Sitting in the pod, Alex soon stood in a white room like always. With just a flick of the wrist, he pulled up “Conquest!” and looked at the greyed out function.

Conquest!

Unable to log in due to server updates

His mind wandered as the soft caressing voice that reminded him of his mother entered his ears.

“Welcome back Alexander, starting time dilation.” The sound from outside the pod picked up by his ears started to warp into a blur. Outside, the five second countdown till the year anniversary of Conquest! suddenly elongated, the time taken from the shout of five to reach four took three seconds and then from four to three took five. A feeling of haze filled his mind as he started to relax his muscles.

“Asking permission to cut off senses so time dilation can expand further.”

“Permission granted Echidna increase the time dilation.” A small chuckle resounded in Alex’s own head as he thought of the small pun he made when he had chosen his personal AI’s name. The soft voice once again emerged in his head.

His mind drifted away, thinking back to when he first entered the pod, a whole year ago.

***

One year ago

***

A robotic dull voice void of emotion or gender spoke.

“Thank you for using the VXT Reality Pod Sir Alexander. Would you like to set your AI up Sir?” The bland voice droned on, even making Alex feel slightly tired and drowsy.

Alex ignored the voice prompting him to do it a certain way and instead customized the AI his own way, still using the format provided by VXT. Using the format provided he stood in a white blank room with a blue holographic screen showing him commands. He managed to not only skip the tutorial but set up his own AI, unknowingly he made the AI’s voice fit the only woman he’s close with, his Mother.

Stood in front of Alex was a lady, spitting image of his mother. Reaching almost six foot and wearing a white one-piece dress that synergized with her snow white skin, she was a figure of beauty, especially for her age. Long blonde hair flowed down her back in an elegant manner. Her icy grey eyes seemed to be frozen.

Confirm changes to AI.

/

He tapped on the icon as a bright blue light flashed over the woman, scanning every angle of her before she became a 3D entity with her own personality rather than a flat image on a holographic screen. She softly turned her gaze towards Alex. He gulped slightly in awe of what was before him.

The AI looked directly at Alex as she spoke in a soft voice “Hello Alexander, would you like to begin Time dilation training.”

Confused, Alex’s head turned tilted. “Time dilation, that wasn’t in the manual?”

“Yes, Time dilation, like the matrix. Time dilation is an application of slowing someone’s brain, well not technically to put in terms it makes people think and act faster. The average human can withstand ten times dilation meaning time flows ten times faster while connecting to the pod. And as averages go, some people can handle even more while others can handle less. The lowest dilation we have found is five times any more than that would cause them problems.”

The soft voice continued while giving visuals for Alex to enjoy of people doing the same set of tasks but at different dilations, this makes it looks like the set of tasks but sped up on the higher dilations.

“Problems? What kind of problems?” Alex’s questions

“Medical conditions close to schizophrenia or dream-reality confusion, the first one you may be more common with but the latter is a closer representation of what the conditions you could fall under if going higher than your recommended dilation.”

“Dream-re-..” he questions again before interrupted.

“Allow me to explain it all, do not interrupt.” Alex sighed as he allowed her to so. “Dream-reality confusion as you may not know is exactly what it says, it’s when a person can not tell the difference between dreams and reality. For example, dreams can last up to hours but you would hardly remember them afterwards, but a person suffering from that condition will still think are in the dream they had, this applies to virtual reality condition. So we have added in safety features that ensure you are in a stable state and can tell the difference between virtual reality and real life.”

She took a moment as if allowing Alex to process the information that's laid out for him before she relayed information like a machine once more.

“Now then, while you were processing that information, I ran some tests on your brain frequencies and surprisingly your allowed dilation is extremely high, in fact, you have the fourth highest allowed dilation. Currently, the highest record is twenty-five. Your allowed dilation is twenty, this means in the white zone” She points to the area that he’s standing in “You can increase time difference to twenty times, so an hour outside in real life is twenty hours here, the number may increase as your brain gets accustomed to time dilation. You should feel a slight pressure as we tune your dilation, don't fret it’ll be over in a moment.”

Alex nodded to this as he sat back and waited, a sharp headache formed for about 3 seconds. Looking around after the dilation has supposedly happened but he didn’t feel nor see anything different even the AI is still moving like normal.

He opened his mouth to speak but quickly to be interrupted by the AI “You will not see or feel any different. It’ll adjust how fast you receive and do things if you were to compare both your in real life body and this body you would find that this body doesn’t move twenty times faster.“

“Wait what. I won’t be able to move twenty times faster? But increased dilation makes me think and move faster right?”

She sighed and explained slowly as if talking to a child “Time dilation is a very simple concept, you won’t feel like you are moving twenty times faster, however, you and everyone else using VPs will be in a slower reality then the real world. Allowing you to save multiple hours of your lives and be as efficient as possible.”

She flicked her wrist multiple times at the blue holographic screen in front of her before pulling up a client for a video game. “It seems you already have the premium package for Conquest! This has allowed for your save file to stay intact. Your name is Hydra, correct?”

Alex paused in thought for a moment. “Hydra huh… I suppose that’s my Dad’s doing.” He sighed. Before taking another moment, scratching his chin. “Well it sounds cool and at least I don’t have to buy it myself and come up with several new names just for them all to be taken.”

She smiled, speaking once again “Now then would you like to create and avata-..” before even getting to finish that sentence Alex interrupts her “No, just make it me.” she blinked repeatedly in a stunned state at the quick response and nodded her head once again “No changes to your original avatar, your avatar can change by doing tasks like you would for your body. Now then are you ready to enter and to give me a name?”

He listened as he nodded his head in approval. “Yea I’m ready to ente-... Oh, yea I haven’t named you yet have I… erm how about Echidna then?”

Echidna nodded her head as he tapped an icon on his screen. Thunder rang out cracking the surrounding as a lightning bolt strikes down near Echidna and appears a large man.

Most like standing near eight feet tall with a body that even a Greek god would look upon with jealousy and by him is a large gateway. This gateway was so grand that it even put historical landmarks and cities to shame with its oppressive aura.

An aggressive voice booms out of the statuesque person “Now, this is an otherworlder that’s fit to represent Xaecies.” The large man leant down and peered at Alex “Huh, smallest out of the bunch even the females are bigger. But…. you fit the best. You seem to be the man capable of giving me the one up on Mariex! You’ll do.”

Alex stood bewildered by what’s going on as the big man known as Xaecies speaks again. “Xaecies, god of war; bloodshed and slaughters. If you were to think of with your own knowledge otherworlder, I am a more violent counterpart to the god you know as Ares. While Mariex is a weaker counterpart to the god, you know as Athena.”

“So why do we need a god to allow us to enter Conquest? Can’t we play without you.” Alex asked the fierce giant that was towering over him.

“Well, Hydra, correct?” Xaecies pulled out a small scroll and opened it. He looked down on Hydra as if he was a baby begging for candy. “You will be given the blessing of the god most fitting for you. Not only will this allow you to resurrect after death. You will also be given a bonus fitting the god you follow along with greeting you in your VP space. You could say that I am your guide who will help you along your path also”.

I wonder what bonus he is talking about

The giant gateway opened as a portal of sorts appeared within it. Xaecies roared from behind him distracting him for a second. “Now enough faffing about and get in there!” suddenly Alex felt a heavy force landing upon his ass, flying forward he lightly yelped. His entire body engulfed by the portal.

This time he wasn’t sent into a peaceful, relaxing room of emptiness. Instead seemed to be a coliseum of sorts with heads of mythical monsters and beasts mounted on the stretching walls. In front of him was a huge collection of weapons on a showcase that would make an old-fashioned weapons collector cream.

***

Present Day

***

He was forced to return to his senses as the same thundering voice spoke once more “Well well, if it isn’t the headless Hydra” the same large man that went by the name Xaecies is now standing in front of him.

Welcome back Hydra

Scanning account.

Level One character found would you like to server transfer.

He walked forward to the now Gateway that standing behind Xaecies. “A Hydra can regrow its head and what do you think It will do now?” he speaks without looking towards Xaecies. Passing Xaecies he’s stopped by the thunderous voice keeping its cheerful tone.

“ If you get a choice, choose the coolest place Hydra.”

As Alex turned around to face Xaecies and ask what he meant, he was met by a large boot in front of his face that sent him rolling backwards into the portal. Rolling backwards he managed to spring himself up onto his feet without ruining his entrance as he turned to look at the surrounding.

Surrounding him was a circularly shaped dome of walls reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum, the thousands of seats were completely empty though.

Back in the same old area, I remember this place like it was yesterday.