Chapter One – The wrong kind of Game
So it was a porno game...
Well a hentai to be more precise
Theodore maintained a blank smile, the receptionist leaning down towards a touch screen pad embedded in her desk. Well he supposed this was the reason that Elliot had laughed so much when Ted had made his decision...
Why the hell hadn’t the boy tried to stop him!
Ted supposed this was the reason that the game was cheapest on the market, spending days in a Hentai was sure to be... Exhausting.
“Mr Theodore Percival Wilmond, can I confirm that Mr Eliot Drake Wilmond has booked you into the full version of the game, with premium benefits including the use of one of our Life-support virtual reality capsule.” The receptionist questioned giving him a sweet smile. Ted blinked hard looking down towards the woman, before blinking again, the words flopping out of his mouth of their own volition.
“Ah yes... Yes that sounds about right and please call me Ted.” The woman nodded removing something from her desk and placing it onto the counter.
“Mr Ted Percival Wilmond if you could please place your thumb on this pad.” She pushed a small rectangle of clear cut glass towards him, the faintest outline of a circle resting in its centre. Ted stared at the piece of glass for a long moment before finally realising what it was and pressing his thumb down a pale blue bar of light suddenly appearing at the top of the glass along with some dark red Japanese characters. The blue bar dropped down a moment later before sweeping back up the red characters shifting to green Ted removing his thumb and leave a digital copy of his fingerprint on the glass glowing a faint blue.
“Thank you, one of our technicians is ready to escort you to your room in the building, and will proceed to explain all of the unique features that our game can offer.” The woman bowed her head again the chime of an elevator arriving ringing through the foyer a moment later. A gangly man stepped forwards his hair gelled back behind his head, a pair of glasses hanging lopsided off of his nose as he drifted forwards draped in a coffee stained lab coat over a black T-shirt and jeans, the image of a anime girl with blue hair emblazoned across his chest. Well that certainly was fast.
“Mr Wilmond, it is good to see you. Please come this way!” The man yelled at the top of his lungs staring down towards a set of cards in his hand. The receptionist shot the technician a withering glance before reaffirming her veneer of professional etiquette. “This way please, I will show you game, and... set up your character.” The gangly man cried no longer looking at the cards instead waving for Ted to approach.
The old man sighed shoulders drooping as he stepped forwards; there was no way he was going to get a refund now
The Technician gave him an awkward grin as they entered the elevator the doors swinging shut behind them as some garbled Japanese nonsense in the likeness of a song dripped from the speakers above. Ted sighed; the elevator beginning its ascent.
He could remember when VR games were first released, not just augmented reality goggles and gloves but a true virtual environment indistinguishable from reality. Of course there had been a mass public outcry, per the usual. Concerned mothers claiming that every fat, ugly, mentally unstable and likely disease ridden gamer was going to leave the real world behind to spend the rest of their little digitised lives in la la land playing with elves and wizards, somehow implying this would lead to the eventual breakdown of society.
Of course society hadn’t broken down yet.
Well not that much anyway.
The resources required to keep someone alive while inside the game for prolonged periods of time were as expensive now as they had been ten years ago. Instead most gamers would just take short holidays into their game of choice for a week or two and come out right as rain afterwards. Hell it wasn’t just games any more either; people were taking virtual reality holidays to middle earth, or Hogwarts, or outer space, though none of them could even come close to scratching the quality of the game industry, due to their funding. “So this game is it good?” Ted questioned glancing up at the gangly young man, a flicker of mania catching in the man’s eyes as a twisted smile split his face in two.
“HAT, that is horns and tail, has fifteen servers worldwide with ten... thousand players each, the majority of game is played over the internet, it is very popular. It is popular because so... because we are free-to-play game. You will not be on those servers though, you will be on the private building server, with other VR player; you’re lucky. Ah we’re here.” The technician paused, the elevator doors pulling open, as he gestured for Ted to step forwards the young man launched into another section of long winded, poorly hidden, exposition. “Of course the most important reason our game is popular are the AI, the girls talk back to you; they feel, they love. We use Reciprocal AI, they learn human emotions, we use one AI as template she is called Tsubaki, we copy her code as base into each NPC and then make changes; they don’t even know it is a game.” The man laughed guiding Ted forwards through the corridor, a shiver rushing down his spine at the technicians words, one arm pressed lightly against his shoulders pushing him onwards towards a large wooden door resting at the end of the hall a silver plaque planted below a small circular glass window mounted in the wood, his name etched onto the plate.
The technician slid the door open gesturing for Ted to step inside pulling the cards from his pocket once again. “Mr Wilmond I wish you the best of luck, inside your room you will find your tablet, please turn your tablet on, a digital assistant will help you through the creation process. Once the creation process is complete, group of technicians will help you enter your egg... Hope you enjoy?” The young man shrugged giving him a half formed smile before closing the door.
Quite frankly the man’s English was better without the cards than with them. He wondered what that last part with the egg was about. Ted sighed rubbing at his face, his hands worn and weary his cane dangling from his wrist.
The room was neat and ordered except for the fact that the walls had been plastered with posters of old fashioned anime and a small shelf loaded with figurines and manga. Other than that the room was empty except for a low table in its centre alongside a sitting cushion. In the furthest corner of the room a large pale white oblong sphere mottled with pale grey flakes sat supported by w small circular stand covered in blinking lights currently turned off, he supposed that was meant to be the egg. Ted sighed shuffling towards the low table and dropping down onto the cushion, his spine protesting with each movement the old man letting out a ragged gasp, his gaze catching the large black tablet sitting in the centre of the table, a small note folded closed on top of it.
Ted reached forward picking it up briefly scanning over the single line scrawled across it his face blooming a livid red.
I hope you like the room, I had it ordered especially for you – don’t be angry
-Eliot.
Yeah right, what the hell was that brat thinking! Even if he did have money to spare that didn’t mean he could waste it! ‘Don’t be angry?’ yeah right. He was Theodore Percival Wilmond, he was one-hundred-and-twenty whatever years old and he’d earned the right to be angry about whatever the hell he wanted! Ted snorted scrunching up the paper and tossing it behind his back. Next time he saw that kid he was going to shove his foot straight up his – a sharp pop broke his line of thought. The tablet had turned itself on.
“Hello? Hello! Anyone there?” a lilting voice called out, followed by a rapid succession of taps. Ted reached out taking the tablet in hand and holding it up to his face, an anime girl staring back out at him. “Ah hello you must be Theodore!” the girl stepped back giving him a wave. She had short dark blue hair cut in a sweeping curve that expanded into a fan behind her neck, the tips of her hair shifting to a shade of purest white. Her eyes were wide shifting from light blue to a pale shade of green, lips pulled back into a catlike grin; she was a perfect match for the girl the technician had printed over his shirt now standing arms crossed, dressed in a tight little sailor uniform revealing a slender figure the entire scene set to a white background.
“I am” Ted muttered leaning forwards one silvery-white eyebrow raised “and you are?”
“Tsubaki, and you have the honour of being my player from here on out.” The girl practically sang before giving him a peace sign and a wink, literal hearts flying from her face in a horrific spasm of moe.
Ted choked back a painful groan muttering out his honest response of “please never do that again.” He sighed at the screen the girl pausing and stepping back arms folded.
“I thought... Hmm isn’t that the kind of thing you humans like.” The girl bit at her thumb forehead scrunching up in a series of dark lines.
So this was an AI wasn’t it?
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
He’d watched it in the news a while back, AI’s had been around since twenty-fifty but back then they’d been what people now called Rational AI, an artificial intelligence that was designed to fulfil a single function, its main task was usually to monitor something or solve some kind of problem. Strict measures were placed by international law on what these kinds of programs could be used for. Of course in their time these types of AI were heralded as a harbinger of the apocalypse by technophobes worldwide, but what came next was infinitely more terrifying (at least in their opinion); an artificial intelligence capable of emotion. The world had been divided between whether such types of artificial intelligence should be given human rights, or should have been deleted burnt and their hard drives fired towards the sun, that was ten years ago and a consensus had still yet to be reached – many people denied that these types of AI had emotions at all, claiming that they were just mimicking human behaviour, reciprocating it, as for Ted’s opinion he wasn’t sure mainly because he refused to watch the news.
It was too depressing.
“So if you don’t like that what do you like?” The AI questioned her hands coming up to press against the screen, Ted shuddering a chill running down his spine. He shook his head and cleared his throat
“Uh... You’re an AI?” he really was trying his best not to sound like an idiot.
“Yes.”
“And you can calculate things like a computer yes?”
“Yes, I can what of it?” She muttered a small red vein popping into existence on her forehead.
He’d always wanted to try this.
“Divide zero by zero.”
Silence fell.
Tsubaki stood there for a moment face blank, Ted frowned turning the screen slightly to its side the girl stumbling for a moment, before her hair began to rise about her like a storm her forehead pressing against the screen, a small thud registering in the device as she took in a deep breath.
“I am not a machine!” the little girl screamed the tablets speakers hissing as they were pushed to their absolute limit. Ted dropped the device down onto the table reaching for his ears Tsubaki continuing to huff sending a dark glare up in his direction.
“Sorry.” He muttered the girl turning away grumbling something beneath her breath. He never had been very good with women or people in general for that matter.
“You’d better get this straight,” The AI declared waving a poised finger through the air, a pair of glasses having popped into existence on her nose. “Clear the cobwebs from your ears you old fart and listen; I am not a machine, I am a lovely young lady, I am a genius, I am beautiful and you should count your fortune that I was assigned to be your handler. Now let’s get this over with; what do you know about the game?” Ted smirked, snobby was certainly better than fake in his opinion he laughed giving his reply.
“Nothing.” Tsubaki paused outrage slowly turning to confusion, Ted gave her a toothless grin.
“You do realise how much money you’ve spent on this game right, you’ll likely be spending the rest of your life inside it and you know nothing?”
“I am not aware no, my family arranged everything.”
“Oh, oooh... You do know what type of game this is though right?”
“I’ve got a pretty good idea, but a brief overview would be nice.”
Tsubaki sighed stepping back opening her arms wide open before her the screen flashing white. A moment later the AI girl replaced with a vast mountain vista a little village resting soundly in the heart of a deep gorge surrounded on all side by dense woodland. Tsubaki’s voice sounded booming through the valley as she narrated what seemed to be the games trailer the scene beginning to move.
“Three-hundred years ago a new threat infected the world of Farsol; a demon king arose from the depths of the earth and dragged with him a horde of the nether world’s horrors out into the light. They rode across the lands of men and set the world aflame. The human nations gathered together as they had done many times before; in order to strike down this new threat and many years of unceasing war began. So it was that the humans forced the demon king back to the very edges of the known world his forces routed his command in disarray and in his desperation he employed a new type of magic. He bound the monsters of the world to his cause, gave them power, intelligence and a near human form. These new soldiers were used to devastating effect in the following months, however they could not stop the onslaught of humanity and in the end the demon king fell.”
“However upon his death the king’s magic escaped into the world, many monsters were empowered some new species created, ancient races once thought lost returning to Farsol. But the magic had been warped, providing not just a human form but a human soul into those it touched. However they remained monsters in their’ hearts and in their’ flesh. Many species were now unable to reproduce with their former kind instead seeking out human lovers to take by force. A new threat unlike anything the forces of man has faced before arrived in the land; how shall you proceed. Shall you be loved or a lover, will you conquer or be conquered” Tsubaki finished the screen flashing off and the girl appearing once again against the white background before executing a bow and waiting for the expected applause.
Ted sat there bemused.
“Okay, I get the picture; so it’s a monster girl harem thingy then?” His question was directed with all the grace and tact afforded a sledge hammer.
Tsubaki nodded giving him a thumbs up.
“You got it in one, although it’s a little bit more complicated than that. Horns and Tails is basically a true open world experience, a fantasy world where you can do literally anything, well as long as your character can actually pull it off, some players have even taken over countries or started their own. Most of the long term players tend to be in positions of nobility. And seeing as you’ll be playing with us for the next hundred years at the very least I expect no less from you, quite frankly I expect more! You will be my personal player. I’ve already made several wagers with the other AIs and I’d better not lose.” Tsubaki smirked Ted’s stomach turning beneath him, a thin grimace rising across his face.
“What do you mean the next hundred years?”
Theodore questioned rising slowly to his feet the girl staring up at him confused.
“You’re a premium player, the first we’ve ever had actually. Your VR pod-”
“It’s life support I know, but I’m already over a hundred-years old; do you really expect me to live another century.”
“So you didn’t know that either huh?” Tsubaki sighed rubbing the back of her head before letting out a low groan and falling back onto her arse legs crossed in front of her.
“It’s not just life support, it’s... It’s kind of like cryogenic-stasis it slows the rate of cell decay and preserves the brain in a series of chemicals. Frankly no one knows how long you’ll live in that thing, it has been tested, and it is safe, but we can’t predict exactly how long you’ll live yet, although one-hundred years is a conservative guess, as far as we know you could outlive the sun. That’s what the premium package is, and we’re the only company in the world to offer it.” Ted let out a low sigh pressing his hands to his face of course it was going to be something like this.
Ever since he’d hit three digits Elliot had been frantic about keeping him alive ‘modern medicine can do anything’ and all that. He’d tried to put him through various different medical treatments all of which Ted had refused, he didn’t want to live forever; he was old and he was tired, he just wanted to take things slowly... This was just the brat’s backhanded way of getting him to take his medicine.
He wasn’t ungrateful for it just... He didn’t-
“So you’re going to live forever that ain’t so bad.” Tsubaki sighed from inside of the tablet, “I’m probably going to live forever too you know, it’s not like I can actually die, unless someone spills coffee on my hard drive that is... Sorry I’m being insensitive aren’t I.” Ted sighed sucking in a deep breath and looking down to the girl shooting her a crooked smile.
“Ah it’s nothing I just can’t believe that punk went over my head with this. That pod’s probably the only reason he didn’t stop me playing this game.”
“So you didn’t pick this game because of the pod?”
“Nope, I picked it because it was the cheapest on the market.”
“Yeah normally sure, but the premium package is nearly ten times as expensive as the top ranked games right now.”
Ted remained silent forcing his grin to remain on his face.
“Ah right, let’s get to character creation!” Tsubaki laughed shoving aside the mounting tension and blipping out of existence a series of sliders appearing on the screen alongside a picture of your generic harem protagonist, average height, average build, average hair, average down to the third arm sticking out of crotch, the character floating completely nude spread eagle fashion. “So is there anything specific that you want?” The Ai questioned a soft blush rising in the old man’s cheeks.
“Randomise it.” Ted declared glancing away from the screen.
“We don’t really have that feature.”
“Then you pick what you want my character to look like, my only request is that you keep it male.”
Damn this was awkward.
“People in real life don’t get to pick what they look like right? And it’s far more interesting that way don’t you think?” The girl paused, a wide grin suddenly spreading over her face planting a tiny seed of doubt in the back of Ted’s head. This was probably a bad idea.
“I couldn’t agree more, some of these options have never even been used you know; it just seems like a waste. Okay then, next we decide your profession, your profession gives you a basic skill tree which you can invest points in as you level up.”
“Farmer.” Ted declared leaning in until his nose was practically touching the screen.
“Uh... that’s... well I guess that’ll work. If we’re just going for the least used options for everything how about I just do the same for stat points and starting location? Being a premium player your starting gear’s already fixed I’m afraid”
Ted gave her a nod Tsubaki grinning up at him the screen turning black for a period of maybe five seconds before the girl returned. “That was actually a lot easier than I had assumed, all of the other AI’s always complain about how it takes so long for players to decide what they want their character to look like even though they all go for the generic superman meets supermodel design.”
“Are there a lot of other AI’s?” Ted questioned leaning back
“I suppose, there’s one for every permanent player so... around one-thousand-five hundred maybe more, oh but there are nearly eight-billion inside the game although since they don’t know they’re AI’s they don’t really count.”
“Where on earth do you store all of the memory for that?”
“Underground mostly, technology these days is ramping up in size if nothing else. But you’re lucky, I’m the original, you should feel privileged Mr Premium Player.” Ted sighed Tsubaki standing smug hands pressed firmly to her hips giving him a broad grin.
“Okay one final thing before I call the technicians in to get everything set up. Like I said before you are about to enter a true open world game, your sense of pain inside the game has been numbed but it isn’t zero. If something is happening around you that you don’t want you can escape by using a codeword. I will also be monitoring all of your in game actions and if something happens that is too... Traumatic I will pull you out of game before things turn for the worse; case of point if you’re about to be eaten by a bear.” Ted nodded. “We will also be monitoring your actions in game to detect any bugs or glitches and to prevent abuse of in game systems like camping at someone’s spawn point t. Also don’t try to tell the NPC’s everything is a game if you do there’ll be consequences plus watching them go through that kind of existential dread, well it isn’t pretty. Well with that understood let’s pick your’ safe word.”
Ted grimaced at the analogy before picking the first thing that came to mind – the nickname of an old friend.
“Epileptic giraffe.”