The Final Frontier
By: Arahito
Chapter 1
Celeste was searching for the key to her boyfriends new apartment in her handbag. It was a hot summer day and she was craving to get into the cool building. Francis - her boyfriend – had moved out recently and since they were both students at the same university she decided to move in with him, although she was technically still living with her parents. In the beginning Celeste's parents didn't want to let her go, because they thought Francis might have a bad influence on her. It was true that her boyfriend had gotten into some fights in the past, but he was one of the kindest and most sincere persons Celeste knew.
She finally found the key and opened the door. Stumbling into the refreshing coolness of the entrance hall, she let out a sigh of relief. "It is too damn hot" she thought to herself and went into their bedroom. She dropped her handbag on the bed, got rid of her clothes and headed to the bathroom to take a quick shower and wash the sweat of her skin. When she was done, she put on some comfortable clothes and started making some food. Francis had class for another hour and he would need at least 20 minutes to get home, so she took her time to prepare something really delicious.
When Francis arrived in the late afternoon, Celeste had just finished the meal. "Hi, honey" he said to her.
Instead of answering she smiled and gave him a kiss. Francis was tall and good looking. With his 6'4'' and well trained body he was an eye-catcher. He had short black hair and kind brown eyes. His distinctive nose gave him a look like an ancient greek or roman. But what Celeste liked the most about him was his short trimmed full beard. While most girls preferred their men shaved, Celeste had a weird obsession with facial hair.
"Come, sit down, I just finished the food. It's your favorite stew!"
She laughed when she saw how Francis eyes had widened in anticipation and he had started drooling after she had said those words.
"Well, then let's not waste time" he said and started filling his bowl.
As soon as they had finished their meal and washed the dishes, Francis said to Celeste
"You remember the game I told you about recently? Royal Road? The one that was released two weeks ago."
"How could I not remember it? It's literally all you have been talking about last month." she replied rolling her eyes.
There indeed had hardly been a different topic Francis was willing to talk about during the last weeks.
"Well, I got us something." Francis said and took Celestes hand and pulled her towards his homegym. When he had rented the apartment Francis made sure to have a spare room which he could transform into a homegym.
He loved to train, but he couldn't stand public gyms, so he decided to rather pay a lot more rent than he needed to, just to have an extra room and spent a ridiculous sum on equipment. It was an unnecessary expense in Celestes opinion, but she didn't voice her doubts because in truth she also found it extremely convenient to have a homegym.
Francis opened the door to the room and.. the room looked completely different than in the morning when Celeste had left the apartment. All the equipment had been placed in one half of the room and on the other side of the room were two big silver capsules with the logo of the multinational gaming corporation Unicorn.
"Where... I mean.. what.."
Celeste was so surprised she couldn't find a word to say. Before she had time to recover from the shock, Francis, still holding her hand, got down on his right knee and looked her deep in the eyes. Celeste was petrified.
"Francis. What are you doing?" she asked with a threatening tone in her voice. But Francis didn't bat an eyelash and spoke up
"Celeste, I know we have only been dating for one year, but there is something special about you and I can't help but love you more each day I am with you. Are you willing to become my partner...in a new world, go on adventures with me and enjoy the little things as we do now?"
Celeste let out a loud laugh while she relaxed. "Oh, silly, you really got me for a moment" she said and started laughing again. Francis who had kept a serious expression until then dropped all pretence and joined in.
"But how did you buy two capsules, didn't you tell me they were extremly expensive? And what about the subscription fee?" Celeste asked when they had calmed down.
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"Well, you know, I.. had a word with my dad" Francis answered evidently feeling uneasy and avoiding eyecontact.
Seeing that Celeste grabbed his head and turned it so that he had to look at her, then she pulled him down to her and kissed him passionately.
"Your mother won't be happy to hear that, but I am not judging you" she said softly when they parted.
Francis smiled and whispered "I love you".
Now it was Celestes turn to grab Francis hand and to pull him to the capsules.
"Soo, how do they work?"
"Well, you just take a seat in it, activate it and follow the instructions" Francis replied.
"Sounds fairly easy." Celeste said and sat down in one of the capsules.
"Wait, before we start, let's decide on a starting city. I made some research and I think we should go with the city of Brach. It is the starting area with the least player population so far" Francis instructed Celeste.
"Alright, got it." she grinned "I am first." and closed the capsule and pressed the start button.
She heard Francis swearing and laughing at the same time, before everything got dark.
A moment later Celeste was in a white room. Except that room didn't have any walls. No ground and no ceiling either. And not just that. When she tried to move Celeste noticed that she also didn't have a body.
"The scan of your iris and veins has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?” a voice suddenly rang in Celeste's mind.
"Yes" she answered, although she didn't have a mouth. While she was still wondering how that was possible the voice continued.
"Please select the name of your avatar."
"Uhm, Celeste, I guess?" she replied. 'Why should I pick a different name than my own?'
"Please select your gender from male, female, neutral."
"Female..?"
"Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may choose from the primary twenty-nine races and select a subrace afterwards, if available.”
A list of various races such as Elves, Dwarfs, Humans, Halflings and so on appeared.
"Hmmm, let's see..can I see the elves please?" A 3D-model of all elven subraces appeared in front of Celeste.
"Hmmm" she said again "I think I'll go with the wood elf race. They have the best looks."
"Do you wish to alter your appearance?"
"Wait, what? So, I can alter my appearance? I should have known that before." Celeste sulked. "Yes, I do wish to alter my avatar. Make the brown hair blond, like mine. Turn the eyes blue like mine and change the height to my original height of 1,65m. You know what? Just make that avatar look like me" Celeste told the voice.
She knew that she was actually a pretty good looking girl. There was no real reason to alter her appearance.
"Due to the fact that you chose wood elf as your race your avatar can not look exactly like you but it has been altered to resemble you to the max." The voice noted.
"Can I see it?" Celeste responded immediately.
Again a 3D-model of her avatar appeared in front of her. First Celeste thought she was looking into a mirror. But then she noticed small differences. The avatars facial features were slightly more delicate and the eyes a little bigger. Also Celestes limbs were just a little bigger than her avatars. Same for her breasts and waist. Actually the avatar was just a somewhat smaller version of herself, Celeste thought when she noticed the avatars slightly pointy ears. It was adorable she thought and smiled.
"Yes, that's acceptable the way it is" she told the voice.
"Please select your starting city."
"City of Brach"
“Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Welcome to Royal Road!”
Her Avatar disappeared and the world around Celeste became brighter. She had to quickly close her eyes to not be blinded.
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