Viridian Gate Online: Darkling Siege (The Viridian Gate Archives Book 7)

by James Hunter

  Three months ago, ragequit would’ve meant a loss of revenue for Osmark Tech, but now, ragequit meant something entirely different. How would someone quit the game? Suicide, was it even possible? Could you end your simulation voluntarily? The questions turned my gut.

  “Anyway, I hope you make it.” He gave me a nudge as the doors to B3 opened, and he walked away.

  “You too,” I called after him, my short legs unable to keep up with his please get me out of this situation pace.

  I did hope Leon made it. I wanted to make it, too.

  The white concrete walls amplified the sound of Leon’s hasty retreat from me, and I felt more alone than ever. I was going to die. Perhaps my consciousness would be copied into the game simulation, but perhaps not. There was a near 17% chance that I would die for real and never make it into the game permanently.

  The unending thump of my heart faltered as I thought of my whole life. Was it a life I was proud to lead? Maybe. My thoughts fell on my father, my mother, how I wasn’t there. Sure, I would call, and I would video chat, but it wasn’t the same as being there. Was I a good person?

  “Attention, employees, the Integration Room is now closing.”

  My breath caught in my throat and I ran. The doors were sliding shut, but I slipped through with a sigh.

  I took in the tomb: short ceiling, maybe eight feet, fresh concrete everywhere, organized, methodical, and sterile. Osmark had bought and renovated this space months ago for a “storage center.” What could we possibly store as a tech company, other than servers?

  Coffins. Or their equivalent. We would die in the capsules. Either by transitioning from our bodies into the game or by being incompatible with the code and wasting away into cardiac arrest after three days. Then our bodies would be removed, and the capsules reused for some of the dying mob outside the gates of salvation.

  My eyes roved over the claustrophobia-inducing landscape, and the memory of the first death, the first disappearance into the game, replayed in my mind. I recalled Osmark and his right hand, Sandra, standing on the stage in front of employees and investors, describing the incident.

  They’d downplayed the death like it was just another failed prototype, wrote off the loss of human life like a dysfunctional server. What they didn’t explain was how they’d lost the human consciousness into the code. It was processed and digitized, then vanished into the trillions of functions executing every second.

  “Abigail Hollander!”

  UGH! Abigail is not my name! I wanted to say, but I turned to Tristen, my manager-who-wished-he-wasn’t-my-manager, with a terse smile.

  “What’s up, Tristen?” I hoped he wasn’t going to go on about, “Now that I’m not your manager anymore, could we like, go out for pizza some time?” Or would it be roasted chicken now? I didn’t think pizza made it into V.G.O.

  He eyed me with teeth clenched. “You were cutting it close. What were you doing?”

  My stomach fluttered at the thought of what I was actually doing for the last hour. Hacking into Osmark’s private code, inspecting his future commits, writing automated code to copy them, and more.

  “I had to call my mom. She didn’t want to transition, so I had to say goodbye for good.” I entwined my fingers, not wanting them to wiggle and look suspicious.

  “Oh.” Tristen looked down, then placed an awkward hand on my shoulder. “I’m really sorry.”

  “It’s fine. We said what we had to say, and I’m ready.” I filled my chest with air in an attempt to shake his hand from my body, but he held tighter.

  “That’s good. We need people like you in the new world.”

  The New World, Osmark’s world. My resolve returned. I wouldn’t let him dominate the people who put their faith in him, in Osmark Tech. Sure, they may “survive,” but would they be saved? No. They were entering into a dictatorship they couldn’t have imagined. Not on my watch.

  “Yeah, totally. I hope it’s just as awesome as we coded it.” I smiled again, trying to get out from under his grasp, but his grip was strong as he pulled me into an embrace.

  “It’s going to be okay.”

  I gritted my teeth and pulled away. “Yeah, it’s going to be fine.” I offered him a punch to the shoulder, and his cheeks flushed red.

  “What’s your username? Maybe we could meet up?”

  I bit my lip. “I haven’t picked mine yet. I haven’t had a chance to play at all.” I shrugged to mask the lie about not picking my name, and he laughed.

  “Yeah, cool. Great. Well, maybe I’ll just see you around.”

  My lips pursed. “Yeah, definitely.”

  He shuffled his feet, and as I turned away, he grabbed my hand.

  “Abby...” His voice was soft.

  “What’s up, Tristen?” I didn’t want to hear it again. I wanted to get into the game. I wanted to start leveling. I needed to get a head start on Osmark, because his people definitely had a head start on me.

  “I just wanted to say... you’re awesome.”

  I stopped short. It wasn’t the same old rhetoric of why aren’t we dating. He was just being nice.

  “You’re awesome too, Tristen.” I smiled.

  He nodded. “It was nice being your manager. I hope these last eight months weren’t absolute torture.”

  It was perhaps my last human interaction ever. I had to make it count. I had to try my best.

  “Yeah, you did a great job. I hope you make it.”

  He gave me a thumbs-up, classic Tristen. “I’ll see you in there. My tag is Triskiller.”

  I groaned under my breath. What a terrible name to be stuck with for the rest of your life. But whatever.

  I walked the rows, looking for “H.” So many D’s, what the heck? Ah, “H.” I walked in a few capsules to find pod 8. It was open and ready to receive me.

  Unlike in Star Trek, the pod next to me didn’t have a glass cover. I couldn’t see the person inside, couldn’t watch them decay as their body died in the transition.

  “Ms. Hollander. Please remove your clothing down to your underwear,” the pod said in the same artificial PA voice.

  “Why?” I asked, though when I looked down, the clothes of those near to me littered the floor.

  “The transition can be difficult on the body, and heat regulation is important. Removing some items of clothing can help us do that at a lower cost.”

  There Osmark goes with the costs. Of course, do it fast, do it well, do it cheap. He wanted every point on the iron triangle, and he got it. Not by noble means, but he got it. This game would be amazing, a technical wonder, completed by slave labor and crime. Who would oppose him at the end of the world, though?

  I unbuttoned my shirt, removed my flats, then my slacks, and hopped up into the tanning bed gone VRMMORPG simulator. I took my last breath in this world and closed the lid with the touch of a button.

  It was dark for a moment, and as the machined whirred to life, so did the white loading screen. “Hello, I’m the CEO of Osmark Technologies, Robert Osmark, and I’d like to personally welcome you to Viridian Gate Online, the most advanced full-immersion video game in the world.” Osmark’s voice was unmistakable.

  I blinked hard, and his face came into view. Such a retro, Steve Jobs look. Thin-rimmed, round glasses, dark turtleneck, and shaggy hair about his face.

  He went on. “Viridian Gate Online is truly the first of its kind. And that’s not the typical hyperbolic language so cavalierly tossed around in tech circles. No, I can assure you, I truly mean this is the first of its kind.”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get me into the game!

  “Our revolutionary work with massive memristive neuromorphic computing systems has created a paradigm shift in AI technologies, and the result is an experience second to none. Moreover, through Osmark’s patented NexGenVR capsule you will experience a whole new world as though you were there in the flesh. Even the pain is real.”

  The system stuttered, Osmark froze on screen, and the robotic voice of the AI took over. “P
atch 1.3_e announcement update: Employees of Osmark Tech.”

  Osmark’s face resumed its idle movements. “Hello, employees of Osmark Technologies, or close friends and family of the employee.” I was tired of hearing his nasally, droning voice, mostly because I’d heard it so many times in the last few months.

  “You have done us, no, humanity, a great service. Either you contributed to the game, Viridian Gate Online, or you supported a technician working day and night to complete this new world. For that, we all owe you our lives. This couldn’t have been possible without you and the contributions of our benefactors.”

  Benefactors. Right. He meant the politicians and criminals. Those able to give worldly support for virtual compensation when the end came.

  “In the next seventy-two hours, you may experience some discomfort, and at the end of it, one in six will not be able to survive the transition to the game. Allow me to explain how it works.”

  Osmark’s recording went into the layman’s version of the nano-tech copying the brain’s patterns line for line into a digital form over the next three days.

  “Truthfully, that’s far more candid than I ever expected to be about how the process works, but this is the end of the world.” Osmark offered a genuine, yet exhausted, smile. I appreciated that. He was a dick and a whip cracker, but he could be real sometimes.

  He went on to further explain that the nanobots now coursing through my veins would be copying my essence and uploading it to the servers deep underground, protected from the catastrophic EMP 213 Astraea would discharge on entering our atmosphere.

  “We installed neural inhibitors into all the capsules which automatically logged players out after six hours of gameplay, but Patch 1.3 has changed all that. The neural inhibitors have all been disabled, and after twenty-four hours of in-game time, the logout button will permanently disappear, leaving you stranded in the game.”

  No skin off my back, I didn’t plan on logging out.

  “If you choose to upload yourself to Viridian Gate Online, you have a chance at surviving Astraea, at least in a digital form. Now, let me take a moment to address some of the concerns circulating around the internet rumor mill. First, I can personally assure everyone listening to this message that Patch 1.3 is our last major update—the game is locked, and all essential functions are now being administered by the AI controllers.”

  The Overminds. I knew them all pretty well, understood their roles. I had to. My code needed to know who to call to complete a function, so I’d had to learn them all, though I only created code for two of them: Enyo, the Overmind of Chaos, and Sophia, the Overmind of Balance.

  Osmark went on to discuss the fears of hacking, which we “secured” against. We certainly did our best, but someone with time and a lot of dedication could hack what we did. It would be hard, nearly impossible with the time the world had left, but they could do it.

  “By watching this warning, you hereby remove all liability of damages from Osmark Technologies, its corporate owners, and its subsidiary entities. Would you still like to proceed?”

  I knew what needed to be done, and I was the one to do it. Even if I only had three days until my heart stopped, perhaps stopped for good, I would make them count. I would make Osmark pay.

  I cherished my last moment as a living, breathing, fleshy being, then answered. “Yes.”

  <<<>>>

  Quest Alert: Continue Reading VGO: Firebrand

  CONTINUE WITH ABBY to find out what happens next!

  Quest Class: Rare, Class-Based

  Quest Difficulty: Easy

  Success: Read on to continue the adventure!

  Reward: 15,000 EXP; Title: The Rebel

  Accept: Yes / No?

  <<<>>>

  Viridian Gate Online: Expanded Universe

  Viridian Gate Online: Cataclysm (Book 1)

  Viridian Gate Online: Crimson Alliance (Book 2)

  Viridian Gate Online: The Jade Lord (Book 3)

  Viridian Gate Online: Imperial Legion (Book 4)

  Viridian Gate Online: The Lich Priest (Book 5)

  Viridian Gate Online: Doom Forge (Book 6)

  Viridian Gate Online: Darkling Siege (Book 7)

  Viridian Gate Online: Side Quests (Anthology)

  Viridian Gate Online: The Artificer (Imperial Initiative 1)

  Viridian Gate Online: Nomad Soul (The Illusionist Book 1)

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  Viridian Gate Online: Inquisitor’s Foil (The Illusionist Book 3)

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  Viridian Gate Online: Embers of Rebellion (The Firebrand Book 2)

  Viridian Gate Online: Path of the Blood Phoenix (The Firebrand Book 3)

  Viridian Gate Online: Vindication (The Alchemic Weaponeer Book 1)

  Viridian Gate Online: Absolution (The Alchemic Weaponeer Book 2)

  Viridian Gate Online: Insurrection (The Alchemic Weaponeer Book 3)

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  Copyright

  V.G.O.: Darkling Siege is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by James A. Hunter and Shadow Alley Press, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email the publisher, subject line “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address below.

  JStrode@ShadowAlleyPress.com

  About the Author

  James A. Hunter is a man of many talents. He’s a former Marine Corps Sergeant, combat veteran, and pirate hunter (seriously). He's also a member of The Royal Order of the Shellback—because that is totally a real thing. In addition to all of that, James has also been a missionary and international aid worker in Bangkok, Thailand. His latest mission? Taking care of his two kids and writing full time. He is the author of the Yancy Lazarus Urban Fantasy series, Legend of the Treesinger, Rogue Dungeon, and the bestselling LitRPG Epic Viridian Gate Online!