Chapter 6: Truth
Aker’s Stats
Level 10
$20,305 RM
Health: 10 (+6 Necklace, DrakeScale Cape)
Speed: 20 (+3 Speed Shoes)
Strength: 24 (+5 Gold Bracelet)
Sneak: 12
Blood Bonus: 5
Bite: 8 (+3 Bite Ring)
Mesmerize: 4
Regeneration: 3
Sun Resistance: -50
Night Vision: 50
Special Vampire Moves: Time Warp (1), Blood Lust (+1 Necklace), Dark Magic Spell (Exitium)
Inventory 71/200: Black Tee, Black Pants, Black Boots, DrakeScale Cape (+150 inventory space, +5 Health), Necklace (+1 Health, +1 Blood Lust), Gold Bracelet (+ 5 Strength), Silver Silenced Pistol, Sniper Rifle, 42 Bullets, 9 Stun Bullets, Speed Shoes (+3 Speed), Bite Ring (+3 Bite), Ax, Winter Hat, 1ReelC Candy, Shovel
The drink was warm and had a thick, pulpy consistency. It tasted bitter and was absolutely the worst thing I had eaten or drank since arriving in VampQuest. I could only hold down a small sip at a time. It took me nearly an hour to down the whole drink. I was focused on breathing in and out; anything more would have surely caused me to barf. As I continued to breathe, my body was finally able to process the heavy liquid. The moment my stomach started to feel better, my head began to spin. The forest began changing shapes. The animal noises from the surrounding forest seemed to grow louder, and find a cohesive rhythm. The forest seemed to be communicating with me; it was nature’s song. I felt I understood this world more at a fundamental level.
I walked to the edge of the circle and put my hand on one of the thick, sturdy tree trunks. The bark appeared to be encrypted. I felt the tree’s energy pulse through my hand. It struck me that the tree was somehow alive and growing, but also in another sense, only code. I closed my eyes and saw the tree in a whole new light. It was as if I were looking at the unique code of the tree. Lines and lines of code, defining its rigid nature. Code allowing it to grow a certain amount per day. Code that even allowed it to reproduce, given the right circumstances. I opened my eyes again to try to come back to reality. I lay down on the ground and stared upward; the leaves were far more vivid than before and appeared to be spiraling in on themselves.
I need to figure out who I really am. That’s why Ra gave me this drink.
I closed my eyes, this time with intense focus and asked, “Who am I?” My mind brought back memories from VampQuest at first, showing me my determination and desire to do good, and reminded me how I had grown from a scared, weak player to one who would take action and even risk my own well-being to achieve my goals. I focused on where I was before I entered VampQuest.
A brief moment of reprieve passed where my mind was utterly blank, but then piece by piece, I remembered my old body. I was a twenty-something—no wait, I was thirty—and good looking. A flash of memories bombarded me, and I focused on a call from my mother wishing me a happy thirtieth. I remembered her saying I was truly getting old now. I had short, tousled brown hair and kept my beard trimmed to just longer than a five o'clock shadow. I remembered my real name was Archibald.
I could see myself standing proudly at my college graduation with a master’s degree in computer science, and remembered the many nights spent emulating my favorite games’ code. Finally I recalled I had partnered with some of the biggest players in the industry to get my creation, Reel Life Online, distributed to the world.
This is my game. I’m in my own game.
I remembered the initial thrill at obtaining more money than I knew what to do with, followed by the emptiness I had when I realized life wasn’t that different once I had everything I wanted.
People had come up to me with so many new ideas, new ways to make my game better. In my pride and love for my creation, I turned them away. One man who worked for me kept coming back and pestering me, telling me his work would be the next big thing, a patch that could save Reel Life Online from going down the same path as all the old blockbuster games of the past. The games that started with huge success, but soon dwindled to a core fanbase, and then finally to nothing as each of the old fans found a new and improved version of the game.
Scott was his name. He had been one of the lead coders working with me once Reel Life Online was up and running. He had been instrumental in my continued success, but I couldn’t let my game change with the tide; I’d spent so many years of my life creating it, and after all, it was still the hottest game around. Scott persisted, developing patch after patch for my game, evolving it. He was indeed a visionary, practically a genius, but I couldn’t let him change my game to the point where I wouldn’t recognize it anymore.
One day he asked me to stop by his house to try his latest work. He called it VampQuest, and promised me I wouldn’t be able to say no to it. After all, it combined something we both loved—the wonderful universe of Reel Life Online, and vampires.
I had loved vampires since I was a teenager and even throughout college. During my formative years I devoured any book about them I could get my hands on, and when I wasn’t reading about vampires I was listening to the electric and melancholy verses from bands who professed to be the paranormal creatures I was so fascinated with.
Scott promised me his patch would do justice to what we imagined a vampire’s life would really be like, and be almost completely unnoticed by the casual Reel Life Online players. The biggest upside would be that we could finally become vampires. I liked his idea, but certainly didn’t want it muddying my perfect virtual world. I never even tried out his VampQuest patch despite his repeated offers; I didn’t give it or him the time of day. One day he sent me a message saying he was going to end it all, and I hurried over to his place, taking his threat seriously.
I saw myself enter his house like I was watching a movie of my own life. The ceramic floors were perfectly polished, the granite countertops gleamed in the setting sunlight, and everything was quieter than a whisper. I felt something was off. An eerie aura surrounded the home. A chill went up my spine as I watched myself enter through Scott’s large doorway. He stuck a needle into my neck as I entered his home, and I passed out.
I tried to touch my body, but my attempts were useless. I watched helplessly as he hefted my body across the floor. As always he was dressed in a slim-fitting suit, a picture-perfect businessman. Even now, in this absurd situation, he had an air of duty about him. No emotion was conveyed by his clean-cut face.
He set me down on a full immersion gaming bed and began plugging me into a series of systems. One line fed me a drug that would repress my personal memories. Another fed me food and water, and finally, he hooked me up to a system that would handle my body’s other natural functions. Then he plugged me into his game. He had leaked a beta version of VampQuest to a few of his good friends, and it was already spreading online through various pirating sites.
“Now you’ll see how great of a game I created,” he said.
He left me there on the gaming bed, but came back periodically. Sometimes he even played in a chair next to me. I watched as my body sat motionless for days that turned into weeks, plastered to this chair, unable to escape the patch he had designed.
It all makes sense now. This is the reason why vampires seem so out of place in Reel Life Online, they were never meant to be there.
During the time I was trapped in the game, he started selling the first one hundred spots in VampQuest. I looked over his shoulder as he read news articles on his phone about how the creator of Reel Life Online had mysteriously gone missing. Scott was voted in as interim CEO of RLO, and was capitalizing on his newly given power at the company to debut his new game patch, ostensibly for the betterment of Reel Life Online.
I shuddered at the thought of him doing this to me. We had been friends, almost, but I hadn’t listened to his ideas as often as I should have. He didn’t have enough freedom to grow and get the credit he felt he deserved. It had driven him to take matters into his own hands and in doing so, he finally
got what he wanted.
I knelt down over my body and rested my head on my own chest. I was trying to pass on hope and good feelings to my impaired true self. How could I escape this?
Just as I thought this, Ra appeared beside me. She looked sorrowful, but also understanding.
“I created this game?” I asked Ra, astounded.
“You did.”
“Thank you for showing me all this,” I said, feeling sad, mad, and overwhelmed.
“Aker, now you must make a choice. Do you want to continue living in VampQuest, to protect your creation as a powerful vampire? Or would you like to return to your body and fight Scott from the real world?” Ra asked as if she already knew my answer.
“What will happen to my account if I leave?”
“That depends on what you do once you are back in the real world. Are you going to destroy the code Scott has implemented? Or will you seek legal action? Whatever you do will change the future in the game, as well as in the real world.”
I felt the immense weight of my decision riding on my shoulders. I couldn’t let Scott get away with this. He had drugged me and rendered me a nonentity, all so he could implement his patch into my game. I couldn’t really fight him from within the game. But maybe VampQuest was a good idea after all? Or maybe not. I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
“I need to alert the real-world authorities about Scott. So for now, I need to go back to my old body,” I said. My eyes stung as I held back tears. I didn’t want to leave Ra and Anuket, I felt incredibly close to them. They were my friends.
Ra began smiling. Her long whiskers raised, along with her eyebrows.
“I was hoping you would choose that path. Anuket, come here a moment,” Ra called.
Anuket appeared out of thin air beside her mother.
“So you’re really going, huh?” Anuket asked as she climbed up my back and sat on my shoulder. She started batting my ear with her furry paw.
“Hopefully only for a little while. Once I get Scott sorted, I want to return to go on more adventures with you and your mom,” I said sincerely.
“Sure, if you think you can keep up with us,” Anuket said playfully, then pounced on her mom’s back.
“I bet you couldn’t beat me in a race,” I said, wishing my time with these two didn’t have to come to an end so soon.
“That’s a joke, I’m way faster than you,” Anuket said and laughed.
I’ll miss that laugh.
“The process will take some time,” Ra said, and suddenly we were on the mountaintop where I had placed the golden boulder. “Drinking this should allow your body to start rendering the drugs Scott has been pumping into you useless. After this drink hits your system, you should come to shortly after. It is important that you envision your soul returning to your body.”
I accepted the new disgusting red drink that Ra handed me. Luckily my mouth had been desensitized by the last drink she had given me. This one at least had a lemony aftertaste.
“Goodbye, Aker. You had a wonderful effect on this world. I hope you return soon,” Ra said and placed her huge paw on my head, giving me her blessing.
“Bye, Gothy,” Anuket said, and her voice was rich with emotion. The two cats began walking down the mountain; a moment later their innate camouflage kicked in and they disappeared.
I sat alone on the mountaintop trying to clear my head and return to my real body. The liquid Ra had given me was roiling within my gut. I haven’t eaten any solid food for a long time. I tried to focus on my breathing, but was using most of my concentration to keep the frothy, bitter, and lemony drink in my stomach. I brought my mind and body under control eventually and envisioned myself slipping back into my mundane human body. Did Scott deserve to go to jail for this? VampQuest really was an amazing addition to my game. Maybe this was exactly what I needed to see how great the game could be. But he went behind my back and took control of my company, took control of this game’s universe, the universe that I worked so hard to bring into existence. I’ll let a judge and jury decide his fate.
I forced myself to focus on bringing myself back to reality. If I had learned anything from my time in VampQuest, it was that I needed to be proactive and fierce. I need to react quickly to protect what I love, and spend more time with those I care about. Those positive thoughts propelled me into a sense of peace and calm. Each breath I took brought me a step out of my vampire body and a step closer to my human body. Finally, a message appeared that read: “You have logged out of VampQuest.” I brought my hands to my head and pulled off the chrome virtual reality headset.
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VampQuest Page 16