1 A New Hope

-June 10th, 2086, 2PM-

*Ding Ding Ding*

All around, the sounds of students packing up their belongings and shuffling out of the classroom could be heard. For some, this would be the last bell ever as today was the last day of school. Many would be attending college that coming Fall but some would take some time to take their shot at becoming a professional gamer.

The esports industry had been booming for the last 40 some odd years. Many multinational corporations are now deeply invested in the industry. There is a plethora of money to be made in popular games.

One of the graduates was Tyler Sandberg. He is a 17 year old boy from New York. He stands at 5 feet 10 inches, weighs 140 pounds, has medium length, flowy blond hair, and blue eyes. He lives alone with his mom, Julia. His father died in a tragic space accident several years back. Since then, the two of them have been struggling financially. Julia works overtime as an assistant to support the two of them.

Today is a special day for Tyler. A new game, Star Wars: Galactic Expedition, is set to launch at 6PM. He has been waiting months for this game. The day had finally arrived.

For as long as he could remember, Tyler was a huge fan of Star Wars. It probably had something to do with his dad being an astronaut. Fortunately, he was not alone in his obsession. His best friend, John DiMonte, is also a big fan of Star Wars. It was actually Tyler who got him into it.

John was your classic stud. He was tall, attractive, smart, and athletic. The two of them have known each other since elementary school.

Tyler hurried out of the classroom and weaved through the maze of people in the hallway. He had to find John quickly so they could go and get some food before the game launches. He quickly made his way towards the student parking lot since John said that he'd pull his car up to that exit.

Once he got outside, he was able to quickly locate John's car through the crowd of people. He ran over and opened the passenger door. "Yo." He then sat down into the car and closed the door.

John nodded and said, "What's up?" Tyler grinned and said, "You know what's up. We got shit to do my friend." They both laughed. John then switched into drive and pulled out of the parking lot.

About 10 minutes later, they arrived at Guapo Taco. The two of them went up to the counter. They ordered three tacos each and sat down in the dining area.

The two started eating. After finishing his first taco, John turned to Tyler. "So, three hours until pre-launch huh?"

Tyler nodded and with a mouth full of taco he said, "Yep. We gotta make sure we create our characters before 6PM so we can get in right away. You never know what kinds of fortuitous encounters may exist in the starting zone. Anyways, what class do you think you're gonna run?"

John thought for a moment and said, "I'm not too sure. Currently, brawler seems like my first choice but then again, it is supposedly really hard. What about you?"

Without any hesitation, Tyler said, "I am probably going to go for brawler as well. But I am definitely going to try and figure out how to get the force sensitive class. Apparently there is no information on how to acquire that class. It is all a mystery for now."

John nodded, "Mmmhm. I've heard that the force sensitive class is the hardest class in the game. That kinda makes sense though. If it was easy, the force would be extremely overpowered. I suspect that they will limit the amount of people that can be force sensitive. It will probably be based on encounters or reputation."

Tyler sighed, "I am afraid that you might be right. I'll just have to hope I can get lucky!"

-4:55PM-

'I have been waiting for this moment. I worked hard to make this happen. For the last 6 months, I have been doing some light exercise to keep my body healthy. I also worked a lot to save up the money for the VR Full Dive Headset. This is my big chance. Mom said I have 1 year to try and go pro in gaming. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to go to college. Here goes nothing!'

With just a minute before the pre-launch, Tyler laid down into his bed and pulled the headset over his face.

He then reached up and pressed the power button. A blinking yellow light flashed in his face. The startup sequence has commenced.

About 30 seconds later, the headset established the connection with his brain and everything went dark.

Suddenly, a Disney and LucasFilm logo faded into his vision. After a few seconds, they faded away.

Then, out of nowhere, the Star Wars intro exploded into view. The fanfare was glorious as the theme song played. The wall of moving text slowly crept up as the Star Wars logo drifted farther away.

"Welcome Tyler. Please say the name you would like to use."

Tyler grinned and said, "Draco."

"That is a splendid name. Now, if you will, please customize your character. First, you may choose your race. For races, you may choose Human, Togruta, Neimoidian, Rodian, Chiss, or Zabrak. In the case that you select Human, your in game appearance will reflect the way you look in the real world. You will, however, be allowed to make minor adjustments to your appearance."

There are countless species in Star Wars. The ones that are available are just a limited selection. Fortunately, they are all humanoid species so it won't be too difficult to control the bodies. For the races available, Humans are, well, human.

Togrutas were a sentient species from the planet Shili. They were characterized by their colorful skin tones, large montrals and head tails, and white facial pigments, which served to hide them from predators.

Neimoidians were a humanoid species native to the planet of Neimoidia, while also settling wealthy purse-worlds like Cato Neimoidia. They had smooth noseless faces, mottled green-gray skin, and large red-orange eyes.

Rodians were a species of reptilian humanoids. They possessed large pupil-less eyes that could see in the infrared spectrum, slender snouts, pointed ears, twin saucer-like antennae that detected vibrations atop their heads, and a ridge of spines cresting their skulls. Green (sometimes yellow or turquoise) scales covered their bodies, and their skin had a rough, pebbly texture, except on the snout and hands.

The Chiss were a blue-skinned, near-human sentient species that possessed red eyes and dark blue hair. They hailed from the planet Csilla.

Zabraks were a near-human carnivorous species native to the planet Iridonia. The species had distinctive horns atop their heads and two hearts.

Without hesitation, Tyler responded, "I will be a Mandalorian human and you can go ahead and keep my appearance."

Tyler and John had decided that they would be humans and keep their appearance. Their ridiculous reasoning was that they were already handsome enough and they didn't need to change their looks.

The AI took a few moments to process the information. "Congratulations! You have completed your character customization. There is 51 minutes until the game launches. It is recommended that you read through the game manual. It can be accessed in the menu."

Tyler opened the menu and selected the game manual. He spent the next 50 minutes skimming through it to get a general idea about the game.

As advertised, the game is a super large scale VR MMORPG. The map is the entire galaxy. There are various professions/secondary classes but only 5 main classes. They included Force Sensitive, Gunner, Assassin, Protector, and Brawler.

Force Sensitive is the hardest class in the game. It takes a lot of training and high levels to be strong. The only information about this class is that these individuals are force enhanced. There is no restriction on weapon usage in addition to being the only class that can use a lightsaber. The only thing that is revealed about how to get this class is that you need to find an item that triggers the class change quest.

Gunner is the easiest class in the game. It is an all rounder class that uses ranged weapons. There are plenty of specializations such as heavy weapons specialist, sniper, etc. It is a very versatile class.

Next is the Assassin class. This class is a speed based class that uses ranged and melee weapons. They are faster and can do more damage than Gunners. However, they are much squishier.

Following that is the Protector. This class is the standard tank. They have high HP and high defense but deal significantly less damage than the gunner. They can use heavy weapons, shields, and melee weapons.

Lastly, is the Brawler. This is a hybrid class. They are tankier than a gunner, but are faster and do more damage than a Protector. They can use any type of weaponry.

In addition to the main classes, there are a bunch of secondary classes. They are Pilot (hard), Engineer (hard), Merchant (easy), Medic (moderate), Demolitionist (moderate), Bounty Hunter (variable), Tailor (easy), Blacksmith (moderate), Chemist (moderate), Miner (easy), Gatherer (easy), Hunter (easy), Farmer (easy), Jeweler (easy), and Marksman (hard).

Next, it went through the status breakdown. It showed the template for the status screen and also defined each metric. The view is displayed below:

Stat Breakdown: * = only visible to individual ** = Hidden stat

(Name, Age, Class)

(Level) - cap raises after each expansion pack

(Exp %)*

(Homeworld, Race)

(Health/HP) - Based off base

(Mana/MP) - Based off intelligence

(Strength/STR)* - Amount of force one can exert

(Defense/DEF)* - Damage reduction

(Dexterity/DEX)* - Movement speed, attack speed, agility

(Stamina/STA)* - Expendable energy

(Vitality/VIT)* - Health, health regen, stamina regen

(Intelligence/INT)* - Mana, mana regen

(Charisma/CHA)* - NPC interaction stuff

(Luck/LCK)** - Luck

(Resolve/RES)** - Willpower, resistance to force abilities and manipulation

Some other important details were also displayed. Firstly, this game would implement time dilation. This is the first time that this technology is on display. The time in game would flow 4 times faster than the real world. This meant that one day in the real world equates to 4 days in game! Essentially, you can live 4 times as much life in the game compared to real life.

Another topic was the Galactic exchange service. This was a place where you could sell in-game currency and items for real life currency. That means that people could make a fortune in the real world by being successful in the game.

One other topic was death. Players are able to respawn but NPCs can not. Once they die, that is it. For players, they only receive a slight penalty upon death. Upon death, players lose one level and one random unbound equipment. However, if the player can make it back to their point of death instead of resurrecting in a graveyard, they can regain 50% of the lost EXP and recover their items as long as no other players looted them.

After Tyler finished skimming through the manual, there were 30 seconds before the official launch. He started to get restless. 'What should I do first? Do I rush to level up? Do I explore and see if I can find anything? UGHHHHHH! So many choices…'

3… 2… 1… *Star Wars Main Theme*