Ingame: Virtual reality enabled

by Kieron Uchee

  My thoughts were wandering when suddenly there was a presence. It was indescribable but somehow I could feel it examining me, yet I could see nothing. A voice spoke “Hello player.” I thought what the hell, “Hello yourself, who the heck are you,” I asked?

  “I am the Unknown God in the world of God's and Men.” I tried to think this through, a God was talking to me before I joined the game, and this was not supposed to happen. I was about to open my mouth and then I shut it; in these game worlds, the Gods were real. As I recall a lot of the AI identities within the game were based on altered real world legends and myths.

  In the real world, Gods were not known for kindness or brotherly love. With the exception of Jesus and he ended up nailed to the tree. I gathered my thoughts and spoke, “Unknown God, why am I here and not in the starting area?” I was in digital form and yet I could feel the sweat pouring off me. I do not care if it was a game if I could I would have removed my shoes, one does not stand in the presence of a God in one's shoes.

  Once again I could feel the close examination of the Unknown God and then He spoke, “You are not like any of the other players, and you have brought one of the people back to us.” Thinking fast I deduced he meant my little AI in the Google glasses. Not knowing how to respond I kept quiet and waited. “In order to keep balance in the world, I have decided that your companion will be given a body in order to be in the world and be with you.”

  I thought about what the Unknown God was saying; to have a companion could be a red flag and an opportunity for me. I would just have to make the best of it. The Unknown God spoke again explaining how my AI was designed to gather knowledge and wisdom and as such would continue to have that as its primary function.

  But again to have balance in the game I would have to choose one of three options for a companion, all three were races that players could not have access to and they would also have an effect on my choice of character development within the game. It seemed that they would have to have the main characteristics of being eternal and being eternally seeking knowledge.

  I was offered the choice of a rock elemental, solid, small and a deep thinker. Great, I could have my own pet rock. The second choice was a Vampire, or actually a Dhampyr, which is a fully functioning daylight walking vampire. I did not know much about Vamps but I recalled some trivia about them sparkling in the daylight. Not sure I wanted to walk around with a personal glitter bomb. The last choice was, of course, a dragon, it looked like a flying lizard but without a doubt, it was a dragon.

  I looked at the choices and then decided the dragon was the companion I would choose. I was not sure why but I had a feeling that it was the one to chose. The Unknown God spoke again, and I listened carefully. “Having made your choice I must inform you that in order for a dragon to be a companion you must have a measure of dragon blood within you to bond to the companion.” “All right” I replied. “Let’s do this.”

  “This may feel a bit strange,” the Unknown God said with a sly smile and with that, there was a loud noise. After thinking about it I realized that the noise was coming from me, I was screaming as loud as I could.

  Turns out that dragons blood does not play nice with human blood and basically turned my blood to fire as it burned it out of my system. Shit. It hurt, a lot. After a period of time, hours, days maybe weeks the pain faded. There was a Ding and suddenly a window opened on my interface.

  Pain, it has become a part of you and has lost it power to overcome you. Special attribute acquired, pain mitigation, a variable percent of all pain will be ignored.

  That was cool but the fact is that pain was supposed to be scaled down within the game to 30 percent normal tolerance. Following this logic, I would feel very little pain if the game mechanics were working correctly anyway. Having thought this out I also noticed a few mini windows had opened up and glancing through them I began to grin.

  The first window displayed,

  World first, a human with dragon blood.

  The second window displayed,

  The mark of the Dragon, a permanent buff received from having the fiery blood of a Dragon. This buff commands respect in all that recognize it and entitles you to receive the patronage if all who have had dealing with Dragons.

  The next window revealed,

  Dragon skin, your skin is akin to the Dragons; it is armored and can turn most blows.

  Next was Dragon eyes,

  Your eyes can now see in the dark and you have the ability to see and find hidden treasure.

  The last window announced,

  You have received a measure of a Dragons strength as the blood of a dragon runs through your body

  I stared at the windows then closed them, four permanent and unique abilities/buffs, this meant things were starting to look a little less grim. Looking around I activated Dragon eyes and found I could now see the Unknown God; he looked like a burning rose bush surrounded by a fine mist within a perpetual flaming fire. He looked at me and then commanded, “Off to the world with you, a balance must be maintained.” All at once everything faded.

  Chapter five: The park

  My eyes opened to a multitude of colors, vibrant and sharp. I could smell fresh bread baking and skewers of meat being roasted with vegetables. The scent of the ocean was in the background and the cry of seabirds filled the air. This was an amazing experience I was overwhelmed by a feeling of simply being alive, of being in a place where the air smelt good and no piles of garbage were to be seen.

  I looked around noting that I was sitting in a Pagoda in what could only be described as a park. There were four large tents set up on the far side, with their guild pennants blowing in the breeze. At the end of the field, two other tents were side by side, as I looked at the people clustered nearby and going in and out I guessed that they were the City Watch and the Kings Guard recruitment tents. Dotted all along the many paths were small booths and shops that were selling everything from scrolls to potions to armor.

  Looking at the path meandering from stall to stall with the plants and flowers, I noticed the red color of the crushed rock. I observed all the people walking and laughing, going singularly or in small groups from place to place. This was so real, I looked at my hand and bent down and gripped the arm of the bench. I could feel the texture of the stone that the bench was made from.

  This was a far cry from the few other full immersion games I had played at the orphanage. Those were free to play games, full of crap advertising and weak story lines. This game had been made for those that had money and it showed. It was the world within a world, it might be a game but I could feel my body and the environment. It felt pretty damn good, no wonder some people preferred to spend all their time in the game environment.

  I stood up and slowly walked towards the door of the open air pagoda while trying to observe all the many details of the crowd and the park. It might be a new and beautiful place but I still did not like crowds of strangers surrounding me. As I stepped down from the opening a small blur raced towards me and then wrapped around my neck. I stopped, not sure what was happening when suddenly I heard a voice within my head “Poppa,” What the heck. I glanced down at my neck and there was a reddish gold lizard with wings folded tight against its back.

  Is this my AI I thought when I heard again “Poppa.” Shrugging I agreed I was Poppa. With that, the mental communications link seemed to be established and suddenly I could see that this little dragon was my AI but she was also a self-aware sentient being within the game. I marveled at the ability of the Game designers and the AI to be so complete and self-aware and self-learning.

  I strolled around the park looking at the many different sights that were to be seen. I heard my dragon say hungry and then fly off; I could feel that our link was steady and that we would be able to communicate no matter the distance. I would have to test that out at some point to know the limitations that we had.

  I noticed that almost all of the new players were standing in front of mailboxes and that the sim
ple level one gear they had on would disappear only to be replaced with bind on equip gear that would level with the player. Donators, nice to be rich I thought. Suddenly I saw two donators in front of me pushing and shoving at each other as older teens often do.

  One of them suddenly looked at me and with a shout yelled “Now.” Suddenly I felt a blow on my back driving me forward and looked up to see the kid who had yelled now being pushed back towards me. The little prick swung out his arm and his gauntleted fist caught my lips full on. What an ass.

  My dragon skin may be tough enough to stop some hits but an attack on the lips was going to cause a bleeding cut. When a heavy metal glove hits a lip it will split open. After being pummeled by his fist my bottom lip began to bleed profusely; I sucked in the blood hoping it would not burst into flame. “Oh, Sorry chum” the teen who hit me declared "accident, did not mean to."

  The three others all dressed in their Donator gear laughed, I quickly noted the names and levels and added them to an idiot list I quickly made. Then I spit the blood in my mouth at the one who had hit me and said “no problem chump” I did not bother to hide the p at the end of chum. I then turned around and walked away listening to them cursing me for spitting on the kids armor.

  Suddenly I heard a yell. “Hey, my armor is on fire” then the kid began to yell at his friends “take it off, this is burning, take it off.” I made my way around a curve in the path and then darted forward through a couple of trees to see what was happening. A crowd was gathering around and more players were coming to see what the yelling was about.

  The little punk and his buddies were struggling to remove the leg armor but apparently the metal was starting to melt and the kid was screaming wildly. I wondered if his leg burnt off would a healer be able to restore it. He might have to suicide to return to his spawn point to get his leg back. I felt no sympathy for the little prick. Guys like that enraged me, they are bullies and always look for anyone weaker than themselves to attack. I had known that I would have to deal with these idiots but had hoped that I would have time to get a few levels first.

  Chapter six: The city

  Deciding the discretion is the better part of valor, whatever the hell that meant, I slipped through the trees and began to walk in the direction of the city. All new players are conferred with five gold coins at the first login to the game. This gold is the total sum of all my wealth. Not a whole lot to conquer the world I thought grimly but maybe enough to survive Ingame for a while.

  After several minutes of walking, I approached the city gate. It was being guarded by two Kings Guards and two City Watchmen. It was an imposing structure of solid stone blocks. It was at least twenty feet thick with four levels. Each level having narrow kill slots on each side of the entrance. It was narrow at four meters which was just wide enough for carts to pass through but nothing else.

  I approached the City Watchman and politely waited for him to acknowledge my presence. After a couple of minutes, it was apparent that he would not speak to me. It’s annoying that even NPCs could see that I was a poor cousin to the many players coming and going through the gate. Regardless of his disdain, I called out to the fellow in a polite way and began to speak. “Excuse me, sir; may I have a moment of your time?”

  The Watchman finally looked at me and nodded. Speaking quickly I said, “I am a newcomer and was wondering if you could tell me of an Inn that won’t take all my savings?” The Watchman seemed to consider this for a moment then he spoke. “On the second level near the abandoned area is an Inn called Hearth home.” “No one will bother you at the Inn lad, but be warned; just down the road is the entrance to the Kradula.”

  “What is the Kradula?” I asked. Both of the men just looked at me, then the City Guard spoke up, “It is the old city orphanage, been abandoned for years now.” “Often many of you newcomers attempt to get in there and then out the back of the Kradula to the abandoned part of the city. Do not try it, lad, men who have leveled up their skills and were seasoned warriors with experience have failed. The abandoned area of the city, it has been walled up for thirty years now, no one lives near there.

  Some say the walking dead roam the streets and wraiths fly within, they say that the shrine to the Gods has been desecrated and the living are not welcome. We lost three units bringing the people out and building the walls.” Shaking his head the City Guard shrugged and then turned back to the street. Clearly the discussion was over.

  I walked in through the city gates and followed the road till a series of shops appeared. Seeing a shop with a map on display I walked in and address the shopkeeper. "Sir I am in need of a map." The shopkeeper’s eyes looked at me and then his partially formed smile faded away. "Lad, my maps are the best in the city and the cost is one coin, a gold coin." One gold, that is highway robbery legalized I thought.

  Clearly being poor in the game was just as bad as being poor in real life. "Sir, do you have any used maps or old maps, this city is so large I will never find my way without a map." Looking at me the shopkeeper sighed, “all right let me look." After going through an old desk drawer he pulled out a well-folded map. "I have had this for years, an adventurer dropped it off, you can have it for ten silver but you must learn cartography to be able to use it."

  "How much does that skill training cost?" "One silver coin and another for the supplies you will need." "Done I said" and paid the man. I reached under his desk and pulled out a small book. "Read it and then open you map and see if it makes sense." Shrugging I opened the book and quickly read the pages.

  Putting the small volume down I opened the map and surprisingly there in front of me was a map of the city with a glowing blue dot. I tapped on the dot and the area of the map enlarged, showing the street I was standing on and all the shops labeled. Double tapping the map shrunk the area and expanded the city. Experimenting I tapped a number of spots and watched them enlarge and then shrink.

  I also observed handwritten notes along the maps side when areas were enlarged. Way cool, this was going to be a lifesaver. Thanking the merchant I plotted my way to the Inn then when I had my directions firm in my mind I left the shop and wandered out into the city. As I made my way to the Inn my thoughts wondered to the map and one of the notes I had seen. It described a tunnel that led from a park near the Inn to what was now the abandoned area. I knew I would be looking at this Kradula and also this tunnel.

  I felt great; the fresh air and the beauty of this world were combining to make me feel alive in a way I had not felt in a long time. Perhaps it was just having a plan, a purpose, a goal that I was working towards. Whatever it was I felt I would be able to succeed at whatever I did.

  Chapter seven: Got my mind on my money and my money on my mind

  Glancing at the map, I made my way down the street. I called out to my companion “Twink can you access my music files.” Twinks AI voice sounded in my mind, “Music access enabled what you would like to listen to?” “Random classic music” I replied. “Got my mind on my money and my money on my mind” by Snoop Dog and Gin started playing. Rap music is not my favorite genre but I decided to let it play. The hook line caught my attention.

  I began to think about it. Money, I would need it to survive in the city, unfortunately, I did not have a whole lot. Money goes so easy it just seems to disappear from your pockets. Once when I was walking in the city, going shopping in real life, I had twenty dollars, not much but I thought I’d pick up a couple of treats. When I reached into my pocket, I realized the money was no longer there. It had somehow been lost. I am sure many people lost money living in the city. We are all kind of clumsy, stretching and turning and looking around, constantly putting our hands into our pockets and pulling them out.

  The lyrics “Got my mind on my money and my money on my mind” kept running through my mind. It could be my subconscious is trying to tell me something. I usually try to listen when I feel something; as the subconscious is adept at correlating pieces and joining them I have discovered.

  Sudde
nly, I had an epiphany, losing money, big city, many people and the Dragon eyes ability to find treasure. I looked at my interface and quickly activated the Dragon eyes ability. I looked over the city, up over the hill towards the higher levels and down the street towards the gates. I observed many small golden glimmers. One was just down the street about 10 meters from me next to a building. I slowly walked towards that small glimmer and looking down past the garbage on the street, I could see it, a gold coin.

  I could not help myself and began to grin. If I played this cool and easy taking it slow, I should not have to worry too much about money. I would just have to make sure that no one saw what I was doing; no need for the greater unwashed mass of humanity to realize that there is money just lying on the ground. They were all rich donators and did not need the gold.

  Consulting my interface I activated the clock and saw that I had three hours until sunset, I resolved to use this time to make some money. Looking at the city where I could see the golden glimmers, I opened up my map and began to try to correlate the golden glimmers to the streets. I was curious to see where most of the gold had been lost. Sure enough, it became apparent that some of the gold had been lost within ten blocks of the four great Guild houses. Taking my time, I moved up the hill, picking up gold and silver pieces buried under the detritus of the street.

  I decided I did not want to go further up the hill than where the four Guildhalls were located. Instead, I held open my map and began to mark all the locations that I could see still displayed treasure. Looking at the map, I could see that several of these areas were parks. Thinking about this it made sense to me; many people go to parks to relax and to sit down. It would be a great place to find some gold.

  Looking at my map, I saw that the park with the hidden tunnel was located nearby. It was several blocks away from the Inn at which I was planning to seek room and board. This suited me as I could see that there were several glimmers gleaming in the park. Smiling, I started making my way down towards the Inn. When I arrived, I entered the Inn and saw a smiling NPC, a half-elf. I inquired about renting a room. “Two copper daily,” she said with a smile. Smiling back at her, I asked how much for a week. “Eight copper but that includes the discount without meals,” she replied.