Prologue: The Second

Finally. 

    A week has gone by, or if you're the crazy specific type: 6 days, 20 hours, 34 minutes and 56 seconds. I sat down in a lawn chair I pulled out from my closet. It hadn't seen some use in a few months as seen by the dust it accumulated. I had to clean it for a few minutes to make it look like it was before. I was given a notification on my phone that I could pick up Royal Star Online at my local game shop. I packed a cooler with a few cans of soda and two sandwiches and placed it next to me. My phone was charged to 100%, but I kept my solar charger in my back pocket in case. Damn, so much for being first. I cursed under my breath when I saw that three people were already there. I sighed as I stared at my phone for a little bit.

    Since that day, more posts have been made about the game. 

    More speculation and theories with recruitment posts. I started to ignore it all after a while. I plugged in my headphones and started listening to some good music. My general interest has always been rock and metal, but I do enjoy some anime soundtracks that I scattered throughout my playlist. 

    Hearing music often gave motivation. My attention focused on the game and how it ran. None of the specs for the game were given. The information we got on that day remained the only bit of info. It's why there were so many theories. I usually play rogue-like characters. They were pretty easy to get a handle of in my eyes. Though, I wasn't against trying to pick a different class. Maybe an Archer? I dunno. It depends on what was given. The class pool wasn't given either. 

    Something tugged on my jacket, they were too delicate to be fingers, so I thought that it was just the chair after I moved, but I looked over to my right.

    . . .

    I shook my head. I found myself staring into bright green eyes for a little bit too long. They were the kind of eyes that held a great deal of kindness behind them. They were too pure. Beyond those eyes, there were locks of light blue that framed fair colored skin. I finally snapped back into reality, and I saw that it was a girl sitting in a lawn chair of her own wearing a jacket of her own. Her legs were covered by a blanket, and she stared into my blue eyes. 

    She too seemed to be in a trance as well. She looked like she hadn't seen a human being in years. I waved my hand over her eyes and she blinked twice before her face became red. She shook her head and placed her hands over her face. Upon realizing that she was the one who caused this, her hands came down and she looked up at me again. 

    "Uh. . . hi." 

    "Hi?" I said, confused. Did she know me or something?

    "I, uh. . . have a question."

    "And that is?"

    "Do you wanna play Royal Star Online with me?"

    . . .

    . . .

    I was in complete disbelief. Not that a girl was talking to me, I'm not a nerd who's never talked to a girl in months and is just now remembering how to talk to them, I'm just surprised at her asking a total stranger to play an online game with her. I pondered the thought, and scratched my temple.

    "Give me your name first."

    "Huh?"

    "Name."

    "U-Uh, Veronica! I'm Veronica."

    "My name is Damon." 

    I turned my chair to face her since it was getting tiresome. She did the same thing as me. I hesitated, feeling like it was still sudden to come up with an answer.

    "Sure. We can play together." 

    After I said it, a ringing filled my ears. It stung a little bit. Strange. I shook my head again, and the ringing slowly faded away. Maybe it was the loud music, but I took those out shortly after turning around to see Veronica when she tugged on my arm. Whatever, it went away. 

    Veronica and I talked for a little bit, and we started playing a few games together on our phones. We had a few games in common with each other and played a few of those together. Time flew by like crazy. 

    The light at the front of the store lit up and the dulled sounds of keys rattling signaled the doors being unlocked. 

    We stood up and everyone flooded the store. There was another line inside to get the game, and shortly after getting in line, I found myself at the front, seeing the game case brought out and slipped into a bag with the store's logo printed onto it. Veronica was waiting for me outside with her stuff in a bag. I went and grabbed my stuff, slipping my chair into its bag and slipping the strap over my shoulder. The cooler was a small one with a plastic handle that flipped over the white lid. I picked it up with the game in my other hand.

    "Let's give each other our information. We can contact each other when we're in the game." 

    She took out her phone as she threw out the idea. The headsets can be connected to your phone, and the permissions for what it connects to can be changed. The most common being contacts so that people can text you while in game. We gave each other out numbers and we went our separate ways. 

    I made my way home and put away my things. I ate one of my sandwiches and downed two cans of soda while I waited. 

    The rest were put into the fridge with the ice being put back into the freezer. The water was drained into the sink and my closet was opened so I could slip my lawn chair back into it. 

     I chugged one of the remaining cans of soda before making my way to my bed. My headset was on its stand, and I picked it up. On the back of it was a slim, rectangular shaped plate. Pushing a button next to it caused it to open up to show a small slit for cards to be slid into. I opened the game case, and the shape of it was just like a trading card but thicker. Games for the headset were often put onto these cards. I inserted the card and the plate closed over the card. A green light blinked a few times before turning blue. This meant that the card was read.

    I would lay down on my bed, getting myself comfortable before putting the headset on. The visor flipped down pretty easily with just a light press on the side of it.

[ AUTHENTICATION STARTUP COMMENCING ]

[ AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE ]

[ LINKING. . . ]

    The headset connected to a person's brainwaves, which it used to simulate movement and all five senses in VRMMO's. 

[ LINK COMPLETE ]

    "Heh. . ."

[ INITIATE STARTUP COMMAND ]

    The headsets required a unique command. This was so that in the case of a robbery, no one could use your headset since anything after the authentication and link required the command, meaning everything was locked. I smirked. 

    "Follow your heart."

    It was a bit of a cringy command, but I like it, so it didn't matter. It was something my dad always said when I was a kid. It just sort of. . . stuck.

    My vision then turned black. It wasn't because it took away my vision, but my eyelids immediately closed over my eyes when my command was given. All functionality I had over my body had been stripped from me. 

    Sight was given back to me, as I could see myself at the very top of a mountain covered in lush, green grass. It overlooked a large green landscape with a few villages scattered across it, leading to a large capital city in the distance. Gold letters appeared before me, with the name "Royal Star Online" appearing in front of me in an incredibly elegant design. Below it would be the word "Start." A sword materialized in my hand. I immediately knew what to do with this. 

    Stepping back, I took up a stance. In all my years of playing games, I learned a few things. In particular, I took a cool looking stance from an earlier VRMMO I played. My right leg moved a little bit outward, and my left leg moved a few inches out. My right arm was raised up, with the tip of the plain looking sword pointed directly at the golden letters. My left arm was raised as well, but not as much, it was merely used to keep myself in the right position to swing. 

    "Alright. Let's get this started."

    As I prepared to swing, my right leg followed me before slamming against the ground, and my other hand reached for the sword's hilt. With both hands now holding the sword, I swung downward with all my strength. "Start" became "Sta" and "rt". 

    The color of the world was drained, and morphed into a large room, taking the appearance of a library. No one was around me. 

    Whilst taking in the scenery, a mirror appeared before me and options on the left side of it appeared. This was where I could make my character. 

    While I could take my time choosing a look, I went with my normal appearance. All I did to change it was the shade of my hair, which was black. It became a lighter shade and I made the shade of my eyes a bit darker. Over my body was a simple black tunic with dark blue accents. The trousers were just plain white with dark brown leather boots. 

    Upon completion, the mirror disappeared and my body would shine for a moment before my clothes changed to what I was wearing in the mirror. Then, another screen appeared before me, and there I could pick my class. 

[ Please select a class. ]

[ Note: Players will only acquire their class upon reaching LVL 5. Status Point distribution does not change the outcome of the class. However, exceeding in a certain category will result in a possible Class Evolution. ]

    Class Evolution? That sounds kinda cool. I wonder why they made it where you had to be LVL 5 to gain your class? 

    I look below the notice to see the options.

[ CLASSES : ]

[ Warrior ]

[ Archer ]

[ Mage ]

[ Spearman ]

[ Swordsman ]

[ Thief ]

[ Rogue ]

    Pretty good selection. Now, Class Evolution came back up in my mind when I saw this. "I wonder if you're on a set path? Warrior might end up being a Knight, and then you become a Paladin." Part of me at least wanted some variety. As in, maybe the Warrior could become a Knight, but could end up evolving into a Black Knight? I also considered the possibility of having multiple classes. Maybe you weren't restricted to one class? There's still too much we don't know about the game. 

    "Wait. The hell is this?" 

[ ??? ]

    There were a few question marks underneath the Assassin class. Could this be another class? 

    The ringing in my ear from before came back. This time, at a much higher frequency. I had to shake my head for what felt like a minute before it came back. It didn't hurt, really. . . just annoying. I looked back at the selection screen. 

    "I'll just take a look at the description."

[ Randomized Class. A random class will be picked when the Player becomes LVL 20. ]

    LVL 20!? What the hell?

[ The System will randomly select a class out of the 200+ that exist. ]

    That's a lot of classes, though. The possibility of getting a shitty class was out there. . . what if I ended up becoming a bard or something lame?

    But. . . I could end up getting a high ranking class out of this. 

    "Screw it." I selected the randomized option. The screen then changed to show my stats. 

[ Player: Damon ]

[ LVL 1 ]

[ HP : 50 ]

[ MP : 50 ]

[ SP : 0 ]

[ VIT : 1 ]

[ STR : 1 ]

[ INT : 1 ]

[ DEX : 1 ]

[ SPD : 1 ]

[ AGI : 1 ]

    SP probably meant Stat Points. My stats below that were pretty standard. I looked up to see a countdown over my head, and it immediately became 0:00:00. The entire library broke apart, and a bright light blinded me. 

    I had closed my eyes to try and shield them, and after that, I could hear many voices. I opened them and looked around, seeing that I was now standing in front of a garden, surrounded by players.

    "So. . . the game has finally started."