TETHER
United Human Calendar Year 4701. Almost 5000 years after humans discovered they were not alone in the universe and began their long war with the other two intergalactic civilisations of Draconians and Dwarves. Suddenly, a sound seemingly as though reality itself was being torn apart was heard by every single intelligent life-form in the universe before a voice followed. The voice told them that it would create a virtual platform called Tether, where all the rates would conduct their conflicts with each other. From now on, any large-scale massacres or wars between the civilisations, which could regress the technological, cultural and intellectual progress of the civilisations would be considered treason, and they would be erased. to prove its point, the voice declared a leader from each of the three civilisations; who had conducted such massacres, as dead, and they died instantly, along with all their wealth and belongings. 20 years later, the entire universe is playing the game, not only due to being forced to do so by their governments but also the various rewards, both monetary and otherwise found inside. Jack, a normal human who lost a large part of his family, enters the game after a few years in the military, and a few months of being a free mercenary. However, he comes across a 'stone', which is both a blessing and a curse, giving him incredible powers in the game, but also making him the target of all the powerful and influential humans and other species. Ultimately, all the powerful humans band together, and first rip away his guild from the inside, before laying siege to his home base and finally seizing the item by killing him. ... However, the 'stone' seems to have powers beyond the game and brings Jack back to his past before he lost his family. What will Jack do? And how will he get revenge on those who caused him harm?
Perry
Jack stood up and returned the document, before throwing away the gloves and then proceeding to head to the exit.
Outside, Ava was waiting for him with a slightly worried expression, which immediately turned joyful once she saw Jack leaving the fortress. The two of them went into the nearest hover-truck which was waiting for them and went to the same spaceship they had travelled in before, which seemed rather run-down from the outside, but from the inside was actually better than most spacecraft available on the open market.
Of course, Jack fainted once more on the return trip and woke up in the hover-truck with the same two bodyguards whose he had initiated this incredibly odd trip.
However, from all of this, he had gained three main things.
1. The money in order to pay off his family's debt, and possibly even get them to shift to a new and safer place
2. The invisible support of one of the council members, as long as Ava was safe.
3. The knowledge that most likely, even the other members of the council had such superpowers as Kenny, or else, why would Kenny be satisfied being on the same level as the others?
Therefore, before thinking about fighting with the Frost group and the others, he needed not just to make himself a super-human, but also to create a squad of soldiers who were directly under him and were also equally super-human.
After telling Ava to get her stuff ready to leave when the day ended and night began, when they were supposed to wake up, Jack did not go to his second apartment for the game, and instead went home, much to the surprise of his parents and sister who were preparing to go off to bed, since the sun had already risen.
"Father, I need to talk to you," Jack said as he forcefully pulled his father outside the house into the tiny backyard they had, and closed the door behind him.
"Here. I finally collected enough. Call the as*hole, I mean, the one you borrowed money from. And return it all, interest included."
"…" Jack's father did not say a word, and simply looked at Jack oddly. This kid was supposed to be on his way to the VR Academy. What was he doing back here?
However, Jack did not mind as he transferred 500,000 credits directly into his father's account.
"When he comes and shows the contract, I will send the rest over, and only once you both sign a contract which negates the previous contract will you transfer him the money. Got it?"
Subconsciously, Jack's father nodded. It took him a few seconds to finally understand what was happening, and he quickly dialled up the person in question.
"Yo, James! What's up? Why are you remembering me so late at night? Do you perhaps miss my company? Haha"
"Perry, I- I have the money. Come over to my house, and we will settle everything once and for all" Jack's Father said.
"…"
"…"
"Hey, James. Are you sure you are not drunk?"
"I am completely sane. Come over right now."
"Sure~" the phone cut halfway through as sounds of a chair sliding and a table flipping over could be heard before it cut off.
"So… where did you get the money from? I hope it wasn't something-"
"Don't worry father. Although you are not my dad, I have always and will always continue to treat you as the head of the family. And of course, why would anyone go against the head of the family?" Jack joked, but both James and Jack knew that there was a certain gap in their relationship which could not be overcome with just a few pleasantries. However, for Jack's mother's happiness, these two strangers had a tacit understanding from the day James was introduced to Jack. And that understanding, had, unfortunately, remained the same, even after Freya was born, up until now.
"Yeah…" James replied half-heartedly
…
About an hour later, Perry arrived at their house and knocked on the door. Opening it was James, who allowed Perry inside, as he sat down on the dining table, where Jack was already seated.
"So, do you have the money?"
"Y-" James was about to speak when Jack intervened.
"Sir Perry. I am truly sorry for interrupting you. But is it alright if we can read through the contract before we proceed? It is a virtual contract, so there should not be any harm in that right?"
Perry turned to look at Jack for a few seconds, before sighing and nodding. He too was a businessman and understood how things worked. If he could get the money written in the contract without any issues, it was a lot better for him as well, after all, he would not need to go through the trouble of having the family killed by the Frost group, and then seizing their property, which would be worth a lot less than what he would gain from the contract itself, considering the cut he would have to give to the frost group for their 'efforts'.
Jack and James silently read through the copy of the contract which had been sent to their phones, before Jack nodded. The loan was a home loan of 500,000 credits as the principal amount, and a simple interest of 12% p.a. It had already been 11 years since they had bought this house after Jack's mother became pregnant, and the total amounted to 1.17 million credits.
James, who had only thought of the loan to be around 500,000 credits nearly fainted at the insane amount of credits he could owe Perry.
Jack, on the other hand, sighed in relief, as he transferred the remaining amount to Jame's account, before telling Perry to apply the last condition in the contract, where James could cancel the contract at any time, by making a payment of whatever was owed based on the contract instructions. Soon, the payment was made, and the contract was successfully cancelled.
Perry also had a sweet smile on his face as he left the house, however, as soon as he was far enough from the house such that no one could see him, he quickly called up a number he did not wish to call once more.
"Hey Lori, I got a job for you…"
Congratulations on reaching the previous chapter's target. Smashing it guys!
Chapter length: 1065 words
The next chapter is at 12.5k words.
I hope you guys; the readers of this novel, understand why I am implementing this 'childish' method of releasing chapters.
The reason is simple:
I need to know if my novel is going well or not. If the novel is not getting enough views, means that there is clearly something very wrong with it, and instead of just carrying on writing it like an idiot, only to be explained by a good soul who is passing by about the glaring plot holes in my novel, I would rather just do something like this. Where I wait for views to reach a goal, then publish a new chapter, then wait again.
This also gives me plenty of time to write a good chapter and try and fix as many grammatical errors as possible, but of course, even with the help of word-autocorrect, then Grammarly, some errors still slip by, and I can't do much about that.
Alright, guys! Thank you so much for your support until now. Hope to receive many more views and power stones in the future. Thanks.