Today was the day;
The day people had been waiting for months,
and the day they would remember throughout eternity.
It was my last day of senior year,
and it was also the day “The Night Lands” came out.
Today was the day my legend began.
Copper Collins awoke with a jump. He had a weird dream while he was sleeping but he couldn't exactly remember the contents, this happened regularly though so he dismissed it quickly and looked at his digital clock to see the date and time.
“It comes out today huh…”
He saw that the date was june 28th. Normally, school students would remember this date because it was the last day of many schools across the US, but this year everyone remembered it because the new game “The Night Lands” was coming out. Children, adults, and even grandparents were all excited because this was no ordinary game; It was a virtual reality game. Dream Link Laboratories, often called DLL, created a headset that put you in a dream-like state and linked your mind with everyone else who was in that state, creating a hub of minds who are dreaming and putting them all into a game world. Which is why it's technically called Artificial Dreaming Reality (ADR) but most people still called it Virtual Reality because that's what it's supposed to feel like. Due to the nature of ADR, there was no need for internet, or power, you simply put on the cordless headset and your body became limp while your mind connected to the world where everyone else in that dream-like state was in.
Copper, like most people who weren't living under a rock, after learning about the game tried to look up more information about it, but the company had let nothing leak, the only thing people knew was that it was like VR, and that it had RPG like elements.
Copper got out of bed to start his morning routine. He showered, brushed his teeth, made his hair, etcetera. He looked at himself in the mirror as he was getting ready and evaluated himself. Copper was a slightly better than average looking 17 year old. Brown hair, blue eyes, 5’ 10’’ height. The only thing that made Copper unattractive was that he was flabby looking, but who wasn't in today's age? Either you were overweight, flabby, or a body builder copper thought, and was slightly amused that he was in the average of that category as well. Copper came out of the bathroom dressed with a hoodie and loose jeans, he also wore glasses due to his awful sight, but it just added more to his character instead of making him look nerdy.
Copper grabbed his backpack and walked downstairs
“Hey, Copper! Excited about today?”
When he walked into the living room he saw one of his best friends, Alcie Gable. A girl. Most would say an impossibly beautiful one. She had scarlet red hair, and emerald green eyes and the purest pale skin in miles. She was putting her hands behind her back and leaned forward innocently while asking.
Now first before you complain about him living with a girl under the same roof, you should know about Copper’s situation. Copper doesn't remember a thing before his 10th birthday. His first memory was of him waking up in the middle of a nature reserve with a piece of paper stating his name, birthdate, and location. He knew how the basics of most things, and even knew how to talk in the 3 most spoken languages; English, Spanish, and Chinese Mandarin. He knew things that you would learn all the way up to a high school graduate perfectly. He knew these things, yet he wasn't smart, he was perfectly average in that situation too, an exact IQ of 100. You could know all of the things in the world, but if you weren't smart,you couldn't put them into effect, so even though he knew most things advanced for a 10 year old, it didn't give him much of an advantage, except in school.
Anyways, He knew these things, Yet he knew nothing of his life, or how he got into the nature reserve. Sooner or later, A ranger spotted him and helped him out, he ended up in an orphanage for 4 years until it unexpectedly shut down. He was going to get relocated to another orphanage when the parents of one of his friends, Benton Gable said they would let him live with them, not adopt him, just let him rent out one of the rooms. Even though he was 14 at the time, he was resilient and he didn't want to leave the place where he's known for his four years of all the life he could remember, so he accepted and worked around the house to earn his keep. Benton had a sister one year younger than him, and so one year younger than Copper. Now, while copper is 17, Benton and Alcie have become the best friends Copper has.
“Yeah, You know i’ve been waiting for Nights for about a year now right?” Copper replied after the long narration
*Giggle* “Yeah, I know, just thought you might show a little bit more emotion today” She says as walks over to sit down for breakfast
“Hey you know when Benton is getting back from this end of the year field trip? School year is over today.” Copper asks as he sits down with her.
*Sigh* “I have no idea when he’s coming back, It's been a whole two weeks and i’ve had to do all of his chores while he’s been gone. Why didn't you go?” (Alcie)
“You know your parents don't go easy on me and wouldn't lend me the money to go on the trip, and I sure don't have any. Even if they are nice, they sure are strict. Doesn't matter to me anyways, we already finished up exams weeks ago, and most people didn't go on the trip. I have no idea what we’re doing in school now, they’re mostly teaching us about life beyond high school.” (Copper)
“Hah, sounds boring.” (Alcie)
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“It is.” (Copper)
They finished eating and Copper drove them to school, he went to his class and sat down waiting until class started. He observed the surroundings. Many people were talking about Nights and how they were getting ready to play it later today. Copper was an observer, He didn't talk much and didn't stand out in class. He just observed. He probably knew more about his classmates than most, but that's how he was. People interests him, He wants to know their stories, their emotions, what makes them, well... them! He knew one girl in class has had 5 boyfriends in the past year and all of them were with older men, he knew one guy was studying photography just to photograph nudes of hotties. He knew these juicy secrets about everyone in class and it didn't gross him out, or make him want to spread gossip, he didn't think any less of his classmates, he just found them interesting.
“Hey Copper you playing Nights later today as well?”
One of coppers friends named Danner came up and asked while slapping a hand on the seated Coppers back
“Well yeah. Who wouldn't be playing it?” (Copper)
“Yeah! we’ve got to meet up in game sometime and kick some ass!” (Danner)
“Ahem”
At that moment the teacher appeared and Danner quickly ran back to his seat.
Just one more day of classes Copper thought
After boringly sitting throughout the whole day. Copper finally walked out the front doors of school and breathed in a breath of cold air.
“Ahhh, Finally im done with this forsaken place” (Copper)
“Yeah well, that's until you have to go to college to continue your education” (Alcie)
The breath and energy dropped from Coppers stature.
“Ugh why did you have to bring that up… Just get in the car, lets go see if it came in the mail” (Copper)
“Wohoo!” (Alcie)
When Copper and Alcie got home, they found 5 boxes with the DLL logo on them on the living room table, two were already opened.
“YES! They’re here! I guess mom and dad are already trying them out! We better hurry and catch up!” Alcie says as she grabs one of the boxes and runs into her room.
Guess I better hurry up too (Copper)
Copper goes up into his room and unboxes the package, in there is a thin headset and a paper saying “Just lay down and put this on, and the rest will be explained”
Copper did so and…
*Dreaming Sequence Activated*
Everything went black.
Copper woke up in a completely white room, with a basic set of white clothes
“Hello there, shall we begin?” A feminine voice says, and as Copper looks up he see’s a golden haired goddess looking at him
“Thank you for the compliment, but i'm not a Goddess, just an AI set up for introductions” The golden haired goddess says
“Wait. You can read my mind?”(Copper)
“Well, sorta. I mean, the device is connected to your subconsciousness and nervous system” (Godess)
Well damn. Don't think any dirty thoughts, Don't think any dirty thoughts! (Copper)
*Sigh* “Anyways, Your appearance, want to change it?” (Goddess)
“Nah i'm good, What about race though? is that a thing?” (Copper)
“No, sorry, all races must stay the race they are” (Goddess)
All races? aren't Humans the only race that could be able to play this game though? (Copper)
“Shit!” The goddess mumbles under her breath “Okay, where in Nights do you want to start off?”She says trying to quickly change the topic hoping to make him forget her misslip
A map appears in front of copper
A map of Nights huh, good thing I have photographic memory, I bet there isn't a detailed map as this in game, just going to have to sit here for a while and absorb it in. (Copper)
For fucks sake, making me slip something and now finding an obvious exploit, who is this guy? I'm just going to pick for him on the very outer edge of beginner villages hehe. That'll be brutal (Goddess)
“Hey where did the map go?” (Copper)
“You took too long so it's going to be random now *snicker*” (Goddess)
“Damn” (Copper)
“So last thing for you to pick, what do you want you’re in game name to be?” (Goddess)
“hmmmmm, How about REM?” (Copper)
“Rem it is then! Now we just scan your brain, your memories, and your thoughts and pick a class for you, by the way, my name isn't ‘goddess’ its Story!” (Story)
“Wait, wha-” (Copper)
And then the area around coppers head exploded
In real life.
…….
-In a far, far away place-
“hmm, so someone has obtained a god class then? I mean, even hidden classes are rare, most people just get normal things like warrior or ninja. but for this species to obtain a god this early on.... Either that being really is something, or he’s the luckiest existence in the known universe.” (???)
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Author notes:
So this is the first chapter! Tell me what you think! I'm not sure right now how frequently chapters will come out so don't keep your hopes up for daily releases :/