Alex Mikhail, is a seemingly ordinary boy from his exterior but online he is a famous bug abuser/glitcher/exploiter on the internet (not that they know his real identity).

Known by many on the online communities of various games as simply 'Ghost' for his amazing ability to get into places he shouldn't, he breaks boundaries the game designers have made, be it physical or finding ways to get a certain stat or level maxed out without the requirements or time that was originally specified.

In a way he is lazy gamer, constantly looking for shortcuts.

He finds faults in games which he can use to benefit himself in someway. The last glitch he used for example was a loophole in a classic fantasy MMORPG that allowing him to duplicate his in-game gold.

This was good and all as it is, but Ghost took it one step further.

The game had a real life store integrated into the game that allowed for the ability to buy and sell in-game items for real currency, which he used his accumulating Gold to buy high cash earning items to be sold for real money.

Of course this is one of the glitches he didn't publicise.

This wasn't something he would usually do, but desperate times, call for desperate measures. ‘No one was truly being hurt’ he thought to himself. ‘The person who bought the item got their item and the Game developers still got their cut of the money from the sale.’ Alex justified to himself. ‘I'm just getting a bit of the cut, a middleman of sorts.’

Ghost doesn't do this for the money, he’s not greedy or really bad. He avoids things that have lasting harm.

What he is a thrill seeker. He is a bloodhound on a scent. Hunting his prey enjoying the thrill of the hunt. He finds joy in finding ways to break the system someone has made.

Or at least he did.

But Alex has come to a halt in his Ghost persona, the games he plays have lost their fun, he feels as if he has exhausted the exploits that could be found. The thrill of the hunt isn't what it used to be. All the games feel the same, he feels lost and unsure of why he found it fun in the first place.

The watering hole has finally dried

Alex has come to the conclusion that he needs something new. something different from everything he's ever played. A new goal. This is what spurred him on to get some cash.

A new game has been released. Supposedly unrivalled in every way. A Virtual reality game that is said to be 98% as close to reality as it can get. A game with a True AI system, a game that continually develops by itself.

The one problem Alex had was that it took data from outside of the game such as himself. The capsule directly connected to your nervous system, sending and reading electric pulses through CNS (central nervous system) which scans his body structure such as his muscle structure among many things. It uses this data for your basic character starting stats. as well as your height and length of limbs, this can be changed, but your stats still reflect your original body.

A healthy exercise person would be healthy and exercised person in-game. Alex was not fat, but that didn't mean he was in good shape. The reverse is also the case because the system is connected to your nerves.

It picks up the signals your body sends out this allows for you to truly have sense inside the capsule, and have true movement as if you were controlling your actual body. this also allows for actions done in-game to transfer to reality, signals are sent to your muscles to constantly tense certain muscles to reflect your VR actions; exercising while within the game.

This was made to make it healthy as well as to appeal to hospitals and to prevent lawsuits from addictions.

Advanced Revelation Online, a virtual reality massively multiplayer role playing game. A game with its own unique history with a world in constant development.

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A game that accomplishes such, costs a lot. Too much for Alex to ordinarily afford. So Alex had to make a plan on how he could get his newest fix. He knew he had to get this game and that the only thing he was truly good at was his unique out of the box thoughts on how abuse a game bug.

The gears in Alex’s mind began to turn, he would find a way to get many of an item on one of his many games that he could sell for real life currency. From this he realised that it would be better to just get in-game Gold that he could use to buy items to keep his payback high depending on the market and make it less likely to be caught, as less would have to be sold.

He remembered an old exploit he found where if you used another glitch he nicknamed Skippa which allowed you to skip requirements on a quest by no clipping through a wall, to talk to specific quest npc allowing you to start or finish a quest that would usually be impossible for you.

By doing this it messed up quest system so that when you started the next chain quest and completed it, it allowed you to repeatedly get the reward by just restarting the conversation every time the npc gave the reward.

It did this as it couldn’t decide whether or not you truly completed the quest, which in the quest Ghost picked called Cold Peak gave a generous amount of Gold but also making it impossible to progress further down the chain quest.

Not that this mattered when Ghost would be soon quitting and with his pockets lined with gold.

Finally with his slightly less than deserved gold, he bought items to be sold for real currency.

Alex’s capsule was finally arriving today, costing £1,500 (AN I’m English) and with a monthly bill, Alex was going to have to make money through the game as well.

The capsule was easily installed into his bedroom by the delivery men. ARO love to guarantee 100% quality of service and product.

Stepping into the pod Alex lay down into the moulded seat.

The lid of the capsule began close with a hiss.

when the capsule finally closed the Alex became blinded by a bright flash and was welcome by a melody of sorts and then a title screen.

#Advanced Revelations Online#

#Welcome Alex Mikhail# a synthesized human voice bellowed.

#would you like to create an avatar?#

“yee..s” Alex stuttered caught off guard by the booming synthesized voice.

#what do you want for your username?#

“Ghost” Alex confidently answered.

#sorry that username has already been taken#

“fuck, now what am i going to pick”

#mind your language boy, you should have got your capsule earlier if you were that desperate for the name gah#

“ohhh… sorry forgot what a true AI really is….”

#Better get used to, where you're going there going to be hard to spot#

#The only reason my voice is so robotic sounding, is to slowly establish the idea without scaring the shit out of the customers.#

“now whos swearing” “hypocrite!”

#pick a name#

“avoiding much, but anyway how about Phantom”

#the name Phantom is available, are you sure you want to have this name?#

“yes, its as close as i will ever get, and still sounds pretty cool”

#what gender? Male, Female or Neutral?#

‘Wtf is neutral i wonder’

“male”

#There are 49 races which race would you like to be?#

“human”

#how do you want to look?#

“My appearance but with completely white hair”.

#changes made, would you like to look at your avatar?#

“no” ‘aint nobody got time for that

#location?#

“random, ill leave a little- to little ol’e fate”.

#Welcome to Advanced Revelations Online