The Miracles

The year is 2055, in the month of May. During that month, two miracles appeared that would one day build the greatest legend in the history of videogames, the legend, of The Untouchable. The first miracle, one that instantly sent a shockwave of joy throughout the gaming community, had been in progress for decades. During the creation of this shear act of god, many sacrifices had been made, which include, but are not limited to, the extermination of one thousand four hundred seventy nine lab mice, the sad death of four chimpanzees and a goat, and the brutal paralysis from the waist down of the first human test subject. However, despite all of these downfalls, the project was still completed, the first great miracle of the twenty first century; the perfection of virtual reality.

The second miracle, started a little differently, for it began as all great tales do, as a love story. It was a starry night in the grasslands of Oklahoma, where two lovers sat on a picnic blanket under a full moon, surrounded by the chirp of grasshoppers and the gentle sent of nature, NOT! This story started at a bar in New York, where a guy and a girl got really drunk, and the rest is history. Or at least it would have been, if nine months later the second miracle hadn’t occurred, the birth of a gamer.

The Prodigy

(Jay)

My mom tells me that I shouldn’t talk about it, but I have a literal perfect memory. I remember everything, from my birth up to today, the good, the bad, and the pain. It’s come in handy on several occasions, but it also caused the bullying. Up until I was twelve I could handle it, I never took a hit and managed to get away without a scratch. Let me explain, when I was little, I was tested to see if there was anything wrong with my senses, and, well, it turned out that something was. While the normal human brain can only process about two thirds of the images taken by the eyes, mine could process them all, in other words I can dodge anything, or so I thought. It happened after school at the bus stop, there were eight of them, all armed with bats and sticks. So I thought, “No biggie,” and simply dodged all of the blows, until one of them threw a huge rock at me from my blind spot knocking me down. The beating must have lasted an hour, I ended up in a hospital room for ten months, and the doctor said it was a miracle that I lived. You see, when I was five I was diagnosed with a bone disorder, long story short, my bones are extremely brittle, hence the ten months spent in a body cast and the fact that my mother won’t allow me to go to school ever again.

So I had finally been released from the hospital, so, what do I do? I go on my computer and immediately log on to my favorite game, Flow, a fantasy MMORPG based on a planet mostly covered by water. I was so close to reaching the max level that it wasn’t even funny anymore, there was literally thirty four percent till my final level up. For the next six months my life consisted of grinding to get to the final level, online schooling, and my mother refusing to let me out of the house. But then I finally succeeded, I had achieved the final level, and was the first and only person in the history of the game to do so. There was a brief flash of joy and achievements, followed by one singular thought “What now?” allow me to explain. I had been playing that game in all of my free time for the past eight years! It was my life! Gone, faded away, no longer a part of me. As I was one click away from deleting my character, a thought occurred to me. “Selling game accounts can be worth a large amount of money! I think I’ll save this for when I move out.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The Search

(Jay)

I began intensely searching for a new game, something original. After a month of thoroughly inspecting search engine after search engine, I found something interesting. A new programing company named Unicorn was currently in the process of designing the very first MMORPG to run in virtual reality! The game was to be called Royal Road. I read through all of the details of the entire game and it sounded magnificent! I had never seen anything like it! It actually allowed you to gain permanent stat bonuses without leveling! The game incorporated everything from real life into how much damage you deal and take in a battle, centripetal force; gravity, blood lust, and anger were only the tip of the iceberg! The system was so complex that it took a whole five years to program it! There was one problem though, the game wasn’t scheduled to release for another two years.

The Preparation

(Jay)

‘Two years. This is insane! I have to wait an entire two years to play!?!? Calm down, think, this is the reason for all of your past mistakes, you never think! Alright, now that’s better, so two years until a game comes out that incorporates real world fighting techniques and merges them with fantasy, the answer is simple, I must find a place that will teach me how to fight.’ With minimal effort Jay found what he was looking for online. Kay, that’s not too far from here, now to convince mom.

“Absolutely not! I will not allow my son to go off risking his life at some dojo where he will get bullied! No means no!” my mother yelled as if this was the end of the world.

‘Here we go.’ “Mom, this is a dojo, not some war prison, besides, these people will teach me how to defend myself, this way I won’t get bullied ever again! And besides, with you not letting me out of the house, I won’t get enough exercise and will eventually become obese and get diabetes! Look, staying inside like this isn’t healthy, I’m still a kid and I deserve to be allowed to have some form of real life interaction with people other than my mother!” I debated in my most convincing tone.

“You know that I just want to protect you right?” my mom pleaded on the verge of tears.

“Of course I do, but you can’t protect me forever, I need to learn how to defend myself.” I spoke full of love.

She sighed, “Fine, if this is truly what you wish then I have no right to stop you, I will sign you up right away.” She conceded. I smiled; ‘Jay one, mom zip’ thanked her and walked back to my room.