《More Than Numbers》


 Chapter 0: To Reach For the Top

    Chapter 0: To Reach For The Top


    They say in life all men are created equal. I¡¯m sure we all know that isn¡¯t true. Men aren¡¯t created equal neither are women or animals. Everyone has different personalities that make them unique, but true equality can¡¯t allow for people to be unique. As hard as that is to accept it is the truth. An example of this ringing true is high school.


    High school is a wild place from which many memories amerge and shape people into adulthood. In highschool you have the typical nerd has low strength, but intelligence to boot. Because of this the nerd lacks the ability to stand up for themselves unless they have social skills they can use to defend themselves. The nerds are a bit interesting if you get to know them, but usually they are just presumed to be too uncool to hang out with.


    There is the highschool bully. This is a special type of character. The bully comes in many forms and many different shapes. There are mental bullies, physical bullies and lastly the scum of the earth type of bullies. The mental bullies like to play mind games with their target using words and taking jabs at them here and there until their target is so worn down that it can no longer think of what it should do next. When that happens the bully moves in much like a shark to finish off its prey. These kind of bullies are usually mediocre in everything, but as their relentless attacks go on they eventually become the strongest as nobody has enough endurance to weather them.


    The physical bully is almost always rather stupid. In more ways than one they lack intelligence. They get into fights because they feel that they need to prove themselves and when their pride is wounded instead of maturely handling situations decide to take it out on someone else. They aren¡¯t very witty and often times don¡¯t think about consequences before they act. This usually causes them to get expelled as they don¡¯t even have an excuse ready for when they are interrogated for the facts.


    Lastly you have the Scum of the earth bully. They can come in many forms small, large, medium, fat, skinny, tall, short, white, or black etc, etc. The reason they are scum though is because no matter whether or not anyone is ever involved they go out of their way to make your day shitty and ruin it. They don¡¯t just hit you and call you names they make your life hell. It doesn¡¯t stop at simply shoving you into a wall and straight out to your face calling you a pussy. They also continue by going to your friends and either trying to get them to join in, or beating them up as well. The mental bully may be strong and hard to deal with, but the scum of the earth is always supreme in the order of procession. The one thing all three types have in common is that they have either too much pride and no self esteem to back it, or they generally have poor life environments, but even that doesn¡¯t make me feel a shred of sympathy to them.


    Then you have the typicals like cheerleader, preps, the outcasts, the non-existents, the book worms, etc. There are many types of cliques that go on. Many habitats each of these animals live in. There are rules each group must abide or they shall be exiled. There is no physical written text of it, but it''s pretty much the holy scripture that if you don¡¯t follow your groups code you are kicked out without remorse. In order to be accepted you must first be rejected as I say.


    What I mean when I say to be accepted you must first be rejected is that while a clique might accept you because of the rules, you aren¡¯t allowed to do what you want. The clique means you must first reject your true self so that you can be who they want you to be. If you can¡¯t accept that then your better of in the non-existents. These type of people aren¡¯t bullied by anyone or talked to by anyone, but themselves.


    Being exiled from a group and ending up in the non-existents is probably worse than praising the dark lord. While you aren¡¯t bullied you don¡¯t get human interaction at least not much. Due to this you will forever torment yourself while in this group regardless of how strong your mental fortuition is. I belong to this group. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    My name is Asher Wright. I¡¯m about 6¡¯1, I have shoulder length long brown hair, a average body build and pretty average looks. I don¡¯t really stand out at all in any particular crowd. I usually wear bland clothing like straight black t-shirts and mostly well taken care of blue jeans that have a bit of fading here and there where I¡¯ve used it them more than I should have. While my jeans may be worn not a single set of them has ever had a hole.


    I¡¯m in the non-existents group for a different reason than most. Most people make mistakes and end up there, but I was pretty much born into this group. I started schooling a year earlier than most and I transferred school systems half way through the year. By this point everyone had already figure out who their friends were and who they disliked. Normally people like to see the new transfer student and approach them, but nobody approached me. Hell no body even tried talking to me in the first three weeks. I felt like a ghost.


    I wasn¡¯t the most exceptional at making small talk or dealing with new crowds, but even so every time I tried I couldn¡¯t even illicit a remark from anyone. The teacher wouldn¡¯t ever call on me so I felt like a ghost even more. Throughout the rest of elementary school this continued. When we were splitting ways and heading into highschool I thought that my position would change since it was a new school system. I was sorely mistaken about this. I still hadn¡¯t developed any social skills since all of elementary I was ignored.


    I was made my own entity which helped because I got the chance to get ahead by studying for tests. By fifth grade I had an eighth grade level of education. I not only knew how to do every single math problem without error, but I could also read all the important passages faster than anyone with a more accurate idea of what the passage was about. I always finished my tests faster than anyone else and I never scored less than a hundred percent on a test.


    That was when I started getting recognition. It wasn¡¯t good attention either. Everyone started to hate me because no matter how hard they studied they never scored higher than me or finished before I did. I first started out being ignored, but now I was despised. Some of the nerds who were used to being on top would confront me and always ask me ¡°How did you, place a higher score than me? What is your study method? How do you always get a perfect score?¡± and the list went on and on.


    In order to be as good as I was you had to put everything into studying. You couldn¡¯t simply go home and study for four hours and say it was good enough. You had to be willing to entirely stop speaking to people. Eat only when you needed to. Sleep only when you needed to. When I was in seventh grade I was already training myself on how to do calculus and my reading level was thirteen point four. That means that starting in college I¡¯d be ok if I went in for a semester. At age fourteen I could have pretty much went to college and that would have been fine. It would have been easy to manage.


    They were still learning how to set up two step problems and multiply fractions while I was about to start on linear algebra. They couldn¡¯t even hope to compete with me. I was never smug about these kinds of things either it was just a simple kind of thought I had. I¡¯ve always been a strategic kind of person about everything. When I was starting eighth grade I started heavily into gaming and my caretaker Chris Jennings I called him boss, bought me the most expensive rig he could since My grades were good.


    My family died in a car accident when I was young and I don¡¯t remember any of them. I don¡¯t remember anything earlier than age four. Chris was a friend of my mother¡¯s and he took me in out of the kindness of his heart. To me he was pretty much my dad and I treated him like it. I never asked for anything not even on my birthday except for higher levels of education. In eighth grade when I felt that I had learned everything possible I could from school including music and sciences I told Chris I wanted to drop out of school. Chris of course asked me why and I told him that I could go into college right now and I¡¯d be fine. I never planned on going into college of course, but I could if I wanted.


    However, since I didn¡¯t want to go to college there was no point wasting the next five years of my life which is what I told Chris. Chris said that if I could pass the college entrance exams that he would sign the papers for me to drop out of school. The agreement though required that I attend the senior year of highschool so I could at least get my diploma which I agreed to.


    He paid the fine for the test and I took it. I placed second in state on the test because i missed two questions. One of them was about Us history. I missed that question because they were going off what the school taught about World War Two whereas I had learned about it on my own. The second question was about thermal expansion. They had me solve an equation. I solved it correctly, but my writing looked like the six I wrote in a rush was a zero and they doced a point.


    Chris was impressed and let me off the hook. He signed the papers and let me drop out. Chris was happy, but I wasn¡¯t. I got second on an exam for once in my life. The person who got first was a girl named Samantha Thatcher. This didn¡¯t piss me off, or anything like that, I was upset, but more than anything I wanted to meet this girl who could best me at something I reigned supreme at. I did want to meet her, but right now was my four years off. I was going to play games and work out.

 Chp 1 Research

    After I dropped out of school I started doing a bunch of research into different gaming rigs and what devices and games were all the rage. I didn¡¯t want to get something super expensive, but I couldn¡¯t buy anything cheap either if I wanted to become a good gamer. I would be new to this so starting out I wanted to determine which kind of game I liked best and what I system to get it on.


    In 2024 they have lots of different systems, but what everyone goes crazy for is FDVR games. I could start with those, but I¡¯m not sure what kind of game I¡¯d like to play yet. I would have to choose low costing games before I officially decided on anything in particular. I decided that due to my studious nature I¡¯d like something I could explore a lot of that requires strategy. That would leave me with two choices. I could play first person shooters or I could end up playing a competitive online rpg. I would have experience with neither of them frankly, but I¡¯m sure I could enjoy them.


    A little over a month later I decided that I would buy a FDVR (Full Dive Virtual Reality) rig and some rpg games. I did want to get some experience in, but rpg games aren¡¯t the type of game you get paid to play competitively. I did want to make money off of playing games, but for my first year I could just play games I enjoyed. I needed to get use to playing games before I decided on anything finally.


    After researching the different gaming rigs I started searching for games. I did want to play competitive games, but I wanted to try out rpg games beforehand. RPGs came in many forms. You had games that were simple turn takers. Turn taking RPGs were fun, but not the type of game you¡¯d play on FDVR rig. There were other games that were FPS games in which you leveled up and then there were the J-RPGs (Japanese Role Playing Games.) In J-RPGs the game was mostly plot oriented and battle systems varied. Some were turn takers others you had full control of your characters.


    J-RPGs seemed to be mind kind of style, but I didn¡¯t want to play games that had been out for awhile so I looked it up and the only game that would be coming out within the next two months came out in two days. It was called Evolution. Not much was released about the game other than a small video and a couple of facts about the game. Since the game was also made by an unknown company the game wasn¡¯t going to be very popular.


    The company Silphco hadn¡¯t really made any games that were good so this next project was also expected to be a flop. Silphco had only been around a couple years and none of the games previously made had been any good which makes me wonder how they even stayed in business. Staying open for five years must¡¯ve been hard unless they were developing some big product. Looking at the year to game ratio they only produced a game every fourteen months or so which is roughly a point eighty-five percent ratio.


    Even so Evolution¡¯s notoriety wasn¡¯t really big so I wanted to start by playing it before I got into anything. I checked the promotional video. It was only thirty seconds so I decided to watch it quickly. The only thing shown was a character walking down a dark hallway lit with torches. A couple sentences appeared while this was happening and when he got to the end of the tunnel it was bright. The world looked pretty amazing and then it cut out. The video wasn¡¯t anything special, but it did show the games art which I personally found to be fairly interesting.


    I went down to chris to ask him if he would buy one. I lived in the upstairs of his bar. I didn¡¯t live with him officially, but provided I stayed mostly quiet and didn¡¯t interrupt his work I was allowed to stay up there. The attic of the bar originally was used for storage, but since a basement was made then the attic no longer had a purpose. My room didn¡¯t look all that great. It had my bed perfectly made every day, a book shelf filled with books and my school stuff.


    Although the attic was kind of messy I never had bugs in there because I cleaned up any messes I made and I never let food sit on the floor if I dropped it. I also frequently sprayed my room down with bug spray and freshly scented things like febreeze. My wooden floors were dark brown almost black, but they didn¡¯t really creak because they were sturdy. The walls were a faded cream color. I never really needed a light until it grew dark outside because I had a huge round window in my room at the head of the bed.


    I had a dresser, but I didn¡¯t use it for clothes. I was too lazy to move my clothes from the clothes bin to the dresser. The distance between the side of my bed which the bin rested and the dresser was about twenty feet and while I could move the bin to the dresser and then pack all the assorted goods in it was far more convenient to have a change of clothes already next to my bed. Before I went to bed each night I would always put my change of clothes on top. If I had to take a shower I would just move the clothes into the shower prematurely and sit it on the top of the cabinet. I did everything I needed to get done prematurely. Except for cleaning. I hadn¡¯t dusted my room in about four months because it was a hassle.


    Any task I had to do could be done prematurely except for cleaning. Hell I could have even had the dishes prematurely done. All I would have to do is let it soak in some dawn filled dishwater about 4 hours, come back and do a small amount of scrubbing and they would be clean. My motto has always been to get the most amount of work done with the smallest amount of effort. For every chore or activity I had to do excluding cleaning I could do most of the job prematurely without most effort and I applied this to everything.


    A great example of this was me being ahead in my classes. I had studied years ahead just so I could slack off in class. Of course you can¡¯t really call what I did slacking because I never had lower than a A+ in any of my classes. I could pretty much sleep through class though and whenever they gave homework I got it done in a matter of minutes. While they had been learning how to do it, I had been sleeping since I already knew how to do it and I had even figured out short cuts for any equation that had one. Doing any form of work was a cinch for me which is why I didn¡¯t really take school seriously in eighth grade and dropped out.


    Gaming would be easy for me though because of how I am. I would take lots of time studying each individual game before I played it. If it had a strategy that worked commonly I would just use that. If the strategy had a flaw in it I would notice quickly and make adjustments. I don¡¯t know for sure whether following that would bore me, however I first had to test it.


    I walked down stairs into the bar and saw Chris cleaning out a glass mug. On the last step down the stairs I hit the creak. Only the first step creaked which was kind of an annoyance, but after awhile I had just gotten used to it. The creak alerted Chris I was there and he turned his head and looked over at me. Chris wasn¡¯t smiling at first when he saw me, but as soon as he saw it was me he immediately cracked a smile at me.


    Chris was a white half french, half american who had gone to culinary school to become a great chef. He however found that he loved one thing more than cooking and that was alcohol. He still cooked at the bar, but more than anything the bar was known for great booze.


    Chris always seemed stressed about something, but he hid it well when he was around me. He had lingering concerns about something, although I didn¡¯t know what troubled him. I had come here to ask him a question and even though he was smiling at me I felt bad for even asking him. Money around here was probably tight meaning he couldn¡¯t really afford it.


    I looked around the bar before I spoke to him since I had almost forgotten what it looked like. I had been up in my room for a long time after all. The bar had wooden floor made from oak. It had been freshly polished early this week and no remnants of food or alcohol were on the bar or floor. The bar was made from brown sandy colored ashwood. Behind it sat five rows of alcohol stretching all the way up to the ceiling organized by color not type which I found funny. Chris didn¡¯t look professional because of this, but he thought that color coding the alcohol looked nicer than simple organizing them by category.


    The bar stretched around to the right and seperated into the kitchen on the left behind two push doors and the bathrooms which were straight down the hallway. Unlike many bars and fast food places that have disgusting bathrooms Chris made sure that the bathroom looked nice by cleaning it periodically three times a day.


    The bathroom had three stalls and three urinals placed parallel to each other. There were two white sinks over top of the checkered red and white tiled floors. The walls in there had been painted red instead of the typical white color. In the last stall which was rarely used there had been a faded mark on the wall from the countless times chris had hit it with his fist. If he ever got angry he came into that stall and punched the wall once. After that he would leave and go back to the kitchen. I don¡¯t know why he got pissed off, but once he did he would go in there and punch it. Considering it was made of concrete I¡¯m surprised he never broke his hand.


    The kitchen had white and black tiles also in a checkered pattern. It was cluttered but clean. Every tool that had been used was cleaned immediately after use although it wasn¡¯t always put up where it belonged. That didn¡¯t matter however as the table tops were also cleaned after every use. Chris went through a lot of cleaning supplies, but he made up for that with good high priced food and good booze.


    After remembering the layout of the bar I took one last look at the main part of the bar. We didn¡¯t use tables here we only used booths and the seats up next to the bar which stretched all the way around the bar. We had thirty total booths in total organized in a maze like pattern. All the booths looked the same except of the corner ones which were rounded around the table. The seats were all black leather, with buttons that had been sown in for decorative design. The walls around the bar were made from polished oak and had pictures of different times in the bar. My favorite though was a picture of me and Chris sitting on a bench across the street with the bar in the background. It read Chris¡¯s Cantina on the sign in big neon yellow lettering.


    Chris would probably say no to the Horizon rig because it costed three-thousand. Even so ready to face rejection I walked to the bar with my head held high and asked him ¡°Hey, Boss, I¡¯m sure we probably don¡¯t have money for it, but could you get this for me?¡± I showed him an image on my phone which showed a standardized picture of a FDVR console which was called Horizon.


    Horizon was the name of a rig that was standard for gamers. It was a FDVR console. It consisted of one white helmet two orange colored gloves and a handful of sensors meant to be put on the body. Horizon had little risk compared to other FDVR consoles and it was also made to be form-fitting. Horizon had come out a year ago, but it was still frequently used even after the newer models came out because of how easy it was to use. The cost had dropped from three-thousand and five-hundred to just three-thousand. This was because the supply was lower than the demand so getting one could take a few weeks even if you preordered. That was when it originally came out though. Since it had been out for a year the demand had gone down so getting one wouldn¡¯t take very long.


    For those of you who don¡¯t know what makes Full Dive VR so interesting I¡¯ll explain. FDVR is a type of gaming rig which allows you to actually play inside of games. VR is just a head set of sorts like a visor that affects how you perceive reality, but FDVR allows you to fully go into a game. You can look how you want and although your muscles are immobilized during gameplay to prevent you from hurting yourself, the device can read the brain patterns, and it understands what kind of action you want to do just by reading them. It can also differentiate between thoughts and speaking so you don¡¯t have to worry about letting something slip. That also makes chatting with others really convenient since you don¡¯t have to pull up a chatting menu.


    It is a revolutionary way to game because playing a character can be interesting, but actually being the character is something different. If you were to play a horror game you could actually feel the fear the character did. It wouldn¡¯t just be data. In fighting games you no longer had to worry about slipping up and missing a quarter circle in a combo. In shooting games you had full control of your screen so you didn¡¯t have to worry when sniping that you couldn¡¯t see the outlines around the scope. It improved gameplay in so many ways.


    There were sensors on the body that could be turned on or off that let you even feel things from the game. If you wanted to know what being shot felt like turn on an FPS game and keep the sensors on. Once you got shot you could feel the gunshot even though there was no mark. Of course not everyone liked that so most turned off the sensory aspect of it. I had done extensive research into the horizon and decided that it was the best.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Most models had functions that didn¡¯t get used often. Some had wiring bugs. One version of FDVR almost got all models shut down because users got stuck in the games and weren¡¯t capable of leaving the game. Luckily this could be stopped by simply turning off the console, but some people lived alone which was dangerous. However all of those versions had been recalled and Horizon was created and tested many times before production. Horizon not only had no reported failures, but it wasn¡¯t super expensive when comparing it to the other models. It had a moderate state of the art running system so it didn¡¯t run super fast, but it was by no means slow. Perfect for me I suppose since I was just getting into gaming.


    The thing that had sold me on it though was not its cost or the fact that it had no known issues, but the design on it. Normally you need lots of body trackers, but that¡¯s not the case on this one. You have a visor kind of like a biker helmet over top of your head. Then you have one sensor where your heart is and a set of gloves. The rest of the sensors are just on the side of your legs. None of them leave pressure marks from being on skin so that nobody comes out looking like they came out of a test tube.


    Once I had pointed to the phone Chris looked at the price and winced and then smiled at me. He said that¡¯s a pretty hefty sum for a regular gaming rig. The price on the rig had been around three thousand. Almost as much as a used car, but for the quality of the device and everything else that came with it three thousand really wasn¡¯t that much. Chris said ¡°Asher this is pretty expensive. I¡¯m sure you know that, but I have to ask how much do you want this? If I get it for you are going to actually use it and lastly is there any warranties on it?¡±


    I said ¡°I want it a lot. I was thinking about starting a gaming career. I will use it a lot and lastly yes part of the cost is a five year warranty. As far as I¡¯m concerned it is the best model given prices and everything that it comes with.¡±


    ¡°What does it come with?¡± Chris asks me.


    ¡°I get to choose one game with purchase the device comes with all of the sensors I will need and it also comes with a second set of sensors so if I bust mine or you want to play there is an extra.¡±


    ¡°Is that really worth it?¡± Chris questions..


    ¡°Yeah it is.¡± I tell him.


    ¡°If you agree to clean your room once every week and help me down in the bar when I need it as well as do what I ask of you I¡¯ll consider it a fair trade off. Can you do that?¡± He asks me.


    ¡°That¡¯s a cheap price to pay for the Horizon, so that¡¯s a definite yes¡± I tell him cooly.


    ¡°I assume you have a game in mind when we go out to buy it?¡± He inquires.


    I had actually found a game that I wanted. I haven¡¯t said as much, but I spent about a month studying the gaming rigs and another full month on games. Two days from now there would be a new game coming out. All that was released about the game was its title and a small trailer. Because of how much the game was left in mystery I only know a few things about it. It is definitely a rpg style game. It will definitely be online and lastly It is going to require lots of strategy which is something I¡¯m great at.


    The problems with the trailer were first that a new gaming company created them one that has been out for years, but was about to be shut down for not releasing any big titles. It released a shitty FPS game that only a couple million played. They never updated it so after a couple of months the popularity died. Then they released The-worst rpg-to-ever-be-created. I am not sure what made it so bad, but many people hated it. It was supposedly worse than the original ET game which is hard to believe considering all of the copies of that game have their own graveyard.


    The game I had in mind was called Evolution. Not much was said about the game and since the game was produced by an unknown company it probably wouldn¡¯t be really popular. No more than a thousand copies of the game would probably be bought considering the company not only hasn¡¯t been very successful, but they also didn¡¯t say much about the game. I can¡¯t explain why I chose this game because frankly any normal person would have said no immediately, but not me. This game drew me in and since it was so much of a mystery I couldn¡¯t hold back my curiosity.


    I say to Chris ¡°Yeah Boss there¡¯s this game called Evolution that comes out in two days. It isn¡¯t really popular, but it drew me in.¡±


    Chris says ¡°Glad you¡¯ve found something that you like. Tomorrow clean your room and help me down stairs and we¡¯ll buy the Horizon rig you want along with that game you want.¡±


    ¡°Thanks¡± I exclaim.


    I run back upstairs and start doing extensive research on Rpg games. I want to see if any news has been found out about Evolution. I check the site for the game and the only news that has been listed on the game is that it will be multiplayer online and it takes up a lot of data. The game supposedly takes up two terabytes of data. That means the game is huge. Other than that nothing has been released about the game.


    I look several different times refreshing the page and checking different URLs, but no matter where I check I can¡¯t seem to find out anything about the game. The only thing I have to go off is the video. I decide to rewatch it.


    It starts with a character in silver armour walking down a dark hallway. The hallway is made entirely out of stone. There are bars to the characters left and right. This makes me think the character is in a prison of some sort. He continues walking forward shuffling until he gets outside. He then falls to his knees underneath the sunlight and the rest of the vast world is shown.


    During the time he is walking in the hallway a sentence is being shown through carved letters on the wall to his right How will you play? In this ever changing world how will you adapt? Will you rise to the occasion or be swallowed by the darkness? After this it just showed the release date which was two days from now the twenty-fifth of april twenty twenty-four.


    I figured I should probably get accustomed to rpg games before I played this one. Of course I couldn¡¯t actually get ready by playing them so i watched videos of people playing them and with a notepad took careful study of what happened. I would watch and make mental notes of their mistakes as well as what they did well at. I started by watching people play Dark Souls. It was an older game, but it held a lot of challenge and was a well liked game.


    When playing dark souls the objective in order to get the advantage over those stronger than you was to get behind them and perform a backstab for criticals. If fighting something weaker just wait for the opponent to reveal which attack pattern it was going to go into and then roll past them to finish them quickly. The same could be applied to every enemy and boss in the game. I noticed that there were chests you could obtain loot from, but every so often there was a enemy pretending to be a chest called a mimic. There were subtle differences between the original chests and mimic chests. From mimic chests there were chains that fell out of the chest.


    I watched how people would avoid attacks.I watched how they handled battle. If they didn¡¯t have the right weapon for battle it didn¡¯t take long to switch. You could have three weapon per hand ready to go. If one weapon didn¡¯t work then they could simply switch. Magic was mostly broken if used right. I myself though was a melee kind of guy. I continued looking at different games to see how RPG games played even though I already had an basic concept. I did this all night until I finally grew tired and fell asleep on my bed.


    The next day as soon as I awoke at noon I started dusting my room. It took me around a half hour or so to dust considering my room was about forty feet in total length and twenty feet wide. The bar below was closer to a hundred feet and sixty feet wide. Not huge, but compared to my room it was pretty large. After that I walked down the old oak stairs hitting that creak on the bottom and walked into the kitchen to find Chris making breakfast.


    Once I opened the kitchen door I was assaulted by the aroma of bacon. Chris was making a bacon and cheese filled omelette for me. He said to me ¡°Wait over in booth seats next to the bar and we¡¯ll talk about your work for today.¡±


    I nodded my head and said ¡°Understood, Boss.¡± I walked over and sat in the seat next to the bar awaiting Chris with the plate of savory food. A minute later Chris came into the bar and put the plate down on the table. He went back into the kitchen to grab a fork and knife. He came back out with my eating utensils and orange juice in a mug. He set both of these down on the right side of my plate.


    I cut the omelette and started to dig in. The omelette was amazing. Normally I hate the texture of eggs, but he had made them a little bit crispy the way I like them and the bacon since it had been precooked not only absorbed into the eggs flavor, but came from the inside as well. The cheese had been thrown in at the last second to avoid it coming out entirely melted, and retained its original texture. He had only used shredded cheese so it partially melted, but not enough to make it disgusting.


    While I continued eating Chris leaned onto the counter with his back and looked back at me. He said ¡°Today I¡¯m going to have you clean the bar. You don¡¯t have to serve food or anything like that, just make sure the bar doesn¡¯t look like a mess. You should be fine since you aren¡¯t the only one cleaning.¡±


    I finished chewing and swallowed. I said ¡°Sounds fine with me Boss.¡±


    He said, ¡°I¡¯m sure were going to get that customer tonight so keep your head down and make sure not to get involved because I don¡¯t want to have to kick a regular out even if he is an asshole.¡±


    I nod my head and scarf down the rest of my omelette and then chug my orange juice. I start heading upstairs to go back to my room and I hear Chris call up ¡°Asher get your room dusted and be back down here in an hour.¡±


    I had already cleaned my room up, but I didn¡¯t want to back talk him since I was getting the Horizon today so I just say ¡°You got it Boss.¡± I trudge up the rest of the stairs and then hop on my computer. I close my door and turn on my favorite punk band Royal Blood. They have been out for about eight years now. They came out in twenty sixteen and had many great songs. My favorite being Don¡¯t Tell. I start with their first album and let it auto play as I surf the web for any new info about Evolution.


    The different forums about it are going wild. I had just gotten onto the page and already five people had made new messaging. At first I wondered if they had released anything about the game, but it was the exact opposite. The had removed all forms of data about that game from the site which people thought meant they were going to update the page. The only thing that remained on the page was a timer which had one day three hours and fifty-two minutes remaining. That meant that at four o¡¯clock tomorrow they would be releasing something about the game. However the game also came out tomorrow at the time so maybe it would be a walk through or something.


    People started going crazy about it and trying to understand what it meant. They were couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of it. I didn¡¯t really care too much about the forums, but if it would give me details about the game I would log in here periodically. I logged off after finishing the second album of Royal Blood and walked down stairs to help out Chris.


    I didn¡¯t even need to be told what he wanted me to start with. The bathroom needed to be done first. I grabbed some bleach and a rag and headed into the bathroom. After I finished the bathroom, I started sweeping the main floor area, and then I cleaned the kitchen. After this I took a break and went up into my room again. I kept checking the site no new updates and we still have full day to wait. I did this every three hours. I would clean come up here check and then go back down to clean again.


    Around seven the customer Chris was talking about came in. He was a portly fellow and had a temper. He always wanted to be served first and every time he spoke spittle came out of his mouth. If he had to wait any longer than ten minutes for his food he got pissy and started yelling. Chris had always dealt with him by getting his food ready for the gentleman two minutes before he came in that way in five minutes he could get it out early and simply ignore him. After he finished he would send one of our waitresses over to collect the man¡¯s bill and he would leave.


    Tonight though something entirely different happened. The customer was dressed in a suit and seemed a little more aggravated today. Chris had his food out three minutes after he walked in. The man lit up a smoke which was against the bar policy. He had only done this once before which was the first time he came in and seemed to forget that policy because pulled out a cigar and started smoking. Chris walked over to him the second he started and said calmly ¡°Sir put the cigar out. You know we have a no smoking policy here.¡± The customer said grabbed the cigar and dropped it on the floor and rubbed put it out by rubbing his foot on the floor.


    I already knew Chris was pissed about this because he immediately headed to the bathroom. That meant one thing; Chris was about to go punch the wall and come back out. Once he returned from bathroom I saw his hand was bleeding. He wrapped it up wit some gauze and washed his hands. He looked over at Cindy and said ¡°Go clean up the cigar and take it out back.¡±


    Cindy was a blonde girl probably around twenty. She had a fairly curvy body and a pretty face. She was waitress material if I had ever seen it. Cindy got paid a lot more than any of the other waitresses not just because of the killer tips, but also because she had worked here for three years and kept this business running. Cindy looked kind of meager, but she was pretty confident about anything she did and although she got harassed a lot she never did anything about it because she didn¡¯t want Chris to look bad.


    Cindy calmly walked over bent down and picked up the cigar. She swept the ashes onto a dustpan and started to walk away. As she did the customer grabbed her ass and that was it for Chris. Chris walked over to the customer and grabbed the plate of food he had placed there a minute ago walked away dumped it in the trash and put it on the counter. He then walked back to the customer and said ¡°Get the hell out of my bar. I had better never see you in here again.¡±


    The portly customer stood up and said ¡®Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?¡±


    Chris said ¡°I¡¯m the owner of my establishment. You can either get the hell out of my bar or you can be dragged out of my bar. Your choice.¡±


    The portly man dusted off his suit and said ¡°Her ass did feel nice¡± Chris grabs him by the shoulders and slams his forehead into the other man''s skull. The portly fellow falls over and lands on the table breaking it and Chris grabs him by the suit with one arm and drags him out of the bar. When he reaches the door Chris throws him out into the rain and slams the door shut.


    Cindy approaches him and says ¡°Chris, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    He smiles at her and says ¡°What for? That man was a jackass he needed to be put in his place.¡±


    He walks back into the kitchen and starts working on the next dish. He looks at me and says ¡°Take the table out and throw it in the dumpster out back. Unscrew the rest of it and I¡¯ll have a new one put in tomorrow. Cindy help him with that please.¡±


    We both look at Chris and say ¡°Understood, Boss.¡±


    It takes five minutes to get the table out, but after that I am exhausted. I tell Chris ¡°I¡¯m heading up to my room¡± and I take off my apron.


    Chris nods and says ¡°Good work today, Asher.¡± I¡¯ll order the rig later tonight champ get some rest okay?¡±


    I say ¡°Understood Boss¡± and he chuckles.


    The game comes out tomorrow so I hope the rig gets here shortly. The game comes with it as well so if Chris orders it quickly it should get here by tomorrow maybe late day. I jump in bed and start searching on my phone to see if anything changed. Once again nothing has changed. I turn my phone off and get up to go turn my lights off. Once I do that I crawl back in bed and go to sleep.

 Chp 2: The Wait

    Chapter 2: The Wait


    I awake at around eleven in the morning halfway off my bed. This causes me to panic and I fall off my bed and hit the back of my head off the floor. I let out a short howl of pain and then while grimacing get up and change clothes. I change from a straight black t-shirt and blue jeans slightly faded jeans to a blue flannel shirt and a different set of blue jeans. I roll up my sleeves and button them. I pull my collar flat and take a look at myself. I may only be fourteen, but I look a lot older than I am. I could probably pass for a seventeen year old.


    I don¡¯t look ugly or exceptionally pretty, but as I said previously my looks are just average. I run my hands through my hair and ruff it up a bit and then walk down the stairs. Instead of hitting the last step this time I skip over it and take a short jump. I walk over to Chris who once again is in the kitchen. He is looking down at the counter with both hands gripping it. His knuckles have turned white from this and he honestly looks like he is about to take another trip to the bathroom and not for the purposes of relieving his bowels.


    I ask him point blank ¡°Boss what¡¯s troubling you?¡± When he notices that I¡¯m in the same room he looks up at me with a worried expression.


    Chris says to me ¡°I¡¯m pissed about last night, but at the same time that customer deserved it. He is planning to file a lawsuit against our bar. I¡¯m pissed that about it because I don¡¯t want to lse this bar. I don¡¯t want you to be homeless either. He never told me when he would press the matter, just that he would.¡±


    ¡°Boss what are we going to do about it?¡± I asked worried.


    Chris says cooly ¡°We aren¡¯t going to do a damn thing about it. In fact I¡¯m going to stop worrying about it until it happens. I already ordered your rig and game last night. They should be here around five in the afternoon.¡± Chris said quickly changing the subject.


    ¡°Are you sure that you have it taken care of?¡± I ask.


    He says ¡°Yeah I bought your rig its Horizon right? And the game you wanted was Evolution.¡±


    ¡°No I mean about the lawsuit¡± I say looking for confirmation.


    ¡°Oh, well it¡¯s out of our hands so no point worrying about it¡± he tells me.


    I have a couple hours to wait, but after that is up I can hop on Evolution. The wait will be worth it. I say to Chris ¡°Whenever it gets here tell me so I can get it up into my room quickly.¡±


    Chris says ¡°Sure thing,¡± while ruffling my hair. I run backup into my room. If the game gets here at five then I will have two hours in between the announcement and the time I can play the game. Between the time the update happens and the current time would be five hours as well. I want to touch up on all the things I know about RPGs as of now.


    What I know about RPGs: RPGs are called role playing games. RPGs don¡¯t necessarily have stat and exp systems, however the majority of them do. Almost universally RPGs follow a storyline even if it''s simple. Common more popular RPGs always involve two things system wise. They all have items that can be used and weapons that fit best for certain scenarios. When it comes to battle systems they are either entirely free roam or they are turn taking.


    RPGs cover a large expanse of games. RPGs usually have strategies that can be followed and glitches or bugs that can exploited during the initial time the game comes out. During this time would be the perfect time to get ahead of players. Especially if I¡¯m the one who finds the glitch. Usually someone can¡¯t keep their mouth shut and post online about a glitch they found and then once its found it is corrected. In any competitive RPG games the top players either pay money to get ahead or they get an early start.


    I know of many games nowadays where they have PvP in arenas for money. I could win big off that, but since Evolution is going to be mostly empty unless it turns out to be good I can¡¯t count on being able to game and do PvP in this game. PvP was one of the functions listed about the game originally other than the fact it was online. I¡¯m going to be starting a couple hours late so to make up for that I¡¯m going to have to be prepared. I know only a few thousand bought the game since there aren¡¯t large forums about it, but I still want to be a top player.


    In the five hours I have remaining I need to spend all my energy studying the different types of RPGs so I know how to play this one. After that when the update comes and people start playing it I need to check the update log and see what is posted on it. The two hours in between when I go full dive and when the update on the page are going to be major for me. If any hints about the game come out I would still have two hours to study them.


    I know it seems ridiculous to get so overworked about a game that may not even be good, but i have a strong gut instinct telling me this one is a good game. It doesn¡¯t just tell me this is a good game either. This game is going to be exceptional and it will have great PvP. There will even be competitions for money. For me this was too good to pass up. I needed this game to start off my career. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    I touch up on all of what I already know about RPGs for three hours. That means two hours before the update and four hours before the release of the game. I want to stay up in my room and just keep checking out for the new update, but I decide that I should probably start my daily exercise. I head down stairs skipping the last step and head for the bar door. I can head to the gym without much trouble since its only three blocks away from where I am currently. As I put my hand on the door to walk out I hear Chris.


    I turn around towards the bar where he was collecting glasses. He says ¡° Asher where are you headed bud?¡±


    ¡°To the gym to exercise¡± I respond.


    ¡°You¡¯re planning to go to the gym in jeans?¡± Chris asks me with a hint of confusion. I look down and realize that I hadn¡¯t changed out of my clothes. I was so focused on Evolution that I forgot to change my clothes before heading down.


    I look at Chris and say ¡®Thanks.¡± I jog up the stairs to change clothes. I change into a pair of red shorts and while taking off my flannel decide it''s probably best to choose something black. I grab my T-shirt from yesterday and put it on. This might disgust other people, but not me. I do change daily, but if I¡¯m getting sweaty there¡¯s no reason to dirty new clothes when I could just wear ones that are already used. It is my way of cutting down on laundry. I jog back down the stairs and head out the bar.


    The city still looks the same to me. The streets aren¡¯t littered with trash, but they will be later in the day. Much like everyday it will be cleaned by morning and then it will be dirty again in the after hours. If I had the job of cleaning the streets I wouldn¡¯t even bother. The point of cleaning it is so it looks clean, but it''s apparent that people don¡¯t give a shit about the streets so why take care of it. When it gets dirty and they start complaining just tell them it''s their fault and they will shut up. After that they will either stop littering or they won¡¯t simple as that.


    I¡¯m sure that¡¯s not the way things should be approached because some people are willing to live in the filth, but it¡¯s just how I see things at the moment. The street shouldn¡¯t have to be cleaned because people shouldn¡¯t litter. I¡¯m not the kind of kid who simply thinks littering is bad because it hurts the environment. I could care less about the environment. I simply don¡¯t want to walk through filth every day because people are irresponsible and lazy. The environment shouldn¡¯t be used as a trash can, but that¡¯s not why I hate littering.


    Trying my best to ignore the pieces of assorted food, paper, cigarettes, and other oddities I continue jogging to my gym to work out. Once I get into the gym I check around for my usual workout spot. I haven¡¯t been here in about a week. The walls are still here same drab white color they were. Honestly I should recommend a color change. It may change the mood here. The room is organized by what is used the most and equipment type.


    In the first section on both sides of the room are the weight lifting stations which have red and blue benches with all the various weights hanging on either side. The bar is hanging closer to the top to avoid people bumping their head on it. In the middle of the room on both sides is a different bar that is frequently used for deadlifts and other exercises similar to it.


    In the second section is the warm up area which has platforms for box jumps and other exercises like jump ropes. In the last section theirs all the cardio equipment. Treadmills, heart rate meters, and a new device that was put in recently. I know what it does, but I¡¯ve never actually used it. It changes your elevation while you run. You can put it in a hill pattern, flat road, or an upward slope. It can even curve and change directions while you run. If you turn mid way through running it notices and turns with you to make sure you are still facing forward.


    I usually start in the warm up zone and then head to my benching station. The stations aren¡¯t marked by name or anything like that, but in a gym you typically have a unsaid location you should be. That¡¯s kind of confusing so I¡¯ll say it in a way that makes more sense. Depending on how often you come you get access to the same equipment you usually use. If you come every day and use a certain treadmill every day people avoid that treadmill. It¡¯s kind of how like dogs piss on what they are trying to claim except in this case it''s not piss its sweat and hard work.


    I¡¯m not too concerned with my warm up zone as much as my weights zone. I have things set up a peculiar way to make them easy for the next visit. I usually visit about three times a week a maximum of five times. I go to my warm up spot and start doing the basics like crunches and pushups. I do a couple sets of box jumps and then grab some jump ropes and do twenty reps of fifty consistent jumps.


    I stretch a little bit and get my arms limber to start doing some bicep curls. I make not sure to stretch much though because its a proven fact that too much stretching before practice can decrease performance by five percent. That¡¯s not much, but it can be what your running on in the last bit of exercise so it''s better to be running at full.


    I start to head over to my weight station and I see a guy already in my place. This man is fairly large in comparison to my size. I¡¯m a bit young to be at a gym on my own, but this gym allows it provided Chris checks in on me every hour of use. I look around to the other weigh stations to see if one hasn¡¯t been claimed and all of them are taken. I make a click with my tongue something I do out of annoyance and head back out of the gym. ¡°What a piss off¡± I say out loud as I walk back towards the bar.


    I quickly bolt back to the bar so I can at least get a little bit of cardio. I run at ninety percent the whole way there. Since its only a couple of blocks its not too much a hassle. I don¡¯t stop to look at anything on the way home other than what¡¯s in front of me. I get to the bar and open up the door. Chris looks up at me with some confusion. I had only been gone about fifteen minutes.


    Chris says jokingly ¡°What¡¯s wrong did some cougar try and steal something precious?¡±


    ¡°Funny joke Boss, but no. Some asshat was using my weight station so I could do any weights exercising.¡± I say indignantly.


    Chris says ¡°That sucks. Well your rig should be here in a few hours have fun with it when it does come, but don¡¯t destroy the house.¡± This was a joke about the previous VRs. There was a comical video about the original FDVR which had promised that all motor functions would be disabled. It actually only changed your visual acuity and surroundings. Some guy was playing a game and punched three holes in his walls because the game was so life-like he thought the things in the game were actually real. He later filed a lawsuit over it, but the damage had already been done. It was funny though that he managed to break all, but one of his windows before he realized that he was not actually in a game.


    I start trudging up the stairs and Chris stops me by calling up ¡°And Asher, you remember the rule. No cussing in the bar.¡±


    I holler back down ¡°Sorry, Boss.¡± I don¡¯t really cuss all that much, but sometimes I do when I get pissed off. I usually don¡¯t cuss in the bar, but if I do Chris is pretty relaxed about it. He doesn¡¯t get on to me about it much because I don¡¯t do it that often. I have a lot of respect for Chris because e runs this bar and can still provide for me. I¡¯ll just have to make sure I can pay him back in due time.


    I¡¯ve still got around two and a half hours before the game starts. I¡¯m starting to get antsy about the games release. I go through and check the blogs. Once again I don¡¯t encounter anything. Chat has livened up a little bit more now though since the games close to release. I decide not to worry about it. I set an alarm on my phone ten minutes before the game comes out mostly so I can prepare myself once I wake up. I also won¡¯t have to wait very long either. I know I won¡¯t be able to get to sleep easily so I make sure I turn off all lights, close the curtain in front of the window and shut my door. I hop in bed and snuggle into my bed cosily. When I awake again I¡¯ll be preparing myself to get into the game.

 Chp 3: Begining The Game

    Chapter 3: Beginning The Game


    I awake with my alarm going off. I am tired when I wake up because i just messed up my sleeping schedule. I really shouldn¡¯t have gone to bed because now I¡¯m going to be more tired throughout the day. The sleep cycle functions in five different stages. Stage one you are just falling asleep and can be easily awoken. Stage two your body starts to lower temperature and eye movement stops. Stage three is when the body is in deep sleep and the only signals being sent are fast and short waves. Stage four the body continues deep sleep, but if aroused during this time are disoriented for a few minutes. Lastly the REM cycle which imitates the awoken state of being, but the eyes are still closed. During this time is when people commonly dream.


    During stages three and four if awoken the body changes its sleep schedule and you become more tired from waking up at the wrong time. If you oversleep your body becomes confused and you are tired as a result because your sleep schedule has changed.  I¡¯m going to need caffeine now to function regularly throughout today. I¡¯m just going to have Chris fix me a cup of coffee now and again later in about eight hours from now. I head down stairs into the bar. No customers right now except for one younger couple over in the corner. They look like they are only about twenty-three at most. Probably only just started drinking a few weeks ago. I haven¡¯t really seen them around that much.


    I walk over to Chris and say ¡°Can you fix me a cup of coffee, sugar and milk please.¡±


    Chris responds unsurprised with ¡°Sure when do you want it?¡±


    ¡°In about five minutes if you can manage that¡± I say without delay. ¡°I¡¯m going to head back up because they just released the info on the game. Also I¡¯d like another cup of coffee before you go to bed I plan on staying up late.¡±


    ¡°Alright then Mr. Wright¡± Chris says jokingly.


    ¡°Thanks Boss¡± I say and head back up to my room.


    I jog back up to my room and turn my computer on. It powers up out of rest mode and goes directly into the last page I had pulled up which was the main page to Evolution. The new update is a basic synopsis of the game. It says: In Evolution the game does just as it suggests. The game evolves to make gameplay more difficult for the player. The terrain will change, the enemies will change, the dungeons will change all to make sure each player experiences the game to the fullest. After that it showed an image of a knight heading to a castle. Below this was another line of text.


    In this game the ruler is the one who finishes first. There are rewards for participation in Player versus Player combat. On top of that we have added a feature for whoever beats the game first with its own set of perks. Those who rise to the top quickest will be rewarded, but this game won¡¯t be an easy one. Just because there are challenges does not mean you shouldn¡¯t take your time. Slip ups in this game may prove to be fatal so don¡¯t go too fast.


    Next Update: May 3rd 2024


    This company which hadn¡¯t seemed to be anything special was certain that there was no actual bugs in their games. The ones before hand had been from what I can tell rigged with lots of bugs. Yet they were certain their next update would be May 3rd which was about seventeen days from now. Other than the brief synopsis of the game I didn''t know much about the game. What I had managed to figure out however was this game was definitely open world and it didn¡¯t have a turn taking system. Battle in this game would be entirely decided by skill and strategy which were things I excelled at. I would need to maximize the amount of time I spent on the game learning while minimizing the amount of time it would take me to solve each scenario. There was only one thing that bothered me about this game; what were the consequences for dying.


    The only thing they said about dying was that consequences could prove to be fatal. In the history of RPGs death usually meant only one of four things. The first type meant a simple loss of progress. Loss of progress was the original punishment that was put into RPGs. You had to save to ensure that if you died you had a fail safe. However, while saving could be used as a backup there were many instances in which saving ultimately lead to having to restart the game. If you made an error that proved to be bigger than anticipated it sometimes had really bad repercussions. I like to think about save files like time travel.


    Every action you make in a game changes the end outcome even if there is only one ending. Every choice you as the player makes changes the difficulty of the game and even sometimes your entire play style. I¡¯m not even talking about story based choices either. Sure sometimes there might be a quest like: Save this character if you don¡¯t they die which gets you the bad ending, but those aren¡¯t what I¡¯m talking about. I may not yet be a hardcore gamer, but I¡¯m good at analysis.


    I¡¯ll give an example of the scenario I¡¯m talking about. You are low health mid way through a dungeon. The dungeon itself is only around six floors total so you have to descend another three floors in order to reach the boss. You know that the boss fight will be difficult therefore want to conserve your mana points(magic points determining how many spells you can cast.) You decide to use a large healing potion to get yourself back up to full health, but that was your last healing item. You manage to reach the boss.


    The start of the boss fight is going good and you aren¡¯t having too much trouble. You saved enough mana and you prepared enough that the boss isn¡¯t really dishing out too much damage. However when he gets below half health he switches modes and starts doing more damage. This is forcing you to heal you and your teammates each turn, however you don¡¯t heal anywhere nearly enough health back in comparison to the damage he is dealing. Your team is slowly starting to die one by one until its only you.


    You have half health so if he hits you you will have a couple hit points left and be finished next round. However if you heal you won¡¯t finish him in time. You choose to heal rather than being one shotted and hope for a critical strike. The critical nevers comes and so you die and must restart the game from where you last saved at the entrance of the dungeon. If you had just had that potion you would have had just enough health to finish him off and revive your teammates, but you used it earlier ensuring your eventual loss.


    From there when you continue if you once again use the potion there is a chance you can win however you would have to change your battle strategy. Little things like that can make or break how you play. If you use items at the wrong time you can screw yourself up later in the game. If you burn through too much mana or take to much damage or are careless about certain traps the exact same thing happens. You are forced into situations where it is likely you fail and that continues through the rest of the game. That¡¯s why it is imperative to save at the right time.


    The second scenario only works assuming you¡¯re playing a game that has lives. This would be games like mario, sonic and most platformers. Once you hit zero lives you would have to restart the game from the beginning or where ever the game resets you. In the original mario you had to restart from the very beginning of the game. Later on it just made you start from the beginning of the stage and lives became irrelevant and were more or less just medals of status.


    The third scenario is a lot less common and only starred in a few games I researched which would be that when you die you drop all of your items. If you hadn¡¯t spent points for a level up some games even took that away from you. Taking exp away was mostly a dark souls exclusive. The way this system worked was that if you died and dropped your gear you would have to collect it within one life or it would disappear and be replaced by your current gear.


    Lastly the most unthinkable that I¡¯ve never actually seen, but have heard a couple of rumours would be a total wipe. This was mostly introduced in pen and paper RPGs, but some people actually incorporated it into their games. A total wipe meant regardless of save points regardless of lives, and regardless of most exceptions if you died in the game your data was entirely deleted. If you died in a RPG and weren¡¯t revived you had to entirely make a new character or new save file depending on the game itself. A total wipe hasn¡¯t been used very much because most players get annoyed at the first one and if it happens again aren¡¯t invested enough to retry so they just quit.


    I don¡¯t know what the consequence for dying is, but I honestly would like to know before I start. I started searching to see if they actually mentioned anywhere what the death penalty was, but I couldn¡¯t find it. That meant one thing. I would have to watch someone live to see how things worked. Currently only a couple of people were actually streaming. I click on J0hN135 stream to see what he is doing.


    He is in a forest. Right now he is only looking around at his environment. I can see in the background a castle and a mountain directly ahead of where he is facing. He pulls up his map which goes into very neat details about everything around him. There is no direct path from where he is at to any one of three locations he could head to which means he will have to just go based off what his map says. He looks around and places a marker on his map which shows up as a blue icon about three miles away. He looks for the marker when he pulls down his map and there¡¯s a large beacon of blue light coming out of the ground where he placed his beacon.


    His beacon is set at the lake. He follows the beacons light for a few minutes. He is fairly close to the Lake and then as he is walking something comes undone from the tree. It falls on the ground. He looks down to see what it is. It appears to be a moss pile. The moss stands upright and then tree roots and bark start curling upward to form a body. He stands there watching it. It moves in his direction and lurches forward. He shoves it backward and it falls on its back. It doesn¡¯t seem to have strong muscles because it can¡¯t get up. It reaches its arms upward along with its legs and starts flailing.


    The moss figure keeps writhing on the ground. He walks over and stomps down with his foot. His foot goes through the moss figure which makes a crunch noise. The moss figure starts to decay and decays back into the ground. He is awarded a couple exp points. He is only three points from leveling up. He continues on his trail and encounters a lone wolf. He still doesn¡¯t have any legitimate weapons other than his fist so he looks around frantically for a stick. He can¡¯t find anything so he backs up slowly.


    The wolf lunges at him and he kicks it in the side. He does little damage, but the kick itself dealt around an eight the wolfs hp(Hit points.) The wolf gets up and starts circling him once again. It lunges and he kicks it. He tries to do a follow up attack while its on the ground, but slamming his foot into it again, but it recovers quickly and jumps on top of him. It attacks him aiming for his throat. He grabs it by the throat and twists hard breaking its neck which kills it with a critical strike. He levels up.


    J0hN135 asks via mic ¡°What build should I go for?¡± I look for his level. He is level eight so he has been playing for at least a little bit. The people in chat remains silent so I take the initiative and look at his stats. From the looks of things he has yet to spend a single point. He has no ranged capability, but based on the fact he has no weapons he should probably prioritize either his agility or his endurance. He probably wants more out of his audience since he is live streaming for them. I ask him ¡°J0hN135 you haven¡¯t spent any points yet right?¡±


    J0hN135 replies ¡°No, I haven¡¯t¡± he says pausing to look at my gamer tag so he knows what to call me. He says ¡°Asher Wright what build should I go for?¡±


    ¡°Based on the fact you have no weapons most likely you should focus on your speed or endurance. You have no weapon preference right now so you should just focus on staying alive.¡±


    There were nine total stats each did something entirely different. There was strength, dexterity, willpower, agility, luck, skill, talent, stamina, and last but not least charisma. I¡¯m not sure what they did in this game because I haven¡¯t played it myself, however based off their titles I can take a guess. Strength influences damage, speed influences character movement, dexterity influences either weapon precision and accuracy or it changes the characters weight limit, willpower is magic,luck boosts critical rates or damage, skill probably boosts precision or skill damage/cooldown, talent I¡¯m at a loss for, stamina probably influences amount of times you can attack or how long you can run and lastly once again charisma probably influences agro or health.


    J0hN135 says ¡°You¡¯re pretty smart Asher. I hope I can count on your guidance.¡±


    I respond a little sarcastically with ¡°I haven¡¯t played the game yet so I¡¯m going to be the best walk through you¡¯ve ever had.¡±


    J0hN135 laughs over mic for a brief period of time and then finally puts half his points into endurance and half his points into speed. He now has a four in speed and a five in endurance. He originally started with nine points because I¡¯m guessing the level five level up gives you an extra ability point.


    Me: Do you have skills you can get now?


    J0hN135: I have talent points, but I have no slots since my talent is at zero


    Me: Ok do you have any equipment?


    J0hN135: I wish. In the first dungeon I got chased out and the only thing I had when I left was this map.


    Me: Where was the first dungeon?


    J0hN135: While back. I don¡¯t want to die out here so I figured the Lake should be safe.


    Me: I am not sure you should.


    J0hN135: Why?


    Me: Frankly I am fairly sure water monsters in most RPGs are higher level so I¡¯m not sure its safe.


    J0hN135: I¡¯m pretty close though it¡¯s a long walk anywhere else.


    Me: Well your game not  mine.


    J0hN135: Agreed.


    J0hN135 continues heading forward towards the lake. At this rate he should make it in about a minute. Another one of those moss creatures slides off a nearby tree. J0hN135 prepares to attack it waiting for it to lunge so he can push it over. The mossman lunges as he expects and he pushes it over and crushes its stomach like last time. Another two moss creatures are walking over to him. He starts getting antsy because if they both lunge at the same time he can¡¯t push both off since he doesn¡¯t have enough strength.


    He plays it smart and moves so that one of them is closer than the other and then circles around them so that they distance themselves out even more. The moss creatures are now level four whereas before they had been level two. He bates the moss creature into attacking and then pushes it over and crushes it¡¯s stomach with his foot. After this he has to back up because the other one lunges forward towards where he was. It falls on top of the decaying moss creature and absorbs it. Its level shoots up to level six and it is now bigger than before. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    J0hN135 backs off and starts stepping backward trying to predict when it will lunge. The moss creature doesn¡¯t lunge. Instead it goes over to the almost completely decayed carcass of the first moss creature and absorbs it. Its level shoots up to eight and it now lumbers over top of J0hN135. It stands at least two heads taller than him and its muscular enough that it probably can¡¯t be knocked over easily. It moves forward towards him.


    I say ¡°J0hN135, run or that thing is going to kill you. You aren¡¯t equipped with gear so the chance it wins a one on one fight with you is fairly high.¡±


    He replies with ¡°That thing at level two died in one hit. If it doubled its stats I should be able to kill it in a few good hits. J0hN135 backs up and waits for it to lunge. It swings its hand at him and he ducks. When he is crouched below it the creature falls over on top of him trying to crush him. J0hN135 rolls to the left out of its way. Once it hits the ground he runs over and starts smashing its stomach with his foot as quick as he can. As he is doing this he suddenly gets tackled from behind to the ground. He tries to do what he can to get what¡¯s on his back but it has him firmly pinned down. The creature on his back is another moss creature and its sucking his health away. His health starts dropping. It started at one hundred points and now in a matter of a few seconds is already at seventy points.


    He can¡¯t get it off, but while he is trying to wrestle the creature off he sees the bigger one get up and start walking towards him. His health is now at about thirty points. The big one picks up the smaller moss creature and crushes it. It absorbs the moss creature and it is now level nine. As soon as J0hN135 is free he gets up and starts running. However before he can get away the big creature grabs him and turns him around. It slams him up against a tree which takes out twenty of his health. It slams him into the tree again and kills him. As he dies there is a ten second countdown while everyone watching J0hN135 gets to see his lifeless corpse get eaten. After J0hN135 dies he turns off his stream and I¡¯m kicked out of the video.


    J0hN135 stream only lasted a couple of minutes. I didn¡¯t really expect him to perform that well if he was doing everything off his own knowledge of the game which probably wasn¡¯t that extensive. Most of the games information had been released after the game was playable which left most people in the dark. This was problematic to most players if they were not capable of adjusting on the fly. Even though J0hN135 stream didn¡¯t last very long I got all of the information about the game I needed other than the consequence for death. I know that dying as of right now is probably bad since he cut stream, but who can say for sure.


    My thoughts are interrupted as Chris knocks on the door and then walks in setting my coffee down next to my computer. Chris says to me ¡°Sorry, about the wait Mr. Asher, it just got busy down stairs after you left.¡± Chris was still carrying on about the Mr. Asher thing. Oh well, he can have his fun I¡¯ll get back at him later.


    I say to Chris ¡°Thanks for the coffee Boss.¡±


    He quickly replies ¡°No problem, but I¡¯ve got to get back to work it is seriously starting to get busy.¡± Chris turns around and exits the room quickly, but quietly closing the door behind him. Once the door is closed I hear the light thuds going down the stairs and he is gone.


    I rewatch J0hN135¡¯s stream over and over again since no other videos are released at the moment. Each time I watch it I look out for something I missed the last time. The first time through I pay excessive attention to the path he took. His stream starts as soon as he enters the forest so I keep track of where he is and what path he took to get where he did. He started out just going straight through the forest for a couple miles before he decided that he wasn¡¯t getting anywhere. He stops temporarily to look at the map. He walks a couple more miles before he reaches the point I picked up the stream at. He then cuts to his left and heads for the Lake. He almost reaches it and the he dies.


    The second time I pay attention to the surroundings to see if there is any legitimate way to tell where you are going. While he was walking through the forest a few cuts had been made on a tree in the distance to his right before he had looked away. In the few frames it had been there it looked to be regenerating. That meant you couldn¡¯t mark your way if you didn¡¯t find the map because the marks would disappear.


    The third time I watched how he approaches the few enemies he runs into. Right at the start he just encountered a few bats. He had no weapons so instead of focusing on how he fought I decide to focus on watching how the several enemies moved. The moss men keep low and then rise upward a little bit before lunging. The wolf seems to be mostly unpredictable of when it will strike however it only makes a half circle each time at most before it lunges. It also appears to be able to swiftly recover from strikes. The bats he fought mostly just attempt quick dives with an exception where one of them rushed directly at him cut off at the last second and then swiftly turned back around to actually attack.


    The fourth time I just payed attention to the brief moments where he pulled out his map. I carefully drew it to the best of my ability based off what he had shown me. This would only help for the forest, but it was better to memorize it now then be lost later. The Fifth time I rewatched it I paid attention exclusively to the settings menu. I noticed that you could hold up to two weapons in either hand at the same time. This didn¡¯t mean that you could use two weapons per hand, but instead meant that you could quick switch to a different weapon if you felt like it. Having four total weapons would be helpful for sure.


    Weight was only calculated based off what was currently equipped. That meant that you could have lots of inventory items that wouldn¡¯t burden you provided you didn¡¯t have to pull them out. I didn¡¯t get to see all of the menus however I quickly became familiar with the three main ones: Inventory, Status, and lastly Equipment. All three of these would be invaluable to me as a new player. I didn¡¯t get to see everything I wanted, but at least I wasn¡¯t going in dark.


    I refresh the video once again so that I can once again watch it. The video no longer works. They devs probably removed it. This is going to be a pain in the ass. I decide not to worry about it. I continue going over what I have collected while I drink my coffee. By now it has cooled enough I can drink it without problem. I do this for the next two hours.


    Finally Chris comes up and knocks on my door when I¡¯m going over my notes about enemy patterns for the eighteenth time. Chris says ¡°You¡¯re going to need help getting it up here.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s that big?¡± I exclaim.


    ¡°Yeah, it''s pretty big, frankly not even sure your room is big enough. It is pretty light, but it''s kind of awkward.¡±


    I hustle down stairs and there is a box about twice the size of my dresser. I pick it up to start carrying it, but it¡¯s so large that I can¡¯t really get a good hold on it. Chris tells Cindy to cover while he is gone and he picks up the other side. We carry it up the stairs to my room and notice a problem. It will fit through the door lengthwise, but it will not fit widthwise. It is about an inch too big. I tell Chris ¡°We should take it out of the box and push it through the door like that.¡±


    Chris says in response ¡°Likewise.¡±Chris pulls out a pocket knife and cuts open the box. We open the box and inside is a plastic package surrounded by lots of packing peanuts. I grab the plastic package and shove it up off the top of the box for chris to pull into my room. He carefully lifts it, turns it and pulls it into my room. I hand him the second plastic package and he does the same thing. In the last package is the gear I¡¯m suppose to wear for the rig and I tell him to be careful. The rest of the box is nothing, but peanuts. I shove the box up against the wall and tell Chris I¡¯m going to leave it here for the moment.


    Chris looks in the box one last time and asks me ¡°What is this?¡± He pulls out a black sensor with a circle and an x shape on it flashing a bluish green color.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It didn¡¯t say it came with that.¡± I say


    Chris says ¡°Take a look at the device I¡¯ll try and help you assemble it later. I have to get downstairs or I¡¯m going to start losing business.¡±


    I nod at him. He walks to the right of the box and walks down stairs. He hands me the sensor and continues down the stairs. I look at the sensor. I don¡¯t know what it is truthfully. It doesn¡¯t seem important, but the blue X on the back of it concerns me. I leave the box on the stairs. It slides down the stairs and Chris quickly whisks it away into a storage room.


    I put the black sensor on my desk and look at the plastic packages. The one with my gear is going to be important so I set it aside on top of my closed laptop. The first package is filled with sensors and different wires whereas the second is filled with a manual on how to use it and a remote charger. It is kind of weird it would need to charge, but that¡¯s not a hefty price to pay if it can be used anywhere.


    I cut open the plastic package containing the manual. It shows a map of where all the sensors go. The biker helmet goes on top and all the wires connect to an area around the base of the helmet. After that gloves must be put on. The black sensor is an additional component. It apparently is the sensor that determines how good your sensory perception is. You put it on the back of the head at the top of the spinal cord area. Once you do that it uses the electrical pulses in your body to generate your perception of the environment. I grabbed the black helmet and put it on the charger. While it is on the charger I pull my clothes off and put all the little diodes on my body along with the gloves. Over top of the sensors on my back goes a plastic spine which reads all the sensors and makes it comfortable for me to lay down.


    It takes me about five minutes to completely get all the sensors on my body and when I pull the helmet off the charger it is already at thirty percent. I wait until it completely charges to full and then I plug up the cords. I close my eyes waiting for something to happen. When I open my eyes and nothing has happened I go over and grab the manual. I slide the visor up to look at it. The manual says that I must put the black sensor on my neck and press down for three seconds. After that I should go limp and start up. Speaking of starting it up I never saw a physical copy of Evolution. I decide I¡¯ll boot it up first before I go check for the copy of the game.


    I put the black sensor on the back of my head where it is supposed to go. It turns on and I feel it hook into my neck. The sensor actually firmly grabs the skin on the back of my neck and it hurts for a second and then fades. I lay on my bed and hold down the button for three seconds like it said. Once it hits three my body goes limp and I feel like I¡¯m floating. I hear a electronic voice say ¡°Horizon start up sequence initiated.¡±


    It pulls up my profile and has me fill out my profile. It asks for name, age, date of birth, and lastly my email account for potential updates in the future. After this it asks for my username. I decide to go with my name and pick Asher Wright as my username online. Upon filling out of everything it takes me to the home menu. I¡¯m now standing in a grey area with dim lighting. It shows a plus and minus sign. I click on the plus and it brightens the main menu. I press the plus button a few times and now the area I¡¯m in is lighten well enough I can see.


    I click on the next icon by waving my right arm to the left. It shows me the actual home screen now which has evolution already downloaded and shows my friend list as well as my profile. My profile has no image at the moment, but I¡¯m not worried about that. I click wave my left hand once to the right and press forward with my hand to start evolution.


    The area around me changes and I see a character roster along with my current lv zero stats. There are no classes here so I can only change how I look before I begin the game. To the left is the character roster with all the players that are currently playing. It ranks them entirely based off of levels and stats. The current highest player is level ten. It doesn¡¯t go into specifics about the character or anything else because they have their character data listed as private.


    To the right is my current character which has a zero in all stats. The only thing needed for me to start the game are my character name and my appearance. I myself am a fan of red hair. I give myself a medium length red wavy hair with a small red soul patch as well. My body build is average like it is currently listed. For eye color I decide on grey. I don¡¯t mess with the eyebrows other than changing any part of my body with hair to have blood red hair color. My skin color I change to slightly tan. As far as skin and hair color you can have pretty much anything you¡¯d expect. You can even make yourself non human, but those options are locked for the moment. My character is now complete. I name myself Asher Wright and I start the game.


    I start off in the middle of a underground room. There are several players around me. There are probably around twenty five in total. In front of me is two large wooden doors. The whole room itself is made from stone blocks around one by two in size covered by green moss and lichen. I open my menu by sliding my hand identically to the way J0hN135 did. My menu opens. I check my inventory and I have nothing. Because of this I also don¡¯t have a map in which to follow. I start walking over toward the door and am about to push it open. I hear a voice behind me say ¡°Hey,  you¡¯d better not go out there on your own.¡±


    I turn around to see a man with green hair. He looks and sounds american. He has a friendly aura about him ,but I know I should still tread with caution. I look up and see his player name. His character name is just Jack. I look him over and then ask ¡°Thanks for the heads up, but why?¡± His character level is also zero so I wonder why he is warning me.


    ¡°I¡¯m a refresh. I was waiting here for someone to party with. You just spawned in so you probably don¡¯t know anything do you? I¡¯m sorry for being too forward, but unless you¡¯re a refresh like me I don¡¯t think you should go out there without a party member.¡± Jack says subtly.


    ¡°I¡±m not exactly sure what you mean by refresh or why you are talking to me, but could you try and be a little bit more concise in your warning?¡± I ask hesitantly.


    ¡°Whenever you die your character is deleted and you have to restart. I died almost three minutes out of spawn. After I refreshed normally I would rush back in again and try to do things differently right? Well I decided I should party with someone else. I¡¯ve been watching the roster and almost everyone who has left out that door has had to restart. I¡¯ve seen the same player go out and get killed three times within fifteen minutes. Restarting is a hassle and I want to be a top player not a refresh. I figured partying with someone would be helpful, but everyone out here so far has turned me down.¡±


    ¡°So a refresh is someone who has already died right?¡± I ask.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s prolly not their real name, but that¡¯s what I call them.¡± Jack says without delay. ¡°Do you want to party up with me?¡± Jack asks with hope.


    Normally I would turn him down, but he has a degree of knowledge I don¡¯t. He knows at least a little about the first area. On top of that it will be helpful to not have to do combat alone especially if both of us are unarmed. I respond affirmatively ¡°I could definitely use the help.¡±


    Jacks face lights up. He opens his menu with a flick of his wrist and within a few seconds I have a party invite pop up in front of me. A few seconds after I accept the invite I see a change in the roster. The top player dies and is replaced by the new one which is level eight. I open the door and say to Jack ¡°You are going to have to guide me on this first part.¡±


    Jack says ¡°Sure no problem follow me. I do have one question though.¡± He takes point and looks back at me while we are walking out. The area around us is made of the same stones covered in algae. The walls around us are illuminated by torchlight which only barely gives us enough light to see.


    I ask Jack ¡°What¡¯s the question?¡±


    Jack asks bluntly ¡°How long is this partnership going to work for? I¡¯m sure some players do it only for the first quest and others do it until both players are ready to leave on their own. I just want to know if you¡¯re going to be reliable.¡±


    ¡°To answer your question I¡¯m going with the simple answer of til death do us part¡± I say with a laugh.


    Jack says ¡°Alrighty then partner.¡±


    ¡°You can call me Asher¡± I tell him.


    ¡°Likewise you can call me Jack¡± He tells me with a wicked grin.


    We continue walking forward until he stops. Jack looks back at me and says ¡° I died here last time. There is a ceiling block that comes down and crushes whoever is beneath it. However I don¡¯t have anything to use to activate it so I can move past it.¡±


    ¡°Can you run past it in time or no?¡± I ask curiously.


    Jack says ¡°No, the second anything with any kind of weight hits the floor the block immediately comes down.¡±


    I think about our particular circumstances right now. Nothing around us except for these walls and this trap. No items this early so there''s no way we could get past by normal means. I wonder how the top players got past then. I ask Jack ¡°How did the top players get past here?¡±


    ¡°The first person got crushed and then they ran under it while it was rising back up.¡±


    ¡°So we would have to have a sacrifice in order to get past. Well the game may be difficult, but it wouldn¡¯t be unplayable for a singular person.¡± I say out loud thinking to myself. At this moment I remembered earlier when J0hN135 was streaming that tree that had been damaged. This made me think the walls might be breakable. I punch the wall to try and see if I can break it down. Immediately pain shoots through my hand. The wall has four hundred health and the punch only did one point of damage. I take eight damage out of my current health of one hundred.


    There is some algae now sticking to my hand. ¡°I just figured out how to get past¡± I tell Jack excitedly.


    ¡°How?¡± He asks with a interested expression.


    ¡°The algae and moss on this wall are loose meaning we can pull it off. We are going to pull enough off to make a clump and throw it into the radius of the trap.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s brilliant¡± Jack tells me.


    We collect enough off the walls to form a clump and throw it out underneath the trap. The trap slams down and the moss/algae clump is now flattened against the floor. Jack takes point and leads us down a couple more hallways. We reach a fork with three doors. Jack tells me ¡°The middle door is the only one I haven¡¯t tried.¡± We open the middle door and I see a room filled with bones. The hallway stretches about a hundred feet. I start cautiously walking down the hallway. I¡¯m careful to avoid stepping on any of the bones or touching any of the blood soaked walls. Jack keeps himself to my side. We reach the end of the hallway without issue.


    ¡°This is going easier than I expected¡± I say.


    ¡°Yeah, this is going better than the last time.¡± Jack says quietly muttering to himself.


    This reminds me of something he said earlier. He said the middle door is the only door I haven¡¯t tried. However before we got there he had said he died only once and it was at the crushing trap.


    After we open the door I see a tunnel with light at the end. ¡°We reached the end of the first area¡± I exclaim.


    ¡°Yeah we did Asher.¡± Jack says.


    Neither of us run towards the end of the tunnel. Jack stays in sync with me as I walk until I ask him the question. ¡°You said you only died once, but that was supposed to be at the crushing trap. You later told me that you had only not tried the middle door. Why was that?¡± I ask a little bit worried of his response.


    ¡°Well I figured it would be easier if you thought I wasn¡¯t a stuck up prick.¡± Jack says.


    ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡± In all reality it doesn¡¯t though. There are ways he could have explained it without sounding stuck up.


    ¡°Where do you think we should head after we get into the forest?¡± Jack asks me.


    ¡°Frankly I want to head to the castle¡± I answer him.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know where that is¡± He says without much surprise.


    ¡°I know where it is. I can lead us there¡± I tell him with assurance.


    ¡°Cool, you can take point then¡± Jack then gets behind me so he follow.


    We head off to where J0hN135 originally was before he started heading for the lake. As we come into the clearing in between the castle and the lake on the far sides there is a sudden rustling of leaves. The rustling starts coming from all sides. I put my back against Jack¡¯s. I tell him ¡®I think we have a fight on our hands.¡±


    ¡°Agreed¡± He says anxiously. Jack says ¡°If they are a pack monster were screwed.¡± Jack was right about that. If what came out of the woodworks happened to be something like wolves we would both die right here. I still had my pain receptors on so I¡¯d feel every second of it. Around us out of the trees dropped five goblins. There were four small ones and one larger one which appeared to be the captain. Jack asks me ¡°You have a plan?¡±


    ¡°Not at the moment¡± I say irritated by our predicament.


    ¡°You¡¯d better start thinking because we don¡¯t have weapons right now.¡± Jack says sullenly. He is right though. If we do get into combat with these things we have a high chance of dying since we don¡¯t a single weapon between us. This isn¡¯t looking too good. The goblins start closing in and we prepare for combat.