Manual

I woke up on my bed, feeling excited as the popular game is about to release on the market.

Feeling that I would now have another source of income, plus it was within my circle of interest, I had a sense of jubilation within me as I do my morning rituals.

One can say that my apartment is completely match to its low pay, as everything was within a few walking distance that the bathroom was the only place that was separated by a wall.

After standing up and two steps after, I can already reach my... hmm... I think should not separate it anymore as I have now notice that my place is becoming more small in my perspective, not that I mind that much, but still, look at how the time goes.

Leaving the apartment at 9am to go to the nearest store that sells the machine for the game, I looked around the neighborhood as the sense of the passage of time is still present within me.

I live on the outer parts of the City F, where people below the average living standards gather, but as the place I am currently staying at is near the middle part of the city, I can be considered as a person with just below the average living standard. Compared to those living near the wall of the city, I am still living a decent life that can be still described a part of regular society.

Luckily, as games are still seen with bias, the line formed by buyers are short, but as the government gave their support in the advertisement of the game, the line was considerably longer than it would on a usual release of a new game.

Many people like me gave suspicion on the support given by the government on the game, but thinking the rather usual corruption present between business men and government officials, I am one of those who gave up thinking about it.

It was rather bland waiting in the line as everything was rather... normal.

Leaving out the fact that the line was long, everything seems peaceful compare to what I have learn from history class making me wonder if that was all exaggerated, if not for the fact that travelling outside the walls were expensive (if there is hidden conspiracy or something) and the school trip we had on my school days were a lie (5 years preparatory and 5 years intermediate are all mandatory and those upper levels were optional, also I finished 10 years of mandatory schooling and the trip was on my 10th year).

I wish that there is a delivery service around the area as this experience is making me think about my future visits in buying a game.

Oh, maybe next time won't be like this, I guess.

After a grueling time of waiting, boredom and rising temperature, I finally managed to buy my own Portal game setup that is packaged like a first aid kit. A box with a handle on its top, the company logo on one side, and details on the other sides of the box.

After returning on the apartment, I opened the box and and began the setup which was rather simple compared to those games I have unboxed in the past. Then making sure that I have completely followed what was written on the manual, I excitedly lay down on the bed and wore the visor(which was connected to the game machine via a wire), and I opened the device through a button on the side of the visor.

I waited for the machine to complete the boot up.

[Portal Client started up]

[Starting first time device scan]

[Device wearer detected]

[First time user detected]

[Would user like to have an impaired user guide?]

"No."

I thought that the game devs were nice as the device continues to perform what was indicated on the user manual.

[Game not yet available: 1 hour estimated time online]

[Would you like to start character creation now?]

"Yes."

[Starting character creation]

I close my eyes as the hypnotic suggestion from the visor kicked in.

The next thing I knew, I was in a wide space staring at a white wall around me which I didn't knew how far it was away from me.

[Welcome to Portal character creation.]

As listened to the robotic voice sounding just beside my ear, a copy of my body was created with pixelation effect from top to bottom.

[Aside from the body composition not deviating from the maximum of 10%, you are free to adjust ANYTHING as a bonus for being one of the first 1 million users on the public release of the game.]

'Cool.'

I left my body composition and gender as is, and immediately went to my copy's head and began to edit my will be character's features.

Hair reaching past my ears, plus also the bangs, making it to completely cover my eyes.

Set the eye color to black? brown? blue?

Hmm...

Set it to black.

Make my ears a little bit pointy, that it won't be noticed when not given focus.

Viola!

A perfect character of a certain story genre.

1.6 meter tall.

Size leaning on the thin side.

Unremarkable face forgettable 9 out of 10 times.

A character build perfect for assassin class.

After that...

[Character Window]

[Name: manual]

[Stats:

Force: 5

Speed: 8

Control: 10

Endurance: 2

Affinity: 0

Stat Points: 0/20 left]

[Finish character creation?]

'Yes'

[Portal is now online]

[You can now enter the world beyond the portal]

[Finalize user setup?]

'Yes'