Chicago, IL

Friday, May 2nd

 

Kyle left the cafe and headed back to his apartment near his college campus. Walking the two blocks from the public bus stop to his apartment, he received a notification that popped up in the lower center of his vision.

 

[William McCoy Calling]

 

Kyle heard his Uncle’s words in his head as soon as the call connected.

 

“Hey kiddo, I thought you’d have called me by now. I just finished watching the live stream myself. Your aunt and I were making bets about how long it would take you to contact me. I lost the damn bet, thank you. Now I’m on taxi driver duty for the next week for Zoey. So I figured I’d give you a call myself.” 

“Sorry, Uncle, you can blame the public transportation on that one. I should have been home twenty minutes ago. But, you’re right, I would have contacted you as soon as I got home. I’ll be signing up for my pre-order as soon as the site goes live. I’m going to need you to transfer around 12k credits if that’s alright with you. I can cover the rest with what I’ve earned from Realms.” 

“I knew you had to be getting income from somewhere else. You haven’t asked for anything out of your trust fund all year. What did you do, get lucky with a legendary drop or something and sell it?”

 

”I stole the deed to a little town and took it over. I’ve been using the rental income to live off of.”

 

“You’re just like your mother. While your father worked his ass off, your mother and her little group of friends made more money than he did selling in-game items and currency.”

“Weren’t you one of her little friends?”

 

“Well, yea, how do you think I was able to pay for your aunt’s schooling and this damn house. I was trying to convince her to let me get the new upgrade before I called you. I’ll be able to play while I sleep, so I won’t be neglecting my stay at home father duties. Maybe I can join you on your escapades this time.”

 

“Let me know if you do, Uncle. I haven’t spoken to the guild yet, but I’m thinking of doing my own thing this time in Fantasy, the lone thief robbing from the rich, and helping out the needy type thing.”

 

“How’s college treating you? Finals soon, right? Keeping your grades up while you spend all your time at that FIVR cafe?”

 

“Yea, I’ll be on the Dean’s List for my first year. My classes will be over in two weeks, so if I can get the new Implant in the first couple of weeks, I’ll have the entire summer to play. How’s Auntie and little Zoey doing?”

 

“They’re great. Zoey is excited to be going into kindergarten in the fall. She’s looking forward to meeting kids her own age and making friends. Being the last baby born in our district, and the closest kid her age is two years older. He’s also on the other side of the division. So the poor child hasn’t met many other kids yet. She’ll get to go into the city for kindergarten and meet the other kids her age from around Chicago.”

 

“I’m excited for her. Let her and aunty know I send my love. I’ll try and come visit for dinner once school is over, and I have no further school work. I’ll let you know when I need the credits once I get news on when I can get my new implant.”

 

“I’ve already contacted the lawyer. You’re already in college and living by yourself, so I believe we can push the timeframe up. I’m pushing them to give you full access to your trust fund. You’ll be eighteen in less than six months, and you’ve shown you can take care of yourself, so I doubt a judge will rule against it.”

 

“Thank you, Uncle Bill.”

Kyle McCoy’s Apartment

Thursday, May 9th

 

A week later, Kyle lay in bed, mentally refreshing his email’s inbox. Three minutes past the deadline, and his inbox was still empty. Looking like he wasn’t going to nab any of the first batches, he decided to head to The NeXus. Leaving the apartment complex and heading to the public transit hub, he was stopped in his tracks when a message alert flashed in the bottom right of his vision. He mentally clicked the alert.

 

[US:IL:0085987- Neurolink Batch Information]

 

He had gotten a spot in one of the batches! He mentally opened the message when he reached the tram and sat down. The email entered the center of his vision.

 

Dear Kyle McCoy, The Delve Neurolink batch lottery has concluded. Congratulations, your registration US:IL:0085987 has been drawn for the first-week batch. You may contact your representative at [8310:b0ea:7274:7e8b:b4ae:49c0:0e4d:b5b5], and they will assist you with any financing questions and to schedule your consultation and implant procedure at your earliest convenience. Regards JANUS

Walking into The NeXus, he zeroed in on Shaun and walked over to him, Waiting silently behind him while Shaun flirted with the cute teenager he was helping get into the FIVR capsule.

 

“You know if you just tell them your parents own the place, they would crawl all over you to get that boyfriend owns the place discount.”

 

“No way, man. Then it would be about the discount and not about my boyish charms,” Shaun responded. 

 

“So I got an email about an hour ago. Want to guess what it contained?”

 

“You got another scholarship or an offer to go to some big fancy private school far away due to your crazy analytical capabilities… again?”

 

“Oh, man, I wish. The less money I have to spend on schooling, the better. Nope, I will be getting my Delve Neurolink Implant out of the first batch in two days. Already scheduled my appointment on the way here.”

 

“You were born with the luck of the Irish or have a golden horseshoe tucked away in your ass, man.”

 

Kyle spent some more time following Shaun around the cafe keeping up their conversation about various topics before Kyle decided to hop in one of the pods and log into Phantasmal Realms to let his guildmates know the news.

 

[Flea]: Hey guys, has anyone heard from Elen or Iron yet?

 

[Sinn3r]: Negative, they still show away for six months.

 

[Flea]: Damn, If anyone gets in contact with them, let them know I’m going to be getting a Delve Neurolink this week and will be moving over to Fantasy. Also, Pinky, you on?

 

[Trog]: She’s on vacation with her parents now that school is over. Congratulations and damn you, I pulled a fifth week lot.

 

[Flea]: Damn, Sinn3r, I’m going to send you my contact info. Would you please give it to Iron and Elen if you can get a hold of them?

 

[Sinn3r]: Sure thing, kid.

 

[Flea]: I’m going to give the guild my two holdings. I’ll send Pinky my pet collection. I know she’ll kill me if I leave without giving it to her. It was great playing with you guys, and if you go over to Fantasy, look me up. Sinn3r will have my contact info. Take care, everyone!

 

[Friend Alert]: Flea has logged out.

 

[Guild System Message]: Flea has handed over control of the following holdings to The Star Crossed. Shadow’s Den Inn, in the village of Steguard. The village of Steguard.

 

[Sinn3r]: Holly shit!! No wonder he always had money. How the hell did he have the deed to the entire village of Steguard?

 

[Zeru]: You didn’t know, man? He swiped the deed from a locked chest while the Mayor was in the room flirting with Pinky. When the mayor was found working with the Nords, he was killed, and Flea strolled right into town, saying he had bought the deed from the mayor. I’d check the basement of the Shadow’s Den as well. I’m pretty sure that’s where he kept all the good stuff.

 

[Sinn3r]: Well damn, we’re going to have to thank him, this should solve many of our problems now. 

 

Logging out of Phantasmal Realms, Kyle left the cafe and headed home.

 

Neurolink Medical Faculty #42

Saturday, May 10th

 

Two days later, Kyle hopped off the public bus and walked the half-mile to the Neurolink Medical faculty. As he got closer to the faculty, he could see at least more than a hundred people standing around outside. Walking towards the door, he heard a few shouts directed at him. 

 

“Hey! You in the first batch? I’ll pay you twenty thousand credits to swap batches with me! I’m in the third batch!” some random guy yelled.

 

 “I’ll pay you more!” another random person yelled. 

 

He turned around, looking for those who yelled at him, and spotted an older gentleman speaking to him. 

 

“Sorry, but I must decline. I wouldn’t pass this day up for anything.” 

 

Turning around, Kyle walked through the door of the facility.

 

The cute receptionist at the desk smiled and greeted Kyle as he walked up. Asking for his name, she checked her list on the clipboard she was holding and nodded. She asked him to wait a moment. A young man in scrubs came from the back a few moments later and led him to a waiting area further in the facility. 

 

There were six others back in the waiting room with him. Two older gentlemen were talking admittedly with sign language against the far wall. A woman in her late twenties or early thirties swiping the air like a madwoman. 

 

She must be working on something while she is waiting. 

 

A girl around his age was reading something on a tablet. 

 

Must be her first chip. 

 

The last two were a young boy and a young woman, both in their early to mid-teens sitting close to where he took his seat. 

 

They look like siblings. I wonder who’s getting the chip.

 

A nurse came out and called out a name. One of the older gentlemen nodded and poked his buddy, and signed something to him. His buddy then got up and walked into the back with her. 

 

This cycle would repeat every fifteen to twenty minutes, the nurse would come out, call out a name, and they would be led into the back. More individuals would be shown to where they were during these intervals, and they would sit down to wait their turn. The third of those led back was the older guy who had shouted at him outside to switch batches.

 

“So, someone switched with you?”

 

“Yep, the young man said he had to finance his chip, and the money to swap would pay most of it off. He said he could wait two more weeks,” the older gentleman replied.

 

“I guess you made his day. Why do you want to be in the first batch so bad?”

 

“Fantasy! I’m a retired vet with no family. I want to spend the rest of my time in a game with no aches and pains. Once I get my implant upgraded, I’m off to medical pod retirement with a bunch of my buddies from my old unit. We all decided to join up and play together. Damn, where are my manners, I’m Captain Zachery Homles or Barricade to my friends.”

 

“Nice to meet you, captain. I’m Kyle McCoy. I’ll be going as Flea within Fantasy.”

 

  A nurse came out and called Kyle’s name. He got up, said goodbye to the captain, and was shown into the back.

 

The nurse brought Kyle to a closed office door. Waiting, he noticed the plaque on the door with Nina Kale engraved into it and Shattered Helix under her name. The nurse knocked on the door twice, and Kyle could hear a faint female voice ask them to come in.

 

“Hello Nina, I have Kyle McCoy for his appointment.”.

 

“Welcome Kyle,” Nina said. 

 

Kyle walked in and sat on the chair in front of her desk. 

 

“Your profile indicates you are interested in playing Fantasy. I’m here to help you register your profile and set your Game Pass subscription up. The Game Pass is 200 credits a month, or you can pay 2,160 credits for the year at a 10% discount. ”

 

“I’ll pay for the year please, what does the Game Pass cover?”

 

“The Game Pass covers any games released in the Virtual Verse, those from our studio or other games released on our platform from other studios. Right now, it’s only Fantasy. Outbreak will release around a month after Fantasy goes live and will be immediately available to you with the Game Pass.” 

 

Nina and Kyle spoke while she registered his account into her terminal. When finished, Nina led Kyle into a small room set up as a barber’s shop. Two men were cutting the young boy and woman’s hair from earlier. 

 

Guess they’re both getting the implant. 

 

“Please take a seat, and one of them will be with you shortly. It was a pleasure meeting you Kyle,” Nina said.

 

A few minutes later, the barber finished the boy’s hair. He walked up to Kyle, greeting him. He informed Kyle they would have to shave the back of his head and to let him know how he wanted to style the rest. Kyle asked him to shave his entire head.

 

Not like anyone is going to see me most of the summer anyway.

 

 The barber led him to an empty chair and spent five minutes shaving all of Kyle’s hair. Finished, the nurse from earlier came and led him back into another waiting room.

 

Kyle waited over an hour this time before another nurse came along and called out his name. He was escorted into an elevator nearby that lowered them down into the basement of the facility. Entering into a changing room, she informed him to remove his clothing and effects and place them in the locker. He was to dress in one of the gowns wrapped in a plastic wrap from the shelf. Once dressed, he was to enter the opposite door and sit on the table in the center.

 

 Placing his clothes into the locker, he took the key and slipped his hand into the stretchy holder attached to it. Getting into the hospital gown, he left the changing room, entering a sterile room. He walked up and sat on the table in the middle of the room.

 

What felt like an eternity later, an older gentleman walked in through another door and introduced himself as Doctor Alfred Reed. Dr. Reed started to inform Kyle about the implantation process. 

 

“I’m going to have you lay face down on the table. Your head will lay within the hole at the end of the table. I will then strap your head down so that you don’t move during the procedure.”

 

Dr. Reed then picked up a fist-size device from the table to show Kyle.

 

“This device detects your current implant helping me center the device over it. Once I’ve confirmed I have it in the correct position, I will press this button here to start the device. It will disinfect the area around your current implant and make multiple cuts to your skin to create a flap. These cuts will also serve the connection to your old leads to your visual and auditory centers. Once done, I will be able to use a set of tweezers to remove your old implant. I will then use this second device to close the flap of skin and seal it.”

 

He then grabbed a much larger device attached to a swimming arm extending from the table and showed it to Kyle.

 

“This device is the latest in implantation technology. I will lock this one above your head once I move it into position. Disinfecting, then cutting a new flap in your skin, it will proceed to grind out a socket in the back of your skull. Finished grinding It will then drill sixteen holes that the nanites will use to create the nanocarbon tubes that enter your brain. The device will then place the implant into the socket so that once you heal, it will be undetectable under the skin.”

 

Kyle laid face down on the table, the Doctor spraying a numbing agent on the back of his head, sending chills down his spine. The entire process took less than fifteen minutes. The worst part of the ordeal was the grinding noise and vibration when the large device started grinding out the implant’s socket.

 

He was sad to see the augmentation on his vision disappear, but that would return in a couple of weeks. Dr. Reed applied a thin-clear membrane material to the back of his neck and informed him not to remove it. It will fall off on its own, but he could wash it with simple soap and water over the next two weeks. He had Kyle keep lying down while he waited for the nurse who would be with him shortly to transfer his old implant’s network and account information to the new one.

 

When the nurse showed up sometime later, she asked him a few standard questions about his accounts. Using a small handheld device, she transferred all his information from the old implant sitting on the tray to his new one wirelessly. He asked her what they would do with his old implant, and she explained all used implants are destroyed and recycled to safeguard the user’s sensitive data and records. 

 

The nurse gave him a small bottle of pills with his name and medical ID and informed him they were anti-rejection meds and nanites to jumpstart the creation of the nanocarbon tubes to connect to the sensory centers of the brain. She explained he was to take them twice a day over the next two weeks.

 

She handed him an old school smartphone, explaining his contacts and app info were also transferred to it so he would be able to remain connected. He would use the phone until his implant was finished with its connection process.

 

An hour later, Kyle was cleared to leave by a nurse and was directed to leave out a back door to avoid the crowd out front. Hopping on the public bus, he was back home within the hour.