Like a child at Christmas, I couldn’t sleep. Not that I usually slept much anyway, the pain made that difficult enough, but the excitement of getting in the new VR (Virtual Reality) immersion capsule was killing me! I tossed and turned best as I could, trying to get comfortable enough to will myself to sleep.
These VR capsules promised an escape from reality to a world with magic and adventure. Yeah I know, basic RPG(Role Playing Game) hook line. But this time, you lived it literally. This was no keyboard and mouse jobby, no your mind is transferred across to the game, so the you in the game acts in the way you would normally! Insane!
The best bit is you can do anything you can think of. Most people, like I was planning to will be adventures, though many others would be builders, gamblers, thieves, guards or maybe even kings. It all depends on how you want to try and play. Imagine casting magic, feeling the flames shoot out of your hands! Or being actually as strong as an ox!
A true fantasy realm. But best of all for me at least was the promise of a new start, the pain and issues of reality don’t bleed through to Ouroboros Online. Yup, Ouroboros Online will be perfect for me and others like me, true bliss.
As if on queue, pain shot through my body like lightning, sporadic and unforgiving. Enough pain to put a damper on my mood, which had finally picked up this evening after hearing I'd made it into the trial for Ouroboros Online.
“Shit, make a cure already!” I all but screamed through gritted teeth, tensing up wherever the pain decided to sit for a second before moving onto another part of me. These spasms of agony could last anywhere between a few seconds to tens of minutes, in some rare cases.. Hours. Luckily it was over in a handful of seconds, this time, though it felt much longer.
I was one of many people suffering from an odd and unexplainable disease that had taken hold on earth over the last few years.
Most people hate going to work or college or whatever else their daily grind consisted of, the idea of sitting at home all day relaxing; playing video games or watching TV sounds great.
In reality it gets very shit very quickly.
What I’d give to be able to get back out there and do some work, even if it was just back to the old way of picking up whatever came my way. - I mused as I tried to get comfortable enough to sleep. Well ‘at least’ I only lost use of my left eye, right arm and the bottom half of my left leg. Some poor sods can’t move at all. I shuddered at the thought. The horror of being trapped in your own body. But no matter what you lost, the pain was ever present to all of us.
--
“Jon, Jon” - Came the words on a soft and kind voice. The voice was raised slightly but felt like a whisper.
I cracked a heavy eyelid open, It was barely morning, I sat up as fast as I could. Not my best idea, reeling from a headspin, I scoured the room looking for who’d been looking for me. A pretty bland place really, cream walls with a few cheap pine cupboards along them for personal effects, with a simple pine wood door, with a think window down one side, well you couldn’t expect much more from a hospital, at least I had my own room. I couldn’t live with having to be packed into one room with several other guys.
It was the nurse, Lilith, I should've guessed, no one else came to see me. She was in charge of my ward, lucky for me, she was filthy hot. Legs for days, topped by a perfect hourglass of hips and ass, a tiny waist and neither too big or too small breasts. All emphasised by the tiny nurses uniform that clinged to her in all the right places - Yes I had a hell of a crush though I’m sure the uniform wasn’t standard as any man with a heart condition would probably die from seeing her walk about. She was topped off with a slim face framing giant purple eyes and a boyish mess of black hair. A petite nose and succulent red lips which stood in stark contrast to her pale skin.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Lilith stood there beaming a smile at me like sunrise, which to be honest I don’t think had long past.
“Lilith, what time is it? Is it even morning yet?” I groggily asked while rubbing my one good eye with my one good hand, awkwardly on opposite sides, sods law.
“Six o’clock” she replied heartily.
“Now, time to get up, a quick clean before we take you over to the VR suit.” She cut me off as I began to groan - I’d completely forgotten about the VR somehow, though at the mention of it I was a little more awake and ready to move.
One of the new treatments along with physiotherapy and psychology check ups was going to be this new ‘Life reinforcement treatment’ to try and stop the growing suicide rate of patients suffering from #disease. Well that's what they say anyway but in reality it’s just free alpha testing for the new technology. Have to read the small print when you sign up on these things.
Basically we waved a lot of rights if anything went wrong while we were in the VR, so in death, maiming etc. etc. we or our families couldn’t even press charges. Not that that was an issue for me, I didn’t have any family that I knew of. Upside of growing up on the streets I guess.
They’d designed it to be a game, as a lot of sufferers from #disease were younger children, though of course they weren’t in these early tests, bad publicity if anything went wrong. So they’re using the 18-34 range as a first set of test subjects. The idea is while we’re in the capsule living in whatever way we wish, using limbs and organs that may be failing us in real life, they hoped when we come out after our sessions, the brain will make them start working again or some such.
A long shot if you ask me but I don’t have a doctorate in that sort of field so who am I to question it? Either way I was happy to be able to play, well live a game. A long time dream of mine as an avid gamer, though not so much now, bit awkward to use controllers in this state.
--
After a quick scrub up, I started hobbling off to the new VR suite. Luckily not too far,only a few hundred feet from my room, as its damn awkward hobbling along with a single crutch,.. As I ambled through the bare and bland corridor, plain cream walls only split by a green line at waist height stating I was on the #disease ward. A plain white floor below me and a white tiled ceiling above me, probably asbestos... We barely saw a soul, though at this god-forsaken hour I wasn’t all that surprised.
We finally came upon the VR suite, a little busier around here with technicians and nurses flitting about checking all measure of screens and tubes. Though in general another bland room, just the same cream walls and white floor and ceiling with a large window along one side at least there was a nice view, the hospital was situated on the edge of a city and you could easily see the green swaths of farmland and forests for miles.
The room would of been pretty sparse if it wasn’t for the giant VR capsules and their accompanying screens and doodads, each a good eight feet long, four foot wide and another four foot tall. Massive chunks of machines that to be honest resembled large technological sarcophagi, with their massive lids slump to one side on a massive arm of hydraulics and wires.
“Not at all ominous..” I snarked at the sight of them.
“They’re not that bad, they look pretty comfy inside” Lilith replied nonchalantly.
“Look? Have you been inside? I mean sure I don’t mind a comfy coffin, but I’d rather not die quite yet.” I bit, even more snark in my voice. But she wasn’t phased.
“I’ll be on the soft VR headset watching how you all do in there, so don’t worry. You’ll be able to contact me if you need to get out or aren’t feeling well.” She said this softly, as if a mother to a child, which was part reassuring and part belittling.
But I didn’t say anything, I just wanted to get in already, if my body wasn’t a shambles I’d be bouncing off the walls in excitement.
It seemed one nurse from each participating hospital was to oversee the handful of patients going in, a sort of real world liaison using a VR headset to keep track of the patients. All in all there was supposed to be a few hundred people going in from around the world.
There was a quick physical examination to take my stats, current weight, height, hydration etc. of course this was still a medical facility and this was a test, not for pleasure, well not entirely. After being poked and prodded, then covered in patches to keep an eye on my vitals, I was finally helped into my coffin, I mean VR capsule.
“Now this could be a bit claustrophobic for a while, but just keep calm we’re right outside if you need anything.” A quick last minute safety check took place while the nurse gave me this soothing speech.
“Things will go black, then after a few seconds you’ll fall asleep and be connected into the machine, where the game will start.” then with a smile added “You probably know more about that than I do so I’ll leave it to you.”
The machine started closing as the hydraulics heaved the giant lid across the front of me and light edged out of view though I’m sure I saw Lilith wink at me slyly before I was left in a cool darkness.