End Online: Volume 1
Page 3
He agrees to come down in at lunch time with all the paperwork ready and the money pre-paid into my bank account, what an efficient person, I don’t even want to try guess which district he is from.
Two hours later the money is in my account and there is someone knocking on the front door, I open it to see what appears to be a very wealthy businessman of around 30 years old. Parked on the street is a tow truck and his personal car which... My god it’s the latest model by HMC! That thing is probably worth more than this entire street with a retail price of nearly two million!
“Hollis, I presume. The name is Tyr, pleasure to meet you.” He doesn’t seem that interested in me to be honest, glancing over the wheelchair as he handed me the paperwork to sign directly after his introduction.
“Please, the pleasure is mine. My apologies for having you come out all this way.” I do my best to give the politest response possible, after all this guy has just saved me with his money that will last me at least 6 months if budget properly.
Signing the paperwork and handing it back to him my two little sisters came outside to see what the commotion was, hiding behind my back after Tyr’s piercing glance. Yeah, this guy truly has a heart of ice, however that is probably how he made his money, I’ve heard it’s a world where only the ruthless thrive.
It all happened faster than I could take it in. As soon as he got the paperwork back, giving the people in the tow truck a signal, the car was loaded up and gone before I could take it in.
“Holly, why did they take your car?” Shari asked innocently with a tired yawn, “Well, I had to sell it for some money. I don’t exactly need it anymore.” I respond putting my hand on her head, Shari casting her eyes down on hearing my response.
“Now that’s over, your big brother has some money so why don’t we go out and have something nice for lunch. You two, go clean yourselves up,” I gave a warming smile towards the two as they run back inside to get ready. An hour later we were in a large shopping centre call “The Fort” in downtown. I got them some ice creams first, and we walked around all the stores looking at their goods.
Joelle pushed me into a ladies clothing store to look around with her. Shari got a turn when Joelle went to try some clothes on, pushing me in circles around the store. She had the happiest expression on her face at finally getting to wheel me around.
They were out of control, but I ended up buying them two dresses each before we left.
The joy showing on their faces was truly refreshing, brightening the entire atmosphere of the trip. Stopping by a couple more little vendors I got them some little sweets you can eat with your fingers.
By the time the light of the day started to fade, even these two endless sources of energy seemed to be starting to tire out.
“Joelle, Shari. Let’s go into that store for a bit,” I point to a large gaming store on a corner. We head in and see quite the display of games lined up on shelves everywhere. Shari seems quite excited at all the games but doesn’t pick out any in particular, most are for gaming systems we don’t have anyway.
“Good afternoon, is there anything I can help you with?” A nerdy looking store clerk with large glasses came up and asked tentatively. Thinking this is a good opportunity I decide to ask for his opinions.
“Actually, I recently got a VL, I was wondering if you have any recommendations for games.”
“Well, there actually isn’t an overly lot of games, after its initial launch 5 years ago not many game developers branched into it.”
“Yeah, I remember back then, the hype and expectations were far too high to be sustained by the lack of software, resulting in a massive amount of negative public opinion.”
“Indeed. However, it was just 3 weeks ago that one developer released a role playing game that is turning around that opinion and building up a significant amount of traffic on the internet. Considering your... well... situation,” he momentarily glances down from my face to the wheelchair, at least he was trying to be polite, “it would give you the chance to explore an incredible world. It was odd though, they didn’t release any information on the game itself, just about getting started and everything before logging in, but after that, nothing. All they said was for you play your way.”
It definitely seems interesting. I used to play the role playing games on my computer when I was younger so I shouldn’t have too much trouble adapting. More than anything though I really want to use my legs again, I feel like I have these ghost limbs that are itching to move.
“You have my interest! Well, I would like to get it, how much?”
“The game itself costs $130,” Ouch, that’s considerably expensive, “And there is a subscription cost of $30 per month, however we do have a deal at the moment for the game and a three month subscription pre-paid for $200. We will also provide the required full body scan and storage card free as well. Everything you need to play the game.”
Well, it was definitely a great deal, but there was a lot to just play the game.
“Okay, I was sold already anyway, but why are you required to have a full body scan to play the game?”
“You actually need it for the V-Link itself, there was a big issue in its production that controlling a body of different proportions to your own took some time to adjust to the differences, and once you were, you would have the same difficulty controlling your own body after leaving virtual space. Now this made some extreme health and safety issues, you can imagine if you were to go driving in a body you’re even little uncomfortable controlling the risk of a fatal accident raises exponentially. That’s just one example, and now you need a scan not older than 6 months to even use the device.”
I never even considered the possibility of such a thing, but it makes perfect sense once I thought about it a little.
“Also, with this game you are actually forced to play a character extremely similar to your own, there are some minor modifications you can make, but how you look in the game is exactly how you are now. Plus, whatever equipment in the game that you wear. There has been rumours of being able to play as an elf or other species, but no one has ever seen it.” He seems to be finished explaining it all, but something still seems to be on the tip of my tongue that I just can’t seem to think of.
“Oh yes, it completely slipped my mind, but what is this game called?” That was it, this entire time he hasn’t told me the name of this game yet.
“But of course, the name of the game is,” He had grabbed a small box off a shelf and held it in front of me, surely that was it, and it was called, “End Online.” The box was rather simple, it appeared to just be a black hole with light emanating from deep within it and the title printed across the middle.
“Allow me to put this through for you, and the storage card for your scan of course” Running the box across the counter and another small case where you could see a tiny card about the size of my thumbnail through the clear plastic on top, “So that will be $200 all up, are you planning to pay with cash or electronically?”
“Electronically,” I replied, tapping my phone against the money receiver.
“Okay now, next is to get you into the body scanner.” Joelle and Shari stood and watched as he pushed me to what looked like a changing room at the far end of the shop. Placing the storage card from the box into the machine near the door, he astonished me by grabbing me out of the wheelchair and moving me into the cylindrical room of approximately one meter in diameter, probably more accurate to call it a capsule.
“Now, it wasn’t intended for the purpose of it, but there are two handles on either side you can use to hold yourself up. Also, for the purpose of the scan in order to prevent any inhibitions,” clearing his throat with a few coughs before continuing, “you are required to be completely naked.”
Hang on, wait right there! nobody mentioned anything about that before now.
I’m not going to go into great detail what happened next but another man stripping me in a very confined space is surely one thing that I s
hall never forget, especially when he left the capsule. Luckily there were no onlookers passing by or otherwise they would have glimpsed and incredibly horrifying expression of a young man completely nude and holding himself up by his arms.
The scan only took a minute or two hum a light hum running up and down the walls a few times. The nerdy shop clerk didn’t miss the chance to slip back in after it was done to force some clothes on me and help me back out into my wheelchair. The entire time this was happening, another shop clerk appeared to have distracted my sisters by showing them some games aimed at young girls, how devious.
The nerdy shop clerk turns to me and says, “Okay you’re all set, also, seeing the... injury on your back, I fixed that up digitally on the scan so your in game character will look completely normal, it’s a small feature we are allowed to do.” I honestly didn’t know how to thank him enough. I will definitely be coming back here again for his help, despite his forceful stripping.
He thanks me and sends me back to Joelle and Shari, who got to push me back on the way home. After an exhilarating trip home thanks to Shari being overjoyed to be pushing me again, the sun starts to sink onto the horizon.
The game and the girls clothes aren’t all we came back with, we also picked up two medium sized pizzas for dinner that are currently sitting on my lap.
Another hour later and I had the girls go to bed a little earlier due to tomorrow being Monday, a school day. From what I gather they disappeared from school for a week without saying anything to the teachers at all, they really need to be back there now.
I unpack the VL from the box and inspect it over, placing the power cord in the wall and move myself onto my bed for comfort. There’s isn’t a need to plug it in, the VL has a battery life of approximately 12 hours, but you don’t get to use it to its fullest unless it’s plugged into a power source. I find positions in the back of the helmet to place my personal storage card and the game card, I was told that the PSS not only contains data on my physical body but also all the data for my game subscriptions as well.
Placing the helmet on my head and relaxing into a position on my back, I press the power button just inside the helmet on the left hand side. Nothing appears to happen at first. Before I know it the visor gradually lightens to a white, opening up a room that envelops all my vision, I’m standing inside a large empty white room a window pops up in my vision in this large white room.
Welcome,
This must be your first time using the V-Link, any message that appears in front of you can be dismissed by pressing any available buttons, or by moving your hand next to it and swiping it out of your field of vision.
Please try this now.
I do so, and surely enough a flick is enough the send the message off to my right, slowly fading away as it moves. Although, another message shortly replaces it where it was.
Good.
Now that you know how to dismiss messages, next is leaving virtual reality and returning to the real world. To do this all you need to do is look straight forward and try to press the power button at the top right of your vision. The menu will then open in front of you.
However this can only be done from your home locker, where you are now, and not from inside a game, you must first leave the game to do this. In the case of an emergency you can say "system command terminate connection" to forcefully disconnect at any time, but please refrain from doing so as game information can become corrupted or deleted.
Thank You
Wow, what a lengthy message. I dismiss that one too and no more pop up, it seems quite simple enough. The size of my locker that I’m in is considerably large, about 30 meters in wide and the same long, The ceiling is about 6 meters high, and on one of the walls there is a panel, walking over to it I-
Wait, walking? I look down to see I’m standing two perfectly healthy legs that move as I tell them to, I don’t even care that I’m completely nude. Pinching my legs revealed I can feel the pain, dulled through the VL sure, but still! It was like being caught in a building collapse and crushing my spine was nothing more than a mere dream.
Yet, at the same time it had a real bitterness to it, reminding me of what I have lost and will never get back again.
My locker is a little boring, it’s just four white walls, but at least it’s clean. I wonder if there is a way to customize it, that would definitely be nice. I move in front of the panel and I can see that there are a few options but the only one I am currently interested in is the ‘Connect to End Online’ button.
Pressing it causes the room around me to dissolve, it was a little weird, because whilst I was still standing, I couldn’t feel a hard surface beneath my feet. A script starts playing out in the bottom right of my vision and before I know it I am standing in an endless grass meadow that extends as far as my eyes can see.
In front of me there is a perfect copy of me, embarrassingly naked still, but me. In front is a menu that allows some minor adjustments to the body, such as muscle tone, hair and skin tan. Playing around I manage to turn myself into a carrot, before resetting the changes and just continuing as I normally am. Hopefully I won’t begin this game naked, surely that must be a massive breach in personal privacy.
Next comes server selection, a list of available servers with my city already preselected comes up, all I need to do is press ‘OK’. A map that I assume is of the game replaces the server list. Three points glow with the names Swordbreak, Grenton and Iceridge. I randomly decide and press on Iceridge and the image disappears. Every strand of grass beneath me suddenly turns into fog, enveloping everything.
It disperses quite quickly however, looking down I can start to see my body wearing a thick white coat, grey pants and chunky brown boots. Once it is completely gone I realize I am lying down on a thick stone alter at the far end of a giant church. There are a few stray icicles hanging down from the ceiling and a I can feel a cold breeze passing over my exposed fingers and face.
Shaking off the disorientation of going from standing up to lying down, I get up and inspect the area. There isn’t anything particularly odd or unusual about the church, but there is a tiny icon of a wolf in a circle at the bottom right of my vision, and no matter where I turn it stays there. It doesn’t take me long to realize if I try to touch it without moving my head it opens up the menu for equipment, backpack, and a large panel for status.
Lvl: 1
Lvl UP: 0%
Str: 10
Agi: 10
Dex: 10
Int: 10
Mnd: 10
Lck: 10
Fame/Infamy: 0
Alignment: +0
God: -
Belief: 0
Equipped Skills:
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
[Empty]
Reserve Skills:
[Empty]
Incredible, the log out button is also. I want to stay here forever! Maybe not in such a cold location but I don’t ever want to leave this game!
There was an inventory menu as well, I notice I’m starting with no money and no skills though so hopefully there will be some beginner quests that will help me gain those.
The detail of this room is incredible too! If I inspect the walls real close I can tell its fake, but otherwise I would never be able to tell. That’s it, time to leave this place. I ran, not walked, but ran towards the doors of the church, forcing them open. They didn’t open all the way, but enough for me to comfortably walk through.
Light invaded my eyes and it took a moment to adjust to the brightness. What unravelled before me was absolutely breathtaking. A city spanning about 2km in every direction was around me. An incredible stone keep in the centre overlooking everything, it is all covered by snow and voices were ringing out from unknown places.
A slight breeze rolls past me and I don’t think I will ever leave this place.
But damn it’s so cold!
Chapter 2 – The Irritation of Aggravation
I had only taken a few steps out of the church when an old man appeared. He was a little shorter than me, long white hair, and a staff decorated by a blue crystal the size of my hand at the top.
I tried to alter my direction to walk around him, but he seemed to move at the same time and just kept getting in my way, preventing me from moving forward.
This guy apparently wasn’t going anywhere before talking to me.
“What do you want?” there wasn’t much else to do except find out his intentions.
“Hello young adventurer, I see you have just entered this world. May I ask what your name is?” Of course, he’s an NPC. I haven’t even decided on a name for my character before now, I wonder what I should call myself.
“My name is Silver,” Going on some wordplay on my surname, Silvester, it seemed like an appropriate, “It’s a pleasure to meet-“
“No, sorry, but that isn’t your name. Please tell me your name,” I get it now. This old man is the guide, an NPC for starting characters to choose their name, and perhaps other things as well. I assume he speaks this line when the name you decide on has already been picked by someone else.
“Sorry, my mistake, my name is Hosen actua-“
“Sorry, but that also is not your name. Please tell me your name.” This guy, did he just cut me off two times in a row, he’s seriously starting to piss me off.
I tried a few more time to give him a name I was happy with, but once more he cut me off with the same emotionless voice.
Leaning slightly forward and down to place myself in his face, I speak in a completely dead voice.
”**** off, you nasty old geezer.”
A stunned look overcame the guides face, followed by what I thought was one of extreme irritation. It was hard to say considering his staff came down on my head at the sane and knocked me out.