Terminal

Prologue

By: Glen Galiza

"No way I got chosen to be a beta tester? Talk about awesome!"

In this world we live in, Virtual Reality (VR for short) games have taken us by storm. Games like /Code, Blade Skills Online, and League of Fighters are what brought the VR dream to life. There was an announcement for a new game coming out, one that would bring about a revolution. Me and ninety nine others were chosen as beta testers for the new game.

"It's time to see if this game will actually start a revolution."

Like most VR games, a VR headset was required to play. The company who came up with the device, Hondai Wamco, appeared out of nowhere bringing the first ever successful VR project to life. Their product was given the name Neural Linked System, or N.L.S for short.

I put on my VR headset which covered up my entire head leaving my face exposed. There was an eye shield however, what purpose that served I will never know. The headset was connected to the N.L.S system by several wires and then connected to my desktop computer by another couple of wires.

Just like all VR games, the N.L.S device puts your body in a state of sleep, this makes it easier for the device to pick up your brain's neuron impulses to make it feel like you're in the game.

I could feel my body being induced with sleep. I should've lied down on my bed earlier, I almost missed it because of my drowsiness. As soon as my eyes closed I ended up in a room of white, overhead were the words "WELCOME GUREN" painted in black.

"Access Mail."

A screen popped up in front of me with a log of all my e-mails. The newest one on the top of the list was the beta invitation to the new game.

"Terminal, that sounds too plain of a name. Maybe they'll rename it later."

Skipping all the boring parts of the e-mail I scrolled all the way down to the bottom and tapped the download button. My e-mail list disappeared and the white room was immediately covered in black. A giant zero with a percent sign popped up along with a smaller window.

"Welcome to the Terminal Beta, while the download commences please input your data and continue into the character creation screen."

Oh nice, a feature that lets you do stuff while you download. That's a big step up from most games, well the character creation part is anyways. So once all the personal info was down, another window popped up as well as a human shaped model.

"Please choose race." Is what I read on the new window.

I was given a list of four choices: Norm, Terrafang, Demi-fiend, and Transcendent. The Norm race appeared to be the good old fashioned human race, the Terrafang was a humanoid beast race. Demi-fiend was a race full of horned humanoids with pointy ears, and the Transcendents were a race of cyborgs. A bit different from the usual races you see in MMORPGs, but there's only four.

Well knowing my creed when it comes to games with character creation I chose the Norm race. As soon as I clicked on the Norm icon, the model gained a default look. Fair skin, black spiky hair, white tank top, and white shorts. There was an option to customize the physical appearance of my character but I decided to skip it since I like the default look.

Another window popped up asking me to choose a class. It says here that the class chosen determines the highest stat for my character. This time I was only given three options: Warrior, Mage, and Sharpshooter.

Pretty self explanatory at this point. I really do love ranged classes, so it was a no brainer that I chose the Sharpshooter class. Nothing changed on the model, but another window appeared. This was the window I was waiting for.

"Oh the options are numerous! Right off the bat there are different styles of outfits and accessories to choose from."

The next window was the character appearance section. The game had a list of default outfits to choose from, and if that didn't satisfy the player, there was an option to pick each piece of clothing individually. There was a color wheel that catered to all the different shades and hues, so color customization was a plus.

There was an olden day Japanese school boy uniform under the default list that grabbed my attention. So I clicked on that and changed the color to the darkest of blacks. I'm glad the default outfit even included those hats they used to wear back in the day too. I scrolled through the accessories list to see if there was anything else I wanted to put on. There was a white eye mask that caught my attention. It was similar to the mask Shark used in the that giant robot series. I clicked the icon to put it on and kept it white.

My character was complete, the model represented all the choices I made perfectly. I clicked the next button. Before the next window popped up, I checked to see how much of the download had already finished. The percentage showed me 64%, that was pretty fast, just a little less than half to go.

The next window threw me for a loop.

"Please create a signature card. This card will represent your character and your individuality."

The heck? It says we're free to create it however we want regardless. But there's some guidelines and limits listed below.

"Let your creativity guide you. Just think it." Is what the last words on the window read. A next button appeared and as soon as I clicked it, a blank window appeared before me.

Just think it huh? I tried thinking about about the Excalibur sword from various forms of pop culture, and boom it appeared on the blank window.

"Woah seriously? Even the shape, color, and markings are identical!"

Luckily there was a retry button so I clicked on that to make the window empty again. A signature card, it sounds a lot tougher to come up with than I thought.

"Hey Guren, you're leaving us today huh?" Rang a voice in my mind.

That's right, I wonder how those four are doing? Without realizing it the blank window started scribbling a picture of four kids hanging out at a playground. The faces were missing, but that's only natural since I forgot their faces. I pressed the retry button to clear the window once again.

"We know how much you love Knights and dragons, so we made this picture for you!" Said another voice in my head.

Once again the blank window began scribbling something. This time it was two of the kids, they were holding up a doodle of what looked like a knight with a sword riding on top of a pig, wait no it should've been a dragon. I think I have the actual drawing somewhere, I should go find it later. Once again I hit the retry button.

"Here, a token to remember us all by. My dad got me these from a friend of his." Said another voice.

The blank window scribbled another faceless kid holding out a ring. It's weird how accurate this system was. It accurately drew the engravings on the ring I was given. It was engraved with a pair of wings bound by chains.

That's right, I have that ring on a necklace that I bring with me everywhere. I'll be going back to that place for my last two years of high school, I wonder if they'll still be there? I pressed the retry button to empty out the window. I think I know what I want for my signature card now. Taking all the things I've thought about just now into account I poured my imagination onto the blank window.

As my my idea became finalized I stared in amazement at what I came up with. An orange mechanical dragon whose limbs were connected by a constant flow of energy. The dragon was to be no bigger than my character was, but it was mountable. When I clicked next, a window popped up asking me to give a description of my card, and that the company itself would determine its final stats.

"I'll call it Dragonic Blaster, it acts as a mount and as a weapon. It's second skill..."

Pressing next again a window popped up asking me if my decision was final, and that I will be unable to change my signature card. I clicked the yes icon which took me to another screen.

"Please select your weapon of choice."

There were two icons, one of a gun and one with a bow. Clicking on the gun icon took me to another set of icons. There was a handgun, a machine gun, and a rifle icon. I tapped the handgun icon and four card shaped items appeared.

"Congratulations you have received the Sharpshooter Beginner's Handgun Pack."

The first card was titled beginner's hand gun, the next card was titled handgun ammo, the third card was titled beginner's knife, and the last card was titled grenade. There were some other words and numbers on the card, but I decided to press the accept button which took me to another window.

"Please insert the name for your character."

One of the challenges that come with character creation. Since there was only a hundred of us I'm pretty sure I'll get the name I want to use.

"Then let's go with Shinigami."

As I finished typing the letters in, I clicked on the next button and a small window popped up.

"Please enjoy the Terminal Beta, your character and anything you obtain throughout this beta will be carried over to the actual game. Please enjoy and don't forget to notify us about any bugs or things that you think need fixing."

Well at least all the work I put into character creation won't go to waste. Now to read the manual on how to play the game.

"Open Manual for Terminal." I ordered, looking at the 90% in front of me as the game's manual loaded up.

Hmm? This is actually pretty interesting, a game that looks like a mixture of PvP and trading cards. There's even in game money to buy said cards, oh and you can level up. This game might actually be worthwhile after all.

I was interrupted by a pinging sound, apparently I just received a new e-mail. It was from the developers of the game. It stated that my signature card was acceptable and that it'd take awhile for them to actually get it programmed into the game. I don't mind waiting, just means I get to read the manual some more.

After a bit there was another pinging sound, this time it was to alert me of the game's download status which has reached 100%.

"Alright, time to learn the rest of the game by experience."