FB: Chapter 6 – Launch Day

The capsule had been set up without issue on the anti-vibration pad in the living room. The double wide front door right into the living room from the front of the house had made things super easy. Flooring was a hardwood laminate, since I didn’t want any rugs to hide dust in. A camera system was installed and connected up to the VR system to alert me if there was movement on my property. I could pull up that app in game. Since a web connection was allowed in game so people could chat on forums, one could also monitor their home security system.

Huge flood lights were on the outside of my house with motion detectors. A secure drop box had been set up for the food delivery. Even the cleaning and yard people were scheduled at a set time and I had a calendar and clock put up in the kitchen.

While I didn’t have to get inside the capsule naked, I was used to it, and it was common practice once the medical nanites were released. I couldn’t wait for the nanite capsules to get released. Especially when I could easily stay in one twenty hours a day and sleep inside of it. To stay the full 24 hours required a dedicated medical set up which I wasn’t planning to get.

I lay down in the capsule. I had already done the three separate rounds of connection testing required to ensure there were no issues before the launch of Exponential. The inside of my home was completely dark and there was no noise. The windows all had two layers of thick blackout shutters and curtains installed to further reduce light, with only a couple floor directed motion sensing soft LED lights for when I got out. Any sensory disturbance from the outside could cause issues while being in the capsule. Better to go overboard now than have to deal with an issue in the future.

That was why they were capsules and not headsets for safety reasons. I lay back in the custom fitted chair and closed my eyes. Time to be the best and become filthy rich while doing it.

EXPONENTIAL
Connection Established

The glowing white words showed up in front of me. They disappeared and I opened my virtual eyes. I was lying on a bed similar to the capsule with a simple gray dress on. I sat up and looked around the starting area. A small gray room with a simple bed, table, and two chairs and lighting built into the ceiling. There was a knock on the door.

“May I enter?” a female voice called out.

“Yes, please come in,” I replied. It was important to treat the NPCs as real. There were hidden modifiers that were important, that controlled relationships with NPCs. People who were assholes, rude, and caused trouble got worse interactions, less quests, and had a harder time overall. These types of people struggled long term when NPC interactions became more important later in the game. QAI really was quite powerful since it could manage all of this in real time for all the players and NPCs.

The door opened and a plump middle-aged woman came in dressed in fine robes. “Hello dear. I am Cardinal Pious of the Trinity Church, here to help you get settled. If you have any questions you can ask them at any time.”

I had no questions for her. The introductory Cardinals were one of the few instances where QAI cheated blatantly. The Cardinals were NPCs in the world and would remember interactions from this introduction tutorial with everyone. QAI was creating separate instances of each of the 27 Cardinals that ran the Trinity Church in order to onboard everyone and have the Cardinals even show up while they existed elsewhere in the game.

The Trinity Church was a major organization that ran things in the human empire. There was the Church of Vigilance, which handled criminals, the law, and deals. The Church of Healing, which brought people and NPCs back to life and healed them. Finally, the Church of Humanity that dealt with defending settlements from monsters and hostile powers. Together they formed the Trinity Church.

Pissing off the Trinity Church was a very bad idea for multiple reasons. I wasn’t going to even think about it. Some people liked to play evil characters, but those types of players had a hard time, especially at the start. If you wanted to be evil, the key was to wait until you had enough power and understanding of the world of Exponential to make such a character work in game. Even then it was a huge headache. “Thank you Cardinal Pious. I would listen to anything you believe to be important,” I replied with clasped hands and bowed my head towards her.

“Well, you are newly arrived in the world of Exponential. I will help you pick out some basic clothing and equipment. After that I will help you select a town, village, or fort to arrive in. If you have questions, feel free to ask.”

There was no point in asking questions, since I knew things and it wouldn’t boost my favorability with the NPC. People had tried everything, but there were no hidden secrets at the start. The door the NPC had come from was just a short hallway with nothing else. There was nothing hidden here. Attacking or badgering the Cardinal would just make them annoyed with you in the future, which definitely wasn’t worthwhile. For my clothing, I picked tight waterproof boots and socks and just remained in my underwear and grey dress. It wasn’t worth the time or hassle picking something more detailed right now.

People could set their immersion factor. The higher the immersion, the more one could feel, and the less latency there was. That latency factor was critical in high level combat. That was why I had to do three tests the day before the game officially launched to confirm my immersion level and test that I was ready for full immersion.

While everything would be in high detail, that meant pain and my sense of smell would have higher threshold as well. There were emergency cutoffs in place that had been set up. In case I wanted to exit. There would be massive in game penalties if you didn’t leave at a designated location, since there were medical risks if you didn’t leave at a designated point, you would experience massive vertigo and feel like your body was spinning as you went from your position in game to lying down in the capsule. That would lead to the mental illness of gravity delusion.

I had no doubt full immersion would be rough, but I needed to get used to full immersion. I needed as few barriers as possible for my combat ability. That was why I had gone all out with my house and set up for my capsule. That was why I was going all in on the immersion as well. I needed to be able to fight at the highest levels and not give myself any handicaps. I was nowhere near the best combatant, so I needed to squeeze out every advantage I could.

As for clothing, all the avatars in game had underwear. A bra and panties for women and tight boxers for the men. This clothing could only be removed in designated buildings once your identity was confirmed that you were of age, which was 18 or 21 in almost all countries.

The sex scene in Exponential was quite big and that was what a large portion of the people did in their down time. No risk of diseases or pregnancy, so they would just go to a brothel and hitch up. I will admit I had tried a couple of those places in the past, they were fun, but I would rather be rich and famous instead of getting virtual sex all day. I had a chance for power, and I wasn’t about to squander it. I would crush those elites and super guilds in the past who thought they were better than everyone, and crush them beneath my boots, just like I had been crushed in the past.

There were no workplace regulations inside of Exponential, which created a big loophole many employers in the past exploited with various contracts. The fact that it was considered a game didn’t help with this issue either. I refused to be taken advantage of ever again. I would be taking advantage of others instead and standing at the top of the powerarchy that would eventually form inside the game.

Clothing and most armor were more of a cosmetic choice than anything else. The problem with wearing clothing, was that it would hinder movement, get wet, and have issues. Even if it was well fitted and everything, there was too much realism for some parts of Exponential.

The Murk Swamp was hell on clothing. The smell would linger, it would get wet and moldy, and it would drag you down in the swamp water. That was why I just wore tight waterproof boots and socks. I couldn’t stand the thought of the chunks or the swamp juice getting between my toes, even if it was virtual. I stuck with the cheap gray dress slash robe so I wouldn’t get NPC penalties for being in my underwear and kept it on, but it would only be getting use in town.

Also walking on hard ground would be annoying with just my feet. There would also be an exposure penalty, but the Murk Swamp was fairly warm throughout the game year and was near a coast in a low lying area. It never froze, and the joke was that hell never froze over so the Murk Swamp would not freeze as well.

“Now, your appearance,” Cardinal Pious said while leading me to a mirror. People could adjust their features by up to 5% and no more in order to prevent the mental illness of body dysmorphia. This meant skin touch ups for the most part and adjusting where hair grew or color.

I adjusted my ears to be a bit flatter, and then my nose to be perfectly straight. After that it was just having a lot of hair removed and adjusting my eyebrows, nails, and eye shape slightly. I wasn’t bad looking, but now I would be super model level in terms of appearance. I hesitated and then made my eyes a deep dark green color and changed my hair color from brown to a dark brownish red and had it be short.

This kind of stuff could always be changed later on for a small price at an NPC in game. Some people altered other body parts, but being a bit on the flatter side and only a B cup was fine. I didn’t want to impact my balance.

I had done gymnastics in high school, so adjusting my balance would really mess with me. I would need to practice first in the game after coming back a decade despite my daily exercises to get fully familiar with my body. I was happy with the way I was for the most part with only minor touchups.

“Now this is your armor bracelet. It provides a shield for your body against attacks and places for two skills to be slotted.” I was handed a bracelet. I easily put it on and then twisted an extended portion to tighten it around my right arm. The extended part folded down neatly making sure the armor bracelet stayed in place.

While QAI tried to make things appear reasonable, there was a reason that the grand vistas and structures existed. It could tell physics to go screw itself in game and often did. The bracelet being shrunk and tightened around my arm was a good example of this. It was a magical solution instead of using the physics of the world.

Armor was handled by the bracelet which projected a force field or bio field based on the in game lore. There was physical armor, but unless it was unique, it wasn’t worth the headache from durability loss, or the movement restrictions from heavier armor types. Strength and speed didn’t really change from person to person, even with higher stats. What changed were damage calculations. A level 100 could poke a lower level person and kill them instantly but would have the same difficulty throwing them regardless of their level.

That did mean that larger people had a bigger reach and step, while smaller people had an easier time sneaking around or getting through tight areas. I was used to my body, so I didn’t want to make drastic changes. Body dysmorphia was no joke and would really mess up a person’s head.

“Now dear, you are all set up. We just need to a name for you and a destination,” Cardinal Pious said kindly to me.

I had given it a lot of thought, but with my Luck poison build I had planned I wanted to highlight my Luck and poison build but in a subtle, catchy way. Toxic Probability was a bit too long winded with too many syllables. Toxic Fortune was better, but having the first name of Toxic was a bit too much. There was only one good name that came to mind that was short and sexy. “Foxy Blight. The name is Foxy Blight.”

“A good choice,” the older woman said. That meant it wasn’t a penalty name. Someone could pick a name like Skywalker or a meme name like XLR8 but there were hidden NPC penalties for picking stupid or copyrighted names.

Most people would give up and reset when prices were five times the base price in game. If people traded with them in public, the NPCs would find out and increase prices on those people as well. It would be a miserable existence. The same if people went crazy as criminals. Having an overall bad reputation made the game very difficult.

I went with the name Foxy Blight, since it sounded a bit playful, yet dangerous. It also needed to be iconic for my future plans. While name changes were possible, people picking the same name as someone else got a penalty and people were encouraged to pick another name.

“Now, where would you like to go. I have suggestions if you are interested?”

“Murk Town next to Murk Swamp,” I said with a touch of fear in my voice. Even if I had known what this choice entailed, it would still be hell.

“That is a very difficult area even for beginners. Are you sure?” Cardinal Pious asked me. I could almost hear the concern in her voice, but I was committed to my choice.

“Yes, and thank you for your concern, Cardinal Pious.”

“Very well. Good luck with your start in Murk Town, Foxy Blight, perhaps we will meet again one day. Now stand up and I will teleport you.” Everything faded to darkness. Transitions were often done this way to not disorient people, especially long distance transitions.

Over the next five seconds, everything lit up and came into focus. I was in the town square of Murk Town. That was when the rancid smell of shit hit me. Oh, by the Trinity, it was worse than I remembered. My eyes were watering, and the air was vile. I could taste it in my mouth and felt a bit ill.

This was one of the reasons why Murk Swamp was voted the worst beginner hell. The smell was physically painful. The only place where it wasn’t present were the inn rooms players could log out in. That was it.

Every other corner of this town smelled like shit, and this town was up on a plateau as well and had a breeze, which made it better than the actual swamp. The problem was the breeze came from the coast, which was past Murk Swamp and pushed the smell across the town. The more insulting player given name for the swamp was Shit Swamp, where all the poo that isn’t excreted in the game went. Since no one really went to the bathroom in the game, the joke was all the shit was teleported into the Murk Swamp instead.

This made all the NPCs unhappy here as well. There were two reasons NPCs stayed here. The first was to keep an eye on the swamp as the descendants of the army that had battled against Arch Mage Murk. The second was to grow ass fruits for the Penitent Mine, where serious criminals were sent.

They weren’t called ass fruits in game, but that was what everyone called them. Eventually the NPCs had taken to using that name. The ass fruits were quite useful, filling up one’s hunger and thirst bar better than any other raw type of food or drink. But the taste was like shit and were shaped like a peach, which looked like an ass. I had smelled shit of course, never tasted it in real life, but I had tasted an ass fruit. It reminded me of shit and tasted like the air of this town. This town was the sole exporter of ass fruits which was the main reason this hell actually had NPCs staying here in game.