Chapter 1: Introduction

The cold breeze rushed through the air, accompanied by the sounds of seagulls chattering above and waves crashing onto the shore. As I looked out to the horizon, the feeling of sand enveloping my feet, all I could see was nothingness. The blue water had nothing for me. It meant nothing to me. Yet when I looked to my left, I saw her. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my nineteen years of living. Her jet-black hair came down to her mid-back, clearly cared for as it looked soft as silk, even from afar. She donned a dark academia outfit, her blazer flowing in the wind as she, too, looked out to the horizon. For but a brief moment, her attention tore from the sea before us as her eyes met my own. The words she spoke then would never leave me for the rest of my life.

"It's beautiful."

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My alarm rang louder than usual. I woke up slowly to the high-pitched beeping coming from my phone. When you've heard the same sound every morning for the past seven years, I guess anybody would learn how to drown it out. My half-awake eyes reached for my phone in an attempt to turn off the alarm. 'I'm up,' I thought, 'Now shut up'. After some minutes of slamming my finger on the bottom of my phone, the noise finally ceased. 'Thank god,' I thought. As I brought my phone closer to my face to check any notifications I received over the night, I noticed the time.

Shit, it's eleven already?!

With a startle, I jumped out of the bed, grabbed my towel, and quickly ran for the shower. 'Can't go out without smelling fresh,' I said to myself daily. After some time passed, I ran out of the shower, fully clothed in an oversized white hoodie with black sweatpants, and darted out of the door while putting my shoes on. I looked like a mess, but if I was late to the launch, I would never forgive myself!

Eventually, I made it. The convenience store.

"A bottle of French vanilla creamer and a Boom energy drink?"

The store clerk looked at me with disdain. I guess it must suck to see somebody the same age living such a carefree life compared to him. His red-brown hair was already beginning to bald. I looked at him for a brief moment as I pulled my card out of my wallet.

"Yeah. That's it."

"Nine dollars."

Tch. Inflation was getting ridiculous. Two years ago, this was five dollars at most. I looked at the panel to hold my card up to as it read my price to me in large numbers. As I mindlessly held my card up to pay, I spotted a second price in the corner.

"Pay six dollars instead if you pay with Metacoin!"

Are you kidding me? That sham of a currency has made it into convenience stores? So much for the good old American dollar. With a roll of my eyes, I took my receipt and walked back to my apartment. As I walked on the pavement, I checked my phone. 11:47 AM. 'Perfect,' I thought, 'I still have time before launch'.

My name is Jaden Banneker. I attend school at Seattle University in my second year of studying business management and administration. To add to that massive red flag, I also happen to be heavily involved in gaming. For some reason, when I play any game I get my hands on, I immediately thrive at it.

I reached the rank of Challenger in the world's most popular MOBA for three years in a row. In the world's best shooter game, I achieved Grandmaster within a month of playing. I am a current International Master in the game of Chess. The pinnacle of my accomplishments, though, is my ability to climb to rank one on any MMO's leaderboards – whether it be Player vs. Player or clear speeds for raids.

That accomplishment is what brought me to today. My tournament winnings and livestream donations scored me enough money to get an apartment in downtown Seattle where I spend my days either studying or gaming. Today, though, will be more of the latter than the former.

At noon, the world's first VRMMO will launch, and I just so happen to have a queue priority pass.

Virtual Reality had expanded immensely in the last ten years. I don't remember it too well due to being young, but for two years all of humanity was stuck in their homes to prevent a virus from spreading across the world even more than it already had. In those two years, a genius of a man snorted copious amounts of drugs and only slept when his body physically could no longer move to create his magnum opus. When the virus was quelled, and humanity emerged from their homes, the man brought out with him twelve books, thirty-four research papers, and a prototype for the first ever full-dive virtual reality headset, all created by him.

The man's name: Ezekiel Clarence.

He brought his research to several companies and scientists, and they all corroborated the same story; This research was groundbreaking and could revolutionize the world as we knew it. Interest groups engaged in a bidding war for the rights to the technology, think tanks in Silicon Valley began an arms race for who could reverse-engineer the leaked documents of work, and lawmakers in Congress already began work on politicizing and spinning the story of how the technology could be harmful to the average man.

For five months, the United States panicked to control and get their hands on Ezekiel's creation. At the end of the period, Ezekiel emerged as the world's sixth richest man, and his technology became property of the largest company in the world – Meta Multi-Productions. For eight years, Meta thought of how to monetize the newest innovation in technology. They possessed the research, the prototype, and the team of engineers to take as long as they needed to perfect the work.

Those years of work have all led to today – the launch of their metaverse, the VRMMO known as King's Gambit. According to the developers, only investors in their cryptocurrency known as Metacoin were given the opportunity to purchase the game, which led me to believe that this game will be filled with idiots looking to make a quick buck, like most people in the scene usually are. The only reason I got into the game in the first place was because a peer I tutor in English happens to be a top ten investor in the company, but he hates video games. Thanks, Lucas, for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I finally arrived home. The scent of vanilla graced my nostrils with its tranquil fragrance. That investment in a wall-mounted air freshener really paid off. I practically pranced my way over to my coffee pot. 'Looks like it just finished,' I thought, 'Right on time'. I poured some of my kona coffee into a small mug, then added some sugar followed with a splash of the creamer I just bought. Once I stirred the drink, I took a careful sip of the masterpiece I had created.

It tasted like heaven – the earthy, bold, flavorful taste of the coffee blessed my mouth with its steaming hot presence. I could suffer through a hundred wars, lose as many limbs as possible, experience loss a thousand-fold, and it would all be worth it if I were able to taste this coffee at the end of it all.

Then, the caffeine began working its magic.

My mind has a habit of jumping from subject to subject in the span of seconds. It occasionally feels as if the world is moving in slow-motion, but to the average person I am simply hyperactive. The doctors said it could potentially be a form of ADHD, but it was never severe enough to warrant any treatment or medication. Despite my hyperactive mind, the entire world catches up the moment I take a sip of coffee. My normally-shaking hands resolve themselves, staying perfectly still. I am often able to focus on any task in front of me with no issues whatsoever.

In truth, coffee is the reason I became so good at video games.

I sat down at my desk and turned my computer on. I glanced at the clock. 11:58. Two minutes until launch. I opened the game's client and looked over to my right. There it was: The Meta Navigator, or MetaNav for short. It was often said that when full-dive virtual reality came to fruition, it would exist in the form of a tube you lay in or a giant sphere you place upon your head. Little did the fiction authors know, full-dive exists as a pair of glasses you place on yourself, to allow it to temporarily send your consciousness to the cloud that is the Metaverse.

It's almost scary how far Ezekiel Clarence perfected the model. With the alabaster-white shine to the metal glasses, they could pass as a fashion product on the red carpet and nobody would be the wiser they were showing off bleeding-edge technology.

I took the glasses off of my desk and placed them upon my face. 11:59. May as well open the game now and make sure my priority pass works. With a deep sigh, I closed my eyes and spoke aloud my login information.

"User: Andromeda. Password: Requiem."

A prompt appeared on the screen of the glasses. It was as if I could reach out and touch the window myself.

"Greetings, Andromeda. Enter King's Gambit?"

I glanced at the time on my computer. 12:00. No time like the present.

"Enter King's Gambit."