A New World (Gamer, Book 1)

A New World

Gamer

Book 1

Kenneth Guthrie

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Lunatic Ink
Publishing

Editor's Note:

This story is based in a MMORPG (Massive
Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game) in the very far off future.
It has no basis in any game invented, played or experienced in our
current timeframe. Any similarities are coincidental.

Books In This Series

Gamer: A New World (Book 1)

Gamer: Dragon Land Expansion (Book
2)

Gamer: (undecided) (Book 3)

You can find more of Kenneth Guthrie’s work
at:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/kennethguthrie2

World Notes for
Gamer

The world has changed. Centuries have passed
since the simple games that we play in our world were invented.
Sensory Input Worlds*
¹
have arisen as the human
alternative to living a valueless life of struggle and work. Fools
can become princes and the overweight and unfit can be super
athletes. This virtual freedom comes at a price though. In 2222,
the world is not as we know it. The SIWs need what we in 2012
called 'crash test dummies'. This novel is the story of one such
individual and his trials in the MMORPG*
²
'Avenger Flex II'
.

Definitions:

1: A fully immersive
Virtual Reality
System
far advanced of our best efforts back in 2012.
Abbreviated to SIW.

2: Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing
Game. MMMORPG for short.

Characters:

Harry O’Neil (Gold Hunter): 20 years old,
scruffy and unkempt, forced into game testing by debts with the
government. Protagonist.

Sandy Axel (Killer Extreme): A magic user with
warrior class attributes. Very skilled. Game tests because she
likes living on the edge.

Josh Hardstone (Iron Manners): A player that
creates game guides for consumers who join games after their public
releases.

Erica Franks (Super Healz For The
Lolz
)
: Short, kind and a healer.

Shades Livingston (Shady Thief): An arrogant
tester who is rather unhelpful to Harry.

The Company: The game company that has
contracted Harry to test the game.

The GMs (Game Masters): Both enemy and friend,
they are the lawmakers of the game.

The Thousand: The name for the 1,000,000 plus
testers that are employed to test and, sometimes, die in the
game.

Rules of The Deal:

Live to the end, get 100,000 dollars cash. Run
out of gold and you are out of the game. Die for real due to a bug,
no bonus and no pay. Gold equals bonuses: The more you have the
bigger the bonus paid out at the end of the testing cycle. One
cycle is 3 months (3 days in real life time if using Sleep Tech.)
Death happens; live with it.

Content Warning:

Contains in-game violence, death and seriously
bad behavior. Mild adult themes throughout. Suitable for mature
teens, but not young children.
Content is Science
Fiction/Fantasy orientated.

Welcome To Your Contract

Harry O’Neil (
Gold
Hunter
), Level 1, Class Unknown, 1 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Copper.
State of being: Very pissed off.

"Please just tell me that one more
time."

The farmer doesn't even react and Harry stares
at him in disgust. The NPC (Non-Player Character) doesn't move in
response to his vigorous waving in front of him. It just stands
there looking totally uninterested in what is going on around it.
The small farm that Harry and the NPC are standing in, with its
perfect picturesque little one-room cottage, is part of the
starting ground to the as-yet-unreleased MM0RPG (massive
multiplayer online role-playing game)
Avenger Flex
II
. Harry is level 1 and he has managed to prove only one thing
since logging in to this world: He sucks at VR (virtual reality)
games!

Looking around, he tries to think of a way to
get the farmer to tell him the quest details again. He has a little
panel flashing in front of him with the words,
‘Do you accept or
reject this quest?’
He hasn’t accepted the quest yet and the
digital display that bobs at the upper corner of his vision hasn’t
changed, although it hasn’t changed since he arrived and he’s sort
of skeptical that it does anything but look pretty, which wouldn’t
surprise him at all.

I must be able to hear the details again
somehow,
he thinks to himself, examining the NPC more closely.
It just seems silly that in 2222 we can’t even event a computer
generated character that can’t repeat.

He jogs slowly around the farm once. It takes
a good five minutes of huffing and puffing and feeling more unfit
than seems appropriate in a videogame where one is supposed to be a
‘hero’.

He finally comes back to the farmer and
waits.

"Good sir, good sir! Will you help me? My poor
Sally is desperately ill and needs help! I need two slices of pig
meat to save her life! Immediately!" the NPC virtually screams in
near religious zeal.

"Now that's the spirit. I'll have Sally all
fixed up in no time," Harry says to the NPC clapping him on the
shoulder in a friendly manner.

The NPC looks down at Harry's hand, which is
still on his muscular shoulder, and crinkles his brow slightly.
Harry skitters back a few steps and reaches for a small dagger that
he came into this world with.

"Don't you dare bug out on me," Harry almost
begs as he watches the NPC warily.

The quest NPC goes back to his idle
relaxation, his bored look returning, which, in actual fact, isn’t
really what one would expect as a normal human response considering
‘his Sally’ is deathly ill, but Harry has seen his fair share of
these idiots so far and they all react the same way.

I had better get going before this thing
goes nuts on me,
he thinks. He has already seen one player die
for real
today and he isn’t looking forward to
being the next tester to join the ranks of the unpaid and
dead.

Harry trots to the outskirts of the field.
There is a large forest with trees sparsely placed in the distance
and he can see a few grey shapes moving about among the
trees.

He comes to the edge of the farm and looks out
into the woods. This is his first time working as a tester in an
RPG, but he knows the deal well enough: Bugs in the game can get
you killed; live through the three month test period and get a
bonus; gold equals bigger bonuses; if you run out of gold then
you’re dead and out of the game. The contract was specific and
Harry read it carefully.

He trudges into the forest, thinking how weird
the world of 2222 is. Real interaction is not the norm and VR games
are the hottest property out there. Harry is testing
Avenger
Flex II
, one of the most popular games ever invented for the
Sensory Input World (SIW). Harry is part of the thousand (a group
of over a million testers), who are doing the dangerous job of
being first in before its exposed to paying customers. It’s about
as safe as smoking dynamite and not half as fun half the
time.

A movement near him makes him stop. It was
only a small crack, as if something big and heavy broke a twig or
something, but it was there.

A loud squeal alerts him to the oncoming
danger and he spins to find a large pig charging at him. Across the
front of his vision appear the words
High-Level
Rare
.

"Ah man. This is seriously not what I
need."

He draws his dagger and tries to look
intimidating. He's never played in RPG before and from what he's
been told, it can get pretty nasty from here on in.

The pig flashes by in a trail of brown hulking
muscle as Harry dodges to the left, barely avoiding getting stuck
by the pig’s tusk. He tries to slash out at the beast with his
dagger, but only receives air in return.

The creature digs its hooves into the forest
dirt and spins about in a tight arc. It’s close enough to score a
nice charging shot into Harry's left leg. Pain and agony warp up
the injured limb in droves. The world may be a digital creation,
but when you get hurt, IT HURTS A LOT.

Harry limps around on his leg, which feels
exactly like someone has torn the muscles and ripped a tendon or
two and turns. There is not a single doubt in his mind that this is
real combat, combat where he can get hurt and hurt bad.

He hobbles to the side as the creature races
by again, biding its time and drawing out the fight. Harry tries
throwing his dagger at the intimidating beast, but it misses by an
embarrassing distance. The weapon ends up stuck in a nearby tree
and the creature leaps into the air to slam hard into Harry's
chest.

His health bar flashes into the top of his
vision with a red haze dripping from it. It's down to one quarter
and he’s not looking forward to the little burst of electrical pain
the game gives every time he dies, which has been fairly often
since he stepped into the game world. That combined with the small
loss of gold, which gets bigger and bigger as one levels, is enough
motivation to fight as hard as he can to escape death this time
around.

He performs an awkward roll, which hurts way
too much for what should be a cool looking move, towards the tree
and tries to yank his dagger out. It’s stuck in so firmly that he
realizes it’s not coming out without some serious
pulling.

Harry dodges the pig as it tries to ram him to
the ground with a goring slap of its snout. He ends up running
around the tree three times to avoid being maimed as the pig
follows behind with a look of deathly desire in its
eyes.

Harry comes around on his third time and
decides that he is just not meant for combat. He starts climbing
the tree and manages to get half way up before the beast slams into
the trunk and sends Harry falling to the ground.

He lands on top of something warm and muscular
and looks down to find himself sitting directly on the pig’s back.
It looks up at him as if to say
‘what exactly do you think you
are doing?’
and starts to buck violently. Harry wraps his arms
around its neck and holds on for dear life as he tries to stay
alive.

The huge monster of a pig twists and turns,
but Harry holds on firmly. It turns towards the farm and begins
sprinting towards the fence. Harry yanks on its neck, trying to
force it back into the woods again and accidently covers its eyes.
By the time he realizes his mistake, it’s too late. The two of them
collide with the fence surrounding the farm at full speed. The pig
gives a pained squeal that is half fear and half acceptance of fate
and slams into the heavy wooden support just at the edge of the
fence.

The world begins spinning in a dizzying
mixture of colors as Harry flips over several times and rolls/into
the cabbage patch. He comes up covered in broken pieces of cabbage
with a loud screaming coming from the direction of the farmer, who
is looking furiously at Harry with an intense rage on his
face.

Harry gets to his feet and runs for the woods.
The farmer comes over and stares out into the woods for awhile
before turning and going back to his disinterested
staring.

That was way too close.
Harry edges out
from behind the tree he’s hiding behind and walks over to the pig.
It is completely knocked out and a few sharp kicks to its head with
Harry’s leather clad toe reveal that it’s
probably
dead.

A small glowing screen appears in front of
Harry. The words
Rare Item Found
are in the middle. He taps
the screen and whistles as he sees what he has
discovered.

“
2 gold and a crystal dagger.
That’s not a bad find.”

He taps the screen a few times. Nothing
happens.

“
Why won’t you give me the
loot?”

The screen just disappears as if to say
‘I
do what I want, flesh bag’
and Harry grits his teeth. He’s not
having a good day and it’s only going to get worse from
here.