chapter 7 - Game begins

Saachi was not having easy time. He had paid deposit for the gaming pod and it would be installed within two days(as he had not ordered any customisation), ideally on the day of order itself. Having pod early or late did not matter much because the game opening date was already fixed. One could not enter it before game began even if one was using gaming pod let alone normal VR head gear. But before becoming full time gamer, he had lots of things to do.

The call to home was made. The money was transferred.The scholarship office was prodded again to release the scholarship money. The assignments for remaining semester was partly finished. The courses and certificate which gave credits were uploaded under the student details. The academic section would verify and would add credits later. The payment jobs had to be completed. Their completion and payment meant he could eat instant noodles or he had to survive only by water. The utility bills, house rent had to be automatically paid. (Money matters! Thus, matters related to it had to be double checked.)

When he heard his mother had surgery, he cried himself to sleep. When he woke up, he nearly emptied his account to send money to his parents.

Obviously, it meant that the boys who came to install bulky pod did not get any tips. But the boys were very professional. They showed their despise through expressions and finished remaining process - checking initial entry, verifying the brain wave pattern and showed him important parts inside the pod again. The ports to connect, the 'station' where one sat or slept, the connection area to synchronise with mobile phone, the lights, monitor, the memory foam gel complex .....Half of the day went away just like that.

On the day game was to begin, the promotions went pitching high. Famous actor, actress, sportspersons, TV or social network celebrities, bureaucrats...all jumped into promotion bandwagon.

Saachi received another surprise. The forum moderator had pinned a new 'hot', 'hot', 'hot', message. As a thank you for purchasing uber costly gaming pods, they would be able to enter the preface of game 15 minutes early. In these 15 minutes, patrons could do only one thing - personalise their avatar or gaming character. The moderator went on to describe few important races, types of characters one could choose.

Saachi squinted his eyes. There was something fishy in the deal. Granted 15 minutes extra to create avatar was good deal for gamers, the company would not have released such 'gift' so late. He read further and further and when he even read tiny T & C apply clauses, he understood. The game had started to scalp the gamers even before it's launch.

Reserving their own face so that others won't use it, costed money. Altering face to nearly match their own face costed even more money.( All gamers would get default face.) Altering body proportions from default to more pleasing end costed money. Hairstyles, cloth style, dummy accessories all costed cash and cash. None of these features would help the player within the game. But all these would be even more important. It was the matter of prestige, of the so called face.

After laughing his a*s off at money grabbing antics of the game, he decided to join the queue of getting avatar early.

He would not be following his old life script inside the game, atleast not completely. Logging in to the game from pod was new but exhilarating experience. He sat inside the pod, connected the phone, rechecked if all connections were working (though the pod would check by default), closed the pod and clicked the game enter key. Few seconds of dazzling colours merged into company names SIA works and I-NA, then words were formed in free style'....welcomes you to Escape into the fantasy'. More colourful and different shaped fireworks. Then suddenly emptiness.

A voice, humming a long forgotten type of song. As he turned, the singer turned out to be a pixie. A pixie straight out of teenage boy's dream. Her diaphanous drapes didn't hide her charms in the slightest. He had to wonder how many would get nosebleeds when they first encountered this pixie.

'Welcome, traveller, to the world of Astoria. As you are currently in soul state, kindly choose your form you would don in this world.' From then on she said same things as the moderator in forum had said but it had more details. He chose to be human though not much buff or racial specialities were there in it. He nearly bypassed facial features and other sections. Finally, his brain started working again. He chose option of fixing issue later. He did not want to be baby doll faced warrior or rugged looking mage or ruffian looking priest.

Last time he chose mechanically. He was ordered which character to choose, what should be the stats of that character. He didn't understand the logic behind them. This time, he had crawled through the forum to understand it but it was explained only in broad terms.