Author's Note:

  It took a bit longer that I thought to write this chapter, but I finally finished it. The VR part will start in chapter 2, this chapter is centered about the real world.

  Please let me know about any mistakes.

  Also suggestions, tipps, critics are all welcome. Thank you in advance.

  Chapter related informations:

  ________________________________________________________________________________

  May 1st 2080

  Greta, Goverment Agent of the Secure VR – Department in charge of observing Choi Company, was on her way to work, taking the air bus. When she saw the announcement board.

  ' This will certainly wreak havoc amoung the Virtual Reality Community, specially the Companys and Goverments. Damn, today will be a pain in the Ass. '

  Phone ringing

  Greta: "Good Morning Boss."

  Millers: "Good? What the hell could be good about this morning? What in the seven Hells is going on at Choi Corporation? 18 Years playable within 120 hours!?! How is that possible? Also explain, why you haven't reported any of this!"

  Greta: "Sir, you know I can't tell you how they were able to do it. The Implant in my head prevents me from leaking any Information about their Technologie. All I can is confirm that it's safe. Their safety measures have been tested for 10 years, without a single failure! Any problem they could think of has been tested, more than which are required by the laws."

  Sighing, Millers asked: "You are sure it works 100%?"

  Greta: "Yes, Sir. I am arriving at Choi Corporation and need to go.", answered Greta while rolling her eyes about the obvious question.

  Millers: "Keep me posted about any problems, not only those related to their Technologie. Soon all Hell is going to get loose."

  She left the Bus at the Entrance Station of Choi Corp., going up the Stairs to the first Security Scanner. Her Name and Credentials were immediatly shown on the Screen, when she entered the Scanning Room:

  Door opening

  She went through the door and went to the Huge Building with Choi HQ written on it, passing through another 3 security perimeters and then taking the passage to the Lab, entering through the special security point.

  "Good morning Dr. Fischer. So the announcement is finally out, huh. It's gonna be a tough time from now on."

  Dr. Fischer looked up from the dozens of screens in front of her and answered:"Good morning Greta. You are certainly right. A lot of the other companies which produce VR-Tech will try to get information about our technology, but we are sure our security measures will suffice."

  "I certainly hope so, but those companies won't be the only ones. Many organisations and even some goverments will be trying to get this information.", said Greta taking off her coat and hanging it over a free chair. "Living through years in only a few days would be increadible valuable for reasearch or trainings. Imagine bringing up employes with dozens of years of experience, while they actually are new to a project and things alike."

  Tilting her head, Dr. Fisher thougth for a couple of secounds before replying: "You are right, that's why we have been so secretive about everything for the past 10 years and up till now, no one had any idea about our progress. I am sure we will be able to keep things up for quite some time. Anyway, please look over the latest results of our security tests, everything needs to perfectly safe, when we release the game."

  Nodding, Greata started to look over the data and once in a while she punched a request for more specific Information, into the keyboard.

  Meanwhile at the Govermental Secure VR – Department Headquarters

  Director Millers stood up from his desk while cursing loudly:"Fucking hell, this is going to start a fucking crisis.", pressing the announcement button for the whole department, he said:" Attention everybody! We are going on early alarm yellow 12. Choi Coorperation seems to have had a huge breakthrough in their VR-Technology. Section A, contact all our branches and coordinate an information network solely for this. Section B, inform all agents to keep a close look on the other VR-Companies, and to give alert if they even have slightest hint any of them are going to make a move at Choi Corp.. Section C, same thing about military companies and goverments. Section D inform the Board of International Goverments about the threat of this turning into an international conflict.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Millers looked out of his office window into the clear sky, getting lost in his thoughts about what is to come and the Secure VR – Department.

  The Board of International Goverments had been established in 2060 and consisted of the dominating 5 major federations and 3 minor unions:

  The Arabic Federation

  The European Federation

  The East Asian Federation

  The American – English Federation

  The Russian Federation

  The African Union

  The Antarctic and Ozeanic Union

  The Southern Asian Union

  Each federation was equal in power with each other, while the treaty of 3 unions made the unions equal to a federation. The B.I.G biggest responsibility was to keep the equality of the members and a lasting peace between all of them. A few years after the VR-Technology first started, the federations and unions had been at war with each other to collect the best technology for them, to improve their power and military might.

  Many cities were in ruins and even the virtual world got sucked into the conflict, many battles were fought, dozens of attempts to sabotage and corrupt each other's technology were conducted, nearly collapsing all existing technology and destroying their own power. In these years many attempts to somehow overcome the current VR-Limits were made and hundred of thousands of people got affected by VR-Psycosis, going mentally unstable.

  To end this madness, the leaders of the federaionts and unions got together and established the B.I.G. and distributed land, power and economy equaly amongst each other.

  It took another 5 years to restore all technology and the Secure VR – Department was founded to keep the balance and prevent any more tragedies by using unsecure means and technology related to VR-Tech. The S.VR-D. is under direct command of the B.I.G, and has branches in all federations and unions.

  Each branch has thousand of agents keeping track of all related VR-Tech and research. To prevent any information leakage, each field agent has an implant which binds all related VR-Tech information and knowledge to the specific location of their work place.

  They only remember related information at those specific locations and Nerve-Nano-Bots prevent sharing any information to the outside of their work place by instantly blocking the information by any means necessary, which can include wiping the whole memory of the agent.

  In the next few days before the release, the internet communitys were going wild about the Announcement.

  Tom, a 17 year old shut in, though being a once in a century genius, was surfing through the gaming communitys when he stumbled upon

  posts about the announcement of Boundless Online.

  User 01: The announcement of Boundless Online, is this for real? Can it really be safe?

  [/table]

  Mhhh, thought Tom, this Boundless Online sounds interesting, specially the part about blending out our memories of our real life. That means, we have to learn everything ingame on our own without any knowledge. Great, this will make being recognisable so much harder. I can't wait for it to start.

  After ordering the game with the newest capsule module, Tom starting thinking about this chance to escape all the annoying thoughts and pressure for a few hours every day.

  May 10th 2080

  *Door Bell* "Delivery for Mister Tom Schneider"

  Opening the door, Tom was looking at 2 bulky delivery men who were transporting a VR-Capsule.

  "Please come in and place the capsule into the empty corner of the living room.", said Tom while making space to let the men through.

  After placing the capsule down, one of the delivery men said: "These is the instruction manual for the capsule, also please sign here on the notepad with your thumb print, that you received the delivery."

  "Okay. Thanks a lot.", said Tom as he took the manual and placed it on the living room table, then taking the pad to give a thumb print to confirm the delivery. "Good bye and have a nice day."

  The delivery men nodded and left his flat to continue their deliveries.

  Tom started to set up the capsule and once he finished setting it up, he switched on the power and sat down into the capsule.

  [table=black]

  Welcome to Boundless Online. Before you can start, you need to read the General Information about BO. Please enjoy your experience.

  [/table]