《Arcadia》 Chapter 0 - Prologue In the years 2134. USA , China and Japan in a joint collaboration developed a system in which a patient''s consciousness could be projected into a digitally formed world. Their body would be placed in a gel like liquid and would enter a state of sleep. The thought behind all this was to conserve the patients body and health till a time would come where his illness could be cured. The only functioning part would be the brain stimulated by the Machine.. The person would enter a space which he could redesign to suit his preferences , and was even able to talk to the outside over his very own interface. It became possible for that person to feel alive yet again , in some rare cases even to work . After 5 years of testing the machine got it¡¯s official release with a big media hype behind it. To the normal joe it would mean nothing , but to the people who suffered in bed , day by day, unable to move, it meant everything. At that time a small company took interest in this technology. Arcadia Studios. It was a small firm backed by one of the wealthiest moguls on the planet. You could say he has had dollar signs in his eyes after hearing from their undertakings. His investment guaranteed an almost endless supply of funds to them. After a span of 15 years and countless millions of dollars, the research bared its fruits. A capsule was born. The FIT (Full Immersion Tank) as we call it. The FIT was able to catch all the brain waves emanating from their source and turn them into electrical waves. The body however was not put to sleep, it was just cut off from its feed of orders. With the release of FIT the age of computers and consoles was over. The company also bundled the release of FIT with their very own game, designed as the first of its kind, a true VRMMORPG , Arcadia Online. The game was self sufficient with only the need for servers to support the computing required behind it. All aspects of the game had their very own sentient AI¡¯s governing them. In the game they were called Gods, which was not far from the truth. In the world of Arcadia they truly had that kind of power. ******************************************************************************************************** Arcadia was released half a year ago , and it became a hit overnight . It boasted a played base of roughly 400 million. It was your standard Fantasy MMO with a post-apocalyptic twist to it. According to the backstory , earth as we know it has been shattered by an unknown phenomenon. It merged with a world called Elysium. This resulted in a war of survival for the human race against the invading monsters. Humankind waged a war which was all but lost , as the technology that we possessed was useless against beast of the size of buildings. Close to 95% of mankind died and we almost went extinct . The last city that still put up a fight was Gladios, the city of Martyrs. One day a group of travellers stood before the city gates. 5 persons all together. These 5 persons came as envoys of unknown races to the humans and offered their help and alliance in their fight. After a lot of fighting the onslaught of monsters ended and a state of peace and prosperity came. With the alliance of the Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, Beastmen, Barbarians and Humans a new age has dawned, the age of reconstruction and expansion. The earthen technology was mixed with the newfound knowledge about mana and how to use it. This served as the basis for the game . You would jump in 7000 years after the great war for survival. Playable races numbered in the hundreds with their own benefits and drawbacks naturally, to keep the game balanced. As for classes , you did not need to choose anything , because you could become anything you ever wanted to be with effort and a bit of luck. You however had to set your archetype. This helped the game generate quests , rewards , and skills for you based on what you did in game. For example if you wanted to be a magus , who specialised in offensive magic . You had to take the archetype Magician. For the swordsman it was the Fighter archetype , and the list would go on and on. Arcadia had the g2c system intact which meant gold to cash. It allowed a player to buy and sell ingame currency with the help of the built in banking system. It allowed one to make a living out of the game. Be it selling items on the auction house or making fortunes through hunting . Everything could be turned into a profit with an exchange rate of 10 gold for/to 1 dollar . As long as you paid the commission fee of 5% which the company requested. This naturally gave an edge while playing to the rich , but as with everything in real life , effort and talent could overcame most of the competition. Also because the game was governed by the AI you could only boost yourself with items from the shop and extra gold. But in game you had the same chances as everyone else. ******************************************************************************************************** The setting sun is just like my own life, slowly but surely it will have it¡¯s end. By the time that happens, darkness will take over and the light of my life will go out. I have thought about it countless times, what would happen if i just fade away¡­ Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. In the last 3 years my best friends were nurses and doctors , who all kept visiting me daily to do their checkups This gave me some faith, but my family stopped visiting regularly due to our financial problems which in terms instantly made it collapse. We were not rich to start with , but after my accident , the burden got even heavier on mom and dad. They also had to feed , dress and support my baby sister. She was about to go to school at the tender age of 6. However the costs of medical care had skyrocketed in the past decade and it made their lifelong efforts go to waste. I wonder if i¡¯m ever going to see the sun rise again while i am seated on our balcony. Due to my condition i highly doubt it anymore. I need machines just to breath and my daily needs are supplied to me with tubes that enter my body. I can still remember what has happened on that fateful day. I was on my way to pick up my baby sister from kindergarten. It was her first day there and she insisted that her big brother comes to pick her up. As my high school still had summer vacation and i had nothing better to do, i agreed. I took my hoverbike and made my way to Saint Clare''s Kindergarten. It was a huge institute run by some nurses and priest. By the time i arrived i could see the children and their caretakers standing in front of the building. Smoke was rising up and a foul stench lingered in the air. At that time i still had no clue what that stench was, but by now i know . It was the stench of cooked meat. I searched the yard for my sister but could not find her. So i asked one of the nurses. ¡°Excuse me , have you seen Sarah? Sarah is my baby sister. I need to find her.¡± The nurse did not reply , just shook her head . Thinking back , i can not blame her . I just said Sarah, there ought to have been at least 150 Sarah¡¯s just in the grade my sister went to. Without thinking twice about it , i have torn off a part of my shirtsleeve. put some water on it and made my way to the entrance. Dad has told me roughly in which room my sister was. All i could think about was to find her. I might sound like a wanna be hero straight out of a manga or anime, or someone who is out of his mind. But i had the feeling that i must go in. I must find her , and i must save her. My memory is blurry from here on , the doctors say that i either suppress it due to it¡¯s nature , or that the CO2 which i inhaled at that time , had an effect on it. Next thing i remember is when i woke up in the hospital , I was surrounded by my family . But Sarah was nowhere to be seen. I tried to open my mouth but it was futile . I did not have the strenght to do so. After the doctors finished with their checkups , my crying Mother and Father came closer to me. I could not understand what they were saying and after a while my strength left me and i went back to sleep. A few weeks after that Dad told me that i have saved my sister. The firefighters found us together in the building . I covered her with my body and held the torn off moist cloth to her mouth. This saved her life. I on the other hand , while still alive , suffered 3rd grade burns to 90% of my body. Due to falling rubble my backbone broke and has rendered me unable to move for the rest of my life from my neck down. These past three years that i have spent here gave me enough time to think about my acts and their consequences . I replayed that same scenario at least a million times in my head. Could i have done better ? With these thoughts in my mind i went to sleep again. It was a sunny day , in the midst of summer. I woke up just like any other time for the daily routine of checkups. I got used to it by now . Whenever the doctors would come , i would be awake and after they leave i would go to sleep immediately. Just as i was about to go to sleep i could hear my Fathers Voice. ¡°Josh ! Josh .. are you awake?¡± I did not expect him to visit. Usually they would only visit for my birthday and some major holidays like christmas. I opened my moist eyes and looked at him. ¡°Hello Father¡­ I¡¯m glad you came to visit.¡± After a short pause a white robed man also showed up next to him. He looked just like the doctors who were treating me , but he did not seem familiar. My father wanted to speak up , but the man with a sudden wave of his had stopped him. He then took a step closer , bowed his back just enough to have his lips next to my ears. ¡°Young man . My name is Dr. Hendrikson , and i will make you walk again.¡±
Hello people , thank you for reading my story. If you do find any errors in spelling and grammar , please point them out. English is not my native language , and sadly i do make mistakes :-D Thank you Greets Tri Chap 1 Starting systems . . . . . . . . . . . OK! Spreading nano machines . . . . . . . . . . . OK! Linking brainwaves . . . . . . . . . . . OK! Loading Arcadia . . . . . . . . . . . OK! It all started as an illusion of nothingness, mist was spread wherever I turned to look. A small window suddenly appeared before me. *** Welcome to Arcadia , please wait a moment while we get you under way on your adventure. *** Loading engines . . . . . . . . . . . OK! Verifying user . . . . . . . . . . . OK! New User identified . Loading character creation . . . . . . . . . . . OK! Suddenly the mist started to vibrate around me., and a huge podium appeared out of nowhere with a body on top. As I focused my sensed I realised , that body was just like me. A voice started to speak to me , not from around me , but in my head. -Dear user, as this is your first time entering the game , you will need to customize your character first. Please choose your race. I list appeared before me with a hologram next to it. It seemed like the races had an endless number and it took me around 10 minutes before I decided that I do not care what I get. Thus I choose the best option , at least that was what I thought and said. -Random race. *** A random race has been chosen for you. Please wait while we generate your default body. *** Generating body . . . . . . . . . . . OK! *** For you to be able to still move in game the body can be only altered by 20% from your original. Please sculpt it in whichever way you like. *** As it generated the body according to my current features I could care less for it. Maybe some people do make themselves better looking or taller, but for me to be able to use my own body was more then enough. Without even throwing a casual glance at my generated body I said. -Next *** Please set your character''s name. *** I did not need to think about this part eighter. I had a handle that I was familiar with and had been using for a few years now. - Ash Everything went suddenly blank before my eyes and I had a sensation which I almost forgot that existed. I could feel my limbs, my muscles were twitching and I could vaguely sense a faint a breeze on my skin. The breeze actually came from a small portal that appeared in the darkness right in front of me. It was just like a window . Next to the blackness was a window to a place that I have never before seen .It looked like a castle from the medieval ages but with huge guns stationed on the wall. *** Please step into the portal to enter the world of Elysium. *** I made my move and got swept up by the portal. *** Welcome to Arcadia *** ------------------------ Meanwhile somewhere in Europe In a large conference room at the top of a skyscraper an old man was looking out on the scenery from the window. It was a scenic view that allowed one to see the city in its fullest. However the room was darkly lit and the only thing visible from the man was his outline. The man turned and sat down at one of the seats. After waiting for a few seconds the voice of a woman was heard. - Communication bridge has been established. Please wait while we connect all the participants. Light began to flicker above the seats, and slowly built into vague outlines of people. After a few short seconds the outlines gradually began to take form of people and the voice once again sounded. - The connection to all participants of the holocall has been established. The man in the seat grinned and started the conference. - Fellow colleagues , it is nice that most of you could make it today for out monthly assessment round. I would like you all to report on the current assignment that has been handed to you all. Doctor Hendrickson please make the assessment. - Sir, as you have requested phase one has been completed , the nano machines for the test subjects have been exchanged to our experimental ones . Currently there are 10 000 subjects who have been scouted as per your request. From these 10 000 we have convinced 96% to partake in our test. No suspicion has arisen till now in the participants. Phase 2 can be started. - Good job Doctors. Hereby I authorise you all to start phase 2 of the test. The nano machines should start the immersion protocol. Next call shall be in a months time. Hopefully by then we can move on with our plans. Thank you and dismissed. ------------------------ After entering the portal I though I would land in that beautiful city that was shown to me , but me anticipation soon turned into despair. As I opened my eyes, I realised I have come to a lush forest. According to what I was told beforehand, the game should have dropped me to the starting town of my local race. As I turned my body to look around , I fell onto the greenery. I lost my control and rammed head first into the soil. I could hear a man crying from laughter and hitting the floor just as I fell. I focused and turned my head around to see who it was. To my dismay I could only see up to the man''s knees , but what instantly The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.got my attention was that above his boots which were made from some animal furs I could clearly see his skin color. It was a really dark shade of green. Suddenly I could hear footsteps closing in on me, but what was more agitating was the laughter that could be heard besides the footsteps. Two burly figures appeared at the edge of my view. I still could barely move and was struggling to get a glimpse of them. After close to 10 minutes 2 massive green hands got a hold of me under my arms and started to pull me behind them. My face was still hung down but I could at least move it a but my now. I realised I was leaving a trail as I was dragged in the dirt. A huge gate was also visible and some small shacks. The figures were still laughing over me but it got a bit better. At least it was not hysterical any more. After being dragged for quite a distance the dirt road was exchanged to a stone one and I could clearly see housing and some shops spread around me. Suddenly I got thrown to the front and landed once again face forward. *** Due to the huge impact of your fall your HP has been reduced by 20. *** Suddenly one of my abductors started talking. - Chief, we have found this halfbreed before the gates. As we have never seen such a weak breed before , we brought him before you. Maybe you would like to appoint him as the new jester, the last one got killed anyway a few day ago for not being funny enough. Haha.... After a short silence I could hear an old voice from in front of me. - Okay, but if he can not make me laugh he will hang besides the last one. Just as I was about to get up and take a look at him , my body had given in again and I hit the floor once more face forward. All the man around me started laughing again hysterically , and I could even hear some women do the same. This went on for half a day, according to my in game clock. But in the end I was dragged into a small run-down shack next to the place were my torture has taken place. As I was lying down on a makeshift bed , I was finally able to get a close look at my body. Till now I was so focused on hating myself and the rage that has filled me , that I did not even take note of it. My hole body was covered with dark skin , close to black , but still a hint lighter. I had a slender body which looked extremely weak and gentle. As I was fidgeting around , trying to move my body, I realised that the problem was not that I could not feel my limbs, but that they really did not have any strength in them. I had a sudden insight and remembered that this was a game. which I have forgot due to my shame till now. As a game it should have a character screen or a status bar or at least an inventory. In my field of vision, until now the only thing I was able to see was my clock and the constant "I took some damage" texts from me hitting my head on the floor. But right in that moment that I thought about it , a character appeared before me. It looked just like me , dark skin , slender and tender body. No muscles anywhere. It looked just as weak as I was feeling, next to the body I could see slots and over the head was written Inventory. I should at least be happy that I did not start naked. Some clothes were visible in the brackets next to my body. As I was about to take a look,next to that window another window appeared out of nowhere. *** Character information Name : Ash Gender : Male Race : Halfbreed (Elf/Orc) HP : 100 Mp :100 Str : 1 Agi : 1 Vit : 1 Dex : 1 Int : 1 Wis : 1 Luck : 1 Charm : 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Halfbreed are rare even in this world , especially between orcs and elfs. Due to the elf blood being the dominant , only some orc characteristics have manifested. As a mix between the two races, it has both strong strength and affinity for magic. Racial bonuses can be acquired when changing classes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Suddenly a new window has appeared before me. *** Dear user , due to the fact that the character was generated randomly you can distribute your starting points into your stats yourself for better customisation. You have 65 Stat points available. Please take note, that only this one time can you distribute your points yourself. The system automatically will do this in the future at each level up in correspondence to you class. At every level up you will be awarded a minimum of 15 stat points. Dependent on your activities in game stats can be awarded to you from the system automatically. Luck and charm are special attributes and can not be raised by adding points to them. They will naturally go up in regards of your interactions or luck in game. Other special attributes may be gained. Would you like to distribute the points now? ***