Red haze hung in the night sky, made visible by the light of the spreading flames. The ever-growing number of fires cast a soft, insidious glow over the village while the cover of the rising and drifting smoke provided the perfect opportunity for all types of mayhem to unfold. Taylor used this atmosphere to her advantage as she made her way towards the village walls, the system map that she had placed in the corner of her vision showing her that a majority of the village’s Guard Corps, indicated as friendly blue dots, were already gathered to repel the growing number of red dots, the attacking force.
She knew she should be freaking out, or at least disoriented. Waking up in a burning building with no idea of what was going on or where everyone had gone wasn’t only nightmare fuel, it should have been made worse by the fact that she’d lost almost an hour of her life without knowing why. Even with the existence of mind-altering status effects present in the game, this was too big of a deal to not worry about. Yet, that was exactly what she was doing.
Even though she consciously thought it was strange, she just had an overwhelming feeling that worrying about it wasn’t going to do her any good and that she should be focusing on surviving the current situation. Each time her mind brought up how much of a red flag these feelings were, her focus was unconsciously shifted to the more pressing matter of determining how to combat the imminent threat to the village. She recognized that there was something off, but she just couldn’t care enough to focus on the issue for too long. This was how Taylor found herself running leisurely through the chaotic village streets, fighting an upstream battle against the hundreds of anxious people around her that were surging in the opposite direction towards the Academy in the hopes of escaping the threat of the upcoming battle.
Approaching the last of the intersections separating her from the walls, Taylor felt the buzzing at the fringes of her conscious that indicated a system alert and made her way to the side of the street. Checking the menu, she saw that she had a new message. It was from Mac.
After she had woken up and saw the multitude of messages from Mac trying to figure out where she had gone, Taylor had contacted him to let him know she was fine but had gotten caught up in a game event involving those two Order prospects. She explained what she saw on the map and said she was on her way to the village walls to check out what was going on.
Reading the contents of his response, her eyes widened in disbelief. He was letting her know that an army of almost a hundred Rogues and several hundred regular troops were amassing in the fields beyond the gates to assault the village. He said the fires were being started by traitors and that the Order had sent a big shot out to help deal with the situation. Whatever that meant.
‘Holy crap! That’s a lot going on! Is this some kind of event to showcase the capabilities of the new hardware or something?’ she thought excitedly, her inner battle maniac kicking into overdrive at the thought of how epic the battle was going to be. All of the potential deaths that would result from it failed to cause her any turmoil. This was, at the end of the day, a game. When the developers sat down with the test data to continue ironing out the experience, the world would naturally be reset to its baseline anyway. No harm, no foul.
Another message came through from Mac, this one warning her to be careful and to stay out of trouble. He didn’t want to hear it if she got logged out early from the Alpha because she underestimated the unforgiving nature of the combat in this game. Taylor scoffed. She should be the one telling him to be careful, seeing that he wasn't even a professional gamer and the scope of the threat was beyond anything that they could have expected this early in the test.
As one of the winners of the most recent Inter-Continental Gaming Competition, Taylor had earned her spot in the highly publicized Futures Ltd. Alpha Test by being a certified freak of nature when it came to strategy and conflict. She had already been a rising star before the contest, known for her unconventional tactics and bloodthirsty ruthlessness in all forms of VR combat.
The ICGC had simply elevated her fame to new heights after a string of savage victories, across nearly every PVP format, led the organizers to forgo loading her down with several different awards. As an alternative, after a closed round of discussion, they announced a new honor had been created in recognition of her accomplishments, crowning her with the title of, first ever, Inter-Continental PVP Champion.
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It stung that she hadn’t been able to clench the 1v1 format, but, since the winner had been her own brother, she’d gotten over it. To be fair, the real reason she had participated wasn’t for the fame, but for the invitation to the Alpha Test which Futures had placed up for grabs. Available to those top-ranking competitors that placed in the top five of any of the formats, Taylor hadn’t even needed to come in first, that was just something she did because she could.
The Futures’ event had gathered together all of the world’s greatest VR gaming talent so that they could try out the company’s latest technology, a breakthrough rumored to be capable of revolutionizing the future of VR; much like Jordan Rasa’s original contribution decades prior. Of course, they’d all been required to sign a brutal NDA before being filled in on the details, but, so far, it had been totally worth the hassle.
Closing out the menu, Taylor looked up at the infernal smoke clouds gathering overhead and breathed deep. She sighed with happiness.
‘Things are finally getting exciting!’
Controlling her eagerness, Taylor walked calmy across the intersection, weaving in and out of the stragglers that were only just now making their way towards the safety of the Academy, and set her sights on the steadily looming wall ahead of her.
It had only been a few hours since they had entered this world, but the unprecedented reality of it all only served to increase the anticipation through which she was now suffering. Actually, after a flash of insight, she did have one worry, and that was, with how real this world seemed, that the part of the game that she was so excited about, the fighting and the raiding, would be tainted with the true feeling of killing and all of the other horrors of war that games normally prevented players from actually experiencing. The recollection of how real that prospect, Kaitlyn, had felt when she had been treating her came to mind and she frowned. What would it feel like to stab someone that felt so real with a sword? Or to destroy them with the superhuman abilities she had been granted? Would they scream? Beg for their life? Cry?
Taylor began to feel a little sick.
‘No way. There’s no way that the developers would shoot themselves in the foot like that and traumatize their player base.’
She thought that, but she didn't seem entirely convinced by her own beliefs. People had been crying out for immersive VR that felt like a real world for generations. Of course, not many ever stopped to think about what that would actually mean. That the main reason people had for playing games, entertainment and escape, would be made completely useless if the problems of the real world were brought into them. Realizations that Taylor herself was only just now coming to terms with. Sure, there would be those that embraced the chance to live out the new, maybe better, lives those games could offer, but at what cost? Their health? Their humanity?
Taylor’s anticipation declined the more she dwelled on these thoughts until soon she was more anxious than excited. Sadly, it was too late for regrets. The Alpha was underway and the only way to leave was to manually log out, or die. Either way, the player was out of the test for good.
The village walls loomed up in front of her as she approached and, like magic, all of her misgivings and the realizations faded like a mirage. It was like she had never had them. She couldn’t even remember why she had been feeling so scared. Torchlight illuminated the entire length of the fortified structure, making it almost impossible for her to remain undetected under a certain distance; not that she was trying to.
The members of the Guard Corps assigned to guard the nearby barracks called out to her the moment she was close enough to be identified by her cloak, waving for her to hurry over, “Warrior! This way! The Commander just started the briefing!”
Instantly, all of her excitement flooded back and her competitive spirit surged. It was almost time.
Waving back, she hurried over to where the guards were holding open the door to the building, “Thanks. Is it just the Guard Corps inside?”
One of the Guards, a young man who couldn’t have been older than sixteen or seventeen, shook his head quickly and stood to attention, eyes shining in awe at being addressed by an actual Warrior, “No, ma’am. The Commander arrived with some Warriors that were sent by the Academy. It’s crazy! I heard just one of you guys is like an entire battalion of troops! The enemy has hundreds of troops gathering out there, but, boy, they’re in for a rude awakening.”
Taylor smiled and thanked the young Guard again, stepping into the barracks without waiting for his response. There was the sound of the door closing behind her and suddenly almost all sounds from the outside were cut off by the quality construction of the building. Gathered in front of her, around a large table, several well-armed people stood listening attentively to a balding man in standard Guard armor. None of the people looked as excited as she was, not even the Warriors, making her feel like the odd one out. Maybe she was missing something? Moving closer, she quickly understood what was causing everyone to appear so somber.
Being told there was a strong possibility that your home would be destroyed tended to do that.