1 New Game, New Me

Hello. I'm James, a 16 Year old who's been going through some rough patches in my life recently. It all started when my mother died two years ago. Doctors said she suffered from something called burnout syndrome - which is a fancy word to say my mom died from too much stress and pressure.

Mom used to have a somewhat high position in her company but even still, raising three children all by yourself has never been easy. My family has always struggled to make ends meet. You see, in 2040 there's rarely simple jobs like there used to be. Simple things like a janitor and even some more complex tasks had been taken over by robots, which meant that if you started lagging behind, the pressure was on you to get back up.

Had most people's anger not been quelled a year ago, when the state released some preventive measures against poverty, the state of peace would have ended.

This should be my first diary entry so welcome, welcome to my life. Alas, you have me. I'm what you'd call as someone pretty intelligent, but lazy. I struggle to get through the simple stuff but manage to get the complex ones down. Never been one to blame myself for my mother's death, but it hasn't been easy. I knew Mom worried about how my grades sometimes slipped, but she had never shown so.

Mom raised both me and my two other siblings with great care. I'm the black sheep of the family so to speak, as my older brother's studying to get his Nursing Degree and the other one, who's two years older than me, has already finished school and got a job managing a Professional E-sports team - maybe it would be more aproppriate to call it a Workshop,seeing as all he does in abuse solo -players in VRMMO's, but who cares? I'm not him.

VRMMO's have always been my passion, but Mom forbade me from playing them. Somehow, I feel that was connected to my Dad, whom I've heard was pretty decent at them. Apparently, Dad was an abusive bastard so, as soon as Mom managed to get her life stable, she left.

I struggle at school and most teacher's don't really like nor dislike me, I'm practically invisible to them. Except for that one teacher who has always captivated me and motivated me. Mr. Carlos has been my Physics teacher for two years now, and he's always been astonished at how "smart" I am. I think he sees a little bit of him in me, and that's why he's been so cool about me letting my grades slip.

Today is the end of the school year. As I was leaving from my Physics class, Mr. Carlos asked:

"I know you like VRMMO's, have you been thinking of playing the one that's about to come out?" - he asked with what looked to be a slightly amused smirk on his face.

Damn, I thought. It really is about to start. Mr. Carlos was somewhat of a fanatic for games, especially Virtual Reality ones. I think he was even on a Dev team of a few ones a while back.

"Yes, I have already pre-bought the gaming helmet with what was left from my heritage and I was hoping to be able to play it this afternoon. May I ask why?"

"I was hoping I would finally see your talents bloom, that's all. You know I've always said your father was a great player, and you have every reason to be one aswell. Your reaction time is off the charts and you have proven time and time again to have great logical thinking."

"Seeing as Prof is so interested, I recall you saying that you'd be playing it?"

"Indeed I will. Once you get confortable in the game's mechanics you might wanna join me, no?"

As soon as I heard that, I started packing and left. I know that Mr. Carlos has always hoped to stand at the summit of a VRMMO, but he had failed time and time again. Maybe I was just a mere tool that he had chanced upon, maybe he actually cared for me. Either way, I didn't really care as long as he didn't stop me from doing my own thing.

"I hope you will not fail me this time, James." - he said as I left the classroom.

As soon as I got home, I called my only friend who had sticked with me through weal and woe, Marcus. Marcus was an average guy with a tendency to do some dumb stuff sometimes, what you'd call muscles over brawn. He had sticked up for me since I was a child, so no one picked on me.

"Ayo, I thought you'd never get home. Are we really doing it this time?" - Marcus had tried many times to get me to play VRMMO's, but Mom had always found out.

"Yeah, give me just a second. I'll add you as soon as I'm in. See you soon-ish?"

"See ya bud, stay safe."

I lied on my bed, and put on the gaming helmet. Turned it on, and it booted the OS up.

VRImmersive Helmet has been booted. One game has been detected. Do you wish to bind it to your account? "Bind it" I willed.

Terranova is now bound to your account. Do you wish to start this game?

"Start!"

I was presented with a clean character creation UI. Apparently, Terranova was based on the olden days of Pangea, so there was only one continent. As such, according to the lore of the game, people united under a few banner's that heavily competed against eachother.

There are 5 main types of Classes in Terranova, which are composed of a few more especializations of their own.

The list goes as such:

Warriors, who wield swords and can take a beating in most cases;

Rangers, who wield bows or guns and are highly elusive and mobile;

Mages, which wield powerfull spells and boast great destrucion and damage;

Support classes, which only shine when cooperating with others;

Rogue classes, which hunt in the shadows of the night.

James elected to choose a Warrior, and decided to name himself "Blind Dreamcatcher". Once done with his name, he chose to make his character look almost like him, except for his eyes. He had always hated his blue eyes, as they reminded him of his father somehow.

He chose to start on one of the smallest empires of Terranova, The Moon-Lake Empire, which took him to a small and shabby town called Fallen Oak town. Rumors had it that an ancient Oak tree had been corrupted by some dark forces and been slayed by the mayor of the town.

James brought up his UI and invited his friend to join the same village. A few minutes later, he gets a friend request from a player called Free-Willed Spirit, which turned out to be Marcus.

Marcus had unwittingly chosen a pretty uncharateristic class, a Rogue. Were it not for the familiar looks he had, James would have been scared silly from looking at an almost two meter's tall Rogue.

And so, they set off to start the journey that would change the way the world looked at VRMMO's forever.