Into the Black

Two months after the beta run, Dreams Amongst the Stars was finally about to go live, and I couldn’t wait.

As promised, my EVA-02 pod got delivered a couple weeks before the game launch, so I had time to familiarize myself with the gear. The pod itself had an enclosed stand that held all the life support and recycling functions, while the ‘capsule’ part was a comfortable gel cushion bed. The procedure for getting into the pod was simple. Strip naked, close the hatch, and let the oxygenated fluid fill the chamber and ‘breathe’ in. That was the hardest part, honestly.

I wasn’t sure exactly how feeding and waste management worked. There were some very scientific words going on here, but I was an engineer, not a biochemist or whatever science was going on here. I’m sure the documents and releases I signed mentioned some of that, but the only thing more confusing than science speak is legalese. At least the scientists aren’t TRYING to hide what they mean. Usually.

Of course, that was only for the 02 pods. The 00s and 01s were sleeker, and lacked those life support functions. There were some things the pods shared, though. They were all hooked up to the internet, and there were plugins that allowed me to basically run my whole house from the pod, and check phone calls and emails while in the pod, maybe even while in game. Because of that, I’d cancelled most of my utilities, cutting back to just power and water. I also emptied my fridge, except for a few bottled drinks of various types, since I could definitely count on beer, water, and Coca-Cola to still be good without me checking on them but once a week. If I wanted to eat while out of the pod, I could easily afford to eat out.

So now I was in the pod, forcing myself not to panic as the fluid rose up around me. This was the fourth time I’d done it, and it was starting to get easier, now that I was familiar with the procedure. That first time was a pain in the ass, though. Fighting the “Oh god I’m going to drown!” response the body naturally has when you’re getting dunked in fluid is tough, even when you know that it is going to happen.

I was loaded into my ‘Home’ space. This had started off like the white room I’d met Morgan in, but over the last two weeks I’d customized it to be more like a traditional Japanese home. Sue me, I watched a bunch of samurai movies as a kid, and always loved how those buildings looked. And since it was all digital, I could do what I wanted. Well, almost. There were limits to what I could do with the basic options. Any of the REALLY cool stuff I’d have to pay to unlock. At least I still get the same 4:1 time compression ratio here as I will in the game.

At any rate, after talking with the science geeks, I made sure to set my digital pad up much like someone would a house in the real world. Kitchen, dining area, bedroom, bathroom, and so on. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t use most of it except for the office I made for editing my streams, the living area I made for entertainment, and the ‘dojo’, which was a multipurpose space I could use to practice skills and train, or create art if I wanted to try my hand at digital sculpture or whatever.

Why’d I pack so many seemingly useless things into my home? I’ll spare you the psychobabble, but suffice to say it is to try and keep me ‘grounded’ when most of my time will be spent in digital worlds. I might not physically need to sleep, but my brain might need a rest at times, and so a bed would help the brain cope and blah blah blah. Basically, it was so I didn’t go crazy.

Anyways, when I went to log in to the game, I discovered myself not at the chargen screen like I thought I’d be, but back in the white space I’d been in last time, after I finished my beta runs and chatted with Morgan for a bit. And sure enough, Morgan was there waiting for me this time.

“Hi, Stuart! Glad to see you logged in early. There’s a couple things we wanted to go over with you before we let you into the game world.”

“Fine, fine. I assume that this has something to do with the beta bonuses?”

“Yes! As you know, there are a variety of levels of play in Dreams. We call them Beginner, Casual, Advanced, and Hardcore. Now, over time a Beginner PC might grow to be just as powerful as a Hardcore PC, but it will take them a lot of work, especially in the early game. Our projections say that the differences will smooth out by the mid to late game, especially as people specialize into different roles in universe.”

That made sense. The kind of people who pick Beginner or Casual modes, and actually stick with it to the late game are generally not the kind of hardcore gamers that go on epic raids or do a lot of the elite, end-game content in MMOs. They are looking to spend a couple hours a day having fun and relaxing, not being the top of the leaderboards.

Hardcore gamers, on the other hand, might pick a Beginner or Casual character, but they only really do that to learn the mechanics before jumping in on an Advanced or Hardcore character, where they can get challenges they feel are worthy of them. Of course, in a game where level wasn’t everything, and one could improve their stats and skills through in-character actions and not just levelling up on monster kills or through gear, this meant any early-game bonuses would even out, while the new challenges of high-end content took their place as incentive for the hardcore crowd.

“What is the difference between the four?”

“Well, there’s some nuance to it, but basically the higher the difficulty, the more character points you get to spend at chargen, and you gain a bonus to increasing skills and attributes through repetition. On the down side, the higher the difficulty, the harder your start zone will be, the higher the minimum pain threshold is, and the nastier the death penalty is.”

“So I’m guessing other than pain threshold, you can’t change any of those settings after chargen? What effects does the Pain Threshold have, other than the obvious?”

Morgan smiled. “Well, a Casual character won’t be able to turn their pain levels down past 20% of what they would normally feel. Beginners can set it to 0%, while Advanced can’t go below 40%, and Hardcore can’t drop below 60%. During Beta, pain was set at 40%. Higher pain levels give you bonuses to grinding resistance skills, and also increase your reaction speed. You’ll also get more XP from kills and completed tasks while you have the pain higher. To try and curb cheating, you can only change your pain settings once per RL day. So you can’t set pain to 100% to turn in a quest or craft some gear, but then turn it down to 0% when fighting, but jamming it back to 100% just before you get the kill. You set it, and then are stuck with it for 96 hours in game. And time you spent logged out or dead doesn’t count to that time limit.”

I whistled at that. “Impressive. Seems your techs have put a lot of thought into keeping people from cheating their way to greatness.”

“Right. So going back to the Beta bonuses. As we discussed last time, all the Beta players got a free EVA-01 pod and copy of the game. They also get an increased starter package for their character, and a bonus to their starting points based on the mode they select. This will give them something useful in the early game, while not making them completely overpowered compared to normal players.”

“Makes sense. So, I guess this is where you tell me what the programmers thought up after my performance in the Beta runs?”

“Hah. And here I was, going to try for suspense.”

“Is this a light novel now?”

“Fine. Ruin my fun. Anyways, you’re still getting the normal Beta bonuses, at least, the ones that aren’t improved by your working for the company as a tester. But your performance, as you said, prompted the developers to offer you a little something extra. They thought about making a custom race for you, playing off your physical condition, but that seemed a little cliché, so instead, they are offering you a Nightmare difficulty.”

I leaned forward in my seat, suddenly very interested. “Oh? And what does this Nightmare difficulty involve?”

“Well, first, the minimum pain threshold will be permanently set at 100%, and the death penalty is going to be harsh. Second, you’ll be starting in the highest difficulty scenario they’ve created. Third, you won’t be able to select your race for… reasons. You can select one of the other scenarios if you like, but will have to give up on the advanced rewards.”

“Oh, that sounds fun. Sign me up for the Nightmare.”

Morgan made a few notes on her terminal, and then smiled. “All right. You’re all set up, and ready to start chargen. I look forward to seeing how your streams go.”

Then everything went dark.

Welcome to Dreams Amongst the Stars!

You have selected Nightmare Mode.

Effects:

Pain Threshold set to minimum of 100%.

On death, lose 1 character level, and 8 skill levels, chosen at random.

Race Selection has been locked.

Gender Selection has been locked.

Appearance Selection has been locked.

Faction Selection has been locked.

Adult Material locked to Allowed.

x1000 starting Character Points (CP)

Unique Title Gained

Choose a name for your character.

First and Last name required. Nicknames and official Callsigns may be chosen later if you wish.

First

Mirikon

Last

Mollen

Nickname

Callsign

I’d already decided on a character name before logging in, so that part was easy. After all, it was the name of one of my main Shadowrun characters. One of my buddies aboard ship ran the campaign. Sucked having to leave those guys. But if I know them, they’ll definitely be looking into this game once their enlistments are up.

The whole bit about not even being able to choose my gender or appearance threw me for a bit of a loop, however. This must be one HELL of a starting scenario they had me going through. But then, there were monsters, or the equivalent, in this universe, right? Holy shit, was I going to be getting a monster race?

Breathe. All right, try to keep control. Hopefully, I get something good, and not something weird like a slime. I mean, I could make that shit work, but my streams would be crap for viewing. How the heck would a slime even ‘see’?

Now, I had a screen with two options pop up before me.

Steps Remaining:

Choose your path.

Spend Character Points.

Hmm. Let’s check the character points first.

Based on difficulty level and Beta bonuses, you have 300000 CP left to spend.

Character points may be spent on the following:

Attributes

Increase base attributes

Skills

Purchase skills to start the game with

Perks

Purchase Perks

Titles

Purchase Titles (may be restricted by race, faction, and build)

Gear

Purchase advanced starting weapons and armor. (This option is not available for Nightmare Mode users.)

Oh-ho! Looks like I got quite a bit to spend before I actually start the game. Still, I best have a look at my status before going too far. Might affect what I want to buy.

Name

Mirikon Mollen

Nickname:

Callsign:

Faction:

None

Race:

Chimera

Gender:

Ask Later

Level:

1

Experience:

0/1000

HP:

100

HP Regen:

1 per hour

ST:

100

ST Regen:

1 per min

PP:

100

PP Regen:

1 per min

Fame:

-100000 (0)

Status:

Experimental Being

Credits:

0

Faction Points:

0

Titles:

That Which Should Not Be

Attributes

STR

10

INT

10

DEX

10

WIS

10

CON

10

CHA

10

END

10

Luck

0

Phys. Att.

10

Phys. Def.

10

Sp. Att.

10

Sp. Def.

10

Affinities

Mental

5%

Physical

5%

Energy

5%

Force

5%

Resistances

Mental

5%

Physical

5%

Energy

5%

Force

5%

Perks

Skills

Wait, Experimental Being? Aww, fuck! I’m starting as a lab rat! Now I’m going to have to find some way to escape, aren’t I?