Royal Realm

Chapter 1 - Release Day

>>>Loading Assets...… Complete.

>>>Connecting to Server...… Complete.

>>>Spawning Character...… Complete.

Welcome to the Royal Realm.

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Monday, June 21, 2055

Chicago, Illinois, USA

11:50 AM

"Hey, Sammy, wait up a minute!"

My breath, calm and even despite my frantic pace.

My feet, pounding hard against the carpeted floor, one after the other.

My voice, calling out to my pursuer between breaths.

"No time, Mr. James, Royal Realm is out today. I'm late enough as is!"

"But I still haven't gotten you to look at the conference room projector!"

I neared the door, and Mr. James began to slow behind me. Being middle-aged didn't necessarily mean physical inability, especially with the recent surge in medical technology, but Mr. James hadn't really gotten the memo on 'basic exercise'. He was in the minority on this - most people were healthier and happier than ever before.

"I'll come in early tomorrow! Have a good one Mr. James!"

Pushing through the revolving glass door, I broke into a sprint once again, squinting in the harsh sunlight. The blue sky was beautiful, shining white clouds drifting lazily in puffy cl.u.s.ters, but I had no time to consider any of this. I swerved around the street corner, leaving work behind.

Over the summer break I worked as an IT manager and general handyman at James & James law firm, a small local practice. I was looking to get a bit of pocket money before the craze of my first term of college began in the fall. A brief job search in the area had surprisingly found me a decent-paying job within walking distance of my apartment. It was impressive that they had managed to stay afloat in such a large city, as major firms had become increasingly dominant like the major corporations of most industries, but they had managed to find their niche: mostly old-timers and families living in the area. Not that any of that affected me - I came in, did my job, and left. That was that.

I sprinted down the mostly open sidewalk, my apartment visible in the distance.

I checked my watch.

11:54 AM

"Sh*t!"

Speeding up, I nearly bumped into several people, hearing but not heeding their curses rapidly receding behind me. The doors of my apartment drew near, and I burst through them, sparing a quick wave to the receptionist before ascending the stairwell. I would make it.

Royal Realm - a legendary name in the minds of people around the world.

The first, and only, full dive VR game to date. Every one of the five senses, even taste, had been perfectly replicated. Tens, if not hundreds of millions of people were eagerly awaiting the chance to experience this revolutionary game.

And it was releasing in five minutes.

Key in hand, I rushed to my door, jamming the key in the lock and shoving it open.

"I'm home!"

My mom called back a greeting from somewhere in the apartment, but my mind was already back to the task at hand. Not even bothering to slip off my shoes, I dashed into my room and hopped onto the bed. A pristine white machine served as the headboard, with only the logo of a curled dragon as an identifying marking.

Grey Wyvern Games.

I laid flat on the mattress and reached back, pushing a button centered squarely above me. With a soft hum, the machine extended over my head, and my consciousness quickly faded with the darkness that it brought.

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>>>Only one release is available for this device at this time. Royal Realm auto-selected.

>>>Game will be made available in 1 minute. Would you like to begin character creation? (Yes/No)

With a thought, "Yes" was immediately selected, and the word in the message glowed in response. Both lines of text faded away, replaced by a slowly rotating replica of my own body, in tattered rags of clothing. My golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes were my only particularly striking features, as I lacked the almost fake-looking handsomeness that modern medicine magic had made common, appearing average but not unfit or unhealthy by any stretch of the imagination.

>>>Character appearances in Royal Realm may not be fine-tuned at character creation - a mixture of player choices, real-life appearance, and randomization will be used to create a unique model. Please keep in mind that this character is DNA-locked to you. Unless this character is deleted, you will be unable to create another character, and no items or experience will be transferred between the characters.

The text scrolled through my view, and I just skimmed it, as it was simply regurgitating what were just a few of the many selling points of Royal Realm.

>>>Please begin character customization.

With that, a series of menus replaced the scrolling text, divided into sections:

- Race

- Class

- Attributes

- Traits

My character's race would shape everything else, so I dove right into that. Several races inhabited the Royal Realm:

- Humans were the most average of them all, with relatively equal base attributes and skills, but no unique ability. To compensate, humans were granted two extra attribute points, giving them a slight edge in base stats.

- Dryads were the people of the forest, one with nature and living in harmony. They possessed lesser strength compared to humans, but greatly increased agility. They also received significant buffs in forests and other areas with very dense natural life, and weaker buffs around normal levels of vegetation.

- Fairies were the denizens of the sky, winged humanoids that originated from the now-lost cities in the sky. They possessed weaker fortitude, but could of course fly and had an innate aptitude for magic.

- Sea Elves fit their name perfectly - island-dwellers and born sailors, the Sea Elves possessed unmatched power in the oceans of the Royal Realm. With expert swimming ability and unique water magic, they more than made up for their lacking agility with these skills and increased charm.

- The Dwarves were not quite as short in stature as those in popular culture, but they did possess the increased constitution that had become standard fare for them. Their lives spent in search of gold and riches had granted them an improved eye for valuables and increased luck in such endeavors, but decreased their charm thanks to lack of contact with other races.

- Finally, the Half-Titans, descendants of the towering giants that once ruled the Royal Realm. Their strength was only a fraction of that of their ancestors, but it was formidable nonetheless - the price they paid for this strength was ineptitude in all things magic. Most Half-Titans possessed a bloodline ability that was linked to their particular Titan ancestor.

Many guys would immediately go for the dwarves or the half-titans, trying to look buff and powerful for the ladies they would be chasing in-game. I had no thoughts of such things, as such simple-minded idiocy would not only diminish their chances of success in the game, but also in their lady-seeking escapades. I instead chose the Fairy race, one that had typically been associated with women by the media. Despite this biased association, the benefits of its increased mobility and magical aptitude were clear, and fit perfectly with what I had in mind. With that I moved on to classes. Once again I had a plan, but I glanced over them to make sure there wasn't any unreleased information that I might miss:

- Knight

- Mage

- Tinkerer

- Fighter

- Healer

- Rogue

- Hunter

While Royal Realm offered fewer base classes than most MMORPGs, of which all were fairly self-explanatory, it compensated for this with a flood of archetypes, or specializations, for every single class. There were too many to list all together, and they couldn't be chosen at character creation - instead players would have to discover them, either through skills or trainers in the world itself. I chose to be a Mage, as was fitting for the fairies' magical talent. My character model blurred as I made my choices, obscuring what my character would look like. With that done, I needed to fine-tune my character's attributes.

Race: Fairy | Class: Mage | Archetype: N/A | Level: N/A

Unused Attribute Points: 25

The base stats and free points were allotted such that an average human could raise all five normal stats to 10, but only an idiot would do that - who would play an archetype that uses all five stats equally? They'd be balanced between those elements, but weak overall because they had no especially strong aspect of their build. Luck, meanwhile, was a stat that generated randomly. There was no way to control it, though by the dwarves' description it was assumed that they would be given higher luck. I quickly assigned by attribute points, not wasting any time.

Race: Fairy | Class: Mage | Archetype: N/A | Level: N/A

Unused Attribute Points: 0

After I confirmed my attribute distribution, the menu automatically swapped to the trait selection screen. Unlike the clean and simple attributes tab, this one was an absolute mess: Hundreds and hundreds of traits crammed together in a single scrollable menu. I needed to pick four traits, but they didn't have much impact on the game itself, instead being largely for flavor and immersion. Rather than reading through the descriptions of all of them, I simply picked four that caught my eye, and confirmed my selection.

>>>Character Creation Complete. Are you satisfied with this character build? (Yes/No)

Yes.

>>>Character Created. Please select a name.

Sammy Daniell.

>>>Name Taken. Please select another name.

Character creation has only been available for ten minutes, how is there another Sammy Daniell?

Let's try this then: Sammy Daniel.

>>>Name Taken. Please select another name.

#%$!

Sammy Danielle, then?

>>>Name Available. Confirm character as "Sammy Danielle?"

Well it sounds kinda like a girl's name, but it doesn't seem like I'll get any closer to Sammy Daniell than that. Confirm!