Chapter 1: Booting up

Dave eagerly picked up the plain brown box on his porch and stepped back inside. His father was at work and his mother was working remotely from her makeshift office behind the locked doors the master bedroom.

Stopping at the note board hanging from his parents' door he took the pen and jotted down 'M&M came. Will be in beta." Then he ran into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of protein bars. Government recommended goodness guaranteed to be a healthy substitute for at least two meals. If only it tasted as good as it sounded.

Grimacing, he chewed away at the grainy rectangle as he brought the box into his bedroom. Tearing open the package he finally witnessed the fruits of his last few allowances. Truth to be told, the kit was rather cheap. He also got additional discounts for being in the beta. M&M Games were always the cheapest. No one had figured out how they could be so inexpensive and be so incredibly good. Whatever the reason, he certainly wasn't complaining.

Reaching into the open box he gently picked up his reward for his recent sacrifices. A large helmet. Painted red and blue, with a single camera lens pointing out, yet no real visor. It wouldn't be recommended for real driving. However, it was perfectly engineered for its purpose. Total immersion VR.

While it was the most advanced version of its type, it wasn't the first total immersion VR set. Heck, his mother was doing remote secretarial work from her bedroom with an older generation. His mother's looked like one of the monster hair salon hair dryers. Half beachball and half science experiment, but they were fairly comparable.

The difference was this was his own. He bought it and he was going to have the entire summer vacation to stay online and play the hottest new VR game. His parents complained a bit, however, studies had shown that these modern VR kits could not only entertain and educate but also keep your muscles in reasonable condition. It may not be as good as running twenty times around the track but you at least wouldn't get any worse.

Indulging himself in briefly hugging the helmet to his chest, he lay down on the bed, placed the helmet over his head and activated it. "Activate VR environment".

"Activating VR headset," a warm female voice whispered in his ear. It would have been a sensual experience but the voice sounded creepily similar to his mother's.

"Running self-check."

"Self-check complete. All internal systems at optimal levels."

"Connecting to local network. Optimizing bandwidth. Detecting another VR simulation using the same resources with a higher priority. Caching resources on local server." That must have been mom doing her remote work.

"Testing nerve and muscle feedback. You will feel a slight tingling. Failsafes are in place." As advises slight tingles ran down his body.

"Muscle and nerve interface is configured and running at optimal efficiency. Sensory feedback is now running in independent mode. To 'return' or 'disconnect' imagine yourself removing your headset. Please take this time to test this."

Dave quickly imagined himself removing the helmet and felt the world shake slightly. "Disconnection test confirmed. Restarting simulation. Would you like to view your library?"

"I only have one VR program," snorted the young man. The computer didn't respond. Finally, he sighed and said, "Yes."

The darkness fragment and he found himself standing in a field of light. In front of him was a shelf. It looked rather bare, with a single book on it. He reached out and touched the book. It lifted from the shelf and then grew in size until it formed a glowing door in front of him. Burning words appeared above it 'Mazes and Monsters VMMO (beta)'. With a smile, he stepped forward.

"Compiling phycological data. Please wait." Another gentle female voice sounded in his head.

"Classifying biological features. Merging features into the simulation. Welcome to the Mazes & Monsters VMMO, the first of its kind. A truly immersive game simulation you can enjoy alone or with friends." Light faded to dark and then a primitive village formed around him. Thatch roofs, rough wooden houses and cobblestone paved roads surrounded him.

"Welcome to the tutorial stage 1," the gentle voice whispered in his air. "Mazes & Monsters strives towards total immersion, however, we realize that new players may need a little help to get situated and understand the rules of the world. To facilitate this, the tutorial will be divided into several stages. Stage 1 will have a complete User Interface. Look around at the villagers. Note that when the simulation senses you want information about an NPC, limited information will be available."

Dave looked at the woman sweeping the grounds next to him. The woman looked up at him suspiciously and slowly sidled away. Overlaid on her form was her name, title, HP, Mana and Psionic points. Hmm, Natasha, peasant, 24, 5, 0. A brief bio stated she and Dave were from the same village and they were acquaintances.

"During stage two, the interface will highlight various physical features or in the case of using psionic senses or mage senses, will subtly enhance ques that would indicate to the player this same information."

Suddenly Dave was hyperaware of the signs of strain from the woman as she swept and minor shivers in the muscles showed mild physical effort, a brief headache followed by translucent aura around the woman. Even though he didn't understand what the colors meant he was aware for a moment that she was a typical human, no magic and no psionic talent. And she was very uncomfortable with his constant staring.

"Stage three will have no interface unless the settings are overridden. The simulation assistant, me, will not be available unless the default settings are overridden."

"But... why wouldn't I want an interface?"

"A visible interface will interfere with the complete immersion into the game. Once you are able to react to the ques given to you by the simulation you will be able to respond far quicker to events surrounding you. This will eventually be required in the later stages of the game unless the player intends to stay within the beginner zones."

"Okay," David replied uncertainly. That seemed a bit hardcore considering this was supposed to be pure entertainment.

"The system will do its best to estimate when the player has mastered the minimum skills. The override will also be available, however, there is no 'easy' setting. Only beginner zones."

"Fine." It didn't appear there was a different option. It was a beta. maybe after it was over they could provide feedback.

The woman cocked her head and looked into the sky. "What's that?" She asked pointing into the horizon. Far off in the distance, a dot in the sky appeared. Moments later twenty more appeared. As they grew in size it was apparent that they were huge deformed humanoids. Almost bloated like days old corpses. Metal bracket and shiny parts were embedded in the flesh and they had crude swords whose blades were six inches wide and eight feet long. "Are those flying men?"

"Lord help us! I think they are the dead arisen!" another villager added in growing panic. "Run! It's the heralded end!" The villagers broke into panicked running and began screaming in terror.

"Status." The world froze around Dave and an interface overlaid itself on the world in from of him.

Name: Unknown.

Class: Peasant level 1

HP:15

Mana: 30

Psi: 50

Intelligence: 20

Constitution: 15

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 15

Luck: 55

Skills:

Technology Level 0 (Int based)

Clairvoyance level 1 (Luck based)

Peasant Skill (No base)

"What the <beep> is peasant skill? Huh? What the <beep> is the <beep> big idea with the beeps?"

"Records indicate that you are not an adult. In order to comply with local regulations, profanity, as defined by your nation, will be blocked out. Once you reach an age considered an adult by your government there will be an option to remove the profanity filter."

"Ah damn. Wait a minute. Why wasn't that beeped?"

"'Damn", 'Darn', 'Heck' are all examples of expletives not considered profanity by your local government."

"Great. So what's with the Peasant skill?"

"This is the skill allowing you to sweep, clean, milk animals, herd animals and do all the miscellaneous life skills a peasant may have. Since there are no real combat potential to these skills the effectiveness will solely depend on your actions in game."

"What if I want to train a horde of chickens to attack my enemies?" David asked. The helpful voice remained silent. "Okay, what about technology?"

"As a high school student, you have been taught many modules dealing with technology. In this game, you will have the opportunity to learn many fictional science skills that you can use to create, use and interact with other technology. This game can even stimulate an illusionary sense of complete understanding, similar to the sensation in a dream, where you have complete mastery and understanding of a skill set."

"Darn, it would have been cool to learn engineering skills in game. Now that we just learn through skill modules all high school is practical exercise after practical exercise."

"Although this is not the simulations primary purpose, you can use resources here to simulate real-world scientific experiments, building and planning real-world engineering. It is simply that the fictional skills and technology created with such skills will be far more effective in combat."

"Whoa. I can create anything and use it?"

"If you can find the base components and put them together. Yes."

"So if I build a nuclear bomb I can kill them?" Dave said, pointing to the still frozen deformed flyers.

"If you were to find the components, assemble them correctly and were able to deploy it. Yes.

"Awesome!"

"However, you would likely die in the explosion and need to respawn."

"So respawning is a thing?"

"Yes."

"So what is the respawn penalty?"

"There is significant negative feedback upon death..."

"Is that legal?"

"Research indicates that it is legal within certain parameters."

"Huh. That doesn't sound right. What else?"

"You lose all physical assets except for starting clothes."

"We restart naked?"

"Local national laws do not allow exposure. Clothes will be mandatory until you reach legal age. At that point, mutually consenting adults can choose to perceive each other without clothes. They will be shunted to their private residences and any adventure they are currently in will treat them as if they were killed."

"That was more than I wanted to know. But interesting. What about 'Clairvoyance'? It sounds cool."

"Clairvoyance is your first psychic skill. While everyone starts with the skill, the effectiveness is based off of your luck attribute."

"What does it do?"

"Depending on your abilities the system will send subtle stimulation that may warn of danger or predict events or even lead towards treasure or a beneficial outcome. Successful interpretations of this stimulus may increase the skill level and lead to more quests. Also, this is the top of a talent tree that has subskills related to more specific psionic senses."

"That seems pretty powerful. How do I increase my stats?"

"Training and leveling will increase statistics."

"No assigned points?"

"No."

"So what about my name? Unknown? Really? Why didn't you ask for my in-game name before we started?"

"I will note your feedback. This game is in beta and we appreciate the opinions of all our players."

Dave looked blankly at the enemies frozen above him. Did the system AI just blow him off? "Call me Nathaniel."

"New name accepted. Would you like to continue the game?"

"Can I freeze the game any time?"

"If you are not adventuring with someone else and open a system screen the environment will pause on Tutorial stage 1. This option is not available in other tutorial stages unless specific psionic skills are cultivated by the player."

"Okay. Close the window and let's start this up again."