A new study shows that every human brain works at a different speed, that’s why certain people seem to be able to do everything quicker, because for them, everyone else is going slow. However the time difference is negligible at best, over the course of someone’s entire life, and let’s say they die at 80, another person would experience about 79.98 years. But thanks to modern science, (and the military trying to find any way to weaponize faster thinking) new generations of technology have sprouted, and now in the year 3124, no one can imagine gaming in a normal speed, the newest technologies have made it so that one real world hour is equivalent to one in game day, meaning a 24 to 1 time dilation! And finally, after waiting for so long, we finally got a working dmmorpg! It’s called “The New World”! A game where the devs promised the ability to use all five senses, and they somehow managed to create a working 6th sense, but no one has any idea what that means yet. The beta testers haven’t said anything, but they swear that it really does feel like having an extra sense besides sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste! More people are excited to know what it feels like to have a 6th sense than they are to actually play the game, but not me though! I already have my plan set out! The creators of the game promised that the AI is as advanced as it possibly can be, and every npc has their own story-line, and can shift based on the players choices. Another thing that was promised is that the skill tree will be limitless, but again they haven’t said how it’ll be limitless.

But today is the day! Today is launch day and I pre-downloaded the game a week ago just to make sure I can start as soon as I can! I got into my sleeping pod and immediately booted up the game. Sure I have homework due in a couple days but I can just do it later when I’m restricted from playing. I’m sure my professor won’t mind it being a bit rushed.

As I wake up, I’m in what kinda looks like a void, like emptiness spreads across in every direction, well except for right in front of me is a tall mirror that shows my reflection... ugh I hate how these new games scan you and make you the avatar, I’m so gonna redo everything! okay race... what? you can only pick human? that’s lame... ah well, first lets make my boring brown hair into something interesting! liiiiike, silver! and the hair end in blackened tips! oh, and make my chin a bit sharper, i wanna looked sofistacated! sophistakated? I wanna look smart! final thing is my height, I guess a few inches taller and being a bit thinner wouldn't hurt... around 5’7 should be good. Okay! Now for trait’s! Hmm... I start with five hundred points, and can get more if I take negative traits... Albinism offers an extra seven hundred points, but I can never go outside while it’s daytime... you know what? starting with more than double the starting points is too good, so what if I can’t play during the day? I can just go indoors or dungeon crawl during those hours! accept! oh, my skin is snow white and my eyes are blood red! I kinda look like a vampire but without the fangs. That’s so cool that the traits affect your appearance. So now that I start with 1,200 points, lets see what we can play with... this trait says it’s called and you need it to use any form of magic... and it’s only 200 points? gotta have that... oh a new tab opened up on traits! it’s full of different spell types. fire, wind, water, and fire each cost 150, so if you didn’t take any negative traits, you’d only get two of them... the most expensive is 1000 points, but that’s all I have left... eh screw it, let’s take this magic and see what I can do with it! way easier than trying to use a bunch of weak traits when clearly the higher the price the more power!

As I hit submit, a new panel opened up showing where I can choose to spawn, five places in total it would seem, and it’s represented by five red dots on a map of the world, or at least this continent. Dev’s love growing a world by just saying “hey we discovered a nearby island that just so happens to already be populated!” so I guess this is just the world as it currently is. from my guess, each red dot is a city, one for each of the human kingdoms, and a fifth one that far north of the kingdoms, I think it’s a cave? well I can’t exactly go outside when the sun is up and I have no other protection, so “UnderCoon” cave it is!

“Eh? its been nearly an hour already!? I got so lost in character customization I completely forgot about the time! quick! go go go!” I say as I push the red dot, sending me to the cave, or so I thought, but it still looks like the void? but I can move around now so maybe I did- wwwah! ow... I just slipped and hit my head on something hard... thankfully it’s just a game so pain is dulled, but that still hurt!

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As I was standing up rubbing my head, a screen prompt opened up “Welcome to the tutorial!” it said, before shifting to say the next part “as you have chosen UnderCoon cave as your starting point, but did not invest ant points into dark vision, please take this complementary , it’ll stay lit for twenty-four hours, it is highly recommended you find a light source before the spell goes out” The screen says as a ball of dim light starts to hover over my shoulder

“The New World wishes to forge a path of new play styles, as such, you will not be able to see your health or mana bars, instead, close your eyes and SENSE the mana within you” it says, with an image of a open and closed eye below the text.

“So I have to close my eyes?” I mutter as I follow the screens instructions, and as I try and imagine what mana would even feel like, I felt something warm within me, like a small flame in the center of my chest right above my heart, I can almost picture it in my head, is this what they meant by sixth sense? it’s not exactly touch, but not exactly sight... it’s different to say the least. It will be annoying having to close my eyes mid battle to see how much mana I have left, but It’s interesting nonetheless.

“good job!” said the screen as I opened my eyes again “Now this time when you close your eyes, imagine the word STATS and your status should appear in your mind’s eye.

The tutorial was long and honestly kinda boring as it mostly went over how to check everything from inventory to my stats to any other thing that would be in my menu or HUD normally, however the final step was something interesting.

“Now that you have the basics down, it’s time to learn to fight! As you have the trait , you’re main source of power will come from others, enemies are up ahead, cast your spell on them and win your first fight!” said the screen as I heard noises coming from the around the bend of the cave

“Finally! something fun!” I quietly muttered to myself as I peak around the corner to see a short skeleton, it’s clearly not a human as it’s back is hunched way past human capabilities, my instincts tell me goblin but I don’t want to assume, also, the bones look like they are about to break any moment now “okay... now how do I cast magic? wait I just went through an entire hour long tutorial and it didn’t even teach me how to cast my single spell?” closing my eyes and imagining the word “Spells”, a list appeared with a single spell on it, and as I put my focus on it, new information appeared.

“ohh, so I have to say the spell name out loud, then designate who I want to control by focusing on them? if that’s how it has to be, hopefully I can learn something like “silent casting” later on.” I mutter to myself, as I realize the skeleton saw me and is running to me with rusty spear in hand. how did it see me? oh, I’m realizing now that with this , I’ll be unable to do any stealth... “!” I shout as light blue chains appear around the skeleton, before it stops in it’s track and stands still

“Congratulations! you’ve completed the tutorial! now go have fun!” the final screen said before closing. It’s strangely silent, most games have music playing, or at least ambiance, but I can’t hear anything at all unless i strain my ears, and even then I barely hear water dripping. I just noticed but I can sense a wavering connection to this skeleton, like it’s still under my control but my power is slowly slipping unless I keep full concentration on it. This sixth sense thing is gonna take some getting used to, but for now lets just keep walking forward, because unless I want to live in this cave forever, I need to get moving.

and with each step, the skeleton rattled in front of me, I’m mentally commanding it to stay a little ahead in case of ambush, but with how loud it is, I can’t even hear anything except maybe the sound of water ahead. Oh right! this game has a hunger and thirst meter, I should probably find that water and make a mini base, if I‘m lucky I might even get some fish!