Not really sure if the mature tag is going to come into play. I guess there will be some language but otherwise, not really anything, at least for now. If any of you read my other fiction, sorry I dropped it but it wasn’t going anywhere and it wasn’t very good anyway.

This one will be much better. I actually have a good bit of the story planned out and a direction that I want it to go. I hope people like this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave comments of any kind as it helps motivate me to write more if I think people actually want to read it.

Thanks for reading

Dead World Online

Prologue: One Day Away

For a while, virtual reality was believed to be at the pinnacle of its existence. It was used to play simple games and help patients cope with or recover from disabilities and injuries. None of the games were advanced enough to be impressive and almost all of them were single player and local connection. The idea of virtual reality games began to fall from grace and the public turned back to console games. However, just as virtual reality was about to become obsolete in the gaming community, a new game with an upgraded system was released.

The first ever VRMMORPG was created and in less than a year after its announcement, the game would be playable. At first people thought it was some kind of fake or trick. No one had come close to being able to create a game that could be played by many people by Internet connection. As more information about the game came out, people started to realize that Dead World Online was real. Undertones game company, one of the mid-sized game companies, had somehow advanced the technology known as virtual reality and closely guarded this secret.

Dead World Online would be the first VRMMORPG. The previous virtual reality games were only tests and fragments of games all leading up to this. In a few months, the beta version of the game would be out. After years of hard work and secrecy, they had finally reached the point where the virtual reality game will be released to the public.

Reid Therwell was a bit taller than average, with short black hair and blue eyes and he was generally considered attractive. He was the third child of virtual reality game developers. His father worked on the mechanical aspects of the systems while his mother worked on the computational and game design side of things. Because they were both the heads of their respective divisions in the company, they were well paid and Reid’s family was wealthy. His older brother and sister were well educated and off in college so it was just him and his parents living in their house.

Reid had an unorthodox childhood. His parents raised him, trying to create the ultimate gamer for their virtual reality, ever since they had thought of the concept of Dead World Online. He had had people tutor him in many different things along with being home-schooled after elementary level education. He was trained in martial arts, learned body movement skills such as parkour, and played many games to understand how they worked. He did everything he was told to, never questioning his parents and always training.

He enjoyed his training but always felt something was missing or that it wasn’t enough. Puzzle solving, martial arts, body conditioning, games, and learning were all things he liked to do, as he liked to better himself, but none of those brought him true joy. Reid simply went through the motions as this feeling of emptiness slowly built up inside him. He tried to become the best but never felt true motivation even when he was praised for how quickly he advanced in many of the things he did.

Everything he did was in preparation for DWO, which, in the end, was just a game. His parents were telling him that he had to be the absolute best player and so they trained him to be the first professional VR gamer. It all felt so…pointless. As much as he loved and respected his parents, it almost felt like they were dooming him to an undesirable way of life. His parents were still children at heart and he wondered if they truly thought about what they were doing.

A man on TV talked excitedly about the game that would soon be released. The man’s name was James and he was the public face of Undertones, always appearing at public events since it was his job to be seen and make the company look good. Reid sighed as he watched him talk about things he already knew. There would be a thousand people allowed access to the beta version of the game. They would have three months to become the best player in the game and the top hundred players would be given the chance to participate in a tournament to decide the best player. The winner would receive a prize.

That prize was one of the things he was aiming for. His parents weren’t allowed to tell him what the prize was and they didn’t break that rule despite the fact that they were usually cheaters and probably wanted to break multiple rules and restrictions placed upon them. However, the way they treat the prize says it all. He could tell that whatever it was, it was some kind of amazing prize and well worth the effort.

Reid turned off the television and closed his eyes as he thought about all the information he had collected. He knew everything that anyone not involved with Undertones could know about the game, and he was ready. It was only one day way now and everything he knew, everything he was would be tested. Tomorrow would be the day that he would see if he was truly worth something. Would he be able to overcome the trials of the game, or would he fail, causing everything he had done up to this moment to be pointless. He was afraid, but he was also hopeful.

Soon, he would be playing the game full time, only leaving to eat, keep good hygiene, and sleep. He smiled as he thought about his plans for his character and how he would play the game. Maybe with Dead World Online, he could find what he was missing. Maybe he could fill the emptiness.