It’s a hard concept to imagine, the idea of dying… But yet, I am staring into a giant black hole whilst floating in space. You would expect that a virtual reality game would just spit you out back at the graveyard, but no… Not for me, not anymore. Here I now float endlessly, staring into the void of this huge expanse of darkness feeling moderately sorry for myself, but mainly gutted that I had failed to complete my mission.
Infinity had started out like any other Virtual Reality MMORPG game. It had the standard leveling functionality, fantasy based weapons, classes and skills, monsters of varying shape and size and as much competition as you could imagine. But what started out as a game turned into something so much more.
It wasn’t until the game launched that people realised the difference. You’d play whilst you slept, which was normal, but time moved by much slower, your standard 8 hour sleep went on for 48 hours inside the game. Two complete days inside a game, whilst you slept for one night was unheard of before and it wasn’t long before powerful companies realised that you could effectively double a person’s life span with this technology. As such, the game exploded. Kingdoms and Empires were built by monster corporations and with the currency exchange system, there was real money to be made in this game. You could do a lot in 48 hours, mine and gather rare ores and herbs, develop your skills to become a proficient Forger, Enchanter or Alchemist. Let alone the main profession of Infinity, becoming a Combat Expert and slaying monsters for their loot.
Throughout the 20 years that Infinity had been running, nearly every person with the means to do so, devoted their nights to this game, there were various expansion and updates, keeping content fresh and exciting, the Systems AI taking all of the fantasy and fictional data the worlds visionaries had produced to create an ever evolving and growing virtual reality world.
However, as with anything that evolves and changes, it was never perfect. The biggest flaw came in the latter few years where players could take schematics and designs for various items in the game and concoct new designs. Originally, this was well received, giving Engineers and Forgers the freedom to craft more creatively but others found loopholes. Creations that curved around the system’s rules to permanently affect players. The biggest and main problem in these last few years were the Life Binders. A tool often carried by Assassins type players. Once killed, they could trap your consciousness inside a cage, the system unable to send you back to the graveyard and with your mind vanishing from the Systems detection all functionality went out the window. The stress gauge that logs you out should your heart rate reach critical, the health gauge which informed you when you needed the restroom or were hungry or thirsty. To the system you were logged out, to the real world you were logged in. People would eventually starve and die, unable to log out, unable to escape the Life Binders cage.
This is where I find myself now, inside the eternal cage of the Life Binders.
I had 20 years playing this game and granted I was never a spectacular player, I did alright. I had originally started playing with my brother, he was always the game nut and whilst I played them on occasion it wasn’t until Infinity that I took them seriously. Sadly, my brother died in the game. He was one of the first to fall victim to the Life Binding Assassins, he was after all, always the hero. He was truly incredible, a far better player than I ever was, morally incorruptible and defiant to the corporations, he had been the local hero of Silver Light City where we were based.
I had spent the last three years on the hunt for an ancient relic, built by the gods and designed to break through any prison. But whilst I managed to steal the relic, the Assassins were too fast and too strong. I barely made it 20 feet from it’s idol before three arrows pierced my back. My HP falling to zero and the nearest assassin caged my consciousness.
Somehow, as I stared into the dark abyss of space and the shock of realising where I was settled down, I realised that this relic. [The Key of Olympus] was still in my possession, the golden key glowing faintly with its divine influence.
[ Alert: You are inside a player constructed prison. You can either A: Free your body or B: Free humanity ]
*Huh? What’s this?* I thought to myself… I knew that many of the ancient gods relics had multiple uses but they usually came with a bit more detail. *What would happen if I free my body?* I wondered, guessing that the cage would break and I would end up at the nearby graveyard where I was supposed to be. But what then. I still had to find a way to track down my brother’s cage, he’s already spent three years on life support and I was struggling to find the finances to keep him going but even with this key, I needed to find the lock, to track down and reclaim the Life Binders containing his consciousness would be even harder to obtain than the key. But to free humanity… What did that mean?… *I bet this is like the trials… One option is selfish and one option is selfless. But one is clear and the other vague* I deduced, using my knowledge of the game to try and assess my situation.
*As much as I would love to save my body, my gut is pushing me towards humanity… It’s what Ethan would have chosen*
I could feel my gut churning at the decision, my mind telling me that the safest option was to free myself and then continue my hunt for Ethan’s cage but to free humanity… What could that entail?.
“Fuck it… I chose to Free Humanity” I blurted out. Frustrated at my indecisiveness and picking the one I knew Ethan would choose, right or wrong it would be the moral choice. *At least my hearts in the right place if this blows up in my face*.
Choosing the option, the system message vanished, the key in my hand instantly began to vibrate as it’s soft glow increased until it became blindingly bright.
Seconds passed painfully slowly as giant gold cracks began to appear all through the darkness of space that I floated through, Each one growing larger and larger as the cage failed to support itself. Then in a blast of golden light the darkness fell away, my consciousness returning to my body startling me awake as I woke up in my bed.
*I’m awake? I figured I’d end up in the graveyard* I thought to myself but after rubbing my eyes, the shock of waking up seemed trivial to what I saw before me. *My old room… Why am I here, where’s Anna?* I thought bolting upright as I quickly scanned the small bedroom to find no other person.
I was about to continue searching for my wife when I passed by my old bedroom mirror, the sight of a young, non-bald version of me staring back at me with the same bewildered face stopped me from taking another step.*I’m young again?* I questioned myself as I quickly loaded up my old laptop and saw the date…
15/08/2065…
“What the fuck!” I shouted, shocked at what I read…
“You finally up Joel?” Called out a voice from outside my old room, my mind struggling to comprehend how it was now 25 years in the past, yet all thoughts seemed to fall away after hearing this voice
“Ethan?”…
Bursting from my old room, it took less than 10 strides for me to collide with my brother, my arms wrapping themselves around him, squeezing him tightly, whilst tears freely fell from my cheeks.
“You alright J” Ethan asked nervously, startled by the impromptu and strangely emotional hug “Were you in one of those horror games last night?”
“I’m alright… It’s been a strange night” I managed to get out before pulling myself away. After all, to see Ethan like this, healthy and young and not the frail shell he was used to seeing, there was no doubting that he had returned to his youthful days.
“You’ve got to join me in the MMO’s they’re far better than your solo games”
“After last night, I think I will” I quickly answered, my mind still racing with a thousand questions but I knew that this was a second chance and I was going to make the most of it.