The clear rubbery lens that completely covered my vision reached from nose to temple and brow to cheekbone. They were clear and not considered rude because people could still see my eyes through them. The clear film making up the lens could be tinted so that it controlled the light that might interfere while viewing the Metaverse. These lenses bubbled out which gave anyone who was found out while wearing them the immediate nickname of bug eye. The superior performance was worth it though.
Most people had contacts or cybernetic implants when they were out of the house to augment the world around them and give limited access to the virtual side of the Metaverse.
I left the tunnel and entered the Hub. The noise of the crowd condensed and became louder. With the noise came a sense of excitement as people rushed to get to their shuttles and automated vehicles.
Immediately I saw the Jinhwa shop, a nearly human looking gentleman with polished steel receivers instead of ears, and most of his other implants hidden graciously under a pillowy suit jacket. An officer stood to the side of the shop entrance. It wasn’t just implants the Jinhwa sold. On Earth, add-ons that didn’t have to be surgically implanted were the only ones socially acceptable. The exception was MR lens implants. It distinguished us from the Jinhwa cyborgs.
Officers wore blue hydrocarbon body armor that was smooth and similar in design to my augmented outfit. Their tool belts were loaded with a number of different weapons for stunning and more lethal actions. The hub’s personnel wore dull green with a designated logo on their chest.
A bench shone like obsidian and was highlighted in a yellow light. Destiny had found our destination. I headed toward it.
I passed a group of local perverts huddled against the wall. At first glance, they dressed a lot like a biker gang met cyberpunk. Their blank expressions were the surest sign that they were using the unfiltered Metaverse. What I was seeing was the avatar visible in the filtered Metaverse. These filters protected children and really anyone not wanting to display their private life in public.
Being 18, I did technically have legal access to remove all my filters, but I didn’t on purpose. Distractions could keep me from becoming a professional gamer or from just plain not looking stupid in public.
Without having to ask, Destiny noticed what I had been looking at and took care of it. She blurred the group so that I was blind to them.
At that moment, an entourage of police escorted a blurred face giant. There was no need to ask if Destiny was responsible for blurring out the face. It was the Metaverse responding to the legal requirement to blur prisoners. It was more than just a digital covering, otherwise Destiny could have just seen it through the naked lens of one of the many cameras on my headgear. A black see-through layer of cloth was also over his head. The color made it more difficult for any camera-reliant MR to collect enough data.
“He’s Ekseliksi,” Destiny said. “Decoding.”
Standing at least eight foot tall, the man had no virtual augmentation and was wearing just an orange jumpsuit. The blur to his face started to dissipate.
It wasn’t exactly illegal to decode the blurred prisoner’s face. Most AI just weren’t capable of it without increased processing power and a lot more time. For Destiny that wasn’t necessary though. She believed it was safer for us to see the prisoner’s facial expressions to anticipate what he might be thinking. She had figured out her own method over the years to decipher such things quickly.
As his face became clear, the burnt pink of his skin and the bulging of his jaw and neck muscle became defined. Unlike the Jinhwa, which were a cyborg race, the Ekseliksi, or trans-humans, were a race drunk on bio-engineering. They hated the non-organic, which surprisingly caused more hostility between us and them than the Jinhwa who were their opposites. They believed we were like them, but little more than mutts. We didn’t enhance ourselves and desecrated ourselves with technology.
The prisoner passed by causing only a small stir in the busy crowd. Now that the distraction had passed, it was time to begin my new training.
Sitting down I looked once more at the world around me. The drones overhead were ignored by everyone but those receiving or sending packages. Everything else wasn’t real. It wasn’t organic.
Everyone really wore simple clothing similar to mine to make augmentation easier. Other than the first few years of life, when mixed reality was used sparingly to let a child develop, this technology was our life. The augmentation of the world was as real, if not more realistic, than the physical world, because it was all we knew. All I knew.
Undoing the envelope I pulled out the letter and began to read.
Lucius Edward,
It is our pleasure to inform you that you have been selected to participate in the largest behavioral experiment in human history. Codename: Freedom will gather 100,000 men and women from the western world and put them in the most realistic virtual world ever created. Your job will be to survive and thrive as your merits are tested and pushed to the very limit of what is humanly possible…
I had won. It would be difficult, but the letter I held in my hand excited me, even as it also left me feeling unsettled. This kind of victory wasn’t the same as winning a duel or competition.
One thing was clear. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity; an opportunity to prove my father wrong about VR Gaming. I could make a living doing it. With enough of a following and if I made it to the top, I could have a large impact like he did as a creator, just in a different way.
Ever since the moment I’d opened the letter, I’d been reading everything I could to learn about Freedom. There was very little information and that was no accident. Even the encyclopedia of information I received from the government to prepare myself seemed rather lacking real details.
A few things were guaranteed.
First, this would be a survival game.
There would be no advanced technology. That meant a fantasy or medieval setting.
The biggest surprise was that there would be no headsets or capsules for deep dives commonly used today for the most realistic kind of virtual reality. Instead, there was the promise of a new technology that would give the most realistic virtual experience ever.
The recommendations to be in the best possible physical shape meant the new technology would not solely use traditional neuro-link to the brain that connected your mind to the virtual world. Beyond that, I had no clue.
Most importantly, everything I did would be streamed real time every moment I was in the experiment. With over 37 billion people on earth and 80% of them heavily into games, especially ones as hyped up as this, there was limitless potential. Even an unknown like myself already had gear deals and commercials lined up if I finished the experiment a year from now. They were offers based on my performance, but that was to be expected. My dream was within my grasp.
Without permission, Destiny appeared beside me, manifested where only I could see. I was going to miss her the most.
Turning away from her, I stared down at the floor.
“Lucius. Remember why you are doing this. This is your chance.”
“I know.” I forced myself to take a deep breath.
Swallowing, I turned to face her.
I noticed her eyes first. In times like these, they were always wide and steady.
“I will be watching everything you do. Even if we can’t interact while you are in Freedom, I have access to your eyes and thoughts just like normal. Your job is to remember and act. When you come back a professional gamer we will have much to do.”
She knew I would miss her and didn’t have any way of showing it. Or at least, so I thought.
Leaning forward in her seat, she kissed me gently on the forehead. I had been a child last time she had done that.