~hiss~
The familiar hiss of the Dream Pod's lid opening was like music to Arthur's ears.
For him, staying in the Dream Pod was an everyday thing. If not for the time restriction Hypnotek had set for its use, he would have used it for the entire day. And now he got to experience a better version of the Dream Pod.
'Just by touching it, I can feel the difference in quality. The old Dream Pod I had was the first version and cannot compare to it. Not to mention I bought it on the used market, so it was already through some things.' Arthur couldn't help but compare.
He used to dream of getting a Dream Pod like this, and now he finally had it.
Sliding into the comfortable interior of the Dream Pod, Arthur felt it adjust to his body.
The interior of a Dream Pod was basically a bed that would conform to the user's body and change its structure. One didn't have to use it in a bed form either, as it could also be used in a recliner form.
Regardless of what form it was used in, the effects were the same and it was up to the user's preference.
Arthur simply let the machine do its work and got comfortable.
~DING~
>Initiate synchronization?<
A synthetic voice asked Arthur.
"Initiate." Arthur permitted.
As soon as he said that, he felt several soft probes touching his head. It was like a large hand with multiple fingers was covering his head. To a new person using the Dream Pod, this might be a bit creepy, but to Arthur, this was normal.
'The pads on the probes are so much better… my old ones had turned stiff…' Arthur recalled as he closed his eyes.
A few seconds later, he felt his body turning weightless and then he felt like he was falling.
It was the same sensation one sometimes felt when they were trying to sleep. One would feel like they were falling, only to jerk up awake. But in the case of Arthur, the falling did not stop and instead, he could 'see' a rush of colors.
It was as if he was falling down a rainbow tunnel and a myriad of patterns were interweaving in all this.
But then all of a sudden, his body came to a pause. He stood in an empty dark place where the only thing that could be seen was his own body.
>Synchronization completed<
>User Detected: Arthur Grey<
>Registration has been verified, and the user is now free to use the installed programs.<
Seeing this, Arthur was pleased. And a second later, a digital menu appeared in the form of a floating window.
It showed several things, such as the real world time, which was quite important as a person using the Dream Pod would often lose their perception of time.
After all, this was one of the reasons why Arthur had died in his first life.
"Never again…" He swore to himself.
He scrolled through the options before finding a specific application.
"Now it's time for my own calibration." Arthur said with a smile. 'It wouldn't be until six months later that the players would develop their own calibration programs. But I don't need to do that with the Dream Pod V3. Its own default calibration program is more than enough.' He thought.
This was the first advantage he was going to start off with, granted that it was a small one.
The Dream Pod needed to be calibrated before use so that the player would not have any mis-inputs. Of course, the staff had already done this before, and it was also the reason why Arthur was asked to wait.
"But personalized calibration is entirely different. Not everyone's brain and body respond the same way…" Arthur muttered before clicking on the Calibration program.
Upon doing so, he felt the area around him change.
From blank darkness, it turned into a room with a grey tiled floor. Its walls were similar in color, while its roof could not be seen.
>Calibration Room Selected<
"Begin with the basic model." Arthur commanded.
~shua~
In the next moment, a faceless figure of a person appeared. It almost looked like a mannequin if not for the fact that its body proportions matched Arthur exactly.
'It's still a bit creepy…' Arthur thought.
He looked at the figure for a second before extending his hands and standing in a T-pose.
The faceless figure did the same and mirrored Arthur. He continued to change his posture into different forms, while also moving around. Sometimes he touched his toes, sometimes he jumped like a ballerina and sometimes he would crawl.
If one glanced at the movements of the faceless figure, they would think that it was doing the same as Arthur. But if they watched longer, they would realize that while it could follow Arthur's movements, there were still some differences in its movement.
Sometimes it lagged behind by a few millimeters while sometimes it would be too fast.
'Just as I thought. The original calibration protocols still have quite a lot to improve…' Arthur continued his actions.
The longer he did, the better the mannequin followed him. Little by little, its actions were becoming exactly like Arthur with barely any deflection.
Arthur continued doing this until it was finally time for the launch.
"That should be more than enough for now." Arthur looked at the time and saw that it was now 11:55 AM.
There were just five minutes for the game to launch.
~DING~
>The User can now log into Morpheus Online<
"Great, that'll give me just enough time for Character Creation." Arthur immediately chose to log in.
~SHATTER~
This time though, a radical change appeared around him. The grey floors and walls shattered into digital dust and in place of it, a neon blue floor appeared.
The game music started playing at the same time, filling Arthur with excitement.
>Beginning Character<
>Please set the appearance of the character<
Arthur saw the faceless figure appearing in front of him again. But this time a long window was floating beside it, with tens of options floating beside it.
Since the Dream Pod greatly relied on the synchronization between one's brain and the device, the shape and statue of the player's character would be kept the same by default. This prevented there from being calibration issues.
After all, if some suddenly turned short after being six feet tall, they would have quite a difficult time getting used to it. Of course, one could also choose to change it greatly, becoming very tall, or very short, as muscular as a bodybuilder or as skinny as an anorexic patient.
But the difficulties that would arise from that were often not worth the change.
"Keep the character dimension the same," Arthur ordered.
The faceless figure in front of him morphed and gained the same face as him. It looked a bit eerie, but it was what it was.
"I'll just make some minor changes…" Arthur sculpted his face to make it look a bit different from his real face.
This would prevent him from being targeted in real life and was actually a recommendation that the company made for privacy reasons. Along with this, he made a few cosmetic changes that didn't really affect the use of the character.
Arthur extended his hair a bit and changed its style. He also changed his eye color from brown to black, matching his hair. Having done all this, Arthur proceeded to the next step.
>Please pick your character's name<
Arthur didn't need to think much about picking a name.
'This time around, I'll make sure my name is heard all around the world!' Arthur thought.
"Set the name as 'Arzhur'."
~DING~
>Character Created: Arzhur<
>The Game will now start!<
And with that, Arthur felt his vision turning a blank white.