The next day. Sorp’s friends gathered in Sorp’s room. They were spritely. None of them was hungover. This was new.

“Kom, you really did it this time.”

“Right?”

“I can’t believe how real it all was.”

“What about you Sorp?”

If anyone was satisfied with how things went on in the virtual world. It was Sorp. He got to fight in a coliseum and in hand to hand combat with an experienced fighter.

They all bet their entire fortune on Sorp to win. To their surprise Sorp almost lost. His opponent a b or c list martial art expert.

His weight almost measuring up to Sorp. his body even more sculpted than Sorp’s. Sorp only won because of his demeanor.

Even with multiple broken bones. Eyes, ears, nose and blood bleeding he never stopped attacking.

The fight was to the death. And the opponent wasn’t going to be merciful. He was just as ready to tear Sorp apart as Sorp was.

He could ignore the pain like Sorp. But Sorp never lost his smile. Even through multiple lost teeth, Sorp never stopped smiling. This was a mental victory.

Their winnings, percentage wise weren’t as large as the colosseum but overall more than doubled their wealth.

This was because the amount they were betting with increased massively.

Sorp has an impressive outer appearance. People betting didn’t underestimate him. He looked like he could tear a man apart. Due to this, the bets were not too unbalanced.

“It was great Kom.”

He was smiling. It really did make him happy. Both the coliseum and the hexagon fights were great.

“That fight really was a close call, right?”

“Not as close it looked.”

“What do you mean Dart?”

Everyone looked at Dart. Seeing as Dart decided to speak up, clearly he had something to say.

“It looks like the fighting system isn’t entirely fair.”

Sorp couldn’t help but frown. What wasn’t fair? He didn’t care if things were fair, but how weren’t they fair?

“The system has a vulnerability check in place. It’s actually why Ret’s and Pal’s women vanished. They died.”

“What? No Way, we weren’t stabbing them.”

“I’m not sure how you do things Ret but I was definitely stabbing her.”

The two laughed at the connotation. But only they laughed. Everyone else was focused on Dart.

“Once a person is in a vulnerable state, physically or mentally, the slightest touch can be lethal.”

It is easy to see the confusion in everyone’s eyes. This was because he said physically or mentally. Dart understood their confusion.

“Physical vulnerability means bleeding. Broken bones or immobility. The system considers your body to be weak at that moment.”

Dart paused for a moment. He paused for them to digest the information and to take a breath.

“Mental vulnerability is a state where a person is defeated. Those women were defeated. This is why they died so easily.”

It felt like an odd system. It was Perpetual Powers compromise. In the beginning, people would have been unable to die in even harsher conditions.

Sorp already knew about the physical vulnerability. Most of them should know if they paid attention. But they didn’t, only Dart and Sorp did.

Sorp felt Dart didn’t answer the question.

“How is it unfair?”

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“It’s unfair because you are you.”

Dart smiled and laughed. Sorp didn’t laugh. Because he didn’t understand how this was funny.

“Just think. How would you even feel defeated? Even if your bones are broken you continue fighting.”

This was true. Mentality played a large role in the virtual world. The technology could even read thoughts.

They could read thoughts in the way that people's intentions could be read and used as input. Just like the mind controlled the body in real life. The system used the same input to control in the virtual world.

Actual thoughts are not readable. They are too fleeting and not projected. You could write a story with your thoughts alone. But that is not the system reading your thoughts but your intentions.

Sorp was convinced. He understood he was different from other people. Most of this feeling came from that fact that his body was too different.

In other things he couldn’t see clearly why he was different. But he had seen the defeat in people’s eyes. So he understood what Dart was saying.

Sorp would never have these kinds of eyes. This was what he himself believed. Not just his friends. Sorp didn’t recognize a world where he would submit to anyone.

Perhaps he would. But this would be by accident. Because defeat for Sorp was death. Authentic death. Only in death would he stop, because in death he couldn’t fight.

Being alive is a state of victory in Sorp’s mind. This is not a twisted or unusual. It is the basic instinct of an animal. Living is everything. Living or procreating.

This is what all living things reach for. A form of immortality. Immortality through the flesh or passing of genes. A very natural thing.

Sorp has not fathered any children. Once he has, perhaps he’ll need to father more. Increasing the chances that his genes survive.

This is the way animals live. It is the way Sorp will live. Only society is proving a deterrent. This is especially so when the virtual world is taken into account.

But even in a virtual world. Sorp will live as he should live. As he wants to live. As an animal. As himself.

Sorp was deep in thought. Thinking about the virtual world. How the rules were affecting his fights. And he felt it was acceptable.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. He wasn’t occupied with thoughts of fairness. He saw it as his advantage, one he should grab.

A challenging fight was something he desired but that didn’t mean he’d have to fight fairly. He didn’t understand the concept. He misunderstood it instead.

The way Sorp understood fairness, was that it was another form of restriction. A rule. A law. Laws never sat well with Sorp. He’d break them often and had to deal with the consequences.

The group kept the conversation going. They spoke about their experiences. Jarem boasted that he’d win in a coliseum fight next time. He felt betrayed when they laughed at the idea.

When Sorp came to, the subject of Perpetual Power came back. Perpetual power had spent a few months teasing a reveal of a new project.

Multiple people speculated what it was. Billions of guesses. Quite a few were right. If they guessed it was an amusement park, they’d be right in a way.

What Perpetual power created was a world. An entire world. The size so staggering that without the artificial intelligence it would take them not only decades but millenniums.

They wanted more than just a world. They wanted to create a better world. This world would be their greatest attraction.

Their virtual world as it was right now, can be considered a demo. A way to research people’s interaction with the virtual.

With the data they have collected, the system has been adjusted to further the experience.

Perpetual Power’s origin is more than just a giant conglomerate. It can be considered a project the Earth is collectively funding.

Due to blind arrogance. This revelation isn’t known to the general populace. And Perpetual Power is only considered a large company dabbling in virtual reality tech.

The main reason why the pain is real. That there are so few restrictions in the virtual world. Is because people can’t accept anything else.

Without immersion, the virtual world cannot compete with the real world. This has been studied thoroughly, and the only conclusion is that pain is necessary.

For the wellbeing of a person. There is a requirement for a negative experience. Only when faced with adversity, can people become complacent in a virtual environment.

This is in the grand scheme of things. It varies from person to person. Without adversity, a person needs a goal. Something to walk towards. In general this can be replaced with adversity.

Kom originally discovered Perpetual Power’s virtual world through the teasers about their reveal. They lead him to the virtual world.

Dart was now invested in the virtual world and had already followed them on every media he could.

When the announcement came, the group was in deep conversation about what type of women were the best in bed.

Even Sorp had thoughts on the issue. It could be considered sad that he didn’t have a chance to voice them when Dart begin waving his hand.

“It’s here.”

“What’s here?”

“Perpetual power just announced their newest virtual expansion.”

Only now did everyone stop laughing. They were all invested into virtual reality. They liked it. It wasn’t too great but they enjoyed it.

“Full immersion. An entire world. Long term dive. Time slowed down.”

Dart rattled out a few key words he thought were relevant. In the end it looked like this new world was more than just an amusement park.

The guys didn't really understand Dart but they just whipped out their palm computers and looked it up for themselves.

What came out as they read further was they needed more than just their devices to enter this world. Perpetual power demanded the absolute best.

This new world was supposed to be an entire replacement for reality. This meant literally never having to come out.

It was theoretically possible to stay permanently inside. With the assistance of Perpetual Power’s services.

Waste disposal was automated. The refilling of nutrients could be done by flying machines. If not it would be done manually by their employee.

These devices were not cheap. They were as expensive as could be. Out of range for at least half the population. Assuming they’d take out long term loans for it.

A loan might not be a bad idea. Perpetual Power promised that the virtual world would have work and people should be able to pay the debts from the inside.

There are many reasons for this. One is the extreme cost of an artificial virtual human. They can be considered expensive to run en masse. And this cost increases with quantity.

Perpetual Power promised a lot of things. They promised this world would be capable of rivaling the real world in every aspect.

The price of the new devices caused the group to pale. Even with their new funds combined, they couldn’t buy one device.

This left the group feeling gloomy. Only Sorp continued smiling. He continue reading the sizable announcement and other detailed information.

Dart also continued reading. Dart had already decided that he’d do what it takes to buy a machine for himself.

Initially he thought taking a loan would be difficult but it turned out that Perpetual Power would issue a large amount of loans.

This can be considered odd. As Perpetual Power is not formally a bank. But for some reason they were apparently a registered bank.

It was odd. To everyone but the very high up in political power. Within the circles it was an open secret that Perpetual Power was untouchable.

What only a select few knew, was that Perpetual Power can be considered Earth’s biggest universal power.

It didn’t have a country. Perpetual Power could be considered to represent the Earth as a whole.

Perpetual Power certainly saw itself as the world’s leader. They controlled what was important. Power. Perpetual power. More power than they could use.

Only with this much energy could they possibly do what they did. The limitations were now other bottlenecks. Technology to read and write data for one.

After discussing it. The group agreed they should try and gather money for the devices.

The devices come with a service. Installing and maintenance. This meant, if they didn’t opt out of it. Perpetual Power would manage the device in their stead.

It was not coincidence that Perpetual Power owned thousands of apartment buildings. Most of which were so small that they only contained space for a device and a person that could walk around it.

These apartments are supposed to house the devices and the residence that chose to live inside the virtual world.

It wasn’t that other people couldn’t rent out the apartments. But the apartments had nothing in them except this small space.