“Tomorrow, Saturday November 17th 3040, will mark the 1000th anniversary of the release of the first ever VRMMORPG, Immersia Dawn. As we all know, in order to celebrate this joyous occasion, MENS will release a brand new VRMMORPG called Infinite Odyssey. With its immersive world, Infi-”

“BEEP”

Yunya turned off the news broadcast, probably knowing more about it than the news anchor. He had long since ordered a gaming cabin for Infinite Odyssey and looked up plenty of info. He’d even taken today off of work, just so he could take his sweet time installing the gaming cabin and set up his account, just to be able to play all weekend once the clock struck midnight. However, he’d have to go back on Monday.

“Thank god I have plenty of days off remaining I need to use before the end of the year. Might take a few more Mondays or Fridays off, just to have an extra long weekend. Although unlike Brian, I won’t overdo it.”

Brian was his direct colleague and was one of the people in the company who had taken off next week as well, just to play the game 24/7.

Finishing breakfast, he started thoroughly cleaning his spare bedroom to make space for the cabin. And while he was at it, he’d clean his whole apartment as well. He knew that once he had access to the game, there wouldn't be much time left for things like cleaning. Nearing lunch, the doorbell suddenly rang.

“Morning guys. You can just place the cabin in the room on the left.” Previously, this was Yunya’s guest bedroom, but in the morning, he’d cleaned it and made space for the gaming cabin.

“Sure thing dude,” one of the delivery guys said. Turning towards his colleague, he continued what seemed like an earlier discussion, “Like I said, I just hope the game will live up to all the hype that’s been surrounding it.”

“Oh will you shut up already, you personified pessimism. Just look at the previous VRMMORPG that MENS has released, they’ve all been bangers.”

Shaking his head, the pessimist replied “I know, but none of those had been hyped up as much as Infinite Odyssey. You know that as well as I do.”

Looking around, he then addressed Yunya: “Hey man, got any outlets in here?”

“Oh, right behind the cabinet. You can also place the nutrient bottles there by the way.”

“Alright, we should be done in about 20 minutes.”

Suddenly realizing something, he looked at Yunya and sighed, “Ah, I wish I could’ve taken a day off today as well. By the time we’re done with delivering to our entire route, it’ll be evening already. When I get home, I’ll have to rush to install everything and set up my account before midnight.”

Yunya laughed, “Hey man, no one forced you to take this job. Besides, I’m sure MENS is giving you guys a nice bonus for today.”

For once, the pessimist grinned, “True that, this paycheck is going to be so sweet.” His colleague then continued their discussion.

“Man, I really hope there are some massive mage spells in there. Nothing beats blowing up countless mobs from afar.”

“If you have the ability to cast it at least. Remember that one time you bought that blizzard spell, yet didn’t have sufficient mana to even meet the requirements?”

“Hey, that was just bad game design. Who told them it was okay to sell stuff to someone that didn’t even meet the requirements! Besides, didn’t I just tell you to stop being so pessimistic all the time?”

The other delivery guy shrugged and started talking about what he wanted to do once he started playing. Eventually, Yunya left the room, since they didn’t need him anymore.

About half an hour later, Yunya entered the gaming cabin to set up his account. He’d only be able to play the game at midnight, but he could prepare himself already. After getting authenticated to make sure he didn't have any other accounts, he was brought to a white room, where a vague human silhouette could be seen.

“Welcome,” they said, “to Infinite Odyssey!” The pride in its voice was almost tangible. This was MENS, the world's AI. And clearly very proud of its latest creation.

“Hello to you too, MENS.”

“Thank you. Now, would you want to get the full explanation of everything or do you already know what to expect?”

“I’m aware of a few things like the distinction between archetypes, classes, professions, but I’d like for you to explain anyway.”

Nodding, MENS began explaining, “Sure. There are 5 different archetypes, those being warrior, archer, rogue, magee and healer. I assume you know what those five words mean?”

“Close combat, ranged combat, sneaky combat with crits, magic combat, healer is healing or other support.”

At Yunya’s confirmation, MENS continued, “An archetype is overarching, with many different combat classes for each, or class for short. As the most traditional example, the warrior archetype has a class for big, two handed weapons, a class meant for a defensive playstyle, a class that has complimentary magic and so much more. In total, there are 29 different classes across all 5 archetypes. What those classes are exactly, that’s for you to discover once you’re playing.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“The archetypes each have their own organization where you can find the corresponding npcs. In the starter village, it’s called an outpost, in the big cities a guild, while the capital has the headquarters.”

Frowning, Yunya asked, “What are those? The starter village, big city and capital?”

“Everyone starts in a small starter village. When hitting a certain levelcap, you will be allowed to enter the 8 big cities. At an even higher level cap, the capital. Of course, this is considering your country. Other countries will have different big cities or capital. Eventually, you will be able to go there as well, but I wouldn't worry about that for now.”

“As for professions, you could consider those as the non-combat variant of the classes. Traditional examples include things like blacksmith, miner or alchemist. Each of these professions will also have a main attribute it boosts. The blacksmith for example will boost your strength. Thus, a mage is unlikely to choose to be a blacksmith, but a warrior might.”

“Finally, your race. This is the only thing you will be able to choose now, everything else will be unlocked as you play.”

“Wait, not even the archetype?”

“Yes, even the archetype you will only be able to choose once you hit level 5. Your class is only available in the big cities, which you need to be level 15 to enter. The same goes for your profession.”

“Now, back to the race. Each race has its own benefits, which will boost a certain attribute. Respectively, dwarf, giant, dark elf, tiefling or halfling will boost vitality, strength, dexterity, charisma or luck. High elf will boost mind, but specifically your mana regeneration. Djinn will instead boost your total mana pool. For the endurance attribute, the same principle goes with orc or ogre, faster stamina regeneration or bigger stamina pool. Lastly, there is the human race. Jack of all trades, master of none, it will boost every attribute a little bit.”

“One final mechanic you need to be aware of is fog-of-war, meaning your minimap is entirely covered in fog. There are 3 ways to get rid of the fog: you either personally explore the areas, hire a guide who already uncovered that area or acquire maps. Those maps are attainable via either npcs, quests or maybe even from other players, granted they have the correct profession.”

Taking a second to take all of this into account, Yunya ignored picking a race for now and started on his actual character creation. It was based on his real life self, but Yunya changed his face slightly and made his hair wavy instead of straight like it was in real life. By doing so, people wouldn’t be able to recognize him in the real world. For his ign, Yunya used the same one he’d been using for a while now, Ashen Fall.

Now, Yunya had to pick his race. Like his favorite player Merlin, Yunya always picked something magic related, but seldom did he choose playing as an actual mage. Although this time around, with so many classes within the mage archetype, he might find a non-traditional class in the mage archetype that seemed interesting. Or be a magic swordsman or a magic archer. Endless options. He’d asked MENS before about all classes related to magic and while he didn’t get a real answer, MENS said that, including the mage archetype, there were about 10 different classes that had something to do with magic, even more if you included the healer archetype.

But none of that mattered right now, since Yunya was only able to pick his race. His other stats would depend on the class he’d pick, but since he didn't know what class he’d use, he only really had 2 options for his race. Well, 3 if you considered human, but Yunya didn't want to be a jack of all trades. So, down to high elf or djinn. Mana regen or mana pool. Bluntly put, it was the choice between lots of small spells or a few big spells. while you could consider quantity as a quality, Yunya still preferred the few big spells, so he picked djinn as his race.

Now, he had to readjust the way his character looked once again, since being a djinn had made some small adjustments, namely the skin having a tinge of blue to it and faintly shimmering hair. Yunya made his eyes stand out a little more, while also making them vibrant blue.

Once he was satisfied with how Ashen Fall looked, Yunya said he was done. MENS then gave a stern warning, “Be careful in picking any of these, since between race, class and profession, you only have the opportunity for a singular change. Even changing into a hidden class counts towards this one change. Meanwhile, how your account looks can never be changed.”

Taking a final look at Ashen Fall, Yunya said he was good, that MENS could confirm his character.

Having finished everything he could right now, Yunya left the gaming cabin. Eating a good old bowl of pasta for lunch, while looking around on the forums for Infinite Odyssey. Plenty of people were discussing it already, especially now that people already had access to the gaming cabin and the early info from MENS.

Someone had pointed out that being able to start the game without even having an archetype meant you could literally try out everything, from healing people to throwing fireballs to wielding a two handed greatsword. Only at level 5 did you get the opportunity to get your archetype, which would narrow down your available options. But between level 5 and 15 meant you had an archetype, but not a class. For some players, this would be pretty damn hard. Take Yunya for example. With his magic related djinn race, if he picked something other than the mage archetype, he could certainly make it work once he had the correct class, but as long as he didn't have the class, only the archetype, he’d struggle compared to others.

Another interesting post he found gave a clear overview of progression: you started with your race at level 0, at level 5 you could pick your archetype and then leave the starter village. At level 15, you could enter the big cities and go pick your class and profession. As for the capital, MENS had said that such distant things were of no importance right now. The same went for advancing your profession and class. It was possible, but only down the line, so don’t worry about it for now.

Stretching, Yunya stood up, did the dishes, went shopping to stock up on groceries and continued cleaning. Soon, he found something that made him reminisce about the past. A dusty and scratched badge with a white serpent on it. For a couple of years, Yunya was part of a guild called Leviathan. But after some bad experiences with their upper management, he’d left the guild. They hadn’t taken lightly to it though and had continued to ruin his experience in that game. Only after he left that particular VRMMORPG had they relented, but it had left a bad taste in his mouth. He’d thrown away the badge, hence the scratches on it. He didn’t even know he still had it.

If it taught Yunya anything, it was that he wouldn’t just join a guild on a whim anymore. Playing with just some close friends was a lot more fun than those big guilds. He’d played various games since then, but Infinite Odyssey would be the first real big multiplayer game after that mess with Leviathan.

While eating the leftover pasta for dinner, Yunya was thinking out loud.

“If I want to start the game at midnight like everyone else, I better go to bed early. Even though playing inside the gaming cabin counts as resting for your body, nothing beats actually sleeping.”

And thus, Yunya soon went to bed, to get a few hours of sleep. Which, as always, was brutally interrupted by his alarm.

“Quarter to midnight? God, I did not have enough sleep,” Yunya groaned. “Let’s hope that you really do get a good rest inside this cabin.”

With those words, Yunya went to brush his teeth and got inside the gaming cabin, to finally start playing Infinite Odyssey