Birthright: For The New World

The Skytech Game Portal 2, The latest VR headset, still encased in protective cardboard packaging as it sat upon the lower wooden landing of the stairs. An uncharacteristically chill summer wind blew over it as it awaited its owner to come claim it. Fortunately, that wait wouldn’t be terribly long as the crunch of gravel beneath sneakers could be heard approaching it. Soon after, a pair of hands reached down, eagerly grasping the box by both sides. Those hands belonged to a man, brown haired and young, only a few years out of high school. His blue eyes scanning the box, an excited grin on his face as he inspected its features. Eager to get this thing opened, he turned right and hurried up the stairs, his foot catching the lip of one near the top and causing him to stumble.

“A-ahh! Dammit!” he grunted as he caught himself. He couldn’t help but peer over the upper landing ahead of him as he clutched the package tighter. To think of how quickly he could have lost this device he seemed so eager to use caused his cheeks to flush red with shame.

Still, it didn’t last long, he still held the package and everything remained unharmed. Not willing to risk himself making another careless blunder like that, he turned and pushed open the door beside him. Stepping inside, he removed his shoes and set them aside on a small shelf with a number of others. Ahead of him now was a hallway, doors on either side of it. He began his hurried march past the kitchen where a middle aged man in a white button up shirt began to stow leftovers away in the fridge. Hearing footsteps, the bespectacled face turned to face him.

“Welcome home Marcus. Have you had dinner already?” He asked.

“Yep, went out for Thai.” The hurried young man replied.

Next came the living room where a wavy haired woman in a green blouse scribbled on a sketch pad. She too heard the hurried footsteps of Marcus and her attention rose to meet him.

“Welcome back hun. Did you grab your package?” She asked cheerfully.

“Yep, got it right now. Gonna go get it installed.” Marcus replied.

The apartment was tidy and well maintained. Family photos and a handful of remarkably well painted drawings lining the walls of the hall and appearing in nearly every room. Of course, there was only one room Marcus had on his mind right now, the one sat at the very end of the hallway with the door ajar. Stepping through that doorway, the young man was now inside of a bedroom. Figurines, gaming posters, and plushies all around. Quite frankly, it looked more like the room of a person half his age, but at least it was still tidy aside from the unmade bed in the corner and there was still plenty of space to fill with more toys. Man on a mission that he was however, there was no time to admire it for the object of his focus lie just ahead of him.

On a desk against the back wall, just beside a window to the right was a PC among a small clutter of yet more tiny toys and drink cups that had yet to be disposed of or brought to the dishwasher. Without hesitation, he pressed the button at the top of the tower, the monitor beside it lighting up as it came to life. Going about its booting process, the young man got to work opening the box he had rushed into the apartment with. Just as he was cutting through the tape keeping the lid sealed however, the loud chime of an item collecting sound effect rang out from his pocket. Stopping what he was doing, just for that brief moment, he pulled out the smartphone that had alerted him. Opening it up, he quickly flipped to Palforge, his instant messaging app. Within was a single message from a user by the name of MathRockWeilder1d4. A grin quickly spread across the young man’s face as he opened up the message, already anticipating what it might be saying.

“Yo Marcus, Sam and I just got everything downloaded. How are things going on your end?” It read.

The young man set the box down on the floor before quickly replying. “Just got home, still opening the box. Gonna be a few.”

Marcus then gave it a moment, giving his friend a chance to get back to him before he got back to work.

“Oof, I see. Alright then, I think Sam’s probably wanting to start a call either way. See you in the group chat?” His friend asked.

Marcus didn’t reply and instead immediately swapped over to the aforementioned group chat. An icon of a cat’s face seemingly tearing into a stuffed mouse toy appeared just as he looked into it. Seeing this, he was quick to join the call as well, his own icon featuring a red headed cartoon character with an obnoxious smirk on their face.

“Not last!” Marcus shouted out in triumph as soon as he entered the voice chat.

“Woah, okay, haha, hey Marcus.” Sam greeted, recovering from the unexpected outburst.

A short bloop sounded out moments later as another person entered the chat. A picture of a dragon curled around a sapphire as their icon.

“Woah, that was quick. S’up guys?” our final chat member asked.

“Beatchya here Will.” Marcus teased, a satisfied smirk on his face.

“What, was this supposed to be a contest? Shut up and get the headset installed already, we’re waiting on you!” the final chat member scolded with a chuckle.

“Yea, I’m get’n there. Take it, you guys haven’t started yet?” Marcus asked.

“Nope, staring at the title screen now, wait’n on ya. You said you aren’t all that familiar with the Birthright series, right?” Will asked.

“Nah. I think I played one of them a while back, but I’m not up to date with it at all. I only got it cause Sam kept hyping it up. That, and I figured it’d be a good way to break in this new headset,” Marcus explained as he fiddled with the box, eventually popping the lid open to find a thick plastic case inside.

“Oh, it’s really good! Honestly, you really should play the others if you end up liking this. Seriously, the lore is really cool, there’s so much you can do, tons of races and different ways to build your characters. This game finally lets us explore the end of the Eternal Conflict, which was this big thing that most of the other games stemmed from,” Sam gushed.

“Haha, so is it the Temporary Conflict now if it ended?” Marcus joked.

Sam couldn’t help but let out a bit of a chuckle. “I knew you were gonna say that. No, they’ll probably stick to Eternal Conflict. Sounds way better. Besides, you always need a catchy name for past events. This one supposedly takes place after the previous game where you finally defeat the Eldritch Lord Istvlelok and all sorts of opportunistic countries are coming in to raid the loot. Ooo, I’m getting excited~”

“Heh, freak’n nerd.” Marcus replied with a chuckle.

By now, Marcus had removed the plastic case from the box. With an eager grin on his face, he flipped the latch and popped it open. Though nothing unexpected happened, to Marcus, it was as if he was opening a treasure chest directly out of a game like The Myths of Zoli, golden lights, fanfare and all. Within was his new VR headset and all of the attachments that it needed to function. The headset was surprisingly light and thin, feeling more akin to a pair of goggles than a headset. To top it off, it was completely wireless, ensuring that he wouldn’t have to worry about getting tripped up mid-game.

Marcus immediately got to work with setting up the device. He quickly removed the chargers and plugged them into the multi strip beside his desk, making sure to plug in the controllers and get them charging as soon as possible. Next up came the headset which he hooked up directly to the USB port on his computer. Fortunately, his sensors and motion trackers remained compatible with the new hardware, saving him much additional setup time. After that, there was little more to do as he scooted his red gaming chair over to the computer and began to go through the prompts, installing the new drivers before kicking back and chatting with his friends as he awaited the download.

“Alright, it’s go’n. Umm, anything actually important I need to know before I start?” Marcus asked, leaning back in his chair as he watched installation bars slide across the screen.

“Oh umm, I could fill you in on some of the lore! But, there’s a lot to take in and from what I’ve seen on message boards, sounds like you can find out all the important stuff in game. Otherwise, there’s something like, twenty races you can pick from and they get different abilities that you can level up independently of class or weapon levels. I dunno, there’s a ton of stuff. I don’t even know where to start!” Sam gushed once more, his voice growing louder and louder as he went.

“Woah! Sounds a little outrageous. You sure you ain't overhyping this a bit? You do realize that there’s not a chance an MMO is going to actually be as deep as you’re trying to say this one is is, right? Even if the character building is that good, you know corners are getting cut somewhere else.” Marcus stated as he opened up his browser and scoured whatever news articles happened to pop up.

“Well, I mean, yea, you’d think that but… I’m optimistic about this. If anyone can make a game as fleshed out as everyone’s saying, it’s Omnisoft.” Sam said confidently.

“Yea, well, guess we’ll be finding out soon enough. I prefer going in with low expectations, that way I won’t be disappointed when the product is more crap than I hoped.” Marcus retorted.

“Ever Lost Three.” Will quipped with a snicker.

“Yea, like that. Way to kill a whole freak’n franchise.” Marcus added.

“H-hey, not every game turns out like that! Marcus, are you ready yet? I swear this is gonna be good!.” Sam replied, exasperated.

Marcus flipped back to the download on his screen, content to see that his headset had indeed finished installing. “Yep, there it is. Alright, finally. I’m gonna get this thing started up!”

With a single clap of affirmation, Marcus rose to his feet, his friends excitedly chattering as they prepared to finally immerse themselves in a brand new VR world. Marcus turned and wheeled his gaming chair out of the way before unplugging the controllers and headset. They didn’t have much charge at the moment, but Marcus figured that it would be enough to at least get things started, and he didn’t care to wait around any longer. Making his way to the middle of the room, Marcus stood upon a square carpet, the fibers shorter, a bit more coarse than those of the rest of the carpet in his room. He pulled off his socks and cast them aside so he could make sure he was always standing in the right place. After that, he finally lifted the VR headset up to his face before slipping it on.