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  endless fantasy online: The phoenix Kingdom

  DEVIN AUSPLAND

  Copyright © 2019 Devin Auspland

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  ISBN: 9781074014599

  DEDICATION

  For my wife and our four fur babies.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  DEDICATION

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  EPILOGUE

  AFTERWORD

  LUKE’S CHARACTER SHEET

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  There is a list of people I want to thank but first is my amazing wife. I had to give up a lot of family time to complete this project and she continued to support me, encourage me, and help me. She is my rock and I’m blessed every day because I have her in my life. Thank you.

  I want to thank my close friend Breck Borges and his father Dick Borges. They both gave me unwavering support and were the first people to read my book from start to finish. They provided amazing comments and helped not only proofread my mistakes but took the time to help me edit everything.

  I want to thank the rest of my family. My siblings, my parents, my cousins, aunts, uncles, and my grandparents for encouraging me along the way. This was a huge investment of my time and they all helped me get through it by cheering me on.

  Last but certainly not least, I must thank you, the readers. Thank you for coming on this journey with me and enjoying my words. I’m so glad that I was able to share this story with you.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Enter the Beta

  Five-thousand dollars! They’re paying five grand for a month of playing video games? What’s the catch, thought Luke as he reexamined the college job board for the third time. According to the neon flier the company, Vortex Industries, was looking for people to join the first human trials of a new virtual reality game. Luke checked to make sure there were no other obvious choices for summer employment before ripping the flier off the board and slipping it into his pocket.

  As soon as he got back to his dorm room, he called the number on the flier. “Hello? I’m interested in joining your beta program.”

  “That’s great! I’ll just need some details from you and you’ll have to sign some documents” a customer service rep responded on the other end.

  After their brief conversation Luke booted up his laptop and checked his email. Sure enough, there was a message marked important from Vortex Industries. It appeared to contain standard legal documents, the kind you’d see for any prerelease game testing program. There was a non-disclosure agreement, a non-compete document and a bunch of other legalese that Luke didn’t fully understand. One thing he made note of was the lack of anything talking about the game. There weren’t any game briefs, screen shots, videos or anything to give him information on what they would be testing. Luke still wanted to sign up, so he electronically signed all the documents and sent them back. He got a response almost instantly with an address and time to show up.

  Luke ordered an auto-taxi and keyed in his destination when it arrived. The automatic display said it would take approximately an hour, so Luke pulled out his phone and did some research. Vortex Industries has been the leader in Virtual Reality gaming ever since they released their own hardware a few years ago. Luke enjoyed gaming but hadn’t played any VR games. With high end VR hardware costing thousands of dollars, he could never afford their steep entry costs.

  The more research he did, the more excited he became. The screen shots for their previous VR titles looked incredible. Digging around some tech sites he found a video of the head scientist, Robert Xanders, talking about the company’s recent breakthroughs. He clicked the video and it began to play on the auto-taxi’s viewing monitor.

  “Our new VR hardware is beyond anything on the market.” Robert was speaking at a keynote address in front of a large room of gamers, investors, and industry professionals. He began “The immersion that virtual reality can provide truly is incredible, but what is holding it back from feeling real?” The screen behind him displayed images of human ears, mouths, hands, eyes, and noses. “It’s the lack of senses engaged. Imagine being able to go into another world, imagine tasting its food, smelling its flowers.” He paused for dramatic effect, “Imagine a new life. The Vortex Capsule will transport you to a new world.” Images behind Robert changed to a large white egg-shaped capsule with the Vortex Industries branding on the side.

  A video started playing showing a cartoon person walking into the capsule. The cartoon person laid down inside the capsule and the camera switched to a first-person view from the perspective of the cartoon person. The man in the video closed his eyes, and the screen went dark. Oversized eyelids opened to a large medieval town. The cartoon person looked down to see that he was holding a sword and a fireball was flaring in his other hand. There was a low rumbling sound and his eyes jolted up, revealing a group of goblins that were charging him. He threw his fireball at one of them and then ran forward to drive his sword through another.

  The video suddenly changed to the first-person view of a starship captain. The captain began yelling commands at his crew while engaging in an epic space battle. Massive spacecrafts were exploding all around the captain’s ship. He gripped the armrests of his chair until his knuckles turned white. A missile fired from an enemy ship in his direction. Right before the missile made contact, the screen changed, and the man was sitting on a beach enjoying an exotic drink. The bubbling drink had a miniature umbrella in it. Gazing lovingly at him was a woman in a bikini with pink skin. Looking around the beach he saw a wide variety of people with purple, green, and dark blue skin. There were sounds of exotic birds chirping and crashing out of the water were large alien like creatures. “The Vortex Capsule is not just the future of virtual reality gaming – it’s the future of humanity,” Rob continued. “Soon you can have a family trip to Florida without ever having to go through airport security, driving for hours or having to rent an expensive hotel. Imagine tasting the drinks you order on the beach and feeling the sand under your toes. I welcome you to the future!” Rob extended his arms in a wide, welcoming gesture and the crowd went wild. They were all standing, clapping, and cheering as the video cut out.

  Luke continued to research Vortex Industries as the auto-taxi pulled up to a large skyscraper. The top of the building was adorned by the words Vortex Industries in giant neon glowing letters.” Luke entered the building and went to the front desk to check in. A woman wearing what appeared to be a blue stewardess's outfit gave him a warm greeting.

  “Welcome to Vortex Industries.” She stood up and gave him a slight bow before continuing. “You must be Lucas Patterson. We have been waiting for you.”

  The woman was in her late twenties and he immediately realized why she was chosen for the front desk position. She had incredible posture, was very kind spoken
and had a kind smile. Luke blushed momentarily as she stood, revealing her pleasant figure.

  “You can call me Luke,” he mumbled while pushing up his glasses.

  She smiled, handed him a badge and gestured toward the elevator as the doors opened with a whoosh. Luke stepped inside and the doors closed behind him. He began to grow a little concerned at the lack of buttons to control the elevator. Instead of buttons, there was a box to scan keycards, but he had not been given a keycard when he arrived. Before he could contemplate returning to the front desk, he heard the quiet tones of generic elevator music, and the elevator began descending.

  “Welcome to Vortex Industries,” a monitor in the elevator panel said as it whistled to life. “Vortex Industries is the leading provider of virtual reality experiences. With the recent announcement of the Vortex Capsule, Vortex Industries is bringing the future to the present day.”

  The monitor shut off as the elevator came to a stop. With the lack of buttons and a floor number display, he wasn’t sure how far down the elevator had gone.

  A man in a lab coat, carrying a clipboard and sporting a 5 o’clock shadow, approached the elevator. Luke recognized the man as Robert Xanders, the lead scientist behind the Vortex Capsule. “Hello Lucas. Please come with me so we can start the scanning process.”

  “Please call me Luke – and what do you mean by the ‘scanning process’?” Luke responded, hesitation bleeding into his voice.

  “We first have to scan you before we can move your consciousness into the Vortex Capsule and sync it with your brain waves. Didn’t you read about this in the package they sent you?” The man rose a single eyebrow inquisitively at Luke.

  Luke explained that they only sent him legal documents and wasn’t sure the full extent of this offer.

  “Just like those corporate goons to not send all the correct information. All about protecting our trade secrets I suppose.” The man seemed to get lost in thought and stopped talking after looking upward and holding his chin.

  “Sir?” Luke called out.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. My name is Robert Xanders, but you can call me Rob.” The man started meandering down a hallway with multiple doors on either side. He waved to Luke to follow. “Allow me to add some context. You are here to test the new Vortex Capsule. We will need to perform some minor medical examinations of you before and after each of your sessions.” Luke’s pace began to slow as he heard this, and Rob turned to him, palms out. “Don’t worry, it's all non-invasive stuff with the occasional blood draw.”

  Luke winced at the mention of taking his blood.

  “Sorry about that, but we need to just make sure you’re healthy.”

  Rob continued to explain the various stages of the beta test and what Luke’s responsibilities would be. Everything boiled down to Luke being medically examined and put into a virtual world. He would be expected and encouraged to play the game for a couple of hours. They would then remove him from that world and, after more medical tests, he would have to talk about his experiences. He would also fill out some customer service response forms while taking a short break between sessions. He would repeat this process a few times a week until the summer was over.

  The two men reached the end of the hallway and a metal door whooshed open.

  “You must be Lucas,” said a woman with long red hair as she stood from her seat and approached the pair. “You can call me Doctor Judy. I run the medical research department at Vortex Industries. I’m in charge of keeping you healthy and….”

  “Call him Luke,” Rob interrupted. “Please get his scans done and bring him to capsule room five.”

  Judy's face turned red as Rob interrupted her, but she kept her calm as he left the room.

  “He’s a genius, but not great with social interactions. Definitely the type of kid to sit in his room building models instead of going to the school dance or kissing girls,” she commented with Rob gone.

  Luke shrugged and pushed his glasses up to calm his nerves. Anything to hide the fact that he, too, would skip school dances as a child to build model spaceships.

  “Pushing that aside, please come in and lay on the examination table.”

  Luke entered the room and laid on a table that looked like a futuristic version of a table he would find at his doctor's office. Above him, hanging from the ceiling, was a multitude of metal satellite type dishes and a variety of tools attached to curled cords. After a few moments, some of the dishes started emitting a low ringing sound, and Luke felt a low heat emanating from them.

  “Don’t worry,” Judy reassured. “The scans are completely harmless.”

  About ten minutes later the machines shut off and Judy appeared to be pleased with the results that appeared on her tablet. Judy requested Luke to follow her and they moved back into the hallway following a sign reading “Capsule Rooms”.

  Another mechanical door whooshed open when they approached. The door had a large red five painted on it. Inside, Luke recognized the Vortex Capsule from the online video he had watched, and he noticed Rob sitting at a computer that was extending out from the side of the machine.

  “Luke! I told you that would be quick.” Rob turned back to his computer as he finished speaking and the capsule door opened.

  Judy walked Luke to the opening and gestured him inside. Luke entered the large oval shaped device and laid on the long black bed-like cushion inside. Although the outside of the capsule was primarily white, the inside was jet black.

  “Now the log-in process is painless,” Judy began to explain. “There are several monitors directly above you that will display basic information for you and track your vitals. We will also be monitoring your vitals from outside.” Judy handed her tablet to Rob, and he inserted it into a slot on the outside of the device. “We will link this capsule to your brain waves once you create a secure account with our system and log-in. After that, the capsule will start the sleep procedure for you.”

  Luke pointed to several holes he noticed on the bed. “What are these for?”

  “Those are for your vital measurements, IV and blood analysis. Small needles will come out of the holes after the machine puts you to sleep. The needles will take blood and provide your body with the nutrients it needs while you are inside the capsule. The capsule also provides small electronic pulses to your various muscles to avoid any chance of developing muscle atrophy in your…”

  “Enough shop talk. The kid is probably dying to see the game by now,” Rob interrupted Judy again.

  Judy’s face turned slightly red as she leaned out of the capsule and moved to monitor one of the external screens.

  “After you log-in you’re going to be in… Well, I don’t think I want to ruin it for you. Good luck and have fun!” The door to the capsule shut after Rob made some quick commands on the keyboard.

  Without the light bleeding in through the door, the capsule was pitch dark and Luke could feel some electronic leads attach to his arms. The monitor directly above him chimed on. It had a black background with white text appearing one letter at a time.

  Welcome Lucas Patterson.

  Please speak a character name…

  Luke thought for a minute. This could be a way to reinvent himself, to be King Arthur, Dragon Slayer or something like Shadow Master. Something that sounded cooler than Lucas Patterson, but after much contemplation, he didn’t think he was clever enough to think of anything better than just “Luke.”

  Processing…

  Character name “Luke” accepted.

  Please review your physical appearance before accepting.

  A slowly rotating 3D representation of Luke appeared on the screen. It looked like the same six foot overweight college student he saw in the mirror every day, with short shaggy brown hair and rectangle shaped glasses. The image appeared to be an exact model of him, likely derived from the scans he underwent earlier. On the side of the model were many toggles, sliders and customization options. Luke was again hesitating to think of anything other than h
imself. The only slider he decided to adjust was the one for weight, deciding to make his avatar leaner than his real world body.

  That was the quickest and best working diet plan I had ever taken, thought Luke as he hit the option to confirm.

  Character’s physical appearance confirmed.

  Please wait while we initiate the log-in process.

  Log-in commencing in 3… 2… 1…

  Luke unwillingly shut his eyes from a sudden onset of exhaustion. When he opened his eyes, he was blinking rapidly to clear his vision from the sudden onset of light.

  “Hello Traveler.”

  Luke rubbed his eyes and started searching for the speaker.

  “Please relax. The first voyage is often the toughest.”

  Luke’s eyes settled on an old man wearing a long red robe, being propped up by a walking stick. “Where… Where am I?” Luke asked.

  “You are in a midway point between your world and mine. This is my study.” The man gestured around himself.

  Luke was in a small room with books lining most of the walls. There was a table, a few chairs, several candles and various writing implements spread out across the table. When he looked at himself he was wearing a simple white cotton shirt and brown cotton pants. The jeans and t-shirt he had been wearing were gone.

  Luke approached the table and ran his finger across the edge of a book’s page.

  “Ow!” He pulled his hand back and noticed a small cut that began bleeding. “That hurt… I mean, that actually hurt.”

  “Of course it hurt. Paper cuts are the worst.”

  The old man winced at the thought. “No, I mean, I can feel that it hurt. Am I… in the game?” Luke asked with a puzzled expression as he sucked the cut on his finger.

  “Most of you travelers call this a game, but this is my world. You are as real here as you are in your world. What would happen in your world if you got a paper cut?”