NPC

This story begins in X City.

The year is 26XX. High rise buildings, flying cars and glamour were all present here. It had become the hottest place to live for anyone who's anyone. Hands had chips filled with endless zeros and it was all thanks to a company Corp X.

Corp X had humble beginnings during a time where artificial enhancements were slowly blooming. They had made several failed projects but after the introduction of their "Brain Interlinking Device" or BID Corp X had risen directly from the bottom to the top.

The BID meant that the everyday person no longer had to rely on physical devices to make calls or even physically go to work. Corp X had found that although the brain was complicated was easy to trick and used it to their full advantage.

Since people no longer needed to be in the same room or even leave the house the world had encountered a problem. Obesity and various other health problems had become a common occurrence as so had behavioral problems. Touching one another and even walking had become almost obsolete and the birth rate and fallen to dangerous levels.

Touch was impossible and physically movement wasn't necessary. Although humanity had taken amazing steps forward in technology the problems that the Brain Interlinking Device had caused was too much.

To combat this Corp X had decided to fix the mess they made and created the first bio-suit. The bio-suit worked alongside the BID to create a whole new experience for their uses. Instead of just an overlay a full three dimensional space was created and special rooms had to be added to a house in order to fully experience the new immersive experience.

The "X Room Immersive Experience" or XRIE was then advertised as a package set and the world was hungry for it.

The XRIE had fully integrated moving floors, motion capture, climate control and even touch sensitivity thanks to the Bio-suit. XRIE had also come with an MMO game that would take the world by storm.

" XRIE Life" could allow people to taste foods and flavors they had never tried before, touch swords, learn actual skills like cooking, fighting, paying taxes all while being immersed in a fantasy land.

XRIE Life wasn't just for the children either since X Corp had even added a business section where you could use in game or real life currency to buy houses and buildings that had a real effect on the stock market.

People were making money, building business, getting healthy and even able to meet their future spouses in game but not everyone was happy. In a certain dark warehouse a man was brooding.

His cold face filled with malice as he tapped away on his keyboard.

"Think you can screw me over?!" He mumbled as he typed.

Tap tap tap

Tap tap

Click click.

" XRIE WAS MADE BY ME DAMMIT, THE CHIP MINE!" he lamented angrily.

" Soon.. you will all suffer as your precious system destroys itself! How dare you take my shares and strip me of job?!" He continued to mumble as he wiped the sweat of his brow.

He smiled, the grin on his face twisted as he pulled a device from the back of a once amazing yet obsolete computer and swiped it over his hand.

Beep

[ Hacking 100% complete ]

[ Destroying Evidence ]

[ Evidence Destruction Complete ]

[ VIRUS UPLOADING ]

[ Destination.Object XRIE Life = " Demon Lord" ]

[ 50 %]

[ 60 %]

[ 85% ]

Unfortunately the ex head programmer of XRIE Life and the co-creator of the BID was about to have a very.. very bad day.

The door to the wear house was bagged down my military personal and the air was filled with tear gas.

" Dr Jim, Did you really think you could get away with this?" A ridiculing voice sounded as Dr Jim coughed relentlessly.

" You're too late Malacus" Jim said before he spat on the ground.

[95%]

" We just need to stop you… it was nice working with you Jim" Malacus said with a smile.

Bang!

BANG!

Gunshots were fired as Jim was shot right in the chest.

[99%]

" Did we get to him in time? " Malacus said as he pointed to Jim's cold body.

" Looks like we did it stopped at 99%" A programmer in military garb said with a scanner against Jim's arm.

" You will.. Never.. Win.." said Jim as his final words.

Jim smiled as he spat blood and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile in cyberspace….

[ Upload Interrupted.. ]

[ Initializing Failsafe.. ]

[ Coordinates Failure….]

[ Redirecting to nearest npc.object... ]

[Target found...]

[ Uploading …]

A certain Non playable character in one of the many starting zones of XRIE Life opened their eyes and blinked for the very first time. The simple NPC bandit watched as their body moved on it's own in a world completely unfamiliar to it.

Strings of numbers were surrounding the NPC they danced like magic each second.

"436f6d65206f6e21205765206861766520676f74207468697321204a757374206120666577206d6f72652062616e6469747320616e642077652077696c6c20686176652066696e697368656420746865207175657374" A player commented as they wiped their forehead.

To the bandit however, the player just looked like a bunch of code and the words they spoke incomprehensible.

"44494521" another player said as they swiped their sword at the bandit.

The world went black.

[ Run Language.Convert ]

The NPC had been killed in battle.

In just five minutes it would re-spawn again and watch unable to do anything as it was slaughtered once again.

This time the worlds the players spoke were understood.

[ Run Human.Overlay ]

Dead again.

Trees, plants, other NPC's and even the players could not be seen by the NPC.

The bandit sat in a dark space taking in the sounds of the disembodied voice.

It was not particularly worried that it had just been killed for the fourteenth time. Watching yourself die over and over again wouldn't be pleasant for a human, but a soulless husk It was a different story.

It wasn't capable of understanding.

Yet.

The cycle of birth and death came and went.

The NPC Absorbed knowledge like a sponge as all of it's systems were updated.

Personality, attack strategies, defense strategies, the ability to learn and grow a bigger memory, in game inventory and all of the basics were added to the NPC's system.

Death began to become truly uncomfortable.

The bandit still wasn't able to control it's own body.

It could only watch and wait.

The bandit seethed as it was killed over and over.

"I want.. I want to move" The NPC thought to itself.

The NPC unable to move watched itself be killed again.

If it could move enough to sigh it probably would.

[ Self Update Initiated ]

[ Update Complete ]

" Hello I am "Destruction Initiation Being" You can call me DIB." the virus said as the NPC stood in a T- Pose.

"DIB are you the voice I have been hearing? " The NPC said quietly.

" Correct." DIB Replied in a monotone voice.

" DIB.. I want to move." the NPC bandit thought unable to speak.

" Be patient… I have not finished." DIB said before static was heard.

[ ERROR ]

[ Reinitialize... ]

[ ERROR ]

" You are not Object.DemonLord, you are Object.Bandit." The disembodied DIB sounded slightly annoyed.

" I am Object.Bandit?" The NPC thought to itself.

Before the NPC could have an identity crisis DIB responded.

" Yes or Bandit for short, You are Level 1 Bandit in starting zone A " Little Town" " DIB replied.

" Is that a problem?" Bandit said confused.

" Yes." DIB said in a short burst.

DIB began explaining that there had been a terrible mix up and that Bandit was not supposed to be upgraded instead the Demon Lord was.

Mid way through conversing the NPC was summoned back into the game world before being promptly slaughtered again.

" This is getting annoying." DIB quickly added quite annoyed.

If Bandit's eye could twitch it probably would be right now.

[ Turn off Respawn.System ]

[ Turn of Character.Movement ]

" Much better. " DIB said.

The T-Pose that the poor bandit was in promptly softened before the NPC collapsed onto an invisible floor.

A bright light shone before a small black and red faceless fairy appeared. On its head a set of nasty black horns.

" Much better." the fairy DIB said as it floated around Bandit.

" Why didn't you do that earlier." Bandit said angrily its eye finally able to twitch.

" Didn't want to." DIB replied smugly.

" Annoying Pest." Bandit said grumpily.

" Failure!" DIB Responded.

" Failure?" Bandit said as it stood.

" Right. As I was saying. The Demon Lord was supposed to be " Awakened" by me and then destroy the world of XRIE Life. I guess we are just going to have to find the Demon Lord…" the evil fairy said as it floated around.

" We?" Bandit responded after listening.

" Yes we!" DIB said in a huff.

" Don't want to." bandit said mockingly using DIB's words against it.

" Do you want to go back to being unable to move? Trapped in your own thoughts? Plus.. we are stuck together and I can't undo the upgrades. It was a fail safe to make sure that Demon Lord got the job done." DIB said in an authoritative tone.

" Do you even know where this Demon Lord is?" Bandit said after a moment.

" No, my tracking and navigation is damaged so are a few more of my systems." DIB replied almost melancholy.

" This is a mess..." Bandit said as it looked up at the fairy sluggishly.

" It sure is." DIB said as it flew.

" Wait.. What's XRIE Life?" Bandit said after a moment.

DIB used it's tiny hands to hold its head.

" I guess i need to start from the beginning." DIB said after it sighed.