Chapter 1
Also releasing this on RoyalRoad
Eventually, though, technology will progress to a point where the first virtually immersive game will be created. It won't be good, but it will be the start of the end for games that use other platforms such as computers, consoles, and phones.
Because the gaming industry does not really make its money from casuals, who buy a game and occasionally play it on the weekend for a scant few minutes. These people never enter the community and spend money on in-game items, boosting or unlocking new content.
The industry makes its money from 'gamers,' people willing to spend their entire time and capital fleeing reality into a game where they hope to be challenged, hope to become the elusive top 0.1% of a community. All these gamers will flock to virtual reality games once made fully realistic like a moth to a flame.
Some will leave immediately after, because stabbing someone in what is basically a second reality will be too much for them. But most will stay. And the new industry will bloom, while the last one will suffocate.
The games don't have to be good. Real virtual games, games where you get dropped off into a foreign world with nothing but your wits, status page, beginner village, and maybe some friends have been popularized by media for decades.
Everyone interested in gaming has been dreaming of this for the past forty years. And soon, these dreams will become reality.
-/-
Ergarth was lying down in his room when the call came. The slightly obnoxious ringing of his phone filled the room, forcing him to stand up with a sigh. He was still tired from his workout.
He accepted the call and made his way onto the balcony, where he watched the sun rise from behind the mountains as he and his bookkeeper exchanged the usual greetings.
One would think they would be above that after seven years of working together, their fortune entwined like a complicated knot. But they weren't. The age difference proved to be too much.
"Are you sure you want to do this? Even if it is a declining market, you are still one of the best in it. Making money for the next decade still isn't entirely out of question." Ergarth gazed out at the stars that were fading slowly now that the sun was coming out. Like scared animals fleeing after the predator came out to hunt.
"I think we both know the arguments by heart at this point. I will start the 'Project' anew in virtual reality," Ergarth said, and heard a sigh from the other end. "If I don't start with everyone else, doing so will in a decade put me so far behind I will never be able to catch up. Catch up in any meaningful way, at least." He felt as if Arthur was going to continue the argument, so he cut the man off. "Trust me on this, Watts."
Silence reigned for a while before Arthur grunted and answered, "I will, I guess. You know more about games than I ever will. Doesn't mean I have to like it though. The fact that Ori isn't releasing any information about the game expect for a few cutouts and the fact there will be no health point system in place is concerning."
Ergarth nodded, then noticed that the bookkeeper couldn't actually see him. "To you and me both, but we already exchanged stocks and sold the last of my accounts in LoA." He shrugged, more to himself than anyone else. "I know myself. If I leave myself an option I'll chicken out. The only way forward is forward."
"True, it's too late." Arthur hesitated, "I just wanted to talk to you, and wish you good luck. The servers are going up in an hour. Try to have fun, Ergarth. Goodbye."
"Bye." A beep resounded through the quiet morning. Ergarth turned his phone off and put it aside.
An old thing. People often mocked him for it… until he told them that he had built it himself to be untraceable. Then they mocked his paranoia.
Well, he hoped it was untraceable at least, it was slightly outdate. He at least hoped there had been no new technology created allowing people interested in spying on him being able to do so.
But using things that you had built yourself was just so satisfying. He imagined it was like having children, just less intense. He didn't know how other people managed to live without creating anything at all.
They managed it through necessity. Arriving before the Immersion Chamber, he scowled at the glossy silver capsule. He hadn't built his immersion chamber himself either, though not for a lack of wanting too. He just hoped he would one day become proficient enough to modify it to some degree.
He booted the thing up and took off all his clothes. Almost as an afterthought, he removed all of his jewelry, an armband here and there and a necklace woven crudely together out of noticeably old leather.
Ergarth hated the fact you had to be naked to enter virtual reality. So drafty. He opened the chamber, the insides looking more and more like a demented exam table you would find at the doctors', only it was filled with a blue jelly and you had to close the lid over yourself. Not something he imagined to be fun for claustrophobic people.
After laying down and activating it, though, he forgot the unease that still hadn't gone away, even after three months of using the thing. It was just so mesmerizing.
Lay down, activate it, and suddenly you weren't lying down anymore.
You were standing up in a white space, the only thing occupying it your own body and small orbs floating around that represented the programs you had available to you. He grasped firmly at the one with the logo of a game company on it. Once he held it in his hand, Ergarth let his body sink into it. How that worked, he didn't know. What he did know was that he was suddenly in the game, with a bright red countdown being transmitted onto pitch black surroundings.
Server going up in 29 minutes and 38 seconds.
[System: Would you like to create an account?]
"Yes." Ergarth knew it was necessary so that the game company had a recording of you agreeing to their terms and conditions, which were included in the question of 'do you wish to create an account.' But he still couldn't help but roll his eyes.
He was anxious of what was to come though. The game developers hadn't revealed much information whatsoever before the release.
[System: Choose race.] His eyebrow twitched as the entirety of one available race appeared before him. Human. He picked it... if you could refer to the action as such, since there was only one choice.
[System: Would you like to deviate your body? Up to 15% is possible.]
This was where Ergarth hesitated. He could make himself taller, bulkier to make himself a better warrior. Smaller and thinner to make a better rogue or mage.
He entered the creation box and changed his facial features a bit. From a slightly bearded, blue eyed man with short, cropped brown hair… to a noticeably younger version of himself with dull brown eyes, slightly longer than normal hair and no beard. Some people who had known him back then might recognize him, but those weren't the people he wanted not to know who he was anyway.
Hesitating for a while longer, he finally exited the body creation box with a sigh. He was going to take the advice of his friends. Mauve had more experience with virtual reality than he had. Heck, the guy even used it for the same purpose he was about to, namely combat.
[System: Pick a class.]
Several words appeared before him. Archer, warrior... he stopped at rogue after giving the others a cursory glance. Ergarth knew games, and while this one promised to be a second reality, even if all myths came to life and people had access to status pages, it was still, in the end, a game.
Tanks, Carries, Supports, and Bruisers.
All the games he'd played had a particular pattern, even if most of them had been first-person shooters and MOBAs. He hadn't dabbled in MMOs much but he still knew that the pattern carried over.
In the beginning, the easiest classes were the strongest. But an easy class didn't have much variety in its play style. One year after release, Carries became strong, assassins especially. People needed some time to learn to play them, after all. And he did have some experience with the class, so the learning process should go faster for him.
Ergarth didn't think this game would be any different. He picked rogue.
Another reason he did so was because people were willing to pay more for guidance on how to play a hard class. And assassins always did have a habit of attracting the more... enthusiastic gamers.
[System: Please pick two skills. You will gain access to more, either from skill books, NPCs, or every five levels from your own skill tree.]
This, he thought to himself, was where it got complicated. Numerous skills flashed before his eyes as he scrolled through them like a shopper scrolling through different pieces of clothing, wondering what would fit him best. Suffice to say, there were a lot of them. Fifteen, even if some were simply the same skill but only differentiated by the fact that they were passive and active.
Like stealth. You could either have it as an active, blending with your surroundings and making hiding attempts more likely to succeed for one minute. Or you could have it as a passive, which made all effects of trying to stay hidden slightly more effective. The same duality was also seen with backstab and with some other skills.
The decision was hard, as always. He glanced at the countdown that was still blinking in the background. Ten minutes.
Ergarth picked backstab (active) and back slide. One would allow him to deal a burst of heavy damage if he managed to sneak up to someone. The other would allow him to run away from slow enemies when he eventually fucked up. He didn't really know much of what he was doing in virtual reality, after all.
He didn't think the game company would let him fight quick enemies right off the bat. Slimes and Goblins were the most likely. But the developers could surprise him.
Maybe he didn't know much about real life combat, but he knew much about games, and therefore other gamers. The combination of skills most likely to be picked by other thieves were stealth (passive) and backstab (passive). They all thought that by slowly grinding the skills up they would become late game monsters, completely ignoring the fact that people who rushed forward early on were very likely to stay ahead. Looting harder areas earlier, killing the boss monsters, and finding all the unique quests.
Ergarth couldn't really fault them, they were just playing for fun. He, however, had been playing games as a job for many years now. It would be an embarrassment if he didn't know more than some casuls.
Maybe his build would be the one that failed.
Only the future would tell.
"Can I see the starting skills of the other classes?" Ergarth asked into the void. He still had eight more minutes left if the countdown was correct. He could start learning more about the other classes instead of just waiting there and staring blankly into space. The information would be useful; he couldn't really imagine a game with no Player vs Player (PvP) function whatsoever.
[System: Affirmative.]
He suddenly had a thought and his mouth asked before he could think about it. "Wait what about stats? Shouldn't I distribute those?" he blurted out.
A list of skills that seemed to span all classes suddenly spread out before him, and he absent mindedly muttered a thanks.
[System: The status page will be accessible and customizable after finishing the first scenario.]
The newly christened rogue nodded as he quickly scrolled through the skills, trying to soak up as much as possible while he watched the countdown near zero out of the corner of his eyes.
After reading through it, a few scant seconds remaining, he asked, "What first scenari-?"
The question got stuck in his throat as a sudden change in scenery assaulted his senses. Suddenly finding himself in a cave, he stumbled around for a few seconds, disoriented by the swap and the text before him, floating in the air.
Before he could actually try to read it, a soft sound from behind startled him, and he drove around only to find that the cave held the entrance to a small lake where water droplets were periodically dripping from the stalactites above.
Calming down, he noted that for the first time in virtual reality he actually felt a cold wind run over his body, making his hair stand on end. Looking down, he noted that he was still naked.
He read the text still stubbornly floating in front of him, which informed him about the existence of an inventory. "Inventory." A colourful arrangement of boxes appeared in the air. Four of them contained something. He immediately pulled out the pants, boots, and shirt of the beginner cutthroat set.
Cute.
He pulled on the clothes, an action that was interrupted by them just teleporting onto his body, which he was glad for. He walked over to the lake, a lake he could somehow see without any visible lighting.
It actually looked like daytime. Well, a game would suck if you couldn't even see anything, he thought to himself as he looked at his reflection in the water.
Only to not recognize the person within. The face was… different. And the clothes didn't really cover much.
Done with looking at himself, Ergarth hesitantly pulled out the dagger still in his inventory. It was his first time holding such a weapon. Curious as to what would happen, he pricked himself in the thumb.
A red bar flashed over his head, which he saw in his reflection and in the corner of his eyes. The bar contained an infinity symbol. Did that mean he was immortal in this tutorial? He furrowed his brows and cast backstab while holding the blade before him menacingly.
Nothing happened.
Well, there was no enemy in the area, so the result was expected. What about back slid-
Ergarth was rudely interrupted by his body deciding that it really didn't like the place it was in at the moment. He flipped, torqued, and slid backwards for a few moments, his heart beating madly as he stopped, feet skidding on the ground. He caught his breath.
That had been uncomfortable. And disconcerting, considering the fact that he knew his real body was strapped down inside of a immersion chamber and did have not have the ability to move like that.
The cooldown refreshed automatically, as rogues didn't use mana, but he imagined that his mana bar would have been left untouched as well. Ergarth grinned.
He knew that the few minutes would be, if not boring, at least monotonous. But you had to do what you had to do.
He started backsliding.
-/-
Getting every small advantage that you could eventually accumulated into one big advantage, which was basic addition. You just had to be able to perceive periods of time where you could grasp these miniscule advantages.
There was always a trade-off, however. In this case he let the other players, or more like his competitors, get a ten minute head start on actually exploring the new and realistic, but also dangerous world that the game developers had promised them.
But skill was always preferable to having a slightly higher level or a piece of equipment that was slightly superior. Well, in this case knowing how to use a skill that one already possessed more effectively.
Which was also skill. And it wasn't like the time given to competitors mattered in this situation.
Ergarth looked around the cave he was in, paying special attention to the one exit from the cave, and then for the second time that day started undressing himself. If you could call simply unequipping his clothes and putting them back in the inventory undressing. He stared confused at the loincloth that he was unable to remove, though. Then he shrugged; it wasn't like it particularly mattered, and it was understandable that while Origin maybe spoke of unlimited violence and realism, they didn't necessarily want their players being flashed or sexually assaulted.
That would be pretty stupid.
Turning around, Ergarth looked at the small lake, if you could call it that, at the edge of the cave. Then he ran towards it and dove in head first.
The water felt real. It also felt very cold. Before managing to do anything he was forced to resurface and take a large gulp of air as the icy sensation covering his body made him gasp.
Then, after getting used to it, he dove in again. He opened his eyes and confirmed his suspicion: he could see perfectly well, even when underwater. The light was only slightly murkier and not as clean.
He dove further and further, not seeing anything, having to come up to get air and try again several times until he finally reached an entrance to what looked like an underwater cavern.
The red bar of his health was flashing, but not lowering. He confirmed that he wasn't actually capable of having his health depleted in this tutorial. The cooldown of his backslide skill had been refreshed every time he used it after all. And in the end, HP was just another resource.
Entering the cave, he was glad that there was air in it. Holding his breath hurt, and breathing in water hurt even more. He had already tested it out. Even if uncomfortable, it had still confirmed the fact that this was more realistic than any game had a right to be, which excited and scared him at the same time.
The cavern he'd entered wasn't big, only large enough to encompass one small treasure chest that caused Ergarth to rush over to it like a moth to a flame. "Jackpot."
Fumbling with the treasure chest, he unlatched it (it would certainly had been ironic if it had been locked) and opened it.
Revealing nothing.
"Motherfuc-"
[System: Congratulations on being one of the first players to unlock the cold resistance skill. This skill will accompany you in all stages of the game, and as a passive will grow with you while you are exposed to increasing levels of cold, or ice magic damage. You also unlock one free attribute point.]
Ergarth narrowed his eyes at the words used, 'one of the first.' He wasn't the only one to have the idea, then, and neither was he the fastest. Instead of whooping in joy, he jumped back into the water as means of celebration.
Every second counted after all, apparently.
-/-
Ergarth looked into the room that came after the cave he was originally brought into. He tried to come to terms with what he was seeing. It was a little green thing? Probably only reached his navel, clothed in a simple pair of pants, carrying a small dagger.
A level one goblin apparently. One of the most cliché creatures in fantasy genres, except maybe orcs. But it would be pretty weird of Origin to expect the new players to be able to hold their own against a seven-foot-tall mountain of green muscle. The newbies, to gradually get used to the game, got this knobbly hill of green flab.
So it was slightly weird but not unexpected that the rogue's heart was beating faster than ever before. Well, almost ever.
He licked his lips for no other purpose than to distract himself from the fact that he was going to be fighting this monster in the very near future. Just because the reality was, technically virtual, didn't make it any less real.
Ergarth wondered if he should maybe stop with all this silliness. Computer games still had some time left… only he'd burned that bridge, knowing he'd be having these thoughts.
He sighed and stepped into the goblin's range of sight, not even trying to hide in a nook or cranny. The goblin was his tutorial; he didn't think he'd learn much if he sneaked up behind it and killed it before it could react. Being sneaky was something that could be practiced in real life. Killing? Not so much.
The thing's droopy eyes opened widely, as if it was very surprised to see him. It looked so... real. Ergarth raised his dagger defensively as the thing gathered itself, stood up, dropped its weapon, picked it up, and started running towards him on its short stubby legs.
Entering a player's mindset, Ergarth considered the best way to reach his goal, which in this case was kill the little goblin and learn something while doing it. His reach was longer, so he let the thing come closer to him, its dagger outstretched before he extended his arm with his weapon pointing at its chest area. He wasn't confident on hitting any other target.
The hit connected. A red bar appeared above the monster's head, quickly depleting to two-thirds. The goblin recoiled, shrieking, but did not stop attacking. As an experiment, instead of repeating his strategy Ergarth grabbed the goblin dagger with one hand and stabbed it with the other.
Another third of its life vanished, some of his too, but it came back up instantly. Disarming the goblin, he also laid his weapon aside and forced the goblin onto the ground.
The he punched it in the face. Its HP bar fell slightly. Ergarth did it again, and again and again. The goblin didn't resist anymore, only whimpering pathetically with its big teary eyes, its mouth open and assaulting him with its bad oral hygiene. Ergarth stopped punching it, manhandled the little green creature onto its front, picked up his discarded weapon, and performed a backstab. The last of the goblin's HP bar disappeared and the body fell apart in motes of brown light. They went into the ground, leaving but one thing behind.
A bottle of red liquid.
Ergarth picked it up. A health potion yes; it would regenerate 50 HP once drunk and had a cooldown of five minutes. He raised an eyebrow. That was a big cooldown.
He put the thing away and stood up, brushing dust off of himself. He didn't need it at the moment since his health points seemed to automatically regenerate in this 'tutorial.'
He walked up to the ridged wall which was the only way forward and looked down at his hands. Killing wasn't that bad. They were only monsters after all, and the pain of the knife cutting his hand had been only a slight sting as well. Players should be able to deal with the pain.
He had been worried. He hadn't earned money the normal way in the last games he'd played. And he didn't imagine that player-killing was a non-occurrence in a game touted as the closest thing you could get to living in a real world. That moral dilemma was resolved now.
Ergarth looked at his surroundings, no shortcut in sight. He stepped back a bit to judge the distance between himself the wall, and the ridges besetting it. Then he turned around and activated backslide, his body completing acrobatics completely impossible to him normally. He threw out a hand midair, just as he was about to crash into the wall, catching himself on a spike jutting out.
It was fun, now that he was used to the move. Sad that there would be an imposed cooldown once he finished this tutorial. But he'd also learned something. The move didn't account for terrain, making his body automatically latch onto it, which made the move a bit of a double-edged sword. Flat landscapes weren't really the most common of ground, except for deserts and plains.
Swiftly climbing, he felt wind brush over his arms, slowly getting stronger. And soon enough the wind was in his ears, a haunting melody. But it had something beautiful about it.
Ergarth pulled himself over the edge of the cliff and looked out of what looked to be a hole in a very, very big and very, very high wall. The blue sky filled his eyes, and so did the land that seemed to be miles beneath him. Lush green forests, interspersed with lakes and a few villages that only looked like tiny specks on the ground.
"Beautiful."
A roar resounded, drawing his eye to the cause of it. A giant red dragon flew high in the sky, its tail leaving a trail of fire behind it.
The fire formed itself to the words.
Welcome to Pangaea
I have some chapters of this already written, releases will be slow though.
