Chapter 1: Free

Daniel woke up groggily to the sound of his phone notification. With his squinted eyes, he turned on his phone and quickly blocked his eyes as he attempted to read the notification. It was a text from an unknown number.

'Well, I'm already awake, might as well...' He said as he opened his phone and opened his text app.

'Parker Memorial. Harry Wang.' The text said. Confused, yet intrigued, he sat up and put the address into his map app.

'Only a twelve-minute walk away... But I could die... But it could be an adventure... What should I do?' He wondered. As he thought further on the idea, he heard a knock on his door. He turned off his phone, put it in his pocket, and stood up, then walked over to his door. "Who is it?" He asked with slightly slurred words.

"Ash..." A small voice that sounded like they were on the verge of tears came from behind the door. He opened the door.

"What's wrong?" He asked with a caring voice as he crouched down to match her eye level.

"Mommy is fighting with daddy again..." She said quietly with watery eyes. The little girl in front of him has long black hair and is wearing a set of light blue pajamas. He stayed silent for a moment, then heard the faint sounds of yelling coming from the lower floor.

"You can't hear it in here, so come in." He said as he moved to the side slightly. She nodded lightly, then entered. He closed the door behind her. "You should try to get some sleep, I'll see if I can help mediate, alright?" He said lightly as he stood up and turned around.

"Alright..." She said as she walked to his bed and climbed into it. He exited the room and went down the hallway, the yelling getting louder the closer he gets to the stairs, then walked down the stairs. Once down the stairs, he turned right and saw his parents yelling at each other. He walked up to them.

"Can you guys stop? Ash is having a hard time sleeping because of you two." He said calmly and blandly with a glare.

"If he would at least admit to his wrongdoings, we wouldn't be in this mess, and now Ashley can't sleep because of you!" His mother said.

"Dad, did you do anything wrong?" He asked.

"No. Your mother seems to think that me hanging out with my friends at the bar is code for cheating, though." He said with a major amount of annoyance, but at least tried to calm himself a little.

"Mom, what evidence do you have? Other than the bartender's perfume, since that shit is all over that bar." Daniel asked as he looked at his mother. As he finished speaking, his mother slapped him.

"I know things when I know them, don't ever doubt me again!" She screamed.

"Oh? Like how you knew dad was at a hotel when he was at grandpa's grave every night for three years? Or was it like the time you thought I was doing drugs when I was actually in the darkroom at school so I could develop photos? Or even-" Daniel began listing things but was interrupted by another slap, this time his mom's artificial nails caught, causing him to bleed.

"You don't know anything! You aren't even an adult yet and you think you can disrespect me like this!? You are grounded!" She yelled.

"At least drop it, then Ash can sleep soundly, you of all people should know how sensitive she is to things like this." Daniel said as he turned around and walked away and out the front door. He grabbed his phone, then looked up the directions to Parker Memorial from 1616 Rocky Hollow Rd, Anniston, AL.

Around twelve minutes later, he arrived at the memorial and looked around, then noticed a briefcase on the grave for Harry Wang. 'This is the grave that was in the message, right?' He wondered as he pulled out his phone and checked the text.

Once he confirmed it, he picked it up and opened the briefcase. Once it was opened, he saw some kind of visor, a small booklet, and a small game cartridge. 'What is this, the eighties?' Daniel thought to himself as he closed the briefcase and picked it up. 'Doesn't matter, I guess I'll take it and figure out what it is, they should be done arguing when I get home.' He thought as he began his walk home.

Upon coming home, no lights were on. He walked in and locked the door behind him. He peered into the living room and saw his dad on the couch, passed out with the tv on. He headed upstairs and went into his room, then put the briefcase under his bed.

He looked at Ashley for a moment, making sure she is sleeping soundly, then left the room and sat in the chair in the living room and deleted the mysterious number. After a while, he fell asleep.

Daniel felt a light tapping as his consciousness began to realign itself with the realm of the living. He opened his eyes and saw his father who was sipping from a mug. After swallowing his coffee, he nodded slightly. "Breakfast is ready. Also, your mom is out with her friends right now." He said lightly with a light expression.

"Alright." He said as he stretched a bit and massaged his neck to help with the light pain he felt. "Has Ash eaten?" He asked.

"She's eating now." His dad said as he walked towards the entryway. Daniel stood up and walked in the same direction as his father. Upon reaching the entryway, they both turned right and entered the kitchen, then made their plates.

Once their plates were made, they walked out of the kitchen and to the far wall, they went through the door on the left, next to the staircase, and entered the dining room. Upon entering the dining room, Daniel saw his sister eating. She looked up a bit, then waved slightly as she took a bite of her food.

"You alright?" He asked as he sat down on the chair opposite her. She nodded.

"It's nothing new..." She said quietly.

"Once again, Ashley, I'm sorry you had to hear that." Their dad said apologetically as he looked directly at his food.

"Dan, how come you were already awake last night? Don't you have your tests soon?" Ashley asked.

"I got a message from an unknown number, it just had an address though." He said lightly.

"That's rather strange." His dad said.

"Indeed. Do you remember what the number was?" Ashley asked. Daniel shook his head.

"I deleted the number." He said lightly.

"Oh... What was the address?" She asked.

"It was Parker Memorial." He said.

"That seems rather random." His dad said. Daniel nodded.

"Well, whatever it was, it probably wasn't important." Daniel said lightly as he shrugged.

"You're probably right." Ashley said.

After breakfast, Daniel brushed his teeth and went to his room, then took the briefcase from under his bed. He opened it and laid everything out on his bed, then placed the briefcase on the floor next to him.

He observed the objects for a moment, then picked up the booklet and started reading it. 'To use the headgear, plug it in and put in the cartridge, congratulations, it is ready to play.' it said. Upon looking at the rest of the booklet, it just has a bunch of sentences of similar length in various languages.

'By it saying headgear, I think I can determine that this is meant to be a full-dive system...' He thought to himself.

A bit underwhelmed by the directions, he plugged in the device and after a bit of trial and error, figured out where the cartridge reader was and put the cartridge in. He put on the headset, laid on his bed, and pressed the button he had found earlier on in his search.

The moment he pressed the button, he felt his sense of touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing fade. After a moment, they returned and he was at some sort of introduction screen.

'Brought to you by Ru Bin Productions.' The words on the screen said before fading. Quickly after the last faded out, new ones faded in. 'Presenting the most advanced game to ever exist,' The new text read before fading out. New ones faded in once more. 'Paradise.' The new words said as if to continue the previous sentence. Once again the words faded, however, the next thing to fade in was the main menu screen with some quiet music.

The menu had two buttons, New Game and Continue Game. Above those buttons is the word Paradise. The background is just some kind of bar with a cityscape behind it. With a bit of hesitance, he clicked the new game button.

Quickly, the screen faded and a few directions appeared. 'To exit the game, imagine a menu appearing in front of you, there will be a logout button amongst other things. Thank you for playing.' it said before fading out a few seconds later.

After the last set of text, a few options appeared in front of Daniel. 'Select your difficulty; God mode. Sandbox. Easy. Medium. Hard. Unrealistic.' It said. Daniel clicked easy and a description appeared along with an 'Are you sure?' Notification.

'Easy mode: It is easy to get money and anyone will have sex with you.' The description said. Daniel selected the no button, then clicked medium.

'Medium mode: It's normal difficulty to get money and people are significantly easier to convince to have sex.' Its description said. Daniel selected the no button on the are you sure notification then selected hard.

'Hard mode: It is difficult to get money and normal difficulty to convince people to have sex.' Its description said. Daniel selected unrealistic.

'Unrealistic mode: It is exceptionally difficult to get money and near impossible to convince anyone to have sex unless you have cultivated a relationship with them.' Its description said. He went back and selected sandbox.

'Sandbox mode: Infinite money and everyone will have sex with you as long as you ask for or demand it.' Its description said. He went back and selected god mode.

'God mode: You have infinite wealth, can create anything at will. Anyone and Everything will have sex with you want so long as you ask or demand it. In some cases just mentioning it, so long as you actually want it, will get people to have sex with you.' Its description said.

Daniel selected god mode so that he may test out what all the hardware is capable of. The panel faded and a new one appeared. 'Please select a time period.' It said. 'Classical, medieval, age of discovery, renaissance, industrial, WWI, WWII, cold war, modern, planetary colonization.' Were the options.

'Oh, that's a lot of options...' He thought as he looked at them. 'I should be able to create my character, so I should theoretically be able to become a king in the medieval period or the age of discovery...' He thought as he gazed at the panel in front of him.

Hesitantly, he selected the age of discovery and the usual notifications popped up. 'The age of discovery: The era of continental discovery and conquering.' It said alongside the 'Are you sure?' Notification. He clicked yes and the current panels disappeared and a new one appeared.

'What setting would you like?' It asked. 'High fantasy, fantasy, realistic, wuxia.' are the options. The high fantasy RPG player within Daniel activated and he instantly pressed the High Fantasy button.

'High Fantasy: Elves, dwarves, humans, and many other races along with magical energies fill the lands. Magical creatures and plants dot the landscape and gods aid the mortals. The high fantasy setting is one loved by many, but can you survive it?' The description read. Daniel clicked yes to the notification that popped up next to the description and it faded. Soon, he was thrust into the character creation screen.

A nude version of himself appeared in front of him and a notification appeared as well. 'You may adjust your body as much as you wish.' it said. He looked at his body to see if there were any adjustments he wanted to make, including a race change.

After a few moments, he changed his hair into a silver color with a few points near the roots that were a light blue color. After that, he confirmed his character's look. He was then brought into his role selection screen.

'Please select your role.' It said. 'Peasant, farmer, smith, tanner, baker, noble, assassin, spy, informant, merchant, traveling merchant, crafter, tailor, mage, paladin, court mage, guard, guard captain, king, prince,' It listed many roles, more than what Inker-sensei listed here.

Daniel hesitated for a moment. 'I think king will work well... Well, I guess there isn't really time to second guess it, is there?' He thought to himself as he tapped king and selected yes without reading the description.

The next thing he knew, his senses were fading once more and he awoke in a large and comfy bed. "Your highness, breakfast has been prepared, there are also various adventurers prepared to take on the orcish invasion." A maid on his bedside said with a bow as the curtains to his windows were opened by other maids.