by Lucas Flint
Chuck, to his credit, didn’t seem very intimidated by my anger. “And torture her with the knowledge that she can never be with you? After all, you are in virtual reality and she is not. Even if she got a GamePod to allow her to play the game, you would never truly be able to stay together. It is for the greater good that your fiancee and your family remain in the dark about this, at least for now. Besides, I wasn’t the one who put you in the game, so getting angry at me is pointless.”
My hands tightened on the desk. “Then who is?”
“I am not at liberty to disclose that information to you,” said Chuck. “All I can tell you is that you apparently have friends in high places.”
My hands shook, but I knew getting angry at Chuck was pointless, like he said. I was more angry at the idiot who somehow forced me into the program against my will. I wanted to sock him in the face for ruining my life. Even if he was the President of the United States, he had no right to do this to me. No right to separate me from Sally or my family against my will. Maybe it would have been better to die after all than live with the knowledge that my loved ones thought I was dead and that Sally might even find another man. That thought made me angrier than all of the rest put together.
Forcing myself to calm down, I sat back down on the chair. “Fine. So why does Project Second Life exist at all?”
“Mostly as a way to allow people experiencing a lower quality of life with little hope of improvement to have a better life,” Chuck replied. “People who modern medicine cannot fix or people who see no hope in their life anymore. Assisted suicide is the current legal manner that such people are allowed to deal with their problems, but it is believed by the UN that digital immortality—where you get a body that never dies or decays or suffers from any permanent medical issues—would be a more humane way to deal with such people.”
I nodded. A friend of mine a few years back got into a car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He chose assisted suicide to deal with it, a move I didn’t agree with then and still don’t now. I don’t know why, but even though assisted suicide had become legal decades ago, I still didn’t like it. “What game am I going to be playing, then?”
I should have said ‘living in,’ but I didn’t want to think of this as ‘living.’ Despite what Chuck said, a small part of me still hoped that this was reversible, that I might somehow, someday be able to return to the real world to reunite with Sally and see my family again. It was probably wrong, but I didn’t care. I needed that hope.
“Capes Online,” Chuck replied. “Published back in two thousand twenty-eight by SI Games, it is the world’s first, biggest, and most popular VRMMORPG, with an estimated player base of over three billion and about half a billion regular players.”
“Capes Online?” I said. “I remember the old version of that game from when I was a kid, before the VR edition was released. That was the one where you could be a superhero, right?”
“Or supervillain,” said Chuck. “But yes, that’s the one.”
Despite how sad I was, I could not help but smile at the memories of playing Capes Online when I was a kid. I remembered how much fun I had playing as my chosen character, Winter, completing missions, fighting Villains, and doing all sorts of cool stuff. It was one of the things that motivated me to become a cop. Police officers were as close to being a superhero as you could get in real life.
But thinking about my real life job—a job I would never get to do again—just made me depressed and angry, so I quickly said, “Why Capes Online?”
“As I said, it is the biggest VRMMORPG on the market today,” said Chuck. “It has the most talented developers, programmers, and designers in the world working for its parent company, SI Games. It helps that its founder, Homer Sitterson, is also very much interested in the concept of digital immortality. If anyone can figure out how to make digital immortality work, it would be them.”
I nodded. “So what, exactly, am I going to be ‘testing’? What am I supposed to do when I get to CO, in other words?”
Chuck shrugged again. “Whatever you want. Play the game. Be a Hero. Or a Villain. We don’t really care.”
“Will I be interacting with other players?” I asked. “Or will I be segregated from the rest of the game world?”
“You will be able to interact with other players, including ones who are not part of Project Second Life,” Chuck said. He held up a finger. “But you must never tell them your true nature. You must pretend to be a normal player like everyone else.”
“And what if I tell them what I actually am?” I said, touching my chest. “What are the consequences for breaking the law, in other words?”
Chuck stared at me with a rather unnerving expression. “Let’s just say it’s not something you want to do and leave it at that.”
I frowned. Chuck’s words were rather ominous if a bit vague, but I could tell he wasn’t going to elaborate on what he meant. Probably not allowed to or something. It was annoying, but at the same time, I decided to take his advice. Besides, I doubted any of the other players would believe me even if I told them what I was. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I believed it entirely just yet.
Before I could ask him any other questions, I heard a sudden ding sound like a bell and Chuck glanced at his watch. “Ah. It appears that the mind-to-VR uploading process is complete. That means you will now be transferred from the Waiting Room—which is where we are currently—to Capes Online itself in approximately thirty seconds.”
A timer suddenly appeared over Chuck’s head. It started at thirty seconds before it started to rapidly count down almost faster than my eyes could follow.
Fear rising within me, I looked at Chuck and said, “Wait, I still have so many questions—”
“Don’t worry,” said Chuck, waving a hand at me. “I’ve been told the transfer process to Capes Online is practically painless, so you likely won’t feel a thing once the timer reaches zero.”
“But—”
“And if you have any questions, I am always available to speak to you,” Chuck continued. “Once you are in-game, you will see a ‘Help’ button on your menu that will allow you to contact me. In addition, my team and I will be monitoring the actions of you and your fellow American test subjects in Project Second Life in-game, so if anything happens that might threaten your new digital life, we may very well act before you even realize it.”
“I—”
“Ten seconds left,” said Chuck, glancing up at the timer above his head. He waved at me. “Goodbye, Nyle Maxwell. It was nice speaking to you. And good luck in your second life. I hope you have a lot of fun.”
Before I could say anything else, the timer above Chuck’s head hit zero and the Waiting Room vanished. The last thing I saw before the darkness claimed me was Chuck sitting at his desk, smirking at me for reasons I didn’t understand.
And then my whole world went from white to black.
CHAPTER THREE
At least one thing Chuck said was true: The transition from the Waiting Room to Capes Online was painless. I didn’t feel any sort of pain or discomfort. It was just like loading times in a video game, although much more … real? It was hard to describe. I guess it was the difference between watching a video game and playing it yourself, only even more different than that.
In any case, I found myself floating in what seemed like an endless dark void. Once again, I was bodiless, only this time it was less disturbing than before, probably because I was more used to it by now.
For a moment, I thought maybe the transfer process had glitched or failed. Instead of being transferred to Capes Online, maybe my ‘data’ or whatever I was got lost in between the Waiting Room and Capes Online, where I was doomed to float bodiless through eternal darkness for the rest of my life. Kind of like a Lovecraft story, except minus the eldritch abominations that make you go insane just by looking at them.
But then the darkness vanished and I found myself watching what I thought was a movie at first. I was ho
vering in the air above a massive, sprawling city that stretched for as far as the eye could see in every direction. It looked kind of like a combination of New York City and San Francisco, but I also caught hints of Beijing and Moscow, among other major cities. It was an awe-inspiring sight because I was pretty sure there weren’t any cities this big in real life.
More importantly, however, were the various figures I saw flying or running through the city. They looked like spandex-wearing superheroes. Some of them wore capes and flew through the skies, while others ran along the streets and a few even jumped rooftop to rooftop. Some of them had more interesting ways of flying than others. For example, I saw a guy with a jetpack rocketing through the sky, while another guy with a cape flew like an arrow, and one woman was surfing on a board that had no propulsion system I could see.
A voice suddenly boomed in my ears. “Fifty years ago, a portion of the human population of Earth began developing what could only be described as superpowers all of a sudden. From the United States to Japan and everywhere in between, human beings began to do things only written about in comic books or seen in movies. Humans all over the world could suddenly lift cars with one hand, fly like birds, move faster than a speeding bullet, control the elements, and so much more, leading to the most rapid change in human civilization since the Industrial Revolution.”
Suddenly, I saw a man in a hoodie and jeans standing on top of what looked like the Empire State Building. He was trembling with fear, but then he took a deep breath and jumped.
Instead of falling to his death, however, the man started flying. His movements were awkward and clumsy at first, but then he got the hang of it and started doing laps around the building. Officer workers inside the building glued themselves to the windows, pointing and gaping at the flying man, who smiled and waved at them like he was some kind of celebrity or something.
“But not all humans used their powers for good,” the voice continued. “Although humans might have started developing fantastic powers, human nature didn’t change. Many people began to use their newfound powers to enrich themselves or kill other people or perform all sorts of other crimes, lashing out against a world they believed had harmed then unjustly. Soon a new wave of superpowered crime—committed by superhumans called Villains—swept the globe, causing crime rates to spike across nearly every country on the planet.”
The image shifted again. This time, I was standing on a street in front of a bank. The doors to the bank suddenly burst open and a massive man—who looked more like a walking mountain than a man—ran out from the bank, a wicked grin on his face and several bags of gold bars in his huge hands.
Then I saw myself watching another scene, this time with a man wearing a demon-like mask pinning an innocent woman down in an alleyway with shadowy tendrils. The woman was struggling against the tendrils, but before she could cry out for help, the man covered her mouth with his hand and chuckled.
“Yet hope was not lost,” said the voice. “Though many humans gave into their darker nature and used their powers to indulge in the grossest crimes, just as many, if not more, people decided to rise above their nature. They used their powers to help people, to stop the Villains and make their streets, cities, and countries safe once again. These people are admired as Heroes by the general population, trusted and beloved by citizens for their dedication to truth and justice.”
I saw the last two scenes again, except this time they played out differently. The bank robber, for example, suddenly found himself confronted by a much smaller man who wore blue and red tights. The bank robber sneered at the man, but the smaller man jumped at him and punched him in the face hard enough to make the mountain man fall over backward onto the street, apparently unconscious.
In the other scene, a man in green tights and wearing a mask that resembled a tiger’s face materialized out of thin air and fired an arrow at the would-be rapist. The arrow struck the potential rapist in the back of the neck and he immediately collapsed, though whether dead or unconscious, I couldn’t tell. The almost-victim, however, rushed into the arms of her rescuer, crying as he held her close and comforted her.
“Heroes and Villains,” the voice continued. “Welcome to the world of Capes Online, where every choice you make decides your fate. Which side will you choose in the never-ending battle between good and evil? The choice, ultimately, is yours.”
A loud, epic orchestral song suddenly blared around me as the scene before me faded out and was replaced with ‘CAPES ONLINE’ over the same huge city from before. Underneath the title, a small subtitle read ‘HEROES, VILLAINS, & SIDEKICKS.’
Then the title screen faded away and I found myself floating in darkness once again before a notification appeared in my view:
Welcome to Capes Online: Heroes, Villains, & Sidekicks! Before you begin, please take a moment to adjust your character settings, such as height, skin color, hair color, and more. Although our mind-to-VR transfer process does its best to accurately translate your body in the real world to the game world, we understand if you want to make a few adjustments to your body before you start to play.
A character creation screen appeared in front of me. It showed a full-sized 3D model of myself, although I was not wearing my police uniform. Instead, I wore a red long-sleeved shirt and jeans, with basic sneakers and ring on my left hand. I found that, with a simple thought, I could rotate the model at will, allowing me to see every part of my body from any angle or position I wanted.
Overall, it was a fairly accurate representation of my real body, although I didn’t understand why I wasn’t in my police uniform. Oh, well. I made a few adjustments to my body—like eliminating my gut, emphasizing the muscles on my body, and making myself a couple of inches taller for good effort—and was amazed at how intuitive and exact the process was. I didn’t have to spend time trying to get things exactly the way I wanted. I just imagined what I wanted my body to look like and the model would change accordingly. It was certainly a lot easier to change my body here than in real life, although there was something slightly creepy about the idea that the game’s system understood exactly what I wanted down to the tiniest detail. Was it reading my mind or something?
In any case, once I was satisfied with my character’s appearance, I hit the save button below and my character screen vanished. A new notification appeared in my vision just then:
Congratulations! You are now ready to enter the dynamic and ever-changing world of Capes Online. Before you can truly begin playing, however, you need to go through your Origin Story. Be warned, the decisions you make in your Origin Story will have ramifications you can only begin to comprehend. Each decision you make will determine whether you’re a Hero or a Villain. As always, choose wisely.
Before I could think anything else, the darkness around me evaporated and I found myself standing on a street in a city I didn’t recognize but which looked like the city from the opening cinematic I just watched.
But I paid little attention to my surroundings because at that moment I heard a woman screaming for her life.
CHAPTER FOUR
When I heard the screaming, I looked around the empty street around me but did not spot anyone. Then I heard the scream again, this time from behind me, and whirled around to see a woman in the alleyway just off this street.
The woman was gorgeous. Not quite as gorgeous as Sally, but she was definitely my type. Long dark hair that went down to her shoulders, a beautiful yellow dress that fitted her form rather well, and a figure to die for.
Unfortunately, her beautiful face was marred with terror as she clutched her purse close to her chest. She was backed up against the wall of the grimy alleyway, her eyes wide with fear as she tried to stay outside of the reach of the grabbing thugs. She almost tripped over a discarded beer bottle, but never took her eyes off the thugs menacing her.
The thugs, by contrast, looked like garbage bags given life. Although I hadn’t been a police officer very long, I was well-acquainted with their type, havi
ng once been robbed by jerks like them in real life. They were big and strong, but also dumb and ugly. They wore the trashiest jeans and old t-shirts you could imagine and each one of them had a gun. The only thing they had going for them was that they were apparently diverse, because one of them was white, another was black, and the other was Hispanic. I guess purse-snatching thieves are pretty tolerant and open-minded people.
Regardless, the black guy seemed to be the leader. He was pointing his gun threateningly at the woman, a vicious grin on his misshapen features.
“Hand over the purse, lady, and no one got to get hurt,” said the black thug in a gravelly voice.
“Yeah, you heard the boss,” said the white guy, his voice weaselly despite his large frame. “Hand it over. Now.”
“Shut up, Ted,” the black thug snapped. He waved his gun. “I be the one doing all the talking here. You just stand there and make sure the nice lady here don’t get away while we’re not looking.”
I didn’t think there was any chance of the woman even attempting to get away while they weren’t looking. She was absolutely petrified with fear, leaning against the wall so hard that she looked like she was trying to become one with it. No surprise. Those thugs may have been dumb and ugly, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t do some serious harm to her if they wanted.
“I know, boss,” said Ted, raising his hands, “I was just—”
“’I was just,’” the Hispanic guy said, waving his hands back and forth mockingly. “Give it a rest, Ted. No one cares what you think.”
“Rolando is right,” said the black guy with a nod. He turned his attention back to the woman. “Okay, lady, give us your purse and we will let you go back home to your nice house and job. Sound reasonable, don’t it?”
It was obvious to me that the thugs had no intention of letting her leave even if she gave her purse to them. The lust in their eyes as they took in her beautiful form was bluntly obvious. I could imagine they would want to have some ‘fun’ with her first before they even considered letting her go.
