“The year is 2029, cars still haven’t left the ground and solid holograms remain strictly fictional. There are groups of crack-heads who claim they have cracked the human genome and are capable of granting people super powers through science, and there are people still recovering from the chaos of the coronavirus and the three years of crap that followed. 

But one rather miniscule change happened, something that actually concerns our story. A relatively new but fairly well respected video game company, Pantheon Entertainment, partnered with multiple tech companies and independent researchers to produce a VR headset that allowed a person to literally enter the game. While the headset they produced was not a “full-dive” into the virtual world, being unable to replicate smell and taste as well as not putting the actual body in a state of sleep, it did allow the player to control the game avatar with only their mind and feel the game world as if it were real.

They went through numerous tests with the headset, even contacting the government and getting their headsets safety features verified by an official, as well as making new laws around this technology and its use before it gets announced to the public. Meanwhile, Pantheon Entertainment began work on their magnum opus, a VR video game world made for the new headset and programmed to be as realistic as a fantasy world could be. The development team working tirelessly to bring their vision into reality, produced a world unlike any other in a video game before them. 

Two years after the laws on dive-tech VR headsets were finalized, Pantheon Entertainment announced the open beta of their new game, “Champions of Asteria”, a VR mmo utilizing the newest dive-tech VR headsets and providing a realistic and ever-changing world. The gaming community exploded, the lucky few who got into the open beta were provided no NDA pertaining to the contents of the game, and were in fact, encouraged to spread their opinions, and supply tips and tricks to the coming wave of pre-order and first release players.

Forums ignited as news of the game mechanics was spread, the hype for the game only increased. It offered many freedoms to the players and while it was horribly unbalanced, that same unbalanced-ness gave the game a charm that wove it’s way through many potential players. Soon it would be the talk of the gaming industry, and if you never heard about Champions of Asteria you were a boomer living under a rock. Even non-gamers had heard about it despite not wanting to play it. 

As the hype grew and grew, Pantheon Entertainment started buying large amounts of server equipment and several warehouse locations around the world, renovating them to be server sites for the game. I love how Pantheon stated that the reason they were buying so many servers and locations was because they “didn’t want the servers to crash on day one so they bought triple the projected amount needed for the games operation.”.

The amount of people waiting to play their game was frankly astounding, and I could see why the CEO was sweating profusely when the number was read to him. A hundred and fifty-two million was not a small number. 

Release day was almost as bad as black friday, people were trampled as others rushed to be the first to get a copy of Champions of Asteria. Stores sold out in a matter of hours around the world and illegal copies were downloaded by the hundreds in the hours that followed. As players entered the game one after another, it’s popularity spread far and wide. While Champions of Asteria made headlines, it never did reach the same level of interest as politics or religion. 

Now of course our story starts nearly a year after the game's release, February 17th 2030, as I get a copy of Champions of Asteria to play in my off time from school. I already have some plans in the works and am looking forward to grinding my way up to the top of this unbalanced game.”

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“That should do it.” said the girl, as she put down her pencil and closed the journal.

“It’s getting late, and I need to be well rested before I begin.”

The girl turned off the desk lamp and crawled into bed, dozing off faster than a TV shutting down. Within moments the girl was in dreamland, silently awaiting the coming morning when she could finally get her hands on the most hyped game of the decade.

| This next section contains major spoilers for the story but I felt like it belonged here and not at, like, chapter 237 or whenever these foreshadowed events come to pass. |

February 16th 2029. A group of people sat around a table in an office meeting room. These people were wearing business suits and each had a laptop in front of them. The room was dark except for the screen on which a slide from a projector was showing. The curtains were heavy and obscured the interior of the room from anyone watching the windows from outside.

One of the people was becoming increasingly more agitated.

“And you’re sure this’ll work? You’re sure we will have our champions before Drogan recovers?”(Person 1)

“Yes.” Said an increasingly more annoyed woman, “For the thousandth time Topor, Yes!”(Person 2)

“I just want to be sure. We are putting a lot of resources on this bet and I want it to pay off.”(Topor)

“Come on, we all know the real reason why you’re being impatient.” Said a man with a permanent spark of mischief in his eyes, “Asteria is in your dominion and having Drogan trapped there has you worried about the damage he’ll cause if he recovers enough to escape.”(Person 3)

“Can you blame me?!” Topor shouts, rising from his chair as he does so. “All that energy, over a hundred uninhabited universes worth, And it’ll only keep him contained for a couple centuries! He may be injured now but he recovers faster than us! When he gets out we won’t be able to stop him again! Yes he was sealed in my dominion, but that just means that I am aware of every second that goes by with him getting stronger!”(Topor)

At this point a man with dark skin, white hair, and an air of authority that surpasses everyone else in the room holds up his hand and the room quiets down for him to speak.

“I am aware of your concerns, Topor, but that is the exact reason why we are going through with this plan. We have no other options.”(obvious CEO)

Topor sits back down with a still doubtful expression, “I’m still going to worry, every second of every day for the next two-hundred years I will worry about whether or not we made the best choice.”(Topor)

“There may come a time after Drogan is slain that we look back and realize how many better options we had, but this is the choice we made and it is already too late to change our minds now. Now if we want this plan to have the absolute best chance of succeeding everything needs to be in order. Feras, how is the simulation environment? Is it ready for public release?”(CEO)

The woman who spoke to Topor stands up and motions to the screen. “Yes, the simulation environment is more than ready for release. Geographical accuracy to the actual Asteria is estimated to be about 97.3%. Obviously Topor has facilities on Asteria that I cannot legally access so I have not included them in the simulation environment.”(Feras)

“What about Drogon’s seal, has that area been replicated?”(CEO)

“I just added that location two days ago. It is supposed to be endgame content so I made sure news of it didn’t leak to the champion candidates.”(Feras)

“Understood. Praken, how is the system addon coming along?”(CEO)

Feras sat back down with a brief nod and the mischievous man stood up. “Alright boss, The soul tempering mechanics were the most difficult. The system was never designed to do that in the first place and souls are such fragile little things. It really made the process harder on us, you know, but we got there in the end and everything is now ready for release day!”(Praken)

“Excellent. Are there any problems someone wants to bring up?”(CEO)

Several heads shook in denial at this question and Praken sat back down, leaning back with a relaxed and pleased expression on his face.

“Alright, we continue as planned. Everyone, you’re free to go.”(CEO)

As everyone began shuffling out of the room, the authoritative person turned off the projector and opened the curtains. Looking out at the city below him, he sank into contemplation. Having not wanted his subordinates to see that he was just as nervous as they were. If he wasn’t calm and in charge, they wouldn’t be as calm as they are now, and he knew that. Putting a brave face, he turned and left the room, leaving the heavy atmosphere behind.