Birth Of Cosmos Online

"Come here little bosses... Uncle Soren needs his paycheck for the month... Come out my precious little loot bags..."

"So, umm... Do you always shout like that, whenever you're playing your games?" Nora curiously asked, as she kept hearing Soren's weird calling for the past thirty minutes and it was starting to make her pretty uncomfortable.

"Like what? Like I'm calling out the minibosses right now or in- *swing* general... Bloody hell, another rabbit." Soren asked, as he swiftly dispatched another rabbit and put it in his inventory.

"I'd like to ask for currently, but your general in-game behavior is also a good question."

"I act pretty normally whether I play solo or with my friends. Sometimes I tend to be a bit more loose, depending on the amount of alcohol in my bloodstream, but I'm no loose cannon that will drop random racist bombs, just because I tripped over a random ro-OT!" *thud* "Ow!"

"Eyes on the road Soren. I don't want you to go tripping and getting yourself killed, just because you were distracted." Lucas called out coldly at Soren, who had just tripped on an exposed root that has caught his leg.

"Yeah, yeah... Aw... Speaking of which, what about... nrgh... minor injuries that I sustain in the game? Do those affect me in the real world as well?"

"They do not. At worst, maybe a little bit of phantom pain if it was particular painful, but so long as it isn't some serious or life-threatening injury, then you'll be good for the most part." Nora explained, as she saw Soren pulling his foot out of the root.

"That's... *pop* Good! Phew... Speaking of which, how rare are the minibosses or these elite monsters? I figured I would have ran across one by now."

"I don't know the rarity and spawn mechanics for them, I only know that they're rare. Still, do be careful around the area, since death exactly come with a cheap penalty." Lucas warned with a stern expression, as he watched Soren wander in the forest. Throughout the next thirty minutes, Soren kept looking around and while doing so, he did manage to come across a new monster, which was an armadillo-like creature with a really hard outer shell that covered most of its body, but a very soft head and torso. His first encounter with it wasn't exactly easy, since it rolled up immediately upon taking a hit from him, making it impossible to damage it with his sword, but not hard either, since Holy Touch allowed him to bypass its shell and damage its insides, which was enough to kill it. Upon his subsequent encounters, Soren simply used rocks to force it to roll up and then let his Holy Touch to the rest of the job.

After the thirty minutes passed, Lucas called him once more. "Alright Soren, we're done with the 60% realism modifier. We're switching it up once more, but this time, set it to the absolute minimum setting, 20% realism." Upon getting his order, Soren followed it immediately and upon confirming the change in the settings, the cool feeling of the forest disappeared and his body suddenly felt a lot more rigid, as if it was encased in wax and could only perform minuscule movements.

"How are you feeling Soren? Are you alright? Such a sudden shift is bound to leave you disoriented." Lucas asked, as kept his eyes on Soren's condition and his unconscious body."

"Alright...? I feel like I'm suddenly encased in some sort of clay-like material. It's like I'm wearing a very thick suit of plasticine clay that doesn't allow me to feel anything. Is this supposed to happen? Is this normal!?" Soren asked worriedly, as the sudden rigidity and difficulty in movement was starting to make him anxious.

"It's a normal reaction. Lowering the realism setting means we're lowering the amount of the artificial, physical stimulation your mind is currently experiencing, meaning that you're suddenly experiencing an absence of your sense of touch, hence the clay-like feeling you're experiencing. Your body is still capable of feeling things like pain, temperature changes or other people and objects, but at a significantly reduced rate." Nora explained calmly, as she also kept an eye on Soren's body.

"This feels wrong, in some weird way... Is there anything else I should worry about? Any weird aftereffects or anything that could cause permanent damage?"

"Nothing of that kind, but definitely something you should keep in mind in the future, if you intend to use extremely low realism settings. Since your brain is receiving far less stimulation from the game, it's become possible for your body to move in real life, even if you're not consciously controlling it."

"What? How on god's green earth is that even possible?"

"You should know that the helmet has a pin that's currently inserted on the converging point between your brain and the spinal cord, where the connection of the nervous system between your brain and body is currently located. Normally, its main purpose is to act like bridge towards a secondary spinal cord, for your player character specifically, as well as grounding for your main body's motor functions, making it so that your actual body is not sending or receiving any movement signals. Of course, by lowering the realism setting of the game, we're essentially weakening the grounding effect of the pin and as a result, it allows for electric signals to pass from your brain and into your body, causing to performing minuscule movements, such as twitching, occasional body shifts and in some rare cases, abrupt movements."

"So..."

"In layman's terms, the lower the realism, the higher the chance of body movement from you actual physical body."

"Wait, if that's true... Doesn't that mean that whoever is playing at 20% realism, has an actual chance to accidentally injure themselves?"

"Did you really think we'd never thought of that? Why don't you try lowering the setting even further?" Lucas suddenly goaded Soren in an unusually confident manner and Soren did so, albeit reluctantly, before being met with a notification.

Warning: You can not lower the Realism Setting any further. Any further attempts will result in forced disconnection.

"Figured that you guys wouldn't have missed such an obvious problem." Soren commented in a relieved manner, as he closed the settings menu, before asking. "So, what now? Do I just play in this state for the next hour as well or for the next two hours?"

"Just for the next hour. Afterwards, we'll set the setting back to 40% for the last hour and then we'll talk about your opinion on the different states. For now, stick to your usual grinding, but do be especially careful now, since you're currently in your most vulnerable state."

"Most vulnerable state? How come? Aren't the higher realism states supposed to be more dangerous?"

"That's true, but the reason I'm saying you're in the most vulnerable state is because of the lack of your proper physical sensations, making you more prone to die from sneak attacks and like I said before, death in this game, isn't exactly as cheap as a grayed out "Game Over" screen." Lucas explained calmly, as he still kept his eyes on his body.

*sigh* "Got it... I'll be more careful for now." Soren responded back, as he didn't want to waste any time and wanted to finish his playing session as fast he could."