December 1st, 2099
Hampton Falls, NH
United States of America
1853 Hours EST
Darian King pulled into the driveway of his home in Hampton Falls. A sigh escaped him, and he glanced up at the rear mirror and found his own weary gray eyes staring back at him.
“Cheer up, idiot,” he muttered to himself good-naturedly, “it’s the weekend.”
A snort followed his self-pep talk, and Darian rubbed his hands over his face before muttering “driver door up” and stepping out when the car complied, followed by a “lock and power off” command that saw the door close with a click of central locking.
The last part of the command deactivated the electric engine immediately and allowed the vehicle to connect to the charging pad built into the faux-granite driveway under his feet. The only sign of the charge was the subtle flicker of electric-blue light around the rectangular pad, muted by the luxury two-door''s sporty chassis.
Darian’s footsteps were quiet as he approached the entrance to the massive house, glancing up at the center of the brown double-doors and allowing the small projector above the frame to scan him quickly. The wash of blue light raked his form, and a chime of approval echoed from somewhere nearby.
Several loud clicks went off, and the doors opened inwards, offering him entry.
“Thanks, Alfred,” he said as he stepped inside, beelining for the large staircase at the end of the carpeted marble entrance hall and ascending it steadily.
“You’re quite welcome, Master Darian,” the residence AI responded warmly with its distinctly English accent, its voice projecting from one of the many hidden speakers within the infrastructure. Shall I prepare dinner, Young Master?”
Darian shook his head as he turned left at the middle fork of the staircase, still taking them two at a time. “I ate while I was out,” he responded while glancing down at the sleek black band wrapped around his wrist, and noting the time when it appeared on his forearm in holographic blue digits. “Has everything been set up, Alfred?”
“Yes, indeed,” the AI responded affirmatively, “and I had the technicians install the device in your study, as you asked. I take it this is that new VRMMO you’ve been excited for?”
Darian nodded with a faint smile of anticipation. “Eternus Online,” he confirmed. “Did you snag that research I asked you for?”
“I took the liberty of familiarizing myself with the available information, sir, yes,” Alfred replied dutifully. “Would you like me to elaborate on—?”
“No thanks,” Darian cut in hurriedly as he stepped through multiple doorways and a long corridor, walking toward the opening doors to his bedroom. “I’d prefer to go in basically blind. The whole point of this game is that it’s marketed as an unprecedented adventure, and there’s no point ruining it for myself.”
“A wise choice, sir,” Alfred agreed affably. “Is there anything else I can do to assist you, then, before you enter the game?”
Darian hesitated. Was there anything that Alfred could do? He certainly didn’t want the experience of Eternus spoiled by the AI, but maybe there was something he could take care of on Darian’s behalf.
“Can you call Kate and tell her I’ll be starting it up soon, please?”
“Ah, will Miss Kate be playing with you?”
“Last I checked, yeah,” Darian confirmed distractedly. “Though… she said she wouldn’t be free until about… nine-ish? So, I have a few hours to kill. Tell her I’ll be figuring out the tutorial while I wait.”
“Of course, sir,” Alfred agreed, “and I might remind you, the device requires you to remove your clothing per the instructions.”
“...it does?” Darian asked with a pause.
“It does,” Alfred confirmed, “due to some manner of interface requirement, as I understand it.”
“Everything?” he asked to be certain.
“Everything, sir,” Alfred affirmed.
Darian furrowed his brows, but knowing Alfred had done the research into the safety of the game, he shrugged. A moment later, he doffed his jacket, rid himself of his casual jeans, and pulled off his shirt and underwear. Naked as the day he was born, the twenty-three-year-old stepped through the doors to his adjoining study and settled his eyes on the full-immersion pod resting on a dais at the center of the room.
When Eternus Online had been announced, the company behind it—Eternus Entertainment, or ‘E2’—had also announced a special raffle: a competition where the winners would receive bespoke cradles for full-dive immersion into the game. The requirement for a medical waiver, which was to check for incompatible genetic markers, had made him hesitate—but most people’s information was out there by default in the modern age, regardless.
After Alfred had researched the reasons behind requesting the information, it also made more sense for E2 to be sure there was no chance of adverse medical reactions for people using the pods. Whatever machinery and chemicals went into them, it was unlikely the company wanted to risk someone dying due to a video game they had just launched.
Those had been Alfred’s thoughts as well, and Darian had felt comfortable enough with the rationale—and eager enough for a chance at a bespoke system—to enter the raffle afterward. Each person had been limited to one entry to make it fair, and Darian had been pleasantly surprised by the inability to ‘pay-to-win’ in the system.
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When he’d received the email he’d won, he’d been unable to believe his luck.
Upon seeing his prize, however, Darian pulled up short and his eyebrows ascended into his platinum-blond fringe.
The obsidian-colored pod was shaped like a coffin, as if it were a sleek prop from a suitably melodramatic Korean Manwha or some sort of fantasy novel. It stood at a sixty-degree angle, with its bottom section connected to a large socket attached to the floor. His eyes raked its exterior, and he noted engraved symbols stylistically drawn along the sides of the pod.
When he moved around it and bent to take a better look, he realized they were sigils of some sort, and were written in a language—if it was an actual language—he couldn’t identify.
“Hey Alfred, do you know what these symbols are?” he called while frowning at the device.
“I do not, sir,” Alfred responded apologetically. “I did attempt to decipher them, but they appear to be some amalgamation of multiple different occult sigils and runes, and ultimately appear to be complete gibberish by the reckoning of the accessible online knowledge base.”
“Huh,” Darian said in consideration, idly reaching out to trade one of the sigils.
It felt perfectly carved, like it was done with laser precision.
“Well, they sure did pull out all the stops. Bespoke is right. This thing would have cost a fortune even in Mother’s eyes.”
“The estimated value is considerable, Young Master, yes,” Alfred confirmed conversationally. “In fact, the average device appears to sell for ten thousand dollars per unit, with generous financing options from E2 themselves—none of which seem predatory, which is the most curious thing.”
“I heard they were making it maximum accessibility, but I didn’t realize they were financing people to play the game,” Darian said with amusement while he moved around the pod and idly tapped his toes against the cold, reinforced steel of the socket the pod was slotted into.
“Oh yes! It even comes with benefits, like baked-in healthcare provisions.”
“I guess that’s what happens when the company is run by a trillionaire,” Darian noted while tapping his knuckle against the pod, and noting the solid feeling of the metal that comprised its black exterior. It was definitely quality.
“Which I would wager is why this device is also so singularly impressive, Young Master.”
Darian could only agree with Alfred while his eyes took in the entire image, and trailed down toward the socket once more.
The socket, a large rectangular ‘brace’ of solid steel within which the pod was slotted, was connected to a low-grade fusion generator built under the floor. From what he understood of it, the generator was independent of the home’s power supply and self-recharging.
He had no idea about the science behind it, of course, but that hardly mattered.
All he cared about was that it could run even in the case of a complete blackout.
The pod also had a state-of-the-art quantum uplink to the Eternus servers in the middle of the Atlantic, meaning that his connection was basically uninterruptible. According to his research, the enigmatic trillionaire behind the creation of Eternus Online had spared no expense on project fidelity.
The server mainframes for the game had been built onto a one-of-a-kind man-made island, named ‘New Atlantis’, which constantly shifted position within U.S. sovereign waters. Rumor had it that the United States Navy was also helping keep the island safe, given it represented a massive economic investment on the part of E2.
“Thank god for absentee parents,” Darian smirked as he approached the pod, once again finding a positive note in the relative absence of his eccentric, jet-setting mother and her inability to remain in one place for over a few weeks.
It had made his childhood somewhat chaotic, but he knew she meant well.
“How do I open it, Alfred?” he called while peering at the closed device.
“Place your hand on that stylized ‘E’ on the front, sir, and it should open! Your biometrics have already been registered by the company, as I was informed.”
Darian raised his eyebrows, but did as Alfred told him to do and set his palm against the pod''s surface, atop the calligraphic ‘E’ dominating the upper half of the coffin where it was widest.
The pod hissed quietly as it vented air. The ‘lid’ lifted and moved sideways to reveal the interior of the metal device, along with the luxurious crimson padding that lined it. Darian took a slow breath and subconsciously shook his arms and legs to ready himself, eyeing the ‘coffin’ with a mix of wariness and excitement.
A breath in and out followed, and then he stepped forward, turning to ease himself backwards into the pod before he could second-guess himself.
“Woah. Weird,” he muttered as the padding embraced him with memory-foam-adjacent comfort. With less hesitation, he settled himself back until he was entirely lying inside the device.
An oxygen mask and simple forehead band slid out from one of the side panels. Darian accepted them both, placing the band around his head and slipping the mask into place.
A few moments of nothingness followed, and Darian was about to open his mouth to query Alfred when a sudden prompt lit up his vision.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1); border-style: double; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Biometric Scan Successful.
Registered User Detected.
Initializing . . .
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Darian blinked at the message, experimentally waving his hand in front of his face. When he touched nothing but air, he realised that the message must have been projected into his vision, and his eyes widened.
“Okay. That is cool,” he said under the muffling of the oxygen mask.
A moment later, another prompt replaced the first one.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1); border-style: double; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
System initialized and calibrated.
All power and connection readings nominal.
Please relax and close your eyes to begin.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Darian did as the prompt requested without much hesitation, taking a steadying breath and closing his eyes.
“Good luck, Young Master!” Alfred said from the room’s projectors. “I shall monitor you for any irregularities. Happy gaming!”
Darian gave a thumbs up and then returned his arm to his side.
Moments later, the quiet hum of gears sent soft vibrations through the coffin as the lid of the pod slid into place, and then closed with a faint and distant hiss of pressurization.
His heart rate spiked, and in the same moment, he detected oxygen and the subtle hint of something else coming from the mask covering his mouth and nose. Before Darian could even open his mouth to question, he felt his consciousness fading, and his focus pulled from him.
The last thing he was aware of was the feeling of warm viscous liquid spilling out across his body from his feet to his chest, with more rapidly filling the pod, and then everything slipped away.