by M E Robinson
Here, Lietke paused to grab a bottle of water. On-screen, the scene had changed to a forested wood, where a young mage was attempting to fight off a small band of goblins. He was clearly in trouble as evidenced by the cuts visible on his forearms as he held out his hands to cast spell after spell, but the reason why became quickly evident as the screen panned around to reveal a terrified elven child hiding behind the mage. The audience watched spellbound as the mage fired off a fireball at a charging goblin.
Lietke smiled and resumed his speech, “As you can see the visuals and graphical effects of Fate are top notch. They are completely realistic and players will easily find themselves immersed in more than just a game, but a chance to change their fates. In real life, you may be a programmer, a journalist, a waiter, or even the heir to a large corporation. But in Fate, you can change that. Your fate is your own to choose in Fate, and I’m pleased to announce that the chance to change your fate is coming much sooner than you’d expect!”
Behind him, the scene on-screen changed again, this time revealing a dwarven craftsman sweating over a faintly glowing blade. As his hammer fell, the scene changed again, this time to a beautifully adorned ballroom. In the middle of the hall, a lithe elven maiden swirled gracefully between the participants. Again the scene changed…
“As you can see, Fate is truly a second world: each of the scenes you see onscreen is a live feed to some of our beta testers. Men and women just like you who have been selected to give feedback on all the game’s systems. We’ve selected people from all walks of life and made sure that they’ve tested as many of the incredible experiences Fate has to offer as they could,” Lietke continued. Behind him, the scene changed nonstop, scenes of intense combat, adventurers bartering with merchants, a naval vessel surging through the waves, a solitary wanderer making his way up the side of an enormous mountain, a church choir singing over the adorned body of a hero, a girl clutching a squirming cat, a pair of men singing loudly in a tavern.
Pausing for dramatic effect, Lietke stared at his audience, not a single person remained fully on their seat, everyone having moved to the edge if not having left it entirely. As if a spell had been cast over the audience, the entire auditorium had gone silent. With a flourish of his arms, the scene on the screens changed once more, this time to an elaborate hourglass. As the grains of sand slowly slid from the top to the bottom, a timer appeared underneath: 42D 2H 4M 16s it read, the last number slowly counting down.
With a jolt, Karl realized that it was a countdown timer. Slowly he managed to open his mouth, “Do you mean to say that this game releases in just over a month?” he managed to croak, breaking the silence.
Looking pleased, Lietke stared down at him from the stage, “Yes. Fate will be releasing on July 16th, 20XX. We hope that you can all join us in shaping the world of Fate!” With those closing words, Michael Lietke turned and left the stage, leaving behind only the slowly draining hourglass to illuminate the room.
For what felt like several long minutes, no one moved, until suddenly someone stood up and raced out the door. Jolting to alertness, Karl realized that this wasn’t just a big scoop, this might be the scoop of the century. Grabbing his bag, he whirled around and darted through the crowd, determined to post an article before anyone else. As he ran, Karl realized that the man he’d overheard outside had been correct, Hurricane had been up to something big. However, Karl thought with a rueful grin, even that Hurricane fanboy couldn’t possibly have predicted just how big the project Hurricane had been working on was.
- Chapter Two -
Excitement
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- Chapter Three -
Tired Talks
Eric sighed, running his hand through his messy hair as he did so. I should take a shower, he mused. Lifting one edge of his shirt up to confirm, he wrinkled his nose, “Yep, definitely need a shower.”
Glancing over at the G3 logo that had replaced the stream, he broke into an almost unconscious grin. Fate looked amazing. His friends had been talking about finding a new game for months, but at this point they’d played everything on the market and they kept coming back to the same games. They’d been hoping G3 would bring news of upcoming titles to relieve their boredom but none of them had been prepared for this. Hurricane had truly outdone themselves with this announcement, he thought as he rose from his computer chair, shedding his shirt and tossing it on top of a steadily growing pile in the corner of his room.
Stepping into the bathroom, Eric shed the remainders of his pajamas, pausing to glance at himself in the mirror as he waited for the shower to warm up. Standing just shy of six feet with medium length dark brown hair hanging greasily down over his green eyes, framed by the lenses of his glasses which magnified the large bags underneath, he looked every inch the type of nerd who would stay up for five hours past midnight just to watch Hurricane’s conference.
“You didn’t have to stay up to watch it. You could have gone to bed like a normal person and woken up early to catch the show,” he mocked himself as he turned and slipped into the shower.
School today was going to be hell, but at least he’d be able to discuss the game with the guys. Gio was going to regret having not watched the conference live when they all started discussing it at lunchtime, or more than likely halfway through first period, Eric thought with a small chuckle.
Stepping out of the shower, he grabbed a towel off the nearby rack and dried himself off. Using the towel to wipe the steam off the mirror, he was greeted with a much improved look. His hair was no longer matted from not showering all weekend, and his complexion was notably improved. Alas there wasn’t much he could
do about the bags under his eyes, but they were a small price to pay for a night of gaming and watching the reveal of Fate live.
Grabbing a quick breakfast, Eric dashed out the door before his parents could emerge from their room to begin their own morning rituals. He wasn’t in the mood to talk about his future plans this morning, or his lack thereof. Picking up his bike from the side of the house, he jumped on and made quick work of the ten minute ride to school.
Despite leaving early, he still somehow managed to arrive at the door of his classroom only moments before the bell rang to signify the beginning of the day’s classes. Safe again, he thought as he met the disapproving eyes of his teacher, Ms Fleming.
“Mr Kingsley, so good of you to join us," she said, her eyes clearly expressing her annoyance at his appearance interrupting her speech. “We were just about to go over the schedule for your senior exams. If you’d be so kind as to shut the door, we may continue.”
Nodding, Eric closed the door and quickly made his way to his seat, pausing briefly to catch Mark’s eye. “Meet us at lunch?” Mark mouthed. Briefly nodding in response, Eric sat down and focused on appearing intent on listening to the format of the upcoming senior exams. But inside, all he could think of was that glorious trailer.
The next two periods passed in much the same way. Each of their teachers spent the first half of the class going over how important these exams were to their future, then the next half discussing how they would spend the next week preparing in class. Finally, the bell rang to signify lunch and the class bolted from their seats.
“We’ll be reviewing the first three units next class so come prepared!” warned the math teacher Mr Woods as the students efficiently evacuated the classroom. Dashing towards his locker, Eric was met by a pair of mismatched boys emerging from the opposite direction. Griffin was big, well above six foot and built like a less muscled linebacker with blond hair and blue eyes. Mark in contrast was several inches below Eric’s height with light brown hair and matching brown eyes. Somehow of the three of them though, Mark was always the one surrounded by women - confidence really was everything.
“Dude, Fate looks amazing!” Mark began as they hurriedly stuffed their books into their lockers.
Griffin laughed, “Amazing is underselling it. Those are better graphics than anything I’ve ever seen and it’s all in virtual reality, plus it’s retailing for less than $200! Hurricane must have gone insane.”
“We need to be in there day one,” Eric said as he grabbed his lunch from his backpack. “The faster we start leveling, the bigger a lead we can build over others. If we can hit endgame quickly, we can compete with the big guilds this time. No beating things weeks after Vertex or Nihilum, or getting steamrolled by guilds with all the top players because they started before us.”
“Do we know anything about endgame yet?” Griffin asked. “For all we know there are no raids and it’s purely PvP based.”
“That sounds freaking awesome," Mark replied. “Can you imagine being able to take over castles or defend like that guy in the trailer?”
“You guys talking about Fate?” Connor interjected from the locker beside Eric’s. At 6’6, Connor was one of the biggest guys in the school. Much to the PE coach’s constant chagrin however, he didn’t play sports, but instead sat on the student council and participated in math contests.
“You know it. You saw the reveal too?” Eric shot back.
“Hell yeah. Me, Sam, and Kurt spent all morning talking about it in Mrs Savard’s English class. Game is legit.”
Eric wrinkled his nose at this. Kurt was not someone he wanted to be discussing right now.
“Anyways, I’ll see you guys around, student council is meeting to discuss yearbook distribution. Later dudes,” Connor said, waving his arm over his shoulder as he walked off.
"Speaking of which. I promised someone I'd give them my notes. I'll meet you guys back here in a minute," said Mark, slamming closed his locker as he dashed off in the other direction.
"Odds that that someone is a girl?" Griffin asked dryly.
"Not something I'd be willing to bet on," Eric replied.
"Do we just wait here for him?"
"Might as well."
"How was your weekend anyways? We didn't really get to talk last night. Did your Taekwondo tournament go well?"
"Kind of?" Eric replied.
Griffin arched his eyebrow. "Kind of?"
"I mean, it didn't go badly. But I didn't do as well as I'd hoped," Eric explained, grabbing his lunch from the locker as he slammed it shut. "I lost in the semi-finals to the provincial champion. Won the bronze medal match though, so I placed at least."
"Not bad. Congrats."
"Thanks," Eric laughed. "Anyways, how was your weekend?"
"Quiet, chill. Just stayed at home gaming. Watched Game of Crones with my family on Saturday and then played with the guys on Sunday before you got home."
"Cool, what about-"
Whatever it was Eric had been about to say however, was cut off as Mark returned, this time without his notes.
"You guys ready to head down?" Mark asked.
"Yeah, who were you giving your notes to?" Griffin asked.
"Just a girl," Mark replied smoothly. Hearing this, Griffin shot a triumphant look towards Eric who rolled his eyes in response. Mark seemed to be friends with every girl in the school somehow. The odds of the recipient being a girl were far higher than the alternative had been.
"New girlfriend? Or just a friend," Eric asked as they left the lockers behind.
"Just a friend," Mark replied. "For now at least," he added with a sly grin.
Making their way to the cafeteria, the discussion continued, centered around their thoughts on what endgame would look like. As they sat down, another pair took the seats across from them. Of southeast asian descent, Gio looked like the Filipino version of Mark. While he wasn’t as good at picking up ladies, he still somehow found himself surrounded by women in all his activities, probably because he was an artist, Eric mused. Rob on the other hand was a bit taller than Gio and Mark, though still shorter than Eric himself. Of Chinese descent, his smile was usually the first thing people observed about him. He always seemed ready to laugh at something or someone. Usually someone, Eric thought wryly.
“You guys ready for Fate?” Asked Gio, ripping into his sandwich.
“You know it," Eric responded with a grin. “What are you guys planning on playing? Should we worry about making a balanced party?”
Griffin rolled his eyes at this, “We don’t even know what classes the game has and you want us to make a party?”
“Yeah dumbass, we’ve literally seen one trailer and you want us deciding our futures already?” came a voice from behind them.
Turning, Eric saw that Jun-Ho had appeared. Jun-Ho, or Jun as he preferred to be called, was Korean and lived up to the Korean stereotype by being the best gamer in their group. As a competitive person, Eric always attempted to compete with Jun but somehow managed to fall just short in most cases, something Jun never let him forget.
“I’m just saying that it’s not a bad idea to at least decide what we should focus on. The game releases in just over a month,” he retorted, taking a bite of the cold slice of pizza he’d grabbed from the fridge earlier. Ugh, he thought with distaste as he bit into it, Mushrooms.
“Well obviously I’ll be a ranged damage dealer. I’ll be the main dps and you guys can all be my supports," Jun said with a laugh as he sat down next to Mark.
“That’s fine, what about you guys? I know Mark is probably going to be a jack of all trades healer and Griffin will play a tank. What do you two want to play? Oh and where’s Ryan?” Eric asked, turning to address Rob and Gio.
Gio looked pensive, “Ryan said he’d be down in a bit, he had to talk to the teacher about something on the exam. And I’ll probably go tank.”
“I’ll see what classes there are first,” Rob said after a moment.
“What classes for what? Are
you guys talking about the exams?” came a soft voice from behind him.
Whirling around in his seat, Eric saw Mirianne Martins standing there with a lunch tray in hand.
“Uhhh no, we’re talking about video games," he responded in a flustered voice. “Hurricane announced a brand new VR game this morning and everyone’s pretty excited.”
“Oh,” Mirianne replied.
“But we’re going to be studying together for the exams soon. We’re meeting up at uhhh... Griffin’s place! Did you want to come?” he asked, feeling hopeful.
“Sorry! I’ve already told Mary and Cassie that I’d study with them after school today," Mirianne responded. “Maybe next time though.” With that, Mirianne walked away towards her friends’ table.
“We’re meeting up at my place?” Griffin asked with an amused smile on his face.
Eric buried his face in his hands, “I panicked okay? I didn’t expect her to say yes anyways.”
