Chapter 1: Unboxing - The Prologue
"Look, I'm not saying you're crazy. But you're crazy! You've been reading too many of those trash novels. I mean don't you think this is all a little much?" Holden gestured around the room, "Like, what the hell do you need an IV for? And a heart minitor? I don't even know what this thing is!" He tossed a small medal cube from hand to hand while glaring at his best friend and flatmate who had the decency to look at least a little ashamed, before a disapproving lab technicians snatch the cube from his hands with a glare.
"Ok, I get that it's maybe a little unnecessary. But it's only unnecessary if I'm wrong and besides it's not like it's costing us anything, hell your boss us even paying us for it. If I'm wrong then the company gets some data on the effect of long time immersion that they'll be able to post. If I'm right then we'll have someone to keep us alive until we escape the game and they'll be the first on the scene with the scoop. Come on admit it, there's no chance we could have bought one of the premium rigs if we didn't agree to be lab rats right?" Gemini lounged against one of the two FIVR pods that were currently taking up most of their living room and locked eyes with Holden who begrudgingly agreed.
Between the pods, the random array of beeping and hissing medical equipment, and the lab technicians testing machines and measuring baselines the apartment had become decidedly crowded. The two young men were sitting by their pods waiting for the launch of the worlds first FIVR game. The news about the game, and the technology that made it possible, had come completely out of left field and was considered a good decade ahead of its competitors.
The FIVR pods were the brain child of a certain space facing CEO who had had the foresight to combine several new technological innovations from the medical and gaming industries and created the first true fully immersive virtual reality system. To the millions of gamers across the globe the release of FIVR pods and PIVR helmets was the next step in the evolution of gaming and the answer to years of gamers wishing for a proper powerhouse to throw their weight behind the development of true VR. In the end it had been the development of software designed to let amputees not only control their prosthetics with a thought but also feel through the artificial limb that had been a turning point. After all controlling a prosthetic is not entriely different from controlling a game avatar, although it is on an entirely different scale.
Some of the highest profile streamers in the world were already raving about the technology and had promoted the full launch through sponsored streams and beta builds. Ninja alone had had over a million concurrent viewers on his stream and the wildfire had spread from there. An hour away from the official launch and the company advertised more than five hundred million units sold and shipped.
"Alright boys, are you ready to go?"
The two young men looked up to see the woman that would be running the show looking down at them. In her late thirties or early forties she was the head content creater for the gaming magazine and website that was footing the bill for them. Holden was already an employee of the company and worked as part of their marketing team but it had been Gemini that had approached the company with his idea to run an expose on the new technology and the impact of long term immersion. The gaming community were ravenously consuming any content relared to FIVR and the possibility of a dissenting voice from within the industry would be enough to spark peoples interest. Eleanor was a mother of two and had been secretly glad to hear that someone else wasn't convinced by the new tech, and so she footed the bill for two pods and a team of doctors and technicians to monitor the duo. Holden, as an employee of the site and a friend of Gemini's was an easy pick to serve as the companies eyes and ears inside the game.
Gemini locked eyes with his temporary employer and nodded, "We're ready, I hope I'm wrong. But I suppose you'll get more readers if I'm right wont you." It wasn't a question but she responded anyway.
"You're right, but there's millions of people about to log in to this game. For their sakes lets hope this is a bust OK?" She glanced up at the clock and around the room at the support team, ready and waiting, before winking at the duo. "Now strip, it's showtime!"
The two young men laughed and quickly stripped down to their birthday suits showing off surprisingly good physiques for avid gamers, the two friends had worked like madmen for the last six months honing their bodies ahead of the game launch. After all, no one really knew how similar this would be to a traditional game, would the system compensate for a lack of skill or would it be just you, the player, facing off against the world? Either way Gemini had enbraced his inner doomsday prepper and with the companies support had spent six months turning then into the several thousand dollar men, the magazine refused to drop six million on their training after all, and had forced Holden to pick up the basics in archery, fencing, equestrian, forging and even the right way to swing a pickaxe.
So amid a host of wolf whistles and more than one pair of appreciative eyes the two gamers climbed into their pods, with the help of the lab techs, and settled into the cool nanotech gel.
The lid of the pods closed with a hiss and plunged the duo into darkness where they waited as the gel slowly filled the pod until they were fully submerged in the psuedo liquid. Despite being forewarned they duo both had to fight against the rising panic and fear of drowning, eventually though their screaming lungs forced them both to take a breath and allow the nanno gel to flood into them. Instantly the lights went out as their consciousness flickered out like a candle. Their next conscious thought was a floating image in the darkness that beckoned to them.
Welcome to the game.
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