Remember:
"This is talking"
'This is thinking'
(And this is telepathy)
At least for now until im more use to the system
Chapter 1
Blinking Charles looked around. He was standing in the middle of a large white room. Suddenly behind him he heard “Welcome wanderer to Anarchy Online where players can be the heroes of legend, or the villains.”
Jumping a little, he was still a little high strung from his apartment collapsing on him; he turned around and saw a floating crystal. As he watched the crystal morphed itself into a statuesque version of a woman. “My name is Neulla. I am the Goddess of Death, Resurrection, and the Afterlife. As the goddess of resurrection it is my duty to help all wayward travelers build the beginning of their new life. You are the 4th traveler to connect to Anarchy Online. As being one of the first 10 players you have won an exclusive skill for your character. This skill will be based of the race that you choose. Would you like to start creating your new body?”
Charles - “No, I really don’t think I have the time. My capsule was kind of having some…..difficulty. I’m pretty sure I’m going to log out soon.”
Neulla -“Are you sure? It states that you were fully uploaded. If you’d like I can do a diagnostic of your pod and send a report to the main office.”
Charles - “Sure why not." 'At least then I can get my body out of all that rubble.'
Neulla- “Very well, I will now scan your pod for any errors and send the report to the technical support department.” Neulla then closed her eyes and the lights in the room seem to dim a little. After maybe ten minutes or so a rippling appeared in the center of the room and a man walked out. He was around 6 feet tall and had a large build. He was also a little on the chunky side, but not enough to be considered obese. Looking closer you could see some silver in his hair, so Charles guessed he must have been around 50. As soon as he saw Charles he ran up and yelled, “My goodness its true!”
“What’s true sir?” Charles asked trying to casually back up and put some distance between him and the eccentric man who appeared before him. Noticing this, the man took a deep breath and said “I am sorry, this is just unprecedented. We never imagined that the pod could download an entire entity! We thought that at best it could only take some of the subconscious into the game, you know for some basic sensory data to make the game more real. But you! It took not only your consciousness but your entire subconscious too! We never expected to be able to do this for years!”
As the man started to work himself back into a frenzy, Charles took another step back and thought ‘Good god what is with this man! Wait…. Did he just say the pod took an entire entity?’ Nervously he asked “Wait does this mean that I’m not dead?”
Strange man - “Well technically you are, at least I think. As soon as we got the diagnostic from the pod we sent someone straight to your house. They should be there in a few hours. Then we’ll know if you’re just comatose or deceased. But on the plus side if you’re just comatose then there’s a chance that we can re-download your mind into your body, albeit a small one.”
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Charles- “And what am I suppose to do until then? Just stay in this place?”
Man- “Oh no, the computer wasn’t designed to keep a conscious mind in the character creation page forever. It was only designed to be a way point between the game and the real world. Honestly we were going to add programming that would move a persons mind to their own mini world that they could stay in, but it was designed for those that were going into comas and the paralyzed. They had to have it built into the pod. However I think we can take your pods coding and work it to where that programming is implemented, but……”
Not really liking the way the man said that word, Charles hesitantly asked “But what?”
Man –“ But the problem is that normally we would send someone to your pod and reprogram it with the appropriate software, however we can’t do that in your case since ejecting you would kill what’s left of your mind.”
Charles- “So what are you going to do?”
Man-“Well I can have my people do it remotely when we get your pod but it’s going to take a lot longer since we don’t want to touch any of the parts that were designed to keep a player in the game.”
Charles-“So how long will it take?”
Man-“About 4 to 6 months…. Real time”
Charles- “What do you mean real time?”
Man- “Well we did let it leak that time would run faster in game, but we never said how much faster. We wanted it to be a surprise for the first thousand. However since you'll be living it I guess I should tell you. The game runs 4 times faster than real time so it will actually be over a year in game. So your character will have to survive over a year without dying in a rather…harsh environment.”
‘Great! Just great!’ Charles thought. “So your telling me I’m going to go into a world that’s incredibly dangerous and cannot die for over a year, possibly two, all while you poke around the device that’s literally keeping me existing hoping that you won’t touch something you shouldn’t and accidentally erase my existence? Perfect just perfect.”
Looking rather ashamed the man turned his head. “Pretty much, also we need to monitor you in the game. But we’re not total assholes, because of all this… inconvenience we will be giving you some extra perks. Luckily you were one of the first 5 which give you a random benefit. We can just hide the bonuses under a super lucky draw. That way if anyone starts asking questions you can just say you were one of the first five to play.”
Charles though about that and warily asked “And who are you to authorize that exactly? I don’t even know your name?”
“Oh! I’m sorry. My name is Samuel Crooper, I’m the CEO of FutureTech and creator of Anarchy Online.”
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