1 Ch 1 once upon a time

The year 2055 was riddled with new discoveries and inventions. The world hunger had ended and with it ended a long period of wars. The peace was maintained by an organization that blanketed the entire earth. Humanity was finally on the path to next frontier, the space.

"fuck, the new hack was supposed to allow players to break directly to the next level. Dammit, I really hoped that it would works" Lan Long said, exasperated. He was about to break into the weekly leaderboards but he lost his account due to constant reports against him.

When Lan Long was 15, he inherited his father's fortune which he promptly invested into the virtual gaming industry. This enabled him to live as he desired, good food, best games and console available on the market and the best health insurance. This made him into a mole the rarely left his house and got any form of exercise. At the age of 45, he still enjoyed the benefits of the investments he made prior in his life. Due to his constant gaming, Lan Long's body suffered immensely. He was obese, had dark circle, was pale white and technically 'uneducated'. He had dropped out of school to play games as soon as the investment started reaping profits. Although Lan Long was not stupid and uneducated as he seemed, during his free hours Lan Long constantly read book about engineering, philosophy, arts, medicine, law, physics, chemistry, mathematics, history and even martial arts. Lan Long in no way was a stupid, in fact when he was still in school, Lan Long was reading ahead in terms of his peers and even his teachers. By the age of 40, if he ever chose to give exams on any of the major professions, Lan Long would absolutely ace all to the subjects. He had read enough to be deemed one of the best scholars of this planet, if not the best.

The only reason Lan Long chose to live such depraved life style was because he was lazy. Lazy enough not care about the societies standards. Lazy enough never call any of his relatives. Lazy enough to never get a girlfriend or a wife. The only time he chose not be lazy was when he was gaming.

" Mister, try this new mod. It can change the time flow in the VR and can copy any sampled biomes to their maximum efficiency to replicated the monster and item spawn location." Called out a shady dealer who clearly looked like he was about to stab someone at a moment's notice. Lan Long was skeptical at first but then he remembered the coding procedures of the mods. Any mods needed a complete new server to be physically inserted in the system and can be traced at any time.

" Time and spawn space mod? Hmmmm, clearly won't work, the primary programming will notice the discrepancy and soon as the first item or a monster is spawned." Lan Long mused out loud, expecting a hilarious response from the shady crook. After all, Lan Long was also well versed in coding.

" Of course, the system will figure it out as soon as its plugged in." TY\he crook smiled.

"Well, there we go. Another fucking waste of time." Lan Long was about to storm of but the crook coughed and raised his palm. On his palm was a diamond shaped strip. About 5-inch-long and 2-inch-wide at its widest location. The strip had weird protrusions and was about half an inch thick near those protrusions.

"This is not a VR capsule mod." Lan Long said in astonishment. He had an idea but was too scared to think in that direction.

"It is a stem implant." The crook said with a smile. Clearly proud to be able to surprise the conceited prick of a costumer.

"How did you get it?" Lan Long asked as he calmed down. He had read about the recent break in at the research center. They were apparently developing a nerve implant to enhance the thinking and memory storage in humans. The break in caused a huge gun fight to break out but the thieves got away with minimal causalities. Soon they were found and apprehended but their final accomplice was still at large. It didn't take Lan Long much time to connect the dots. Just to be sure, the report mentioned a single prototype being developed and all the data being lost to that fight.

"How many do you have?" Lan Long asked in a low voice. Although he was scared, Lan Long could not let such a golden opportunity slip.

"One and only. In fact, I can guarantee that this is the only piece of stem tech on the planet." The crook declared proudly.

"Oh. The price." Lan Long asked expecting a huge amount.

"One million credits. On plastic, no wire." The crook deadpanned. 'Fuck that's a lot. Wait, he cannot publicly advertise this and is in desperate need of cash to bail. I can definitely haggle in down to 800k or maybe even less. Or I can con him into giving to me for free. He is a fugitive after all'

"Can I Inspect the implant for a while?" Lan Long asked with a straight face but inside he was nervous.

"Hmmmm, sure." The crook said and handed Lan Long the implant but as he turned his palm onto Lan Long's palm he grabbed him and said "Be very careful." With a sinister smile.

"How do you even use this thing?" Lan Long asked confused upon closer inspection. The whole thigh weighed about 150 grams.

"Just place the sharp end on your C7 while the entire thing faces upward. I should detent the connection and activate automatically." He explained while pointing a finger to lower part of his neck.

"Is it safe?" Lan Long asked the final question before ditching the loser. He had secretly contacted the peace keepers about a suspicious individual.

"100 percent. . . . . . Probably." He sighed at the end realizing now he would lose some of the cash.

Lan Long was about to reach into his wallet for cash, the siren started blazing everywhere. The crook smiled at Lan Long before pulling out a gun and pointing at him. Before he could even pull the trigger, another shot was fired.

BANG

The bullet was fired by a drone at the crook. The bullet which was supposed to kill the crook was stripped of momentum as it closed in on the crook. The Magnetic shield tech was a major life saver under any gun related situations, but the bullet's momentum would need to be under the critical limit or else the shield would fail. But even if the shield didn't fail the momentum would still throw the ma of his feet to a certain extent if the mechanism wasn't grounded.

The crook flew of and landed a few feet away, glaring at Lan Long before running away. Lan Long was proud as he had made a killing of the deal and even got the crooks bag. Lan Long carried the bag to his home and threw it to the side before taking out the implant and checking it again to look for damages. He was excited as he believed this to be a game changer, literally.

"Hehehe, finally those mother fuckers online are in for a world of pain" Lan Long said out loud before slapping the implant on his neck.

g)