Chapter 1 - A New World
Do you have what it takes to forge your place in a new world?
Now that was interesting. For such a well-known and respected game company to produce such a mystery was intriguing, to say the least. I'd never cared much for Trials of Ahya when it was popular. To tell the truth, I enjoyed more challenging games like Dark Souls and other hardcore games. Overpowered enemies and the importance of reflexes were my comfort zone. A softcore game like Trials of Ahya, where questing and magic had more emphasis on tactical skills didn't capture my interest.
"Still, it's worth a shot," I said quietly to myself.
I glanced up from the tablet I was reading to stare silently at the HP-NT5 Full-Dive Pod that sat in the corner of my one-bedroom home. Technically, the money I earned from winning fighting tournaments in games meant that I could easily afford a larger apartment, but this was more than enough space for me. The machine took up about a third of the living room, leaving a space of only eight feet or so around it for my other possessions. It wasn't neat, but it was clean.
I got up and crossed to the desk placed beside my pod, and turned on the small computer used to maintain and regulate the pod. The screen flickered to life, displaying the scoreboard I'd been looking at before falling asleep the previous night. A list of fifty player names, including my own, was arranged there. It hadn't been my best tournament. Lack of sleep was a real threat at times, as it led to a lapse in concentration. I'd paid three hundred to enter that tournament, and had only one one-hundred back. It still stung.
I closed the scoreboard and pulled up the website for Ahya Online. Moving to the download, I noticed that it was roughly one-hundred and forty gigabytes in size and whistled softly. That was much smaller than I'd expected. Still, that should only take about fifteen minutes. The main perk of this apartment for me was it's proximity to the city's databanks. I couldn't get any closer without a business license, but this was close enough. At an impressive ten gigs per second of download speed, I could download and install most top-tier games in the blink of an eye.
The download started, I decided that I'd cook some breakfast while I waited. The kitchen of this place was tiny, but I found the space ample when it came to cooking for myself. I made a simple omelet, filling the folded eggs with some ham and cheese. Counting silently in my mind, I flipped it over when I knew it would be cooked. Two minutes and thirty seconds. That was how long it took to cook it to my preference. I liked my omelets to be a little runny, like over-easy eggs.
Cooking was probably the only competent real-life skill I had if I was being honest. My father had taught me to cook at a young age so that I could have edible food while he was away on his business trips. My mother, sweet and loving as she was, could hardly make mac and cheese without burning it.
The omelet finished, I slid it onto a clean plate and stuck a fork in it. Setting those to the side, I ran cold water over the pan to let it cool, then quickly scrubbed it clean. I didn't have a dishwasher in my unit, even if I wanted one. I had been raised to clean my dishes by hand, and it was a habit I kept.
A small ding from the computer caught my attention, and I moved over to see what it was, bringing my breakfast with it. Clicking on the notification, I saw that a popular review forum was bursting with activity. Mildly curious, I opened it up and saw that there were already thousands of reviews for Ahya Online. I grimaced as I realized that all of them were extremely negative. I skimmed past the first few, reading over the ones that seemed a little more in-depth.
No Character Customization, No Magic, and I have to have expensive gear just to fully enjoy the game? Not worth it.
Absolutely terrible tutorial. A strange system, with no viable explanation of progression. 0/10.
That was harsh, I thought. Scrolling even further down, I realized that nobody had given this game any praise. But then I spotted a new review, giving the game top score. What was more surprising to me was the name. Savante. That player was well-known in hard-core circles. He was a legendary fighter who'd won hundreds of tournaments, and even had professional sponsors during his battles. Even I knew who he was. I followed his pages addictively, learning what I could from his livestreams.
In what could only be assumed as a theme, there was only a single word behind the full, five-star rating. The man had never written a review for a game before. But now, in his first, he had only included the one tantalizing word that I took to be both an invitation and a challenge. It was at this point that I knew. Ahya Online was something incredible.
Play.