This story takes place in the not-too-distant future. We all know it’s going to happen, and here it is. First, we had AI. Then came haptics, followed shortly by fully integrated haptics. That led to full dive tanks, and finally full immersion implants.
That brings us to today. After several decades of fledgling full-dive video games, several of the top companies in the world got together to make what they thought at the time was the perfect game. If only they knew…
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I woke up early on launch day. Not to go to the store or anything arcane like that. Nobody did that anymore. The only good thing about physical copies of games was collectibles. When it came to games, you logged into your cloud account and the game was just there. It was easier that way. There wasn’t even a need to patch.
Technically, I didn’t have to get up or leave bed. My implant made gaming possible even in my sleep. The HUD displayed the item and date in my vision along with the current weather.
1:21 AM
4/1/2076
56F - Some fog
Rain forecast for the afternoon
Would you like to know more?
“Is the game available yet?” I asked, my heart racing at the thought of being one of the first players.
Early login will be available to those who purchased the VIP edition in 9 minutes.
“Nine minutes, huh?” I muttered as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “Just enough time to get ready I suppose. Order a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich…and an extra large coffee.”
Order placed. Estimated time of delivery: 3 minutes.
I grunted a weak acknowledgment and slogged over to the bathroom. After doing my business, I brushed my teeth and hopped in the shower. Walls rose from recesses in the floor and filled up to my waist with warm water. A pair of beautiful women appeared from the foamy depths and proceeded to wash me, making sure to cleanse every inch of my body gently.
When the last woman finished, she emerged from the water and quoted an ancient movie. “The royal penis is clean, Your Highness.”
I sighed contentedly. “I love technology. End the bath.”
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1:30 AM - The World is now available for play.
“Log in using semi-submersion mode!” I commanded eagerly while scarfing down the hot meal that was waiting for me on my dining room table.
Walls of text clouded my vision.
Welcome to The World.
Login Successful.
Name: Bob Kaiser
Age: 23
Would you like to customize your character?
“Resh,” I choked out with a mouthful of bacon.
My character popped up in the chair across the table from me. His face was magnified so I could see the fine details of his features.
“Make the eyes green,” I instructed. “With gold flecks.”
The magnification zoomed even more to show off the change. I could do all of the modifications mentally but I found it easier to speak them out loud.
“Make the nose smaller,” I continued. “No, not like that. Try making it lower on the head. Yes, perfect. Now the lips, make them thinner. No, not that thin. I don’t want to seem angry all the time.”
Next was the hair. “I think I want blonde hair this time. Make it longer. Tie it back in a ponytail.”
Then I got an idea. “Make me a girl.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
After marveling at how hot I would be as a woman, I changed it back. “Now, make me average height. I don’t want to stand out in a crowd. Good. This will do for now. Can I change it later?”
All modifications are final until you unlock certain features. Please choose a name.
“Call me Veritas.”
Veritas is available. Confirmed. Are you sure ready to enter the world?
I nodded the affirmative and left my plate on the table as I walked over to my lounge chair. “Switch to full immersion.”
The world went dark momentarily before transforming into a vast countryside in the middle of spring. I felt the difference immediately. In the real world, global warming and pollution made it unpleasant to be outside. In this one, a cool breeze tickled my skin as it carried cherry blossoms from distant pink and lavender trees. Even though I was indoors, my every sense told me I was elsewhere. That was the reason full-immersion games were so popular.
“Where am I?” I didn’t recognize my voice. “Shouldn’t I be in a city or something?”
Starting locations are random. You are within a short distance of a village. Major cities will require travel. Enjoy the world.
As soon as I read the message, I felt I could move. I stood and shook my limbs. Gone were the aches and pains that accompanied my real body. In fact, there wasn’t any pain at all. That was a setting in this world. While some players opted for what they called the true experience in which the pain setting was hiked up, the majority of players chose to play without it. Whenever they took damage or felt what would otherwise hurt, a simple haptic tap on that part of the body was all they felt. Mortal injuries like getting run through by a blade only hurt on the surface. Feeling internal injuries wasn’t a part of the game as they tended to have side effects for the player mentally outside of the game. In fact, most traumatic injuries faded to black before the player had a chance to process what was happening to them. This was done to prevent lawsuits for the most part.
After stretching my limbs, I took in my surroundings. There was a forest behind me, a lake to my left, and a winding path leading toward a pair of mountains in the distance. Beyond that was a distant sea to the south and frost-peaked mountains to the north. I could tell the directions because of the compass at the top of my vision.
Deciding to test the limits of this game’s full immersion, I headed for the lake. What would the swimming experience be like? I looked down at my clothing as I made my way to the shore. The game provided me with a simple outfit that consisted of crude foot coverings that could barely be called shoes, pants that looked a lot like a burlap sack, and a loose tunic to match. It was comfortable enough and covered all the important parts.
When I got to the lake, I was faced with a dilemma. What drawbacks would being wet bring? To be safe, and since there was nobody around, I decided to strip off my clothes. The moment my shirt touched the ground it vanished.
“Shit!” I cursed. “Where did it go?”
A window popped up in front of me labeled Inventory. In it were several items.
Simple tunic.
Daily meal.
Water.
I reached for the meal which turned out to be a sandwich with a thin slice of meat in the middle. The taste was nothing to write home about but it was food. If I felt the itch to eat something, it appeared the game was happy to provide.
“Don’t you have anything better to eat?” I asked the game overlords.
To my surprise, a menu appeared in my hand that was similar to what ancient restaurants used to use. On it were several mouth-watering offerings. There were steaks, seafood, and other fancy meals. As I flipped through the pages, I realized the system had something for everyone regardless of what their restrictions or creeds were. Just when I was about to close the menu, I noticed the prices.
“Hey! Does this all cost real-world money?”
In-game delicacies can be found in restaurants in towns and villages. Ordering from the system menu will always be considered an in-app purchase. Please note that virtual food does not satisfy real-world hunger. All purchases are final once consumed.
I quickly closed that menu. A few seconds later, I encountered yet another issue. Under my pants was a pair of boxer shorts that I couldn’t remove. Once again, I questioned the system about it.
Nudity is an optional perk that must be unlocked. Price 99.99. Would you like to make this purchase? [Note: Mosaics will cover your erogenous zone unless the other person joins your party and also owns the nude adventure pack.]
I chuckled as I declined. The system was ready to charge for everything. “I’m not interested in all that. I just don’t want my shorts to get wet.”
The Auto-Dry feature is currently active. You will dry the moment you leave the water. This can be toggled on or off in the settings.
The settings were another thing I was going to have to explore. For now, the lake beckoned. I wasted no time and got a running start before jumping high in the air and making a cannonball into the lake. A splash went up and I slammed into the muddy shore with a thud. The water was very shallow. It was a good thing that pain was turned off…and that nobody else was around.
I ended up rubbing my backside out of reflex as I climbed to my feet and waded further into the lake. The water was cool but not so much as to be a shock to my system. It was actually quite a pleasant experience. The water got deeper the farther out I got.
Since my body didn’t seem to tire, I decided to swim out to the middle of the lake. It was actually kind of nice to stretch my muscles without any of the fatigue that came along with it. I wished real life was like that. The next thing I wanted to do was to see how far I could dive.
I didn’t make it far the first couple of tries. It wasn’t until my third attempt that something different happened. My phone rang. Rather than being a physical device, cell phones were tied to implants. That meant I could receive calls in the game. The question was, how was I supposed to answer while holding my breath a dozen feet below the surface of a digital lake? Then it dawned on me. I was fake swimming in a fake lake while holding my fake breath. What would happen if I didn’t?
“Hello?” I was surprised to hear my voice, let alone not drown.
“Bro!” It was my brother, Jed. “Did you get it?”
“Of course I got it,” I replied. “I’m in game right now.”
“Really?” He shot back. “Me too! Where are you?”
“Hell if I know,” I answered. “The game put me in the middle of nowhere.”
“When you get to town, get a map,” he replied. “Let’s figure out where we are and meet up.”
“Sure thing,” I said, still marveling at my ability to breathe…water?
Once the call ended I decided to go deeper. What was the worst that could happen? I was level one, so death wouldn’t have any lasting consequences. I pulled up my health bar to see how bad virtual drowning was.
Veritas
Class: N/A
Level: 1
HP: 97/100
MP: =
SP: 80/100
I was surprised. My stamina was going down faster than my health. Invigorated by my discovery, I swam deeper. While the water was murky, it didn’t bother my eyes. It felt almost like I was wearing the perfect pair of goggles. I couldn’t see the bottom of the lake. It could have been hundreds of feet deep or just a few feet out of sight. Every now and then fish swam by in the distance. None were too big and all of them gave me a wide berth. I was just debating trying my hand at fishing when I came upon something. There was a ridge jutting up from the bottom of the lake and in that was a hole. It was easily big enough for me to swim into.
Deciding to see this thing through to the end, I swam into the hole.
Congratulations, you’ve discovered a hidden dungeon.
“Oh, great!”