Second Skin: Fractures Read online

  Second Skin

  Fractures

  BY: M Damon Baker

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  © 2018 M DAMON BAKER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Digital book(s) (epub and mobi) produced by Booknook.biz.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  T he technician had been gone for nearly an hour, but the man still could only stare at the device he had left behind—the device the man had ordered. It reminded him of one of the old-style tanning beds, at least in its outward construction, but the comparisons ended right there.

  The Virtua 2.0 IR chamber was a far more advanced piece of technology than a simple tanning bed. If the company’s media releases were to be believed, it provided a perfectly realistic environment for any number of computer-generated scenarios, and the user feedback he had researched online seemed to back up those incredible boasts. Some of it even referred to the experience as ‘hyper-realistic,’ claiming that it evoked sensations beyond what the users experienced in the real world.

  The technological advancements required to achieve this amazing feat were well outside the man’s understanding. He had stopped keeping up with the specifics of such advancements a long time ago but was aware that the bed contained a crystalline gel composite in which the user would be fully submerged. It was this full submersion that allowed sensations to be conducted directly to the user’s entire body, accounting for the enhanced levels of reality the new system provided over the previous neural interphase of the Virtua 1.0 system.

  All that was left for him to do now was to push himself to take the final step and actually enter the device.

  He had ordered the IR chamber as a last desperate attempt to salvage what remained of his shattered existence. He had always been a generally happy and active person. Even in bad times, he had been able to look beyond whatever the present circumstances might have been and find a reason to remain positive—it had only taken one drunken idiot to end all of that just over three years ago.

  Despite the increasing number of autonomous transport vehicles on the roads, there were still those who chose to drive the old manual cars. One of those old cars, driven by a man nearly three times over the blood alcohol limit, had slammed into the autonomous taxi his wife had been traveling in.

  The doctors told him it had been instantaneous—no pain. He would have begged to differ. Even then he still felt the pain of that moment, as fresh and raw as it had always been. Every. Single. Day. He had been with his wife Sarah for almost thirty years. She had meant everything to the man, and then she was gone, taken from him in an instant.

  Soon after, he’d found himself going out less, not keeping up with friends, and missing appointments. Even trips to the store for necessities became more than the man could motivate himself to do. He used to like doing yard work around their home; now the man barely went outside. When he needed something, an order was placed, and he had it delivered; a landscaper took care of the lawn the man once tended with care.

  The only person left in the man’s life was his daughter, Emma. They talked often, but she was living across the country now, newly married and trying to start a family of her own. She did her best to bring the man out of his malaise, but as much as he loved her, the hole in the man’s heart was not something anyone could fix for him.

  The man had always been in good health, but now, after the years of inactivity, his health was slowly declining. Stairs had become a challenge for him. Days passed where he would seldom do more than move from his bed to the couch, lacking the motivation for anything more. Should this continue, he had no doubt that he would lose his ability to do anything at all.

  The man had come to realize that unless something changed, the rest of his life would be both pitiful and short. While part of him did not care, there was another part of him that was disgusted with how sad and pathetic he had become. That part still wanted to live—to have a life worth living.

  He knew that if he wanted to salvage his life, he would have to find something that made him happy again, or at least gave him something to enjoy and look forward to. The man also knew that thing had to be easy or in his current state, he would never work up the motivation to even try.

  Then the man happened across an article on the Virtua 2.0 system, and he realized that it could be just the right thing for him. All he would have to do is lay there; the machinery would then take care of the rest. Once, long ago, the man had played the old MMORPGs. He had even been a bit obsessed with some of them but had not kept up with games over the years. So, after taking the plunge and ordering the system with the custom installation option, he did some quick research.

  The man discovered that the fantasy RPG games he had most enjoyed were quite similar to those he remembered, it was just that the tech had kept improving. From the first crude VR systems to the neural interphase of the original Virtua system, the level of realism had steadily continued to improve. Some of the improvements allowed for more rapid response, and the original neural interphase had even been able to generate some remarkable physical sensation and feedback, but the basics principles and mechanics remained remarkably the same. However, the new Virtua 2.0 IR system made all the prior advancements look like basic 2-D gaming in comparison.

  The new system provided a completely realistic experience. The crystalline gel was apparently the key breakthrough. Not only did it take care of all the necessary bodily functions while the user was in the system, but it also allowed the device to transmit an impulse anywhere on the body with any degree of sensation and sensitivity. If you got a cut on your leg in the game, you felt a cut on that leg. If you sat too close to a fire, you would feel the heat—it sounded incredible.

  Just skimming the online information, the man began to anticipate once again diving into an RPG. Creating a character, gaining levels, exploring, winning epic battles, and of course the loot! These were the things that had drawn him into the MMORPGs so long ago. The man only hoped that the excitement and motivation would carry over into his real life as well.

  And now that he finally had the machine, he found himself just standing in front of the immersion system, hesitant to take the final step and venture inside.

  Part of him still wanted to just walk away and wallow in his pain and loss. The pull of the man’s grief was still strong, but there was now something new… a different sensation. The man felt a new drive; a renewed motivation to reclaim his life and rejoin the world. He thought that he could even hear it in his mind. Coaxing the man, beckoning to him. If he had been asked, he would have sworn it spoke to him with Sarah’s voice.

  The man knew she would not have approved of what he’d been doing, or more precisely, not doing these last few years. Wasting away, throwing away his precious little time left on this planet. The man knew she
would have wanted him to be happy, to make the most of his life… perhaps even remarry. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  The man suddenly felt disgusted with himself. He felt weak and pathetic. He knew that he was just hiding from the world, wallowing in his sadness. It was this overwhelming feeling of revulsion that finally pushed the man to act.

  The man quickly disrobed and stepped into the immersion system before sliding into the gel. He found that it was surprisingly lacking in sensation. He could feel the gel pressing in on him, but that was all. He realized he had been expecting far too much from that first moment; after all, the device wasn’t even turned on yet!

  He placed the detachable breather in his mouth and ducked under the gel completely. The tiny breather itself was another key to the system’s success. The little mouthpiece extracted a breathable mixture of air directly from the gel, allowing the user’s body to be completely immersed without requiring any bulky apparatus.

  After closing the lid, there was a brief moment of total darkness. The man had only enough time to get slightly claustrophobic before the company logo and software introduction screen came on. The slight wait, maybe two seconds in total, was all it took to establish a neural connection. The man was impressed.

  The introduction screen was like a graphic table of contents, displaying all the virtual worlds and scenarios he could choose to visit. There were sci-fi space simulations, World War II dogfights, one that seemed to make you a celebrity hot shot or something, and so many more. The man could see the appeal in more than a few of them… perhaps he would try some of them in time, but there was only one that he wanted to look at just then.

  Second Skin—hailed as the first IMIRPG, or Infinitely Multiplayer Immersive Role-Playing Game. It supposedly provided an absolutely realistic fantasy RPG experience, an incredible promise that it had apparently delivered on.

  The man found himself truly anticipating the opportunity to spend some time in this new game. Having been absent for so long, the feeling of actually looking forward to something felt a bit strange to the man at first. Then he felt a little tickle in his mind. He thought he could almost hear words calling to him; almost, but not quite. A smile creased the man’s mouth. Thanks for the nudge, Sarah, he thought to himself.

  Focusing on the logo, the man selected Second Skin and immediately felt the sensation of floating up through the air and into the logo. The sensation was extremely odd. He had no sense of his physical self. Although the man could see all around him, he had no body. While the man had appeared to move, or at least perceived movement, he had felt nothing.

  Before he could process this, the man was presented with the game’s introduction screen. What he read there surprised him, to say the least.

  Welcome to Second Skin!!

  Before you enter, be aware that this will be unlike any ‘game’ you have played before. For all intents and purposes, this world is real. Your actions will have consequences and be remembered! The people you encounter are as real as you. You may even have difficulty distinguishing the residents from your fellow travelers.

  Because this world is so real, your avatar must be equally real. Therefore, your avatar in Second Skin will be created from your own mind and experiences. We will draw from your thoughts and any past gaming experiences to create your avatar.

  The man wasn’t sure how he felt about that last part. One of the things that he had always enjoyed about RPGs was character creation. Choosing a class, tweaking this and that—it was a large part of the draw for him. Missing out on that was a bit of a disappointment for him.

  After a second, the man decided to proceed anyway. He figured that with the promise of this game, he would be able to deal with whatever it threw at him. Besides, if he truly hated it, he could always reroll a new avatar.

  Focusing on the tab labeled Begin, he mentally pressed the button to start the game.

  Once again, the man experienced disembodied movement and found it to be only slightly less disconcerting the second time. For a split-second, there was some static and a brief period of darkness accompanied by the odd sensation of a mild electric current running through his body. But then, as quickly as it began, it was over. The man simply assumed that it was just part of the character creation process.

  1

  I emerged from the odd floating environment of the game’s introduction and found myself in a small clearing, surrounded by a forest. I felt a bit strange, but considering that I was in a virtual body inside a computer simulation, I assumed that the unusual, almost detached sensation of my avatar was normal and would wear off soon. Somehow, I instinctively knew this clearing was a ‘safe zone’ where I could get my bearings before beginning my adventures. Before setting off, I took a quick moment to look over the UI and check my inventory. I needed to know what I had to work with before I found myself in my inevitable first dangerous situation.

  The UI was actually pretty awesome. Three bars were at the top of my vision. They were red, blue, and green—typical colors I recalled for health, mana, and stamina. When I focused on them, I found they were labeled Health, Aura, and Endurance—close enough. Seeking confirmation, I focused closer on the Endurance bar.

  Endurance – Endurance measures your ability to withstand physical exertion. This is not limited to offensive and defensive maneuvers in combat but also includes strenuous activity out of combat.

  It was pretty much what I had anticipated. I didn’t have anything to measure my Endurance stat against, but it seemed a bit low—something I probably needed to keep in mind.

  On the lower left was what I would call a mini-map. It showed the local area and seemed to correspond to what was in my field of vision. Focusing on it, it enlarged to show a view of an even larger area. However, anything beyond what I could see was just black—also as expected.

  In the lower center was a combat log. It looked to only display about two lines of text. That was good; I wouldn’t have to worry about stupid notifications popping up to distract me in the middle of a fight.

  Finally, on the lower right was small flashing icon. Focusing on that, the icon enlarged and displayed a short message.

  Welcome to Second Skin! Important game messages and notifications will be delivered to you via icons like this one or through your in-game mailbox. If you have any issues, the Help Center, Wiki, and Forums are available under your Community page.

  Another icon followed this one, and I focused on it next.

  Valued User. We have detected an anomaly during your login. No details are available. Please contact the Help Center at your earliest convenience.

  Oh, shit. Was that the odd static? Some sort of glitch?

  I immediately pulled up the Community page, but all the tabs were greyed out. Even the Logout option was unavailable. Damn, that must have really been some anomaly. Since there was nothing I could do about it at the moment, I decided to just continue as planned and checked my Inventory. Worst-case scenario, I had set the session limit for eight hours. I would be auto-ejected at that point no matter what.

  Opening up the Inventory page, I found its contents to be depressingly starter-level.

  INVENTORY

  Encumbrance 11/120

  Clothing

  Wooden Bow, (50)

  Long Sword, Simple (50)

  Quiver

  Camp blade

  Belt pouch, Small

  Backpack, Small

  No armor… that was a bummer. I was not sure what the number next to my weapons meant, perhaps damage? Each of the bold items was selectable and when I focused on them, showed me their contents, except for the clothing, which just told me the specific clothes I was currently wearing. Focusing on the quiver, I learned that it contained 12 arrows. The backpack and pouch were both empty, but they had 20 and 5 inventory slots, respectively.

  An outline diagram indicated my equipped items. The sword showed up on my left hip and quiver was strapped over my right shoulder. The small camp blade was on my belt. Nice.
I guess I was ready.

  I closed the screens and took my first good look around.

  A lush forest surrounded the small clearing I had appeared in. Vibrant greens and sunlight streaming through the trees filled my vision. A soft breeze rustled the leaves and blew gently over my skin. In my ears, I could hear birds singing throughout the surrounding forest. It felt so real. No, it was more than real. I couldn’t describe it in words. The greens were just, well, greener. It was as if all the colors I had seen before were only pale imitations of their true selves. The sounds I heard seemed to come to me more clearly than ever. Everything I experienced was more... substantial?

  Clearly, the hype for this game had been warranted, maybe even understated.

  I had some actual experience with archery, so I looked down to examine the bow I held in my left hand. I was no expert, but I had owned a couple over the years and could shoot fairly well at one time. Well, at least I could hit the target, if not the bullseye.

  The bow was a very simple wooden bow. Probably not much of a draw weight and, therefore, it wouldn’t deliver much damage. It was then, while looking over my meager weapon, that I first noticed the hand that was holding it. My hand.

  It was a small hand, with long, delicate fingers. Great. I was some kind of elf or something. I didn’t usually play non-humans. I mean I had, just about everyone did at some point, but all my mains had been human.

  As my gaze drifted from my hand up my arm, the more delicate build of my body continued. Slight, yet toned muscle made up my forearm and upper arm. My skin was smooth, clear, and lightly tanned. Shit, they did make me an elf.

  My eyes wandered up my arm looking over my new body until my inspection screeched to a halt as my vision registered something I was completely unprepared for. Two somethings to be precise. Were those breasts?

  I couldn’t imagine why the game would make me female. In denial, I jerked my head forward and looked straight down my body. Staring down at myself confirmed beyond a doubt that I was indeed quite definitely female.