At the turn of the 28th century, the virtual reality game 'Ixam' shocked the world with its release. What was initially viewed as just another videogame soon became to be known as another world. The game perfectly implemented the five senses, and with no delay time, the immersion felt truly real.

On top of one hour in the real world passing as four hours in the game, Ixam's most significant selling point was its high level of freedom. Freedom to interact with the world, terrain, NPCs, and other players.

Of course, it wasn't just a reality simulator. The game had all the features of a fantasy RPG.

Ixam offered a well-defined system, tons of magic, combat, and lifestyle related skills, and a near-infinite amount of classes to choose from. Whether someone preferred a sedentary life or one packed with adventure, Ixam offered it all.

The game differed in some ways from its RPG predecessors, however.

The world of Ixam was not static and was always in motion. Quests, for example, were generated in real-time, depending on what the player did to trigger them. Nothing was set in stone, and this mostly was correlated to the fact that NPCs were not really NPCs at all.

The NPCs of Ixam could not be differentiated from players at first glance, as they had emotions accompanied by a sense of self. They made their own decisions and had their own professions. Only, unlike players, they were not immortal and would permanently die.

The only caveat was that a surgery had to be performed before one could log into Ixam. A Neuro Connection Port, or "NCP" for short, had to be implanted in the back of the neck, making direct contact with the spine to allow the game to communicate with the brain.

From the outside, it looked like an outlet of sorts on the back of the neck. But regardless of the inconvenience, millions upon millions of people proceeded to go through with the invasive procedure. The VR cabin needed to connect to Ixam's servers had a thick cable that needed to be plugged into an individual's Neuro Connection Port, after all.

It was a new era after all. The era of true deep-dive virtual reality!