Noob's Guide To Full-Dive RPG's

Kaleb's eyes narrowed as he heard a loud thud sound. "So, you gonna pay me back, you insignificant little f**k up?" Harold, a tanned and muscular, asked as he walked towards him with the thick metal pole he had just hit against the wall. "Ah, sorry man, I still need some time. I'd say about two weeks." Kaleb said as he nervously regained his composure and shifted his weight slowly. Kaleb searched the alley he had gotten cornered in for an escape, unfortunately, he could not find one. "Kaleb, I've been lenient. Three months, that's a long time. You don't really think this whole charade is going to work again, do you?" Harold asked with his low, grumbly voice in a menacing tone as he straightened his posture and began to walk slower, wielding his pole low, yet intimidatingly. Kaleb shifted his weight once more as he looked around nervously, once again searching for an escape. Suddenly, Harold began to roar with laughter. "You i***t! Even after getting cornered, you're trying to run away! I really do enjoy being the one to break it to you. You can't run." He said mockingly as he slowly raised his pole onto his shoulder, relaxing his posture a bit. Kaleb giggled nervously. "L-look... W-we were friends, r-right?" Kaleb asked as he took a step back from the nearing giant, hesitantly looking at the giant's face. Harold ignored Kaleb's pleas as he took one last step. 'H-he stopped...' Kaleb thought as he relaxed slightly, taking a moment to catch his breath. 'Wait, Something is about to happen, I need to be ready!' Kaleb thought with intense panic as his eyes darted around the scene, searching for a way to predict the next series of actions. 'He's going to swing the pole, from left to right.' Kaleb determined from his observations. After a moment, Harold swung, feigning from the right, then suddenly changing trajectory to swing diagonally from the lower right towards the upper left. The pole hit Kaleb's knee and he fell to the ground,, unable to properly maintain his prior position due to the pressure. As the pole hit him, he let out a loud, painful scream. He looked at his knee  with tears in his eyes. 'I-It's broken...!' He thought to himself as he looked at his leg, which is twisted the wrong way. He looked up at Harold, who is currently holding the pole over his shoulders with a smug look on his face. A sense of fear, disgust, and anger washed over Kaleb as he looked at him. "Do you get it now?" Harold asked as he walked a little closer to Kaleb and crouched down in front of him, using the pole as a support. "We don't actually care about the money. That much, anyway. We just want you to know one thing." Harold said as he paused and looked behind him to ensure there were no pursuers from the earlier chase. "We have complete control over you. Don't ever forget that." Harold said as he stared directly into Kaleb's eyes, sending a wave of total terror down Kaleb's spine as tears fell from his eyes slowly. Harold stood up, then turned around and took a few steps. "Oh, and by the way." Harold said as he stopped. "We were never friends, you little fuck." Harold added before finally walking away. A few minutes after Harold walked away, Kaleb pulled himself together and looked around for something to help with walking, quickly, he spotted a long L pipe. He painfully dragged himself over to it, the used the pipe to stand, placing all of his weight on his right leg as well as the pipe. With a slight hop, he began to slowly step away from the back of the alley. As he got close to the entrance, A trashy piece of paper caught his attention. He turned to look at it and noticed that it was a lottery ticket. Hesitantly, he decided to pick it up and slowly went to the nearest gas station, garnering several weird looks as he walked there. He entered the gas station and placed the ticket on the counter. "Run it, please." Kaleb said flatly as he looked directly at the counter with dead eyes. "R-right..." The cashier said as he took the ticket and scanned it. "It looks like you got a small amount, we just need to know the transfer information, then we can transfer the money." The cashier said with an uncomfortable smile. Kaleb put his hand in his pocket, then fished out his wallet and tossed it on the counter. "It's on a card in there." He said with a voice that sounds like a man prepared to die. "Alright." The cashier said with uncertainty as he looked through the wallet, finding the aforementioned card after a few moments. He then inputs the required information into a small computer on the side of the cash register. "And, there we are, the amount has been transferred. You have won a grand total of five hundred thirty-nine dollars, congratulations!" He said with uncertainty as he put the card back in the wallet, then placed it on the counter. Kaleb grabbed his wallet, then turned towards the exit. "Thanks." He said blandly, then proceeded to walk out of the gas station. Eventually, as the sun was setting, Kaleb made it home. A small, run-down studio apartment with a mattress that would depress even the poorest person, and a bathroom and kitchen that are in the same room. In the corner of the room is a desk that could fall any second with a computer on it and a chair in front of it. The computer tower is on its side with the monitor on top of it and the keyboard in front of it. At the foot of his bed is a small worn-down chest. With a bit of a struggle, he opened the chest and grabbed out one of his shirts. He then closed the chest and sat on his bed and took a deep breath before straightening his leg. As he straightened his leg, he let out a mortifying scream that could scare even the most hardened of war veterans. He quickly splinted his leg, utilizing the pipe he had found and the shirt he grabbed from his chest. Once he finished with his makeshift splint, he walked over to his computer and turned it on. As the sound of whirring fans started, a holographic display appeared on the monitor with the words 'powering on' plastered onto it. Once the computer finished powering on, he navigated to his browser and looked at his bank account. He looked at his checking account and saw that it had twelve dollars less than the amount that was stated at the gas station. 'f**k's sake. I forgot I had overdrawn my account earlier...' Kaleb thought with disappointment as he opened a new tab and closed his bank account. he opened a video playing website known as WhoTube and looked up a splint tutorial to make sure he did it properly. After making sure it was done properly and making the adjustments that were necessary, he turned his attention to the ad that was on the side of the page. 'The next generation of gaming is here with the newest headset in virtual reality technology. Introducing the first-ever Full Dive virtual reality headset, Blinker.' The ad read. 'Full dive? Didn't I hear about this thing's development a year ago?' Kaleb wondered as he opened a secondary tab and searched for the headset. After a few moments, his search results had come and the page flooded with links. He clicked the first link, the link is to a website called 'HorizonTech' the website made by the developers of the Blinker Headset. Upon loading the page, he saw a picture of the blinker headset and an estimated price. '299.99$, seriously? That's most of what I have. But... It does say it comes with their game and the hardware to properly run it...' He thought as he moved the mouse to the 'ORDER NOW' button. 'Plus, if there is a game like this, that probably means there is money to be made from playing if your cards are played right...' He thought as his hesitation grew greater. "Argh, fine!" He yelled as he pressed the left-mouse button. 'Please enter the required information,' the cart screen said. Underneath the text is all sorts of criteria such as credit card number, address, name, and all of the other required fields when purchasing an item online. He checked the end-user license agreement. After he finished writing out his information, He checked the end-user license agreement, then clicked the order button and a pop-up appeared. 'Your order will arrive in five' it said. 'Five?' Kaleb thought to himself curiously as he tried to figure out what it means. 'Four.' the five changed. 'There's no way it can deliver that fast...' He thought as he looked around cautiously.  'Three. Two. One.' The countdown finished and as it did, a drone broke through his wall and crashed into his metal bedframe. "Th-than-thank y-yo-you f-f-f-for p-purch-chase" The drone said as its lights turned off. 'The f**k? Are you f*****g kidding me!? My wall! My security deposit!' He thought angrily as he stood, pushing his weight to his right leg. He limped over to the drone, and investigated it. He noticed it has a package attached to the bottom of it. He sat on his bed, then grabbed the package off of the drone and opened it. Inside of the package is a large helmet with adjustable sizes, a small, white square, about four inches long and two inches tall, and a game box with a cool scene painted on it and the words 'World of Eden' plastered on the top. Lastly, there is also a small booklet of instructions in various languages. He took everything out and laid it out next to him on the bed, then began reading the instructions. 'Thank you for purchasing the Blinker headgear, for purchasing it before the launch date of World of Eden, we have given you a free console to more adeptly run the game. The launch date of the game, World of Eden, is June twelfth, three P.M. Eastern Standard Time (EST).' The front page read. 'Wow, I guess I got lucky since that's tomorrow...' Kaleb thought as he continued reading. 'Chapter 1: The console. The console has two ports, one for the power cord, and one for the Blinker headgear. To properly power on the console, please find the power cord in the bag attached to the console and plug it into the back. Once you have finished that, press the power button on the top. Your console is now ready to receive a disk. The disk slot is on the front of the console, to put a disk in, just lightly press it into the disk slot. If there is already a game inside of the console, press the eject button on the left side of the console. Your console is now ready to play.' He read the first paragraph. 'That's... An unusual place for an eject button...' He thought as he picked up the console. He stood up and walked over to his computer, then turned it off. Once the computer was off, he unplugged it and plugged in the Blinker console's power cord. He connected the opposite end of the power cord to his console, then clicked the power button. A circle that is slightly indented towards the center. Once he powered it on, a low, quiet hum could be heard from the console and a sliver around the power button and eject button lit up in a rainbow of colors that are going around in circles around the buttons. 'Looks like I did that properly. But then again, how could you do it wrong after how explicit those instructions were...' Kaleb thought as he looked at the console satisfactorily. He turned back towards the bed, then limped over and grabbed the game and headgear. He walked back to his desk and put them on the desk. He went back to the bed once more and grabbed the booklet, then went back and sat in his chair and began reading once more. 'Chapter 2: The headgear. To turn on the headgear, detach the bag of cords attached to the headgear. There is a power cord and a console connector. Plug the power cord into the outlet, plug the opposite end into the headgear. To connect the headgear to the console, connect one end of the connector to the console and the opposite end into your headgear. Once this is finished, put your disk into your game. Power on your headgear with the button on the left side of the helmet. Your headgear is now ready to play.' Chapter two read. Kaleb followed the very simplistic instructions and connected the headgear to the console and powered it. 'Alright, now we just have to put the game in. Wait, wasn't there more to the instructions?' He thought as he glanced at the booklet which is now on his desk. He picked it up and opened it, then began reading. 'Chapter 3: The Disk. To play your game, you must put your disk into your cons-' Kaleb abruptly stopped reading. "I'm not a f*****g moron!" He yelled as he threw the booklet onto the floor. He grabbed his game box, then unwrapped it from its plastic covering, then opened it and took out the disk, and promptly inserted it into the disk slot. 'Now I just have to wait until tomorrow...' He thought as he stood up and limped over to his bed, then laid down. 'Three EST... I think that's two here. I should be prepared to go in at any time.' He thought as he closed his eyes and adjusted his position to get more comfortable. 'In fact, I should probably log in during the morning to see if there is anything I have to set up.' He thought as he relaxed. In the morning, he woke up groggily as pain filled his mind. "f**k, f**k, f**k!" He said with a strained voice as he sat up and made sure his knee was still splinted properly. Upon seeing his splint moved into the wrong position, Kaleb adjusted it to ensure it was in the right position again. 'Since I only woke up to the pain just now, I would assume that it happened in the last hour or so, but I could be wrong... I should be more careful from now on.' He thought as he looked over to his desk. He stood up, pressing his weight onto his right leg. 'For now, I should check to see if there are any pre-game setup items I need to do.' He thought as he limped over to his seat. He grabbed his headgear and put it on, then clicked the power button. After a few moments, his body became numb as his senses dulled. Within just a few seconds, he was pulled into a white space with three squares in front of him. Each square is roughly four feet wide and tall. The first square has the image from the game box plastered on it and at the top, it says, 'World of Eden', the second square is the 'create local account/login', square, and the third is the 'system setting/setup' square. Each square is a two-dimensional object. Uncertain as to how he should operate the menu, he hesitantly used his right hand and swiped to the left quickly, causing the squares to slide to the end of the right side. 'I see, so that is how it works.' He thought. He pushed his open hand onto the square, then his surroundings changed into a dark gray space. In front of him appeared a list of settings. In the top left of the list is a back button that is represented by an arrow that is turning around, pointing back. He clicked the back button. 'That appears to just be system settings, nothing I need to change right now.' He thought as he navigated to the middle square. He pressed the square and was swiftly loaded into a custom avatar creator. The backdrop of the avatar creator could be adjusted but was automatically a dark gray. Within the avatar creator, he can change just about any detail of himself. He did some light adjustments, changing his hair from dark brown to light brown and his eyes from blue to emerald green. Once he was satisfied with the chromatic changes, he clicked next. After the backdrop faded out, then in, he was loaded into the portion that allows him to change both the menu backdrop and his username. He changed his menu backdrop to look like a Chinese temple and changed his username to 'Atlas'. He clicked the okay button and was brought back to the main menu, which now looks like a temple from ancient China. He took a look around the menu area and noted that the selection panel does not follow him. After a bit, he realized he can change his surroundings with just a thought and that he could create anything so long as he could imagine it. After a while of experimentation with the menu, he saw a notification in the bottom-left of his vision notifying him that he is hungry. He dismissed the notification, then looked at the time. 1:26PM. 'Thirty-four minutes before launch... I'm getting nervous.' He thought as he went to the main area of the menu world. He proceeded to wait for roughly thirty-three minutes while staring at the game launch square for World of Eden. Eventually, his patience paid off as he received a message saying he was the first to officially start the game. "f**k yeah! This is why I do the things I do!" He yelled as a cutscene started. "Welcome to World of Eden. World of Eden is a high-tech full-dive fantasy MMORPG that has been in development for three years. We at the dev-team have done our utmost best to imitate reality down to the quantum level and are proud to present the most realistic game to ever exist, World of Eden. To make things a bit more fair for our players, the headgear has a local hotspot that it is connected to for a high speed connection." A woman's voice narrated as Kaleb was shown several cities of various races, both fantasy and otherwise. "Before we continue, please select your username." She spoke once more, but this time, after she spoke a text box appeared for him to enter his username. Kaleb typed as quickly as he could and solidified his name as 'Atlas'. "We welcome you once more, Atlas, to this world of our creation, World of Eden, and as a word of warning, do your best not to die, as that would mean you must create a whole new character." She said as Kaleb looked around in awe at the realistic graphics. 'That's a bit harsh, but it makes a certain amount of sense, since this is, 'the most realistic game ever'.' He thought as his vision faded and he was thrust into a character creation screen. There were various things he could change, however, to prevent specific events from occurring, you could not become the opposite s*x. (Referring to catfishing...) He observed the avatar in front of him, it is basically the avatar he created in the main menu. He briefly looked over all of the races, but ultimately decided to remain human. Once he was finished adjusting his physical characteristics, he was tasked with choosing a class. Upon reaching the class selection menu, he received a notification, 'Reward: As the first person to ever login to the public build, we reward you with a unique class. Thanks for your dedication!' The notification said. On the notification, it has two options, 'select now', and 'dismiss', being the type of person who likes having one over on others, he clicked select now, and, without thinking, clicked the next button. The usual, 'Are you sure?' notification popped up and he clicked yes almost instantaneously. He was swiftly loaded into a new cutscene. "Welcome, to World of Eden. World of Eden is a dynamic world that changes as both players and NPC's interact and do things. Within the game world there is politics, adventure, rulership, and more." A different narrator than before began speaking, though still quite feminine. 'Oh, so you could conquer entire countries. Interesting...' Kaleb thought to himself as he was slowly falling through a bunch of clouds. "World of Eden mimics real life's physics and allows for anything from real life to be done here, we also have our own custom magic engine that almost any player can use, with it, you can enchant, make potions, and do much, much more!" The narrator continued. 'Oh yeah, the magic engine is one of the most exciting parts of this game. How did I forget about that?' Kaleb wondered as he sat up mid-air. "During your playtime, the flow of time will be different. Three hours here will equal to one outside, please remain mindful of this fact and try not to play for too long." The narrator gave a random disclaimer. 'So this thing also messes with your perception of time? Isn't that way too advanced!?' Kaleb thought with both awe and fear. "The story is yours to create. Enjoy the freeform World of Eden." The narrator finished and suddenly Kaleb appeared in some sort of plaza area with a fountain. Several people were walking around the town, visiting various shops here and there. After a few moments, several other people began appearing in the plaza. 'Ah, so the people that were already here were likely NPC's, while all of these guys who just appeared now are probably players. Intriguing...' Kaleb thought to himself as he looked around at the city. He noticed that in the direction of the sun, which is still rising, is a large castle, likely at the center of the city. The castle is made of a white stone with blue and red accents here and there. Suddenly a bunch of information was pushed into Kaleb's mind. "Game mechanics learned." A feminine voice sounded off in his head. 'Why do I suddenly know how to open my inventory and leave the game!?' He asked himself as he held his head in pain. As he looked at the scene around him, he realized he was not the only one in pain from the same cause. He chuckled slightly. He opened his inventory and looked at what he had. In the lower left corner in his current money and right above that is a still image of him facing forwards, showing what he currently looks like. He currently has fifty copper and twenty silver to start off. In his main inventory portion, he has a few crates and two weapons, one staff and one sword. He clicked on the crates and it showed extra information about it. 'Trade goods: Fabric.' It is called. 'From the 'Merchant of Adventure class.' Is its description. 'Ah, so that's what the unique class is called. It's a merchant... Maybe I'll get a boost to my charisma?' Kaleb guessed as he closed his inventory. He opened his stats menu. The menu is simple, on the right side is where his stats are and on the left is an image of him and under the image are his current hit points and mana points. Currently, each of his stats are at two, he has Twenty hit points and twenty mana points. 'Wait, this looks like an all-rounder... Fuck.' He thought as he looked upon his stats with disappointment.