On the same day by the afternoon.
_ Welcome to the New Life ™ installations Mr. Geary, my name is Jennifer MaGuire and I'm going to be your guide through the you virtualization process. Are you ready to start with your travel Mr. Geary?
_ Without a doubt Miss MaGuire, I have waited anxiously for this moment.
_ Then please, follow me to where your pod for you virtualization process is found, while allow me to explain for you how the process are going to be carried. As you have probably already read in our brochure, the process of virtualization of your conscience to the virtual universe is imperceptible and painless, the first thing to be done is to put yourself in one of our pods of transfer, this pod unlike common ones counts with specialized hardware need for transfer the human conscience to the Virtual Universe HUB where you can then select your final universe of destination. Because the characteristics of the perma players once you select a universe you can't change to another, this is done to prevent that the players commit atrocities and the escape to another universe, this way your actions have long perduring consequences so please take your time to select your desired Virtual Universe. Please remember that once the process start is impossible to cancel it, so this is a one way trip. Mr Geary, do you need a time for reflection before take the decision of start the virtualization process?
For a small moment I have a lite doubt about it, more given by the fear of the unknown than for let go of my real life and body, being with eighteen year my body about just holds itself together.
_ Thanks but no Miss MaGuire, let's follow with the process please.
While we talk we walk to a room with four pods, on three of them other people are being prepared to the virtualization process, a couple of octogenarians like me and a little girl of not more than four years. The little girl are crying and the couple that I suppose are the grandparents speak with her affectionately to calm her.
_ Well Mr. Geary, this way please.
With care Miss MaGuire help me to enter the pod, while it I ask her about what happens to the little girl.
_ She suffers a degenerative disease that affects her brain and in less than an year are going to kill her. The grandparents that have already pass the eighteen years of life have volunteered to go perma with her and look after her until she grew up in the virtual universe where she is going to have the possibility of growing healthie. Unfortunately the parents have abandoned her when she was diagnosed with the disease and the girl now cry asking for them.
_ It's a shame what happened to her, but at the same way she is lucky to have grandparents who care for her to the point of going perma to give her a life opportunity.
_ Yes, of course she is very fortunate. With no doubt when she grow up she is going to see that way. Well Mr Geary, we are ready, this is your last opportunity, are you sure of proced?
Looking to her with a smile i tell her _ Yes, let's do it, thanks for your help.
_ You are welcome Mr Geary, thanks you for choosing New Life ™ for your transition to the virtual universe of your choosing, have a long and happy life Mr Geary.
_ Thanks you.
With that the pod start to close and i'm start to grow sleepy. In what for me can have been more that seconds I'm one a white room and a voice that tells:
"Starting Virtual HUB Connection"
"User Richard Geary identified, starting logIn process..."
"User connected... Welcome Mr Geary to the Virtual Universes HUB, please review and select your desired Universe."
At the end of the message a screen with a list of Virtual Universes and their descriptions are show to me. In the list there is great diversity of options, universes with medieval settings, sci-fy settings, real life settings of differents periods, really I don't know why someone would choose to live on a copy of the real world, but hey, everybody's free to do what they want when going perma.
Of the thousands of options i have opted for one of the most populars called Infinity OnLine (P). Infinit Online is a virtual universe where races of the Tolkien universe exist and some more typical of a space faring universe, between them elves, orcs, humans, dwarves, etcs. The (P) indicates that the Virtual Word is only for Perma Players, other version exist where the normal players can play, but to prevent griefing and others type of abuse of occurring some years ago the decision of separating the perma players of the normal players was made, this don't prevents that you get in bad situations if you are not careful, being that situations caused for others perma players or a npc but at least death is not permanent (well if you don't go dead by your choosing using a special function accessed only by you and that take a countdown of a year to take effect), the only effect of the standard death on the virtual world are that you lost all your progress and restart with a new name and location, this is not small consequence because you will lost everything and you will have to work from the ground to get all again, but is not a bad thing because make that everybody take more seriously they life.
Once selected the Virtual Universe the next step is to select your race, here you have the option of select one race or the combination of two or more, this is done by selecting the race or combination of two race of your virtual grand parents.
_ AI, select for my race Humans with no other Ascendancy. With this all my ancestry is set to human.
_ You have selected a character 100% human. Please select your sex.
_ Male.
Once selected my sex a copy of my with eighteen years is show on the virtual screen, this give me what to think, what if i have selected Female, then the character will have feminine traits of my male version? Well, don't matter, I have no intention of going that way.
Next I make some alterations to my body, put some muscles here and there. On my eighteen years I have not been fat but was not an athletic type of guy, so no bad on doing some small adjusts. When done what i see on the screen is a male human of caucasian of French Basque ascendancy, with dark brown hair and eyes, one meter eighteen centimeters of height and a fit body, maybe not what your will call awesome but neither bad/.
_ Player Character created, please select system of origin.
Once created the character and depending of the predominant race a list of planetary powers are listed, depending of the power selected other list showing a list of planets ar presented to the player.
_ Mmmmm let's see, the central powers on the human space have more wealth and racial diversity, but at the same time are more overpopulated both by perma players and npcs. I would like more a untame place, where i can have more protagonism and have more opportunities... let's see, more near the fringes, far... far... Here!! i select Saratov.
_ You have selected Saratov, the home system of the Romanov Empire. Saratov is a planetary system with two planets with similarities to Earth, two gas giants and several planetoids, asteroid fields and moons. The governing body on power in Saratov is of the Imperial type with an Emperor or Imperatriz and a senator body composed of the nobility and a premier minister selected from the later body. The Emperor or Imperatriz have the last word on all maters but normally lets the civilian and military matters on the senate and premier minister hands. For your initial planet you can select between Saratov, capital planet of the Empire or Antonov, the second more populated planet on the system and where the hard industrie is now centered.
The Romanov Empire is the result of a generational ship of slave origin and for that the majority of the population is from this ethnic group. Being selected the Romanov Empire home system you have gained genetic modifications that improve you life expectation to a maximum of 2000 years of life.
Please select your initial planet.
_ Saratov.
_ Please to end the process enter your name and desired background. If desired the background can be aleatory generated.
_ AI, design my name Richard Demetrio Romanov Paley, in rome do like the romans, and if you are in a Empire nothing lost on having the same last name, no? Make the background aleatory.
_ You have selected aleatory background. Do you like to transfer to your Virtual Universe?
_ Yes.
_ Transferring player to the Infinity Online Universe....