Chapter 002

  Basic Motivations

  Still watching the introductory video, Ethan's view panned out the way a camera might, and yet the city still stretched far and wide.

  Before he could study it further however, it suddenly vanished and he was inundated by a series of rapid-fire cut-scenes.

  A man in a suit and tie, with scars across his face, carried a tommy-gun into an old church. He recognized the man by name only, as Rickles, though he figured that was a nickname.

  Stained glass windows shined down on the congregation as Rickles aimed the weapon at another mobster in attendance. It cut away as the man squeezed the trigger.

  In another scene, a swooning Sinatra-type singer in a smoke-filled club sang about desires. Sophisticated patrons listened to the singer as a redheaded woman was approached by a man far too attractive for his own good.

  The charming man smiled at the woman, exposing long vampire fangs. She smiled back, revealing herself to be human. He offered her a hand, and she lingered, likely deciding whether to take it.

  The scene cut away to show the two in bed, having passionate sex. In that beautiful moment he stopped and plunged his fangs into her neck. The sexy woman with red hair would no doubt be turned into a breathtaking vampire.

  In another scene, mobsters ran down a brick road, yelling, "get in the machines!" before climbing into some 1920s vehicles.

  The old sedans and roadsters roared down a street, mobsters hanging out of the windows. They shot pistols, rifles, and shotguns at something behind them.

  Vampires blurred into focus, running faster than humans possibly could. They leaped at the vehicles. One reached in and yanked a mobster from a sedan.

  The man's body rolled and then was run over by a car. The thin wheel pinched his already torn body, nearly cutting the man in half. He screamed in disbelief at the gash through his midsection before he died.

  The vampire on the vehicle fought to get within, holding on as the car swerved chaotically. A barrel stuck out and then his head exploded from a shotgun blast. His body fell to the road below as the cars continued out of focus.

  Ethan's view stayed with the fallen vampire, the head missing most of his brains. The other vampires stopped to look down at their fallen companion, all looking absolutely radiant as they stood in the darkness of night.

  Their faces reflected disappointment, but more-so a seething hatred for the mobsters that had killed one of their own.

  A ravishingly handsome vampire wearing a pin-striped suit shook his head. He seemed to be a leader type Ethan thought looked familiar to him, although he didn’t already know a name for this one like he did the mobster.

  "They were prepared,” the vampire said, "and they're using silver slugs."

  Another one shook his head in disgust. "The Borrells are gonna' pay for this."

  The scene cut away quickly and went back to the black fogginess he’d already become familiar with.

  New Horizon City

  Ethan's apartment came back into focus, and he was standing exactly where he’d been before the video began.

  He still couldn't fully move, and he was beginning to question whether he would ever get to.

  The woman’s voice returned again.

  "Do you wish to enter New Horizon City? Answering yes begins the full-immersion control. Answering no means you will be disconnected and charged the amount specified in your contract. Please verbally answer yes or no."

  It was easy for him to make the choice. All the players had signed contracts understanding they were held financially responsible if they backed out.

  The medical expenses of having the processor chip installed in the brain was in the high tens of thousands of dollars for each contestant. After that came multiple physical and mental evaluations, simulation training, and facility and staffing costs.

  Dropping out of the game before it even truly started would equate to lunacy. Saying no would put him on the hook for all the costs. It was more than anyone in his family earned in a decade, and more debt than most people would ever realistically be able to dig out of.

  He’d signed up to play the game, even if he hadn’t been aware of the game’s details. He was in it to win it or die trying, just like all the other players undoubtedly were. Unless one was already a multimillionaire, participating in a NexaTechNeuro live event was like winning the lottery.

  Traditionally, a new simulation started every eighteen months. If it wasn’t popular, it ended after the second or third ninety day round. Only the third simulation had exceeded three rounds.

  This was the sixth live game, and it had been the most hyped to date. The previous one, a zombie apocalypse survival, hadn’t been well received.

  As usual, the public had no idea what the genre or gameplay style was until one day prior to launch. It created enormous amounts of excitement and discussion, as well as a myriad of gambling options.

  Plenty of speculation had centered around pirates for some reason, and Ethan, like all the other contestants, had made themselves well prepared to sail the high seas. He’d studied the terminology, the history of maritime thievery, and had even played other pirate games prior to the launch.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  But all the speculation had been wrong. They were not in a pirate world, but an old megacity filled with mobsters and vampires. It was amazing how well the company had kept the game a true surprise, even with every news outlet and reporter trying to find out for years.

  Shifting his expectations to this new reality, he started thinking about what he wanted from the experience. Without knowing if the game was a slaughter fest or an empire builder, he thought more broadly and hoped for the opportunity to kill vampires.

  Well, that and living out the lifestyle of a stereotypical Hollywood mobster. Who wouldn’t want to rule over a megacity as the head of a powerful criminal organization?

  He wasn’t sure how much time had passed while he did too much daydreaming, but it was long enough for the system to question his attentiveness.

  “Please verbally answer yes or no to the question. As a safety precaution, you will be disconnected in twenty seconds if you do not answer the prompt. Are you ready to enter New Horizon City?”

  “Yes,” he said quickly, feeling silly for having lost focus.

  “Thank you."

  Ethan Jones felt himself regain full control over his avatar, standing in the small apartment he now called home.

  His nostrils picked up a scent of cigar smoke, stained into peeling wallpaper. The sweet, thick aroma nearly overwhelmed him.

  Once again he was impressed by the game’s level of detail. Even his sensory elements tingled with a mixture of the new and the old.

  Against the wall to his left was a five-drawer dresser. Directly ahead of him was a solid door. A deadbolt and a catch-chain were both unlocked.

  He thought of the introductory scene just moments before.

  His boss Mr. Gallagher visited to remind him he was lazy. At a certain point he would need to begin what he assumed was his mission or quest line to complete the handyman jobs for the man.

  After watching his boss kill one of his own, Ethan was in no hurry to upset him. Waiting too long might do that, so he would need to make fast progress if he didn't want to anger the man.

  He understood why his character had suddenly become an alcoholic. He’d been stuck between a rock and a hard place, not knowing if Mr. Gallagher knew he’d been a witness to the murder.

  Unfortunately, it also meant he’d hardly left his apartment in the days since The Owl was gunned down. Fear often made people do crazy things. His boss simply wanted to know why the work hadn’t been done.

  Now that Ethan had control and knowledge of himself, there was no indication Mr. Gallagher was aware. Or was he? The threat had been direct and to the point, but somehow also veiled.

  “You better shape up, and do it quick. You know who I’m with. I ain’t afraid to make people disappear, if you catch my meanin’.”

  Ethan felt every word of the threat and believed him. He didn’t want to make the boss angry, but he also suspected it was the wrong time of day to go around doing handyman work.

  For the time being, he just wanted to get acquainted with the game. He planned on getting to his official job sometime later in the day or maybe tomorrow, so he finished looking around his apartment in the meantime.

  To the right was his thin mattress on the floor, next to a toolbox and a few of the empty whisky bottles.

  Billions of people would potentially watch him play. They might already be tuning in. He had no idea how many, and with no ability to communicate with his viewers, he didn't want them thinking he was an alcoholic.

  Having watched all the other live events, and having picked his favorite contestants in those games, he had a good idea of what was happening. Viewers were already starting to pick different contestants to follow. Invisible cameras surrounded him, providing a livestream of his every move at all hours of the day.

  Anything he did and every encounter that was funny, exciting, scary, ridiculous, or memeable would get shared for all of eternity, or at least while civilization existed.

  No pressure.

  Shaking off his performance anxiety, he tried thinking of what life was like before all the modern conveniences he had come to know.

  Beyond regular items and lifestyles, he considered weapons. If mobsters and vampires were going to be around, he doubted basic weapons could help him, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to look for one.

  He also doubted the game would start him off with access to tommy-guns or silver slugs, like he'd seen in the video. Finding a standard, simple weapon like a baseball bat or a knife would likely prove beneficial.

  The first thing he decided to do was open each drawer of the dresser. Inside it he found used underwear, socks, overalls, a key, a wrist-watch, and three dollars.

  "That's it?" he said, before remembering that money probably had a different value set in the 1920s.

  He had no idea what three dollars could buy, but judging by the apartment and his job for Mr. Gallagher, he knew he was poor. His new life inside the simulation, it turned out, was much like the old one he’d left behind in order to participate in the game.

  The money and the key both went in his front right pocket.

  He put the watch on his wrist and looked at it. The time was 5:32 a.m. He was unsure if there was a direct time translation between the real world and this one, but it seemed to be a normal twenty four hour day.

  There was no reason to question it.

  A series of notifications began. The words flashed in his bottom left field of view, stayed there for a few seconds, and then faded away.

  Unlocked Inventory - You picked up your first item and you now have access to your inventory screen.

  +100 XP

  You have 100 XP total

  You need 900 more XP to reach level 1

  "Excellent," he smiled, happy with immediate progress.

  He quickly thought about his inventory and the screen opened.

  Discovering six available miscellaneous slots to put items into, he noticed one was occupied by a key and one by the three dollars.

  Only having six slots to put things into wasn't going to cut it. He already knew he would need to expand this in some way in order to create more holding capacity.

  Next to the miscellaneous slots, a flat diagram of his body provided additional slots for wearable items. He could change out his socks, shoes, underwear, pants, undershirt, over-shirt, face covering, and headpiece.

  Next to his body were two necklace, two wrist, and four ring slots. One of the wrist slots had the watch in it.

  He had sixteen potential wearables in total.

  Looking at the undershirt, overalls, and boots he wore, they each simply stated basic, with zero sell value and no information in the stat block.

  Just out of curiosity, he removed his overalls and underwear and glanced down at his manhood. The anatomy was exactly as he knew it in the real world, for better or worse.

  It was amazingly accurate.

  Suddenly remembering he was on a constant livestream, he blushed, put his clothes back on, and continued browsing through the translucent screens. Hopefully he wasn't the only player curious about their digital body parts.

  In the weapons section he saw dedicated space for up to two main weapons and up to two secondary ones, as well as ammunition.

  Everything else, he assumed, would have to be carried in miscellaneous slots. Those were limited for what could only be described as game design reasons, meaning it gave him something that needed improving through some type of time-sink system.

  The only thing he had on him to fight with were his fists, and he had very little personal experience when it came to melee fighting.

  Taking up one of his miscellaneous slots was the key from the dresser. Looking at it revealed it was for his apartment, which made sense. He reached for the pocket where he'd put it, and also found a wallet.

  Only then did he notice the option of using a wallet for the storage of currency. His inventory screen had a wallet tab he hadn't previously noticed, so he put the wallet in that tab and it opened up to reveal three empty slots within.

  He moved the three dollars from his front pocket and put them into the wallet, clearing all but one of the six miscellaneous slots.

  Hopefully he could increase the size of his inventory relatively quickly, otherwise he would be playing as a minimalist.

  He didn't like that idea. Whenever a game didn't have a weight burden mechanic, he was the player that picked up and carried fat stacks of everything like a walking warehouse.

  There was nothing else to do in his inventory, so he mulled over the fact he was poor and weak in a video game instead of just poor and weak in the real world like normal.

  The three individual dollar bills had stacked, but he didn't know how coinage would be handled. Sighing to himself, he closed out the screen.