by L. R. Wolf
***
Later that evening Noel kissed her kids goodnight and prepared herself for bed. Ray was in the next room donning his Lucidity visor. She silently crept out of the children’s rooms so as not to wake them then headed for the bedroom looking forward to seeing her friends in a new universe. If it was anything like the beach from the previous night, then it would be an absolutely incredible experience.
Noel sat on the bed and removed her glasses with its attached HUD, placing the neural link Lucidity visor over her eyes before laying down, keeping her eyes closed the entire time.
“Are you ready?” Ray said from off to her side. He found himself looking forward to being able to play again. Just like Noel, he loved his children more than life, but being able to get away for awhile was something he longed for. Besides, being able to take a vacation, watch a show, read a book or even game while you’re asleep didn’t take any more time out of the day considering everyone needed sleep. In the past, he would go to work, come home, eat dinner, play with the kids, love on his wife, then go to sleep. Upon waking up, the cycle would continue. Now, because of Dreamscapes and their technology, he would be able to do so many things he couldn’t do before just by doing what he did every night...sleeping...dreaming.
“Ready here!” Noel got comfy in bed before she finally opened her eyes. The visor registered eye movement and then flickered on. They would be able to begin registering for Infinity so that when they finally fell asleep it would put them into the proper world.
Her eyes looked over the various tabs.
Vacations| Games| Movies| TV shows| Books| Fantasies| Favorites
She focused on the Games tab and a new list came into focus. Infinity was already there in the first slot, ready and waiting. “The icon was glowing slightly as if saying play me!”, she thought. She focused on Infinity and for a moment everything went white. Suddenly a man appeared in the center of her vision. He stood probably six foot five, his black hair was neatly combed back. He was wearing what appeared to be an incredibly expensive suit. When he finally spoke his voice was deep and calm.
“Greetings Dreamers! My name is Jason Reese and I am the CTO of Dreamscape. This company was founded by our CEO James Donaldson back in 2034. Already a billionaire in the tech industry, James refocused his time and considerable assets into neural technology when his wife tragically fell into a coma after a horrible accident. His goal was to help bring his wife, and many others like her out of their comatose state, and while his new neural implants did not have the intended effect of waking them, it did open new possibilities. It was discovered that with these new neural implants one could communicate and interact with their comatose loved ones, the drawbacks being that one could only communicate if they were either in a coma themselves or asleep.” He paused for a brief moment before continuing.
“This new technology launched many new ventures as companies discovered just how they could provide new goods and services to people even while they slept. James’s discovery allowed us to be able to create Lucidity technology which allows people to control and direct their very dreams and enter what we call the Dreamscape, where people from around the world can actually meet up and interact with people in a variety of activities from vacations to gaming.” The man continued, “Now, I would like to take a moment to formally introduce you to the newest member of our Lucidity family…” He paused briefly as the infinity symbol flashed across their vision before he continued. “...Infinity! Infinity is a new VRMMORPG that will be open to the public in just over half an hour.”
A countdown started in the upper corner of her vision counting down from thirty two minutes. “Infinity has been in development for nearly twenty years and has been in both Alpha and Beta testing for nearly ten years in order to bring you the most realistic game you have ever seen. Now, I know most of you are wondering what you can expect since we have been keeping our cards rather close to the vest during that time and not releasing much information leading up to this moment. We here at Dreamscapes hope that everything you experience will be new and unique. We wanted our new world to be unspoiled by streams and an overabundance of information before the game was even released, possibly ruining any surprises that might await. That being said,” he paused for a brief second, his eyes flickering as if he was reading something in his HUD, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth “I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about the technology you are using and then tell you about some of what you can expect in this world.” A hologram of the very same visor appeared in the center. As he spoke he pointed out the different aspects of the visor as he went over them.
Noel had already read up on the technology months ago in the hopes that one day she would be able to use it, and now, the time had come. She turned her attention back to the voice in her ear.
“The visor you are currently wearing is a revolutionary technology. It will scan your brain, giving Infinity a virtual map to follow. Because it is nearly impossible to change the way a healthy brain works outside of various drugs, which I will remind you that we scan for anything that would alter the chemistry in the brain. We use the information we receive from the brain scan as well as a retinal scan taken on your initial use and then use that as your login. By doing this, we can guarantee complete security on your account making it improbable for your account to be hacked and your valuables plundered by unsavory characters.
“The very game itself will know who you truly are by seeing how your brain reacts to certain stimuli. It uses this information to create quests and interactable NPCS that are tailored specifically to YOU. There will be public quests that everyone can get thus making it appear that some gameplay is exactly the same, but the special quests that you will receive are unique to every individual. No two stories will EVER be exactly the same.” A few quick screens appeared showing two people who looked the same and were in the exact same area, standing side by side at an NPC who appeared to be a quest giver. You could see the quests in their HUDS, both had received two completely different quests.
The man continued on. “With the Lucidity visor and the Dreamscape servers you will experience the world of Infinity as if it was the real world, such is the power of dreams. All of your senses will be utilized. You will be able to see everything around you, to hear everything from the buzzing of a small bug to the roar of a mighty dragon. You will be able to smell every scent and taste everything you come across, whether you decide to eat the dirt itself, or dine on the most succulent cuisine the world has to offer. You will be able to feel both the pain of this harsh world as well as feel the pleasures.” More pictures flash on the screen punctuating each sense as he speaks about them.
A giant map appeared behind him. “The world in which you are about to embark upon is three times larger than Earth. It would take years to go from one side of the world to the other if you choose to traverse the harsh land by foot or sail for weeks upon the vast oceans. Here, in the vast world of Marod, Dreamers can come to escape.”
A skill and experience chart replaced the map as he continued, “The experience gained within Infinity is unlike any other game. Rather than fill up an experience bar to level, you gain what we call Skill Experience. For every skill you use, you will gain experience within that skill as well as the stat associated with the skill on occasion. Each skill has its own level tier, so, for example, should you raise your one hand sword skill up to level five you will gain a new skill based on using one handed swords. The more you use a skill, the higher the level of the skill and the more powerful it becomes. With each new skill level beginning at level ten, you will receive bonus stats based on the skill. Taking our example of the one handed sword, you might gain five strength and stamina for every level after ten! Level what you want, when you want! Also starting at level ten you will begin to see titles associated with the skills. Feel free to mix and match them!”
Some screenshots from the game appeared. “Because our experience system is so different, any ques
t that would normally award experience in other games will yield a skill experience token. These tokens can be used to raise any skill or catch it up if you will. This way if you are a level 50 Earth mage who suddenly decides to take up the role of the dashing rogue you can catch up some of the the requisite skills. This way you won’t go from feeling like you can utterly destroy a dragon to feeling like you can barely kill a sewer rat upon switching skills!”
More screenshots of some ingame events flashed across. “There will be unique events, unique bosses and unique items. What we mean by unique is that there is, and will only ever be, one. If an event is unique then that will be the only time in the entire span of the game that it will be seen. Unique bosses can only be killed one single time and unique items will be the only one of their kind in the entire world of Infinity. The last unique thing in Infinity is you, the player, the dreamer. Each one of you will be allowed but a single avatar. With this avatar you can be whatever you want to be whenever you want. Do you want to be a warrior who takes the brunt of the attacks and then turn around and rain fiery destruction down upon your enemies? Would you rather stay back and fire magical arrows at your enemies while healing your allies? If you dream it, you can do it; if you dream it, you can BE it. Now it is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to the vast world of Infinity!” With those words the counter hit zero and the screen went white once more.
Chapter 3: Avatars
∆∆∆
All Noel could see was white. She wondered if it was working or not, but her fears were put to rest when she suddenly found herself looking in a mirror. She stared back at herself in wonder. Off to the side of the mirror were multiple sliders and options to modify her look..
Race| Sex| Head| Body| Clothes| Voice|
Her eyes flicked over to the races. Her eyes widened at the sheer amount of choices.
Humans| Elves| Trolls| Ogres| Gnomes| Dwarves| Dracorian| Werekin|
And there were even more races upon scrolling over. Once more her eyes flicked over the Elves which opened up even more options.
High elves| Wood elves| Dusk Elves| Dawn Elves| Light Elves
As she lingered on a race the appearance in the mirror changed to reflect the subrace she was looking at. She stared at herself as a Dawn Elf, her skin taking on a more bronze appearance and her ears elongating back and to a point. She raised a hand to her now smooth and flawless face in awe. All elven subraces had the telltale long pointed ears. Their skin varied from white as snow to black as night depending on the subrace. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses. The absolutely vast amount of choices left her mind reeling. She backed out of the Elves and selected the Werekin tab. More subrace options opened up
Werewolf| Werecat| Werebear| Werebat| Werefrog
She sighed as the options went on and on. At this rate she would be spending days trying to figure out just how she wanted to look. She just wanted to get into the game and have fun with her friends. Sitting here going through every race, their subraces and all of the other choices just seemed like more of a hassle than she wanted at the moment. Besides, even if she could only have one Avatar, she was quite sure she’d be able to delete her avatar and remake it if she truly wanted to. Noel mentally shrugged to herself and exited out of all of the options which reset her mirror to her current look. She stared at the mirror examining herself.
She was quite literally looking at an exact image of how she looked in the real world. She stood only five feet tall. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a ponytail in order to avoid little hands that loved to pull on it. Blue eyes with a green ring around the pupil looked back at her. She frowned as she took in the rest of her body. Freckles and moles adorned her body. At one point she had been quite overweight, but she had managed to lose almost fifty pounds. She debated on at least making herself look trimmer and more muscular, but she figured everyone who knew her knew what she looked like as everyone in the guild had posted pictures of themselves in the guild forums. If people couldn’t look past how she looked in the game, then they could go screw themselves. Besides, she was positive people were going to be playing some of the less pretty races. She may not be considered beautiful in the real world, but she knew at least here she wouldn’t be ridiculed for it having seen some of the other races and subraces.
She decided to change one thing about her avatar and that was the name. The name box was empty so she flicked to that and input her usual game tag, Aya. She had been known by this tag since her first gaming days back in FQ. Once that was done she moved her hand over the enter world button that was hovering just to the right of her new name and made as if to press it.
Do you wish to enter the world of Infinity using this Avatar with the name Aya?
“Yes” she said aloud. The image of herself in the mirror raised a hand to beckon Noel closer. As she stepped closer to the mirror the mirror transformed into a door embossed with a sideways 8. The symbol of Infinity. She placed her hand on the door and it swung open revealing a new world. A vast open field lay before her. As she stepped across the threshold a gentle breeze played across her face bringing with it the smell of grass, exotic flowers and smoke from a nearby fire. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply while at the same time kneeling down in the surrounding grass. She reached out with her hand and placed it on the grass. She could feel each cool blade tickling her palm. The sounds of people talking amongst themselves and a hammer banging off in the distance drew her out of her revery.
She finally opened her eyes and looked around as she rose to her feet. Behind her were a few wooden structures with signs hanging over the doors indicating what goods and services they sold. Various NPCs were milling around and going about their day, occasionally looking up from their tasks curiously to see people seemingly appear out of thin air as the dreamers were spawned into the world. All of the people she saw appearing were human like her, but with an ethereal and otherworldly beauty that belied the fact that they had modified their avatar to make them vastly more appealing.
The players, or Dreamers as they were called here, were looking around in awe. Some were already pulling out weapons and brandishing them, taking a few practice swings. Watching them reminded her to check her own inventory. With that thought, her character sheet appeared in front of her eyes. The clothes she was wearing were classified as shoddy, offering no protection whatsoever. Her eyes focused on a bag beneath her character. The bag opened revealing a multitude of slots in which any loot she picked up would be placed. She noticed a simple looking wooden box at the top of the bag. A thought brought up the description.
Beginner’s Weapons Cache- This box contains a variety of shoddy weapons. Beware Dreamer-Once removed from this box the item within will take on its full weight and will not be able to be placed back within this cache. This cache will disappear in three days time.
Aya opened the cache to see a variety of rusty weapons ranging from a dagger to a giant two handed sword. Usually in a game you would choose a class and then receive a weapon based on what you chose, but here in Infinity you could be whatever you wanted as long as you had the skills and the patience to work on your stats and proficiencies
A blinking notification icon appeared in the center of her vision indicating an urgent message. She focused on it to open the message.
“Greetings Dreamer Aya, Welcome to Infinity, a world of infinite possibilities. Enclosed within this message are two spells. One will transport you to a personal training ground [Training Dungeon], a tutorial if you will. This spell can be used but once. The second spell [Recall] will allow you to return to your bind point at any time and can be used infinitely. You’ve also received one of each class of weapon so that you may experiment with each before deciding what your main weapon will be. Now go out and find your own path to follow!”
Aya memorized the two spells at the bottom of the message. She knew it would be best to go through the tutorial especially considering she had never played a game so immersive. Up until now, the other VRMMO�
�s on the market allowed one to see everything around them making it appear as though you were in the game. Special clothes and accessories would allow you to walk and move around within the room you were playing in without actually going anywhere, but in the game it would appear as if you were truly moving. Sensors throughout the clothes would allow you to feel pain to a certain extent to add even more immersion. Here in Infinity, you would feel both pain and pleasure. You could see every little detail, smell everything around you, hear every little sound. The world became your reality.
She opened up her Status Page and saw that as a human, all of her skills were average at best and she didn’t receive any extra stats like some other of the other races. The absolute detail of the stat page was overwhelming.
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Name: AyaRace: HumanCurrent Skill Level-0 (all)
HP 100
Mana 100
Stamina 100
Stats:Intelligence- 5
Strength-5
Agility-5
Dexterity-5
Endurance-5
Constitution-5
Willpower-5
Charisma-5
Luck-5
[Armor Class(AC)]-0
[Spellpower]- 50
[Melee Attack Power] -50
[Ranged Attack Power]- 50
[Mana Regeneration]-50/min
[Dodge]-50
[Resists]-None
[Tradeskills]-None
[Adventuring Skills]-None
[Combat Skills]-None
[Harvesting Skills]-None
[Accolades]-None
[Titles]-None
[Companions]-None
[Mounts]-None
[Pets]-None
[Creatures]-None
[Bonuses]-(Received from Accolades, Titles and other sources)
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