Author note: going to use WOA instead of War of Ages…. Chapter 1 and 2..maybe 3 will come out today ..i have a lot of inspiration….I’m going to make myself some fluffy pancakes and write some more.
This second part of the prologue is mostly about David in real life which is needed for o more in-depth story further on. Later I will reduce the content about real life to 20-30%, and included in story only when necessary and focus on the VR story line.
---------------------------------------
Outside, in the rain people are forming a waiting line in front of a medium sized building. This is just one of the hundreds selling centers of Beyond Systems throughout South Korea. There is still 1 month before the official release of the game WOA, which is marked by opening up the servers to the public.
Since today is raining ' although the game is very popular and has a good price ' the line is made mostly o teen boys, otakus or hardcore gamers. Inside this line is David. David really stands out because he is a mixed blood handsome guy….1.85(m) a bit of long black hair, dressed with a black leather jacket , giving a bit off a rock , biker gang type of vibe. He is really good looking, at first glance you would think he is an idol or he should be one, but today thanks to his jackets hoodie, he gives a less handsome vibe. So you’re wondering why all people eyes are pinned on him…well ,handsome people are nor rare on the streets, you could see them all days and most of the times u never give a second glance, but today is different ..why?...because he is sitting in the rain ( night a light rain but not a pouring rain either) surrounded by otakus and hard core gamers. If you could imagine an otaku or hardcore gamer portrait he’s 200% opposite of it.
What makes things worse, is that he also gives a bit of rich vibe the way he’s dressed , and with his smiling face , people think he has a screw loose….to sit in the rain when he could come another day or pay the fee for home delivery.
Contrary to this…. David...although it doesn’t seem so…. Is a hard core gamer. David didn’t have a rosy life as his looks suggest…he really had a hard life and no friends so games were the only way to have some type of social contact or some friends here and there.
David was abandoned when he was born… and he is also mixed blood. All his parents gave him was his name after they left him at the orphanage. Today the rate of child abandonment is near 1% for every child born due to assisted help care from the government, free schooling and tons of free benefits; the financial burden on parents is non-existent, so parents abandon their children if they are unwanted, lack of love instead of money problems….Yes David is one of those children. And him being mixed blood made it impossible for some couples to adopt him and have a chance at a normal family
When he was 12 years old, he secretly entered the orphanage director’s office and found the address of his mom who abandoned him. Being pretty smart he memorized the contacts info and after several days he ran off to find his mother.
He found her alright, a rich madam near a famous man he saw on tv long ago with a 10 year old kid beside her. He wasn’t stupid...so after he stood there long before his mother left for 15-20 min in shock, he snapped out from it and then it clicked in his mind why he was abandoned. He ran various scenarios in his mind but after 10 min or so he gave up and went back to the orphanage.
The orphanage was in an uproar because he was missing for several days… so when he came back he was severely punished.
Maybe life decided to throw him piece of luck after all the bad one he has had , because the next day one of the orphanages benefactors came to visit. He heard the story from the orphanage’s director and decided to take him in his care. His name was Lee Woo
He was a 60 year old man, perfect body build, firm black eyes, that would look at you like a wolf watches its prey. David first reaction was to scream, thinking he is sold to some yakuza or mafia man as his punishment….but later he found out he is a dojo instructor 600 km from the city in a village near a mountain.
When Lee Woo heard David’s story, he wondered about the kid.. but when he saw his eyes…he knew he was special, fierce. After David found out about he’s mom , his eyes were sad , but not dead, he had eyes that conquered the past and were looking to the future, brimming with determination.
Lee Woo wanted a successor for his dojo so he thought this kid can be the one ..but man was he wrong….He discovered Lee didn’t like the sword or any martial arts at all , he ran from lessons giving him lost of headaches.
David didn’t like sword fighting and martial arts, but instead he liked crafting and arts, calligraphy… and his most beloved passion…blacksmithing…..yes. The village he lived in was a old traditional one filled with old geezers (100 old and so on).
He found a old blacksmith geezer in the village, named Park Dong, that was forging all types of swords from katanas to long swords. Finally David found something he likes to do.
Every day he ran from home to somewhere in the village, but one day Lee Woo followed him back to the blacksmith geezer , who coincidentally was his father’s friend. He watched through a window and saw the fire and happiness in David’s eyes while trying blacksmithing…. So he gave up the idea to forcibly teach him the sword and other martial arts unless he wanted to be taught…but nonetheless Lee Woo made him run everyday with his students ( which were mostly 30 or older) up and down the mountain.
Why did Lee Woo have students in this backwater village?...well when he was young he was a double gold Olympics medalist in 2 types of martial arts and now occasionally he trains the special South Korea military in martial arts. Yea…. He doesn’t look like it, but he is pretty famous in certain circles and respected and feared also….like he can kill you with a finger…yea and also he is a bit rich…above average rich…. But most of money he donates to orphanages and stuff.
Although life in village was heaven for David, the time he spent in school was the opposite. He went to school 200km everyday with a fast speed train, that usually made 1 h travel time. At school he being one of the most handsome boys in school he was approached by girls everyday, was getting jealousy stares form the boys, some discriminatory ones because he was an orphan, or a village boy or a mixed blood.
To make things worse he didn’t like girls that came on him…not that he didn’t like girls...he had some lust in him ...but he thought they resembled his mom…like in the future they will be some type of vane women…. So he tried to distance himself from them. This added fuel to the fire and he was socially out casted. He wasn’t bullied , he himself had a good body build from all the mandatory running up and down the mountain he had to do, and with the dojo rumors behind him, nobody dared to bully him.. But nonetheless he didn’t have a single friend. So whenever he had free time , he wood carved , he spent time in the forge at the village blacksmithing, or played online games.
And thus he spent most of his childhood playing online games making him a hardcore gamer. Also the only “friends “ he had were in game friends.
Back to present
19 year old David who was standing in line was fidgeting …. Unable to stay still...why? because today he is very happy for 2 reasons….he has enough money to buy a 40.000 euros VR capsule and also some left for a 1 year subscription…. How does a 19 year old have so much money…well ,with no friends and more time on his hands, he made a lot of wood carvings and handicrafts and sold them so…over the years he had enough money( handicrafts being very expensive in this day and age).
And the second reason is he is going to meet some online friends he made in his last mmorpg he played.
The very first time he is doing such a thing…so he is both happy and nervous today.
After 2 hours he managed to get inside in the building in the waiting line. After a few more hours passed it was finally his turn.
Seller: “ what type of VR system would you like to buy?... we have helmets here on the left and….”
David: “ I want a type 1 capsule!”
Seller:”..a..uh..aa”
David:” also 1 year subscription!”
Seller: “ haaa?...a…Sorry, excuse me ! right this way please!”
The seller flustered showed him the way to another part of the shop while another took over the counter so the line can go again.
The seller was a man and he didn’t expect a young boy to have so much money to buy a Type 1 capsule
( although there are more expensive capsules, like type 1 ; it being the lowest one from the product line; like type 2,3,4,and 5 and also type deluxe, both type 1 and the rest above offer body massage and body control conditions that reduce fatigue and decrease health problems from long gaming hours)
Capsules were mostly sold to dark gamers who wanted to make a living from the game or rich people who could afford it, and needless to say , David didn't fit that image.
Different from helmets which were adjustable , it was recommended to try the capsule to be sure it fits your body size before ordering it and it is delivered to you.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
David just took a train for 3 h to get into the city , 600km away from his village to order the capsule. After he gave his bank account id and the sum of 54400 euros was deducted from it , he signed the papers and left the shop.
He still had a little over 5000 euros left inside his bank account , but he wasn’t sad, but happy.
As he left the shop lots of people that were waiting in line where whispering , or cursing him, also making remarks like “ bastard!”.
But David didn’t notice them . why you ask? Well first of all David had a type of behavior that could be considered a weakness or a strength depending on what he is doing. David was pretty smart… almost genius like so he didn’t have to spend time on homework or learning leaving him more free time. Also to constant ears of social loneliness he could read people eyes that are on him , telling him if they hate him or not. But today he was to focused on something to notice the eyes that were staring at him.
He obtained this focus from blacksmithing where he focused out anything unnecessary and only kept the senses needed for blacksmithing.
So today he was looking forward to meeting his new friends from the last mmorpg he played in real life.
The last game he played was named Kingdoms , set in a fantasy world with wars , quest , crafting and so on. He was a Dwarf in this and managed to reach a high level of skill in terms of crafting and ultimately made also some real money by selling in game items.
So he met some professional dark gamers that became his friends in game and suggested him the idea to become a dark gamer to make money.
So David thought why not. His dream was go to college to study ancient manufacturing and arts, which was in Seoul and was pretty expensive, (colleges like Oxford of Stanford were having prices like 3.000.000 to 4.000.000 mil euros per year for student; yes education at a good college or university was damn expensive) at 150.000 euros / year of study in a 3 year education plan.
When he heard of WOA , he thought he could craft anything he wanted in there sell them for gold or real cash and make enough money to afford college.
So when he made friends online that advised him to do what to be more successful he was happy. So imagine now when he is meeting them in real life.
He received a text message, with an address. He followed it and after 1 h he reached a fancy pool club.
He walked in slowly and very curious, like a newborn cat that is exploring a garden ( ) and saw some people in the corner. Because David and his friends described themselves , he knew after a few seconds that they were the people he met online. They also recognized him and waved him to come towards them. There were 2 boys and 1 girl , all in their 20’s.
David seeing them , sighed of relief, because they were clause to his age , and hopefulyy could become good friends.
There was Alex, a good looking guy ,rich guy vibe and dressed with designer clothes. He was the son of a very rich man, an American Korean, and him being a dark gamer was more for fun to see how much money he could make. In all games he played he was in the top ranks , sometimes 1st sometimes 5th or a lower position, but always in top 50 in any game he played. So he had a bit of king of the hill , or narcissistic tendencies.
Yoona was…well…..hot!....Perfect makeup , perfect clothes, very beautiful, idol quality .Why was she into mmorpgs? First it was to follow Alex around…why.. cause he was rich!.... 100% she was a money digger. But Yoona`s parents were also rich…or to say wealthy…..but even though, Alex was a perfect man to hold on to. But she started to like playing games… you could say she was a diamond in the rough. Unexpectedly she started to get the hang of things in game and with Alex help in items and equipment she always had one of the best pvp scores in games. Yea…she hated quests , monster grinding and so on…but loved items and pvp.
The third guy gave a sort of dark aura vibe. His name was Kim Jung. He didn’t appear very rich, his clothes were casual, but unknown to David, he was filthy rich. He was placed second in income revenue from selling gold and items from games for real cash. He had his own money , selling network and so on , he also wrote reviews for games , for which he was paid a ton of money. His in game name was always Houdini , and if it was unavailable , the game creators would immediately make it available….by making the original Houdini into Houdini1000 or Houdini_man. There were a lot of complaints from players …so after new game releases ,game creators always reserved the name Houdini for Kim Jung. If anyone else tried to create a character named Houdini it would always tell him name unavailable or reserved. People always tried to go and pk him , but they couldn’t, one because he was rarely seen, and second because of his authority in games.
He could call guilds for free to attack a region or a player and if he wanted he could make your gaming experience a nightmare. But people let him alone after a while noticing he isn’t interested in ranks and pvp…. Only in gold and items. They all thought better not wake the sleeping lion.
After they introduced to each other, they started to talk about their life, how they met, if they will play WOA, if they want meet in game.
The chemistry between them was like Yoona was looking at David like a boy toy with perverted eyes, Alex was jealous , and Kim Jung didn’t care at all
After David told his story, how he is an orphan , where he lives, Yoona eyes loosed their shimmer towards him. Seeing this Alex started to smile and patted David’s back,
Alex: “ No problem man…we are your friends.”
David: “uhm…yea thanks…haha”
Alex: “Don’t be shy man.…come lets drink!”
David: “ uhm..”
Alex: “ha hah haa “
David felt like almost crying , but he held it in him.. cause it would be embarrassing. He knew this people had their own personalities…maybe they don’t go well together with his, but still he was happy.
They still met the next 3 weekends in the city and had some night fun. Yoona was stealing some glances from time to time at David which seemed to piss off Alex; him being richer than David, and also a bit handsome, he felt superior to the poor orphan David;.
But Alex calmed down when he saw David wasn’t interested in Yoona, David being afraid of a relationship with a materialistic woman.
Even though he didn’t like Yoona as a woman , he liked her as a friend , which unknown to David it only pissed her more.
They talked over the weekends what jobs to take or what race and type of class, how David wants to have a craft class and be a dark gamer , to which Kim Jung started to laugh when he heard how much he earned from selling items for cash( what David sold was pocket change for Kim Jung), but nevertheless , he encouraged David on the path of a Dark Gamer.
Every time David went back to the village, and back into his room , he remembered the good times he had when he played games with Alex, Yoona and Kim , or the weekend outs, and the he would cry of happiness , because finally after 19 years of life , he finally had people who can say they are his friends.
So the days went buy...and the date of delivery for David’s capsule was approaching….
Today ,2 days before the servers went online, David receives a phone call from the shop where he bought the capsule.
“Hello? Mrs. David?”
“yes?”
“ we are calling from Beyond Sytems South Korea regarding your capsule delivery date”
“Yes ….uhm what about it..?”
“Well…we are sorry to inform you that there has been a mix up in our delivery sytem and your capsule will be 15 days late”
“ Ha..what…how…?”
“…….”
“its not fair…”
“ We are sorry sir… but as an apology your capsule has been upgraded to type 2 and you will receive another year free subscription...”
“…….”
“ Mrs. David are you still there?”
“…ah yes…uhm…thank you”
“No sir, we should thank you for your understanding and we hope you have an enjoyable experience playing WOA”
“yea.. no problem thank you very much”
“ God bye Mrs. David!”
“ Good bye!”
As soon as the call ended, after several seconds of silence David jumped up in joy.
He really didn’t mind being 15 days late in starting the game considering he just got an apology worth over 30.000 euros. Type 2 capsule was 50% more expensive than the Type 1 , and 1 year subscription free of charge was worth 14400 euros, so of course he was happy.
He immediately called Alex , Yoona and Kim, and told them what happened and they agreed they will meet later on.
Thanking his good fortune for his new path of dark gamer he decided to study more about fantasy games, such as hidden quest, or classes and so on.
After 2 days the servers went online, and the world was stirred up by Mark Stent’s video message, but in David’s small peaceful village he had still 13 more days of calm before the moment that will change him and his life completely.
------
If you have any critics or tips on how to improve the story telling to make it more captivating ..very much appreciated.