Thief
Prologue:
Dressed in a crisp one piece suit, Shurki slowly waited for the lights to dim. Although it had been over 3 hours since Shurki began to wait, he didn’t show any of the telltale signs of impatience such as tapping his feet or exaggerating sighs. He simply sat there, looking into the distance with a blank look on his face. It would not be exaggerating to compare him to a statue.
Finally, after another 2 hours of waiting the lights dimmed. Calm under the stage lights, the host of this expo had appeared, Alan Dunbar.
"Ladies and Gentleman, thank you for coming to the birth of the Legendary Age! After 20 years of research, 2024 will be the year where the world sees the first, absolutely first, Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (VRMMORPG). Man that sure is a mouthful. *chuckles* Well you probably don't want to hear about some congratulatory thing about how innovative or cutting edge this game is, so why don't I skip the formalities and show you the new world created by Ace!"
Suddenly the curtains behind the CEO of Ace, Mr. Dunbar, pulled up. Behind him was a capsule, a sleek thin black helmet that rested on top an equally black chair. The capsule sparkled under the stage light and behind it was a 200 projection displaying a medieval city.
"For everyone who will play in this game, this city will be your starting point. You will find everything exactly like the real world. Actually I lied; I'm sorry but the game will have a maximum 25% pain allowance. Now note this, I said 25% pain allowance, not feeling. So everything will feel just like it does in real life, but if you lose an arm in your adventures, you will only feel a slight numbing in your arms. Of course, nothing will happen in real life when you log off. I promise!"
"Also, did I mention that time will only pass 4 times slower in Legendary Age? That means you, the player can do four times as much in Legendary Age compared to real life. Well, I’d love to go on and on but it’s probably boring you so. I wish all you adventurers luck in this new world."
With a bow, Mr. Dunbar walked off stage. As soon as he finished, he was given a standing ovation. After all, he was the CEO of Ace, responsible for Legendary Age, the game that is estimated to have cost over half a billion dollars to produce.
Right when he was about to step off the stage, Mr.Dunbar turned around and walked back, onto the stage. The audience, surprised by his sudden decision to come back on stage, forgot to clap and were standing around awkwardly.
Dunbar, unfazed by the piercing gaze that the audience was giving him, began to speak again: "Sorry about this, I forgot that we won't be including a help guide with Legendary Age because we at Ace believe that each user's experience should be unique. That being said, I will try to introduce the basics of this world."
Suddenly the screen behind Dunbar that was still on the medieval city changed to a black background with gold letters.
Warrior Mage Support
"On the screen are the 3 basic series of Legendary Age. In Legendary Age, there are classes for you, the player to discover and use. While there are countless classes in Legendary Age, every single class can be classified in one of the three series.”
Strength Vitality Dexterity Intelligence Wisdom Luck
"These are the 6 beginner stats.
Strength increases physical damage inflicted.
Vitality increases your hit points, or hp.
Dexterity increases speed and accuracy.
Intelligence increases damage inflicted through magic.
Wisdom increases your magic capacity, mana, the basis for most spells.
Luck affects everything from drop rates to the rewards of quests.
There will be extra stats that can be unlocked. Good luck unlocking them!"
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Common Uncommon Rare Epic Divine Legendary
"These are the item rarities, with common being the least rare and Legendary being the rarest.
Since I'm talking about these rarities, I might as well talk about the currency in Legendary Age. The lowest denomination is the Obol.
6 Obols = 1 Drachma
100 Drachma = 1 Mina
60 Mina = 1 Talent.
Each Mina correlates to about 100 dollars in the real life for now. At the start of the game, Legendary Age will provide 1000 Mina for players to buy. Once this supply is gone, we will no longer set the price for in-game currency, so the price of Mina may go up or down depending on you, the player.
In addition, Legendary Age will support an items market. You will either be auctioning or setting a price for your listings. Once your item or currency has been listed on the market, it will disappear from your equipment and as soon as the buyer pays for your item, the buyer will receive the item and you, the seller will receive your compensation. In the case that the buyer does not pay or you cancel your listing, you will receive your item back."
"God, I sound like a game manual. I'll end my introduction here and wish all of you players luck in the new world when it comes out one week from now."
With that, the stage lights dimmed and the audience captivated by Dunbar's explanation fell out of their trance and burst into thunderous applause.
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While CEO Alan Dunbar was entertaining a mob of reporters at Kennedy Center, back at Ace Corp.’s building, a private meeting was being held by the various department heads. The topic? The successor to Ace.
Alan Dunbar was in stage four, prostate cancer, but this knowledge was confined to himself, his doctors and the department heads that were in this secret meeting. Because of his eminent death, the ones that had the most to lose (the department heads) didn’t want to see their company crumble under factional fighting. Therefore, they resolved to uniformly back one person as the successor to the company, regardless of the wishes of the CEO. But who would that person be?
After furious arguments, many threats, backstabs and tense moments, the lead programmer emerged victorious, securing the allegiances of the other department heads. With a smug grin on his face, he wiped his glasses on his expensive over-sized suit and went back to his office to run the final tests of Legendary Age. Oh, it was going to be a good year, he thought.
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Shurki, Alan Dunbar’s son was captivated. Which to people that knew him, was a HUGE event. Since middle school, he was bored, bored of the busy work that his teachers assigned, bored of the below par games that came out, bored of the lifestyle he had. He was in college right now, and amazingly, he still hadn’t found anything that caught his eye. Anyways, his eyes were sparkling at the prospect of being able to play Legendary Age, the new game that his dad had developed.
He had read up on all of the critic reviews, all of the forecasts by analysts and every RPG related reading that he could get his hands on before coming to the expo. He spent nearly every waking hour fantasizing about the adventures that he would go on. He couldn’t wait for the day of release for Legendary Age because he knew that he wasn’t going to be bored anymore.
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Feducia, a beggar, was thinking about when his next meal would come, he hadn’t eaten since morning and was starving. But wherever he went, no one would spare him any pity, even the soup kitchen, whose job was to pity the homeless, turned him away. He was tired, tired of having to depend on the charity of others, but what could he do? He wasn’t able to finish middle school because of family issues and his physical constitution was a joke, he would delve into coughing fits at the slightest exercises. His only bonus was that he was immune to pain. Unfortunately, he wasn’t immune to hunger.
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