Month Before Release

In a modern time of stability and prosperity, when wars are few and diseases are mostly not a global threat, for the first time in history, the main goal of humankind shifted from survival to entertainment.

For a long period of time, the most popular individuals were actors and singers but as technologies progressed and digital people and worlds started to look more and more real, popular gamers started to shine. Recently gamers main attention shifted to virtual reality games as with each year new technologies were making immersion to virtual worlds more realistic.

As the virtual reality games started becoming more and more popular suddenly one no-name Poland company Royal Road announced that in a month they would release the open-world virtual reality game Integration, which will have new technologies with full immersion and realistic graphics. The first thing that came to mind of everyone who heard this, was that it is a scam. There was no gameplay, no new technology introduction, just absurd promises so for gamers it quickly became a joke.

3 Weeks Before Release

Media all around the world started promoting Integration. People were distrustful, it is suspicious when nobody from nowhere announcing absurd things and even more suspicious when all media like one start promoting it, but despite all skepticism, Integration got the attention of people and became one of the most discussed topics in the game forums.

2 Weeks Before Release

Governments announced that Royal Road made a technological breakthrough and that new technologies are totally safe. When even closed governments like North Korea started promoting Integration all kinds of speculations began from the populace like, it is a plan to take the people under control and in fact, new technology is a mind control apparat.

1 Week Before Release

Royal Road made a basic introduction to in-game mechanics, new technology, and announced the price for the game. Game price was unexpectedly low, so low that most of the populace can afford it but what people didn't like was that Royal Road gave very little information about the game and didn't answer any questions, their attitude quickly called the ire of gamers some of which even boycotted the game.

Release Day

At a small but well-located apartment in London, a black-haired young man of mixed blood named William was making his last preparation to plunge into the Integration.

Will was reading for the last time information from Royal Road site before Integration launch, he looked at new virtual reality immersion apparat which not talkative team from Royal Road installed in his guestroom.

Will thought that apparat was looking very impressive. It was a big grey box which can fit inside two grown men and was half full with something like soft plasticine.

It was the first time Will saw something like this, virtual game immersion apparats started as glasses then became full-body costumes and just recently began to appear as helmets after wearing which helmet receives a signal from the brain when the carrier wants to move and make the virtual body to move. Despite that helmet being the first apparat which allowed you to move in the virtual world without moving your body in the real world, the first prototypes of this helmet received mixed reviews as not being able to control your body even for few seconds in which helmet connected you to virtual world was unpleasant.

Will stript his clothes and looked at the practically empty room for the last time. The room was poorly illuminated, it was night now, and considering that Will would return god know when he didn’t want to spend extra money at the light that he won’t need.

“I hope it is really safe” Thought worried Will.

He knew that it has to be safe after even the government confirmed it, but fear for the unknown was hard to suppress.

Will lied down on the apparat and closed it, immediately he began feeling as if drowning in plasticine but without the time to think about it, he found himself levitating in white space. There wasn’t anything in white space except naked Will, he looked at hands and was shocked by how real they looked, Will pinched himself and the feeling was indistinguishable from the real.

Will played virtual reality games before but he never experienced this level of immersion and if everything that promised “Royal Road” was true then it was just beginning.

After few seconds of probing himself in front of Will’s eyes came a blue box.

Welcome To Integration

Will you tell us about yourself so we can make a background story for you? (Recommended)

(It is recommended for best immersion)

Will wanted to prob himself a little more but blue box chased him wherever he looked, so annoyed Will gave up.

-Yes

Who are you?

“I naked levitating at white space and telling AI about myself, the world is going crazy”

-My name is William Kondor. I am 22 Years old “XXX” University, Economy graduate.

-…

-I make money for life as a tutor and day trader.

-…

“Shit, I don’t know what else to say. There is nothing that comes to mind”

While Will was thinking about how to answer a question, AI perceived his silence as the end of his answer.

Would you like to proceed?

-Yes!

Said Will, happy for the opportunity to finally skip the boring question.

Tell about your hobbies and things that you like to do

-My main hobby is playing strategy games, I also like reading fantasy novels and historical books.

Would you like to proceed?

-Yes.

Is there any special reason why you started playing Integration?

"What is this going to do with my background?"

Will shrugged and answered honestly.

-I want to make money for a living by playing games and, by the reaction of media and government Integration is going to be a very popular cybersport.

“Maybe even more than cybersport”

Thought Will, but decided to keep his paranoid ideas for himself.

After few seconds of silence came a box asking would Will like to proceed and he answered "Yes".

Congratulations you finished the background story

Please choose for whom you want to play

(Your first picked character will have a bonus so choose wisely)

Combatant

Artisan

Noble (Can be picked just one time)

Starting in a city-state with basic weapons and armor of choice as a combatant of the chosen field

Starting in a city-state with equipment of choice as an apprentice of the chosen field

Start in an unknown place as a lesser noble with village token and basic resources

As Royal Road announced a week before release. Gameworld was called "Liriya" and it was a world mostly without civilization, here and there were city-states but mostly world was not too populated or populated with monsters, bandits, and small tribes. It was a hardcore game where if your character died then you had to start again by creating a new one.

Basically, Combatants are fighting and exploring, Artisans learning and working in their respective fields and Nobles building and populating the new world, but there weren't limitations in the class system, "Blacksmith" can make a sword and by exploring the world became "Adventurer", Adventurer can conquer territory and became for example "Viscount" and "Viscount" can abandon his territory, open shop somewhere and became a "Shop Seller".

You weren’t limited to one class either, everybody can have as many classes as they want and even fuse them, but having too many classes that can’t be fused could bring negative effects which players have to figure out by themselves. Royal Road hadn't announced classes that can be fused but gave one example as "Merchant" class and "Spearmaster" class can be fused in "Combat Merchant".

Will like veteran strategy gamer was more interested in nobles and if he wanted to be pro the only field where he felt comfortable was the strategy. Taking into account that you have just one chance for playing noble, from one side it was better to wait for other players to pioneer path but from another perspective, if you would start later, then it will be hard to compete with others.

"I already thought about it many times and weighed the pros and cons, there is no merit in changing my mind at the last minute"

With mixed feelings, Will made his choice.

-I choose Noble.

Are you sure that you want to play as a Noble?

-Yes.

Congratulations you are earned the "Pioneer" title

Pioneers are the first players who started playing Integration

As a "Pioneer" you can take the trials to determine your starting bonuses

Do you want to take trials? (Recommended)

(It is a one-time opportunity)

William was confused because in the game site wasn't even one word about the "Pioneer" title or trials.

"I understand that they want to reward first players, but if they had announced it earlier I am pretty sure that amount of players in release day would’ve been much more. Well it is benefitting me so why complain"

-Yes.

What is the most important thing for developing a prosperous country?

Food, Military, Talents, Geography, Population

"It is a tricky question because everything is needed, but if we try to make a chain then we can eliminate talents, talents are important to govern a country and armies most efficently but talents come from the population and as long as there population, new talents eventually will pop up. The military is also important, without the military you can't prosper in peace, but the military can't function stably without enough economical power behind it, and economical power is coming mostly from the population. If we continue this chain then population need food and for food, you need futile lands"

-Geography

Are you sure of your answer?

-Yes

Please make your offense and defense armies

In front of Will appeared a long list of different types of soldiers with their equipment and price, Will had to make armies for a certain sum.

After finishing making armies he had to play four battles with these armies two offenses and two defenses.

The first two battles, one offense, and one defense went perfect, he was battling in a nearly similar style as in most strategy games seeing battle from eagle view and guiding the army with his hands.

The last two battles were totally different, after lining up his troops on a battle map he was teleported to the battlefield personally.

Will was astride a horse which he instinctively knew how to ride and had to command the army personally, by shouting orders. But as he already set defense formation the only thing that Will had to do before the battle was giving instructions to his cavalry that he hid in the nearby forest.

Will slowly galloped forward from the center of formation and soldiers quickly parted before him. When he was passing through the first line of defense, one young soldier didn’t notice how he came up from behind so another older soldier that was next to him quickly pushed the poor guy out of Will’s way, and as startled young soldier fell to the ground other nearby soldiers began laughing. For Will, it was a very surrealistic feeling seeing how soldiers chat between themselves and behave so… real.

When he moved away from the main army and came up to cavalry that was hiding in the forest, standing in front of so many people who were staring at him Will was agitated.

“How I am supposed to give orders to the army? I never did that before, are there some regulations? Maybe I should…”

Seeing that Will wasn’t saying anything, soldiers looked at each other with confusion and after few more seconds of silence, one of the older soldiers took initiative.

-Sir, do you have orders?

Woken up from thoughts Will hesitantly answered.

-Ah… yes I want you to attack enemy archers… when there would be a good opportunity, and khm... then attack their infantry from behind.

The older soldier looked a little annoyed by Will’s orders and said with a more harsh tone.

-Yes sir! Are there any other orders?

-Emm… no it’s all, but try to attack quickly… and not give the enemy a chance to properly react.

-Yes sir!

Feeling that with every word older soldier was becoming angrier and angrier Will quickly went back to the main army.

“Why this old man became so angry with me? It not like I insulted him or make something bad, I just came to deliver orders but he looked as if wanting to tear me apart”

Angry Will went to the very end of the formation where archers and artillery was lined up and gave them orders to start shooting as soon as the enemy will enter the firing range, but he was met just with uncertain looks.

Archers and artillery said that because of two defense lines ahead it was hard to see the enemy, so they needed orders to fire. Will himself wasn’t pro at things like this, normally in the games which he played it always showed fire range of long-range units, so Will came up with another idea, he ordered for archers and artillery to make few shots to mark their fire range, first at their maximum range and with every subsequent shot closer and closer up to the front of the second line of defense and ordered to some soldiers at the frontline to warn when the enemy would approach these marks. He didn’t order to shoot any closer than the second line of defense because if the enemy would break through the second line which was the last obstacle that defended his long-range units, then the battle would already be lost.

The battle went well, Will’s defense lines were located at the narrow place between the lake and forest in the hill, so it was hard for the enemy to break through. Spear infantry was holding the enemy as his artillery and archers were firing at the foe, then from the forest came his cavalry which eliminated enemy archers that were practically defenseless and charged to infantry from behind, but because Will didn't give further instructions and absence of officers whom Will forgot to appoint, after the first charge at enemy infantry his cavalry was eliminated but damage to the enemy was already done. The only dangerous moment was when thanks to their cavalry charge, the enemy broke through the ranks of the first line of defense and surrounded them, the whole line was quickly eliminated, thankfully the second line of defense withstood.

Knowing that if he will die then the battle would be automatically lost, Will from the beginning of the battle was at the back of the formation, observing how realistic was looking soldiers.

“How they made every soldier so indistinguishable from a real person, one soldier even hurt his hand during shooting and the look of pain in his face looked so genuine”

As Will was observing in the fascination of how realistic were looking models and physic, he was interrupted by the approached sound of metal crashing and screams, curious of how frontlines were looking he decided to check what was going on but when he approached the second line of defense he was stunned by the blood and gore that was in front of him.

Survivors from the first line of defense retreated behind the second line but most of them were looking disgusting, they all were fully in blood, some even were holding back falling organs with hands, despite Royal Road warned that the game was 18+, with violence and inappropriate content, reading about it and seeing it with such realism was different things.

Pale Will barely hold back his vomit and for the rest of the battle looked at these injured soldiers that were slowly dying, he even didn't notice how the enemy fled and his army began cheering, Will came back to sense just when he got teleported back to white space.

Do you want to proceed?

Will took a few more minutes to collect thoughts.

“It is just the game, maybe very realistic but just a game, all these people are NPC and I don’t have to think too much about them, my only thoughts have to be about winning next battle”

After calming down Will with a renewed determination proceeded to the next battle.

He deeply underestimated the realism of this game, in defense battle he lost his cavalry and the first line of defense because he didn't select officers, made a command chain, or even a retreat plan for the injured, but he somehow won because of a good army balance and defense organization.

The offense was entirely something else, Will tried to make a plan for attack and select officers for commanding but when the battle began the hell broke out. Somewhere officers completely forgot about the plan in a battle frenzy, somewhere they died too quickly, and somewhere soldiers didn't obey their commands, even if in some places plan was executed in most places it wasn't, so plan failed.

Without any other idea to win battle Will decided to go all-out and send all his infantry with cavalry to attack in an attempt to break through the enemy with sheer force, so he shouted with all his might.

-CHARGE!!

After few minutes his lines stabilized and begun to press enemy infantry, casualties were serious but his army started taking ground.

As Will with worry was observing battle nearby his archers, he heard gallop.

-Tu-tu, tu-tu, tu-tu...

"You can't be serious"

Turning around he saw enemy cavalry charging in his, now unprotected archers.

-RETREAT!!

But it was too late, enemy cavalry quickly eliminated his archers like in previous battle did his own cavalry.

"How can someone be that stupid to lose for his own tactic" Thought Will, self reproachful.

Despite being so close to the scene of the massacre this time Will was much calmer and felt just a little discomfort. The sudden change in attitude surprised even Will himself but he didn’t have time to think about it, some of the enemy cavalrymen saw Will and started to gallop towards him. Despite Will was in a horse too, he knew that in skill he could not compete with a real cavalry he also knew that battle was lost. Without the cover of archers and with cavalry behind, his infantry will fall so Will decided to not resist.

Scared he closed his eyes, despite knowing that he can't feel pain (pain settings is by default at minimum) seeing somebody fully in blood charging at you in high speed was scary. After few seconds of being in darkness, he felt a pinch and once he opened his eyes Will found himself levitating in white space again.

Do you want to proceed?

"Looks like it is not over yet" Thought tired Will.

After taking few minutes to relax he answered.

-Yes

Some trials took hours to complete, there were all types of them as trying to convince the king for an alliance, find a traitor among nobles, select the best place for starting village-town-fort, make functioning economical, government and military system, and the like.

One of the hardest ones for Will was where he had to make a plan of a town, he played before city building games but he wasn't very good at it and also there was a big difference between the game and reality.

After many exhausting hours finally, trials ended.

Congratulations you finished the trials