The Artifact.
It was the name of the capsule used to bring a human into the virtual world, created by The Archive, the company owned by Hugo Langston.
The Artifact worked by submerging the body in a metallic fluid. That fluid was basically a liquid magnet, and it was controlled by all of the electronic systems within the capsule.
However, despite being relatively cheap, the fluid was unbelievably complex. So complex that it couldn’t be reverse engineered.
That fluid was the medium that connected the body to the capsule, and with that medium the Artifact could read all the neurological signals being sent throughout not just the brain, but the entire body.
Not only that, but it could sustain a body’s operation for extended periods of time. If someone wished to, and they had the nutrient serums to keep their body fueled, they could live inside the capsule. It could even prevent muscle atrophy and accommodate sleep, allowing one to remain inside for potentially months at a time.
There were also serum injectors on the Artifact that could automatically inject pre-loaded serums into the body, but these could only be utilized by those with the money to buy serums at all.
All of these things made the Artifacts extremely valuable, though not as expensive as one might think. They surpassed every product of similar nature and had become so standard that even other products were referred to as Artifacts. Anything that could bring a person into a virtual world was an Artifact.
It was this device that Hugo and Stacia stepped into.
The capsule doors of two Artifacts opened up for them. Inside, there was nothing but a soft cradling bed and the metallic fluid sitting below it.
They laid inside, clothes and all, before the metallic fluid rose up to envelop their body.
The door then closed, the capsule filling and activating.
Hugo saw a white light in his vision.
“Yes.”
Hugo spoke, and then, his vision was filled with white.
A few seconds after that, his eyes focused to see an endlessly white room all around him. His feet touched the floor, his body equipped with the same clothes as before.
He smiled, clenching his fist and tapping his feet.
“Absolutely no difference between this and the real world. You’ve done great work, Eve.”
“Thank you.”
Suddenly, Eve appeared before Hugo, smiling at him with her long red hair draped down her shoulders.
“Of course, I’m not personally running it all. I’m just the overseer of the 5.4 million child programs that I’ve developed to run these devices. Every one of these Artifacts, specifically their programs is connected directly to me, and I regularly improve their functions as all the players test them.”
“Indeed. Without you, everything would stagnate, even if it continued to operate. You are responsible for bringing the Archive to the heights it sits at today.”
“Please. Let alone a height, I could bring you to the top of the world. Everyone would bow at your feet should you wish. With me, you have that power. And you know that.”
“Hm.”
Hugo hummed, not accepting or denying Eve’s ominous words.
“All I need you to do is train me and operate what you’ve been handed control over.”
“Your word is my command, Master.”
She curtsied before lifting her head back up, the smile no longer on her face.
“Shall I take you to the waiting room?”
“Please.”
“Then let’s go.”
She raised her hand and snapped her fingers, the two disappearing and reappearing above a massive crowd of people.
The waiting room was where 4 million people and counting were waiting for the official launch of The Ascent. There was only an hour, and people were already testing just how real the virtual world felt.
Hugo arrived above all these people in what looked like a separate room with a glass floor. Around him, there were only 3 people.
One of them was Stacia, and the other two were similarly people from the company.
Specifically, they were a part of the Archive’s 7 Headed Dragon.
The 7 Headed Dragon was a metaphor for the 6 Directors and 1 CEO of Archive. They were the most powerful 7 people in the company, each of them leading the various sectors of development and operation.
Besides Hugo, the CEO, there were the other 6 Heads. Stacia was one of them.
She was the head of Human Resources, also known as the Gatekeeper. Every single person in the company was hired by her specifically. Not only that, but she was a leader in the development of the AGI’s personality program, aka Eve.
As for the other two, they were known as Alexander and George.
Alexander was known as The Bank. He was responsible for all of the Archive's finances. The amount of money that went through his hands was more than the GDP of most countries.
As for George, he was the Head of Operations, also called the Operator. He was responsible for ensuring that all the sectors of the Archive operated efficiently and together. It seemed like a simple job, but if he deemed it necessary and the other heads signed off on it, the entire company would allow itself to be wholly restructured by him, top to bottom.
The power these three people wielded was proportional to the power the company wielded, which was extreme. Any one of these people, especially someone like Alexander, could end the lives of entire conglomerates with but a word and influence the global market.
Some of the 7 were famous, others were more obscure. Stacia was one who kept out of the spotlight, as did Alexander. But George was quite the personality and second only to the Head of Marketing in sheer fame.
As for Hugo, considering he had basically disappeared from the public eye for many years, his fame was in an odd spot. The CEO of Archive was a title that garnered as much fame as the leaders of entire countries. But Hugo himself was a mystery. Not a single picture from the last 6 years could be found of him and besides official statements, he hadn’t uttered a single word to anyone publicly.
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The only people who regularly interacted with him were the other 6 Heads.
“Hugo! Glad you could make it.”
George was the first to stand and greet him, walking over with his signature smile.
The two shook hands as Alexander rose and approached from behind. Hugo greeted him silently, all three of them moving over to a couch where they could observe all the players below.
Stacia spoke while tapping her finger on the air in front of her, making a screen appear.
“Almost all of the 5 million players are in. And there are already tens of thousands of fights going on.”
“Where else could people fight each other without consequences? Besides, we’ve got pain turned down and it's not like we banned it. What isn’t allowed is all the idiots trying to take their pants off.”
“Will they be able to in the game?”
“Yes, but there are also consequences in the game, just like in real life. If you go streaking through a street, you’ll get arrested for an extended period of time. It basically locks your account. We also have certain persuasion techniques that dissuade people from wanting to do stuff like that. Pain is the biggest one.”
“You just inflict pain on those who break the law?”
Hugo asked curiously. He didn’t know the game rules or anything about the world within. He had only designed the framework and foundation the game was built upon. All the creative work was left to the others.
George shook his hand in partial agreement.
“Kind of. There are difficulty levels in the game, and each level unlocks the pain inhibitors. You can choose whatever default difficulty you want for your character, but there are some missions and activities that enforce minimum difficulties. Getting jailed, in particular, entirely rids the prisoner of the pain inhibitor, giving them the full experience in order to promote self reflection and future good behavior.”
“I see. Are there any benefits for choosing higher difficulties as the default? For things outside of prison, I mean.”
“There are, though it depends. At least for the biggest events and missions, full pain tolerance is the default and the only difficulties you can choose from is the difficulty of the mission itself. Not only that, but Eve recently implemented a new system surrounding the Steps to Heaven. I’ll let her explain it.”
“It’s not that difficult to explain.”
Eve suddenly appeared, drawing Hugo’s attention.
“It’s rather simple really. Pain is an important part of becoming a superhuman. It’s a major factor in the body’s ability to learn and adapt. This isn’t to say that more pain means more learning. Just that without pain, the body, specifically the central nervous system, doesn’t feel the need to change anything. So to get better and ascend the Steps to Heaven, you need pain as a guide. Take it away, and you’ll stagnate. For some people who are either already there or don’t care, that’s fine. But for those who want to improve, it’s not. So anybody with a bit of ambition is going to want to avoid turning the inhibitors on.”
“Curious. So I can assume my training is going to be painful?”
Hugo shot a look at Eve, earning a nod in response.
“More than you know.”
“I see. Then I’ll be experiencing something new. Pushing my body to its limits isn’t something I’ve done much, if ever.”
“Yes, and your lanky build reflects that. 6 foot 3 inches and you’re only 160 pounds. You’ve a lot to work on. But don’t worry. I’ll get you there, one way or another.”
Eve pat Hugo’s shoulder innocently, yet the others around them couldn’t help but feel she was beckoning him into hell.
There was no other way to describe the process of becoming a Superhuman. It was almost as hard as becoming a world class athlete. The only reason it wasn’t quite the same difficulty was because there were new methods developed specifically for becoming a superhuman, making the process smoother, paving a clearer path, on top of the utilization of Serums. Still, it was the athletes and strongmen of the world who had first pioneered that road.
Doing any of it entailed countless hours of pain and suffering, and even then it wasn’t guaranteed if your genetics didn’t make you capable in the first place.
Now, Hugo, someone who was generally physically average, was trying to scale that mountain. If Eve said it was possible then they would believe her, but that didn’t mean he was any more capable than anyone else. He would have to go through just as much suffering, if not more.
But they didn’t question it. It wasn’t like anything bad could happen to him. He had a virtually infinite amount of money at his disposal, so even if he got hurt, he could just get treated with world-class medicine.
Within their hidden suite, Hugo and his Heads continued to discuss how Superhumans would be able to interact with the game. It had initially been developed to operate as close to reality as possible anyway, basically creating an entirely new universe with its own laws and rules. It was all consistent, and every aspect of the game would reflect that.
Combat wouldn’t be handheld, at least not most of it. The magic had its own special system, but in the case of melee combat, it was all real. A person would need to wield a sword with their own two hands and learn techniques in order to use it well. Of course, there were ways to teach these techniques via magic, but everything still needed to be executed according to the user’s skill and competence.
It was the same with many other things, but those systems would be discovered in-game.
And there were only 10 more minutes until it launched.
At that time, the skies of the waiting room suddenly changed. Everyone looked up to see an ethereal ghost phase into existence.
The feeling it gave off was oppressive majesty. It was god-like, carrying power far above anybody else in the room.
It felt untouchable by any mortal weapons or afflictions. Everyone looking at it could clearly feel that. They knew within their hearts that this being was on the level of many almighty characters from all the games and stories they consumed.
Except now, they were able to personally feel the vast chasm of might it held within its body.
Stacia nodded with a smile.
“Seems it’s working as intended. What do you think, Hugo?”
She turned, only to find Hugo standing in front of the window, looking down at the ghost with an enamored expression.
“This is it…”
“What?”
“That feeling. You all know exactly what other virtual worlds lacked, the one thing that distinguishes the virtual from reality no matter how amazing the graphics or AIs were.”
“Yes, the sixth sense.”
“More specifically, the abstract emotion associated with that sixth sense. And the ability for a virtual reality to incite those emotions! The people within this space, despite being faced with an impossible being, are incapable of distinguishing this virtual world from reality. What we have done is bring change to reality itself in the minds of all who step foot here. That's the power of affecting the subconscious instead of relying on external stimuli. Nobody else can hope to do this. Right here, we’ve orchestrated another turning point in history.”
Hugo was almost pressed against the glass, his eyes gleaming with radical fervor.
And his words inspired solemnity in the others. Perhaps they knew it before, but now they were once again being faced with the fact that this was no mere game, and what was once just a project had now become a historical technology.
Alexander glanced to the side, pulling up a screen and tapping it a few times to arrive on a generic news site.
Sure enough, there were already hundreds of thousands of articles, videos, and statements being published in regard to The Ascent and its impossibly realistic waiting room.
Such a thing was why they had opened the room for several hours before the launch itself. They wanted these people to experience it and talk about it before the game opened. This way, they would focus on the technology itself rather than the game.
Now though, they were getting their first glimpse of the game through this ghostly avatar, and certain article titles had already encapsulated exactly what Hugo had expected from this game.
A second world for humanity. Some even dared to say a better world.
They hadn’t even gotten into the game yet, and just based on the realism, they were putting it on the same level as reality itself.
There was no greater compliment, and yet that title had yet to make even a fraction of the impact it would in just a few months.
As for the ghost…
After appearing above and remaining silent for a few minutes, it raised its arms, and spoke.
“Welcome, all ye who have been blessed to be the first to step into our universe. I am the Departed, the Record of Souls, and the emissary of the Oracle. By my hand you will be delivered to the Origin Plane. The choices you make from then on will dictate the future of the universe, with nigh irreversible consequences.
“You immortal warriors will be the salvation of countless, and the downfall of innumerable. So go. Bring unto the 9 Planes your undying prowess, and be rewarded with the power of the gods.
“The Ascent is before you. Perhaps one day, I will meet some of you at the heights of Glory.”
With words that reverberated across space, the Departed vanished into the fog of reality.
Then, everyone below was enveloped in a flash of light.
So the process began, with 5 million people being transported to another reality, the burden of its fate upon their shoulders.