After the development of VR, most people were content. Instead of trying to further the technology, they tried to create better games with more details. At least, most did.

One brilliant mind aimed for more. The current VR technology wasn't to his liking. The current systems simply allowed players to turn their bodies into the controllers. But this man aimed to turn the players' minds into the controllers.

Over time he partnered up with a rich man looking for a way to extend his life. The rich man had come to the conclusion that physical methods would merely delay his end, as he had already tried several and they required constant updates. He realized that if he truly wanted to live a long life, he'd have to loose his body but keep his mind. He approached the scientist with the goal of digitizing his mind.

The scientist utilized this opportunity as he saw it as a stepping stone towards his real goal. And as time progressed so did his work. After many years the first fruits of his labor were able to achieve the rich man's dream. The scientist was able to create a device that allowed the rich man to digitize his mind. This device allowed the man to live in the digital world while interacting with the real world. The down side to his invention however was the initial cost.

Once other rich people learned about the scientist's invention, they readily handed out money so that they too could extend their lives. After seeing how popular it was, the scientist's assistant secretly wanted to make it available to everyone. But normal people couldn't afford to digitize themselves. Thus he created a public digital world in secret.

The reason that the invention cost so much was because each person wanted to continue to interact with the real world. To do this each individual needed their own 'world'. However, the assistant was able to make a 'world' that could contain many billions of people. The only downside was that the people digitized into this world wouldn't be able to interact with the real world.

When he brought up his invention to the CEO of the company, he was refused until he could fix that one downside. But when the scientist saw his assistant's work, he knew it was a chance to further his own dream. The scientist approached his assistant after the meeting and they agreed to work as partners on his project.

After many years, they finished their project and got the approval of the CEO. Instead of allowing the 'world' to interact with the real world they made it so that the real world could 'visit' the 'world'. These 'visits' were achieved by partial digitization. Partial digitization works by linking a person to a digital copy of themselves. These copies can't exist without the links and are vastly different from those who fully digitize themselves.

Those who owned their own 'world' soon transferred over to the public one. Apparently, even though they could interact with the real world, they couldn't feel anything that wasn't in their 'world'. They started to realize that having a 'world' all to yourself can be lonely.

The rich man who first digitized himself also wanted to transfer over to the public 'world', but refused to until he was guarantied a place of power at all times. To resolve this issue, he was granted the title 'god'. The title didn't give him god like power, but did give him a higher standing. And to make sure that he didn't abuse his title, they gave those with massive contributions the title as well thus allowing no 'god' to stand above all others.

Will continue editing this to add more But I want to work on the actual chapters for a bit.

Summary of the 'gods'/'goddess':

1. developed VR for after the body dies (rich man)

Zeus

2. made affordable to all (assistant)

Hermes

3. connected the dead to the real world again by adding 'visitors' (scientist)

Hades

4. changed it into a fantasy game (scientist who took over when the original died due to old age)

Hera

5. added a universal translator (foreign genius)

Athena

6. partied and used money (spoiled great-grandson of the rich man who gained the title through money)

[new rules were added so people like him can't get the title afterwards]

Dionysus

7. made the map infinite (genius daughter of the slob listed above that wanted to be nothing like him)

Artemis

8. changed it into a sci-fi game (son of the genius listed above)

Apollo

9. changed it back to a fantasy game (girlfriend of the son listed above)

Aphrodite

10. changed the world from a planet to a plane (first genius son of the couple above)

Demeter

11. changed the game mechanics and increased popularity (first genius daughter of the couple)

Hephaestus

12. didn't waste the money, wasn't a genius, only one who could stop the twins from fighting (brother of the twins listed above) [in case it wasn't clear I'm talking about Demeter and Hephaestus, they're twin geniuses]

Ares

13. created a way for the system to survive without hardware and made it so that no one else could become a 'god' (genius scientist that never married or had kids)

Poseidon

These 'gods'/'goddess' don't hold any of their original memories and may have changed genders over time through 'reincarnation'. This 'reincarnation' system was add when the system was changed into a fantasy game.