Rebirth Online
Michael James Ploof
Copyright © 2018 Traveling Bard publishing
All rights reserved
Chapter 1
“Are you ready, Sam?” My mother asked from the left side of my bed.
I blinked, it was all I could do.
“You sure you want to do this?” Asked my father from the right. He was holding my hand. I could see it, but I couldn’t feel it.
I couldn’t feel anything, hadn’t been able to for almost a year now.
“I can assure you, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan, your son will be fine,” Doctor Marks told them as he strode into the room with a holopad in hand.
I noticed how my mother straightened when the good doctor entered, and my father eyed him with customary suspicion. The man looked more like a model for those steamy romance novels that my mother liked to read than he did a doctor, but that wasn’t the only reason that my father didn’t like him.
As far as the old man was concerned, the Doctor was the reason that I had decided to live in the virtual world.
I wasn’t in a hospital, and I was pretty sure that “Dr. Marks” wasn’t a real doctor. The building resembled a hospital, but rather than white walls, these were a dark matte blend of blacks and grays that reminded me of the marble countertop at home. The walls had a single glowing multi-colored panel that zig-zagged across them at haphazard angles and wrapped around the door leading out into the hall.
We were inside the headquarters of the Horizon Corporation in Petaluma California, but we might as well have been on a spaceship. There were no windows due to the fact that we were ten levels below ground, and there was an almost inaudible buzz inside the structure that hinted at mysterious power.
“Will he be fine?’ my father asked bitterly. “You said yourself that there’s a chance that he won’t make it, that his brain won’t adjust to the new...reality.”
“What I said was that there is a 0.0097% chance of that happening, which is miniscule,” said the doctor.
I wanted to scream at them both. I wanted to tell my parents, “I love you, but please piss off.” This was my choice after all. They didn’t understand what it was like being paralyzed. They didn’t understand what a hell it would be to live with them for the rest of my life, unable to leave when I wanted to, unable to speak, unable to tell them to stop fucking fighting all the time!
Compared to that living hell, a 0.0097% of having my brain fried was nothing.
Not when the alternative was a new life in a new world, and more importantly, a body that worked.
“And what about this world that you’re about to put him in?” my father asked. “I’ve heard things about this game, this Rebirth Online, and not all of them are good.”
Rebirth Online, the first fully immersive virtual reality game, was an MMORPG player’s dream. In game, you could be just about anything you wanted to be: drow elf, goblin, dwarf, dragon-kin, troll, furry, basically anything found in fantasy literature. It was being hailed as the greatest achievement in gaming history. The gear implants alone cost upwards of fifty thousand dollars. If a player wanted to start off with sick gear, magical items, weapons, and money, then they would have to shell out some big bucks.
I was by no means rich, but I had settled out of court with the trucking company whose drunk employee caused the accident that severed my spine, and I had sprung for the full package.
I paid to start the game as a level 10 Mage with a magical sword, enchanted cloth armor, and one-hundred thousand in gold to spend on whatever else I wanted. That is, as long as my father didn’t sabotage the deal.
“I can assure you, Mr. Sullivan. The game is completely safe,” the doctor said absently and began flicking his finger across his tablet. “Your son is scheduled to be immersed in less than ten minutes, we need to finish preparing him.”
My father turned watery eyes my way, and I loved the old man for his sensitivity. I felt water collect on my own lids, but blinked them away stubbornly.
“Oh,” said my mother between sniffles. “I feel like this is goodbye.”
“You can visit Sam in game whenever you like, Mrs. Sullivan,” the doctor assured her for the tenth time that week.
My mother cried into my shoulder and kissed my cheek, while my father rustled my hair, and I winked at them both to let them know I was okay. When they finally left, Dr. Marks came to stand beside my bed and smiled down on me.
“You ready for your new life?’ the doctor asked. His breath smelled like coffee and mints.
I blinked repeatedly.
Hell yeah I was ready.
The doctor nodded and touched his tablet, and the implants inside my brain responded with a low buzzing noise that scared the living shit out of me. My heartbeat leapt on the monitor, and the doctor glanced at me.
“How we feeling?”
I blinked. I don’t know about you, doc, but I feel like a guinea pig.
He couldn’t hear me, of course, but he nodded, returned to his pad, and clicked it a few more times. The implants whirled and buzzed, and I started to get a little scared.
Had I made a mistake? Would I be one of the small percentage of people whose brain was fried by the implants?
“You still with me, Sam?” the doctor asked as deep concern marred his features.
Two blinks meant no, so I blinked heavily only once.
Shit, Doc, let’s get this the hell over with!
“James,” the doctor said as he touched the device in his ear. “You want to come and take a look at this?”
I didn’t hear a reply, but the doctor seemed placated by the answer that came in his earpiece.
“I just want my colleague to look over a few of your vitals,” Doctor Marks told me.
What the hell could possibly be going on? Was I about to have a heart attack? My heart rate beeped pretty fast on the machine. Maybe my brain was going to short circuit. It sure felt weird. The humming of the implants had settled down a bit. Now sporadic zaps were bouncing around my brain, and I wondered if I was about to have a stroke.
A man, presumably James, strode into the room. His name tag said Dr. Hamilton, and the name fit. He was a lean, blonde haired dude with glasses and a square chin.
“What do you have for me?” he asked Dr. Marks in an English accent.
The two doctors met at the end of my bed and went over my stats, glancing back at me every now and again. It they were trying to freak me out it was working.
I prayed that it was nothing. The only thing that had pulled me out of my deep depression after the accident was the possibility that I might have a second chance at life with Rebirth Online. If this fell through, I didn’t know what I would do. A life spent strapped to a bed would be torture, and though I tried to put on a brave face for my parents, I had already been having suicidal thoughts for months. The problem was that I couldn’t have ended my misery even if I wanted to.
If the doctors determined that I was at too great a risk to enter the game, then I would be doomed to a life of forever being a watcher in a world that frowned down on me with pity.
What the hell is taking so long!
Finally, the doctors parted and they each walked up to one side of my bed; Dr. Marks on the right, and Dr. Hamilton on my left.
“We’ve found some anomalies that are troubling,” Dr. Hamilton said with a furled brow.
“Now Sam,” Dr. Marks added. “You’re an adult, and you have the final say.”
Spit it out, dude!
A pensive stare from Dr. Marks, and then, “Your brain waves indicate that your serotonin...well, let me put it to you plainly.”
Please do.
“We believe that due to the these new developments, your chances of survival have lesse
ned by nearly 2%. Do you understand?”
I’m paralyzed, not stupid.
I blinked once.
“Do you still want to proceed?” Dr. Hamilton asked.
I blinked again. Two percent, four, hell ten, I didn’t care. Dying during this procedure was a lot more exciting than living out the rest of my days as I was. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of people whose spirit was so indominable, so incredibly strong that they learned how to thrive in my condition.
But I wasn’t one of them.
The doctors looked at each other seeming to silently communicate something, then Dr. Hamilton reached toward the back of my head, while Dr. Marks typed furiously on his pad.
“Alright, Sam, here we go,” said Dr. Marks with a nod toward his colleague.
I mentally braced myself for what was about to happen, though I had no idea what I was really in for. The doctors had tried to explain it, saying that I would feel some discomfort, but that had been about it.
“Assimilation in five...four…” Dr. Marks counted down, and I wondered what the hell happened to starting a countdown at ten!
“Three, Two…”
Ahhh shit, here we gooooo!
“One.”
Chapter 2
As soon as the countdown was finished, the buzzing in my head became unbearable. If I could have screamed I would have. If I could have flailed in my bed I would have. Instead, I was helpless to express my discomfort and terror. The matte room with its strange glowing panel and its disinfectant scent disappeared like chalk art in the rain, and I found myself falling through a deep, empty nothingness.
Then the pain disappeared, my feet touched the ground, and I opened my eyes.
I found myself standing on a well-worn dirt road. The shock of being on my own two feet made me dizzy, and I fell on my ass. The sun was incredibly bright, and I raised my hand to blot it out and blinked to focus my eyes. I looked at my hand as I did so, delighted to be able to move it. I kicked my legs, turned my head from side to side, and then reached for my dick.
It was there, and I could feel it!
I looked down at the silken robes that I wore, they were red with gold trim, thin and comfortable. There was also a pack on my back and a short sword strapped to my belt.
Rebirth Online offered a plethora of races that players could choose from, including customized avatars for the right price. But I had chosen to be a human and look like myself. My choice might seem boring to some, but I’d been unable to use my own body for so long that doing so in game felt like a miracle.
I leapt to my feet and let out a pent up primal scream. Birds erupted from the nearby canopy as my voice echoed across the land. My body felt like it had before the accident, only stronger. I flexed my muscles, glanced down at my legs, laughed to myself, and then took off down the road at top speed. I must have sprinted for a full mile, and when I stopped I breathed deeply of the fresh air.
“I can run again!” I told the world, and accentuated the proclamation with a powerful, “Fuuuck Yeeeaaahhh!”
In my ecstasy, I hadn’t really taken in the world around me. I spun a full circle, admiring how real everything looked. To the north a distant mountain range edged across the horizon like jagged teeth. To the south and down a wide valley a small village sat beside a snaking river. To the east and west lay lush forests, and from them came the call of exotic birds. I smelled flowers and dead leaves, while the faint scent of pine flowed on the soft breeze that tousled my shaggy brown hair.
I turned in circles as I admired the world, and nearly leapt out of my skin when I found an old man standing in the middle of the road less than three feet away.
“Oh, hello,” I said, trying not to act as startled as I felt.
“Yes, yes, hello is in order,” said the old man as he beamed at me from over the rims of thin spectacles. He wiggled his bushy handlebar mustache and tugged on his long, pointy beard. “You are in need of a mage trainer, and I happen to be just that.”
“Cool, that’s super convenient,” I said as I glanced around and continued to wonder where he had come from.
“Not so much for me,” he said with a chuckle. “But here I am, and here you are. I can see that you are a level 10, and you’ve never so much as cast a spell.” The old mage shook his head and gave an annoyed tsk tsk. “Young people these days, always in such a hurry.”
“I wanted to get a head start in game,” I explained. “Other players have already joined the game, and it is going to be hard enough getting to the top before them.”
“The top?” he said quizzically. “There is no ‘top’.”
“What do you mean? There’s no level cap?”
Again he shook his head, and he straightened his robes, taking on a serious manner. “Are you prepared to learn Samson Sullivan?”
“Hell yeah,” I said.
“Good, now bring up your interface.”
“Uhhh, how?”
He rolled his eyes, grumbling about power without wisdom.
“What?”
“The same way you wiggle a finger,” he explained. “Or hold your breath, or close your eyes, just...just will it to happen, and it will happen.”
“Really? Alright...” I concentrated on my interface popping up out of nowhere, and to my surprise, a weathered scroll suddenly appeared about 18 inches from my face and began to unroll.
“That’s so cool…” I said dreamily.
“Well then, what does it say?” the mage trainer asked impatiently.
“Oh it just says Rebirth Online, and menu.”
“Good, good, go ahead and touch the menu icon.”
I did, though it was kind of weird tapping something that wasn’t really there. But once my finger reached the hologram-like icon, the ink on the scroll shifted to create new words.
“What do you see now?” asked the old man.
“I have a bunch of options,” I told him as I scanned the list.
“Good,” said the trainer. “Now tap on Character Overview.
I did so, and a small laugh escaped me as the scroll quickly closed and opened again. “This is way too cool.”
“Any questions?” the mage trainer asked.
“Yeah, a lot,” I said with a laugh as I tried to see him around the floating interface.
“Just shrink it, lad,” said the trainer.
I reached out and touched the sides, then slid my hands closer to each other. It worked, and the scroll became smaller. I found that I could even move it around and place it wherever I wanted.
“What is Vitality, Sir? And why are my health and mana a percentage rather than a base number like the other stats?”
“Both very good questions, lad. Vitality is your energy, and it, combined with strength, determines your health. Multiply the two, and you get your Health Points, or HP.”
“Alright,” I said, doing the math. “Then my 50 strength and 100 vitality equals 5,000 health?”
“Very good,” said the trainer. “Now, your mana is calculated much the same way, except you multiply your spirit and arcane knowledge.”
“Sweet.”
“Right you are. Dismiss that menu by swiping it right and go back to the last one,” he said and waited for me to comply. “Now tap on spells.”
I did what he told, and the ink on the scroll quickly shifted.
“Only two spells?” I said, more than a little disappointed. “I’m a friggin level ten.”
The mage trainer produced a wand in his right hand in the blink of an eye and swiftly rapped my head with it.
“Owe!”
“Owe is right,” he said, smacking my knuckles as I rubbed my head. “It must hurt to be as stupid as you. Now pay attention. You might be level ten, but your brain is level zip, zero, nada, get it? You need to learn more spells and learn them the hard way...with attribute points! What are attribute points you might ask, well, I’m glad you brought it up. Attribute points are awarded exactly thirty per level, no matter the level, forever. Get it? Got i
t? Good!” he said before I could answer.
“Now, since you are a level ten, then you have how many attribute points to use?”
“Three-hundred,” I answered, thinking that was pretty cool. “What can I use them on?”
“Hmmm,” he said, hand on chin, and eyes looking quizzically upward. “What can you use attribute points on? Maybe...ATTRIBUTES!”
“Alright dude quit yelling in my face,” I said, growing annoyed.
“Dude…” he said snidely. “Watch it, Sonny, I’ll fry your ass right here and show you a real mage.”
“Alright, alright, you win. Tell me about attribute points please.”
He cleared his throat, “Each attribute point is worth 1 point towards one of your six base attributes. Since you have 300 attribute points, you can boost any of your six attributes; stamina, strength, speed, vitality, spirit, and arcane knowledge. Now, as for your attributes; stamina is self-explanatory, strength equals physical strength, and determines how much damage melee classes can deal. Speed is exactly what it implies, vitality, as you know, is your energy level, and spirit determines your spell damage.”
“Hmm,” I went back to the main menu and looked over my stats again, wondering where I should apply the 300 attribute points.
I could go super heavy on stamina and last a lot longer than other players and NPCs around my level, but then again, if I added it all to spirit, I would be able to cast some super powerful spells. Speaking of spells, I wondered what new spells I might unlock if I spent them on Arcane Knowledge. But in the end, I decided that it was best not to put all my eggs in one basket.
“I’ll apply the 300 points evenly across all six,” I told the trainer.
“Very good choice,” he said with a nod and waved his hand slowly in front of my face, saying, “whooosh.”
I glanced at the scroll and found that my stats had been updated.
“I don’t feel much different,” I told the trainer.
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