Dystopian Tales Online

"No doubt, he's going to be late again."

He pulled the cuff up on his left arm to check the time. It's already seven twenty-five, only five minutes left before the meeting time. Heaving a sigh, Leon slumped his back and just walked off the pathway to look for a place where he can stay and wait. Seeing the benches around the area, he chose a table with two folding chairs with a dark parasol for a shade and quickly occupied the seat.

Leon took the black Tote bag off his shoulders and carefuly placed it to the table. From the inside, he took out his laptop and opened it immedeately. One soft press on the power button and the screen opened. While waiting for it to finish powering up, a lady in a uniform of white button shirt with long sleeves with cuffs freely opened and a black sleek apron tied around her waist approached him. She is holding a writing pad.

"What is your order sir," the lady asked in a practiced high energetic voice.

"Any recommendations?"

The lady listed out the best of their store. Knowing that it is still morning, it would be weird if Leon order some candy colored drinks so he just only ordered coffee with some treats. The lady goes off after bowing, returned to the shop to attend another set of costumers. Now, the laptop finally logged in.

Reaching out the bag, Leon fished in his hand to search for the bluetooth mouse that he quickly found. Next to it is a cinch bag in a size of his palms. He connected the mouse through the wireless connection and plugged in the broadban. The loading cursor appeared with the connection set-up appearing after. He completed the process and just by that he is now connected to the internet.

Leon moved the mouse around and pointed the cursor to an animated shortcut icon. Cl.i.c.k.i.n.g it twice, a window appeared to confirm his identity. In this window, a password bar plus the logo of the copyright showed to which he quickly filled-up. Hitting the [ENTER] key processed the inputted characters.

Click.

The whole screen went black.

The lady returned with the order. Leon thanked him and proceeded on looking at the monitor. Anyone not familiar with this black screen will surely freak out. But Leon knows that in this type of game, things like blacking out only means that it is booting up.

It only took a minute before the welcoming message appeared, with the company's logo and team coming after, ending with the site's title and added animations. His eyes glinted upon seeing the familiar interface giving him a warm rush on his c.h.e.s.t.

Dystopian Tales Online

Leon took a sip of his coffee. He typed in his username and password. The game recognized his account and the loading screen appeared. Leon leaned on the chair while waiting for the loading bar to finish, then a group of students found him resting and approached him.

"Good morning," a guy with the light colored hair greeted him. The people around him greeted Leon as well. "Oh, where's Shin?"

"Still not here. I'm sure he overslept again," Leon sighed.

"Well, obviously. That guy really isn't a morning person," the guy laughed. One of his friends looked at the screen of the laptop and found an interesting view.

"Whoa, I never thought that you're also playing DTO," a guy with an eyeglasses talked this time.

"Really? That's cool," one agreed.

"Yeah, I've been playing this game for years now," Leon honestly said. "You guys are also players?"

"I played it in junior high and high school," the same glasses guy responded. "But I occasionaly play it now. Though, I wonder when will they release a new server."

"I think it's been two years, no? Man, it's been long since that game updated."

The guys chatted him about the game but Leon barely listened. Of course, he know the reason why there are no new servers after all of these years.

Eight years ago, Dystopian Tales Online was released. In the same time, Virtual Reality is also implemented. Leon is one of the participants of this inside-game as one of the second string players. Properly oriented and discussed, it is said that in order for the project to collect the proper amount of data, they needed to have at least five hundred players to play it.

On the sixth year of the release, they reached the five hundred player quota.

"But this game is still cool though. If only I have a lot of time, I will play it all day and become a pro," one chanted.

"How can you become a pro, dude? You don't have high APM."

Due to the demand of the game, gaming clubs and associations also has risen, turned DTO a sport. As of now, monthly tournaments and annual championsh.i.p.s are held across the world. No wonder everyone wanted to become a pro-player. You will earn money from just playing within these clubs and also the fame of being the strongest.

In this world where violence is forbidden, this is sure a great diversion.

The bell rang for the start of the second class of the day. The students who have classes on the second period prepared for their classes. Some of them who are staying in the cafeteria said goodbyes to their peers who have later classes. This includes the people who are talking with Leon.

"Uh-oh, we got to go now," one of them said.

"Sure," Leon said.

"Let's play the game next time. I bet your level is very high."

Leon just left that last phrase and waved his hand. A crowd acc.u.mulated to the area for a while. Students are found running going in their classes while some are casually leaving the buildings going to their respective lives. Leon looked over at his watch again but the person he is waiting is still nowhere close in sight.

"I wonder if he's already awake now," he sighed.

Leon decided to enter some dungeon or complete some quest while waiting for his friend. From the requirement needed for the Virtual Reality to open, it is impossible for Leon to play this game. That is why cards are given to VR players. Through this card, they can enter the DTO during the day.

Some players wanted to play during the day so while Virtual Reality is under maintainance, they only have to type in the ID and password that appears before the game starts to have their characters be transported from VR to DTO. EXP in both games are recorded as one so there will be no problem in transfering data.

Leon only played DTO during weekends when there is no school and work. It is his first time opening the game in a weekday. Thanks to that mister late guy and he has to play it now.

Virtual reality and Dystopian Tales Online both uses the first person perspective. However, the difference in playing DTO is due to the interface and the feeling. Honestly, Leon will admit that playing DTO is harder than VR. Even though he is already familiar with the maps, it's a bit of a hassle to control the mouse plus pressing some commands on the keys just to navigate.

In VR, he only have to turn his head to see the surroundings.

Leon reached out again for the tote bag and collected his headphones. Now that Shin won't be arriving anytime, he decided to test out some spells or play with some DTO players. Another thing, Virtual Reality players are actually playing with DTO players. They are in the same servers. The only difference is the feeling of experience in playing the game.

Wearing the headphones, the outside sounds gradually vanished replaced by a medieval-fantasy sound music. Leon closed his eyes, listening to the score for a while. And when he opened his eyes, the world that he know is different appeared. The numbers that he closed in the neutral ground appeared in a fast paced, calculating, showing the values of beauty.

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