Ryan eased gingerly into his chair, leaning the polished dark wood of his cane against the minimalist style desk. The cane's head caught on one of the metal handles so that it wouldn't fall out of reach. 

He was exhausted from work, and his back barely held up on the way home. As odd as it may have seemed for a near-paraplegic to roam the city by foot, he had little say in the matter. To put it charmingly, he was pretty broke.

Still...it pays nearly double what my old job did. Ryan admitted that his old convenience store job down in the Second Agricultural Level wasn't worth the commute at minimum wage.

As worn out as structural analysis made him, he would happily dance to the tune of forty-thousand credits a year to meet his goals. His lanky frame flinched away from the chair as his back flared, complaining about all the stairs he forced himself to climb for work that day.

Besides his regular salary, Ryan was ecstatic as he stroked the manila envelope in his coat pocket. He'd hidden it deep in the inner pocket so that Scavs wouldn't try to bully him into transferring his bonus to them.

A massive sigh escaped his body. Ryan ruefully recalled when he was backed into a corner on the way back to the mag-lev trains. Over a dozen; Scavs pinned him down and beat him until he was forced to give them his day's bonus. 

Since then, Ryan dispensed with the daily bonuses and lived frugally, surviving until he knew he could get the paycheck home safely.

Ryan's body still showed bruises from that beating, not out of place from his normal, so he shrugged through the pain. His fingers trembled as he carefully pulled out the envelope and broke the seal. Excitement seized his chest and stole his breath as the paycheck slipped out and drifted onto his desk.

Twenty-thousand credits. Eight months of hard work, saving bonuses from discovered structural damage and poor quality, finally paid off. 

Ryan quickly leaned forward, ignoring the burst of pain in his back as his hands flew across the keyboard in front of him. He accessed his banking information, and within a minute, he had the check scanned into his computer terminal. 

He felt the vibration from his Com-Ring on his right hand as the balance registered in his bank account.

Ryan took quick, baited breaths as he waved his hands through the virtual controls over his keyboard and navigated to the most visited page in his search history. With a practiced flip, he checked his Com-Ring, the AR display filling his hand, curved like he was holding an antique Twenty-First Century smartphone. 

He verified the balance of thirty-five-thousand credits in his account with a sigh of relief.

[FRONTIER ONLINE] blazed across the top of his computer screen, a lively, emerald green. By far the brightest light in his room, Ryan squinted against the green tint. Underneath the logo, videos started to play themselves, advertizing the beta-"divers" highlighting game features. 

Since the game was a "Full-Dive" type, the term for divers became 'divers' for Full-Dive-VRMMO or FDVRMMO. Ryan probably spent a few hundred hours in front of his computer over the last year, watching those videos over and over again as he day-dreamed.

He might have stopped to watch them again, but his excitement started to vanish as icy fear gripped his lungs. Ryan nervously swept his mop of hair out of his eyes and waved his hands a few more times before he stopped at the order screen. 

[Frontier Online] required a unique gaming capsule that couldn't be purchased anywhere else.

With a dozen different capsules on the market, the unique unit sparked outrage in the gaming and VR communities as a greedy money grab, but MONTECH stuck to its marketing decision. 

It didn't make a lick of difference to Ryan- he'd never owned a gaming capsule or console of any kind. Plus, the unit was compatible with all other games on the market and was more advanced than any other capsules available. 

Even with the outrage, MONTECH made an absolute killing from their capsule sales.

Before Ryan could second guess himself, he waved his Com-Ring through the AR screen where his banking information would go and watched his details and financial information fill itself out. He confirmed his order in the same movement and leaned back in his chair, drenched in sweat. 

While not strenuous, the last few minutes were nerve-wracking for him. He had to get his order before the tracking software attached to his bank account could send his family information.

Ryan's Com-Ring vibrated again, and he flipped his hand to see that his remaining balance dropped to two-thousand credits. Thirty-three-thousand credits bought his MONTECH gaming capsule and a pre-order for [Frontier Online].

Then Ryan had nothing to do except wait in his room as the teaser trailers for [Frontier Online] played across his screen. He didn't watch them, though. He was ecstatic, terrified, and felt like he might cry from the overwhelming emotion inside his chest.

For the first time in years, he acted out. He made his purchase beyond just surviving. 

For a year, since the sudden announcement of [Frontier Online], he had worked tirelessly to afford a copy of the game and capsule unit to play it. 

He found a new job, worked overtime, and even got a promotion while still going to school full-time.

In the corner of Ryan's eye, he saw the digital clock on his screen hit 11:00 PM. With an hour until the game would officially launch, Ryan thanked fate that he attended Apostle. The city-school had many scummy sides, but the delivery system, from top-to-bottom, was first-class.

Even now, Ryan imagined his capsule, already keyed to his account and bio-file, as it shot through delivery tubes to his floor. The delivery network then pushed it onto the mag-lev floor tracks that led to every residence and cart the unit to his apartment in Housing Zone One, the city's cheapest.

Honestly, it's a work of art in motion. 

The person who designed it was an extremely gifted engineer, making the near-instant delivery system part of the enormous Sky-Piercer City infrastructure. The system was the only one globally, designed from the ground up to make things convenient for the colossal school.

Because it was the most competitive school globally, the idea was to make more time for the students to study. Governments around the world invested in the project to encourage the attendance of geniuses- and it worked.

The lowest IQ in the student body didn't drop below 150. The school farmed out students to super-corporations for lucrative careers. The only way to attend was to pass the entrance exam. No amount of money bought a ticket into the prestigious institution.

Ryan scratched his head, tracing the same lines over and over again. Listlessly, he waited and preoccupied his thoughts. Before he realized it, ten minutes had passed, and there came an electronic knock at his door. The capsule had arrived.

As quickly as he could, Ryan grabbed his cane and forced himself out of his chair. Unsteady, he hobbled to the door and slapped the access panel on his right to open it with his Com-Ring. 

 With a cool hiss, the door to Ryan's room slid into the wall. A delivery orderly stood at his door, clipboard in hand, an enormous package hovering behind him.

The orderly glanced up from where he tapped his foot idly on the bare concrete floor. When his eyes met Ryan's chest, he tilted his head back farther until he finally met Ryan's eyes behind the fringe of black and white hair he called bangs.

Before Ryan could say anything, the deliveryman said, "Hey! You're Scarecrow, right?" 

The same breath Ryan took to greet the man slowly escaped his chest as he thought about correcting him, gave up, and nodded.

Despite his distaste for the ignoble moniker, Ryan extended his hand gruffly. "Ryan Harringer. Package for me?" He tried not to act abnormal, but he could hear the emphasis in his voice when he said "package." 

He ignored the orderly's reaction to his comically deep voice, but the short man didn't seem to notice the anticipation in Ryan's tone.

The beanie-wearing young man's expression sunk a little, and he pointedly didn't shake Ryan's hand but nodded and offered the touch-pad in his. Ryan placed his right hand on the pad and held it there for five seconds to confirm his biometrics and Com-Ring. 

As soon as the pad beeped, verifying that Ryan wasn't impersonating himself and his biometrics didn't read elevated stress, he hobbled out into the hallway and started to fiddle with the AR display on the capsule package.

If his stress levels were too high, then an investigator would be dispatched to make sure Ryan wasn't forced into ordering the package. 

Unfortunately, an elite school like Apostle experienced severe bullying cases. Wealthier or meaner, students would force their target to buy things for them rather than leave a paper trail of transferred credits. 

The system wasn't perfect and would trigger over simple excitement sometimes.

Usually, that was the part where the orderly left. Still, the shorter man hovered by Ryan's side as he sped through the secondary identity confirmations that would allow him to open the package. 

A minute into the process, Ryan couldn't suppress his irritation and snapped, "Can I help you?" Ryan preferred to involve himself with others as little as possible. He got enough stares in his everyday life.

The orderly danced from side-to-side for a moment, his blue and gray uniform nearly blending into the drab hallway around them, before he nervously licked his lips and said, "Y-you paid for service to get the device set up?" 

Under the gaunt giant's unrelenting stare, the teen, now that Ryan looked at him, sounded unsure of himself before he finished the sentence.

Ryan blinked, bemused because he had forgotten about that in his rush to get the device and make the smaller person go away. 

He internally sighed and thought He's probably a scholarship student. If the kid doesn't follow the letter of the law with his orders, then he'll get expelled. 

Ryan stepped to the side with that in mind and waved his hand for the teen to proceed.

Like that was some predetermined signal, the young fellow jumped forward and used his admin controls to guide the packaged capsule into Ryan's room. 

One step in, he waved his hand in front of the control panel to his left and said, "Lights," with the authority of long practice.

The mostly unused bulbs flickered to life in Ryan's room and exposed his odd setup. For a few moments, the orderly stood there and looked around before Ryan loudly cleared his throat behind him. With a start, he led the floating package deeper into the apartment.

Ryan understood why the young man stopped, even if it was annoying. His room was bare from his waist down. Aside from Ryan's desk, chair, and bed frame, which rested on the ground, everything he owned stayed on an extensive series of bookshelves.

Waist height for Ryan put all of his possessions at chest height for the shorter teen. Ryan had to pay extra for an ample room that could fit the bookshelves and accommodate his lifestyle. 

Otherwise, the result would have been a cramped warehouse more than an oddly styled bedroom.

Ryan never bothered to explain the setup. Anyone that looked at his cane and hunched back understood that Ryan didn't crouch over, ever. Ryan held a significant number of nicknames in the collegiate community. 

Every one of them stemmed from his emaciated, towering figure combined with his cane and baggy, dirty lab coat. His odd, web-like smattering of white through his medium length black hair made him stand out even more.

It's not that all the names don't fit...I don't want to stand out because of this body...

"Um..." Ryan looked up when he heard the teen's voice. The look he gave the young man made him freeze like a little rabbit, but Ryan couldn't help his face's severity. 

I don't want to scare the kid - I just can't make my face any less RBF.

"Yes?" Ryan looked at him expectantly. He was on a timeline to get everything set up before the midnight launch.

"Where do you want it?" The kid looked around the room, but there wasn't an open spot on the wall to be found in a sea of bookshelves. 

Ryan glanced around the room, but it didn't take him long to find the place.

"Haul away service?" Ryan asked and ignored the way the kid jumped every time he spoke. The orderly hopped and nodded his head frantically. 

Ryan grunted in satisfaction and pointed, "Just take that with you, then."

The orderly followed Ryan's hand, looking over his head where it hung in the air before he turned around and hesitantly asked, "Wait, wahaat- the bed? You want me to take the bed?" He whipped his head back and forth between Ryan's hand and the bed in question.

Ryan nodded mutely and left the orderly to his work so he could sit down in his chair again. The thing does more harm than good. 

The old continuous-coil type mattress was the only bed Ryan could afford even before he started saving for the capsule, and it destroyed his back every night. The only benefit was that it had been better than the floor.

Now though, I'll be sleeping in the capsule.

Ryan's pulse sped up as he thought about [Frontier Online] and the reason it initially captured his attention.

The diver could play the game in their sleep.

Ryan's grueling schoolwork never gave him a chance to play games in his daily life- not that he could afford them before. With the advent of the new technology MONTECH created and implemented in their capsules, Ryan would play video games for the first time in his life. 

The best escape from his reality was reading. The land of fantasy, adventure, and heroes had comforted him and filled his imagination since he picked up his first.

Now, Ryan would get to go there too. [Frontier Online] would transport him away from this life and even give him a new body. As he thought about it, Ryan started to get hot in his chest, fierce anger surging through his body. 

His muscles tensed in response; his body tried to prepare for a fight that would never come. When the unavoidable counterforce of pain came from his back, Ryan only grew angrier as his chest heaved in short, gasping breaths.

I shouldn't be like this. I won't be like this! Not there. The intense anger passed as quickly as it came. He wanted to be in the game, so severely his eyes misted over, and the air soured in his lungs, the fury replaced by desperation and cloying sadness.

"Sc- er-Sir! I finished with the setup." 

Ryan jerked forward in his chair. When he turned to look at the teenage deliveryman, Ryan's face was flushed with emotion, which made his naturally intense resting face look downright murderous. 

The orderly froze; his eyes were wide-open as the blood drained from his face. Ryan patted his chest as he calmed himself, not confident in his ability to speak for a few moments.

The giant tactfully didn't bring up how the kid almost called him Scarecrow again when he mastered himself. "Thank you...do I need to sign for anything else?" 

The teenager, he had to be under 5'4", shook his head mutely. His gaping eyes tracked Ryan's face even as his head moved side-to-side.

"Okay...you can go if you're finished. Thanks again." Ryan offered his hand to shake the little orderly's, and this time the teen took it, possibly afraid of offending Ryan. 

Ryan's hand, skinny as it was, engulfed the younger man's digits. To Ryan, it felt like he was a dad, holding his toddler's hand.

Once Ryan released his hand, the orderly all-but flew to his mag-lev trolly, now laden with Ryan's old bed, and ran out of the room while inadvertently solidifying his rabbit image in Ryan's mind. 

At least he closed the door behind him.

The tall twenty-five-year-old carefully leveraged himself from his desk chair with the help of his cane and stiffly made his way to the gaming capsule. For a brief moment, he stopped to admire the sophisticated piece of machinery. 

Clean, angular lines glowed at the seams in the capsule's surface, where it would open up to admit the diver. The sleek, dark gray model he ordered suited his tastes. 

Better than having a giant white snot-droplet in my room.

Ryan glanced at the clock and panicked. At 11:43, two minutes remained to get ready before the launch interview with Monte, the lead programmer and namesake of MONTECH. 

In a clumsy rush, Ryan stripped out of his clothes, hissing every time his back complained. He carefully stepped out of his pants, which were extra large on him to get his huge feet through the holes without bending easily, and stood there in just his boxers.

Since he could stay in his underwear, Ryan held his hand above the capsules interface menu and accessed the AR screen. With a few gestures, Ryan navigated the menu and opened the enclosure. 

With a pneumatic hiss, the capsule opened, the edge nearest Ryan rose and tilted on a near-invisible hinge on the other side of the device so the door would keep itself out of the way.

Inside was a gray gel-bed, darker than the outside casing. Arguably the most comfortable bed worth buying, the gel-bed cushioned all impact from his clumsy maneuvers to get in. 

However, once he was inside, much faster than getting into his old bed, Ryan knew that his body would never wake up sore again thanks to the gel.

Above him, the unit started to close itself once it sensed Ryan was entirely inside the spacious chamber. As soon as the lid hissed shut on its own, the most advanced AR screen he'd ever seen appeared in front of his face. 

Usually, that distance would have been unreadable, but he could see everything that happened comfortably. 

Amazing. Ryan thought.

The unit was programmed to tune into the launch interview on its own once the user was inside on-time. Ryan watched as Roman Monte, with salt-and-pepper hair and a smartly pressed gray suit, walked across the stage, waving at a crowd Ryan could barely see.

The legendary programmer sat down across from the beautiful hostess, a young woman who had made a name for herself, reporting cutting-edge news. With a good head on her shoulders, even the reclusive Ryan knew her name. 

After all, they shared a few classes years ago. 

They shared a few classes, but Ryan's program took several years longer, and she'd long left the Super-Alumni behind. Ryan remembered her being extremely intelligent and more detail-oriented compared to the other Journalism students.

Then the interview started, and he didn't have time to reminisce.

["Frontier Online is set to launch at midnight tonight, just 15 minutes from now. In an era of Full-Dive VRMMO gaming, why should we care about this latest offer? Here to explain it to us tonight is its chief programmer, Roman Monte."

"Thank you, Ms. Jones."

"Oh, please, call me Kayla."

"Alright, Kayla, there is a myriad of reasons why you should play Frontier, but the biggest is right there in the title. A kind of class system exists in the game. Some are secret or even legendary. That aspect is just a support-system, however. The game features a learning software I created."

"What does that learning software do? Why would a legendary class only be support?"

"Because you can invent or alter your own skills. Let's say you take martial artists, and they play the monk class. If, given the existence of a sixth sense in the game, this person created chakra or ki? It won't be easy, but through meditation or even battle, it is possible depending on the diver."

"So, the name, Frontier, means that only those who push their limits and invent skills will truly be powerful?"

"Exactly. Only divers who chase the horizon, inside and out, will achieve dominance. There are as many ways to play as there are people TO play. The software makes it possible. The more unique or weird- the longer the system will take to classify it into a usable skill."

"That's...amazing, honestly. A little hard to believe. If it's true, then that would make Frontier the most innovative game to play. To truly know that your own unique style or skills can be made a reality? That's insane! How would PVP combat work out?"

"We can only wait and see. Even our beta testers couldn't really push the software. They made some fun stuff, but nothing that could carve its legend in history. By the time divers start to hit levels fifty through one-hundred, we should start to see a real light show during game broadcasts."

"Is that what you want to see? Divers making abilities so unique and powerful that they can't be challenged?"

"Almost. Everyone should be able to have a unique experience. The frontrunners will have the right to call themselves truly the best at what they do, though. However, the software governs the world, and anything it makes for a diver can be used and learned from elsewhere. A week into the launch, and it won't be the same game. A year from now? Who knows?"

"Is there any advice you can give the divers?"

"If I could stress anything, it would be this: don't treat it like a game. NPC's are so real you couldn't tell the difference between them and other divers. The world will grow, and Eve will implement huge updates from time to time. The base game, compounded with its constant changes, should ensure there is never a lack of content for the divers."

"Eve? Did you name the software?"

"Yeah. We all did at the labs. Eve, well, there's never been anything like her before. You have to experience it for yourself. It's more appropriate to think of it as another world, living, and breathing alongside our own. Time dilation is at a 1:5 ratio. One day here is five days there. Your body can sleep inside the capsule while you're in the game."

"Is that healthy?"

"Perfectly safe. Eve monitors the diver's health. I've even used it to catch up on work."

"Amazing. That's all I have to say. We're coming up at midnight now."

"You're right, Kayla. So, without further ado, I'm happy to launch FRONTIER ONLINE!"]

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope anyone who sees this, enjoys my work! I'm glad to have you. If you see and typos I will get them fixed ASAP. 

Otherwise, I'm new here! Feel free to reach out :)

 

Edited 1/23/2021 - Paragraphs were way too big. I hope this version is easier for new readers~