Chapter 1: Prologue: Let's Dive Into the Parallel World
Parallel World, the latest Full-Immersion Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game or VRMMORPG developed by AlterSoft has launched and with it, the MMORPG revolution has swept the world. It boasts a realism rate of 99% and had a futuristic-medieval setting filled with swords, guns, and magic that garnered the attention of every gamer in the world. The geography of the game world was parallel to the real world hence the name Parallel World or ParaWorld as coined by other users.
Parallel World like many other MMORPG employed the class and hidden-class system. However, what separates it from the rest was its unlimited possibilities. As long as one can conceive it and meet the requirements, then it was possible to acquire it in the game.
The game was such a huge hit that people started to refer to Parallel World as "Alternate Earth". Not only can one earn a fortune by selling virtual items for real cash, but also fame and glory by being recognized by the whole world through the World Rankings.
However, it was not easy to acquire Virtual Reality Pods or VRP to play Parallel World for they cost a bit of a hefty sum. Even the monthly subscription fee is a bit tight for normal users that casual play was almost exclusively for the rich and upper echelons of society.
Nathan Wolf lived a life as part of the middle echelons of society. He was a mid-tier software engineer with a minimum wage and a dead-end career growth. While his job can pay for the bills, it would still be considered tight in the current living world standards. But still, one cannot complain since it gets the job done and satisfies the basic needs for survival. He was also single not because he was unattractive but rather due to his social standing. He could survive on his own but with his current earnings, it cannot support a family.
Still, a human being will strive for more. When Parallel World launched, Nathan saw the possibilities of the game. However, at twenty years of age, he was already passed the "gaming prime" of his life. With youth came about great reaction time, the main trait if one would strive to be a Pro-Gamer. This age group is from thirteen to nineteen and is sought out by various gaming groups for sponsorships. Still, this did not deter Nathan since as the old saying goes; "With age comes experience" and since Parallel World was a Full-Immersion Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game wherein a person can use his or her full capability, then that experience would be an edge rather than a handicap. In theory at least.
And so, Nathan Wolf prepared. He gave himself three years of preparation.
In the first year, Nathan pooled his resources. Since he was single, he was not concerned with living to the bare minimum. Whatever he can do to minimize cost, he did with utmost efficiency. There were a few breakthroughs here and there like when the company he worked for managed to land a big project which was given to his team. He earned a huge bonus from that and was even given a promotion to team leader. Still, this did not dim the resolution in Nathan's heart and only drove himself more to earn more for his plan to succeed.
In the second year, Nathan resigned from his job. The company he worked for tried to stop him, but Nathan was resolute. In the end, Nathan and the company agreed on a freelance consultancy type position in which Nathan can agree or not to any project that would be passed to him. In this year as well, Nathan bought a rundown boxing gym that could house a few people. The place needed huge repairs and barely qualified as a functional building. It blurred the line of being a condemned unit. Still, this suited Nathan fine since the difference between owning and renting was like heaven and earth in terms of budget allocation.
However, the main reason that Nathan bought the gym was that he needed somewhere to train himself physically as well as for his future goals.
Thus, the second year was spent by Nathan in training himself in martial arts. In the first three months, Nathan stayed in his rundown gym and trained his body into three major parts. Flexibility, Strength, and Conditioning. This became the core of Nathan's physical development for three months with each month focusing on each aspect.
In the second quarter of his second-year plan, Nathan traveled to Thailand to learn Muay Thai Kickboxing. While he was marginally fit, the first month was almost unbearable and oftentimes he considered to quit. He persevered however and in the second month, he had about an above-average understanding of the art. The third month was focused on conditioning and building more of the basics of Muay Thai Kickboxing rather than training in advance skillsets.
In the third quarter of his second-year plan, Korea was Nathan's destination of choice. Here he studied Taekwondo. Although the debate on what the was the best kick-oriented martial was still not settled in the world, Nathan had a fascination with Taekwondo due to a character he played in some fighting game of old. Thus, for the kick arts, he chose Taekwondo. As with Muay Thai Kickboxing, Nathan became above average at Taekwondo by the second month he was in Korea and then focused more on its foundation and basics in the third month.
For the last quarter of Nathan's quest for martial arts, Nathan traveled to Russia and pursued Combat Sambo. As with the first two martial arts, Nathan trained on the basics of the art and was even regarded as good with it due to his foundations. The school he trained on even wanted him to be part of the team full-time, but he waved it off stating that he had a goal to accomplish first. The leader understood but he did state that the offer was still open for at least a year.
And so, it came to pass, two years have passed by. Parallel World dominated the gaming world during its first year. Other MMORPGs closed down and some of the developer companies were absorbed by AlterSoft. Within two years, AlterSoft became the most powerful gaming company developer in the world with over 70% of the human population subscribed to the game. Within two years, Parallel World became the only Full-Immersion VRMMORPG in the market. Other companies tried to mimic or compete with Parallel World but AlterSoft was just too powerful both in terms of resources and competency. Some other games survived but they were mostly stand-alone and sandbox games.
Nathan for his part started with his last year's plans before he entered Parallel World. The last year was consisted of studying Parallel World as well as honing his martial prowess. With his three arts, Nathan wanted to create a style of his own, resembling that of his favorite fighting game character whose fist would be covered in flames and kicks as flashy as it was deadly. For the studying part, Nathan concentrated on farming spots as well as the Parallel World Market or simply The World Market since this was where he will get his income from. In this year, Nathan also started practicing The Dymaxion Sleep Cycle which he believed will maximize his "Parallel Time" or the time he spent in-game. It was a hard-fought battle in which he oftentimes became zombie-like while awake which scared his neighbors but in the end, he persevered.
During this time, AlterSoft announced the very first major content patch which would be released the next year. Not too much was revealed but it was stated that a new world will be opened in which adventurers will be able to travel to this new world via rifts. Aside from those, however, not much was revealed.
And so, three years have passed, and Nathan was ready.
As he held a mobile tablet, Nathan checked his itinerary and saw that everything was set. He then looked towards the Virtual Reality Pod he had acquired and gave a small smile. He reminisced on how he acquired it for a bit but then shook his head. "No time is a good time than now I suppose. Time to become a hermit!" he said with a chuckle to no one in particular.
And with that, Nathan Wolf placed himself inside the VRP and logged in to Parallel World for the first time after a three-year preparation.
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