Immersion Online

Despite Nathan's initial bad mood and reservations, the offer was a no-brainer, and once his brain started working again, he realized that. It wasn’t like he had anything else on the agenda for the foreseeable future, so he didn’t have anything to lose. And John was a charismatic and persuasive person. It was easy to get dragged along by his enthusiasm. After some more discussions of details, Nathan agreed.

The plane trip was fairly anticlimactic, despite the comfort. John was busy on the phone most of the time, and his bodyguards were not of the talkative type. Nathan spent most of the time either browsing for info on Immersion Online or watching an entertainment feed. A flight attendant offered him food and drinks, including alcoholic, so Nathan enjoyed a couple of long drinks. Quality stuff. At one point he did receive a contemplating look from John, but he didn’t think anything of it.

They landed at a private airport. There was a customs and immigration officer there, but Nathan had a permanent visa thanks to his past work, so that didn’t create any trouble. They were picked up by a limo and drove for quite a bit before Nathan and his wheelchair were dropped off outside a high-standard apartment building.

He was met on the sidewalk by his new personal assistant, who introduced himself as Richard Blake. Richard was a fit man in his early twenties, had a modern haircut and dressed smartly. He showed Nathan around the neighborhood before helping him to his new apartment. Richard was a physiotherapist and would help Nathan in that regard as well. He seemed pleased with his assignment, especially since he was provided an apartment in the same building as part of the job. Although on a lower floor.

The next day Nathan had a short session with Richard in the building's gym before he had a meeting with some of John’s HR people. They went through his contract, administered a physical, and had him sign a couple of documents. The game would launch the next day, so the rest of the day was spent preparing for that. A technician came over and explained how to use the pod, which was located in one of the guest rooms in his fairly large apartment. It was pretty self-explanatory, but Nathan still appreciated the introduction. Even though the game was not online yet, it was able to connect with the pod and verify that everything worked, although it was just some green lights verifying connection in the roof of the pod. The pod also had a timer where you could configure when it should kick you out. It turned out that the most challenging part was to enter and exit the pod. The first time he tried, Nathan had to get some help from Richard, but after a couple of tries, they found a way he was able to do it himself.

The day ended before he knew it, and a couple of hours later he found himself in the pod waiting to start the game. In addition to Richard, the technician had returned to ensure that everything went as planned. John had wanted to be there but could not. He had shared breakfast with Nathan and needlessly apologized for having to prioritize differently. He’d promised to drop by later, though, to hear how it went.

“It seems like everything will go live according to plan,” the technician guy said while checking the latest status on his laptop. “There are more players signed up than we thought, but that shouldn’t be a problem. At least not for you. How are you feeling?”

“I'm a bit nervous, actually. And anxious. Could use a drink, to be honest.” Nathan was on his back in the pod, seeing a countdown on the roof of the pod. There were 60 seconds left.

“You should be excited!” said the technician.

“Yeah, I suppose I am that as well”, said Nathan anxiously.

“Don’t worry. You can log out any time you want, and I’ll be here when you do,” said Richard. “Just try to relax and enjoy the experience.”

“I’ll try but that is easier said than done. 20 seconds now. I just have this ominous feeling.” Nathan could feel his heartbeat increasing. It was stronger as well. He was sweating as well. “Here we go. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...”

Suddenly he could no longer feel his heart, nor his sweaty skin. He tried to raise his head to look around, but everything was black. It was a really weird feeling.

“Welcome!” said a low-pitched voice with occasional sprinkles of autotuning. “Welcome to Immersion Online. It is time to start your adventure, and I will be your guide.”

A light cone turned on somewhere above and illuminated a very generic person standing a couple of steps in front of Nathan. If anything, he looked like a manakin and was dressed in a grey robe.

“Who are you?” asked Nathan.

“I am just a guide, and not important. I am here to guide you in creating your avatar.” As he finished speaking two more cones of light turned on. One centered on Nathan, and the other on what looked to be a mirror beside him. “Your visuals have been scanned, and we have created an avatar in your image. That is just a place to start, though. We can change whatever you want, within reason. Just tell me what you want to change.”

Nathan looked at the mirror and quickly discovered that it wasn’t a mirror at all. When looking down he couldn’t see himself at all -it was like he was an incorporeal ghost- but when looking in the mirror he could see an image of himself, dressed in what appeared to be very plain wool clothes. His mirror self was smiling, while Nathan was not. That aside, it also looked like a slightly improved version of him.

“What do you mean by ‘within reason’”?

“There are some rules. You have to be human. Other humanoids might be allowed later, but currently, they are not. So, no animal hybrid, demon, angel, etc.

“You have to be of legal age. Now, that age is different from country to country, but to simplify international rules your avatar cannot look significantly younger than the age of twenty.

“You have to be symmetrical-ish. Some differences are allowed, some are not. You cannot have one arm or leg greatly longer or shorter than the other.

“You are not allowed to paint your body with symbols that are hateful or vulgar. These are the general rules.”

“How about gender? Can you give me a female body?”

“I can. Do you want a female version of yourself?”

“No. I was just... curious. I kind of like the way I look right now. Can I change how I look later?”

“You can, although some changes might be harder than others. Some might require a new clone.”

“A new clone?” asked Nathan. “We are clones?”

“Yes” confirmed the guide.

“Cool, I guess. So, what’s next?”

“If you are happy with how you look, we also need to select your path, your stats, and your name. You can go back any time you want, so let us move on to your path. This mainly defines your starting area, and what type of quests you get. Before you ask, this can also be changed, but that happens dynamically based on your in-game choices.”

“So, what are my choices?”

“Anything. You define the path you want to walk freely. We try not to limit our players too much."

They both stood staring at each other for a while before the guide continued. “If you do not know what to select, it helps to think of the path as a profession. For example, if you want to be a singer, we will start you in an area where there is an audience. If you want to be a hunter, we start you in the wilderness.”

Nathan tried to scratch his head before remembering that he currently didn’t have a head. “But if you don’t limit what we can select, can I be a king? Or a god?”

“Ah, theoretically yes, but keep in mind that we then put you at the start of a path that -possibly- leads to you becoming a king or a god. That doesn’t mean you will succeed. For example, to become a king you would need to either create or take over a kingdom. This could theoretically be done through diplomacy, by marriage, or by combat. Perhaps you would have to start as a small-time politician or a bandit. Difficult, but conceivable.

“To become a god would be even harder. What is a god? Is it someone that is worshiped by enough people? Perhaps. If so, then you need to create a religion -or have someone else create a religion- that worships you, and also recruit or convert a sufficient amount of people. This is certainly easier to do in Immersion Online than in real life, but not by much. And will it give you godlike powers? Doubtful, but who knows? Is this the path you want?”

Nathan sighed. “No, I don’t have any illusions of grandeur, but I suspect there are plenty of others that do. I think I should go with something more of a martial disposition. How about military options? Officer, soldier, scout, medic?

“All viable choices. Although you should be aware that military life also includes the expectation that you will follow orders. There are ways around that, of course, but not all of them are simple.”

“Yeah, that is a good point. I guess I’ve already walked much of that path. No need to retread familiar ground. I guess I’ll go with the classical selection. This is an RPG after all, so what better than being an adventurer. That shouldn’t limit me too much.”

“Indeed, it should not. Very well. Before we continue, could you confirm that you that you will be starting alone?”

“I am not sure what you mean. I thought this was a MMO kind of thing? With lots of players?”

“That is true, but the world is very large and players with different paths start at different locations. Some of these locations have a different technology level than others, and moving to one of the other areas is... not trivial. Therefore, to ensure that players are able to play with their friends or their preset party, they are sent to the same starting area. Which brings me back to my question. Your friends list seems to be empty. As such, you will be starting alone. Is this correct?”

“Oh. Yes, that is correct”.

“Excellent. Now, let's focus on attributes.” The mirror image of Nathan changed, and he suddenly was only dressed in plain underwear. He also changed his pose to a more neutral position, standing straight with his arms down by his side. “There are five different attributes; Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Perception, and Charisma. The average value of each attribute is 10, and that is also where your attributes start. You are not average, however, and therefore have 5 extra points to allocate. You are also allowed to decrease any of your attributes to free up points if you so wish.”

“Ok, this raises quite a lot of other questions. Is it possible to change or increase the attributes in-game?”

“Yes and no. Every third level you are given an extra point to allocate, but reallocating your attributes can only happen due to extraordinary circumstances. I would not count on it.”

“Got it. So, what do the different attributes do? I guess it is somewhat obvious, but could you give me any details?”

“Certainly! Strength passively increases your strength. It also adds or removes 1 damage to any melee attacks for every second point above or below 10. Constitution passively increases your stamina, which impacts how fast you get tired. It is also your starting health and increases your damage resistance by 1 for every three points above 10. Dexterity passively impacts your reflexes, agility, fine motor skills, and generally how quick you are. Perception passively changes the input you get from your senses, and also the information you get when inspecting items or people. And finally, Charisma, which passively impacts how you look and how NPCs react to you.”

“So, this is how my avatar looks with a Charisma of 10? Could you set it to 5, please?”

The face in the mirror-like object became visibly uglier, the eyes and ears more mismatched and the skin blemished. The posture also changed a bit, giving a hunchback look.

“Yeah, that’s not gone happen. Set it to 15, please.”

The face became perfectly proportional, the skin was flawless, the posture confident. The avatar instantly looked like a movie star. “This is disconcerting,” said Nathan, “but what is worse is the fact that even the average Nathan was a slight improvement over the actual me. That could destroy a lesser man’s self-esteem. Is there any way to... I don’t know... try the different options?”

“Sure”, said the guide, and suddenly Nathan was his avatar. He could feel his body, see out of his eyes, and move around. The area he previously had been in was empty.

“This is weird. It seems like I am missing... something. No aching. And I have no pain.” He pinched himself. Although he did feel something, the feeling of pain was dull.

“You only feel approximately 10% of the pain you would in real life. Just enough so that it is noticeable. Normally you would have small itches, a bum knee, back pains, or something like that. Here you will have nothing of that.”

“That is something I could get used to.” He took a step and started laughing. “I can walk. I can run!” He ran a couple of circles around the guide, who just stared at him with a perplexed look.

“This is great! I’m so excited.” Nathan said after he finished confirming that he could move. “Ok, let’s experiment a bit”.

Nathan instructed the guide to change different attributes, seeing how the differences impacted his avatar. The mix of Strength and Dexterity made him feel like a cross-fitter or a swimmer while switching Dexterity with Constitution made him feel like a weightlifter. Constitution and Dexterity made him feel like a husky MMA fighter. It was strange and somewhat melancholic trying out all the different versions of himself, discovering how he could have ended up if he had chosen a different life. In the end, he decided to not go for anything extreme, but settle for a more familiar option.

“Could you set my Strength to 8, Constitution to 10, Dexterity to 14, Perception to 13, and Charisma to 10?”

The guide complied, and Nathan moved around, trying to get familiar with how he moved. “I’d prefer a bit more Strength, but I think this will suit me, for now.”

“That is good. The last two things we need to decide is your voice and your name. Since you didn’t change your looks, I assume that you will not change your voice either? If that is correct, I only need to know what you would like to be called? I should add that the same rules apply as with tattoos, with some additions. The name needs to be actual words. No, ‘xxxCrimeFighter99xxx’, although celebrity children's names have become weirdly outlandish the last couple of years, so we allow more than we initially planned. You can also add middle and last name if you so choose.”

“Yeah, my voice is fine. Name... I guess I’ll go with my old gamer handle ‘Eclipse’”.

“No last name? You can add one later if you want.”

“Yeah? Then I'll refrain for now.”

“Excellent. Last chance to make any changes. If you are done, please say ‘I confirm my avatar selection’.”

Nathan cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck a bit while smiling. “You know, I am looking forward to this, now. I confirm my avatar!”