The Trapped Mind Project (Emerilia Book 1)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Good hunting!” Dave moved to his woodworking area. He picked up a tree while holding his tea in the other hand.

  “I want whatever he’s been eating,” Joko muttered. All of them watched Dave put the log into place with only a small grunt.

  “His growth is indeed impressive. I will see you shortly.” With that, Deia started to run. It seemed as if she simply flowed over the land, missing low limbs, roots, and pitfalls.

  Chapter 9: Oddities

  Bob looked over the work site.

  Four Dwarves were working to move wooden logs to a superstructure, where Dave checked and shaped the logs. He cut them so that they would naturally push against one another and hold their form.

  They all seemed in a good mood, but the building—it was unlike anything that Bob had seen in all of Emerilia and its iterations. It was a composite of multiple buildings from humanity’s history.

  He was a kilometer away, but he could see it all in perfect detail. He smiled and pulled out a bowl of ramen with steam rising from it. Bob could see the magical sphere that extended all around the halfling. The man didn’t even seem to notice that he was casting it anymore.

  You’re going to need that in the future. If people find out what you are… A smile spread across Bob’s face. He had seen iteration after iteration. Finally, something new was not just being discovered; it was being created. Bob sent out his own Touch of the Land but manipulated its sphere so that it would never touch the halfling’s.

  Bob’s eyes snapped open in shock. It took him a moment to realize what the emotion was. This was his world; he was its creator and overseer for hundreds of years. Things could intrigue him from time to time, but this? So, this is where it was hiding all these years. A smile spread across his face as he started looking at the records he had from back then. Oh, Anna you clever girl! But what would happen if a bleeder was to find it? If Dave were to find out about it? In the centuries past, he might have been scared. Now he was interested. It was his role to watch, to observe, to see what would happen.

  The Jukal Empire had turned him into a tool, a caretaker and manager of Emerilia, always watching, always hearing. Emerilia was more his home than the rest of the Jukal Empire now.

  “I’m going to give you a fighting chance first. This could be rather interesting.” He rubbed his hands together and waited.

  ***

  He was eating some more ramen noodles when the Dwarves finally started going to sleep. The house’s walls were up and they had started to put tiles on it.

  “Oh, come on! Go to sleep!” Bob sent a spell out toward the Dwarves. He might be practically immortal, but even he hated waiting that long.

  The Dwarves went to sleep, one staying on guard with the half-dwarf.

  “Dwarves, stubborn bastards!” He sent another spell at the one on watch and took off for the camp.

  ***

  Dave was feeling really sleepy when he felt something not quite right. It was as though there was nothing in a point and it was moving—no air, no light, no darkness, or any of the six Affinities that made up Emerilia.

  “I thought that they would never go to sleep.” A gnome dropped next to the kiln and looked into the pot. A bowl appeared in his hand. “Mind if I have some?” the gnome asked.

  “The hell?” Dave woke up instantly. He’d seen that face before. Shadow Conjuring!

  “Dude, I’ve only had ramen for the last day watching you six put that house together. Bravo—you’re the first Player to actually build a house. Most people just pay the people to do it.”

  “Where the hell did you come from?” Dave asked, confused by the strange gnome whose hand hovered above the spoon in the pot.

  “Not really important. What I’ve got to tell you is. Can you get over your shock, Dave, and the stew…?”

  “Okay, so what are you, some kind of bandit? You talk a lot for a NPC. Yeah, you can have some,” Dave said.

  “I told you, I’m Bob. I’m the guy who made this prison.” The gnome winked.

  Chapter 10: Welcome to the Real World

  “Prison? It’s a game, dude,” Dave said. This NPC is weird; I should report him.

  “Well, I’m good at what I do.” Bob scooped up some stew and took a seat on one of the log seats. “That part’s not really important right now. What you are—that’s the interesting thing here.” Bob’s face could only be called enthusiastic and maybe a bit mad. He took a scoop of the stew.

  “I’m just a dude,” Dave said.

  “You, my friend, are so much more than that. You’re a bleeder, first one ever, in all of time!” Bob said. “Well more like five hundred years, because Emerilia is only about 700 years old, but whatever.”

  “A bleeder?” Dave was thoroughly confused now.

  “You just can’t let a man have some stew in peace, huh?” Bob sighed and put the bowl to the side. “First, I guess we should go with the history lesson.

  “The Jukal Empire was a massive entity; people bent the knee or they were eliminated. When you’re that powerful, you don’t want to deal with the aggressive species unless they have something to offer. While they’d been attacked by multiple aggressive races in the past, the Jukal were not predators.

  “When they met the Humans, they saw potential. However, the human race was fractured. Forty billion people with hundreds of different beliefs, thousands of languages, and by no means united. The Jukal made their offer: some Humans bent the knee, others did not. So, the great war occurred.

  “Humanity worked best when they were working against one another. Time and time again, they had nearly destroyed themselves but they had become stronger. It was an oddity, indeed.

  “A few agreed to join the Empire, others wanted to destroy it, others wanted to live by themselves, and more wanted to learn as much about the Empire as possible. The Empire saw the divisive force that was humanity and ordered that they either be put to use somehow or destroyed. The war that had followed was far beyond anything the Empire could imagine. Humanity might have some decent technology for space flight, but their ideas for weapons and tactics to use them had been developed over hundreds of years.

  “The Empire’s attack had one incredible effect. It mobilized humanity to work together. They were a tenacious and smart enemy. They’d destroyed ten fleets before they were pushed back to Earth. The Empire bombed them into a new ice age, so they thought. Humanity rose again and it became clear that killing humanity was going to be an impossible task.”

  “Wait, this is a fantasy game. What does science fiction have to do with it?” Dave asked.

  “Always racing onto the next thing—I’m getting there! Okay, so the Jukal won the war, killed off every human that they could find, but paid a heavy cost. The Empire won the war, but now they didn’t have anything to defeat the aggressive species that they had discovered. The Jukal Empire is constantly growing, new planets, new systems. Every so often, they come across people that want to fight instead. They don’t want to bomb the planet, destroying their ability to use it for a few hundred years. The Jukal Fleet that usually deals with them was gone. They needed something to clear these planets and kill the aggressive species. I proposed an idea: we get humanity to fight for the Empire.”

  “How would you do that?” Dave asked, confused.

  “Take a planet, turning it into a staging area. Somewhere that Humans could fight and become stronger, you might know it as Emerilia. Add in portals, convince Players that they were in a game. The program showed great gains, power off the charts, aggressive species being pushed back across multiple planets. Then the Empire started watching. At first, Players were grown when needed, taking three years to grow and mature a new batch of Players. The People of the Empire started watching in interest, Emerilia stopped being a system of battle. It became a system of entertainment. Aggressive species were kept alive, stopped from being culled due to their ‘interest.’ There wasn’t a time when there weren’t Players on Emerilia. Cycles of Players were scheduled like clockwork,
one would come in, another would be killed off.” Bob said, sounding sad. “You, you’re different, you can see the walls of your imaginary prison. In the simulation of Earth, you were never supposed to make Rock Breakers. Because you did, you became a pivotal person to the simulation. Much like how world leaders are NPCs because having them be Players and disappear for days at a time would plunge Earth into chaos, you became a constant force on Earth. If you were to start disappearing, then contracts would start falling apart, the economy could tank and then all of the Players would have to be wiped as they are more worried about the simulation than Emerilia. While you’re here, your simulated body is off, talking and working, making sure that the Earth simulation stays stable. It trips the system, making it think that you’re on Earth but you’re here. It’s why your eight hour log out notifications have been hap hazard.”

  Dave opened up his interface and went to the report button. He typed out a message about Bob. The gnome ate his stew.

  Dave’s eyes widened to the reply.

  System administrator is currently busy—eating your stew. Seriously, reporting me? Don’t want that getting to the Jukal!

  “How did you do that?” A shiver ran down Dave’s spine.

  Bob held Dave’s eyes, not saying a thing.

  “How is that possible!” Dave said, his eyes wide in shock.

  “Give it time, you’ll see,” Bob said, trying to sound reassuring. “So, first question! What are your Affinities looking like? Did they start off at ten?”

  “Yeah.” Dave wondered where this was going. He wished he could wake up the Dwarves but he could now see the sleeping spell on them.

  “Have you noticed that you are getting less messages in the real world?” Bob asked.

  Dave thought back to his emails. They had been sparse for the delegation, but he thought that it could have just been a slow day. On the other hand, they were only emails from Suzy and there was only three. That was odd.

  “Maybe,” Dave said, not willing to concede the point.

  “Are you hungry?” Bob asked.

  “No, of course not. I just ate.” Dave’s voice trailed away. He’d eaten in-game but he hadn’t eaten out of the game for nearly three days in-game or a day out of game.

  “Calm down. One more question. When you were in reality,” Bob made bunny ears when he said the word, “did you feel that you were getting odd sensations? Like you were less hungry, more tired, less tired, maybe muscle pains?”

  “Of course…” Dave remembered the pain in his shoulders when Zombie Dave had been digging a hole and cutting down trees.

  “Last, when did you log off last?”

  Dave didn’t answer. Fear welled in his gut. Dave opened his interface, rushing to the logout button.

  “Check your emails. Go and taste the food—see if you feel filled. Try the beer. I’ll be here,” Bob said as Dave hit the logout button.

  ***

  Dave opened his eyes.

  “What the fuck?” Zane said, looking around a private jet.

  “Have a nice dream?” Suzy asked dryly as she looked over from her seat where she was working on a computer.

  “Uh yeah,” Zane said.

  “Well, get me a coffee, will you? Damned head’s getting done in from not sleeping,” Suzy said, standing up and heading for the rear of the plane where the bathroom was.

  “Sure,” Zane said, haltingly.

  It’s just like when I went to work. Foggy outlines of memories that seemed to be half remembered started to move in his mind.

  Bob said that this was the simulation. That this was the Virtual reality.

  It made him question his memories, to think through them, of his sleeping and his excitement to drive to the airport. He was going to a launch facility in Texas.

  I don’t know what the latest headlines are for the gaming news. For Zane, it was an almost holy ritual. He would wake up, pull out his phone and read the latest headlines about gaming.

  He couldn’t remember a single headline, but not because they weren’t interesting.

  “I just never read them,” Zane said out loud.

  It felt like a weight was pressing down on his chest as he looked around wildly, as if to find definitive proof. He needed something to reassure him; he couldn’t shake the recent revelation.

  “Hey buddy!” Bob appeared in front of Dave, sitting in the chair opposite, wearing a grey suit.

  “Ugh, this, just no,” Bob shook his fingers, simple slacks and a golf shirt.

  It looked even worse than the suit.

  “Hmm, whatever. So how are private jets and spaceships?” Bob asked, looking at Dave with a grin.

  “What the hell, man? How are you here?” Zane asked, shaking with fear, his mind throwing him all different kinds of possibilities while he tried to push them away, to not think on them.

  “I told you, Emerilia is not the game,” Bob said, his joking tone now sad.

  “So, what, this is? This doesn’t make any fucking sense!” Dave said.

  “This is the incubator, the propaganda machine extraordinaire. When you were created, your mind was hooked up to this. We ran the simulation as fast as possible. You’ve only been alive for about three years. While you were here, your environment was made to condition you into wanting to play video games. It’s done through multiple methods. Yours was by making you a social outcast,” Bob’s smile slipped as he looked genuinely unhappy, but not willing to pull any punches.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Zane asked, dreading the answer.

  “You never had parents, you never had school friends and only three of the people that you worked with for the Rock Breakers corporation were actually real. I created a program that would use the social cues and systems of humanity to make you susceptible to consistent and continued gaming. You want to escape reality, or become a hero, a villain or whatever your heart desires. Then, you can play Emerilia to do it, leaving behind Earth which is actually trying to wear you down and doing everything in its power to mess with you. Emerilia is the escape, the nirvana of you Players.”

  “So, you made a virtual reality that conditions people to want to play video games, why?”

  “Where do you find the most recorded deaths in human history?” Bob asked.

  “I don’t know, World War II?” Zane asked, caught off guard by the question.

  “Video games, when people play video games, they will kill for anything: a bit of gold, some imagined glory, making their character stronger. They take risks that living people wouldn’t. If you tallied up the amount that Humans have killed one another, NPC’s, AI’s and characters in video games, it’s more than fifty solar systems worth of Humans. No off switch, no one to tell them how about doing what they want to do. You’re entertained by the simple mindless acts that you can perform in a video game. I took that same bloodthirsty mindset and flipped it around. I made a simulation that makes you feel pain, conditions you to want to play games. I, also, created a world that looks like a video game, with real pain that is less than the simulation and enables you to respawn. Bingo, you’ve just made a true war machine. All you need to do is hook up some way for those bloodthirsty Players to kill off those you want to kill off,” Bob looked to Zane, turning the statement into a question.

  “Portals; they connect Emerilia to all kinds of different planets with species on them, but why?” Zane asked.

  “Enjoy your trip to Texas, I’ll find you when you return to Emerilia. Can’t stay here too long. Oh and don’t forget the coffee,” Bob disappeared.

  Dave didn’t notice it before but the engines seemed to pick up in tone.

  Did he slow it down, or speed us up? Why the hell do I even think that this is a possibility, that’s madness, there’s no way. Zane shook his head, trying to get rid of the creature’s words. He was just sleep deprived. He was seeing things.

  The bathroom unlocked and Suzy walked out.

  “Did you get me a coffee yet?” She asked.

  “Uh,
no, sorry, I’ll just get right on that,” Zane said, distracted as he moved to the food bar on the plane.

  “Are you okay Zane?” She asked, concerned.

  “Yeah, sorry just still half asleep,” he said with a winning smile, putting coffee in her cup, adding cream.

  What if Suzy is part of the simulation? Your one and only friend, a series of ones and zeroes made to get you to game.

  Dave handed a coffee to Suzy who’d sat down in her seat again, moving to his chair.

  “Thanks,” She said.

  “No worries,” Zane gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, his mind still worrying over what he’d just imagined. He sipped his coffee, it tasted bland, like ground dirt and lukewarm water.

  Damn, I’m looking to having some Xur when I get back to Emerilia.

  ***

  Zane/Dave came to in the camp next to his house. The Four Dwarves were asleep in their beds, Gurren was on watch, but his head lolled to the side.

  “Gurren!”

  “Not so loud, he’s asleep like the others. Didn’t really want people listening in on this conversation,” Bob said before taking a slurping forkful of noodles.

  Dave simply stared at him.

  How? It’s not possible someone must have got the information out.

  For the entire week trip to Texas he had been distracted. Suzy had become more concerned as time went on.

  Dave had tried to shake his creeping doubts, but they’d plagued him until he’d started working on trying to recollect his memories since playing Emerilia. They were all faded and jumbled.

  “If this is all true, why don’t you tell everyone?”

  “The most immersive game ever played comes online and one of the AI’s constructs comes to you and tells you it’s real. Or your buddy tells you that the game you’re playing is reality, that Sol system is gone and the people that did it are using Humans as entertainment. The hell do you think is going to happen? Oh, also, staying in here longer will start tripping the monitoring AI of the Earth simulation so it sees if you’ve figured it out. When you’re on Earth, killing you is as easy as making up a story and deleting your consciousness.”