“You got fired!?”
“And lied to us!?”
I winced at both of my siblings raised voices. I’d waited a day to make sure that the entire thing was both legit and to give me time without the liquor to agree again. Now both sat across from me and were looking equal amounts shocked and… smug.
“Quite, you’ll bother the neighbors. Again. Look, I’m sorry-“
“Hey, you just grounded me for lying! Sorry just isn’t gonna cut it mister. The neighbors can wait, you got some explaining to do.”
His smug grin faded slightly as I just stared at him. As the moment dragged on, he started to sweating a little before I cracked and smiled too.
“Been waiting for something like this huh? Yeah, okay I messed up. Difference is you lied to embarrass someone rudely and I kept our financial crisis to myself till I resolved it. But… point made. You two can decide a suitable punishment, AFTER I finish telling you both why and how it shouldn’t be a problem.”
And so I did. The explanation took longer than I thought, since neither remembered much about James nor had cared much in the past about my job or the details of it and had little clue to the golden egg that had found its way onto our laps. Of course, they had heard about the Cradle. From me gushing about the innovative new ways the technology could be used to help facilitate the needs of many and from the news, covering the release of both it and the game that hoped to revolutionize the industry for eons to come.
After, we sat in silence as they absorbed the information. Daph spoke up first this time.
“So you are going to be working from home and payed to play a game? How is that… will it be enough?”
Her voice grew steadily softer and more timid and I knew why. Her body. She was born with several complications at birth and while some had been sorted out via surgery and others by medication, she still needed regular checkups and help to keep herself from steadily growing more sickly and pained. The reliance on them had kept her from being able to have as many friends and time to relax, always going from one moment to the next with the same cheerful as she could manage attitude that had always warmed his heart. And made him annoyingly certain he’d have to beat some poor guy one day for taking advantage of her kindness. Not her innocence or naivety though. She was surprisingly adept at catching onto when people where trying there.
“It will be sweetie. I checked with him today and he confirmed. I’ll be making close to what I was before, plus because of how new and untested these things are I’ll already be needing to make consistent visits for their own legal safeties. At least for the first few months as I get used to long term usage. They agreed to pick up your visitations as well.”
She was relieved, I could tell, but something else sat behind those eyes.
“You okay Daph?”
“Yeah, just think I don’t feel well because of the excitement. I’m going to go lay down.”
Left with Jace, I saw him anteing up to go again.
“No more grounding, two whole days early. Plus we can have pizza tonight.”
“Sushi. And I get to try the Cradle too.”
“Sushi. But I can’t, not yet. It is supposed to get calibrated to me specifically first and for the first two months it is only supposed to be me in there. I already asked. But after? Sure.”
“YES!”
His exuberance made me chuckle like mad. After placing the orders for pickup and verifying what Daph wanted, she had no choice on the matter, I left to go pick it up. All in all, the conversation had gone fantastically compared to how worried I’d been a mere week ago. Funny what one piece of good news and an old friend can bring into your life.
----------------------------------------
“And sign here, verifying you read the general user manual and understand the risks present and how to of the machine. And here for the deliver. That about does it sir. Was there anything else you needed before we head out?”
“No I think that does it on this end too. Thank you for your time today.”
Shaking the man’s hand, I led both him and his two crew members to the door and waved them off and away. Turning, I walked down the hall and turned inti my room. There she was.
The machine, the Cradled, looked like something ripped from the cover of a piece of concept art for a mega hit sci-fi movie. It stood from the floor to about half way to the ceiling. Round, white, and with a seamless seal to lock it in place, the thing looked more like an egg with a small black screen on the outside than a cradle of any sort I had ever seen. Tapping on the pad brought up an interface and I set about adding small things like the time and date. Pressing confirm then open, the seam revealed itself with a surprising hiss that made me jump and slowly peeled open to reveal a series of what looked like electronic slips attached to almost every surface on the inside and a big, rounded chair.
I must have been standing there for longer than I thought, staring at the thing like I would be able to understand its functioning by doing so, because a cleared throat behind me caught me off guard and I jumped. Again. Spinning around, I saw Daph and Jace staring at me and it with interest and a little concern.
“So that’s it? It looks like an egg.”
“You know, that’s exactly what I thought.” I replied with a chuckle.
“And you’re sure this is safe?” This time it was Daph, staring past me to look at the thing too.
“I mean, the thing passed whatever checks were needed. And I’m pretty sure that’s a thing they want me checking anyways.”
This was clearly not comforting to her, not by the way she suddenly looked at me.
“Hey, no I was joking. Just joking. I’m positive it is safe as can be.” I hoped, not that I felt the need to add that part.
“Can we watch you get in? Just to make sure.”
“Of course you can. I was going to ask one of you two anyways. Here, the manual,” I passed it to Jace, who stood closer to me and was still trying to eye the thing like it was going to tap dance, “and don’t touch anything on it while I’m in there. They want me only doing four hours for today and tomorrow, then it will be full eights for the next few weeks except for two days a week. Basically the same as any other job.”
Nodding at the instructions, both made themselves comfy while I set about attaching strips to my arms, legs, forehead, and chest. Done with that all, I sat and hit the button to start. As the egg formed it’s shell around me, I had one last look at the two before it sealed and hissed away at the world. And then I waited. It wasn’t for long.
Feeling your body lose connection with what made it your body was indescribably strange to experience. I’d had dreams before were I fell and fell and woke up feeling like I still was. I’d also had a few rather unpleasant experiences with drugs, having been given some for an injury growing up that had left me fearful of ever touching anything stronger than an advil. This was sort of like both.
My chest felt like it had contracted and expanded all at once and I lost feeling in every part of me. Every part. I hadn’t even known I possessed feelings in all those parts and places till it was removed from me and the absence was notably triggering. If I’d been able to struggle, I might have tried breaking myself free from the machine but as it was I had no such luck.
‘Welcome to your Cradle. I’m Caregiver, the designation given to every Cradle’s personal assistant entity. Would you like to change my designation?’
The words just seemed to appear in front of my not eyes. Still, somehow the information and text was visible. Remembering the manual, I thought to myself.
Sure. Change name to… Karen.
‘Name of entity has been changed and approved. Hello, I am Karen. How can I assist you today’
Run a check on body vitals, please.
‘Vitals of the user are…’
The list of tracked vitals flowed into my mind, no text this time. The number of things the machine monitored actually astounded me but it made sense, given the original purposes and the knowledge that myself and others would be essentially unmoving sacks of meat for the hours meant to be spent inside the device. Deciding to see what else it could do, I started the other half of my first day.
Karen, can you set a timer for three hours and twenty minutes from now and launch Endless Online?
‘Timer has been set. Endless Online launching. Enjoy your play’
----------------------------------------
Colors. Lots. And lots. Of colors.
That was the very first thing that I was able to think when whatever was allowing my brain to receive all this information was finally able to understand anything. The kaleidoscope of colors ended soon and suddenly I felt again. Looking, yes actually looking down, I saw a strangely familiar yet different set of hands that didn’t quite match the hands I’d been born with. An actual floating screen appeared in front of me.
‘Welcome to Endless Online, potential candidate! Please, pay careful attention during the character creation process and tutorial as both might have lasting effects on gameplay. As of the current moment, all players are limited to one character as of this time and must delete their avatar prior to being allowed to create a new one.’
The words, ‘potential candidate’, seemed odd to me but everything else seemed fairly normal from a gaming standpoint. Not knowing what else to do, I poked the screen and was amused by the feeling of physical feedback. It was different, to normal touch. More like a phantom of the feeling than the wholeness of it.
‘At the beginning of time, all manner of things spewed forth onto the endless planes of Agenmorthal. The first beings to come to mindful sentience, the Valimari, sought to understand and find the meaning to their existence. In doing so, they unleashed the greatest threat known to all beings. While the how and exactitudes of the situation are unclear in this age, they came to find other beings of an oddly inverse nature. Creatures that thrived off the hidden things and whose very presence damped the life of those around them. Naming them Iramilav, their complete and utter opposites, they sought to eradicate them all in a mission holy to them and their culture of knowledge. This war, the first war in all of time, left the universe shattered and their people all but extinct. They did have success, driving their mortal enemies into the same dire straights.
The clashes of their magnificent and terrifying powers crashed waves of energy and matter across all the lands, seas, and skies across planets, leading to life in the wake of these disasters and sowing the universe with untold potential in the form of raw materials and storms of ever brewing energy.
You, a potential candidate, have chosen, or been chosen, to explore this universe through many means and earn your spot in the ladders of power left in the absence of these beings and their war all those millennia ago. Your choices for this task are endless, as your resolve should be. Good luck, candidate.’
I was already in love. This was so cool. I hit the screen again.
‘Now that you’ve displayed the ability to read and click screens, you’re ready to begin choosing you personal avatar and setting your race, starting equipment, starting skills, and a starter profession of your choice. Note that while these are all options from the start, these will not be your only options going forward for most of these categories. In Endless, the class system functions in conjunction with the players skills and equipment to allow for any style of class or play typically or atypically found in other role playing games. The following pages will offer you choices ranging from twenty races, eight major categories of different styles of play, a choice of a preset equipment load out or active purchase ability, and a profession that will offer act as your class until level 10, when it will change to reflect your abilities and choices up till that moment and be given a name more fitting for the play style. This change will also come with other benefits that will be explored at the time of or can be researched on in game.’
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This sounded even better to me, if I was understanding correctly. From the sound of it, the game was offering a semi freeform advancement system that rewarded you for playing the game in a style that fit with your methodology in how you interacted with it. Many games locked individuals into a specific preset or number of presets, meant to help the game’s developers moderate the power creep or the way the game handled long term balancing issues. This style in Endless wasn’t exactly common, especially not for an multiplayer game like this would be in the coming months, but it wasn’t unheard of at all. It fit too, given the context, name, and the sheer mind boggling ability to actually be in the game.
I was in a video game. Inside of one. I had to admit, I was already thinking about spending more than four hours in here. Clicking the screen once more brought up the racial listings.
‘Answain: The birdfolk
Kumatri: The star blessed
Beleste: The beastfolk
Lorux: The masters of magic
Camboid: The spirit repressed
Lurdin: The masters of body
Dwarmen: The stone blessed
Madinox: The hidden masters
Elemaruma: The sea blessed
Nortru: The masters of mind
Elvanari: The sky blessed
Nurterra: The masters of harvest
Forswain: The spirit void
Pallmarta: The masters of craft
Gorval: The plantfolk
Quintanam: The spirit transcended
Humani: The spirit held
Restrano: The void blessed
Indara: The flame blessed
Svartic: The frost blessed’
That was a lot of choices, but the names did give me some context clues. I was willing to bet that the blessed options were related to elemental things, the masters were experts at their given field, and the folk were all humanoid beast hybrid races. The spirit moniker was the sticky part to this mental process, not really lending itself well to any one idea except for Humani who were probably the humans of the universe. Clicking on Quintanam gave me a little more insight into what the spirit related stuff was.
‘Quintanam: The spirit transcended
Quintanam, also commonly known as half celestials, demigods, and gods blessed, are humans who find themselves with ancestry or the favor of spirits of positivity, protection, life, and light. While some might believe such a family lineage would prove useful and grant favorable responses from the masses, the truth is that their off-putting unnaturally good looks and others perceived views on the importance of being in relation to such beings causes many to live lives as wanderers and merchants without a single soul around who cares for them more than their natural talents, skills, or familial connections.
Beyond simply looking good, all Quintanam posses the ability to convert their stamina into mana as well as have naturally high dispositions to performance in arts, magic pertaining to light, protection, life, and moral, and with animals. However, the inverse is also true, with a notable lacking in most forms of combat meant to do ill intent to others. They aren’t without protections from combat, receiving the ability to glow blindingly in response to danger at the cost of mana or stamina.
Would you like to select Quintanam and proceed to viewing the numerical bonuses? The choice will only become permanent at the end of character creation.’
Hitting the yes selection, the following screen was something I’d been waiting for. Hard, raw numbers.
‘Quintanam: The spirit transcended
20% bonus experience gained in Light, Protection, Life, and Moral magic
15% bonus experience gained in Art, Animal Handling, Trade, and History skills
10% bonus to the strength of Life, Protection, Life, and Moral magic
10% to the success chance of Art, Animal Handling, Trade, and History attempts
Body to Spirit Conversion Ability
Bright Spirit Flash Ability
-20% bonus experience gained in Darkness, Destruction, Death, and Misery magic
-15% bonus experience gained in Building, Artifice, Tracking, and Trapping skills
-10% bonus to the strength of Darkness, Destruction, Death, and Misery magic
-10% to the success chance of Building, Artifice, Tracking, and Trapping attempts
Would you like to select Quintanam as your race? This choice will become permanent at the end of character creation.’
That was a decent amount of information to work through. From what I could tell, the race seemed to be a version of the popular half whatever series of humanoids that show up in a lot of games, this one in particular with a holy kind of other half. There were a notable lacking of attributes or statistics like in other games though, such as strength or agility. Maybe that would come later and the races acted more like build templates, giving you easy to work off of bonuses that could be used as a warrior, mage, thief, etc.
Declining and going back, I decided to test my theory by selecting who felt like they would be the exact opposite.
‘Camboid: The spirit repressed
Camboid, also commonly known as half infernals, demidemons, and gods cursed, are humans who find themselves with either some amount of demonic ancestry or who become otherwise possessed of or bonded to such spirits of darkness, death, destruction, and misery. While many fear them for such ancestry, they are considered some of the most useful and terrifying masters of magics inspired by their connections. They also posses a surprisingly capable body and have the ability to convert health into mana, allowing the truly cornered Camboid the power to cut loose the heed for safety and burn their life to win at all costs. The other ability naturally held by all Camboid is the ability to spend stamina or mana to undergo a physical change that grants them claws, talons, and tusks coated in darkness for a short time. This all comes with a cost, however.
Lacking in social graces and the inverse of ability in the magic arts opposed to their own, they also posses a noteworthy difficulty in processing the fundamental understanding of mathematics.
Would you like to select Camboid and proceed to viewing the numerical bonuses? The choice will only become permanent at the end of character creation.’
‘Camboid: The spirit repressed
20% bonus experience gained in Darkness, Destruction, Death, and Misery magic
15% bonus experience gained in Building, Artifice, Tracking, and Trapping skills
10% bonus to the strength of Darkness, Destruction, Death, and Misery magic
10% to the success chance of Building, Artifice, Tracking, and Trapping attempts
Vitality to Spirit Conversion Ability
Demonic Visage Ability
-20% bonus experience gained in Light, Protection, Life, and Moral magic
-15% bonus experience gained in Art, Animal Handling, Trade, and History skills
-10% bonus to the strength of Darkness, Destruction, Death, and Misery magic
-10% to the success chance of Art, Animal Handling, Trade, and History attempts
Would you like to select Quintanam as your race? This choice will become permanent at the end of character creation.’
It looked like the exact opposite, with a few tweaks here, there, and on the abilities. I was sensing a theme with the amount of bonuses and granting two abilities to set the character up for certain play styles. Both races sounded quite interesting if I was being honest, yet neither really struck me as the play style I wanted to try. I was usually a mix of either support, tank, or damage dealing and while both seemed viable enough for the roles, the Quintanam fit better with a pet master and the Camboid some kind of debuff trapper if I only focused on the big bonuses. Not really enough to go on for the how of the skills and magic.
I knew I wanted to feel the game. I wanted to have to move, run, and really push how far the machine could match the feel of the reality it was simulating. I wanted to be a warrior of some kind and neither felt like the call for that. Declining again, this time I selected the one that quite literally said it fit the bill.
‘Lurdin: The masters of body
Lurdin are the undisputed masters of physical combat, possessing bodies that naturally absorb metals found all throughout the worlds and processing them into internal and external layers in a process they refer to as armamentation. The metals seem into their organs, skin, bones, and joints to create the most physically powerful forms available. This shifting organic metal compound enhances every aspect of them, but inhibits their ability to utilize any of the common forms of magic and psychic ability known and hampers their ability to move quietly. The sheer intimidation of their renown and appearance causes many to correlate them to the commonly know automaton known as the Golem, further distancing them from the other races. Still, few would ever dare knowingly confront a true Lurdin over their visual counterparts and fewer still would make the mistake of confusing the two in front of them. Especially a second time, if they were lucky enough to survive the first.
Would you like to select Lurdin and proceed to viewing the numerical bonuses? The choice will only become permanent at the end of character creation.’
‘Lurdin: The masters of the body
20% bonus experience gained to all weapon types
15% bonus experience gained to all armor types, Mining, Smithing, and Construction skills
10% bonus to damage dealt by all weapons
10% reduction in damage from all weapons
Armamentation Ability
Shift Metallic Form Ability
-20% bonus experience gained in all magic and psychic styles
-15% bonus experience gained in Stealth, Animal Handling, Trade, and Negotiation skills
-10% bonus to the strength of all magic and psychic styles
-10% to the success chance of Stealth, Animal Handling, Trade, and Negotiation skills
Would you like to select Lurin as your race? This choice will become permanent at the end of character creation.’
Okay, that was more like it. The thought of being a liquid metal killing machine, while not sent from a future of kill happy robots, was very intriguing. On the other hand, magic. While I knew I wanted to beat things up, there was a part of me that still wanted to whip out the occasional spell or three and the race was probably the worst out of the lot for that. From the looks of things anyways. I could have been wrong, but a penalty to all of the forms of magic seemed steep if I wanted to mix a little into whatever I ended up as. The other races I’d looked at made it clear that there would be a very large amount of skills related to magic and hampering progress with all of them rubbed me wrong for my first character.
I checked the timer and saw that nearly an hour had already passed while I had been reading and thinking. I did not wanted to spend all four hours on character creation, not today and not in this game. Rejecting the choice, I selected another that had sounded interesting.
‘Beleste: The beastfolk
Beleste, as known as the beastfolk, the keepers of land, and guardian beasts, are a race of bipedal humanoid beasts that separate their tribes based on the animals they match and the prey they hunt. Masters of forest, land, and the hunt, all Beleste come with a package of enhanced senses and naturally sharp claws. In addition to these is the fact that their culture, based around their natural instincts mixed with an intelligence than many find hard to believe, encourages many of their youth to partake in a journey of learning, study, and self discovery and in doing so prepares them for the task with exceptional training in survival and understanding the natural world they so closely hold dear.
Their senses and connection to nature isn’t always so much of a positive to them, with the instincts causing them much in the way of understanding others and the magic they do posses claiming dominion over all other forms of it.
Would you like to select Beleste and proceed to viewing the numerical bonuses? The choice will only become permanent at the end of character creation.’
‘Beleste: The beastfolk
20% bonus experience gained in Tracking, Trapping, a weapon skill of choice or a magic skill of choice from the Bio cycle, and a weapon skill of choice or a magic skill of choice from the Bio cycle
15% bonus experience gained in Building, Agriculture, Survival, and Gathering
10% bonus to the strength of all Bio cycle magic
10% to the success chance of Tracking, Trapping, Survival, and Gathering attempts
Embrace Beast Senses Ability
Connected to Beast and Plant Ability
-20% bonus experience gained in Psychics, Trade, Negotiation, and Insight
-15% bonus experience gained in all armor above medium and non Bio cycle magic
-10% bonus to the strength of Psychics and non Bio cycle magic
-10% to the success chance of Trade, Negotiation, Insight, and Diplomacy attempts
Would you like to select Beleste as your race? This choice will become permanent at the end of character creation.’
That was actually kind of perfect. I had no clue what Bio cycle magic was, but the focus on a split between magical and physical from the start was tempting. The addition of some free bonuses to non combat survival also intrigued me. Losing out on freaky mind powers and the heaviest armor was a little bit of an issue, the latter being far more important than the former, but I thought I could work with this. So I hit yes.
Watching my body twist, stretch, and fill out into the form of a giant talking wolf man was intimidating to say the least. There was no feeling to it physically but the twirling and whirling would have made me sick if I’d been able to be physically present in my body. It passed quickly and another page popped up. This one all about appearance. I sighed knowing the next hour was probably going to be spent on this alone. Not to be deterred, I began.