Day (-5)
After having spent weeks preparing for the new launch of “AUTO-ANNIHILATION! XIII” I finally got the cash together to buy the new VR set that it would be played on. Who would of thought these things would be soo expensive? The amount of money is equivalent to three months of a full work week. Either way, I was ready to play the greatest game to ever exist. Hitting the purchase button on my phone, the order for the set went through. A notification telling me how much I ‘Saved’, popped up on my screen. I bought the equipment used unfortunately. Ignoring the notification, I exited out of the online shopping website, and returned to reading the A-A gaming forums while riding a bus home.
Most of my online friends have already bought this particular Virtual Reality visor, and swore by it. This made it easy for me to pick the equipment I wanted. But seeing the retail price put a huge damper on my plans. This thing cost a fortune! The mask shaped gaming system cost more than a down payment on a cheap car, so I did the only reasonable thing a poor man like me could do. I went bargain shopping. Yeah it might not be the best idea to buy something that messes with your head used, but sometimes you gotta make sacrifices. Though I just spent most of my money on the equipment, I still had some left over to buy the actual game from my friend. He had preordered a couple of advanced copies with the intent of selling one to me. This made it so I didn’t have to wait in line to buy one for myself at the store. A good thing too, considering it sold out within two hours of going to market.
When the bus finally reached my stop, I quickly got off to start the walk home...or rather, to my parent’s house. Yes, I still lived with my parents. If a gaming nerd living with his parents wasn’t enough of a cliché, I was even living in their basement. I’m broke, what can I do? It’s hard to make it on your own. Believe me, I tired. For weeks I worked late nights at crappy jobs, that never paid me enough. Maybe I could of gotten a better job, but nobody would take me when they saw I dropped out of college. Can you blame me? Classes are expensive. My parents can’t afford to pay for it like the parents of all the other kids, so instead I had to work. Who knew that I’d have to skip some classes just to keep the jobs paying for them. Between the hours I spent working, and the amount of homework that was piled on, I had to make a choice, so I dropped out. I tried going back a couple of times, but I pretty much met the same results. As for the job, I ended up leaving it anyway.
After a while, finding a ‘good’ job became a challenge, because they were all crap. Customer service? Sucks. Long ours, low pay, and everyone is fighting to get ahead, only to find out that the ‘promotion’ they get is an even crappier job with even crappier pay! Meanwhile, people are bitching at you all day long, complaining about everything. “This food’s too salty. The ac is too cold. The prices are too expensive. This ketchup tastes too much like tomatoes.” One time I even had someone complain over something like, the coffee not being hot, despite me having boiled the water in front of them, only to have that same someone try to sue me later for not telling them the coffee was hot! So I quit.
After that, I tried manual labor. At first It was fine, I remember I was constantly tired and my boss was always yelling at me, but once the summer hit, it became too much. After nearly dying from heat exhaustion, I decided it wasn’t for me. After that came a long list ‘NEW’ jobs. All I can say is that if I wasn’t cleaning shit, then it was a scam. Back to good old customer service I went. This went on for a while, then one day I woke up only to find an eviction notice, and three days to get out of my apartment. How was I suppose to know that the landlord raised my rent? Isn’t that kind of thing illegal? So I moved back with my parents until I figured things out. Of course, that was five years ago.
Getting home from another day working at Burger Purge, god the name of this place needs to change, I ended up running into my mom who was just about to go to bed.
“Oh, Five. You’re home. How was work?”
“It was ok. Another guy quit, so I had to pick up a shift Saturday Morning.”
“Oh? On your birthday?”
“Oh man I forgot! That sucks! I was so focused on getting ready for the new release of A-A that I didn’t even remember my birthday!”
“AA? Have you been drinking? I’ve never noticed you going out much, so I didn’t think you were, but now you’re going to AA meetings?”
“… Mom, no.”
A little baffled by how she got to this point, I somehow gathered the energy to explain to her about the game. “A-A is short for Auto-Annihilation. It’s a video game. One my friends and I are really excited about. It opens up to the world 12 am on Sunday, and I’ve spent weeks getting ready for it. It’s suppose to be the biggest game of the century, with 100% realism. You’re suppose to be able to even smell the blood this time. I spent all my money to buy the equipment I’ll need to play it.”
“I see. That’s does sound a little exciting, though..a little crude. But, I guess if you’re excited about it then it should be a good thing. Though, that’s no excuse to forget your own Birthday. I think you’re turning thirty this year aren't you?”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Oh don’t be like that. It’s not that bad. I’ll make a cake for you so you can have it when you get home.”
“You know I’m on a diet right?”
“Again? Well, I can’t really keep up. I’ll just make one anyway, in case you decide you want to have a little.
“Alright, alright. Well I’m off to bed.”
“Good night.”
Missing the concerned stare from my mother, I descended the stairs to the dungeon. My bedroom. Having been used as a storage space by my family for so long, there were still a lot of boxes piled around the basement, with a bit of space cleared out for a makeshift bedroom. I threw aside my work uniform before grabbing my favorite hoodie from one of the rafters. Not having a closet, Id gotten use to using the support beams for my clothes. While putting on the hoodie, I caught sight of my slightly...okay, severely bulging belly, in the mirror leaning on the wall.
“Damn. I really gotta start working out.”
Recently I’ve been gaining weight. Having always been the skinny kid, until about four years ago, I never had to watch what I eat. Now, my body seems to have picked up this mysterious ability to store fat. Grabbing a cookies from my snack stash, I sat down in front of my computer.
“Some guy’s got all the luck. Seems like these people are born beautiful, while us homely guys have gotta work for it. And even then we’re still ugly.”
Grumbling to myself, I brought up the A-A web page I was just reading. This time I was looking for the hints and tricks page secretly posted by the beta testers. Ignoring the ad for another fantasy RPG game, I spent the rest of the night studying up for Sunday.
---
Day (-2)
Off at a local gaming store, two people were more than likely having a very confusing conversation without me knowing. To this day, I imagine the conversation went something like this.
“I think he said it was...something with two letters. Something about releasing at 12am on Sunday, and that it wasn’t an AA meeting for sure.” A short and gentle looking woman patiently tried to describe the game she knew nothing about.
“Oh, I think I know what you are talking about. That could be only one of two games. How old is your son?” The store clerk lead the woman over to an area decorated in promotional standees and posters. Different types of flashy things were present. While one side had things like dragons, wizards, and elves, the other had guns, lasers, and violent looking men in camo.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“He’s gonna be thir-… He’s gonna be thirteen in a couple days.” Having felt a little weird buying a video game for her thirty year old son, she decided to lie.
“Gotcha. Then this is it! Looks like it’s the last one too. It just came on sale this morning and is already almost sold out, so you got here just in time. Actually… it’s a little weird how quickly the crowd dispersed just now.” Feeling certain that he did his job well, the young man lead the woman back to the counter. “Also, since the game is brand new, they are actually offering a promotional code. If you just leave this gift card in the box with the game, I’m sure your son will know what to do with it. He’ll be thrilled. A perfect Birthday surprise.”
“Oh, I see. Thank you. I’m glad I was able to find it. This was the third store I went to today. I was beginning to lose hope.” Thanking the man that helped her, my mother left the store in high spirits.
---
Day (-3)
The next couple days I spent getting ready for the release of A-A. I studied manuals, gaming forums, and various fan theory pages to get a whole perspective for what to expect. Having been a long time fan of the A-A series, I knew almost every bit of lore from the previous games. Coincidentally, while surfing the web, I came across a page for another online VR game opening on the same day. Watching the trailer showcasing a Dungeon Crawling, Dragon Slaying, type of fantasy game, I couldn't help but scuff.
“Where’s the blood? Who the hell would want to buy that? It’s so...bleh.”
Turns out, quite a lot of people actually. Scrolling down after the trailer ended, I saw a lot of surprising comments.
‘do you think we could really ride dragons?’
‘Probably not until later levels, but yeah. It will be awesome.’
‘Did you guys see how many races there are? And the class system is really complex!’
‘I can’t wait to be an elf!’
‘That’s so bland, be a cat girl instead!’
‘Did you guys hear that Magic Miracle has already sold out? It even beat the sales of Auto-Annihilation!’
‘What? No way!’
‘Well duh, who want’s another shooter game when you could be beating the hell out of someone with your bare hands! Also, there’s crafting.’
‘Hahahaha yeah.’
“HELL NO!” I couldn’t contain my anger and ended up shouting out loud.
I quickly researched the sales of the recent gaming record. Sure enough, Magic Miracle was placed in first, showing that it had sold out yesterday within 30min of being on sale. It also was scheduled to be opened on Sunday at 12 am, like Auto-Annihilation. “Damn...hopefully this doesn’t take away from the amount of players on opening day.”
Scrolling through a couple more forums on the M-M web page, out of curiosity, my phone started to ring.
“It’s about time you called! Where are you at?”
“I’m sorry Five! I failed you!” Hearing Justin’s dramatic, apologetic voice, I couldn’t help but feel my heart drop.
“...no...don’t say it!”
“It’s true. I got the package today, and they only sent one. When I called them, they said that they had placed a restriction for each member, only allowing them to buy one copy of the game.”
“Then it’s mine!”
“LIKE HELL!” Having switched from crying apologetic, to straight up battle mode, Justin’s true colors started to show. “Look, if you wanted the game so badly, you should of gone to wait for it like everyone else. I only offered to order a second copy to help you out, how was I suppose to know they would sell out like this.”
“You fucking asshole! When I see you next I’m going to punch your face in!”
“Fine, I may deserve it...but. You’ll only be able to see me online, so unless you can’t find a copy of the game soon….”
“I hate you’re guts.”
Hanging up from there, I dispiritedly crawled into bed, forgetting all about the web page I left up. Knowing that I’d failed to get a copy of the greatest game on earth, had left me depressed and tire. I thought that maybe if I slept on it, I’d wake up to find it was a ll a bad dream. That night, I was treated to the demise of Justin as I dreamed of murdering him in various situations while playing A-A.
---
Day (-2)
Friday came around, and my VR set finally came in the mail. Picking up the beat up looking box from in front of my house, and forgetting the stack of letters under it, I couldn’t help feeling a little depressed. “At least you didn’t let me down mystery man.”
I shut the door behind me and went to the kitchen table to open the box. Moving aside the leftovers, set aside by mom, I lazily dumped the contents of the box out on the table. Sure enough, what was inside was my anticipated VR set. Actually, it looked pretty brand new for being used.
“At least he took care of it. I wonder why he sold it.”
Picking up the black, futuristic, full face mask, I tested it out by holding it up to my face. It fit pretty well, though my second chin seemed to fill up the bottom part of the mask more than my actual chin did.
“Huh. Well, at least it wont fall off while I’m sleeping.”
The latest set was the kind that allowed the player to dive fully into the game, both while sleeping and awake. This way, those who have a busy scheduled can still get a bit of game time in. While the mind played, the body would be at rest. Though one could in theory never have to worry about getting tired this way, they still had to take time to sleep at least once every couple of days for their minds to be rested.
Thumbing through the manual, I took in the basic functions and start up of the device before taking everything to my room downstairs.
“Huh, this guy wrote a lot in here. Was he studying this too?”
On the sides, and in the margins of the manual were little notes scribbled into the booklet. I didn’t really read them, or rather I couldn’t, so I just assumed the previous owner was just taking notes like I did. I wouldn’t be as diligent though. Setting the box down, I took the visor over to my bed and lied down. The VR set required the owner to regularly calibrate the settings. This often took a bit of time, and required the player to wait patiently with the mask on while performing a few mundane tasks. Knowing I still planned to use the set, I decided to get the calibration out of the way. Putting on the mask, I quickly turned on the machine. I felt my mind slip off into a sleep state as I entered the virtual world.
---
Day (-1)
Waking up to the sound of knocking from the first floor, I quickly sat up in bed. “What the hell? I feel asleep?”
Last I remembered, I was calibrating the new VR set. It must have been more boring than I thought because I ended up really falling asleep. I don’t even remember it, but that should be fine. Feeling well rested, I realized someone was knocking on the bedroom door.
“Just a minute!...oh shit, I’m late.” Seeing that it was almost ten, I was nearly late for work. Rushing to put on my uniform, I took the stairs two at a time to get to the first floor.
“Five? Is that you? Come to the kitchen. I have a surprise for you!” My mother’s voice came from the other room.
“I’m sorry Mom, I can’t. I’m late for my shift at work. Just leave it on the table and I can get to it when I come home!” Not even wanting to think about my birthday right now, I was still sulking over the fact I wouldn’t be able to play the game tonight.
“But...Oh ok. But at least remember to eat breakfast.”
“I will Mom, Bye!”
“And Happy Birthday!”
Closing the door with a slam, I quickly ran off to catch the next bus.
Once again, I suffered through another grueling eight hours of tolerating humanity. When did so many people become so awful? I ended up staying an extra hour at work because of how busy it happened to be this Saturday. Happy fucking Birthday to me. Fallowing another long bus ride, I finally made it home at about Eight thirty at night.
“Finally.”
Slouching into a chair beside the kitchen table, I dropped my bag on the floor next to me. Both my parents seemed to of already gone off to bed, because all the lights were off in the house. Taking a moment to rest my feet in the silence, I peered over at the colorful cake positioned in the middle of the table.
“Happy Birthday Five!” Letters written out in blue frosting stood out against a white background. I counted 30 unlit candles circling the edge of the round cake. That’s right...now I’m old.
“I told her not to bother.” I grumbled, pulling the pastry closer before sticking my finger in the frosting.
“It’s strawberry.” My favorite.
Looking over at the cute, but dorky, birthday card on the table, I noticed a small box..then froze. “I-is that?”
Snatching the gift wrapped package that was the exact side and shape of a VR gaming disk, I felt my pulse quicken. “She didn’t, but how?”
Whispering furiously to myself, I excitedly clutched onto the box, internally celebrating. My mother had come through in my darkest hour! I didn’t even ask for it and she bought me the game I had been waiting for. Though it would have been a waste if I HAD actually gotten the game, it didn’t matter now, because the plan had fallen through and I now had the game anyway!
“Yes! Oh god, yes! This is awesome! Auto-Annihilation here I come!” Checking the time, and realizing I had three hours left, I quickly ripped open the wrapping paper, revealing the exciting cover art for Magic Miracle.
“...Huh.” Once again my heart broke. Seeing the fantasy art of the Auto-Annihilation’s competitor, I couldn’t help but throw a fit.
“The hell? This crappy thing! Damn it! Why did she even bother with this!? Fuck!” Throwing the game down onto the table, I stormed off to the sink to get a glass of water. “Damn it...I need to get a grip.”
Having gotten loud, I began to panic, what if someone had herd me? Even though it wasn’t the game I wanted, It’s still a gift. Going back over to the table, I picked up the case for Magic Miracle, timidly peering around the corner to see if anyone was there. Luckily they weren’t. Grateful that I wasn’t over herd. I quietly went down stairs to my room.
Unfortunately I was herd. Hearing the front door open, Mom had quietly gotten back up, thinking it would be a good time to celebrate. Having set up the candles prior, she was just about to come join me in the kitchen, when she herd the tantrum. Hurt by the unexpected reaction, she chose to quietly return to her room. But this I wouldn’t find out until much later.
After having vented my frustrations in the kitchen. I quietly debated if I should give Magic Miracle a try. Though it wasn’t Auto-Annihilation, it was still a popular up and coming VR game, and had a complex system and game play. There was a whole world to explore. Feeling a little guilty about how I acted before, I felt a little obligated to at least take a look. Going online to look up the basics of the game, I was pleasantly surprised by how complex everything was. It seemed that everything, and anything, could be done in the game. From creating pieces off art, to battling armies of monsters the players had a variety of ways to progress and level. One of the things that stuck out, was the archer class, and it’s uncanny similarity to the new A-A game dynamics. Were the two games related?
The most active forums were obviously those about Race selection, and other character dynamics. Since nobody had yet to create their characters yet, the majority of posts were more about speculations. Things like the class benefits of Elves, and how well they complimented specific classes, or how well a great hammer could be used by an Orc vs a Gnome. These and a few references to the comments made by the beta testers, created the foundation for information on the game. After over an hour of scrolling through these discussions, I was able to come up with a few concrete rules.
1. There is no Race that is a bad race. (This sounds kinda sappy but ok.) However a Race’s elemental, and traits can affect how well they can use, and are affected by, certain skills. A person can choose to be a Hybrid of two races, but will be locked from choosing any that are not compatible.
2. At level 10, a player can choose a class. Classes are not bound, but give each character a boost to their growth in certain fields. They also make it easier to gain certain skills later on.
3. Attributes such as, strength, agility, intelligence, and charisma can affect the passive attributes such as Attractiveness, Diplomacy, and perception. There are also several other hidden attributes, that may or may not be affected by the main attributes. Some races automatically provide a boost to these attributes.
4. Every player will gain one or two racial abilities/talents at the start of the game as well as an opportunity to choose extra abilities/talents using points awarded in character creation. Depending on the rarity of the ability/talent, the player will have to pay more, or less, points for it. These points are useless after character creation. (Basically spend all your points when you have them.)
5. Players will be randomly assigned to their starting towns depending on what fits their character. From there that will have to find their own way through the world after that. No novice villages, just villages.
Up to here there is only speculation on how well certain skills, talents, abilities, and attributes compliment each other. This part was most confusing seeing as it was difficult to understand the difference between Skills, Abilities, Talents, and Attributes. From what I understand, Skills are actions that can be activated during an activity, like ‘Low Kick’ during a fight, and ‘Refine’ during Crafting. Abilities are a little bit more rare, and are constantly active during the game. A Dryad’s ability Photosynthesis is one example, Essentially they are always healing from the sun, while ‘Reading’ is another. As for Talents, they are the most divers. These are also passive, but rather than being limited to a certain action, can benefit a person in multiple areas. A talent in Magic, allows a player to cast better, and faster spells, while also benefiting their ability to enchant objects. Obviously Talents have a wider range of use, while abilities have more effect. Lastly attributes, are just that. These effect an even wider range than Talents. Anyone player with a high attribute in strength can do a lot.
With only a few minutes before the game’s release. I shut down the computer and brought the VR equipment over to the bed. Noticing a small card in the game box, I set it aside to look at it later. Instead I installed the game into the VR mask and sat back in bed. Covering my face with the shiny black oval, I once again entered the sleep state for game play, a minute before twelve o’ clock.