1 A new game

James anxiously waited in line with dozens of other people, to buy the new virtual reality game, released by the mysterious new game company "Ludos".

What was mysterious about "Ludos" is that it entered the world market of virtual games just a year ago and acquired all the other companies that had virtual games, completely closing their games in the last fifteen days, making their game the only one on the market, available to VR lovers. To add to the mystery, they managed to get in-game currency accepted as a real currency, thus becoming the first and the only VR company to achieve such a feat.

"Ludos" released a new game called Evolution that allowed anyone to be whatever they wanted in this new world without restrictions, classes, or levels, all it took was an effort.

After standing in line for over seven hours, it was finally James' turn. James was twenty-one years old, with unkempt hair, brown eyes, no beard, well-built without being athletic, but also not fat either James was an orphan who lived from the games, before the release of Evolution James made money selling information to large companies, rare items he could get, or even with paid murders, thanks for that James was able to pay the rent of a house and have enough money eat without depending on anyone or having to work.

James turned to the lady who served the shop and made the request that all the other people who came before him had made and that the lady was sick of hearing.

"The Evolution game, please"

The lady took one of the many boxes to her right and handed it to James as she said. "It's ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents, please"

James nodded and handed over the money. After which he went home while carrying a medium-sized box with the word Evolution and the company logo "Ludos" inscribed on it.

James' house was at least a twenty-minute walk from where James bought the game. James lived in The Bronx in New York.

James got home and the first thing he did was unpack the new game he'd just bought. When James opened the box and saw the three things it contained. The first was a state-of-the-art virtual reality helmet released by the company "Ludos", and the second was the Evolution game, the Evolution game consisted of a small piece similar to a card of memory that went into the virtual reality helmet, which James immediately inserted into the helmet and the third and last thing that came in the box was a game basics manual which James ignored as it had been available for a week on the internet and James had read and reread it over and over again.

After unpacking the things James looked at the clock and saw that it was just after five in the afternoon.

'Since the game only opens the servers at seven pm I'm going to take a shower and eat something before I start playing'

It was just before six-thirty in the afternoon when James joined the game. When connecting, a series of messages appeared.

[Welcome host to Evolution]

[Checking the age of the host, please wait a moment]

[…]

[Successful verification confirms host is over eighteen]

[Would the host like to register?]

[Yes/No]

"Yes"

[The host will be transported to the character screen, please wait a moment]

[…]

[Please enter character name]

'Normally I would go with the name Blood killer which is my signature in games, but if I want to try something new, I should start by changing the name after all it is not a name with a good reputation in the gaming community. Well, let's go with…'

"Noob 36"

[After choosing the name it is not possible to change it, please confirm that this is the name you want]

[Yes/No]

"Yes"

[Noob 36 successfully registered]

[Noob 36 please choose if you want to have the face visible or not, if you do not want you can customize the mask you used, please take note once you choose a mask you cannot change it and there will be no one else with the same mask]

[Want to wear a mask?]

[Yes/No]

"Yes"

James had already made up his mind to keep his identification protected as he didn't want to have any future problems.

After choosing yes, countless masks, colors and patterns appeared to choose from. James went with a simple old west mask, all black.

At seven o'clock a new message appeared on the screen.

[Evolution server is now open Noob 36 will be transported to the game world]