I don’t have a SIN; will that be a problem?” Eli scribbles his signature, and hands it back.

“No it won’t, just your hand sliding across the tablet was enough for a DNA scan. That should cover all of the basics. Although you may want to see about getting one for any online purchases, online streaming, or extranet activity while inside the capsule.” Jay says, “I can set you up with one right now if you’d like?”

Eli nods quietly, knowing full well that he’d never hear the end of it from his sister if he didn’t record his sessions.

“Alright, just give me a moment to get the technicians in here so they can go ahead with the installation.” Jay says as he heads back out the door.

Elijiah watches Jay walk away before propping the front door open. It didn’t take long for him to get back to the door, followed by two technicians hefting a casket looking object.

“Where do you want the capsule?” Jay asks to which Eli promptly guides him to the living room.

As the technicians get to work connecting the casket to all their needed outlets, Jay takes out a PDA size 3D printer and the tablet from before. He asks a couple of questions while inputting the information that is given into the tablet. Before long, the printer creates a chip the size of a thumbnail.

“This SIN holds all of the information you just told me and is synced up to the home network and will automatically sync to every wifi enabled public area that has decent internet security coverage. This will serve as both your online profile as well as a personal information jacket that records everything that happens online.” Jay says as he hands Eli the chip. “It also takes a copy of your genetic code to ensure that no one can access it with your particular set of genes. Most people choose to have this cybernetically implanted somewhere on their hand.”

Looking down at his hand, he feels apprehensive of such a procedure.

“I would rather not do that if at all possible.” He says.

“Alright, then do you have a wallet or personal backpack that you could insert into the sleeve?” Jay asks.

Eli goes to the counter and plucks his old leather wallet that he usually stashes all of his associates' cards in. Handing him the chip, Jay watches as he slides it under one of the folds along the seams.

“This won’t cost me anything will it?” Eli asks.

“Not a credit. Normally the government issues the first one to all new immigrants as a form of insurance to keep them from doing anything they shouldn’t, but if you lose this one it costs 10,000 credits to replace. Hence the reason why most people have it implanted so they don’t lose it.” Jay says before standing up with his tools. “And being a private securities employee, I have to inform you that you have to carry that around on your person if you ever want any of the discounts at any of the local shopping districts.”

As he finishes speaking, the technicians finish their task of setting up the capsule in the corner of the room.

“Any other final questions you have for me Mr. Pierce?” Jay asks.

“Um just one. Do I need to do anything special for the Animatus?” Eli asks, eyeing the new shiny bin that now took up a fifth of the floor space.

“No sir, everything will be explained once you enter the system through the capsule. No getting naked or anything just to satisfy any carnal needs, and please don’t. I get enough flak from the administrators getting freaked out by those who do.” Jay says “Just get into any outfit you desire, barring the one I just stated, and submerge yourself in the nanite-bath. It will take care of the rest. It is already connected to the home network and will automatically sync your gamertag to the SIN. The gamertag is then always assigned to your SIN and any other Animatus that you enter will always access the SIN within its capsule. Please be warned, every capsule keeps a time slot of who accessed its contents and how long the person accessed them.”

Striding over to the door, both technicians leave, leaving Jay and Eli standing in the middle of the living room.

“If that is all Mr. Pierce, I have 8 other capsules to deliver in the area.” Jay says, before holding up his hand to the wallet to which it vibrates slightly. “There is my contact information should you choose to utilize my services again. And if I haven’t already stated, congratulations on winning the grand prize…”

Turning on his heel, he leaves the premises and heads for the company truck. As the door shuts behind him, he says in a low voice,

“A pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Pierce. The United Worlds Council is anxiously awaiting your impact on the interworld community…”

Walking back to his room, Eli hears the door to his sister’s room open slightly, just enough to see her face.

“Anything important?” She asks sleepily.

“No, not really. Go back to bed sleepy head.”

She shuts the door immediately, leaving him standing in the hallway. Heading into his room, he dresses as he would for his usual workout. A loose outfit designed for free running and endurance training.

“I should probably have a bite to eat before I start.” He mutters while picking up the instruction manual.

He heads down the hallway, brings out some cereal, and starts munching while reading through the manual.

‘Neos is designed to bring the best of everything from the sci-fi world to you. There is an adjustable setting for sensitivity on how high you want to feel pain or pleasure. The Real World Time (RWT) ratio to Game World Time (GWT) is that of for every 1 hour of play per RWT translates to 6 hours of play inside.’

Hmmm… interesting. He thinks as he continues to read through all of the warnings and countermeasures in place for outside interference as well as nanite energy overload. He stops on a single page for a while, reading and rereading to ascertain whether or not to believe what exactly he was reading.

‘The nanite bath will simulate all manner of physical and mental pressures while in the game and will act as you do while inside, mimicking the muscular and nervous systems as they progress throughout the game in order to deal with muscular atrophy and mental degradation. WARNING: MENTAL DEGRADATION CAN STILL BECOME APPARENT IF OCCUPANT IS SUBJECTED TO PHYSICALLY/ MENTALLY EXHAUSTING ACTIONS. EMERGENCY SERVICES WILL BE CONTACTED AND BROUGHT TO THE USER IF MENTAL DEGRADATION PROCEEDS TOO FAR.’

He finishes his cereal and proceeds to head into Neos. Opening up the lid for the capsule, he studies the nanite bath before he tests it with a finger. It molds around his finger as soon as he pushes down into it.

Seemingly satisfied by the green, jello-like substance, he lays down inside the bath and closes the lid to the capsule.

Shit is that cold! He thinks as the nanite bath engulfs him. Before long, the bath lulls him into a drowsy state before something happens to wake him back up.

SWOOOOOOOSH…

He slowly opens his eyes to a bright white room with nothing in it.

New user detected…

Accessing SIN…connected

Attempting to connect to host server 1…failed.

Server traffic overload. Rerouting to host server 2

…

…

Connected

Finding next applicable contact…

What the hell?

Connected

Please wait for your designated supervisor…

“Why hello there, so good of you to join me! Well aren’t you a big one, how tall are you if you don’t mind me asking?” a husky feminine voice calls from behind him.

He turns around slowly, seeming to attempt to get his bearings and notices a lovely young lady standing behind him. She has a cute face with almond colored skin, deep brown eyes, silky shoulder length brown hair, and a fit, slim figure, dressed in a black business suit.

"Who are you?"

"Oh I'm sorry, let me introduce myself. I am Rebecca Sanchez and I will be your supervisor for the length of the Beta testing."

“… Ms. Sanchez, is it? And I am about just shy of 180 centimeters.”

“I’m sorry this is our first time meeting and I was told to give you a basic run down on how to get set up. Do you have any questions for me before we start?”

“Well, I’m wondering what you are doing here to begin with.”

“I am here to act somewhat as a guide and a representative for customer service. When you won the one of the lottery slots for your university, you didn’t know that we were doing the lotto to find beta testers for Neos. During the month that you will test and play the game, you can tell me anything you see that could be further improved upon during your experience within the game. That being said, it is a pleasure to be working with you!”

How annoying, Corellec should have explained from the beginning what their intentions were for the lotto. He thinks to himself.

“Well if you are here to instruct me, let’s get to it then” he says trying to mask his annoyance.

“Alright then. Just to inform you, the character that you make will have their level, class, and skills reset upon opening day. This does not apply to attributes gained while inside Neos. Now what would you like the pain sensitivity set at?”

“Sweet deal, so even if my character and skills are reset to 1, I can still retain all the attributes and skills that I earned along the way! Alright let’s get started! I want the sensitivity set at 100%.”

"...Are you sure about that? 100% sensitivity?"

"Yes, I don't want to risk the chance of being hit by something and not being able to feel it. Be kinda stupid if I couldn't respond to being attacked."

“A-Alright if you absolutely insist, let’s begin.”

Would you like to make an account?

“Yes.”

Currently, the only species unlocked resides within the Human Faction.

You may change your features and height if you wish.

A 3D image of himself materialized and he looked himself over.

“Keep it the same.”

"Alright Mr. Pierce, here is where I come in. We only have one world and one space station available to the testers. The planet is called Terra and the station is called Ramaeus Station. Where would you like to be spawned at?” Rebecca asks as she pulls up a list of places for him to start out at on the planet.

“Call me Eli please. I’m not comfortable with the mister in front of my name, makes me feel old. And I would like to be started at the capital of Argus, Sauten City.”

Please name this character

“Hmmm… how about Alastair.”

Character name is set to ‘Hmmm… how about Alastair’

Confirmation Y/N?

“No, just Alastair.”

Character name is set to ‘Just Alastair’

Confirmation Y/N?

“No! Alastair!”

Character requires surname.

Alastair __________

“Thawn.”

Character name is set to ‘Alastair Thawn’

Confirmation Y/N?

“Yes… Jeezus.” he says, exasperated at the machine that seemed to be toying with him.

“Interesting choice of name … Alastair, time for some tests to ascertain your base attributes for your character.” Rebecca chuckles as everything turns white.

Seconds tick by before a complex obstacle course presents itself before him.

“Please test yourself through the 5 Trials we have available. These will constitute your character’s base attributes.” Rebecca’s voice echoes out from above him.

“Very well.” Alastair says as he steps to the edge of the obstacle course.

Trial 1

Begin when ready…

Sighing he begins only what he comes to think as possibly one of the most exhaustive physical tests he’s had since he had retired.

“Let the games begin…”

“Mrs. Eleanor? Can you come take a look at this?” Rebecca asks her boss amidst the flurry of activity of the other supervisors.

Striding over, a well-dressed manager makes her way over to her.

“What is it Sanchez?” Eleanor asks.

“Take a look at this Trial scoreboard please.” Sanchez says as she moves her monitor for her manager to see.

Eleanor studies the screen before she scrolls down to see the rest of the scoreboard.

“Is this even possible?” she asks quietly.

“I don’t know. But even still, we can’t exactly give him the base attributes based off of the Trials. The other testers would be outraged at the advantage given to him! We can’t exactly not give him nothing to start out with.”

Eleanor is silent for a moment as she stands alone in her thoughts.

“He earned those scores based solely on effort. I have to input something… Mrs. Eleanor?” Sanchez asks.

“Input the Average set up Attribute wise, but tell JENNY to give his tag a… ‘chance’.” Eleanor says, knowing full well that she will be censured for asking a favor of the game’s AI.

After the initial Trials, there seemed to be a lull in the programming, so he spent his time walking around the white space. If he were liken it to something, it would have been the sort of dream space that most people who visit an online chat room would say.

Before long the space around him shimmers, giving shape to buildings and walkways, streets and market vendors, and all manner of pedestrian traffic flowing around him. A super city in all respects. One which took on the appearance of maybe New Hong Kong or New York City. Massive in size and scope, accompanied by feelings of fragility and helplessness in the face of such an awe inspiring visage.

Pedestrians and travelers make their way down their own sides of the streets, each one dealing with the hustle and bustle of the city life around them. Street corners quickly filled in with market vendors and food trucks, closing the empty gaps in the morning bustle of the morning rush. The particular sights of trees and various plant-life integrated into the city structure paints a pretty picture for the many residents and tourists making their mark upon the cities story.

His particular street sported a man at a steamed meat stand with delicious smells wafting to him off the wind. He hears the soft crashing of waves and the squawking of birds coming from far off in the distance, a brief acknowledgement that a beach or even a port was nearby. Before he could walk anywhere however, a bright message pops up in front of him.

WELCOME TO: Sauten City, Argus

You are the first to find this city.

You are the first to find this country.

Feel free to explore its depths…

+100 Fame

Well, might as well start looking for a library, or something close to it. He thinks to himself before swiping the page away. Walking to the corner, he looks over the vendor’s menu for getting in line. The minutes pass in silence as he waits his turn.

“Erm…”

Noticing the fresh faced customer standing there, the vendor gives him a quick once over.

“What can I help you with sonny?” the vendor says.

“Well I was just wondering where I can go to get some general knowledge about this place. Like a library or… or something.”

“You must be one of them Spacers the government told us about a couple days ago. Hmmmmmm, you might need to head off to Argus National Library if you wanna know stuff like that. They have everything you could think of.”

“Alright thank—”

“THIEF, GET BACK HERE!!!!”

A woman’s voice screams as a man in an orange jumpsuit runs past him with a briefcase in hand.

Hmmm I smell an opportunity! Alastair thinks to himself.

He starts sprinting down the road after the thief, while trying to make sure that the thief can’t notice him. It didn’t take long for him to start catching up, but pop ups seemed to always hassle him every couple of meters he ran and jumped. Each time a new one would pop up, he would swipe it aside in order to keep all of his attention on the thief. He could feel the ebb and flow of his body almost struggling to keep up with the man, when in reality he shouldn’t have.

Before long, he misses a jump over a trash can swiping it slightly with a booted heel, alerting the thief to his presence. The thief starts sprinting before turning into deserted alleyways. Alastair starts to feel a subtle ache working its way through his body, not something that he cared for but he ignored it for the time being.

He weaves through the alleyway, tailing the thief while slowly catching up. Before long, Alastair notices that the alleys had started turning away from the usual cleanliness of the streets he had once stood in before. The each passing moment, more and more trash, dirt, and infected animals came upon his path.

As the thief exits the alleys and into the open street, Alastair follows. Expecting there to at least be some semblance of traffic judging by the cars dotting the street, he thought that the thief would have slowed down. If anything, the thief sped up, heading towards a tunnel at the far end of the street. There was something odd about this area. It didn't take him long to find the answer to his question because there was a noticable lack of life everywhere around him. No one was in the vehicles, no animals scittering around the edges of the sidewalks.

At the tunnel entrance, there were a multitude of hovering cars, trucks, and what looked like a train car at the far end connected to a truck that had smashed into the far wall, all strewn about as if they were a maze.

Not having any time to contemplate the intricacies of such a maze, even though he sized the maze to be roughly around the length and width of a football field, he quickly looks for the easiest way to apprehend the thief. As the thief tries to weave through the cars as fast as he can, meanwhile Alastair just jumps up and slides across each car hood.

The thief makes it to the center and suddenly runs faster and faster, as if he thought that he was about to lose his life if the person behind him ever caught up. Alastair notices this and starts running towards the truck, planning to use the train car that was lifted into the air.

The chase continues. Alastair slowly but steadily gaining on the thief as he uses his previous experience to jump and weave, up and over, the obstacles set up against him. Seeing that the thief was nearing the final stretch, he jumps onto the hood of the truck, and hoists himself onto the train car. As soon as he gets on his feet, he sprints to the end seeing from above that the exit to the maze is near the end of the train car.

As the thief nears the darkness of the tunnel, Alastair wills his legs to move faster. He reaches the end of the train car at around the same time the thief reaches the edge of the abyss. He jumps… And lands on the thief’s head, crushing his skull and sending the briefcase spinning away.

As his legs push down onto the skull, his momentum pushes him further into the tunnel. Sharp pain flares all over his body as he rolls, and rolls, and rolls... to stop. He could feel the cuts, bruises, and tears of his muscles as he lays on the ground.

Arterial blood sprays from the now headless man, drenching Alastair as he lay there upon the ground. Looking up, he sees the briefcase, spattered with pink and red brain chunks and shards of skull fragments. A solid flap of skin hanged along the edge of the case, painting a pretty picture against the backdrop of its original black appearance.

Have to get the case… he tries to think through the pain and exhaustion as he tries to crawl to the briefcase that lays a couple feet away. It would all be for naught however, because as soon as he touches the case his vision, already swimming with drowsiness, fades. As his consciousness fades, the case begins a psionic hum, vibrating before a bright golden light with crimson accents spilled briefly from the creases of the case.

You have died.

You are the first to die.

+100 Fame

The minutes pass in silence as he takes a quick nap. As he wakes from his stupor, he finds his body, lay sprawled on a bench near where he first entered the city.

I died? He thinks as his hand reaches up to push the info button near edge of the screen.

Death of Character:

Character is ‘respawned’ at last saved checkpoint.

Death penalties are removed during Beta sessions.

Normal penalties include:

· Loss of (1) bound item

· Loss of all unbound items

· 15% loss of total Exp. Points

from last life

“Wow that is… steep.” Alastair says as he swipes the page away. Lifting his head, he sees the briefcase from before laying on his chest. Weirdly enough, his clothes had been cleaned of the blood and skull fragments.

Slightly confused at what the case was doing there, he picks it up and examines it. Satisfied that it had no damage showing on the outside, he notices a flashing icon near the far right of his vision before touching it to open its contents.

You have learned 2 new skills and had an increase in your natural attributes

Through excessive running, jumping, hoisting, and your use of your brain in a critical situation, you have raised your natural attributes

Agility +10, Strength +5, Intelligence +3

You have learned the skill ‘Parkour’

You have learned the skill ‘Death from above’

Skill Name:

Skill Rank:

Skill Level:

Skill Experience:

Parkour

Beginner

6

45%

A combined use of running, jumping, falling, and hoisting. You focus more on getting to your destination as quickly as possible. Makes all movements done by the body faster, without drawing on Stamina quite as much.

· All skills or movements involving the body are 5% faster

· Stamina consumption is lessened by 2.5%

· Falling damage decreased by 10%

Passive.

Skill Name:

Skill Rank:

Skill Level:

Skill Experience:

Death from Above

Beginner

2

65%

Most don’t expect an attack from above, let alone something that can kill. Any attacks coming from above your target receive an attack bonus.

· +Extra Damage in proportion to the weapon being used. If weapon is a body, total body weight is used as the Extra Damage.

· If body weight and momentum are either not halted nor flowed while using body dmg, falling dmg will be applied towards the user using the body dmg.

Passive.

“Uh… okay. Weird.” Alastair says as he picks himself up from the bench.

Heading back towards the meat stand, he forms a mental question as to why his body was so stiff and unreliable when he was doing all of his previous actions. As he nears the stand, he notices the man comforting an oddly dressed woman sitting on the sidewalk. The woman had a slim figure. Cropped black hair peeked out from underneath a crisp military hat, and is dressed in some sort of black uniform with a service tag hanging on the front.

She seemed to be crying. Walking up to her, he leans down and stretches the briefcase out to her.

“I believe this is yours ma’am.” He states softly.

Both the vendor and the woman look up at the same time, and drop their jaw, simply awestruck at seeing the briefcase in his hand.

“How did you catch him?! He is known to be one of the fastest thieves in this entire city!” She asks desperately. Noticing her cute features along with her light blue eyes, he states,

“Well he may have been a bit fast but obviously he wasn’t a good thief cause he didn’t use his head that well.”

“I told ya miss, he’s one of them spacers we started hearin bout from the government. Ask your superiors about it, even better, take him with ya” The vendor says to the woman excitedly.

“Wait, what? Superiors? Then what is in this briefcase? Who do you work for?” Alastair asks inquisitively, obviously quite confused by the exchange. Before any other exchange comes to light, the woman's face steels itself intensely before looking down at the briefcase.

“I can’t go into the details sir, but I work for the military. Please hand over the briefcase." She orders hand outstretched.

"Why? What's in there? Incriminating photos, latest gossip on who shagged who?" Alastair jokes. Before he could even register what was happening, a subtle hum sounds out from his wrist.

Looking down, he sees that he's now in a pair of stun cuffs with her hand conjoined to his.

Damnit, what'd I say this time? He thinks as he is promptly dragged away.