"You can open your eyes, you know", a beautiful voice rung out, resonating in my ears musically.
Eyelids firmly shut, I gulped and instead focused on steadying my breathing - it was the first time I could inhale on my own in such a long time. A full breath of air in my lungs felt so reassuring yet so terrifying, to have to much control over myself all at once was ... overwhelming. It took a moment, but my whirling thoughts eventually calmed down. I heard a small giggle, which was probably at my expense.
Tentatively, I opened my eyes. Light flooded my vision instantly, but I forced myself to blink past the pain. What I saw was amazing. Standing before me was a woman, dressed in business attire; a slick black blazer and matching dress with panthose on her long legs leading down to high heels. Her eyes caught my attention first, their cold blue intensity seemingly scrutinizing my every movement. Every detail about this woman was perfect, not a single wrinkle or spec of dust could be found on her clothing, her skin was porcelain white, her hair was wrapped into a neat bun, and her makeup was modest but effective.
The woman's glossy pink lips curled into a slight smile. I thought for a moment that she might have been offended by me staring at her, but her next words denied that theory.
"I'm glad you still know how to use your eyes, Mr. Page. It took you long enough", her crystalline voice quipped, "My name is Sarah Hughes. I'll be assisting you today."
I nodded in response, unperturbed at the slight jab. It was only then that I realized where we were. The area around us seemed to be a small apartment, fitted with basic furniture, all colored white, even the couch next to us. The atmosphere felt sterile and almost alien.
"First off", Sarah continued, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, "I want to thank you for participating in project KALI. It's not often that we get cases as 'unique' as yours, but I'm letting you know that I'll do everything I can to make your experience an enjoyable one."
Again I nodded. It wasn't like I didn't want to voice my response, I just didn't want to hear how hoarse and weak I must have sounded after all that time silent.
"Pardon my asking ... but is it true you've been in your coma for seven years now?", she murmured, probably unsure about my feelings on the matter.
Truthfully, I had found a sort of peace about my situation, so the question itself didn't trigger any particular anger or sadness. At first, I had completely lost hope, my life was over after all. But I eventually got over that hopelessness. I found myself in a sort of meditative state in the latter half of my coma, my thoughts no longer jumbled up and frustrated. It was probably thanks to my obsession with what I termed "Enlightenment Philosophy" when I was younger - that and the sheer amount of time I had to put most of it into practice.
"That's true", I found myself saying. My own voice surprised me, being not even a little bit rusty. On the contrary, I sounded authoritative and strong. Just when did I ever sound like this?, I wondered.
It could have been my imagination but I thought I saw Sarah's eyebrow raise slightly.
"So it's true. I'm sorry, it must have been difficult for you", she said with a hint of genuine pity, "I hope that the project will serve to give you a fresh and new start on things."
Sarah produced a clipboard from thin air. Quite literally, the board popped into existence in her hands, summoned from the aether.
'Oh, right. This must be ...', my thoughts were interrupted by her next sentence.
"This is your virtual room. It holds portals to programs that you own, which is none right now. You customize almost every detail as you desire, including the time dilation", Her eyes honed onto mine at that point, "I would advise not taking it past 10 seconds per second for health reasons."
She coughed before continuing.
"It also comes fitted with a net browser with top of the line internet speeds so you can catch up on what you missed out on", Sarah read from her clipboard before looking up again, "Just don't spend all your time on naughty websites."
Again, I found myself nonplussed. Even before my coma, I had no real interest in that kind of stuff.
"Aww, you're no fun", she complained, "Anyway, the rest is mostly self-explanatory. If you have any questions, let me know. I'm assigned to you personally, so I can be summoned to your virtual room at a push of a button."
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She smiled, making me notice how even her teeth were perfect, all dazzlingly bright and pearly white.
"Thank you, Mrs. Hughes", I figured I should stick to the same level of professionalism that she had offered me.
"Ah, you can just call me Sarah", she replied.
'A bit of a double standard', I thought but decided not to voice.
There was a gleam in her eye, as if she knew exactly what I was thinking.
----------------------------------------
The days after that first meeting flew by quickly. I spent the time summoning and eating my favorite foods, browsing the internet, and catching up on my favorite tv shows and movie franchises. Initially, I found it daunting just how much happened when I was out, but I got used to it. I even found the time to message my friends and family about my new situation. Only a few responded but they were understandably shocked. It was like having me back from the dead after all.
But what I spent the most time on was researching the game I was going into. I had to research as much as I could to have even a small chance at making it into the top 100. Even though I had found peace about my situation in my coma, I had found myself getting attached to being up and about, so the prospect of returning to that hospital bed had me restless.
The game's name was Royaume and even in its Alpha stage, it had garnered worldwide attention. The technology was so cutting edge that it was indistinguishable from reality.
'"Every single human sensation", huh', I thought. The possibilities of technology like that were endless.
I browsed as much as I could from the official website about the gameplay features before heading to the fan forums. It had been a while since I was truly into researching a game, but I could always rely on fans discussing everything, even down to the most miniscule details. The Alpha stage of the game was exclusive to only 10,000 players but information managed to disseminate anyway.
The forum I particularly had my eye on was the "Tricks & Tips/Minmaxing" board. There was quite a bit of arguing and speculation over which character build was the most optimized since it was so close to the game's inception, but after literal days of browsing and chatting with people in the know, I managed to get a decent grasp on what I might be playing. I even found out about a few useful tactics that I definitely would be putting to good use.
One night, I found something that caught my eye. It was a thread simply titled "the strongest build in the game" by a user named Faux. I thought nothing of it, as I had seen that exact title maybe dozens of times now. But, having pretty much exhausted every other resource at that point, I decided to click on it. Strangely, it looked like I was the first and only one browsing the thread. Shrugging, I read on.
"What the hell..?", I muttered aloud.
This was the real deal. Every single choice was accounted for and explained in the most excruciating detail. There were countless charts and formulas as well. It didn't seem fake either, from what I had garnered on my past research. The plan laid out in the post was absurd in its length and complexity but the numbers didn't lie. I found myself having to take notes to keep track of its convoluted nature.
"And to think that this is just the race and class choices", I whispered in awe, "I wonder how long this thing would be if every choice in the game was accounted for..."
That was probably impossible, given just how luck based and random a virtual reality game could be.
The final sentence of the post stopped me in my tracks.
"Do not follow this guide if you're looking for an easy path. This is likely to be the most difficult route you can play in Royaume, even if the power it offers is immense. Expect to invest hundreds of hours being halted at every turn, and expect progress to be slow. If you do not put all of your effort into this, you will be destroyed. And even then, the chance of success is low."
I almost chuckled at just how dramatic it was, but I found myself with a lump in my throat. The warning had brought up a good question. Just how dedicated was I to being the best? I couldn't just wing this and hope that things would work out, I had to have determination.
Steeling myself, I continued to take notes with a new fervor.
It was a while after that that I finally decided to take a break and have a slice of pizza. I won't disclose the toppings, but they most likely would have made the average person irrationally upset. Anyway, it was after my meal that I decided to log in again.
Strangely, I had been booted to the forum homepage. I idly scrolled over to my browsing history only to find that the forum post wasn't there.
'That's weird', I mused.
It wasn't in the "Tricks & Tips/Minmaxing" board either. In fact, I found no trace of the post anywhere. Even when I tried searching up the user, I found that Faux's account had been banned.
Both unease and excitement crept up my spine. I wondered if I had found something that I shouldn't have. Hastily, I uploaded my notes to my private cloud and summoned a notepad and pen to write down the information manually. If it truly was the case that I was the only one to see the post, then I had come into a huge windfall. It was an immense advantage I had at my fingertips and I definitely was not going to waste it. When I finished transcribing the notes, I ripped the page out of the notebook and summoned a novel to hide it in. I then placed it amongst my growing library on the windowsill.
My heart pounded as I tried to relax in the hours afterward. I couldn't shake the feeling growing in me, no matter how hard I tried. One phrase kept appearing in my head.
"I have a chance!"