"Hey stop shoving!" Screamed random passerby A.
"Shut the hell up! I've been waiting for 2 days already you scrub!" Shouted random passerby B in response.
-----
This was just one small scene occuring amongst an ocean of others, all for one reason and one reason only, today was May 1st, the release date of Conquest.
Conquest was announced a few years back with promises of 100% realism, a never before seen play style, and state of the art hardware. And according to the company behind it, SkyWare, they have delivered all of that and more.
Declared to have the most technologically advanced nerve link machinery, SkyWare developed Conquest to be released along with a new form of VR (Virtual Reality) technology, a helmet which players can wear during sleep to maximise their playing time.
Before now no other game allowed for this, with only basic motion tracking and a VR headset available. This caused previous developers player bases to mainly exclude the working class and parents who were unable to divert their attention towards games or children busy with schoolwork.
But that's not all, with the nerve link technology built into the helmet, the game world is able to use time dilation to its full effect, resulting in a ten times increase in effective playing time.
Every day in the real world equates to 10 in Conquest, with a year being 300 days in game, an average month of 30 days can allow for a person to enjoy a year of adventures.
-----
Somewhere within Great Britain, a man walked into a room surrounded by 2 metre thick walls made of titanium, housing the most advanced data banks in the world.
"Good morning Eve, how is the progress for launch?" asked the older gentlemen wearing sharp rimmed glasses with a white lab coat, giving one an impression of a high ranked doctor or scientist.
"Good morning Director Ryan, the current server capacity is at 1,000,000 but rapidly expanding, due to the high prices of the helmets not many are purchasing them yet so we should be fine to expand our data banks as the game plays on." replied a monotonous female voice from a monitor.
Eve is the AI that was developed to run Conquest without human interaction, because the Conquest developing team strongly believes that a world created by humans wouldn't be as realistic or exciting.
"Mm, keep up the good work. Also how are the NPC's (Non Playable Characters)? Have they been updated on the situation?" asked Ryan with a slight smile appearing at Eve's intelligence, as the lead creator of Eve he had every right to be proud.
"Due to the requirement of having the NPC's believe they are human, a legend has been created and passed to them of a great danger approaching, in response the heavens sent down immortal warriors (the players) to combat the dangers." answered Eve, knowing full well what the director wanted to hear.
"Hahaha! Excellent Eve! But how will the NPC's.. no, how will the people of Conquest believe the players to be heavenly warriors with their crappy starting skills and equipment?" wondered the Director. Eve had full control over the game world so even her creators were clueless to the inside secrets.
"As well as a mission of the heavens, the players descent will also be a test to determine who can become the new generation of gods, hence the players must start from nothing. This gives the people of Conquest a believable reason as well as a duty to help the heavenly warriors recover their strength by offering quests and knowledge." calmly answered Eve, having thought of every possible angle towards introducing the players to the game world.
Standing in front of Eve's monitor for a long time afterwards, Director Ryan thought back to the day he first created Eve along with his friends, that was many years ago now but she had begun building and evolving the world of Conquest only days after her creation.
He thought wryly back to the conversation they had on why she felt the need to create the game. She answered only that she wanted a world to call home.
This hit a chord in their hearts and gave her developers a strong determination to help her endeavour, finding possible funding sources to give her better hardware, working tirelessly to improve her source code making her even more efficient.
You name it and they have done it, all for their creation, their daughter...
Sighing loudly at his reminiscence, Ryan realised that he had become old before he knew it, "Activate the servers Eve" he finally declared in a confident voice.
"Yes director!" said Eve with what might almost be considered glee if her voice wasn't so monotonous.
*Beep!*
Suddenly thousands of lights flickered as the immense quantity of storage banks switched on one by one, *click* *beep* *click*, thousands of clicks and beeps rang out bringing life to the previously dull room.
"Servers are online Director, Conquest can begin."
-----
All over the globe many people of many nationalities were anxiously waiting while lying on their beds, helmets plugged in and showing some opening sequences or class options for the game.
Suddenly an ethereal voice reached out to all of them, "Would you like to begin your conquest?".
The very idea of over half a million people shouting out 'yes!' at the same time would perhaps never be seen again after today.
-----
Throughout the world of Conquest many festivals and parties were being held with citizens from every social class from commoners to kings joining together and watching the sun rising in anticipation.
On the southern tip of the continent, within the small village of Bellmare, many small families were sitting down and enjoying their breakfasts and company with each other.
Lively scenes appeared in every household as today was the prophesized day for the appearance of the heavenly warriors, with one house in particular having an extremely energetic young boy with chestnut brown hair and piercing green eyes, obtained from his father and mother respectively.
"MOM! DAD! today's the day right? right! Heavens' warriors will come and beat up all the baddies!" giggled the young boy in excitement so palpable that it seemed to brighten the very room itself.
"Hahaha! Calm down Marcus, eat your breakfast first then we will await the voice of the goddess together in prayer." voiced out the slender short haired man at the table, with chestnut coloured hair that calmed any who looked at him, his name, Aaron Fletcher, the village arrow smith.
"That's right honey, finish your breakfast then wash up for the prayers." smiled the young boys mother, Maria Fletcher, with emerald eyes so vivid that one could lose themselves within them.
A few moments later when the family of three was finished with their food, they cleaned the table and began their prayers.
"Oh mother goddess, please bless us with your knowledge and show us the way forward." Spoke all three as they watched the sky in hopes of a response.
-----
Suddenly a voice rang out in the mind of all the people of Conquest...
"My children, the Immortals shall descend soon, in preparation all life will be given ranks of importance and strength based on your levels and position including you.
The lowest to highest shall be Common < Uncommon < Rare < Very Rare < Epic < Legendary < Mythical < Godlike. Each rank shall be broken in 3, with Weak, Normal and Elite status.
The authority you have to grant higher rank quests depends on your personal rank, so to help the immortals defeat the coming evil you must raise your own strength and importance. However take heed, unlike the immortals you will cease to exist if you die.
Your rank will appear above your heads to players but to check yourself then use 'Appraisal' on yourself. Good luck my children."
-----
Suddenly many people from commoners to kings, from farmers to wizards, used appraisal on themselves to see where they placed. However while many rejoiced, many more lamented their weak status and sighed in dejection before going about their day.
-----
"Appraisal" came the young voice of Marcus from next to his parents.
Status - Common Villager (Weak)
Name - Marcus Fletcher
Age - 8
Occupation - Trainee Arrow Smith
"Ugh, Mum, Dad... I'm Weak and Common" cried Marcus quietly, ashamed at his lack of status.
"Hahaha! my son you are an 8 year old child, you have much room to grow, your mother is a Normal Commoner while I'm only an Elite Commoner despite being one of the strongest in the village. The world is a huge place and there's so much out there waiting to be found." laughed out Aaron patting his son on his shoulder, he is still young and inexperienced with dreams of being a powerful knight or soldier.
"Mhm, I got it dad, I'll train hard!" nodded Marcus with a newfound determination within his piercing green eyes.
Suddenly the sky brightened causing everyone to raise their heads as hundreds of thousands of lights descended onto the world, bringing with them the first players of the game.
Conquest was designed with complete randomness involved, a person cannot choose their birth and likewise a player cannot choose their starting location, whether in a capital city or the smallest village on the continent, the only constant is starting in a populated area.
*Flash*
Twenty plus light beams suddenly fell within the village center of Bellmare, in front of the chiefs house. The sudden noise from the arrivals destroying the peaceful silence of the village.
-----
"Wow! look at these graphics man, this could be earth." Screamed an excited girl wearing common brown clothes.
"Huh? This game has language support? Or are you actually a Chinese girl speaking fluent French." Wondered an older french gentlemen with a curled mustache aloud.
That's right, conquest was global with a built in translator to allow all nationalities to play together with ease.
Suddenly the village chief scrambled out in front of the players with an Elite Common tag next to his title as the Village Chief.
"Greetings Warriors! Welcome to the village of Bellmare, we are being overrun by wild animals recently such as chickens and foxes, if you could help the people of Bellmare with their problems we would be eternally grateful." bowed the chief towards the players not realising 8 had already left while 6 weren't even paying attention.
-----
"Hey, look at that man, he's an Elite, he might have a good quest." spoke out one young man to another while walking past Marcus' home.
"Good morning warriors, could I interest you in any arrows?" asked Aaron politely trying to sell his days wares.
"Not today thanks, but is there anything we could help you with?" asked the older player, hoping to get an easy quest.
"Now that you mention it, I'm running out of feathers for the arrows, I will pay you 2 coppers for every 20 feathers you bring to me." answered Aaron, prompting a quest screen to appear before the players.
Accepting the quest and walking away the younger one asked the elder one, "Bro, why were you so polite? he's just an NPC ya know."
"The website said the NPC's think they are real and should be treated as such, do you think we could've gotten a quest if we were rude?" answered the older guy with a smug look of superiority on his face for doing his research.
Unbeknownst to the two, as they walked away chatting the young Marcus heard their every word. "En pee seas? What is that?" looking no further into it he ran home to start telling his mom about his adventures in the village today and how he beat up the tyrant of the village heroically.
Not far away a grumpy cat with a bump on his head glared at the young boys back, seemingly scheming it's revenge.