It was a Thursday night, which is how he will remember this moment for the rest of his life. He read that no brains have gone missing and the few deaths that had happened where people that did not follow the instructions of maintaining a healthy diet and exercise in the real world. According to the advertisement you buy the capsule and pay ‘n monthly fee to play. It was a lot more expensive than other games, if you compare it to buying other games but for a VR it just makes sense I guess.

He mailed his father how much it will cost monthly as well as his personal research on the topic. He also decided to ask for 9 more capsules than he needed. It may have seemed a bit much at the time, but his father had a lot of money and he told a small lie that maybe his friends can come over to play. They can make a weekend sleep over of it and play the game. Sure he had no friends that played the game but his father did not know that. Scot would not say he had bad luck but better to have capsules in reserve for in case his broke.

Friday he came back from school and saw a truck and a lot of people buzzing around the entrance of the manor. His first thought was that his mother has returned with some piece of worthless art she bought at auction again. As he went closer to inspect he saw it was not his mothers new worthless art but the capsules he needed. Holding in his excitement he asked Duncan, the house steward, caretaker or the ATM as Scot sometimes calls him, when Duncan could not hear him of course.

‘’Master Presscot welcome home, your father sent these for you. He said you will know what it’s about and added something about don’t lose your mind. Whatever that means I do not know. We shall put 1 in your room and the other 9 in the west wing entertainment room.’’

‘’Thank you Duncan, are they all connected and can they be accessed at a moment’s notice?’’

’’Of course young master it is all paid for in a year in advance, I thought it was a bit much but your father said this will be one game you won’t stop soon’’.

”Thank you again, would you ask Cliffton to prepare a Medieval dish for dinner tomorrow if that’s possible’’. Cliffton was the full time cook that prepared the food for everyone at the Miles manor. He also made some of the best pastries around and sold them to the local restaurants. It would be safe to say that he fits the stereo type of a well rounded chef that loves cooking. He would normally not make every dish like a master chef unless both his father and mother where home, which was not often or very long.

‘’I shall ask, after your request for a classic meal of a Roman emperor, I think Cliffton rather enjoys these challenges you give him’’.

Scot just smiled and went to his room. In his room he quickly checked his mail and saw a message from his father. He opened it and was shocked to see his father type more than a few sentences, usually they were short and to the point.

The email read.

Scot I have sent you what you asked for and left the funds you will need with Duncan. On a side note there is much I feel you should know. Unicorn is a company like most others and they currently have a product that can not just make a lot of money but if my reports are correct they can change the world we live in. I won’t bore you with the medical, practical and social details of it all, but you are a smart boy and as I understand in time you will see the potential of this. PLEASE don’t forget to keep healthy and active in the real world, no son of mine is going to be just another statistic.

Well that was new, his father was a man of few words, but Scot could not help but feel his father had not told him all he knew.

Before he started to play, he first had to choose a race, gender, name and starting location.

First he thought about what race he should be. Royal road followed the basic game rules that for example your elves had better agility and lower strength and so on. He knew the racial stereo types and since he was not sure what class he would end up choosing he decided to be a human. They where the most well rounded and he understood they are the most dominant race in the game. Besides why would he choose an elf, sure the best bowmen will most likely be an elf but why follow racial stereo types like that. It would be a bad idea to try and be the best elf warrior, but what he understood from the forums it will be possible but you will have to work a bit harder and will most likely loose against a barbarian warrior type of the same skill and level.

Gender, male of course. He will have to remember that there will be cute girls that need strong men to help them level up. Best to avoid those, most likely they will also be men just in a woman body. Rule 3, Trust no one.

Name. As every pro gamer will tell you a name is sacred and should not be chosen without reason or cause. Once you pick a name it is permanent. Only on deleting the avatar and starting over will you will be able to make a name change. Scot thought about names. He would not choose popular names of super heroes or celebrities. His own personal nerd name has changed over the years. He started off as Scotty, then Prowler, and a few to shameful to mention. He had some funny names like SirTapSumBong and so on. In the end he thought he should have a name that stands out. A name that not many would choose for themselves, a name that would strike fear in the minds of his enemies. A name that people can easily tell others about and guess one that the ladies will also like. Yeah, he will think about it some more and get back to it.

Starting location. There were many towns and cities. All under different regions control and all located in the central part of the continent. It makes sense, the other regions north, east, west and south will be like expansion and end game locations. If Scot knew that he was going to be so wrong about that he would probably done many things different, but that was the assumption he was working under. So he decided on Heaven region, it sounded safe and any city will do for now. On the forums there were not a lot of bad things to say about the region only that it was one of the largest and many people found it acceptable. Again if he knew the shit storm that was waiting for him, he would have started at another location. Thanks to that whole saga rule 6 helped him a lot. That one learns from losses and diversions.

Class. He decided he wanted an adventure class. Not some class that stays in cities and don’t do much in battle. Like dancer or merchant or painter or sculptor. (Yes readers assumptions like that will come back and bite our hero in the ass later on). He thought that classes like these were for the old, young and cowards that don’t want to do battle and want to play house. The thought of taming a mythical animal would be nice. He was not sure how that would work, will there be a resurrect function and what will prevent people from stealing his pet? The forums had no beast tamers so he did not know.

The paladin class appealed to him, a noble warrior with good combat skills and holy magic. He read they get a faith stat and that determines how effective your holy magic is. He decided to pass, he does not go to church in the real world very often, so why would he spend time in game praying and doing those types of things. Healer class he decided to ignore because who wants to just heal and watch your party members do all the work. At that moment he realised he needs a class that he can solo play and have an important role in a party. Ranger or bowmen was not his style. The standard warrior appealed to him. He read there are many secret classes, but he did not get his hopes up.

That only left spell casters and the sneaky class which Scot does not have much respect for. Spell casters sure are strong but as far as solo play goes you could not really do it easily alone. Why would someone choose an assassin or thief class. If you get caught you go to jail and waste time. What if you must kill somebody in a certain time but have real world obligations? The standard warrior seemed like the only logical choice. As a warrior you can wear many armour types and use many weapons and from there you can specialise into a unique class. On the other hand those that play the most and started with the launch of the game will be most powerful. Like him there will be people that started later and will need him. Maybe he will be able to join a guild and be a sort of back up tank or the one that makes sure new or hidden monsters don’t attack healers. Scot could see himself in that role, not fighting to death every battle and share in the fun and loot.

Scot was grinning and noticing now for the first time it was night time. He went to get some food before he would get in the capsule for the first time. Since it was Friday night he had the whole weekend ahead that he could play. Right before he climbed into the capsule he set the timer for 6 hours. That should be enough time to get a feel for the game and 24 hours in game to explore and start his adventure. As Scot closed his eyes he thought to himself ‘’Sure I broke rule 1, not to get the first generation of a new platform, but if this is what they say it is, I shall be a fool to wait longer, besides you only live once…’’ (YOLO Bitches)