Hector looked at the release timer for the new VRMMO game named The Depths of Magic. It showed roughly 2 hours until launch time. The name VRMMO stands for Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online which is a popular genre that most of the world takes part in. He was selected to be part of the first wave of participants which comprised of only ten thousand players. There would be a new wave after every two or so days. Most of the ten thousand players in each wave were selected by sign ups and random chance, but roughly one thousand were Rankers from previous VRMMO high fantasy games.

Hector received the invitation because of his ranker title from the Odyssey, being a ranker in Odyssey comprised of the players within the top one thousand. There were tens of millions of players in that game and being among what was considered the top thousand was obviously not easy, but that is all in the past. The Depths of Magic was far more advanced than Odyssey in almost every way.

Everything was about to change with the release of The Depths of Magic. If even half of what the developers of the game promised was true, the game will bring Full Dive VR to a whole new level. Full Dive Virtual reality is when a user's consciousness is transported to an avatar contained in the digital world via a VR Capsule but more on that later.

The Depths of Magic creators heavily advertised their game systems to include extremely realistic graphics, all five human senses support, high fantasy setting, massive online multiplayer, unheard of AI capabilities, and time dilation. There was more than that, but that is what grabbed the attention of most people. Time dilation in this case meant that two weeks inside the digital world would cause one day to pass in the real world. This existed in other games but usually no more than two days per one day.

However, nothing came close to the Second Brain Integration System they provided details on. This has left many reporters and players alike to take the stance “I will believe it when I try it.” This level of technology is unheard of and has really come out of nowhere. Hector didn't really care too much about why the sudden jump in technology occurred, he just wanted to play the game.

To go into a bit of explanation as to why the Second Brain Integration System is so unbelievable; The system states that the human brain will work alongside a digitally created Second Brain to assist your every action. For example, if the player has a godly amount of attribute points allocated into agility making their avatar move at inhuman speeds. The human brain normally would be unable to process the amount of information at once especially during combat. However, this Second Brain will assist with the drawback and allow the player to control their body like it was second nature to move at that speed. In Odyssey, you felt extremely powerful when controlling your avatar while performing inhuman feats but nothing like this. The developers said that while Odyssey was advanced it was but a drop in the bucket of what a player will be capable of in The Depths of Magic.

Another example of the capabilities of the Second Brain is in its ability to assist you in both combat and non related combat situations. If a player had a skill that provided a high level of sword mastery in the game he or she would be able to perform feats that normally only a sword master would be capable of. Even if they had no idea how to use one in real life. Or a person who has no clue on how to a smith a weapon in real life being able to know exactly how to smith a weapon in game. The developers went on to explain that the Second Brain will be used to perform these feats. Think of it like an AI guidance system that will seamlessly assist your actions without giving you the feeling that you are receiving it. Once a player leaves the game they will not be able to do those feats they were capable of while playing.

To give a comparison, in Odyssey crafting a weapon was not all that complicated. The system did all the work for you as long as your attributes and crafting skill was high enough. You swung your hammer at the item and the progress bar would increase until the item was completed. It didn't matter where you struck the item, just the motion was all that was required. However, it was explained that the crafting in the Depths of Magic actually required the player to perform proper steps when creating an item. Learning blacksmithing is not something you can easily pick up on normally in real life, but in the game due to the Second Brain system, it will be.

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There was a lot of information on how close to real life as possible this game was and the systems they have in place to make that happen. However, they did not provide barely any information on the content of game itself. To give a few examples people wanted the developers to elaborate on the story, world building, classes, races, main quest-line, dungeons, raids the list goes on. They never did.

Hector continued to browse the forums to prepare while he sipped on his drink. Once the launch timer hit five minutes he got out of his computer chair, walked over to his VR Capsule, and got inside.

Full Dive VR requires a VR Capsule compatible with it. The capsule will hold and enclose on an entire human body similar to cryostasis pods from Sci-fi movies. Your consciousness will be transported inside the game, and your brain will control your digital avatar in the virtual world while your body remains connected to the capsule. The number of safety features in place are enormous for these devices nowadays. Of course, you can log out at anytime, but if a capsule detects any problems with the body you will be safely disconnected. It's to the point that there have been no outrageous “incidents” with Full Dive VR for a very long time. Technology has come so far that deaths caused by heart attacks and seizures are a thing of the past. This means people don't have to worry about Full Dive VR as much as before. In the early years, there were several cases of heart attacks and seizures caused by a certain genre of games; mainly horror.

Browsing through the menus Hector selected to launch The Depths of Magic. A bright light flashed in vision. He then found himself in a small stone room with a table and a single chair pushed in. There were no doors or windows in this room upon further inspection. The first immediate sensation was how musty the room smelled. Hector ran his fingers along the chair backrest, he took in just how real it felt. Noticing nothing happening he decided to sit down triggering a voice to speak up.

“Hello User” the voice had that old age sage but also robotic accent.

Hector looked around the room but didn't see where the voice came from so he decided to reply “hello voice?”

“My function is to help the user avoid any confusion when starting his journey through The Depths of Magic. I will be clearing up a few of the practices that are considered standard in the high fantasy VRMMO genre.”

“First the user will be unable to choose their race or class and will start out as an average human.”

While it is a shame that you cannot choose other races, I usually end up selecting human anyways. Others might be a bit annoyed by this though.

Interrupting his thoughts the voice continued to speak.

“Second you will be unable to manually use the system to alter your looks or voice in any way. The system will make adjustments to your build to that of any average human if you are overly bulky or skinny. There are certain triggers in the game that can adjust your build in the future which will come with a confirmation prompt."

“Third you will start off in a tutorial that will help you get a feel for this game. The NPC's are programmed differently there, they will understand that this is a game and will answer any system related questions you might have. We want to stress how important this tutorial is, please take advantage of it.”

“Fourth you will be unable to see the level any Monster/Player/NPC above their head, just their name. You must use your own discretion when facing an unknown enemy. A general rule to follow is if the monster looks dangerous it probably is.”

Hector decided to speak up at this point, “Not being able to change your appearance is an odd choice, aren't you worried about real world problems resulting from in game disputes? Also hiding the opponent's levels is going to be a very common complaint, do you not expect any problems?”

There was no response from the voice.

A couple windows appeared within his vision. One displayed the look of his avatar and the other asking him to choose a name to be displayed to other players. His Avatar looked exactly like himself. 27 year old man, Short black hair, average face with no distinct features, and green eyes. Hector was roughly six feet tall with an active body, average weight, not overly muscular but you could tell he wasn't out of shape.

Hector used the onscreen keyboard to type in the name Locke and selected confirm.

“Please enjoy our game.”

Immediately Hector, or let's say Locke was transported to the tutorial beginning his long journey in the world contained within The Depths of Magic.