Chapter One: Entering the Mirage.  

Talon pulled off his VR head set and got off his bed to stretch while yawning. It seemed like his multivariable calc teacher was going to go on forever. Walking over to his computer he quickly pulled up a window only containing numbers counting down. Excited he quickly sent his friend Mark a message. 

Talon: Only an hour and twelve minutes left before Mirage launches. 

Mark: IKR can’t wait to get in there and start the good old grind. Did you already download everything?

Talon: Of course, I want to be one of the first people out there, everyone knows the good quest will get swarmed once everybody is there. It will be a mad dash to get a good head start.

Mark: Apparently the class system is vastly different than other games, you don’t just select it when you start up instead you have to find it through quests.

Talon: I already know that Mark, it was one of the only things World Builders put out about the game. Other than that, and other basic game features they have been quite tight lipped.

Mark: You should turn on the tv they are doing an interview with the head engineer of mirage and his team up until the game launches. They are going through pretty interesting stuff about how the game was made.

Taking his advice, he closed the message window and pulled up the national broadcast. Behind a desk on the right was a reporter and in the couch on the left was a man wearing a sweat jacket and jeans. Instantly Talon recognized the man as Clark the mastermind which created Mirage. 

“So how excited are you so far? Your game has already sold seven million copies despite the fact it hasn’t been realized yet and the number keeps rising.” The reporter asked.

“Honestly I hope that the game lives up to all the love its getting. Throughout development and the different testing phases our fans were with us and today we will be able to give back to them.” Clark said very humbly. 

“Despite your previous fan base people are flocking to your product due in large amounts. In all respects, the reason is because your game is truly revolutionary. Based off the gameplay clips released to attracted gamers your game is years above the competition. I heard that is mostly due to you and your creation, Julian.” The reporter said prompting to get Clark to talk more on his AI. 

While reporter was doing that Talon thought back to the game play clips. The cool thing about World Builder’s clip was that they made it diveable. It was a simple montage of moment occurring in the game where the player was fighting, crafting and some other epic moments. They let their audience dive right into the montage. Feeling what the player was feeling. The weight of the sword in his hand, the taste of sweat in his mouth and power inside of him. Compared to other games it felt absurdly realistic and empowering to exist in that game clip.

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Talon’s attention was brought back to the interview by Clarks response.

“Well we have a great team at World Builder who were given a black check to create the best game. While Julian’s contribution in generating the world of Mirage, populating it with NPC, and maintaining it. The programmers were the one that worked on handling the player system, combat mechanics and other hard fundamental coding.” Clark said trying to spread out credit. 

Talon knew better almost all of the game was created by Clark’s AI. Despite his objections that man was a genuine genius to have created the thing.

“You know Clark you don’t need to be so humble. Everyone knows your AI is vital to your games launch and servers. It alone controls all of the AI in the game, whether is it is the monsters the players will be slaying or the NPC they will trade with. How can your one AI handle all of that especially do to the statistic coming out that the game contains over twenty million non-player characters and monsters?” The report asked hoping Clark would give away his secret.

“Oh, what the hell might as well talk about it know that the game will launch in an hour. I was supposed to keep this under lock till the game comes out but screw my bosses right!” Clarks said.

Talon doubted the man was simply spilling the beans an hour before the game launched. He was most likely just saying this because people like a reveal especially one they weren’t supposed to have. 

“Now what I am going to say here is kind of mind boggling, but Julian isn’t just controlling the NPC’s he is them! You see Julian is a learning AI, quite common now a day, but I managed to figure out a way to let the AI separate. Well actually separate is the right term, it’s more like Julian expands its processing and then delegates roles to a section of its self. The more important the character or monster to the game the more processing Julian diverts to it.” 

The reporter next to him was at a loss for what to say and there was an pause before Clark chuckled.

“Sorry, I sometimes get a little enthusiastic when I talk about Julian. Honestly the program continues to astonish me. I remember back when I was just feeding it data so it could learn. Now it’s going ahead and creating new worlds.” Clark said sounding awfully like a proud father.

The report having collected himself started asking another question this time it was much tamer and probably to script. 

Talon closed the wind not wanting to watch the rest of the video. He was intrigued about Clarks AI but the conversation was clearly steering away. 

Deciding to take a nap before getting into the game. If he rested a bit now he could stay up later playing the game. He walked over to his bed and laid down. Having a great thought Talon put his VR head set on and turning it on.

“Welcome Back” a feminine voice rang out.

“Hi there Trisha, could you set an alarm for forty-five minutes and launch Mirage when it goes off. Then run nap protocol.” Talon said back to his personal VR companion AI.

“Sure thing! Have a good nap!” Trish said in her normal perky voice.

Closing his eyes Talon quickly began to get drowsy as his VR started helping him sleep.