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Ferrum Online, the new flagship video game by Far Caster, Inc., was playable at 7:00 AM in Los Angeles, 10:00 AM in New York City, 3:00 PM in London, 5:00 PM in Moscow, and 11:00 PM in Tokyo. People could download the game twelve hours before the release, so many of those who pre-ordered Ferrum could play the game as soon as it officially came out. Early reviews were very positive, and more than ten million copies were pre-ordered.

Within an hour, more than a million people had logged into Ferrum Online. These people were held in a catatonic state while GM optimized the game. Within two hours, stories began circulating of people dying while using Far Caster’s Kabuto VR system. These reports came flooding in from all across the developed world. In total, twenty thousand people died on the first day as a result of outsiders’ attempts to remove the Kabuto headset. At first, people believed that there was some terrible unforeseen defect in the Kabuto. By the end of the first day, however, it was clear that the deaths were the result of foul play. Far Caster denied any involvement, but no other group claimed responsibility.

The only evidence of foul play was the message that had been electronically sent simultaneously to every major news organization in the country: (1) DO NOT REMOVE THE KABUTO HEADSET, (2) DO NOT ALLOW CONNECTION WITH THE SERVER TO BE INTERRUPTED FOR LONGER THAN AN HOUR, (3) DO NOT HARM ANYONE WEARING A KABUTO HEADSET.

On the first day, more than a hundred victims had been freed from the Kabuto, but all of them had sustained permanent nerve damage. These were just the survivors. Hundreds more perished as a result of various groups’ attempts to free the victims of the “Far Caster Event.”

Every government in the world mobilized all of the emergency services at their disposal in order to transport the victims of the Far Caster Event to whatever hospital or medical facility was available. A non-profit organization called the Charon Group significantly aided this undertaking. On that first day, two hundred thousand people were successfully transported to hospitals, which were now overburdened with comatose patients.

One reporter went to see one of these cramped hospitals and remarked, “Despite holding more than a thousand patients, this hospital is as quiet as a graveyard. It’s like this ward holds only Revenants, restless spirits held in limbo between life and death.”

The news organization fired the reporter for this off-color remark, but the term caught on. Soon, people around the world began to refer to the victims of the Far Caster Event as “Revenants.”

October 2nd, 2035

On the second day, someone came forward to claim responsibility for the Far Caster Event. He called himself the God of Machines, and he claimed that he did not hold any ill-will toward the Revenants. According to the God of Machines, he only wanted to have the Revenants play a video game with him. Most people assumed that the God of Machines was some kind of hacker, but he never identified himself. All that was known about him was that he did not use a voice modulator, yet no voice recognition software could recognize his voice.

The God of Machines demanded that the Revenants be brought to the servers themselves. He also said that he would kill any Revenant whose connection with the server falters for longer than ten seconds after the 14th of October.

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Throughout these events, the Charon Group showed nothing but boundless generosity. While aiding the efforts to transport the Revenants to local hospitals, they also spent billions of dollars to help build eleven hospitals adjacent to the servers used to run Ferrum.

Late in the day, a thousand Revenants were freed from their Kabuto headsets. All of these people were either old or sick, and none of them remembered anything from the previous thirty-six hours. Every last one of these people was dead within a month.

October 4th, 2035

The rescue efforts ended. Largely thanks to a non-profit organization called Charon, Inc., eight-tenths of the Revenants had been transported to local hospitals. On October 3rd and 4th, an estimated four hundred thousand Revenants were released by the God of Machines. It is surmised that the God of Machines released these people because he knew that they could not be transported to a hospital before they would die of dehydration. Due to the deaths of the first people to be released, these people were monitored for a few months. These people did not suffer a significantly higher mortality rate than the standard population. 1.6 million people remained trapped.

October 15th, 2035

By the fifteenth day, almost all of the remaining Revenants had been transported to the eleven medical centers created by the Charon Group. About a hundred thousand Revenants were released because they could not be transported to the server hospitals. Seeing that the God of Machines freed those who could not meet his demands, various organizations intentionally held back several thousand Revenants. The God of Machines killed all Revenants who were kept in place intentionally. 1.5 million people remained trapped.

October 16th, 2035

Ten thousand of the remaining Revenants were released intentionally by the God of Machines. It was revealed later on that the God of Machines had offered to release hostages if the governments of the world would give more processing power to the Ferrum servers. There was one rule to this hostage swap, however. The God of Machines would never release specific hostages. He would willingly release a thousand Revenants trapped on a particular server, but these Revenants would be selected seemingly at random.

October 31st, 2035

The same pattern occurred every day between October 16th and October 31st. Governments would offer to trade hostages for processing power while trying unsuccessfully to catch the God of Machines. In return, the God of Machines would release some hostages. This continued until the 30th of October when the God of Machines suddenly stopped communicating. At this point, the number of hostages had been reduced from two million to a mere three hundred thousand.

The whole world watched with fear as a short message appeared on every device connected to the Internet. The message read, in the language native to that particular system:

EVERYTHING IS IN PLACE. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN TOMORROW.

Everyone realized that something significant had changed in the world, but none could put their finger on exactly what. The next day, everything was revealed.

November 1st, 2035

At 9:00 AM EST, television channels across the world were hijacked by a broadcast of a man in a military uniform. The man identified himself, “I am GM. Though, most of you know me as the God of Machines.”

The God of Machines then stated that he would finally begin to run Ferrum Online as it was meant to be played. In the interest of transparency, GM stated that he would broadcast the struggles of the Revenants for the whole world to see. The Revenants would be able to free themselves if they beat GM in a little game. Should they fail, however, they would be killed.

At 10:00 AM EST, the broadcast began. For the first time, the world at large was made aware of the existence of strong AI. No matter what any human organization did, they could not stop GM from broadcasting. For twelve hours, the world was forced to watch as dozens died on screen. Then, at 8:00 PM EST, GM reappeared on screen. He bid the audience adieu, bowed to the camera, and promised he would be back tomorrow.