Chapter 02: Welcome to Oban
The second floor of The Café was full of capsules used to enter Oban, because the technology was still very new, the Oban capsules where still bulky and very expensive.
Nevertheless, the success Oban was indisputable and it has taken over the world like a storm, but the capsules where still too expensive for individuals alone, even then, more and more people wanted to play the game every day, creating a new boom of Cafes that brought the capsules and start renting them, and unlike the rest of stores, The Café never closed, these capsules were working 24/7 with little staff support, and the list of reservation for using one of those capsules was full for months to no end.
As soon as Cyan and Cynthia entered the floor a male worker has spotted them, and went next to them.
[Male Worker]: “I am sorry sir but we are already full capacity today, if you want to can check out reservation waiting list”
[Cyan]: “It’s ok, I have a reservation for capsules 09 and 10, from 7:10pm to 9:10pm”
[Male Worker]: “Can I have your reservation ticket”
[Cyan]: “Yes, here you go”
The Café worker scanned the ticket and saw everything was alright, so it gave the two security cards to Cyan.
[Male Worker]: “There are still a few minutes before you appointment time, while you wait, Is this your first time entering Oban Sir? Can I interest you in a setup guide for beginners?”
It has only being 5 years since Oban was release to the world, but a lot of people still didn’t knew how to setup their accounts or how even play the game, and new players would join every day, the Café also made money of this too, it was very usual to be offered those services every time Cyan entered the Café, from beginner to expert level guides.
[Cyan]: “Thank you, but I don’t need any of that”
Cyan waited a few minutes while he gave some game instructions to his little sister, when the reservation time arrived Cyan moved together with Cynthia to where the capsules 09 and 10 where, and after putting the settings for Cynthia, and help her to enter the capsule while giving her some final instructions.
[Cyan]: “I already setup your account, remember nothing can hurt you inside the game, so you don’t need to be afraid, after you log in you need to wait for me, so don’t go running around ok”
[Cynthia]: “I understand big brother”
[Cyan]: “You still remember the name of the starting town I told you before?”
[Cynthia]: “Yes I do”
[Cyan]: “Alright here you go then”
Cyan closed the capsule as everything went dark inside.
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Cynthia was getting a little uneasy and afraid of the dark at first but soon, a bright light appeared in front of her and then it was surrounding her, as a screen appeared in front of her.
[Scanning: 1%...10%....50%...100%]
[Scan completed: New player found]
[Setting: non-player]
[Avatar: Default]
[Input Avatar Name:]
[Cynthia]: “Cynthia”
[Input Name: Cynthia]
[Yes/No]
[Cynthia]: “Yes”
[Select Home:]
[Cynthia]: “Beginner village”
[Select Home: Beginner village]
[Yes/No]
[Cynthia]: “Yes”
[Starting…]
After the last messaged an opening started playing, showing Cynthia all the places Oban had to offer, for the most majesties of castles to the most beautiful waterfalls and lakes, to the wild diversity of creatures, to the deepest and calm of the oceans, to the tallest and fiercest of volcanos and the different races of Oban.
Cynthia could not help but to feel amazed as she flied to all those places that she had never being before or didn’t even knew it existed in the first place. The intro only lasted for 10 minutes or so, but for her those 10 minutes where full of beauty and magic in itself, after the intro ended, she was floating in space with a planet below her.
Then a new messaged appeared in from of her, as she started to descend to the planet from space like a falling star.
[All the places you ever dream of and more are here, in planet Oban there is no place where you can’t go if you are willing enough]
[Cynthia]: “Oban”
Cynthia could on help to repeat the name of this world, she had hear that name before, but never before she had really understood what it meant, to understand how amazing this world really was you need to experience by yourself.
After the messaged disappeared a blinding light covered over Cynthia vision, and after that, she found herself in the middle of Beginner Village, a popular starting town, it was snowing and a deep layer of snow was covering all palaces, Christmas lights where put up everywhere, and jingle music could be heard.
A new screen appeared in front of Cynthia
[Welcome to Oban]
[As a non-player nothing in this world can hurt you, but you can still talk and interact with the world around you]
[Christmas events for Players List: …]
[Christmas events for Non-Players List: …]
Cynthia didn’t pay any attention to the screens and just closed them, Cyan had already told her to not mess out with the settings, and just patiently wait for him, she even had left her avatar to look exactly the same as her because setting a new one would take too long and she was fine looking as herself.
But nothing of that matters to her right now, because she was busy being amazed how real everything was, the snow, the texture and temperature, the ground under her feet’s, the clothes she was wearing, the wind in her face and even the smell of the snow and the town, everything was so real that she thought she was in another world more than in a virtual one.
Cynthia didn’t waste any time as she started to play with the most fascinating thing of all, snow, it something she had only read in books and watched over the television, in this virtual world a lot of people would do weird things when they first entered this world, playing around with snow was something everyone would more than once.
After Cynthia had enough playing around with the snow, she started to look around and soon realized she has forgot contacting her brother as soon as possible, just as she was thinking this, a ring was heard and a new screen appeared in front of her.
[Incoming call: Cyan]
[Accept: Yes/No]
[Cynthia]: “Accept call”
Like her, Cyan had used his real name as his name in the game.
[Cyan]: “Cynthia where are you”
Looking around Cynthia could see a big signboard that said “West plaza”
[Cynthia]: “Big brother, I am in the West plaza”
[Cyan]: “Alright, I am in the North Plaza, stay there, I will get there in a moment, wait me near the water fountain”
[Cynthia]: “Wait brother….”
[Call ended]
Before she could said anything else Cyan ended the call
[Cynthia]: “what water fountain…”