-Connect to Royal Road?-
-Yes || No-
"Yes..." I sighed.
'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea,' I thought. 'It might not have been worth the cost.' My parents had gotten him the capsule and a year's subscription just so that they could get their "freak" out of their face. Despite their attitude towards me, I still felt guilty. After all, $13,600 was no small amount of money, even if my parents considered it chump money.
-The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?-
It had been too great of a temptation, especially after what had happened during the past week. My former friends had called me several times asking what had happened. Each voicemail became more and more scathing as they grew sure that they were right. Even my best friend Alex joined in, though it had been his life that I had saved. The threats grew and someone even threatened to call the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Like my powers were a condition that could be cured. My parents took measures to assure everyone that their son was healthy and perfectly normal only when the media got involved. Thankfully though, the street camera that had recorded the whole thing was at an angle in which it was impossible to tell whether or not I had managed to grab Alex or not. Ultimately, I ended ended up locked up in the house for the entire summer in hopes everyone would forget. In the words of my mother, "You must live up to your duty and make sure that you do not dishonor nor compromise the family business." My father never even bothered to speak to me.
During that week, something in me snapped. Would it not be better to just leave this world altogether? There was nothing left here for me, and nothing of mefor the world. I had nothing. I was a freak.
'No, its not me. It was never me. Its everyone else.'
'Why live in this world,' I contemplated, 'when technology can provide an entire other world for me?' It would be a new world, a second life. Everyone who started there would be equal, and no one would be different. I would be alone. Best of all, there would be no one, no one at all, who would know him. After all, the chances that I would bump into someone I knew, out of the hundred million of players that had already signed up for the game within the first two weeks of its release, were slim to none.
My eyes opened the moment I felt the connection, but nothing changed. It was still pitch black - far less lit than it would have been under a moonless, starless sky. I turned my head seeking out the light, but it was dark all around. It was as if a black hole had swallowed him whole. My eyelids fluttered as I blinked several times to make sure that I was actually awake; I pinched myself for good measure.
'Is this what hell is like?' I thought. "Maybe something went wrong in the connection and I died."
It was eerily silent, with not a breeze, a chirp, nor even the constant hum of electricity. More than the darkness, was the sound of silence. It was, oddly enough, calming.
-Select the name of your avatar-
A feminine voice breached the silence, and my face glowed when I realized that this was the activation process.
"Trystero." An obscure reference to a centuries old post-modern novel. The name had always stuck with me.
-Select your gender from Male, Female, or Neutral-
'Neutral?' A small chuckle escaped at the thought. 'As intriguing as it sounds, I came here to be me. But would neutral have none, or both?'
"Male."
-Royal Road has 49 different races. You may choose from the 29 primary races available.-
"Can you list the primary races?" I asked. I had played several MMORPGs before, but was not sure if the races remained roughly the same; There wasn't any chance to do research about the game with all that had happened.
-The primary races include: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf, Barbarian,-
"Elf."
'I never really felt I fit in with humans after all,' I mused.
-You may adjust the appearance of your avatar in anyway you like.-
"Make my eyes glow red during battle." I had been an avid fan of animes up until three years ago, when I came into my powers. Then, many of the series aired hit a bit too close to home. Before then though, it was fascinating when the hero's eyes changed during the heat of battle, giving him some sort of power-up.
-This is an unusual request. Let me talk to the system administrators-
-Your request will be approved, but you may not make any other changes to your appearance. Is this fine?-
"Yes." It was fine. There was no point in changing how I looked. I didn't want to play in someone else's body. I wanted what I did to be my own.
-Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Select a city and kingdom to start out in.-
"Citadel of Serabourg, Rosenhiem Kingdom." It was the place the couple had been talking about.
-Welcome to Royal Road-
"Well, here we go."
-Royal Road is the first VRMMORPG featuring several- -
'Oh god, not a tutorial.' At the time, I was quite ignorant of the fact that it was possible to skip Royal Road's tutorial...
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There was a bright flash of white. My eyes opened to a bustling city. The world around me was so realistic that I could only stop and stare. Finally, I had arrived. I actually sat through the whole thing, surprising even the AI who confided that I was only the 58th to do so. Not surprising when one finds out that while the tutorial only briefly covered each topic, it covered everything beginners needed to know and was five hours long. Most players researched the game ahead of time.
"Amazing," I breathed. Whatever it was that I had expected, it definetly was not this. The sounds, the sight, and even the smells were beyond realistic. My nose cringed at a pile of dog shit on the sidewalk.
'I suppose realism isn't always a good thing huh.'
Even with the game only open for two weeks, the demand for it was incessant. There were already more people in the city than in my town. Truth be told, it was much more diverse as well, by Royal Road's standards. Across the street, there were several tell-tale pointed ears that defined elves, the oddly graceful humans that he presumed to be the half-elves, and even three hulking giants about seven feet tall that could only be a party of barbarians.
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My hands flexed several times and I was glad to see them curl and unfurl as they did in real life.
'Amazing. When they said 99% realism, they meant it.' Royal Road did not skimp out on details. A scar I had gotten from a failed dismount during a tumbling routine at an inter-high competition could be seen clearly on the palm of my hands. I tried doing several jumping jacks and was satisfied feeling the thump of the earth beneath his feet. I decided to do a few more. After about three hundred of them however,my lungs were wheezing so hard that I collapsed on the ground. I was barely able to drag myself upright into sitting position. A white flashing bar in the upper left-hand of his vision caught my attention. It had been a full yellow earlier and was the only thing that I could see had changed.
"I guess," I wheezed to myself, "that it makes sense for my stamina to be realistic as well." I slowly crawled up to my knees in a slow battle of mind over matter.
"Hey, watch it punk! Get out of the way ya noob!"
A giant, while smaller than the barbarians, hulk of a man, ran past, well more through me. He flung me close to eight feet into the air, and I plummeted towards the ground. Bystanders winced, expecting my inevitable date with the concrete floor. Luckily, my gymnastic reflexes kicked in quickly and I was able to throw out my arms and legs to stabilize, before curling into a ball and rolling on the ground to soften my fall.
'Thank god they brought everything over,' I thought after the rolling finally stopped.
-System notice: You have taken 65 damage [-65 hp] -
"Whaaaaaat?!" I shouted in panic.
The man had done a ridiculous amount of damage even if he was probably about fifty levels higher.
"View Character Stats." I had overheard another player saying this and assumed that he wasn't just babbling nonsense.
Status WindowNameTrysteroPrimary ClassN/AHealth15/80Mana110/110Level1Health Regen/Sec.2Mana Regen/Sec.4Strength8Agility12Wisdom11Intelligence11Stamina10/10Luck0Attack3Defense0AlignmentNeutralMagic ResistanceFire0%Water0%Earth0%Air0%Black Magic0%
A groan escaped my lips. The first thing I saw upon opening the Stats window were my hit points.
"Down to less than 20% of my maximum hp within the first ten minutes of the game." Shock quickly gave way to fury as I realized how close I would have been to dying had I been without prior training.
"I refuse to fuck'n die in this world within the first hour!" The thought that I might have been forced out of this world for twenty four whole hours, as was the death penalty in-game, fueled my rage and veins began to appear in his outstretched arm. I spotted the man almost a block away and clenched his hand furiously. It hit me that what I was about to do something really stupid, but it was too late. The man's foot lagged slightly from the resulting force of the pull and he tripped. The man got up and glared around, trying to silence the laughing pedestrians.
'Ten minutes into the game, and its over.' I couldn't believe that I did it again, twice in the same day. This time it was not even for saving someone's life, or even anything as important as helping someone; I had lost control in a fit of rage for revenge.
"Nice one there mate." A guy who had seen the whole thing clapped my back before walking away. I was in a state of disbelief.
'What just happened,' I thought dumbfounded. 'Unless... unless....' My face mirrored my dawning comprehension as I stared around at the city.
'This world is a game. Of course they would assume it was some in-game skill I had picked up somewhere. The only things indicating that I'm a beginner are my clothes, and whose to say I'm not some stingy high-level player or in disguise.' An transparent screen popped up in front of him.
New Skill: The Force [Beginner Level 1 - 00.00%]
A mysterious force shrouds your presence. As you become more in tune with it, you will be able to direct it to some degree. You can direct a limited amount of matter. Increases with level.
Mana consumption: 10 mp/sec
Increases Agility (+10% AGI)
Increases Strength (+10% STR)
Increases Attack (+5% ATK)
Increases Defence (+5% DEF)
'A whole new world, where I can just be.... me.' My laughter drew the attention of everyone around me, but I just didn't care.
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Dialog is denoted by double quotes " "
Thoughts by a character are denoted by single quotes ' '