Chapter 2
Charles was stunned. “The CEO? Really?”
Samuel nodded. “Yeah. When the data from your pod came in the technicians went into an uproar. They said it had to be a glitch in the programming, probably caused by all the people in their pods trying to get on all at once. However I was there to watch the launch of the game and decided to use one of the pods in the office to come check it out. Boy was I surprised to see you here.”
Charles thought for a second, then asked “But I don’t understand. How can you just tell with one glance that all of, well, ME is here?”
“Well when the game was still in testing we would have technicians plugged into the system to monitor when players started. That’s how I was able to get in. However the technicians noticed something. When a player joins they are transparent. It was theorized because the pod only took the players consciousness and only part of the subconscious the game shows them as transparent because not all of their mind was there. So we designed the game so that after the character creation we place that transparent person inside a digital skin, after all we couldn’t have transparent people walking around. The NPCs would believe that the world was coming to an end and would hunt players constantly. That’s why it’s usually better to have a body type that’s closer to your original. You however look completely solid.”
Charles looked down at his body; “Really? I’m supposed to be transparent?”
Samuel nodded. “Yes. It also helps with the programming for Neulla. The reason she is a crystal is because the crystal acts as a sort of filter for what goes on in here. We didn’t want a god to know it was a game. So since Neulla is the goddess of resurrection we made it seem like the players were just souls that had slipped in from another dimension. She takes pity on them and gives them a new life. At least that’s from her perspective.”
“Souls from another dimension? Wouldn’t that cause uproar from the gods? I mean wouldn’t they see that as an invasion?” Charles asked? Now that the imminent threat of him disappearing was over he was actually kind of intrigued. After all this game might as well be his new home, so he’d want to know as much as possible.
“Well it would be except the very minute the gods were formed the goddess Luna prophesied that one day travelers from another dimension would flood into theirs. They would be escaping a mass calamity and used their knowledge to make a bridge to the nearest dimension. These souls would be so strong that they could reform their bodies and could not be destroyed. However it would take some time to reform the bodies and they would be weaker after, though they would never become weaker than when they first joined. It was also stated that some of the greatest and valiant heroes were to be forged from these souls and that these souls would increase the power of the gods.” Samuel said smugly. “That was one of the few inputs we did with the lore of the world. The goddess of prophesy who is never wrong said that it would happen and there was nothing the gods could do about it. We also made it seem like them coming were a good thing since it could make the gods stronger if they get the players to follow them.”
“One of the few inputs? Didn’t you guys write the history?” Charles asked. This was getting really exiting to him, after all how often can you ask a company with more net worth than several countries about there creative processes.
“Yeah, we didn’t actually do much with the history aspect. After we put down basic things we wanted we essentially made a random generating world and left it running for 3 years to get the game ready. We only know certain things that have happened. Everything else we have no idea, that’s why it’s ANARCHY online.” Samuel said with a laugh.
Charles was stunned. FutureTech started out 30 years ago as a simple company that made robotic limbs for people, primarily the military. After a few years they branched out into bionic armor for the military and some specialized equipment for hospitals. A few years after that they went ahead and brought back cloning technology, however they made sure to only clone body PARTS so they wouldn’t anger any religious organizations. These parts were made for organ transplants, since not enough hears or lungs were being donated and a lot of people were dying. After 20 years the number of things that FutureTech were a part of were astronomical. They had developed a reputation of going against the grain and doing just about anything from hover cars to the first moon mining operation. But even Charles couldn’t believe that they made a game that was literally made from the beginning to be out of even their hands.
“Anyway” Samuel continued, “this is just a heads up. Since it was known from the beginning that players, or wanderers as you’ll be known in game, were coming some of the NPCs started their own organizations to hunt them. Most NPCs will just be wary of you until you prove yourself, but there will be those that will hate you just for being there. We made sure that none of the clergy or nobility will be them, nor will any of the guild trainers. But anyone else could so watch out. Now do you want to start on your character?”
Charles was stunned by this ‘NPCs hating player for just being players? Wow this game will definitely not be easy’ “Uh.. sure. But I’ve still got several questions.”
Samuel held up his hand. “Make you character first and I’ll answer a few of them. But I can’t give too much information away. We could already get into major trouble with what we are already going to give you, and we still have to be partially fair to the other players.”
“Uh OK.” Charles turned to Neulla who was just standing waiting all this time. “I’d like to start character creation please.”
“Very well. Here are the options available to you sir.” Waiving her had 4 figures appeared. “You have the choice between Human, Elf, Halfling, and Dwarf. Please be advised that each race gets different bonuses when you log on.”
‘Damn” Charles thought ‘Only 4 races?’ Looking at them all he was rather depressed. He didn’t want Halfling or Dwarf since he never really liked to play those characters in his Pathfinder sessions. His inner fantasy nerd also hated the thought of being human. He never understood those people who pick fantasy games but ended up as something they already were. However he didn’t want to be an elf either since they were known to be rather squishy and only good for archery and magic.
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He turned to Samuel and asked “Isn’t there anything else? I mean I’m going to need something stronger than a base starter to survive without dying.”
Samuel rubbed his chin and said “That’s true and I did promise we would help. Hmmm…. I know I can give you some races that are rather easy to unlock, at least compared to the majority of other hidden races. One of the random prizes for being in the top 10 was a chance to be part of a hidden race, though we made the chance about 1 in 10,000.”
Walking up to Neulla Samuel muttered something under his breath and then stuck his hand into the statue. He then turned to Charles and said. “OK I can give you one of two options Beastfolk or Elementalists. Beastfolk are just that, humanoids with beastial body parts. Depending on the beast it is depends on the bonuses. Elementalists are races with the blood of elemental beings inside them. There attuned with whatever element that’s in their ancestry.”
Charles thought for a moment. ‘Well there certainly better than the starting four that’s for certain.’ Then he had a thought. “I’ll take elementalists.”
Samuel nodded and suddenly the 4 figures that were standing there before were replaced with 6 new figures. “The elementalists are Ifrit, Oread, Undine, Sylph, Aasmar, and Tiefling respectively. Ifrits are attuned to fire, Oreads attuned to earth, Undines to water, Sylphs to air, Aasmar to light, and Tiefling to darkness.”
‘I was right! That was one of the options! Thank you Pathfinder and your Advanced race book!’ Charles cheered. “I’ll take Oread.”
Eyebrows raised Samuel did something to Neulla and took out his hand. Neulla then turned to me and said “Congratulations player as being one of the first 10 to log into Anarchy Online you have been given the chance to play one of the many hidden races in the game. This extra race is the Oread, a race with rather close ties to the dwarfs. If you choose this race then you must start out in one of the beginning towns of the dwarven kingdom of Heldur or one of the beginning towns of the kingdom of Balawin.”
“I’ll choose Oread.” This time Charles said it to Neulla. For the next 20 minutes or so he created my character while asking questions to Samuel. By the end he ended up with a rather impressive figure. He was about 6ft 4in tall with a medium build. He was a dark grey and is eyes were as black as coal. His hair stood up in spikes and was the same shade as his skin making it look like his character was chiseled out of one solid boulder. Thanks to the fact that Charles was working a construction job to save up enough money to play the game he was also rather well toned. Charles also found out that Oreads take special crystals and turn them into tattoos, so he had a large red tribal tattoo going up the right arm.
After Charles was finished Neulla turned to him and asked “What would you like to name your new character?”
“Onyx” Charles said, deciding to name it after one of his campaign characters he use to play.
“Very well which kingdom would you like to begin in: Heldur or Balawin?”
“I don’t care.” Charles said.
“Very well then….” Just as Neulla was going to finish her sentence Samuel stuck his hand into her chest and stopped her. He then turned to Charles and said “Before we begin there are some things we need to do.” He walked over to Charles avatar and stuck his hand into it like he did with Neulla.
After a few minutes he removed his hand and turned back to Charles. “Alright here are a few things you should know. I went ahead and put in a few extra traits to your character as well as a special code that will let you see GM administrators that are disguised as NPCs. If you need to talk with us go to one of them. We’ll be trying to make you your own sub program for you consciousness to go to when you die in game. I’ve also got word that yes you are dead in real life. However if you want we have your body with the pod and have sent out a story saying that you are in a coma in one of our hospitals. Since we will be monitoring you in game and will be getting a lot of data, we can clone you a new body in secret however that will take several years.”
Charles was stunned. He was secretly hoping he had just been put in a coma and could be put back into his body. But after a few minutes of being in a silent panic he tried to calm himself back down. ‘It isn’t like you didn’t expect this. I mean you felt the air getting lower while you were in the pod. Nothing has changed.’ Taking a deep breath, and then another because one wasn’t enough, Charles said “I’d like the cloning option please.”
Samuel smiled. “I though as much so I sent the OK as soon as I got the message while you were making your character. Second the game was not meant to take a persons entire mind into the game so we have no idea what problems it could cause. However there is a good chance that the pain threshold will be higher for you than other players. So if you get hit, it will hurt. So watch out. And finally, remember what we talked about when you were making your character. It could save your life.”
Charles nodded. “Thank you. I don’t think any other company would do this. They would probably just auto eject me and blame my death on the apartment collapse.”
Samuel took Charles hand and shook it. “No problem. We’re getting as much out of this as we are giving you a chance to survive. But remember to play smart. And if you can, later on get a healer. The player actually has about 10 minutes in game to cast Resurrect on a player before they are logged out so when healers have reached that level I suggest you befriend one quick!”
“Will do.” Charles said with a grin. “Well see you in a few years.”
Samuel gave him a small smile and walked back over to Neulla turning her back on, who immediately continued as if nothing happened “….. have fun adventurer and welcome to Anarchy Online.” With that there was one final flash of light and Charles Xavier O’dell was gone.
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