June 6th, 2056

It was the beginning of the day. The sun had just risen and almost instantly the world was on the move.

It had been close to around a month since news that the end of the world was announced to the public and the days of transfer were finally going to start.

And for every human on earth, if you were being sent to one of the underground facilities, today was the day you would be leaving your old life behind and create a new one.

Seeing as you would be leaving all of your belongings behind per order of the government and are only to bring your most comfortable or personal clothes to the facility for you to wear that was pretty much what was going to happen.

Some were hesitant and even more were unwilling. And understandably so.

They were basically being told to leave their comfortable homes and abandon their lives. The lives that they’ve worked very hard their entire life on to achieve and were for some even enjoying.

But now they were being told to just let it all disappear.

And that's what they were doing..

Leaving Earth and having their minds transported to a virtual world that is guaranteed to perform the same way Earth had. You would have the ability to; taste, touch, see, hear, everything you were able to do in real life would be able to be done in this virtual world.

But when questions what this new world was, that's when the public was introduced to 'Eden'

The Virtual world that would effectively replace Earth. . . or what most people are dubbing 'Empire of Eden'

When the public first saw what Eden was, people were instantly dubbing this new world an ultralistic game and with almost no hesitation the Government rolled with that. They found it easier to try and fool people into believing that project 'New World Eden' was a fun game, which it technically was, then to tell people that they were going to be stuck in a virtual world for over 100 or more years in a state of suspended animation while the planet basically cooks itself.

But looking at it from a different lense nobody could see how it wasn't a game.

There was even a trailer promoting the fantasy-like setting it was in and the magical elements of it.

At first outrage and confusion were the main reactions of people after the trailer for the 'Game' was shown, but as time went on and people saw what the 'Game' would provide fully; ultra realistic features, extra capabilities that went past just swords and magic, the grand possibility of discovery and innovation, the possibilties of creating your own empire, and if you didn't want all the hoopla and adventure you could still be a scholar, living your life as a simple villager/citizen.

The possible options and paths that you could do were endless, and just like the trailer said “It's all up to you.”

And it's only after that, did people begin to finally see Eden as a new World that they could live in and not just an over realistic kids game.

But like Director Weng of the World Government predicted, people the age 10-30, and even some older folks, were excited and were more focused on the more Game like elements of Eden, this was even more true with the hardcore gaming athletes that were basically celiberties at this point in time and honed in on this world than anybody else in the world and dubbed Eden as the Game that surpassed all kinds before it.

And that's exactly what he wanted. A world that surpassed the previous and a game that holds the interest of all and defeats the games prior to it.

And seeing that he did both, he felt his lifelong dream become complete.

You see before being a Government official, Director Weng or Li Chao Weng, was a very popular Gaming programmer whose sole dream in life was to make those full body Vrmmo games from the novels and shows that dominated the 2010 and 2020's a reality for all to enjoy.

And after 30 hard years of work that spanned since he first became a gaming programmer to now and the consumption of many resources that most weren't able to get a hand on, were his dream finally coming true.

Initially he wished to make everyone have a great time and have fun. But alas, social norms and the end of the world made most of his plans go out the window and change real fast. . .

It started with the High Class.

The greedy 1%, demanding special treatment trying to get a headstart on others. And spanned all the way to the realism of the game going further and further than what it was originally intended to be. But if he did anything right it would gauranting that nobody besides the A.I would have power over the world and its servers.

That even goes to creating Content for the Game, nobody except for the 16 representatives knew about it but the game in theory would be infinite as the game would continuously evolve and grow as people progressed in the world.

Nobody was allowed to create some sort of super weapon or some sort of quest that made them a god, and the only person who knew even a smidge of content was Director Weng himself.

And that's why besides a few things that he's purposely leaked to the public just to get their interests peaked, nobody knew anything about Eden. Not even him, the person who was in charge of the code for the world knew even 3% of content. . . but he didn't care. If his vision of the game was realized and it was perfected, in the end, everything he lived and worked for would be worth it. . .

"Love. . . Family. . . Adventure. There will be all that and more if you choose to live in the New World! The planet Earth is expected to experience an astronomical surge of heat in the coming years from a Sun undiscovered and is far, far away. So far out that we have yet to pinpoint its exact location. This massive heat wave has the potential to wipe out all human life off the face of the planet Earth. But we have a solution! And that solution is Eden! A virtual planet created by the combined efforts of every major power in the world, and will be our way of survival. . ."

Looking up at the tv screen that was hanging off the ceiling in a hospital waiting room, as seen in the white walls and signature smell, a boy, presumably 16-17 was watching the trailer for the 'Game' that would basically be his new home, 'Empire of Eden'.

He wasn't the only one in the room. But most of the other patients were either sleeping or were on there phones.

But the boy wasn't looking at anything other than the tv screen, completely enamoured with the trailer in front of him.

And it wasn't like this was his first time watching it either, if you were counting this one this was now his 7th time watching it and it most likely wouldn't be the last either. He was completely and utterly engrossed with the virtual world that is 'Eden' and every single time he watched the trailer, his interest would rise more and more.

At first he was like everyone else, scarred, afraid, depressed.

At first it was for the sole fact that he was going to lose his life in what's going to be only a year's time but over time it changed to feeling unaccomplished.

He hadn't even done half the things he wanted to do in his life. . . he wanted a family, he wanted to experience college life, hell he was still a virgin! But that was all gonna end in a years time. . .

But then news of 'Empire of Eden' became public.

The virtual world separate from Earth and was made to be humanity's last hope of survival.

At first he was skeptical.

And thinking thoroughly who wouldn't? but after seeing all the things it had to offer he would be hard pressed to say he wasn't excited. The magic, the creatures, the game-like functions, all of the novels he's read and anime that he's watched over the years would finally become reality.

But as all games there had to be some sort of problems.

Graphics, real life functions such as; taste, small, touch, sigh, hearing, etc. There had to be glitches and bugs, but the company who made the game and was funded by every government in the world to create the game 'TRIG-Z', had proved all doubts of the world wrong.

Live streams of people living and breathing in the game were produced and shown to the public, giving them a view on how real and perfect the world was.

The live streams were going to last a total of 7 days with the last one being today and they all went into detail explaining how wonderful Eden was. Showing everything the world was capable of, from eating, to touching, to even movement and talking with the ultra human like Npc's which were confirmed to be as sentient as any human.

There seemed to be no problems with the game and Eden was widely accepted but now here the boy was in a hospital getting the required physical and body scan to get into Eden.

"Shun. . . Shun Atlas."

A nurse came into the room calling out a name, looking around.

"H-Here!"

The boy, Shun Atlas, who was still watching the trailer stood up after hearing his name being called and turned his head to the person who called his name.

"Ah there you are. The doctor will see you now."

The nurse, seeing that Shun was there, smiled and invited him into the doctor's room.

Seeing that, Shun walked into the room, past all the chairs and other patients that looked on but soon lost interest and went back to their devices.

"Now you're here for your physical and scan correct?"

"Y-Yeah, my caretaker sent me seeing as our sector's departure is tomorrow."

Going into the room thanks to the nurse holding the door, Shun looked around the doctors room with interest.

It was a standard room that he's seen all of his life but in the far right corner of the room, there was a large metal like table that seemed to have a strange smooth mold that looked to be in the shape of a humans body with a block like pillow where the neck are was and strange helmet like object hooked up to a rather big computer beside it.

'That must be the scanner.'

"Caretaker?. . . Oh yes! You're an orphane, I-I mean that with no disrespect!"

As if confused by his words the nurse looked over Shuns notes on the doctors desk and quickly found out that he was in fact an orphan causing her to apologize profusely.

"It's fine, I've gotten over my parents death and It's not like I live by myself, my aunt gives me all the support I need. . . well, when she's here."

Shun didn't seem all that phased as he smiled nervously at the nurse, and what he said was true, Shuns parents had died in a plane crash almost 9 years ago leaving him by himself with no relatives willing to take him in. And just when he was about to be sent to an orphanage, an Aunt that was apparently on his father's side decided to take him.

Though it seems that the Aunt Shun talks about is barely home, which is laregly true as she takes large business trips leaving Shun to himself most of the time.

That's even true now as his Aunt is away and has planned to be transported into 'Eden' in a different part of the world.

At first he was nervous he wouldn't be able to find her when he transferred but his Aunt seemed confident saying she would find him later and told him to focus on enjoying himself in Eden.

'I can never seem to figure out what's going on with her sometimes. . .'

Mentally exhausted Shun seemingly blanked out parts of the Nurses apology. That was until the doctor had finally entered the room.

"Good evening Shelly, and this must be. . . Shun is it? Yes, you're here to perform the physical and required brain scan. Now I must ask you, as I'm obligated by law, are you ok with the government to go into your brain and do you give your consent for me to copy any and all information that may be sensitive to your being and the people around you and past it into a computer. And for further detail I must ask if you truly wish to transfer your consciousness into Eden and live your life there for the time being?"

The Doctor sitting down in his chair turned around and presented Shun with a slip of paper he was very familiar with.

When 'Empire of Eden' was told to the public and the plan to save the human race was explained there were many that found the government basically copying their mind into a game, an invasion of privacy and demanded that there was a different solution.

When Shun heard that argument he didn't understand if the people against the plan were expecting some sort of compromise but they even went as far as creating a petition to deny the government the right to do so, but the government not only denied even the thought of switching plans but as if morally obligated created a pension that had you consent to them going into your brain. Making those who didn't sign it to be abandoned basically.

He had read parts of the contract before and didn’t have a problem with it, but as if to get confirmation had his Aunt give him permission to enter the world, which wasn't hard at all.

But aside from that, Shun didn't think about it twice and signed it.

"Haaaaa, Thank you. . . You know how tiring it is saying this so many times? I find the idea of people even denying such things idiotic but by the amount of people denying the transfer I guess its needed."

Sighing the doctor who looked more like Santa with his snow white beard and big belly hiding under his doctors coat rubbed his balding head as he spilled his grievances to Shun who agreed with him.

The amount of people rejecting this offer of survival was astounding, though it was mostly the older generation denying, there were a good few that denied with their reason that they felt that this was just a hoax or they didn't want the government into their head.

"But there's no need for me to tell you my problems, you signed it right? Good, lets start the physical. . ."

And so for the next 10 minutes Shun had a rather basic physical, marking his height (173cm - 5ft 6in), taking his heart rate, blood pressure, vitals, Lung exam, vision, all basic physical exams that you would take to do a sport. And though it seemed import the real reason he's here is for the table on the opposite side of the room.

"Now like I said, with this device we are basically going into your mind and copying the entirety of your brain and pasting into the world of Eden. That means all of your memories, all of your personality, and all of your experiences. The LifeCyberspace is not a portal to another world, we are creating a body for you to live in made out of data, in a world seperate to our own. Now I ask you again, do you consent to allowing the government to probe your brain?"

The doctor asked Shun once more after finishing the physical.

And honestly Shun did have some grievances about the government going into his head but his excitement for 'Kingdom of Eden' and fear of dying pushed those grievances aside.

Nodding to the doctor Shun accepted and the doctor led him to the metal table, laying him down. It really was the shape of a human as Shun layed out resting his head on the pillow that was above his head.

"You will experience a small buzz in the back of your head. Don't panic, this is just the helmet scanning your mind."

Putting the metal helmet that he had seen previously on his head, Shun was a bit confused at first as 2 minutes passed and there was no kind of buzz like the doctor said but not a second later after that thought what was like an electric shock went through Shuns mind as he blanked out. . .