Chapter 1

Reyna-

“It has been a week since the CEO of Wolf Tech has gone missing. For those that don’t know, he is the creator of the virtual reality game, known as Arcane Realm. The game has become exceedingly popular since it was first announced to be released a year ago. Many had lined up to purchase the gear needed to play the game. Since it was released the day before CEO Luka Alder went missing, it has been a popular topic. Arcane Realm was created as a fantasy role-playing game…” The lady on the radio continued talking, but I reached over and turned it off.

I didn’t want to hear another person talking about how my boss was missing. Most of the time they focused more on the game than the fact that he was missing. It has been a week and still, the police have not come up with any new leads.

The acting CEO of the company, previously the Vice President, seems to be looking into the matter, but even he is trying to keep the talk about the CEO limited. I wished that someone would do something because it wasn’t the same going to work these days. Granted I didn’t know my boss very well, but that didn’t stop me from liking him.

I wouldn’t say he was the nicest boss in the world, but there was something about him that I was drawn to. There have been many times I have purposefully put myself in his path, but each time he walked by me as if I didn’t exist. Not that I could blame him.

Compared to him, I was a nobody. He was handsome, rich, intelligent, and could get anyone he wanted. I was only decent looking, with an attitude that I needed to work on. My mother had raised me by herself, and my father hadn’t been in the picture.

I didn’t have much money, but I lived comfortably. The only impressive thing about me was that I was good at my job, as a game tester. Playing video games wasn’t exactly an honorable profession, but I loved what I did.

Still, I doubt that it would get the CEO of the largest game developer in the country to take a second look at me. Not that it mattered, considering that he was missing. It was upsetting since I liked him quite a lot, but it wasn’t like I could do much. I was merely an employee that worked at his company.

Every day this week I have wanted to call in sick to work, but I couldn’t afford to. At most all I would be able to do is sit around the house and mope anyway. It was better to go to work also, so I could keep myself busy.

I arrived in front of the building thirty minutes before my shift as I did every morning. I wanted to be the first one here, so I could make sure everything was running smoothly. Parking my car in my designated parking spot, I got took a minute to collect myself.

Forcing myself to smile, I checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. I still wasn’t sure why the company had hired me since my appearance was different from everyone else at the company. Most wore suits or elegant dresses.

I, on the other hand, wore jeans with rips in them and shirts that I bought from stores like Hot Topic. My hair was blonde with magenta tips. I had a lip ring and nose ring, along with a few piercings in my ears, and a tattoo of a Phoenix on my left shoulder. I looked more like I was a punk rocker, rather than a businesswoman.  

My eyeliner and mascara were thick, unlike the other women that worked here. They looked as if they wore little makeup or had more of a natural look. It wasn’t like I didn’t like my style, but it was certainly different from everyone else.

Shrugging my shoulders, I stopped caring about how different I was from everyone else. If they didn’t like my grunge style, then that was on them. I was who I was and didn’t care what others thought of me.

Although, there were times that I wished that I was more ladylike, just so Luka would give me the time of day. Then I remind myself that if others can’t accept me for who I was, it was their loss. I wouldn’t change for anyone, including Luka.

Getting out of my car, I made my way inside. Using my key card, I scanned it at the door, so I could be let in. The building had top-notch security, which meant not everyone could enter. I had high security, but I couldn’t even get into every room in the building.

“Good morning, Ms. Levine.” The guard at the front desk greeted me as I walked toward the elevator.

“Good morning.” I responded but didn’t stop walking.

When I was in the elevator, I pressed the button to go to the second floor. The elevator ride seemed slower than normal, but the second the doors opened, I stepped out. Going to my desk, I checked my email, but there wasn’t anything important.

The best thing about what I did for work was that it was laid back. I sometimes had to do some intense work, but most of the time I simply played games. Other times I had to help with fixing bugs in the game or rewriting codes to make the game better.

Technically as a game tester, it wasn’t my job, but in a way, I was also part of the developing department. I didn’t have to actively plan anything or fix anything, but a lot of people came to me when there was a problem. When the game had minor issues during the development stage, I helped correct the issues.

While in college, I developed my own video game but ended up selling it to Wolf Tech. When I applied to work here, I decided that I didn’t want to make the games, I wanted to test them. I found that making sure that players were able to get the best experience possible in a game.

Since small errors could be overlooked, it was my job to find them. I would report the issues to the development team, but I often fixed them myself. It was unusual for a tester to fix errors, but I had the clearance to do so.

Very rarely do I encounter a problem that I am unable to fix on my own. Of course, I am not able to do anything major. If there is a major problem in a game, I must report it and either work with the development team or let them handle it.

Other than that, if there aren’t any pressing matters, I simply play games all day. My account is linked to the main database, so even when I am inside a game, I am still able to communicate with the outside world. This is so that if I am in the game and there is an issue, I can be notified and either let others know what to do or log out to fix it.

It isn’t often that I get pulled out of a game though. In all the years that I have been playing, I loved it even more. Now there was full-dive technology, that allowed a player to fully emerge into a game. The best part about Arcane Realm was that it was highly realistic.

Everything inside the game felt real. Even dying inside the game felt real. It wasn’t the best feeling in the world, but it made playing more enjoyable. To be able to fully emerge into a game to that degree, was something every gamer dreamed of.

Which is why I was eager to start working every morning. Since I didn’t have any emails or anything pressing to take care of, I left my desk. Since I was the head of my department, I had my own office.

Across from my desk, there was a bed, where I spent most of my day. It was like a hospital bed, one that adjusted my position at random times, so I wasn’t laying in one position all day long. Moving to the bed, I adjusted it manually, so I could be sitting up when I start.

Next to the bed was a table, where my office headgear was sitting. It was a white device, which looked like a headband, as it went over the top of my head. I wouldn’t say it was the most comfortable when putting it on, but as soon as I emerged into the game, it didn’t matter.

Placing it over my head, I connected the transmitters that stimulated my brain, to my temples. Laying back against the mattress, I closed my eyes and pressed the power-on button. The game started up immediately and I was mentally transported to a world that looked real, yet magical at the same time.

Looking at my surroundings, I smiled to myself. Every time I came to this world, inside the game, it brought me joy. Holding my hands out in front of me, I couldn’t get over how real my hands looked. Everything about being inside this game was surreal.

Although I was a beta tester and my stats transferred when the game was released, I wanted to start fresh. During my beta testing stage, I had chosen a dragon as my character, but now I wanted to be something else. Raising my hand, I thought of the menu, and a transparent display appeared in front of me.

Unlike most games, where you have to press a button, in a VR game to this degree, all I had to do was think about what I wanted, and it would appear. Scrolling through the menu, by using my index finger, just as I would scroll through a touch screen, I looked for the account settings.

It didn’t take me long to find it. Clicking on it, another screen popped up and I looked for the option to start a new game. An alert popped up, and an automated female voice spoke.

“Are you sure you wish to restart? By doing so, you will be transported to the beginning and must choose a new character and lose all your current stats.”

Since it was voice-activated as well, I responded verbally. “I understand and I agree.”

As soon as I finished speaking, a white light appeared around me and a second later I was teleported onto a platform, with transparent screens all around me. They were all the character choices.

“What do I want to be now?” I asked myself, as excitement ran through me.

Waving my hand out in front of me, I started scrolling through all the options. The first one was a Werewolf, which I had considered. Leaving it as an option, I scrolled to look at more choices. The next was a Dragon, but I had already played it.

After that was a vampire, but the idea of tasting blood when the stimulations in the game were real, didn’t sound pleasing. Mermaid was next, then Witch or Wizard, but I kept scrolling. Calling out each character, I scrolled through until I found one that I liked.

“Hobbit, Demon Slayer, Hunter, Angel, Elf, Fairy…” I stopped listing them as I froze on the fairy.

Clicking the fairy, I smiled as I was transformed into a fairy. A mirror appeared in front of me, so I could see what I looked like. My hair was long and platinum blonde. My eyes were silver, with silver gems under my eyes and along my cheekbones. With a pair of beautiful silver wings on my back. I was about two inches shorter in the game than I was in real life, standing five foot nothing.

Every other feature was like how I looked in real life. The cool thing about the VR system was that it was able to detect what someone looks like, based on memory fragments that it collected to give players the best gaming experience.

It didn’t know everything about us, but it knew enough to make things more realistic. We had the ability to completely change our appearance, but I wasn’t interested in it. I felt that if I looked similar to my real self, inside the game, it would make me feel like I was truly in the game.

Satisfied with my appearance, I clicked the accept option on the screen in front of me. I could change the appearance of my fairy character, but I liked the way I looked right now. The only thing I didn’t like was that I was wearing a white dress, with a silver belt under my breast. Not that it wasn’t pretty, but I wasn’t big on wearing dresses.