The Blue light grew until he was standing on a platform made of steel with a Vault door so large you could drive a car through it in both directions. There, an official stood out front holding a baton and tablet. He stood in front a metal zigzagging waiting line. Without waiting to see if they were paying attention he started talking in a loud gravelly voice indicating many packages of cigarettes had passed through his lungs in the past.
“A’ight, ya runts! This’ what’s gonna happen! You gonna line up good and orderly fast now, as I speak… Go on as I said!” Everyone started moving towards the metal rails immediately, himself ending up in somewhere in the back half.
“Ok now listen closely, we don’t want to have to repeat this more times than necessary. What you’re going to do is a series of physical tests, and then receive a series of shots. This will keep you healthy during your stay in cryostasis in the game you choose. Your health now translates into the game so try your hardest! You will not get two tries ever. Once in, you’ll either die over time or be released at the end of stasis. You may think to change games once you reach a certain status in-game so don’t suck! You may change any after that time but progress is deleted so be aware! Ok, that’s enough. Once in the pod you’re on your own. You will all have a personal, self-repairing robot to aid your cell when needed so worry not. Commence the test!”
The Line started forward rapidly and they were led through the large doors into the hangar sized room inside. Courses were scattered everywhere, he started by doing pull-ups, pushups, crunches, a timed lap of a quarter mile, then he did a reflex test. A bag swung past his head multiple times at increasing sped until it bounced off harmlessly in the end when he couldn’t dodge it. He was then led to a scary old lady in a white room smelling of antiseptic. He was forced to strip down and lay on a table where he was scanned by a machine.
Another screen by the nurse showed his vitals and a picture of a light blonde boy of seventeen and a half, Five foot eight, deep blue eyes, fare white skin with a slight tan along the arms and legs, and a somewhat masculine but otherwise average face with a set jaw line and a straight nose. He had hardly enough time to feel embarrassed before a series of needles entered is arm buttocks, and neck all at the same time by the nurse and a robot he hadn’t noticed before. Rubbing his newly acquired punctures, he made his way out faster than before, still in the nude, from the previous room to another line. Embarrassed as he was, he was thankful to escape the old lady.
“You! Ya you, over here and form a new line! He was brusquely followed by a few others as he made for the mentioned zone. He was then led to another room so deep he couldn’t see the back or bottom. He couldn’t believe what it was filled with.
Rails ran everywhere, and intersected in the center along the platform he was on. Lines of Cryopods were already there awaiting its new occupants. The previous group was already zipping off and being stacked by robotic arms mounted upon the rail. There must have been thousands lining the walls. Derrek stepped up to a man wearing a white biohazard suit to protect him from the chemicals filling the chambers. Hoses ran down the length of the walkway and exited into the walls.
As he was observing this, the man surprised him. “Come on, we don’t have all day!” He was pushed forward and around, he was just turning around when the nukes hit. The world stayed unchanged, but a deep rumbling shook everyone and everything. Thankfully nothing fell apart, He was still paralyzed by the deaths of the world above him when he was pushed into a hard memory cushion and a series of hoses were plunged deep into his arms, legs, neck, and chest. He was just turning unconscious from the drugs when a needle plunged into the back of his head from the head rest and he fell into darkness. If he were watching, he would’ve been mortified, and screamed like the others while this happened and a glass case slid over his body. A Liquid then filled the inside and held him firm in its pressurized grip. He was then transported away by rail to some deep recess in the cavern.
A Quick beeping noise brought him to his sense. He still couldn’t see or sense anything though, the beeping seemed to emanate from everywhere at once then slowly mad its way in front of him. It then sped up until it came into the crispest, best noise quality possible, then stopped. Then it went from the lowest pitch possible all the way to the highest pitch possible all the way as loud as he could hear. This process took a few minutes, then he continued on in silence and darkness for over another five minutes. Then the lights came, a dull grey at first, then a whole show of lights sped past. Every color imaginable, it all flew by too fast to comprehend until it suddenly stopped.
Then his other senses awoke, it started as an awareness, then it bloomed into a steady stream of pain until he thought death had taken hold of him itself, but soon it abated and a pleasantness unlike anything else passed over him followed by a sense of peace, happiness, and relaxation.
Once this was over, a sea of data and numbers blossomed out from below him somehow and pushed him forward at a great speed until a light appeared in the growing distance. It came fast and he was suddenly launched into a brilliant blue-lit room. He was instantly at peace and felt somehow like he knew he was in a womb, he was aware, but had no body or form.
He just was, almost like a spirit waiting to manifest a form. Then the round room lit up with a red pulsing series of letters and a notification box invaded his ‘home’ as he was already calling it. At first he wanted to ignore it but his human part of mind soon took over and he was too curious to ignore it. Turning back to it he somehow knew how to call it back. It read simply “which game would you like to play?” It was followed by a few choices including (Crysolis, Neverland, Civil-life, and Spectral Space)
He hadn’t really played any of them in or out of virt net, though he had an idea what they all were, so he picked the first one. (You’ve picked Crysolus, Would you like to choose this game to play? Warning, you are in full immersion mode, this game contains adult content, are you sure you would like to play? ~ (Yes or No) He clicked yes and filled in his in-game name afterward. He was lucky and just got to use his real name (Derrek).When he was done a few prompts floated into his peripheral and he focused on them to bring them closer.
(Please choose race.)
(Full immersion activated)
(Crisis mode active).
(Warning, you will start randomly in the world with random race, attributes, skills, and equipment. You will retain all general looks of your real body, no matter the race.)
(Entering Game world ~Crysolis~)
“Welcome to Crysolis”
He Started falling from the sky and proudly, his first words in this brave new lands were “Ahhhhhhhh, I’m gonna freaking dieeeeee!” Then he proceeded to fall to the ground. He was just thinking the game had glitched on him when he turned from a nose dive and stood upright and then proceeded to land lightly on is feet in a grassy meadow between two large oaks. He then fell to his knees and retched up everything his new body held in its stomach. A pop up appeared soon after
(Warning, You are dehydrated, fatigued, and hungry. Find shelter before night and sate your needs or you will die. Have a great Game!)
So that’s nice, he was already dieing from his own stupidity. Groaning he lay back against the tree and closed his eyes, the wind ruffled his short blonde hair. He was just getting his senses back under control when he looked at himself. He was Human! It was unbelievable, He’d read that most worlds had over a dozen playable characters. He was just trying to think of how to recall his stats when they appeared.
He vaguely recalled from one of his magazines that full immersion was controlled by thoughts. He could store his money this way and view items in a storage device by concentrating on it. If you died, half your gold dropped along with your gear. You could retrieve your items at a graveyard after 24 hours, but if you also made it back to your death site, you could collect everything back from your old body. That is if nobody else decided to take it all. You could of course store items physically in this world, but if you had enough room and access, why not save room and safety by keeping them in another pocket dimension of sorts.
Most people transferred money in-game to help them along with a backup plan or with better gear, but since this was the first time he’d played he was penniless. As long as you had patience though, you would be fine. He supposed this would be easier if he was in an actual town or city.
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Returning from his memories, he scanned the rest of his stats. Taking in the menu before him he seemed to have pretty average stats. He guessed everyone started with around 3-4 in most stats. He had a solid 5 in everything but intelligence, which was at 6. His Page looked a lot like this.
Status
Name: Derrek
Level (1) EXP: 0/100
Current points Available: 0
Bonus points (gear): 0
Strength: 5
Endurance: 5
Intelligence: 6
Toughness: 5
Luck: 5
Skills
Skill points Available(0)
~Mapping (while observing the environment around you, you create maps of terrain from memory) Level (1)
~Dagger mastery, Level (1)
~Fire starting, (using flint) Level (1)
~Mana manipulation (warning: must discover talents or be taught by another mage) Level (0)
If he recalled right, you could gain more skills from tomes, or from trained masters in cities. That didn’t seem like it was possible at the moment though, seeing as he was plopped in the middle of nowhere. He didn’t even have a bind point in a city yet. Once, he found civilization he could seek out a binding stone, that way he would only spawn there until he changed his bind point to a more permanent place. Once he was done trying to read his abilities, he exited the menu. Taking a look around himself, the area seemed pretty devoid of life. He went to take a step forward when another message popped up before him.
*Warning*
You have started in the random mode, You will receive a random starting package!
~You have received~
-1x worn clothe boots
-1x worn loin clothes and Pants
-1x used, broad bronze dagger
-1x used (fire starter) flint and steel rod
-1x small water skin
-1x loaf of damp bread
-1x uncharted map
~ Enjoy The Game! ~
~ All Items Have Been Equipped! ~
He closed the box and immediately felt the weight of the new items on his back. He felt a moment of brief embarrassment in his foolishness for not remembering his nudity. He was forced to cringe at the bramble he was headed towards. Pulling the dagger from his belt, he inspected it. There were indeed multiple nicks and wear marks along the handle and blade. It was simple, but he supposed it would be effective enough, having an 8 inch blade.
His fire-starter and the waterskin hung around his neck while the bread was stuffed in his left pocket. The clothes weren’t as bad as he first thought, even if a little itchy they were better than some he was forced to where in the past. He wished the dice would’ve rolled in the favor of a shirt too though.
Looking about, the sun was getting close to setting now and he hadn’t even moved more than a few feet since he’d arrived. Kicking himself, he quickly jogged over to the tree line. He noticed the branches sway uncharacteristically above him. For the most part the forest was made up of rich, green shrubbery and ferns littering the ground here and there. The trees themselves were mostly oak with some pine trees here and there. As he was looking around, the thick foliage above him shuddered for a moment before settling. He hastened his steps a little more after that.
After another five minutes the trees above him shuddered for a moment again, spooking him into walking faster yet to the point he was practically jogging. He spotted another clearing coming up just ahead and made his way towards a field of tall green grass. Before he could quite make it to the open though, a monolithic sized cat dropped from the trees above him landing a dozen yards to his left!
It was about the size of a Harley motorcycle, except it looked a lot faster. He recognized it as a Sabretooth tiger, though it looked different, the thing was a dark gold color with splotches of green speckled over its back running to its slim tail. The thing had a plush green belly the color of the forest around them. It was no wonder he couldn’t spot the beast. The scary end was pointed at him, staring daggers much befitting the dagger sized fangs sticking out from its upper jaw.
I almost pissed myself as I took a step away from it. This must have been a mistake because the thing immediately jumped towards me. I hastily fumbled for my dagger in my belt as I flung myself to the right of the attack. Getting up from the dirt, I turned back the beasty. I pretty much knew my death was inevitable as the tiger jumped at me again, this time faster than before.
Rolling forward and to the left I made an attempt to slip in an attack as my dagger slashed across the things lower hind quarters. Immediately blood started flowing as a bar appeared above the beast with a name tag calling the beast a forest sabretooth tiger. (-20)(230/250) My face paled yet another shade. I was still kind of surprised I got another hit in on the tiger when it whipped around to confront him on the spot. It slashed out with a set of wicked curved claws. They raked across my torso and my health bar appeared with a number beneath it. (-45)(55/100) (Bleed: -5/30 seconds) The beast immediately went for another slash but unfortunately for it, the force of the first blow blew me back twenty yards where I skidded to a halt on my face.
Somehow I still had my dagger and I stood up. Unfortunately, I immediately bent over in pain as the searing wounds in my chest gushed blood in torrents. Some of my intestines were trying to escape from my upper belly. I almost passed out from the pain, but I held on and stood straight as the lion charged at me bounding the short distance in a mere moment. In a valiant move I simply stood my ground as it jumped in the air to come down on me.
Pulling my dagger up and in front of me with both hands at an angle straight up, hoping against hope the pain would end soon. Then the lion started its descent, maw agape ready to rip into his skull, claws outstretched to surround its enemy from jumping away.
Suddenly I felt pressure in my hands as I had forgotten the dagger caught up in the majestic power of this death machine. Suddenly blood was everywhere gushing into his eyes and mouth. Some windows popped up but he couldn’t see them. The tiger’s maw came down fully open around his head. The teeth scraping along his head as he entered the beasts death trap. The full weight of the beast atop him was excruciating as it dug its claws into his sides.