“Hurry up Joey! You’re going be late on your first day!” Said Joey's mother “Yeah, yeah, I know mom. I got plenty of time for the bus. High school has been tough after-” The young teen around sixteen years old named Joey was talking to his mom but arubtley stopped mid-sentence.

It was because his mom that was in the kitchen rushed out of the door. “Alex! I’m coming!” She yelled to Joey’s brother that was just mugged on the other side of the sidewalk.

That was normal considering his brother always had his wallet bulging out of his shorts. This happened about every other week and it was always the same ‘thief.’ It was Alex’s new ‘friend.’ Alex let him take money but his mom viewed this event in a different way. It wasn’t too much and the wallet was always returned but hey. It was easier to explain to his mom why the money was missing. Usually if she seen said act happening. She would then run over and help Alex off the ground and all would be well. Hopefully this won't happen every week like last year.

As his mom ran across the street, Joey noticed something outside the window. A semi truck was cruising down the road, right towards his mother. Joey suddenly had an ominous feeling that felt oddly familiar.

“MOM! WATCH OUT! MOOOOOOOM!” Joey yelled in vain. Too late. Just like last time. The Semi turned slightly but didn’t slow down to stop, instead, the vehicle seemed to speed up. It was going for mom. I know it was.

SCREEEEE BAM!

And Joey woke up before he saw what happened completely. 

“DAMNIT!” Joey yelled as he hit his alarm clock with his fist, shutting the alarm clock off but not even leaving a scracht on it's surface.. Joey got up from the bed groggily, while rubbing his slightly bruised fist. “Ahhhhh. That hurt, geeze. Thought I got over that dream…” Joey muttered as he felt his hand pulse with pain. Hint: Don’t hit a titanium clock with your fist. It's not very good for your health. Glancing at the said clock Joey found that it was 6:03. “Ahhhhhh, fudge sticks.” Joey said as he got out of bed in a hurried manner. 

Rushing to the closet Joey went to his closet for his clothes. Finding a pile of clothes in the closet, Joey fished out his navy blue jumpsuit, he then rushed to the bathroom. This was quickly done considering the single apartment only had a bedroom, closet, kitchen, and bathroom. In the bathroom, Joey told his personal AI “Do my hair, quick” while he took out a toothbrush and his toothpaste. A machine popped out next to his mirror in the bathroom. It proceeded to get the comb and gel for Joey’s hair. Then it started to get his hair ready while Joey was busy brushing his teeth.

While he brushed his teeth, Joey looked into the mirror to see himself. A six foot two, eighteen-year-old male, with curly brown hair. His face wasn’t anything extraordinary. Speaking of his face, if he was classified it would be ‘pig faced.’ He had chocolate colored eyes that had a soft look to them, a regular sized nose, a soft chin, and cheeks that puff out a bit like a chipmunks. He was okay though if you were into chubby guys. He didn’t work out often and was bit overweight weighing at 280 pounds. Just a little bit overweight, the average male adult was only 180 pounds, not that big of a difference!

His AI’s clock went off as two minutes went by. After cleaning his teeth Joey threw away the toothbrush and told his Artificial intelligence, nicknamed 'Alex' to “pack all the bathroom materials and put it in the suitcase labeled ‘bathroom’ and send it down to the lobby with the rest of my stuff” “Got it, Joey! Anything else?” Alex responded. Yep, that’s right. A fully automated AI that Joey took years to program from scratch with the best of the best software and a hard drive with enough space to put any government’s data storage to shame. Of course, Joey may or may not have obtained all of this legally, but hey. The government should have had more protection on their servers. How was it his fault that they let him get wind of their latest technology for specialized AI from The System itself?

“Hmmm. Make sure you download to the new capsule. I’ll see you at our new place!” Joey reminded Alex

“Will do master. Safe travels!”

Grabbing my keys and his modified Android 9000, Joey left the apartment and raced down the hall to the elevator which just went down to my floor. Getting into the elevator quickly with three others, Joey went to a corner and checked his phone. 6:08. He even skipped eating but that won’t be a problem. Not when he gets to his new capsule. Even though Joey didn't do well in this world physically or socially there was another world out there. He should be able to carve a bit of space out for himself. If anyone said otherwise they'd have to fight him. It was silly of him to get Alex to pack most of his stuff, but he needed to move to a new apartment for his new capsule. In case he woke up, he might need to keep up his hygine, something is mother always reminded him to do.

Ding!

The elevator hit the ground floor after multiple stops, opening up in a slow but graceful manner.

It was time for Joey to step back into the world after two years of staying cooped up in his apartment. With that, Joey took one step out of the elevator and one step into the future.

Walking out of his apartment building Joey immediately took a right to go to the reserved parking area for the apartment building. Running more than jogging, Joey went to his car that wasn't even fifty feet away. His car was a black sedan. The exact same car that everyone owned in the world if you had a car. If you looked on the roads you would find that his black sedan matched every other car on the road. The reason being was because cars were just transportation to certain buildings and were a luxury to most people. If they wanted to go somewhere fast, public transportation was quick enough. Thankfully each sedan had a electromagnetic magnet inside unique to each key, allowing a person to find their car quickly.

The majority of people took an underground subway or a bus to get to their destination, but Joey couldn't for three main reasons. One reason was because even after jogging only for about fifteen seconds to his car, he was already winded and out of breath. The other reason was because Joey was afraid that he would either get lost or That he wouldn't get off on the right stop. Getting into and turning the car on Joey showed the third reason he couldn't take public transportation.

The clock in his car read 6:12 telling Joey that he had eighteen minutes to make it to his new home. It was about fifteen minutes away with good traffic, twenty with bad traffic. Joey was hoping that he wasn't late. If he was late he would miss getting into his apartment. He couldn't get into the game because the game launch was only opened 5:30 A.M to 6:30 A.M. If he missed this deadline the consequences would be pretty severe. It would also be embarrassing considering that he rented the car so he could go a little bit faster. The deadline was a bit silly, but having to start The System for almost every single person on the world at the same time? Yes, you can log in later, but you would have to wait at least a day if you logged in anywhere before 6:30. The game put people in by the hour in between. Such as 5:30-6:30, 6:30-7:30, etc. 

Joey turned out of the parking lot after quickly looking for any on-coming traffic. There wasn't any so he quickly put the metal to the pedal and zoomed out of the parking lot and onto the road.

"Better make it soon or I won't make it in time for the servers. Hope Tod will still let me into the building..." Joey muttered underneath his breath. Joey was already sweating from being overly nervous. The reason was because he might be late for the new launch of The Server. The server was a new game that was created many many millennia ago. Why would such an old game have any meaning to Joey at the moment?

It was because it wasn't a game, but the game. The only game that decided if you would be a slave to another person or a ruler to a planet. It was practically virtually reality to everyone in the whole galaxy. If a planet didn't want to participate in The Server even after the Plecatain or Valatans offered a chance for you to join? It's fine, totally fine. They'll just come over there with an armada, decimate 80% of the population, and then force the rest to go into The Server. Oh, don't forget the fact that you and all of your people will also be enslaved inside of The Server for the rest of their miserable life. Like seriously, the Valatans did a live feed of them razing a planet to the ground and had everyone in the universe to watch. It may be fake, but with the stuff they showed already? It seems VERY likely to be true.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Did I mention? The two rulers of the universe were the Valatans and the Plecatain. These two are the main rulers in real life for all that we know. The Valatans are a war hungry civilization that only wants to kill and conquer. The Plecatain just want to spread the knowledge of science and the advancement of science, although they hoarded most of the scientific discoverys. After making more than half of the universe a desolated wasteland from their war due to different ideologies, they decided on peace. Well in real life that is. They both decided that they wanted to continue but didn't want to destroy the Universe anymore so they settled on carrying both of their goals another way.

They also didn’t want to create any unfair advantages so they decided to restart all the technology for all the planets and people that started inside of The Server. They deemed ‘fair’ by letting all planets have certain technologies that didn’t allow them to explore space for a long while but still had some form of technology. It was really dependent on the civilization at the time it went into the game. They also didn’t just want to add in any unexplored space into the game or any unexplored planets into the game during the latter portion of The Server. For example, Earth. When the game started for the first time, Earth was undiscovered. After a millennium has passed, and ten thousand Virtual Reality (VRT) years have passed, almost all the planets in the game were far ahead in experience and power of any new planet that would join. They deemed that those planets would fall within a month so they decided to let these new planets join after a restart. Of course, we had no knowledge considering that Earth didn’t have any creatures that could think for themselves at the time. They only contacted us about the restart two years ago. The server lasted one Eon long and restarted every time at the end of the Eon to be fair and to incorporate new civilizations. Only the civilizations that were discovered later would have to wait, any civilization before the endgame was still forced to join.

Of course, there were more civilizations in this war and many more factions, but the main two powers were undoubtedly the Valatans and Plecatains. They then decided to make a surveillance system that monitored everyone that had the system planted inside of their planet. This made protecting other people easier so no one would be able to easily kill other people. Personally, I'm a bit skeptical on all of this history considering it literally came from the Valatans and Plecatains themselves, but there is probably some kernel of truth from that story. The monitoring system was set up by another being. That might have been the third power, the Astroniers during that period, but they haven't been reported in the game. They are said to be monitoring each device and that they made a type of A.I to handle it, but I wouldn't know the actual context.

They also made sure all rules were followed. Even though The System was restarted, Earth was at a serious disadvantage. In my opinion, because we have no experience whatsoever about The System and we were usually more focused on 'ourselves' rather than the whole, our world was doomed.

I don't really believe or care about all of the informationon anyway. What does it matter to me if my world falls apart, or if someone is spying on me? At least I get some fun out of The Server while everyone else suffers. As long as I'm far away when it happens, I'd care less on how my planet does. Although I would try to save it if I could without hurting my own interests. Always good to make more allies that'll trust you just because you're from the same nation. Insufferable morons, judging from certain prejudice.

After finally going through traffic in the sedan, I parked inside another parking lot next to an apartment complex. This building looked like a near replicate to my old apartment building. Just like every other building that I passed in my car. Every building in the world looks like this because real life doesn't matter. Everyone is just trying to fit enough people in the world. Food comes from a quick growing plant that only takes about five minutes to grow completely. It is mostly used for nutrients for The Server gamers though. All they need to do is leave automated computer systems to this task and to distribute and Ta Da! A perfect system where everyone can play the game. It's nearly Idiot proof. Nearly.

Although there was a ton of traffic, that is to be expected considering it's the opening day of The Server. Literally, the only day of the century that I've seen more than two people in the flesh. The reason? No one goes out of the game to do anything. The game moves ten times faster than real life making any meeting in the real life worth gold. You would indisputably be wasting your time considering that fact that a ton of things can happen if your away from the game for a day. That's ten days in the game that you're wasting! You could easily do it in real life too. Well, that's basically why everyone is addicted to the game too. Besides the part where you can improve yourself.

Now, we do not have access to the actual Server to play on, but we were given The Game to Pratice in. To help Earth with virtual reality and to interact with other planets that were in a similar situation as earth.

Walking into the building Joey checked his phone. 6:25. Perfect timing as always. Joey walked into a room that looked like a three-star hotel. It had a clean look to it with a small lobby, a reception desk and a high ceiling. There was also an elevator up front and some stairs next to it for whoever was crazy enough to use them. Probably in case of emergencies, though joey would rather take a window and just save himself the pain of walking. It would probably hurt after landing on the hard ground... Oh well, he wouldn't have to walk and he would be out of his misery if he landed in his head. That would be an absolute win in his eyes.

Joey walked up to the reception desk and showed her his phone which had his I.D. on it. After scanning his I.D. she sent him his coordinates to his room. That's the pleasure in today's technology. No words needed. It would also be helpful to know that the lady behind the desk wasn't a lady but an automaton. Almost all of the jobs have been taken up from different computerized programs so there wasn't any need to do any of these jobs. Especially when most of civilization's technology had an upheaval when The Server came to their planet. The Server was light years beyond anything that Earth ever thought of much less had.

Going to his room E-90030 on the fifteenth floor out of a hundred, Joey entered his room. Checking his phone for the eighth time within the hour, it read 6:42. He still had about six hours until the game officially started. People could still enter the game but they couldn't really do anything except the tutorial for the new game. Because the game restarts every Eon, (A billion years) a lot of people forgot what primitive technology they can use. Depending on where you spawn, they will have a different type of technology tree they can follow until the globalnet (GN for short) is established either on their planet or by over 50% of their players. The GN was a social network that connected everyone's technology and allowed them to communicate with one another.

They could post whatever they wanted on the GN except for viruses. Well, you can do upload viruses, but be ready to die in a nano-second after uploading it and having it erased immediately. Hacking is fair game though as long as you don't hack the surveillance system itself called Domino. Odd name for a surveillance system that watches everyone.

Basically, everyone spawns on their home planet unless they have a special job classification. Well, that seems to be all there is to it. Pretty easy in my opinion but eh. First time entering the game and for a good reason. It's a known secret that if you enter the game for the first time you get some extra resources to establish yourself with that gives you a HUGE advantage. It can be discovering certain technologies before anyone else to having a unique or legendary class.

Time to get into the game and contact my friends. Doing the tutorial wouldn't be so bad either. I hope that doing all of that software and hack training since I was six pays off. Hopefully.

Joey was in his room already sitting on his bed. The room was the exact same one he left not even an hour ago. There was the exact same closet with all of his stuff in it. His bathroom was completely packed with everything he'll ever need. The kitchen was empty as usual and his bed was already made which he sat on. In the corner of his room, there was a difference. He use to have a desk and computer there but not no more. There sat a big metal contained touching the ceiling at about seven feet. It was approximately twice Joey's side width wise and had a container that was hooked up to the ceiling that would put his body in a trance to preserve it. A normal person that could only live up to eighty can live up to a thousand easily inside these containers. If they do well in the game they can even live for a longer period of time.

Entering his cyto-chamber, Joey then closes it after getting inside. Time to connect with my a few of his friends that were also new to the game. Time to make a name for himself and live luxuriously in The Server. He then can finally find his mother's murder and kill that damned mastermind. Also would be nice to have fun and make new friends to explore the world. It would help if he became powerful too. He always loved the looks of people begging for his help. The puppy eye was his favorite too.

That was his last thought as Joey's conscience faded into the darkness and into The Server.