After several minutes spent just standing there studying the facets of the tower, Ethan shook himself and then headed toward it. There was little point standing around.
The door wasn’t open yet, but he could still walk toward it. Ethan strode to the path that led up the hill and to the base of the tower. However, when he reached the path, he found the way blocked by a man with a yellow dot floating over his head. He looked like some sort of mountain explorer or wild warrior because he was holding a spear and was dressed in fur. His face was covered by a hood and scarf, so Ethan could only see his brown eyes and a small strip of skin around them. There were several players standing in front of him, but far less than Ethan would have thought.
The NPC looked up at Ethan. “This path leads to the hall of monuments, where the achievements of the greatest tower climbers will be recorded for eternity. It is currently closed. If you wish to enter the tower, simply wait until the event has started, then the tower will unlock as a teleport destination for all players.”
Ethan snorted. That made sense. Thousands—or even millions—of people would probably be trying to enter the tower once the event started. Having them go through a single door would be silly.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Ethan told the NPC.
“It’s my job,” the NPC replied with a shrug.
With a roll of his eyes, Ethan turned and headed back into the camp. It was a huge place with hundreds of tents, and it must have contained over a thousand players, but none of that interested him. He already had everything he needed. He just had to wait for the event to start. Suddenly, a notification appeared on his display.
Tower of Ascension unlocked in 00:01:00
Ethan chuckled as he read the words. “I really left it to the last minute.”
Since he had nothing better to do until the event started, Ethan stepped back and gazed at the tower again. Soon, he would be exploring it, and maybe he just might win some prize money. Probably not the grand prize of ten million, but maybe something…
Huh, the tower was certainly very big. How long would it take to reach the top and win? Ethan realized he had no idea if the special event had a time limit. Surely it wouldn’t take months, would it? As he was thinking about this, a new message appeared in front of him.
The Tekko corporation Worldshift grand event is now live!
You may now enter the Tower of Ascension.
A murmur went up from the nearby crowds as everyone else got the same message.
“All right, I’m going in!” a man to Ethan’s right in blue power armor yelled. He then disappeared in a hazy surge of black energy, which was distinct from the normal blue energy that surrounded someone when they teleported away.
“Wow, they sure are going out of their way to make this creepy,” a woman remarked before disappearing as well.
Feeling excited, Ethan reached to touch his wrist device, but before he could, he heard another beep. Someone had just called him, and the caller’s information appeared to the side of his vision.
“I accept the call,” he muttered when he saw the name of the caller.
Instantly, a video frame appeared in the center of Ethan’s vision. It showed an older, stocky man in a suit with some office bookshelves behind him. He had short dark brown hair and a matching moustache that was greying around the edges. Ethan recognized him instantly. It was Dan, his uncle.
Ethan forced himself to smile as naturally as possible at the image. “Hey, Dan. What’s up?”
Dan gave him a stiff smile back. “Oh, I’m just checking on you. I can’t help but notice you’re playing that game again.”
Ethan scowled sourly. How was that his uncle’s business? “It’s something to do while I wait for replies from the employers I contacted.”
“Couldn’t you be out looking, or visiting offices, or something?”
“Everything is very automated these days. It’s all done online, and my application mostly gets filled in automatically,” Ethan explained patiently.
“They say that, but visiting them in person never hurts.”
“It doesn’t help either if they tell me to scram the second I show up. You know I’ve tried seeing the managers before, and it has never worked. They already had people selected for the jobs. But hey, I guess that’s why we have basic income, so I don’t have to frantically run around trying to scrape up food while I’m out of work.”
Dan sighed in defeat. “Maybe I could get you a job here at the shipping firm where I’m a manager.”
“No, thanks,” Ethan replied. “I don’t want your handouts. If I don’t earn it myself, then I’d rather be on basic income.”
He didn’t want to insult his uncle, but Ethan knew Dan’s job was almost all make-work. All he really managed were some algorithms that did most of the real work and maybe a secretary or two. Any job he got his nephew would be the same.
Dan looked uncertain. “I don’t mean to be obnoxious, but I’m only bringing this up because I know you could do so much more with your life. You did great in school, and you’re one of the smartest people I know!”
Ethan tried to suppress his agitation. He knew his uncle was just trying to look out for him. The man was the only family he had left, and he’d always tried to look in on Ethan and help him out. His attention was usually misplaced and frustrating to deal with, but his heart was in the right place.
“I didn’t do that great in school, and I definitely didn’t do well enough to get into graduate school for management like you did.”
Dan sighed. “That’s because you didn’t want it, not really. I dedicated years of my life solely to getting the best grades possible because I knew it was what I wanted. I kissed ass and worked myself to the bone. You just need to find something you want that much, and to do that, you need to get out more. You’re spending a lot of time alone in your apartment these days…”
Ethan grunted. “I got to go. We can talk about this later. Now is not a good time.”
“Is this about the game? I hear there is a big competition going on right now. I hope you don’t think you will win the prize money and not have to worry about getting a job. There are probably millions of people trying for that money, and playing so much is unhealthy.”
Ethan glared at his uncle. “That’s definitely not what I think. This is just a nice, fun distraction. If I was the sort of person who could win the prize, I wouldn’t be playing so much VR in the first place. It’s just like you said. I don’t put my all into anything, not even gaming. There are lots of players who are way better than me at this game.”
“I didn’t mean—”
Ethan hung up on him. He’d had enough of his uncle’s misplaced expectations, and he had a game to play.
Ethan closed his video screen and looked around. The tent city was noticeably emptier now. Most of the players had teleported into the tower already, but quite a few were still hanging around. There was a small group of six to Ethan’s right, next to a large blue tent. A blonde woman in silver armor with a sword at her hip was speaking.
“I can’t contact them at all. It says players inside the tower can’t be messaged,” she told the others.
“That’s really odd. I don’t know why they would do that…” a girl in a pink dress with blonde pigtails replied. She sounded concerned.
Curious, Ethan walked closer to listen. He got a few looks, but he found a place off to one side without anyone commenting.
A short man in a long dark cloak with a hood spoke up next. “I hear you might not be able to log out once you enter the tower. Either you can’t or it means you forfeit.”
The silver warrior shook her head. “Really, who did you hear that from? It sounds stupid. There is no way that is true! It would be illegal for one thing, and the event could take weeks!”
“It’s just what I’ve heard,” the man replied defensively.
Some of the other people added their opinions, but none of them seemed to know anything of value, so Ethan stepped away. Wi
th a tingle of fear in his gut, he gave a series of mental commands. The teleport menu came up in front of him, and he stared at it in trepidation. Taking a deep breath, Ethan gave the command to teleport into the tower and was instantly carried away.
Blinking at the unexpected sudden change of location, Ethan looked around. He was standing in a surreal white landscape. Pure white lay in every direction. There were no walls or ceiling, just endless white. Ethan felt a little nauseated just from looking at it. Luckily, there was a floor, even if it was also pure white and stretched on forever in every direction. Weird.
The only splash of color in sight was a strange portal right in front of Ethan. It was pitch black, and its surface looked to be shimmering. Cautiously, Ethan walked up to it and peered around its side. He saw nothing but a white infinity. The portal was invisible from behind. Taking a step back, Ethan studied the dark doorway.
“Huh, let’s see what this does,” he remarked as he stretched out an arm.
Before reaching the portal, his hand was blocked by a transparent barrier that shimmered into existence, and a text box appeared in the middle of his vision. As Ethan stepped back in surprise, a soft female voice began reading the words.
Welcome to the entrance of the Tower of Ascension. We will now explain the rules. You must agree to them before you will be allowed to enter.
“Who is we?” Ethan wondered as he listened. The voice ignored him.
Upon dying, a player will be expelled from the tower and unable to return until the event is over. Exiting the tower will also result in players being unable to return. Logging off is permitted, but you will only be able to return to the tower if you do it at a save point. Finally, you may not message people who you haven’t encountered within the tower.
Do you agree to these rules?
“Yes, I do,” Ethan replied loudly and clearly.
Instantly, the words disappeared. Ethan smiled and started to step forward, but then more text appeared, and the feminine voice spoke again.
Within the tower, the normal rules of Worldshift and virtual reality may be suspended. Firstly, pain limiters will be removed to maximize realism and facilitate the learning experience. Secondly, time perception may be altered without your consent to maximize efficiency. Thirdly, you may experience mental stress or fatigue beyond what is normal for VR. This is expected, and you shouldn’t worry about it.
As a final note, after passing through the entrance to the tower, you will be under a non-disclosure agreement with Tekko about what you experience within. Any breach of this agreement may result in harsh legal action.
Stepping through the portal will be taken as acknowledgement of these features and regulations.
Um, what? Ethan didn’t believe what he was seeing and hearing. Those were some crazy changes. Suddenly, he didn’t feel so committed to entering the Tower of Ascension. Why would they need to remove the pain limiter? Did that mean if he got shot it would hurt as much as in real life? That wasn’t something Ethan wanted to experience, and it was far from the worst thing he could imagine feeling. While playing Worldshift, he’d fallen into lava a few times… He’d heard you could suffer heart attacks from that kind of thing.
And, what was this about time perception? That was almost as bad. The mention of unusual mental fatigue was also creepy. Apparently, the tower was going to mess with his mind, and he was just supposed to accept it without complaint. In fact, he wasn’t allowed to even talk about anything dangerous he found inside, lest Tekko sue him into the ground. This was all so incredibly sketchy.
Nervously, Ethan stared at the portal before him. Its surface seemed to shimmer like a pool of swirling black oil. There was no way to see what was on the other side, and it wasn’t the sort of door you stepped through without thought. Maybe it was his imagination, but it almost looked like the edges of the portal were curling toward him, as if it were reaching for him like it was alive and hungry. Also, was that whispering he heard?
As the forbidding black morass before him waited, Ethan reevaluated his options. Maybe he should forget about all this and take his uncle up on his offer. It was just a game, and he really should be getting his life in order, instead of fooling around. Really, he was just being proud and stubborn. You had to accept the world for what it was: an imperfect place and a broken machine. That’s what everyone else did. Why couldn’t he?
Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan noticed that the white void around him wasn’t quite so white anymore. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw faint outlines of color. Was that his home? Yes, it was. Far off in the distance, blurry fragments of his memories flashed through the bright eternity. None of them lasted for more than a moment, but he recognized every one. Was the place behind him so bad? He had a lot of good memories…
Closing his eyes, Ethan pictured the future he would have if he went back now. Either he would stay on basic income forever, or he would take the job Dan had offered him. At this point, he knew he would never get another job on his own. That wasn’t how the world worked anymore. Unexpectedly, rage stirred within Ethan’s gut. His hands tightened into clenched fists.
“I’m more than a useless part in a broken machine!” Ethan screamed into the void as he opened his eyes.
He didn’t want to be shoved aside by his rotten society! It was static and poisonous. Everything was controlled until death. He wanted to be someone who mattered, someone who changed things. He wanted to be free to be himself! Ethan didn’t know how he could ever do such a thing, but he knew that what he was yearning for so desperately couldn’t be found behind him. Even if it was dangerous, and even if it was a million-in-one chance, he needed to step forward. He needed to give this game his everything.
Gathering his will, Ethan shoved aside his fear. The twisting black portal lay before him, waiting.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Ethan said as he stepped forward. Eagerly, the darkness reached out to meet him.
CHAPTER 4
THE OTHER SIDE
The moment Ethan touched the inky black horizon of the portal, he was pulled into it by a sudden suction. As the darkness enveloped him completely, the sound of an unmanly squeak echoed toward the black. Stumbling, Ethan caught himself a moment later. Huh. He couldn’t see anything, not even his own hands, although he could feel them. Was he standing in absolute darkness? Had the portal just eaten him? Ethan tried a mental command to turn on the light on his helmet. Nothing happened.
Ethan groaned despairingly. “This was a really dumb idea.”
Just as he was about to reach up and touch his face—in case it had gone somewhere—some glowing text appeared in front of him.
Welcome to the Tower of Ascension. We hope you enjoy your experience here!
The words faded a moment later, leaving Ethan in the exact same situation as before.
“How helpful,” Ethan remarked sarcastically. “I already hate the designers of this tower.”
Wait, had the darkness grown slightly lighter? Ethan waved his hands in front of his face. He thought he could sort of see his fingers now. As he was about to try to turn his helmet light on again, he noticed something bright out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see a glow off in the distance behind him. It looked like a door, but the path to it was dark. Ethan still couldn’t see anything else about the room he was in, including the floors or the walls.
Cautiously, Ethan turned on his light and looked toward his left. Nothing happened. The beam faded away about a foot from the device, and it utterly failed to penetrate the gloom. Next, he tried the thermal vision built into his helmet, but that didn’t work either. The room wasn’t just dark. It was filled by some sort of light-dampening haze.
“Not great,” Ethan muttered as he switched back to normal vision and headed toward the door.
The dark made him nervous, and it meant he had to take special care about where he stepped. At first, he couldn’t see what was beneath his feet, but as he got closer to the door, the light from it began to reveal the floor.
It looked black and featureless, which was why it was all but impossible to make out in the dark.
Suddenly, the darkness moved on Ethan’s right. He jumped back and gripped his sword hilt, but his eyes still couldn’t pierce the haze. Ethan froze. Had he imagined the movement? No, there was a quiet hum in the room now. Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw the darkness swirl again. There was definitely something in here with him.
Ethan quickly backed toward the door as the hum grew more incessant. It began to sound frantic and expectant, like it was growing excited or hungry. At the same time, the darkness around him started to churn. Ethan tried to study the movement, but it never happened in the exact spot he was looking.
“Ya, screw this!” Ethan yelled as he turned and dashed toward the light. Behind him, the darkness roared like a black ocean.
Bursting forward, Ethan reached the doorway and stopped. It wasn’t open. There was a translucent pane of something blocking the way. When he reached out to touch it, he felt a smooth glass-like barrier. Ethan looked back over his shoulder and felt a jolt of fear. The light from the doorway seemed to be keeping whatever was in the dark at bay, but as he watched, the black inched closer, as if it were slowly devouring the light. That wasn’t how physics worked!
“Come on, open!” Ethan cursed as he reached for the corner of the door and tried to pull it open. His fingers closed on the transparent barrier, but it didn’t move.
Giving up, Ethan jumped back, and then front-kicked the door as hard as he could. There was a loud thud as his foot collided with it, and he felt the impact vibrate up his leg. There was also a brief flash of pain, which surprised him. Right, players didn’t usually feel pain in Worldshift, but the tower was different. Now, he really didn’t want to get eaten alive by the darkness.
When Ethan’s foot dropped, he noticed he’d made a small crack in the barrier before him. Hope lifted his spirit as he drew his pistol and shot the cracked part of the door. The thunder of the shot made the darkness roil, but the bullet smashed through the barrier. Transparent glass shattered and rained to the ground as the darkness behind Ethan rushed forward to devour him.
Worldshift- Virtual Revolution Page 4