The featureless human appeared to think to itself for a moment before entering ‘Tobias Forza’ into the prompt screen. After a moment of processing, the prompt changed.
The form pressed the ‘Yes’ button.
“Let’s see,” a young man’s voice muttered, “Male, and . . . what are my options for race?” The young man clicked on the next icon, and a list of information appeared before him.
“Which race would be best suited for engineering?” Tobias asked out loud.
[Titanlings and Earthlings are the best choices for those who desire to be engineers. Titanlings are better adept with weapons and armor, while Earthlings are better with spaceship usage.]
“Earthling,” Tobias said confidently. He liked the idea of piloting his own spaceship.
With a slow glow, the previously featureless figure took the form of a young man dressed in an academy uniform. He had short, shaggy, brown hair and blue eyes. Tobias examined his new body as he twisted his head back and forth to check for any problems.
[Do you wish to change your character’s appearance? Minor modifications are free, while special founder modifications can be purchased for a special one-time fee]
“Pass,” Tobias waved his hand, “This is fine. Is there anything else?”
[Now that your character is complete, please choose your starting location]
“Pluto jump gate station,” Tobias said with a grin.
[Understood]
[Welcome to Star Cosmic, and may your journeys be full of wonder]
*****
The featureless world around Tobias warped and changed as the game world loaded up around him. Tobias blinked as his body appeared in a large tube on a glowing platform. The tube wall in front of him divided and opened up in front of him, revealing a busy room filled with people both player and doctor NPCs. A quick glance revealed that he was wearing a grey jump suit and a pair of grey slip on shoes.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” one of the NPCs greeted Tobias, “Allow me to welcome you to the Pluto jump-gate Station! Now, as standard procedure I need to ask you some questions to verify your history.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Where am I?” Tobias asked, staring curiously around the room. Other players were interacting with their own NPC doctors, but beyond that he could see nothing else important in the room.
“You are in the revival bay,” the doctor answered him, “You arrived at the station in cryo-sleep like the others. To make sure you’re not suffering from any mental distress after awakening, I need to ask you some questions to verify your identity.”
“Alright, let’s hear the questions,” Tobias finally relented.
“Excellent,” the doctor smiled. He pulled out a digital holograph tablet and began tapping it.
“Now, your name is Tobias Forza correct? If you could please tell me about what you remember.”
In front of Tobias, a series of prompts appeared:
Raising his eyebrow, Tobias raised his hand poked the glowing ‘engineering’ option.
At this prompt, Tobias hesitated as he considered each of the options. He hadn’t expected so many general categories to choose from, and his first choice was to choose them all.
“Help: will choosing an engineering emphasis area prevent me from working in other areas of engineering?” he asked the game.
“Alright then,” Tobias muttered, “Well, I do want to be a spaceship captain, but that invention category . . .”
He shook his head, “No, I’d better stick to what I want.” He moved his finger over to the spaceship option and pressed it.
Tobias grinned as he pressed on ‘Navigation’. The prompts disappeared and the doctor resumed scribbling on his hologram.
“Yes, you are an engineer specializing in spaceship navigation. I’m glad to see everything is working properly with your memory. I have completed my physical of you, and declare you fit for travel and work.”
The doctor pressed his glassed up his nose, “Now, seeing as you’re ready to start your new life, here is your identipass.” After handing a small plastic card over to Tobias, the doctor continued, “When you walk out of this room, head across the hallway to immigration. They’ll help set you up with your first job and pass on your personal belongings. Good luck young man.”
Thanking the doctor, Tobias exited the pod and slowly made his way to the door, marveling over the realness he felt in this virtual world. A quick glance behind him allowed to watch his pod move down the tube to be replaced by another, some new player to the game coming into being. As he was watching, however, he accidently ran into another player.
“Watch it,” the other player grumbled, moving away into the busy hall.
“Sorry,” Tobias said, but the other player had vanished into the crowd. Shrugging to himself, Tobias walked out into the hall himself and admired the walls. The hallway was a warm cream color, with exotic potted flowers sitting on pedestals every five feet. To his right, Tobias saw the exit into what appeared to be a grand hall, and to his left was an open doorway into a large, round room covered in see-through material. He saw many new players admiring the view of space, watching spaceships and robots fly past. Ahead, the immigration door was lit up in old-fashioned neon lights.
As Tobias entered the immigration office, a floating pyramid flew up to him.
“Greetings new arrival,” it said in a smooth robotic voice, “please insert you identipass.” The pyramid opened a small slot in its middle. Tobias inserted the small plastic card. The robot beeped a few times before spitting the chip back out.
“Welcome, Tobias Forza, to the Pluto jump gate,” it greeted, “please follow this unit to an immigration desk to begin the process of starting your new career.” The floating pyramid led Tobias down the first row of desk tables past other new players. When it located an empty desk, the robot landed gently in an inverted pyramid-shaped slot at the top of a computer screen and plugged itself in. The screen lit up as Tobias took a seat.
Tobias distributed his stat points so his chart displayed:
