Three people were sitting on a table made for 4, placed outside of the cafe.
Two of them, both guys, ordered regular brewed coffee, while the other one, a woman, ordered a frappe.
One of the guys then faced the man beside him.
"Hey, grats on passing that university's entrance exam. And on your first try to boot. What a genius!"
The man who was complimented smiled and shrugged. "Got lucky."
The woman then giggled. "Cheol, no need to be so humble. Everyone in class knows how smart you are!"
The first guy who spoke, Hyun, also agreed. "Uh-huh. I mean, you need only to skim your notes to get a high grade. I'm sure if you studied for real, you would've aced all tests and quizzes! Pity you're lazy."
Hyun and the girl, Eun-byul, chuckled. Cheol just smiled.
They chatted some more, became quiet when their orders were delivered, then continued their stories.
Coffee on one hand, Hyun then made a face that says, Shocks, almost forgot.
"It should be coming next week, right? RR 2."
"It's Revolution's Path, to be exact," corrected Eun-byul.
"Whatever. Anyways, you preordered that game, am I right?" continued Hyun, ignoring Eun-byul. Eun-byul then flashed him a look of irritation followed by one with a sulking look. Hyun ignored it.
Quite amused by the interaction, Cheol kept silent a little while longer. When Hyun faced him with a look that says, Well, say your piece, Cheol started to speak.
"Yeah. I was still awake when I've read that news in Unicorn's site. When I read it, I immediately preordered."
Eun-byul then looked at him. "What were you doing, browsing Unicorn's site at that time? I thought you were suppose to do your project, if I recall."
Cheol nodded. "I did, but after about an hour and a half, I wanted to take a little break, so I decided to surf the Net. Before I knew it, I was looking at Unicorn's site. Out of habit, I suppose. For a few minutes, I just stared at the News page, hoping that Royal Road's closing isn't true."
He then breathed out and made a small smile, not a sarcastic nor a bitter one, but one of fond recollection. "Who would have thought they were going to announce the release of a new game."
***
Revolution's Path.
When Royal Road's shutdown was decided, a lot of theories and speculations circulated as to why.
One speculation is that "Unicorn will release a new game, thus the need to close Royal Road, so that they can invest more on the new game."
It sounded reasonable, and adds a tinge of hope to the otherwise depressing news.
Of course, not everyone subscribed to that theory, but it does not also mean that no one accepted it.
So it was a pleasant surprise to them when Unicorn actually did plan to release a new game.
"Told you guys, RR's closed to make way for RevPath."
"Haha! Called it, new game coming out next spring!"
"Hmph, you guys were just lucky! But I don't care, as long as something's there to fill the hole left by RR."
"[DELETED]: Flagged by mod as inappropriate. Please refrain from posting statements that contain sexual innuendo."
"Wahahaha! What an idiot! That statement's gonna get deleted later. Anyways, I'm logging out now. Time to join the preorder rush!"
"Awawawa! I forgot about that! I'm also logging out now! Before the slots are all taken!"
***
One week after the cafe scene, in Cheol's apartment.
"..."
"You look disappointed," Cheol said to Hyun.
Hyun, holding a small chip the size of an SD card, just sighed.
"The shipping company has a weird sense of humor. All those stuffing just to make the package look bigger."
Cheol just shrugged. "Must be their SOP or something."
Hyun breathed another sigh, and returned the chip to Cheol.
Then, glaring at Cheol, "You should have called me as soon as you saw that news! Then I wouldn't have to wait another day to get mine!"
Cheol raised his eyebrows. "I did call. You just weren't answering. Besides, at least you were able to preorder the next morning. Thank me that I sent you an email after I gave up calling you."
"You shouldn't have given up! Besides, you only called once!"
"It's a waste of time trying to wake you up."
"What did you say?"
"It's a waste of time trying to wake you up."
"You should've had denied that! And you even stressed some syllables!"
Cheol ignored Hyun. Not deterred by that, Hyun continued his complaint.
"Ugh! If you only tried harder, then I would've been at home mounting my own drive unto my own capsule, instead of helping you mount yours!"
Starting to get exasperated with all this whining, Cheol decided to tease Hyun a little.
"A crybaby as always, huh."
"I'M NOT A CRYBABY!"
Cheol shrugged. "If you say so. But you b*tch and whine a lot though."
"You wanna piece of me?"
"No thanks. I heard you're not delicious, much less edible. Still, are you sure you aren't a crybaby? If I recall, when we had that class outing in RR, you cried before Eun-byul did."
"Eun-byul's got nothing to do with this! Besides, I wasn't crying that time, my eyes were just teary because dust entered them!"
"Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say."
"Damn it! I swear, if I see you in-game, I'm gonna kill you!"
"Amusing threat, coming from a man with teary eyes and snot coming from his nose."
"There's no snot coming from my nose! And I'm not teary eyed either! F*ck you Cheol, I swear, I'm going to kill you in-game! Someday!"
Then Hyun grabbed his bag, put on his shoes, and left.
After that, Cheol grabbed a wallet that was lying on the sofa. He then went to the shoe rack and waited.
A few moments later, Hyun returned, red-faced and panting. Cheol handed him the wallet, which he took and left quickly without saying thanks.
As an afterthought, Cheol went to the corridor.
"CRYBABY!"
"SHUT UP CHEOL!"
***
25 years have passed since Royal Road was introduced, and along with it, the capsule system. Of course, nowadays, VR gaming is no longer limited to that piece of technology. We now have VR headgears, helmet-like VR consoles, and VR headphones, VR consoles that look like the bygone headphones of the past century. All three, the capsule, headgear, and headphones, operate on the same system of VR immersion: the disconnection of consciousness. But how they do it is a different story.
The headphones work by lulling the user into REM sleep. At the same, a hypnotizing sound is played along with the sleep-inducing signal, which allows the asleep user to see the VR game's UI. And since it has a battery, one can play VR games anywhere he wants. The downside to it is that the your consciousness isn't fully disconnected, and so sleep talking is unavoidable. How will you answer the queries of the AI if you can't speak? And if the game is too action-oriented, then don't be surprised find yourself a laughingstock after playing the game. That's why most people who prefer VR headphones only use them when they are alone.
The headgear works similar to the headphones, although this time, the user doesn't have to sleep. The headgear directly sends the game information to the eyes, at the same time, it sends a signal to the ears that allows full disconnection with reality. It also has a battery, so portable gaming is possible. However, this method produces too much eye strain, and in severe cases, can cause blindness. Also, who would want to play in public with such a huge instrument on his head? And let's not forget the dangers of being disconnected from reality when surrounded with a lot of people.
Seeing these problems in both technologies, the masses just decided to stick with capsules.
Of course, some changes also happened to the capsule. But most notable of all is the concept of the microdrive.
Although Royal Road dominated the VR scene, a few VR games also became popular. Unicorn wasn't selfish, so they decided to implement the microdrive port in order to allow other VR games be played in the capsule. This spurred a lot of positive comments from other companies and from the gaming community.
However, these VR games were only popular for a short while. Royal Road continued to be the undisputed number 1 when one talks about VRMMORPGs, in part due to a certain sculptor. Because of this, other companies that develop VR games started getting swallowed up by Unicorn.
The strange thing was, the former heads of these companies bear no grudge against Unicorn! One of them was asked as to why he was'ot angry. He replied, "Why should I? They [Unicorn] saved my company. True, I'm no longer the CEO, but I'm still the one deciding what to do in my company. Unicorn just oversees us, making sure that what we do doesn't collide with their agendas, but other than that, they practically leave us alone to do what we want. It's like the situation in Royal Road, where the Emperor rules the continents, but leaves the conquered kings to rule as they once did."
This implementation of a microdrive not only benefited major companies (only for a short while, though), the microdrive port also allowed small-time game creators to test their games in the capsule. Of course, being amateurs, their capsules broke most of the time, often to the point that it was irreparable. So, they have to go to Unicorn-affiliated shops in order to fix them, or order a new capsule from Unicorn.
Another way to generate additional income for Unicorn!
So, other companies were happy, small-time game creators were happy, the gaming community was happy, and Unicorn's CEO became the happiest of them all!
***
After Hyun left, Cheol ate his lunch, did his business in the toilet and approached the capsule, microdrive in hand.
Making sure that he was comfortable, Cheol then closed the capsule's lid.
"Capsule Start. Go to System Settings, Driver Management, Install New Data."
Scanning user for any microdrives at hand.
New microdrive detected.
Is this the microdrive you want to install?YesNo
"Yes."
Microdrive Selected. Contains: Revolution's Path.
Install?YesNo
"Yes."
Starting installation.
Initializing values.
Patching files into dedicated folder.
...
Installation complete. Connecting to the Internet for updates.
...
Update complete.
Capsule has added Revolution's Path.
Connect to Revolution's Path?YesNo
"Yes."
Please enter necessary information.
...
Account authenticated.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Game start.
...
Welcome to Revolution's Path.
It has been detected that you were a player of Royal Road.
Would you like to continue playing your previous character?YesNo
Cheol was impressed that Unicorn decided to give players the option to continue their old character from Royal Road. However, he has other plans.
"I would like to make a new character."
Please be warned, this action is irrevocable! Creating a new character means deleting your previous one.
Stats, items, class, titles, contribution points, and skills will not carry over to the new one.
Are you still going to make a new character?YesNo
"Yes."
Wujin has been deleted.
Avatar Creation
Set a name for your avatar.
"Quartz."
Please set your gender.
"Male."
Revolution's Path has Royal Road's 49 races, and an additional 11 more, 6 of which are undiscovered, making a total of 60 playable races.
You may select from the original 29 races and 5 additional races, giving you 34 initial choices. You can also change your race in-game via special quests.
"New races, huh. Preview."
After viewing the five additional starter races, Cheol made his decision.
"They look interesting, but I already made plans. I choose Human."
You may alter your appearance in-game.
"I decline."
Name:QuartzGender:MaleRace:Human
Create this avatar?YesNo
"Yes"
New character created.
Your starting city will now be randomized. If you wish to start in a different city, you have the option of randomizing again.
So, can't choose the starting city now, huh, Cheol thought.
"Understood. Randomize."
Randomizing complete.
Randomized city: Romn Capital, Itale Empire, Neuilly Continent.
This time, a look of bewilderment was on Cheol's expression.
"Did such a city exist in Royal Road?" he muttered in a voice the AI will not consider a response.
Randomize again?YesNo
"I'd like to see if there are other cities that I'm unfamiliar with. Yes."
For the next 2 tries, Cheol randomized two cities he has no knowledge of. On the third retry, Cheol randomized a familiar name.
Randomized city: Barsamagle City, Britten Kingdom, Versailles Continent.
When did Britten become a kingdom? Cheol felt mild surprise.
Is this game, perhaps, set... Putting that thought on hold, Cheol randomized again.
After retrying for the 7th time, Cheol found the city he was looking for.
Randomize again?YesNo
"No. This city is fine."
You will then be sent to the Builes Oasis, Desert of Tranquility, Versailles Continent.
Welcome to Revolution's Path.
***
After Unicorn revealed Revolution's Path, no new information regarding it was posted in the news page.
(Author's Note: Removed some sentences that clashes with what I did in prologue.)
Will there be a new continent?
How about new classes?
Will there be new races too?
New weapons? New equipment? New dungeons perhaps?
Or maybe a new backstory? A new goal?
Perhaps, a chance to become the new Emperor?
A lot of unanswered questions between the time it was announced to its release date.
Even so, Unicorn was silent.
"We would like to let the players answer those questions themselves," were the words their PR man said in a press conference.
***
There was no cutscene.
Welcome to the Builes Oasis. Although you are a new character, it has been determined that you played Royal Road. Thus, instead of four weeks, the time for the confinement will be reduced to two weeks.
Quartz was once again impressed.
Nice.
After closing the message, he then looked at his status.
Character Name:QuartzTitle:noneClass:noneClass:noneAlignment:NeutralLevel:1Fame:0Infamy:0Health:100/100Mana:100/100Stamina:100/100Satiety:100/100Strength:10Agility:10Vitality:10Wisdom:10Intelligence:10Charisma:5Luck:5Attack:5Defense:5Magic Resistances
Other than a UI revamp and the addition of one more extra class slot, Quartz saw nothing out of the ordinary in his status, thus he started walking, enjoying the scenery around him.
Royal Road's time in-game is about four times faster than in real life. Since this a sequel, it's logical to assume that the same rule also applies in this game. This would mean that about 24 months, or 2 years, have supposedly passed in-game after the shutdown of Royal Road.
But after that incident in the character creation, Cheol started having suspicions. Cheol wanted to ask another player to confirm if his suspicions were correct, but he hasn't seen any other users yet.
Having no choice, he went and asked an NPC, a middle-aged man sitting by a bench.
"Mister, what year is it?"
"Huh? It's year 378. Why did you ask?"
378!
Royal Road's calendar passed that a long time ago! Were my suspicions wrong? Does that mean Revolution's Path is set in the past?
Wanting to confirm his thoughts, Quartz once again asked the man.
"Mister, when did the calendar start?"
The man raised his eyebrows. "You're kidding, right?"
Quartz shook his head. "I'm a Freedman. One of the goddess's children."
The man looked at him skeptically. "Freedman? You?"
Then the man laughed. "You do know that it's been a long time since Freedmen walked in this world. After all, they suddenly disappeared 400 years ago!"
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