1. New Game

" From the Creators of World of Warlords and the critically acclaimed Guild Battles 3."

The trailer panned over a vast fantasy landscape. Cloud piercing mountains littered the sky and on the plains below were fantasy warriors fighting all kinds of monsters usually seen in a MMO. 

"The Gates have arrived in the world of Corus and the monsters are overtaking many lands once occupied by the races of intelligent life on Corus. Eventually, the king of a dying nation made a last ditch effort to save his beloved world."

A ruined castle on fire swooped into view and as if viewing through a birds eye the camera entered the castle to find all its inhabitants in a magic circle with the king on his throne chanting.

"The king casted a forbidden spell that should have never existed and offered all the power of citizens as well as himself to the world."

"With this power the the core of this world decided to summon hero's to protect it inhabitants."

The camera panned out into space where the planet shown a bright white and a magic circle surrounded the world. Then the trailer faded to black. 

"Well, if I wasn't going to play it before I definitely am now!"

Jack had just finished watching the latest trailer for the new game "Dungeon Divers". Jack being a already deadbeat teenager completely addicted to VR games decided that he wouldn't miss out on the first full dive VRMMO. He was already the best at any VRMMO that was currently on the market or had any sort of fan following.

The full dive VR machine was so advanced that it was capable of slowing down any of the bodies process for a couple days at a time. This technology was something that no scientists were able to create besides BlizzSoft. 

Jack had already used all his money to buy his rig and the game. The combined total being $1000 which his parents were not keen on letting him take out of his college savings. 

Tomorrow at 6 am was when the game was supposed to release and Jack would make sure he was awake by 4 to scour the internet for the most recently rumors.

Unlike most VRMMO's on the market there had been no public beta test for the game. Nobody had even disclosed any information of actually using the Full Dive gear. Which meant either an NDA was signed or something was going on behind closed doors. 

Jack turned his computer and headed to his bed. It took awhile before he was able to fall asleep because of his excitement. Little did he know the danger that was instore for him when he would put on the rig.

***

Beep

Beep

Beep

Beep

Jack woke up to his alarm clock and excitedly rushed to turn his light on and boot up his pc. Today was the day he had been waiting for ever since he started to play VRMMO's. The day he would be able to feel everything he was doing in game.

As he was scrolling through forums about the game he stumbled upon an interesting post.

"Leaked News: In-game currency to be able to be transferred into the real money."

Besides a few games that allowed one to earn crypto currencies there has been no game in which money could be earned just by playing a game.

"I could become rich." 

With his status as a top player in any game he touched, he was sure he would be able to make some serious money.

He checked the time on his computer, that being 5:50. He hurried around to plug his Full Dive headset in and spent the rest of the time clicking on the game until it opened. His goal was to be first.

[Dungeon Divers: Play]

The game had finally released.

Before he knew it everything turned black and he felt like he was falling.

After about 5 minutes a familiar blue game system window opened.

[Please choose a name.]

Jack didn't hesitate to enter the username that he had used time and time again.

"Jack"

[Please Select a Starter Weapon]

As the prompt appeared he was whisked away into a room with pedestals. Each one had a weapon on top.

Sword, Tower Shield, Wand, Staff, Sword and Shield, etc.

Jack wasn't looking for the normie weapons, he was looking for the weapon that he had mastered throughout his time in VRMMO's. That being the Spear. The majority of people look down on the spear because of its simplicity, there are very few fancy techniques or flashy skills. What the spear does have though is the hardest to master techniques which all revolve around attacking the enemy from both range and being able to protect the users self up close.

He walked up and grabbed the spear, what he first noticed was just how real the simple spear felt. It was made of wood and had an iron spear head on the end. The simplest of weapons, but also the most deadly. He could feel all the grooves in the spear and when he pressed his finger against the blade to test the sharpness, he felt pain.

Pain was impossible to recreate in a normal VRMMO and Jack new that the Full Dive system did have pain, but it wasn't the reduced pain that had been mentioned. It was real pain and real blood was dripping from his finger. 

He watched in real time as a bright light shined around the cut and closed it.

"This must be a safe zone."

[Do you wish to proceed?]

[Yes] [No]

Jack clicked 'Yes' as he was eager for the his next step in his adventure.

Little did he know that his new game that he was so eager to play was in fact not a game at all. The company that designed it had no idea about this, except for the developer of the AI that was supposed to be running this game. The headset was not just a headset, it contained a summon circle that would activate through the start up process of the game.