CHAPTER ONE

                “God, it’s beautiful.” The trees seemed to stretch for miles, a soft ray of sunshine illuminated the small clearing I was in. “Here is where I’ll find peace.” I was truly alone, no one for hundreds of miles. I stood basking in the silence of a summer’s day without the clamoring calls of “modern civilization”. No phone calls, no texts, no emails, and for once no emergencies requiring my personal attention. It had taken a long time and a lot of growing, but I finally made it, at least thought I did.

                Thinking back on how I got to this place, starts to make my pulse race and my stomach twist. Thoughts of the real world and what awaits start to erase the tranquility of the moment. “Relax, remember to relax”, a mantra I continue to repeat to myself. This peaceful moment was brought to me by Horvat’s World, a new virtual reality, total immersive MMORPG utilizing a 3rd generation technology based upon the Occulus Rift VR technology released in 2016. What awaited me outside of this game was a law practice that destroyed all thoughts of peace and a level of stress destined to kill me. This world was my chance to find a way to survive the real world, to recharge my mind, and to find a way to relieve my stress before I dropped dead at the office.

                I grew up in the 1970’s and 80’s playing Dungeons and Dragons, living out the fantasy world in pencil and paper games and building friendships with my fellow players. But, when I graduated college it was time to put away the games of children and build a career, support a family, and become a responsible member of society. This translated to graduating from law school, taking a job and working 90 hours a week. Add to that marrying and having a family, there was no time for play. Years of building stress took their toll 3 heart attacks and counting, my co-workers created a death pool and offered to let me bet on it too. Yes, they are morbid.

                I needed to find a way to bleed off stress, drinking didn’t work as it caused more problems than it ever helped. I watched many of my fellow lawyers succumb to alcohol or drugs destroying their families, lives, and practices. I tried MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Avalon but became both bored with watching a screen and the linear nature of the games. There was also the little problem of talking with others on teamspeak while ignoring a wife sitting in the other room. This did not go over well. Eventually, my children grew up and didn’t really need as much of my time, really, they would prefer if Dad would leave them alone. I began to have some free time, not a lot but some. That’s where Horvat’s World came in.

                Originally launched in 2022, Horvat’s World became an overnight sensation. Created by a father and son team, Mike Horvat a neuroscientist and William a cybernetic computer engineer, they were able to create an immersive world with 98% realism, making it almost indistinguishable from real world experiences. At first this was a plaything of the well to do as initial VR helmet prices ran more than $5,000 U.S., but like all technology prices dropped and by Christmas the first year, prices had dropped to $1,500 U.S., by the following year to around $500 U.S., where they remained. Subscription costs were not a barrier at $45.00 a month. That is, not a barrier for the middle classes. In order to limit the effect of gold farmers and people with more money than sense, Horvat’s World did not have a mail system or auction houses. They also employed individuals who acted as undercover buyers to root out individuals attempting to sell in game resources and items for cash, permanently banning the seller and confiscating the items. Since Horvat’s World used a retinal scan to authenticate users a permanent ban meant so much more than the character deletions of old, this also prevented third party power leveling of accounts.  Buying your way to the top was not an option in this game.

                While I could have afforded to play from the beginning, I did not even explore the possibility until about a year after its release. I remember why vividly.

                “Bell, the Anderson case discovery cut-offs are next week, where do we stand on the discovery? Has Pulkins finished the depositions of the Director of Nursing and the Licensed Nursing Home Administrator?” Bell was my paralegal. “I don’t think so. As far as I am aware, he didn’t schedule them.” Pulkins was a younger attorney I had delegated a number of cases to at the urging of my partners. However, I retained ultimate responsibility for the work and to the client.

                “Bell, pull the file and let’s see who they identified in response to our Interrogatories, I’ll notice their depositions myself for next Wednesday before the deadline.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

                “Mr. Dellman, I’m sorry but it doesn’t look like Mr. Pulkins ever sent them any discovery requests.”

                “He what?” A sinking feeling came over me.

Bell: “He didn’t send any Interrogatories or requests for production of documents.”

“O.K., Bell please look and see what he has done on the file since I gave him the outline of everything that needed to be done.”

 Bell: “He hasn’t done anything.”

                “Nothing?”

                “No, it doesn’t appear that he has touched the file at all.”

                My stomach started doing flip-flops, and my chest was beginning to tighten. “O.K., Bell, I gave him fifteen cases to work, bring them all to me now if you could.”

                After 6 hours of reviewing the fifteen files, I discovered that he had done absolutely no work on any of them. I now had fifteen fires to put out on top of the 80 cases I was personally handling. I delegated and trusted and I was burned again. I spent 72 hours working without sleep to just get my head above water. Mentally I was a wreck, physically I was ready to collapse, and emotionally, I couldn’t even fire the idiot because he was the son of one of my partners.

                This wasn’t my only problem. I suffer from a pathological need to say yes when others ask for help. No matter that I was already drowning under the workload I already had, when someone needed help I stepped up to the plate. I just didn’t know how to say no. The more I said I’d help the more my workload increased. The more my workload increased, the more stress built up. The more stress I was under the worse my health became. This vicious circle had to be broken somehow.

                My wife was worried for me. “Marty, you have to do something to bleed off the stress from work. You are going to drop dead in front of me if you keep going this way.”

                “Joanie, I know, but what can I do? There isn’t enough time in the day to get everything fixed and also decompress. I used to use my drive to work to relax but, since I bought that Google self-driving car, I have used the commute time to keep working. I thought that I would be working efficiently and have more free time but, the only thing that’s happened is that I work longer. I’m stuck, my ulcer is bleeding, my heart is going and I feel that I’m going to lose my mind. What can I do?”

                “Look, I now I’ve given you a hard time before about games and the way you used to avoid the family when you played them. But, why don’t you try Horvat’s World. I understand that the time dilatation in the game makes each real world hour seem like 6 game hours. I will promise to give you two hours a night without any demands or requests and you can use that to decompress for what will seem 12 hours. Maybe that will help.”

                “All right, I’ll look into it, that’s all I can promise.”