Chapter 18 - WELCOME (BACK) TO ARCADIA
LUO YAN excitedly looked at the white box with two overlapping 'M' at the top. It was the logo of Moonlight Media. Inside was the VR helmet personally made by the game company for Arcadia. He opened the box and saw a helmet the size and shape of an ordinary motorcycle helmet. It was white with a silvery metallic sheen. The overlapping 'M' was engraved on its left side.
He already read the manual online on how to use and maintain it. When playing the game, one only needed to wear it and turned on the power button located behind the helmet. According to the manual, once it was on, the player would feel a soft tingling on their forehead. That would be the device trying to mesh with the player's brainwaves. The player needed to be relaxed so they could be completely immersed with the game.
The helmet didn't need to be attached to a power source because it could be charged beforehand.
Luo Yan couldn't really wait to play. He wondered if the game experience would be as life like as he read online. Many of the forum posts he read on Arcadia's official website said that playing the game felt so real that it's like they were transported to another world. He hoped that those posts weren't just lipservice. Another reason why he was so excited was because today was the released of the new update. According to the official website's announcement page, a new race was added on the random selection of the game.
When he played Arcadia back then, there were only four races that a player could choose from. Humans, beastkins, elves, and gnomes. But when the game transitioned to VR, a lot of other races were added. The only problem was that the players wouldn't be able to choose those races freely. For the first time player, there were only five choices - the four basic races and a random selection.
Picking the random selection could be either good or bad for the player. It was bad in a way that one might end up playing with a race they didn't want. While good because choosing the random selection was the only way that one could have the chance to play the other races besides the four mentioned. Some of those races he read were dragons, phoenixes, sirens, and some other mythical race as well.
Luo Yan already decided that he would pick the random selection. Maybe he would end up with a cool race.
He was about to put on the helmet when he heard knocking on his door. He temporarily put down the helmet on his study table then walked towards the door. He opened it and saw Luo Jin.
"Are you going to play the game now?" he asked. Luo Yan nodded. "Then let's meet up inside the game immediately once we entered."
"Wait- Ah Jin," Luo Yan called when Lou Jin was about to leave. "Did you read the game manual?"
Luo Jin frowned and then snorted. "Of course I did."
[You definitely didn't, you tsundere.] "Then you know that we couldn't immediately meet up? A new player will be placed on the origin village of the race they've chosen. Then they have to finish a couple of task and reach level 10 before they could travel to the first town - Olkdale. So we wouldn't be able to meet until we both reached level 10 and entered Olkdale."
Luo Jin furrowed his brows. "Then we should just choose the same race of whatever."
"We can't because I'm going to choose the random selection. So I have no idea what race I would end up with."
Luo Jin's brows furrowed even further. "Why would you do that?"
"Because that way, there's a chance that I would end up with a pretty unique race."
"What races are there exactly?"
"Well, the basic ones are humans, beastkins, elves, and gnomes. Then there are others that could only be picked when a player chose the random selection."
The more Luo Jin heard, the more he became annoyed. Did a game really need to be so complicated? "Why do you know so much about this game anyway?"
Luo Yan smiled sweetly at his brother. "Because unlike Ah Jin, I read the manual."
Luo Jin pursed his lips. "Fine. I'll read the manual. You better wait for me at that first town or something. And if the quest turned out to be hard for you, just log out."
How could a beginner's quest be hard for him? But Lou Yan only smiled and said, "Okay, Ah Jin."
"And we both must log out before dinner time," Luo Jin added.
"Yes, yes," Luo Yan said helplessly. There were only three hours left before dinner. But he was confident that he could still do a lot during those three hours.
Once Luo Jin left, Luo Yan closed the door of his room. He walked towards the VR helmet and picked it up. He sat on his bed and searched for a comfortable position. Once he did, he put the helmet on and turned on the power.
He immediately felt the soft tingling on his forehead. Then everything turned black. Soon, words appeared in front of him.
'Welcome to Arcadia'.
Luo Yan unknowingly smiled. [Yes, I am back.]