Zero was staring. Not at someone to make things clear, but at a shop window. Behind the window was a cardboard cut-out of a knight in shining armour wielding a two handed sword and above his head the text “Everworld, the first ever Virtual Reality Experience and also MMORPG! Dive into a world of Swords and fantasy, be the Hero of an Empire or the Villain of a Century! Over 1.2 Billion players are already in the world of Gaia, be a part of it all too!” Zero’s heart was jumping up and down in his Chest just thinking about it.
Everworld was a game that just recently came out on the market. Virtual Reality was until then a theory, no not even that, an idea that maybe bore fruit in a decade or so. RocketScience the Company behind Everworld made all of this Reality though, Scientists all over the world made an even bigger fuss about this then the Gamers all around the globe. They just couldn’t get their head around how this no-name Company accomplished this miracle but the CEO of RocketScience had only one statement. “If you want to know how we did it play the Game and enter the world we created” that was all. Since then their Market share literally skyrocketed into Orbit making this even more a priority with people than toilet seats. Everyone who didn’t live at the edge of poverty played Everworld, the price for the actual Game was insanely high but for the miracle called Virtual Reality everyone paid it with a smile on their face, the fee you had to pay at the beginning and every half a year nobody minded.
Zero had desired this more than anything else the moment it was released to the media. RocketScience only announced the game a week before release so in the richer countries of the world it felt like a revolution took place in that one week of waiting. People who never played MMORPG’s or any games at all even took crash courses about it all online, everyone and their mother had heard and wanted to play this game but for Zero it was a bit difficult. He loved all kinds of games, online, console or just tabletop it didn’t matter for him he was a Gamer or “geek” how some would say. Although he loved games he never really had the money to buy the expensive ones and when he got his hands on them they were on discounts because they had been out for 2 years or so already. The reason why he couldn’t afford most of the things he wanted from a young age was pretty simple, he didn’t have parents to pay for all the little bits of selfishness a child or teenager had, he had to live knowing that hard work and a lot of sucking up or sweet talking could get to somewhere but not always far.
Leaving High school at a young age he was stuck with not much education and a job at a factory where he worked 4 days a week from 6 am till 5 pm. The pay was miserable but they didn’t ask for a high education and the job was easy to do, all in all Zero was happy. Still, enough money for one copy of the game or the Helmet you needed to play it he was nowhere near. Five thousand dollars was a lot of money. That and the two hundred you had to pay for the half a year of playtime was not something he could just suddenly come up, without going into debt.
Sighing he entered the shop wanting to take a closer look at the booth of Everworld behind the window like he did everyday when suddenly an alarm began to rang. Cold sweat ran down Zero’s back, did someone break something, was it him? But his fear was soon washed away by confusion as balloons started to fall on his head and the alarm turned into a rhythm close to a happy birthday song. A man from the staff ran towards him, with a smile took his hand and shook it repeatedly. “Congratulations! Today is the 20th anniversary of GameStation and you are our first visitor. That is why we are going to give you an extension of your game time for Everworld by 3 years! Or a copy of the actual Game with specialised equipment, the game time fee we are sadly not going to pay for you though if you decide for that”
Zero stood there for a few seconds not grasping the situation. A copy of the game? Just for entering the shop he always went to just to look at Everworld which he couldn’t afford no matter what and then to go home with an empty heart to come back the next day doing the same? After a little discussion and still not believing the miracle that had just transpired he choose the actual copy of the game and a Member of staff took him to a shelf with a few dozen helmets in all kinds of shapes to give him to try on. After they found one that fit Zero nearly perfectly it was adjusted for complete comfort with a special tool that looked like a mix between scanner, screwdriver and laser cutter. They wrapped the now perfectly fitting helmet up, put it into a box that also had a disk with the installation of the helmet for any pc on it and sent him smiling and waving off.
Still in a daze Zero got home and made an online account to pay the two hundred dollars for half a year of playtime. After that he put the CD, that also looked like nothing he had ever seen before with a shape closer to a star than a circle, in the disk drive and waited for it to install the connection software between the helmet and the PC. The Game itself was inside the Helmet, already installed and ready to use, all you needed was an average internet connection and a Computer that could handle the Software for the helmet which wasn’t too much. That was also the secret as to why so many people could play it because if you had to have a supercomputer to run the damn thing and also a connection only a few lucky and very rich people had what was the point to it all. No one average could afford that so RocketScience had this slightly different approach.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
With his heart pounding in his chest Zero put the helmet on after the installation was complete and lay down on his bed. He closed his eyes and after ten seconds he felt different, the darkness was still the same but he didn’t feel like he was lying down on his bed anymore but more like standing on the ground, also his eyes where open but he only saw darkness before him. He looked down and to his surprise saw his own naked body as well as some parts this narrator here should not delve to deep into as they are private matters of private sections. A bit embarrassed Zero turned his head around although he knew no one was in this never ending darkness he still felt a bit embarrassed being naked. A female voice made him nearly jump out of his skin.
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=70% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#F2F2F2][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#000000][p=center]Welcome to Everworld
This is the Character customisation Lobby
Available Characters: 0
[/p][/col][/box]
A little box appeared in front of his face.
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=40% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#F2F2F2][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#000000][p=center]Do you want to create a new Character?[/p][/col][/box]
Zero nodded surprised. Suddenly a new window appeared in front of him showing his body in a 3D model and a sheer endless number of tabs to change hair colour, body size, facial features and so on. After a few minutes of messing around with his face he gave up and a little unsure spoke to the darkness.
“Would it be ok to just use my body as it is?”
After a second he got his answer in form of a window.
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=60% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#F2F2F2][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#000000][p=center]In regards of privacy this normally isn’t recommended nor asked.
Should your real body be also the one for Ingame?
[/p][/col][/box]
“Yes”
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=40% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#F2F2F2][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#000000][p=center]What Name should your Character have? [/p][/col][/box]
“Zero”
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=45% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#F2F2F2][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#000000][p=center]Please choose a starting Region and Country. [/p][/col][/box]
A window appeared again in front of him listing Country names and starting areas but Zero ignored those already having a plan for that.
“Choose location where the least players ever started.”
He didn’t like people in real life much and neither did he really want to interact with them in the game.
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=40% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#F2F2F2][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#000000][p=center]Special request fulfilled!
Good luck Zero and may the Edge of your weapon never break or rust.
[/p][/col][/box]
Without even getting a chance to ask where he now was starting colours flooded his vision and he entered Everworld.
[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=10% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#F2F2F2][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#f5f5f5 bgcolor=#000000][p=center] Next [/p][/col][/box]