When Sevs got home, Father was waiting for him at home. Sevs dropped his bag by the door and plopped in his usual spot. When he looked up, he saw something was off in Father’s face. He looked Sevs in the eye for several seconds. Sevs returned his gaze, unsure how he could even begin to say goodbye. After a couple seconds, something passed between them. Father nodded. “You have to go then, son?”

Sevs just nodded. Father got up and walked to the liquor cabinet to pour a drink. Staring at Father’s chair, Sevs couldn’t figure out what to say. He felt his eyes start to water, and as he clenched his jaw, Sevs challenged them to spill over. More than his dad ever did, Father raised him. It should have been far too long for Sevs to ever have a childhood. He might be the oldest person alive for all he knew. Still, these last fifteen years had changed him. The person who last stepped in the dive pod would not recognize him now. He was a confident man to whom words came smoothly. He met challenges on his feet.

A glass of single malt scotch interrupted his view of the chair across from him. With a questioning look, Sevs took the glass. Father held his own; he took a sip as he sat down. Sevs raised his glass as if for a toast and cocked an eyebrow at Father. Father nodded to the glass. “I’ll be damned if I never get to have a drink with my son before he goes.”

They clinked glasses, and Sevs took his first sip in at least fifty years. He coughed slightly; as it burned a little. “I’m proud of you. I want to make sure you know that, Sevs. I have always known you were made for bigger things.”

“I need to thank you. You have taught me so much. I am not sure if this would have worked without your support.”

The two of them talked for many hours. They talked about everything, memories, and stories. About literature and business. There wasn’t a topic they skipped. Sevs told Father about how he learned about fear. Not that the fear never came, but he learned to act despite it. That was a concept that he had heard many times. In a video game, dying wasn't anything to fear. He had thought the ability to go fight a battle made him brave. Outside of that, he was just socially awkward. Now he knew his real fears came not from danger but from within. Maybe that fear would never go away. Sevs no longer needed it because it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t let it stop him any longer.

Eventually, Sevs felt it was time.

He stood up, and Father mirrored him. Father gathered him in a bear hug; for a second, everything was alright. Then a white light appeared behind Sevs eyelids.

***

When Sevs opened his eyes, he was floating in the white void between the tutorial and the main world. This was just a brief holding area before he entered the main world. He would get a tiny description while he connected to it. And by tiny, Sevs meant tiny. The prompt floating before him was the only thing he would get. The rest he would have to find out for himself.

Welcome to Tera 2.0 1202153. The humans here are a space-faring civilization locked in a deadly struggle with their rival, the space elves, in a war for territory and resources. Prepare for conscription.

Sevs read the message a few times. This let him know more about the main world than he usually got. It would be more sci-fi and less fantasy though elves made it seem like there might be some fantasy. There would be war, but that wasn’t unexpected. In-game, there would always need to be some conflict. But it was not always war. It might be civil unrest or monsters popping up. Even a civilization composed exclusively of players would have strife.

There were a few other things than just the setting that would change. The first death wasn’t something to be feared as much. Unlike in the tutorial, it wouldn’t game over you. There would be respawns. And with enough money, the penalties were usually not unbearable.

Also, the tutorial levels would go away. Each main world has its own level system. Sometimes it was a complicated ranking system in an adventurers guild. Sometimes it was just a progress bar to ascension. He might have some new mechanics to learn, but it was unlikely to be that new. The skills would be the same, though. That was something he would be looking forward to. He spent a long time building up his skills. They might have advanced slowly compared to the main world, but still, it should make the starter zone a breeze, and soon he would be picking up tier III and maybe even tier IV skills. This would make him a monster compared to the other players.

After a little bit of sitting and thinking, the white void relented. The brightness faded from the edges. Leaving Sevs standing before only an automatic door made of dull gray metal. Taking a deep breath, Sevs stepped through it.

The results were anticlimactic; the door unfurled, unveiling a passage. Sevs stumbled through. The gravity was much less than he was used to, so he went sprawling as his muscles refused to respond the way he expected. From the floor, Sevs looked around. He was in a vertically squished hexagonal hallway, maybe ten meters long. There were no side doors at all, just a long metal tube. It was made of the same and featureless, dull gray metal as the door. Looking behind him, Sevs didn’t see the entrance. Just a blank panel of the wall. In front of him was another hexagon pattern with a line through it for the far wall. Picking himself off the floor, Sevs started forward.