*Ding* *Dong*
The sound of the intercom was heard.
It was now around 7 PM, 4 hours after the graduation ceremony ended.
After the grand ceremony, many of the students went out with friends and family to celebrate. Joshua, a famous loner at school, was completely left out. Even the members of his club didn't invite him.
Having nothing to do particularly, he immediately went home.
Minami wasn't with him because her friends wanted to celebrate with her. Thus, leading to Joshua walking home alone.
However, right now, Joshua's mood was as clear as day. Nothing beats today for him.
That is because "that" is arriving today.
Walking towards the door, Joshua confirmed the identity of the other party.
"Delivery."
Seeing the labels on their caps, Joshua quickly opened the door.
After signing a few sets of paper documents, a large box was placed inside his house. It was about as large as a bathtub.
He then painstakingly tried to bring it to his room.
Before he even successfully transported the box, he was already out of breath. He rested for a moment then continued.
After placing the box in the empty space in the middle of his room, he opened it. Inside, a large machine was seen.
It has a porcelain-like smooth outline. Inside, it was covered with a smooth-looking cushion covered with expensive-looking silk. In the end, a visor-like device was seen.
Objectively speaking, it looks like an elongated egg with a quarter taken off.
The object was none other than the machine used to access the virtual reality world.
After opening it, he immediately tried to boot it up. Whirring sounds were heard at the same time that a green patterned light was seen all over the machine's body.
After that, he moved to his PC and tried to connect the cables from his computer to his new machine.
It took more than an hour to set everything up. From hardware setup to boot to personalization, and even for calibration.
Right before he finished, he received a new mail. He immediately sat down in front of his computer and checked the mail.
The first few lines were simply words confirming the safe arrival of the delivery. However, after reading the next few lines, he couldn't help but let out a wide grin.
"Hahaha. Luckily, I could start quickly now."
He laughed as he took out the package that Minami bought for him.
Actually, Joshua was planning on buying the software after the complete and safe installation of the machine.
Opening the pack, it contains two types of installation media. One is the old Compact Disk type. The other is a Flash Drive type.
He quickly picked up the Flash Drive type installer and inserted it to the port on the side of the machine.
"… This should do it…"
After he did, confirmation was received by his computer stating the successful installation.
It didn't even take a minute.
"With this, it's all set."
After finishing all the required steps he could, finally, start with the main part.
He carefully crept inside the large machine. He laid down comfortably with his head placed on a small elevated head support.
The inside was designed to help the body relax to avoid muscle pains through using the machine for extended periods.
After lying down completely, he pulled the visor in front of his eyes. As soon as he did, letters flowed in front of him.
[Initial Boot Sequence: Load]
A moment later, blinding light was released by the visor. It was bright enough to cause the eyes to close involuntarily.
When he opened his eyes, amazingly, he found himself floating in space. It was a white space that makes you lose your sense of distance.
Shortly after, instructions were given to him through strings of letters appearing in front of him. He followed the instructions carefully.
It started with basic stretching, non-locomotive movements, precise movement, and pose instructions.
After about 10 minutes, the words "Customization Complete" was shown.
"That took quite a while…"
Knowing about this procedure beforehand, he estimated to finish the whole thing within 5 minutes. However, it actually took twice as long.
"Now, to start the game…"
He then waved his hands. As he did, a floating display was shown in front of him.
It looks like a normal computer screen. However, only 2 icons are present.
One is the icon for the Control Panel. The other is for the only program that he had installed. Its icon was simply the image of the planet Earth.
He touched the icon for the game.
As soon as he did, the white environment around him vanished quietly, pixel by pixel.
Darkness occupied his vision for a moment.
Then, a window appeared. It was the login window.
However, he cannot move his body currently. Also, there is no keyboard, virtual or physical, to type on to.
Then, he remembered how to log in.
He used his mind to input the details. By focusing on the information, he managed to input the first letter of his username. As he did, the login started.
After inserting his username and password, the window faded and the surrounding was once again surrounded by white light.
This time again, he doesn't have any physical body to move around yet. He felt as if he was looking through a screen that moved according to his will. It actually feels a little weird.
Suddenly, the character creation started.
In World Explosion Online, a.k.a. WEXO, character creation is very detailed.
You can create any face you want, any body type, any hair color, any skin color, literally, anything.
In front of him, the basic 3D avatar was standing like a mannequin. Beside it, several windows are floating.
Each window has a different purpose. Other than the window for editing, there is one for the Character Name, Character Basic Stats, Race, and lastly, the option to make your avatar with the same face as yourself in the real world.
Joshua was prioritizing time. He didn't even listen properly to the AI giving off explanations and started working.
He made his avatar look exactly like him. Then, he chose Human as the race.
Right after, he went to the stat distribution.
There are a lot of stats available. Strength, Agility, Wisdom, Intelligence, Vitality, Endurance, and Concentration. Each has values around 6 to 11.
All the distributable stats, a total of 12, was distributed equally to strength and agility.
It was his favorite build on any game he played!
As he finished confirming the changes, he finally went to the Character Name.
The creator, anticipating the occurrence of many who wished for common names that are easily used by any other, the game implemented a special type of system. Each character in an account is assigned a unique 12-character code.
Mixing numbers and letters, it was enough to cover an astronomical number of unique IDs.
This was all done to allow players to have the same names. Which means that there are no restrictions on the name.
"Well… Let's go with the Usual…"
And so, he named his character. The name he used is something he's been using for all his characters since he started playing games.
After typing the name, he confirmed the spelling.
[Z-E-U-S]
He then confirmed the name, indicating the end of the character creation.
His vision once again went black.
Then, a list of locations was presented. Having decided beforehand, he immediately chose the first.
After the selection, the darkness returned. This time it lasted quite a while, about 20 seconds.
After it ended, his control over his own body returned. He finally was able to open his eyes.
In front of him was a wide plaza. Many Players could be seen walking busily here and there. NPCs could have been within the crowd but there is no telling who apart.
First of all, there's no display that could be seen in view. No HP bars, no cursors, no anything.
If somebody told him that he was still in the real world, he may have believed those words.
He then looked below, checking his own body.
He was wearing the basic equipment of any RPG game out there.
Light blue tunic with a small brown leather breastplate combined with cotton pants and boots. He didn't even possess any initial weapon.
After confirming, he started stretching and felt the condition of his body.
However, he couldn't feel any difference between his body here and his body in the real world. It feels so real. Everything seemed realistic, even the dark blue sky that stretched far and wide.
It was currently early morning in-game. It was said that the time here passes 3 times as fast as the outer world.
Not wanting to waste this opportunity, he immediately prepared to start eliminating monsters. However, not only did he not possess a weapon, all newbie players are restricted to leave the town for a total of 4 hours.
This applied to death too. After reviving, a player is forbidden to step outside the town where he is resurrected at for 4 hours. Once under this special condition, there are many ways of spending it.
On the internet, there are several articles teaching how to efficiently use the first 4 hours of a newbie. Basically, it can be summarized as this:
- - -
- Obtain a guild card
- Get your own weapon
- Finish the basics training
- Finish your very first quest
- - -
Once you finished all of this, the 4 hours would have either ended or is about to end.
However, information isn't the only thing you need in this game. Experience plays a great factor in it too.
This game is unlike any other game where there are scripts being followed by NPCs. Speaking with them, you cannot normally differentiate them from a normal human being.
The only difference would be the common knowledge about the real world.
This game was released not that long ago. A mere 3 months. As long as you speak with them, you can quickly differentiate an NPC from a player. However, as time passes and the NPC picks up on some terms players use, differentiating them might be a bit difficult.
Anyways, before thinking about complicated stuff, he had better things to do. Realizing this, Zeus (Joshua) immediately ran toward the guild.