Marketplace, Ever Hold

Central Core

As the pale-blue light disappeared, they found themselves standing within the massively large marketplace of Ever Hold, along with the rest of the 1 million player base that made up the first wave of gamers.

“Someone trigger an area-wide forced teleport,” Alex said while Lara tightened her grip on his waist.

He looked around at all the confused faces of their fellow players, maybe their dad or another member of the team would address the log-out issue all at once.

“Look, up there!” someone within the crowd of players shouted.

A million sets of eyes focused at the one spot at the top of a nearby building, there blinking against the white-washed wall was a red warning box with the words ‘System Announcement’ written inside. Before their eyes, the warning box multiplied until the whole side of the building was covered in warning boxes, next the boxes changed from the red warning box to a human face of a man in his late thirties to early forties.

“Attention and welcome, gamers, welcome to Nimbor: Labyrinth Survival. If you do not know, I’m Colin Mackenzie, Former CEO of Obscure Studio and currently CEO of Obscure-Mystic Media, and as of 3 hours ago, am the sole person with complete and total control of this digital world.” At these words a few players screamed in fear while others shouted abusive remarks, “I wish to personally inform you all of a unique feature that was introduced between the Closed Beta and the Live Access, that feature is there is no means of logging out.” More shouts of abuse were heard from the gathered players at this turn of events, “It is not a broken mechanic or a glitch within the system, this has been made a permanent feature within the core code of the game. I repeat this is not a defect, glitch or bug within the game. It is a unique feature that was worked into the code at the end of Closed Beta.”

Alex looked to his sisters and best friend, Lara had become an uncontrollable mess of tears and a shaking body that had tightened her grip enough that he knew there would be fingermarks upon his skin where Lara’s fingers were attempting to dig in. Kate just stood statue-like in shock, with a single tear escaping her right eye, while Elizabeth looked ready to kill with a hint of darkness held with her normally warm chocolate brown eyes. As for himself, Alex couldn’t even begin to compute the massive weight of the information that their father’s boss had just unloaded upon them.

The image of Colin cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention back to him. “No one In-Real-Life or IRL can shut down or remove the mind-Shift helmet. Should this be attempted by any of the members of the medical teams or by any member of Obscure-Mystic, a sub-program I had installed will permanently transfer your consciousness into your digital bodies, thus ending your IRL life and making you a permanent resident of Nimbor.”

Elizabeth looked to Alex as did his sisters, “Alex is that true?” Elizabeth asked.

“I’m not sure, I know that at one time Colin Mackenzie was regarded as a genius within the world of computer programming and I’ve seen him around dad’s office and always logging the most hours within the main server room.”

Colin continued his monologue, “Unfortunately, several of Obscure-Mystic employees along with the medical staff have chosen to ignore the warning that was sent out via e-mail moments before the first gamer logged in and have removed the helmets of two thousand players.” Terrified screams of hundreds of players echoed throughout the marketplace as everyone look around hoping they weren’t one of the two thousand, “As a result, while those gamers are still considered adventurers like the rest. The system considers them as part of the Non-Player-Character population.” The massive screen changed from Colin’s face to a collection of news reports from across the world detailing and confirming everything Colin had said so far. With Colin’s return, he continued. “I do hope that each and every one of you can relax and attempt to enjoy this rare opportunity given you, but know this, there is a penalty for dying. Every fifth death you experience, some of your IRL memories will be replaced with in-game versions.”

As Mackenzie said those words every player gathered minds raced at the fear of losing their connections to the Real World through their memories, Alex stared at the image of Colin as he tightened his left hand into a tight ball of a fist. Alex’s fist was tight enough to draw a bit of blood from his palm from the fact that his sisters and he would have to relive through the event that took their mother from them as well the depression their father suffered in his wife’s passing.

Clearing his throat once more, Colin gained everyone’s attention. “Now that introduction phase of Nimbor is complete, I have one last thing to say to you all… Good Luck.” And with his last words, the image of Colin Mackenzie winked out of existence along with the warning boxes.

Looking to his sisters and best friend, Alex made a decision that he hoped would ensure their survival, as the mob of gathered players was starting to devolve into a mass of panicking people looking to blame and villainize. “We need to move now, follow me,” Alex said with a tone that his sisters had never heard before.

As one the group pushed their way through the crowded Marketplace heading for the Eastern Gate, looking to disappear into the wilds that surrounded the massive city of Ever Hold. As they ran through the streets hoping to pull some distance between themselves and the rest of the player base, for now, a single thought that kept running through Alex’s mind was ‘Could they survive… the Labyrinth?’.