End Online: Volume 1

Copyright

This
novel is entirely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to characters, names,
locations or incidents are purely coincidental.

Copyright
© D.
Wolfin
2014

First
Edition

Ebook
Edition © 2014 ISBN:
978-0-9942421-0-5

By
making the purchase of this book you have been granted non-exclusive,
non-transferable,
right
to access and read the text of
this
ebook
on-screen. No part of this text may be
reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled reverse engineered, or stored
in or introduced in any way without the explicit permission of the author.

Table Of
Contents

Chapter 1 –
End Online
. 6

Chapter 2 –
The Irritation of Aggravation
. 34

Chapter 3 –
Money Made and Everything Lost
. 67

Chapter 4 –
Determination
. 85

Chapter 5 –
Companion of Loyalty
. 107

Chapter 6 –
Welcome to Goblin Central
141

Information
About Inside the Game
. 169

It was 5 years ago,
Autumn
2021 that it
was released. The virtual reality headset simply called the V-Link, nicknamed
VL for short, created a massive storm around the entire world with its endless
possibilities of allowing people to enter virtual space using an avatar
that you control as your own body. A simple black helmet with a visor
on its face tinted dark enough that you could see out of but nobody could see
in,
intercepted and blocked all conscious neural signals at
top of the spinal cord in the neck. Two strips of LED’s on the right hand side
above the ear indicated wireless signal on one strip and the other
indicated power, connection and data loading status.

The VL outdated the
old headsets that merely allowed you to view virtual space while you controlled
your avatar with controllers in each hand, inevitably leaving cables that
caused you to entangle yourself and trip if you turned too much in one
direction.

However, it only lasted a
few weeks. When the hardware became available there was next to no software for
it. The company in their excitement of having a working product skipped a lot
of product testing, leading to a scenario where all the software for the
previous devices was incompatible.

Everyone who purchased the
device, especially those who pre ordered up to 12 months prior, felt that they
had been given a chessboard with no pieces. The only usable functions
were some online chat rooms and other small time software packages provided by
the company.

If Virtue, the creators of
the VL learned anything from this, it was that grouping all the unsatisfied
purchasers into groups to talk among themselves about the new product was a
ticking time bomb for PR. Soon enough people grew sick of the device that had
little more to offer than chatrooms and board games, starting the rumours of
how useless it was.

Demand for the VL
plummeted along with its retail price by 40% in less than a month, and most
developers halted work on software for a failing product, Thus leading us to
today.

***************************************************

My name is Hollis
Sylvester, dull green eyes, 19 years of age, and barely an inch over six feet
tall. As for my looks I wouldn’t particularly say I’m overly bad looking, I
have near black hair, styled as a loose ball of hair tied up behind my head,
and with a few strands of slightly curly hair loose it had its own aesthetical
appeal. My face is quite angular and well defined with a little stubble growing
along my jaw and lower lip, people have admired my looks before but I
would hardly say I was chiselled by gods own hands.

I keep in relatively good
shape due to my day job. I work from Monday to Friday with a housing
construction company called Jack’s Builders, start is at 8am and finish is
sometimes as late as 6pm. It’s hard work but it’s something that needs to be done.
I have two little sisters at home.

Since that day 2 years ago
when our parents were involved in the accident, I had dropped out of high
school and gotten a full time job so I could look after them and prevent us
from being separated into different foster homes.

A lot of criticism
was sent my way from the students and teachers when I left school, mainly about
me being a delinquent and a lowlife, I can’t exactly blame them considering I
fit the image quite well.

“Hey Hollis, It’s time to go
home! Don’t stick around
here,
you need to go enjoy
your weekend!” My boss Jack shouts at me from across the work site. Yes, it is
a Friday evening and I am currently at my job, building a two story house
downtown for a newly married couple to live in and start a family, what a
peaceful life they must have.

“
Okayyy
,
I’m going now, see you again on Monday!” giving a monotonous shout back I place
down the wheelbarrow with the rest of the materials I’ve been cleaning up and
putting away inside the house, wiping the sweat from my forehead I start
heading towards my car. It’s a two
door,
five seater
car called an Astral Lux, the name is much fancier that it actually is. It is
painted a deep red, but that is mostly faded from countless years in the sun.

I bought it in this
condition, but it was the only thing I could afford at the time, hidden
completely at the back of the car yard under a cloth cover and a price tag
cheaper than a month’s groceries.

Fuel prices for it are
exponential, considering all the modern cars run off hydrogen fuel cells whilst
mine runs off the old gasoline. Demand may have dropped significantly however
being a fossil fuel and its limited resources nowadays, the price is an
astounding five times higher than what it was five years ago.

Driving home I pass a few
convenience stores and bottle shops, it’s only a quick decision that I can’t
particularly afford any luxuries this week, I have two hundred
dollars left and I don’t get paid again until Wednesday afternoon.

Fifteen minutes and I’m
turning into my street, catching a glimpse of the central city skyline.
Taile
is one the world’s largest cities, yet
despite all its splendour, the very outskirts are incredibly poor with
homelessness at an unprecedented high. Currently I’m leaving the middle
of downtown where my current work site is, heading towards my home in the outer
district, one section below downtown and only one above the slums.

Parking on the street in
front of the house, I inspect my home. It is a two bedroom flat with a flaky white
weatherboard exterior and a light grey tin roof to complete the image. The
inside is mostly cream walls and ceiling, but the floor was made from polished
wood which was nice. The kitchen and living room are separate which is nice
however it’s nothing much more than the basic home.

Also inside waiting for me
are my two little sisters, Joelle and Shari.

Joelle is fourteen years
old and currently in the second year of high school, she wears her mousey brown
hair in a ponytail that extends halfway down her back. Her green eyes that
are just like mine, only they seem to contain much more light than mine. Joelle
has just started going through puberty, reaching my chest is currently in the
middle of a growth spurt.

Shari is twelve this year
and in her sixth year of primary school, she has also started her growth spurt
but she has some catching up to do on Joelle. She is almost a twin to her
sister in looks except the hair style and height. Her hair is incredibly
straight hair going a little past her shoulder, clipping her fringe to the side
to keep it out of her face.

“”
Hollyy
,
when’s dinner? We’re hungry!”” An irritation over the nickname by the two
causes my eyebrow to twitch for a moment, but looking at the time does indicate
it’s just about dinner time, “Give me a moment, I’ve just got home, how does
beef curry sound?” They both nod with an “
unn
” noise
in response to my question before running off to the bedroom that they share.

I figure I may as well
start dinner now before I sit down and don’t want to get back up again.
Strolling into the kitchen I grab the apron from the back door and opening
the fridge, retrieve some meat, vegetables, and a half empty jar of curry
sauce.

After I chop the
vegetables and start cooking the meat, I set the rice cooker to prepare the
rice. A few spices later the dish was ready, an easy yet tasty dinner. Joelle
and Shari must have been able to smell it as when I was serving they basically
ran into the kitchen and sat down at the table in the middle of the room.

“So, how was school for
you today? I trust that you’re studying hard,” I ask the two girls placing
their dinner in front of them, sitting at the end of the table with my own.

“It was really funny!
Today, Annie asked out a boy from another class and his entire face went red
like a tomato!” Joelle replies first covering her mouth with her hand as she
giggles. Shari follows suit with the giggling and I smile to myself listening
to these two little girls talking about their day at school. They really know
how to brighten up a room with their innocent smiles and laughter.

“Hollis, this curry is a
little too spicy,” Shari changes the subject with a pout, “but it’s still
really nice though!” I know they lie to me sometimes, but they know how
hard I work for them so they do their best.

I managed to
keep them in school in downtown, which is a great deal nicer than this
area we were forced to move to with our parents gone. It’s sad as the city in
all its greatness is pretty much built up of a hierarchy, The centre is where
all the major corporations and their families reside, and then broken down into
rings extending from that point you have the upper district, middle district,
lower district, downtown district, outer district and finally the slums.

We are in the outer
district and whilst we are all technically called a part of
Taile
City, every one of the ten million residents living in this city know
where they belong and that it is practically impossible to move up districts,
because just like them, everybody is holding onto their current position in
order to maintain it.

There aren’t any walls or
gates preventing access to the different districts, you can catch a train right
into the central areas of the city if you wanted. Joelle and Shari catch the
train into downtown for school most mornings after all.

However, most people stay
in their area to avoid all the discrimination from the upper echelon
against people they see as “below” themselves, there are also many stores that
want photo identification as they won’t even serve people from the downtown and
lower districts. It is not a nice world but it is the one we live in.

As I come back to reality
the girls have already placed their empty plates in the sink and disappeared
from the kitchen, probably playing on their computer. I could only afford to
get them one to share, I may have one of my own but I haven’t been able to
afford a third one. Sometimes one of the girls will use mine so they can play
games over the home network together but they are usually fine sharing, the
only fights come when one deletes the others save file or such.

The sun had already set
and the kitchen is spotless, all the dishes washed and put away, table is
clean, no cobwebs or dust in the room. I may look like
a
 bit
of a delinquent but I’m actually quite the neat freak, I
can’t stand dirt and anything out of place needs to be corrected, that’s
just the kind of guy I am.

There wasn’t much for me
to do for the rest of the night, the only noises being the girls chattering in
their room about boys or something similar. I decide to go have a shower to
clean off the days’ worth of sweat, seeing myself in the mirror as I get out
after a good scrubbing and cleaning my little sisters hair out of the drain. My
hair is untied and hanging down to about my shoulders, my muscles are quite
prominent due the nature of my work. While I wouldn’t exactly call myself
large, I am not that small either.

As I get dressed in the
bathroom my mobile starts ringing on the bench. Picking it up before the
vibrating makes it fall off the
edge,
I see that
Jack, my boss, is calling.

“Hey Boss, you’re calling
rather late?”

“Yeah, it just occurred to
me I forgot to lock up the property for the weekend, can you drop by tomorrow
morning and do it for me?”

“That shouldn’t be an
issue. Do I get paid extra for it?
you
know petrol
costs me a bunch”

“Sorry Hollis, I don’t
really have much extra money on me to give to you, and it only costs so much
because you drive a rundown antique” I can’t even tell if he’s irritated or
having a joke.

“Sorry for being poor,” I
give a little sigh at my hopelessness, “I’ll drop by tomorrow morning and lock
the front door to the house.”

“Thanks for that, I owe
you one. Just remember the front door is a bit of a tight fit so you have to
pull it shut pretty hard, and don’t forget the back door either” *
beeep
* He hangs up on me shortly after saying that, not
even a goodbye huh. I wouldn’t call him unfriendly person but I wouldn’t
exactly call him friendly either.

The time is currently 8pm,
no point telling the girls to go to bed this early, it’s not a school night or
anything so I may as well let them stay up and wear themselves out. Donning my
light blue pyjamas with dark blue stripes I head off to bed thinking that all I
need now is some cute teddy bear and surely nobody will consider me a
delinquent any more.

Oh who am I kidding,
nothing could kill the image that everyone instantly assigns me, my years at
school proved that fact,

***************************************************

The sun glares through my window
at 7:00am, Saturday morning, I even hear a couple of birds calling out in the
early sunshine. It doesn’t take long for me to get up and head to kitchen
still in pyjamas, placing a cup on the table and grabbing the milk out of the
fridge, I notice something a little off with the milk bottle in my hand.
Inspecting it a little I notice that there is about half of what there was last
night, there also isn’t any dirty cups in the sink where the girls always leave
them. Maybe someone broke
in,
it’s not uncommon in
this area.