Brent Roth - The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

by Brent Roth

  I cursed myself, I cursed everything.

  I was tired of being in pain.

  I was tired of being disabled for periods of my life.

  I would have been happy if I didn't wake up the next day.

  Sure it wasn't permanent, but the constant crushing of my hopes and dreams every time I seemed to get close to achieving something had taken its toll. I had been striving for greatness for twelve years and every other year was a year spent in recovery. I was a complete and utter failure who lived off the kindness of others, while lying in bed in pain.

  But, I did wake up.

  After the pain started to subside a few weeks later, I found I couldn't even walk or stand up for more than two or three minutes. I used crutches to get around the house and sat in the shower. That persisted for nearly seven weeks until I ended up throwing away my hesitation with drugs, and purchased illegal research peptides that had shown great healing effects in trials.

  I started injecting.

  They weren't steroids or growth hormones but they were awfully similar. A peptide that aided in wound healing and regenerating torn muscles, something that had been in the US research system for nearly seventy years but was never legalized despite there being no evidence of negative side effects.

  The companies simply didn't make any profit off of them in an injectable state, so they had yet to legalize it. The research companies that purchased the rights to the drugs wanted to sell them in an oral tablet or as a topical cream, something that simply didn't work effectively but would make an excessive amount of money if it did. For $175 USD I had all of the necessary equipment and the powdered vials to last me three months. There was no profit to be made there.

  Reconstituting the powder in the vial it came with was easy. All I had to do was take an insulin syringe, draw 50 units of bacteriostatic water and inject it into the vial. Once the powder dissolved, draw the liquid and inject it into a subcutaneous layer of fat somewhere in the body.

  I had plenty of fatty spots to choose from now.

  Spot injection worked the best though. My swollen shoulder that hurt so bad that I couldn't move it and wouldn't reduce in swelling despite the 875mg prescription pill I was taking for anti-inflammation twice a day, disappeared in three hours after direct injection.

  The pain never came back either.

  I ended up doing injections every other day for nearly a month to get myself back to a condition where I could actually walk and stand up for more than thirty minutes.

  All from a research peptide that was "illegal" for human use.

  It did what the prescribed drugs failed to do.

  It did what the doctors failed to do.

  It did what the therapists failed to do.

  And, it also healed my mind.

  The peptide was being used in research for traumatic brain injury and had shown very positive signs in rats. The studies for human-use were still on-going but there was little to no evidence of any negatives. It was a risk, but the evidence supported it. Lack of profit kept it illegal.

  I'm testament that it worked, at the very least.

  And then one day while lying in bed and browsing the internet on my laptop, I came across an advertisement for a new Virtual Reality game that was in development.

  Everything I had ever wanted from a video game was being presented right in front of me. All those months that I was stuck lying in a bed with nothing to do but daydream of a better life, of a fantasy life filled with adventure and accomplishment, was now possible. Free from the constant reminders of my failure, of all the expectations that everyone held for me that weren't even remotely met. The expectations that I had for myself that I couldn't meet. It was now possible in a complete virtual state.

  I could escape.

  The technology for virtual reality had already been out for years but there had been large strides made recently, and now this company called AIcorps was touting out a new line of hyper-realistic virtual reality.

  To say I was hooked to the idea would be an understatement.

  I quickly browsed through the advertisement and found the one catch, the price. But it didn't matter to me; I had long since lost my attachment to my old hobbies. It was an easy decision. I applied, was accepted, and just had to pony up the extreme amount of cash.

  The cash situation was something that was hard to overcome. I had plenty of bills that were piling up as I wasn't physically capable of working and had long since lost my confidence in my mental aptitude.

  So, in the end I sold a portion of my resources.

  One of my hobbies was fixing and restoring cars, specifically sports cars. I bought rust-buckets that needed a lot of work for a few grand and then stripped the entire car down to nothing but a bare metal frame that could be picked up by one or two people.

  From there it was a complete process of sanding, grinding, welding in new sheet metal, welding in new frame supports, refurbishing parts or finding spares in the junkyard, at the worst I would buy new parts, and then assembling everything and painting it.

  Doing all of the custom interior work myself which included seats, panels, dashboards, sound system, roll cage, gauges, and all of the electric wiring as well.

  By the end of the long process with an excessive amount of man hours, I had a car that had quadrupled in value without much actual money put into it.

  Parting with something you put hundreds of hours into was hard, but I had long since lost my attachment to the outside world with all of my health problems. At the end of the day I wanted to play in the virtual world more than I wanted to play in the real world.

  And just like that, I sold one car and used the money to buy the game, signed up for the $750 USD Ultra-Realism Program, and called it a day.

  Chapter 5: A Step to Greatness

  (Saturday, January 2nd Game Day / January 1st Real Day)

  Gazing into the sun as if it could grant the answer to my life's questions, I continued to stare, waiting… waiting for nothing. Captivated by the single brightest event known to the sky I had hoped to find an answer but only found myself reflecting on the unknown.

  The answers I sought remained elusive.

  In the end the darkness of the night was more befitting of my reality, for the darkness always came. The sun may always rise but it doesn't always beget life.

  I had no interest in waiting for a miracle anymore.

  Yeah, if I wanted success I would have to take it with my own two hands. That's how it always has been. That's how it always will be. To take one step, then another, and another until I reached my goal. Just as I was doing now and just as I will do in the future, I will continue to trek forward one step at a time.

  As I took that one step forward into the forest, I found myself denied of the sun's warmth beneath the shade of the canopy above. The trees were spread thin but remained filled with the winter's cold. And it was certainly cold. A single breathe would cloud the vision, but I continued on. Trudging slowly through the snow I soon came upon the first of my quarry, the [Northern White Rabbit].

  It was finally time to get started.

  Sliding the bow off my shoulder with arrow in hand, I gauged the distance of the rabbit to be within twenty feet. Drawing a bead on the target I then drew the bowstring and released with the consistent thwack I had grown accustomed to.

  The shot was off.

  The arrow glanced off the rabbit's rear as it sprang to life, jumping and leaping through the snow in a desperate bid to escape. Cursing under my breath I drew again, this time pacing the rabbit and leading it as I turned.

  Thwack.

  Thud.

  Looking at the tree where the rabbit had disappeared out of sight, I made my way forth. No movement was good movement. Approaching the spot, I could barely make out the faintest amount of a blood trail leading directly behind the tree, a reassuring thing to see.

  Around the curve of the tree, lying on its side was my prize in all its miniature glory, number one of ten such prizes to be had
. In an effort to conserve time, I picked up the [Northern White Rabbit] and took a sturdy stick and ran it through. I didn't have a backpack or a bag or even a ring and rope… so a stick would serve as my rack.

  It was all I had.

  The quest required ten such [Northern White Rabbits] to feed the hungry villagers, which in itself was a simple task. Though finding ten such rabbits was proving to be quite the opposite in practice. In the end I continued to search throughout the forest until my feet were numbed and my hands shook like a beggar with a bell. I had run out of time, I had to place my helmet down and ring that bell even though I had only acquired four of the ten rabbits that I needed.

  The North was truly desolate.

  It was a depressing fact as the process was oft to repeat itself where one found little way in variation, but I had no such leisure to deviate and change my hunting locale.

  I only had the forests.

  There was nowhere else to hunt.

  Yeah, this was what I chose for myself anyways.

  I chose the hardest path because I had a belief… a secret, really. That secret was based entirely on intuition, but I believed in my intuition. Where lightning struck thrice at the top of the mountain on the third day of the third month, the top of the mountain some three-thousand and three-hundred feet above the sea where a stone anvil sits.

  It was a secret I kept from all but myself. A discovery that was made by chance as I noticed the weather pattern differed ever so slightly from normal. And as I watched the lightning strikes rain down throughout the North on that stormy day I found one such strike peculiar. And then a second strike but a moment later. And then a third… where no one place had been struck twice in the entire day, that place had been struck three times. I immediately put off everything I was doing during the Alpha testing and scaled that mountain to appease my curiosity.

  Now, I had bet my future on it.

  Arriving back at the village and warming by the fireside, I continued to think over the plan I had construed months earlier. I needed to gather the necessary equipment in order to climb the death-trap of a mountain that sat some ten miles east of my current location. I would also need to build a home where I could establish a base.

  These goals required certain items in order to be accomplished, items that could take some time to acquire. The most important items were clothing of the warmest variety followed by a woodcutting axe, a shovel, two small ice-axes, a rope with a grappling hook attached, extra rope, and a sturdy but flat bag to carry provisions.

  Gathering such items in a short time frame would prove difficult, especially seeing as I would need at least two-hundred and sixty copper at the minimum to purchase the crafted goods. What I needed to do was increase my hunting time, or I would be woefully short.

  Having sufficiently warmed by the fireside I made my way out into the wilderness once more. It was an annoyance to only be able to hunt for two hours before having to rest for an hour, only to find you have exactly one hour left of daylight. The rest of your gaming day, at least for beginners, was simply wasted. There just wasn't a whole lot you could do at night except maybe practice crafting or work on practical skills but, most players didn't have access to anything besides a bow and a knife.

  Making my way out towards the forest with a fresh fox-fur cap on my head, I felt like the most stylish of male strippers as I frolicked through the snow. As I approached the western forest this time, where I had previously died to the wolves, I couldn't help but notice an ominous feeling surrounding the forest area.

  It almost felt possessed.

  Pulling out my bow and nocking an arrow, I stalked around the clustered forest line of the tall and thin pines. The brown and grayish pines were anywhere from 8" to 12" thick and stood a minimum of thirty feet tall but were so densely packed only a few feet from each other that I could hardly see past a dozen of them. The snow fall had picked up and with a steady wind blowing in my direction I hesitated to go forward.

  Today was a good day to die, I guess.

  Shaking my head as I threw caution to the wind, I entered into the forest.

  After only a few minutes I could no longer see the village off in the distance or the open fields of snow. I could only see the trees. The saying that you could miss the forest for the trees was certainly in effect, as I could not see much of anything.

  Continuing deeper into the forest I soon lost track of the sun as the canopy had become suddenly dense. Looking to the sky was my only way of maintaining direction and now that too had been taken from me. I stopped for a moment to mark a tree with my knife, I may not ever find the tree again but it was better than nothing.

  As I walked through the shadow of the forest I soon found myself completely unaware of where I was going. The marked trees would provide somewhat of a path leading out but I could no longer see more than five feet ahead.

  The snow had continued to fall even harder and with the uptick in wind and denial of sunlight I was at a complete loss. I could hardly see, I could hardly hear, and I was beyond freezing in my naked state of dress.

  I needed to leave.

  Immediately turning around I tried to find the trees that I had marked but was having no such luck. The last tree that was marked was only two or three steps away but was no longer visible. The forest around me had changed with the wind and snow and no longer looked the same.

  I was lost.

  Panic wanted to set in but I refused to let my mind do so. If panic was let through the door, all was lost. Searching in vain for the trees that had been marked without taking more than a few steps from my current location, I soon heard something familiar.

  Snap.

  Bewildered by the sudden sound I quickly looked around but could see nothing in my snow-filled vision.

  Snap.

  And again the same noise as before, just like when I was surrounded and killed the day prior. I set my bow along my shoulder and placed the arrow in my makeshift quiver of twigs and vine, then drew forth my [Crude Stone Knife] from the hem of my pants.

  I wouldn't be caught unaware a second time.

  Waiting in stillness as nature continued to bustle about before me with wind lashing and the trees furrowing above, while snow fall obscured my vision and occasionally crashed to the tree floor below.

  I was waiting for that next branch.

  Those specific sounds… those snaps that gave it away.

  Glancing around with eyes darting left and right I continued to wait.

  Minutes had passed as I begun to uncontrollably shake from the cold. The lack of movement had caused my body to cool even further as my circulation started to slow. I needed to move, but I had no idea as to where. Going further into the forest would only spell my doom and there was only a one-in-four chance that I would choose the right direction.

  Then, there it was.

  Without the audible snap I had become accustomed to, my nemesis had returned in abject silence. The [Young Northern Tundra Wolf] that had escaped me before… that same one that had stolen my fox.

  That wolf with a wound on its nose.

  The wolf's cold eyes met mine as it started to bare its fangs. With a low growl that became more menacing by the second, the wolf lowered its head as it prepared to attack.

  Not to be caught off-guard, I took the initiative and lunged at the wolf with knife drawn and at the ready. The wolf leaped up to meet my attack and as bodies collided we found ourselves rolling in the snow attempting to gain positioning.

  The wolf was back to its feet before me and quickly went for my throat, snapping its teeth as I barely swung my legs in time to knock it off balance. The wolf crashed to the snow floor and scrambled back to its feet in a flurry of movement.

  On my knees I partially stood up with knife extended out to my right, it was time for the wolf to initiate. As if on cue the wolf lunged as I rolled and swiped with my knife.

  Slicing at the side of the wolf's body, it ignored the pain, it continued on. Again it lunged, this time l
anding a bite on the same left arm it had bitten hours before.

  This time, I was not afraid.

  Pulling my arm closer to me and dragging the wolf with it, I plunged my knife deep into the upper neck of the wolf as it immediately let off and tried to run.

  Hanging onto the knife as the wolf attempted to drag me through the snow I was able to grab it with both hands. The wolf, realizing I was still attached turned around to bite me once more.

  Anticipating the bite I threw out a closed fist, hitting it squarely in the nose and causing it to flinch. That momentary reaction had provided an opening. With lightning-quick reflexes I pulled myself closer to the wolf with the knife handle serving as a peg lodged deep into the wolf's nape.

  Getting within breathing distance I soon wrapped myself around the wolf. As I wrapped my arm around the wolf's neck it started violently swinging and twisting its head in an attempt to break free.

  Unfortunately for the wolf, the tables had been turned.

  I now had position on the back of the neck and it was the wolf that was frantically trying to free itself from what was to come.

  It was no use.

  Pulling the knife out, I switched my grip and soon cut into the wolf once more.

  With one long pull it was over.

  Grasping for breath as my adrenaline had let off I sat on my knees and stared off into the distance. Letting my shoulders droop as I attempted to relax I saw something disturbing. At the edge of my sight I could barely make out the body of a large beast. A humanoid beast that was as white as the snow around it and at least a head or two taller than me. It was a [Frost Troll].

  Grabbing my items and the body of the wolf, I quickly ran in the opposite direction. I knew not which way I was going but I knew I would not head anywhere near the troll. The [Frost Troll] was a small one but even a small one was at the very least level 80 or so.