Humanity had stretched far beyond Earth, venturing into the vast expanse of space for resources to sustain its ever-growing population. Tyrell Kingsley was a pioneer, a quadrillionaire who had amassed his fortune using general artificial intelligence and self-propagating robots to successfully mine asteroids. But he had turned his sights to something new, a virtual reality game that eclipsed reality, a new universe where he and everyone else could live forever.
But to do that, he needed to prove that it would work, that it could captivate all of humanity and seduce everyone to enter. His lure would be his fortune, most of it invested in creating the AI, Harold, in charge of the game and its expansion, but everything left to be distributed to the Top 100 players. He would use the game to Ascend, to become fully coded and escape his biological constraints. And so the game became known as Ascendant Online.
It was a virtual universe, where players could live out their wildest fantasies, explore uncharted realms and lands, and experience something just as real as reality. It incorporated both land and sea in a way that no other game had, where each had their own classes and races – and where your selection of race was permanent. Rumored to possess unparalleled realism and complexity, Ascendant Online had captivated the imaginations of trillions, drawing players from all corners of the galaxy into rumors of the game and the available wealth.
The excitement and speculation around the game only grew when news of a lottery system was released. The launch of Ascendant Online was phased, with 50 people getting early access via a lottery system. Those 50 people would have one week in-game before the floodgates opened and access became public. All that was needed was a standard VR helmet, something 95% of the population had access to, and the game itself was free.
Players from every walk of life flocked to download Ascendant Online before its launch, drawn by the allure of wealth, fame, and glory. As they eagerly awaited the commencement of the game, theories and rumors about its mechanics proliferated across online platforms. The rumored economic system, purportedly designed to prevent “pay to win” and manipulation, intrigued them. The rumored absence of player guilds hinted at a fiercely individualistic gameplay experience where cooperation with NPCs would be crucial for success.
While rumors abounded, details remained scarce. Some said that real world money wasn’t accepted, others said that the game itself would pay players for success, others said only the elites knew exactly how to pay. The NPCs within the game were rumored to all be individual AIs so well developed that they were indistinguishably from humans. They were rumored to have no labels, no distinctions from the players, except that they would identify themselves as “Natives” when asked. But most of the rumors circulated about the main quest, known only by its name: The Abyss. Nothing was known about the objectives, about the timing, about its trigger or the win condition.
It suggested another realm, one different from where the players were. Some thought it would be a quest of exploration, where the first to discover it won. Others thought helping an NPC kingdom conquer it was the objective. Many thought The Abyss would invade, and fighting off the invasion was the key to success. But no one, not even Tyrell, truly knew. The only thing known was the prize for first place in the quest, 150 trillion dollars.
As the launch day of Ascendant Online approached, the frenzy surrounding the game reached a fever pitch. Crowds gathered in virtual squares and real-world theaters alike, eagerly awaiting the moment when the lottery winners stepped into the game and it became visible for the first time.
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For Tyrell Kingsley, the anticipation was palpable. As the mastermind behind Ascendant Online, he watched with bated breath to see his vision unfold before the eyes of the world. Yet, even he didn’t know what it would look like or how it would unfold under Harold’s hand. Tyrell had been locked out of the game along with everyone else and what Harold had created was as enigmatic to him as to the rest of humanity.
When the countdown timer reached zero, a collective gasp rippled through the virtual crowd. The moment had arrived. As the anticipation surged, the selected players donned their VR headsets and entered the digital realm of Ascendant Online. The transition from reality to virtuality was seamless, as the boundaries between the two worlds blurred into obscurity.
But for at least one person, the game was nothing but an afterthought. A strange moment in the public which had to be destined to fade. Eddie Jacobs was sitting at his desk, looking at the latest results from the adhesive that he was fatigue testing for use in sub-luminal space rockets. He’d gotten his undergraduate degree in Materials Engineering before being convinced by his parents that only PhDs stood a shot at competing with AI for jobs. So, he’d gone back to school, trying to get his doctorate in Chemical Engineering. Unfortunately, his boss was a bit of a wanker.
“Eddie. Hey. Eddie. Eddie,” his boss called, while hanging on the door frame of the lab. “I gotta talk to you this afternoon about your research. 2 o’clock, my office” before he slipped away without Eddie being able to say a word.
Fuck. He did not want to meet with Chip. Chip was a micromanager who had bad ideas, did things wrong, then blamed you for the failure. He had already been stuck in the lab for eight years and every time his research got near the end, Chip would add something new to “peak the interest of the community.”
The results that Eddie was looking at had supposed to be the last thing to add to his dissertation. The cherry on top of his existing research that would convince companies to hire him and let him finally become a doctor. The results were good, great even. They should let even Chip recognize that it was time for Eddie to go, to be free, and to finally get out of the fucking lab. At 1:50, Eddie left the lab and headed to meet with Chip.
“Hey, Professor, what’s up?” Eddie asked. “Did you see the results from today? They look pretty solid, seems to fit with the theory and the rest of my work. I’m hoping to get them typed up and into my last chapter of dissertation by the end of the week.”
“Yes, I saw them. But, I don’t agree at all. More questions than answers for me,” Chip said while shaking his head. “I think you need to run a longer term study, probably 12 months.”
“I do not think so at all. The data was very very clear, the adhesive can survive 10 years using the standard ASTM methodology. We already know the tensile strength, chemical resistance, Young’s modulus, compressive strength, and ten other things. We know the chemical formula and the crosslinking,” Eddie said in a slightly raised voice. “I do not need more data,” he almost snarled.
“Well, I’m the boss, so it is not up to you. If you want, you can always leave, but you won’t be a doctor without the data. Look, I was in your shoes, it’ll go a lot easier if you just get the research finished off.” Chip leaned back in his chair, took a sip of water, and said, “Just get it done. It’s only another twelve months. Enjoy it before you enter the real world.”
“I’m done. I’m not coming in tomorrow. I’ll email you,” Eddie said and stalked out of the office.
God. What a fucking asshole, Eddie thought. His research was great, he didn’t need to do anymore work. Definitely not another year in the same fucking lab. Eddie walked out of the building and headed home. He snagged a beer from his fridge, some chicken Caesar salad and just sat on his couch, shaking his head. He’d seen something about a new game in the news, maybe he could see what the hype was about tonight before he went to bed. He never played video games, he didn’t have time. But, fuck it. He wasn’t doing more work tonight anyways. Why not. So he picked up his VR helmet, loaded the game, and clicked Start.