Walking through the shopping mall was a young man accompanied by an elderly man and woman. His name was [url=http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/65ebe7b81677a5c0523e33ae32ae1266/http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j264/nami_yuganashi/Anime%20Boys/Terry.jpg]Adrian Winter[/url]. Adrian wasn't comfortable at all. Being an 18 year old with his parents wasn't exactly the ideal image, and it didn't help that they were intending to skip the giant line of people altogether. If it was up to Adrian, he would have rather waited in line like everyone else, but his parents persuaded him that it was a waste of time; time which could be spent in his studies and training instead. He gave in when they said that he would not receive a copy of "Threshold of Kakophonia" if he did not spend the 2 days before the release (the amount of time people waited in line) in their personal library. So instead of having Adrian wait in line, his parents chose to have their local GameStop reserve a copy for them, and have it be given to them upon arrival. The store would not refuse them. After all, they were the owners of the Winter Group business conglomerate. The closer they got to the store, the larger the line seemed to become. Adrian started to wonder if he would've regretted waiting in line if he forced it. Still, he had to admire the devotion of some of the gamers here. He loved video games in his own way, but not in the way that others were willing to spend two days and one night in a line. As they approached the entrance, some people gave them strange looks Some even told them to get at the back of the line if they were here for the MAELSTROM console and ToK copy. However, some people recognized Adrian's father as Norman Winter, and started gossiping. Some of the journalists covering ToK's release overheard them. "Would you look at this, folks? Even wealthy businessman Norman Winter appears to be giving in to the hype. Let's see if we can get a few words from him." A female reporter said to the camera. Adrian's father, sharp as always, tapped him on the shoulder. "Son, head to the store with your mother and talk to the employees. They will arrange our purchase. I'll take care of this." He said. Adrian nodded and went towards the entrance. He could overhear his father speaking with the reporter. "Excuse me, we're with PC Gamer holo-magazine and we'd like to ask you some questions, if it's not too much of a problem." The woman said. "Go ahead." Norman replied. "Is it true that the Winter Group helped finance the new VR game, Threshold of Kakophonia?" She asked. "We sent several donations, yes. But we did not directly interact with the companies who created it." His father replied. Adrian couldn't hear the rest of the interview as he walked away. He thought about how his father failed to mention his "donations" were several members of the Winter Group who invested in the new VR game trend, and owned shares of both MAELSTROM and ToK. Apparently, everyone knew how big of a hit the new games were going to be. Upon approaching the entrance, they were stopped by the security guard who pointed at the far end of the area. "Back of the line, buddy." He said. "Umm... My name is Adrian Winter." Adrian said rather awkwardly. The guard thought for a moment, then looked surprised. "Oh! So sorry about that, sir! One moment please." He said as he went inside the store and spoke with the employees. A while later, an employee came outside carrying a bag containing the preorder set (complete with ToK poster). "Here you are, sir. We hope you enjoy it." He said with a smile as he retreated back into the store. Looking down into the bag, Adrian could hardly suppress a smile. [i]"I'm finally going to be playing a VR game, online!"[/i] He thought. His mind was already overflowing with ideas on what he was going to find in that virtual world. His mother tugged gently at his shirt. "We should get going, dear." She said. Adrian nodded and turned his head up. His smile disappeared when he saw the line again, with several people looking enviously at his bag. Adrian started to not feel so good about the purchase, but he couldn't return it nor give it to someone else, considering it was bought with his parent's money and not his allowance. With that, they walked away from the store and met up with the father. "Well, I won't take up anymore of your time, sir. I'm sure your son is dying to try out his new video game." The reporter said, looking at Adrian, who half-heartedly turned away from the camera. "Well there you have it folks. An exclusive interview with Norman Winter." The reporter continued as the family walked out of the mall. --- Arriving at their large home (and unboxing his set), Adrian quickly headed into his room to set up the MM console. His room was large for that of a teenage boy's room (considering he's had it ever since he was in elementary). His bed and study table was on the far side, next to a large window with foldable blinds. To the right of the room was a flatscreen TV on the wall, along with a gaming PC near it at the near corner. On the left side of the room was a large bookshelf for leisure reading, and a glass drawer containing multiple kinds of game merchandise from franchises he's played (including Tekken and Kingdom Hearts), with several posters on top of it. Since the Winter Group had already invested in the VR industry, Adrian had the privilege of testing some of the earlier models a few days before their commercial release. The MAELSTROM was the latest, most advanced, and most user-friendly of all the gaming models. So, he didn't have much trouble setting it up with his gaming PC. The next step was installing "Threshold of Kakophonia". He loaded the game into the MM, which showed a message on his PC saying that it had to be synchronized first. Adrian was already used to this, and decided to use the time to set-up the poster and read the manual. He plastered the poster on the corner of his room where his other game merchandise were. Except he reserved a spot for it right in the middle of all the posters. Taking the box of tacks on the bookshelf, he carefully positioned it in the middle. Satisfied with his work, he grabbed the memory card inside the box labelled "Instruction Manual" and loaded it on his personal 3D Mobile Pad as he lied down on his bed. Habitually skipping the terms and conditions, Adrian tapped on the links in the table of contents and read through everything he needed to know about installing and running the game. His PC was about on par with best recommended system requirements, he already knew the basics of an MMORPG, he didn't have any epilepsy problems, so on and so forth... Adrian looked up and smiled when his PC said that synchronization was completed. He clicked off his Pad, stood up, and grabbed the MM headset. Before putting it on, he felt a little bit of guilt when he remembered all of the people in that line. But he managed to push away that thought by convincing himself that in a few weeks, about half of the world will own a MAELSTROM and a copy of ToK. With that thought, his excitement returned, and he slowly (and rather shakily)put on the head-set as he fell back down on his bed. He felt his body start to numb as the visuals of the game started to kick in, and he began seeing a beautiful, vast world in the background of floating text... [center]<> <>[/center] Adrian always somehow incorporated the word "Winter" into his IGN's (or at least something that had to do with snow or the cold. For a while he thought, and then decided to use the name of a Greek god he read about in history books. He spoke loudly. "Username: Apollo... Winter" He said, pausing for a long while after Apollo to signify a space. <> <> The text said. "Confirm" He said in response. The next step was to choose a race. He wasn't all that interested in the Veni Yan (as they struck him as the usual Mage/Magic class in RPG's), and the humans were of course too common. Lastly, he spotted the Nobelle. [i]"A race of small intellectuals with advanced technology? Perfect."[/i] He thought as he selected the race and felt himself float through the air as the text and background disappeared, and his avatar materialized in the game world. A mirror appeared before him, and he could see his character in unbelievable realism. He appeared to be a shorter version of himself with pale white skin, big eyes, and white clothing. [i]"Japanese people call this 'Chibi', if I'm not mistaken."[/i] He noted. He saw several items laid out on a table before him such as combs, paintbrushes with paint cans, and many more objects that seemed to be geared towards personal grooming. The first thing he did was remove his glasses and throw them away; he didn't need them in the virtual world since his vision was automatically corrected. The next thing he did was grab a paintbrush. He was unsure of what he was supposed to do, but he decided to figure it out as he went along. Dipping the brush into the white paint, he coated the bristles with the viscous liquid. He put the wet brush to his head, and watched as his hair suddenly turned completely white. [i]"Interesting..."[/i] He thought. He didn't change much else of his looks, and took one more look at himself at the mirror. [i]"It's amazing how different I look without my glasses, and only a change of hair and skin color."[/i] He thought. Satisfied with his appearance, he confirmed it, and began feeling as if he was floating in the air. --- Adrian (or rather, Apollo) found himself on the outskirts of a lively town, not to different from that of the usual fantasy starter zones.He never felt so happy and excited about seeing one before. The first thing he noticed was the Heads-Up Display (containing everything from inventory to options). He wondered if he could minimize it just to increase the immersion. After messing around on the icons, he found that he could. Once the icons were away, he took a look at the countryside landscape. The 2nd thing he saw was the amount of people heading into town and talking with each other. Assuming they weren't NPC's, but actual players who were lucky enough to get a copy as fast as he did, Apollo decided to enter the town and see how other people felt about the new VR game.