As Leo came to, he was slightly disoriented. He opened his eyes to see... nothing. More specifically, he saw empty white space, seemingly endless in every direction.
Suddenly, an orb of darkness seemed to form in thin air about 10 meters away. As Leo watched curiously, the orb began to hover around in strange patterns, confusingly him further. After watching for about 30 seconds, he suddenly heard what sounded like a gong.
He turned his head to see nothing there, and when he looked back, the orb was gone! Over the next 30 seconds, Leo would continue to hear sudden noises from seemingly random directions, but when he looked, nothing was there.
<DING! System Message: Calibration Stage One complete. Commencing Stage Two>
'Ah, I should have guessed. I guess the answer is to play along,' thought Leo.
Next, the floor of the started changing. It started forming into square tiles, some black as the void, others, including the one he stood on, became pearly white. The white tiles seemed to form an odd, meandering path through the darkness.
Yet again, there is no prompt from the system telling him what to do, which Leo thought odd, but the task ahead seemed pretty self-explanatory, so he decided not to think too hard about it, and started walking.
He followed the path to a dead end. There was a white tile in front of him, but as a wall this time. As Leo got closer he saw what appeared to be hand and footholds, like a climbing wall.
Leo shrugged and started climbing. The wall seemed to get taller as he climbed, baffling his senses. Only after he felt his muscles burning, sweat dripping, and hands raw did Leo hear another notification.
<DING! Calibration Stage Two complete. Your pod is now fully calibrated to you. Do not attempt to use any Delta Pod that is calibrated to someone else, as injuries ranging from moderate to severe may occur due to synaptic complications. You may now access Delta!>
<BEEP! Error! Countdown to full launch
2 days 16 hours
Cannot log in at this time>
<Ding! Preview Function Available. Would you like to proceed?>
Leo, without hesitation, confirmed with a "Yes, please!"
The world shifted again, this time into a snowcapped mountain range. Leo stood at the top of the tallest peak. below he could see villages situated in the valleys, and scattered through the forests. in the distance, he could see what looked like a town near a river bend.
Leo marveled at the beautiful view. It was as if he were standing on a real mountain. He was even starting to feel the cold and lack of oxygen at such an elevation when suddenly there was another notification.
<DING! Preview complete. Log in on Launch Day to begin your journey to Delta!>
And with that, Leo's consciousness faded to black once again before returning to his body.
"What kinda 'Preview' was that? Talk about blue balls... well, I guess if you've already bought the pod, they don't need to sell you the game at that point." Leo mumbled to himself as he got out if the pod. "Still... what a rush! Virtual reality that can simulate all 5 senses?! I must be dreaming."
Leo had trouble sleeping that night for all the anticipation.
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