Anxious.

That is the word that fits this situation best.

It had been a long time, before I could finally touch the machine. I deceived, bluffed, threatened, lied, and manipulated a lot of people to reach this point.

It was all for this machine, this small electronic piece of work, that would change the lives of almost everyone.

I powered the machine, by putting the plug in electricity socket. All the lights lightened, and the main button showed a green light.

All set.

I licked my lips, and a grin appeared on my face. I had specifically chosen a time, where I would have a lot of time to embark on this journey.

I had spent countless hours, figuring out which direction to choose, and what choices I should make. It felt like this moment, would mark the start of a long, fun, and exciting journey ahead.

I removed the little beam, blocking the entrance of the machine, and entered the machine with my lithe body. The beam closed automatically after I entered, and a small screen came down.

The screen lightened up, and text began to form.

Do you want to log in to Demesne?YesNo

This is it.

I was finally able to make my dreams come true.

I reached out with my hand, and pressed the “Yes” button.

***

Half a year ago, by coincidence, I met up again with a senior from my karate club. He quit a while ago because he found the love of his life, and because he was quite busy with work. He has always meant a lot to me, so we decided we should meet up, and fill each other in. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and I had no idea what he was working on at the time. Little did I know, that this encounter would change a big part of my life.

We decided to meet up in Amsterdam, as he always loved this city, and just recently moved back to the Netherlands. He had been working in Sweden, and because he finished up his project, he took a long holiday in the Netherlands with his wife.

I arrived at the train station, where we had decided to meet, about 15 minutes early. I have always disliked coming late to an appointment, so I always try to arrive 15 minutes early. When a new train replaced the one that just left, a man in a suit exited the train.

That was him.

He was easy to spot, and even easier to recognize. His skin tone had a little dark shade, you could clearly see that he had Asian origins, and his hair was short and spiky. When I noticed him I raised an eyebrow, I had not expected him to wear a suit. Normally I don’t care a lot about clothes, but when I want to dress up for an occasion I wear a simple and plain grey dress shirt. I was glad I dressed up for this occasion, because it seemed, that so was he.

I saw him looking around, probably searching for me, so I raised my arm, trying to get his attention. He noticed me, and walked to me in a straight posture. Is it me, or has he really learned how to carry himself?

“Hey, Mathijs! It’s been a while!”

“Heyo Jochem, you’re looking pretty good, last time I saw you, you looked tired as hell.”

“Haha, yeah… I had a rough time, and I’m not really allowed to talk about it.”

Oh? That seemed pretty interesting to me. I raised my eyebrows and tried to pry out some more information. He just shrugged and continued walking with me, to the exit of the train station. Oh well, maybe he’ll tell me more later. I let it go, and focused on the conversation again.

“It’s been a while… How I’ve missed this country, especially Amsterdam. I always loved this city. Maybe it’s because I have spent most of my life here by studying and teaching on the university, so many memories were created here. I even met my wife here for the first time.”

“Or so I’ve heard. You came to my mother for love advice a few times didn’t you?”

I smiled my smile, and raised an eyebrow while I was at it.

Jochem smiled and answered:

“Hmm, maybe you need to ask some advice from your mother too, because you’re still single right? Or are you looking for a boyfriend?”

Damn he didn’t bite. Oh well, I shouldn’t have expected an easy target anyway. In the end, he’s the one who sparked my interest in science, and taught me how to argue.

Just by having this small exchange, I already knew that this day would be as fun as I expected.

“Ugh, not you too, I’m heterosexual! Damn, why does everyone always use the same joke?”

I sigh out loud, faking how much he hurt me with that remark.

Jochem suddenly started laughing out loud, and clapped me on the shoulder.

“Ohhh, how I’ve missed you. I’ve only interacted with people who take themselves way too seriously lately. This is really nice change of pace.”

We continued filling each other in, with everything we had been up to, or what had been on our minds. We also dropped by a few shops we went to before, and even gamed a little on a PS4 in a shop, that was trying to get customers by having them play for free. I won most of the matches we played, which was surprising to me, because I used to always lose to him. It was also a funny coincidence that the exact game we could play there, was a dragonball game. I remembered that he was also a dragonball fan. The last time that we visited Amsterdam, we also played a game for free, which was funnily enough, also a dragonball game. When we noticed the sun was already going down, we started walking to a café I wanted to take him to.

After walking for a little while, I noticed Jochem didn’t say a single thing about his work, or what he had been doing work-wise, but I didn’t want to create an awkward mood. He also seemed to enjoy himself very much, and I didn’t want to spoil it, by maybe bringing up a subject he was trying to get out of his mind.

“So, how are you doing with karate? Almost ready for black belt yet?

“Haha, nah, not yet. I’ve been training a lot lately, around three times a week in a dojo, and furthermore, some additional training at home. But I was screwed over last time I participated in the examinations, and I don’t want to go through such bullshit again. I’ll just keep training in my own pace for a while, and when I deem myself good enough, I’ll just pick up some black belt kata’s. Whether I’m still brown belt, or not. It’s annoying, because I feel like the only thing that keeps me from becoming the ideal karateka in my mind, is my flexibility. Oh well, I already let it go, and right now I’m just training for fun. The previous years have been even more fun, because of all my friends who have joined, and are also diligently training. I think you met a few of them, right?”

“I see, yeah I think so. I can’t really remember their names, but I think I have a vague idea about who they are. Glad to hear that you’ve been training all this time. I was only able to go to dancing classes with my wife, and I’ve kind of dropped the whole martial arts thing. It just seemed like a lie to me. Even if you practice karate for a lot of years, it probably won’t help you in a real fight.”

“Hmm, I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t agree.”

I knew that he wasn’t the biggest fan of martial arts, but he still trained a lot of years, he even achieved a shodan degree. He was the only person who I looked up to for a while, next to my father ofcourse, educationally-wise and martial art-wise.

But I just couldn’t agree with him on this one, maybe it’s just my self-confidence, but I couldn’t really fathom a situation where anyone would beat me in a one-on-one situation. Not after all the years, I spent studying and training in martial arts.

We talked about some other random subjects, and entered a cozy little place I learned about from my grandfather. It was a place you could only enter, if you were introduced by 2 members, had been studying something science or arts related, had been enlisted, and were approved by a majority of the current members. I became a member a few weeks ago, because of my grandfather. It was a cozy place, and quite a few interesting people gathered there. So if the conversation would ever become awkward, it was very easy to just stand up, and walk to a person sitting somewhere. This way you could start a random conversation, which were quite intriguing most of the time.

We picked out a nice little table at the window, and ordered some drinks. I had a nice cold cola, and Jochem had some wine. After we conversed some more, the food arrived.

We had a great meal, and we both seemed to enjoy our conversation a lot. I kept ordering more wine for Jochem, because I wanted to make him slip up. The whole day, he kept making vague remarks about how it was awesome that I kept up my training with swords. Almost as if I would gain a lot by having the experience. It was vague, because he didn’t speak a lot about karate, and only kept talking about iaido, even when he hadn’t trained that for a while.

When I noticed that it was way past midnight, and that his speech became a little slurred, I kept badgering him to tell me more about his work. That’s when it finally happened. I saw some sort of evanescent sign of resignation flow across his face for a moment. Then he started talking.

“I have actually been participating in one of mankind’s greatest and newest invention. It’s a virtual reality simulator. Because I just got a PHD in AI, a random company suddenly offered me a lot of money, to come work for them in Sweden. They explained to me, that they had figured out how to connect the human brain to a machine, and connect them to a main frame. Everyone connected to the main frame, could communicate together, and the server installed on the mainframe could interact with all the connected people.”

Holy. Shit.

I raised an eyebrow while trying to keep the mockery of my face.

This guy can’t handle his alcohol.

Shit, I think I pushed him a little too far, he probably lost it, and started spouting bullshit.

I sighed and wondered if all the subtle hints he dropped earlier were just my imagination.

Oh well, at least I can continue listening to him, he doesn’t look like he’s finished just yet.

“When they figured this out a decade ago, they kept it secret for years! They wanted to monopolize this technology, and they were very shrewd about it. They started developing a Virtual Reality game, and changed the technology accordingly to the game. This way the technology can only be used by them, and for the game. Other companies won’t be able to implement it for other uses, such as simulations. Even the army can’t subjugate the project, because the technology won’t do them any good. It’ll be useless in their hands!”

If he was talking the truth, then it’s pretty damn smart what they had done. This way, they would maintain everything of it, in their own hands.

I didn’t really want to interrupt him, because he was talking so enthusiastically, but there was one thing that was still bothering me.

“Ehm, Jochem. If they developed this technology a decade ago, and have been developing the game for over 10 years by now, why’d they suddenly contact you to come work for them?”

He smiled, and happily started explaining.

“I was about to get to that part, but whatever. They actually almost finished everything about the game already, but there was a small bit of code which they couldn’t figure out. They hired a lot of scientists who studied AI for this part.”

“I see, that must’ve been where you came in.”

“You’re absolutely right, I finished the code with the others a while ago, and now we’re just waiting for the game to reach its final stages. It’s in alpha right now, but it’s nearing its beta phase. Because I finished the code, I took a holiday. I made a lot of money too, so at least I’ve got that going for me now.”

Hmm, I still have my doubts.

But if this really is true, then this opportunity is way too good to miss out upon. I decided I had to get involved with this project, I had read way too many virtual reality novels to miss out upon this project. I used every method in the book to persuade Jochem into introducing me to one of his colleagues or bosses.

Eventually he gave in, and said that if I played it smart, that I would probably be allowed to join the alpha and beta as a tester. He said that it would be wise to offer them all of my knowledge on the subject, and that I should volunteer as a guinea pig. Because a lot of the workers there are old, I should have a chance by telling them that they should test the technology on the youth too, before there are any problems.

This didn’t sound like a good thing to me, especially if there ARE any problems. But I’m way too smart to let this opportunity pass, and even if something would happen to me, I’d gladly go down that path to experience VR, as one of the first in history.

***

That conversation with Jochem changed a lot of my lifestyle so to say. I immediately contacted the person Jochem advised me to contact, and it all went rather smoothly. I still had half a year of school left, so even if I wanted to leave to Sweden for this I couldn’t. But as luck would have it, the people higher up the ladder there, were all extremely pleased with my assertiveness to reach out to them. They said they would gladly receive some input from a student.

This made me a little suspicious, because it seemed too good to be true. They only gave me two conditions; I would have to keep my mouth shut until they properly released the game, and I had to play the game fulltime when the beta was released. That meant, that I had to take a year off, after passing my exams, and focus fully on playing the game.

For half a year I neglected my friends a little, didn’t spend any time with books, or gaming. I focused solely on school.

Well, not really.

Just a little bit.

Only so much, as to not fail my exams.

Oh, and I kept training too.

I don’t think I’d survive without it…

Next to school, I focused solely on figuring out paths, classes and ideas for the game. The higher ups actually implemented a few things I came up with, which had surprised me a lot. I would have never thought that they would even listen to a simple brat who hadn’t even finished his school. Guess I was wrong. I had a lot of meetings with people from other branches, and I met a lot of new people. Shame I had to keep it all a secret from my friends and family. Oh well, small price I had to pay. I was actually able to cut a deal with them too, I would be able to choose a few friends who would be able to accompany me full time after the beta was released. And they would receive full payment for playing too. It was almost too good to be true. I used the idea I came up with as leverage, by swearing that I’d copyright the idea with the help of my grand uncle, and sue them if they’d implement it. They didn’t like that very much, because the idea would probably make them a lot of money, but somehow they liked how I tried to threaten them, even when I was still ‘a little brat’.

Frikkin’ masochists….

One thing I did like about the company, was that they would only allow people to inform you with just the necessary things. If you had a meeting with someone from the economy branch, he would only talk about the things you needed to know to achieve the results you were responsible for. This way I was able to learn a lot, but by looking at all the information that could be learned, I only knew relatively little.

I was able to manipulate the person, who was responsible for the exact release of the beta, by having him release it exactly when our exams would be over. I told him that this way the company would get a lot more of rich customers, who would all pay for their sons and daughters to participate in this project, because they could make money off the game, and it wouldn’t be in the way of school.

I kept all my attention on this for half a year, until I finally passed my exams.

***

Finally, I passed my exams!

I had to spend a little effort near the end, but I was able to pass them finally.

One thing I know for sure, I hate German.

That language… Oh my god, how I hate it.

But I was able to do it.

Finally. Freedom.

I actually cut a deal with my dad, Sadi Gul, that if I’d pass my exams, that he’d be okay with everything I’d do in my vacation and if I wouldn’t pass, that I would solely focus on school and drop all unnecessary other hobbies. Well, I’m really glad that I passed, because now I can finally relax. He also told me that he’d pay for a new console, tv, laptop or anything else I’d like as a present for passing.

That was a nice surprise.

I haven’t figured out yet, as what to buy. But I’ll see. I’m not in a hurry anyway. I still have my ps3, and I don’t really need a new gaming pc.

Yesterday, was the day that we received our results. I really couldn’t wait for that harbringer, I was so anxious. All I ever just wanted was a halcyon life. We all received a call that said we had passed.

Lanet olsun (damn it), what was I happy, when I heard the words; “Musa Can Gul, you have passed.”!

Ollie asked Mathijs and me yesterday, to join him today at his sister’s house, because it would be empty, and we’d be able to finally relax. I thought this was a great idea, and was a little surprised that Ollie actually took the initiative for once.

I arrived at his sister’s house and saw Mathijs just entering the door. I noticed he was wearing a dress shirt, which was a bit uncommon. It was a special occasion though, so I could totally understand. I rushed a little bit, and raised my voice before he would shut the door in my face.

“Yo, Mathijs.”

“Oh, heyo Musa.”

He held the door open for me, and smiled at something that I couldn’t figure out at the moment. I thought he was mocking me for some reason, so I just looked at him, while I entered the house. He just shrugged. Whatever.

I shouldn’t let him get to me. He’s probably just trying to mess with me.

I entered the house, and removed my coat. It was already spring, so it was already starting to get quite warm outside. But nonetheless, I still took a coat with me, you never know, might get cold in the evening.

I tried to locate Ollie, but I couldn’t see him yet. As I entered the living room, I saw that it wasn’t a seraglio, as expected of course, but it wasn’t bad at all. It had clean interior, with a nice view on the canal. The furniture looked of high quality, and there were some snacks ready on the table. I also saw a big flat screen TV, so tonight would probably be pretty awesome. I also saw some beds, fully made up, on the floor.

This looked good.

Knowing that it’s Ollie, I hope the beds won’t leak…

I saw Ollie standing in the kitchen, and I walked to him. How funny. Ollie cooking wasn’t something I had ever witnessed up till now. Oh, never mind. He’s just fiddling with the mechatron. Ehm, I mean Microwave. Shit.

I started to scowl because I was reminded of how they kept making fun of me, for that little slip up. It finally stopped half a month ago. One day I’ll pay them back for that.

Ollie looked up from whatever he was trying to accomplish, and smiled at me.

“Heeeeey, Musa!”

He awkwardly approached me, and tried to hug me.

I almost sigh out loud, if this guy does try to hug other people, why does he have to do it so awkwardly?

I reach out to hug him back, just when I hear a voice behind me.

“Ha, GAY!”

Ollie and I both had the forbearance necessary not to respond to him, after all, we spent a lot of time with him.

I see Ollie approaching Mathijs, to give him a hug too, but Mathijs makes a feint with his left hand to Ollie’s face, and Ollie seemingly expected that to happen. He made a half assed attempt at a block, and went into a craze about: “Ohhhh, that block, oh my god, it was so perfectttttt.”

Mathijs raised his eyebrows, and I just shrugged.

Ollie asked us to come in the evening, so that he wouldn’t waste his whole day or something. Because of this, it was around dinner time that we arrived at his sister’s house. And I hadn’t eaten anything yet. Thus I voiced my opinion:

“So… When’s dinner ready?”

We talked a lot that night, and you could clearly see how stressed out we were before. The exams were tough for all of us, so we all had plethora stress. We spoke about almost everything, from girlfriend related matters, to past experiences, to favorite types of food, to how we would spend our vacation.

When we reached this subject, Mathijs started to fiddle a little bit. That was strange, I always thought he was more or less the type who would always act relaxed, or nonchalant at least. He wasn’t even on his phone, which was rare nowadays. Especially the last half year was quite boring, because he probably thought, that his phone was more important than his friends. It was a strange kind of obsession he had. Oh well, maybe he’ll have to visit me, when I become a psychotherapist. That would be quite funny.

Because he was the only friend from my direct circle I had in our class, it was quite weird to see him suddenly change, and spend even more time on his phone than he already was. I think it’s probably related to all the shit he went through, and it just hit him recently. It wasn’t that important though, because I was still able to converse with him, had plenty of friends aside from him in our class, and was able to talk to Youri, Quentin, and Ollie in the breaks.

Ollie was talking about how he wanted to get a job, but was too lazy to actually sign up. I could relate to that. However, Ollie suddenly made a serious face and spoke up:

“Mathijs, is there something you would like to say? You seem kind of distant right now, which is pretty rare. Also, if I may be honest, I think you’ve been way too distant for the past few months. I already didn’t like it when you got a smart phone and started reading like crazy, but at the moment it’s pretty much like you’re nonexistent. I’m not sure if it’s my place to say this, but considering we’re friends, I think you should really get your shit together.”

Damn, that was harsh. I agreed with Ollie though, although I wasn’t sure why Mathijs was acting like that, but I didn’t want to hurt him, by being so blunt.

Mathijs looked at both of us, and when his eyes reached mine I nodded. I could see that what Ollie had said really hurt him, but he just made a façade and tried to smile his way through.

“Yeah… I know I’ve been a bad friend to all of you this previous half year. I’ve been really busy. So busy that I had to neglect all of you, but I had a good reason. But what hurts me more than that remark, is that you guys never said anything earlier. I trust you as friends, to tell me something like that way earlier… Oh well, it’s not like I would have changed anything in my way of acting though.”

He said that with a somber smile on his face and winked.

Huh, I’ve never seen him wink before.

He was silent for a moment, and then he continued:

“But it was certainly worth it. I haven’t been a good friend, I know. But please let me make it up to you two. I have a lot for you guys to take in, so please listen to me carefully.”

What followed, was something I never would’ve expected.

Hell, something I would’ve never even dreamt. Or well, actually I did dream about virtual reality once, but whatever.

Mathijs told us everything about what had happened, and all about the game, which was to be called: Demesne. He didn’t want to explain why it was called that way though. We asked a lot of questions and thought he was spouting nonsense at first. But that doubt was evanescent as he was talking way too seriously about this all. He just kept talking about how he met a lot of people and spent a lot of time, communicating with people, and exploring the realm of details from the game.

After he finished describing what happened to him, and why he was so obsessed with it, he also told us why he wasn’t able to tell us anything.

I’m actually…

Starting to believe him.

If this really is true, and it seems like it is possible, considering how he had been acting all this time then this would be really awesome. I could really see the weight dropping from Mathijs’ shoulders as he had been concealing it, for all this time.

All those details though.

He’s either delusional, or he’s pretty deep into it.

I didn’t expect him to drop another bomb though:

“There’s something else too. I won’t be going to university this year and maybe not even next year. The company forced me to play the game fulltime for a year, under good payment luckily, if I wanted to join the development process. This is already something like a dream come true to me. Just imagine it, playing a virtual reality game fulltime, while getting paid at the same time! And that’s not all, I even managed to convince the upper echelons of the company, how it would benefit them if they would allow some of my friends to participate in the beta too…”

He made the happiest smile I had ever seen from him and continued:

“Would you two, be willing, to come play the first VR game in history together with me for a full year, maybe more, under payment?”

I never thought that this night at Ollie’s sister’s house would have such an impact on my life.

I looked at Mathijs, and his eyes were without any hesitation.

I looked to my right, at Ollie, and saw him thinking this over very carefully. He was probably thinking about he would convince his mother.

I don’t have to think this over.

I already made a promise with my dad, that he’d support me in anything I’d choose to do, and my mother had always backed me up until now.

I switched my view back to Mathijs and told him:

“Where do I sign up?”

***

Volume 1 - Chapter 2