Hey, guys. I've got a new story. I know I've never been able to really get into my own stories but this one's already a good five chapters. So I'll be able to really get this one out and I'll post when ever I feel like it's ready... Also means the story gets good reviews. But I'm not here to ramble, so enjoy the story.

(*EDITED*)

The fifteen year old boy named Zeke had waited two whole days to get a copy of the new game. He'd heard of the game for over a year now and finally it was going to be released. Even when he got there, to the small game shop of their city, there was at least six- maybe seven hundred people just waiting there for the chance to buy the game. The night he went out, he hadn't expected so many other people would have the same idea as him. After all, they were only releasing fifteen thousand copies of the game. Although it was a long wait, it was worth it.

After two days of waiting in an extremely long line and not being English, Zeke finally entered behind the red hair guy that had been in front of him for these past hours. After such a wait, he couldn't stand it any longer. He dashed up to the counter and shoved his one hundred eighty Euros over the counter and had his dream come true. The bored looking clerk at the counter reach behind him and handed a package into Zeke's open arms.

The second the red box was firmly in his arms and his pack on his back, the boy raced home. He ran the whole two kilometers to his room and, though tired, shredded open the plastic-like cardboard and gingerly removed the shining, but heavy-ish headgear that looked more like a hair band with tentacles and two input slots. His SymGear. Laying it aside, still in it's protective screens, he reached in and withdrew the cables and the game port. The port looked like one of those old cassette cases made from metal. A power box was attached and a WAN connector was on top.

Zeke had owned a computer for years. He'd watch the development of the computer since he was seven in 2016. Now he was eight years older and now he was about to play the most anticipated game of the year. He stripped the game port of the it's anti static wrapper and plugged the cable into the back of his gaming cube computer. His computer had cost him his whole three years of savings when he'd heard the requirements to play the new game. It was, all of it, worth the cost.

It was simple for the enthusiastic teen to install the case and the data for it. The one twenty Gigabytes of downloaded was nothing now. Eight years ago, it would have taken hours. Now, it took about twenty-five minutes. It only goes to show how much this world's electronic power how grown. But the kid in question had twenty-five restless minutes to himself.

During this time, he removed the rest of the contents of the mutilated box. He drew out a small box of screws and clips and whatnots to lock everything like cables in place. He did as the instructions said, even going as far as moving his bed around his messy room to his computer. The download had only gone through about thirty- thirty-one GB. He opened a small plastic box and pulled out a stack of manuals, maybe one and a half inches of loosely packed pamphlets. He skimmed over all six of them, absorbing about half of the knowledge he read. It was cool, even while reading almost anything else bored him. It had allowed his computer to eat through about a hundred GB. The estimated time read it still had about six and a half minutes.

Zeke had ground his teeth at waiting for two days, playing all his games to boredom. Now he didn't know what to do. He'd never been good at waiting, but he'd always managed to survive, though some he'd thought he wouldn't make it. Now he took out the game cartridge. The red and streaked white title sticker had it's golden letters say the name. It was called 'Alpha Blades Online'. It was abbreviated like all long names to ABO. The cartridge was about the size of a deck of playing cards.

Zeke was closely inspecting the pins for bends when his computer emitted a ding like a bell, alerting him to the finished download. He sprang up as fast as he was able, mainly from nerves. It was time. He pulled open the port and carefully inserted the cartridge. He clicked down the port and pushed the WAN activation button. He then threw off the headgears casings and slipped it over his head. It took some time to position the small connectors but finally, when he clicked the button on the side, the heavy band expanded into a helmet, covering his eyes.

Almost as soon as his vision cut out, it was turned back on by electrical impulses the helmet created. There was a green digital clock in the right hand corner that said it was 14:38. The server started over eight minutes ago! Zeke knew the sight he had was synthetic, but it looked as real as anything in real life, even if what he saw could never exist.

A floating cube the size of his vision was there and he could see nothing but that. He could still feel his body, his bed. He only couldn't see. Well, at least not his room. On the cube, which was like a white liquid, flowing around and shimmering with nonexistent light. On one side was a set of black and white, quite literal, instructions and on the other was a diagram. Then, out of nowhere was a woman's voice. She read out the instructions.

"Please touch your body in the diagram to the right as shown. This is to help the SymGear to map out your nervous system-" The voice cut out when Zeke touch both of his forearms, only to start reading the next set. "Good. Now follow the next set of instructions." Zeke obliged and touched his shoulders. After six or seven minutes of this the cube disappeared and another one took it's place. But this one was golden and it was a cube that had the glowing red and white text of Alpha Blades Online on it. The game selection menu. Zeke reached forward and touched the cube and something like highly charged static electricity shocked his finger where it touched. But when he pulled away his finger to cradle it, everything disappeared. He couldn't feel his bed anymore. He couldn't feel anything, in fact. He felt weightless. It was all very cool, yet scary.

"Welcome to the character creation! Here, in Alpha Blades Online, your SymGear will scan your body data and create an avatar to closely resemble you. Differences are made to protect your identity." A few pictures were shown as the game loaded a bar in the corner. "You can change your hair and eye color, but height and genders will be kept for your comfort!" More options and pictures. "Certain stats can be given by the styles you choose or armor you equip, but these effects only work in combat or when talking to NPCs. Certain effects give boosts to your other stats, like strength, that can affect you at all times..."

It took maybe a full minute of basics before anything new appeared. A new, basic menu popped up and there was a character that looked similar to him, but had long fuchsia hair and rainbow eyes. Plus he was wearing something like a muscle shirt and tight shorts, both grey. It was sick seeing himself with hair and clothes like that. On the menu were items to put onto the character. Only, how was he going to drag anything? He had no hands.

Zeke must have spent three whole minutes concentrating before anything happened. It was when he tried to reach out to the menu when the character in front of him moved. His arm moved out to the side, like he was trying, only to the opposite side. Like a mirror. When he tried to reach out to the right, opposite of the menu, his body nearly touched a Lilac Robe Bottom. He was not, repeat, not going to wear a skirt in front of thousands of people. In stead, he reached up and touched a tab called Swordsman, pulling away the list of dresses and walking sticks. Now there were tunics and swords and shields. None of the things on the list were very nice or fancy. That was expected. No one would want someone else starting off with a sword that was boss level or anything that even appeared so.

After five minutes of adjusting things, Zeke was finally satisfied with his look, even if he couldn't fix how his lips should have been. The best touch was changing his hair thickness to the 'Full' and the style to 'Wavey Spiked'. They adjusted to the goggles he'd found and they fit perfectly. He adjusted his ears points to be slightly tapered, but it wasn't extreme elf looking.

Several minutes later, when a bell chimed from off in the distance, Zeke's vision switched and now he was behind his now perfect swordsman avatar. At least, that's what he though about it. Now it was showing him with his speed up and his attack wasn't overly high. Still, he had opted to forgo a shield and to have an offensive defence. He would attack to defend. Meaning his armor suffered badly. His attack was twenty two while his defence was ten, his speed was thirty five. The other stats, like Charisma, didn't really concern him too much. His 'Battered Heirloom Blade' hung on his back comfortably as his backpack had earlier, and a bit lighter. He reached down and pressed the small dark grey button of 'Accept'.

This time Zeke was ready. As his vision went dark, he simply relaxed. He only waited for a few seconds before a user name box popped up. He thought for a second and a keyboard appeared in front of him, along with a copy his avatar. He could feel the cool metal under his virtual fingers when he touched the keys. This kind of board would cost, maybe, sixty or so Euros. Here, it cost only data. He decided simply on the user name 'Alpha_Sword' but it was already taken. So he tried 'Zeke_123' But that one was taken too. So, finally, he used his last good name. He typed quickly the name 'MetalDragon'. Only, in his haste, he typed 'MetalDargon'. But it wasn't taken and it passed. Zeke hadn't even looked when he pressed enter. The keyboard disappeared into a million pixels and he was stuck with a miss typed name. The boxes faded and Zeke saw what he'd typed in an explosion of fireworks before everything but him faded again. But at least he wasn't one of those people who just happened to have every common name as everybody else.

The next time, the world appeared and Zeke was not surprised at all that he had paid one eighty for the game alone. The hardware was a different story. His goggles now weighed down on his forehead and his Brownish red tunic rippled in the light wind. The cobblestone beneath his feet was so real he could hardly tell he was even in a game. The texture of his leather sheath's leather strap was real. Even his leather boots, like pirates, were more comfortable than they looked. But he definitely wasn't the only one in the square. Other people were appearing in a whirlwind of pixels, each one landing perfectly. Well, not that guy over there. He looks like he's got some genetical defect or maybe some kind of fungus. There was always that one guy like that.

Zeke's light and mildly curvy mocha hair blew in the wind created by everyone's whirlwinds and he decided to start off on his journey. He still remembered some things from the manuals he'd read.
"Kill monsters, Get EXP, Buy stuff, Kill more stuff".
At least, that's what he thought it said. Same thing, right?

The moment he stepped, though, he knew. He'd just messed up. A pretty girl with dark wavy brown hair appeared in front of him as he took a step. Trying to be cool, he tripped and fell...

Okay, guys. He's in and now he's ready... If only he hadn't fallen he could have made a good move on that girl. Oh well. But stay tuned for the next chapter. I will get it's edited and ready to show. Anyways. LowePlays, signing out.