It was a Friday night and Alain Dradge just got off work. Tonight was the night that he and his friends were finally able to log into the game that they've been invited to beta test, "Sekaii Modern" a Hack and Slash MMO that's been in development for a long time.
The gameplay looked unmatched by anything currently available in the market, and a beta invite was something to be coveted, as Alain didn't know of anyone else outside of his personal group that had been invited.
In fact, the invite seemed super exclusive as it was an appointment only ordeal at the address labeled in invites that they've received by mail. The address was within 20 miles (32.19 km) of all four of them.
It seemed sketchy, so they each called and verified it was correct, they were able to contact multiple employees that all seemed very legit on the phone at least. Also, there were four of them, all men approaching 30 years old, so they weren't really afraid of anything outside of a potential waste of time.
They all arrived separately and met at the entrance to the gate. The gate was connected to a high concrete wall that they couldn't see over, but trees and vines were growing over the top.
Alain looked over to his friends, they were the same friends that he's had since middle school. They played everything together, every new game that's interested them over the last 2 decades, conquered as a team. They were just a group of dorks in reality, but they were unashamed and proud to come home to live out their fantasies online.
Alain was slim, as he didn't really take time to eat in between his gaming sessions. His work was pretty demanding too, causing him to work through lunch pretty frequently. If you asked him to describe his appearance to you, his response would be, "Doesn't matter, I'm more about performance anyways." if that gives you an idea of what he looks like.
Sadly, his friends looked a lot like him. They were never a really successful bunch when it came to the ladies. Every once in a while one of them would get into a fling, but ultimately, none of them were willing to sacrifice their "Time with the boys."
"Fred, Phil, Bard." Alain gave a head nod at each name as he spoke, "Today, we establish absolute domination in the face of the unknown." He puffed out his chest and looked upward, "Nothing they throw at us can surprise us, we are the unstoppable force they need to really push the limits in this game."
Fred elbowed Alain in the ribs, "Yeah until you go running in and waking up the eggs like you did in the raid last week"
Alain looked more hurt at his words than the rib pain.
Bard spoke up, "My favorite part about this beta test is that it's an appointment. You play when we play and you get off when we get off. No more staying online and getting ahead of us so you get BORED." he stared daggers at Alain.
"Pfft, and no Wiki, so you can't just look up some OP build and one-hit every boss!" Fred added to the list of crimes.
"Another arrow to my heart!" Alain feigned a faint.
"Yeah, I love the idea of actually getting to play the game for once without you clearing all the mobs and us following around picking up loot." Phil said as he rang the bell to the gate.
"You guys honestly make me look like a bad guy when you talk like that!" Alain protested.
"Do you know how many games I've played where you've just power leveled me to max level and then rushed to the end game without telling me how to play?" Phil replied, "I'm basically a PRO at staying out of fire since it literally always one-hits me since I'm literally always underprepared."
"Bro's spittin, but he's also a whiny b*tch!" Bard gave a thumbs up.
A beep was heard through the loudbox on the gate, "...Er, yes? Hello?"
"Uh, yeah hi, hello!" Phil straightened his tie and leaned in towards the camera on the loudbox. "My name is Phil, also known as PossumTossem69 and these are my friends Bard, Alain and Fred."
"Did you seriously give them your username?" Fred asked. Bard started shaking his head.
"Ah yes, and it is I, Barbossa the original Kingslayer, the Bloodthirster of Unquenchable Thirst, The Vanquisher of Al'Zera." Alain spewed more earned titles from various video games
"Bro, they don't care, shut up." Bard chuckled awkwardly.
The beep sound was heard again, "no no no, please go on!" the disembodied voice sounded genuinely interested.
"Gladly. The Sinister Saint of Southern Solus! The Unmissing AimGod! The Acquirer, Hoarder of all Things! And my personal favorite, The Muscled!"
The others were staring agape at Alain. Beep, "YOU'RE HIRED! Get on in here!" the gate opened and a pathway through a garden could be seen.
"If that was sarcasm, it went over my head. That guy seems like he's actually impressed at your lame titles." Phil scratched his head as he stepped forward.
"Hater" Alain replied as he followed behind him. Bard and Fred trailed behind, still a little weary of this whole ordeal.
They continued down the path and entered the double doors to a small building with glass walls. Inside there was a reception desk with a well dressed woman manning the station. The glass panels on the wall seemed to have a one way mirror tint on them, as now that they were inside they could see out clearly. They had two loveseats opposite of a red carpet that led to the reception desk.
The carpet itself was extremely intricate, it seems to have yellow highlights that depicted all sorts of medieval themed items and creatures. The desk seemed to be made of some sort of extremely high quality wood, it was almost jarringly impressive.
The woman behind the reception desk was wearing a Japanese kimono dress. She had bright blond hair that was chop sticked into a bun. She looked over at the group and smiled.
"Uh oh, she's hot!" Bard whispered to Alain.
He looked back with wide eyes, "I KNOW DUDE!" he said in a whisper yell.
Fred looked back awkwardly at the door, "Ah yes, just making sure the door got closed, but it seems like it closed by itself. Don't mind me." The door had a hydraulic system, Fredjust didn't want to walk into the cringe zone he noticed that the woman clearly heard Alain.
"Hello, you must be the adventurers who were summoned to save the land of Tiamat in the world of Sekaii Modern!" she continued as she kept a warm smile, "Please grab a tablet and take a seat, the character creator will be done via a digital form here and we will import them into the world of Tiamat for you!"
"Yup, that's us!" Alain stepped forward "And I'm assuming you're our new fifth party member?" Alain could hear 3 separate faces receive 3 simultaneous palms. To his surprise, the woman actually blushed.
"Oh, you're funny! I'm not quite sure if I qualify, if I'm being honest." She handed Alain a tablet and he took it and simply waved it behind him while maintaining eye contact with the lady. Fred came and grabbed the tablet then proceeded to take a seat on the right loveseat.
"What's your name and what makes you unqualified?" Alain said as she handed him another tablet. He proceeded to do the same thing, never breaking eye contact. This time Phil came and grabbed the tablet, taking a seat on the left loveseat.
"I'm Tiera, and I'm not qualified because I'm from Tiamat, silly!" she playfully shrugged as she handed him another tablet.
"Hmm, I see, no devs. That's a shame." he passed the tablet back.
Bard walked over and snagged the tablet from Alain's hand, then walked over to the right loveseat. "Make room you pleb." he said to Fred. Fred looked up in disgust, then scooted over anyway.
"You get to select some traits, you should select kindness, Bard. I think it would be a refreshing change of pace." Fred snapped back.
Tiera grabbed the last tablet and reached out to Alain, "Please show us how the Barbossa saves the day. We need you to make the strongest build possible…" she twirled a strand of hair, with a pause as she leaned in, "for our testing, ya' know?"
'Oh baby, I've been waiting my whole life to hear a pretty girl tell me those exact words' was what Alain thought he said. In reality, the sounds that came out of his mouth were more akin to "erruhgg muy whoa lef uh pru tea gr ahhh" he nodded seriously and grabbed the tablet, turned around slowly and walked straight toward the left seat without looking up.
"Izzishet tekken," Alain shook his head and cleared his throat, "is this seat taken?"
Phil was smiling ear to ear, "Did you get her number, Prince Charming?"
Alain sat down and immediately dove into the tablet, not sparing any attention to Phil who was still beaming.
This was his favorite part, he finally got to create his new character. Soon he will be level one in a whole new world, a whole new skill tree, a whole new challenge. He scrolled through the terms and agreement, spamming the "Accept" button until finally the tablet changed to a black screen with a cool blue font.
"Create a Character"
Alain tapped the button.