《Horvat's World》 Prologue to Horvats World PROLOGUE In a large room divided by pillars of light two men were in a heated discussion. The first, an old and wrinkled man wearing a white toga like garment and carrying a long staff to support himself as the weight of ages seemed to be upon his shoulders. The second a man of indeterminate age with short black hair, bronze skin and wearing two crowns upon his head. The old man could be heard to say, ¡°Atum, my people are being neglected. People wouldn¡¯t treat a dog in the same fashion that my people are treated every day, something must be done.¡± ¡°What would you have me do Geras? You know that my role has passed and that I cannot create a solution to the workings of the world.¡± ¡°But Atum, you still have access to the world beyond. I beseech you, from those who have changed our world bring another to be the champion of my people.¡± ¡°Geras, while I do have access to the world beyond, and I can try to find one who would be receptive to your cause, if you want a champion you will have to mold him and you will have to influence his actions. I cannot interfere any further than that. I would advise you to use the ages of knowledge you have to push him where you want him to go. You are prohibited from informing him of the role you wish him to play. If he accepts your mantle he must do it of his own free will. Agreed?¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.¡°Yes Atum, I agree.¡± ¡°Geras, feel free to cheat when you build your champion, all of the others have. I will look the other way.¡± ¡°Thank you Atum.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the least I can do. I am not very happy with what¡¯s happened either.¡± At the conclusion of this conversation both men disappeared from the room. A short time later an attractive woman in her late 50¡¯s who seemed to be struggling with the problems of the world received a pop-up ad on her phone and at the same time her ipad. The ad read: [Is the stress in your life killing you? Do you or someone you know need to escape but just doesn¡¯t have the time? Try Horvat¡¯s World!!! Guaranteed to to give you the time to erase the stresses of life and still leave time for your family.] As she read the ad a small smile crept onto her face. Chapter One CHAPTER ONE ¡°God, it¡¯s beautiful.¡± The trees seemed to stretch for miles, a soft ray of sunshine illuminated the small clearing I was in. ¡°Here is where I¡¯ll find peace.¡± I was truly alone, no one for hundreds of miles. I stood basking in the silence of a summer¡¯s day without the clamoring calls of ¡°modern civilization¡±. No phone calls, no texts, no emails, and for once no emergencies requiring my personal attention. It had taken a long time and a lot of growing, but I finally made it, at least thought I did. Thinking back on how I got to this place, starts to make my pulse race and my stomach twist. Thoughts of the real world and what awaits start to erase the tranquility of the moment. ¡°Relax, remember to relax¡±, a mantra I continue to repeat to myself. This peaceful moment was brought to me by Horvat¡¯s World, a new virtual reality, total immersive MMORPG utilizing a 3rd generation technology based upon the Occulus Rift VR technology released in 2016. What awaited me outside of this game was a law practice that destroyed all thoughts of peace and a level of stress destined to kill me. This world was my chance to find a way to survive the real world, to recharge my mind, and to find a way to relieve my stress before I dropped dead at the office. I grew up in the 1970¡¯s and 80¡¯s playing Dungeons and Dragons, living out the fantasy world in pencil and paper games and building friendships with my fellow players. But, when I graduated college it was time to put away the games of children and build a career, support a family, and become a responsible member of society. This translated to graduating from law school, taking a job and working 90 hours a week. Add to that marrying and having a family, there was no time for play. Years of building stress took their toll 3 heart attacks and counting, my co-workers created a death pool and offered to let me bet on it too. Yes, they are morbid. I needed to find a way to bleed off stress, drinking didn¡¯t work as it caused more problems than it ever helped. I watched many of my fellow lawyers succumb to alcohol or drugs destroying their families, lives, and practices. I tried MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Avalon but became both bored with watching a screen and the linear nature of the games. There was also the little problem of talking with others on teamspeak while ignoring a wife sitting in the other room. This did not go over well. Eventually, my children grew up and didn¡¯t really need as much of my time, really, they would prefer if Dad would leave them alone. I began to have some free time, not a lot but some. That¡¯s where Horvat¡¯s World came in. Originally launched in 2022, Horvat¡¯s World became an overnight sensation. Created by a father and son team, Mike Horvat a neuroscientist and William a cybernetic computer engineer, they were able to create an immersive world with 98% realism, making it almost indistinguishable from real world experiences. At first this was a plaything of the well to do as initial VR helmet prices ran more than $5,000 U.S., but like all technology prices dropped and by Christmas the first year, prices had dropped to $1,500 U.S., by the following year to around $500 U.S., where they remained. Subscription costs were not a barrier at $45.00 a month. That is, not a barrier for the middle classes. In order to limit the effect of gold farmers and people with more money than sense, Horvat¡¯s World did not have a mail system or auction houses. They also employed individuals who acted as undercover buyers to root out individuals attempting to sell in game resources and items for cash, permanently banning the seller and confiscating the items. Since Horvat¡¯s World used a retinal scan to authenticate users a permanent ban meant so much more than the character deletions of old, this also prevented third party power leveling of accounts. Buying your way to the top was not an option in this game. While I could have afforded to play from the beginning, I did not even explore the possibility until about a year after its release. I remember why vividly. ¡°Bell, the Anderson case discovery cut-offs are next week, where do we stand on the discovery? Has Pulkins finished the depositions of the Director of Nursing and the Licensed Nursing Home Administrator?¡± Bell was my paralegal. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. As far as I am aware, he didn¡¯t schedule them.¡± Pulkins was a younger attorney I had delegated a number of cases to at the urging of my partners. However, I retained ultimate responsibility for the work and to the client. ¡°Bell, pull the file and let¡¯s see who they identified in response to our Interrogatories, I¡¯ll notice their depositions myself for next Wednesday before the deadline.¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Mr. Dellman, I¡¯m sorry but it doesn¡¯t look like Mr. Pulkins ever sent them any discovery requests.¡± ¡°He what?¡± A sinking feeling came over me. Bell: ¡°He didn¡¯t send any Interrogatories or requests for production of documents.¡± ¡°O.K., Bell please look and see what he has done on the file since I gave him the outline of everything that needed to be done.¡± Bell: ¡°He hasn¡¯t done anything.¡± ¡°Nothing?¡± ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t appear that he has touched the file at all.¡± My stomach started doing flip-flops, and my chest was beginning to tighten. ¡°O.K., Bell, I gave him fifteen cases to work, bring them all to me now if you could.¡± After 6 hours of reviewing the fifteen files, I discovered that he had done absolutely no work on any of them. I now had fifteen fires to put out on top of the 80 cases I was personally handling. I delegated and trusted and I was burned again. I spent 72 hours working without sleep to just get my head above water. Mentally I was a wreck, physically I was ready to collapse, and emotionally, I couldn¡¯t even fire the idiot because he was the son of one of my partners. This wasn¡¯t my only problem. I suffer from a pathological need to say yes when others ask for help. No matter that I was already drowning under the workload I already had, when someone needed help I stepped up to the plate. I just didn¡¯t know how to say no. The more I said I¡¯d help the more my workload increased. The more my workload increased, the more stress built up. The more stress I was under the worse my health became. This vicious circle had to be broken somehow. My wife was worried for me. ¡°Marty, you have to do something to bleed off the stress from work. You are going to drop dead in front of me if you keep going this way.¡± ¡°Joanie, I know, but what can I do? There isn¡¯t enough time in the day to get everything fixed and also decompress. I used to use my drive to work to relax but, since I bought that Google self-driving car, I have used the commute time to keep working. I thought that I would be working efficiently and have more free time but, the only thing that¡¯s happened is that I work longer. I¡¯m stuck, my ulcer is bleeding, my heart is going and I feel that I¡¯m going to lose my mind. What can I do?¡± ¡°Look, I now I¡¯ve given you a hard time before about games and the way you used to avoid the family when you played them. But, why don¡¯t you try Horvat¡¯s World. I understand that the time dilatation in the game makes each real world hour seem like 6 game hours. I will promise to give you two hours a night without any demands or requests and you can use that to decompress for what will seem 12 hours. Maybe that will help.¡± ¡°All right, I¡¯ll look into it, that¡¯s all I can promise.¡± Chapter Two CHAPTER TWO Research that¡¯s what I needed. Any decision made should be made after all the available facts have been gathered and analyzed. The rule I live by, the five Ps,--Proper planning prevents poor performance. Step one gather all of the available information regarding Horvat¡¯s World. Could I really utilize this game to reduce my stress levels? I began by downloading all of the available guides, followed by reviewing all available articles discussing the game itself and the artificial intelligence utilized to operate the world. I then read all of the available forums and recommendations of current players. I did this during my free time between midnight and 2 A.M. I learned that Horvat¡¯s World took place in a fantasy setting similar to the world of Dungeons and Dragons that I had played in my teens. Differences had evolved with the maturation of the game but it remained basically the same. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and a myriad of other races and creatures in a land of swords and magic. The world was operated by a pyramid of A.I.s of various capabilities. One overall A.I. was responsible for game oversight and direction, under that A.I. were A.I.s acting as Gods directing and interacting their followers and from there a multitude of lesser A.I.s acting as NPCs populated the world, handling from one to one thousand individual NPCs. Based upon this framework and direct character interaction, game play was completely different for each and every user. Step two, determine what my goals were in playing Horvat¡¯s World. Well, I needed to relieve the stress that was killing me. I needed peace and maybe I needed to release the natural aggression that builds up in real life that is politically incorrect to reveal. In other words it would be good to get my mad out. I also didn¡¯t want to have to rely on anyone. Worrying about whether others were going to do their jobs correctly was half the problem I was having in real life, I certainly didn¡¯t want to encounter it in the game. I didn¡¯t want to really interact with anyone other than casually, again I wanted peace not a new set of demands or expectations that I was going to have to worry about fulfilling. I didn¡¯t have long periods of time to devote to the game, could I still perform quests with my limited play time, including the crafting quests? Why learn all of the crafting skills? The answer to that question was easy, in order to be self-sufficient. I could do it. It would be slow going but, the idea was to reach a level where I could be on my own and relax. I envisioned creating a sanctuary far from everyone where I couldn¡¯t be disturbed. I also knew that in order to learn the crafting skills and to play the game itself, I would have to complete quests from various NPCs. The game mechanics would allow me to accomplish this even with my limited time play. The game had a feature which allowed a player to pause a quest if a player had to log off. All a player had to do was say ¡±pause quest¡± and when you were ready say ¡°resume quest¡±. All NPCs would disregard the time delay and act as if there wasn¡¯t a break in time. This only applied to time quests. I would have to also be strong enough to be on my own. This would necessitate physical and combat training. As the game allowed anyone to learn magic, I also put that on my list. My vision was going to take a ton of time. Step three, I started reading up on basics such as skinning, ancient tailoring, and primitive black smithing to get head start on basic skills that would be involved in the game. All in all, I spent more than two months doing my research before I was ready. I also didn¡¯t mention to anyone that I was going to play. Who wants their lawyer playing games? The day finally came, I ordered the latest in VR helmets and software for my portal room, and everything checked out. I spent the evening after work re-reviewing the instruction manuals for each and was ready to go. ¡°Joanie, I¡¯m going to start now. I¡¯ll just long on and start character creation tonight and then try out the world tomorrow.¡± ¡°All right, good luck let me know how you like it. Oh, honey, if you do like it and are going to play it often, why don¡¯t you check out the Sensodyne biofeedback suit. I heard that you can get workout benefits from using it while playing Horvat¡¯s World.¡± ¡°I will but, I¡¯m not sure I want to go to that much trouble to play a game.¡± ¡°All right, just please promise me you will consider it.¡± From Joanie¡¯s point of view, things just had to change. I need him to do something to change his life. He¡¯s out of shape, he¡¯s overstressed, and he is going to die if he doesn¡¯t do something soon. That¡¯s why I suggested Horvat¡¯s World. I mentioned the game first. I knew he was a sucker for sword and sorcery games. God knows we fought enough during our marriage over those games. I already knew about the Sensodyne biofeedback suit when I suggested the game. My plan was to hook him on the game and then get him to buy a Sensodyne suit so he could start getting his body back into shape. Every other workout plan I had tried had been a dismal failure. I was hoping that this would be just the thing to save my husband¡¯s life. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. While my wife went to another part of the house, I made myself comfortable on my home office chair, placed the helmet on my head and initiated start-up. I felt a moment of disorientation and a kaleidoscope of lights. The lights went away and I found myself in a 20 x 20 white room with a door on one of the wall which had a sign ¡°Horvat¡¯s World¡± over top. Standing in the middle of the room was a tall thin man dressed in what could only be described as an Englishman¡¯s personal servant¡¯s uniform. ¡°Good evening, Mr. Dellman, welcome to your portal room. I am Paul you virtual assistant, part of the portal software you purchased from Stifler Graphics, an approved third party vendor for Horvat¡¯s World.¡± ¡°Good evening, Paul¡± ¡°Mr Dellman, please let me explain a few things regarding your portal space. You may utilize this space at any time, even if you have suffered a death and are unable to reenter Horvat¡¯s World. You may purchase any items and decorate this space in any manner you wish. A catalog of furnishings is available just by asking me. The time dilatation of the game also applies to this portal room, therefore for every six hours here only one hour will pass in the real world. You also have full internet access and the ability to text. You can import 25 terabytes of data for local storage, all web based third-party document sharing is also available to you.¡± ¡°Oh, this is so much better than I thought. Well worth the $500 purchase price.¡± Paul: ¡°Do you have any questions Mr. Dellman?¡± ¡°Well, first things first, let me see the catalogue Paul.¡± ¡°Certainly sir.¡± I started with the basics. I purchased a red wall to wall carpet for the room and offset it with a light yellow print wall paper for the walls. I then chose an elaborately carved cherry wood desk with pecan wood accents, a leather chair for behind the desk and a pair of client chairs to balance out the set. I chose a grandfather clock to keep real world time and a separate digital clock to keep Horvat¡¯s World time. I also chose a state of the art Mac to interface with the data storage and internet, and then linked it with my office computer. The total price $3,000, about two percent of what the real life costs for these items would have been. Once I finished purchasing and decorating my portal space, I dismissed Paul and started testing my internet connectivity to my office computer. I then had an epiphany, I could get so much more work done with the time dilatation. I immediately dove right into my work, forgetting all about Horvat¡¯s World. Two hours later, I signed off. I found my wife reading in her study and I let her know I was off. Joanie: ¡°Well how did it go?¡± ¡°It was great, I set up an office and with the time dilation I read through all of the medical records in the Dillon case, I drafted discovery in the Chavez case and I prepared an outline for the Custas depositions. I can¡¯t believe how much work I got done.¡± Joanie: ¡°Are you telling me that you went into VR and you worked?¡± My wife seemed to be turning a little red. She did not look happy, as a matter of fact I was beginning to think that I may have screwed up. ¡°Well, yes. But, think of all I got done.¡± Joanie:¡± The purpose for you to go into VR was to relax. At what point did you forget that you are working yourself to death? If you use VR to work again, I will personally toss that VR helmet in the garbage and I may not take it off your head first. And then I will let you really know how I feel about it. Have I made myself clear on the subject?¡± ¡°Yes, dear¡±, I responded. ¡°And order a Sensodyne suit now. You are going to get in shape even if it kills you.¡± My God she was ticked. Yes, I screwed up. I completely forgot what I intended to accomplish. When I was given the opportunity to get additional office work done, I couldn¡¯t resist. I may have a tendency to be a workaholic. This also may be an understatement. After reassuring my wife that I wouldn¡¯t work from VR ever again (unless it¡¯s absolutely necessary), I called it a night leaving Horvat¡¯s World for the following evening. However, I did order a Sensodyne biofeedback suit and requested overnight delivery to appease my wife. Chapter Three The next chapter is going to be delayed for a few days. I am starting a trial and will be booked up day and night for a while. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER THREE After another fun filled day at the office, I returned home and was ready for my second attempt to play Horvat¡¯s World. The Sensodyne suit had arried. It looked like one of those unitards from Star Trek Next Generation. This was definitely not a complimentary look on my body. The suit however, linked with the VR helmet and would trigger muscle feedback to my body in conjunction with the activity that I engaged in while playing in Horvat¡¯s World. It did allow a sliding scale of feedback to adjust your personal workout. Being cautious I placed the feedback level on 50%. Once this was accomplished, I placed my VR helmet on and initiated the startup process. I found myself once again in my portal room. My desk and computer beckoned me but, this time I resisted and walked through the doorway marked ¡®Horvat¡¯s World¡±. I felt a sense of being transported and took a few steps to balance myself. I looked up from my faltering feet to see a young woman. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was dressed in a white business suit. She spoke before I could recover from my surprise. ¡°Good evening Mr. Dellman. My name is Darcy, I will be your guide for the initial setup of your Horvat¡¯s World account. While you provided preliminary information when you installed this program we will need additional information now. Are you prepared to link a bank account or credit card to this game account? ¡°Yes, I am please use my American Express card number XXXXX XX XX2542 for all transactions.¡± ¡°Thank you, with that out of the way let¡¯s begin.¡± A bright light filled the room for a brief second before the room returned to its normal brightness. ¡°Your retinal scan has been completed, and we are now ready for character creation. Have you picked a name for your character Mr. Dellman? Please remember your character must be male we do not allow gender swapping in Horvat¡¯s World.¡± ¡°Yes Darcy, I have chosen the name Mardel.¡± ¡°Let me check, yes, that name is available. I will now refer to you at all times as Mardel. This will be your one and only permissible character in Horvat¡¯s World unless you delete this character. You have some important decisions to make are you ready to proceed?¡± ¡°Thank you Darcy, yes, I am.¡± ¡°Very good, let¡¯s start with character race. Have you decided on which race you would like to play?¡± Your choices are Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, or Gnome. Currently monster races are locked but, that may change in the upcoming expansion. I had thought long and hard on this question during the research I had performed. Each race had plusses and minuses to them, with human being a default race with neither any plusses or minuses to their starting stats. However, I was tired of aging. As a human, problems with aging would soon affect my character¡¯s body if I played this game long enough. With a six to one time ratio arthritis, and decaying vision were far too close for this type of choice. I tend to take the long view in my analysis. I also just wanted to have fun and try something different. ¡°Yes, I have decided to be an elf.¡± ¡°Are you sure? All characteristics, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma start at a base of 10 as a human. If you choose to play an elf there will be a subtraction of one from both your strength and constitution, although there will be an addition of two to dexterity and one to intelligence.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure. I want to play an elf.¡± ¡°We now need to distribute 10 stat points between your characteristics. How would you like to place these points? I was looking for a balanced build for this character, one that would be able to stand on its own. With this in mind I decided on the following: ¡° I would like two points in strength, two points in dexterity, two points in constitution, two points in intelligence and two points in wisdom.¡± ¡° "O.K., let¡¯s move on to designing your avatar, we start with this.¡± Suddenly appearing before me was a grotesque vision. It was a naked copy of myself, a little more angular with pointed ears and almond shaped eyes. The skin color was nearly milk white and wrinkled, hanging jowls and deep circles under the eyes discolored blue and black. There was a small gut and flabby musculature on a body that looked 200 hundred years old. No wonder why my wife wanted me to get into shape. I wondered what she saw in me at all. ¡°Would you like to make any changes to this avatar?¡± ¡°Oh, God, yes! Where do I start? First, let¡¯s take 40 years off the age this body. 40 human years, however many that would be in elf years to make the same changes.¡± The copy of myself suddenly melted into a younger version of me. It looked like me at 25. Still lots of work still to do. ¡°Let¡¯s decrease the fat by 15% and add 20% more muscle, and make my height 6¡¯1¡±. ¡° Man, I started looking good. Talk about your vanity mirror. I was starting to look like my mind¡¯s eye of myself not that imposter that looked at me in the mirror each morning. ¡°And now for the most important part, give me hair!¡± I scrolled through a dozen hairstyles until I chose a swept back look that came to just above my shoulders. I then chose the color brown for the hair, and a soft bronze for my skin color. I felt like a kid in a candy store, I hadn¡¯t felt this good in ages. ¡°That completes all of the changes I want to make Darcy.¡± ¡°Are you sure, maybe you want to rework the shaping of your lips?¡± Did I detect that the A.I. was a little fed up with my Christmas wish list in remaking my body? I think I pushed it far enough. ¡°No, I think that does it Darcy. Sorry for taking so long.¡± ¡°Quite alright, let¡¯s move on then to your starter city. Have you chosen where you wish to start?¡± Once again, I had done my research and decided on an Elven starter area that contained a number of craftsmen and training facilities to begin my quest for independence. ¡°Yes, I would like to start in Mayfield Village.¡± ¡°Granted, prepare for placement.¡±