Coal ran for all his worth towards the workshop and the supposed location of his older brother. His rusty, copper colored hair began to dampen as his six foot lanky frame bound up the 200 meters of incline where the workshop rested in the upper pastures. The dirt road was muddy from melting snow and through his excitement and full out sprint it didn't take long for the inevitable to happen. Yes, a mud bath happened. Coal’s spirit however refused to be dampened. Shaky himself like dog he was back on his feet in no time at all to continue on his way beneath gray sky’s. He had some of the greatest news of the century. Even the cold breeze of the Sierra mountain range above the 3000 feet line couldn't stop the excitement of the young teen who only had a white t-shirt and navy blue workout sweats on. Shoes at the moment were even optional.
It was a good thing Cyrus heard his sixteen year old brother hollering all the way from the house. Even with the warning Cyrus jumped slightly at his brother exuberant entrance into his shop, almost burning himself with tig-welder process. Pulling off his welding hood revealing some of his messy, fiery red hair Cyrus turned towards his brother asking, “Whats got you so excite bub?”
Coal was practically bouncing up and down on his bare feet and mud covering most of his left side from the fall. “Destiny Online....” Coal says still out of breath continuing after a few gasps, “The news just reported a new game coming out. They say it will be in a full dive virtual environment. It’s also all over the internet. All over, everywhere. Suppose to be real virtual reality.”
Cyrus waited for more information from the silly, expectant face of his brother. Waiting... Waiting.... Nothing, “Well what the fuck Coal? I’m busy. Is that all you wanted to tell me? I gotta get this pump working again. The cold cracked the hell out of it and it was spraying water all over the pump-house this morning. Get on with what you were telling me, help out or get the fuck lost. Also if your going back to the house take off the muddy cloths and wash your feet or Ria will drop kick you in the throat.”
Coals face fell only a little bit. Still he was too excited to let it rest, “Okaaaay fine, but when you get back I want to show you what I’m talking about.”
Cyrus already turned back to the pump saying, “Get the fuck out I don’t have time for this shit.” Putting the welding hood back on and flipping it down Cyrus began to work again.
Head drooping a bit Coal turned and left back to the house. He knew his brother was under allot of stress right now along with the fact that he was a workaholic. Winter had been harsh that year on allot of equipment, not to mention being hard on everyone else. He knew his brother was stacked with contracts to fix, weld or machine hundreds of part throughout the area. Everything from engine casings to hydraulic systems on farming equipment as well as more mundane things like just welding up busted tanks before spring came.
After re-installing the fixed pump back into the pump house. Cyrus moved onto a backhoe that was poorly winterized. It was one job on a long list of contracts he had on his list of things to do. Two hydraulic chambers busted apart on the shovel arm along with a hydraulic mounting bracket that severely warped and twisted during the cold chaos the hydraulics bursting caused. One of the chambers could easily be welded after a little bit of grinding. The second hydraulic chamber was a total loss. It had busted and cracked right through the seal. The whole thing needed to be recast. That always took allot of time. It was probably cheaper, time wise to just buy a new chamber for that model.
Cyrus though prided himself on self sufficiency and began heating up his foundry and measuring out the metal ingot and chemicals to cast the new hydraulic camber with good SAE 316 stainless steel. After pouring the metal into a metal sheeting cast allowing it to cool till in had only a dark amber glow, he sent it through his heated rollers to compress the metal further getting the right thickness and compression. While the new steel sheet went back and forth through the heated rollers Cyrus poured the remaining molten steel into a cast for the hydraulic mount that had been twisted.
All that was left to do was cut and bend the chamber to the dimensions with a quick clean weld and he was off to the machining portion. The long parallel weld on the chamber need to be grinding down and buffed inside the chamber and out. The the seals then need to be threaded on took only a little time. Afterwards the new finished hydraulic chamber looked brand new. Even the weld was invisible to the naked eye. The hydraulic mound didn't need much machining because it was a static part. It’s main purpose was strength enough to hold a hydraulic chamber in place and allow the hydraulic system to swivel just enough for the backhoe shovel arm to have full range of motion. A little yellow paint, welding the mount in-place and reconnecting all the hydraulics and its electrical system and the job contract was finished, after a few test with the backhoe powered up.
Cyrus finally cut the video feed on the shop and attached it to the backhoe contract bill with a few sentences saying basically job complete and sent the email to the contractee. He always videoed his work so no one could tell him he was over charging. He charged material down to the gram, plus $35 dollars an hour labor, plus tax. Altogether 110 dollar material fee plus 6 and a half hours of work came out to $335.50 profit. Cyrus wasn't about to pay taxes so he added that to the price at a whopping 29.3% U.S. ‘the stupid money grubbing government’ bumping the total up to $436.39. The tax fee would go straight into a separate account for the end of the year so the IRS won’t come dropping by to take away everything he worked for.
It was already 11:30 p.m. By the time he was finished cleaning up in his shop and headed back to the house. All the lights were out besides the outside lamp of the side enclosed patio known as the work door. It had a large wash basis with degreaser soap. To the left of the basin are hooks for work cloth such as mechanic coveralls and welding aprons that someone forgot to leave up at the shop ‘dammit I always forget. ah, well. That’s why Ria put those hooks their’
The only other light in the house that was left on was the kitchen light. Sitting on the center island of the kitchen was his cold dinner with a note on top from his sister Ria. {“Brother, put in microwave on high for 3:30. Love you goodnight...,Ria”} His sister Ria was 19 years old and will be heading off to UO (University of Oregon) ‘Go Ducks(Football Team)’ She is the one that keeps the house in order and cooks. When she leaves the two brothers will probably starve to death. Not to mention a extra ton of chore’s between the two of them around the house.
Cyrus eat in silence while feeling guilty about how bad he treated his brother earlier. Even though Cyrus had been doing everything possible in raising his brother and sister since he’d been 17 years old. He tried to give them a good life, he was at time a bit harsh on them and elusive at times but no one could say he didn't give them a good life. Cyrus didn’t even have a life of his own to be completely honest. Between all the bills, saving up money for college for both his sister and brother there wasn’t much time between his own company business, taking care of the land and animals and huge $2000 a month payment for his land. Their was nothing but a long 18 hour a day work schedule every single day. ‘but I do need to spend A little time with my brother and sister. Maybe be a bit nicer too. I could probably start cutting my work hours back as well. I’m over $120,000 in the green on my saving account and that's not including completed college funds for the both of them or the annual taxes I already got set aside for the next five years. I should take them on a vacation or something this summer before Ria goes off to college. Maybe I should just stop taking the small contracts altogether and focus on the more difficult contracts I charge a $100 plus an hour on? Eh, that's enough of that tonight ill worry about it latter.’
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Cyrus got up from the counters bar-stool, washing and drying his dirty dishes so Ria wouldn't have to. ‘Now what was Coal going on about? Destiny or something? Suppose to be a online game or something. Better check it out and see if I could make it up to him. I am not below buying affection from my siblings if I don’t have the time to earn it properly. 'Mwahahaha, and its more probably works better too’
Every evening walking up to the second story of the house was the worst part of his day. The stairs aggravated his shattered right leg worse than anything. Not to mention the noise of his leg braces made even when well oiled seemed like it could wake the dead. After painfully making it up the stairs Cyrus headed to his study to look into whatever Coal was blabbering about earlier in his workshop.
Cyrus was amazed at the information overload that popped up when he began his search. Coal did have a right to be overly excited. ‘hmm, go figure’ For the past 24 hours give or take a few the whole world was jumping up and down with excitement. A new company called Terran Bindings came out of the blue straight to prime time on almost every major news network on the planet announcing their Virtual Reality Capsules and their game called Destiny Online. This wasn’t no half arsed Virtual Reality either. Nothing like throwing on a video helmet and a suit that tightened and relaxed to simulate touch. No this Capsule if you could believe it or not is a full on neurological dive using something called DOXplatelets. Not sure what those are exactly, supposedly they are the company’s secret but what the do is allow full Nero immersion into virtual reality. That was only the beginning the Capsule also integrates continuous brainwave scans and optical input through the eye’s to get a full 100% immersion into the virtual world.
To Cyrus the whole system sounded pretty dangerous. The DOXplatelets sounded like the biggest concern which manipulated the body’s nervous system and chemical processes. Same go for the optical inputs straight to the optical nerves. Could it damage eye’s sight or the brain? Not to mention most brain scans or MRI’s used either heavy dosses of radiation or magnetic energy or even a combination of both.
It didn't even take long for him to elevate his fears. 18 government health and medical research department or their equivalent approved and verified the technology was 95% safe, except with certain medical conditions that would be listed on their website. What was completely astounding is that Terran Binding Corp. gave a lifetime health guarantee stating any medical problems that arise from using their Capsules would be compensated with a large monthly stipend for life.
Cyrus did wonder briefly how this company got all of this tech approved under the radar without no one finding out about it. It was now time to have a look at the game itself. By the time Cyrus was done reading about it and viewing some footage of the game he was practically bouncing up and down his chair. It been along time since Cyrus was even remotely excited about anything other than a vexing engineering problem. Their wasn't allot of information out about the game but what was out already was an engineers wet dream which Cyrus is. Nothing fancy just a community college masters degree in machining and engineering mostly done while he was in the service over the internet.
Destiny Online could be compared more to a real life simulation than an actual game. Yes their is a leveling system and stats. That system is only in place to improve your in-game mind and body. The stats will actually improve your IQ, Reflexes and Constitution in game. The reason for the leveling system is to slowly and properly build the avatar’s body and brain over time through the Capsules monitoring system and the limited A.I. Building a virtual super-charged brain is not easy you know. This will keep people in-game from wondering around all confused because of conflicting data within their virtual brain. The game actually states that for this reason alone the game could be more addicting than any drug so they had to put a strict Capsule limiter of 16 hours per 24 hour day cycle. The biggest part of the game is what you bring with you. The intellectual reason, common sense, know how, Reflexes and physical build allowing you to begin in a natural state but allowing to build upon the natural gifts your have already worked for. Everything within the game will be as close to normal physics as possible with the addition to possible theory's. So if you wants just like Cyrus does in the real world he can physically react with every little thing down to the virtual atom and possibly beyond. Yes having to poop, pee, eat and sleep in game will be must. Log-outs can also be counted as sleep cycles withing the game. The spatial awareness system allows for a 1 to 6 hour ratio. Meaning every hour in real life spent in the game will be an actual real six hours within the game. That's 4 real hours for every day within the game. In a way the time dilation was the biggest eyeopener and most heatedly debate topic out of anything else. Inn a very real sense it multiplied the lifespan by 6 times normal. Say if you lived a 100 years. If your played Destiny Online throughout those hundred years your mind would have lived 600 years in total. It was a for sure a shocker to most people when they discovered what the time dilation effect in the game really meant.
Cyrus didn't even wait till the next day after looking through a ton of information immediately put in an order in for three Capsules at $17,000 dollars a pop reducing his savings by $51,000 dollars. Even though Ria didn't ever play any game, Cyrus thought that eventually almost everyone would be running around within virtual reality. ‘maybe I should look into buying stocks’ Not to mention it’s has home space area not connected (almost like a desktop or game system dashboard) to the game where the time dilation was still possible and perfect for extra studying for a certain college girl.
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