《A new world》 Prologue: A brief history The was the communication, transportation and industrial revolution of the 19th century which had led the immense development in the field of transport and communication. These revolution changed the way man talked, traveled and decided the new structure of society. To the middle of the 21st century, there was another revolution centered around virtual reality, and it had impacts equal to or arguably even more than any of the revolutions in the past. It is so because this revolution gave people a second life. The virtual reality came to life not through some games as people had predicted, but through military. In order to give high quality training to the soldiers without actually threatening their life, many countries such as the US, China, Russia etc. had actively contributed to the field of virtual reality. Then virtual reality invaded the medical field, in training doctors for delicate surgeries. But the real revolution took place when virtual reality came in to the gaming field. The leading pioneer in the gaming industry, the company GeneX was born and with their birth came the game or the second life as some say, Eternia. But at this point some might be wondering how this game could create such a revolution, since the technology of virtual reality already existed and anyone could experience it even without actually playing a game. Well, this is the part where the GeneX company made their greatest breakthrough. It had always been known that man can harness only about 7-8% of their brains power. But the GeneX company had discovered a way to make use of about 90% of the brain power while playing the game. Also they game could be played while sleeping. The technology is even now, the greatest secret of the GeneX company, not selling their secrets to any other organisation. This 90% power didn''t increase ones reaction speed, comprehension power, flexibility of thinking or anything as such. What it did was to render things at about 10 times faster. Thus the in game experience was that 1 hour in real life was equal to about 10 hours in the game. This is what attracted everyone to the game. Yes, humanities desire to live. It meant that if someone spends 40 years in time playing the game, he would experience an in game time of about 400 years!!!. Since no medicine to extend life was discovered, this attracted people like moth to a bright light. That is how the VR revolution had begun. The 22nd century consisted of debates on the VR technology. Many people had become detached from their first world, focusing entirely on the second world. In the year 2184 AD came the many laws to prevent people from completely ignoring their physical health completely ( The only drive people still had to care for their health was the have sex ). Some of them included are: 1) Only a maximum of 16 hours a day could be spent in playing the game, including sleeping hours. 2) In game sex, a feature previously available was completely banned ( mainly because of some research some actual physical repercussions it caused) Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.3) Only at the age of 16 could one start playing the game. There was actually an entire book on these rules and regulations that must be followed including compulsory schooling till 16. And this is now the one of the major parts of a lawyers education. In the year 2190 AD, came another set of laws regarding the NPCs of Eternia. The NPCs in Eternia had also grown with time and their emotions and personalities are now no different from that of a normal human. So due to some ethical rights groups, the NPCs were no longer treated as some lifeless characters, and this completely changed the in game mechanics including the quest system, the stat system and many such things were completely wiped out making it seem much more closer to real life. The skill system and the level system had still remained. Thus the NPCs were set completely free to live their life as they pleased, and now are called the natives by the gamers. The thing to note here is that the normal NPC had the normal life span of the respective race, with the elves having the highest of about 400 years, and humans with about 70 years. Thus the NPCs of the game treated the gamers as a completely different race because of their higher strength and much longer in game lifespan. To them we are the decedents and kins of the Gods ( the gaming company ) who had created this world. Thus some NPCs in the past regarded the gamers as equal to the gods. After so many years of the real world time, Eternia too now has a rich history. But the one golden rule of the GeneX company was to never let technology taint this world. Thus making sure that the second world will remain a world of magic and swordsmanship. Due to this it is not hard to imagine how powerful someone in the game world would be a superstars in the real world, since both worlds now are a reality. Thus in game celebrities remain celebrities outside too, with great fame and fortune. The present year is 2215 AD, and now this world is my reality. Authors notes: 1) sorry for the info dump, and such an un-personalized way of narration. All these were supposed to facts and i had to create a proper setting for the story. The real story is from the first person view of the protagonist so its gonna be funny i promise :) 2) The information given is not final and i would like some opinions on how the structure of the world may create hindrances for the story in the future. Please feel free to give me your opinion before i decide to make what of info permanent 3) My native tongue is not English, so if someone finds a mistake please inform me so that i can correct it as soon as possible. 4) Dont forget please give me some ideas on the initial setting so i can edit the prologue a bit before moving onto chapter 1, which i wil post in the next 2 or 3 days ( Just to make the facts certain) 5) critics dont be shy to give it your all, because with each advice of yours i will become a better writer. Chapter 1:My guide to get a rare class I believe an introduction is in order. A good looong introduction. My name is Zark. If you find that wierd, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. I am an orphan ....... well thats it. So at the age of 8, i got a unique oppurtunity to change my name, and you could probably guess where i am going with it. The sisters at the orphanage tried their best to change my mind, but I am the sort of person who likes to do the exact opposite of what they are told. After days of crying and hunger strikes I finally go my way. The name is super cool, so I thought back then, but who could have guessed the trouble it was gonna bring me. Well I would blame the sisters who tried to convince me of not taking the name. If they hadn''t insisted so much on me not taking the name, I would have probably picked a better name. This lead to me being the number the number one target of bullying. Believe me, it doesn''t get better. Many of the times when you are asked to evaluate themselves, people get stuck from the start, but not me. I am a person who can make swift judegement, without any bias or sterotypes. Heres a small summary about me : I have almost the perfect height of about 168cm ( bit short ), skin as white as snow ( pale from not going out), with a really good physique without stupid ugly boulders all over the body some people call muscles ( skinny ). I find my mind a beautiful and wonderous place and the truth be told and I am really witty, but most people dont get it. I am so funny that most of the time I crack my self up ( weirdo with a creepy grin ....... when alone ). I am seriously smart and have a photographic memory ( actuallly serious ), nothing very useful. Compared to my charms, that doesn''t account for much. Enough about me. This winter I turned 16 and I moved to an apartment of my own. Well I am a an genius after all so I thought my self a bit of programming and I debug some programs online, and earn a comfortable income. Its a pretty comfortable apartment. Its has a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, a small balcony like area, and best of all i got it all to myself. Sixteen comes with freedom, but best of all now I can enter Eternia, the seond world. I go the machine near the bed, lay on the bed, and place the helmet ( headgear for the VR machine ) on my head. I am exited and nervous at the same time since it is the first time I am gonna log on to Eternia. I hear a '' cling '' sound and the next second I find myself in a white room with a gorgeous beauty infront of me. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. " Welcome new user to Eternia. My name is Racheal and I will guide you for the entry to Eternia. Please free to ask me if you are having any doubts or confusions. " Well I do not talk to real people much, but I consider myself a very smooth talker towards, you know, not people. If I apply my interacting skill and some tips from '' how to land girls '' magazine, I am sure I can make this beautiful artificially intelligent lady infront of me to give me a good class. She seems the sophisticated type, so according to the magazine I should go for the aggrasive persona. " Hey babe, why don''t you give me a good class fast so that we get to know each other intimately if you know what i mean < wink > " Pretty pleased with myself on the execution part. " Excuse me ? " She''s completely dazed , now time to unleash the bad boy " Stop wasting my time bi**h, com''mon I ain''t got all day " She''s speechless. Thank you '' how to land girls '' magizine. Combined with my mixture of different manly styles, she''s probably blown away. " What is your name sir? " She asks with an angelitic smile. BOO YA BABY! I should''ve tried to pick up girls much earlier. " Zarks ma name " " You **%%$#@$$ #%^^#%^% %$^^ $##^^ &%$##^ &&^$ 8&^^ *&^$$%^ **^%%" ............................. On the bright side i learned a couple of new words today . And i learned that NPCs come inbuilt with a whole lot of swears. NOTE TO MYSELF - dont engage with a NPC in a swearing competition. " Zark congratulations, I am gonna give a special class, which hasnt been seen in centuries in Eternia for centuries. You get a random appearance and will get exported into a random city. Please enjoy Eternia < scary evil grin > " Now i am confused, I just got a super rare class, probably unique. Did i score or not, or was that her being a bad girl or something. Girls are really complicated, even the artificial ones. A bright flash appeared out of nowhere. I struggle to open my eyes and I see a message pop up WELCOME TO ETERNIA Chapter 2: First look I ignore the message and the first thing i do is to rush towards a lake, a pond, or somewhere to see my reflection. I am an elf yay. But quite creepily, I have my real physique, the major difference being only the pointy ear. Well thank god atleast I still have my good looks. I look around and see a town around me. No wonder people say the can''t differentiate between the game and real life, its because you really can''t. This looks so real that it is actually a bit scary. I saw this one movie where a guy things he has got back home from a dangerous mission, while he was actually hooked to a virtual reality machine in which he lived his life, and got eventually killed. No that guy was not the MC, geez no MC is gonna get captured so easily. If he was the real MC, he would have had the villain trapped in the VR showing him that he was the one who had the MC hooked to the VR machine. My point is the thought is a bit scary. " Why is that dude standing there like a statue. And whats with his appearance, he looks totally weird " Well smart guy, this is me in my thinking zone. Some people call it as zoned out, spaced out, some even say it is my switch of mode ( computer joke, since i hang around computers a lot ). Like to most douche bags I am not even gonna give you a reply. Suffer as I insult you in my mind. Then a middle aged man comes near me. He is slightly taller than me with those bumps and boulders all over his body ( muscles ). " You look like a elf, but really short. Mmm .. AH! you are probably a elf hobbit hybrid or something. Weird I have never heard of no hybrids before. " Like the previous guy, this guy too gets a bucket load of my mental insults. The saddest part is he does not even realize i am insulting him. Ahh..... the sweet satisfaction of insulting someone and not getting punched. On a side note it is the constant punching that made me switch to mental insults. " No sir, I am an authentic elf. If you would excuse me, i just started the game and would like to do a little bit of exploring " You dont have to be surprised you know. I know how to talk to others quite well if I do say so myself. Its just that i prefer not to talk to people much. Mainly because of my school trauma, which i don''t want to get into right now. Its a pretty long flashback. Shit! i completely forgot about my awesome rare class. Well the difference in the new VR game is that all the skill and info of the game are stored in your head. You just think of it and bam! you got the info. Also there is no annoying skill list as in the past. To make it closer to reality, the special moves and skills actually comes from training and muscle memory. If you get a skill, the game automatically loads it into your muscle memory , or something like that ... i think. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I think about the name of my class and immediately the name '' Word Smith '' comes to my mind. As expected of a super rare class, never heard of it before. I think of my own powers and the only thing that comes to my mind is a single foreign looking character. The character means pause/stop. As long as the skill is powerful, the number of skills is not gonna make a difference. So i tested my skill out to the extreme. Well I initially thought it was a stunning move or something, but it is even better than i expected. It stops the time for my opponent. Totally overpowered skill, or so i thought till i found out that I have to exhaust all my mana to keep something stuck in time for 3 seconds. hell, it doesn''t even give me the time to run away. Since the cost of the move increases with my own power, I don''t think i am gonna be able to use it much more than 3 seconds even in the future The Maybe physical strength was the real forte of this class .... or not . Its like 55% agility and 25% defense and the rest other physical capabilities. Meaning I am super weak, but agile like a monkey. On the bright side I can probably run away after using pause. Rare class : check Unique class: check (probably) Useless in combat : check I am not stupid. The AI lady really did screw me. I mean metaphorically, not the adult version. F you '' how to land girls magazine '' . Its scary to even imagine what would have happened if it weren''t for my ingenious mixture of manly styles. I guess I saved my day again. Atleast the class is rare, and the main thing about eternia is that you cannot change your class once you select it < where was my choice > . There was a lot of dispute about this, but the GeneX company didn''t cave in since they wanted to make it closer to real life as possible, and cherish your character as you cherish yourself. I spend the next several hours walking around and getting to the place. The city is called Ronan. Its your typical mixed race city, with compounded walls, a forest and other leveling areas for beginers just outside the city. Got too bored to continue. Not really in a mood to test my ''rare'' class, I log out. I thought about playing the game during my sleep, but the class ruined it for me. So its the old school sleep for me today.