Under different circumstances, a stormy night like this would’ve been the perfect opportunity to find some rest, lulled into a deep sleep by the howling winds and splashing rain against the windows. And perhaps if he had called it a night a little earlier, William wouldn’t have noticed the barrage of messages from several different contacts, all of them sending him the same link to the same website. But even if both his mind and body had appreciated the rejuvenating effects of a good night's sleep, William would’ve been sorely displeased, had he missed this new release sweeping across the internet. Now, glued to his multiple screens, he was trying to keep up with the flood of information coming in through chat servers, news feeds and the source of all this hubbub.

Eternium.

Promising a gaming experience that even in this day and age people could only fantasize about in their wildest dreams, it was to be expected that skepticism and denial followed the shock and awe. A completely immersive game in digital reality that you can literally live your life in, do battle with realistic combat-feedback and an absolutely massive world to discover? Anyone who can count videogames among their passions secretly, and more than often openly, harbours this wish. And now, out of seemingly nowhere, some company claims to have solved the technical issues for such a dream to become reality? Of course most people aren’t gonna believe it at face-value.

That is, until they noticed the already well-known logo indicating the mastermind behind it, and the doubts very quickly turned into child-like excitement and curiosity - and William was not immune to it, not even one bit. Even if his tired eyes, only illuminated by the pale blue light of his monitors, did not properly reflect it, his emotions were running wild. Absorbing every tiny bit of information like a dried-out sponge, there wasn’t even the tiniest afterthought of sleep or rest - he needed answers. What are the possible classes? Which system did they use for stats? How realistic would the interactions with NPCs be? Would he need to sell one of his kidneys to afford that kind of technology, and if yes; how much does a kidney go for on the black market?

His racing thoughts were interrupted by the flashing icon of an incoming voice call. Annoyance turned to acceptance when he noticed the username of his best friend, and William quickly accepted the call. There’s only one thing Robert could want right now.

“You better have a good reason to disturb me during binging time, Bobby”, William called out impassionately without a greeting before the other one could talk.

“I’m actually surprised you picked up at all!”, his life-long friend's voice rang out laughing through his speakers. “Considering you’re shown offline and all..”

“Just didn’t wanna be bothered.”

“Come on, man! Don’t be sour at a time like this! This is huge--”, the much deeper yet also more jovial voice was starting to complain, before he got cut off.

“Obviously you’re the exception, dum dum.”

“Well, aren’t you in a flirty mood today? Anywho.. Eternium! Whatcha thinkin’?”

William could only audibly scoff at that question. “Are you seriously asking what a true-blooded gamer thinks about a multi-trillion dollar videogame project the likes of which none of us could’ve remotely predicted or even dreamt of in our lifetimes, fulfilling a fantasy that every gamer had at some point?” The sarcastic undertone was heavy enough to drop him through the floor if he had kept talking.

“..are ya done? Or is that rant long enough that I can refill my coffee?”, the other party in the call snickered, slurping up whatever liquid was in whichever container he was currently holding with an audible smack of his lips.

“Nah, go ahead. It’s gonna be a long night, so come prepared. Also, way ahead of you!”, William shot back and held his own mug close to the microphone while pouring himself a cup from a filled tea pot, the sound carrying through to his call partner as the fragrant steam gently wafted against his face.

“Alrighty, be right back then!”, Robert called back and the sounds of a headset being pulled off and set down on a table could be heard, before his stomping steps faded away moments after. As always, he did not use the mute function.

Even though it should’ve been a small reprief spent in silence as he kept reading through the flood of forum posts on the most popular networks, a movement in his friends list caught his eye. The icon of another regular chat partner was changing between ‘online’ and ‘currently typing’, seemingly unable to finish their thoughts, no doubt due to the same reason he and Robert were wide awake. But before his contact even got a chance to send off that message, William sneakily added his niece, Chelsea, to the call.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed, young lady?”, he tried to put on his best serious voice, which in fact had more emotion behind it than his usual tone.

“--cks sake, Billy! Give a girl a warning!”, the woman on the other end complained, her initial swearing cut off by the rustling of an adjusted microphone, followed by a grumbling sigh and the sound of furious typing on a mechanical keyboard. “Robert’s AFK?”

“Getting coffee. You think he would’ve let that pass without an inappropriate remark?”, he shot back before taking a long, savouring sip of his hot leaf juice.

“True.. true..”, the short response came, Chelsea still obviously distracted by something. But before William could inquire about it, almost a whole paragraph dropped into the chat of their shared call after Chelsea audibly hit the ‘send’ button.

“Really? Making me read while you could’ve just told me? Also, shouldn’t you be in bed?”, the repeated mocking question came as well, while William was already skimming through whatever Chelsea had typed out earlier. Most of it was just excited ramblings with far too many emoticons for his liking.

“Yeah, yeah.. joke never gets old, unlike you poppop. And I’m not gonna delete all that effort, so deal with it”, she smuggly responded, apparently leaning back in her office chair as the joints very clearly screamed for some WD40.

Her comment actually got a rise out of him this time. “..poppop? You really gonna lump me together in the same age group as my sister, even though me and her are twenty damn years apart?! It’s not my fault our parents decided they wanted another child in their fifties!”

“Ohhh no, did I hit a nerve there?”, the overexaggerated giggle was even more grating. “But speaking of old people, how are grandma and grandpa doing?”

“Tsk..”, was his reaction when she kept going at first, but at least the topic changed. “Enjoying the comfort of retirement, obviously. Mom finally managed to grow more than tiny, malformed vegetables this year around. The pumpkins in particular look like they could feed the whole family with pumpkin soup for weeks!”

“Mhhmm.. pumpkin soup~”, came the delighted response from Chelsea.

“‘Mhhmm’ indeed. And Dad is still tending to his personal bee colonies, and sometimes checking back in with the company. He just can’t help it, the old workaholic.”

“Hey, man’s got his principles. But I’m glad to hear they’re doing well! I think mom is already planning to--”, she tried to get a word in as well, but was cut off when the rustling of a headset could be heard, and Robert returned.

“I’m back! Found out any new info yet, Billy?”, he very loudly questioned, seemingly trying to scare him out of deep thoughts, as was usually the case.

“Hey, Robert”, the new female voice in the call responded first.

“Ah! Chelsea, how you doin’? I was about to ask Billy if he’s heard anything from you”, Robert shot back with an excited tone in his voice, audibly slurping from his mug, before continuing. “Awesome! We got the whole group back together! Let’s get plotting~”

“Plot what? We don’t even have all the details.. or at least not yet. I don’t even know if I can afford it, that has to be soooo expensive”, Chelsea rebutted with a pouting sigh, most likely referring to the advertised capsules, allowing the user to fully merge with the game and experience it like the real world.

“Actually, it’s pretty tame..”, William chimed in slightly distracted, as he was skimming the information on the official website, which still ran surprisingly stable when considering the massive traffic it undoubtedly experienced right now. “The subscription for access with an old VR headset, granted you already have one, isn’t that much more than other games. Considering the scope of this game, I’d argue they should be losing money with those numbers.”

“Come on, do you really want to hobble around a super-immersive game like that with a keyboard and mouse? I bet this is just so people can get hooked on it and then ultimately buy the more expensive options”, Robert argued back.

“I doubt it’ll get people to shell out lower fix figures for one of these capsules.. two-hundred fifty thousand dollars for access and the capsule? Some people don’t earn that in a year!”, an almost exasperated William was breaking down what he had found so far. “Obviously, most players are gonna settle for these brand-new VR headsets they’re advertising. Still costs four figures for the equipment though.”

Suppressed choking sounds could be heard from his niece, apparently not very certain she could handle even the cheaper offers. “Beng broke sucks, man.. I don’t know how I’m gonna afford that.”

“It ain’t cheap, yeah. But this is still ground-breaking technology!”, Robert shot back, not willing to let go of the excitement.

“If - and that’s a big ‘if’ - this isn’t just a massive scam. Pre-orders for two years in advance with those price tags? We’ve been burnt pretty bad in the past with far less utopic offers”, William voiced his own growing doubts, even if the promise of such an all-encompassing gaming experience did not leave him unfazed.

“Yeahhh, but it’s the Elon we’re talking about here. He’s got enough cash to his name already, why would he go for such a bad attempt at scamming people out of their money?” Just like always, Robert was the one trying to keep the hype alive.

“I’m just saying we shouldn’t overreact right now. I doubt I could borrow the money for a capsule at any reasonable interest rate, and I haven’t even paid off my college degree either.”

“Don’t remind me.. I already regret not going to trade school, but it’s too late for that now”, Chelsea chimed in with that sentiment.

“Ugh.. you are such killjoys”, Robert complained with a grumbling sigh.

“Easy for you to say, Mr. Master Broker. Don’t you even own stocks in that company?”, William teased him with a wry smile, all too aware that his childhood friend had hit a lucky streak these past few years, even if he never bragged about it.

“Dunno, maybe? Probably? It’s not like I got the cash lying around for something so expensive!”, the other protested.

“Well duh, obviously it’s sitting in your bank account, dum dum”, William couldn’t help but keep going, not meaning any harm of course.

“You suck”, was the short, disgruntled response.

“Are you two done yet? I thought we were gonna discuss the game, not have a 101 in financial studies”, Chelsea complained audibly annoyed. “Let’s just assume we’re all gonna use one of those fancy new VR headsets, and we climb that hill when we get to it.”

“Fair enough. Looks like you can’t actually put in any orders yet anyways”, William conceded and closed several windows, including a list of potential credit institutes. No, he definitely wasn’t already looking for a loan, nope.

“Finally! Let’s talk strategy then… you think our old comp would be useful here?”, Robert immediately tried to steer the discussion towards more exciting topics, and none of the other two seasoned gamers had any qualms with that.

“One healer, one tank, one DD? I don’t see how that could be a bad thing”, Chelsea chimed in right away. “They did show healing spells in one of the trailers, so it’s not some weird martial-arts-only game.”

“I don’t know.. do you really want to play the tank in a game where the feedback is super realistic? I doubt it’s gonna be entirely painless, or else you couldn’t properly react to threats”, William theorized while keeping an eye on any significant news in his feed, which was absolutely dominated by anything related to Eternium.

“But you’re gonna get hit either way, might as well wear the proper armor to endure it”, Robert argued back.

“No-hits-run, you say? Challenge accepted!”, Chelsea giggled at that, before getting serious quickly. “But William has a point, it’s probably gonna suck getting ganged up on by mobs when you are the player figure.”

“You’re probably right.. but we need at least one melee fighter between us and the enemies. There’s no way aggro doesn’t exist in this game as well.” And seemingly not willing to take up that role himself, Robert hesitated where he would forge ahead in other situations.

“I’ll do it. Playing the melee fighter, I mean”, William quickly offered, closely followed by incredulous sounds from the other two.

“You? Fighting in close combat? Have you ever played anything other than mages?”, Robert audibly scoffed at this proposal.

“Trust me, I’m definitely not looking forward to getting chewed on by some wolf, but.. this could be a huge opportunity for some very in-depth study of armed combat, if this game is as realistic as they advertise”, the other rebutted and ruefully admitted his ulterior motive.

“Ohhh, that’s right! You did start that webcomic of yours”, Chelsea called out when she realized what he was referring to. “Sound logic, actually. Get some real experience in fantasy combat and put that to use in your work.”

“That’s at least the idea, yeah.”

“Well, if you’re sure about that, I’m not gonna take that chance away from you. How is your art doing anyways, dude? I never get the chance to check”, Robert questioned off-handedly yet enthusiastically.

“Not exactly sure, but let’s assume for now that I’ll be our frontline fighter, or we’re getting nowhere”, he responded to the first part, before hesitating for a moment. William did not like talking about work that much, even to someone like Robert. But he didn’t just want to rebuff his best friend over that. “And, well.. still living at home, so no big overnight success yet. But smaller deals for designs and all the commissions help to pay bills’n such. My web comic has, like.. twenty followers at the moment? And if I wouldn’t get a tiny pay for it by the host website, it would be a net loss.”

“Yikes, oh man.. sorry to hear it’s been not exactly idle sunshine for you. But I believe in you, man! There’s a reason you breezed through college with your skills, it just takes time for others to realize what you can do!” Just like always, Robert didn’t occupy himself with negative thoughts for any significant amount of time, and rather tried to either keep a positive outlook, or try to cheer up others with it.

And William was not unfazed by it, even though it didn’t quite help as much as Robert would’ve liked to see. Still, he would feel terrible not giving him credit for always cheering him on like that. “Thanks, man. You know that I always appreciate your kind words”, he responded in kind, idly circling his mouse cursor over his screen.

“Anytime, brother! And tell you what, I’ll be pushing your reference a bit with some people. You wouldn’t believe how nerdy some brokers can get!”, the ever-positive friend was just adding onto it, and William couldn’t help but give a genuine smile now, even though no one could see it.

“That’d be great, thanks Bob.”

“..you two love-birds done yet?”, came the snickering comment of a certain young woman in their call.

“Harr harr, too funny. But Chelsea’s right, we should talk strategy some more. Which one of you wants to be the heal slave?”, William threw the question out there with an audible grin, even though he already knew the answer to it.

“Not it!”, Chelsea called out very quickly, almost immediately upon hearing the word ‘heal’.

“Not i-- dang it!” Robert easily lost this one every single time. “Whatever.. as long as I don’t have to wear a cutesy Priestess dress. Actually, now that I think about it.. did anyone notice the complete lack of usual MMO tropes? No overly flashy weapons and all the armor looked to be functional on both genders.”

William nodded along with his friend's realization, even though it wasn’t necessary in a voice call. “Yep, noticed that too. But I think people would feel super uncomfortable if they had to wear skimpy armor as the default. I sure as hell wouldn’t wanna see you in a chainmail bikini, Robert!”, he couldn’t help but sway the initially obvious target of that teasing comment towards his best friend, getting a laugh out of all three of them.

“Just wait until you see me flexing those muscles in the skimpiest armor I can find, dude~”, he immediately joked back good-heartedly.

“Thank you, but no thank you. Last summer gave me enough hairy man-bear for a lifetime”, Chelsea chuckled and made a fake gagging noise.

“Well, alright then.. that only leaves you with the damage--”, William tried to gently steer the discussion back on topic now, but was quickly interrupted by her eager response.

“Mage! I’ll be the mage! God, those spells looked like sooo much fun to sling around~”

“That was quick..”, Robert commented mumbling.

“If you practice IRL with some softballs beforehand.. I don’t wanna get roasted by a stray fireball just because your aim is total crap”, William responded with a dry chuckle.

“Yeah, yeah.. whatever, pops”, Chelsea teased him back.

“Sounds like a solid plan to me! Hope the good-old class trifecta holds up in Eternium as well, and the meta won’t be skewered towards melee classes too much.. I’d hate to play another rogue”, Robert announced and you could hear over his always slightly over-sensitive microphone how he was already searching for details on his personal planned class.

“Has there ever been an MMO where that wasn’t the case?”, William had to chuckle to himself as he was trawling through the flood of information on anything that could help solidify their choices. And just like that, they were completely immersed in their scheming. For a seasoned group of RPG players like them, it was a bit easier to separate the valuable core information from unnecessary fluff. But considering the sheer amount of intel on the game that was streaming from all kinds of sources, it would take the whole night just to get a grasp on their chosen class identity within Eternium.

But it was worth every single sleep-deprived, caffeine-fueled second.