My name is Elizabeth Colen, 24 years old and I'm dying. Pancreatic cancer.
Even since I was young, I always thought I would live a long life with a few kids and one partner. A perfect normal life. Sadly, I didn't find my partner, and I don't have any kids. I don't have a parent either. Only thing I'm proud of is that I finished school with a bachelor's degree in business at NYU. Because of the economy, it's very hard to find a good job. 5 years ago, in the year 2046, an economic crisis happened in the USA, since it's hard to find a good job. The middle class is becoming increasingly poor since then.
At the same time, an unfamiliar company named NVRL (New Virtual Realm Life) had released an ambitious virtual reality game named Blue Sky. It quickly became the biggest game of all time. The experts claimed that it was made using technology that's several centuries ahead.
For someone like me, with no perspective of employment, this game went beyond simply being an interesting game and became a way to possibly generate revenue. The game is bought with an interface capsule that allows you to connect to the game. Of course, there was a lighter goggle alternative that cost less, but it put severe limitations on what you can do in the future. The biggest problem amongst those was 'Fatigue'.
This 'Fatigue' was a numeric representation of psychological stress the user feels. It says whether the user can connect their character into the game. In other words, once the player's brainwave shows signs of fatigue, it automatically shuts down the game. And if you're playing in goggle mode, this fatigue builds up quickly.
You are to create an avatar in the country you live in, and you will not be able to play with any other players of another country yet. Only human avatar is available to play for now. The character is divided by class. Warrior, healer, hunter, rogue and mage. You can only play with the sex you had when you're born. The game will scan you when you create your character. Still, the game provides a lot of freedom.
With almost all my heritage from my parents dead. I bought the capsule and desperately stepped into the world of Blue Sky.
That was 5 years ago.
I did manage to generate revenue with the game. More than working in a fast food. My bet paid off. My avatar game, Ilnis, Great Warrior level 750 is one of the top ranks in the US server. I'm in the top 300 of the millions of players in the USA.
The sad news is that I'm dying. They said it was end stage cancer. I was not ready to die. My life was not great but not bad either. I was still hoping to achieve at least one of my life goals. Find someone to love. Fear of the unknown, People say that all humans have a basic instinct to fear it. In my case, I was shocked to realise that my cause of death would be end-stage cancer. The pain that constantly wrecked my body was so extreme that it sometimes made me go crazy, even with the amounts of pain relief medication I was taking. In 2051, Elizabeth Colen died of cancer.
That is where my story begins, as my consciousness fades away, I start to lose sensations from my nervous system. Then all thoughts cease.