Hey everyone! I'm back with another story, though I'm much more serious with this one. I must've spent more time on this chapter alone than three of my 'Monstrous' chapters. I intent to make this into a full fledged book, I actually already have several books planned out for this series. Also, for those thinking this is just another virtual reality story, let me just say... Virtual reality is only a tool.
PS. the words, 'Thanks', 'for', 'the', and 'chapter', are hereby banned in the comments section of this story when used in that order. This is a royal decree.
PPS. please refrain from reviewing this story until there are at least 5 chapters, this lets the reviewer have a proper opinion of my story. Thanks!
12/19/15 - Phew! Pretty much done PRing this chapter, enjoy the edited version, it ended up being nearly 6k words!
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Chapter One ~ The Treasure of Mars
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Year 2054. Mars. The ARES VII Mission.
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*Crunch*
*Crunch*
*Crunch*
*Clank!*
“Huh?”, exclaimed the astronaut, looking down at his feet.
*Chsssshh*”What’s the matter, Johnson? Found something?”, a man’s voice came through astronaut Johnson’s radio. Johnson grunted, somewhat annoyed at the low quality comms. They’d discovered some kind of metallic ore concentration present in this region of Mars a few years ago. Somehow, it disrupts most electronic signals, so they were forced to use antique low frequency radios.
Pressing the button on the side of his helmet, astronaut Johnson replied, “Hmm, yeah, maybe. Possibly a mineral deposit or meteor fragment. I’ll let you know in a sec.”. He released the button, allowing the other man to speak.
*Chsssshhhhhhh* “Roger.”
Astronaut Johnson slowly bent in his white low atmosphere suit, letting the low gravity of Mars do most of the work. Getting on his knees, he began scraping at the barren red dirt, searching for the object of his attentions. Soon, a metalic surface was revealed, reflecting the bright rays of the sun onto his face.
“What the...”, Johnson said questioningly. After a short pause, he began clearing away more and more Martian dirt, slowly unvieling a large metallic dome. It was huge, he’d already uncovered a circular shaped area about as long as he was tall, but it seemed it just kept getting larger the more dirt he moved.
Shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun on the reflective metal, Johnson stood up slowly, and pressed the radio button.
“Home base, this is Lt. Johnson. I’ve uhh... I think I’ve got something here. I’ll broadcast my coordinates. Bring an excavator.”, he said clearly.
*Chsshh* “Roger that, find us some buried treasure did you? We’re on our way.”, came the reply.
“... Yeah, something like that.”, Johnson muttered to himself, staring down at the mysterious metal structure. Sighing, he let himself fall onto his back. He gazed up into the dusty atmosphere, hints of stars sparkling behind the dirty sky, and thought, ‘Damn, I hope I’m getting a raise for this’.
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*pant* *pant* “Johnson, just what the hell is this thing?!”, exclaimed the astronaut next to Johnson. His name patch read, ‘Cpt. John Hattoc’ in bold letters.
Johnson shrugged, staring up at the mysterious pod they’d unearthed. It had taken them nearly half the day to unearth the structure, even with the help of the robotic excavator, which could easily lift several tons. Eventually, after clearing away most of the dirt and rock around it, they’d been able to pry it up out of the ground, leaving it’s shining surface visible to the world.
It was massive, at least a few meters tall, as well as wide, and about a dozen meters long. The thing was shaped like a giant seamless metal egg, with a flat bottom that allowed it to rest on the ground flat. Weirdly, it was impeccably clean, not a speck of dirt nor a single scratch left on it despite the rough handling by the excavator and spending god knows how long under the martian dirt.
The light Martian wind blew around the two men admiring the alien structure, blowing red sand over their suits. The mechanical whirring of the robotic excavator near them accompanying the light pings of dirt blown against the metal egg. They stood there for a few minutes, staring in awe at the sight before them. Finally, one man turned to his companion, and said,“So, uhhh, who’s gonna tell NASA?”.
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One Year Later. NASA Facility, Undisclosed Location.
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A young man in a scientist coat sat at a computer station in a room filled with various other mechines and towering stacks of paper. The front of the room was thick clear glass looking into a white room with a large, metallic egg shaped object resting in it. The man was typing furiously at his keyboard, fingers flying, navigating through various windows on his screen seamlessly.
This man was Jeffery Adams, the lead researcher for this particular project at NASA, a near peerless genius who graduated university at only 15 years old. He was but one of many geniusses working for the company.
Suddenly, he froze, mouthing, ‘No way...’, eyes wide. Slowly, his mouth stretched into a wide grin, clamping his pure white, irregular teeth tightly.
“Ha... Ha ha! Hahahaha! I’ve got it! This is incredible! Nobody ever expected this!”, he shouted in the empty room.
He stood and looked at the metal structure behind the glass wall with a satisfied grin on his face, thinking of his discovery.
“Ah! I’ve gotta let Roy know.”, he said under his breath before picking up a stack of papers next to him and sprinting out a large door in the side of the room. He flew down a maze of hallways, passing innumerable unmarked grey doors and dodging several scientists. Finally, he reached the end of a hallway, facing a single blue door.
He leaned over, panting, and tried to catch his breath, thinking, ‘Damn, I’m really out of shape’, before reaching up and lightly rapping on the thick blue door. Unknown to him, various sensors were analysing his body, checking for potentially harmful chemicals or weapons. They crosschecked his breathing patterns, stance, facial features and brain waves with a secure database before turning on a small green light on a large desk in the room behind the door. The man behind the desk noticed the green light, and said loudly, “Come in”.
The scientist cleared his throat nervously and turned the metal handle, pushing forward. The door squeaked open, masking a light whirring coming from within the door. If his handprint in any way did not match up with the prints they had in the database, several thousand volts would have been sent through his body moments after touching the handle.
Stepping into the dark room gingerly, he walked forward until he was in front of the large desk, a suited man seated behind it. He stood at attention, waiting to be addressed by the man.
The man leaned forward in his chair. “What is it, Jeffery?”, he asked in a deep, clear voice.
The scientist, Jeffery, swallowed and said quietly, “I’ve figured it out, sir.”
At this the man behind the desk straightened up and started intensely at the scientist, motioning him to go on.
Taking a deep breath, Jeffery said, “It’s... I think it’s virtual reality, sir.”
The man grunted and said, “Virtual reality? As in holographics?”
Jeffery lightly shook his head, and began his explanation. “Not quite sir, I think it’s something much more advanced than the run of the mill stuff we’ve got now. As you know, a month ago we discovered the metallic fluid inside the structure was actually a pool of tiny nanobots, but we couldn’t figure out what they would do exactly. Even when we managed to activate the machine, they just sat there and did nothing.”
The man at the desk nodded, recalling the discovery.
“Well, I had an idea and decided to carry out an experiment on my own. I sent electrical signals resembling brain waves into the device, and the nanobots exploded in activity! They latched onto the brainwave simulation and began sending their own signals to match it. I watched through the camera we set up inside, and the liquid was gushing around, as if searching for something. I believed they were looking for a body to latch onto, perhaps to simulate the five senses through the nerves, so I tried something else. I redirected the signals that the nanobots were sending into the supercomputer, and built a program to simulate the nerves of human eyes and sent the images to a monitor. The images actually ended up being a pure white room that was approximately 3m by 3m by 3m in size. I also noticed that it began sending out some sort of signal into space, but since I didn’t know what it did, I turned it off for now.” Jeffery finished up his report.
The man sank back into his chair, deep in thought. After a few minutes he nodded to himself and addressed Jeffery. “Alright. I want your team focusing on replicating the device on a smaller scale and beginning experimentation with chimpanzees. I want to know exactly what this thing does and how it does it.”
Jeffery nodded and began turning towards the door, but the growling voice of the man behind the desk stopped him. “Jeffery, I think you know what will happen if I ever catch you experimenting with it without my approval again.”
Jeffery shivered, fear welling up deep in his gut, and nodded frantically, not wanting to anger the man any further.
The man just stared at him, and said in his growling voice, “Go.”.
Jeffery sprinted out the door.
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One Year Later. NASA Facility, Undisclosed Location.
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A small crowd of scientists and various men in business suits looked intently out through thick clear glass into a stark white room. In the very center laid a scaled down version of the massive metal pod. It was in two halves, the top half being held up by six hydraulic pistons around the edges of the two halves. Filling up the bottom half was a dull gray metallic fluid that seemed to flow around in random directions.
On the left of the room, seams appeared on the markless wall and part of the wall slid up, revealing a nervous looking man in a gray skintight suit. Swallowing nervously, he walked towards the opened capsule and stood before it.
They’d said it was completely harmless, but he was about to submerge himself into a vat of tiny nanobots for gods sake. Clearing his throat, he glanced at the one way glass, behind which was a small crowd of onlookers. He took a deep breath and gingerly lifted one leg into the capsule, submerging it into the gray liquid. He thought it felt like he was stepping into sandy oil.
Placing his other leg in the capsule and submerging himself up to his neck, he took one last breath of the metallic filtered air of the facility, and sank his head into the fluid. He sucked the nanobots into his lungs, allowing them to enter his bloodstream and provide oxygen to his body as well as connect to his nervous system. The pistons hissed and the top half of the capsule sank slowly, until the seams disappeared, sealing the man inside.
On the other side of the glass, attentions switched to a scientist staring intently at the monitor in front of him, as he began reading information off the screen.
“Brainwaves, good. Blood pressure, good. Heart rate, high, but within acceptable levels. The nanobots are now connecting to his nervous system. Switching to patient’s point of view, please focus your attentions on the screen to my left.”, he said professionally.
The crowd sighed in relief at the safety of the man, but the experiment wasn’t over yet, and they focused their eyes on the screen taking up the entirety of the left wall. It flashed white before blurrily coming into focus.
The view appeared to be some kind of household living room, as clear as if they were looking through a window. It was, in fact, a virtual room designed for this very test. The camera began to move, panning around the room, before looking down. A body covered in a gray jumpsuit came into view, the camera placed just above the neck. A pair of hands came into view, turning this way and that, clenching and unclenching.
The scientist frowned and leaned towards a microphone sitting on his desk, saying into it, “Mr. Phillips, please don’t forget to report your observations aloud.”
The camera looked up, as if surprised, and a voice came from the screen, “Ah, right, sorry. Umm, it... It feels so real, it’s like I’m really here. I can feel the pressure as I close my fists, and the soft touch of the carpet I’m standing on. Are... Are you sure this is a hologram?”, the man in the jumpsuit asked haltingly.
A quiet but excited chattering began among the scientists and the businessmen appeared to be pleased.
The scientist frowned again, and said into the mic, “Mr. Phillips, you aren’t paid to ask questions. Please attempt to walk towards the table in front of you, then pick up the box on top of it.”
Mr. Phillips nodded, shaking the camera, and took a cautious step forward, watching his feet. Soon he became smoother, and walked towards the mahogany table, stopping for a moment before reaching out and attempting to pick up the cardboard box upon it.
Upon touching the box, he jerked his hand and said, “Ah!”, surprised, knocking the box off the table. Muttering a “Sorry...”, he crouched down, picking up the cardboard box, more confidently this time, and inspected it.
The people in the room gasped and began chattering excitedly. “What is the meaning of this?!” One person exclaimed.
On the corner of the box, barely noticeable, was a small dent.
“We... We never programmed that!”, exclaimed a scientist fearfully.
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Three Weeks Later. NASA Facility, Undisclosed Location.
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Jeffery the scientist strode purposefully through the hallway, a force to his steps he didn’t know he had in him before now. He stopped momentarily at a large blue door, before taking a deep breath and shoving it open. He was authorized now.
The suited man had his back facing the door, studying various papers pinned to the back wall. He turned at the unexpected entrance, surprise briefly flashing on his face before he forced it into a scowl.
Before the man could berate the scientist, Jeffery spoke angrily, “I can’t accept this! Why must we keep this a secret?! My discovery could revolutionize the world! You can’t-”
Jeffery was cut off by the suited man holding his hand out in a ‘stop’ gesture, and growled, “First of all, it isn’t your discovery, it’s NASA’s, and thus I have final say over what happens with it. Secondly, you don’t have a high enough rank to know company secrets like that. By the way, I’m revoking your door authorization.”, glancing towards the still open door.
Jeffery opened his mouth as if to argue, but the man cut him off again with a glare, “Stop, if you say one more word about this to anyone, you’ll be out of a job.”, he warned.
Gritting his uneven teeth, Jeffery spun on his heels angrily and stalked back out the door, frustrated. The door closed behind him and he stood in place, shaking in rage. How dare they! This was his discovery, it rightfully belonged to him! Did they even think of the lives they could save, the people they could help with this technology?!
Jeffery took a deep breath, quelling his anger. This was not the time to be getting emotional. He was a smart man. The smartest he knew. There must be something he could do, he just had to figure it out. Like a math problem. He always got As in math, even in university.
Even as he stalked through the hallway, he began formulating a plan.
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One Week Later. NASA Main Server Room.
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This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The soft electronic beeping and the low whirring of hundreds of server machines were the only sounds in the large concrete room. It was late at night, and the technicians had long gone home to their beds, leaving the night guards and multi-layered security system to take care of the place while they were away.
Dozens of hidden cameras embedded in the three foot thick concrete walls watched the entire room like a legion of hawks. Heartbeat detectors, heat sensors, vibration monitors, all manner of high tech security gadgets surrounded the server room, leaving no corner unwatched. It made sense. This was where NASA kept their greatest secrets after all.
At the far end of the room, sat a door. A massive gray metal door, thick enough to take a shot from a tank head on, secure enough to not let a single mote of dust pass.
A low beeping sounded, and the door slowly opened upwards, revealing a lanky young man in a black hoodie and sweatpants. He had dark bags under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept in a very long time. Peering around the corners to check if anyone was around, the man shuffled into the room, pressing a button on his smartphone that closed the door. He took a deep breath and walked slowly into the room, checking for any late night workers. A single bead of sweat dripped down his brow.
Jeffery had spent the last week trying to hack into NASA’s database. It was known to be nearly impenetrable, with firewalls upon firewalls, and even an AI guard dog that patrolled the system for unauthorized users. As far as he knew, he was the first one to be able to slip past in the last thirty years. He hadn’t tried to steal anything, however. He had only one objective. Access. Enough authority to enter this particular room without setting off any alarms. The information he was looking for wasn’t on any of the online servers. No, they were in this place, surrounded by lead laced walls that stopped any signal and enough security to make China’s emperor to feel vulnerable in comparison.
Jeffery reached into his back pocket, pulling out a short metal stick as he scanned the labels, searching for the object of his efforts.
“Fusion Wave Propulsion, nope. SCP Project, nope. Davidson Wormhole Development, nope.”, he muttered, walking down the aisle.
Finally near the end, he stopped and smiled. He found it. The label on the server tower read, ‘AT:VR’, Alien Technology: Virtual Reality.
Quickly finding the correct port, he popped the cap off his metal stick and plugged it into the server. Immediately, the thin tube bent upwards and split at the middle, opening up into a light blue holographic screen showing a variety of password protected files. Knowing he was quickly running out of time, Jeffery selected all of the files and then pressed the button labeled, ‘Download’. A horizontal bar appeared in the middle of the screen, reading, ‘Now downloading: 198Gb/44Tb. Estimated wait time: 23 seconds.’.
The time ticked down slowly. Jeffery glanced at the thick metal door at the end of the room, another drop of sweat rolling slowly down his face. After what seemed like an eternity, the seconds finally ticked down to zero, bringing up a light blue box that said, ‘Complete!’, with a smiley face.
Jeffery tapped the ‘Done’ button on the top right of the screen and the metal stick snapped together. He quickly yanked it out of the port and shoved it back in his pocket, striding back to the metal door. He pulled out his smartphone, opening the application that would let him open the door. Before he could activate it, however, the door began sliding up on it’s own!
Jeffery panicked, searching frantically for a hiding place. He dove to his left, barely catching a glimpse of sandled feet under the door as he rolled under a thick wooden desk.
Peering out from under it, he could see the legs of a thin man in shorts with a tool belt on stride through the door and stop in front of it.
‘Please go left, please go left!’, Jeffery thought frantically.
After a few seconds making a scratching sound that sounded like writing, the man turned and began walking to his left, and the door started closing slowly.
Seeing his chance, Jeffery scrambled out quietly from under the desk and lightly ran towards the quickly shrinking doorway. He dove under it, rolling a few feet past the door, just barely hearing a man say, “Hmm? What was that?”, before the door closed.
Jeffery grinned and wiped his brow, his hand coming off drenched. That had been way too close. Pushing himself up off the ground, he checked his smart watch before sprinting down a hallway and turning left, dodging the patrols of guards that he had mapped out the day before.
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Three Days Later. An Unassuming Suburban House. Northern California.
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*Crunch*...
*Crunch*...
*Crunch*...
*Gulp*
I swallowed the mouthfull of ‘Wheaty Delight!’ reluctantly, and shove another mouthfull of my dull breakfast into my mouth mechanically, eyes glued to the television. Something about some terrorist attack in the middle east, I think. It’s always the same shit anyway, the news stations never seem to report on anything usefull, like scientific discoveries or new technology.
*Gulp*
*Sigh*
I lift another bite of cereal up to my mouth and absently switch channels, delaying my inevitable trip to the hellhole they call ‘high school’. Not that I hate the learning part of going to school, no, I actually enjoy learning new things. It’s the way they teach it to you is what repulses me. To them, I’m just another number to force feed facts and propaganda to. Similar to the news stations, actually.
‘Wait. What was that?’, I think, a title on one of the news channels catching my eye as I flip past it. I change back to the channel, ‘The Daily Day’, apparently. I read the title on the bottom of the screen and my eyes go wide.
*SPSHHH!*
‘Wheaty Delight!’ goes everywhere in my shock. Whoops. But, seriously, who wouldn’t be shocked over this! This... Changes everything!
“Heh... Heheh!”, I let out, milk dripping down my chin, as the news anchor began her report.
*Whoosh!*
I lean back reflexively, dodging the frying pan that was thrown from the kitchen to my right.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, wasting food like that?! Get off your ass and clean it up, damnit! And get yourself to school already!”, a feminine voice shouts from the kitchen.
Normally I’d sigh dejectedly and begin packing up, getting ready to face a morning of useless facts and an afternoon of flying frying pans, but I’m way too excited right now to get down!
“Alright, mum! I’m going!”, I yell back at her, grabbing a towel she’d also thrown at me and wiping up the mess I’d made.
She’s not my real mother, of course, she’s way too young to have a sixteen year old son like me. She adopted me back when I was thirteen and treated me like her own since then. It wasn’t very cerimonial, she kind of just just waltzed in, picked me up, said, “This one!” and suddenly I had a mother. I never could figure out why a single twenty three year old would want to adopt a kid over half her age. Not that I’m complaining.
I finished cleaning up and trudged over to the door, catching a glance of a firey readhead with pearly white skin in an apron. I shoot one last glance at the television, a grin creeping back onto my face as I threw my backpack over my shoulder and shamble out the door, a light spring to my step.
As I left, the reporter continued to drone on excitedly, “-That NASA has reportedly been working on an exciting new piece of technology which allows the user to enter a completely virtual space and move as if they were really there! NASA has plans to commercially release this technology to the public along with a fantasy video game in approximately three years!”
I shut the door and hurry to the bus stop with what I’m sure is a shit eating grin on my face, eager to share the news with my friends.
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Two Years Later. An Unassuming Suburban House. Northern California.
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I rest my hand on the door knob, and take a shaky breath.
‘C’mon me, today was the last day of school, there’s no more time to put this off.’, I think to myself encouragingly. Honestly, I’m absolutely terrified right now, I think this thing I’m about to do might be the most dangerous conversation I’ll ever have.
The reason for my fear was the firey redhead on the other side of this door. The violent woman I’ve come to call, ‘mother’. Over the past two years I, along with several of my previously aimless friends, have been making extensive plans about our future. Our future as virtual reality broadcasters, that is.
That’s right, after NASA’s announcement of their virtual reality system, ‘Nexus’, and their accompanying MMO, ‘Nexus: Afterworld’, I had been wracking my brain trying to find out how I can spend as much time inside virtual space as possible. After all, who would want to slave away for some corporation when you could go on adventures in a virtual world?
Eventually, I realized I could become a broadcaster. The people who broadcast for regular video games seem to be able to live comfortably, and with the massive hype about VR, I’m sure I’d have no lack of viewers. I brought the idea to my rather large group of friends, and invited them to join me, but most of them already had their own plans for their lives after high school. Fortunately, three of the particulary goal-less ones loved the idea and decided to join me.
~Flashback, 1.5 years prior, Delson Heights library~
I looked at the three eager faces before me, grateful that they decided to go along with this crazy plan of mine. We had all gathered around a table in a secluded corner of this needlessly extensive library at the school. Seriously, why even have physical books, everything is online these days.
On my left is Philip DeMovere, a real laid back American guy with long back hair and a sharp, angular face. We’ve been friends ever since I started high school. He tends to be half assed about most things, but I know I can count on him to get things done when they need to be. He’s going to be my primary companion in game, shooting footage alongside me to get the best shots for our movies. When I’m busy editing or not able to go in-game, he’ll be taking care of politics, resource management, and anything else that needs to be done in the virtual world.
Directly across from me is Shen Tao, a migrant from somewhere in China, never asked where exactly. He’s something of a genius programmer, we’re not even surprised anymore when he comes to school half asleep and tells us he’s been working on a web security program for Tesla. Obviously, he’ll be creating our net presence, including a website, a custom live streaming application, and building a personal server cluster for us to use. He says most of it will be automatic after he finishes them, so he can spend time in-game with the rest of us.
On my right is Pamela Nordskov, our very own Scandanavian princess. Not a real princess, unfortunately, but she sure gives off the atmosphere of one. She’s taller than me, at 6’2” (I’m 6’), with long curly golden hair and a regal face with soft blue eyes. She specializes in mathematics and art, as weird as that combination sounds. She’ll be our graphic designer and accountant.
This group has a lot of potential, I’m sure we’ve got what it takes to get this off the ground and running smoothly before the system comes out. Personally, I’m a bit of a jack of all trades kind of guy, so until we can get in game, I’ll be helping out where I can as well as learning everything I can about video editing and directing.
“So David, what’s up with the sudden booty call? Finally admitting your love for all things pink and sparkly?”, Philip says teasingly, snapping my out of my thoughts.
“Actually, I’ve got some exciting news. Do you guys remember how I said we should try to contact NASA about getting in early to get some footage before anyone else?”, I replied with a light grin. Everyone nodded and leaned forward eagerly, an excited glint in their eyes.
“Well, I finally got a hold of a representative, and after a long phone call going over all the legal mumbo jumbo, and giving them some examples of our work, they agreed to let us have an exclusive first look at the character creation menu a few weeks before launch!”, I continued. The table erupted in cheers, eliciting several shushes from around the room, and we all sat back down sheepishly.
“That can’t be all, this is NASA we’re talking about, they surely won’t give out exclusives for free. What’s the catch?”, asked Shen.
I shrugged and replied, “Not much, we’d have use any footage we take to make a sort of gameplay trailer for them, we’d only get a short message at the end and a link to our website in the video description. If we pull it off to their satisfaction, they’ll give us all half off discounts on the Nexus. We won’t be able to actually go in game, but we’d be able to throw together some cool features of the character creation.”.
There was a moment of silence at the table, which Pamela promptly broke, saying, “Sounds good to me! So, this thing is basically official now, kind of weird to almost own a company while we’re still in high school.”
“Yeah, I can almost see the wrinkles already!”, exclaimed Philip cheerfully.
I chuckled as Pam hit Philip playfully.
This can work.
This will work.
~End Flashback~
I sighed. Pam, Phil, and Shen have all already spoken to their parents, not that it went very well with any of them. Who wants their child to play video games for a living, after all.
Alright, no more hesitation. I took another deep breath and turned the doorknob, stepping into our modest appartment.
“Mum, I’m home! I need to talk to you for a minute!”, I yelled towards the living room, shrugging off the heavy backpack. Time for some shouting.
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1.5 Years Ago. A Certain CEO’s Office.
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“Sir, are you sure about giving those kids exclusive access to the character menu before the game launch? What if they don’t pull through?”, said a short man with glasses standing in front of a large desk.
“Don’t worry, Desmond, I have the feeling they’ve got what it takes. Besides, even if they don’t end up making the trailer, it’s no major loss for us. You just need to worry about keeping leaks under control. You remember what happened to the last person that leaked information, don’t you?”, said the man behind the desk darkly.
Desmond shuddered, before grunting and looking away. He still passed by that particular room on occasion. It was where they tested the effects of virtual torture and stressful situations on the brain. There were three filled capsules in the room. Two of which were occupied by monkeys.
He pushed his glasses up and turned back to the man behind the desk. “One last thing sir. The projected completion date has been pushed forward a few months. The programmers still insist the machine is practically doing all the work for them, filling in blanks and making corrections. Are you sure we should go through with the launch, sir? We still don’t know all of the effects the machine might have on people.”, Desmond said firmly.
The man behind the desk nodded and leaned back, saying, “Yes, we’ll go ahead with the plan. We have insurance with the U.S. government, after all. They are very interested in the prospects for military training in VR. Make the appropriate announcements to the public. Other than that, proceed as per usual.”
Desmond nodded and excused himself, heading back trough the thick metal door as fast as his short legs would carry him.
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Meanwhile, Across The Galaxy.
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“Your Majesty! We’ve picked up some sort of signal from cluster 34A3, we think it’s from Progenitor technology!”
The king’s face lit up in a smile full of sharp carnivorous teeth. “Excellent! Prepare a fleet immediately, I think I shall allow my youngest Del’Gesh prove his faith this time.”