Prologue

At the beginning of spring on March 20th, 2027 a new VRMMORPG will be released.

The name of the game is "The Abyss" and it was widely reported in the media months before its release.

Even though it's the beginning of the game the World is already 10 times larger than the Earth and is managed by an AI that is supposed to continuously bring in new content or balance it.

New continents, new factions, new races and an unlimited number of jobs.

You aim to create an army of golems, then go ahead and explore the creation of golems.

You want to resurrect the dead, then study the cycle of life and death and resurrect the dead to do your bidding.

You want to throw giant fireballs and meteorites around you, then become a pyromancer or an Archmage.

Even if you have no interest in Magic you can still learn martial arts or the art of war with Weapons like the sword, spear, bow or other weapons.

If nothing like this piques your interest you could even learn life skills and make a name for yourself as the best Smith, the best alchemist or even as a grand Architekt.

Let your mind wander and choose what you wish to do, as long as you can think of it the Game will make it possible.

But beware of the different logic of this world, if you wish to build a Steam engine to help you mine ores or even integrate it into a Train you have to challenge the gods of this world.

The Technological level of "The Abyss" is supported by mana and spells, every other form of technology is despised by the gods and will simply not work or call forth heavenly punishment.

If you want to design an engine you have to change the source of fuel to magic and the mechanics of the engine to Arrays to support it.

Today it's finally time to let the world see the glory of this wonderful world.

In any store selling games around the world, you can see an influx of people hours before the store opens.

You can see people with tents, camp chairs or a group of them sitting on blankets as they make food with camping cookers.

Many people would think it is boring to wait like half a day for the store to open, but all you see when you watch the gathering of hundreds of gamers is a merry bunch that couldn't wait to get their hands onto the gaming helmets and "The Abyss".

One of them is David who sits on his camping chair and looks at his smartphone to check the official Forums of the game.

As he scrolls through it someone beside him asks. "Hey buddy, what you looking at"

David: "Nothing just scrolling through the Forums to get a Headstart and maybe find something interesting"

He looked at him and you could see his interest "And how are your findings"

David nonchalantly answered "Bad as you could guess.

After all, the only people allowed checking the game beforehand work for the Company"

???: "Well thought as much, would be too nice to know where you could farm or level efficient even before the game launch"

Seeing his interest fading David said: "It's not like I found nothing but it wouldn't help much.

looks like the Helmet has an integrated scanner which will scan your body beforehand and will create your character for you, your only allowed to do minor tweaks"

???: "As you said, doesn't help me much but yeah definitely nice to know, at least you will know if the person before you is a woman or a man.

I hate it when you play with a beauty and you find out its a guy"

"Yeah, I'm with you.

By the way, I'm David, 16 years old" as he introduced himself he stretched out his hand.

Shaking his hand he answered: "Nice to meet you, I'm Andrew, 19 years old"

"Yeah, nice to meet you.

And how about you, do you know something about the game" asked David as he leans back.

"Not much more than most of us, some big companies trying to buy company stocks and set up game studios. I've even heard that Apple, Square Enix, Samsung, Microsoft, Tencent, and even China Resources tried to get a piece of the cake.

Tencent has even set up several game studios. "As he continued to speak, you could hear that he researched this game and was looking forward to its release.

David was a bit flustered as he asked " China Resources, you sure?

If I'm not wrong that is a state-owned company. If even China as a whole is interested it looks like this game would be fun for a while."

As they kept talking, you could see the staff starting to work as they prepared for the rush.

They watched for round about half an hour before someone from the staff walked to the door and unlocked it.

She came outside and said: "Hello everyone, first of all, we would like to welcome you. Because of the sheer amount of people gathered here we would have to give you a few rules before you can go into the store.

First rule: 100 People can enter then we wait 30 seconds and then the next Wave is allowed.

Second rule: No Snatching, if someone in front of you has a helmet, you aren't allowed to snatch it from them.

Third Plea: Please have mercy on us. In anticipation of the publication of "The Abyss", we opened every cash register. Please stay in line and wait for your turn." she giggled

"Anyone who breaks the rules will be kicked out of the store."

After that, she opened the doors and returned inside as the Security took over the Entrance.

You could hear a few people whispering and cursing but everything went orderly.

As the third wave of people was allowed inside the Store it was finally David's turn.

He turned towards Andrew and said: "I'm off, wish you luck inside the game and maybe we will see each other again." as he finished speaking he went inside the store while Andrew had to stay behind and wait for his turn.

An hour later he walked outside to grab a taxi to get him home.

He paid the driver, took his helmet and the game with him as he went to his 1 room apartment. For a 1 bedroom apartment, you could say that it was big. A large bedroom, a bathroom with bathtub and shower, and a large living room with an open kitchen and a balcony.

When he went in, he walked into the bedroom and placed the bag next to his bed while he checked his watch. "11:00 am, so what should I do until the game starts? I have one hour left. Maybe I should eat something and take a quick shower. "

He went into the kitchen, started the electric kettle and took a shower.

After showering, he made a few ready-made noodles and sat in front of the television.

After switching the channels a few times he saw the news about "The Abyss".

"... sed just today and will start its Servers in 15 Minutes but it broke every record till now. The sales are skyrocketing in every land.

If I didn't know better I would say the numbers are rigged.

So you may not know what motivates all these players to rush outside just to buy the game so let me tell you." as she finished talking she stopped for a moment to catch her breath and continued energetically: "The game "The Abyss" will only be sold in selected shops for its release and the shipping will start 3 days after its release. So every gamer who tries to get a good ranking is rushing to these stores to get a copy for himself.

But this is only the reason why they are physically here, the reason they are buying it is because of the unending number of possibilities you have inside the game.

You can literally become everything you want.

But that is not all, there are many gigantic companies out there that are heavily investing in the game and started gaming clubs and studios to get a better spot inside the game.

What brings them to invest millions of millions of dollars that is an interesting question to which I have to apologize because I really don't know.

For Live news and information about the Company which developed "The Abyss" stay tuned, we will continue after a short break."

As the advertisement started he switched the TV off and went inside the bedroom to switch on the Helmet and check if everything is ready.

The Scan started and he went into the character creation where he tweaked the copy of himself a bit to make it look a bit more handsome, after that he looked at the start button at the bottom and waited.

5..

4..

3..

2..

1..

START...

Everything went well and he could see a small village in front of him.

--- Somewhere else ---

(POV random Employee)

when the game started, employees could be seen staring at their monitors.

initialize game...

4 error messages...

pair AI...

AI successfully paired...

Game successfully launched.

As the game successfully launched they started cheering.

until one of the employees called out: "Guys quick, call the rescue team, I get error notifications and critical life data."

As he shouted to get the attention he furiously typed onto his keyboard.

Accessing Data

Helmet ID number 003485167

Subject: David Williams

Age: 16

Place of birth: Tokio

Place of residence: Germany

Province: Berlin

City: Berlin

Addr…

He saw the data and shouted: "Contact the Rescue team in Berlin I'm going to forward the Address. Helmet ID number 0 0 3 4 8 5 1 6 7. Get it done NOW.

We don't want the first death with the launch of the game.