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“Urgh...Okay I’m getting up!” my VR-Pill immediately stops my alarm with my voice command. Getting up out of bed, I stretch my arms to my somewhat low ceiling. My apartment is a mess, clothes strewn about, dishes piled up in my kitchen sink and the dresser in my room has long since abandoned it’s drawers. It’s only a one bedroom apartment but it’s cheap and it works perfectly fine for me.

I’m not exactly poor. My previous job was a Software Engineer for a somewhat large insurance company. I created and designed systems to help the insurance selling process go along faster. I never really went out much unless it was with my ex and beyond games, I didn’t really buy anything besides necessities. One of the biggest reasons I quit my job was because after crunching the numbers, I could very well retire with what I have in savings right now. Of course, that’s depending entirely on me, myself and I. If I end up with a family, that plan would have to change… but I honestly don’t see that becoming a thing for me anymore.

After warming up a quick frozen dinner, I take a seat in my office chair and decide to browse through some of the forums for Origins of Magic: Online. It seems to mostly consist of people hounding the beta testers for more information and the beta testers completely blowing everyone off. Rightfully so, they probably have information they’d want to keep to themselves. If there was even any good information in that small beta. Not much is known about the actual content of the game beyond some functionality features.

I’m excited about the character creation and choosing my class. I’ve been pretty competitive and well off in other VRMMO’s but it’ll be interesting to see how I fare in this new one. I often swap between Warrior or Rogue classes, with the occasional Mage Support. With them boasting an insanely diverse and complex class system, there’s bound to be some rare classes and combinations to exploit.

Checking the time, I throw the remains of my frozen dinner into the trash bin. “VR-Pill, open.” A slight mechanical sound could be heard as the top half to my VR-Pill rose. I slide myself inside and get comfy. “Close.” The top half slowly comes down and clicks into place, locking me inside. “System Start.” With this, my consciousness fades, quickly replaced with a loading symbol in my vision that only lasts a few seconds. A start menu pops up with a game to select. I’ve long since preloaded Origins of Magic: Online. So all I’ve gotta do is hit play.

I’ve only got a few minutes before servers are live. Luckily, they seem to be allowing players to create their characters before the server launches. A feeling that I haven’t felt for what feels like forever starts to kindle in my stomach; excitement. The game launches with me just having to think about starting it.

I’m suddenly launched into what seems to be a very blue sky with a few clouds rushing past. “What the…'' I'm overcome with the sense that I’m falling very fast. In fact, I am falling. Just as my heart plummets into my stomach, I land on what seems to be a large and somewhat solid cloud. Heart still racing, I stand up and look at what seems to be a table in the middle of the cloud.

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“Hello, nice of you to drop in! Hahaha!” a soft and very soothing voice appeared in my ear, making me feel a tingle on my neck. I jump forward a little and turn around to face the voice. The owner of the voice was nothing short of an angel. She had long feathered white wings, light blue hair, thin features and she was crazy beautiful. I literally had to stop my jaw from hitting the floor.

“Hi? Who are you?” She smiled at my confusion.

“I am known as a Guardian. I am here to assist you with your transition into our wonderful world; Origins of Magic: Online.”

Unable to help myself, I smiled back in anticipation. “Oh hell yea, now we’re talking! What do I have to do?”

Flying over to the table, she hovered just above it, pointing at me. “Well first, we should create your character!”

A long and crooked staff appeared in her hand and when she waved it over the table, a holo projection of me appeared over it, wearing an old fashioned brown leather vest, a white undershirt, dark-brown travelling pants and a brown pair of shoes. “To keep as much realism in our game as we can, you will keep your body type. You can, however, change your facial features and hair as much as you’d like.”

Hmm…I’ve never actually had an issue with my body type or looks. In most other VRMMO’s I just keep whatever is auto-generated to be close enough to what I look like in real life. Since I don’t really leave my house, I don’t really care if my character looks the same as me IRL. “I’ll just keep everything the way it is, I don’t need to customize anything.”

Her eyebrows raised a little and she gave me a small smirk. “Confident in yourself, huh? We haven’t seen many like you so far. Very well.” She tapped the hologram with her staff and both I and the hologram glowed a bright gold for a moment. Then suddenly, I was wearing the same clothes as the hologram was, moments before. “Woah, cool!”

“Now before you’re thrown into our world, there are a few rules you should know. These rules are intended to maintain enjoyment for players and NPC’s alike. Breaking these rules could potentially lead to being exiled from our world; for good.” somewhat confused about what she said about NPC’s I decide to ignore it for now and give her a nod. “First rule: Treat everybody the same. NPC’s in our world all have unique personalities and all have the same potential to grow as a normal player does. Of course, every NPC plays a certain role, but they essentially have a mind of their own. Trying to convince an NPC that they’re not real or part of a system will make the NPC lose favor with you and act as if you’re speaking a different language. Excessive abuse of this may result in guards escorting you to a town jail.”

“Rule number two: You may not exceed 12 hours of gameplay in one session. If you hit the 12 hour mark, a warning will appear and give you a 10 minute timer to get to a safe spot to log out. Otherwise, you will be logged out of the system and locked out for four hours. If you log out yourself and don’t hit the 12 hour mark, you can reset your timer by logging out for two hours. There are plenty of obvious reasons for these restrictions, I’m sure you don’t need me to explain those to you?” I shake my head and motion for her to continue.

“Good. Now those are really the only hardset rules you have to worry about. However, I will tell you that this world does have some rules of its own that we recommend you follow. We won’t disclose too much information, as we want our players to learn about the world themselves, but generally, following rules will cause you less trouble in the future. Also, time works differently in this world. You’ll find that you will be able to get several in-game days worth of play time in a single 12-hour-long real life session.” Leaving her spot above the table, she flew over and landed in front of me.

“Well, adventurer, do you agree to our rules?”

“Of course.” I nod.

A big smile spread across her angelic face. “I thought so!” she giggled. “One last thing before you’re allowed to enter our world, fully.”

“What’s that?”

She winked at me and points her staff at a section of cloud right in between us, and a bright orange portal opens up at my feet.

“You must take our tutorial...or maybe a better word for it is a Class Trial. In our world, you do not choose your class; your class chooses you.”

Frowning, I feel some slight disappointment, “That seems somewhat counter-intuitive but I guess I don’t mind as long as I get a good class.”

A scheming grin appears on her face and I can’t help feeling a little worried.

“The Class Trial will give you a class that is best suited to you as a person and how you do in the Trial. Good luck, adventurer!”

Without realizing it, she had put the end of her staff behind my knees and proceeded to knock me into the portal.

“Wha-...WOAH!” I fall into the portal as a blinding orange light engulfs me completely...