July 7th, 3021. In a quiet single-room studio in the capital of the World Federation, a bald man lay asleep on the bed.
The room was simply furnished, with a bed that looked somewhere between old and new, a bedside table with a phone and a lamp on it, a chair, and a desk that held a small, disk-like device. There was also a gaming pod, a small kitchenette that smelled faintly unpleasant but was otherwise clean, and a single sofa that looked like it had never been sat on. Curtains were drawn over the window, with morning light leaking through the gaps beneath the drapes.
Suddenly, the phone rang. The bald man sleepily groped for it and turned it off. He then slowly got up, yawning and stretching.
The man was dressed in a simple white t-shirt and black joggers. He looked about 26 or 27, with natural red eyes that gave him a perpetually angry look. His face lacked any hair except for a single bushy beard. No hair anywhere else—no eyebrows, no eyelashes, no mustache—just that one beard.
The man, SV, was born—or rather, hatched—like this. His upper face had no hair roots, and even his beard only started just below his lip line, creating a strange appearance.
Hatched from a pod after nine months of incubation, he had been given the name SV#479, simply for being the 479th clone in the Superhuman Cloning Project. He never really knew what 'SV' stood for. He assumed the 'S' meant 'superhuman,' but what about the 'V'? Shouldn't it have been a 'C' for clone? It was a question that occasionally bothered him.
After a series of tests lasting nearly a month, SV was deemed faulty and left to join the rest of the world.
SV didn't mind any of that. He was a simple man—or rather, a simple clone—and he appreciated whatever little he had. So what if he was faulty? He still got to enjoy the rest of his life.
He left his bed in disarray and walked to the window. He used to have a robotic maid that took care of the simple chores for him, but he had dismissed it because he didn't like having another person—robotic or otherwise—in his cramped room. From time to time, he would call a service robot to clean, and that sufficed for his simple life.
He drew the curtains, letting the view of the magnificent city fill his gaze.
Outside, silver-blue skyscrapers shot up through the clouds, and blue transmission lines flashed, outlining aerial roads where hovercars sped by. Massive screens and holographic projections displayed all sorts of ads.
Sunlight gently passed through a hole in the Dyson sphere surrounding the sun in the distance, landing softly on the Earth's surface. The temperature in the city remained a consistent 20 degrees year-round.
SV opened the window to let the fresh scent of spring fill the room. He gazed at the spectacle for a while before heading to the bathroom.
The bathroom was fairly standard, but it had an extra glass compartment. SV stepped into the compartment, clothes still on, and activated the device. Scanner lights moved up and down his body, and in a matter of seconds, they shut off again. That was all the cleaning he needed.
Still, SV always felt a little dry after the 'shower', so he washed his face at the sink. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he wondered if OMNI, the central supercomputer, had accidentally created a supervillain instead of a superhuman. Maybe that was what the 'V' stood for.
Standing at 1.91 meters, with tanned skin, red eyes glaring out, wide shoulders, and a wiry build, a nasty horizontal scar etched across his forehead, and a bald head—anyone who saw him would probably scream, "Run!" The beard only emphasized the scar, but it was his choice; without it, he felt his fierceness would be diminished.
Indeed, SV had fully embraced his appearance. He wasn't handsome, but no one would dare say otherwise.
Shaking his head, he sauntered to his chair and tapped the disk. A light lit up in the center of it, and a holographic screen floated above. SV habitually scrolled through the latest news.
There wasn't much for people to do in this world. Food was guaranteed, accommodation was provided, and a meager stipend was distributed monthly to fund people's leisure activities. Life was blissful, but it also meant people had too much free time. Some pursued their own dreams, seeking fame, wealth, or simply indulging in a decadent lifestyle of gaming.
SV belonged to the latter group. Instead of working hard for material things, he preferred to rot away inside his gaming pod for most of the day. He was a true pod potato. He would often spend days inside the pod, playing random games, only coming out for fresh air or when he wanted to sleep on the bed.
It was, by all means, paradise on earth.
—
[Actress Beatrice Delta's scandal situation is more outrageous than you think.]
'It sure is,' SV thought silently as he casually gazed at the picture. The image showed a beautiful woman with synthetic skin, shimmering with silver light—one of the latest skin models, no doubt.
SV never understood why people would simp for these unnatural beauties. How were they any different from robots? They had no pride in their natural appearance.
[3022 might be the end of the world. Here's why.]
'And so was 3021. Guess what? We're still alive and kicking.' Although he thought this, SV still clicked on the post to see what nonsense they were cooking up. It was always fun to listen to people's ridiculous theories.
[...the world's magnetic field is interfering with OMNI's processors on the moon...]
[...the conflict will cause Earth's rotation to accelerate...]
[...earthquakes will sweep the world!...]
SV read the article with relish, marveling at the author's creativity. He checked the name to see that it was indeed the same idiot from last year—David Stevens. Truly a shame he hadn't started writing books.
[The world's first supercomputer-approved VRMMORPG is finally here!]
Now, that he had to check out. He immediately clicked on the post.
[You didn't read the title wrong. The latest game from the infamous company New Dawn has been approved by OMNI!]
[The game, titled—surprise, surprise—New Dawn, is the hottest thing on the market right now. It promises riches and beauties alongside an epic adventure. But that's not what's special about it. The game features advanced NPCs with their own lives and relationships. Each NPC is unique. Players can literally carve out a new home for themselves in this world.]
'Aha, aha, but what about the supercomputer approval?' SV read the article twice—talk of difficult gameplay, high death penalties, language barriers, and whatnot. The article didn't mention the supercomputer approval again. He checked the comments to see what the netizens had to say.
└── xxXRodent123Xxx: Shill post.
───└── DatHandsomeGuy: Shit* post.
└── CluelessBeaver: Does anyone actually know if it's approved? And what does "approval" even mean?
───└── PleaseLookAtMe: Name checks out.
──────└── TheOnionAndElephant: It sure does.
───└── NoOneRemembersMicky: Same brother, same.
───└── EmotionallyDamaged: I wish I knew.
He filtered through the nonsensical comments and concluded that it was probably just another marketing gimmick.
Bored, he scrolled through some more posts, but then he noticed a notification in his account.
[All citizens above 18 are required to create an account in the VRMMORPG New Dawn within 24 hours. Failure to do so will result in termination of citizenship.]
SV blinked, thinking he misread it. He perused the notification again, realizing it wasn't his imagination. It seemed absurd to him that the supercomputer would force people to join a game.
'Create an account? Did that mean you didn't actually need to play? And what about the age requirement?' He, SV, was hatched last year—did that put him in the above-18 category?
It was a genuine question. Some rules didn't apply—or applied differently—to clones. He vaguely remembered being given an age when he was dismissed, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
SV opened the chat in the corner of the screen and typed his question to the supercomputer.
[Am I considered to be above 18?]
The reply was immediate.
[Citizen SV#479 is registered to be 25 years old this year.]
'Oh, that was good to hear.' He was still young! He closed the holographic computer and headed for his gaming pod.
Honestly, he didn't care too much about the deal with the strange decision. It just made him more curious about the game. After all, he hadn't read anything noteworthy in the post, and while he could look for other threads, he'd rather not spoil his fun.
SV was the type to only look up the answers when searching himself got boring.
He climbed into the pod and reclined comfortably in the chair as the hatch closed. He put the helmet on and fell into a deep sleep.
When he awoke, he was floating in a white space, as far as the eye could see.
"System," he called, and a blue screen opened up in front of him. He searched for the game New Dawn, and 1,731 results popped up. He filtered for the company named New Dawn, and five games appeared.
He wondered if there was another company by that name, but all five games were from the same company. SV was speechless for a moment. They named their game the same frickin' name every time? Now he had another understanding of that line in the post: "The game, titled—surprise, surprise—New Dawn."
After complaining to himself, he checked the release date and saw one that had been released last week.
'This must be it,' he thought, clicking on the game and casually agreeing to the violence warning and whatever agreements that popped up. The scene shifted rapidly, and color swirled around him as if he'd been thrown into an ink tub. Moments later, he found himself in another white space. If not for the 'QUIT GAME' option in the menu in front of him, he wouldn't have known he'd entered the game.
'Is this supposed to be the menu space? Where's my angel attendant? Heck, couldn't you at least make a simple room? What kind of lazy-ass company is this?' His expectations were sinking lower and lower.
He shook his head and clicked on 'Create a new account'.
[Talent is being generated.]
[Congratulations! You have obtained the talent "Possession Lv1".]
SV raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the name.
[Character creation complete!]
SV was nonplussed. "I haven't designed anything yet."
[Beginning transmission.]
The rapid shift left him even more confused. "At least let me view my stats."
The system seemed to ignore him and continued.
[We wish you a pleasant experience.]
"Fuck you!" he cursed as his vision rapidly darkened.
—
SV felt himself being torn apart and reconstructed. Although the sensation was jarring, there was no actual pain with it. He just felt slightly unwell.
When he came to, the first thing that greeted him was the rotten stench hitting his nose and the low guttural growls.
"Ergh," he frowned and hurriedly brought a hand to his nose lest he empty his virtual stomach then and there. He took a moment to look at his surroundings.
It was so dark that he could barely make out the scene thanks to the moonlight and the two torches hanging on the sides of a gate in the distance.
There were graves all around him, and the area was filled with walking corpses. They wore torn linen clothes; their decaying flesh gave view to some bones and ligaments. Their eyes were shining eerily with a red light, some walking stiffly in the distance, and for those around him? They were stiffly moving towards him.
'No safe landing,' the thought occurred to him before he hurriedly ran away from the horde.