2.3

Climbing out of the capsule, Michael released a heavy breath. His laborious breath may make him appear exhausted but he wasn’t tired. He was just feeling a tad overwhelmed. Lying spread-eagled on the spare rooms bed. He pondered the many factors contributing to the games ridiculous awesomeness.

* The graphics are ridiculous. It seems so real!

* Mechanics, it feels like I was there.

What truly confused him was Aphrodite, was she an AI? An incredibly well coded SI? Perhaps it was just an actress payed to play the role. The third option just seemed unfeasible though. There were far too many people constantly creating characters. No way they would have enough people to cover every single instance. Man, she was gorgeous though. He lay there for what seemed like hours. Although, it was more like 10 minutes. He was constantly going back over and analyzing every single moment. Damn I never got to check my appearance. What was it the developer said? Getting up he walked towards his laptop.

“Jenkins, what time is it?”, he asked.

“It is 12:47pm” was the reply.

Michael halted mid-step. “Man that seems weird. Although, all the novels all have the time dilation but it just didn’t seem possible. I wonder how they did it…” He continued walking to the laptop. Keen to check the website.   

There weren’t any updates on the main page of the website. It was only when he had the site open that he realized there were unlikely to be any, the character creation had practically just started after all. Perhaps there would be another interview tonight. Clicking on the video he remembered the developer discussing character creation in he skipped to the end.

“The player will look like the best version of themselves.”

“What do you me---” he halted the video.

Interesting, I never truly noticed a difference. Although, there wasn’t a mirror or anything. My body seemed the same. I didn’t suddenly gain six pack abs like I had spent years working out at the gym. Perhaps he got an awesome hairstyle????

He clicked onto the forums tab. Automatically he noticed there was a new discussion thread labeled ‘Character Creation Discussion’.

Okay there are only about 100 posts to look through… Scrawling through it only took about 15 posts before he lost interest and the information seemed to repeat itself. When he was finally done, he rehashed the information in his mind. Most players said that they lost weight and gained height. Nobody knew how their face looked because there were no mirrors but most noticed that they got a haircut. Most were now thinking of getting said haircut in real-life. (cos it looks ‘Dope) Everyone was confused about Aphrodite. Between those she talked to. (It seemed she never spoke to everyone) There were arguments over whether she was an AI or just cleverly coded. Of course, a few people suggest actresses but it was quickly shot down. Seems interesting. Of course, nobody had more information on the starting races or the starting locations so Michael soon lost interest. Leaning back on his chair Michael thought about ways he could pass the time…

19:30 (ish)

“Jenkins”

“Yes, sir.”

“Order designation number 7 at Vesuvius Restaurant.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Right away, sir”

Michael waited for confirmation, a few moments later…

“You have received an email from ‘Vesuvius.com’”

“Thank you, Jenkins” Michael smiled.

Sitting casually on sofa in the lounge. Michael had a thought. Pulling out his phone he searched through his contacts until he found Arthur Henderson. It took a few moments as he didn’t know Arthurs surname… Well now he does.

Text message: “Arthur, would it be possible for one of fathers practice swords be sent over to my apartment? Would appreciate it. Thanks”

Reply: “Immediately, sir. I must inform you that optimal training parameters includes space which your apartment does not provide. Please be careful. I would hate for you to damage the furniture.”

Michael snorted. Smarty-pants. Doesn’t mention anything about hating the fact I might hurt myself.

It didn’t take long for the pizza to arrive and with it he decided to check on the ‘Gods Online’ website. Perhaps an interview had been released.  When he refreshed the webpage he was pleasantly surprised to be right. Sitting back, taking a large bite out of a slice of pizza. He pressed play.

It was the same developer as last time. (The ridiculously pretty one.)

“So what questions do you have for me today”, she asked.

Interviewer, “Well what information are you willing to part with.”

“While I am unwilling to discuss the game system, how it was created and the names of the people behind it. I am also unwilling to provide information on the game that hasn’t been released yet. I am however prepared to discuss character creation.”

“Okay the first thing I want to say is that I was incredibly impressed with the graphics. I can’t wait for the games release on Friday. What I want to ask is, why did you release the different social classes as a factor? Isn’t it limiting to those who never get the opportunity to choose.”

She smiled gently, “It’s a matter of variables, while the lack of choice is unfair to those who never got to choose. The fact is we wanted to create variety. There isn’t any advantage. If anything, there are arguments that say that ‘Commoner’ is the easiest play style. The noble and merchant options create responsibility. A merchant has to look after a business. A noble must do what’s best for their house. In comparison, a commoner simply does what is best for himself.”

(Michael took another large bite of pizza)

The interviewer seemed to struggle to hold himself back. Wanting to ask more questions but knowing that they wouldn’t be answered.

“Sounds interesting, I’m curious to see how that plays out. Last time we talked you mentioned that the player will look like the best version of themselves. Are you willing to go into more detail?”

“Oh, that’s simple.”, she smiled. “The player is automatically made healthier. They lose weight, their skin is cleaner and smoother. In some cases, they can gain a few inches in height. They usually get their hair cut and styled. There are also some other changes like teeth being straightened and nails being trimmed. For some people the changes are big, for others it’s hard to notice the difference. Anything else?”

“That’s incredibly cool, I was wondering if you have any data from the character creation. Do you know how many spawned at each location?”

“I do. I even memorized it just in case you asked”, she smirked. “Firstly, all the noble slots were taken. 153,253 out of 1,000,000 merchant slots were taken. And everyone else chose commoner. Location-wise. 136,271 chose Imperial. 148,204 chose Kingdom. 110,091 chose Barbarian. Therefore, 105,434 chose Nomad.” (Michael was impressed that she remembered all that. Wouldn’t it have been easier just to write it all down.)

“Does that mean that all 500,000 of the pre-order capsules were delivered today? And that they all logged in?”

“Honestly we were just as surprised as you. If you think about the fact for this to be possible some of the players chose to have the capsules delivered in the middle of the night just so they could create their character at the same time as the people here. And yes, roughly everyone had logged in within an hour of receiving their capsule.”

“That’s pretty amazing. It seems ‘Gods Online’ is going to have quite a dedicated player base.”

The developer stood up. It seems she was going to cut another interview short. Michael groaned in frustration. He wanted to scream, “Tell us what you know” but fortunately he didn’t. It would have been embarrassing.

She shook hands with the interviewer and walked off screen. Giving one last dazzling smile to the audience.