Year 2043
It was raining.
Our story begins with a young man who just got back from celebrating his 21st birthday.
He stands at a powerful 5.5 feet tall, with short black hair; a toned body from an active lifestyle in his desperate attempt to gain mass so that he had the possibility of gaining some height.
Sadly it didn't help, he was still short.
His name is Ace Diamonte Valdez. A kickass name for a kickass guy as he likes to say.
Looking out the window at the downpour outside, Ace couldn't help but feel relaxed; it's always a great feeling being inside with the heat on when it's raining outside.
As he gazed at the dark cloudy sky, he couldn't help but feel strange, as if he was at the precipice of something.
It was hard for him to describe.
Walking away from the window and turning off the light on his way out, Ace entered his bedroom where a package was waiting on his bed, Ace couldn't help getting excited just looking at it.
Inside the package was a state of the art piece of technology in the gaming industry thats normally priced at 6999 USD plus tax.
But Ace got lucky and got it for free due to his sister's husband having invested in the company that made it while it was still starting up.
"For once I'm very happy she's not into games. Otherwise I wouldn't have this opportunity for another 2-3 years with my income" Ace said to himself as he rubbed his hands together, excitement coloring his face.
Ace only made around 1400 USD a paycheck and with the numerous bills, he only had a couple hundred each month to spend wherever he wanted.
He was also just trash at saving, especially if a new game came out.
Going over to his bed, Ace started opening up the package and took out something that resembled circlet.
It had a sleek design with a company logo featuring some type of scaly wings and the initials 'LTFTA'.
No one knows what the initials stand for and the company that made the VR technology never clarified what it meant.
Going through the instruction manual, apparently all he had to do was put it on and 'inject energy' whatever that meant
The 'energy' it was talking about wasn't clear from the instruction manual, it's probably a good assumption that it means electricity.
The strange thing is that there aren't any charging cables or anywhere on the device itself that something CAN be plugged into.
With a bemused expression on his face, Ace picked up the circlet, turning it around.
' They need to make better instructions, is it possible it comes fully charged? But what do I do when it dies?' Ace thought to himself
Well, no use thinking about it now, might as well give it a try.
Turning the lights off and getting in a comfortable position on his bed, Ace set the circlet on his head and waited.
He didn't have to wait long.
A bright blue glow appeared from the circlet on his head, lighting the whole room up in its cyan light.
"Ah, so it is charged!" Ace said to himself as he snuggled under his blankets, a bright grin gracing his face. He closed his eyes waiting for the circlet to fully activate.
'Should I say "Link Start?" or is that too much?' he absently wondered.
Before any other random thoughts graced his mind, the bright light reached its peak and suddenly-
Everything froze.
It was like time itself had stopped.
The kitchen sink that was dripping had a water dropplet hanging in mid air.
The spider that was in the corner of his room was frozen mid action.
And just as suddenly as it happened, everything returned to normal.
The only difference from before was Ace, who was snuggled under his blankets with his eyes closed.
He was no longer there. The house was now empty.
He had indeed felt something was about to change as he watched the rain.
---
Coming to his senses, Ace felt a moment of derealization. Surrounding him was a dark space with a greyish white fog in every direction he looked.
'I'm in! Hell yeah!' a look of triumph crossing his face as he looked at his eerie surroundings.
Suddenly a window popped up in front of him.
'Welcome! Please pick the game you want to play!'
1. Infinite Worlds Online
2. ??? (Can't access for the time being, requirements unknown!)
Seeing as the system came out only today, there should only be one option available.
Unknown requirement? Rubbing his chin in thought, Ace had no idea what that was all about.
'Well, whatever, I'll figure it out some other day. For now it's time to get to the good stuff.' Brushing the thought out of his head, Ace gazed at the first option in anticipation
Infinite Worlds Online.
Kind of a bland name to be honest, but it's a work of art.
Completely AI generated it takes any piece of media and makes entire worlds for people to explore.
Of course they somehow got permission from every creator somehow, it wouldn't do to have a copyright strike every five seconds. The resources needed for such an endeavor gives people chill just thinking about it.
LTFTA released a few teaser trailers over the years, showing clips of various worlds.
Horror games, RPGs, even books, movies and TV shows.
According to LTFTA, it's a truly 'infinite' experience.
Other companies have tried to duplicate it with no success, they've even tried contacting LTFTA for a possible acquisition to no avail and even when shadier methods are used, the people trying to take it give up after the first attempt.
They must have some crazy methods to keep their product secure.
'It really makes you wonder how sis's man got that opportunity to invest. To be honest, I don't even know what he does for a living.' Ace though to himself as he gazed at the screen.
Shaking the thoughts from his head and with bated breaths, Ace clicked the only available game.
'Now entering Infinite Worlds Online!'
'Please create your unique user ID! Warning! You may never change it so choose wisely!'
Hmm. Ace rubbed his chin in thought while he thought of what he should name himself.
It had to be good since he couldn't change it.
After a couple seconds of thinking, Ace went with:
God.
' I'm sorry! Username in use, try again! '
Smirking to himself, and tried a different one.
RookieCrusher.
I'm sorry! Username in use, try again! '
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry! Username in use, try again! '
Not smirking anymore Ace sighed in resignation and just put 'Ace'.
Not very original but he was feeling too lazy to keep going.
'Whatever.. my names good enough.' He thought to himself in annoyance, the curse of online names being stolen, the game came out recently so it's surprising that so many names were taken this soon.
'I'm sorry! Username in use. Try again!'
...
Ace's eye started twitching as he read the screen.
With a shake of his head, he decided to hit the random name generator.
'Generating a random name, please wait!'
After a second of waiting, a name formed on the screen.
Ace Diamonte Valdez.
Eh? Ace looked at the screen in awe.
Why's it my name? He wondered in disbelief, confusion coloring his features.
He honestly didn't care that much if people knew his identity but it was still unnerving that the system chose his name. Especially since it decided his first name was unacceptable.
Understandably confused, he decided to just roll with it.
Hitting accept, it now goes to a different screen.
'Do you want to adjust your body in any way? You may make only adjust proportions, not appearance'
Ace's eyes lit up after reading this.
MAKE ME TALLER
Ace adjusted his height to be 2 feet taller.
'That should do it hehe, I'm no longer a hobbit- I mean stylishly short' Ace thought to himself in satisfaction.
However..
'I'm sorry! That feature isn't available for your character.'
Eh? Why not..?
Blankly looking at the screen, Ace suddenly felt like he was being picked on.
With tears in his eyes he decided to just enter the game. Clicking the 'Accept character' button as he waiting for the game to load.
As he was waiting, he saw movement at the corner of his eye.
Turning his head, it was kind of hard to make anything out, but it seemed like the fog was shifting in a certain spot, almost like a figure was standing there.
"Hm? Is someone there?" Ace muttered to himself with furrowed brows, the hair on the back of his neck stood up as a sense of danger filled the air.
Realistically he shouldn't encounter anyone here, this is his personal character creator space
GAME LOADED, ENJOY YOURSELF!
Before he could further examine the figure, he disappeared as he loaded into the game.
---
??? Pov:
"...I was too late.. This isn't good.."
'It's all that man's fault, if he hadn't interfered at that last junction, I would have got here in time' Mystery man thought to himself suppressing his annoyance as he kicked his feet.
'However thinking a bit more, maybe it's not all bad' the mystery man thought to himself, a sly smile gracing his lips.
He might be bipolar.
Staring at the spot Ace had vanished from, the man sneered.
"All it takes is one death.."
In this game, there's no way you can survive every world unless you had heaven defying luck or were the main character with the assistance of plot armor.
As the man faded away, he pushed the annoyance of letting his prey go to the back of his mind, still curious what this one did to deserve special attention.
"On to the next one.."