Chapter one

Return

I shook myself awake and glanced over at Rebecca who was still sleeping on our bed. I smiled as I looked at her, she reminded me of all that I had done this past year. It had been a lot of hard work to accomplish everything, I had struggled to finish it in the time I had given myself. But now it was all ready. Taking a few moments, I reflected on the events that had occurred once I returned to the orphanage. After spending my first night back at Rebecca’s apartment doing everything I could think of and a couple of things she thought of to each other, we had finally fallen asleep, exhausted but satisfied and relaxed.

Before going to the summer camp I had never thought of Rebecca as a woman, just as a friend who worked at the state-run orphanage. When we had seen each other after I had returned from summer camp, Rebecca had seduced me and I had gone willingly, like a lamb to the slaughter. I knew that it was not really her but rather my succubae bond. I radiated sexuality like a half pint Incubi, and almost all women would react to me now. I cannot turn it off and have learnt to be very careful with how friendly I am to the fairer sex.

I had also managed to get my reward from Gnet. The princely sum of five million credits. I had my doubts that they were going to pay up. It had been the sort of challenge that they thought no one could ever win. Which was why the reward was so high. After some haggling and legal discussions I had the money in the bank and they were busy making sure that the system admin access that the beta Google glasses has given me was now plugged up tight. They, of course, wanted to keep the glasses and bought them from me for another two hundred thousand credits. I heard they had people out searching for any other lost tech that they had developed.

Fortunately, I managed to maintain my anonymity throughout the whole thing, it was a real embarrassment to the company to have to pay out such a large amount. So they agreed to keep my name out of the press as long as I signed a waiver to keep quiet about the whole thing. With the money in hand I moved into Rebecca’s apartment, my time at the orphanage had run its course and I needed a home base. Plus the privilege of pleasure to be had made it an easy to make decision.

Once I was set up I began to do my research, finally finding one of the game designers for Gods and Men. I knew that all software geeks/programmers would leave themselves secret back doors and Easter eggs. It had cost me one million credits but I had my back door into the game set up. Being a cautious guy I immediately changed the passwords and used military grade encryption software to make sure I could not be locked out of the game. Plus a vaguely worded contracted that was ironclad in the payback clause if the service rendered was not found to be operational.

Then I got lucky, it turns out that the main server for the game was located in Nebraska of all places. Nebraska, home of the Cornhuskers and Carhenge and not much else. Except for missile silos, lots of them. All were empty and most were ruined. Monuments of a long ago cold war. But a few had been maintained and converted into private homes, businesses, and secure storage facilities. With the three-ton blast doors and the eight-foot-thick reinforced concrete walls, they were pretty damn secure. The online virtual reality game Gods and Men had its main server located in one of these decommissioned silos.

I bought the nearest silo that had been converted into a home and then paid two million credits to have a secure line patched into the main fiber optic trunk feed. The two men I had hired to do the work had been near retirement age and with one million extra credits each they had retired down to Belize in one of the floating cities on the sea that were located next to the coastline. Work done in secret does not come cheap. I hope they enjoyed retirement.

The last part of my plan had been to purchase a VRP. And then mod the hell out of it. It was not that I wanted to cheat while Ingame, I just wanted to stay Ingame. I knew the Old Bastards had developed the game, and I knew that they had system-wide access to the R.W. and to all Admin functions while playing. They had stopped all G.M’s from protecting players and had also allowed for the abusive actions of the Player Killer Elite from the House of Pain. Over the past year, I had developed a bit of an attitude problem with the Old Bastards.

Once I realized that the one player I had halfway trusted, who was also the leader of that geriatric gang, had betrayed me to the Eldest, the Unknown God, I became a little pissed. Not only had his actions resulted in my death and banishment from the game, he had helped to have the Eldest kill the Earth Mother and kidnap my daughter. I am planning on hurting them and hurting them badly. When I was finished with the Old Bastards Archon would be changing his name to Ache-on.

Rebecca stirred in her sleep and murmured something that was too quiet for me to hear. I walked softly out of the room and went to the lift, I wanted to see the sunrise once more before I entered the VRP. Out here in the flatlands with the open vistas stretching for miles and miles watching the sun climb over the horizon was a sight worth seeing. No Garbage, no ruined buildings or abandoned cars. Just fields of corn, going on as far as the eye could see.

Lighting a smoke I looked at the new buildings that had just been completed, a boys dorm a girls dorm and a shared rec kitchen facility. There were also buildings for the staff residence and an office. Rebecca had taken the half million I had given her and with my blessing was building a summer camp for orphans, the old fashioned kind of summer camp. She had set up a charity and was actively organizing everything. She would live here in the bunker and take care of things for me and help kids at the same time.

I sensed Rebecca as she came out the door and sat next to me. “You are positive you have to go back Tor?” She asked with a sad tone. She knew the answer but wanted talk, to just let the words come out instead of the tears. We had the tears come and go already and now we were at the goodbyes and soft words spoken to mask the pain of separation. I pulled her towards me and let her rest her head on my shoulder, she smelled wonderful. We sat for a little while and then made our way into the bunker and down to my vault.

As we entered the room I noted that the VRP was ready, I had been running diagnostics on it, double checking all the mods. I turned and made my way to the table and held up the injectors. Rebecca looked at them with distaste and said, “I wish you did not have to take them, you don’t even know if they will have the desired effects.” “I know honey, but if these nanobots work it will give me an edge when the game evaluates me and sets my base attributes for strength and endurance,” I spoke with confidence and I hoped my plan would work.

The latest fad is temporary nanobots. Injectable and able to temporarily increase speed, agility and strength. You could even buy nanobots that could allow you to lightly assume the personality of your favorite movie star. For twenty-four hours, you could be Jason Bourne, trained assassin if that was what you liked. You would be stronger and faster than a norm as the company called people. Not a Superman but still above average.

The military had developed the nanobots for defensive use, and then the police and fire departments started to use them. They worked and like everything that could be modified to make a buck for the military complex that had developed them they were released to the general public. First, they were detuned and then programmed with self-destruct timers. Twenty-four hours and you would be peeing out the 22-century military technology.

They were a huge success and were making some wealthy people even wealthier. I had spent a lot of money on acquiring military grade nanobots. They would not expire without help from me. The strength and speed were roughly four times normal average. They had the ability to generate an electrical discharge which could be shot from each hand. The eyes now were capable of binocular vision. Poisons were filtered out and wounds were self-healing, to a degree. If you lost a hand, you would not get it back. There was a limit to what modern tech could do. They also had limited ability to allow you to breathe underwater and to control your body heat, you no longer needed an AC unit.

When I entered the pod the game AI would evaluate my strength and speed and just about everything else my body was capable of. Then that information would be added to the base stats that all players were given. If my plan worked I would have an edge. Here is hoping I thought as I injected the first of three. Rebecca looked away, it reminded her of people injecting drugs. I understood, drugs had destroyed generations of the poorest people in society.

I walked over to Rebecca and gave her a kiss and said, “Wish me luck.” Turning I stripped off my clothing and entered the pod. I waved at her as the nano gel began to fill the VRP and then the lid shut and sealed with a vented hiss. The AI asked if I was ready and as the lights dimmed I hit the green button. Then all went black.

I awoke to find I was floating in a white room. It was a case of déjà vue, only now no Unknown God was waiting for me this time. Instead, there appeared a genie-like figure who greeted me warmly and then asked me to choose a name. Without hesitation, I said, “Tor.” The genie AI paused for a second and then spoke, “I am sorry that name is on the banned list, please choose another.” This was the part of the character creation that I hated. Every name I thought of was unavailable. Finally, I said, “call me Torn,” not really believing it would be accepted.

The genie hummed and then spoke, “Welcome to the world of Gods and Men, Torn. Please review the lists of available classes and races while we run some tests on your body. This will enable us to develop a baseline for your stats and help us to advise you on your future choices.” I nodded, it was going much as I had thought it would, now if the nanobot abilities would be incorporated into my base stats I would be home free.

I looked at the list of races that were available, a few more had been added through a patch at some point. I was a bit of a traditionalist and did not pay much attention to any of the extra races. I quickly compiled a list of the races that held any interest for me and noted the attributes and racials.

Humans

Fast and adaptable, they excel in all forms of martial arts.

They are competent magic users and excellent healers.

All classes were available for a human to play

Not as long lived as the others still some humans are hundreds of years old

Racial ability is learning, humans master everything they try

Drawfs

This race favors the melee class and the hunter class

They have powerful earth magic and are masters of the forge

It is said that there are Dwarfs who master the culinary arts

They prefer mountains and caves but are found throughout the world

They are long lived and it is nothing to see Dwarfs over five centuries old

Racial ability location a Dwarf will never get lost

Elfs

This race loves both the sea and the forests

Long-lived they are the masters of life magic

They favor the healing and magic class

Both hunters and melee warriors do arise

The Elfs favor the night and worship the moon goddess

Racial ability quickness, for 5 seconds elves can move at twice normal speed

Goblins

Short, green and deadly this race usually will not play well with other races

Masters of poison and the dagger

Goblins are often assassins and many believe them to be nocturnal

Racial ability freeze time they can freeze time for 5 seconds

which they then use to sneak behind you and attack

Fairies

Open and courageous to their friends

A small race that favors the forests over the cities

Strong in nature magic

Calling a Fairy a Cupcake is considered a deadly insult

Not a melee fighter Fairies do make excellent healers

Racial, the ability to make a Rainstorm happen

The rain water is extremely potent magically

Ogres

Tall green and violent this race is full of rage and hates everything

Only melee class are playable

Extremely self-sufficient this race is excellent for self-leveling

Hates the city and the forest and the sea, really they just hate everything

Racial, the ability to pray to their God

and have the prayers answered

with assistance in the form of a huge green humanoid called Hulka

This humanoid is also full of rage and is extremely dangerous

Going over the list I had to smile, clearly the game team was having fun with the latest patch, I wondered how the Old Bastards liked it. Still for the others playing the game it had to appear normal so the patches would reflect that. Choices, choices, I liked the elves and my thoughts were to develop myself as a healer, this time, around plus the racial was pretty neat. Elves seemed to fit what I needed.

Turning to the genie who had been patiently waiting I indicated my choice. I listened as he began to explain the open path leveling system, the three basic spells all new players had and the character development that level ten would open up. Then he asked for what type of elf I wished to be forest or sea. I chose forest because I knew that they were the master of the bow and distance combat was what I wanted to do this time Ingame.

My use of Judo Ingame had saved me in the past but the game was adaptable and that kind of out of the box thinking usually only worked once. Finally, all the choices were all made and I was ready to enter the game world. I took one last look at my interface and noted that only Gaiatoci’s and Ama’s buff were present. Then I opened up the stats tab and had a look to see if my plan had paid off.

Strength - starting level one = 50 Your strength starting level one =200

Agility – starting level one = 55 Your agility starting level one =220

Intellect – starting level one = 55 Your intellect starting level one = 55

Health – starting level one = 50 Your heath starting level one = 200

Speed – starting level one = 50 Your speed starting level one =200

+ racial ability limited time double speed

I was happy with the results with only Intellect being game normal, not even miniature robots can make you smarter I thought. Other than that, clearly the nanobots had done the job I had hoped for. If any of the other abilities the nano bots gave me worked, it would be like Christmas come early without a Kritiq to stink things up. I thanked the genie AI and then hit the big green button and watched as the room faded to black.

Slowly opening my eyes I looked around, I was back at the park where new players entered the game. I stood up and breathed in the air, by God if felt good to be back. As I glanced around I noted some changes had taken place. In front of all the pavilions a new flag was flying, it showed a black hammer standing upright on its shaft against a red background with a silver edge on the border.

I climbed off of the bench I was sitting on and made my way to a booth where an NPC was selling cheap low-level leather gear. “Excuse me, sir,” I said politely, “I am wondering what those banners have on them?” The shopkeeper looked at me and then stared at my eyes for a minute before suddenly looking away, “That is the symbol of the Hammerytes, he answered. It has been six years of the bloody Drawfs setting up the Temple of Mechanism, and the Shrine of Steam. And it is all because of that damned demon Tor.”

I stared at the shopkeeper in surprise, I had known that changes would be happening but this was something I had not expected. I had to get to the Dragons Den and see if my friends were still there. I am not sure what Archon and the Eldest might have done to them while I was gone and now I was back the worry hit me heavy. Thanking the shopkeeper I made me way up through the park to the first gate. Instead of City guards and Kings guards standing watch, there were two Drawfs wearing a Hammeryte tabard.

They greeted me politely and asked my business, “I am going to visit a friend,”I responded. “Well be off with ya then,” the taller guard said, and then reminded me to “watch for the curfew as it starts at ten bells.” Thanking them I made my way up through tier one and into tier two. As I walked I noted that the streets were very clean much more so than normal. Also, while there were some Elfs and Humans, the Drawfs were the most common in the city now.

I finally came to the square that the Inn and the smithy were located at and stopped and stared. In the middle of the square was a fountain and on top of it was a statue, my God it was me, me as Tor, in combat with the Gods. What the hell has happened here I thought. Walking over to the fountain I observed a plaque. I read,

In memory of Saint Tor, the bringer of science. Fallen in combat against the gods themselves who opposed any challenge to their authority. He freed us and we will remember him.

Well fuck me.