The Feedback Loop (3-Book Box Set): (Scifi LitRPG Series)

by Harmon Cooper

  Me: Yeah, I know. I just need a couple of days to get my bearings.

  Doc: No time for a couple of days. As Frances is likely trying to tell you, you did all of us a solid by blasting Strata Godsick with your Reaper Hack.

  Me: Yeah?

  Doc: We have his location now.

  My fists clench, squeeze the blanket covering my legs.

  Me: Where?

  Doc: Before I forget – I’m running one of my favorite, highly illegal, pirated MilWare utilities, so anything said during this exchange will immediately be deleted from the iNet server and our life chip archives.

  Me: Got it. Where is the bastard?

  Doc: Boulder, Colorado.

  Me: What do we do?

  Doc: What do you want to do?

  Me: You know exactly what I want to do.

  Doc: Well, that’s not really in our jurisdiction.

  Me: You of all people should know what we’re legally able to do.

  Doc: We can majorly inconvenience him and make his life hell, if that’s what you’re suggesting.

  Me: I’d like to do more.

  Doc: And you’d need to have actual training and experience to do more. Not to disembiggen your considerable VR skills, but there’s a major, MAJOR difference between doing it in Proxima and doing it for real.

  Me: I know, and yes, you’re right.

  Doc: But, retribution comes in many forms, and there are many, many other interesting and entertaining things that we can inflict upon him. We have his home now, mansion really, where he dives from. Look at the satellite and streetshot images I’m sending you.

  Me: Living it up like a happy one percenter.

  Doc: Yes, he is. Godsick, just like every other yuppie in this neighborhood is attached to a power grid. See the red box?

  Me: Yup.

  Doc: That’s his backup power generator.

  Me: Wish we could just bomb the whole place.

  Doc: Cool it, MacArthur. There is plenty we can do that just skirts illegality.

  Me: I don’t think toilet-papering his house will have much of an effect.

  Doc: But a flaming bag of skunk shit on his doorstep might. My point – let’s get creative for a moment. Imagine something like this: First, an EBAYmazon drone accidently impacts his back-up generator and damages it. When the generator calls for repair, the factory’s software update has a little added bonus, if you get my drift. Then we intermittently cut his power from the street, sometimes his backup generator works and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it comes on when he’s still got commercial power and trips all his breakers. His repair droids won’t find anything because our little added bonus hides when diagnostics are run.

  Me: Go on…

  Doc: He’ll call in human repairpersons, and about the third or fourth time they have to do a full system diagnostic, someone will get sloppy and leave the firewall down just to expedite things.

  Me: And then we’re in.

  Doc: And then we’re in. And then we apply full testicular torsion.

  Me: Who would do this exactly?

  Doc: Rocket and I. You have other things to do in Tritania. You must get to his son before he does. Remember, once you’ve found his son, you’ll need to find a logout point, so there’s plenty to do. Godsick leveraged something against you and lied; if you find his son, you’ll be able to leverage something against him. While we’re in his system, we can locate his son’s corporeal presence. We log his son out and we secure his body the same way Euphoria secured yours. We have leverage; people recovered from dreamworlds are required by law to be in our care for fifteen days. Of course, we don’t care for them ourselves, we leave that to the hospital, but leverage is leverage and this will give us the time we need to hit papa bear where it hurts. Hell, he may even spill his guts – if he doesn’t, the info Rocket and I uncover will aid us along. After all, once we know what to look for, we’ll know where to find it.

  Me: It doesn’t feel right.

  Doc: How not? This gives us a tremendous advantage. He’s proven that he’s willing to do anything to get the information he wants, including killing all the bleached prisoners trapped in The Loop.

  Me: They’re all dead?

  Doc: What did you think happened to them when The Loop collapsed? That’s what a source code bomb will do.

  Me: Can’t we pin the source code bomb on him then?

  Doc: Rocket and I may be able to, if we can get into his system. The legalities of this won’t be easy, but I’m working on a way to spin it that will cover our asses.

  Me: I got it. So we pin the bleachies’ deaths on him and open up a whole different can of worms.

  Doc: Then we go fishing.

  Me: Got it. Plus, we work on getting his son.

  Doc: You’re catching on. One more thing before I get back to the feeding, watering, and shoveling of the poopage.

  Me: What’s that?

  Doc: Sorry about Dolly.

  Me: Yeah, I am too.

  Doc: The thing you can do now is make her sacrifice worth it. So, take the weekend to get your shit together and be ready to raise some hell come Monday.

  The End

  Wait. Before you do anything else, please leave a review for the Feedback Loop Box Set.

  CLICK HERE TO REVIEW ON AMAZON.

  I’ll wait.

  Good, now e-mail me at writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com with the title “I reviewed the box set” and I’ll send you a copy of Book Four for free.

  Yes free, as in a free fourth book in the series.

  If you liked this series, the most you can do is review it and let other readers know, thanks!

  P.S. There is a preview of Book Four at the back of this book.

  The fourth book in the Feedback Loop Series is called Reapers and Repercussions and it is available here. Join my reader’s group to be the first to hear about new releases.

  Note: there will be eight books in the Feedback Loop series with some big surprises to come. Stay tuned and tuned stay!

  Back of the Book Shit

  Book One:

  Dear Reader,

  The Feedback Loop was modeled off a number of things, most notably a movie called Groundhog Day, the writing style of Charles Bukowski, Pulp Fiction, two manga/anime series called Sword Art Online and Tokyo Ghoul (can be viewed for free at kissanime.com), the science fiction book Ready Player One and the comic book series, Sin City. The formation of the Proxima World was based on an article I read in The New Yorker called “World without End,” by Raffi Khatchadourian. I wanted to blend all these things into Cyber Noir or The Loop, and place a character inside it who couldn’t log out.

  Lately, I’ve been casting movie and television actors in my head to better write characters. Quantum Hughes is Michael Pitt, Frances Euphoria is Charlize Theron (or Scarlett Johansson on some days), Morning Assassin is Adam Driver, Dolly is Laura Prepon with the voice of Yael Stone (both from the show Orange is the New Black.)

  The Feedback Loop Series takes place twenty-five years before my other science-fiction series, Life is a Beautiful Thing. For readers of both series, you’ve likely noticed that The Feedback Loop is tame compared to my other series. For those who haven’t checked out Life is a Beautiful Thing, I suggest getting it on Amazon here or signing up for my reader’s group and getting the first two books for free as it is a wild ride. I should warn you though – it is vulgar, insane, violent, cutting-edge, bizarre and everything in between.

  More on the Feedback Loop.

  This book was written over the month of May 2015. I prepped for a month beforehand, taking notes, working on the story arc and finalizing the VE dreamworld concepts. Originally, Quantum Hughes was supposed to be in love with Frances Euphoria, but as the book developed, the time he spent with Dolly became more and more important, even though it doesn’t take a center role in the story until the middle-end.

  Quantum’s speech pattern, especially some of the phrases he uses, was borrowed from lists I found detailing idioms and other uni
que verbs used predominantly in the 1940s and 50s. I tried to use these types of words and phrases as much as I could, as I wanted to show that he had picked up these colloquialisms in The Loop and had since appropriated them. Dolly also benefited from my idiom research. This is pointed out once or twice in the manuscript by Frances (calling Quantum out), but I wanted to keep the focus more on the action rather than his antiquated expressions.

  I suppose I like exploring these concepts, the future of relationships if you will. Quantum’s time with Dolly the NVA Seed is an example of this in The Feedback Loop. In my other series, Meme’s relationship with a Humandroid named Yeshi also explores this futuristic dilemma. It is an interesting thing to think about, especially as our dependency on technology progresses. Maybe I’ll be alive long enough to see the first human/A.I. relationships.

  Thanks to my girlfriend, Sor Ganbold, for reading an early draft while riding on an old Soviet train and encouraging me further. Also, a special pollute-filled thanks goes out to Ben for helping me craft the product description and Dale for reading an early version of said product description onboard a ship (not the Titanic). I am a one-man band at times, drumming for nobody but the voices in my head. I appreciate those who’ve stumbled upon me and encourage me further. The biggest thanks possible goes out to Kay in Scotland, who advised me on the difference between stationary and stationery (!), and whose keen eye greatly improved the novel.

  Thanks as large as Rollins” muscles go out to my editor, George C. Hopkins, for his beautiful work on this piece. This book is littered with more obscure movie and literature references than a sane man could list here and most were suggested by George. Further, he greatly improved the style of the manuscript and greatly inspired my edit of the second book in the series, Steampunk is Dead. If you’ve enjoyed the read and ever find yourself in Goose Country, buy this man a beer or three.

  Also, if you caught the word phorusrhacid, you may want a better explanation on the fascinating terror birds. Look no further than an email George recently sent me on the troubled species:

  “Everybody should care about Phorusrhacidae, a 10 foot tall, razor-sharp eagle-beaked apex predator capable of speeds up to 30MPH, with feet equipped with Velociraptor claws! Especially the de-extincted ones that were illicitly hatched by the same type of dumbass that keeps a Bengal Tiger in a trailer park, and then released into the wild by these same dumbasses when they got too expensive to feed and kept eating their pitbulls.

  The smaller species of phorusrhacidae (about 3 - 4 foot tall) make excellent guardians for geese, but you have to raise them together as hatchlings so the phorusrhacidae imprint on the geese, think of themselves as geese and see the geese as family and not food.

  Rhacids are hell on the squirrels, rats and mice, foxes, raccoons, armadillos, feral dogs and cats, and bobcats. They’ll pick up the feral piglets, and have a NorK/SouK standoff type of understanding with the adult feral hogs. They’re not too crazy about the skunks after getting sprayed the first time, and they make the goats nervous even though they think of the goats as especially ungainly, unfeathered, four-legged geese.

  The UPS, USPS, and FedEx delivery drivers are only supposed to drop off at the outer perimeter fence in the drop-off box SPECIALLY PROVIDED for that purpose, especially after that one time a UPS driver that wasn’t the regular gal was stuck inside her truck for 18 hours after she ignored the ‘Beware of Terror Birds, Trespassers Will Be EATEN’ and ‘DO NOT ENTER! Biosecurity Enforcement Area! Help Keep Our Flock Healthy. DO NOT ENTER!’ signs and came inside the outer perimeter fence. The combined flock swarmed the truck and the Rhacids flattened her tires.”

  TLDR – don’t screw around with Terror Birds, be they extinct, de-extincted or on their way to extinction.

  In unrelated news:

  Review me.Independent authors thrive on reviews, as they provide encouragement and help get our books in the hands of other readers. Please reviewThe Feedback Loop Box Set.I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

  Thanks for taking the time to read this and supporting independent authors.

  Until we meet again on a page of ink or paper,

  Harmon Cooper, July 2015

  Writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

  Book Two, Steampunk is Dead:

  Dear Reader,

  Firstly, if you’ve made it this far and haven’t reviewed The Feedback Loop Book One, please do so by clicking here. This is the best way to get people started on the series, especially reviewing Book One if you haven’t already.

  Steam and gears.

  The research for this book was mostly done through visual mediums, most notably the movies Steamboy and Sucker Punch. I wanted the world of Steam to be multi-faceted and feel authentic, even though it seems trivial to Quantum. In the book, we visit Locus and Morlock, but there are other cities to explore and dungeons to conquer on Steam.

  When I first set out to write this book, I figured it would be a one-off affair. Quantum and Frances go to Steam, they get the information they want, and they return to the real world. Boom – novel finished. As it turns out, Steam is too big of a world to appear in just one book and Ray Steampunk is a character with vast stores of information. So expect more steamy shenanigans (that doesn’t mean sex) in the future.

  The next book in the Feedback Loop series will be called High Fantasy. It will be available at the end of November, beginning of December. I’m looking forward to this book, as it will add an even bigger fantasy element to the series. Expect some dragons, orcs, giants and all things Tolkien (or Martin?) in the next installment.

  Plus, The Loop, Steam, the Battling Brits, Aiden, Dolly, posturing Reapers and more.

  Relation to my other series.

  The Feedback Loop series takes place twenty-five years before my other sci-fi series, Life is a Beautiful Thing. I plan to continue writing in this world indefinitely through these two series and more in the future. In Steampunk is Dead, we are introduced to Humandroids, pollutes and iNet – all staples in Life is a Beautiful Thing – which takes place in 2083, a year I chose as it would be my 100th birthday if I live that long (please say I won’t – I’d hate to see how wrong I am about the future).

  Quantum’s struggle with his own humanity is also something that has come to the forefront in this series. Like most of us, he’s full of contradictions and opinions. The fact that he won’t take a cybernetic upgrade is an example of this. In a Proxima World, he would happily take a replacement part, but not in the real world. I find this to be the most humanizing thing about this character. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said or done something knowing that it goes against my convictions or the pre-conceived notion of my convictions.

  Words and more words.

  If you’ve read my other series, Life is a Beautiful Thing, you’ve like noticed my obsession with word play and unique words. We share a language that increases in vastness daily. The Feedback Loop series borrows from old words, hard-boiled detective sayings and phrases, as well as language that has fallen out of popularity. Finding these words is part of my research process. I’d like to personally thank the Internet and the people in charge of listicles for making Q’s dialogue possible. (What is a listicle? An article + a list. Aka clickbait).

  Thank you, Internet Jesus. I’ll sacrifice something later.

  Thanks and more thanks.

  Much appreciation goes out to Kay who beta read this piece. The best… the best! Ben made some steamy suggestions that helped with my research. Keep lotioning, I want some socks. Others provided encouragement through their reviews and emails. You know who you are. To my editor, George C. Hopkins, your dedication to this series and suggestions on this book in particular have made Steampunk is Dead truly something to be remembered. If you found a very familiar quote in the book, or a reference that seemed too good to be true, it was likely George’s suggestion. Trust your editor, folks!

  Check out my Amazon profile by clicking here if you haven’t already.

  Yours in san
ity,

  Harmon Cooper

  Book Three, High Fantasy:

  Dear Reader,

  Like many American males – at least Millennials – I grew up playing video games. My favorites were RPGs, most notably Chrono Trigger, Zelda, and almost anything by SquareSoft (now called Square) aside from the Final Fantasy series. Which is blasphemous, I know, but c’est la vie. Regardless of my opinions of the series, Q had to get the Buster Sword, Cloud Strife’s trademark weapon.

  I gave up video games about ten years ago, and while I’ve slipped a few times and started playing smartphone games – damn you, Angry Birds – I try to avoid them, not because I don’t like them, but because I like them so much.

  My current relationship with videogames is as follows:

  1) For some reason, I find myself in the app store.

  2) I search RPGs

  3) I download several

  4) I start playing them

  5) I delete them after I’ve realized how much time I’ve wasted

  I suppose things could be worse, at least I’m not into FanDuel or DraftKings.

  The concept of virtual worlds, either strictly virtual or as in this series, dream-based, came up in a long conversation I had with a German friend a few days ago. We were walking along a dirt road in Texas, fifteen miles away from the nearest city.

  As Millennials, both of us are versed in computers. We spoke about how future computer innovations won’t be hard for us to adapt to. Unlike previous generations, we were born into a computer world, coming of age at a time when everything was already up and running. Adaption to future tech, be it software or social media, will always have a root in the computing of the past, the computing we grew up doing.

  The place where Millennial adaptation changes is in the digital realm. At the time of this writing, Facebook is about to drop Oculus Rift, Apple has acquired FaceShift, Google and Microsoft are both investing heavily in virtual reality; somewhere in Silicon Valley, a start-up is months to years away from doing something groundbreaking in this emerging field (and making more money than the Catholic Church makes in one hundred years).