It has been three months since the interview with Future Tech and it is finally the day for the global release of Astrum Online. News channels of all varieties had been covering the expected release with many referring to the game simply as A.O.

Prakash Douma was one of the many players eagerly waiting for the launch of the game. He ate his breakfast with his eyes fully focused on the news displayed on the holographic screen in the living room. His siblings sat next to him and were equally enthused about it. It was all they ever talked about for the past month.

Prakash finished his second to last semester and had loads of time on his hands currently. With the exception of finishing his final year dissertation and job hunting, he and his group of friends from university scoured the limited information available on the game website. They agreed to start at the beginner planet in the Kingdom of Sao once A.O. launched at noon. His younger brother, Parvin and his older sister Yenette each have similar plans arranged with their friends.

Standing next to the island in the kitchen, Prakash’s parents looked on with amused expressions. They knew how badly their children wanted to play the game after the Beta test concluded last month. The testers all gave overwhelmingly positive reviews. “The hype train” as was called by the younger generation was further fueled by the release of the game’s trailer which showcased the various political intrigues among the factions in the galaxy followed by a highlighted clip of an event given to the Beta testers at the end of the beta test, a space battle. Even in their mid-50s when they thought they were too old for games, they couldn’t deny that the two videos shown by Future Games had their interest piqued.

When the prices for the game sets were released it caused a global uproar. Costing only as much as a standard modern console at $800 per piece. Granted, the family had to upgrade the internet bandwidth to handle three simultaneous connections, it wasn’t something they couldn’t afford. The pods, however, came with extra recurring miscellaneous costs such as nutrient fluids which were mandatory for healthy prolonged playtime. While the pods were affordable or downright cheap for a new piece of technology in the market, the true moneymaker from selling such cheap pods was that everyone had to continuously buy nutrient fluids for the pod.

Since the family can afford such luxuries and were not strapped for cash, they decided to treat the kids to an early Christmas and got each of them their own virtual pod. ‘I guess economics doesn't really change no matter how many centuries have passed’ thought David, Prakash’s father as he read the instruction manuals when the pod arrived and was being installed.

Back to the present, the news projected on the holo display that was the centre of attention of the three children was showing a man in his mid-twenties with blonde locks with a very strong jawline. It was one of the candid interviews with BondZure, one of the better-known pro-gamers affiliated with DeepConnect, one of the leading gaming organisations that have teams in many e-sports games and guilds in the big MMORPGs. BondZure was one of the few who were offered to be Beta testers of AO.

“I know many other testers have said it before, but I can’t stress how realistic the game is. You really can’t tell the difference between NPC and players. The company wasn't kidding when they mentioned the game brings a whole new level of immersion. I’ve played mostly competitive e-sports, but I sunk many hours in MMORPGs as well. The small details were truly incredible. One aspect of the game that truly blew my mind was the tech tree. Well, tree is an oversimplification” BondZure said while shaking his head. “I honestly will not be surprised if some of the real-world engineers were hired by the various gaming organisations if they can even afford them,” he said. “I even recommended to the higher-ups to look into the options”. He paused for a while and said “Shit. I wasn’t supposed to say that. Oppps”

The reporter laughed and asked, “Could you elaborate more on that please?”

“Well, too late now.” BondZure chuckled to himself. “We weren't allowed to play much with the game. We were each grouped into a ship and only allowed to explore an artificial environment created for the Beta test. They try to limit our exposure to the various systems in the game. But from just that small playthrough, the other player crews and I aboard the spaceship have all agreed that familiarity with real-world engineering reduces the difficulties in the maintenance and operating of some of the ship’s systems.

“Some of them were engineers or engineering students and they found they could even tweak and modify some of the ship’s droids and fighter crafts using the knowledge that they learned from class. We speculated that modding and developing unique crafts will probably be a huge aspect of the game.

“And if engineers have that advantage, the question then would be what other advantages other professions will bring when the game is released in full. Makes you think and that's really what's exciting about the game in my opinion.”

“That is a very view BondZure. We all have that to look forward to and are very excited to see what the game has to offer. And now back to you Daniel.''

The news cut back to the news reporter in the studio.

"Now on a different note, FT has remained adamant in not selling their class 5 AIs to any governments in the world. They reiterated that FT will not allow their creations to be used for war and…''

Prakash lost interest in the proceeding news segment. That debacle with the government has been ongoing for months since FT revealed their successful development of next-gen AI.

He even supported their decision to relocate all of its staff and facilities to a secluded private island in the Caribbean. However, the decision made no sense to Prakash since political pressure can still be applied to the company despite enjoying the protection of the International Trade Federation (ITF) after the economic wars that happened 35 years ago.

Checking the time on his personal smartwatch, it was an hour to the anticipated release. However, players can log in early to create their characters while waiting for the servers to go online.

Prakash kissed his parents on the cheeks and ran to the gaming pod installed in his room. He stared at it while it booted up. Admiring the sleek egg-shaped silver looking piece of metal. His eye twitched when he noticed the chunky black cable that extended from behind the capsule and connected to the socket in the wall, totally ruining the futuristic aesthetic. ‘Wireless power transmission technology had been invented over a decade ago and we’re still stuck with cables due to politicians and lobby groups’ Prakash lamented. ‘Was it so hard just to update the industry guidelines and standards?’

A positive beep from his VR pod shook him out of his frustration with the politicians of his country, indicating the pod was ready. He undressed and immediately tucked himself in. Soon after he drifted off to sleep and was greeted with a golden glowing text,

The galaxy you are about to explore hides many dangers. While there are dangers, there are also many opportunities. Its history has witnessed the rise and fall of many core powers. Some, were annihilated by wars, others by their greed. Most of these marvels of technology were lost to the eddy of space and time. Few survived due to extenuating circumstances. This station which was stranded in a higher dimension due to an accident during transit was one of them.

The view panned down to an old, worn down spherical space station with windows dotted over its surface. The size of the structure was breathtaking, as big as a moon. Despite its obvious age, there was no noticeable damage to the structure. As Prakash floated nearer to the object, he could make out a huge opening that he assumed to be a hangar entrance. Getting nearer, another line of text materialised in front of him.

Welcome explorer, to the world of Astra.

Prakash felt his heart skip a beat when he crashed into the floating welcome message. He saw in his peripheral vision of the welcome message dissolving in the distance. As Prakash floated into the massive structure, he came to a stop in front of a one and a half metre tall bronze coloured robot. Floating above the floor, the robot greeted him,

"Greetings traveller, welcome to Induction Station. I am here to help you in your avatar creation.”

From the robot’s left eye projected a screen that mirrors in length and height, Prakash’s current body frame. Standing 182 cm tall, he was of average build. His skin tone was of a darker brown and straight black hair extended to his neck. He rotated his character with a command from his thought, he sighed at the slight bulge on his belly.

"You are allowed to change your appearance. However, drastic changes were not recommended as they will severely affect your body's coordination. It is recommended to stay within 95% similarity'' the robot chimed.

Exploring the sliders, he changed his eyes to silver and extended the length of his hair into a ponytail. He tried to erase his belly of shame but found that the action dropped the similarity to 80%. Shocked, he asked the bot in front of him how? To Prakash’s disappointment, no response was given from the bot, resigning him to carry his shame and laziness in the real world to the game.

After spending quite an amount of time exploring the options available to customise his character, Prakash found a tab where he could select the starting species that he could begin with. Looking around, he found traditional humans, some leonids, avians, a conehead looking species called Amans, and another species that looked like a fish with huge eyes and catfish-like whiskers extending from the periphery of its mouth where a moustache would be located for humans.

He chose human and hit the accept button and was asked for him to input his gamer tag. Without thinking much, he keyed in Gulliver. His usual gamer tag.

A circular tank made of glass rose from the ground beside the bot and in a flash, he found himself walking out of the tank, dressed in a black skin-tight jumpsuit with white lines running down the seams which connected to the white cuffs near the wrists.

Looking around he saw many other players stepping out of tanks with similar outfits. Some already started exploring the station while getting used to the movements. The bot’s voice brought his attention back to the projected display in front of him. "If you have a party, please input the party code you registered''. He proceeded to key in the code he and his party registered with the selected starting planet.

"You are free to roam around Induction Station while waiting for the server to come online. This station will be the default location when you log in. Think of it as a lounge area outside of the game space. Please use this time to get used to the controls and movements of your body'' the bot finished and floated away to welcome other new players.