I walked out of the shop, holding a packet of nuts. I desperately hoped that I had gotten peanuts instead of cashew nuts this time. I have a vision problem called RP — or retinitis pigmentosa — which had made me lose a lot of my vision by the age I am now, 15. I also lived by myself because my parents were murdered 7 months ago. The killer hasn't been found, but if I ever do find him, which I will make sure I do, I will make him pay. As I walked down the footpath, I had my cane out to warn other people that I couldn't see well. It looked like a white stick long enough to go up to my chest, with a red section at the bottom and a black grip at the top.
I heard the noise of hover cars, as well as other vehicles, and knew I was approaching the road. Hover cars had started to get popular in the year 2068, and by now, in the year 2076, almost everyone had them. I paid attention to when the ground started to tilt down into a small tunnel underneath the road so I wouldn't trip. There were also artificial lights in here, however, it wasn't as bright as the sun and so I had a harder time seeing where I was going. I mostly just aimed at the light and hoped I wouldn't run into anyone or anything.
I came out of the tunnel... and immediately ran into someone. I muttered an apology, while they grunted in annoyance, and stalked off. This wasn't a rare occurrence. Even though I had my cane out, people would often ignore it, not get out of my way, and then would get angry at me for not moving. I sighed but moved on. I wanted to get home to play Soul Realm, the first full dive virtual reality game. By using the helmet which you have to buy, it blocks out your real senses and puts fake ones in their place going straight to your brain. RP is a problem with the retina, and not the brain, and so I'm hoping that I will be able to see while playing.
I finally reached the car queue. I went to the end of the line, though there were only 2 people in it, and waited. Not too long afterwards, it was my turn, and I pressed my finger against a sensor, after which, the hovercar door opened, and I got in.
"Please name an address." A mechanical male voice sounded through the speakers. I said my address in a clear voice so that the car could understand it. This system was introduced a couple of years ago. There were car queues around different areas, like how bus stops used to be, and you had to give your fingerprint to use a car. The price was 4 dollars every minute, and it would count how much money you needed to pay. It would then extract said money from your bank account, which it gained access to from your fingerprint, then delete your fingerprint from its database, so it couldn't be gained if someone hacked the system.
Arriving after a couple of minutes, the car door opened automatically and I got out. I was stood in front of a tall apartment block. I quickly moved toward the lift which was located to the right side inside of the building. The doors opened automatically after sensing that I was approaching, and after entering, I pushed the 6th floor button. The lift moved quickly and after only a few seconds did the doors open again. I walked down the hall while gently brushing my hand against the wall with the doors on it. Once I got to the 9th door, I felt around for the handle and tapped my finger on the small square. It beeped softly, signalling that it processed my fingerprint, and the door opened.
It was a small apartment. My kitchen was the first thing you see, though I wouldn't consider it one. It consisted of a small fridge and freezer, a cupboard, and a microwave. There were high chairs to sit on at the kitchen bench, and still, in the same room, I had my bed and desk. Not very far from my bed was my wardrobe, a simple piece of furniture holding my little variety of clothes, and a bathroom which held a toilet, a shower and a sink. The last thing in the apartment was my newly added VR gaming helmet on top of my nightstand, needed to play Soul Realm.
I walked over to the kitchen bench and opened the packet of nuts I was still holding. After grabbing one from the packet and eating it, I smiled. They were salted peanuts, probably the best choice I could've made. I could have easily asked one of the staff at the shop, however, I was shy and socially awkward — I didn't want any more social interaction than I had to have.
I strolled over to my bed after grabbing a mouthful of peanuts and sat down on it. I had left the helmet to charge while I went out so that as soon as I got back, I would be able to play. Finished chewing, I grabbed the helmet and slid it on my head, lied down, and flicked the switch on the side of the helmet to turn it on.
Immediately, all I could see was white. After a couple of seconds, everything dimmed and I saw a screen in front of me. I stared wide-eyed at it for a long time — my brain struggling to comprehend the information — then looked around. Although there wasn't much to see here, it was amazing. Everything looked so sharp!
"Hello, player. Welcome to Soul Realm. Please type your username into the white space." I jumped as a female voice echoed in my head. I looked down at the screen, once again marvelling at how crisp it looked, and after some thought put down Scytevz and lightly tapped the ok button.
"Thank you, please choose which race you would like to play as." As the voice said that, five different versions of me surrounded me, each from a different race. My head hurt at the sudden overload of information that was given to me, and my vision blurred. I closed my eyes, and in this time I thought of my parents, how they loved me. When I got up, I was starting to cry, and it felt like there was a gaping hole in my heart, but I tried to move on. I couldn't feel like this forever. After taking a while to compose my self, I looked at the different races around me.
There was the Human who was right in front of me, I realised that this was probably what I looked like in real life, and if I picked this race I would have 1% fewer experience points to upgrade to the next level, up to the fifth level. The Elf looked mostly like the Human, except it was taller, thinner, and had long and pointy ears, if I picked the Elf I would get +1 charisma, and +2 mana and magical damage. The Dwarf simply looked like a much shorter version of myself, and picking this race would give me +5% higher success rates in all crafting. The Giant looked like the exact opposite of the Dwarf, being bigger than my original form, and resulted in +2 physical defence and +3 strength. Lastly, the beastman assigned subraces at random, and I had gotten the fox sub-race. The beastman race would give me +1 to all of my basic senses, I also would get grey fox ears and a tail as well as claws on my hand and feet, though they looked quite blunt for now.
I chose to go with Beastman because upgrading your senses was supposed to be harder than upgrading other things. After I confirmed that the foxman sub-race was the race I wanted to play as, I changed my appearance so that it was different from the real world. In the end, I had straight, black, butt length hair that gradually turned silver on the way down, however red at the very tips, dark grey eyes, and pale skin.
"Now assigning stats based on the user's body..." my eyes widened slightly in shock — I didn't think that it would be so harsh at first. If one was athletic they would have a tremendous headstart on everyone else. "Process completed. You will be teleported into the world of Soul Realm in 30 seconds."
[ Scytevz ]
Foxman, Beastman Race
level 1
Health: 110/110
Mana: 100/100
Stamina: 110/110
Strength: 3
Vitality: 1
Agility: 3
Dexterity: 6
Wisdom: 0
Intelligence: 4
Charisma: 1
Free status points: 0
YOU ARE READING
Soul Realm
ActionWhen the almost blind Lilith Bronze finds out that there is a game where she might be able to see again in, she was ecstatic. However, after logging in, she finds that somethings aren't as they seem, many people aren't safe, and no one knows what is...
