NAG (Another VR Story)

I guess I lied. I did write a second VR based story. Sort of.  I wrote this one I think before I started publishing on Royal Road. It never felt right while writing it, and looking at the details now, some of the things that annoy me about some of the tropes (high levels of pain, paralyzed hero) show up here.

This is one of those mini written bits that will never be finished, so figured I'd toss it out here. Realise that it just abriptly ends, so if you hate that, don't read it!

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The orc was big, green, ugly and just about 30 feet away behind the oak, obviously doing the same thing we were – looking for enemies. One glance and I knew he’d be too much for our party, too raw and new. I began to inch back as he pivoted his head away and that’s when the big lug decided to crash through the foliage, screaming his war cry.

I swear, every player in the world who chooses to be a Barbarian seems to think he has to be Conan, all bareshirt and screaming at his enemies. This is the third time he’s given us away today, except this time, it’s not a pair of goblins or an annoyed wilderling boar. It’s an Orc whose status bar is glowing red and who is looking more pleased than I care.

I knock and draw, shifting left and that’s when I mess up. I should have remembered our Warrior likes to follow through on that side and I can hear him grunting out behind me as he slams to a stop, successful managing not to run into me. I barely pay attention though, focusing on my own shot. Shooting in the game isn’t at all like in real-life, but it’s close enough that I still need to pay full attention especially as I’m moving.

The lug; what was his name – Thunk or something like that?; swings his axe in a powerful double-handed overhand blow at the Orc. Unfortunately, he swings too early and it plows straight down, missing the Orc by inches. All that stops Thunk from losing his arm entirely is an instinctive flinch though the strike still leaves a nasty looking wound. As the Orc moves in for the kill my arrow slams into his upper arm, just above his shield and just below the Orc’s minimal shoulder pauldron. I blink away the sudden flicker of blue light in my peripheral vision, dismissing the system message for another time as I draw my bow. Got to fix that if we survive this.

As the warrior slides to a stop next to the Orc, he hefts his own shield while the Barbarian takes a step back, his arm already beginning to stich back together as the Priest’s healing spells being their work. We might just survive this.

***

One dead, both Priests drained of their healing spells and myself and Thunk about half-alive. I sheathe my sword on the second try, heading back to pick up my bow. It’s bad when the hunter has to get to the front-lines.

“Crom’s balls, that was a good fight.” The idiot is grinning and I briefly consider putting an arrow through the back of his skull. It would almost be worth it…

“Shut up Thurgon;” Martin our self-appointed leader spits out. “You just got Alric killed and if you hadn’t blocked him, he’d be bitching at you not me. Now, give me a hand while we see what kind of loot he dropped.”

I step back, letting them get to it while I watch and listen for new threats. Our other Priest is quiet, sitting with her back to the tree but considering she nearly got spitted, she might be reconsidering playing in NAG. A hyper-realistic fantasy RPG sounds great and with NAG the first to come to market using the new Neuronet gear, everything gets processed as if you are really here. It’s an amazing level of detail, from the smell in the air to the leaves rustling as the wind blows by or the feel of leather on your skin. Of course, right now she’s experiencing the smell of freshly spilled blood, remembering the gurgle Alric made when he died or the feel of the blade slicing into arm…

Obviously, NAG’s not going to be for everyone. Me? I’m loving it. Then again, I’m not your typical gamer looking for a thrill…

“Thurgon, you get the armour and his sword. We’ll split the rest of the money 3 ways,” Martin speaks, over-riding my idle thoughts. “Lee, think you can guide us back quietly?”

I just nod, flicking up my over-head map. Thank god they kept some gaming conventions.

***

“Well, that could have gone better; but it was fun.” Malcolm shifts from side to side before sticking his hand out. “Thanks for sticking it out with me.”

“No problem. At least we got a nice payout.” I grin slightly, brushing my hands against the purse. Sandy decided not to finish, instead giving us her share and just logging out mid-trip back, leaving her body in the middle of the forest. The lunk split from us the moment we got back, not even bothering to say goodbye. I could cry.

“I got to go soon, but do you mind if we…?” I see him twitch his left hand upwards in an aborted movement and I nod my head, turning my wrist over and raising my arm. He touches our armbands together briefly and the system flashes a quick message “Malcolm Truelight” is added as my first ‘friend’ in NAG.

Logging out is easy in-town, no danger here so I leave him to fade out from the world as I head to the Inn. I’ve been ‘in-game’ for nearly 14 hours and I should get some real rest, but the meal I had here in the morning was pretty damn good and while it isn’t real food, my mind thinks it is and it’s so much better than the gunk they’ve got flowing down my throat to keep me alive.

The accident left me almost completely paralyzed. The good news is that my payout from insurance and the negligence claim has me in the best extended care facility possible. It also left me enough money to put a direct Neurolink. It’s been a life-saver since about the only thing that wasn’t really damaged was my mind. Well, mostly.

You can understand why then that I’d be interested in a gaming experience that promised to be realer than life. I get to do things like eat, drink, walk and smell again. In the game, I’m alive once more. 

Sitting down to eat, I pull up my notification screen. It doesn’t take me long to find what I’m looking for, the notification that cropped up whilst fighting the Orc. It’s shaded blue and it takes me only a moment to read it. “New Skill Created – Focused Shot”. A flick at the screen and the details come up – 20% increase in accuracy, 20% increase in damage, minimum charge time of 4 seconds with a cooldown of 30 seconds. 

I lean backwards, closing the screen and begin to drum my fingers on the table. NAG uses the basic system of most RPGs, influenced by good old Dungeons & Dragons. Each player’s avatar gets a set of stats – Strength, Agility, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom and Luck. These basic stats then influence secondary statistics like Life and Mana. To allow cusotmisation, each player receives a fixed set of points to distribute across their base stats or to buy other special advantages like race, the ability to use magic, your starting professions and skills from your profession or basic skills that were available to everyone. Anyone who ever played an online RPG would have found the avatar creation system very familiar.

What NAG differed from others is that they left the skill system open-ended. You progress and improve your skills by actual usage. Sure, certain skills could be purchased like Silent Move, but if you didn’t actively try to sneak around, the skill would never improve and the in-game effect would be reduced. In addition, as each player’s avatar was directly linked, skills that you had in real life translated over quite well. It’s what made being a Hunter and having a bow a perfect choice for me. I never won any awards in the meat world, but I had put in my 10,000 hours and that gave me a distinct advantage when I tried to shoot. Same as the Warrior’s real-life skill in Kendo translated over into handling his sword better than the Lug – not that it had helped him much in the end.

The other side of this, and what I probably missed in the fine print, is that you could create new skills, skills that were based off existing one’s. Just like you could, I guess, create a running skill by running a lot; you could improve a bow skill and evolve a new one like Focused Shot. That meant that it might be possible to create even more skills through focused testing if you tested and trained enough. This made time in-game even more important than I thought. I have to smile at that thought, finally digging into my meal with gusto. It’s not as if I had planned on logging out anytime soon.

***

“20 silver? That’s a bit steep.” I grimace, hefting the new bow at the bowyer’s shop. I had to stop in to get more arrows and noticed the bow – a simple recurve piece that seems modelled after the Turkish form. Not that I ever paid that much attention and the in-game description when I view it is mostly your usual in-game fluff. However, its base damage range is a couple of points higher than mine, probably due to the higher draw. It balances nightly and fits quite well but between that and my arrows, I’d be broke again. A brief memory of the Orc shrugging off my arrows makes up my mind. More damage means less chance of death. Now, just to haggle…

Trotting out of the bowyers with my bow, I have to smile at the new skill notification. Haggling as a skill, man, my wife… My mind comes to a stuttering stop for a moment and I draw a deep breath, forcing it out along with the thoughts. I have a new bow, 3 silver left and a need for food and water and maybe some new armour. I’m in-game and ready to take on my second day. This time though, I’m going to skip joining up with other newbies and see what I can do by myself.

Four hours later, sitting on a boulder in a quiet clearing with the sun streaming down on me, I have to smile as I unwrap my lunch. At least for now, playing by myself seems a better choice than working with others. Between idiocy and the newness of the immersive game system, the chances of a bad grouping seem very high. For now, stalking and killing the goblins, kobolds and other fantastical beasts they’ve thrown into the forests around the Village is allowing me to level up and acquire loot faster than with the party I was working with before. 

I idly throw up my status screen, perusing my stats. I’d levelled up 6 times yesterday and already, I’m nearly at level 10. Of course, I already spent all the additional points I received yesterday on my stats, adding a little more to my physical statistics and dumping a little bit into Luck. Maybe it’s because I had no real luck in real life, but it seems a good idea to put some into my avatar. However, my latest level -up’s have left me with a bank of additional points to use. It’s tempting to use them now for the boost, but till I get a better idea of what I’d like to specialise in, it’s best to leave them alone. Instead I pulll out my skill screen to review the skills I’ve been levelling up today – Archery level 13, Focused shot level 3, Silent Move 16 and a minor increase in my sword skills to 4. I have to smile, between the added damage from the new bow and the increases in my skills, I’m one-shotting goblins now on a good turn. It probably means I can start moving towards the harder areas. Then again… I shiver, remembering our last encounter with the Orc. I only get one life in this game without having to restart so perhaps I should farm a little more. 

Lunch is over, time to get back to farming. There’s goblins and boars and more to kill, skills to level up and money to make. 

**

Ping.

I frown, staring at the orange coded system message. Orange…? I stare at it for a moment before I open it and then sigh. A message from the real world. I’m just finishing looting my latest kills, a pair of Orcs, but I really don’t want to read it. I stare at the orange message longer, daring it to go away before I sigh. If I don’t reply, they’ll probably just get more insistent. I’m safe enough here to log-out without a problem, without any critters about so I might as well get this over with.

The transition to the real world is a shuddering nightmare. The game world fades out slowly and for a few moments, I just float in nothingness before the Net starts adding back sensations for the real world. The first thing I notice is that my jaw hurts, the second the persistent metallic taste in my mouth. The world fades back in, and with it, the prison that is my body. I blink my eyes open, frowning at the goggles which cover them before they are pulled apart, wondering why they bothered. 

“What…” I cough, realising my throat is dry. The cup appears and I drink, forcing myself to remember to sip slowly. My lips feel a bit cracked and I make a note to mention it to them, before I try again. “What is it?”

“You’ve been in-game for a week Mr. Lee,” Doctor Rickards is a thin, tall and disapproving man. He hates my addiction to the games, probably from his Puritan upbringing. I’m sure he thinks I should be doing something more productive as he’s always telling me about how Ms. Kissane who continues her legal career, submitting briefs and finishing up contracts or whatever it is that she does even now. “We do need your presence for some of our checks.”

I can feel myself beginning to snarl and then shut it with a snap. Fuck it. Objecting won’t make him change his mind and push comes to shove, he is technically doing this for my own good. I’m a grown-up and the faster this is done, the faster I can get back. 

***

A week in and I’m taking down pairs of Orcs by myself. I’ve even completed a couple of in-game quests, mostly centered around the usual kill and collect quest types. Thankfully, the designers have opted to keep things interesting and have varied the quests available including my favourite, the mapping quests. Unfortunately, by this time I’ve pretty much completed every single quest available in the starting village including a few out-of-profession quests. It’s been useful for expanding my skill list and adding a variety of new tricks to my arsenal, but I’m falling behind the vanguard of the game. In-game chat indicates that if I want to really grow, it’s time to travel. That’s what has me standing here, next to a merchant and his wares on my final quest. All I have to do is keep him from getting killed on the way to Mistvale, the provincial capital and the next stop for all growing avatars.

“You part of this party too?” the speaker is female. Very female, as her rather skimpy and revealing set of robes flaunts. Then again, after a week in-game, the skimpy clothing on every female caster kind of wears thin. It’s kind of amusing really, even though they warn you that wide deviations in your avatar’s body from your meat body will cause great initial and some on-going difficulty with integration, almost everybody chooses to be tall and beautiful. The speaker’s no different, being another drop-dead gorgeous red-head. Redhead in the way only a good dye job or a color picker in a game could make it, the speaker strides up to me and extends her hand. “Sabine Moondragon.”

“Lee.” I shake her hand, giving her a quick once-over. It doesn’t look like she’s upgraded her equipment much, the staff she holds is probably the most expensive piece of equipment she has and it’s only a couple of levels above that of a noob. On the other hand, she moves like she’s grown comfortable with her avatar, which speaks to at least a decent amount of in-game time. “Moondragon?”

She twitches, and actually blushes before she laughs, throwing her hands up. “Well, I thought it was, you know, appropriate.”

I warm to her, at her ability to laugh at her name. “Well, it passed the filter.” Thank god for small mercies, the name filtering system blocks juvenile naming attempts and their derivatives, allowing most of us to get by without having to call our companions names like xxxC0cksuckerxxx or DeathtoNoobs193. “Mage I take it. Specialisation?”

“Light and Illusions,” she doesn’t bother asking mine. It’s rather obvious, though I can see her eyes linger on my bow and other equipment. “You been at this a while?”

“You could say that,” I smile slightly, letting the unasked question slide by unanswered. I’ve upgraded my equipment as much as possible, throwing whatever additional funds I could spare at it. It helps keep me up to speed, as I’m still banking a portion of my upgrade points for future use, leaving me behind the curve from other players in that sense. “We it?”

She shakes her head, her hands coming up to make the all too common motion of bringing up a status screen. You can call and dismiss everything by thought, but few players bother to learn how to do so, being more used to physical commands. “The quest log says we’ve got at least 2 others with us.”

“That’d be me. I’m Uther,” the newcomer smiles and extends his hand to both of us. He’s a tall blond fellow at 6’ 3” feet, dwarfing my own 5’7” and it looks like he’s been at this for a while too as he’s wearing full chainmail with a conical helm, a very solid looking mace and kite shield. “I’m a Priest.”

“Odette.” The voice catches us all by surprise and we twist, staring up to the top of the wagon where the speaker stands in full view. Surprisingly, she seems small from this angle, really small. Maybe only a few inches over 5 feet and clad in appropriate clothing too. When she’s sure we’re watching she leans forward, front-flipping off the wagon with a flourish. “Rogue.”

“I guess that’s it. You all know this is a long-term quest right? Minimum 2 hours up to 4?” Uther stares at everyone as he speaks, getting confirming nods from us all. It’d be a bad thing to lose someone in the middle of a quest like this. “Alright, let’s get on with it then.”

** 

Travelling over a long-distance is strange in-game. You can’t make your players travel for days – most have real-lives to get back to. On the other hand, if you’ve promoted a hypher-real world with real world distances between your cities, you have to extend the travel time somehow. NAG’s option was to construct magical roadways between cities, with travel on the roadways ‘magically’ sped-up. It allowed them to explain away trips that should have taken days or weeks to be completed in-game, while creating situations where it made sense for parties like us to work together as bodyguards. After all, if everyone is going to be using the roadways, then it makes sense for all the monsters to stake them out too.

“They could have made the travelling out of cut-scenes. Or portals. Portals would be great,” Siobhan grouses, shifting uncomfortably on her horse. 

“I take it you didn’t put any points into a ride skill?” smirking, Uther pulls up alongside smoothly on his horse. He’s obviously got some skill as he moves easily. Much more easily than any of the others. “You should have planned for this, we’ll be doing a lot more riding if you stay in-game. All of you should.”

The last is obviously aimed at me, seated as I am on the wagon riding shotgun. “Yeah, I should have remembered I’d need a horse.” 

“Well, at least you spent it on good equipment,” Uther sounds mollified by my apology, glancing back to stare at me again. “That’s the Enhanced Composite Bow isn’t it? And padded leather. And those boots don’t look normal either.”

“Yeah about right. The boots are a drop.” I marvel at his knowledge. I could tell that he’s upgraded his weapons but ask me to name them and I’d be lost. “You spend a lot of time reading the boards?”

He nods firmly at that, “Of course, it’s the only way to catch up. Did you know that there’s a party in the Narrows already?” He sounds impressed till he sees the blank looks on our faces. “It’s the provincial capital. That’s like 2 quest areas ahead of us.”

“Wow...” Siobhan’s whispers that hushed, probably calculating how much time and how much more powerful they have to be. Odette stays silent, as she’s been through most of the trip. The only time she’s spoken since her introduction was to call out a warning at our first encounter, a Bugbear that had been blocking the road. That hadn’t taken us long, with Uther drawing the Bugbear’s ire allowing the rest of us to finish it off. We’d only stopped long enough for Siobhan to gather some alchemical materials before moving on.

“So, Uther – how many more encounters can we expect?” I change the subject, not particularly interested in what others are doing. With the way the world is laid out, we’re all running on somewhat parallel questing tracks with starter villages joining together at various regional towns which then allow us to progress to provincial and finally capital towns. The system is set-up to keep each village sufficiently stocked with new players but not over-flowing, allowing players like Uther to draw parallels between quests experienced by other gamers. 

“The journey quest has one to three random encounters on average. Chance of death is considered medium to low, so long as there’s a full party with party experience and familiarity being the major determinants. Encounters are all on the road itself and the party should be arrayed at the front of the wagon train,” Uther is looking to the right, reading from his screen which he’s been consulting quite a bit while travelling. My guess is, he’s got a browser video open to the boards and is boning up on his in-game knowledge.

“Thanks.” While I’m not interested in reading the boards myself, there’s nothing wrong with using his knowledge. I just prefer paying attention to the world around us – which is probably why I spot the next encounter first. I flick my hand out to indicate the driver to slow down while I speak. “Careful, tree down.”

We approach slowly, the fallen tree crossing the track. It’s an obvious trap, which is why I’m not surprised to see Odette has disappeared off her horse into the undergrowth and Siobhan already having cast a duplication spell on herself, creating a pair of mirages to hide her true location. My bows drawn and cocked as I scan the sides of the path, waiting for the trap to shut. We don’t have to wait long as the bandits rise from the trees, sending arrows arcing towards us. I snap a shot off, sacrificing accuracy for speed. Outside of Siobhan, I’m the only other ranged fighter and her spells take a moment to cast.

The first flight of arrows arc around, hammering into and around us. I spot an arrow bouncing off Uther’s raised shield as he spurs his horse into a charge, another cuts into and through one of Siobhan illusion and I feel the slice of an arrow that cuts against my abdomen, turned away from doing real damage by armour. It still hurts, but I ignore the pain and focus on returning fire as fast as I can, working my way in from the furthest away. Even as I launch my second arrow, arcane energies flash forwards as gathered light blinds our opponents. The flash spell buys Uther enough time to cross the ground, barrelling his horse into a stunned bandit and smashing his mace into a second. Out of the corner of my eye, I see another body crumple as Odette slits his throat from behind.

The rest of the encounter is mop-up. With a third of their numbers brought low in a single quick engagement, the bandits don’t take long before they break and run. (? Make this harder? )

The rest of the trip goes fast and without further incident. At the city, I marvel at it’s size. Compared to our modern cities, it’s nothing more than a small town at best, a series of criss-crossing and curving streets encompassed by a simple wooden palisade. After spending so long in a one road village, the contrast in size is more than sufficient to make me smile, the thoughts of new streets, new shops and new non-player characters to meet buoying my spirits. It’s strange, meeting other avatars is stressful. Meeting NPCs who walk, talk and act like real humans is delightful.

We pull alongside the entrance to the Inn, registering the completion of our quest together. More than one of us makes a level from the delighted smiles on my companions faces. As we stand around, it’s surprisingly Odette who offers up her arm first. These other 3 make a total of 6. 

“We should party up, maybe do a few more quests before we call it a night.” Uther’s almost bouncing on his feet, looking at the board. “I know just the one’s we can do. We’re a decent party and I’m sure we could hit at least one more level. We got here pretty fast after all…”

Odette stays silent but doesn’t object while Siobhan’s already nodding affirmative. I hesitate, but this group at least handled itself well and my self-imposed exile has to end at some point. It’s only for the rest of the day anyway. “Alright…”

“That’s great man. Here, find the quest called Peter’s Particular Problem…”

***

“So Mr. Lee, how is your game?” Dr. Rickards has me propped up for my weekly check-in. I suffer through it, knowing that the faster we get done, the faster I can get back in. My time out has been particularly long this time since I had to speak with my lawyer about some minor details about the trust. It’s frustrating, to lose precious time to grinding details of things that I can’t affect, of things that in the end, matter little. 

“It’s going good. Strange, but good…” I smile slightly and at his head cock at my choice of words, I explain further. “NAGs initial architecture was all human built of course, but much of it’s on-going processes, the in-game play is managed using an adaptive algorithm…”

“Okay, it’s like your diagnostic machine over there. When you first got it, it was a blank machine filled with all the knowledge there is but not very smart. You could ask it a question and it could give an answer if the question was specific enough. However, you’ve been using it for years now, feeding it data about your patients, the kind of people you deal with and picking the correct each time. It learns from those answers, getting better and better. For the last year you’ve been plugging all the information about me into it, so much so that, if you asked it to diagnose a new condition for me, it’d probably be as accurate; if not more, than you are.” 

Dr. Rickards frowns, glancing at the machine that I’m hooked up to 24/7 before he slowly nods. “I see. And your game is like that?”
 “Pretty much. Of course, the right answer for the game is the answer that gives us the most amount of fun for the time we are in, but it’s certainly been changing and adapting the quests. It’s only been 2 months but I’ve heard that some of the recent changes have been catching even the developers by surprise.” I chuckle slightly at that before glancing to the cup. “So, ummm, are we done yet?”

Dr. Rickards sighs, glancing down at my chart once more before he nods. “Yes, go right ahead.”

***

When I log back in, the transition is faster. It seems almost as if the game knows I belong here and when I’m back in my body fully, I swing my feet down from the straw bed and stretch. Thank god they’d decided to leave out small details like bedbugs, I think even for me, that’d be too realistic. 

Out of habit I call up my status screen, staring at the accumulated points and skills. The past two months have been good to me in that regard. I’m now at level 47 with a ton of banked status points and numerous skills. My equipment is top-notch, in fact, it’s close to the best money can buy and some of the better loot drops out there. 

One of the more surprising facts upon arrival at the Narrows is how wide the world really is. There’s was a linear progression to the next city, but instead a series of horizontal quests tracks, numerous cities to travel to and explore including my favourite, the Dwarves hold in Mount Kaz. A number of the vanguard lost their lives there when they found out how realistic and dangerous the underground was without a light source. I would have been in trouble myself if I hadn’t by then learnt to use some basic Fire Magic. It’s amazing what the ability to start and set fire to things like unloving boulders can do for your longevity underground, especially when the game isn’t programmed to murder you from Carbon Monoxide poisoning.

I’m still taking my time, exploring every nook and cranny and expanding my skills. My friend’s list has grown once again to 19, though many of the original group has disappeared off the list. A disappearance indicates a death, the character that you had linked with ‘dead’.