The game helmet was fastened to my head, secured in place and pulling me deeper into darkness. A black void. Then slowly I could see a light getting brighter and brighter by the second. I approached, shielding my eyes and taking a step back once getting too close. A giggle enticed me to look up into the thinning air, swirling clouds and thick mist that made it hard to breath.
"Greetings, you have entered Second life. Please select a name." A high pitched voice sang out to me.
"Who are you?" I managed to stutter out. This wasn't like the normal interactive game settings. She seemed so…real. Life-like almost.
"I am called Rose here in 4th Sanction, I'll be your server managing the creation process of your character. Please choose a name." She laid a hand under her chin in dismissal.
I thought for a moment. "Second life." I decided to just go with the name of the game, I was tired of taking hours to pick my name in previous realities.
"Please wait for processing." A heartbeat later she continued. "Alright, now you may choose a race or class." Two groups appeared. "Would you like an explanation?" I nodded my head, overwhelmed by the mass of characters that kept forming out of thin air further back.
"The group Class is a group against Race. Race contains land creatures whilst Class dominates the sky. Please choose wisely, you may only have one character to choose from. Would you like to see the final transformation of each character?" I cocked my head to one side. "A scan is performed for each player to make their character look more similar to oneself, thus making the game more life like." She did a flick of her hand and the characters began changing. A subtle shift to their complexion and forms. Slowly but surely I came face to face with myself. But not really…one character had wings the size of a golf ball and another had the wings of an eagle, further down I saw horns forming out of my head and a wolf being who's eyes seemed much too like my own. I shuddered at the glimpse of blue and green and turned my head quickly to the Class side before seeing the rest.
"Why are there two groups?" I questioned, taking the time to inspect a golden feather on a tanned girl with deep-set ocean blue eyes.
"No-one knows, that's just the way the game was created." She dismissed the thought, again a hand placed under her chin. But I wasn't so sure, a nagging thought kept poking my conscience. I tucked it into the back of my mind…for later.
"Can I see the Characters that most resemble me, can you just…get rid of the scary ones?" I peeked one eye open in the direction of the beasts and whimpered. The crowd immediately dissipated.
Firstly I went through the Class characters, wings were everywhere, feathers were tickling my face. "And the ones with feathers too." The Class group was almost gone.
I turned to the Race group, closer by and inspected them each from head to toe. "No Humans." Boring. "No brown or green or blue…or just any of the earthy colors. I don't want my skin colorful!" Race now had almost none left. The little girl, Rose moved the remaining characters closer to me and I twirled around one character with a shield made of grass. "Nope!" She disappeared and I giggled. Rose raised and eyebrow at me so I tried to stifle my laughter. Finally more sane, I tugged on the silver cloth of one beautiful girl. Her blue eyes set in a glare. "Hmmph!" She stuck out her tongue and flipped her hair into my face. "I don't like you." Pouf, she went.
And just like that, I was down to two. One Race and one Class remaining. Rose now looked like a pile of dust, her ashen face bored with contempt.
I switched my eye sight to the Class character then Race. The Class character had white eyes, hardly a hint of blue. Her skin was deathly pale, see-through, clear as glass and her hair was black in tight braids running down the length of her back, all the way to her knees. She didn't have wings, or feathers but Rose assured me she could fly.
Then there was the Race character who's head was a fiery fire. The complete opposite of the one who stood beside her. She held a glare and a sneer that seemed to penetrate my soul, Her eyes were a murky brown and her clothes were black, smoldering holes that partially revealed a pair of golden legs…"Ugh! I can't choose! Why can't I just make my own character? Why does it have to be so hard!" I complained, loudly enough to even startle the aloof Rose.
"Enough already! You're taking too long!" She paused, a contemplating stare. She seemed to be looking for something, a confirmation, her head nodded almost imperceptibly. A decision made. "I'll make you an offer, You'll be a character boss if you take less than five minutes to choose." I nodded my head eagerly. Wasn't she supposed to be a NPC? Can NPC's do that nowadays? Oh well, whatever. Not like I'll see her ever again…
A replica appeared in front of me. A human me. "Here's the control panel, I've given you a blank slate, you have five minutes. Alright? FIVE minutes to choose. I'll be counting, so don't think I'm not!" she brought her watch out. "Ready, set, go!" I started playing with the controls.
"Four minutes…three minutes and three seconds left…2 and a half…one hundred ten seconds…a minute left! Alright, 4…3…2…done." Her eyes widened a bit upon seeing my character and then a devilish grin formed itself. "My superiors are gonna kill me for this…ok just go!" She hit a red button and I started falling. Again into a dark void, blackness consumed me. The light got farther and farther away. I screamed.