Silicon Valley, California.
The Year 2050.......
Jafar was a 35-year-old African American male software developer that worked for a third-rate Tech company 'Vaison', out of Silicon Valley, California, USA.
Technology during this era had advanced by leaps and bounds, and with it the competency of average the developer.
Books had long since become obsolete.
While technology in major industries like military, economic, medical, Computer industry had all entered the mixed, augmented and virtual reality stage.
Artificial intelligence was more mainstream now and virtual networks were used in daily activities, to further increase ease of life.
The human civilization as a whole was entering the interstellar era.
The whole world was excited as well as absolutely terrified of the unknown.
The question that played through every individual's mind, be it an adult or a little child was, if they were really alone in this universe?
This foreboding thought constantly played through every individual's noggin as they looked to Tech Giants, for more breakthroughs in scientific R& D, desiring further improvement in technology to answer this time-worn question.
As a developer Jafar was pretty good at what he did, but as a hot-blooded male he hated his status as just a common noob level employee at his company.
There were many just like him, but he wanted to be unique, he wanted to be his own boss, make billions of dollars, drive the latest cars, and play naughty doctor with the hottest chicks.
Alas, his dream was nice but the reality was still and will always be a bitch.
As an employee of Vaison, Jafar worked out of a 1x1-meter cubicle with his fellow undead zombie workers, churning out projects at the requests of his Demonic Project Manager.
Although he wasn't poor, he wasn't that well-off either, he had witnessed some of his colleagues in similar situations to his.
It was like he was a clone from Resident Evil and there was some psychotic A.I directing his every move.
Some of his colleagues were fortunate to escape this bleak world, by creating ground-breaking software and make it out like bandits.
The same can't be said to have happened to him though.
Every day after work, he rides the 7.15 bus to his apartment which was located in a bad neighborhood, also popularly known as "the hood".
It sounds ominous but it wasn't really, the reason being that Jafar was an OTAKU!!
Yes, those weird motherf****s that are almost becoming a different race from humans.
Jafar had been infected with the OTAKU virus for close to 20 years and showed no sign of getting cured.
He had sampled various anime's, cartoons, light-novels, movies, tv-series if it's got a story behind it, you name it, he has either read or f*****d it
He called it his Ambrosia, his very own personal nectar of the Gods.
When going home, on the bus he always sports glazed eyes with dark circles underneath them, but the moment he gets to his apartment, immediately by magic he turns into a completely different person, and as if injected with chicken blood, he always makes a bee-line to his gaming station.
However, all this did not do anything to alleviate the ever-increasing panic within him.
Jafar was almost at his mid-thirties with nothing to show for it, and he was growing anxious that he would forever be a washed-up footnote in the history of Otakudom.
Which is why he had for the past 15 years, put in tremendous effort to also make a ground-breaking invention that would shock the "Otaku world" as he knew it.
He had been working on a game system for a virtual reality game similar to those in sci-fi novels.
In those novels there is always some form of Grandfather-like Divine being with a flowing white beard and a somewhat sketchy background bestowing protagonists with broken powers, who then ultimately die gruesome deaths or end up enslaved.
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He was stressed because all the sweat and blood he had put into creating the system might amount to nothing.
The virtual reality game and artificial intelligence ran on the most sophisticated and high-end system that the best scientists and software developers collaborated to create, it was a work of art.
You might be wondering how he paid for this on his average salary.
Well he didn't.
Although he worked for a third-rate company and was a large honest-looking, balding middle-aged black guy that watched anime in his almost 3 months rent due apartment.
Jafar wasn't an idiot!
There were capable Individuals that had worked with him, possessing their own connections, and if he didn't use those resources, then what had he lived the last thirty-something years for.
He had used the sophisticated A.I to create the game system, whose function was to render possible cultivation techniques using concepts from various ancient civilizations, like Ancient Egypt, Greece, Maya, Incan, China, etc.
Certain supernatural abilities from fictional works such as hunter x hunter, dragon ball Z, Naruto, Bleach, One-piece, Harry potter etc were also rendered and reproduced for the system in the game.
The game system also provided abilities based on cooking, blacksmithing, farming, alchemy, martial arts.
As a side note, the system could render any female anime character into a real-life version of itself through hard-light projection technology.
The V.R Game itself was going to be revolutionary, as real-life artisans and martial art practitioners from all over the world were used as models.
The system, on the other hand, was made to be as close as it possibly can to reality, and it was going to be the wet dreams of many denizens of the otaku-dom not because of the cool powers they could possibly be bestowed with, but just for a chance to feel the Kawai Neesan's with large oppai's.
He had named the system the Library of Sages Path.
"..."
"Yeah!", a complete rip off but who cares anyway.
The game system functioned by devouring, analyzing, assimilating, and archiving data on all techniques, powers, and energy.
It then formulates the most stable and strongest evolutionary path for its user.
On the computer monitor the final checks were been made to make sure everything was working properly.
His assistants that were provided from his various sponsors and all the Beta game testers were present.
They all looked nervously monitor, watching as the count down on the screen to game launch continued.
[Jafar was the first beta game tester by the way, as this was his project. He wasn't just going to let anyone steal his thunder, I know, selfish and childish right, bite me.]
10.. 9..8.7...4..3..2..1..0
As the countdown got to the last digit
A palpable silence filled the room and the tension within the air could practically be cut with a knife.
Everyone held their breaths as the game started.
[Ding!]
It was a successful launch.
The virtual reality game ran smoothly, everyone was visibly excited as this was because they had all contributed to create something monumental.
As everyone was celebrating and expensive wine bottles were being opened, Jafar impatiently went forward to experience the game personally.
He didn't care about all the excitement, as all he wanted was to experience the use of the system he had personally designed.
He put the headgear on, as the monitor was just for initial tests.
As he put the headgear on, darkness filled his vision and all sounds were dimmed, he could barely hear the hubbub from his co-workers.
The game started, and he completed the normal procedures; choosing his race, gender, class, and all that crap.
[Jafar was getting antsy, as he was far too ready to rip someone a new one.]
When he was about to start playing, he was startled by a loud sound that sounded like an explosion, even with the high-tech headgear on, Jafar still heard the sound.
A freak lightning had suddenly hit the building and disrupted the boisterous partying.
That was when everyone realized that a storm had been brewing outside while they were focused on the game launch and turning it up.
Unfortunately, the lightning had also hit Jafar, who had been impatiently waiting for the game to start.
......
As Jafar was hit by lightning, the virtual reality game headgear had still been connected to his head.
The sudden flash of lightning had killed him on the spot.
But within those few daunting seconds before he had died, it was as if time had slowed from Jafar's point of view.
Stunned and highly puzzled, although he couldn't see his surroundings he could still hear buzzing noises slightly.
His skin felt electrified, and his senses had been heightened.
In this slowed time phenomenon, he had suddenly felt like the temperature of his surroundings were steadily rising.
When the freak lightning had struck the building it had super-heated the headgear, various gaming equipment as well as the local server running the game.
Although he couldn't process what was going on, he had felt a sense of crisis fill him.
He had wanted to remove the headgear, but his response, as well as his body, had felt dulled and too slow for him.
As he struggled during this moment of life and death for his life, the headgear had slowly fused with his skull.
Even in his dulled state, he had still felt the excruciating pain, like someone had shoved a hot rod right into his brain.
What he didn't know, was that the headgear was still connected to the high advanced A.I system server unit where the game system was still running.
Before the freak event had occurred, he had been about to make a request of his system in the game.
At precisely that moment the lightning struck the building, the system had been running through its booting process and was awaiting instructions by asking its host,"
Since it didn't get a reply, it ran a simple diagnostic.
When suddenly it flashed warning messages on the visor of the headgear,
[Warning!! Warning!!]
[Host life in Immediate Danger]
[Taken preemptive measures]
[Starting teleportation sequence to nearest safe zone]
[Locating Safe-zone]
[Teleporting host player to safe zone in..]
[3..2...1..]
[Pop]
Now they say that lightning doesn't hit the same place twice, apparently no one told the freak lightning that.
When the Freak lightning had hit a second time, the slowed time phenomenon suddenly stopped.
There were no miracles, no timely saves, nothing.
Jafar immediately perished on the spot.
At the same time the lightning struck, a violent fluctuation occurred at the space in his vicinity, in the next moment Jafar, the virtual reality gaming system and its server, as well as a generous chunk of the room vanished silently with a slight pop with none the wiser.