by Jason Cheek
Chapter Six
(Monday, April 21st/Day One of The World)
The morning had flown by as I got ready to log in for my first time into the actual game of The World. I’d ate a solid meal, had a supersized glass of water close by and was suited up. The virtual training module had gotten me worked up about wondering what challenge I’d face at the start of the game. Climbing into the Egg, I sealed up as the default load screen filled my vision a moment later.
Running Pod Diagnostic – Complete
Synchronizing controller units - Complete
Neuro Synchronization - Complete
Initializing virtual environment …
Instead of loading immediately into the game as I’d done over the last few days. I found myself floating in inky blackness. Numbers shimmered in the air before my eyes as a countdown appeared displaying less than five minutes for the game to start. I tried to calm my beating heart as I waited for the game, but none of the breathing exercises were able to calm my mind.
This same overexcited feeling was how I’d first felt when World of Warcraft had first come out. While the game had lived up to its anticipated awesomeness, that first week of release had been hell. I’d been so excited when spring break had fallen on the same week of the game's release, but instead of having a week’s worth of fun, I spent the entire week trying to find a server that wasn’t crashing constantly and even marginally playable.
Unfortunately, nothing had helped. It wasn’t until two to three weeks later that Blizzard had gotten enough servers up and running to handle the worst of the initial influx of new players to their game. The main problem had come from the simple fact that no one believed the pre-beta numbers of how many people were truly interested in the game’s release. So, instead of building enough servers to handle the load, they’d listened to the experts at the time who said that they’d be lucky to have a tenth of those players on game day.
Due to the unique interface controller that was needed to play The World, V-MMORPG had solid numbers for exactly how many players were going to be logging into their game on release day. They could also balance their pod production to the capacities of their game. So far, V-MMORPG had been a class act, and I had high expectations that their launch would go off without a hitch. Well, at least if you didn’t take into consideration the issues they’d had with getting players’ P&E exam knocked out.
From what I’d read on the forums there were a high number of players that had chosen to go with the Advance start. While the Advance start only gave half the boost in stats as that of a Nightmare start, it have the advantage of only requiring 50% realism between the player and their avatar. Not to mention, there was no risk of losing those stats and being forced to reroll a new character, since the Normal and Advance starting areas were basically the same.
Before logging this morning, I’d finally sat down and got some emails out to the rest of the guild. My email wasn’t being pegged with messages asking for updates, so I figured everyone was as engrossed in preparing for the game and getting their training time in as I’d been. I’d sent an email out to the guild listing my in-game name, starting kingdom, starting house and the skills I’d managed to learn so far. Glen responded back almost immediately with their in-game names, Lena and Runartin Stonehammer - Dwarves, as Kitty called me up on my cell. They lived in Texas so meeting up in real life wasn’t exactly easy, but it was something we managed to do a couple of times each year.
Halfway through the call, my second line started beeping as Anthony called me from Virginia. I said my goodbyes to Kitty and asked her to give my best to Runaway … I mean Run. Kitty started laughing as soon as I said the name as I heard Glen’s voice bitching in indignation the background. It was one of those lessons we’d learned over the years playing MMORPGs. A person’s name usually got shortened to its first three letters, so while Runartin was pretty cool, in-game it would be shortened to Run and later possibly be given a few extra additions like my upgrade to Runaway. I was already thinking of some good payback since Glen had instantly shorted my name to Star from Startum when we’d first met. Hearing Runaway as a possible name, Glen began grousing as Kitty said she’d warned him, but he hadn’t believed her.
Giving a quick goodbye, I hung up with Kitty and answered the new call. As soon as the line picked up, Anthony and Danielle began talking a mile a minute about the game as they caught me up on everything that had been going on for the last week. They were both good people and tended to get along with everyone but each other. Sometimes, I wondered how they managed being married to one another.
Tony said that after his first day of virtual training that he’d immediately taken off from work for the next three weeks. He wasn’t about to let Danielle get ahead of him since she’d already told him straight up she was going to play whether he was home or not. She wasn’t going to piss around and wait all day for him to come home before she started leveling like she’d done in Chaos Online.
My email pinged with a message from Danielle that listed both of their in-game names, Tony and Fluffy Tomohiahya - Humans. We talked a couple of minutes more as the email chain slowly updated with everyone else’s information over the next few minutes. I was surprised to see John and Jimmy on the email chain replying with their characters’ names and races. I guess they’d managed to make it through their P&M exam in time to get characters built for the game’s start after all.
My mind was suddenly brought back to the present as the countdown disappeared revealing a rotating world from space that looked something like the Earth. Everywhere I looked the land masses were covered in thick forests and mountains with a very small sprinkling of cities and farmlands. Otherwise, the world looked mostly untouched by civilization.
To the side of the spinning globe, my avatar appeared in its gray leather armor. Immediately my avatar glowed as if highlighted and the camera view dove into the biosphere of the planet as a narrating voice began telling the story of the world as the view focused in closer and closer to the land. The story described the loose alliance of Humans, Dark Elves, Dwarves, Light Elves, Gnomes and Animal races, describing their ongoing struggle against the savage hordes of the North that had once again invaded their lands. How I, a traveler, have joined the House of Kayden to fight these invaders in the people’s time of need.
The camera view slowed down above the dark side of the planet that was on the edge of the rising sun, focusing on a glade where numerous campfires were burning. As the view approached the top of the towering trees, I realized there was something wrong with the camp. There was way too much fire burning everywhere.
My view dipped below the trees tops heading for the snowy ground in the middle of what looked to be a mini inferno. What I saw in the flicking light turned my blood to ice. Elven women and men fought for their lives against waves of green shapes as screaming wails came from all around me. Everywhere I looked the bloody hacked-up bodies of women and children were strewn across the frozen ground. Several still moving were in the process of being eaten alive.
I tried to move out of the circle of golden light that surrounded me as I was carried to the ground, but the glow held me fast as the narrator’s voice kept droning on through the game’s intro. Blood-curdling screams wrenched my eyes to the plight of a group of Elven children and their young guardian fleeing from a small mob of Goblins that were slowly surrounding them. As they came near where I floated above the ground, I focused on the attackers as their names and levels appeared above their heads. Goblin Raiders, Level 10.
These Goblins were noticeably larger than their training module cousins and were obviously much better armed and armored. Their level 10 meant that each one of the green bastards had at least 730 Hit Points instead of a measly 240. To put that in perspective my boosted attribute level for stamina wasn’t quite Level 11 which meant I had a total of 825 Hit Points. Damage wise these six Goblins basically had as many Hit Points as eighteen level 3 Goblins. What was truly scary was that there were a lot more of
that these bad boys running around the Elven camp slaughtering women and children. The potential for getting overwhelmed and being slaughtered was going to be a very real threat.
Less than ten feet away I saw one of the Goblins leap on a young boy who had fallen behind. Excitedly the savage creature began hacking the child to death, while the other five went after the Elven woman and her charges. Bleeding from numerous wounds the woman’s blade flashed in the firelight as she valiantly fought to protect the rest of the children, but the area they’d unknowingly retreated to was a blocked off cul-de-sac of burning tents.
I could do nothing as the voice droned on through the House of Kayden’s intro storyline. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t form a spell, my interface was completely inaccessible. I raged silently watching the harrowing plight of the children as the Goblins drove them back to the edge of the flames. What the hell kind of intro into the game was this? I’d played numerous MMORPGs in my lifetime, and the stories could be heartbreakingly sad, but this was unreal.
As the terrified screams of the children tore at my heart, a part of my mind wanted to dismiss the dying victims of this atrocity as being just pieces of digital code. Just typical MMORPGs’ NPCs that were slated to die for the sake of the plotline. But, after my last three days with Miya and dealing with the odd feelings her virtual death brought out in me, I was having difficulties understanding where I stood with the concept of software AIs and what they felt or how this worked into my Nightmare start.
Although, at this second, none of that mattered. All that did matter was that my people in this game were being slaughtered and, whether or not they were virtual NPCs, software AIs or what the fuck ever, I wasn’t about to stand by and watch children being slaughtered and eaten by a bunch monsters if I had anything to say about it.
My body strained against my virtual bonds as I mentally howled in silent rage once again swearing at the sick developer who had thought this atrocious intro up when the narrating voice suddenly ended, and I was dumped unceremoniously onto the frozen ground on my hands and knees. Not seven feet away from me was the Goblin who was now gorging on the remains of the hacked up boy. With a blood-curdling shriek, my blade appeared in my hand as I leaped atop the Raider. Shoving the creature’s lumpy head face first into the icy ground, I slammed my short sword into the back of the Goblin’s skull all the way to the hilt as red exclamation appeared in my damage meter window. Reading the text, I swore angrily.
You have overpowered Goblin Raider.
You have knocked down Goblin Raider for 10 points of damage.
You Sneak Attacked Goblin Raider with Short Sword for 160 points of damage.
The psychotic bastard began twisting underneath me like an eel as I drove the tip of my short sword into the frozen ground beneath its body, pegging the creature in place. Unlike the real world, inside an MMORPG style game having a sword driven through your skull wasn’t considered instant-death but extra damage. Eyeing the Goblin, I saw that the creature still had a good 550 Hit Points of health left. Urgently looking around for another weapon, my eyes fell upon the sword the Goblin had been using for its gruesome work as I struggled to keep the Goblin underneath me. Snatching the blade up, I threw my shoulder onto the hilt of my short sword as I plunged the Goblin’s sword into its own back.
You have overpowered Goblin Raider.
You have Backstabbed Goblins Raider with Vile Blade for 128 points of damage.
You have overpowered Goblin Raider.
You have Backstabbed Goblins Raider with Vile Blade for 128 points of damage.
Fuck me! The freaking thing wouldn’t die. A sharp pain shot through my thigh as my Hit Points dropped 27 health and another as my Hit Points dropped again. Frantically looking around, I saw what had happened a second later as a blade grazed my side. The freaking green bastard had managed to pull a mean looking dagger from its belt and was blindly stabbing me as I struggled to keep the mob down. Catching the creature’s flailing wrist, I slammed my knee into the muscled arm until the bones shattered.
Ripping the dagger out of the mob’s unmoving hand, I plunged the blade deep into the Goblin’s back. The damage meter’s messages weren’t making much sense, but I wasn’t going to argue with the results. I’d check my new abilities once I’d made it through the fight. For now, I just repeatedly rammed my blade into the Goblin’s back until I saw the message I’d been waiting for.
You have gained Experience!
You have killed a Goblin Raider.
You have Backstabbed Goblin Raider with Savage Fin Slasher for 108 points of damage.
You have Backstabbed Goblin Raider with Savage Fin Slasher for 108 points of damage.
You have overpowered Goblin Raider.
Immediately my Hit Points bar filled up with health as a new semi-transparent window popped up partly blocking my vision. Without hesitation, I split the points equally between stamina and intelligence and mentally waved the character attribute window away.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 1!
You have 5 Attribute Points Unspent!
You have gained 1 Attribute Point in Stamina.
You have gained 1 Attribute Point in Intelligence.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 2!
You have 5 Attribute Points Unspent!
You have gained 1 Attribute Point in Stamina.
You have gained 1 Attribute Point in Intelligence.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 3!
You have 5 Attribute Points Unspent!
You have gained 1 Attribute Point in Stamina.
You have gained 1 Attribute Point in Intelligence.
Thankfully killing a mob ten levels above your own when you’re only a level 0 was a shit-ton of experience points. This would change dramatically as my levels got higher, but for now, it was an excellent way to power up quickly. A part of me silently thanked having the forethought to have at least assign the automatic attributes that I could in-between my bouts of training with Miya. She’d repeatedly went over the importance of having as much as possible figured out ahead of time for how I wanted to distribute my attribute points before I started gaining levels.
Miya’s point was that in the middle of combat I wouldn’t have the time to be able to figure out how best to utilize the extra stat points and that I would probably need those points right away if I were going to have any hope of surviving my Nightmare start. It was best to plan out ahead of time how I was going to distribute those points out, at least for the first few levels.
This is what brought me to how I’d envisioned my in-game character. I wanted to create a sword-wielding spell caster, so putting points in stamina for Hit Points and Intelligence for Mana Pool/Spell Power seemed like the right thing to do. Also, as the swarm of Goblin Raiders had shown me, ranged attacks wouldn’t keep me out of melee combat. For this game’s mechanics having both increased Hit Points and Intelligence made sense.
So far Strength and Agility hadn’t been an issue. If anything my abilities and skills seemed to be what mattered the most for special attacks. The only effect Spirit had so far was in the speed I regenerating Mana and Hit Points after fights. I could always wait longer between attacks if I had to. I could always change these settings later on if needed, but for now, it was a no-brainer.
The final build had me putting my first five levels of attribute points into Stamina and Intelligence. After that, I hoped to have a better feel for the game and my character for where I wanted to focus the rest of my points.
Before I could breathe a sigh of relief at killing the psychotic super-Goblin, I heard a soul-wrenching cry of terror as the Elven woman was bowled over onto the ground by the five Goblin Raiders attacking her. Instantly two of the Goblins sprung back to their feet sprinting after the children who ran away crying out in fear as the last three Goblins savagely began ripping the Elf woman’s clothing off.
The adrenaline induced rage that washed through me made my vision narrow as my fists’ tightened
around the hilts of the Goblin’s weapons I’d just used to kill the creature beneath me. I’d always had a thing against bullies, but this went above and beyond anything like that. In the back of my mind, a part of me wondered how a video game could elicit such intense emotions, but the monstrous act of brutality occurring before my eyes made my blood burn. Ripping the blades free, I charged across the frozen ground bringing both weapons up before me. Leaping into the air, I sank both blades into the middle Goblin’s back watching my damage meter screen flash the results of my attack.
You have stunned Goblin Raider with Knock Down for 5 seconds.
You have Knocked Down Goblin Raider for 10 points of damage.
You Sneak Attacked Goblin Raider with Savage Fin Slasher for 270 points of damage.
You Sneak Attacked Goblin Raider with Vile Blade for 320 points of damage.
I felt the mindless anger that had taken hold of me suddenly lessen as the cold, calculating gamer part of my mind kicked in at the lines of red text that scrolled through my damage meter window. Incredulously, I did the math in my head at the displayed damage. I’d just almost killed the Goblin with a double Sneak Attack. Typically dual wielding had major reductions on the second weapon’s damage output in most MMORPGs. Thoughtfully I tucked the information away for future use.
If this were a bug that they’d missed in beta, it would probably be quickly fixed, but for now, I could use this big time. I’d initially planned to switch targets to the other Goblins that had just turned to look up at me in shock, but instead, I’d have to switch my attack around somewhat. Trusting in the five-second stun the Knock Down gave me to keep the first Goblin down, I ripped the blades out of the creature’s back and slashed at the second Goblin’s eyes as another series of messages appeared.
