14 Chapter 2.1: New Generation

neuVR.

The first true Full-Dive Virtual Reality system, launched on October 31st, 2022. Unknown to the residents of this reality, however, it's the launch date of another similar (yet different) system in a fiction of the previous reality.

Upon its launch, the system gained an explosion of growth. In only two months since its launch (perhaps it would be correct to say one month and three weeks), the system had sold 1 million units. It was on track to surpass the existing VR systems, including the already-released Quest 2 by Facebook, which was already affordable to begin with.

Putting aside Full-Dive as the main attraction, the pricing of the system was also interesting. Being priced at USD 699 (not including shipping or import tax), it's neither cheap or expensive. It's certainly cheaper than the Valve Index or the Pimax series, with those two being sold at least USD 1000.

As to how it functions, think EEG, but way more advanced than what was available on Earth for the next 50 years. It's strong enough to read the brainwaves and intercept them before they're sent to the rest of the body. It's the kind of Full-Dive where the user would be 'sleeping'. It's basically like lucid dreaming, in a sense. The term that Josua calls this is known as "Active Interference Feedback".

The system supports the ESC-A OS Marketplace, and other marketplace as well, like Steam, Epic, etc. However, most users, according to the trend, are either purely from ESC-A OS' marketplace, or from Steam. Other marketplace aside from those two seem to be lacking, probably due to the crushing effect of the supra-OS when it was launched four years ago.

Of course, SEGA, under orders from Mother Corps, and with Josua's company, EvoTec's, cooperation, released a version of PSO2 on it as well. However, while it is popular, most still prefer to use other platforms like PC, laptops or even portable gaming systems (like the Switch or even a successor to the PS Vita in this reality). It's simply a port to the VR system, hence the probable reason on the lack of explosive growth for the VR version of PSO2 (which nonetheless remains impressive).

And yes, people do stream to various platforms while in-game, like on Twitch or YouTube for the international audience, while on niconico for Japan (people also stream to other platforms, this is just highlighting an example of a local giant site).

Other developers, of course, jumped onto the wagon and released their games into the system's marketplace. However, only a few managed to develop something like a proper VRMMO.

Mind you, the competitors had TRIED to take back the market, by a lot of means. However, they failed spectacularly because of the customer's own testimony, and with ESC-A's help in so-called Quality Assurance, their attempt had been futile.

The first generation had already caused such a massive amount of waves. What about the next one then, currently under development by Josua, Xiao and the others?

The following would be implemented for the next-generation:

- A more active approach in control. Instead of the 'lucid dreaming' kind, it would be more like active synchronization, in which the signals sent to the rest of the body wouldn't be blocked, and instead simply be read and only add modifications for feedback. Hence, the reading & writing into the user's brain would be more passive, making it different compared to the first gen. Thus, Josua gave the term "Passive Interference Feedback".

- Also, the inclusion of haptic peripherals, like gloves and/or shoes. They would be tracked via sensors that can simply be put literally on where the user desires, so long as the peripherals used be visible to the sensors and can scan the entire room. The scan only needs to be done one time, unless some recalibration needed to be done by the user due to changes in the room. It's small enough to not be intrusive, but powerful enough to keep everything tracked. Of course, the user can choose to have only one of the two peripherals when purchasing (The shoes aren't much of a necessity when compared to the gloves, hence the recommendation of buying at least the gloves as the only peripheral for the new neuVR).

- Walking can be done with the mind. The user instead uses the gloves and the shoes to help map the body to the user's avatar. A combination of gestures and moves would help in allowing the user to experience immersion that could be felt to a certain degree in reality by their own body. This also doubles as training for both combat and/or simple workout.

- Tracked data would be stored LOCALLY. The company wouldn't interfere or mess with the data unless the user is involved with violation of laws of their country. Even then, law enforcement would require evidence and warrant to be given access to such sensitive information.

This next generation is geared towards enthusiasts that prefers a more physical immersion, aside from just the Full-Dive immersion, and also to organizations that wishes to train themselves with soft and hard training.

The core software wouldn't be changed, so developers of the current gen (or the first gen in other words) would be able to keep their core systems. However, they'd have to implement the new changes, like the implementation of peripherals and etc. into their product/ecosystem.

These things, however, would not be realized until early 2026 AD, or AP 239.

.....

At a certain game developer office...

"So, what do we do?" One dev asked.

They were discussing on whether or not they should wait until the next gen neuVR is launched. Rumors about it have been floating online for some time now. Some of it were released by credible sources, others were just complete gibberish.

"I mean... We could just wait." A dev said.

"But... Haven't we've been in Alpha for a while already?" Another dev said.

"Let's do another Alpha, but this time, we'll do a survey on the players on whether or not they want to wait until the next gen is released." One dev raised their hand.

The other devs in the meeting room, who were already in distress because of the topic of the meeting, stood up and shook that dev with tears in their eyes.

"YOU'RE A GENIUS!" A dev said.

"I LOVE YOU DUDE!!" Another one said.

"Okay, okay, I get it. We'll go along with that one's idea." The head dev clapped his hands and announced.

The meeting had ended after that, and they began to implement their plan. As one of them sat down on their chair, they opened the game folder.

It's title is "New World Online".

.....

Meanwhile, over at ARKS' side, Josua's PQ once more...

'Photon Dash and Photon Glide, huh...' Xiao wondered.

He was reading Josua's proposal that were to be researched and implemented after they depose Luther. These two are new things introduced in PSO2: New Genesis in the previous reality. However, for this reality, it would be 1000 years before it would become a thing.

To Josua, it would be too long. And for better or worse, he wanted to introduce these things earlier into this reality. At the earliest, he wants to implement this by Episode 3.5 as he calls it unofficially, or basically during the events in PSO2: The Animation.

Mind you, these concepts are all according to what Josua inferred from the NGS (New Genesis) trailer he saw when it was first announced and the follow-up video.

Photon Dash is basically an ability that allows an operative to sprint with the aid of photons, thus allowing them to move faster. Well, this is a bit of a simplification really. It's more of allowing an operative to sprint for a prolonged (currently undetermined) period of time without suffering from fatigue like when running normally. As for the application, it would be applied to the footwear/foot.

How Photon Dash works, or at least what Josua could infer to from the NGS trailer (and he subsequently reiterated in his proposal) is something like this: When an operative activates Photon Dash, Photons would gather at their feet. Every time they take a step, when they move, the photons would add more force to allow the operative to move forward faster. It would be like they're skipping, in a sense. When they encounter something like a high wall, they could also wall kick basically to scale up the wall without needing to stop their Photon Dash.

Photon Glide would allow an operative to descend from high elevation with control of their trajectory towards the chosen landing point with better accuracy. This would also help in avoiding enemy fire during descent. Mind you, this is in terms of the operative descending without the aid of the telepool or usage of AIS. Like Photon Dash, this would be applied to the operative's body or their outfit.

Meanwhile, as to how Photon Glide works, it's like this: When an operative descends from a high altitude, be it because they took off from a cliff or double jumping, Photons would gather at the side of the body that faces downwards. With that, the operative can not only slow down their descent with the help of the Photons, they could also control their trajectory and glide to their destination. It's basically like sky-diving but being more like Iron Man since they can control which direction they wanna go, and the photons propel them via gathering below their foot.

These two things would allow operatives to complete missions with lesser time needed during travel on land. This would allow operatives to run more missions within a period of time and complete them. Well, aside from their body or outfit, it could also be applied to their units (AKA armor of sorts).

Xiao was tapping his fingers when he reached that conclusion, even though he could've asked Josua and he would've gotten the same thing as well. He was now thinking of new ideas that might be possible from Josua's proposal.

While he was thinking of this, Maria entered the place. She had just came back from her usual thing, which was investigating and messing with Luther's shenanigans. She saw Xiao looked so focused on reading the proposal. Piquing her interest, she went to his side and also read.

"Oh? What're you reading, Xiao?" She asked.

"Uwah!" Xiao was a bit startled, and jumped from his seat.

"Bahahahaha!" She laughed.

"Oi oi, at least say something before you come close like that!" He said, rubbing the back of his head that hit the hard part of the seat.

"Ah sorry, sorry. You looked so invested in whatever you're reading, I just can't help it." She finished laughing and apologized.

"I'm reading something that Josua proposed. It's quite an interesting idea, really." He said his reason.

"Oh? Then let me read it." She was interested after hearing his words.

"Hm. I'll forward this to you." He said before he sent it to Maria.

After receiving it, she spent some time to read the whole proposal. The more she read it, the more she got intrigued.

"How is it? Interesting, right?" He asked with a smirk.

"Yeah. I can see why you're that into this proposal of his." She sighed and nodded.

It seemed so simple, yet up to this point nobody had even thought of it, or even suggested it for some reason. The two might have not realized it, but a little more than a year after these two things were implemented, in AP 240, this would help in the subsequent re-emergence of Dark Falz [Apprentice] during the events of the so-called Episode 3.5.

There was a glint in Xiao's eyes as he continued to ponder while looking at the proposal on his display. No one could tell if it was mischief or ingenious kind of glint. Only time can tell.

.....

Somewhere in one of Naverius' forests...

A figure was seen running through the forest. The figure ran so fast that no one was likely to catch up to them if they tried, unless they're augmented in some way. Streaks of blue particles were left in the wake of the figure's trail.

The sun shone on the figure as they emerged from the forest and into the open field. It was Josua.

He wiped the sweat of his face, and pulled out a cold bottle of Pocari from his inventory. It was listed in the inventory as a low-potency aid drink.

Mind you, this means they do fall in the same category as the mate drinks, but compared to even something like a monomate, it's basically only useful to quench thirst and just refresh, not for proper healing during combat.

Emptying the bottle, he crushed the bottle in his hand, threw it back into his inventory, and then chose to destroy it, therefore eliminating the problem of littering. In addition, it also eliminates any traces that will possibly give clues as to his origins in this reality, be it by Luther or any of the operatives that are actually avatars of Mother Corps' people.

"Okay, with this, Photon Dash do work even in 'modern' ARKS." He said, nodding to himself in affirmation.

He was there because he wanted to test Photon Dash and Glide. He had just conducted the Dash, which proved to be quite successful. He used the principle of basically like walking on water, you know, from those wuxia stuff, or if you really wanna go there, pulled a Jesus stunt. Instead of Qi, he was using Photon, and instead of walking on water, he was dashing on land.

The photon would not only allow his feet to be lighter, it would also push him further than when he runs normally, allowing him to stride through longer distances when it's active. Also, when jumping while in Photon Dash, he would be able to jump higher than if he was to jump normally, as in a normal non-double jump.

Mind you, however, the jump itself isn't actively boosted. It's more of like a boost due to the momentum of the run that was enhanced by the photons since Photon Dash is active.

"And now, time to test the Photon Glide..." He mumbled as he walked towards the cliff that was nearby.

The cliff was 10 meters tall from the bottom. At the bottom, was another expanse of forest. It's the forest region of Naverius, what did you expect?

In case somehow you got here and don't know, Naverius is a Tropical-type planet, with most of the landmass on the planet being covered in forest, along with several open plains.

However, unlike most Tropical worlds, Naverius isn't supposed to have a North Pole region of sorts. The one present on the planet is due to a world-changing battle that occurred in AP 198 between ARKS and Dark Falz [Elder], as stated before. [Elder] was powerful enough that the battle changed the climate of their battlefield.

Ahem, putting that aside...

Josua looked down from the top of the cliff. Even with his new body, he still felt some chills. While he wasn't afraid on jumping down, the distance between the top was the only thing that somewhat holding him back a little.

"Tsss.... Fuuuuuh..." He closed his eyes took a deep breath.

He walked back a little to get some momentum. He also wanted to test the transition from Photon Dash to Photon Glide should he meet a location with a topography like this (or similar to at least).

After walking back about... At least 50 steps, he focused himself. Narrowing his eyes, he activated Photon Dash and began to run. 50 steps might sound like something in normal circumstances, but Photon Dash rendered it to be little more than just a few steps. Blue streaks were left in his wake as he reached his final step before the edge of the cliff. Looking ahead, he grits his teeth and jumped.

He then activated Photon Glide. Photons began to gather on the side of his body that faced downwards. Blue particles began to seemingly slow his descent. With him basically still in his jumping pose, the photons basically holds his body steady while mostly being focused to below his feet.

"Hmm... The feels are what I think it should be, so this should be correct..." He murmured as he made his next move.

He tries to utilize the photons to guide him diving to a certain direction that was around a dozen meters ahead on the ground. The photons began to "push" him forward while his body was slowly but surely descending at a slower rate than normal. His speed picked up as he was dropping in altitude at a pace.

Just around several meters or so before he hits the ground, he spread his arms and legs wide, as if he was to use the drag from the air to slow himself down in a sense. The photons seemed to detect what he want to do, and thus slowed his descent more so than before. Only a few moments later, he touched down on the ground safely.

"Okay. This is good. REALLY good." He nodded to himself in satisfaction.

The tests were successful. Photon Dash and Photon Glide are applicable in current-day ARKS. However, this was only for him.

"Dunno about the others, but... Xiao should have a better idea on how to implement this better." He murmured.

While this was going on, he took a look at his comm. He turned off the readers on his photon distribution & recorder, and sent the collected data to Xiao. Wiping off the sweat from his forehead, he used a telepipe and opened a teleport gate back to the gateways ship waiting for him on the orbit. Mind you, the location around him was secure, and since he chose a location that wasn't as crowded, be it with other operatives or native sylvants, he could easily come and go.

Aboard the gateway ship, he set it to return to the ARKS Ship. The gateway ship entered the jump bubble as it left the orbit of the planet.

.....

Phantasy Star Online 2.

The Hub-based MMORPG that took the world by storm shortly after the discovery of Aether in 2016, with the Alpha announced just a few months after Aether became a thing. Of course, during the Alpha, Josua was one of the few outsiders that were invited to participate in it by SEGA, the 'developer' and publisher of the game.

As mentioned before, by the time most MMOs managed to resume service after their infrastructure switch/upgrade to the new Aether Network (or Aethernet if you're lazy), PSO2 had already absorbed a significant amount of their playerbase.

As per AP 238, or AD 2025, the game had officially launched. To be precise, the game had been in service globally for at least 6 years at this point. The Closed Beta was held sometime in 2017, while the Open Beta in 2018. The game went full gold near the end of 2018 and was subsequently launched in 2019.

To most people, PSO2 was just that: a game. But to some others like Josua, it was something entirely different. Yet those others were so few in numbers, it was negligible at best.

Some collaboration events were held, parallel to those held on Earth in the previous reality. However, they were possible due to the other special property of Aether that only those in Mother Corps, Earth Guide, and several other organizations would know.

Some say that some collabs were held by organizations not affiliated to either Mother Corps or Earth Guide, that they were small-time compared to those two behemoths of the modern day. Certain incidents that had also happened prior to the discovery of Aether were also linked to these organizations.

Be it events that occurred somewhere in Japan called Iwatodai in 2009 that involved certain high schoolers from a certain High School that were to investigate and solve certain matters on rumors of some sort of supposed alternate dimensions, or those that occurred in Tokyo in 2016 involving students from a certain Academy on certain matters that revolves around people's psyche and the such.

There were even appearances of famous people from popular fiction on Earth, be it from games, anime series or others of the similar medium. Some say they saw a giant purple robot fighting some sort of a giant creature, or some sort of Titan. Some even swore they saw an iteration of a god from a certain series made by a certain company whose initials is SE.

But as to the truth of these things... Who knows? Perhaps only those that are like Josua, people who can dive into the game in the literal sense, would probably know (or most of the time, only have an inkling of an idea for most of the others). Neither Mother Corps, SEGA, or even Earth Guide could (or would) offer any sorts of explanations on these bizarre things.