The following year flew by almost like a mad haze, as if the announcement of Eternium had set off a change in the world that could only be felt by those enticed by its call. And oh boy, did they answer that call. Sweeping through the online gaming communities like a riptide, nobody was immune to the excitement when it became clear that this wasn’t a scam, but very, very real. And the corporate masterminds behind Eternium knew how to utilize that momentum to garner even more attention and trust, easily maintaining the hype with clever use of information dumps containing new details. Each and every ounce of even the tiniest sliver of intel was being dissected by veteran players and famous figures in the genre, not just to quantify the credibility of the many fantastic claims Eternium brought to the table, but to also get people even more excited for what was to come.

- One year after the first announcement -

It was another voice call session between the three seasoned players, just like every time another bundle of information dropped and needed a scrutinous and thorough analysis. Of course, like any other event like this, the net sum of new details about Eternium was miniscule at best, and pretty much always unnecessarily cryptic - or that’s what everyone assumed.

“‘Unleash your inner-most potential?’ What is this, a pep talk rally?”, William scoffed before slowly sipping from a chilled glass of ice tea, a feeble attempt at combating the unnatural heat wave that had struck their country. At the very least his gaming rig had an eco-mode - courtesy of The Boring Company - that didn’t need as much energy and produce as much heat when he was just browsing, so he had that going for him, which was nice.

“Who knows? It’s gonna be linked with our minds or whatever, so maybe that’s just the in-lore explanation for whatever our origin story is gonna be. You know, the usual chosen one schtick”, Robert offered his opinion on the matter, much more noisy with him wolfing down a bowl of popcorn on the side. As always, he did not use the mute button while eating.

“That would just be silly. ‘Welcome to the world of Eternium, o Chosen One! You are the twenty-millionth person to step through this portal!’”, Chelsea shot back in a mocking voice. “I really wish they’re not gonna go for that cliché, that would be really immersion-breaking.”

“Agreed. Maybe they just didn’t know what to put there, since they want to stay so secretive with the details, and cheesy headlines always work on the rabble”, William almost spat that last word, referring to the most casual players who get suckered in by pretty pictures and catch phrases. At least with Eternium, the requirements for entry were pricey enough to turn off a good chunk of them, but you could never keep them out completely.

“I mean.. Everybody has to start somewhere. I still remember our first MMO and we definitely didn’t play it for the mechanics”, Robert chuckled through a handful of popped corn kernels.

“Yeah, Billy! Don’t be such a gate-keeping elitist!”, Chelsea called out as well, but her tone betrayed the seriousness of her words, earning her a gasp from her relative of almost the same age.

“How dare you say those nasty things to your own uncle?! Just you wait until I tell your mother!”, William mocked back overly offended, before falling back into his usual neutral tone. “I just don’t want to deal with inexperienced fresh meat in this stupidly expensive game.”

“You could always use them as cannon-fodder? Just stick’em in a suit of plate armor and let the mobs wail on them~”, his niece followed up with an audible grin on her face.

“Now you’re both just being mean for no reason”, the ever-friendly Robert scolded his friends.

“Nuh-uh, I actually have a reason though, didn’t you hear-- no way!”, William was about to throw some heavy sarcasm around, when the live broadcast of the trailer ended and faded away to a headline simply stating that pre-orders were now open. Almost dropping the glass he was still holding, the already bookmarked website did not open fast enough for his liking.

“Ohhh sh--crk yeah!”, Robert excitedly yelled in his booming voice, somehow bumping against his microphone-stand and accidentally censoring his own expletive in the process.

“Pre-orders? Already!? But I’m still short a couple hundred bucks!”, Chelsea whined from her side of the call, unable to do much else for the moment, but suddenly lighting up. “Be right back, gonna beg mom for some cash!” And just like that, she was muted and away.

William was racing across the individual pages, quickly copy-pasting details for the purchase from a text document he had prepared specifically for this moment. There was no way he would miss out on a possibly limited amount of pre-orders - or at least it wouldn’t be due to his own shortcomings! Now he just needed to choose the correct option and not accidentally pick the ones he couldn’t dream to afford - done! Accept the terms and conditions, obviously - who had time to read those anyways? Wait for the purchase to finalize, and then it should confirm any second now… aaaaanny second now. "Oh crap, did the website already crash?!"

But a few tense moments later, his order was confirmed. “Phew! I’ve got one secured”, William sighed a breath of relief and wiped away a thin film of sweat off of his forehead, even though that was more from the unbearable heat.

“Uh-huh.. I’m just about to as well.. hopefully?”, Robert responded and obviously still distracted by the whole purchase. “It’s taking awfully long for me.”

“Probably because you’ve picked the option for a capsule”, William shot back off-handedly, checking for a confirmation email on the side - sure enough, it was there.

“Wha--? No! Don’t be ridiculous! I’m not dropping that much money for a videogame!”, his friend defended himself in a somewhat serious and offended tone, before going quiet for a moment and sheepishly adding: “..At least until I’ve had a go with the VR headset.”

“Oh, so you do have the cash lying around, but just don’t want to spend it, huh?”

“Shut up. Also, the order for a VR headset package is now through”, Robert emphasized again, but still let out a sigh of relief at the end.

William could only snort at that and shake his head in amused disbelief. Of course he would never be so petty and start getting seriously envious of his best friend, but he couldn’t lie that he was somewhat jealous of Robert's financial situation. Ever since the company behind Eternium had absolutely sky-rocketed in the stock market, even people with only tiny investments in them were reaping huge profits - and Robert was among those lucky enough to have invested early. And even though William didn’t know the exact numbers behind that, it could not have been insubstantial.

The sound of a microphone being un-muted, followed by a frantic Chelsea mumbling to herself brought both of them back again. “Come ooooonnnn! Move! Move, you stupid website! Move! Move! Mooo-hooove!”, she almost incessantly urged on, tapping her fingernails on the table loud enough for the others to hear it.

“Like an addict needing her fix, tsk tsk”, William joked on the side, comfortably sipping the last bit from his glass and longingly looking at the half-melted ice cubes sitting at the empty bottom. Chelsea was only mumbling vague expletives directed at everything and everyone while she was vigorously hammering on her keyboard to enter her personal information.

“Hey, guys? Something else just popped up on Eterniums news feed”, Robert called out, with a link popping up in their shared chat window right afterwards. “Apparently they also started a huge giveaway that anyone can sign up for and-- oh, wow! First place gets one of fifty capsules! And there’s a whole lot more VR headsets and subscriptions in the price pool! Talk about generosity.”

“What, and they’re just giving those away? No contest, no buy-in lottery?”, William couldn’t hide his disbelief at this chance to gain access to something expensive like that.

“Nope! Says here you only need a registered and verified account on their website. And looks like they also solved the problem of any frauds participating with hundreds of accounts, since you need to submit your ID for confirmation”, Robert explained as he was already reading through at least some of the conditions, apparently.

“Dunno, they could still just pay others to create an account and then take the win for themselves, but.. ehh. You can never rule out cheaters”, the other of the two best friends responded, going through the very simple process to enter said giveaway. Just when he was about to confirm his information, something caught his eye. “Hmm? Looks like this won’t be the only giveaway, or else this option to ‘automatically partake in any future giveaways for Eternium and related products’ wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Sounds like they really want to push this game out there, but you won’t hear me complain about free stuff. Hopefully this isn’t just a way to get people playing, and then pester us with pay-to-win mechanics down the line. I don’t think the industry or my stock portfolio could take a hit like that”, Robert speculated, awfully uncharacteristic for his usual positive self.

“I see what you mean, but didn’t you try to argue against just that outcome when they first announced Eternium? And anytime someone tried to call it a scam in public?”, William threw it back at him with a question mark.

“Yeah, I know.. but up until now, they weren’t so desperate to get people playing.”

“Of course they want people playing! I bet this technology was horrendously expensive to develop, let alone create the entire game environment. They need to cover those expenses somehow, and no other way than to get people to buy in.”

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“You’re probably right. I just have a little more riding on this than you two..”, Robert sighed a slightly frustrated breath, before catching himself. “Ah! Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything with that!”

“I know, I know”, William retorted and lifted his hands as if to calm Robert down, obviously a pointless gesture since they were only in a voice call. “You don’t want to see it all go up in flames so you didn’t waste all that money on a capsule”, he added with a sly grin towards the end, trying to loosen his old friend a bit.

“Oh for the love of--! How long are you gonna keep that up?”

“Probably at least until release day.”

“You’re a pest.” Even though his friend sounded annoyed, there was a distinct humor in his voice as well. Truth be told, they teased each other with worse in the past.

“Love you too, big guy!”, William laughed it off, still in a good mood over the fact that, at the very least, he would be able to play Eternium on one of those next generation VR headsets. If they had slept on this live broadcast of the announcement, they might have struggled much more to secure themselves access to the game. He could only imagine how many people were desperately trying to get on the website and put in their orders. Actually, did Chelsea manage to get through yet?

“Chelsea? You alright? Did you get an order in yet?”, he called out to his relative, who had been awfully quiet ever since she had hurried back. When they didn’t get an immediate answer, William checked if she might’ve muted her microphone - and sure enough, she wasn’t broadcasting. “..You’re raging, aren’t you?”

The answer came with plenty of expletives, colourful enough to turn unripe tomatoes red with shame, and William tried his best not to wince too much at some of her choice words. Instead, he focussed on another topic that was gaining just as much traction in most other parts of the internet where more “normal” people were congregating. Specifically, it was the announcement of the candidates for the upcoming US presidential election. Not that it was too much of a concern for him personally in most cases, but William should at least know about it at a surface level in case someone tried smalltalk with him. Alas, what he didn’t expect when looking at the line-up that was usually dominated by wrinkles and greying hair, was the face of the very person that promised to change the gaming industry forever. And at first, William was certain that this was just an out-of-season April Fools joke - until the moment the man himself stepped out on stage for his speech.

“Are you kidding me?! Elon Musk is running for president!?”

- Eight months after the big announcement -

The world has gone mad, William was sure of it.

Even with the crazy weather conditions alone, this past year would’ve scored pretty high on the insanity scale. And while Eternium promised some reprieve from all this, the mere fact that such a ground-breaking technology was very much real and very much close to its official release was too much for weaker minds. But to top it all off, the recently resolved US elections went down as some of the craziest events in modern history. Concurrently winning by huge and insurmountable margins, his success demoralized other candidates to such a degree that Musk stood without opposition, even receiving the support of some of them. In order not to waste anymore time, an early resolution was called and the new president put into power.

However, it was to be expected, what with his very real vision of a better future for his country and the world at large appealing to even the most uncommon denominator. Even the last skeptics turned into followers when Musk demonstrated just a small part of his visionary plans, and that he was very much capable of realizing them - with or without the rest of the world. Every country wanted to partake in this, incentivising those still unable to make peace with others or themselves to put disputes aside - or at least begrudgingly cooperate. But until the slow cogs of bureaucracy had turned so that the small people would benefit from this new era, life still went on like before, albeit with a distinct, hopeful optimism for the future.

Especially when your name was Chelsea and you just won a DIVE capsule for Eternium.

“She’s gonna be insufferable until release day..”, William grumbled while manually adjusting her volume on his end, just so he didn’t get mild tinnitus over her excited squeals and victorios whooping.

“Nah, man. Even once we start playing, every other argument is gonna end with ‘Well I’ve won a DIVE capsule, what do you have?’ and you know it”, Robert shot back but sounded much more light-hearted about the situation. “Just be happy for her! She would’ve been the last one of us to get her hands on a capsule otherwise, if at all.”

Something between a huff and a snort was Williams' response to that, but then he couldn’t help but chuckle just a little bit self-satisfied. “Well.. at least she’ll have to cough up the cash for the much more expensive subscription after the free trial period.”

Just in that moment, Chelsea seemed to have noticed their off-side argument over her sudden fortune, but apparently it did little to deter her from her excitement. “What was that?? I couldn’t hear you over the hyper-realistic feedback and immersion!”, she shot back loud enough that even with her lowered volume, William still clearly understood what she said.

“Doesn’t even make sense, since you don’t have the capsule yet..”, his weak retort was more an attempt to not let her get away with a snarky comment like that.

“Oh you’re just jealous, Billy-boy”, the youngest of the three threw it in his face again.

“Damn right I am! Now I’m the only one in the group without DIVE access!”

“I told you that my company wants me in there, that wasn’t on me!”, Robert complained back and sounded ever so slightly offended over Williams pouting.

“Right, and explain to me again why a broker is getting paid to play videogames on company time?”, was his almost too snarky response.

“Ugh, just-- fine! But you have to swear that you won’t tell anyone, both of you!”, Robert prephased this in a very uncommon serious tone, the side of him that is usually reserved for harsh business worth thousands.

William let out a slightly frustrated sigh, but considering that Robert was so serious about this, he did want to know the reason behind this development. “I swear it, on my dad's prized apiary, that I won’t tell anyone about the reason your company pays a fortune so you can play a videogame full-time.” But still, he couldn’t help but put in a little bit of snark as well.

“What he said”, was Chelsea's half-hearted response, but a deep growl resounding from Robert's end made her wince and correct herself. “Fine, fine! I swear I won’t tell a soul.”

“Good.” Seemingly convinced that his long-lasting best friends would uphold such a promise, Robert took another deep breath before continuing. “Right, so.. you know how it was announced that people could transfer money between the game and real life?”

“Please, not another Econ 101”, Chelsea whined pitifully, but was ignored by the other two.

“Yeah, hard to forget that shitstorm. Everybody and their mother was about to topple President Musk over it, but when they realized you could possibly pay off your debt, simply by playing a game that was promising to be extremely entertaining..”, William trailed off at the end, knowing full-well that they had this discussion a couple dozen times already.

“Exactly. This basically means that, not only will this game most likely siphon a substantial amount of money from the global economy, players could even end up reintroducing more money back into the economy. And if nothing else, everything you find ingame will have a monetary value in the real world because of the transferable currency. That alone is reason enough for our higher-ups to take a vested interest in Eternium”, Robert explained calmly and without any exaggeration, almost like he was in the middle of a meeting.

“Wow, that just sounds.. horrible”, was Williams immediate reaction to this revelation. “I mean, who wants real world economics invading their video game? We’ve got sim games for that, no need to have it in a fantasy game like Eternium.”

“I’m with Billy on this, I don’t want to deal with debt collectors and loan sharks in my escapist wonderland”, Chelsea chimed and sounded pretty miffed, especially after her outburst earlier.

“Totally agree with you guys, but nobody knows how this is gonna play out. It’s just in case there is profit to be had with uncharted markets, so they send trusted employees to scout it out and get ahead of our competition”, their friend continued and seemed more nonchalant now, likely trying to not think about the responsibilities too much.

“He said, humble braggingly”, their female compatriot snorted at the last part.

“Do you really think I want work to invade my game sessions? I mean.. they always said to turn your hobby into your job, but this is just wrong”, Robert defended himself and sighed.

“And let me guess, they chose you because you’re already knowledgeable about games and can give them inside tips about it?”, William asked with a wry smile.

“Bingo. My other colleagues in the game will mostly work on establishing a branch and-- tell you what, I’m just gonna stop here. If my boss finds out that I’ve openly spoken about company business plans with outsiders, he would have my head on a spike - possibly even literally in Eternium”, their broker friend audibly winced at the thought of that.

“Don’t worry your beardy little head, Bobby. We’re not gonna snitch on you!”, Chelsea assured him, seemingly smiling along with it.

“Yeah, that’s not what good friends do after all!”, William chimed in and nodded as well, unseen by the others.

“Thanks guys, it really means a lot to know--”, he tried to thank them in earnest, but was cut-off by Williams' follow-up comment.

“I mean, how else are we gonna extort you for loot, right Chelsea?”, his almost icey voice carried little remorse for his words.

“Absolutely! ‘Are you sure that you want to keep that rare drop, Bobby? Let’s see what your manager thinks of that’~”, was her teasing response with an almost evil sounding chuckle.

“You suck!”, came his pouting complaint, immediately followed by cheery laughter on the two relatives' ends. And quickly, Robert joined in on the amusement as well. They all knew that this was only in good humour, and there has been worse mockery over the years they’ve spent on video games. Why would they betray a friend's trust like that, just for some virtual, albeit actually kind of valuable, items?

However, this revelation put a change of plan into action. After all, two of them now had the rare opportunity to put every little bit of money they earned within the game towards their progress - be that ingame or in the real world. Both Chelsea and Robert even agreed to share a bit more than usual with William, if it was possible, to off-set the fact he was actually paying for the game in the beginning. And even though they couldn’t possibly know about the actual profits they would reap, silent commitments and open promises were made for their most desired goals as the group was once again spending most of their free time with scheming and planning for their oh-so-soon adventure in Eternium.