The large room made of dark glass panels and bright neon lights vanished with a pop to be replaced by fog. Thick, gray mist swirled so close around him that he could see nothing else, at least at first. A handful of seconds passed before Marcus stumbled out of the fog, a blur that resolved into his friend as he approached.
“What in the hell?” Marcus asked, stopping just short of bumping into him, his arms held up as if he could ward away the dense mist.
“Character creation.” Erik said as another shape emerged, the familiar rabbit silhouette of Sarah’s Battle Arena avatar.
“Is that the time dilation?” She asked, looking at her own arms, turning her hands this way and that. “I feel… like myself. A lot like myself”
Erik didn’t find it surprising that they were surprised. They’d all known the immersion quality would be better in the Dyson Pod, but knowing it and feeling it were very different things. Erik had grown up playing with the 2nd Generation of VR. A big step up in immersion quality from the 1st generation. Battle Arena, the game they had all played together, boasted 50% realism, which in VR terms meant the authenticity and complexity of your senses. One of the highest realism scores for any game ever released, until today.
“It’s the Dyson Pod,” he told them, “and E.L.E'a 90% realism.”
The three of them spent a minute or so acclimating to the new depth of sensation, and only after he felt himself becoming settled did Erik notice the fog was changing. No longer hanging thickly around them, it had begun to retreat. The area shone more brightly by the moment, like a rain cloud passing from in front of the sun. They stood on a white marble floor, with a white sky stretching infinitely into the horizon where it could be glimpsed through the thinning fog, though not all of it retreated. Around them, it had begun to form into three large statues. Initially gray and indistinct, they rapidly grew more detailed. In moments, three iconic dinosaurs rendered in shades of gray towered over them, one on each side facing inward.
“Damn.” Marcus said, tipping his head back and back to look up at what was clearly a Triceratops. “Are they really that big? Holy hell.”
“You didn’t know dinosaurs were big?” Sarah scoffed, as her rabbit avatar meandered around the toes of the even larger Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“I was thinking cow big, maybe even rhino big, but this.” He gestured wordlessly at the dinosaur, whose gargantuan bulk did indeed make his point effectively.
“Yeah,” Sarah agreed as she came back around the T-Rex's feet to rejoin them in the middle. “Almost too big to be real.” She agreed, “except that one.” She said point at the third dinosaur. A raptor. Appearing just as lifelike as the other two, except for being totally gray, like an unfinished game model.
“Don’t kid yourself.” Erik said, looking up at it. “That’s the Utah Raptor. 2 meters at the hip, 7 meters nose to tail and she could weigh up to 1,000 kilograms.” Sarah whistled appreciatively, but Marcus sighed.
“Damn I wish they taught metric in Texas,” Marcus said, his head shaking side to side, while Sarah laughed.
“It’s big,” Erik said, “Twice as heavy as the biggest Siberian Tiger.”
“Seems like a small fry compared to these though.” Marcus said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb to indicate the Triceratops and the T-Rex.
“It’s faster than them too. Agile and sneaky.” Erik told him, and he saw Sarah giving the animal a considering look.
“Welcome players.” Said a voice from the sky, booming and cheerful. “Welcome to the Beta Tournament of E.L.E Online, and the world premier of the Dyson Pod technology. I’m sure by now, you’ve all noticed the dinosaurs. These three cretaceous era giants will once again battle for supremacy of a doomed world, except this time they’ll be doing it in teams. Before you are the Mighty Tyrannosaur, the Stalwart Triceratops and the Cunning Utah Raptor. Each team must assign 1 member to each role. You have 10 minutes to discuss it amongst yourselves and make your decisions. Any teams who haven’t made a choice before time runs out will have their dinosaurs assigned randomly. Good luck!”
Then the voice was gone, leaving behind a timer that filled up the sky above our heads, counting down from 10 minutes.
“I want the T-rex” Marcus said, predictably. He gave Sarah a look, as if he were daring her to argue for it. Erik shook his head, not in denial but exasperation. Marcus played up being a country bumpkin, pretending he was some knuckleheaded cowboy. It wasn’t all an act of course, he really was a big guy from Texas, who loved BBQ and football. HIs pride was genuine, but Marcus was sharper than he pretended to be, a lot sharper, and Sarah, like Erik, knew that. Marcus knew she knew that. Just like Marcus knew that Sarah was going to pick the raptor, which meant his attitude just now was meant to stir the pot. To irritate Sarah. Get under her skin and get a reaction.
Thankfully, Sarah didn’t react. She just turned her back on Marcus to inspect the raptor more closely.
“Don’t these things have feathers? Why does it look like a lizard.”
“Developers are taking some artistic license.” Erik told her, walking to stand next to her. “This is how popular media depicted dinosaurs towards the end of the 20th century. Everyone knows they got it wrong, but the look has been pretty enduring.”
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“They look like monsters.” Marcus said from where he stood, staring up at the massive T-rex head, his head tilted so far that his cowboy hat was in danger of falling off.
“I think that’s the idea.” Erik said, turning to walk towards the Triceratops that would be his game avatar. “The movie that popularized this look was more interested in screams than accuracy. Though my understanding was they are pretty close to what paleontologists believed at the time.” Erik shrugged. He personally didn’t care one way or the other. “I’m gonna be this big boy.” He gave the Triceratops leg a pat. The skin felt rough and warm under his touch, and he was surprised. He had been expecting it to be smooth, and cold. The animal resembled nothing so much as a pale gray statue, but under his hand it seemed warm, and alive. It felt real, real in a way no other game had ever felt. Tingles ran up his spine as goosebumps prickled his skin.
“Guess I’ll be the raptor then.” Sarah said, clapping her hands together with a sharp smack sound and drawing him out of his reverie. Erik turned to see her grinning, rabbit eyes twinkling with excitement as she touched the tall animal's powerful leg.
“Alright,” Erik said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen once we’re in-game so let's make a plan now.” Sarah and Marcus both turned to look at him, Marcus leaning casually against the leg of the T-rex as he did so.
“You’re the boss Little Rik.” He said, touching two fingers to his forehead and giving a salute. Sarah crossed her arms, head tilted ever so slightly with her large rabbit eyes fixed on Erik.
“Sarah, you’re the fastest. As soon as we’re on the ground I need you running the perimeter, expanding it and warning us of any trouble. We know it’s an evolution game, but we don’t know exactly what that means yet.”
“We gonna get a tutorial at some point?” Marcus asked, and Erik shrugged.
“I imagine it’ll make more sense once we’ve seen the interface. A lack of handholding on the part of the game was one of the selling points for E.L.E.” Sarah grimaced at this, shaking her head.
“You know I like a tough game, but that suddenly seems a lot less fun when there’s 5 million on the line. We’re gonna have to figure this stuff out fast.”
“Which is what I’ll be doing while you run that perimeter.” Erik said, pivoting the conversation back towards his plan. “I’m going to dig into the UI once it becomes available, figure out what I can. Marcus, you’ll back Sarah up if she runs into any trouble. Hopefully by then I’ll have a handle on everything and we can make a better plan for progressing.” It wasn’t the most comprehensive strategy he’d ever come up with, but there had been hardly any leaks about the game, and Erik knew next to nothing about the systems involved. They were just going to have to learn while they played.
“On your toes.” Sarah said, looking up. Erik followed her gaze and his stomach dropped a bit. Their 10 minutes were up. Only a handful of seconds remained.
“Stick to the plan.” Erik said, watching the countdown.
“Yeehaw!” Marcus called out before once again, the world vanished with a pop.
The next thing he knew, he was trapped. It was dark, but not totally black. There was light coming from somewhere, though not much. It felt like he had been sucked into a rubber tube, and left there. He wriggled, trying to get a sense of how much space his tight little prison had. The answer was not very much. He wriggled again, more forcefully this time and he felt something give. Just a little. He tried to push forward with his arms, but they felt funny, and it was only then he became aware of the fact he didn’t have fingers.
I’m a dinosaur. I’m a triceratops.
The thoughts were distant, as a sense of panic clouded his mind. The kind of panic only being trapped in a tight, dark space could create. He wriggled again with all his might and his prison split down the side, blinding bright light pouring in. Unable to move his limbs very far, he did the only thing that remained and pushed with his face at the crack. This turned out to be the right decision as the gap widened. He pushed against it again, and again until the whole of his little prison broke apart and he tumbled free. The scent of grass, dirt and undergrowth slammed into him like a freight train while his eyes, dazzled by the light, took a bit longer to be useful.
He managed eventually to set himself to rights, which in his case meant scrambling up onto his four legs. At first, he thought there must be some kind of bug with the game. He knew that the world dinosaurs had lived in was practically a different planet, but this was something else. The tree’s were giants beyond anything, seeming to stretch miles into the sky and were impossibly thick around the base. Still unsteady on his dinosaur legs he stumbled forward looking down into a nearby puddle. He was greeted by the face of a dinosaur, with wide, flat facial features framed by a crest that bore some resemblance to a shield and two small rounded nubs above his eyes, and a third rough spot on his nose that were supposed to be horns. Panic and confusion surged through him as he made a horrifying realization.
What the hell!? I’m a baby dinosaur?!