Marcus's mind briefly, treacherously, conjured a few scenarios where he reached out and coped a feel. He shook the thought away, annoyed at himself.
"Sir, your headset. That'll be three thousand dollars." The saleswoman said, flustered under his intense, appreciative stare. A flicker of irritation crossed her face, but it dissolved as she got a proper look at him, a faint blush warming her cheeks.
Dominion used Dragonfly Corp's proprietary headsets connected to computers. Headsets came in three tiers: Core ($1,200), Pro ($3,000), and Ultra ($10,000). Even though Marcus was unemployed, his savings could handle normal expenses. But the Ultra headset was just too extravagant.
"Cash or card?" The saleswoman noticed he was completely ignoring her embarrassment but still subtly checking her out. She shot him a glare with a playful pout.
He paid in cash and took the sleek, white-packaged Pro headset. 'Looks premium,' he thought. 'For three grand, it damn well should.'
"Sir, maybe try reading the manual before you set it up? Just so you don't break your expensive new toy." Her tone was lightly teasing, a little pointed now that he was ignoring her for the hardware. She arched her back slightly, in a silent challenge.
"Got it, thanks," Marcus said with a quick, apologetic grin, letting his eyes wander over her one more time without a hint of subtlety.
In his opinion, beautiful women were like works of art. They were meant to be admired. It was a compliment, really. To not look would be the real insult.
Back home, Marcus connected the headset to his computer and waited for the beta launch in a week. Time to show what he could do.
He was a gaming veteran. During college, his buddies and he dominated every game they played. His skills, luck, and way with the ladies were all top-tier, he always came out on top. But every game he'd played had some disappointing aspects that prevented total immersion. Based on Dominion's description, if it delivered on its promises, it would be absolutely perfect.
'Humanity's second world… how exciting.'
Thinking of his old crew made him melancholy. "My bros, no matter what, you'll always be my family."
He wondered how they were doing, if they'd play this game, if they'd meet again. But could he even face them?
He felt lost.
A week until Dominion launched, life felt boring as hell. Without his little sister's constant pestering, Marcus actually felt kind of lonely.
He wasn't in the mood to go out. These past few weeks had been nothing but bad luck. Not only had nothing good happened, he couldn't even find any decent eye candy. Forget about getting close to beautiful women, he could barely spot any worth looking at.
He immediately thought of his friend, Lily. He wondered when she would get back. He hadn't seen her in a month and really missed her. It was all her fault for raising his standards so damn high.
With nothing better to do, Marcus browsed the official website to get familiar with the basics. Know yourself and your enemy, and you'll never lose a battle.
Dominion was described as a completely new world, an unknown dimension controlled and managed by the AI supercomputer, Skynet. Players would need to explore and discover everything themselves, experiencing the thrill of an uncharted world.
Great. That was straight from the official site, just some background lore and basic settings. No useful tips or insider information whatsoever.
September 12th, 2179, 9:00 AM sharp. Dominion's public beta officially launched.
Marcus put on his headset, clicked connect, and entered the game.
"Welcome to the world of Dominion. Now performing identity verification. Please wait..."
"DNA identity confirmed. Linked to Social Security number. Account generated. Do you wish to enter the game?"
No shit, of course he wanted to enter. 'Let's go.'
A massive ancient battlefield appeared before him, radiating an overwhelming presence that stirred something heroic in his chest. He felt like he could conquer the world, like he was destined for greatness.
The close 90% virtual reality wasn't just hype, it was incredibly realistic, making him feel like he was actually there. Marcus had played plenty of games, but none had ever achieved this level of technological immersion. This game was something else.
"Character not yet created. Please select character class."
"Character classes are divided into Fighter and Mage. Please choose." The system continued prompting.
"Fighter."
Of course it was Fighter. Marcus loved the feeling of steel drinking blood, loved the bold, charging spirit of close combat type classes.
Fighters could advance to Knight, and he loved the image of a knight, imagining himself wielding a sword with commanding presence, riding a magnificent warhorse with indescribable style. That would definitely catch the ladies' attention. Plus knights had high defense and health, perfect for soloing bosses without getting one-shotted.
Dominion's character classes were divided into two categories: Fighter and Mage.
Fighters could develop into Strength-based Fighters, Constitution-based Knights, or Agility-based Archers and Assassins, with further specializations within each path.
Mages could advance into Elemental Mages, Mental Mages, Necromancers, Summoners, and more based on their growth.
These were the basic class options explained on the official site. During character development, if certain conditions were met, players could unlock mysterious hidden classes; talk about incredible luck.
"Fighter selection successful. Please choose a name."
"Stonehaven."
"Name confirmed. Would you like to modify appearance? Adjustments up to 20% are allowed."
"Reduce by 20%." Better to keep a low profile.
"Appearance confirmed. System now allocating attribute points. Please wait..." An ordinary face appeared before him. Not bad, definitely unrecognizable to anyone who knew him.
Each class had five attributes: Strength, Constitution, Agility, Focus, and Luck. Player attributes were automatically generated by the system scanning the player's physical condition, with values ranging from 5 to 15 points.
Marcus was confident in his physical condition. His attributes should be pretty high. After a year of training in the Human Rock, a combat technique he had stumbled across, he'd rapidly reached the fourth level. The power of this combat training technique was already showing, and he couldn't help but marvel at his own growth.
"Attribute generation complete. Player 'Stonehaven's' Luck attribute has reached maximum value. System automatically awards 10 free allocation points. Please confirm."
His Luck attribute hit maximum? No way. That was incredible. Even though he was confident in his physical condition, this result exceeded his wildest expectations.
Luck was a fixed attribute automatically generated during character creation. Except for equipment bonuses, it couldn't be changed.
Marcus quickly opened his attribute panel to check.
Character Stats: Stonehaven
- Class: Fighter
- Secondary Class: None
- Level: 0
- Basic Attributes: Strength: 15, Constitution: 15, Agility: 15, Focus: 15
- Fixed Attribute: Luck: 15
- Reputation: 0
- Skills: Slash: Level 1 (0/500), Active skill, costs 3 MP, adds 10 attack damage
- Secondary Skills: None
- Pet: None
- Guild: None
- Free Allocation Points: 10
'Holy shit.'
All basic and fixed attributes were maxed out. This couldn't be real. Too overpowered. He pinched himself hard, nope, it was real. Marcus was completely losing his mind with excitement, getting totally carried away.
With 10 attribute points to allocate, he needed to distribute them quickly. He was eager to get into the game.
Just as Marcus was about to allocate his 10 free points, inspiration struck. He clicked on Luck.
No fucking way. He'd lost control, but his instinct was spot-on. Free allocation points could actually be added to the fixed Luck attribute.
16, 17, 18...
Watching his Luck attribute climb point by point, Marcus started trembling.
Luck was the most important and impactful attribute, directly affecting all aspects of the game. And it was supposed to be a fixed, unchangeable system-generated stat.
"Player 'Stonehaven's' Luck attribute has reached maximum value of 20 points. Cannot increase further."
The system notification interrupted his excitement. So there were limits after all, which proved this wasn't a bug. That was reassuring.
"Congratulations! Player 'Stonehaven's' Luck attribute has reached maximum value of 20 points. Reward: 10 free attribute points. Luck automatically increases by 1 every 5 levels. Bonus skill awarded. Skill randomly generated. Please make your selection, player 'Stonehaven'."
'Are you kidding me? More rewards? And such incredible ones too.'
Getting a Luck point every 5 levels, the waves of euphoria just kept coming. Good thing he was in great shape and didn't have any heart conditions, or he might not survive this excitement.
A slot machine appeared before him with five spinning numbers. The system prompted: "Please say 'stop'."
It looked like skill selection. With all these amazing rewards already, what could he complain about?
"Stop!" he called out casually.
The slot machine stopped on "5." "Player 'Stonehaven' has received the skill 'Insight'."
The system continued surprising him.