Virtual Reality

August 25^th, 2075, 17:30:

“It, is, tiiiiime!” said the man as a wall of text from the live chat began to rapidly climb its way up the right side of the screen. “I’m your host, Brazen Brass, bringing you the Cauldron patch two-point-oh update.”

A slight murmur rumbled through the room. Even Dom turned to Slayer in confusion, though one look at Slayer showed he knew nothing more than anyone else as he stared fixated at the screen. All the leaks leading up to now had referred to this patch as patch 1.653, while a slight change in the number would not be anything out of the ordinary, 2.0 was significant.

“I know what you’re all thinking,” the man continued. “‘Two-point-oh? But that means something major is about to change.’ And you’d be right my intelligent players. The amazing people here at the Cauldron team have truly unlocked the reality, in Virtual Reality. You thought that things felt real before? Well sharpen your swords and shine your plates because things are about to get interesting. No longer will you have to rely on your status bars to know when your character is getting hungry, sleepy, or running out of stamina. With this patch the game has ascended beyond your average game into the experience of a lifetime. With me today is Dr. Isaac Braunhouse, lead scientific developer of Cauldron, to explain the science behind the update.”

The camera zoomed out and Brazen turned to face a man in a white lab coat with the same Cauldron emblem emblazoned on its left breast pocket. Like Brazen he appeared to be in his late forties, though he wore the years much less elegantly than the announcer. The top of his head was completely bald, while the sides still maintained the last vestiges of his salt and pepper hair. Like Slayer in the real world the man had heavy bags under his eyes as though he had not gotten a full nights sleep in weeks.

“Doctor,” Brazen said giving the man a firm handshake. “It’s an honor to speak with you again. Now please, tell me about the science behind this marvel of game design you all have developed for the new patch.”

The doctor fidgeted slightly in his seat, clearly not used to being on camera. “Well,” he said, his voice cracking slightly. He cleared his throat then continued. “Essentially the Cauldron UI has always operated under the same system as all other games of its ilk. It intercepting a majority of the brain’s neuro output so we can upload those brainwaves to the digital body to allow players to control their avatar. While this system is nigh perfect for character control, it has always been flawed in its allowance for the players to experience the worlds around them.”

Brazen nodded along, appearing to hang on the Doctor’s every word. “And why is that sir?”

“Simply because we could only ever intercept most of the brains output. Which caused enough disconnect that the brain could still distinguish between virtual, and reality. Which meant no matter how much input we fed to the brain, there were just some things it would not register. For example, in game no matter how low a players exhaustion meter got they never really got tired until we bombarded the brain with signals that they should be. Now though, with the new patch, regardless of your rig, we can actively intercept all neuro output, which makes it to where the brain can’t tell the difference between real and virtual. The amount of information we can send to the brain now without overloading the player is astounding, far beyond what we ever thought possible.” Dr. Braunhouse turned towards the camera. “You all are in for one heck of an experience, and we here at the Cauldron team look forward to hearing your feedback.”

“Thank you for your time sir,” Brazen said shaking the man’s hand once again. “And I think I speak for everyone when I say, thank you and your team for making all of this possible.” Dr. Braunhouse stood and Brazen turned back to face the camera as it zoomed in on him. “That was DR. Isaac Braunhouse, lead scientific developer for Cauldron. And now, I have a very special announcement for you, my very lucky players.

“I’m sure that, like everyone else around the world, your true life has been difficult. Day after day we fight back against the unrelenting tides of disease, and food shortages, while just trying to keep a roof over our family’s heads. The Cauldron team has always made it their main goal to be your outlet to get away from all of those woes, and it has been our honor, and privilege to be your outlet at the end of the day. That light at the end of the tunnel that helps keep you going.

“Now, we have been granted the opportunity to pay you all back for your time, loyalty, and dedication. From this day forward, thanks to the hard work of not only everyone on the Cauldron team, but everyone here at Entertainment Anthology, you no longer have to worry about food, money, or responsibility. Say bye-bye to scraping by. Because from now on, you all get to live out your wildest fantasies right here.

“Today, Entertainment Anthology launches us into the future of entertainment with the world’s first High Fantasy Reality TV Series, Cauldron of Heroes, starting… all of you!”

The murmurs returned in much greater force this time, as the chat to the right of the screen began flying up so fast that it was impossible to read.

“We’re gonna be on TV?” Dom said in confusion to no one in particular.

“Wait, somethings not right here,” said Jixnin as he scrolled frantically through his in-game menu. “I can’t find my news feed tab.”

“What do you mean can’t find it?” asked Artimeter.

“I mean they changed the menu layout and I can’t find it,” he said as he continued to scroll. “I can’t find the in-game cell phone either.”

“From now on,” continued Brazen. “As the stars of the show all you will have to worry about is having fun and enjoying the game you love. Though, you’re probably wondering ‘how is that possible?’. Well its simple my darling players. We here at Entertainment Anthology, love you. And to show that love, you and your families will be provided monthly pay, and food rations based on your former earnings in the real world, and your current player ranking.”

Former earnings? Slayer thought as the murmurs began to grow even louder.

“The top ten players will also be awarded with a significant pay increase, and the families of anyone who makes their way into the top ten, shall receive special up-scale housing, regardless of current living arrangements. However, as with all things, where there are gains, there are also losses. If you all would entertain me for a moment please open your options menu and scroll down to the bottom.”

Slayer opened the menu as instructed and scrolled down. He found the normal Help, Tutorial, and Settings options, yet something was amiss.

“What the… where…” stammered out Jixnin as he scrolled back up then down again. “… Slayer.”

“As you all can see. The log out button has been removed.”

The room went silent.

“It was unnecessary. For why would you need it? You are already home. Everything in the real world has already been taken care of. A nurse, and an Entertainment Anthology representative have already arrived at your homes to begin taking care of you and deliver you first month’s pay in advance. Now that we are all on the same page, shine like the stars you are and keeping those HPs above zero. Good luck Heroes. Make your fantasies a reality. Until next time, this has been Brazen Brass with your Cauldron two-point-oh update, and Cauldron of Heroes launch announcement.”

The announcer disappeared, replaced with the Cauldron logo as the game’s theme music played in the background.

Slayer leant back, melting into his chair as he processed the information. For a moment, the room remained silent then it became absolute chaos. People sprinted out of the hall, while others yelled and screamed at on another, a few even threw bottles at the slowly rotating logo. The voices grew louder and louder. Some shouting in discontent, screaming at the injustice of the announcement, while others shouted back at them, calling them ungrateful whiners.

As the shouting continued, the hall began to split, those for and against moving to stand by those likeminded to them. The only four not engaged were Slayer, Dom, Jixnin, and Artimeter, three of whom were looking at Slayer, waiting for him to respond.

The tension in the room was escalating by the second. Weapons were drawn, insults were being hurled. Yet Slayer heard none of it. He sat limply in his chair, thinking of Cassie and Aaron. The arguments around him were all focused on the log out button, but he was more concerned with one simple statement. ‘and keeping those HPs above zero.’

“Jixnin,” Slayer said suddenly, his voice barely audible above the tumultuous room. “Speaker.” Slayer stood from his chair and turned to face the room while Jixnin muttered a short incantation and placed a hand on Slayer’s shoulder. “THAT IS ENOUGH!!!” Slayer shouted, Jixnin’s spell making his voice so loud that the room shook with his words.

The arguing stopped and everyone in the room turned towards him.

“Now is not the time for us to argue. For all we know right now this is a prank being pulled off by some very ingenious hackers. Still, if this is true, you are all acting like fools. Don’t let that announcer fool you by talking to us as though we are all the same. Those of you who are upset by this development, think of those across the room from you who may not have the best life IRL. They could be starving or be on the verge of being evicted. For them, this is a blessing. Those of you who do feel like this is a blessing, think of those among us who are parents, or guardians who are more concerned about who will be taking care of their loved ones as they wait for them to log out. For now, I ask that everyone return to their rooms, and take the time to process what we all just heard. Lieutenants, emergency meeting, now.”

Without another word Slayer climbed down and returned to his chair. His words were enough to calm everyone for the moment as they followed his instructions and exited the room. Soon the room was cleared save for Slayer, Dom, Shady, Lord, Jixnin, Artimeter, and Hardra. Five-minutes later Black-Sword returned and took his seat at the table. He was the youngest of the Lieutenants, who had developed an interesting habit of mimicking everything he saw Lord do. They wore the same armor save for Lord’s spiked crown and despite the fact Black-Sword wielded a sword and shield they fought with the same might over mind style.

In spite of the mass amount of alcohol that had been consumed, the announcement had done wonders to sober them all up. All save for Hardra, who seemed to be coping to the news by consuming even more alcohol than before.

They all sat in silence for a long while, waiting for Slayer to speak as he sat with his elbows resting on the table, his hands steepled in front of him.

“So,” Lord said finally breaking the silence. He had removed his armor when he joined the melee. His character had shoulder length black hair, which was a mess of tangles after the fight, and had silver eyes which were now resting on Slayer. “Are we waiting for Needreve?”

Slayer took a deep breath. “No. I was just trying to cobble my thoughts together before speaking. We can get started. Before we get started though, I need you all to do me a favor. The character-to-character DM system is still operational. I would like for you all to message me with your opinion of if our current situation is a good, or a bad thing.”

The Lieutenants let out a mix of affirmative noises and grunts, along with a few eye rolls as they typed out their responses. Slayer waited, watching his inbox as the messages came in.

Slayer strummed his hand against the table as he read the messages. “I have asked you all to message me because I believe it is important that we project a combined front for the stance we will be taking as a guild. My personal opinion is that this is not a good thing, however that is because as most of you know I have two younger siblings IRL that I take care of. My personal feelings aside though, I believe that it would be better for morale if we take the stance of optimistic compliance. If we project positivity then hopefully it will spread. The only other point of order I wished to discuss with you all is that effective immediately all operations are to be halted and every operative is to return here as soon as possible. Jixnin I want a full head count in the morning, anyone who cannot make it back within a week will be met halfway be a Lieutenant lead team.”

“Slayer,” Lord said cautiously. “If we pull back our infiltrators it will be very difficult to put them back in place.”

“I don’t care until we get more information everyone needs to come back here. Before I go to bed I am sending messages to all the other PK Guild Masters calling for them to halt operations as well.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little drastic?” Lord argued. “I mean sure they removed the log out button, but it won’t last long. There is no way this is legal. They’ll have to let us go soon. Either way, pulling them back would set us behind by months.”

“‘and keeping those HPs above zero.’,” Slayer said turning his eyes glancing across each of the players at the table, stopping on Lord. “Anyone want to guess at what that might mean?”

“Well…” Lord shifted slightly in his chair. “I mean the goal is always to keep your HP above zero.”

“Yes but since when do they warn us about that?”

“What are you saying, Slayer?” asked Dom.

“I’m saying that until we get more information I don’t want any killing,” Slayer said sternly. “And I don’t want anyone doing anything that could get them hurt.”

“It’s not like they’ll die,” said Hardra flippantly.

Slayer’s eyes shot over to him. “Are you willing to bet your life on that fact?”

The room went dead silent. They all looked between each other as the realization dawned on them of what he was implying.

“Slayer’s right,” Dom said breaking the silence. “Until we get more information we need to proceed with caution.”

Hardra groaned. “Don’t you think you guys are making a bit of a leap?”

“If they’re wrong then we lose a few days’ work,” said Shady. “If they are right then we save a dozen people’s lives.”

“I’m all for taking the cautious route,” said Artimeter, leaning back and propping her boots up on the table. “But I assume you’re going off of more than what could be a throwaway line.”

Slayer leant back in his chair. “If I’m being honest, no, I’m not. I just got a bad feeling about it. I know this has just been a game up until now, but we are responsible for everyone in the guild’s safety. So until we are certain beyond a reasonable doubt that their lives are not at risk I am not approving any further operations.”

Dom and Shady nodded in agreement.

“If I may,” Jixnin said raising a hand. Slayer nodded and he continued. “So the concept of interrupting all the brains neural pathways is not a new idea. In fact it was the first thing the game developers attempted to achieve when the neuro style consoles first came out. The issue was while while the concept sounds simple enough the subconscious neural pathways are extremely difficult to interrupt in comparison to the conscious ones. Not only that, but the other major thing slowing the research down was the theory that if you interrupted all the brains waves then the body would not receive the messages necessary to do things such as breathe or pump blood. Since we are all still alive I would guess they found a way around that one. The other theory was that if one should see themselves die while all the brain waves are being interrupted then the brain would believe that death was real and shut down.”

“So what you’re saying is there is actually credence to this?” asked Lord frustratedly. “That somehow death in the game means death IRL?”

Jixnin looked between Lord and Slayer for a moment then nodded. “Yes that is what I am saying.”

There was another round of silence, this time broken by Slayer.

“For now,” said Slayer. “I know we normally make our decision based on majority vote, but I assume no one has any qualms with making sure our lower ranked personnel are not risking their lives while we sit here and ask questions.”

There was a mix of nods and murmurs of agreement from everyone at the table save for Hardra, who instead took a long drink from his mug, draining more than half of its contents in one go.

“Good. Jixnin stay here with me to prep teams for if we need to send them out. The rest of you may go about your business. And remember, positivity. If you see anyone fighting break it up, and DM me as soon as the situation calms down.”

Hardra, Lord, Black-Sword and Artimeter rose and made their way from the room, leaving Slayer, Shady, Dom, and Jixnin at the table. Once they were gone Slayer opened his mouth to say something but Shady interrupted him before he could say anything.

“Nope, nuh uh,” he said shaking his head. “If you’re about to say anything but sit here and help you, you can shove it dumb ass. I know you’re over there stressing yourself about Cass and A-A-ron. Talking about positivity. Known you too long for you to be trying to fake us like that.”

“… Is it that obvious?” Slayer said suddenly self-conscious.

“I didn’t notice,” said Jixnin encouragingly.

“As he said,” Dom said patting Shady on the back. “We’ve just known you for too long.”

“So we’re going to make these dumb little teams with you, and after that,” Shady clapped both Dom and Slayer on the back. “You two are going to actually drink now that everyone is gone, and we are going to joke, and remines until you forget about the stress for at least a little while.”

“I’m down,” said Dom.

“Jix do you want in?” Slayer asked though he knew the man’s answer.

“No, I’ll be alright. Once we are done I feel like I need to go talk to Lord. He seemed a little aggravated.”

“That is to be expected.”

“Anything we should be worried about?” asked Dom. “Want some back up?”

“Nah, you guys know I know him IRL. I just want to make sure he doesn’t lash out at anyone.”

“He is one of the few people that being trapped here is actually a downgrade for isn’t he?” said Shady.

Jixnin nodded. “When your father is the COO of the second-largest robotics company in the USNA you have enough money that basically anything is a downgrade.”

“We’re getting off topic,” Slayer said pulling their attention back in. “Once we have a plan in place I’m all for drinking. For now let’s focus up.”