It began with a simple post on one of the world’s most popular gaming sites:
VIRTUAL REALITY IS HERE!!
A friend of mine, who works at Tokyo General Hospital, told me that their Center for Disabilities and Development has started a new program, in partnership with Genesis Japan, for the recovery of temporary disabled patients.
What surprised me the most is that my friend told me that they are using a newly developed technology of VIRTUAL REALITY to help with their recovery!
DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON THIS SUBJECT!??
Of course most readers ignored this post as this story was just too hard to believe. While the technology for virtual reality wasn’t an unachievable goal, everyone still believed that it would still take humanity decades to make a breakthrough.
Some of the readers of course were not so kind.
Another troll post…
You should get some new friends kid.
If you believe that story, I own some of the best land on Mars and I’m willing to sell…
P.S The view is awesome ^^
It got to the point where the moderators were thinking on locking down the post and deleting it from the forum.
But then another user posted:
I work at a nursing home in Baltimore. We use this technology for comatose patients. They are placed in a capsule provided by Genesis America and they enter a virtual reality world designed for their care and comfort.
Only the head physician has his own capsule so I don’t have any personal experience with it, but we can talk with our patients on our computers and they say that they can’t tell the difference between it and the real world.
Honestly it’s beyond incredible, I am not ashamed to say that the first time I talked with one of my patients I cried.
Several more users started relating similar experiences, some were family members of the patients, or doctors and others were interns at hospitals. One user explained that people who were directly involved in these projects had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and were not allowed to officially confirm, or even discuss these projects.
The community was split, most still doubted that virtual reality was developed, but others began to believe.
In just a couple of hours the post had over 1000 comments and the moderators were forced to lock it due to the inappropriate language that some of the users were using. But this one post was like a spark that ignited a barrel keg of gunpowder. Dozens of new posts were created on all forums that had any relationship with gaming, or medical care.
Gamers were desperate to get even the tiniest piece of information on the arrival of the Holy Grail of gaming, virtual reality.
They tried calling the hospitals mentioned by some of the users, but the only answer they could get from the staff is that they are not allowed to discuss the treatment of their patients except with family members, so like an angry mob they started calling the only place that could give them the information they wanted, Genesis.
Genesis Headquarters
“Genesis is a company founded at the end of World War II. Though it started as a company that developed and exploited natural resources, it rapidly diversified its business and started producing and selling commercial items and industrial equipment. Due to its research and development department Genesis quickly grew to become the biggest company in the world. You know what a cellphone is? Yea Genesis invented that. If not you’d still be calling your grandma from a landline and your parents would be worried sick wondering where you are. Now Genesis is the absolute leader in research and development in several fields….
"Oi! Newbie you paying attention?”
The woman suddenly stops and lightly smacks the Newbie on the head.
“Yes madam!”
Since the woman began guiding the newbie and showing him his new workplace, the newbies eyes were wondering all over the place filled with wonder.
The newbie’s wonder was understandable as the corridor they were walking in was surrounded with holograms of Genesis latest finished project, the development of the Lunar Base. Footage of shuttles scurrying about a large dome with a single white tower reaching from its depths towards the Earth were enough to fill any viewer with a sense of awe and wonder.
“Che, that’s why guiding you newbies is so annoying! “
The woman clicked her tongue. She was of course used to the images having walked along this corridor many times, she was also part of the team who compiled the footage. She and her team worked long hours even during the weekend, to present the perfect marketing pitch for director Kim sun Book, the head of the marketing department.
Thinking back on those days made her more displeased and she thought about giving the newbie a more powerful smack, unfortunately the company policy was quite strict on violent behavior so she could only grit her teeth and glare at the newbie, promising him a world of hurt later.
“Newbie quickly come here and bow your head! “
The woman didn’t waste any time in grabbing his arm pulling him to the side then pushing his head down, perhaps a bit harder than was needed.
“Ehh, senpai what is going on?” the Newbie asked nervously.
“Shh” the woman hurriedly shushed him.
Hearing the sound of heels coming down the corridor the newbie risked a quick glance and the sight left him staring in disbelief.
Gone was the wonder he felt while staring at the Lunar Base, forgotten was the awe of looking at the Earth and the Moon, everything paled when compared to the beauty of the goddess walking towards him. Long dark hair almost reaching her mini skirt, surrounded a perfectly oval face, with dark green eyes that sparkled with excitement, blood red lips that promised an unknown world to mere mortals, a perfect figure held upon two long silky white legs that even models would envy. In the newbies eyes without a doubt a goddess had descended.
The goddess passed, completely ignoring the presence of mere mortals and as she passed a smell of perfume, which reminded the newbie of a field of wild flowers, remained.
“Who was that person?” the Newbie barely managed to ask with a dry, raspy voice.
“Newbie, you better forget about her, she is way out of your league.”
“Senpai, even if I had to sell all my possessions, risk getting disowned by my family or trade my soul to the devil, I would not regret it, if I could get just one kiss, no, even just a date with that goddess!” the newbie said with a serious tone
The woman stared at him in amusement.
“Newbie let me ask you. Do you know who the owner of Genesis is?”
“Umm” The sudden change of subject caught him a bit off guard.
“Don’t worry, even if you think about it, you probably wouldn’t know him.” The woman put her hand around the Newbies shoulders and gently guided him towards his new work place.
“You see Newbie the owner of Genesis is James Crawford. The owner is a notoriously reclusive man, he never appeared in the media and there is no footage of him, as far as I know, the only photo of him is a picture in his junior high school book. Even in our company most of our directors have never even seen or spoken to him before. “
“But senpai, what does that have to do with the goddess?”
“ Well your goddess is called Ashley Crawford and she is the only daughter of the owner of Genesis, who happens to be the richest and most powerful man on the planet, a man who could influence and change governments on a whim. Tell me Newbie do you understand what I’m saying?”
A look of defeat and despair appeared in the Newbies eyes and he felt like the weight of the world just dropped onto his shoulders.
“I understand senpai” he said in a quiet voice.
“But I never knew you were such a romantic Newbie” the woman said with a laugh her hand still on the Newbies shoulder.
“You better be careful, or this onesan will eat you up”.
“Ehhhhhh!!!”
Ashley Crawford
Ashley walked past the guards into the elevator. This elevator was reserved only for high level Genesis executives, all other personnel, or visitors were denied access and had to use the normal elevators or the stairway.
“Ashley Blake, code 012-XDT-213, requesting entrance to The Lair” Ashley said in the empty elevator.
Ashley thought her father was a bit too paranoid. Her father’s secret bunker was located a couple of km beneath the headquarters of Genesis and was made of a special alloy that he created, which he called Adamantium, a name taken from one of his books no doubt. The bunkers very own existence was unknown to anyone besides her and she had to pass dozen of security checks just to reach it, the elevators scanned her even to the molecule level, another of her father’s inventions.
After a short time the elevator opened its door and Ashley stepped into the wide white corridor. On each side of the corridor there were vaguely humanoid shapes covered with black mantles.
She couldn’t stop a shiver passing down her spine at the sight of these figures. These figures were actually robots created by her father. Each robot was imbued with artificial intelligence and with enough firepower to overwhelm a whole battalion of troops. Her father decided not to share this technology with anyone and kept them as his personal guard.
Ashley reached the end of the corridor and the doors opened before her, she took a quick glance and stepped inside.
The inside was not like anyone would expect out of an underground facility. The sun was shining atop an overcast sky and a wind was blowing inside the facility, carrying with it a fain scent of rain and nature. Ashley walked on a path leading through a meadow of grass and beautiful colored flowers, throughout the meadow she could see several bunnies happily lazing about. Even if she knew that most of it was just a product of technology, she was still amazed at how lifelike and real this place felt.
Her father was waiting for her as he usually did in a small wooden pavilion in the center of the meadow.
“Father” she politely bowed her head and greeted the old man who was standing in a chair at the table.
“Ah, Ashley. Please sit down, I’ve been expecting you. Care for some tea?” The old man said with a smile.
Ashley took the offered seat and while the seat molded perfectly to her body, a saucer and cup came flying like an UFO in front of her.
“Thank you father”
Even after all this time Ashley still felt surprised when she visited this place, it was one of her father’s favorite hobbies, to show her a new piece of technology every time she visited. The chair was released to the public two years ago, but the flying saucer was something that she hadn’t seen before.
She politely took a sip out of the cup, taking the opportunity to look at her father. Her father was wearing a short sleeved Hawaiian shirt and a pair of brown shorts. He was a bit on the short side standing at a height of 1.71 cm, he was lean and had black hair with just a few wisps of grey and he had a pleasant face with a strong masculine jaw and a few wrinkles now, which was normal considering he was already 72 years old. But the most attractive features about him were his eyes and his mouth. Dark black eyes that seemed to sparkle with amusement and a slight childish smirk that would endear him to anyone.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Father, I’ve come to report that news of our virtual reality medical program has been leaked on the internet. At the moment it is still just at the level of rumors, but we have received several calls and requests from the media asking for any comment. “
“Have there been any rumors from the military side?”
“No father, the military has a better grasp on information control so news of VTraining hasn’t yet reached the public.”
The old man took a sip from his cup and then suddenly threw a big smile.
“It’s alright, things are moving according to plan. We would have released news of our new Virtual Reality project next month anyway, now we will just move the timeline up a bit. Please announce that I will release a statement in a weeks’ time.”
“You, personally, father?” she was quite shocked as her father never made any public appearances, or had any desire of getting involved on the PR side of the company.
“Yes, I would like to make an appearance in a weeks’ time, after all my fans are waiting.” he said and gave a short laugh.
“Unless, of course, there is a problem?”
“Of course not father. I was just a bit surprised.” She quickly replied.
“Good Little Fire, very good, this will be so much fun!” James smiled, stood straight in his chair and he suddenly seemed to fill the whole pavilion with his presence. He was obviously excited and Ashley could clearly see the reason why this man before her could grasp and control the world from the shadows. But just as sudden he leaned back into his chair and he became a normal old man again.
“Now Little Fire tell me what have you been up to and when are you going to find yourself a boyfriend, you are 25 years old already and you know I want a grandson!”
Ashley could only groan.
Shortly after Ashley left, the old man was still happily staying in the pavilion.
“Master when are you going to introduce me to your daughter?” a pleasant woman’s voice came from one of the chairs in the pavilion, but there was no one sitting in that seat.
“I thought I told you not to call me master, Gaia.” James could only give a small *Sigh*.
“After carefully reading through thousands of books on the topic of AI’s, I can only conclude that master is master, therefore I am unable to comply with that order.” Gaia replied.
James could only let another small *sigh* escape his lips. He should have denied her access to his private collection.
“Don’t worry Gaia you are my greatest creation and soon I will introduce you to the entire world.”
“And I will help master achieve his greatest dream” Gaia replied.
James smiled like a little boy and the clouds parted from the sky, letting the sun shine through.
The news hit the media world like a strike of lightning.
James Crawford the richest, most powerful man in the world will make his first public appearance. The fact that he was also the most reclusive man and had managed to give the slip to all the paparazzo and media channels until now, was like icing on the cake (as a side note World Wide Media, WWM for short, had offered 10 million dollars for just a picture of this man).
All the news media that were worth their salt announced that they will be broadcasting live the appearance, regardless of their time zone. The fact that the topic was of interest to a large number of the population was irrelevant. For all they cared, James could talk about the flowers and the bees, or global warming and they would still air it.
The only thing that bothered them was that Genesis announced that they will stream the video live and not have any reporters present. No matter how much they begged, pleaded or threatened, no one could get even 1 reporter in the room with James.
And so the day of the press release arrived and most of the world was watching.
James Crawford
James walked in front of the podium and was fidgeting nervously with his suit.
It was the first time in his life that he wore a suit, he didn’t even own one before so he had to ask Ashley to buy one on short notice. Of course Ashley was more than delighted to help and in just a couple of hours sent him a dozen Italian suits that fit him perfectly. How that girl managed such a feat on such short notice, he could never understand.
Thoughts of his daughter always brought a smile to his lips. She insisted on being here, but he would not allow it. “I am old enough to tie my shoelaces and talk without help, daughter.” James only called Ashley daughter when he was being strict with her, eventually she gave up and watched the feed nervously from her room.
"Fu, looking good master!” Gaia gave her two cents.
“Now don’t you start, I know that I look like a lost penguin in this outfit.” James said with a smile.
The scenery behind him changed to a field of ice and a cold wind started blowing.
“I am sorry master, I will prepare the fish for after the show, also if you could please wobble a bit when you walk, you will make a fine penguin” said Gain in a delighted tone.
“Damn you Gaia, I will make a virus penguin to come after you!” James was shaking his fist in the air, laughing.
“Master I am afraid the reception in your area is quite bad and you are bzzz, brea bzzzz, up bzz .”
“Alright, alright you win!” James was laughing too hard. These old type jokes were his favorite. He knew that Gaia was only trying to make him relax since he was nervous.
“Don’t worry Gaia, I am not nervous at all, besides it’s time to get serious, the show is about to start. “
“Yes master.” Gaia suddenly replied in a serious tone. The background changed to black, the lights dimmed and in front of the podium holograms of the live feed appeared with a chat box on the side. The side box was James’s idea, even if he couldn’t read the comments live, he could read them (Writers note: or more likely send them to the marketing department *snort*) later. After all keeping in touch with the people was important.
“The broadcast will begin in 1 minute master, currently there 223313 thousand users in the chat, would you like me to estimate the number of people watching it live on TV?”
“No, thank you.”
James threw a quick glance at the chat but it was going too fast for anyone to read more than a couple of words.
One post caught his attention because it filled the whole chat screen:
? ? ?_? ??MOLLY ? ? ?_? ??
“I must be getting old, I have no idea what kids are talking about these days”
The user got banned quickly and the post was deleted.
A count down appeared on the screen.
3….2….1….. Fighto!
Fighto really?! He quickly wiped the smile off his face and adopted a serious countenance.
“Hello, my name is James Crawford and I am the owner of Genesis.”
James was many things, scientist, analyst, political mastermind, but foremost he was an engineer and he strictly adhered to the first rule of engineering: KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).
On the screen in front of him he appeared as an elegantly dressed old man, a man of character the few wrinkles and lines of laughter only served to add to his character, making him look like a favorite and kind uncle that everyone would like to have.
“Many of you don’t know me, most of you have never seen me before and doubtless some of you have heard some people describe me as a puppet master due to the fact that I have never appeared before you until now.
But the truth is actually quite simple I am just a simple old man that likes to leave the spotlight to the young ones, while living the rest of my days in peace.
I
’ve also never thought that I had anything important, or sufficiently interesting to say… Until now.”
He took a short breath, glancing at the chat screen the number of user had climbed over 300000 thousand.
“Today I would like to talk about virtual reality. For those of you that don’t know, virtual reality is sometimes referred to as immersive multimedia, it is a computer-simulated environment that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world or imagined worlds. Virtual reality can recreate sensory experiences, including virtual taste, sight, smell, sound, touch, etc.
To put it simply virtual reality is a man created world that holds little or no distinctions from reality.
It is generally believed that it would still take humanity a couple of decades in order to reach a technological level that will allow us to create and use virtual reality on a day to day basis. “
Another short pause, the number of users in the chat room had reached 600000 and was climbing at a fast pace.
“Lately there have been rumors that Genesis has managed to develop virtual reality technology and have been using it in collaboration with the medical system in order to provide better care for patients.”
A long pause for effect, than staring directly at the camera James said:
“All the rumors are true.”
The chat room exploded, with 1.2 million user online now, even if you posted a comment and searched dozen of pages back you would not be able to find it.
“Now, let me ask you ladies and gentleman:
Have you ever felt that there was something missing from your life? Have you ever felt bored, or annoyed doing the same routine day after day? Have you ever dreamed of being a hero that saved the princess, or the adventurer who slayed the evil dragon?
Have you ever dreamed of being a magician, capable of calling lightning and razing mountains with your power?
Or perhaps you always wanted to be the bandit stealing from merchants, or even a great evil overlord, striking fear into everyone’s hearts?” With each word James’s smile grew wider.
Behind him rolled images of a fantasy world, great medieval cities, images of elves and dwarves, at the word dragon, a majestic creature was soaring through the sky letting out a roar that shook the valley it was passing.
“In 6 months’ time Genesis will release virtual reality platforms to the general public and with it we will release the first VRMMORPG game: Alter Life.
For all those that dream of a different life, for all those that cry out against fate and seek a different future, this new world will be my gift to you. A world where the weak can be strong, the poor can be rich and the fool can become a king.”
“Well I guess that should be enough for an introduction, we will release more information on the platform and the game during the following months.”
“Oh, and before I forget. The winner of Alter Life will receive a prize of 10% of Genesis yearly profits, so do your best everyone and have fun!” James gave a big smile and ended the transmission.
The number of active user in the chat room passed the 10 million mark and was still rapidly climbing. Images of Alter Life were played on a loop on the stream.
“Fuu, that was nerve racking” James let out a big sight.
“Master is still a child after all” Gaia quickly put her two cents in.
"I don’t want to hear that from a million years old AI that I created 2 years ago!”
Though Gaia was only created 2 years ago, she had already lived for millions of years in Alter Life, carefully monitoring and controlling the world to make it ready for the time when it will open its doors to humanity.
“That’s why master can’t find a girlfriend, talking about a woman’s age will get you hated, you know!”
And this slap-stick comic atmosphere between the two continued throughout the entire night, they were seemingly ignoring the effects that their announcements had on the entire world.