Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

009.1 | Beta 02

Wearing Clover's gear, Shin carefully placed it at the back of his neck while slowly attaching the circular rings on the place below his ears. He stretched his neck for a while, feeling the adjustment of the gear.

"Somehow, it's lighter than I thought. It feels like nothing is here."

He adjusted the position until it felt comfortable. Then, he proceeded on doing the SOP. There are Standard Procedures to be done before logging in. Each has a purpose. One of them would be to measure their original body length and heart rate. All of the players playing VR are at their respective heights.

"First, pat from the bottom toes up to the head... Then exercise your muscles like doing a warm-up... Jog on your place... recite the most numbers that you can recite in pi... Yosh! I think I'm ready."

Shin moved to the office chair and collapsed down, wheeling it around while holding the manual. He already memorized everything inside the manual from cover to cover, even the ISBN code and the publisher. But he decided to look at it again while waiting for the time to log in.

"It says here to wear the Synapse first before the helmet. Wait until the time for REM and log in. The fifth server and the sixth server will show two interfaces with the sub-name of the beta test. Choose the sixth server if you wish to proceed to the beta testing field. Choose fifth server if you wished to stay on the old server... hmmm... hmmm."

He flipped the pages quickly and stopped on a page where the blueprint of the Synapse is drawn. It has arrows pointing to the specific parts describing in detail the use and purpose.

"Remember to swipe the specially registered account card to the system before pressing the power on option on the Synapse. Then, wear the helmet after it. Make sure to check the helmet before wearing, especially the wirings if they are connected unto the proper places... blah blah blah..."

He slowly rotated the wheeled chair around towards his table and opened the first drawer below the table. He saw his personal things like documents, pens, a cube, and some mind games book. He reached out for a case where a single card is placed in the middle.

It was his account card, a bright crystalline orange-colored card with a special coating. Orange is the color for the second server accounts. He never saw the account cards of his friends other than Leon, but he is sure that Aud and Frass got Red cards while the twins and Lexa got the Yellow cards. He took the card from the case and raised it to the light.

"Almost ten years, huh? Not too long, but not too short. Enough time to grow up from being a child," he murmured.

He motioned the chair towards the side of his bed, where a beeping machine is placed. There were complicated buttons and wires inside; each carries a specific place for recording the data. Surprisingly, Shin already memorized all the transistors, so there will be no problem if ever he broke it or if somebody disables it. Well, who would disassemble this anyway?

"I know a certain person," he answered his question. "It can only be him, and him."

He located the place where the player should place the card. He fed the card inside and let the lights blink to recognize it. When the signal is done, he pushed the chair to the front of his computer set to see if the recognition process is done. Waiting for the loading bar to finish, the system recognized his entry. He retrieved the card and returned it to the case.

"It's time already..."

Shin stood up and stretched a little. He pushed the chair back to his table and arranged the things he used around. Then, he moved to the bed and reached for the helmet. After pressing some necessary opening buttons, he wore the helmet and locked it in a close fit. Nothing is wrong, and he proceeded.

He lay down and switched the lights off by just clapping his hands. The darkroom swam his sight, and the helmet he wore emitted a glowing blue light. This made him somehow sleepy. Shin yawned for the last time before closing his eyes to sleep.

Everything is blank.

Then, suddenly, a blue light began to appear. Like how televisions were on, the light blinked from the middle to a wide square resembling a box. From here, the transfer added another motion with rapid lights going to the center directly in front of the screen as if warping the watcher towards it. In a zap, an image is integrated, showing an image of a character.

Shin suddenly is conscious.

He blinked his eyes, wondering where he is just to found the pulling image before him. He sooner realized that he is currently on REM and entering the game. This is the logging-in passage where he has to type in his passcode for the second time. A translucent slate appeared before him as if detecting his consciousness. Though, today, something is different. 

There is an additional options button beside the slate.

Pointing to the image, he opened the options button causing the information to pop out. A large loading bar appeared right just in front of his chest. The entrance is now being activated and reading the codes inside the gear he is wearing. After a minute of watching the bar finish, another slate popped out, showing an icon of a gate.

It says Sixth Server [Beta Test].

Shin chose this gate. The scene changed and warped him through the beta test. On his way, sets of instructions are given. It is as if he is on a school bus and somebody is telling him the things that he needed to do while on a camp. Shin remembered the information and accepted the log book given to record their dungeoning. One more minute, and he is now teleported to the Rebirth Stone.

It was bright at first, blinding from the surroundings getting shifted from the darkness of the warp towards the brightness of the town. He covered his eyes at first, slowly walking out from the large crystal, wondering what could be new in this server. As his body slowly went out from the solid, he felt that something is different than the normal warping. 

This one feels like he is in a cave going out for sunlight.

And that's when he saw the surroundings.

The Rebirth Stone is still at the normal position. Nothing has changed much. But what surprised Shin must be the way how the graphics looked like. No, it doesn't look like graphics anymore. 

It looks authentic no one can mistake it as a game. Shin excitedly ran towards the end of the Rebirth Stone, feeling the wind dancing his hair, and hopped down to gain another experience. Instead of the thought of jumping down, he can feel his legs stretching and his feet colliding the ground.

He also tried breathing. 

Yes, he can breathe and can smell; he can feel that cold wind tingling his skin. And as if his skin is real flesh. The fifth server also looks real, but something like the weather is not possible. They can only feel what they have thought on that server, and if one never thinks that the air is cold, nobody will feel it. That's why Shin is feeling a bit different. This server is almost the same as the real world.

Then why would Leon said that the sixth server would fail?

He can't see any failure than the reality.

Now that he is in the game, Shin opened the logbook given to him and started recording. He noted that the execution of the warp was excellent. While jutting down the content, an icon of a ringing telephone suddenly appeared before him that made him jump. He closed the logbook after saving it and answered the call.

He clicked the icon, opening it to a screen with a picture of an avatar. It was Leon. The connection showed that they are now ready to talk.

"Took you a while. Where are you?" Leon asked directly.

"I was reading the manual carefully," Shin replied.

"Huh? Didn't you read it already?"

"I'm just making sure that there's no error on it. Your predictions are quite close to fascination, but I think this time it won't happen."

The other player became silent for a while. It is true that Leon's guesses are always right on track. However, they are still predictions. Even though he holds a bright mind that can see the future, he can't still see the future. 

That's why it is often called predictions than scientific facts. 

Shin finished jutting down the information and threw the logbook inside his inventory.

"So, where are you?" Shin asked.

"We're already at the entrance of the dungeon. Aud and Frass are already here. Lexa is still on his way, and the twins are offline. Other testers are gathering at the front," Leon reported.

Shin opened his interface to see who's online and found something new. Aside from the colors representing DTO and VR players, another one in a golden slate showed their status as beta players. Leon, Aud, and Frass are already on their golden slate mark. Shin just joined in a minute ago.

"Send me the coordinates," Shin said.

"Rather than sending you, why not try traveling?" Leon suddenly suggested. Shin thought that he heard the guy chuckle.

"Huh? Why is that?"

"Try it. And use the world gates. Summon your pet to fly you up."

In each of the world, there is this one thing called [WORLD GATES]. These gates are passages going towards the next floor. It is usually in a coiled beanstalk and was inspired by the famous children's book. 

There are no monsters in this place, letting the players transfer with ease. Though these gates are usually a long flight of stairs, that's why only NPCs who are capable of traveling between worlds use it than the players. 

Why would they waste their time climbing up the stairs if they could teleport using a portal?

Teleporting isn't race-biased. Anyone can do it as long as they have the capability or if they reached the proper standards. The portals can be used in transferring between places but can never be used in transferring worlds. That's why teleportation or using the World Gates is the possible mode of entry.

As for Shin, he just wanted to teleport and start playing simple, but the fact that Leon suggested this way of transfer must hold some considerable amusement. Shin is a Warrior class; he can't own some flying carpet or brooms like how Leon had it. But instead, he will be using his pets, as Leon suggested.

The standard command for calling a pet is by opening the interface and summon the pet. But now, instead of having the summon pet option, an information dialogue appeared. Shin is still about to use it, but it seems that the game read his mind beforehand and brought him to this tutorial.

[The Summon Pet Interface was disabled. To summon a familiar, use the respective whistles to call them. The whistles are gifts from the system.]

Shin's eyes widened. Then does it mean that calling out a familiar is like calling a pet from real life? 

He reached out for his inventory bag and opened the contents. There's a slate showing all the things that he owned, from the weapons that he equipped, gold coins that he earned, and some material droppings that he gathered. 

The system added a new section with the title [Summoning Materials], and he opened it.

Inside this new section are sets of materials often used for summoning and necromancy purposes. There is this one set of monster flutes that has the ability to attract monsters for two minutes. This is often used in campaign quests where players are required to hunt a certain amount of monsters to receive a prize. There are also different kinds of whistles that could be used infinitely. 

Shin only remembered having one pet, so why are there a lot of whistles?

"Try calling the pegasus," Leon said from the other line. He must have guessed that Shin is already looking at his inventory.

"A Pegasus?"

Shin pressed on a brown whistle with a pair of wings. Somehow, the shape of the whistle is as big as his palms, feeling the odd sensation of roughness and cold. He never felt this kind of thing before. It is as if he is really holding the whistle. He placed the tip of the whistle in between his mouth, smelling some scent of herbs coming from the brown whistle. 

With a blow, a soundless tone echoes to the whole place.

There was a slight vibration in the air. Shin looked around and up the sky to see if something is coming. But he never saw anything, not even a spot. He looked down at his hand and stared at the whistle. Aside from the noiseless sound and the realistic graphics and smell, what can this thing do?

Shin is about to tell Leon about this mistake when flapping sounds from afar reached his ears. He looks behind him; his eyes widened upon seeing a graceful being gradually closing to him. 

The Pegasus is considered as one of the Mythical Beasts of the game, including Griffins and Dragons. Owning one right now and seeing it close like this made his heart race. He never thought that a Pegasus is this beautiful!

The Pegasus landed carefully on its hooves, then slowly walking towards Shin. This beast has the usual appearance of a pegasus, a horse-like body with white-colored short fur. It has wings on both sides of its body and long silken hair that seems to be constantly moving like a flowing river. 

Shin inched closer to his summoned beast and tried holding the nuzzle. The Pegasus watched his owner and lowered its head to be pet.

"No s**t," Shin cursed in disbelief. "Is this real?"

"Feels real like?" Leon said on the other line. "How does your Pegasus look like?"

"What? They have different looks?" Shin opened his inventory and tried looking for a snack. He found a golden apple and tried feeding it towards the pegasus, to which the beast happily accepted.

"Yes, hurry up here and look at Frass' pegasus. You will s**t your pants the moment you will see how it looked like," Leon laughed. "By the way, Aud and I both used a griffin to fly up."

"A griffin? Suits you," Shin grinned.

A Griffin is a chimera that is a part bird and a part lion. It has a head and wings like an eagle, while the body and tail are made up of lion parts. Shin thought that Leon riding a flying lion is just living upon his beast-like name.

"So hurry up and come. There's still time before the raid starts, but it would be good to see how you look like," Leon said. "My features changed after logging in."

"What do you mean? You started looking like a real sissy?" Shin joked.

"Shut up," Leon barked. "Just look at the mirror and see."

Leon then discarded the call. Shin thought of following his words and opened his bag to look for an accessory. Waiting for a while for the object to appear, Shin tried giving a name to his pegasus. He registered the name, and a badge appeared on the neckline of the beast. Satisfied, he looked at the mirror that appeared in front of him. Shin could only take a step back.

"Why... it is me!"

Aside from his character's additional features of a warrior, like the clothes and some scars that he fancied, his face looks almost the same in real life. He stared closer, looking at the color of his eyes, the length of his nose, his very own lips, the ears, and even his natural hair is copied! 

If anyone in real life will see him right now, they will say that Shin is just doing some cosplay.

He tried winking his eyes, wondering if it will distort the interface, but nothing happened. He touched his nose, stretched his ears, and even pinching his cheeks feels so real. 

Indeed, this new server of Virtual Reality passes the five primary senses, almost giving the players a reality that is different from their own. Shin opened the logbook again and recorded his findings before mounting the pegasus. He flew up in the sky towards the World Gates, seeing scenery that he never thought will exist in this lifetime.