Authors note: Sup guys sorry meant to write a longer chap but go held up since its election day (Zuma must fall!). Anyway this will just be an introductory chapter to what the 'world' or universe to be more accurate in my story will look like sorry for not actually starting the game i promise to do it next time, as always thanks for reading and enjoy.

Announcer: “The winner of the COD national championship! Simphiwe!!!”

Crowd: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The crowd goes wild as the winner for the COD nation competition is announced. What made this winner truly spectacular and a crowd favorite is his age, the boy is only 13 years old and he beat out the previous years’ finalist in the semi-finals. Now he has taken the finals and the crowd by storm. And won a virtual reality machine along with a year’s free subscription. His also secured a spot as one of the beta testers.

Simphiwe was truly happy. He knew he was good at the game but didn’t know just how well he would do in a professional competition. Since he was home schooling he had a lot of free time, now he could send that time playing what would probably be one of the greatest games in history.

The beta test was going to start next month. His pod would arrive round about the same time and the game would be released 6 months after the beta if everything went well. It was a Saturday afternoon and he was about to start doing research on the new game company before-

*Knock**Knock**Knock**Knock*

Mom: “Open the door.”

Simphiwe: “Yeah I’m coming mom.”

Mom: “Why do you even lock it in the first place.”

Simphiwe: “Sorry…”

Mom: “You say that all the tim- Argh what is that smell, I told you to not put dirty shoes in your room. And open your windows.”

Simphiwe: “They’re not dirty.”

Mom: “Then why do they smell. Listen I don’t have time to argue with you, have you done all your homework yet?”

Simphiwe: “Yeah I did it all on Thursday.”

Mom: “And what about your test next week? Have you started studying yet?”

Simphiwe: “Mom… I won the tournament.”

Mom: “What does that have to do with school just answer my question. Have you started studying?”

Simphiwe: “Just listen to me, you said if I win I can play the game right.”

Mom: “No, I said if you win AND keep your grades up then I’ll let you play it.”

Simphiwe: “All you guys care about is grades and school and Thabo! I won a tournament! Aren’t you at least going to congratulate me!?”

Mom: “Don’t you dare raise your voice at me! And don’t you dare attack me with your brother! YOU FAIL A YEAR! Do you remember that!!! How can I be proud of some game obsession you have when you can’t get you school work right!”

Simphiwe: “But-“

Mom: “That’s enough! Start studying! Ms. Bella told me you failed the last test so don’t you dare fail this one!”

Simphiwe’s Mom left the room and shut the door in a fit of rage. She had never had such problems raising her first son Thabo. Though Thabo was truly not a smart child, no, in her opinion he was just slightly above average, but his marks were really good. He was always focused and didn’t let useless things distract him. He used to play games with his younger brother all the time but when he got to high school he immediately stopped to cope with the increased workload. And when he got to university he stopped almost all other distracting activities such as watching T.V. or going out. This is why him suddenly disappearing at a club one night is just unacceptable and illogical to her. He was studying chemical engineering and had a bright future ahead of him. Throwing it all away now for some few seconds of pleasure with a random girl? Her son would never do such a thing; she would even shout it out in court. But the current situation was undeniable, her son was missing and no assault or violent kidnapping had occurred. Worst of all is that eye witnesses like the bouncer saw him leave the club with two young women.

-It’s been 2 and a half months since we last saw him…- Thought Simphiwe as he stood alone in his room.

The loss hit everyone hard. No trance of him can be found and no one in his family believes he just left of his own accord. Only wild delusions fly about as the weeks pass on with no sign of him. Until finally, about 4 months later Simphiwes’ new pod arrives with the game loaded on it and since his been keeping his marks up somehow he was allowed to play the game by his mom. Although with a warning that any slip ups and She would confiscate it.

Simphiwe stood in his room with a massive grin on his face. He looked at the new pod as if it were a massive pile of gold that just fell from Heaven. He had been charging the pod since he got it yesterday. One of the requirements of the machine is having a full back up battery at all times and it didn’t need Wi-Fi since the company invested millions into its own personal network. Simphiwe had just finished his homework, now he could finally climb into the pod and start playing for the first time. Though the beta would only begin Friday afternoon, players were allowed to enter a special training space and get used to their characters and their virtual bodies.

Simphiwe laid down into the pod, then put on the headset and pressed the start button. The pod slowly closed its hatch and turned on. A loading message appeared in the Helmet and after a minute had passed Simphiwe suddenly fell asleep. He then felt himself waking up somewhere else entirely. When he opened his eyes what he saw was truly breath taking. Spread out across the universe were stars and planets as far as the eye could see. Motionlessly he stared out at the expansive view, every second he noticed something new, all the lights and colors that dotted the black horizon stood out effortlessly as some remained still as works of art whilst other danced beautifully to life. Whether they were the stars that brought light to the darkness within your very soul, the planets that promised new experiences and adventure to your elated heart or the massive gas storms, supernovas and black-holes that challenged your mind to wonder; everything was perfectly placed within the eyes of whomever saw this once in a lifetime view. To add to the wonder in a few second some digital writing popped up over each object in view. They seemed to be the names of each astral body in sight. Then after a few more seconds a female voice as gentle as a breeze began speaking.

Women: “Before you stands all of the cosmos in its glory, the true size of this plane is infinite but we have only recorded a space spanning 100 billion light years. It would be impossible to choose only one of the thousands of known and inhabited planets so we will assist in narrowing down your scope with a few questions. Would you like to start now?”

Simphiwe: “No, give me a few minutes.”

Women: “Understood, say so whenever you’re ready.”

Simphiwe was taken by the unbelievably beautiful uncensored view. Such a thing was far too real for him to process. He had just gotten here and the game already swept him off his feet. He felt many excellent reviews flooding the game developers’ inboxes for the next few years. Especially the graphics and art division, who must have slaved to produce this result. Honestly as Simphiwe calmed down from the initial surprise of hearing about virtual reality a few months ago, he slowly started to doubt the quality of the experience. He knew this was very new ground breaking technology but imagined it to have many drawbacks. But standing, no, floating here now he had no more hesitation left in his mind.

Simphiwe: “Let’s begin.”

Women: “Of course, we’ll start with your location as that will determine your character options.”

Welcome to universe online!! Please enter your name.

Simphiwe: “The Hacker”

A light flashed and some questions appeared. Where the person wanted a Overworld where celestials ruled or an Underworld where demons ruled. But since Simphiwe had made a deal with the Game marketers to excuse his age, Underworlds where not available to him for age inappropriate content, no doubt those would become a favorite amongst many male players Simphiwe thought. Though those things occurred in Overworlds as well; policing was very strict so very few illegal ‘incidents’ would take place.

After answering some other questions about his racial preferences and the type of society, environment and time period he’d like the character creation menu appeared. He first had to choose a class then family then race. Class only had two options Heavenly or Demonic. This may have seemed weird but he read that magic races took alignment very seriously and that they effected your character growth. He could choose either but choose Heavenly to match his planet. Then there was family, which was basically signaling towards what type of humanoid you are; Beastial, Dragonian, Elven, Alien etc. Simphiwe picked Alien.

Then came the race option. Alien was the category with the most options in this regard as it grouped together almost all non-fantasy based non-earthen humans. Simphiwe thought he would’ve really had trouble choosing had he not read up on the game beforehand. He then chose the Vecana race. An uncommon race with very human like features except for their green skin flat-ish noses and hardened spiky hair that sometimes flares up in different colors when their emotionally aroused. He didn’t change his facial nor physical features at all though. He was then given a number of options for what planet to go to. He chose Delantian, an ocean planet with massive rain forests and thriving mid-level civilization that only had portals expanding their own solar system but nothing beyond.

Then Simphiwe got an unfortunate message. The game said that it would begin processing his character and that it would be ready the day of the beta release. -Already got one complaint- thought Simphiwe as he floated there. He was then offered further explanations on the game but refused and logged out as his mood was now spoilt.