by D Wolfin
End Online
Volume 1
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to characters, names, locations or incidents are purely coincidental.
Copyright © D. Wolfin 2014
First Edition
Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 978-0-9942421-0-5
By making the purchase of this book you have been granted non-exclusive, non-transferable, right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced in any way without the explicit permission of the author.
Table Of Contents
Chapter 1 – End Online
Chapter 2 – The Irritation of Aggravation
Chapter 3 – Money Made and Everything Lost
Chapter 4 – Determination
Chapter 5 – Companion of Loyalty
Chapter 6 – Welcome to Goblin Central
Information About Inside the Game
Chapter 1 – End Online
It was 5 years ago, Autumn 2021 that it was released. The virtual reality headset simply called the V-Link, nicknamed VL for short, created a massive storm around the entire world with its endless possibilities of allowing people to enter virtual space using an avatar that you control as your own body. A simple black helmet with a visor on its face tinted dark enough that you could see out of but nobody could see in, intercepted and blocked all conscious neural signals at top of the spinal cord in the neck. Two strips of LED’s on the right hand side above the ear indicated wireless signal on one strip and the other indicated power, connection and data loading status.
The VL outdated the old headsets that merely allowed you to view virtual space while you controlled your avatar with controllers in each hand, inevitably leaving cables that caused you to entangle yourself and trip if you turned too much in one direction.
However, it only lasted a few weeks. When the hardware became available there was next to no software for it. The company in their excitement of having a working product skipped a lot of product testing, leading to a scenario where all the software for the previous devices was incompatible.
Everyone who purchased the device, especially those who pre ordered up to 12 months prior, felt that they had been given a chessboard with no pieces. The only usable functions were some online chat rooms and other small time software packages provided by the company.
If Virtue, the creators of the VL learned anything from this, it was that grouping all the unsatisfied purchasers into groups to talk among themselves about the new product was a ticking time bomb for PR. Soon enough people grew sick of the device that had little more to offer than chatrooms and board games, starting the rumours of how useless it was.
Demand for the VL plummeted along with its retail price by 40% in less than a month, and most developers halted work on software for a failing product, Thus leading us to today.
***************************************************
My name is Hollis Sylvester, dull green eyes, 19 years of age, and barely an inch over six feet tall. As for my looks I wouldn’t particularly say I’m overly bad looking, I have near black hair, styled as a loose ball of hair tied up behind my head, and with a few strands of slightly curly hair loose it had its own aesthetical appeal. My face is quite angular and well defined with a little stubble growing along my jaw and lower lip, people have admired my looks before but I would hardly say I was chiselled by gods own hands.
I keep in relatively good shape due to my day job. I work from Monday to Friday with a housing construction company called Jack’s Builders, start is at 8am and finish is sometimes as late as 6pm. It’s hard work but it’s something that needs to be done. I have two little sisters at home.
Since that day 2 years ago when our parents were involved in the accident, I had dropped out of high school and gotten a full time job so I could look after them and prevent us from being separated into different foster homes.
A lot of criticism was sent my way from the students and teachers when I left school, mainly about me being a delinquent and a lowlife, I can’t exactly blame them considering I fit the image quite well.
“Hey Hollis, It’s time to go home! Don’t stick around here, you need to go enjoy your weekend!” My boss Jack shouts at me from across the work site. Yes, it is a Friday evening and I am currently at my job, building a two story house downtown for a newly married couple to live in and start a family, what a peaceful life they must have.
“Okayyy, I’m going now, see you again on Monday!” giving a monotonous shout back I place down the wheelbarrow with the rest of the materials I’ve been cleaning up and putting away inside the house, wiping the sweat from my forehead I start heading towards my car. It’s a two door, five seater car called an Astral Lux, the name is much fancier that it actually is. It is painted a deep red, but that is mostly faded from countless years in the sun.
I bought it in this condition, but it was the only thing I could afford at the time, hidden completely at the back of the car yard under a cloth cover and a price tag cheaper than a month’s groceries.
Fuel prices for it are exponential, considering all the modern cars run off hydrogen fuel cells whilst mine runs off the old gasoline. Demand may have dropped significantly however being a fossil fuel and its limited resources nowadays, the price is an astounding five times higher than what it was five years ago.
Driving home I pass a few convenience stores and bottle shops, it’s only a quick decision that I can’t particularly afford any luxuries this week, I have two hundred dollars left and I don’t get paid again until Wednesday afternoon.
Fifteen minutes and I’m turning into my street, catching a glimpse of the central city skyline. Taile is one the world’s largest cities, yet despite all its splendour, the very outskirts are incredibly poor with homelessness at an unprecedented high. Currently I’m leaving the middle of downtown where my current work site is, heading towards my home in the outer district, one section below downtown and only one above the slums.
Parking on the street in front of the house, I inspect my home. It is a two bedroom flat with a flaky white weatherboard exterior and a light grey tin roof to complete the image. The inside is mostly cream walls and ceiling, but the floor was made from polished wood which was nice. The kitchen and living room are separate which is nice however it’s nothing much more than the basic home.
Also inside waiting for me are my two little sisters, Joelle and Shari.
Joelle is fourteen years old and currently in the second year of high school, she wears her mousey brown hair in a ponytail that extends halfway down her back. Her green eyes that are just like mine, only they seem to contain much more light than mine. Joelle has just started going through puberty, reaching my chest is currently in the middle of a growth spurt.
Shari is twelve this year and in her sixth year of primary school, she has also started her growth spurt but she has some catching up to do on Joelle. She is almost a twin to her sister in looks except the hair style and height. Her hair is incredibly straight hair going a little past her shoulder, clipping her fringe to the side to keep it out of her face.
“”Hollyy, when’s dinner? We’re hungry!”” An irritation over the nickname by the two causes my eyebrow to twitch for a moment, but looking at the time does indicate it’s just about dinner time, “Give me a moment, I’ve just got home, how does beef curry sound?” They both nod with an “unn” noise in response to my question before running off to the bedroom that they share.
I figure I may as well start dinner now before I sit down and don’t want to get back up again. Strolling into the kitchen I grab the apron from the back door and opening th
e fridge, retrieve some meat, vegetables, and a half empty jar of curry sauce.
After I chop the vegetables and start cooking the meat, I set the rice cooker to prepare the rice. A few spices later the dish was ready, an easy yet tasty dinner. Joelle and Shari must have been able to smell it as when I was serving they basically ran into the kitchen and sat down at the table in the middle of the room.
“So, how was school for you today? I trust that you’re studying hard,” I ask the two girls placing their dinner in front of them, sitting at the end of the table with my own.
“It was really funny! Today, Annie asked out a boy from another class and his entire face went red like a tomato!” Joelle replies first covering her mouth with her hand as she giggles. Shari follows suit with the giggling and I smile to myself listening to these two little girls talking about their day at school. They really know how to brighten up a room with their innocent smiles and laughter.
“Hollis, this curry is a little too spicy,” Shari changes the subject with a pout, “but it’s still really nice though!” I know they lie to me sometimes, but they know how hard I work for them so they do their best.
I managed to keep them in school in downtown, which is a great deal nicer than this area we were forced to move to with our parents gone. It’s sad as the city in all its greatness is pretty much built up of a hierarchy, The centre is where all the major corporations and their families reside, and then broken down into rings extending from that point you have the upper district, middle district, lower district, downtown district, outer district and finally the slums.
We are in the outer district and whilst we are all technically called a part of Taile City, every one of the ten million residents living in this city know where they belong and that it is practically impossible to move up districts, because just like them, everybody is holding onto their current position in order to maintain it.
There aren’t any walls or gates preventing access to the different districts, you can catch a train right into the central areas of the city if you wanted. Joelle and Shari catch the train into downtown for school most mornings after all.
However, most people stay in their area to avoid all the discrimination from the upper echelon against people they see as “below” themselves, there are also many stores that want photo identification as they won’t even serve people from the downtown and lower districts. It is not a nice world but it is the one we live in.
As I come back to reality the girls have already placed their empty plates in the sink and disappeared from the kitchen, probably playing on their computer. I could only afford to get them one to share, I may have one of my own but I haven’t been able to afford a third one. Sometimes one of the girls will use mine so they can play games over the home network together but they are usually fine sharing, the only fights come when one deletes the others save file or such.
The sun had already set and the kitchen is spotless, all the dishes washed and put away, table is clean, no cobwebs or dust in the room. I may look like a bit of a delinquent but I’m actually quite the neat freak, I can’t stand dirt and anything out of place needs to be corrected, that’s just the kind of guy I am.
There wasn’t much for me to do for the rest of the night, the only noises being the girls chattering in their room about boys or something similar. I decide to go have a shower to clean off the days’ worth of sweat, seeing myself in the mirror as I get out after a good scrubbing and cleaning my little sisters hair out of the drain. My hair is untied and hanging down to about my shoulders, my muscles are quite prominent due the nature of my work. While I wouldn’t exactly call myself large, I am not that small either.
As I get dressed in the bathroom my mobile starts ringing on the bench. Picking it up before the vibrating makes it fall off the edge, I see that Jack, my boss, is calling.
“Hey Boss, you’re calling rather late?”
“Yeah, it just occurred to me I forgot to lock up the property for the weekend, can you drop by tomorrow morning and do it for me?”
“That shouldn’t be an issue. Do I get paid extra for it? you know petrol costs me a bunch”
“Sorry Hollis, I don’t really have much extra money on me to give to you, and it only costs so much because you drive a rundown antique” I can’t even tell if he’s irritated or having a joke.
“Sorry for being poor,” I give a little sigh at my hopelessness, “I’ll drop by tomorrow morning and lock the front door to the house.”
“Thanks for that, I owe you one. Just remember the front door is a bit of a tight fit so you have to pull it shut pretty hard, and don’t forget the back door either” *beeep* He hangs up on me shortly after saying that, not even a goodbye huh. I wouldn’t call him unfriendly person but I wouldn’t exactly call him friendly either.
The time is currently 8pm, no point telling the girls to go to bed this early, it’s not a school night or anything so I may as well let them stay up and wear themselves out. Donning my light blue pyjamas with dark blue stripes I head off to bed thinking that all I need now is some cute teddy bear and surely nobody will consider me a delinquent any more.
Oh who am I kidding, nothing could kill the image that everyone instantly assigns me, my years at school proved that fact,
***************************************************
The sun glares through my window at 7:00am, Saturday morning, I even hear a couple of birds calling out in the early sunshine. It doesn’t take long for me to get up and head to kitchen still in pyjamas, placing a cup on the table and grabbing the milk out of the fridge, I notice something a little off with the milk bottle in my hand. Inspecting it a little I notice that there is about half of what there was last night, there also isn’t any dirty cups in the sink where the girls always leave them. Maybe someone broke in, it’s not uncommon in this area.
I feel a vein start throbbing on my forehead, no robber would drink our milk, the girls have once again been drinking out of the bottle when they know they’re not supposed to. I could bet money that the culprit is once again Shari.
Tossing up whether to go wake them up for a scolding or not, I decide to drop it as they’re probably pretty worn out from a late night. Tying up my hair without even considering to look at the state it’s in, I pick up my keys and head out, leaving a note for the girls that I should be back for lunch, or if I’m not to reheat some of last night’s leftovers.
On the way to lock up the job site I take in my surroundings, the area we live in is considerably run down, not to the point of falling apart but it gives off a ‘shabby’ vibe to it. The weather on the other hand is fantastic, a clear blue sky with only a couple of clouds drifting across.
There was no traffic so half an hour later I arrive at the site. I see a mostly constructed house, the walls have been put on in a rush due to time constraints, but they are to be properly secured next week. All I need to do today is lock the front and back door. Passing in through the front door that was left open and having a quick look around everything appears to be in the place it was left yesterday, nothing stolen is always a relief. The smell of sawdust and cut plasterboard is still hanging around as I lock the rear door and turn around to head back.
It’s surprising Jack still makes houses out of wood, synthetic beams made of a carbon fibre made their way onto the market 7 years ago and revolutionised the construction industry in both its strength and earthquake resistance. I only assume he uses wood to save on money, but at 40 years old he is probably more comfortable with wood anyway.
Locking the front door from the handle inside I exited closing it behind me, except, it jammed and got stuck on the door frame, what a poor fit! I gave it a tug with a little bit of strength, still nothing, something is seriously wrong here. I knit my brows, it shouldn’t get stuck at all, even a little tight could be understandable but this is simply over the top. I pull with all of my strength and *click* the door closes with the feeling of pulling out the entire front of the house. Well at least it’s closed
and locked now, time to head home and relax, maybe taking Joelle and Shari out for some ice-cream or something wouldn’t be a bad idea, have some family time together. I try my best to support them even if our parents are no longer around, yeah, since that accident 2 years ago when they were– *crack* *snap*
***************************************************
Huh, why is everything black? Why can’t I breathe? No, wait, I am breathing, I just have this crushing feeling all through my chest. What was I doing before? Oh, that’s right, I just finished up locking the house we were working on for my boss and was leaving, I remember hearing a strange sound..
My memories slowly came back to me, I was walking away from the two story house when I heard the sound of something cracking before finally giving way and breaking, was it the sound of wood?
An idea suddenly occurred to me, no it couldn’t have possibly happened, there is no way.
A source of light starting shining down from somewhere above me, could this possibly be death?
Impossible, you look into the light when you die.
However something grabbed my shoulders, pulling me up into the light.
But is it up? Which way is up? Am I being dragged to hell?
No, also impossible, I have been nothing but a saint my entire life, or could god be judging me a delinquent based off my looks too?
Doubt it.
As thoughts roamed my head the light gradually enveloped my vision, I was rolled around and witnessed the sky, it was dyed in beautiful shades of crimson and deep oranges, and there was even a streak of yellow running across like it was piercing all the other colours. And then it was night, no, that’s not correct, I just passed out.
September 26, 2026... That was the day I had a house collapse on me.
***************************************************
When I opened my eyes again it was morning.