Chapter 2

>LOGIN SEQUENCE START<

—Jayson's eyes were still closed during the start-up phase, but he could still see the text in his vision. Josh and Isabelle are most likely logging in right now as well.

As the text box announcing the login startup disappeared from his vision, Jayson could hear a low hum all around him. The weight of motion started to build upon his chest, as he felt his body being propelled forward at high speeds.

His real-world body was motionless as if he was sleeping, but the sensation Jayson is experiencing is the transportation of his brain data into his Avatar.

The world of the Nexus allows players to experience it through their own personal avatars. When players first log into the game, they must create an avatar of their own, either keeping their real name and lifelike appearance the same or changing it to fit their desires.

This was the biggest deal with the Nexus—being able to live in the game as someone new. An alter-ego, if you may.

There are some limitations to the creation engine that the game developers saw fit to include:

Swapping sex, adding/subtracting height and weight, muscle mass modification, and voice changers were not permitted for use.

These have pretty obvious reasons why they aren't allowed for players to change, but the history between each change has been solidified into the game's player base.

Since the NIE reads your nervous system, it has a direct connection to your immune system. During the game's beta-testing phase, players who changed their sex were immediately subject to unbearable pain. Since the NIE doesn't know how your body would function as the opposite sex, it wouldn't run specific programs like they were intended to. Your immune system would react to your body differently.

Originally, Adding height and weight wasn't that big of an issue. However, after thousands of players complained of depth perception issues, dizziness, and nausea after changing said factors, the dev team quickly switched off any changes to height/weight.

Muscle mass improvements or lesseners would cause players to log out of the game sore as if their muscles were straining the entire time they were playing. One player, in particular, noticed several bruises on his chest after a long play session. It seemed like the brain wanted to overcompensate for the nonexistent mass that would amplify what was there. Developers quickly removed this feature.

Changing your voice had similar effects since several players complained about sore throats after play sessions.

Although some of the Nexus fanbases don't like the avatar creation limitations, players must be comfortable in both worlds after using the LucidCast.

Jayson's body, at this point, felt like it was dissolving into the air. He looked down to see his feet start to glow, then break up into millions of tiny particles.

'Took long enough.' He thinks.

He hadn't had a load time as long as this one in a while.

The glowing/breaking effect at his feet started to rise slowly. It went up to his feet, then to his legs, then to his chest, and then it covered his eyesight. Jayson shut his eyes tight.

After some time of keeping his eyes shut, a notification appeared in his vision.

>Login Complete!<

This text box was followed shortly after by another one.

>Welcome Back to the Nexus!<

Jayson slowly opened his eyes, adjusting to the change of light. In the real world, it was around 7:30 PM. It was an entirely different time in the Nexus, and there was still some sun left out in the sky. Jayson shielded his eyes from the rays beaming down onto his face as he looked around for Josh and Isabelle.

'They've gotta be close by, right?' Jayson worries in his head.

Instead of a red sports hoodie, he was now wearing a blue zip-up hoodie with a white hood. There were black shoulder guards on the new apparel as well. Underneath the jacket was a white t-shirt. He was still wearing black sweatpants but blue running shoes instead of white tennis shoes.

His hair was an icy blue color instead of the dark brown in the real world but hadn't changed that much in appearance. A leather strap wrapped around his right shoulder from his back to the right side of his chest, where it splits into two other straps laced around his upper body to support his weapon. A dark metal sheath explicitly made for his sword was at his back, which had its hilt poking out of it.

"Hey!"

"Over here!!"

Jayson turned around at the sound of the calls and saw Isabelle and Josh waving at him, scoping out some venue. Jayson was happy to meet back up with his friends, fearing they would be across the map from each other. As he got closer, Isabelle and Josh moved so Jayson could see what they were doing.

In this world, Isabelle and Josh have different-looking avatars as well.

Josh was wearing a button-up dark red long sleeve plaid shirt with a collar and cuffs. He had a grey t-shirt underneath it. A pair of cargo pants replaced his torn jeans, and he had black athletic shoes. His hair had become a shade darker, turning much more black, but hadn't changed much in style.

The most significant difference with Josh's appearance was the giant gauntlets that surrounded his hands. They were metal with silver and gold highlights and had spikes at each knuckle. They were about the same size as a small guitar amp and probably weighed the same as one. Dark leather straps were wrapped around Josh's arms so that he could lift them.

Isabelle's hair changed from two ponytails to one long braid that hung behind her head. Several large locks of hair were now covering her forehead. Her hair color was now ginger instead of blonde.

She was now wearing a long dark green hood and a black t-shirt underneath it. Several belts surrounded her had black pants around their legs and her hip, carrying plenty of valuable items.

Over her left shoulder was a triangular quiver with many arrows inside it, and wrapped around her body with its drawstring was her bow. The bow in and of itself was pretty large, but not so big that you couldn't control it. On each end of the bow was an all-purpose knife used for combat. Whenever Isabelle wasn't using them, she would fasten them onto the ends of the bow in the case of a close combat situation, turning the long-range weapon into a close-range skewer.

Not only did all three friends have different appearances, but different names as well.

Everyone in the world of the Nexus has a username that can be whatever they want it to be. Using your real-world name is shunned upon by hardcore players, but it's up to the player what their new name should be.

A player's name is shown for all to see, floating above their head when another player concentrates their eyesight on them.

In earlier builds of the game, when this wasn't the case, username text boxes would crowd up the servers and cause unnecessary lag. Not to mention the ugly sight it would give new players.

Above Josh's head was text labeled .

Above Isabelle's head was text labeled .

And in the top right of Jayson's vision, next to his health bar, was text labeled .

Jayson, Josh, Isabelle—Jay, Axel, Ivy. These were the same people, owning separate lives across separate worlds.

Jay crosses his left arm in front of him, keeping it parallel to his chest, and then with his right hand, taps his left forearm. This action opens up the game menu, which hovers above the forearm when opened and can be closed by tapping the same spot you opened it from.

The game menu is a series of text boxes showing Jay his inventory, wallet, skills, inbox, upcoming events, current time, and many other valuable options.

It also tells him what his real-world needs are, as well as the time in his real town.

When TVR (True-Virtual-Reality) got popular, many players wanted to play for long periods of time, which was understandable. To make sure players were healthy in the real world, the LucidCast pairs with the NIE and watches over three primary necessities:

—Hunger, thirst, and bathroom urgency.

Whenever one of these three core subjects needs attention, i.e., you are hungry in the real world, the game will notify you to log off and eat something before continuing playing. This feature is the same if a player is thirsty or if they need to release themselves.

It will also notify players to get up and stretch once in a while if they get sore quickly.

Jay continues to sift through the menus that appeared above his arm until he concludes that everything is ok in the real world. He turns to his friends again.

"What are you guys looking at?" Jay asks.

"The fight list. Times and prices particularly." Ivy says.

"I just wanna see someone get slapped up!!" Axel bursts, clanking his gauntlets together, creating several sparks.

The vendor they were near was just a touch screen board that allowed players to buy tickets for professional fights. After carefully planning out expenses and considering travel time (most of this was done by Ivy,) Jay and his friends start to head towards their first stop before hitting the arena.

«The Market».

In most games, NPCs would run rampant, selling many useful things across the game's world map. They would typically sell items at a fixed price, no higher, no less. This would give the game some balance as to its economy. However, most games don't have an economy...

That can be compared to the Nexus'.

Stalls and shops once occupied by NPC characters are now entirely operated and run by real players. Gear sold at a fixed rate could now be bargained for and sold for what the consumer needs.

This operation started when a group of players created their own forum for the game and its items, naming every known piece of loot and what all the players thought it was worth. They would then log into the game and use the «trade» mechanic to purchase items from other players on the forums, completely passing the game's fixed market.

A trade happens when a player sends you a trade request from their menu

This player-run market scheme evolved even further when an update for the game allowed players to purchase property if they had the money for it. What was meant for the entire player-base to enjoy—having the luxury of their own house in the game—in turn, boosted this trading ring to the maximum.

After several months of this system, the entirety of the game's central city, Spahn, had been overrun by player-ran stalls and booths. Players would sell items for what they thought was a reasonable price.

One section of the city only has these player-run booths, where traders, investors, and smugglers thrive. This place is simply called 'The Market' or 'Market.'

Every major city in the game has a market, but Spahn's is labeled The Market because of its size and popularity. On top of the markets across the game, player-ran shops and diners have also been established due to the game's allowance of purchasing properties.

Jay, Axel, and Ivy enter The Market. Jay looks around and sees thousands of players walking through the many halls players have made. Looking through the booths, Jay quickly sees today's variety.

One booth sells swords, the one down from it sells baked goods, and another houses a mysterious fortune teller trying to swoon players over for easy Coin.

"Wow, it's pretty busy today, huh?" Ivy states.

"You can say that again..." Axel says

"It's like a jungle!" Jay proclaims.

Jay looks over his shoulder to see even more players enter into the Market and more leave. Lots of money was being made and lost today, it seemed, judging off of the player's faces.

"So, where are we going first?!" Axel asks Jay.

"Beats me..." Jay mumbles.

As Jay and Axel talked, they hear Ivy shout out of the blue.

"*Look at that*!"

Jay and Axel both turn towards Ivy, who was scampering away into the busy crowd. They both look at each other, then back at Ivy, then back at each other. A panicked expression forms on their faces, and they run in Ivy's direction.

"Not this again!" Axel yells.

"We looked for you for twenty minutes last time!" Jay yells.

Jay's heartbeat started to race, but he didn't feel any pain from running. Axel darts past him towards a crowd of people in front of them and cuts through them like paper.

"Outta my way!"

Jay tags along and waves apologetically to the crowd. Embarrassed but determined, he continues after Axel ahead of him. With Ivy nowhere in sight, things weren't looking too good.

Their fight would take place in just fifteen minutes, and they still had to get to the Professional Arena!

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

After running through the masses and having some close and awkward encounters, Jay notices Axel stop in his tracks. Both of them were breathing heavily, and Jay got closer to Axel.

Just ahead of the two was an innocent Ivy bent down, looking at an assortment of...

"-Gemstones?!" Axel shouts

Jay hears Axel's proclamation and looks over to see Ivy dusting one of them off.

'You've gotta be kidding me,' Jay thinks.

Ivy looks to her left and sees the two standing close by. She waves nicely, but Axel is furious. He starts to b-line straight for Ivy in an aggressive walk. Jay steps in front of him and tries to calm him down.

As it looks like things are going to get heated for real this time, a voice comes from the tent Ivy was browsing through.

"If you guys are gonna fight, please take it somewhere else. I wanna run this shop for at least another hour today."

Jay looks over to see the shopkeeper, and so do Axel and Ivy. His head was down, shaking from side to side. He had spiky hair on top but short on his sides and back. A white cape was sitting on his chair, unhooked from his back.

"Oh, ok! We were just going anyway!" Jay says with a smirk as he grabs Ivy and Axel's hands and starts to walk off.

The shopkeeper gets a good look at Jay before he leaves, then goes back to sulking in his tent.

"Amateurs..." He mutters under his breath, "I was about to arrest them too…"

After making up and getting something to eat from «The Market», Jay and his friends sit down at a table with some chairs. They came to The Market to eat something before the fight because the prices in the area for this same kind of food were way higher.

As Jay bites into his teriyaki-style sandwich, he tastes every flavor like it was the real world. The bun, the meat, and the sauce were just like he would imagine it to be in the real world.

The game can only program so many things at once, but the illusion for taste was only possible through the NIE.

Neuroscientists found that reprogramming the brain and our senses were challenging, but it wasn't impossible. After years of research, scientists gave the rest of our senses a place in VR. These were taste, touch, and smell. All of these senses have—in some way—a connection to a person's immune system, and when given the feeling of artificial pain or taste, it would react accordingly in the player's natural body.

To stop this from happening, a set of codes redirected these impulses to another part of the brain, which didn't cause the reactions to occur. Imagine getting cut by a sword in-game but logging off to find a body-induced bruise/swell in that same area. This phenomenon is what said code stopped from happening.

The sandwich Jay was eating wouldn't fill him up in the real world, but it felt like it in the game. He licks his fingers after taking his final bite.

"That sandwich was good!!" Axel comments to Jay, "Could use some more flavoring though..."

"I agree, but it's still cheaper than inside an arena," Jay replies.

Jay gets up and opens up the game menu from his forearm. He presses the >Trash< option and throws away his scraps into a holographic trash can that appears from his menu. Ivy and Axel swiftly follow suit.

"We better head on over to our venue soon. The fight starts in ten minutes." Is everyone ready?" Jay asks.

Axel and Ivy nod at Jay. The three friends start to head towards the middle of the city. At the center of Spahn is one of the arena's scattered across the game, where players can watch Pros and amateurs alike fight it out.

The arena they are heading to is the biggest in the game, reserved for pro fights only and where many matchup types are regularly held.

«The Decimation».