Chapter VI - Dive

Stephen was shaken to the core. He couldn't believe the bombshell his son had dropped and spent the last twenty minutes explaining. Marcus had to explain details he couldn't have known and give information no one could possibly know at this time.

It didn't make any sense, every analyst was showing increasing trajectory and revenue sales. Betrayal? This enraged him, he had always treated everyone in his company like family. Always putting them before his company, this was the worst kind of backstabbing for Stephen.

"Who?" Stephen's voice was ice cold, his anger seething out of his mouth as he glared back at his son. This surprised Marcus as even though his father was always critical of him, he never showed this side to him before.

"Montgomery." Was the only word that Marcus could utter, his fear of this side of his father had shaken him to his core.

"JAMES!?!?" Stephen jumped to his feet as his fists slammed down on his desk startling Marcus.

Marcus was at a loss for words, he never had paid much attention to his father's company before, he never needed to, but he was at a loss for words and could only nod.

Stephen noticing his son's reaction closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his jet black hair and returned to his seat. "These are serious allegations Son, where did you learn of this?"

Marcus proceeded to tell his father of how James went behind his father's back and get the entire board to do a vote of no confidence and take his place. He didn't know how but Stephen knew it had to be through blackmail and bribery, it couldn't have been through any valid means.

"Okay, let's say I believe you, what can be done…?" Stephen stared at his son his attention hanging on every word as Marcus explained what he had planned.

***

In the blink of an eye, two months had passed and Marcus was one of the first people who had preordered the Dive Visor and a copy of The World. Already installed on his Personal Computer and was awaiting the launch of the game and the delivery of his Visor. It was scheduled for the following day and the day after, the launch of The World.

He knew that the Visor was going to have a short turnaround time as the Dive Pod was going to be released the following year and would completely change the way the game should be played. Despite the game claiming to have the most in-depth character creation system, being able to change and modify 100% of your character from the tip of your head down to the tip of your toes.

His first time playing the game he spent an astronomical 14 hours fine tuning his character before ever stepping into the game. He had adjusted everything he could, but this would always haunt him as there was a hidden mechanic called sync rate.

The more similar your character was to the actual player the higher the sync rate would be, which could be the difference between night and day. Unbeknownst to Marcus, this was even more important than he knew.

Every news channel had been abuzz with announcements from CryoCorp. They could not be trumped when it came to every news outlet, they were everywhere.

Originally an independent contractor for the United Nations, developing training programs for the World Forces to increase their combative power and skill levels, it was a genius master stroke of a small developer at the bottom of the rung who in his free time developed and advanced the field of AI (Artificial Intelligence) who for the past 15 years was able to develop and guide the AI in secrecy while she created the ever expansive world.

After developing it to the stage that it was nearing completion, he brought it to his supervisors who quickly ran it up the ladder going further and further until this meek scientist was sitting in a massive conference room. He was in front of the entire Board of Directors and countless holograms of every General from every Country in the United Nations.

"How complete is it?" One of the Generals chimed in their native language that was automatically converted into his understood tongue by the hologram.

"Over 90%" The scientist replied sheepishly. Gasps and various chatter was heard as every General was speaking their hidden advisors. "We need testers, the AI had done pretty much everything but there's only so much I can do myself." The scientist continued.

The Generals were all frantically talking at once offering as many of their low rank Private soldiers available to complete this project. The scientist smirked inwardly before replying "It will be completed sooner than originally planned with all your support…"

***

Marcus couldn't contain his excitement, he had received the visor the day before after returning from school and set it up. He couldn't get a wink of sleep the night before no matter what he did, so he had finished volume XXIV in The Ultimate Guide. School was even worse, he was simply glad they didn't launch it until after he was out for a whole week thanks to the American Holiday "Thanksgiving."

He was glad his father believed him and invested in him and he didn't have to wait to get this 'stupid game' as his father had protested in his past life. He had fallen so far behind the month he waited until he got it for Winter Holidays.

He saw the notification pop up on his computer:

The World installation complete, do you wish to launch?

He put the visor over his head as he clicked YES and his world turned black.

He looked around as everything around him was pitch black. He couldn't even see his body as he was just a wisp of pale light. The only thing he could see was the large clock counting down above him.

<10:01>

<10:00>

…

<09:01>

<09:00>

Marcus was anxious and he couldn't control himself as the clock ticked down. It was excruciating as he stared at the timer. It brought him back to an old phrase 'A watched pot never boils' it was as if time stood still much longer between every second.

<08:01>

<08:00>

Marcus was ready to spend the entire night playing and in the morning release both the free version and paid versions of part of Volume 1 before taking a nap.

<07:01>

<07:00>

He had already set up an account on the ever popular streaming platform Flutter and had went live shortly before going in game. His viewer count was steadily climbing as the timer was decreasing.

<05:01>

<05:00>

As the timer hit 5 minutes a giant red warning had appeared for the hundreds of viewers:

"The host's game screen is not displayed because the current scene is a blocked scene.

Please wait until the blocked screen has finished."

<02:01>

<02:00>

Marcus didn't know what was going on with his viewers but he couldn't care less at this point, his entire body had goosebumps.

<00:30>

<00:29>

The last 30 seconds infinite number of stars had light up the pitch black, Marcus could see the entire field he was floating in light up as stars and raced across the sky and the giant luminous moon came into view

<00:02>

<00:01>

As the timer reached <00:00> fireworks of every shape color and size engulfed the night sky as The World was celebrating it's birth.

Giant white words appeared in front of the continuous eruptions of fireworks

<Welcome to The World!>