Chapter 3: Possibilities
“Piece, can you bring up that stream Sarah was playing, I assume it's from an Oculus live stream?” I asked.
“Of course, sir. Displaying it now”
The screen flickered, and replacing the empty call window was a third person view of a hooded figure. His form flickered and shifted every step he took, and without warning, he was replaced by a tall masculine figure wearing gleaming plate mail, a colossal greatsword casually held in one hand propped over a spaulder. His plate sabaton clanged against what appeared to be a rough stone floor. The ambience was reminiscent of a cave, the rhythmic sound of water dripping shattered by the echoing sound of metal on stone.
How much of the beginning did I miss, I wonder.. By the looks of it, maybe just a few permutations of the adventurer's apparently endlessly shifting form. My thoughts halted as the camera's angel shifted, exposing the path the adventurer walked. The man shifted again to a tall stalky green skinned woman wielding claw-like weapons in each hand.
The cave opened up into a massive room, colossal multicolor crystalline stalagmites and stalactites dominated the empty space. At its center, a massive, slightly humanoid owl constructed entirely of different colored crystals perched on a crystalline pillar that jutted horizontally out of the wall.
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As the adventurer walked forward, she left behind echoes of her other forms, all mimicking the current's previous movements.
“Know thyself, and in doing so, realize your potential.” a voice rang out, as if spoken from all directions. The voice was an impossible mix of deep and airy, their gender indecipherable.
As the adventurer entered the room, now a lithe man wielding a scimitar, he banked a hard left, narrowly avoiding a crystalline cascade of spines that erupted from the owl's now outstretched wing. The owl tracked the adventurer with cold gemstone eyes. As the ghost of the next adventurer entered the cave,, a translucent copy of the first volley flew at the newcomer.
As more spectral adventurers entered the room, one after another, the same sequence the green skinned women had gone through played out again and again. I realized what was happening. The trailer was simulating the same battle, with countless characters, all unique from one another.
How am I supposed to pick a playstyle, with so many amazing potential options?
“How will your Individuality carve a place in history?” the timeless voice asked.
As the many battles took place, color slowly faded from the scene until only two lines of white text remained, backlit by black.
Daedalus Online
Releasing in: 11:59.03
The timer continued to countdown while I sat, too stunned to act upon my excitement. The last vestiges of suspicion that this was all some kind of trick vanished.
This was real. Very, very real.