At the door of his apartment lay a simple cardboard box, brought up here about an hour ago according to the apartment manager. Finally Danniel Miller would be able to enter the world of Eternium… after setting up the headset of course. Rushing into the small, one room apartment Danniel, Dan or Danny to his friends, sat down in his swivel chair in front of the computer and pulled out the headset. 

Appearing to be fully charged out of the box Dan pushed the headset right onto his head and immediately stumbled out of his chair and into the more open middle section of his room as the Headset had him do a few simple exercises to figure out his general height and weight. Once he sat back down, Eternium, already preloaded on the headset, started up.

It had been literal years since Dan had been this excited about a game. While in his teens, a decade and a half ago, he would always be playing some game or another. It really slowed down as he went into college. After that it became even more rare for him to play as he started a nine to five pushing pencils and filing papers, at what amounted to a factory for code. Spending all day looking at a computer he found the thought of going home, already mentally exhausted, and looking at the computer for even more hours to be an awful sounding chore. His job slowly began consuming more and more of his life and free time.

Though that all changed when he saw the trailer for Eternium, it did for a lot of people in fact. Many people like him had placed their orders on the all new headsets as soon as they could, though Dan managed to get ahead of the pack with his order so now he was only starting the game a week after launch rather than a month or even two afterwards. He had even managed to secure himself a week vacation after he finished this current monday through friday. Though he had time tonight to at least get started and create his character and do a few things in game before getting sleep for the start of his work week. Despite his best efforts he could find absolutely nothing on the game outside of a few basic Q&As as well as theories on the trailer. Finally words appeared in his vision as his apartment seemed to fade away, all his thoughts focused on the game. 

Do you want Power*? Yes/No

Well that was a silly question. Of course he wanted power. Who didn’t in a world like this? And when in a video game power generally equaled fun. So mentally selecting Yes Dan confirmed he did want power. No need to read the subtext info. He did enough reading this week.

Good choice. Now, do you know what is about to happen? Have you read the terms and conditions*?

Yup totally. Obviously he’s read the T&C like everyone else that has signed into the game. No need to go through all the legal text and mumbo jumbo. He knew a lot of Video Game Lawyers like to put jokes and stuff in the headers for sections but he didn’t really feel like browsing through the text for a few maybe funny jokes hidden within.

I see you’re bumrushing to get into the game, same as everyone else. It is a sunday so I imagine you have work so I won’t keep you for too long. But I will have you read through these few terms before starting. And don’t try to wiggle out of it. I’ll know if you read it.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Dan sighed, it was too much to hope for to get out scot free without having to read some pertinent sections. There was about a couple pages of text that turned out very interesting. He could apparently put in a certain amount of money right away and get gold automatically placed in his bank in game to start him off. He should check his bank account to see if there was anything he could spare to put in, without chipping too far into his savings. 

Taking off the headset Dan stood up and felt incredibly disorientated for a minute. Looking at the clock on his wall the second hand seemed to move in slow motion. Closing his eyes and shaking his head caused the feeling to pass. Though upon looking further at the clock Dan was sure he had been in the game for at least 20 minutes now but it was only a quarter past three that night instead of three twenty five. Strange, though he guessed he was bored of all the preamble before getting into the actual meat of the game. Booting up his computer he checked his bank account and saw he could spare about a hundred dollars to go into this, but instead of sitting down and getting back to it, he decided to grab a quick drink of water to help wake him up from whatever had caused him to zone out like that.

Finally sitting down Danny finished reading the T&C, interestingly they included sections about pain, though as far as he knew it was impossible to translate that through the headset. As well as a section binding him to all unread sections as well. He put in his bank info and his money before... finally! FINALLY! The sweet text popped up asking.

Are you prepared? Eternium is a land that rewards hardship with power, and gives the weak a chance to make something of themselves. Will you join? Yes/No

Clicking yes, Dan’s perspective seemed to completely shift, leaving him completely unsettled until finally he was standing on a small platform surrounded by empty space. 

Welcome to Eternium. There is no saved data for your profile. Would you like to make a new character? Yes/No

As Dan thought yes, he realized he could feel his body standing. It was an uncomfortable feeling as his body was actually sitting which he could also feel. Perhaps he should have read more info on the effects the game might have on his psyche… but before he could think about trying to go back and read further even more text popped up. 

Please enter your name.

Dan or Danny was almost certainly taken so instead he decided to go for his older gametag, Danny_The_Miller. Quick, easy to shorten, and simple. After typing it, yet another box showed up. Yeesh, hopefully this doesn't take too long. He did want to get into the game sometimes today.

You will only be able to have one saved character at a time on Eternium. Deleting your current character will delete all gold and items currently on your character unless stored in your bank beforehand. Would you like to begin the trials? If you choose no, you will be given a basic variety of classes to choose from. Doing well in the Trials will allow you to unlock many more powerful and interesting classes, however; doing poorly will subsequently lower the amount of classes you can pick from. Yes/No

So basically do well and thrive or do poorly and be stuck weak? Well the game did say that those who worked hard would be rewarded. Upon selecting yes, the world once again spun and he was in a cave. Trying to get his bearing he stumbled around the room. After about a minute, when his legs felt more under his control, at least his legs in game, not the ones he was using to sit down which was still a weird concept to Danny, a textbox appeared and simply stated.

RUN

He heard something crash down behind him and his legs started awkwardly moving. As he ran he looked over his shoulder and nearly crashed into a wall. A massive boulder was following him, Indiana Jones style down the cave and his legs came more and more under his control as adrenaline pumped through his veins, leaving his real body to feel less connected as he ran. There was no outrunning this boulder though, and he could feel it coming upon him. 

Dan however was not used to running from problems in games. He naturally shifted to the role of a tank in most games he played as he just had a special spark that caused everyone to focus on him first in fights. So instead of simply letting the boulder roll him over, he spun around and spread his legs out wide as he prepared to catch the boulder as he closed his eyes. With absolutely no resistance the boulder ran him down.