Brent Roth - The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

by Brent Roth

  Thankfully for me, local time was also server time as the headquarters and main servers were all located in California. That little bonus allowed me the ability to be amongst the first players to log into the game immediately upon release.

  But now it was time for bed.

  With a little less than three hours before the sun would rise in the real world, and a little less than four for the game world's sun to show up… I figured now was a good time to call it quits.

  I had no plans to be an addict who skipped meals and sleep just to play. Well, I would at least try my best not to be one.

  I made no promises.

  I don't make promises I can't keep.

  Logging out of the game, I quickly made my way to the restroom to relieve my bladder before heading to bed. I had a bad habit of drinking a lot of water before going to bed and often found myself waking up at least once or twice a night.

  It was a good way to ruin a night's sleep.

  Chapter 3: Level Up

  (Saturday, January 2nd Game Day / January 1st Real Day)

  The clock had just ticked over to 7:45 AM as I woke up without an alarm or assistance. I had an excellent internal clock that I somehow developed as a child to watch cartoons in the early mornings without a clock in my room. I often found myself nearly jumping out of bed from how immediately I would wake up, at exactly 6:59 on certain days. Giving me the necessary minute it took to run out of my room and into the living room to catch the cartoons that were shown at 7:00.

  On other days I would wake up between 5:55 and 5:59 to catch the 6:00 AM cartoons. I couldn't explain it. My internal clock was never off by more than a few minutes, and it was never late. The best part was I eventually learned how to more or less set it mentally days before.

  All I had to do was think about the time I wanted to wake up and then go to sleep, the rest was automatic. The only caveat was how exhausted I was, if I was too tired and got to bed at an extremely late time, I was bound to oversleep a little.

  Dragging myself out of bed, slightly groggy from the short amount of sleep I had just received; I made my way to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

  Once clean, I drank a glass of water and logged right back into the game.

  I wasn't an addict yet… I had just slept late the day before so my sleep schedule more closely matched the game's 8-hour day cycle.

  Yeah, not addicted at all; I had some restraint left after all.

  Awaking to the sunrise in-game wasn't such a bad thing really.

  In some ways the sun in-game was more interesting than the one in real life. You could look at this one slightly without burning your eyes out and it was a slightly different hue, a more reddish orange than the one I was familiar with.

  Subtle differences to remind you that you weren't in the real world, I suppose.

  Before continuing any further, I noticed a small exclamation point flashing in the corner of my vision. The apprehensive part of me feared that there might be some bad news coming my way but I clicked on it anyways. I didn't have the time to waste as daylight was already burning away.

  Opening up the system message, I was suddenly relieved: [You have Attribute Points to Distribute].

  It took a few seconds to click, but once I opened my Character Window I saw that I was already level two.

  Thinking to myself, it finally occurred to me: "Ah, the wolf."

  I had managed to kill a wolf before dying and must have missed the system message while preoccupied with the fight. I was almost level 1 from killing the [Northern White Fox], so once I killed the [Young Northern Tundra Wolf] it gave me enough experience to hit level 1 and level 2. Looking at the Experience Bar I was already 74% into level 2.

  That wolf gave a lot of experience.

  As happenstance, in Dragon's Wrath a player starts at level 0 with base attributes starting at +10 across the board. All of the basic attribute stats were reflected in the character window: Strength, Vitality, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom, Willpower, and Luck. But there are exceptions, as there always are.

  For there were users like me who had considerable attribute bonuses beyond the normal scope. Those of us who opted for the Ultra-Realism option could have up to +100 in every category, at level 0 no less. All we had to do was go through thorough physical and mental examinations to the tune of $750 USD, thankfully broken up into installments.

  A costly endeavor, really.

  Those bonuses were worth it though, as they provided one with an uncanny ability to hunt creatures and monsters of a much higher level than normal, and at a much faster rate as well. At this point in the game most players would be chasing around rabbits and squirrels but I had already moved on to foxes… no, I started on foxes and would soon move on to wolves.

  Though it did seem a little broken when you thought about it but, I like to think of it as separating the casuals from the hardcore. Some might call this pay-to-win but in truth nothing was guaranteed and the possibility of ending up with zeros in multiple categories existed.

  After spending all that money and time, to end up with worse stats or barely above par compared to the standard character, well… it's not a risk everyone is willing to take. But it was one I felt confident enough to take and was rewarded handsomely for it.

  It was a worthy investment.

  Not everything was really so rosy though.

  Every positive had its negative here.

  Those of us who opted into the Ultra-Realism program would also face a much harder game as well. Simply put, our character needed to eat more often, required more rest, had an increase in sensations-explicitly pain-which meant we would suffer more realistically, especially from adverse weather conditions as well, and to top it all off we received little to no system-assistance in combat.

  That last one is probably the real catch for the majority of the population that lacked hand-eye coordination. Hell, it's even hard to deal with for me, even though I'm a decent hunter and versed in many weapons, it's not like I'm some expert MMA fighter or entirely familiar with real sword fights.

  I would think most people aren't.

  Being good with a gun doesn't really help when there are no guns.

  Speaking honestly, by opting into the UR program we essentially skipped the Beginner, Normal, and Advanced level of difficulty for the game and went straight into the Extreme mode. And we were stuck in Extreme so long as we kept the character, the one that just cost you a few weeks of the average player's salary.

  So, yeah, pay-to-win does not really apply here.

  That and the increase in pain alone nearly had me back out of the program as well, but maybe I'm a bit of a masochist.

  Looking at my Stat distribution, I was somewhat overpowered for my level:

  Roth Sigurd

  Level: 2 (129)

  Health: 1060

  Mana: 1030

  Strength: 100

  Intelligence: 98

  Vitality: 100

  Wisdom: 100

  Endurance: 100

  Willpower: 100

  Agility: 0

  Luck: 0

  Dexterity: 50

  Yeah, I was pretty confident with my scores.

  Though there was one glaring weakness, and that was my Agility.

  Truth of the matter is… I have a poor record of physical health.

  When I went through the Ultra-Realism Program, I had just gotten back on my feet and my legs were essentially shot. I couldn't run or squat or do anything leg-related so I automatically failed every Agility examination that was taken.

  I couldn't help that.

  Regardless, I was still quite competent with the rest of my body as I had never truly given up on maintaining my fitness level. Where I surprised myself was in the mental examinations.

  There were multiple categories that were unfamiliar to me, but I was happy to discover that the tests weren't simply a measure of who could compute the most difficult of mathematical problems. Through the extensive testin
g I was able to actually showcase my talents and knowledge as a bit of Renaissance man.

  A jack of all trades, a Red Mage in gaming terms, or simply put a guy with a lot of varied interests. That was me in a nutshell. That guy who reads too much, watches too many documentaries, and has too many hobbies to be good for him.

  I loved knowledge. I craved knowledge. I picked up five different languages even though I completely sucked at foreign languages simply because I wanted to be somewhat familiar with them. I doubt I will ever be fluent in Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, or Thai but I at least knew enough in passing conversations.

  The game also seemed to be catered to my playstyle as there were no conventional classes. There wasn't a class, period. Players were free to pick up anything they wanted and everything was based around proficiency.

  Gone were the days where a player would be forced to spend his entire gaming career as a Warrior or an Archer or a Priest. Now, if you had the time and talent you could be an Axe-wielding Archer that backed as a Healer.

  Anything was possible.

  Dropping the 10 Attribute Points that I had into my Agility Stat, I was now ready to continue on with my day. The sun was up and was calling my name to that little forest to the east. Fluffy bunnies were prostrating in the distance waiting for me to collect their furs.

  I could just feel it.

  Heading out of the village and walking barefoot in the cold snow, I couldn't help but reminisce about the past.

  Chapter 4: Why I Game

  (Saturday, January 2nd Game Day / January 1st Real Day)

  Thinking back on how I got to where I am now was sometimes a little depressing, but for the most part I tried to find encouragement from it. I was blessed with a lot of good physical and mental gifts but it seems I was also cursed with fragility.

  I was around the average height of 5'11"-6'0", weighed in anywhere between 195-205lbs while being fairly in-shape, and was considered quite strong and fairly intelligent by most. But those characteristics, if you could call them that, weren't static for me.

  They weren't standard.

  They always fluctuated.

  In high school I was off to a good start, out-lifting most of the serious body builders and power lifters at the local gyms, but that didn't last too long as I was soon injured through sports.

  Concussions, a torn ligament in my elbow, and a back injury basically derailed my young high school life.

  After drifting in and out of school, missing nearly half of my freshman and sophomore year due to health issues, I dropped out the beginning of my junior year.

  That never really got me down though, I was young and optimistic.

  So, I entered junior college after just turning seventeen and plugged away, only to find that the lingering issues from my concussions hadn't really gone away. I had been living with daily headaches throughout the entire day that were quite painful for about two-years.

  That started my first year in high school. By the third year they had gone down to once-a-week headaches but my ability to learn was still impacted.

  It was a sad state of affairs really.

  I had placed in the 99th percentile in my favorite categories without even trying. I also placed in the 92nd percentile up through 95th percentile for the subjects I disliked and never studied. For all intents and purposes, I was a bit too smart for my years.

  Concussions took care of that for me though.

  They leveled the playing field.

  Maybe it was punishment for squandering my talents… I often find myself wondering why things happened the way they did.

  Going forward, I struggled at the junior college level for a semester until I was forced to take a year off to recuperate. I figured that some time off to let my mind heal was in my best interest in the long-term.

  So I moved on, doing nothing but playing the most popular MMORPGs of the day to waste time. Through that I discovered I was actually quite good at gaming. I had never played RPGs online before and didn't really know what to expect, but soon found myself addicted to the Player versus Player aspect of the games.

  I was addicted to the competition.

  Eventually, I made it all the way to the top of the leaderboards with my ranking placing me in the top 3 for those of the Warrior class and top 5 in the Paladin class on my server of 40,000. I wasn't half bad at PvE either, as I ended up being a Main Tank for multiple high-end raiding guilds on my Warrior and was considered at least in the top 10 for Paladin healers in Player versus Environment.

  My reputation preceded me and there weren't any decent PvP or PvE players that didn't know my name. I was famous through action and not words… it was something I had long craved.

  Something I had been lacking in my real life.

  Not long after, I had realized that through video games my mind seemed to have recovered to a respectable level.

  All of the small amounts of memorizing game data, learning every class and every classes' skills and cool downs and the strategies behind them amounted to a lot of information. Because it was interesting and I enjoyed it, it was a lot easier learning compared to reading a textbook.

  The days where I could read a 300-page textbook front to back and recall everything were long behind me anyways.

  I don't expect to ever be at that level again.

  So, with my mind no longer feeling sub-standard I went back to school. I got good enough grades to get me into a highly ranked university and things were looking up.

  Then I found myself with another health issue: severe food poisoning, on New Year's Day no less. I didn't understand what was happening at first, thinking my stomach ache was just from bad food and all I would need to do was flush my system. But, then I looked down and saw that instead of stool there was just blood.

  For a week, there was just blood.

  As a male, going to the toilet and finding a large pool of blood is not normal.

  After two-week's time, I had lost nearly forty pounds. At that age I was only 165lbs but my height was the same. I turned into a 125lbs, 6'0" guy in just barely under seventeen days. I was bed ridden for about two months; too weak to move or do anything but eventually I started to get healthy enough to return to work.

  Returning to my physical nature of work, I ended up severely straining all of my upper body muscles as I was simply too weak to do anything but thought I could push through the pain.

  Fast forward nearly two-years of physical therapy later and I was a healthy 195lbs with fairly little body fat thanks to my rapid weight loss turning me into skin and bones.

  The world was mine for the taking.

  I transferred over to a highly ranked university and continued my education, only to somehow tear my meniscus in my right knee while moving some furniture down a flight of stairs.

  Whatever, small setback I figured… I still had plenty of time to heal while in school.

  Not to be outdone though, with my bad knee that wouldn't track properly and didn't allow me to walk normally, I ended up stumbling one day while in a hurry and hit my head on the sharp edge of a metal object, directly on my temple.

  My jaw was bruised side to side from the impact.

  It turned out to be my third serious concussion and one that proved less painful but more difficult overall. There was no pain or headache after two months, but there were mental blocks that persisted.

  I failed every class going forward for the next two years as I tried in vain, with help from counselors, doctors, professors, and the financial aid staff at the school to simply graduate. I only needed three classes to graduate, but they had proved impossible even though I had repeated them three times. I had been in the school system now for nearly nine years since I first attended community college.

  They wanted to help me, but I couldn't even help myself.

  I was a super senior without the partying, without the laughs and glamor of a fraternity. I gave up on schooling. I had had enough of my mediocrity and failures.

  I moved b
ack home to live with my family to try and restart my life once again, for a third time. I had been dealing with health issues for twelve years now, but I wasn't ready to quit.

  Adversity makes one stronger, or so they say.

  Then it happened again.

  I was working on some electrical wiring for a house not more than six months after leaving University and was bumped from behind, knocking me off balance. Instinctively I threw my elbow out to brace my fall… unfortunately my elbow braced my fall with a metal pole with a hot wire in my other hand.

  I got lit up.

  My neck, shoulders, and back were all burned along with my fingers and elbow. My back, stomach, and ribs were all bruised as consolation. I thought, at the time, it wasn't that bad. It was whatever; the pain wasn't anything to give consideration to.

  Burns and bruises heal in time; I was familiar with healing over time.

  A week passed and I thought I was somewhat back to normal and got back to doing some work around the house when I suddenly started feeling fatigued. I didn't think much of it so I just took the rest of the day off. The next morning I woke up in incredible pain throughout my entire body. I had no idea what was going on, I didn't understand it.

  My body had basically shut down on me.

  Every injury I ever had, and there were a lot… enough to cover my entire body head to toe, felt like they had ruptured or ripped open. My entire body was aching, throbbing, burning, and stinging with pain. The Achilles tear, the quadriceps tear, the biceps tear, my calf tear, my elbow ligament, my shoulder ligament, my knees, and my wrist that I broke twenty years ago… all of them hurt.

  The pain itself wasn't really the worst of it though as I had experienced worse pain before. The worst part of it was that it happened again… and so soon. I had just barely recovered from the meniscus tear and the quadriceps tear was still relatively fresh. I had spent the last few years on a lot of pain medications and anti-inflammatories and my stomach wasn't really holding up to it. Not to mention the pain killers rarely did anything even at maximum dosage. And then here, again, I was struck with another issue.