Deep Dive Ch. 01 - New Me

Note from the author:

Hi. This is my first story in the "Deep Dive" series and also my first story overall. It serves as an introduction to the plot and workings of the systems involved more than anything else, so there is no mature content for now. That will come in future chapters.

I hope you will enjoy it either way.

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I was sitting in the back seat of the taxi, looking at my phone, reading the email again, maybe the seventh or eighth time this day.

It was a promo code for the DDVR game 'Ygress'. The name was weird, but one post at the forum I checked said, that it was intentional. It wasn't supposed to be a mainstream game. I have heard about it before but never paid much attention to it, mostly because of the price. The subscription was three or four times more expensive than even some AAA titles on the market. But when I got the chance to try it, most importantly for free, I felt like I have to take this opportunity.

I decided to read some more about the game online, but the information I found was sparse, to say the least. The official forum couldn't be accessed without an account with a paid subscription (no, promo code is not valid, come back when you are not broke), and all of the other sources had more or less the same stuff, that always came to 'feeling like you are a part of a living, breathing world thanks to game AI systems' or something like that. Sounded like every other game on the market, apart from the AI part, but that was probably just a marketing stunt.

The car stopped, and the driver told me that we have arrived. I stepped out, and immediately spotted the neon sign at the front of the building: 'Floating Brain'. Good name for a DDVR spot. This was the first time I was here, but I figured I should try out the best place in town since I am going to spend a few days here at least.

——————|V|——————

- Welcome to The Floating Brain, the best place for your Deep Dive Virtual Reality adventure! — The speaker was on the moment I stepped through the door - Please wait just a moment, one of our staff will be here shortly to help you with everything you need.

Just as the recording was finishing its greetings, someone stepped out of the small room at the back.

- Hi, my name is Jeff, it's your first time here, right?

- Hi, I'm Nathan, and yes, how did you know?

- I've been working here for years, and know most of the regulars by name — he shrugged — so, have you ever played anything with a deep dive, or are you completely new to this stuff?

- I used to play, took a break for a while, and now I am thinking about getting back into it.

- Cool. Where were you diving? — He asked, taking some papers from under the counter.

- Oh, this one place with an overdone sci-fi vibe, near the city center.

- Right, I know the spot. It's called 'The Timeline Jump'. Not bad for a quick play, but it's more of mainstream business, good for newbies — he smiled and pushed the papers my way — no offense of course.

- None taken - I grabbed one of the pens laying nearby and took a glance at the documents — what am I signing here?

- Regular stuff, we plug you in and keep you cold while you agree to all of the things we need you to — he waved his hand and then pointed at the second page — and that we do not take responsibility for any of the belongings left in the lockers.

- Cool, cool - I signed the first paper, then I stopped — wait, what do you mean 'keep you cold'?

- Yeah, that's why I said that the Timeline Jump is basic. Their pods can get up to four-to-one synchronization, with up to twenty-four hours of sessions. They call it the market average, we call it the minimum.

- Umm, sure? - I signed the second document and slid it his way.

- Sorry, I'm used to talking with regulars. So the synchronization ratio is the rate of how much time you perceive to have passed in-game compared to real-time. Even simpler, with four to one for every real-time hour, you get four hours in the game.

- Isn't that pretty good?

- It is. But our pods can do double that — he said casually, hiding the papers under the counter — and we keep you cold to slow down your metabolic rate. The most popular choice here is a full week, but if you sign a few more papers you can go for a month or even more.

- Oh - I didn't even know that was possible.

- Yup. Top of the line, my man. I assume you checked our site and decided to come here for an extended diver, right? More than twenty-four hours?

- Yeah, I was thinking about going in for three days.

- Sure, that's reasonable for someone trying to get back into it after a long break - Jeff started typing something on the PC at the desk — so, one pod, private access, online or offline?

- Online.

- Not a problem. If you get disconnected during the game, or if there are any technical difficulties we offer additional time added to the current dive for free. Do you want that?

- Sure, if it's free then why not.

- Some folks don't want to spend more time playing than they originally planned. Still, it happened only once since I started working here that someone declined that offer.

- Sucks to be them I guess - I laughed.

- Damn straight - Jeff smiled back, pushing the terminal my way — you pay upfront and get access to your private cabin with a pod. I can walk you through it if you want.

- Sounds good - I swiped the card.

- Great - he said, just as the terminal accepted the payment — pod nineteen is free, follow me.

I did, and we went to one of the rooms on the second floor. It was small, claustrophobic even, with enough space to fit a locker and the pod itself, but not much else. Well, it made sense, you are supposed to be just laying still for a few days while inside. I took off my jacket and placed it inside the locker, with the rest of my belongings, while Jeff booted up the pod.

That gave me a chance to take a good look at it since it resembled nothing I have ever seen before. Not in real life anyway, since it kind of reminded me of the stasis pods from one of the games I played a while back, the regular ones, not the DDVR kind.

By the way, I was glad that people still cared about normal PC games instead of just ditching everything and hopping onto the dive technology bandwagon. Some of them anyway, since for the first few months after the DDVR places opened to the public there was a flood of trash games trying to get a slice of the pie. And, to nobody's surprise, there were a lot of them that targeted the 'mature audience'. I mean a lot.

To be fair, I had nothing against it and understood that some people have weird fantasies that are not physically possible, and getting to experience them in VR is the only option. Myself, I never tried it and didn't feel the need to try it. Yes, some of the titles I played had the functionality to make, well, intimacy possible, but come on, RPG games were always about doing whatever you want, so basically all of the modern titles have at least some basic 'features' for it. The premise always is "if you want to do it, do it, if you don't then don't".

- So what will you play? - Jeff asked while still working with the console of the pod.

- What?

- The game. I have to set it before you dive in.

- Oh, right. It's Ygress. Weird name, I know.

- Damn, dude, for real?

- Yeah. Have you heard about it?

- Have I? — He looked at me as if I just told him I had a trip to the moon and back — man, no one here could get a pass to get in, not even the regulars, and some of them could as well be living here. How did you get access?

- Through an email? - I showed him the message on my phone - I don't know, I think I won it in an online contest or something.

Jeff took my phone and read the message a few times.

- That's a seven days pass — he pointed out.

- Yup.

- But you are diving only for three days.

- Correct.

- Dude, why? You don't get a chance like this often. Hell, you probably won't get a chance like this ever again!

- I mean, I just want to try it. And it's kind of expensive here, even without having to pay the subscription for the game

- Wait, you don't... — he read the message again — and you get it for free?!

He gave me my phone back, and got quiet, tapping his fingers on the console.

- OK, I will make you a deal — he said finally - I can set the dive for the full week, no additional cost. You paid upfront so I can't even change the price, but there is one condition.

- What is it?

- When you come out, you have to write a full review that we will post on our website.

- And that's it?

- That's it. Come on, you are getting four days for free here, over 50% discount. Then you make a post on our website and that's it, it can even be anonymous, with just your first name.

I thought about it but couldn't find any downsides. The deal was great. Amazing even. I didn't have any plans for the rest of the week anyway. There was just one thing I was worried about.

- Ok, just one question. You said something earlier about the synchronization rate, right? So how much time will that be in-game?

- Well, that's an online MMO, so the rate is set by the game. It would be a mess if everyone could just change their ratio, some people would be just a blur of light while others would be stuck in permanent slow-motion.

- Right, so what is the rate for Ygress?

- Honestly, I don't know. No one has ever played it here yet, but most MMOs have it set to 1.5 to 1. You know, so people with worse hardware could also play, but since this is a premium segment I think it could be 2 to 1, maybe 2.5 to 1.

- So around two weeks. Well, if I get bored of it I will just quit early I guess.

- Well, yes and no - Jeff interjected - I am guessing you have played only solo games until now. With online games, you can quit early, when you log off, but that won't wake you up. You will either lie unconscious until the time runs out, or some games place you in a pocket world, with an accelerated rate, where the time passes quicker than in reality. Like, 1 to 10 or even more. It's used to pass the time while waiting for events or raids. Also, a quick fun fact, that's how fantasy games handle spells that manipulate time. They just boost or reduce your synchro rate for a few moments, and boom, everything is moving slower or faster.

- Well, that's weird. Cool feature, but still weird.

- What can I say, for me the MMOs are weird. I mean, who would want to play the same raid fifty times just go farm a single weapon, that's just marginally better than your current one — he shrugged — but anyway, you wake up when the timer here runs up and not a minute earlier. Don't tell me that this is a deal breaker.

- I guess not - I sighed.

- Great - he clicked some more things at the terminal, then turned it my way — so you are set. On the screen here you have just to log in to your account. You know, it would suck to dive in without being able to access the game, and then the pod is ready, just lay down and enjoy the ride. Also - he pointed at me — leave most of your clothes in the locker. The pod can't keep you cooled down otherwise. Don't worry, it won't start if you mess something up.

- I would have preferred to know that earlier - I said, taking off my T-shirt.

- Yeah, my bad. Don't worry, I will check once after thirty minutes if everything went fine and then the room will be locked, with just two ways to open it, this right here — he pointed at a button right next to the door — and manager key card, so you can sleep knowing no-one will bother you. I think that covers it. Have a nice dive.

With that, the doors closed, and I was alone in the room. I undressed, leaving only my underwear on, and sat on the edge of the pod. It was filled with an elastic gel that was cool to the touch. I wondered how cold it would get.

On the screen of the terminal, there was a prompt telling me to login onto my account. I did just that, having created my account at home earlier. I pressed 'Accept' and it loaded for a while, after flashing green and telling me to get comfortable in a pod and then press 'proceed'. Well, no backing out now.

I laid down on the gel, as it molded its shape to my body, even sinking into it for an inch or two. I took a deep breath and reached out with my hand, pressing the blinking 'proceed' button on the screen. Almost silently the top cover of the pod slid close, and the world went black.

——————|V|——————

The next thing I knew, there was light. I was standing in a huge, almost entirely white room, with floating cubes in it. As I looked down I saw my new body, or rather, the most basic, featureless model of a human. Right, I first have to create a character.

In the middle of the room appeared a huge text, telling me how to open my HUD. Just swipe up with two fingers of your left hand, and close it with a swipe down. Easy, bonus point for the game for not making something this basic more complicated than it should be.

When the menu appeared I immediately got a few messages on the full screen. First was something with [Thank you for playing Ygress...] and so on, so scrolled down and clicked [Continue]. The second was short a one, something about a low number of players at my level, with a prompt asking if the game should start searching for a party right now, since it may take a while. Figures, not many newbies around here I suppose. I clicked [Yes] and in the upper left corner of the menu appeared slowly blinking [0/3 other players found] and a timer going up just below that. Something for later to think about.

The next one was more important, asking me if I would like to play the tutorial level, which should take around 10 minutes. I clicked [Yes] once again.

Over the next fifteen minutes, I got familiar with the basics of the game. The hud was minimal and disappeared completely when there wasn't anything important to show, which I liked, it helped with the immersion. Next was the movement, which also was excellent, it felt completely natural, unlike in some other, cheaper games I have played. Then there were interactions with special objects, like equipment, weapons, usable items, and so on. They even let you create motion-based shortcuts for using single-use items.

When I looked at the menu, there still was a message [0/3 other players found] but now with 16:43 on the timer. They weren't kidding about a low number of players. Then it hit me. If 'players at my level' meant 'new players' then I have to wait for someone to get into the game. And that meant that While I was waiting for 17 minutes now, it was only around 8 in real-time.

I realized, that this could take a while. I clicked on the timer, curious if anything would happen. There was just an option to auto-join when all three other players has been found. I turned it on. The last thing I needed was for a party to form without me in it because I wasn't paying attention.

With that out of the way, I walked back to the tutorial platform and started getting familiar with weapons. As far as I knew this game was a sci-fi combat-heavy RPG, so I should at least get a feel for what the game has to offer before I commit to any class.

The unarmed fight was fun but would be anticlimactic so I skipped it after beating up some dummy targets. It is always available, so there's no point in locking myself to just this one play style, even if some martial styles look interesting.

Melee weapons were plentiful but they just didn't click for me. I mean, an energy sword was just a short sword with some electricity effect on it. Maybe that was because it's a low-level item, but still, not very sci-fi compared to laser weapons. And oh boy were those fun.

Ranged combat was for me. I immediately knew it. My shots were landing exactly where I wanted them to, and the sounds and feel of the guns were top-notch, not to mention the designs were fantastic. I was thinking for a while if I should go with a more spray-and-pray tactic or stick with precision shots, but after I managed to shoot the hat off of the target I knew that with hit-boxes that good it would be a waste to just hold down the trigger hoping for the best.

I checked the timer again. 37:12 and still no players found. Damn, time flies when you are having fun, even if it's just tearing targets to shreds.

I noticed that one of the tabs in the menu, with a letter sign, was glowing. I clicked it and got a message about using the promo code. Right, there were some perks in addition to the full seven days of access. Four messages, each with a [Collect] option on the right. I pressed the first one and got another message, this time not as an in-game mail, but as a notification: [Congratulations! You have unlocked the Sharpshooter pack!] and right after that, there was a list of everything included in the pack. Reading that I felt like I didn't even need to open the other messages.

[V. Lathi - sharpshooter character preset, Level 6;

ARCS - Advanced Recon Combat Suit, Level 6, Unique;

Marksman Rifle - Level 5, Rare;

Light Laser Pistol - Level 4, Common;

Light Shield - Level 4, Common;]

There was also some ammo, med-kits, and such, but it was all consumables, so who cares. I pressed [OK] and immediately got another notification: [Do you want to auto-equip new items in the free slots?]. I liked this game more and more. Quality-of-life systems like this made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. Sure, I could just go into the equipment page and manually put everything in place, but since I do have a slot for healing empty, and just got a med-pack it's a no-brainer to equip it. Thank you to whoever designed this. I pressed [YES].

In a second so many things changed that at first I just stood there, not knowing how to react. My body had colors, so I wasn't a featureless silhouette anymore, I was wearing something and I was holding a gun. A nice, big gun. I lifted it to inspect it. I wasn't a gun nerd by any means but had some experiences with firearms in the past. It looked like a highly modified AR-15 platform, but with a sci-fi vibe to it. It was sleek and shiny but looked a bit too large. Like if it was scaled up just a little.

I straightened my arms, to maybe put it into perspective, or get a view from further away, but still, something wasn't right. It didn't hit me at first, even as I was looking directly at them. My hands were kind of... small. Slender. I got a weird feeling deep down in my stomach and looked down.

I took a deep breath, and it rose. I exhaled and it, well them, moved back, just a little, so little, that in any other situation I wouldn't notice it. But I did since I never used to have breasts.

I dropped the rifle which disappeared in a stream of pixels. Somewhere on my HUD, I got a notification about the weapon being placed in my inventory, but I couldn't have paid it less attention. My hands moved to my chest, then to my waist, then down to my hips. All unfamiliar shapes.

- What...

I covered my mouth, stopping myself mid-sentence. That also wasn't my voice. That couldn't be my voice, the pitch was far too high.

Then I remembered. There was a mirror at the shooting range. So I started to run. And I stopped. I wanted to look back down, by now knowing full well why something felt different while running, but I decided not to. I knew what was different, what was wrong. But I still wanted to see it first.

And so I stood, in front of the mirror. It was there for anyone to see how they looked with the weapons equipped, but right now, I was just looking at myself. Or rather at what, or who I was now.

She was shorter than me, maybe around 5'2 with pale skin, and long, black hair. She was wearing a full-body suit, mostly gray with some white elements, that clung to her body, covering her fully from the neck down, but also showing off every curve, from wide hips, to narrow waist, up to my breasts. I wasn't an expert, but it looked like a C cup, maybe? I moved closer, and the girl in the mirror followed, mimicking my every move. I brought one hand up, and she touched her face. Her face. With striking blue eyes, flawless skin, and thin, but deep red lips... she was beautiful.