5 A New Day

It was now, Saturday, June 19th, the Year 2083, today he was looking forward to his very own Xelco Sports Capsule will be arriving. Daniel was excited to finally have his very own personal virtual reality capsule. For many people it isn't a big achievement or anything special but, from a household that doesn't own a personal vehicle, it was pretty big. He's been saving up since last year, ever since they announced the full immersion fantasy world Evotania. Saving up was pretty difficult because he lives on minimum wage while living with just his grandfather. His grandfather struggled financially raising him, ever since his mother died and his father ran away.

Daniel did come from a poorer family and while he was still only seventeen coming up on his final year in high school. His future was always on his mind, he wasn't really planning for college, he and his grandfather simply have no money to spare for something that wouldn't guarantee his future. he thought about it last night if he could get a scholarship he may go to college. He simply wasn't sure of what to study if he went, he decided to put those thoughts aside for now.

It doesn't help that as technology advanced, more and more of society became automated. Fewer jobs were available for the lower class. Moving up in the world was no longer as simple, fewer jobs required people, since A.I became more advanced. Xelco dominated the world's economy completely thanks to the first advanced A.I. it was given the name Olara by Dr. Gregory Wilson. It was even eventually taught emotions and was able to rationalize and think thanks to Dr. Wilson. He was once considered a mad eccentric man when he first began but is now considered a hero.

Over time the advancements and technology that he produced completely changed the world. As society changed so to did people's interests, Entertainment started to become everyone's focus, a fun escape from their current worlds lives. Virtual Reality easily became a major part of the world's economy for the last twenty years. Thanks completely to Xelco's Global Hub, it wasn't a game but a system. It allowed people to connect into a completely different world, Initially, it started as a simple world where people could meet and talk and interact with others. But shortly after Xelco released domains, and began sharing software and systems so that others could begin to add to the world.

Today's Hub has turned into an ever-expanding city, stores and advertisements, sports hubs, social cafe's, businesses began to also shift over into the Hub. Fashion companies now use the Hub as a staging ground for new designs, it was easier to obtain attractive models with the use of avatars. Of course, a users avatar customizations existed but there were limitations. You couldn't go too far out of your bodies' scanned limitations, no gender swapping, there were also warnings to users who altered their height too much. The reasons for the limitations were the effects it caused on the user, fully immersing yourself for long periods in a body that is not your real one caused side effects. Avatar alterations were a constant work in progress.

It was pretty early in the morning when he got up, Daniel was having difficulty sleeping since last night. It was only 7:06 am, when he got dressed and up out of bed he needed to go to the bathroom. He lived in a small one-story house with his grandfather. They have one master bedroom, two full-sized bedrooms and two bathrooms with a small living room and kitchen and a small unused one car garage. They were planning on installing the Capsule into the garage since it wouldn't fit in the unused bedroom.

Arriving into the bathroom, he glimpsed at himself in the large mirror. He couldn't tell if he put on more muscle, he always kept himself in good shape. He yawned, as he fooled with his messy hair. He noticed he needed to shave again. He turned seventeen this year on April 18th, compared to most his age he grew much quicker than those around him. He towered over most of the people around him.

He walked over to the wall and checked to make sure he didn't grow anymore. He was still 213 centimeters, this has caused him problems. He once tried to play sports, he still remembers all the harassment from his jealous team members, because of the richer kids parents. He knew the coaches and teachers turned a blind eye. People not only looked down on him for being considered the lower class. They also, considered him a failure in school thinking he failed grades simply because of his height. Thinking about it, He grew tired of the way people looked down on him. He knew he was considered handsome in today's societies standards. He had a strong jaw, and clear skin, while also he had his mother's vibrant clear blue eyes and dark brown hair, but with today's technology and possible surgeries people can easily alter their appearance. His appearance just attracted attention, then once most people got to know him they always turned on him.

He really wanted to use Evotania to change himself. He knew with the possible currency conversion system he could earn a lot of money inside the game world compared to working in reality. He has wanted to pay his grandfather back for everything he did for him over the years. However, his current school grades are pretty lackluster in everything but humanities and social studies, he knew an academic scholarship was very unlikely going to come his way.

"Hah, just a little more, today is the day," he thought to himself. He quickly brushed his teeth before heading back towards his room. He couldn't let himself get depressed when thinking about his past. He went back into his room, inside was a small hologram computer terminal on the desk, and a simple full sized bed and dresser. On the dresser was a picture of his mother from when she was younger. He didn't really care to decorate or furnish his own room so it felt pretty spacious and empty.

He decided he was gonna check the main page and forums again today for Evotania, he already knew about the five common races in Evotania and a variety starter kingdoms associated with the common races. He wasn't too sure of how their freeform character progression system will work. The main page of Evotania just doesn't share too much information. Scrolling through the main page nothing new pops up. "Information will be provided at character creation," he read, "This is gonna be difficult and risky," he thought. The first announcement they released with the worlds trailer stated that you can only have one character avatar. If there is to be only one massive global server and one avatar he can't mess up his character.

"I need to be self-sufficient," he thought, he quickly went to the forums to try and calm himself. He's played simple RPGs on the terminal but nothing like an MMORPG, he knew the basic RPG concepts but min-maxing character creation was far fetched for him. The forums were covered in speculation, the same as usual nothing he could find helpful. He was becoming slightly nervous, "Should I wait a day before character creation," he thought as he read different threads. "What if no one posted their findings on the first day and I get left behind," he began thinking of the possible risks. At the beginning of any MMORPG, the first week can be the most important time of the game to make an impact in the world. He knew he couldn't let the chance slip by to become a part of the world's economy. The biggest problem he was finding though was he wasn't gonna be starting with a group of other players. "Should I try and join one of those recruiting guilds," he thought, as he browsed the guild recruitment forums. "Sanguine Swarm Recruiting," "Valor and Glory Recruiting," " Dragon's Honor Recruiting," he continued to read a variety of catchy guild names from the top guilds. Clicking on some of them he noticed that they all required applications and required pretty extensive gaming backgrounds.

He clicked on the "Sanguine Swarm's Recruiting," thread, he browsed over their requirements. Their requirement was extremely risky for him, It required an application like most but, the experience didn't matter if the player applying was interested in playing a full support character. The guild wanted to get more support players and make their characters for themselves. They would then power level and support those characters helping them out but, they would basically be making their one character slot a supporting character for another player if things go wrong he could end up cast aside. He considered it for a moment, since joining a professional guild and rising in the ranks could earn himself a pretty good salary. But, he also knew that if something happens or goes wrong he could get screwed over from such a deal. Apparently deleting an avatar and recreating a character took two weeks of real time. Because the game uses a time dilation of three hours per one real hour, time will feel like it slowly passes by. Two weeks would be the equivalent of two months of missed game time he couldn't allow that.

"I can't leave my future up to another person like that," he said to himself. He closed the forums and leaned back in his chair to sigh. "None of this is helping I just need to try and create a healing fighter," he said as he spun the chair to get up. He wasn't sure if he could make one but, he also knew that being able to self heal and able to tank could allow himself to solo most content. He was confident in his skills in fighting, however, magic was something that was new and he'd never dealt with, he was going to need to adapt fast. He quickly did his morning stretching routine in the center of his room. He took a glance over at the digital clock on the wall 7:53 am, "Grandpa should be awake by now," he thought. "I gotta see him off for work," he thought as he began rushing out of his room. Reaching the small hallway he could see his grandfather at the end sitting on the living room couch. William Smith, his grandfather was a pretty big robust man for his age, he was about 213 cm tall. His grandfather had grey long hair and a short well-kept grey beard.

"What's the hurry Daniel," he heard his Grandfather say.

"Haha, I lost track of time, Don't you leave for work soon?" he said walking into the living room.

"In 7 minutes sure, I got time though," William said taking a sip from his coffee mug.

"I wasn't sure if you'd be leaving early," he said as he began walking into the kitchen towards the fridge. He opened it up and grabbed a premade artificial breakfast smoothie.

"Those things are pretty disgusting how can you palate that in the morning," William said as he watched in disgust.

"Really, I like the strawberry flavor," he said as he began opening the pre-packaged shake

"You can get your morning vitamins and proteins other ways," William sighed.

"It's fine, they aren't bad for you or anything and are really cheap too," he said. He noticed his grandfather sighing while shaking his head.

"So what time are they gonna be here to Install that capsule of yours?" William said.

"In an hour, I should be fine you already signed for everything," he said moving towards the couch to sit on it.

"If you need anything just call or message from your mobile device mini terminal," William said.

"I'll be fine Grandpa, they will just be installing it in the garage," he said.

"Yeah yeah, but you never know if something might come up," William said as he got up to put his cup in the automatic dishwasher. William began walking towards the front closet where their shoes are stored.

"Do you want me to bring anything back to eat later tonight," William said as he back down on the couch and began putting on his shoes.

"If you want you can just grab some subs from Vinnie's Sub Shop on the corner," Daniel said.

"That sounds good to me, Cold or Hot Italian with extra veggies? And do you want their spicy dressing this time?" William said as he stood back up from the couch.

"Get me the cold Italian with the spicy dressing this time, I'll probably be in the capsule when you get back so you can throw it in the fridge," Daniel said.

"Ok, tonight's dinner's taken care of then, I'm off," William said as he got up to leave the house.

"Cya later Grandpa," he said as he watched his grandfather leave. His grandfather worked at the Silver gym it is a large corporation and chain, he was a manager at the gym. He basically took care of and helped members of the gym at the front desk though typically. Today's gyms had crazy amounts of features, VR capsules, combat or sports hologram simulators, personal courts, personal trainers, small food court, martial arts instructors. There are a variety of membership options, between Basic and Platinum VIP. Daniel has only ever used the Basics benefits, which allowed him to use the basic facilities and weight rooms.

Daniel decided to turn on the TV and browse the channels while he waited on Xelco. It was only gonna be an hour, however, the time passed by extremely slowly for him. His impatience was setting in, "I can't sit around like this, I gotta move," he thought. He jumped up from the couch and went to the garage, they had already moved everything to the third room for temporary storage just for the installation. The single car garage was completely empty. He walked over to the wall and touched the digital button to open the door. As the garage door slowly began to rise and open, the outside morning light began to rush in.