"Hey Derrick!" the man in question looked up from his computer station to smile at his friend.

"What's up Nick? I am almost done for the day." Derrick told him before turning back towards his station.

"Yeah, I got that, but did you forget that it's been over a week since the release day?" Nick prodded and Derrick shook his head absently as he continued to work.

Nick and Derrick had been waiting over a year to play the newest and rumored to be the best, VRMMORPG, "No, I didn't Nick but at the moment I don't care. I want to finish up my work so I can go home eat and shower, I plan on diving into Endless Online tomorrow after a full night of sleep." Derrick told him and while he wanted to play the game, after a twelve-hour day he wanted to rest more than anything else.

Nick chuckled as he patted Derrick's shoulder, "I understand that brother and we don't plan on playing until tomorrow either. Just making sure you remember." Nick replied and Derrick waved him off. "Also, some of us are trying to coordinate where we spawn but due to the random spawn points of players, we don't know how to do it," Nick commented and Derrick shrugged.

"We will just have to travel to meet each other once we get in-game, nothing else you can do," Derrick replied before turning his focus to his friend. "Now get out of here. I will be playing at eight in the morning if I manage to wake up that early. Once I figure out where I end up, I will send you a message and we can coordinate something." the man told Nick before turning his focus back to his computer.

Nick's laugher faded as he walked away leaving Derrick alone, while their company expected much, they didn't pay much and offered very few perks. With the project nearly done and the launch of Paramount Entertainment's latest game of Endless Online, Derrick was going to take a week of paid time off to recover from the long workdays and enjoy his time off at the same time.

An hour later Derrick saved and submitted all his work, he was done for the day finally and one of the last people if not the last to leave. He groaned in frustration and quickly ordered some dinner on his Unit as he headed out the door so he could pick it up on the way home. A Unit was a marvel of technology, a lot like the cell phones that predated it, but it incorporated holographic technology as well as emergency medical tech.

All of it, including fully immersive Virtual Reality technology, was due to the quantum emergence a decade earlier and the first of the real Artificial Intelligence beings. Everything changed after that, war, disease, nuclear weapons were all a thing of the past and while everything was still far from perfect, humanity would survive and possibly thrive. Well, if everything went as planned and people didn't do anything stupid which tended to happen more often than not.

Derrick got the Chinese food and the pizza that was located on the same block as his apartment, the pizza was always amazing cold in the morning, so he had enough for a couple of days of breakfast. Derrick looked around his small apartment, it had a small kitchen, a dining/living room, and one bedroom. It was far from the biggest, but the view of the city was second to none.

"How was your day sir?" Cleo, the apartment V.I. asked as Derrick sat the food down and put the pizza in the fridge.

"Not too bad Cleo, my project has been submitted and I am off of work for the next week. Did you download and hook my V.R. headset up with my Endless Online account?" Derrick asked as he started putting the food on a plate and putting any extra in the fridge.

"Of course, sir, everything is ready if you wish to start playing tonight. According to the official Forums, you can sleep in the game with the time compression, you only have to log out to take care of your physical needs." Cleo responded as Derrick sat down and the tv came on.

"No, it's been a long day I want to eat and get a full night of sleep before I play a new game Cleo but thank you for that information about sleeping. How are the reviews so far?" Derrick asked as the tv was replaying a rerun of the Lord of the Rings movie. After watching the movie when growing up, Derrick had gotten the books as well and had always loved the fantasy world that Tolkien had built, and that modern fantasy mimicked.

"Very well sir, I assume you want me to wake you at seven as usual?" Cleo asked and Derrick nodded around a mouthful of food.

"Yep, I need to eat and shower before playing," Derrick responded absently as the siege of Minas Tirith began, it still amazed Derrick what those people were capable of without the technology of today and made him wonder if they would ever remake the movies.

Derrick watched most of the movie until his eyes started drooping. He quickly cleaned up and took a shower before heading to bed, he still had digital copies of the movies if he wanted to watch it again sometime. The last thought Derrick had was wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Ten hours later, well-rested, washed, and fed, Derrick looked at his gaming chair. It was probably the most expensive thing in his apartment. It was gel-based with a light cloth covering that was easily removed and washed. Perfect to promote circulation of the occupant without causing any physical damage.

The helmet that would project his consciousness looked sleek and futuristic, so much more compact than the capsules of the previous generation. Derrick put the helmet on, "Initiate Endless Online Cleo." Derrick commanded and the darkness consumed him as he was uploaded into the game's servers.

When he could see again, Derrick was standing in the middle of a crater, and if he had to guess it was a dormant volcano based on all the rock on not a meteor that had made it. Before he could say or do anything a prompt appeared.

Derrick read through the prompt and raised an eyebrow at the warning about wounds, it made him wonder how 'real' this game was going to be as he hit Yes causing the prompt to disappear as a semi-transparent menu appeared with a generic Avatar next to it. There were only four options in Character Creation, Race, Facial Features, Body Features, and Name was listed. As he focused on Race a shortlist appeared.

Derrick studied the list and the Note that hinted that the list could expand and made him wonder what it would look like a year from now. He read through the various Race information, while the non-Human Races had nice bonuses the Humans had some bonuses as well and had some nice starting perks.

Derrick confirmed his choice, while the other Races had interesting Abilities each of them also had a racial enemy and he didn't want to get a racial enemy right out of the gate. Derrick made a few changes to his physical appearance, added a couple of inches, got rid of a little fat here and there, added some muscle tone and definition to his body and one or two more changes before accepting the physical appearance of his Avatar causing a final prompt to appear. 

Derrick smiled as he chose a name that had meaning in the past but held little power now, "Arthur Payne." he called out hearing a chime as the name was accepted. 'Prepare yourself, Traveler, for entering Endless Online, a place of opportunity, where you can do almost anything!' a voice called out as Arthur felt a sense of falling as everything went dark again.