The letters faded and Stephan found himself standing in a snow covered field with drifts of snow blowing past. Fortunately, he noted, there seemed to be no temperature effects in the screen for he felt quite comfy. Standing in a line before him stood well over two dozen individuals, all avatars he had played at one point or another. Approaching the first he smiled, "Zetsumei…"

A woman stood before him, an inch or so taller than he stood. He gaped in amazement at the detail the game had given her, "They finally brought the cinematic graphics to the game level…"

She was slightly less real than a real person, she had a touch of CGI that was just different enough. He looked at her pure white hair that swept down over her face and the long pointed ears sticking out through the hair. Her pale blue eyes stared forward, blinking occasionally and after a brief pause of embarrassment he looked at her breasts and noted with some disappointment she was better endowed than he was. By a fair margin. There's still hope? Still early on hormones. Another year or two and maybe….

With a shake of his head to dispel the musings he looked to his right at some of his other characters. He saw each standing erect and waiting to be chosen as his avatar. Squinting, he could just barely make out through the snowdrifts the lone obligatory male character he'd made. To justify playing a female...or 19 he thought with amusement. "Sorry buddy, never really felt right. Bot like you did Zet."

With one last look at her blood red armor that showed a substantial amount of skin, he touched the character. *Select this character?* popped up in his field of view. "...No. I just picked her to fuck with you…"

The confirmation screen closed unceremoniously. With a sigh and mental scolding for being sarcastic he touched her again. *Select this character?* "Yes." With that everything went white.

He felt like he was coated in warm, sticky sweat. The smell of rot and decay mingling with earth assaulted his nose. Blinking several times cleared the blindness and he looked around. "A swamp. Well stab me in the gut and fuck me sideways!"

"I'd love to but you look like an idiot." He heard a melodic tone giggle. "And really, that pissy over a swamp? Someone's hormonal today."

Turning to the speaker, Zetsumei found himself facing a high elf in full plate that would definitely be considered 'slut mog'. Her hair was strawberry blond and was styled perfectly straight with the slightest curls at the bottom. "Frost?"

"Who else? Have we ever been apart when we play? Seriously though what's up with your character?"

"Huh?" He opened his character sheet with a thought and saw...me? That's...not….the fuck?! Staring back from the screen was himself, his real world self, not Zetsumei as she should have. The very lovely, very skimpy armor Zetsumei had been wearing was now some ugly, full body medieval style armor. He shuddered at the ugliness. "I don't understand. You look like Frostina but I'm just me ..."

Frost placed a hand on his arm, "Maybe it's just a launch day glitch? This game never used diving before so they probably missed something."

"That makes sense. You're right." He took a deep breath, "Shall we check for character changes then try killing some stuff?"

"Sure, why don't you go first then tell me what I'm doing. You read a ton about the changes and I don't want to waste time while the kids sleep."

"Actually, there was no info. The beta was closed, no changes posted. They just said they want everyone to have a unique experience without knowing what's coming." He looked under his cuirass and frowned, "Seriously? I got my body but not my boobs?!"

He saw Frost covering up a laugh, "At least they'll be there when you log out?"

Fixing his wife with a flat stare he sighed, "Yay."

Zet noticed his wife seemed tense. "Don't worry about the time, they dilate it while we’re in here, like 7 times I think it was?" He noticed her perplexed look. "1 hour outside is 7 hours in here. Don't know how they managed that. Keep an eye out while I set my talents?"

"Sure thing boo."

With a mental command the character screen reappeared and he noticed an important difference, plus signs next to the stats and unspent points. Noticing every stat was set to 1 and he had 100 points to spend, he felt pretty apprehensive and dumped about half the points into Stamina to up his health. Spending the others he took a few moments to read the options, Strength was obvious and important but Magic Affinity drew his eye. The description stated it offered Resistance to Magical Damage and increased Magical Damage done. Checking his class hadn't changed, and feeling relieved that he was still an Unholy Knight, he split the remaining points between Strength and Magic Affinity. Content with the stat dump he toggled to the talent screen which was devoid of options. A black screen stared back with a simple message “Improve Skills to Unlock”. Well, that's great. I’ll just go sandbox this, thanks devs.

Done with stat dumps and talent speccing, Zetsumei thought he’d check his gear before closing out of the menus. He stared in disbelief at the sea of green that greeted him. 15 years. 12 expansions...and all my Epics and Legendaries are gone…..for commons. No boobs. No talents. No gear. And NO BOOBS! “What the flying fuck?!”

Zetsumei closed out the menus with a mental vengeance and saw a concerned Frost staring at him, “What's wrong?”

“Its...bah. I’ll keep watch, do you’re stats. This expansion better be worth it. You’ll see, check you’re gear…”

“O.k….” Frost’s eyes took on a glazed look as though she were staring at something distant, “I have my gear, am I supposed to have something different?”

“Wait. All your gear?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Am I glitched? All my gear is gone, I’m in greens. When you’re done I’m going to soft-log and see if it corrects.” Frost made a noise Zet took as understanding. With a sigh he started looking around at the landscape. The dim light filtering through the trees on the mossy floor showed little cyprus knees poking up everywhere. He shuddered, Hate swamps, bloody gators and snakes and gators. Blech! This is rather pretty though, the graphics are fucking amazing, so real! That log in the water bobbing around looks almost like a gator head.

“So, what should I spec towards? Stamina, Strength, Intelligence, Magic Affinity, Wisdom, Dexterity or Casting Speed?”

“Probably a mix of some Stamina, and mostly to Intelligence, Magic Affinity and Casting Speed. Depends on your play style hun. I mean Magic Affinity hits harder but casting speed you’d be weak and fast.”

“Kk. I’d rather hit strong, maybe I’ll…” Zet stopped listening as that log he had noticed suddenly jumped out of the water, very obviously a crocodilian afterall and began racing at Frost who was standing between Zet and the water.

“Shit!” Zet ran towards Frost and with a thought wondering where his weapon was it materialized in his hand. It was a spear as long as he was tall, the haft and blade black with red accents, the blade itself like a heart resting at the end of the shaft. He slammed it down next to his wife’s foot knowing he couldn’t otherwise reach the crocodile creature in time and use it like a pole to swing rapidly into the creature his legs outstretched. As he whipped towards the monster he suddenly lost grip and released too early slamming sidelong into its ribs. The creatures jaws snapped just past Frost, averted by the smallest margin from the mishap.

“What was that?”

Zet rolled to his feet in hopes of reaching his spear before the gator could turn. He groaned with effort, “Nothing, just spec your points.”

He didn’t hear her response, for just as he reached his feet the creature was already lunging at him. He jerked back just as the jaws snapped shut and felt the wind blast his face. He landed a quick jab to its nose and it recoiled, shaking its head. Diving aside to avoid its counter he found the creature now situated between his wife and he. “How much Stamina to Intellect do you think? Like, 1:2, more?”

Barely avoiding a bite he landed another blow to the side of the creatures jaw but was taken off guard as it countered with a side snap. “I don’t, um,” He had grabbed a jaw in each hand was straining to hold the creatures mouth open, he could feel tendons beginning to tear, “4:1 maybe, I don’t know. Pick something!”

Zet rolled backwards, letting the jaws go and as he rolled back he kicked with all his strength into the creatures passing jaws and watched several teeth fly loose. “I’m thinking Magic Affinity more than Speed, what do you think?”

“Honesty? Ju-oof!” The crocodile rammed Zet with its snout and knocked him into the air. He fought back a scream as he sailed back down towards the creature but through some twist of fate he landed on its face rather than in its mouth. Acting quickly he wrapped his arms and legs around it’s jaws holding them shut. The creature bucked beneath him earning him several knocks to the head. Feeling dizzy and his vision began to blur, he heard a roar split the air and a burst of light blinded him. The crocodile began rolling across the ground, he heard several cracks split across his body and he let go lest he be crushed further . Coughing and groaning, feeling pain with every breath he lay there. Light and warmth washed over him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the badass fighter?” His vision cleared and revealed Frost kneeling over him. “Because you looked ridiculous.”

“Took you long enough.” He couched, “you want to reset your points, do it again? We can get a calculator and determine the precise ratio for skill points?”

“Funny. Stop being a little bitch about the gear.” She booped his nose. “Get your weapon and softlog, k?”

“KK.” He looked over and saw the smoldering corpse of the crocodile splattered against the side of a tree, light rising from an enormous hole it’s side. “Holy fuck. I would understand if it didn’t have a liver for questing if you’re treating it like that…”

Frost fixed him with an icy glare, “Right, I’ll just soft log quick…”

As he summoned his menu he heard a flapping sound, like some great beast was coming closer. Closing the menu, he ran to his spear and pulled it from the ground and stood beside Frost. They looked at eachother and her hands began to glow as she readied a spell, Zet’s knuckles grew white as he gripped his spear. Several long moments passed as the flapping grew louder, before a winged lion crashed through the trees above them and dropped piece of paper that slowly floated down to them. Snatching it from the air, Zet stared at it. On it was a Royal Blue Wax Seal with several interlocking runes matching the developing companies emblem. Looking to the front of the Envelope written in fine print were the words “SERVER ANNOUNCEMENT”.

“That’s a neat way to do it. Is it an event do you think?” Frost looked to Zet for an answer but shrugged and shook his hand having no idea. Breaking the seal, he removed a piece of paper and found it blank.

“Blank? How many glitches…” The paper snapped down forcibly to the ground and suddenly a spell activated. Light shot forth from the paper and created a three dimensional image, though less realistic than the rest of the game and resolved into a middle aged man with a strong jawline, auburn hair that was trimmed into a buzzcut and a goatee. His eyes were maple and were alight with passion.

“Greetings players! Thank you for joining me in the Opening Ceremony of WOAH. This expansion, bringing this world into a fully immersive experience has been my passion since I first set foot in the Realm of Xinthos as a mere teenager. And now that day is here. If you’ve engaged in combat you will notice the painstaking detail that went into the combat system ensuring realistic pain. Of course, to be fully immersive one cannot simply come and go as they please. To bring this vision truly to life, to live in this wonderful realm, one must embrace the full glory of life and all it’s gifts!” Zet reached out and pulled Corey closer, this was starting to sound a little Akihiko Kayaba-esque. “I’d advise being cautious as you explore this vast realm players, for without true death life has no meaning.

Frost gasped next to him, “If you die here, you die out there my dear players. If you can succeed in winning this game, you’ll be free to log out. Oh, and please stop testing if fall damage is in the game, 250,000 players have already died, a large number from testing the physics. Like really, fall damage has always been on the game. Now, to victory! For Xinthos!”