“Mwahaha! You shall never awake the princess from her eternal slumber, foolish hero!” The man glowers at a silver clad knight with his reptilian eyes. Black-haired, crown like horns, maniacal laugh, pasty pale skin as white as a sheet, talon like nails and clothed in black, purple and blue themed clothes, this is clearly the demon king.

  Laughing atop a jagged spire of rock, the demon king looks upon the hero in amusement.

  “No! I will save my fair maiden from your grasp and awake her with the gentle caress of true love’s kiss.” Wearing armor crafted by the dwarves of old within the flames of a volcano and blessed by the kiss of a thousand valkyries, the armor donned by the legendary hero gleams with the light of righteous souls. Wearing full plate armor with chainmail at the joints for flexibility, Ralith, the legendary sword of legends is grasped firmly within the hero’s right hand.

  “Fool! What do you think guards the princess’ tower? Legions of the undead and a full score of dragons bars your path. If you are so foolish as to try your luck, come, hero.”

  Ignoring the sneering and taunting of the demon king, the hero merely dashes into the ranks of undead with a shout, unleashing epic ranked magic all the while. Soon, all that can be heard is the din of battle and strike of metal against metal amidst the roar of magics.

  “GRAAHHHH!”

  *Clang-Crash

  *Whooosh

  *Kablooy

  “Drake! You’d better not be playing with your dolls again! Now get down here and help me make lunch.” An older female voice, slightly muted from the distance, suddenly interrupts the youth’s vivid delusions who is holed up in his room on the second floor.

  “MOM! They’re not dolls. They’re action figures! I’ve repeated it several times already. When will you get it right?”

  “Whatever. Just get your rear down here and help me by preparing the salad.”

  “Coming mother.”

  Sighing, Drake begrudgingly sets his action figures aside on his nightstand. Guess you’ll be saving the princess some other time Mr. Hero.

  Lunch is a simple affair of summer salad and pan-seared chicken. Drake’s father enters from the garden momentarily to join the pair. Soon, the three begin their usual mealtime conversation.

  “So, son, are you excited to play the alpha test of “Eden”?” (Dad)

  “Of course I am. It is my 15th birthday present after all and there’s only a few more hours before it begins.” (Drake)

  “And don’t you forget it little man. Because of your age, we had to give consent to let you play and we can take it back. You’d better not slack off on chores and schoolwork.” (Mom)

  “Yes mom. I’ll make sure to finish all my chores mom. Ugh, it’s not like I’m completely useless.” (Drake)

  *cough

  Interrupting the growing conflict, Dad swiftly defuses the situation.

  “Drake, the alpha test begins at 1:30, right? Why don’t you leave the lunch cleanup to us while you go and set up your game now? Consider it part of your birthday gift.” (Dad)

  “Yay! Thanks dad.” (Drake)

  With not a moment to lose, Drake sprints back into his room whilst leaving his dad to a fate worse than death as his wife began staring daggers into him.

  Shoving the door aside, Drake enters his bedroom in anticipation. In the farthest corner is a simple twin bed with an adjacent nightstand and alarm clock. At the foot of the bed is a chest for his toys and opposite that is the bookshelf. In the other corner of the room lies a dull gray metal oblong egg. An ovoid door splits it along the top and swings up to allow easy access.

  Each of the 1000 alpha testers received a free VR immersion pod and the first year subscription of Eden for free. It had been delivered and installed one week prior in Drake’s bedroom and he could hardly contain his excitement since.

  Hastily shoving the mountain of books back onto their shelves and storing his action figures into the chest, Drake lies down into the sleek pod and places a visor over his head and face. As soon as the visor is properly secured, the lid closes down and a soft underglow grows around the contours of the pod.

  Soon, Drake’s senses fade out in the usual dive sequence and he reappears in his avatar, floating in a large sterile white room, the default user interface for new users.

  “Login user: l8tr_h8tr.”

  “Password: Dr@k3_r0ckz.”

  After the popup, the sterile room is quickly replaced with a plethora of video games. Consoles are connected to large displays against one wall on a stage, arcade games are lined up in rows with their screens brightly lit and ready, and a wall filled with icons displays available virtual reality immersion simulations and games.

  “Yes.”

  Once again, the room fades away and another takes its place. This one has an avatar set on a dais with various sliders for appearance floating nearby. Slightly scrawny at 5’8’’, the fierce look in his brown eyes does little to deter the opposite gender in their quest in petting him and his shaggy black hair. Rather, it seems to endear them further as they coo and coddle him against his wishes.

  Ugh, no wonder girls treat me like a dog. I look like a puppy. I’ll need to change that.

  “Reduce hair length by one inch and change eye color to crimson.”

  The avatar on the dais changes accordingly. Hmm… still not enough

  “Add gold flecks to the eyes and increase muscle mass by 15 pounds.”

  The avatar changes once again but still bears a close resemblance to Drake. If you were to compare the two, it would be like a before and after image for an all in one workout equipment.

  “Yes.”

  “Drake. D-R-A-K-E. Drake.”

  “Thank you. Display time remaining until open servers.”

  “Yes.”

  In the next moment his vision blacks out and the sensation of falling disorients him. Five seconds later he is inserted into his new avatar and ejected into a large grassy plain for the tutorial.

  Ugh. Everything feels numb. I probably shouldn’t have given myself more muscles. This just feels weird. Welp, nothing to do about it now other than stretch it out.

  Wiggling his fingers and toes, Drake performs the actions until it feels natural. Then he moves onto his arms and legs before finishing with some stretches. Five minutes later, another system window appears.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Yes.”

  Huh, so there’s stuff like that too. Since this is virtual reality, I want to experience this to the fullest but don’t want to forget that this is a game. Guess I’ll go with this.

  “Open: Settings. Pain set at 70%. Privacy set to permission only. Hide stats. User display: show Health, Mana, Stamina, Satiety; shrink display by 50%. Realism: Display player tags, NPC interactions set to realistic. System Assist: deactivate. Proceed with the tutorial.”

  *ding

  Before Drake appeared a long wooden table covered in basic weapons with a stuffed scarecrow 15 feet away. From left to right on the table are: tower shield, body shield, buckler, long sword, bastard sword, short sword, twin dagger, throwing dagger, hunting knife, staff, spear, glaive, club, mace, longbow, bow, and crossbow.

  I’ve never fought before in my life so I think that a balanced character would be good. The system mentioned magic so I should be able to cover my weaknesses with practice and training.

  Picking up a dagger, he places it in his boot before grabbing the shortsword and bodyshield. Next, Drake begins pummeling the scarecrow with slashes, stabs, and bashes from his sword and shield. Taking another ten minutes, he continues until he feels comfortable with his choices. Satisfied, he then moves on.

  “Proceed with the tutorial.” All of the weapons then disappear from the table, including the ones he was holding.

  As with the weapons, several leather bound tomes appear on the table along with an assortment of wands and staves. Among the spellbooks are Flame, Ice, Water, Light, Nature, Darkness, and Heal.

  Ooh, Flame. I think the choice is obvious. As Drake picks of the spellbook, Flame, a system message appears.

  “Yes.” The book promptly dissolves into particles of light and float towards his chest before sinking under his skin. That’s pretty. I wonder if I can make a light show like that too.

  Selecting a sturdy wand from the pile, it is closer to a straight, varnished stick than an ornate wand meant to control the wonders of magic. Taking utility over appearance, this one will do just fine.

  Now, how do I make fire? “System Assist: Spell casting: Flame.”

  Turning his attention to the now repaired scarecrow, Drake points towards it and shouts:

  “FLAME!”

  *poof Expecting a fireball or swath of fire to burst forth from the end of his wand, he is disappointed when only a flame the size of a candle’s is emitted.

  I guess they don’t call them basic spells for nothing. At least some magic is better than no magic at all. “Proceed with the tutorial.”

  “Yes, proceed to waiting room.”

  A/N The next chapter, 5.2 Alpha Testing, will continue Drake’s POV. I’ll likely make one or two more small POVs after this for the alpha test but nothing as large as this. You would't want a repeat of the tutorial, would you? After that, it’s back to Adam and Eve as they run the game.

  Thanks for reading.