Opening his eyes, Randy found himself in a classroom. Confused, he looked around. It was his math class, but there was no one there but him. Why was he there? Randy tried to rack his brain as to how he’d ended up in the classroom, but everything was fuzzy.
“Hello Randy,” said a voice.
Randy looked at the front of the classroom and there was an old man in robes sitting on the teacher’s desk. “Hello. What’s going on? Who are you?”
“My name is Elwyn Grosslin, and we’re here because I thought that you’d be more comfortable awakening in a recognizable location. Thankfully, it wasn’t hard to find photos of your classroom on the internet.”
“I don’t understand. Are we not in my classroom?”
“Technically no. You are in a medi-pod. You were in an accident and suffered a head injury.”
Randy frowned. “An accident?” Suddenly images of running through the meadow filled his mind and he remembered what had happened. “That was no accident. I was tackled into the ravine.”
“Ah, your memories are intact, that is excellent. Dr. Derksen will be pleased.”
“OK, wait. I’m in a medi-pod. Does that mean I have brain damage? Are you a figment of my imagination? How are you speaking to me?”
“You have brain swelling, and technically you are in a coma, but your mental function has returned to a level where you are able to interact with the game world. Are you familiar with New Realm Online?”
“Sure, it is that new fantasy game everyone wants to play. Oh, that is why this feels so real. I heard it was good, but not this good. It really feels like I’m in my classroom, except for the fact that it doesn’t smell like Marty Johnson’s gym socks.”
“Ha, well I’m afraid we couldn’t program that in with the information we had available. However, this isn’t part of the game. This is an intermediate space created to help you transition into the world. Going straight from a coma to the game world would’ve messed with your mind.”
“I’ll say. I think this is messing with my mind enough.” Randy knew that he had hit his head pretty hard, so it wasn’t a stretch to think that it would be enough to put him in the hospital. He knew enough about medi-pods to know that they were the premier way of treating many injuries, especially ones that required long term treatment. “Will I have to be in the game a long time?”
“Brain injuries are funny,” Elwin said. “The human mind can function during recuperation, but any little stress on the brain can cause bleeding or more swelling and potential long-term damage. Your treatment is going to take some time. That is why you’re going to be put into the game as a player. You can live in the fantasy world while your body recovers.”
“I suppose that doesn’t sound so bad.”
Elwin smiled. “Excellent. I’m glad you are receptive to the idea. Although I will warn you, it is not an easy game. You will encounter many struggles and normally we do not let minors play, especially in long-term pods, but your mother signed off on it, so we have permission to accept you into the game. However, it is still your choice. You can stay in this intermediate location as long as necessary.”
“My mother signed off on me playing New Realm Online? Wow, I must’ve come closer to dying than you’re admitting to. She hates violence with a passion.”
“I can’t comment on how close you were to dying, I only have limited data on that. However, Dr. Derksen assures me that your mother agreed and was fully briefed on the nature of the game. According to Dr. Derksen’s notes she reluctantly agreed.”
“She probably feels guilty after telling that last councilor to take a flying leap. He suggested martial arts classes as a therapy tool.”
“I do believe that played a factor, but what about you? Would you be willing to take martial arts lessons as part of your training for New Realm Online?”
Randy thought about it. He’d never really been interested in martial arts. That was for the big strong kids who liked smashing into things. However, he was obviously not good enough at running to avoid every situation. Perhaps learning to defend himself wouldn’t be a bad idea. If he was going to be stuck in a medi-pod and only able to interact with the game, he might as well learn something useful. “Sure. Why not.”
“Excellent. Do you mind if I change our environment?” Elwyn asked.
“Not at all.” Randy was curious to see the change. While his mother had strict rules about video games, he’d seen and heard enough about them at school to be fascinated. He wasn’t sure if it was the games themselves that intrigued him or the fact that it was the forbidden fruit. He’d let his psychiatrist figure that one out.
Elwyn smiled and suddenly the classroom was gone—he wasn’t sitting at a desk, instead he was standing across from Randy, who was sitting on a rough wooden bench around a firepit. There was a cottage in the background and mountains and trees surrounding them. It was incredibly lifelike. If Randy hadn’t just seen the transformation from classroom to forest, he would’ve had a hard time believing it was a virtual world. “Is it this real for all gamers?”
“It is for the ones in medi-pods,” Elwyn said.
“Amazing.”
“Now, it seems you are adapting well to the situation, that is excellent. It means your recovery should go smoothly. Although, you still face many obstacles and will have to adapt to the game world. For someone who’s never played a video game, and has an aversion to violence, this can be quite jarring. Other than the time you spend with me, you’ll be starting out by yourself and will have to adapt quickly.”
“A sink or swim moment?” Randy asked.
“Yes, that analogy is apt. Consider our time here the training lessons in the kiddy pool before you get thrown into the deep end without a life jacket.”
“And what happens if I drown?”
“Death in New Realm Online isn’t permanent. You will be reborn, and get to try again, as many times as necessary. However, the death process isn’t pleasant. I recommend avoiding it as much as possible. Injuries taken during the game will give you pain, but at a reduced rate than reality. It is a mechanism that discourages people from using death to gain an advantage during play. It is impressive the lengths you humans will go to in order to get ahead.”
“You’re not human?”
“No, I’m part of the game AI. I am a unique entity designed for assisting medi-pod players who need extra attention and instruction before being immersed into the game world.”
“Wow. Someone did a great job on your programming. I couldn’t tell.”
“Thank you. The main AI has dedicated much time to making all aspects of the world as real as possible, myself included.”
Wow, the AI built the AI? Randy thought as he looked around. He’d heard that artificial intelligence had come a long way in the last decade, but never had he imagined it would be this good. “So, what is the next step? I imagine my time with you is limited.”
“Your time here doesn’t have a limit, if you need more time before you enter the game then you’ll have all you need. This is a safe place for you to recover from your injuries, but there is only so much I can show you before you move on to the real game.”
Randy looked around. “It’s OK here, but I think I’d get bored quick, let’s plan on me entering the game.”
“Yes, that is the spirit, in that case, we should try to maximize your time here as the sooner you go into the game the sooner you can start leveling up and getting stronger. Your first lessons are going to help you understand how the game world works. I want you to think ‘character sheet’.”
Randy followed Elwyn’s instructions and a screen popped up in his vision. “Woah,” he said. “that is weird but very cool.” He started reading the information.
Randy Cyr…. Level 0 Halfblood Elf
Health 50
Mana 60
Below those stats was a tab called Attributes. He mentally clicked on it and saw his character build.
Strength 9
Agility 9
Constitution 10
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 12
Charm 6
Randy looked at his stats, they seemed mediocre, but then he noticed his race. “Halfblood Elf?”
“Yes. Normally, we give players a choice of races, but for some players with pre-existing medical conditions, the race and character stats are decided for you based on your information. In your case, your history of being teased for having unique looking ears was taken into account. Just like in the real world you will have to overcome people’s prejudices against those who look different or have a different race. As for the rest of your stats, they are fairly standard. You scored lower than normal on strength and agility, and your charm score is below average as well. Your intelligence and wisdom are above average, but not so much to give you a real advantage. Your starting stats are just that, a place to start. As you improve, your stats improve. Each time you level up you gain 5 points that you can choose to distribute however you like. Also, you can improve stats with activities in the game. Spend extra time lifting weights or doing manual work and you can improve your strength. Spend time practicing magic, you can increase your intelligence and wisdom.”
“OK. What about skills?” While Randy wasn’t a gamer himself, he’d heard enough other kids taking about magic and skills to know it was likely a part of the game.
“Skills can be learned immediately through skill books or high-level trainers. However, you can learn a skill by doing it enough, or faster if a person with the skill teaches it to you. For example, if you start cutting down trees, eventually you’ll get a logger skill. But if you use the Logger skill book you’ll get it right away.I will be giving you a few skills to get started, but after that, it will be up to you how you progress.”
“I see. What skills are you going to give me?”
“The first skill is basic hand to hand combat. However, I am going to teach you a more advanced version afterward, so that you can see how both work,” Elwyn said before handing him a book.
Randy accepted it and read the title: Basic Hand to Hand Combat.
“Open it and start reading,” Elwyn said.
Randy opened the book and started reading. He was only a few sentences in when he felt a surge of information flooding into his brain. He closed his eyes. It took him a second to adjust to what had just happened. “How in the hell did that just work?”
“Part of Corton’s research led them to discover that the brain can act almost like a hard drive. You can upload information into it the same way you would into a computer. It isn’t perfect, but the retention of information is actually higher than just reading a book. But like any other knowledge that you gain, if you don’t apply it, you can lose it. That is one of the biggest differences. Only a few rare people have perfect recall. The rest will retain varying amounts of what is learned. Using this method of uploading skills is time saving but it is far from perfect. Practice and learning to apply the knowledge will be up to you.”
Randy scratched his head. That was an answer he could understand. He’d seen a video once about speed readers who could go through books at a tremendously fast rate and still retain large portions of the info they’d just zipped through. The brain was capable of incredible things. “What about that advanced version?”
Elwyn handed Randy another book. “This one includes several different forms of martial arts. In the game this would be a unique treasure. However, in your case it is being used to balance out some of the restrictions being placed on you.”
Accepting the book, Randy looked cautiously at Elwyn. “What restrictions?”
“We’ll talk about those later. For now, just read the book.”
Randy took a deep breath. He didn’t like the sound of restrictions, and having the AI brush it off for later didn’t make him any more comfortable about the situation but absorbing the info from the first book had been cool. The fact that this next one was considered a treasure made Randy even more curious. And here we go, Randy thought as he opened the book.