I swear to god this day cannot go any slower. It feels like I have been here for ten hours yet looking at the clock I still have another five hours to go. The problem is I have something to actually look forward to. It has cost me almost every dime I have, but when I first heard about the game Everlife I knew I was going to end up playing it. To do that though, you need to have an implant chip installed that will let you interface with most of the new computing devices. The issue is this technology is only five years old, so it is still pretty expensive. Mine cost me ten thousand dollars and insurance will not touch it because it is not medically necessary. The second expense was another fifteen thousand dollars. This is a gaming pod that MOBA Inc. created to interface with our implants to transport us into the game. The pod actually is not that expensive normally. In fact, you can get the base model for around five thousand. I wanted the ability to live in my pod. It can feed, water, and pull out the results of those functions. It will stimulate muscles to prevent atrophy and prevent you from developing bed sores. To me, the extra expense is worth it to not have to get out of the pod except to go to work. The videos that have been released look amazing, but the actual meat of the game has been pretty much nothing. No one experiences the same thing. Two people can do the exact same things, and eventually, they will be sent off separately on different quests all thanks to the AI that governs the game. I still have not decided what kind of character I will play. Race there is only a single choice. The world is based on an alternate Earth and only has humans. Classes, on the other hand, have quite a bit of variance. In the past I have played characters like Paladins, Rogues, Shamans, Warriors, even a Cleric once. This time I will read up when I get into the creation and decide from there if this day ever ends that is.
*ring* I answer, “Thank you for calling ACME computers my name is Miles how can I help you?”
Customer “My computer will not turn on, I can’t get it to work.”
I respond “Ok I will be happy to assist you with that, first, could I get you to check the plugs to make sure nothing has come loose.”
Customer “I can’t see back there it is too dark.”
Me “Well can you move a light closer or is another light available to see better?”
Customer “No lights are on at all, the power is out right now.”
I hit the mute button, “You have got to be shitting me!! What the fuck is wrong with you, there is no way possible you cannot know computers require power to work. You must have an uncle daddy you stupid fuck.” I then turn off the mute and respond to the customer while banging my head against my desk “Unfortunately without power the computer will not turn on. Did the computer work the last time you had power?”
Customer “Yes it did, I was in the middle of something, and it just turned off.”
Me “Without an uninterruptable power supply, the system will shut off if you lose power. I am going to recommend that you wait for the power to come back on and then call us back if it’s still an issue then.” I finally get off the phone five minutes later. Not only did this guy deserve the Darwin award, but he also ended up making me go over my call time metrics, and I fully anticipate him calling back later which will hit my first-time resolution metric. This has not been my day, people screaming at me because someone in their house malware bombed their operating system and my only resolution is to format reinstall. I end up having to stay late for a come to Jesus meeting where I get yelled at for my metrics, I perform all appropriate ass kissing to get out of there as quickly as possible. I head to my car, and when I get there I find I have a flat “What the fuck else can go wrong today!!”
I put on the dummy tire and head to get the tire replaced since I have no plans to leave the house at all for the next two weeks. It takes them about an hour to get me in, replace it, and get me back on the road. By now it's nearly eight getting home when I should have been home around 5:30. I go ahead and take a shower before activating my new pod. It got installed a week ago, but I could not use it until today. The servers officially come up at 12:01 AM, but they are allowing people to start character creation from 9:00 on. I press the button to connect to the server and open the pod for use, and nothing happens. Try it again a few times and still nothing. I pull out the manual and find the troubleshooting section that there is a diagnostic panel on the back side of the pod that will contain a code. I check it and find that there is a hard drive corruption that caused the operating system to not load. I have to call the manufacturer and go through a sequence to reformat and reinstall everything so that it will connect correctly. I am sure that right about now I look like one of those cartoons where the character is boiling eggs on their forehead. That’s about how I feel, but I have no choice now but to call tech support. Fortunately, because I have all the bells and whistles, I get put into a priority queue, so I only have a 10-minute wait to speak to a representative. It takes about forty-five minutes for the tech to get through the format, and get the install started. At this point, I have to wait for it to finish. The tech informs me that this process will take an additional three hours. At that point, I can safely say I lost it. Not only did I have a shit day at work, now my fifteen thousand dollar pod doesn’t work right. I will not get to create my character before server up, and in fact I will not be able to even play until at least 45 minutes after everyone else, and that’s 45 minutes real time. In game time that puts me 6 hours behind everyone else. Since I have nothing better to do for the next three hours, I start making this poor schmuck’s life hell like mine has been today. Eventually, as there is nothing else to be done, I give up to wait for my download to be done.
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I sit at my computer and pull up all the information I can find on the game and the character creation process so that I can streamline my time once I get my chance later. I find out from some of the streaming sites that the character creation process is not recordable so there is no real information to walk me through it and the servers are not up yet so no streamers there either. Honestly, I am not sure how streaming will work for this game anyway with time dilation, will the characters move 8x faster than normal, or will everything be recorded and have to be streamed later without the dilation.
I head back out and go to a small diner down the road from my condo and get something to eat and kill some time. Around midnight I head for home and go up to my room to see the status of the pod. It shows that the download is complete and that the installation is at thirty percent. The server will be up for another 5 minutes, and there is almost no chance that the install will complete by then. I pull up the streaming sites on my implant once the 12:01 hits and wait to see if anyone starts streaming. Very few do. The people I know who was going to be playing the game have a banner up that they are in the game but live streaming is not recommended. The couple that I see actually streaming, you honestly cannot tell what is going on because the characters are moving so fast. I check back on my pod, forty percent at 12:10, at this rate I will be looking at 1 AM for sure. I pull up one of my old games just so I don’t focus on the pod and play until the pod makes a beeping noise. I log out quickly and head to the pod. The diagnostics screen shows a ready indicator, and I almost dance. I hit the power button, and the pod starts making a slight vibrating sound, it opens showing me the gel bed interior. A voice comes from the pod that tells me to undress and enter the pod. Once inside to press the close button and the synchronization process and character creation will begin. I do so and wait as the pod closes. When it’s fully closed, and I am sitting there in the darkness waiting. There is a blue glow coming through the gel I am laying on, but that is it for the light. About thirty seconds later I get a popup from my implant to authorize connection to my pod. I confirm it, and seconds later I feel myself falling asleep.
I’m not sure how long I sleep, but when I wake up, I find myself in a pagoda surrounded by stars. There is a beautiful lady there waiting for me when I notice her she greets me saying. “Welcome to Everlife. My name is Hestia the goddess of home and hearth. My task is to help you to find out who you are, and to welcome you home.”
I thank her for her greeting but honestly feel like this is a waste of my time, I just want to see what character types there are and figure out my options.
She then says “I sense that you are extremely stressed out right now and from looking at what has been happening, I can understand that. I am guessing that you do not really want to be around people.”
At that point, I think about what she says, and I agree with her thoughts. “You are right.” I say, “I can’t take another incompetent idiot tonight. I just want to relax and unwind, without having hundreds of people after the same enemies I am.”
She nods then makes a waving hand gesture, and a map appears, when I look at it, there is an icon at certain points on the map representing starting cities. Each icon according to the key represented five hundred people. All of the starting cities had multiple icons I could just imagine the chaos of trying to get a kill and the frustration that was going on there. She let me look at the map for a minute and then says to me “As you can see all of the starter towns are inundated with people right now. There is an option though, but it’s a harder road to travel. If you decide to take it, you will be shunned by all the cities, and you will work by yourself a lot. The rewards can be great, but it will require sacrifice. Literally.”
She waved her hand again, and a menu appeared with classes listed as well as descriptions. There were all of the typical ones found in every RPG since the dawn of RPG’s warriors, rogues, wizards, clerics, paladins, monks, and even necromancers and shadow knights. Then she showed me a different screen that had a class listed that I had seen in other games but reading the description made me think this was a completely different prospect than normal.
Class: Warlock
Able to cast curses, fire, and shadow based spells while using demonic allies to aid in battle.
Hated on site by all cities due to the use of demons and cursing. Unable to raise faction high enough to enter cities.
Even the necromancers were not hated on sight. I had to wonder why Warlocks were so bad they were hated, but necromancers were ok.
Hestia continued “Only three people have selected this class so far out of ten thousand that are playing. Two of those have already quit the class and restarted the game. I can assure you solitude and a challenge if you want to try it.”
I thought about it for a few minutes. I figured I really did not want to have to deal with people, and the ability to have pets to do stuff for me would offset the need for groups. I then realized that I could not start with the other people if I were hated in all towns so I asked Hestia where I would begin.
She smiled at me and pointed back at the map to a location described as the Sepulcher She then showed me pictures of the area, and it turned out to be a cave system that led beneath a volcano where demons lived. I thought about it a few minutes and decided what the hell, worst comes to worst I can just delete and start over. I tell Hestia that I agree to become a warlock and she gives me the option to alter my appearance. I decided to keep myself as I am since I really do not care about impressing other people and feel I look fine the way I am. I am six feet tall with brown hair and eyes. I keep myself clean shaved and weigh between 210 and 225 pounds depending on the time of year. I am fit but do not work out a lot so just healthy looking. I tell Hestia that I am good with my appearance and she says “Prepare yourself.”
She then casts a spell at me, and I feel myself falling. I then black out and wake up tied down to an altar with some being above me chanting in an unknown language. I think to myself great, and the line from an old video game comes back to me “you are not prepared.”