Rolling towards the cabin Matthew takes a deep breath before his body starts shaking, grabbing his thigh he begins to squeeze so hard his hand begins to pale. Pointing towards a bookshelf “Bring me that picture and help me in”
Looking towards where its master was pointing it moved towards the picture, grabbing the picture frame it walks over and places it in his lap “Master, I’m going to move you now” moving its arms behind his back and under his legs lifting him up it Moves towards the cabin and places him inside.
Still shaking he looks at the picture of his parents before calming down “Mom, Dad, I’m starting my new life now, wish me luck” looking at the robot “Close the cabin”
Looking down at its master it ponders for a second “Master, remember to breath”
“What??” before he an ask more the robot slaps the cabin and the lid closes. As the lid closes fluid begins to eject into the container. Swiveling his head around he looks as the chamber rapidly fills, before his head is submerged he takes a deep breath and holds it, wondering how he's supposed to connect to the game like this. His eyebrows knit together as the chamber is completely filled but nothing happens he begins to panic, remembering what the robot said realization flashes in his eyes before he takes a breath, as the liquid fills his lungs he blacks out.
As he comes to he finds himself lying down on the floor inside a completely white room, looking around he sees nothing but white. Looking down at his legs a smile blooms on his face as he begins to bend his knees. Pushing his hands on the ground he tries to stand before tumbling back down “Haha I guess it's harder than I remember!” rolling over on his back, a huge grin plastered on his face, he begins to lift his legs up and down.
“Hello future star traveler! Welcome to Amongst the Stars!”
Turning over he seeks a blue stiletto, it appears that its entire body is made of static as it moves around a TV when you turn to an unavailable channel. On his face are just two void black holes where his eyes should be, looking it up and down for a moment Matthew opens his mouth “What are you?”
“you can call me whatever you want, but I am the AI in charge of everything. I am here to help you get started so you can join the game”
“Can you help me walk?”
Waving its hand Matthew begins to float in the air before landing on his feet “Take your time to get the feeling of walking again, the better you get the less support i'll give you”
“Thanks!” taking a step forward he realizes there is something holding him up, looking into the distance “Gotta learn to walk before you can run” taking another step forward he begins to run “WOO!” legs bringing him forward and arms moving at his side I can run again, Mom, Dad! I can run again!
With every step the support was getting less and less, stumbling every few steps he slows down till he comes to a stop. As he stands there he realizes he's standing all on his own “How could I have learned that fast? I've seen other people do rehab and it could take months”
“That’s teaching the body how to walk again, but the only thing here is your mind. So in the begging, the only thing holding you back is because you yourself thought you couldn't walk, but by thinking I was helping you caused all hesitation to fade away. And because nothing is wrong with your body here of course you can walk” appearing in front of Matthew “Are you ready to create your avatar now?”
With a smile on his face he looks around “I thought my robot would be here with me”
Waving its hand a silver skeleton appears “This is the most basic robot” Snapping its fingers a black ball appears in its hands. Squishing the ball in its palm a thumb ring appears “’Wear this thumb ring, its the core or your AI. This ring cannot be lost or stolen and will probably be the only thing you don’t lose on death” Pointing to the silver skeleton “This is a basic chassis, it can be upgraded, but if destroyed you will have to replace it on your own” it taps the ring on the skeleton before tossing it to Matthew “In order to transfer the AI to a new body just use the ring, but its not as fast as it is now”
Catching the ring Matthew quickly puts it on his thumb “So how does character creation work?”
“The amount of races in the universe is limitless, but the ones in the galaxy you will be starting in number a total of four, and before you ask no not all will start in the same galaxy”
“The first race is the Al’muthar, they have the least population in this galaxy and are hunted by the others as slaves. They make excellent psions but are ok as cyborgs too they ar-.”
“Psions? Cyborgs? Are those classes?”
Looking over towards Matthew “Well, I guess this will help you chose, psions and cyborgs are the class you can choose from, but of course you can also chose to not pick either and just be normal” taking a moment to let him digest the information “Psions use psionic powers and cyborgs get cybernetic implants. There are two reasons why this is important, your Avatar has no levels in this game, psions get stronger by training their body, and cyborgs get stronger by training their body and getting different levels of implants” putting its hands behind its back “Psions gain their ability from mutation of the brain and the cybernetic brain implant that lets you control the cybernetics interfere with abilities, so if a psion ever gets implants they will lose their abilities. Most psions will never have a second brain mutation allowing for different psi abilities, also if you chose to start as a psion your ability will be random. You may get a lesser ability or a really powerful psionic ability it is all a gamble”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“What are the advantages of being normal then?”
Shaking its head “There are no advantages, but there are…..cretin ways to get the ability that you want or more advanced initial cybernetic brain implant, because removing the one cyborgs start with can be more expensive than the one you can get with some connections, plus some people like to decide their own fates”
“OK, what are the other three races”
“The second race is the Grandors, a living golem creature. There bones are made of stone and flesh as hard as rock and can be neither psions or cyborgs, but have an inborn racial ability to absorb stones and metals to strengthen themselves. But it is not a quick processes and are a race of conquerors, they go from planet to planet completely striping it of all its nutrients before the planet collapses on itself and is destroyed.”
“The third race is the Avarie, they are an avian species that do well in either psionics or cybernetics but if the implants get to heavy they may lose the ability of flight. Some say….the ruler of the Avarie is capable of space flight using its own body”
“The final race and most populated race in the know universe, the Human. They make lackluster psions but ok cyborgs with a lot of training and modification. They are the weakest of the four races but have the numbers to make up for it, if you don’t form a team they can still get by ok if they have a lot of luck and good weapons” waving his hand four different versions of Matthew appear.
Taking a breath Matthew walks over to inspect the four races.
The Al’muthar looked almost human except its entire body was a light blue. It only had four fingers and they were slightly thinner and longer than normal human fingers, the most unique thing about their hands are the black fingernails that ended in sharp points. Its face, that slightly looked like Matthew is where it truly deviates from humans. Its nose looks almost like a humans except that instead of the bridge becoming narrow as it goes up, instead is fans out as it nears the forehead. The forehead itself was strange, as you got near where the hairline should be four evenly spaced protrusions extended from the head. The protrusions did not come to a point and instead traveled along to the back of the head moving closer and close till they eventually connected into a point, if you looked at it from above it would look like four closely space speed bumps that end up running into each other as they curve along the head. Its ears resemble what one would think of and elf, pointy. Except that instead of going straight up they are pointed slightly away, Its eyes have no iris and are entirely red.
The Grandors looked like a humanoid body made of melting mud; if one splashed water on it, it looked like it would just flow away. Its hands are constantly changing from having no fingers, to have three, and sometime two. Looking at this one would think its shape was ever changing and mysterious. Its face consisted of only two black holes where its eyes should be, but the strange thing is that its body looks like it is constantly moving around like flowing mud.
The Avarie looked nothing like one would have thought, instead of a bird like creature it instead resembled more of a spider than anything. Its body resembled a standard human the most except for two things, its eyes and its back. Its eyes sclera held eight different iris each constantly changing between different color. On its back protruded eight spider looking legs, four on each side that are connected by a fine almost invisible web. The spider legs come to an extremely sharp point and can move multi directional, looking like they can be used as spears, legs, and wings.
The human looks like an exact replica of himself.
“Have you seen all that you need to see? What will you chose?”
Looking at the four races his eyes stop on the human, himself. Humans are the most adaptable species, if I chose it Ill be able to better mold it to what I want to be. Nodding his head he looks at the blue static figure “I know what I want” lifting up his hand to point at the human he hesitates slightly I’m here to start a new life, and if I'm playing a space game anyway, why pick human? I've been human all my life, screw adaptability. “I want to be an Al’muthar”
“Very well” waving his hands all four creatures disappear, and at the same time Matthew is covered in a white light. As the light fades human Matthew is gone, replaced by an Al’muthar.
Spreading his hands he begins to check out his new body “Do I not get to design what my Avatar looks like?”
“No, all Avatars resembles the main bodies as close as possible” shaking his head he looks at Matthew “Now what will your name be from now on”
Furrowing his brow Matthew looks down and ponders for a moment “Since I’m one of the early gamers I have to take something cool, I chose Leviathan”
“Very well, and for your final choice do you chose psion, cyborg, or normal.”
“Psion!”
With a snap of its fingers the room fades to black.
*Beep Beep Beep* “CRASH IMMINENT PREPARE FOR LANDING!”
When his senses return a glaring robotic voice sounds in his ear, looking around he notices that he is strapped into some sort of escape pod. Directly seated opposite of him is the robot “What's going on?! Robot where are we”
“Master, it appears we are getting ready for a landing, based on the speed we are traveling it appears we are going to crash”
Smacking his hand into his face it told me no new information, 400,000….really? “Do you think we will survive??”
“Master, worry not, this is what these types of craft are designed to do”
As the robot finishes it sentence the pod collides with the ground causing the cabin to violently shake from the collision, as the cabin skids across the ground Leviathan grabs the straps to try and support himself. After a few seconds the pod finally comes to a stop, the straps automatically disconnects and the door of the pod opens. Turning his head as the light seeps into the cabin emerald green grass divided by a streak of brown earth comes into view.