“Welcome esteemed members of the press, my name is Elrado Vasue spokesperson for Omnitrek, but today is not about me. No, for today I have the pleasure of introducing a man who should require no introductions. A man who has not once but twice, created a technological revolution. All here know of his pioneering work in the field of VR. Now he has once again pushed the envelope. In six months we will be releasing his, no, the greatest invention of our society for generations to come. Please welcome Dr. Marcus Waiver.”

Cheers and shouts rebounded in the lobby of the corporate headquarters Omnitrek. An older gentleman, slightly hunched over stepped out on the stage from behind a curtain. The cheers redoubled. After a solid minute the press and crowd finally settled.

“I know how excited all of you must be, but I ask you hold questions and everything else until the end. For today my team and I are announcing the creation of a game. Not just any game. I know you have all played Spartan: Warrior Evolved and Dungeons of Ramunir. While fun, they lack the realism, the immersion, that people crave. When you stand out under the sky, do you not want to feel the heat? Do you not want to feel the sense of worry when a monster creeps up from behind? Even when you hold a loved one in your arms, there is something lacking.” There was a hushed silence from the crowd.

“We have managed to create a full sensory immersion VR system avoiding the pitfalls that have plagued such things. The key component is that we have managed to disconnect the limiters from one’s brain to one’s body. So even if you were chopped in half, only your mind would feel it but your physical body would not react. A new line of VR pods will be released that have this increased tactile experience. Along with these new pods will be a game. The codename for this project has been Project X, which was not my choice of code names.” There was some laughter at this.

“The visuals that have escaped to the public have built up quite a following. I am here to tell you that the name will be Fate: Experience Acute Realism, or as our marketing department likes to joke FEAR. For in this game with one hundred percent tactile feedback, the pain of death will be more real than ever. In addition all character deaths will be permanent. Yes, while many of my coworkers would argue for a more lenient system, where is the will to survive, the struggle to achieve, if one can merely come back with no consequences!” The last few words echoing across the atrium.

“The new VR capsules will also allow for muscle movement and the automatic extraction of wastes and application of a balanced diet all while in the capsule. For the first time ever, people can devout their lives to this new world where there virtual existence hangs in the balance. Oh and the first person to beat the game will receive a one percent share of Omnitrek.” There was a pause. “Any questions?” The shouting was twice as loud than the cheering from before.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone thanks for all the great support. Just a couple of notes. I will be updating on a consistent basis. I won't provide an exact schedule since it takes 3-4 hours to write a chapter, 1 hour to reread and edit and finally 1 hour to format it correctly for RR. I did write the first 10 chapters of the story before I started posting. You can expect 1-2 re chapters later today, 11/27 depending on how fast I can edit, since I have everything up to chapter 10 completed written out.

The reason the prologue is going up now is that it is short and I couldn't use it as a first chapter due to the length and RR requirements. I also wanted to space out my bonus chapters a bit. So after I put up the stat system, this got pushed back a bit further than I wanted.

Finally I love people pointing out all the inconsistences in my story. Lord Breckley knowing Kenji's name, Helena coming back so quickly. These two were purposely planned, but one normally wouldn't know how Helena came back so quickly since our MC doesn't. Helena coming back is more of random chance that she re-spawned close enough to get to Kenji. A lot of people hope to kill/pay our MC back so as the story goes on we will get a cast of re-occurring heroes. So feel free to ask these questions and if they are not spoilers I will share.

Again, thank you for all the great support. I have submitted entries into the RR contests you are welcome to take a look at.

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Writing Contest