Prologue

It was a hot day in the desert. The sun was up, punishing everyone that was dumb enough to be outside of some shade. Thankfully it was my day off, so I was resting in the barracks playing one of my favorite games.

Most of my life I did nothing but play videogames. Here and there my parents convinced me to practice some type of sports, but I never stuck to it.

When out of the high school I jumped from job to job. All I wanted to do was to open a small business. Probably some game shop or some bar. But my family didn’t had money.

Actually, kind of nobody had money. We went through a pandemic plague in the start of the decade, and from there, the world economy just went to shit. It was very difficult to get a good paying job to stay above the line of poverty.

So, when this private military company started offering high paying jobs, I jumped right in. They had a good plan. I had to sign a 10-year employment contract. Each month for the duration of the contract I would receive minimum wage, but, when I finished my 10-year period I would receive enough money to retire. High risk high reward.

And I am here right now, with 8 months to finish my employment. I got lucky and most of the time I was doing bureaucratic jobs around.

Damn, I died. Should pay more attention when playing. Just when I was restarting my save of Skierim Special Edition Remaster Deluxe Pro, Kyle interrupted me:

“I’m tired doing nothing in this sand cursed place, man. It’s hot and boring. I thought I would have some action by now. But we’re sitting in our asses for what? Almost 10 days?”

Kyle is a military contractor, just like me. He’s young and just arrived.

“Calm down. Enjoy yourself while you can. Someday they’re going to call you, and you need to be ready and rested. It’s your job. For me, I could be here in my bunk bed for the next 8 months playing games. I wouldn’t complain, for sure.”

“I was thinking… Why they send us here, to the middle of a hellhole sand burning place? They have some intercontinental missiles that can blow things up with the push of a button. They have those since the 70’s!”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Yeah, but those are expensive, and we are not. They can’t afford to miss. We’re here to point where to aim.”

“What you’re going to do when you retire from this hellhole? If I get there, I’m going to buy a club and pass the rest of my days partying.”

“Probably I’m going to buy a house with some garden for my folks, and buy a game shop or a bar for me. And I would like to try that new module they released this year. That game looks awesome.”

It was a module of immersive virtual reality. There was nothing like it in the market. Soni and Macrosoft were years behind that type of tech.

“I bet you’re just going to jump straight in.”

“Nah. I don’t like to play something new without studying it first. If I got my hands in one of those, first I would spend days reading guides and watching video tutorials first.”

“You weren’t in the last conference meeting, I heard a rumor that they are using this game to treat some patients. They have these Immersive Treatment Unit that keep your mind playing this game, while your body is resting. They give to you the best of both worlds. You don’t feel pain during the treatment and keep you mind active.”

I didn’t hear a word of that. If it’s true, I need to start reading about that game, just in case.

“You’re lying. No way they would employ that high tech ITU to treat us.”

“I’m just saying what I heard, we won’t have the full game options, but for us is enough to keep us living.”

I need to check this rumor, if it’s true, I need to start researching that game asap. I’m going to ask Karen a few favors. She always knows what is going on in the high ranks.

“I have to go Kyle. Getting a little sun burn walking around.”

After saying goodbye to Kyle, I went outside of my quarters. The sun was really bright and hot, by its position it was somewhere around 1500 hours.

I was walking between tents, trying to find Karen when I saw a small dot on the bright clear sky. Strange, no bird survives this type of heat. What is that?

That’s when I heard someone screaming with all their might “INCOMING”, and then a loud explosion came with a shockwave that threw me to the ground some 2 meters back. In the ground, with rubble over me I felt the heatwave. It looked like thousand glowing hot needles were piercing my skin. My world was pain.

I couldn’t guess how much time passed in the darkness, with the smell of burning bodies, screams, and the feeling that your skin is trying to crawl up itself afraid of the extreme heat. Could’ve been a minute, one hour, or days. All I know is that I was blacking out constantly, just to be awake minutes before with intense pain.

One time, the blackness of the unconsciousness came, and I stayed that way. When I recovered my senses, I was back to the darkness. But this time it had something different.

It was written in bright letters in front of my field vision:

[BE WELCOME TO DEEPER SUN]