Tether

As time slowly passed, Jack opened the one thing that could make a human waste their entire lives without even noticing, social media. There was this particularly famous application where people would record themselves using still images, audio, video, or just straight-up holographs; doing dumb sh*t, smart sh*t, or just sh*t sh*t. It was a load of fun to scroll through.

After a few hours of not sleeping, something occurred.

Everything began to vibrate slightly. Not just the ground, but the water, the air, and even the space outside the planets. This did not occur only on a planet, a star system, a star cluster, or even a galaxy. It was not even limited to the countless galaxies occupied by the United Human Council. No, it occurred throughout the entire known and unknown universe.

*CRACK*

A loud crack similar to a thick wall of concrete being cracked under immense crushing force was heard directly by the minds of every single sentient being before a voice was transmitted to every being.

[Greetings little insects. Ah, it has been quite some time since I have done this so I might be a little rusty. As I see it, your universe has reached the point in time where with time, technology will advance to the point that all civilisations present within will just kill themselves until nothing is remaining. Well, I cannot let something like that happen, considering you are under my jurisdiction. Therefore, I propose a solution. I shall release a Virtual World for you; called Tether, where you all can fight to your heart's content within. Everyone with the technology to access it will be able to in 15 hours. And it seems you guys have already built devices to connect to Virtual worlds, so just use them, I'm not bothered to prove you with methods to build them. Also, I will not stop you from continuing to fight with each other but remember this. Those who point weapons of mass destruction at civilian populations will be killed by me personally. Just as an example, what is his name; Ah right! Council member George of the Whitehall Family who ordered the destruction of a peaceful planet occupied by members of the draconian race shall no longer be alive. And so shall all his wealth vanish this very instant. Hmm, but there are such people in the other civilisations as well, and since I have done it to one, might as well level out the playing field. XYZ of the Dwarven civilisation, and ABC of the Elven Matriarchy, shall also have their lives ended, and assets destroyed. A penalty shall be levied on all the various groups they were part of; where all the leaders will have a -10% EXP debuff permanently. And you, hiding in the corner of the universe, don't think I don't see you. However, your reluctance to appear in the grander conflict among the races makes me feel rather satisfied with your race. Plus, you have not committed any large-scale civilian massacres yet, so you are exempted from the punishment. With this, I think I am done.]

[Oh wait! My bad. You guys will be given a sh*t tonne- wait. Why am I censored?] the power in the voice grew significantly as he repeated his statement.

[You guys will be given a shit tonne of resources and technologies if you perform well in the virtual world, just to make it attractive for you shit-faces. After all, I'm sure if I don't do this, very few people will be bothered enough to battle here since no one would really die in the real world. Also, there are a few surprises which my superiors always put in worlds they create and send out for us to manage, things which even I don't know. So I look forwards to an entertaining experience. Goodbye, live long, and don't commit mass genocide. Remember, I am always watching.]

With that, the voice vanished, leaving an incredibly perplexed universe in its wake.

…

Within the virtual council meeting room.

"What kind of f*cking nonsense is th-" however, before the person yelling out in confusion and rage could complete his words, a report reached all the council members of the United Human Council simultaneously, after which silence reigned supreme.

[Councilman George Whitehall has passed on peacefully while sleeping. However, all the personal wealth he had stored everywhere including the Shadow Inc. bank has vanished completely.]

Similar scenes occurred in the Dwarf king's throne room as one of his generals died and all his wealth vanished without a trace. Not just that, all the books and other stores of knowledge that he had created and not shared with others, all of it vanished.

In the Matriarchy of the Elven race, one of their elders had died peacefully in her sleep, and all her wealth had vanished. Along with that, all the resources she had hoarded had also vanished. While in the grand hall of the ruler of the draconian, there was a frown on the draconian dictator's face as all the wealth and energy stones of the left minister, who was in charge of internal affairs vanished along with his death.

These deaths and mysterious disappearances of wealth and other important resources caused the various ruling parties of the civilisations to immediately take the words of the voice much more seriously. The large machinery known as the United Human Council also began to call on emergency meetings on all levels to quickly understand the current situation and come up with the best course of action.

…

However, this did not affect Jack, as he happily went to sleep, having accomplished his goes for the day. It would take a few hours for the rent contract to be fully confirmed by the government, and a few more for the VR capsule to be delivered and installed. He had already given them the pin to enter his new home and told them to do everything and leave.

Since it was such a trustworthy company, Jack had no issues with it, plus, he would change the pin required to enter his apartment later on, so there was really no need to worry.

[United Human Calendar Year 4702, 4th of December]

The next morning, Jack went to his school like normal, and at the end of the day, he dropped off his sister and Max's sister before reaching the area located under the bridge once more.

"Guys, I need one of you to cover for me. I will not be staying at home for a few days. I will surely be coming to school still, but for a few days, I need one of you to act like I'm staying over at your place for a group project." He said.

"Why?"

"It is related to the reason I borrowed money from your guys. Which I did return by the ways" Jack continued.

"Well, even if I say so, your parents would likely call my parents to confirm that you are indeed living with me," Max said after a while of hesitation.

"True" Jack nodded before looking over at Ava.

"Fine. But you owe me one." She said.

"Ha! Perfect. My parents don't even know who your parents are, or even where you live. It'll be perfect. Just come over to my house right now, and we can say that I need to stay over at your house for a few days. Alright! I don't have much time to waste. Let's get going immediately!"

…

"And that is what it is," said Jack as he explained everything to his parents, before dragon Ava along and left his home, with 4 sets of clothing as well as his phone, the spare keyboard and mouse, as well as a pillow and blanket, giving the excuse that he wanted to sleep comfortably at night. While the real reason was that the new apartment came with the most basic climate control, a working bathroom as well as an electric stove, without a bed. In the rare case he decided to sleep outside of the game, he would require something that slightly resembled a bed in order to do so, and that was why he took everything.

After running in a random direction for a while, Jack finally stopped running and thanked Ava immensely for everything she had done so far, and assured her that he would repay her the favour someday, before running off in a new direction, leaving behind a confused Ava.

For some reason, Ava felt like Jack was giving his last goodbyes to everyone, as though he were a soldier preparing to go out for war, knowing full well that this battle would not be an easy one, and he likely would lose his life, and for some reason, Ava did not feel good about this.

'What is wrong with him? What is wrong with me?' She thought as she shook her head and decided to head back home.

…

After about 10 minutes of running, Jack finally arrived at his new apartment, and after changing the pin code, he walked in.

Inside, was an extremely plain room with grey-white coloured walls and the same colour tiles on the floor. In the one-bedroom apartment with the only other room being his bathroom, was an enormous machine which looked like a human-sized rice cooker at first glance. However, as soon as he walked up to it and turned it on, it asked for his DNA, a password, as well as a mental mapping which would be conducted after he sat inside along with the calibration.

…

[Calibration complete]

[Mental mapping complete]

[Mental mapping added to security scan before start-up sequence to prevent unauthorised personnel from accessing your VR capsule]

[All people other than yourself are 'unauthorised personnel']

[Would you like to create a VR avatar to be used in the menu?] <Yes/No>

'Yes'

[Please make any adjustments or modifications to your original body, or if you wish to start from scratch, please click here]

'No. Keep it exactly the same as myself. Just completely blur my entire head, as well as any identifying features of myself.'

Although this was just the Virtual avatar which would allow him to better use the menu system provided by VR gaming, Jack did not wish to take any risks and therefore ensured that his identity was a secret even here.

[Congratulations on completing your registration. Which game would you like to connect to? Or would you like to connect to the network?]

'Give me access to your command mode, I need to make a few changes'

Immediately, just like back on his phone, a black screen appeared. Only this time, he could input things just by thinking about it, allowing him to quickly input all the codes which he could possibly remember from his experience in the military.

For his phone, he needed to recall it exactly, and then use it with a few changes, therefore he could only use one program. This time, all he needed to do was to recall the rough coding of the program, and the VR capsule filled in the gaps by accessing his mind.

After a while, when Jack was fully satisfied, he closed the command panel and restarted the program.

[Which game would you like to connect to? Or would you like to connect to the network?]

'Connect me to Tether' Jack said calmly, however, his words caused a slight fluctuation in the electricity of the virtual room he was in, seemingly a glitch in the system. However, Jack knew exactly what it was. This was the 'system' that 'they' brought to this world's virtual world, which would take over any local system or network where Tether was mentioned, and after confirming that no one wished to enter the game, it would leave. However, if the person wanted to enter the game, they would permanently take over the system of the device or server and allow players to connect with the virtual world known as 'Tether'.

It was basically the same as a game company hiring all the hackers in the world to monitor every single network-connected system for the word 'Tether' and if they fit the condition of wanting to enter it, they would immediately download the access codes for the game into the network or relevant device.

[Connection with Tether has been established]

[Location, Name, and other details have been hidden]

[Information has been extracted since it is necessary for the working of the Virtual World. However, this information will be kept under the Rank B security system. No one from your universe will be able to access it.]

'Thank you' Jack said, despite knowing that at this moment, it was already the Tether system speaking to him, and not a real person.

[Please select a unique name]

'Shadow'

[Name has already been taken]

'Erebus'

[Name is available. Do you wish to choose it as your name?]

'Yes'

[Name 'Erebus' has been selected]

[Please select a nation you wish to be sent to:]

[1. Leon (Medium-sized kingdom)]

[2. Roland (Medium-sized kingdom)]

[3. Cretes (Medium sized kingdom)]

[Please note: Humans are restricted to spawning within kingdoms belonging to human NPCs. Larger and smaller kingdoms exist, but are not available now.]

'Shit!' Jack thought to himself as he recalled that he had joined the game years after its release, and by then, the large size kingdoms had just been released. But right now, he would be restricted to the medium-sized kingdoms, one of which he had minimal knowledge.

'Is it possible for me to travel to the large-sized kingdoms?' He asked Tether's system.

[Yes. The entire world is an open-world experience. However, there will be zones along the way which require a certain level in order to even survive passing through.]

'Alright, then I chose the Leon kingdom.'

This was the closest kingdom to Jerome, the large-sized kingdom where Jack had spent most of his beginner days and also coincidentally came across that stone which was the cause of all the issues thus far.

[Location 'Leon kingdom' has been selected]