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Chapter 1: Tyler Chapter 2: The Rift

In the world of Xeovis

Visit Xeovis

Ongoing 2954 Words

Chapter 1: Tyler

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Tyler stood in front of the screen in the conference room as the developers and other designers gave their reports to him about the progress they had made in the game, giving him timetables for readiness, blocks and dependencies, and the new VR pod that the team had developed specifically for the game. Even though he was a game designer, he was also the product owner and lead for the game, so everyone reported to him. 
“So the neuron processing has been completed, but requires some additional testing,” Jeff, the project lead for the new VR system, reported.
 “Our testers have had incredible success, including the feeling of pain, which we have managed to get to a minimal sensation. We can now manipulate the neural processes in the brain, reading and writing states to the brain. There is no actual harm to the user, as we have been able to show. The FCC and FDA have both given provisional approval for us to launch in August.”
 “So, in three months,” Tyler began, “we will be able to launch the game bundled with the VR pod?”
 There was a murmur around the table.
 “What is it?” he asked, looking around the table. 
“We may not meet production numbers for August.”
 Tyler chuckled, “That’s fine. Remember the PlayStation 5? A year later it was still unavailable for purchase unless you were lucky,” he responded, waving his hand in dismissal, “That just means that more people will want it.” 
There were nods of approval among the assembled team. 
 
“Okay then. Is there anything else?” Tyler asked the group, looking to each of them.
 Everyone shook their heads in the negative until he looked at Jeff. 
“Jeff?” 
“Well, I wanted to tell you later, but I guess I’ll tell you now. The team has a gift for you, if you want to follow me after the meeting,” Jeff said, raising his intonation at the end to turn it into a question.
 Tyler nodded, “I’ll meet you there, if I can, I have another quick meeting after this. Actually, you can join me, then I’ll follow you, if that works for you.”
 Jeff nodded to him, “I can do that.” 
“If there’s nothing else, we can all get back to work. Great job, team,” Tyler said, as everyone got up from their seats and started walking to the exit, chatting with each other as they made their way back to their work spaces. 
“Jeff, let’s walk.” Jeff fell in next to Tyler as they walked to the elevator. “So I got called up again,” Tyler said.
“What the hell, man. What is that, your fifth deployment?” Jeff said, incredulous.
 “Yeah. It’s getting ridiculous, but they paid for a ton of school for me, so it works. I wouldn’t have been able to earn all these degrees otherwise,” Tyler laughed.
 “When do you leave?” Jeff asked, with a solemn smile on his face that didn’t reach his eyes. 
“August. At least they gave me three months this time. Last time it was only a week,” he chortled at the last part. 
 
As they talked, the elevator rang and they ascended to the fourth floor. 
“Oh, the big floor,” Jeff said mockingly. 
“Yeah. Got a meeting with an investor, but it will be quick. Luckily, you’re here to give me an excuse to get out quickly. Come in in two minutes and let me know that I’m needed urgently in the VR development area. That should work to get him off my back.”
 He shot Jeff a sly grin. 
“Devious Devil, you are,” Jeff joked.
 Tyler only nodded in response. “Wait here so he doesn’t see you,” Tyler winked as he walked down the hall into the corporate conference room. 
“Mr. Kraus, to what do I owe the pleasure,” Tyler asked with a smile as he entered. 
“Mr. Tankard, good to see you. I just wanted to get an update on the new headset.”
 “Headset? Ah. The headset is not happening, Mr. Kraus,” Tyler said with a sound of disappointment. “However, I do believe that the game will still do well without it.”
Tyler let out a sigh, interrupting Mr. Kraus as his face flickered with anger, “Especially since our new virtual pod is a far superior product,” he said, putting a smile on his face. 
Mr. Kraus furrowed his brows in question. “Our headset was a fine product, but there are plenty of headsets available. The new design is a Zero-G, fully integrated pod and neuro-stimulation, to allow the player a more comfortable experience upon returning to the real world after playing. It’s a far more immersive experience.” Mr. Kraus’s jaw dropped, “But the price point? Won’t that be incredibly high?” 
 
“Well, initially,” Tyler began, but a knock at the door interrupted him, followed by it opening. 
“Sorry to interrupt, but… Tyler, they need you in the VR Product area. They need your sign-off on something as soon as possible,” Jeff said with a smile. 
“I’ll be right there,” Tyler said, then turned to Mr. Kraus, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kraus. I need to take care of this. Please schedule some time with Ms. Klein, and she will be able to set up a time for you to get a product demo if you would like. It may take a couple weeks though, since the team is working so hard on it currently, and the area is relatively small and cramped.” 
Tyler smiled at Mr. Kraus, and walked out the door with Jeff. They made their way to the elevator, pushing the button for the basement level, which is where the VR product team’s laboratories were. As they entered the elevator and the doors closed, Tyler put his fist out toward Jeff, and Jeff bumped it with his own fist.
 “That was great timing. I just told him about the pod, now he is left with his imagination running and will probably invest more, and will be more willing to give us a higher valuation for it.”
 The elevator chimed and they walked forward into the man-trap, producing their key cards to swipe in to the restricted VR development area.
 
There were four game testers using beta models of the pod, with the team, which included a psychiatrist and an ER physician, both friends with Tyler, monitoring vitals and the visual output to monitors showing what the game testers were seeing, including interfaces. 
“I’m still shocked at how great this game looks. It almost looks real,” Tyler said, looking at the large monitor showing the gameplay.
 Then he looked to the vitals monitor of the closest game tester, “So his heart rate and BP are both high, doc. Is that normal for this?” 
Dr. Ryan looked to him. “Yeah, it’s normal. He just got out of a combat session, and his adrenaline seemed to spike, as if he were really in combat. John here is the latest addition, so he isn’t used to it. If you look at Maggie’s vitals, even though she’s currently in combat, she’s much less affected. She was the first play-tester.”
 Tyler nodded. “Makes sense. It’s like how grunts on the front line get so used to it that they’re barely affected anymore. Most POGs are still affected,” he laughed. 
Dr. Ryan chuckled, “You might be. I’m not anymore. Eight tours, I got used to it on my second tour.” 
Tyler frowned, “Speaking of… You get orders? ‘Cause I did.” 
Dr. Ryan frowned as well, “Yeah, August.” 
“Same.”
 “Hopefully I can launch this before my deployment,” Tyler said, chuckling to himself, “Or maybe I can get them to let me out of my contract.”
 
“You want to try it? You’ll be the first GM to use it,” Jeff asked, grinning.
 “Oh yeah, I want to try it. I thought you’d never ask!”
 Jeff showed Tyler to the available pod, who quickly moved into the seat, grabbing the headset and placing it on his head.
 “Wow. This seat is seriously comfortable!”
 Before he was able to get into the game, Tyler’s phone rang.
 “Ah come on! Right now?” Tyler exclaimed, removing the headset and grabbing his phone. 
“Hey, can you send this to my house,” Tyler asked jokingly.
 “Sure.” Jeff responded nonchalantly as Tyler picked up the phone, garnering raised eyebrows from Tyler, who mouthed, “Serious?
” Jeff nodded his head, causing Tyler to get a huge grin on his face. 
“Hold on a minute,” Tyler said into the phone, removing it from his face and pressing the mute button. 
“Seriously? Dude, you’re awesome. I’m taking a vacation starting tomorrow!” Tyler said, unmuting the phone and standing, starting to walk back to the elevator, “Yes, I’ll take care of it,” he said, getting in the elevator and hanging up the phone. 
“Thanks guys, I love you,” he said as the door to the elevator closed, not leaving any time for a response. The VR team all shook their heads at his antics.

 

Later that evening, Tyler was at home watching videos of leaks of Xeovis on YouTube, smiling to himself. “These marketers are great,” he said aloud, though no one else was around him. He lived alone, with no living family and no significant other. He had a family once, but they were no longer around. He stayed single since his wife and daughter left his life, mostly due to the constant strain of his Army career, but also that his main priority was his baby: Xeovis. He had created an entire world, and one larger than the Earth at that. He had visions of the world in his dreams, and he made those dreams come true in the game. Different cities, skills, creatures, every aspect of the game. There were some things that were added by other designers, and he may not have created everything himself, but he gave the plans to artists, writers, developers, and other designers to complete it, and allowed them some freedom to create their own things as well.  He always had visions of Xeovis as if it were a real world, and wanted everything to be just like he had envisioned, at least mostly, given that other designers were also working on it, before it was released. But the procedural world generation and biome algorithms, AI, or consciousness as he preferred to call it, and the lore were all created solely by him.  

Then, the doorbell rang. He sprang from his sofa, where he had been sitting to eat a quick bite before company was supposed to arrive. He had made boxed Mac n’ Cheese from H.E.B., which he had to have shipped from friends of his who lived in Texas, since there were no H.E.B. stores in Colorado, where he lived and the company was based. He opened the door quickly, revealing a large crate and two of the VR team members, as well as John. 
“Come in, come in,” he said quickly, waving them inside, “Need a hand with that, or are you good?” They all smiled. 
“We’ve got it,” John said as he and the other two moved the crate inside, “Where do you want it?” 
Tyler pointed to a bare area of his house, the dining room. He never ate in there, so he had removed the table, which was only there because his mom sometimes came over and she would chide him for having an empty space there. The two on the VR team started unpacking the crate as he moved to the refrigerator, awkwardly grabbing four beers from inside and walking them over to John, Walt, and Mike, who were pulling pieces out of the crate and assembling them.

“Thanks,” John said, then looked to Tyler. 
“Don’t drink on this. Or near this. It’s a loaner. It’s a prototype. It might be mostly your company, but it’s my machine, dangit.” He laughed as Tyler watched Mike and Walt, saying, “Yeah, yeah,” as if he hadn’t been paying attention to what John was saying. 
“And my raise of ten percent goes into effect on Friday.” 
Tyler responded, “Yeah. Definitely. I understand.” Then John laughed loudly.
 “Dude, you’re not paying attention at all! I just told you my ten percent raise goes into effect on Friday, and you said yeah, definitely!” 
Tyler looked to him and stated in a flat voice, “Yeah? And?”
 Then he raised the side of his mouth in a smirk. They both laughed, then Tyler said, 
“Come on, man. You know I don’t do the books. Marten does that. You’ll have to ask him for the raise. I made it that way so I can’t be tricked like you just tried to do.”
 He flashed John a winning smile. Walt and Mike laughed as they continued their work. 
“I’m really looking forward to this. The consciousness transfer doesn’t hurt does it?
” The three shrugged and made an, “I don’t have any clue,” gesture.

After the device had been set up, Tyler couldn’t help but log in to see his years of long work become available to play, so he stepped into the specially-designed body suit and sat in the machine, preparing to launch the game. After pulling the suit’s hood, covered in neural link thread, over his face , his heart began racing in anticipation. Pulling from his training, he calmed himself using breathing exercises, lowering his heart rate in the process. “Start,” he called to no one in particular. His command, however, was obeyed, and his vision began to grow dark as his skin began to tingle as the suit warmed up and the headset . Seconds later, weightlessness took him, and he was floating in an endless sea of black.

Slowly, a satellite-height view of the world he created, Xeovis, faded into view as a slight gravitational pull tugged him toward the ground slowly at first, but then his pace picked up until he was speeding past the clouds. He held back a scream as his heart rate once again jumped in anticipation. As he fell toward the ground, he couldn’t help but stare in wonder. “I created this,” he thought, “and it’s finally real. I’m here.” He couldn’t help but smile. Then his thoughts changed, “Pain. If I hit the ground like this, it will hurt.” As he thought that, he was suddenly transported with a flash. He fell to one knee, bowing his head, breathing deeply, trying to suppress the bile rising in his throat from the sudden shift in gravity.  “Well met, friend,” a deep voice boomed from behind him.

Jumping to his feet as he spun to face this presence, Tyler moved into a fighting stance as he saw the man towering over him, clad in full plate armor, holding a tower shield and large claymore that he wielded in a single hand. His eyebrows rose in recognition as his tense posture faded as his muscles relaxed. “Hey Borak. Nice to meet you in… the flesh,” he said, trailing off toward the end, realizing that he wasn’t really flesh. The man greeting him stepped back slightly, raising the face plate of his helmet and raising his sword and shield into an aggressive stance, “How do you know my name, traveler? I do not know you.” Tyler smiled, trying to ease Borak’s trepidation, “I drink, and I know things,” Tyler began, then chuckled to himself, “I created you, my friend. You are here to assist me with my transition into the world, correct? My name, help me choose an occupation, things like that?” 

A long pause passed in tense silence as Borak narrowed his eyes and considered Tyler, who spent time looking around the tower he was standing on, looking over the intricate carvings in the solid white stone on the ground and walls, but was eventually overwhelmed by the awkward silence. 
“You alright there, man?” Tyler asked him. 
“Yes. I am only considering your statement. Are you asserting that you are The Creator?” Tyler’s eyebrows rose as his mouth opened and closed, considering a response.
 “I created this world, everyone, and everything in it… Well, I created many of the things and people, and developed systems to allow it to organically grow itself. Yes.”
 Borak’s face did not change, other than his focus intensifying on Tyler. Borak’s tone was monotone as he asked, “What is your name?”  
“I’m Tyler, but in Xeovis, I will go by the name of Relyt.”
 Borak moved to the next question. “And where are you from, Relyt?” 
“Colorado.” 
 “Occupation?” 
Once again, he responded in a single word, “Engineer.”

“I have analyzed you and your words, Relyt of Colorado, and I sense no deception. You are truly The Creator of Xeovis, then?”
 Borak’s words were spoken without any feeling, but clearly a level of disbelief, “I never thought the stories were true.” 
Tyler gave him an understanding smile of reassurance. 
“Borak, I know for a fact that you did believe the tales were true at one point. It was after your appointment to this position that you became disillusioned and no longer believed. No one ever came here. You have been here for what, just over twenty years now, waiting for the arrival of travelers? I apologize for the wait. There were some… problems getting here.”
 Borak nodded absently for nearly a minute before speaking. 
“Very well. I believe you, but you no longer possess the powers of The Creator.” 
Tyler nodded in affirmation, “That’s correct. Right now, I am a simple traveler. I am aware of the requirements to regain those powers.” 
“Very well, then you should get started. Please take a moment to allocate your starting attributes here. Remember, those in Xeovis are not aware of these, and do not share your true name within Xeovis. Let me know when you are done. I will be over by the portal.”
 Borak extended his hand toward the portal near the edge of the tower.

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