"New Universes, New Worlds, New Lives, ToboSoft brings you the VN6 Game System and Headset. The next most innovative virtual reality system available to the general consumer!" Had been what was spoken to the public, used as a gimmick to sell their new wares.

This new headset for the VN6, Virtual Network 6, allows one to dive completely into a virtual reality that grants them normal access to simulated feelings of all five senses. All these senses can be controlled via their vitals and game options, allowing the game to proceed rather safely as everything was regulated.

Following the disease which had been plaguing humanity, the use of these items became widespread. Hospice facilities were equipped with enough of these machines for all their residence to use, allowing them better comfort.

Some people were even hooked up to machines that fed them nutrients so they never had to stop to eat, drink or do their business. While this likely let some die a much quicker death, it lessened their social isolation, allowed them to be with their friends, families and the opportunity to meet new people.

Year 2232 marked the sixth cycle following the outbreak of Contagion X, an unidentifiable virus that slowly and painfully shuts down the vital organs of the afflicted. Some who have been infected last year, others last only months, and some mere days.

At that time "The Rise of Planets" was introduced to the world, filled with epic space battles, planet-side skirmishes, the founding of communities and the artistic ingenuity of billions of players. At the same time, forty-five percent of the human race's collective population had been infected. There were cases on every single major continent and most of the nation-states.

With a declining birth rate and a staggering life expectancy, there are only seven billion people worldwide, three billion already have died from the epidemic.

Nobody moves around, androids and robotic bodies commanded from afar are often to take to the streets, as to avoid contamination. The streets are effectively empty of organic life, aside from the typical government vehicle or those who cannot afford robotic equipment.

It was estimated that if the contagion remains unidentifiable in the next fifteen years even more of the population will drop. Due to the self-quarantines, there will also be a drop in human reproduction.

Death was often an obstacle people wished to avoid, especially one from the infection due to the amount of pain involved.

Following the release of the game, it soon became government-sponsored, hospice players gain premium perks without paying a dime as long as they donate their bodies to science to help find a cure. Teenagers, adults, even children who had lax parents were able to play the game with relative ease no matter their physical condition.

There were mature themes, even sensual additions, controlled strictly by parental controls. R-18 material was only available within the character quarters and other private sections. These particular extensions were added for hospice players in mind, as many of them were not healthy enough to commit true acts of reproduction.

The game itself combines science and fantasy themes, some classes and races having psionic or even pseudo-magic based abilities.

Each player was given two character slots on only one server of their choosing. While the players could switch between the two of them, there was one main character and one secondary, the secondary being the player's constant companion. Both of them are capable of leveling up at the same time, as experience is gathered between them as a whole, theoretically connected psychically. It is up to the player to write the lore that connects the two characters, alternatively, there are randomly generated stories that are also free to select.

With over one hundred pre-made races and an 'alien' choice, for full access to all physical traits from other races, the combination of physical appearance was nearly endless.

The players in a sense did not age, but their bodies grew hair and could be routinely cut and customized. There was even an option in the game to upload a person's physical schematics to make a character that looked just like the person, such as themselves if they so chose.

Not many people chose to play as themselves, as it was clear many people wanted to escape their realities rather than play in them.

Following character, customization was the vocation selection. There were ten starting professions which could lead to the unlocking of over a thousand other special occupations. Each of these professions and occupations branches out to other relative and irrelative class trees.

While all characters have vitality(red), stamina(yellow) and shield(purple) bars, their vocations will ultimately unlock other status bars that monitor their ingame situation. For instance, Psionics unlock the Psi Bar, which is white. The Mage-like classes will unlock the blue Mana bar.

A player can gain up to three different professions and twelve different classes at one given time. While skills can be gained outside of certain classes and professions, they are no as effective as specialized classes that the character has.

There are four common levels of quality classes and vocations: Simple, the vocations the player chooses from during character creation. Basic, the easiest unlockable classes and vocations. Common, which requires the completion of quests, special document items, and blueprints, or the gathering of particular achievements. Though they can also be purchased in the in-game store. Advanced classes are ones that can only be obtained via achievements.

After the common classes are the uncommon classes known as Higher and Legendary classes that are hidden classes gained via hidden achievements and or have a series of different qualifications to complete. There are over 2,500 hidden classes, only 446 of them have been discovered since the launch of the game, though it is speculated there are some unreported finds by players who keep their builds a secret for advantages over player versus player scenarios.

Four types of limited quality buff classes can be acquired. Phantasmal, Abysmal, Mythical and Void. Together they are a part of the PAMV spectrum. Players can only acquire four Phantasmal classes, two Abysmal classes, two Mythical and one Void.

Phantasmal, Abysmal and Mythical are powerful and rare. All of these classes are acquired by chance, or by hidden achievements similar to Legendary vocations. Each of these class qualities only has six hundred occupations each and are acquired at random. They do not have to match the player's main profession.

A Void Class is the rarest and the most powerful buff classes, an example being proficiency in all disciplines being increased by five hundred percent or a class-specific buff or set of skills. One in a million players would be able to acquire this level of class, but at the same time, there are only one hundred of them. Each of them are unique to the player that gains them, they cannot be traded like the other classes obtained with class imprint items bought in the World Store.

Based on data, the most popular starting vocation being the Engineer, who designs and manufactures items, as it leads to the more important Ship and Mecha Designer Vocations that is used to make original starships from gathered materials.

The other starting vocations consist of the Celebrity Entertainer, Psionic Disciple, Scoundrel, Technocrat, Mystic Learner, Specialist, Medic, Pilot, and Wanderer. Any of these designated trades can be gained immediately. A player has the option to choose two of these vocations and dabble in a third.

When the character's creation is completed, they will have to select their starting skills related to their vocations. Their vocations have levels, in which case give access to exceedingly more high-grade abilities, that go up to twenty for simple, fifteen for uncommon and ten for rare. However Void can only obtain one level.

There are no absolute levels, players are registered by their power rankings.

Unknown to most, the Wanderer is capable of leading to several secret vocations. However, it also has one of the weakest starting power rankings at the very beginning of the game.

As absolute levels are not used to measure the player's prestige, power rankings are universally used to determine a character's status, causing there to be a fundamental lack of an official level cap. Nonetheless, the more powerful someone gets, the fewer classes they can continue obtaining due to increasing difficulty.

To that length, players were encouraged to gather together and form guilds. These guilds allowed players to own entire fleets made of not only their fleet but also build a Capital Ship or own a predesignated Space Station manned by both players and customized NPCs.

Space warfare was magnificent, allowing the boarding of enemy vessels and capturing them. There were hundreds of achievements regarding this type of play against NPC vessels.

While it was simply easier to destroy enemy vessels rather than disable them, taking over warships from hostile combatants or even specified faction or racial owned ships, could lead to the unlocking of rare classes. It would also give the chance to scrap the ships taken over for double the award of destroying it or use them as one's own.

Some starships have been taken over by players and retrofitted to fit their tastes. This is the most apparent choice for pirates, who typically attack certain types of ships.

The Guild known as Hazard's Hand took over an NPC faction's flagship to act as their headquarters even after the destruction of their main vessel during their private war.

Guilds have the option to create their emblem, ranking uniforms and weapon designs unique to their organization. These institutions were capable of aligning with NPC factions that control the planets or creating massive alliances with other player guilds. They can also write their lore, creed or other meaning behind their group. There were over twenty thousand roleplaying communities within the game formed between family and friends, some even allowing strangers to join them.

Customized NPCs can have their personalities written by their creators, or randomly generated. Still, not all NPCs on board a ship are customizable, many of the nulls being generated from favored traits of the Guild's already customized characters.

Each Guild starts with twenty-five member slots. Building a Capital Ship adds fifty slots for new members to join and expand into. Gaining ownership of a Space Station over the twelve homeworlds adds a total of seventy-five slots. The most common approach creating a Guild Hall on a planet surface adds only twenty-five additional slots, and up to three of these can be built. Guild Halls do not have to be on the main twelve homeworlds. Thanks to the exploration feature of the game, entire guilds can lay claim and even name planets. Several weeks after the planet is discovered and a settlement is founded, NPCs, Quests and various other essentials are added to the planet to help expand the colony or outpost.

Slots for membership can also be purchased in the game's World Shop, along with many other investment items bought with real-life currency. This also includes premium resources, build time reduction and blueprint generators.

Ruled by the notorious Pirate King, Fleet Captain Callumore_Rayllumus, The Harbingers of the Void was one of the highest top ten power ranking Guilds. This had been due to their roster having the most Void class holders in the game from around the world.

They're pirates and everyone, everything, to them was open plunder in uncharted space. The only exception is other pirates, who have to make dealings to get through their space, though if they were nomadic they practically claimed the unknown regions that continually expand. Of course, since they technically weren't the largest Guild, and couldn't enforce their claim, they just continued to head further and further out.

Sadly, Callumore was a known Hospice Player, his true name being solely recognized as Jack for his information was not publically accessible. The Game's security protected its players from harm, in a far greater fashion than any other in the past two centuries of online gaming. Any more than his given name was mostly left in secrecy, making him an enigmatic force to be reckoned with.

With just a Capital Ship as their headquarters, the Harbingers of the Void is not the largest Pirate group within the primary server. They have one hundred member slots, but less than seventy-five members. Each of which has personal ships that measure five hundred meters in length or less.

The Twisted Respite is their Guild Ship, measuring three thousand meters long and one thousand five hundred meters wide. The stern of the ship, where the command tower looms over the main body of the ship, is the highest point. With the main segment being at least five hundred meters in height, the stern raises at a slope to seven hundred and fifty meters.

This gives the main section thirty-four decks, all the while the command sections only have sixteen. This does now, however, count the size of the hangar that takes up a good portion of the center.

The vessel resembles a wedge-shape in appearance with a forked double-hull starting from the center of the ship to the bow covered by the prow that protects the hangars segments concealed within. Classically designed after a modern stealth ship from the twenty-second century, the vessel has twenty-five heavy artillery cannons, and over one hundred and forty-four auto-turret emplacements of various types. The hangar bay itself is large enough to fit a hundred personal ships and several NPC fighters.

This ship was heavily designed for stealth and self-defense, but its penetration rating was high. The interior defenses were overwhelming, having at least two anti-personnel turrets were hidden behind panels of walls, floors and even the ceilings. These turrets often aided the ship's defenders and were given various types of armaments from micro-rockets to palm-sized railguns.

At the same time, the vessel had a large count of NPC defenses, having well over 10,000 defending NPCs at one time with moderate to high power rankings. The rankings only got higher the closer one got to the Command Section. Boarding parties very rarely got a chance to land, as they were the attackers and their targets weren't heavily armed unless they were in an active war against another Guild.

With a graphite black and silvery-white colored exterior, the Twisted Respite is capable of turning invisible amongst the stars. Hidden from combat and capable of launching surprise attacks against its targets.

Null Pilots on board take on the VTI, Variable Tactical Interceptor, a high-velocity fighter capable of reaching Mach speeds in atmospheric combat. They have an arrow indicator appearance with a singular blue colored canopy between the wings. Its sleek main shaft is a silvery-white while its two wings, four fins, and nose were graphite black. Its twin engines have a blue glow when engaged.

Stealth Shuttles are large and triangular, measuring 115 feet long, and 75.5 feet wide at its widest point and 65 at its tallest. The majority of its hull is titanium white with two black one-way viewports that appear to be decals along passenger area from the outside. Its cockpit fits four people at once, at the same time the primary hold can carry over five tons.

For ground skirmishes and raids, there is an aerodynamic gunboat design equipped with anti-personnel and tank weaponry. While it is effective against other unshielded fighters, it is not suited for combat in the vacuum of space. It is known as the FA-43, coined the 'Fallen Angel,' by the majority of his guild, as it has both tail fins and a set of enlarged wings with repulse engines built into them that allow it hover over a battlefield and mow down infantry units like a blade to grass.

Callumore's ship apart from the guild vessel was known as the 'Repentant's Tear,' and is better known as the Captain's Yacht by most of the crew. It measures one hundred and sixty meters in length, has a hammerhead shaped bridge, with a central viewport. The bridge segment is attached to a long shaft that leads to a triangular section.

This yacht can carry just about over ten people and is armed with forward-facing mass driver cannons and two turret emplacements for three hundred sixty degree defense around the entire vessel. It has a total of six engines pods in the aft section, and two more on the forward command compartment.

The interior is made for luxury with sculpted dark reddish-brown stained wood-esque metal panels, silver linings, and consistently blue lighting and lighter-hued terminal screens.

What differentiates this ship's model from others is that it is controlled by an interactive holographic interface based on the movements of one's hands. However, there are also alternative forms of control that can be implemented.

There is enough storage space for at least two months of consumables between six people at least, twice that if rationed.

Out of all the races to choose from, the Pirate King Callumore had chosen a blue omnivorous reptile-like humanoid known as a Ceqax. They're bare of all hair, their muscles were denser than that of a human-beings, but their teeth were relatively the same as their human counterparts if not a few more. Similar to most reptilians, he has two sets of eyelids, one of his eyelids is like a nictitating membrane. On their heads were dull-fin like protrusions that hare hardly pronounced, adding curvature to the tops of their heads. Due to the similarity in shape however, they can wear human helmets and clothing with little to no problem.

Ceqax is inherently smooth to the touch, but hard to as a brick of steel when physically hit due to their natural muscle density. They also excrete an aphrodisiac-like toxin along their skin, which initially causes a tingling like sensation at first contact. It is often used to paralyze targets during close-quarters combat should the opponent be exposed for a prolonged amount of time.

This particular species was one of the founders of the Twelve Home Worlds. However, thanks to his notorious reputation, he has been banished from his species world of origin.

Following a routine battle against an enemy warship in uncharted space, while he hadn't been wounded, his real-life vitals were failing. The pain was becoming unbearable, he could hardly even issue orders, or speak. While he knew he had been dying, something out of the ordinary occurred that he wasn't expecting. An update appeared an irregular offer that he had never thought would happen in a game centered around social interactions with people, a singeplayer game born from a VRMMORPG.

An exclusive update, one offering a version of the game without players, and the game wasn't taking no for an answer. With only the confirm button to press, the dreadful Pirate King to the Rise of Planets vanishes, his sights drowned in a pitch white light without knowing if he had accepted it or not.