Prologue: The First
I opened my eyes to see the bland wooden ceiling I've stared at too many times to count. It looked like it could break at any time with all the cracks and splinters coming off of it. The wood itself was old, most of its color being lost to time. Some metal plates were bolted to it to keep it upright so that anyone foolish enough to sleep in the room wouldn't die in their sleep. I sat up after realizing that I was just wasting time. I groaned while I poked at the air for a pale blue screen to appear out of thin air. This was a VRMMO simply titled New Age. I've been playing the game for a good year and a half and I was looking for a new quest to complete. Most quests are too easy now at my level, which was 135, so I've been mindlessly killing mobs and talking to every NPC in the game that I could to find some hint to a quest but to no avail. I was stuck here doing tedious little tasks that ended up amounting to basically nothing. I'm just here wasting my time.
I was immediately given a pop-up notification which took me to the messages section. I looked at it and my eyes widened.
[ IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ]
"As of today, New Age will be shutting down its servers on 03/25/2026." I read it aloud. I didn't bother reading anything else written in the message. Everything after it was nothing but empty words saying how sorry the developers were that they had to shut down the game due to the plummeting player count in recent years. That much, sadly, was true. The game was being forgotten by some of the top tier players and because of that, other people started to leave as well. Nothing was being done about it, either. There were no new updates for additional quests or events, all of it was just being left alone to die after a few months. I sighed once again and closed my menu. I laid back down on the bed and once again stared at the ceiling.
I had some fond memories of this game. It was pretty good for what it was. It was simple but fun. There was a ton of content to it that was never really seen in other games in recent years. After a while, games had paywalls that limited the experience for players who did not want to pay for content. This paved the way for digital currency that swept the world. Almost everything had to be paid for with real money. New Age wasn't like that. Everything was optional. If you wanted to buy a cool weapon, you could. But if you wanted to earn it by completing the quest tied to it, you could do that too. It all depended on your investment in the game. You either invested real money into the game or your time. I never spent a single dime in the game and I had a few Legendary ranked weapons and armor pieces to my name. I never really liked the easy route in games. High risk, high reward. . . that's how I played my games. That message told me that all my time was wasted. I hated games that did this. Players who played their games like me were given the biggest slap to the face. All our hard work would be gone in just three days. No other games interested me like New Age. I just opened my menu and logged out. I didn't have the motivation anymore to keep playing.
I opened my eyes to see the real world. My ceiling was not made of decaying wood, but white drywall. Obscuring my vision would be a pale blue visor that I flipped up while I slid off the helmet that gently hugged my head. It looked like something from a sci-fi movie, like a space helmet. After VRMMO's started getting popular, the way of simulating VR changed. They started out as headsets with large rectangular boxes at the front of them. Then they became large boxes that went around your entire head. After a few years, a company started producing the standard gaming helmet that a vast majority of people use. I was one of those people. The helmet was slim and could fit the head of anyone since customers had the option of the helmet size.
I got up and placed it at the foot of my bed. After just a few seconds of being in VR, getting up almost always requires you to stretch. It's just like getting out of bed in the morning. I scratched the back of my head as I walked out of my bedroom and into the living room.
I don't live with my parents anymore since I am now a college student. I got an apartment that is pretty close to campus, so I never need to worry about driving my car to school. Summer vacation just started, too. So I don't need to worry about staying up late playing games. My PC isn't in my bedroom, it's in the living room and sits on my desk in the corner of the room. I sat down in my chair and I clicked on my mouse to turn on the screen.
Clicking on an icon on my homescreen, I pulled up a web browser. From there, I searched up and upcoming games that would be coming out. I didn't care if they were normal MMO's or VRMMO's. After scrolling down for a good while, I came across a search result that got me a little bit interested.
"Royal Star Online, huh?" I clicked on it and I was taken to an article.
"New developing team 'ForceTECH' has announced a brand new VRMMORPG. It has been announced as of today and is being released next week." Even reading it aloud made it seem too good to be true. I raised my brow.
What? A brand new developing team is making a game and it is already coming out next week? That seems way too fast for a release date. Even today, it takes months to a year for a recently announced game to be released. I scrolled down, skimming through the article. The entirety of the article is just speculation after that first line. Nothing about the game's graphics, engine, combat or lore has been revealed. All we know is the name and the developers behind it.
A mysterious game. . . not even the team is well known. I know they said it was a new team but even new teams have a few games under their belt, even if they were small indie titles.
I stood up and walked into the kitchen to grab a can of soda that I immediately cracked open the can while using my foot to close the door.
A ding sound alerted me of a notification from my PC. The only sound for notifications that I have were for my emails. Even then, I don't get many of those. I got back into my chair and I clicked onto the icon to pop-up my emails.
[ Dear Damon,
Do you wish to recover something you've lost? ]
"The hell? How cryptic can you get?" I couldn't even see who sent the email, everything was just blank aside from the message. I ended up replying to the message after a bit of thinking.
[ What the hell are you talking about? ]
[ It is very simple. You play Royal Star Online, and things will go from there. Happy adventuring! ]
I cursed under my breath.
[ That doesn't make any sense. Why would a game give me something I want? I don't even know what you're saying. ]
[ You will see. ]
Once again, I cursed, slamming my fists onto my desk before standing up and exiting out of the email thread. It could easily be a scam, but this has a different feeling than the rest of them. This seemed way too personal to be a scam. After a bit of thinking, I give in to what he wants. I was already going to play the game anyway since the mystery behind it got me interested.
I looked up Royal Star Online and went to the home page. Already, pre-orders were available. I ordered my copy of the game after giving a bit of my information.
There were no additional packages for purchase. Nothing like recovery items when you start the game, armor and weapon sets, etc. It was just the game. It looked like they had no interest in in-game currency or content locked behind a paywall. A bit of a smirk crept upon my lips after seeing this.
I exited out of everything and got up from my chair again.
Even after trying to take my mind off of everything by playing a few games online to let the time melt away, I was unable to stop myself from thinking about those emails. I wanted to reply again to see how things continued to play out. Maybe I could get some information? I still have no idea what they could have meant by "Do you wish to recover what you've lost?" I don't remember losing anything of importance. And playing a game to regain it? Who the hell would buy that?
"So the game comes out in a week, huh? Better find some forums that are talking about it." I got on my phone and sat down on the couch. I turned on the TV with the remote that I accidentally left lodged in between the cushions. The plastic was a little worse for wear with all the scratches and cracks throughout it being held together by super glue I painted black to keep the original color. Looking down at my phone's screen, I opened up the web browser and typed in a few things. Some of them were on well-known sites such as Twitter or Reddit. I scrolled on through and most of what people were saying were their own theories about what the game could be.
On top of theories and false leads, people were recruiting others to join their parties once the game came out. People gave their social media addresses so that they could communicate with each other prior to the game's release so that they may plan ahead. While others were concentrating on the idea of meeting new friends, I was on the flipside and saw it as bait. Not everyone is as nice as they seem in this world. These posts were merely for people to be gathered up so the ringleader can steal their valuables and leave without a single shred of regret. While that does seem pretty negative, it was usually the truth. It's why I never bothered staying too long with people online, especially with MMO's. All I did was join parties and guilds to gain the benefits they brought. Because of my behavior, it was inevitable that I was kicked from either one.
Each time I refreshed the pages, new theories and recruiting posts came up. I was more interested in the theory posts. While most of them are probably entirely wrong, I enjoy seeing the creative minds of some people. "Maybe the game is set in a sci-fi setting? The name has Star in it and everything" or, "What if they pull a fast one on us and it's actually in some steampunk setting?" All of them were just people throwing out whatever came to mind. Some theories were posted by the same person, some were theories that other people had.
"Well, in about a week's time I'll be able to figure out what the hell I'm getting myself into. I'll find the guy who sent me those messages. . ." That was my own theory. It was likely that the person I talked to earlier would also be playing the game.