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PrimeVerse
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R.K. Billiau
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief direct quotations in a book review.
Copyright © 2019 R.K. Billiau
All rights reserved.
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To my wife, the one who made this whole thing possible. The one who put up with all the times I thought I was funny when I wasn’t. The one who learned all about the genre and gamer terms just so she could help with this book. You are the K in my R.K. I love you.
Chapter 1
It figures the first and only time I won anything it was the death lottery. When my number came up as one of the first “volunteers” to PrimeVerse, I tried to run. Whatever their grand plan, I wanted no part.
I was a scavenger, I combed through the dead and decaying cities to find worthwhile things among the scraps and I was good at my job. I thought with all my knowledge of hidey-holes I would be able to escape detection.
I was wrong. I didn’t even make it very far, with the biometric and DNA scanners all over the place, but at least I tried. I ran to let them know I remained unwilling; not everyone was as excited about dying as the media would make you think. Now, when I say dying, I don’t mean ‘all the way dead’ dying, just ‘removed from being a drain on the world’ dying.
They uploaded my consciousness into their new virtual world and then my body was sent to the separators, broken down into its constituent parts, and shipped off to wherever the need was greatest (or whoever could afford it). Probably some corporate middle manager who needed a new liver with the rest going into the ‘I can’t believe it’s not Soylent’ vats.
When it comes to uploading yourself, I’m an unbeliever to say the least, and a vehement outspoken annoyance to say the most. I would rather ‘regular’ die than live forever in somebody else’s fantasy world. At least that’s what I told myself. My skepticism ran deep of the “fun new world to experience and enjoy!” the ads portrayed.
The world turning to crap was nothing new. Massive overpopulation coupled with a complete inability to leave this planet in any kind of meaningful way, made for a life of squalor for most of the inhabitants. Colonies on Mars and the Moon existed, but the Moon was too expensive and Mars too remote. In another 50 years those would be good options, but for now, out of reach. No, instead our society adopted a death lottery as a way of helping reduce population. Buying your way out was always an option, like anything, but that was out of reach for almost everyone except the 1%. In a demoralizingly short amount of time I got captured, my head drilled into, and my consciousness sucked out and shoved into their experiment.
***
I opened my eyes to a bright sun and the bluest sky of my life. The air felt... strange... lighter. It didn’t take long to realize the difference- the stench of humanity, the ever-present smell of urine, sweat and smog, no longer afflicted me like a debuff. I breathed in fresh air. It was something I could get used to.
Another thing different, I felt good. None of my constant aches and pains, my old foot injury (way too expensive to fix) didn’t even hurt. That pain had become family over the years. My eyes widened as I looked down at myself, I wore almost nothing. A pair of flesh colored boxer-briefs were all that graced my new magnificent body. I flexed muscles that would put the kind you see in all those male enhancement ads to shame.
While I was admiring my new, very impressive body, I wondered if they left anything the same. I smashed my face between my fingers trying to feel what was left of me. It felt normal… ish, I guess. Blind facial recognition wasn’t my forte. I’d have to wait until I could see my reflection somewhere.
I spun around to look at my surroundings and gasped in wonder. A beautiful tree-covered island surrounded by a sparkling ocean as far as the eye could see. The island didn’t seem too big, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The brightest greens and the most vivid blues, as if someone had cranked up the saturation.
Most of my life I had lived in the city. And when I say city, I mean slums. Towering gray buildings lined with dirty windows, overcrowded streets full of people and garbage. The most foliage I ever saw were weeds that sprouted up through cracks in the asphalt. I thought places like this only existed on a Microsoft desktop background. Sure, VR existed but couldn’t compare to this. Well, it might, but being prohibitively expensive, I wouldn’t know. Suffice to say, it amazed me and I was hesitantly excited.
The warm sand under my feet stretched wide out in front of me. From where I stood, I couldn’t see a single person. I couldn’t hear anyone, and there weren’t even any footprints in the sand. Where the heck were all the people? I hadn’t expected to be completely alone.
I craned my neck searching for anyone else and noticed a floating cube of glowing blue energy behind me, next to a palm tree. I knew this had to be something to interact with, having played plenty of games in my time. I ignored it, not sure what would happen once I started down the path of interaction with this world. This island was feeling pretty perfect, but I wanted to stay pissed off about having my head cracked open and my gooey ‘me’-ness sucked out. I was of a mind to protest.
“I won’t do what you want me to!” I shouted to nobody and kicked the palm tree by the floating cube.
The pain bursting from my toes for being stupid enough to kick a palm tree barefoot impressed me as much as it sucked. The programmers did a great job on that bit. But when the coconut fell, cracking me on the head and knocking me over, I knew they were just jerks.
You have suffered 1 bludgeoning damage!
Yep. Jerks.
“Aw screw you!” I shouted at nothing, again.
Now I really refused to touch that stupid cube. I sat up and a floating red bar in the top right of my field of view appeared, like a HUD, reading 99/100. I waited a few seconds as the numbers ticked over to 100/100. Well I guess that clinched it; they did gamify life. Why did they make it hurt so much though?
I walked around the island pondering my situation and how I was going to ‘stick it to the man’. I would show them; I would stay here for as long as possible to screw up their datasets they were sure to be collecting. The sun was warm, the ocean peaceful, the soft sand would be a nice place to sleep, my stomach growled, wait… my stomach growled?
“I’M HUNGRY?! Why do I have to eat?! This is a fake world!”
Anger seeped off me. First, I’m forced here against my will, as good as murdered, then I stub my toe and get conked by a coconut... a coconut!
“Hot damn, I’m not beaten yet fools!”
I would still protest. On some level I’m sure I was being ridiculous, but I’d already gotten this far so, why not?
I grabbed the coconut and looked over the strange... fruit? Vegetable? In this impressive virtual world, the coconut looked like, well, a coconut. A hard, hairy rock. How was I going to eat this thing? I remembered watching some video about how the extinct natives of the sunken islands of Hawaii opened coconuts with a sharpened stick, which I was fresh out of. Time to work out my anger.
I grasped the coconut in two hands, found the closest embedded boulder and, gritting my teeth, slammed the hairy rock on the not hairy rock with a loud CRACK. My hands hurt, and the coconut received only a small dent.
Congratulations! You have increased your Strength attribute!
Congratulations! You have increased your Conscious attribute!
Congratulations! You have learned the Toughness skill!
You have suffered 1 bludgeoning damage!
Seriously!? I took damage for hurting my hands trying to open that stupid thing?! “What. THE. HELL!” I
needed to stop shouting randomly, it couldn’t be healthy. I wondered if everything was a skill or attribute here? There were plenty of games where your skills needed to be trained up to advance. If this was a virtual game world, then perhaps they did the same thing here? I needed to test this out.
Congratulations! You have increased your Conscious attribute!
Well I guess that answered that. Time for a little more testing. I attempted to climb the coconut tree and fell off about a quarter of the way up.
Congratulations! You have learned the Climbing skill!
Congratulations! You have learned the Jumping skill!
I started to run when a yellow bar appeared right under the red one. The yellow bar read ‘Stamina 45/100’ and decreased as I ran.
Congratulations! You have learned the Running skill!
Congratulations! You have increased your Physique attribute!
I only made it a little way around the island before my Stamina bar wore out and forced me to rest. I plodded along towards the conveniently sit-able rock right next to the floating blue cube that was humming with power. As I leaned closer, the cube pulsed with color and sound. It sounded like folding staticky sheets fresh from the dryer. It definitely wanted me to touch it.
“Oh no, no you don’t. Not yet. I’m going to learn as much as I can before I mess with you.”
Congratulations! You have learned the Willful Ignorance skill!
“OH, COME ON!” I shouted. This was getting ridiculous. My stomach growled again. Oh yeah. That. My Stamina bar showed 79% so I sighed and got up, walking over to the coconut I tried to open before. My Stamina bar continued to fill while walking, though slower than when sitting still. It appeared I might be able to do light activity when winded and keep regaining Stamina.
I picked up my nemesis, the coconut, and began the arduous task of slamming the thing over and over and over again on my rock chair to open it. I burned through the rest of my Stamina bar, but finally heard a satisfying snap and felt the hard shell give way. “YES!” I cheered at the large crack that appeared.
Congratulations! You have increased your Strength attribute!
That seemed like an impressive gain, getting a point for opening a coconut. I wondered if the game would stay that easy. Somehow, I doubted it.
The coconut tasted better than anything I thought possible. I don’t know if the programmers made it that way, or if having only ever eaten various flavors of FOOD™ bars had hidden the truth of food from me. It was almost enough to make me want to join in their stupid game. Almost.
I counted the coconuts left in the tree. One, two, three. Weren’t there three before, too? Curious, I kicked the tree again. With the ball of my foot this time, I’m not a complete idiot.
Congratulations! You have increased your Conscious attribute!
These constant alerts popping up in my vision were going to get annoying real quick. I wondered if there was a way to turn them off. At the thought, a floating gear popped up on my HUD in the top right corner. I mentally selected it and a settings menu appeared. Convenient!
Congratulations! You have increased your Subconscious attribute!
I scanned through the page to find most every option, including one to turn down or off notifications, grayed out. The tooltip stated that access would be granted after completing the tutorial zone. Ah, this was a tutorial zone! That would explain the lack of people, I guess. I knew then interacting with the blue square would be the way out of this zone.
Congratulations! You have increased your Subconscious attribute!
I might leave just to turn off those alerts. I kicked the tree again, this time with a little more annoyance than before. A coconut plopped to the ground in front of me, spraying sand out like water from a thumb covered hose. It looked identical to the one I opened. Looking up, I watched a miniature coconut form in the old one’s spot, then grow to full size in about a minute. Pretty nifty. Infinite food, now that was a new concept. There were quite a few times when I hadn’t been able to supply enough work creds to earn my daily ration of FOOD™ and right here grew an all I could eat buffet! I would never go hungry again!
I danced a little jig until my Stamina dropped off. This place was growing on me.
I wondered how all these stats and skills would be tracked, and if it was something I would have access to. As an answer to my thought, a paper doll icon appeared in my field of vision. I selected it and saw my character sheet.
Name: Hudson
Year: 0
Race: Human
Age: 18
Class: N/A
Level: 1
HP: 140
Armor: 0
Body – 130 Stamina
Strength - 2
Agility - 0
Physique - 1
Mind – 110 Mana
Conscious - 3
Subconscious - 2
Superconscious - 0
Heart – 107 Zeal
Empathy - 0
Projection - 0
Emotion - 0
Soul – 103 Spirit
Self - 0
Aura - 0
Connection - 0
Unassigned Skills:
Climbing – 1
Running – 1
Jumping – 1
Willful Ignorance – 1
Toughness – 1
“18? I’m 22!” Had they gotten it wrong, or did they start everyone at this age?
Mentally selecting the equipment page, I saw a 3D representation of me standing naked except for the complimentary underwear. I zoomed in and out to check out my parts, and as I moved my body, the 3D rendering of me moved too. My face was next, and saw that yes, I still looked like me, just a little younger and a little less jaded. Zooming back out I could tell that the body was mine also, but a buff, SUPER me. Like an ‘eating healthy and working out’ all my life kind of super me. That was nice of the people that murdered me. A consolation prize.
A terrible thought struck me, and I reached down to remove the flesh colored boxer-briefs hoping that I was not consigned to an eternity as an androgynous Ken doll. They slid down, and I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of all my parts.
Back to my menu screen I checked out the empty equipment slots and noticed a slot containing a small pamphlet. I thought ‘inventory’ and a pop-up appeared with my inventory. It only contained four slots but since I had no idea what amount of anything would fit in a single slot, I couldn’t get too upset. Although memories of past games popped into my head, “upgrade your inventory slots, only five work creds!”. Ugh, I hoped DLC or micro-transactions were excluded from this world or it would mean this was Hell after all.
I selected the pamphlet and into my hand popped a small, actual piece of paper titled “PrimeVerse Primer”. Cute. That’s what happens when you let Jimmy from marketing “help” design a game.
PrimeVerse Primer
Welcome new resident of PrimeVerse! By now your old meat body has been utilized to its fullest! Thank you for your contribution! You have stepped foot on a new journey for humankind, the journey to a life that will never end! You have started as a blank slate, the sky is the limit, be all you can be! You are now in ‘PrimeVerse’!
We built PrimeVerse on the backs of many of the most popular VR games, with one goal: to make the most realistic, fantastic world for you and your fellow residents to live and thrive in. You can live, laugh, and love. You can feel pain, hatred, and anguish. This world allows you the full range of human experiences while also granting abilities unheard of. Will you unlock the secrets of magic? Will you study the blade or bow? Will you attempt to recreate the technology of the world you left behind? Anything is possible!
At its creation, the world is devoid of NPC’s, unlike most current games. Any human you meet should be a real person! Welcome to a pristine new world for you to discover and play in. There are no buildings, no shops, nothing but a beautiful open expanse for YOU to determine what to do with. The world is your canvas! Be warned however,
dangerous creatures and enemies may lurk around the corner, so learn to defend yourself.
We have brought you here with no knowledge of this new world. It is up to you and your fellow citizens to make PrimeVerse be the best it can be. All the skills our computer intelligence thought of are implemented, try something to see if you can level up the skill! For more information, or to dive right in, activate your cube!
The pictures in the primer were the typical things you would find on the back of a video game box; oddly dressed people doing quest-y stuff, casting spells, fighting and collecting treasures. A few hints there, I guess magic existed, but it reiterated this is very much a game world. For better or worse, it wasn’t going to be like normal life. When I got to the end, a pop-up appeared in my HUD.
Quest Received! “The Journey Begins” - Activate your cube to learn more about your new life, and to move on to the next adventure!
I closed my inventory and went back to my character sheet, leaving the equipment screen and selecting the skills list. This thing went on and on and on. There were skills for everything. I couldn’t read what the skills did, only a huge list of what was available. I scrolled through all the A’s but when I got to “Bartending” I quit, realizing that if I wanted to do something, there was probably a skill for it. I was curious about that Toughness skill I had unlocked and looked at it on my sheet.
Toughness–Each level of this skill reduces the pain you feel by .5% and increases the time between pulses for the Pain debuff by .25 seconds.
That seemed like a nice skill, although I bet leveling it up meant getting hurt a lot. Yay, experience pain to experience less pain in the future. So fun.
Full, warm, and content I decided to take time to figure out my goals. I couldn’t keep throwing a tantrum and stay in the tutorial zone forever. At the same time, I didn’t want to leave all that quickly. I wanted to enjoy this island retreat. Who knows what kind of crap they would force me to go through past the tutorial zone? While I love games, I never experienced one of those mythical “vacations” that only middle management and above gets. Why look a gift horse in the face?