Prologue

I was always bored. Never could find anything that would interest me, either things were too easy for me to do, or required too much effort to learn properly, which made me dejected. People from my family and others called me lazy or quitter. I admit, that I was. I started reading, dreaming about fantastical worlds existing, sadly, in imagination only.

Until virtual reality came to be. Yeees, the beginning wasn’t anything impressive in comparison to things in novels and books, simple headsets with better 3D and option of moving in-game camera with your head. Now however, there was sensation on the tech and gaming news. New Perspective Innovations, a company no one ever heard of, has announced release of a product described as it was in all those books I’ve read. A capsule, connected to private servers of the company, with only one feature – Virtual World.

The description was vague at most, only certainties were that it was game based on survival and RPG kind in fantasy setting, and it promised a totally new experience of living in different world. At first people took it as a prank, some unknown name declaring creating alternative virtual world? Fairy tale. Then the site appeared, with option of ordering the capsules, and people went bonkers. Machines were priced at fifty thousand dollars each, and it was written that for now, there existed only 100000 of them. After two hours, none were left. And as it happened, I am one of the crazies, who bought the big enigma.

That was three days ago, specified time for delivery was expiring today, so I couldn’t sit still from excitement and anxiousness at the same time. The money I used to buy this thing was my reserves, sent to me from uncle who raised me, not to bother him ever again. Problem is, I was now left with about one thousand, when bills per month cost me about two. Never mind, I will ask boss later to pay me earlier than usual.

My train of thoughts was interrupted by sound doorbell. Full of anticipation, I opened the door and there it was, just like on picture on the website. The Link, as it was named. Also, four muscular man, clearly responsible for dragging this thing inside and one in black suit with wide smile on his face.

“You must be mister.. Robert King? “

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Sorry sir, but I will still have to check your credentials with some document, this package is quite expensive and to use only by Robert King.”

Well, it didn’t surprise me that they wanted some insurance, it WAS expensive. After showing my documents, I was asked to fill a form on a portable laptop, while others started installing in a spot I pointed at. The form consisted of strange things. Baffled, I interrupted man in the suit who was instructing his workers.

“Excuse me, is this somehow related to the game I will be playing?”

“Yes, you might notice a green card, sticking from the side of the laptop? This card will save data you fill the form with, and after injecting it in capsule, you will be able to start your adventure with what you chose. I am inclined to remind you, this choice is final. Unless you buy a new capsule, which as you know, is at the moment impossible, you can’t change your initial character.”

With that said he resumed installation, leaving me in deep thought. The beginning of the game was very important, especially new game and based on survival. I looked over entire form reading basic information first. It included obvious stuff, like character race, creation panel, as well as what stats were influencing what and initial skills with descriptions.

Races included human, alv(elves), dvergs(dwarfs) but also gnomes and giants. I chose half human half dverg (mixing of the races was allowed) because I liked bonuses from this mix which included faster mining, forging and basic prospecting from the dvergs side, as well as improved adaptability (which just sounds good, there was no description for those) and bonus to negotiation from human.

After deciding on race, next was looks part. Height was going to be random, ranging from 4.5 feet to 5.5. In fact, the only thing I could choose was how my face looked. And wow, was it realistic. Like I was looking at a real person. Not really obsessed with looks, I made face as close to my real one, leaving image with green eyes with gray tinge, dark brown hair and small beard (what dwarf doesn’t have a beard). All in all it didn’t look rough, but not feminine either. An average look.

Satisfied nevertheless, I moved to the most important section. Stats and skills. For stats, I could either choose them myself, in which case all started from 1 and I had 30 points to choose between 7 of them, or I could leave them to chance and choose randomize option, in which case I received additional 20 points. Tough choice.

“We are finished, sir”

The black suit walked up to me, surprising me. I looked at the clock, and apparently an hour passed already since I started filling the form. The capsule was standing in the corner of my living room, no cables visible, the muscled people were gone. Hmm, I must have been really into it.

“Sorry, I am not finished yet.”

“That is no problem sir, I will wait in the car outside.”

“Oh, ok...”

Not minding him anymore I immersed myself back in character creation. I wanted to be crafting character, but also a wizard of some kind. First required strength to harvest and handle resources, second intelligence and wisdom. So I could theoretically choose those to give more points or even max… but I didn’t. I decided it was too bothersome to strategize and think about how many points I wanted in what, and also the 20 additional points were worth the risk.

After pressing randomize button, I was left with skills to choose from. These were active skills, and just like with stats there was either 2 for me to choose, or 3 as random. 100 skills listed, with basic description. Screw this. I was already getting fed up and wanted to play so I pressed randomize again, and then save. After brief moment I saw notification that data was saved on card. I took the card and quickly went to return the laptop. In front of black SUV was standing black suit I met before.

“Already finished, sir?”

“Yes, I opted for random stats and skills in the end.”

“Ha, you are the first I heard of sir. May luck be with you than, and happy new life!”

With those strange parting words he entered car. Not thinking much about what he said, I returned home to launch the game.