Legend

Legend

Episode 1: Maddie

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                Maddie sat in front of the computer monitor scrolling through her e-mails, brushing her brown hair aside to reveal her deep green eyes. Her parents and younger brother stood around her, anxiously scanning the screen for what they were looking for. Maddie's small room felt very congested with everyone in there but she didn't mind, she was too excited to notice.

                After what felt like forever scrolling through spam and junk mail she finally found what she was looking for. She clicked on the message and swiftly read its contents. She raised her hands triumphantly above her head, "Yes! I'm approved!" Everyone in the room relaxed, "That's great honey." said her mom. Her younger brother started hopping with excitement, "This is great Maddie! Now you can start playing Legend!"

                Legend is a revolutionary MMO video game. It uses a virtual reality game engine and an advance control system called Neuro Sensors. Neuro Sensors uses a mostly harmless type of radio waves called Neuro-ray. Neuro-ray is used to sense certain signals in the brain; this is used to make an avatar move so it seems to the player that they are moving like they normally would. It can also be used to give the player some touch sensations, shape is preserved but texture is distorted and temperature is non-existent. So it’s similar to wearing gloves. But the controls aren't perfect so some buttons are placed in boxes that the player wears over their hands.

                The Neuro Sensors technology is placed in headphones and a visor from the company Rare Vision is put over the player’s eyes, surrounding their field of view so they feel more immersed in the game. A micro phone is also put on the head phones so communication with other players, NPC's, and quest givers feels a lot more organic and not pre rendered.

                All the players characters are custom made, ether in the games extremely advanced character creator or by sending in a drawing for the creators of the game can create a model of it. Plus they put in a description of their character and their fighting style so the creators can make a fitting move set. The only down side is that it takes 3-4 days for the creators to approve the character, make the moves, make sure the character moves correctly, and clean up the design. But the end result was always worth the wait.

                 This technology is so new that the headset used to play the game costs $75 alone. Plus the price of the game its self costs around $80 if your luck to find it. The game is so hard to find that at the moment only about 500 people play it, but the reception from those few individuals is phenomenal.

                Maddie excitedly clicked on the icon for Legend and logged in. After a few seconds of loading the computer monitor displayed a simple music box that slowly opened to reveal Maddie's character inside. Maddie squeed with excitement, her character was named Sapphire Shard and she looked exactly like the drawing she had submitted. She was a blue eyed, brown haired, energetic fairy. Her hair was done in a half ponytail with her bangs parted on either side of her face and a gold circlet around her fore head with a little sapphire blue gem in the center. She wore a turquoise wide-sleeved t-shirt whose coaler was made to look like a bigger version of the gold circlet (gem included). She had a simple gold belt and a turquoise layered skirt that went to her knees and turquoise flats that also had the same gold circlet pattern. Her sapphire blue wings were made to like they were a cut gem. She had very long and thin appendages and wielded a long thin sword similar to a rapier. Some people had questioned why her arms and legs were so long, Maddie simply replied that she wanted to make her quick and light on her feet.

                A play button appeared at the base of the music box, Maddie eagerly pressed it. A warning appeared on the screen saying, "Removal of the head set before logging out of the game may result in severe neurological damage. If others would like to communicate wile someone is in the game, press the button on the side of the head phones and the games audio will temporarily shut off. We thank you for understanding." Maddie turned to her parents, "You hear that. If you want to talk to me, press the red button on the side of the head phones!" Her parents nodded in reply. Maddie turned back to the computer and pressed the next button at the bottom of the message. A new message appeared saying, "Please put on the head set."

                "We'll leave you in peace." said her dad, "Come on, let's go kiddo." Maddie's little brother was hesitant, "But I want to watch her through the computer monitor! It displays what's she's doing!" The dad stared disapprovingly, "No, Leave her in peace. Plus you can check Legend out when you finish your character for your account."  Her little bro sighed; he was having a really hard time coming up with character. He slowly walked out of the room, disappointed. Her mom was the last to leave, "I'll come and get you at dinner time, ok?" Maddie smiled and nodded, her mother left.

                She plugged in the head set to the computer and began slipping on the button boxes and finally the head set its self. She laid back on her bed and sighed, "Ok, let's do this." And with that, the screen shone a bright white color. Maddie squinted at the light and thought about raising her hand to block it, when surprisingly; her character did it for her

instead, revealing the white light was the sun amide a beautiful blue sky. Maddie was no longer Maddie, she was now Sapphire Shard!

                She began to feel something brush against her skin, it was quite a sensation. But because of the touch technology limitations, she wasn't quite sure what it was. She decided to try and get moving. She lifted her other arm and felt her real-life arm rise to, she put her arm back down. She was going to need to remember to just think about moving and not actually move. She resolved to get these controls down, she may be a noob now but she was determined to become a master!

                Sapphire Shard awkwardly sat up in the middle of a grassy field.  The field was dotted with many flowers and everything was a bright green color, she could even hear a creek flowing nearby. The field stretched for quite a ways in all directions, but you could see the start of a pine forest on the horizon. Shifting her eyes around, she saw a young brown haired man in farmer clothing hitting a scare crow with a stick.

                “Of course!” she thought, “This must be the tutorial level!” The boy must have been the NPC to teach her the ropes of Legend. She slowly and awkwardly stood up, she thought very precisely how she wanted her character to move but she still teetered back and forth. That’s what she got for making her character have extremely skinny and long legs. It would be a while before the quick-footed Sapphire Shard was a reality.

                After finally steadying herself, she slowly and stiffly stepped forward into the swaying grass.   A title appeared on her screen in a fancy font saying, “The Meadows of Sanctuary.” After a brief pause she started off again, one foot at a time. She may be having a hard time now but she could see how people would love this control system, it gives a character so much freedom, it was amazing! A minute or two passes with her trying to walk properly, she finally reached the boy; who was still hacking away at the scare crow. He must have been practicing to fight on it.

                She nervously spoke up, “H-Hello.”(Though she couldn't see it, Sapphire’s mouth synced perfectly with her words.) The boy turned around startled, he obviously hadn't heard her stumble towards him. “Y-ya scared me!” Sapphire took a step back, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn't mean to scare you.” That seemed to calm his nerves, “I-it’s all right, sorry for screaming at you.”

“It’s ok; I don’t mind being yelled at every so often.”

“Yeah, still….. There have been a lot of things showing up everywhere and you can’t be sure what’s friend and what’s foe.”

“I completely understand…… Anyway, let’s start again. My name is Mad- I mean Sapphire Shard.”

“I’m Keith” They both shook hands.

“You've really been beating up that scare crow.”

                He kicked at the dirt, “Yeah, I've always wanted to be a warrior and to move away from the farm.” They sat in an awkward silence for a while but Maddie didn't mind, she was just amazed at how this conversation was going. She had remembered reading that the AI conversation technology was derived from this project called Clever Bot but this went way beyond what it said Clever Bot could do.

                Keith finally spoke up, “Hey, you’re a fairy and you look like a real warrior. Do you have a magical weapon? Could you show it to me?” “Ummm.” She shifted nervously, she remembered her character having a thin sword but so far she hadn't seen it anywhere on her person. A message flashed across her screen, “Press the Index finger button on the right hand controller to draw weapon.” Maddie pressed the prompted button. A white light in the shape of Sapphire’s sword appeared in her right hand but the light soon faded to reveal her blade.

                Keith smiled with awe, “That was amazin’! Try hitting the scare crow; I want to see how much power you got!” She nodded and stepped towards the scare crow, a message didn't appear. “I guess some attacks have to be manually done.” She thought. She took a deep breath and swung the sword diagonally across the scare crow. It shook from her hit and a little bit of hay flew out. She smirked and tried again and again and again. The whole time Keith jumped up and down with excitement.

                Another message flashed across the screen giving her another button to press. Upon pressing it she discovered that she began to hover. She had forgotten that she had wings; she began to try to fly around and discovered it was a little easier for her to figure out. Angling her sword at the scare crow she went into a dive attack, striking the scare crow with great force before flying off again. Keith whooped with excitement.

                Upon landing she was shown more buttons that were her automatic moves. She had a melee attack she called Sword-point Slash, she would jump up at the left side of an enemy and slash across them to the right, then the same thing but to the left instead, finally she would jump up directly above them and stab them with the tip of her sword. The next one she called Skyward Slash, It was also a melee attack; she would slash across an enemy while taking off into flight. There was also a ranged attack that was probably put in there to keep her move set balanced, she called it Swift Shard, and basically she would just swing her sword and a razor sharp blue gem would go flying out in front of her, exploding into tiny sharp fragments on impact. It was an ok move. The last one she was given was a defensive move, she would raise her hand and a crystal wall would appear in front of her to shield her, but after a few seconds it would crumble and vanish. It was ultimately named Crystal Wall.

                Unexpectedly, Keith ran up to Sapphire Shard and gave her a hug. “Uhh, ok…?” she said. Keith let go, “That was awesome! Thank you for showin’ me that stuff.” She smiled shyly. “Any way, I better get back home. So I guess I’ll see ya later Sapphire Shard!” he hurried off to some woods nearby, Sapphire waved as she watched him leave.

                She just stood there for a while, alone in the field. Finally she jumped up with her fist thrust triumphantly in the air, “Yes! I’m officially in the world of Legend!” She, slowly at first, began to walk around, then once she felt comfort able she began to run. She was getting the hang of it! The breeze ran through her hair and she listened to the sound of her feet thumping against the ground and the random birds and other thing in the field. She hopped and skipped all around, she laughed with joy until she fell on the ground. There she lay, staring at the sky as the clouds moved by and a faint back ground music played. For now she was happy to just be in the game.

                Suddenly the audio cut out, “Dear, dinner is ready. Log out.” Maddie groaned; it was her mom. It looked like she wouldn't be able to get on till tomorrow. The audio resumed and she logged out and took off her head set. Her mother let out a chuckle, “What is it?” Maddie asked. Her mother sighed, “Oh it’s just that you hair is a mess now.” Maddie grunted and slid off her bed and turned off her computer.

                She was sad that she had to get off but she wouldn't let that bug her. She was excited to get on tomorrow and explore or do quests. Maybe she might meet someone who would be her friend. She was excited just thinking about it, but all that would have to wait. Right now she had a dinner to eat.