The whirring of the device's internal wheels turned, and suddenly, white light washed over his vision. He immediately closed his eyes and with baited breath, Evans waited for something to happen.

As he noticed the light slowly die down, he noticed a cheerful voice chiming in the background. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a white room.

Welcome to Reach Your Horizon! As this appears to be your first time logging in to the game, please follow the necessary registration procedures.

A hologram with the size of the computer screen materialized in-front of Evans, as well as a keyboard. On the screen, he could see details of his personal information that he needed to fill out, such as his name, job, billing address, and etc.

After filling in all the necessary information, he hit the Submit button.

- Please wait while we verify your information.

As Evans waited, he explored the white room he was in. It wasn't a very big room, and it didn't have anything in it. Evans only wanted to test out how moving was like while in the virtual world. As he walked along the wall of the white room, he stretched out his fingers to touch the wall.

"Woah.. I can touch the walls, and I can feel how solid it is." he excitingly murmured.

He heard a bell sound and thinking that his registration had already been verified, he walked back to the computer console. With a verification message written on the console, Evans hit the Next arrow button. In response to that, another information window appeared in exchange of the previous.

Do be cautious while deciding your character's appearance, or any information as each account is only allowed to have one character. Once the character is created, you will not be allowed to delete or alter anything on your character.

Please decide your character name.

"Now, what would be a good name?" he silently thought to himself. Evans mentally brought out a list in his mind over what names he would choose.

***

- This name is already taken! Please try another name.

"Damn it!" Evans cursed out loud.

He couldn't believe it, he had already spent a solid hour in the game just trying to find a good name. It wasn't that he was picky, but all the names that he had thought of were already taken. He sort of expected that this would happen, as R.Y.H was a game that had thousands upon thousands of players, but to think that even his secret fail-safe name, "xXxMagiaxXx" was taken, this game definitely wasn't normal.

"I guess it's time to step up my game.. Darn, I should have started playing earlier." He said as he scratched his head. "I just hope Milly and Cory aren't waiting for me right now.." After that he tried out another bunch of random names until he finally, he keyed in a name and a window appeared

- You have selected, "Elm" as your character name.

Would you like to confirm your entry?

"Yes!" Evans excitingly shouted.

- Confirmed, now please choose your Race. You may choose between Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Beasts, Halflings, or Orcs.

Soon after, six versions of Evans appeared in-front of him in the different forms of races. All of them were clothed in leather, and had a blank expression on their faces.

"Wow.." he murmured. Firstly, he looked at the Elvish-version of himself, he looked much younger and had fairer skin. He also had the trademark pointy Elf ears instead of the normal human ones.

Secondly, he stared at the wolf-like humanoid beside the Elf version. This was the Beast type, it was possible to change which animal you wanted to play in, and from what he had heard about the Beast types was that you could choose the type of animal you wanted to look like. Evans had no desire to look like a fur ball so he quickly skipped the Beast type.

Next, he looked at the Dwarven version of himself and the Halfling version.

A little more than half his size, both were pretty similar except Evans sported a macho beard on his Dwarven self, and he was also more stocky compared to the Halfling. The Halfling had a more cunning look to his face, that seemed like he was ready to go gallivanting into a random Dragon's treasure hoard. Oh, yes. There were dragons in this world. Evans made a mental note to go fight one as soon as he was capable of doing so.

Finally, he looked at the Orcish-version of himself. He looked like a brute, his skin was an eerie green, he had pointed teeth jutting out of the sides of his mouth. His body size was slightly taller, but the main point were the bulging muscles that the Orc version of him had. Evans held a hand to his chin, and stroking it like he was deep in thought, he said, "I really have to start working out sometime soon." He decided against choosing an Orc however, and dismissed the idea in his head.

Finally, he looked at the Human version of himself.

It was exactly alike Evans, it retained all his features. It seemed so surreal looking at himself in leather clothes, it was like looking at a past reincarnation of himself from an older era. It seemed to be the selling point, because it was only shortly after admiring himself in Human form that he immediately confirmed his choice.

"I'll go with Human." he said. Evans had a choice to alter his appearance, however he chose to refrain from doing so. Mainly because he thought it was a hassle, and it would be more fun to play with his original appearance anyway. There were no limitations to what each race could become, however certain races had higher numbers in a particular stat when starting out, and how far they could grow depended on what class the player selected and the choices they made in-game.

- Confirmed, you may now select your starting location from any one of the three beginning cities.

He looked at the window, and it showed three of the cities. When he selected the one he was looking for, it's information appeared.

- Viajecamino, a beautiful castletown surrounded by lakes and luscious landscapes. Many experienced adventurers hail from this place, and it is located in the kingdom of Beaupay. Would you like to begin from this town?

"Yes."

[b]-Confirmed. Would you like to begin by starting on the tutorial?

Evans snickered. Looks like the game still had some minor glitches. It couldn't be helped. After all, it was only a month old. There would be plenty of opportunities to make it grow even further, it was already really amazing anyway.

"No."

"Confirmed. You will now be transported to the town of Viajecamino! Welcome to the world of Horizon!" the voice chimed.

Evans closed his eyes with his hands as the room he was in was suddenly engulfed in light.

Suddenly, he could hear sounds of water flowing from a fountain, and the hustle and bustle of a market going about. There were people talking and shouting all around him, and he finally opened his eyes.

"No way." Evans bewilderingly said. He had seen a picture of Viajecamino when Cory showed him while talking about Horizon, but he didn't know that it would be as amazing as this.

Evans had been transported to Viajecamino's square which was located in the middle of the city. There was a small medieval fountain carved from stone right in the middle of the square which was where he was next to. All around him there were NPCs or Players running around.

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"This is unreal." he moved his feet, trying to grasp the truth that this was undeniably the greatest thing that mankind had ever created. With his hands, he touched his leather clothing. It felt smooth, and comfortable to be in. "It's.. soft."

He looked at the sky that was shining brightly down upon him, and with a deep breath, he breathed in his surroundings. There were houses and buildings all around him in the castletown, all in a similar style. The buildings were mostly constructed by red bricks which he guessed would be to give the town a sense of familiarity. The castletown had a very Roman-era feel to it. Long story short, he felt like he was transported back in time.

"...Evans?" a familiar voice behind him suddenly said with a gruff.

Spinning around expectantly, Evans stared at the bear that had called his name. The bear stood at around Evans height, with brown fur all over. There was a scar on it's left eye, and he had similar facial features to a person that Evans knew. The bear was completely decked out in equipment, minus the helmet. He wore a dazzlingly golden ring mail that was plated around the chest area, and it had mesh on the lower half that covered the bear's waist. The bear had a belt-like object that was strapped around it's waist that seemed to hold everything together. It also had a broadsword strapped on its back.

It could only be one guy.

"...Cory?" Evans muttered slowly.

"Yup, that's me!" Cory said, while beaming at Evans. It was pretty creepy, to have a brown bear smile at you, Evans thought.

"You made it Evans!" another familiar voice behind the bear shouted. "Move you big oaf!" An elf ran out from behind of Cory, tackling straight into Evans chest and gave him a big hug.

"Hahahah, Milly?!" Evans surprisingly exclaimed as he held her, trying to shove her off. It was Milly, and she had chosen the Elf race. She looked even more beautiful than she did in real life, and in Horizon, her elf character was a stunning blonde with epic proportions that could charm even a devout monk. She too, had a weapon strapped to her back. It was a wooden bow, accompanied by a quiver.

"You sure took awhile Evans." Cory grinned again, sending a chill down Evans spine. Definitely creepy seeing a bear smile.

"YEAH. We waited FOREVER!" Milly said, almost screaming. Then she looked at Cory and gave him a grin.

Evans looked at Cory and Milly. "I'm sorry guys, thinking of a nam-" he started to say when he was suddenly interrupted by a cheer from both Cory and Milly.

"HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY EVANS!"

"Hahahaha!" Evans laughed and smiled broadly while remembering the note they gave him, along with the GateArk. "Thank you so much for the present guys. I'll be sure to pay you guys back."

"You don't have to! It's a present from both of us!" both of them smiled back. "So what were you doing? We waited for you for more than an hour.."

"...I'll tell you."

***

"Okay.. so, Character Info?" Evans inquiringly said. A sound that sounded like a scroll unrolling played and a window appeared in front of Evans. Using his hands, he could scroll up or down the window in a waving like motion.

Character InfoName:ElmAllignmentNeutralLevel:1Class:NoneRace:HumanGender:MaleFame-Titles-Health:100/100Mana100/100Strength15Dexterity15Intelligence10Wisdom10Vitality10Luck10Equipment InfoAttack7-9Defence3Other information will not be accessible until they are unlocked.

"Wow! It appeared!" Evans exclaimed.

Cory and Milly grinned. They thought Evans had gone through the tutorial, which was why it took him so long to finally begin playing. So they didn't mind waiting. Who knew he actually took nearly two hours just to create his character...

"You can check your skills, as well as your inventory more or less the same way too." Cory said.

"There's something here that says other information won't be accessible until unlocked? What's up with that?" Evans asked, puzzled.

"Well, you've only just started the game. You have to do a bunch of quests in the city to unlock all the other information." Cory explained. "Oh, and you're not allowed to leave the castle's area until you hit Level 20 and get your first class."

"My first class.." Evans wondered out aloud. He'd always wanted to be a mage. In his opinion, a mage's power was absolute. They could dominate large-scale battles and by casting a powerful spell, they could even turn the tides of the battle instantly.

"What level are you guys?" Evans asked his friends.

"I'm level 22 while Milly is level 21." Cory replied. "Hehe, we leveled up pretty slowly because there's so much other stuff to do than just grinding your levels in this game." He said shyly.

"Yeah! There's so many fun quests to do and things to see." Milly continued excitedly.

"So have you guys changed your classes yet?" Evans asked.

"I'm a Warrior while Milly is an Archer."

"Wow.." Evans muttered in amazement. "Milly sucks at aiming though. Remember when we played Shoot the Can?"

Cory and Evans both laughed, and Milly pouted and sulked while muttering something under her breath.

All of a sudden, as if remembering something, Milly puffed out her chest proudly and said. "You two, don't call me Milly anymore! My name here is Mae!"

Cory stopped laughing, sighed and gave a helpless shrug. "Nice to meet you, I'm Braveheart." he said as he solemnly offered his hand to Evans to shake. Evans could only smile, he knew it would be better to call each other by their respective aliases, only in this game anyway. It wouldn't be fun if their privacy was compromised now, would it.

He nodded, shook Cory's hand and replied in return, "I'm Elm."

Likewise, he did the same introduction with Milly.

As he shook Cory's and then Milly's hands, two windows popped up.

Player "Braveheart" has sent you a friend request.

Player "Mae" has sent you a friend request.

"Accept." he said with a smile.

Finally, they could start their adventure together in Horizon.

Or so he thought.

Main PageChapter 2 - Horizon