In a future where illness' are no longer as big a problem as they used to be, a future where virtualising the mind became possible, humanity flourished. Having discovered and created a way for the mind to became virtually immortal, a person could choose to discard their physical bodies and digitise their mind, joining the net communities spread around the web. Although not everything was as ok as most thought, soon after a person had chosen to digitise their mind they would soon discover that such a life was not all that it was hyper up to be, having no need for either sleep or the requirement to eat life soon became boring, so the governments around the world began making connections between the online communities to connect to one another and even connecting to popular games so they would actually be able to live the life their game characters would feel.
In the beginning, people were sceptical of this technology, most saw it more of a death sentence than eternal life while some religious folk saw it as an act of blasphemy against their God or Gods. It was because of this religious uprising that the government limited digitising the mind to terminally ill or near death patients, both as a means to 'beta test' it and as a way to settle the restlessness crowds that were slowly boiling up.
Choosing this solution was one of the best things that the governments decided to do with the procedure showing overwhelmingly positive results. Soon, after every was checked even further to make sure that nothing could go wrong as an apology for putting human lives at risk for a "beta test" the families and friends of the "beta testers had the choice of signing up to creating a virtual life, from this point onwards everything just shot up from there. Nowadays, in the more modern times it is suspected by most that there are more people living in the online communities than there are people living in the real world, but nobody has bothered to conduct an actual test to determine whether this rumour was true.
Thanks to this newfound technology the VR industry started developing at a rapid rate, creating games and improving the virtual life of the online netizens of the internet, because of this the online communities could start to truly enjoy their now immortal lives. As the VR community was the fastest rising industry around, many people chose to make a living by becoming online gamers or choosing to develop their own technologies and improve VR to the next level hoping that would help humanity rise to further heights.
That plan worked well for quite a while, people being able to pay their bills and support themselves. However, with more and more people going for the same jobs, the demand for these positions slowly started to diminish, along with the pay has my pay. Right now, people have started to look into other ways of earning money. Which brings us now to the current scene of things.
[A/N: Now I've finished with describing the world let's get onto the what the MC is currently doing ]
Ding Dong...
"Alea who is at the door? If it's a Jehovah's Witness or any of the like simply tell them in the most polite way possible to f**k o**, if they aren't then ask them what they want." and as soon as the ringing of the doorbell came a lazy voice spoke out, seeming to be talking to the air, sitting on a couch and watching TV clearly not intending to get up to answer the door. As soon as the man’s voice fell an unfeeling woman’s voice answered in response.
<
As these words fell more words echoed around the house.
"We're here to make a delivery to a Mr. Axel Henning from Virtual World Inc." When the man heard these words his lazy visage instantly disappeared, and he came running to the door at speeds even a cheetah would be envious of. Opening the door the lazy man came face to face with a middle aged man holding an electric clipboard with a hovering box behind him.
"I'm Axel Henning, sorry for not answering the door sooner I was caught up in some paperwork, where do I need to sign? and how long will the installation take?" Axel asked the man who was eyeing Axel with a look which obviously showed that he knew that what Axel said was complete B.S.
"Just sign at the bottom of this board with your signature, tell me where you'd like this installed, and move out of the way of the door so I can actually get in to start you pod installation." With these words he passed Axel the electric clipboard, with Axel moving to the side to make room for the delivery man and the floating box which just managed to fit through the door way.
"Just walk down the hallway and install the pod in the room on the 3rd door on your right."
With clipboard in hand Axel decided to read through what he's about the sign to make sure he isn't signing his life away. A few seconds pass before Axel is pleased with what he read and resumes to sign the bottom of the clipboard. As soon as he finished his signature Axel looked around to hand the clipboard back to the delivery man who was walking back to Axel with a tired look on his face.
"Umm, here's the clipboard, do I need to do anything else?" with the questioning words the delivery man took back his clipboard before glancing at the signature, now knowing the job he came to do is finished a relieved look appeared on the man’s face.
"No, you don't need to do anything more, now if you excuse me I've got a few more deliveries to make, have a nice day and don't forget to contact us if any problems occur." finishing with these words the delivery man left the house without turning back.
"Wait!? I only spent a few seconds looking at the clipboard there is no way he could have finished the installation that quick, right?" As soon as these words left Axel's mouth he quickly ran to where he knew delivery should be. Running into the spare room Axel sees the sight he has been waiting for since he managed to enter the contest for the newly developed VR Pods, the first thing that Axel saw when he entered the room was a giant oval shaped construct, with a clear window to see the inside o the pod. Looking inside Axel noticed a seat that looked easily as comfortable as any ben could ever be along with a small headset that rested on top of the head rest.
The design for the newly developed VR technology has changed since the first VR devices appeared, in the past they just looked like the headset that is resting on top of the head rest, but currently the design had changed to guarantee comfortable while playing. The device Infront of Axel right now is one of the better versions of the up and coming next generation hardware, known as Capsules. According to online estimations, these new developed capsules would require millions of dollars to buy as these pods have been developed far beyond the normal limitations of VR, elevating the VR experience to have 100% realism. Of course just because it has 100% realism doesn't mean that when players die in game they die in real life.
According to shopping channels and the advertisements for these capsules, along with the current game installed in the Pods and possible future generation games, will function so well that just playing these games could help improve the physical fitness of your real life body, with even more advanced pods having the capabilities to feed its users. After all, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
"Now that the capsule has arrived, I guess I've got to get dressed in more comfortable clothing." Axel, spending a few minutes looking for some comfortable clothes, getting in them and taking care of his "business", even though these capsules were promised to have the capability of waste disposal it doesn't mean It felt comfortable both trusting it with such a responsibility and being prepared for the consequences if it fails. After all the waste must go somewhere, and having the possibility of it staying in the machine only to be forgotten later, would create a disaster that any sane person would want to avoid. Axel stood in front of the capsule, staring at the device with a look of anticipation and exhilaration.
Opening the capsule Axel laid down to enjoy the comfort that he's been waiting for, Axel felt relaxed laying down on top of the comfortable seat at it was designed to have a padding that felt like a bed. Making sure that he's comfortable Axel proceeded to close the lid of the capsule and place the helmet over his eyes, with a thought Axel felt a sudden rush of relaxation overcome his body causing him to close his eyes and fall asleep. Opening his eyes Axel wake up in a dark room, with a blue screen floating in front of his face.
"Yes." with a simple thought the blue screen disappeared only to be replaced with another popup.
"Start Up Game: World Life, it should already be downloaded on this pod already."
"Yes." with a thought the blue screen disappeared and Axel's whole vision turned white. First, there was a bright flash of light then Axel found himself standing in an empty world in the clothes he wore when he entered the capsule, Axel, standing in place, took a few moments to take in this new feel of reality and was wondering if this is what it felt like to be digitised.
With the appearance of this screen a list of creatures, along with a character picture of what he would look like in these races, appeared in front of Axel's face.
Looking through the list, Axel immediately dismissed most of the common races that simply weren't exciting, or he deemed not as impressive as the others. Spending his entire life as a human already, Axel wanted to spice things up a bit and browsed through his options. Spending a few minutes browsing his choices Axel further narrowed down his choice, eliminating all races that weren't humanoid enough, such as the centaur as he doesn't wish to constantly transition from two legs to four legs or a race that didn't seem comfortable to suddenly transform into such as a slime person. In the end to avoid a possible problem and to still be different Axel chose to become a Half-ling, a being with two parentages, with Ancient Human being one of the parentages to assure that he can keep his human visage.
As there were many kinds of half-lings races to choose from Axel chose to highlight the options that he narrowed down. Highlighting them, Axel asked the system for comparison screens between the different Half-ling races so he would know their strengths and weaknesses. Spending time reviewing all his options before finally picking a race that felt good. In the end, with most races excluded due to various reasons, Axel finally selected his chosen race, a mixed race of Ancient Eldritch and Ancient human, gaining the most prominent advantages of both species, even if they are slightly weakened and a humanoid physique.
"Yes" and with a bright light Axel felt his body changing. Spending a few sconds to familiarise himself ith his new body Axel looked down at himself, seeing that not much had changed from his lazy appearence from before, aside from gaining some elven (although he doesn't know where they came from) traits, becoming slightly taller and thinner although still a little tubby.
"Hey A.I, can you summon a mirror so I can look at myself."
"Certainly"
Now having a mirror infront of his Axel got a good look at his "characters body".
"My hairs changed colour, turning from dark brown to black, and my eyes had changed from brown to a Hazel. I guess I still keep a little bit of the "grandeur" I'd gained from my rather extensive career as a couch potato, but with a bit of luck I could probably lose this added weight fairly easily, well the servers should be up by now."
"Yes."