Lords of EverRealm

Chapter One: The Strangers

 Xander Player XZero99 woke up slumped on his recliner in his unkept living room. His apartment small and unimpressive reflecting his lax attention to aesthetics.  Groggy and thirsty, he grabs a liter of cold water from his sparse refrigerator and slides open the window to let in the cool air. 

He returned to his recliner and picked up his Nexus Gear VR headset that covered his neon blue digital clock. "It's 3:30AM, I might as well play again, it's not like I have to work today anyway." He thought to himself. He tilted his head back and refreshed himself with some water then slid on is gaming gloves. He pressed his left thumb on his index activating the Nexus Play console .

He put on his headgear and witnessed the blank white loading screen followed by the crisp dubstep intro.  A  fast zooming cosmic star display flooded the screen. The stars faded into brightly colored forest with a quick zoom of a glowing women approaching a tree and an emerald green serpent passing her a brilliant colored apple with its tail. The woman smells the apple with a satisfied grin then the screen faded again, large golden letters reading: Eden Soft, Welcome to your world. The next  screen flashed with a cartoon chimpanzee shooting a machine gun. A large block font of bullet holed green letters reading: Violent Monkey studios.

Another Loading screen appeared. This time a slow flight over a very large metropolis. Glittering neon lights, vehicles  soaring in the skyline. The loading percentage in the bottom of the screen with a glowing laser blue font over the passing landscape reading: Lords of EverRealm  version 5.0. Daemons and Angels Expansion.

The immersive soundtrack risen in volume of an amalgam of epic orchestral with cosmic dubstep sounds for filling the string sections.  He reached his arm forward to press the start key.

Another title screen faded in. A transparent white screen overlaid a nighttime urban setting of ally ways and damp brick buildings and lightning strikes illuminating the dense urban setting. 

The selection options read: Continue, Shop, Avatar Set Up, He reached out again and pushed Continue. A burst of swirling purple white light filled the screen. The light quickly pulled him in a dizzying free fall imitating transporting to another field the stated by Eden soft as the goal. To transport us to the Nexus to push us past reality into hyper reality. The purple swirling light vanished and Xander found himself standing on the sidewalk facing a large building with an animated billboard ad for a Chinese energy drink Kuai Cola.  A slight build of a man running in hyper speed holding a red can of Kuai while yelling: Kuaiiiiii!

The street was bustling with all kinds of people of all ethnicities and types. Elves, dwarves  and  Fae wearing modern urban clothing. Tall sleek Simnarhi a cat-human like race and a few Orkish folk making their way through. It was difficult telling who was an AI controlled NPC or  a live human played avatar save for the hovering blue,green or red gamer tags appearing over the heads of the avatar. The graphics were hyper-realistic using an advanced   innovative  graphics engine: Full Reality.  Xanders avatar was a medium height a dark skinned melanated man in his mid thirties with short spiky dreadlocks in a light brown leather trench coat. He sported two guns  holstered in reverse on his belt. He wore worn black military styled boots with steel toes.  His class: Gun Slinger. Known for quick single handgun fights and close quarters combat. Usually not competent in magic skills or alchemy or technomancy. Gun Slingers have always been a popular choice amongst lone wolf explorer types or small party gamers of Everquest games or those that aren't into raiding. Xader walked down the crowded street heading for the Metro station. Horus was a huge city, mapped similar to New York with the feel of Tokyo. Large boxed sky scrapers  with soft shaped vehicles soaring the golden sky. Lighting flashed  behind the pyramid shaped Temple of Shadra. Xander reached the subway station. It was crowded per usual with other avatars and NPCs waiting for the North Acacia Metro. A floating digital clock hovered above  the turn styles displaying the next train arrival which was every five seconds. The train arrived and quickly filled. Xander stood up holding grab handle as he surveyed other avatars of Human, Fae, Elf and others that filled the train. His in game inbox flashed a soft classical tune displaying a transparent glowing envelope. He opened the message reading:" Meet us at the  Ghost Castle on Acacia Avenue and 22nd street. Get a phone and call  me at A491-24 and I can tell you who I am, this is urgent I can tell you about your stolen coin and Sypher666." Xander was intrigued. He had only planned to play a couple of Daemons & Angels side quest then call it a night. The shaking train came to a halt. He exited the train and found himself on Acacia Avenue another Horus busy street though not as clustered as were he had spawned previously. Various shops dotted the rain glistened streets. smoke breathed from gutters , NPC's walked to and from their AI directed points some holding clear plastic umbrellas with activated neon lights on the handles as  the rain fell. Xander spotted a kiosk selling s small selection of in-game products like E-callers ( cell phones used within the Eden realm) and  cigarettes and toys. He had just enough Cryo-Coin to purchase a basic E-Caller. He activated the device by linking his account and gamertag to it. With a quick press of the number/letter screen he dialed the number and waited for an answer.