Anthony felt his father climb the bed after a while. He did wonder why the bed was a bit bigger and it turned out that he and his father slept in the same room. He assumed that the other room was for his sister.
He didn’t open his eyes and allowed the man he thought could be his father to assume that he was already asleep. While he was looking at the browser, a thought suddenly intruded. He thought that this world could be the world of Diablo which he really hoped not since that world was very chaotic and very dangerous filled with monsters. Based on his father and sister’s behavior though, there was no indication that they were in any immediate danger. He would strive to find out the next day.
Anthony clicked on the single player button and the first thing that appeared was a flashing “very important” notice page. The page stated that he could only create one character and it would be a permanent one since stat changes of the character would reflect real life. It does allow him to reset his character’s stats and skills once every week so that was good news.
The notice also stated that the stats of an average person was ten across the board except for energy since that would depend on the person's magical talent. It also stated that a female person would have fewer stats than a male and that being a teenager would have fewer.
It also stated that any items that he equipped, their stats, and magical abilities would reflect in real life which meant that if he equipped an armor, its defense and magical abilities would reflect in real life regardless of whether he was wearing armor or not.
Regarding weapons, it would also reflect in real life but to activate its physical damage, he would need to have at least a somewhat similar item that he would wield in real life. The FAQ then gave an example. If he equipped a sword, its stats and magical abilities would reflect but for him to effectively use its physical damage, he would need to be wielding something sharp and even a knife would do.
Regarding the magical abilities of a weapon, he didn’t need to have a weapon in real life to have the equipped weapon's magical abilities and stats to reflect real life. That meant that if he had a sword with plus two to skills, he would still have plus two to skills in real life even if he didn’t have a sword.
Any spells that he learned in Diablo II, he could wield in real life and that fact gave him enormous relief since that meant that Anthony would have the power to protect himself.
Regarding inventory, he couldn’t take any items from Diablo II to real life but any items that he equipped or consumed like potions would reflect in real life. He could use the inventory to store items from the real world and those were the only items that he could take out. That alone was a tremendous gift since he could use the inventory as storage space.
The FAQ page also noted that the Horadrim Cube would still have the same function, but he couldn’t use it to combine things from real life only Diablo II items, but he could still use it as storage space.
The notice page also stated that inventory space would function the same as in the original game when it came to storing Diablo II items when it came to grid consumption, but real items would only take one grid regardless of its size as long as he could lift the item using his physical capability. Stacking items were still the same as in the original game but real-world items would not stack.
It did state that he could use a storage item like a bag or a box to put items inside and the bag or box would just take one grid as long as he could lift them physically so in a way, it could still stack items.
One important fact about the storage functionality of his inventory, according to the FAQ, items from the real world would have their time stopped so anything or any food that he stored would not decay and would come out exactly as he put it in.
Regarding the death mechanic, it would still be the same as the original game.
Lastly, the FAQ stated that all other game mechanics would be based on the original Diablo II Lord of Destruction.
After reading the notice page, he saw that it returned to the starting page, but a new button appeared below the browser button which was the FAQ button.
Anthony clicked on the single-player button again and this time it went to the character selection screen. The graphics looked very real as if the characters were real people, but the mechanics would be the original Diablo II Lord of Destruction as stated on the FAQs.
He decisively chose the Sorceress who suddenly turned into a male sorcerer and was glad that it was not gender locked since he had always loved playing magic users in any game. Why hit things when you could use magic was his motto.
The character automatically had the name Anton, and he went directly to Rogue Encampment. Everything was the same, the ambiance and the sound. He thought of muting it and accessing the option to mute the sounds and then the game went silent. When he thought of minimizing the game, the screen disappeared but a transparent logo of Diablo II was on the lower right side of his view.
Anthony was excited to see himself transported to the world of Diablo II and he saw Warriv waiting to talk to him. He wondered what happened to his body in the real world and he saw an option in the corner of his eye. When he expanded that option, it stated that he could switch from virtual reality to on-screen gameplay and when he did, his consciousness went back to his body and his screen had the game on.
That meant that once he started playing, his body would remain where it was. It meant that he would not be able to play just anywhere. He would need to be somewhere he could be alone or was sleeping to be safe from interference. He switched back to virtual reality and his consciousness went back to the world of Diablo II.
When he opened the inventory, the only thing that he had was a staff and it didn’t even have any skill. There wasn’t even a scroll of the town portal or a scroll of identify. Basically, his inventory was empty except for the staff.
Anthony opened his character stats page, and he was dismayed to see that all of his stats were below ten except for energy which was thirty-five. From what he remembered, a level one sorcerer would have ten stats in strength, twenty-five in dexterity, ten in vitality, and thirty-five in energy but he only had nine across the board except for energy which was still thirty-five.
It did state on the page that he was only seventeen years old and that was the reason why his stats were fewer than normal, and it did state on the FAQ that very same fact.
Anthony felt sleepy so he exited the game and went to sleep.