Eternum

Ness had been in his work shop for Quite some time now. He had been fabricating parts and working on a code for something that he felt would change the way the world played video games, which was still a Billion dollar industry.

He takes the headset off and tinkers with it for a bit. He needed someone who Wasn't him to try it out. But he was at a loss as to whom to try and call. Calvine was busy on the Utopia Planitia Ship Yards, last he had heard, overseeing the construction of new ships that he designed, Cedrick was busy running a Billion dollar company, and Monica was off bringing people together.

He signs, did he have So little friends here that he was struggling to find someone to help him calibrate his newest device? He sighs again as he goes back to working on the headset. It, out of everything, needed to be perfect. He could worry about the code later, when he found someone to help him. He supposed he could ask Masato, but he would need to assure Cedrick that she would be okay.

Ness has an idea and heads down to the Autobot garage and heads over to KITT "Hey there, buddy. I was wondering if you'd be willing to give me a hand with something." he says to the black Trans Am.

KITT's sensor bar was steadily moving back and forth "Of course I will help you, Ness." he says as his panels start to shift and bend moving and reconfiguring as he transforms into his robot form amd stands to his full height, towering over Ness "What do you need my help with?" he asks.

Ness leads KITT to his workshop "I'm gonna need ya to transform back to your vehicle form, because there just isn't enough room for your robot form with what I plan on doing." he explains.

KITT nods and transforms back into his Trans Am form "And what, exactly, are we going to be doing?" he asks. There was only curiosity in his voice.

Ness was getting things ready "I'm gonna transfer your consciousness into a virtual world where you'll help me iron out the bugs in the system." he tells the artificial Cybertronian.

Ness hooks KITT up to his device and makes sue things are correct. After all, KITT is his friend as well and he's a living being as well. One of a kind now that Exo-Proto was gone.

Ke looks over the readings "Okay, KITT. I'm about to engage the device. Hannah's gonna meet you inside as well." he tells his friend "I want to see how well the connection is in a different part of the building." he says as he turns his device on.

A few minutes later Ness turns on his headphones "KITT, Hannah, can you both hear me/" he asks the two Cybertronians as he taps some keys on his console.

"Yes, I can hear you just fine, Ness." KITT says "Getting through the tutorial was a little lone." he says.

"I agree. And Why did I appear in the loading stage Naked?' Hannah asks.

Ness nods "It's only a loading area. No one else will appear. It's meant to get you use to the world you're about to enter." he explains "Plus, once you load into a server, you'll get a starting outfit based on what kind of server you load into." he says.

"Like if we load into a sci-fi server, we'll be wearing sci-fi stuff?' Hannah asks.

Ness nods again "Exactly. And each server may have their own rules as well. For example, one server may be based on medieval times and only use swords and bows, while others might be based on a future time that uses phaser guns and flying cars." he explains once more.

"Interesting. The world I have loaded up into is a steampunk server." KITT says "And you start with very basic equipment and no weapons." he tells Ness.

"That's right. You may Not have any weapons, but you have enough of the server's specific type of money to buy either new armor, items, or weapons, or whatever you can afford." he says to the two of them "Hannah, where did you load up to?" he asks.

"I'm in a fantasy land." she says "Apparently, I can learn spells here. Which for someone from Cybertron, will be interesting." she says.

"Ness, I do have one question..." KITT starts "When I loaded into this world, I had taken on a Human form. Was this part of your design?" he asks.

Ness nods "Yes. I programed you a Human form based on what I thought you would look like if you were Human." he tells his friend "If you like, we can change it." he offers.

"No, no. This is fine." KITT tells him "Truthfully? I never gave it much thought about what I would look like if I had the ability to change into a Human form like Hannah." he says.

Ness thinks for a moment "Well, once we're finished here, it's something we can look into if you want." he offers.

There was a pause on the other end for a moment "I think I would enjoy exploring the possibility." KITT says.

Ness spent the next three hours coding and debugging his system and with KITT and Hannah's help, he got it to a place where he was satisfied with. He would need to take it for a dry run first, then he would present it to Cedrick and see what she thinks. If she liked it, he would let her sell it under her companies name and makes them even More money. If not, he would sell it under a pseudo company. One way or the other, this game would get out to the public and who knows? Maybe with a bit of subspace trickery, he could make it so other worlds could play as well.

He loads up a random server and puts on his helmet and within seconds he was transported into a medieval fantasy world. It was a bright, partly cloudy day. There were some rain clouds in the distance and Ness could smell the rain from where he was. He could also feel the sun on his face and the wind in his hair. He could hear the birds and other wild life.

He was in the safe zone, so no monsters would spawn until he left the area. He pulls out a map and looks it over "So far everything is looking good..." he mumbles "There's a town about five miles East... I'll go there and check out how the AI is for the NPCs." he says as he starts off.

As he was walking, he could see the dark clouds getting closer "Realistic weather patterns. Nice. So far it seems like everything is working good." he says as he sees the town come into view.

Ness stops and listens. He can hear the far off sound of the hustle and bustle or the town. It was a decent side. A few main roads and plenty of structures for him to look over. He starts off once more and gets to the town just as the rain started. It wasn't a torrential downpour at first, but he found the local inn before it came to that.

Ness books a room and when he gets there, he pulls out some provisions and nubbles on some to start. He could taste it and it tasted normal. He eats a bit more and sees his stamina refill, but he could also feel himself get a little ful. He would need to fix that. He wanted players to feel hungry when their bodies were hungry, that way they wouldn't spend too much time in game.

*I should also add reminders to take breaks after a certain amount of time...* he thinks as he jots some ideas down in his HUDs notepad *Maybe even have an auto-disconnect after a certain time is reached. Maybe even log the players time in the overall game and limit access accordingly, so they don't become dependent on the game... I'll have to run these by Calvine. He's got a better sense for these things than Cedrick...* he thinks.

Ness gathers his things and heads out. He still needed to test the AI of the NPCs. Though with KITT and Hannah's help, they should be almost indistinguishable from an actual person. He would also need to check out the monsters to see if they are working right.

He wanders over to a shop owner and picks up one of his wares and looks it over "Are you the one who made this?" he asks.

The shop owner nods "Yes sir I am." he says, his voice sounding full of pride "I always use the Best materials to make the Best products!" he boasts.

Ness pulls out some money and pays for the items, then walks over to some random NPC and hands them the item "Enjoy." he mumbles absently as he looks over his notes and the coding for the game.

He stumbles over to a beggar, who holds his hand up to Ness, as the young man looks down to the unfortunate fellow "Please, kind sir... one coin will feed me for a week..." he says in a weak sounding voice.

Ness sits next to the ragged man and pulls out a well wrapped sandwich and hands it to the man "Tell me your story and I can guarantee that you'll have coin for more food." he says to them.

After over an hour, the story finally stops. It seems the man was a soldier in the King's army and after his hands had been crippled by an arrow, he was no longer any use to the King's army, so the general let him go without so much as any compensation for his injuries sustained in defense of the kingdom and her people.

Ness frowns at this. This was usually the kind of person he would delight in taking down and showing him the error of his ways and his thinking. It was pretty fascinating that the cardinal programing made such an intricate background for an NPC beggar. Ness gave him give gold coins before heading on his way.

After another hour, and talking to many other NPCs, all with their own lives, Ness decided it was time to call it quits and brings out his developer's debug menu and logs out. He sets his VR goggles down and takes off his gloves *It's time to bring Cedrick in on this. Maybe even Cal, if he's not busy.* he thinks as he pulls out his phone and calls Cedrick's secretary to set up an appointment.

Ness had gathered his equipment and looked over his presentation one more time. He wanted to make sure everything was ready to impress Cedrick at their meeting this afternoon. He Had a good idea on what he needed to do to make sure his game impressed, having cheated a bit and looked into the future with his precognition, and felt as ready as he could get.

He heads to the elevator and stops outside of Cedrick's office. The holo-secretary was sitting there, looking over things on her computer. She looks up "Hello, mister Burger. Are you here for your meeting with miss Darkside?" she asks.

Ness nods "You betcha." he says as he pats his briefcase.

The hologram nods "Feel free to enter. Miss Darkside is waiting for you." she says as she taps a button on her desk that opens the double doors.

Ness heads on in, Cedrick was sitting at her desk looking over reports of reports. She looks up, then puts her data padds down and pushes them away as she stands "Ness. Good. Please have a seat." she says as she motions towards a chair "I am not really sure why you went through the trouble of scheduling an appointment. I would have made time for you." she says as the two sit.

Ness shakes his head "I wanted to do this right and sell you my prototype, if you're interested that is." he says as he opens the case and pulls out the headset and the gloves "This is Eternum. Of the headset that lets you play the game." he starts as he holds them up for Cedrick to inspect.

Cedrick takes the headset and gives it the once over. It looked alright. Better than the standard VR headsets they had now. She looks at Ness "So, how does one use this?" she asks.

Ness sets up his laptop "Sit down, but the headset on and turn the power on." he says "It'll be a little disorientating at first and since this is your first boot up, it'll take a little time. Just follow the in-game guide and she'll walk you through the whole process." he says.

Cedrick shrugs and puts the headset on and turns it on "Okay, so now what do I do?" she asks.

Ness shakes his head "Nothing. The helmet is calibrating to your brain pattern. Give it a minuet." he advises.

A minuet passes "Everything has just turned blue... and it seems I have lost my ability to head..." she says before falling silent.

An additional fifteen minutes pass and Ness decided it was a good time to pull Cedrick out, or at least inform her how to exit the game.

A minuets later, Cedrick reaches up and removes the helmet "That was something else." she says "I can see this being a big hit. I Do have some concerns..." she starts.

As Ness figured, she was concerned about people becoming addicted to the game and spending all their free time and money on it and that wasn't something she could get behind. Ness assured her that after a certain spending limit was reached, they would be locked out of the store for a set time, same with how much the game s used.

Cedrick nods slowly "I think, we should select a group of about fifty people and have them be our debuggers and play testers..." she suggests.

Ness nods slowly "If that's what you feel needs to happen, I'll get right on it. I'll send emails to those who have bought a Paragon phone and registered their email addresses. Invite them to play test Eternum and report any bugs they find." he says.

Cedrick nods "Agreed. Also, I have a feeling that this game will be rated CERO D or Z, especially if that intro is anything to go by..." she mumbles the last part.

Ness nods as he gathers his gear back up "That makes sense. Also, we need to think of a price for system and how to price things in the store." he says to her.

Cedrick thinks for a moment "I have other departments who handle things of that nature. I will contact them and have them draw something up then send it to you for approval." she says.

Ness nods as he stands, Cedrick stands with him "That sounds great. I look forward to working with you on this." he says as he shakes her hand "I'll be in my lab if you need me." he says as he heads out.

Ness was in his workshop looking over his invite for his Eternum set for tue beta testers. They would be selected by the email they provided when they signed up with their Paragon product and to receive their beta test kit, they would need to respond to the email within a certain amount of time.

Ness nods as he hits the send all button. He had fifty units ready to go and about five servers up and fully running. All he would need is the testers to respond and he would overnight or even same day the packages and Boom! Testing will begin and if all goes well they could be mass producing the Eternum units by years end!

Kyco was winding down from a day just having come out of a shower to check on her email once a notifacation came up. Unless it was from friends or something she knew she just ignore it but sender and such gave her pause. She was glad she did, because the idea was very interesting to her and she couldn't wait to try it.

Wish I could invite at least one friend so I know someone there, but can't complain with something like this. Excited and interested, she replied say that yes, she did want to give things a try. She'd just have to wait until they got back to her.

There were was also Cory who Was interested, not that Kyco knew but it be nice to have a friend along. Other person surprisingly or not interested was Vira Nakeen, who agreed. Espen as well, depending if Isabelle got a invite as well. The idea around it interested him enough by itself however. Monica Kenzy answered they'd be willing to try.

It was a little more then just replying Yes. They also had to fill out their mailing address and contact information incase anything went wrong with the program or device. And speaking of which, most of those who accepted got their Eternum Set Up, which consisted of boots, a suit, gloves, and a headset.

Even though the game was massive, it wouldn't take long to download at all, thanks to Paragon Corp's warp speed internet. It could download terabytes of information in minuets and it's rumored that Paragon Corps was working om Even Faster internet speeds and it was pretty cheap as well. Only a hundred American dollars a month.

Though, once the game was downloaded, and a player started it up for the first time. They appeared in am ethereal temple that was covered in thick fog. They were also in very basic underwear. There was also a woman standing within the fog. She almost looked like Lady Justice, but a bit more elegant "Greetings, young traveler. My name is Irileth. I will be your guide as you start out in the realm of Eternum." she says, her voice sounding ethereal as well "If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask me anything and I will try my best to answer them."

When Kyco first put the gear on, it felt a bit strange at first as she adjusted but suddenly everything faded and she found herself in a very different place. To be in her own living room and then in some strange temple and in her under garments threw them for a loop.

She almost instinctively went to cover herself being out in public before remembering this wasn't real. That was a testament to how real it felt. "Um, so how exactly do I even start?"
_____________

Monica had a similar experience to Kyco, but since she was far less shy then Kyco she didn't really react in a similar way. She was far more casual about just being in their underwear even prior to the usual 'this isn't real' thing set in. "I guess I'll start simple. What kind of game is this? I know its virtual reality but is it mostly fantasy based or something else?"
_____

Normally, Espen wasn't too much into video games but the idea of being in a world they felt incredibly real and do many things was too interesting to pass up. So he convinced his girlfriend to try it with them and see what it was like and if it lived up to the ideal.

It certainly felt real enough.

"So how do I change to other clothes?" Espen asked first. "I assume its relatively free form with that?"
_____________

Cory had played enough to know how the general flow of things worked and while this would be Very different in a more 'real' like way that should help him navigate things. At least he hoped. Kyco had told them she had been accepted so if possible he'd try to meet up with them.

The first sight was a temple and a stunning young woman. Before he could think further if she was single or not, he recalled this was a virtual space and world. That was a slight let down. On the other hand depending how in depth things were, it be better then any dating sim he had ever done. Hey, he was still a guy.

"Nice to meet you." He wasn't sure how advanced the A.I of this game was and that raised other interesting questions. "Right now I just want to know the basics of this place and how things work before I ask anything."

Irileth smiles at Kyco's shyness "Fear not, young one. There is only us two here and I am but a computer program. I will never judge you." she assures the young Heartless "As for how to start your adventure in Eternum, simply tell me what server you wish to load in. Currently, there are five plus a public lobby." she says as she waves her hand.

Five beach ball sized bubbles appear. There were five pictures in each. One was a western, one was a noir setting. There was a fantasy and then a cyberpunk and tye last one was a scifi ship. There was one bubble that was seperate from the rest and showed a cafe.

* *

Irileth waves a hand, bringing up the five different active servers "Eternum is whatever you wish it to be, once it is fully implemented, that is." she says "For now, there are five servers that vary from western, to scifi. There is also a public lobby where you can meet with the other players." she explains.

* *

Irileth nods "Your starting outfit is free. Everything else you will meed to buy and you get your starting outfit once you load into a server." she tells Espen "As for how you change..." she makes a casual swiping down motion and Espen's player menu opens "Do you see the 'Inventory' tab? You tap that and pull out what outfit you wish to wear and, depending on your settings, you can change into your new outfit automatically or manually." she explains.

* *

Irileth nods "This is the tutorial and calibration chamber. Right now, Eternum is calibrating to your unique brain waves to give you the smoothest and more realistic experience possible." she says "As for what you can do,which the exception of any powers and abilities, you can do whatever you wish to. Though, some actions are against the Eternum code of conduct..." she says as a scroll appears in her hand "If you wish to read them, I have a copy right here." she holds it out to Cory.

Kyco relaxed further at that, not having to cover her large chest or anything since it Was just them. And although she did say they were just a program, depending how advanced they were she did consider A.I. people to, just artificial ones like her.

Still, she needed to change. It wouldn't do walking around in her bra and panties and drawing that kind of attention. "So, I want to change my clothes then head to the public lobby. How do I do the former?"

This was going to be so much fun though, she could hardly wait.
___________

Espen looked over the menu, finding things still more then a bit surreal but in a good way. Never the less, it didn't take him long to pick something to wear close to what he normally did. However, depending on where he went he would naturally change his outfit to whatever setting he was in. "Thank you. Is there a friend list or anything of that sort? My girlfriend joined the game and it might be hard to find them if I don't know what server they're on or even online."

It was a alpha, so even if it was a basic feature it may not be quite there yet.

Irileth nods with a smile "Once you join a server, you will be assigned the default starter outfit of that realm and you have two different ways to change, manually like you normally would, or automatically. Just select the outfit and it will automatically equip, once you have other outfits, that is." she explains.

* *

Irileth nods to Espen "Of course there is a friend system." she says as she points to a tab on his menu that says Social "All players that are within a certain distance will be displayed on the 'Near By' tab. You have Blocked Players as well as Friends. It tells you which server they are currently on and even gives you the option to join them or invite them to join you." she explains.

That sounded simple enough, different but similar to the other games she had been through. Kyco did like social games where she got to interact with more people, which was why MMO's were a big thing with her far as genre's went.

"Ok, I understand then. Can you transport to the public lobby so I can get started?" She asked. "And if I wanted to talk to you again is there a way I can?"

If Cory got this and he went through the same thing, she'd have to talk to them about it.
____

Hm. That was convenient. And about what he expected. He looked to see what his girlfriend was, or she was still in the starting area. "I'm ready to be transported to the public lobby then."

Irileth motions to the gateway "Then by all means, feel free to exit whenever you wish." she says "As for getting in contact with me, every time you boot up the game, you will spawn here, and you may select which ever server you wish." she explains.

* *

Irileth holds a hand out and the different servers show up "Simply touch which ever server you wish to enter, and you will join up with it." she explains to him.

Kyco nodded, giving her thanks and after bit of a nervous breath took the plunge to see what the lobby was. When she came to,  it was indeed a cafe of some kind from what she could see. A surprising face she saw in the background was Vira Nakeen just casually having a drink and enjoying herself, which was a surreal experience.

She couldn't recall exactly how many players there was going to be but it still should be fun big or small.

"Hey. You're finally awake."

She turned, only to see Cory and smiled. "You had to use that old phrase huh? That game is how old now?

He shrugged as he came over. "But its still alive somehow. I'm convinced that game is somehow eternal. Have you decided what sever you wanted to join on?"

"I don't know." She admitted. "I wanted to see more people of who all was here. Maybe fantasy though."
__________

Espen went to look over the friends menu for Isabelle's status and where she was, then he join whatever server she was currently on.

Ness was sitting at one of the tables in the cafe looking at the players. He knew that most of them would consider him 'Just another player'. No one here knew him, well, Some people knew him, but no one knew that he was the one who made the game.

He sees some people he had heard about, like Vira Nakeen. He didn't know she had one of Paragon's toys. He sees Espen Goldsmith, they had met before, and so many people he had met and others he hadn't. He hoped they all wouldn't just sit here, but head out to the servers to get a feel of the game. They Were, after all, supposed to be beta testers.

Ness finishes his coffee and stands up. He decided to head to one of the servers. He wanted to try the Noir server. He always liked the detective aspect of things, something he learned from Batman he supposed. So, he heads to the server launcher room and picks the Noir servers and disappears in a digital flash of light.

* *

Isabelle was going to be late. She had to work late into the night, but she let Espen know. She Did wonder why he wanted to try out this off Virtual Reality thing, when the two of them could just meet each other in Real life and have fun there.

It was decided that Kyco and Cory would head to the Fantasy sever to to see what it was about. Hopefully there was some other players there since the testing playerbase was pretty small.

As for Vira, she opted to go to a Noir setting, getting a classy dress that fit for the setting. With her looks and the clothes she really did seem to fit right in, as if she belonged there in the first place. They looked pretty woman that strolled in the detective office to give them a interesting case.

I can't believe how real this feels.. Vira felt tinge of amazement even as she touched the wall of hardened brick of a building. She moved her hand, deciding enough of admiring mundane things and went to find people, preferably players instead of just NPC's.

The other people around the black and white city were all behaving like actual people of that time period, which was about the mid to late 20s, possibly early 30s.

It was no surprise that Vira managed to turn some heads of the guys and some of then Had girlfriends.

This one young guy who was clearly dressed as a gangster comes up to Vira and holds out a Colt 1911 at her "Okay, dame, hand over all your money and good loot and you won't get smoked." the young man says. He was clearly another player.

Vira was about to shield herself with her shadows, but remembered in This world you more or less played as the character of the setting you were in. If for example this one was basically centered around normal humans then that's essentially what she would be. No shadows and not even her super strength meaning she was much more vunerable then normal, espeically in this time zone.

Still, even if it wasn't real she went along with it. "I don't want any trouble.." Vira handed over her purse and whatever else seemed to be valubale with the outfit, like jewerly.

The young man takes her purse "Hey thanks. I can get a couple of in game buckaroos for this." he says as he turns and takes off, only to meet face to face with a trashcan!

The young thug goes flying off his feet and lands on his back! Ness drops the trashcan on the guy and picks up Vira's purse, then pulls out a Colt 45 short barrel revolver and points it at the young man as he holds Vira's purse out to her "Here you go, ma'am." he says as he pulls out the young man's gun and lays it about ten feet from the would-be robber.

The cops show up to take care of the rest of the scene and a detective comes over to see how Vira was doing. He looked Every bit the early 20th century detective. Trench coat, fedora hat "Excuse me, ma'am? Are you alright? Do you need to see a doctor?" he asks.

Vira wasn't sure if they were a NPC or a player and it didn't seem there was convient markers to tell. Probably something there to help keep for immersion sake but there had to be some way to tell who was a player or not.

Either way she was waved by another young man who dropped the gun away from them before the police came over relatively quickly. What Vira did notice was another man in a detective outfit that seemed more modern, that gave her a idea he may of been a player then a npc. "I'm all right, but thank you for asking. My name is Vira may I have yours?"

The man nods as he pulls out a cigarette and lights it up "I'm detective Parker, ma'am." he says as he looks over to Ness, who was standing in the background "Did that man help you, ma'am?" he asks "You should stay away from him. He's nothing but a washed-up gumshoe that trouble always seems to follow." he warns Vira.

Vira didn't know what that term meant in plain words, so she'd have to ask the young man once the police left, if he didn't leave already. "Yes he did help me. I would of been in much worse shape if he didn't jump like he did. What do you mean by trouble?"

The detective nods to Ness "I mean, just look at him. When he was on the force, he went through three partners before he was canned for allegations of being on the take." he says as he holds out a business card "If you have anything you want to talk about, my door is always open for a nice lookin dame like you." he says as he motions for the other best cops to follow him.

Ness watches them leave as he pulls out a note pad and jots a few things down. *Oh this is good! With a few interactions, the AI is already establishing a back story and history for Players...* he thinks *I had best tone that down more than a bit. I want the Players to forge their own history and not let the AI do that for them.* he thinks as he puts his note pad away.