VEG
VEG
Written by: Zachery Lawrence Nims
Download the free App: VEG Gaming Evolved from I-tunes or Google Play on your smart phone today! Follow the INFO button instructions and enjoy.
Copyright © 2014 by Zachery L Nims
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
First Printing: 2016
ISBN 978-0-9972020-1-4
Zachery Nims
2224 E 20th Street
Tulsa, OK 74104
https://www.facebook.com/Virtualearthgrid/
Ordering Information:
Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, educators, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the above listed address.
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[email protected] Dedication
To my wife Lauren: Whose heavy snoring forced me to stay up writing. Without your encouragement, I would have never finished this novel. You are my heart, my lover, my Lauren.
To my parents: Thank you for nurturing the strange and weird sides of your sons.
To my brother Todd: I am lucky to have a brother that is also my best friend. Thank you for your protection, support, and friendship. I look forward to our adventures together.
To the new Augmented Reality Pokemon Game released in 2016 that is just like my novel: Thank you Pikachu, for forcing me to publish this novel ahead of schedule. If it isn’t well received, I blame your adorable little yellow face.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all of my Kickstarter backers without whose help this book would never have been completed.
A special thanks to the following people:
Todd Nims
Don & Cherry Nims
Bryant Hebert
Grant Manthey
Rick & Gail Hebard
David Elliott
William Izmirlian
These few are the true philanthropists in life. The ones that encourage dreams and inspire hope in humanity. It is not often that you run into such individuals. We shy away from such strength. I am fortunate to call some of these people my friends and even more fortunate to call some family. Thank you for all your help and I hope that one day, I will be able to support you as you have supported me.
Chapter 1: The Golden Years
Source: Blog Entry
Name: Mastablasta
William Higinbotham, with an analog computer, created the very first video game called 'Pong' in 1985. With 700 pounds of equipment and an oscilloscope screen, three components lit up with a neon green glow on a grid resembling a two-dimensional tennis match. It was fitting that the first video game was displayed on a grid, for a grid was what now engulfed the earth.
In the beginning games advanced at a relatively slow rate. There weren’t gamers, just merely people finding yet another way to occupy their time. As games advanced, the vox populi was that they would become an escape from the world and ultimately lead to our individual isolation. We became infatuated with the idea of virtual reality pods as an attainable future. These stationary cells would allow users to have all of the sensations of the real world within the confines of their home. An idea built upon the backs of a rising slothful race. It was an enticing concept to some but adversarial to humanity. Science fiction novels and films glorified this idea. Massively multiplayer online games or MMO’s began to isolate our race even further, gripping the youth with the newest form of gaming heroin. It flooded the veins of every nation and human interaction began its ultimate decline.
Our society started to cater to our isolation by providing us with online shopping and automated kiosks so that one could spend an entire day without truly having to speak to or acknowledge anyone. We indulged in guilty secretive pleasures and succumbed to our primal interests. It made our race easy to control and even easier to manipulate. Our economy fell out from under us giving way to a generation that would rather rot away in their virtual haven than work for a living.
We were breeding a race that fed off instant gratification. Patience was a rare virtue as time progressed. People decided that if it took longer than a minute to satisfy their need, than the fault lay with the other individual. "I hate stupid people," was a phrase that took off due to the impatience of the youth. Unemployment levels sky rocketed and it became common practice for parents to support their children well into their thirties. Our arrogance allowed us to neglect the “sink or swim” concept and to coddle the youth until we crippled them. Everyone had a source to blame for their own shortcomings. It was easier to point the finger than to accept that we weren’t preparing our children for the battle of life. Every animal knows the true meaning of survival of the fittest but it is human nature to play god and allow everyone a crippling chance. Obesity ran rampant, as did a bombardment of psychological “diseases.” Therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists were a dime a dozen. Our future looked bleak.
Then VEG hit the market, created by a visionary named Charles Sanders who saw a light at the end of the darkness. Charles invented the first system that stimulated our economy. At this point, China had become the economic leader. The Chinese Yuan was the leading currency in the world market. The US, with a declining economy, began to fear a hostile takeover. We had no way to compete with China because we had exhausted all our natural resources. Our oil embargo had diminished its hold due to our environmental policies. We wouldn’t allow refineries on our own soil so we outsourced jobs overseas and paid dearly for it. This combined with the rise in sustainable energies caused a final bust for oil that wasn’t cost effective for us to wean off of. The rest of the world profited while our economy imploded upon itself. The only advantage America held onto was its innovation. We excelled in futurism, current fashion, and art. Leading the world in designing business models helped us, but they were sold for next to nothing.
VEG changed everything. No one knew how to react to it at first. Its premiering advertisement was bizarre. It showed an overweight boy sitting next to a screen that encompassed his entire wall. It was motion based but could also be played with a console controller.
The room depicted an average middle class household. The design was modern, and the decor made the little room feel spacious. The boy’s mother entered with a package, "William that game that you ordered just arrived!" If it weren't for William’s poor physique he would have been ripping the box open in a matter of seconds. One could only see the excitement on his face but his body suggested otherwise. He rolled around like a bowling ball until his knees were under him. Shaking furiously, he used all four limbs to lift his hefty mass to a standing position. Out of breath, he staggered over to the box where the giant red letters VEG were branded on top.
Inside, the contents were simple: a pair of clear glasses, four pads for the knees and elbows, and a device that looked like a lightsaber. The glasses would later be known as “Jackers” and the lightsaber as “the rod,” which would allow for countless hours of "that's what she said" jokes.
The boy put on his glasses and pads. He then grabbed his rod and opened the front door. As the door opened, a high concentration of bright contrasted light poured through, as if a portal to another world had appeared. The boy walked out, barely fitting through the door’s frame. It closed and reopened in an instant, but where once stood a boy, was now a huge, heavily armed adult, carrying spoils from across the universe. The man took off his Jackers and all of his armor disappeared leaving a lean, toned male in his mid-twenties, baring the faint resemblanc
e of the boy who stepped outside.
Although confusing, the commercial left an air of mystery. Most of the gaming forums had no idea what to make of it but they began researching Charles Sanders and littered the Internet with information on the man. He was a computer programmer wiz with radical ideas, that had locked himself away for over twenty years. He was said to have been programming with a team of interns but every intern was sworn to secrecy. That was until the E3 exposition in 2018.
E3 is a gaming forum that draws gamers from all over the world. This particular forum was a little different than it had historically been. The turnout was enormous, but the main difference was that every attendee had to go through a series of tests using a pair of glasses that looked just like the ones in the VEG commercial. Once the glasses were placed on the individuals face they were asked a series of questions as the glasses calculated their bodies dimensions. They then stepped on a scale so their weight could be calculated. Next they were asked to tilt their head to its limit in every direction. To finish, each individual chose his or her character type, healer, mage, warrior, rogue, and so on. Then they were given glasses, rod, pads and granted entrance.
The stadium was set up in a peculiar manner. Charles Sanders stood in the center of a hexagon floor panel. Metal poles were erected on the corners connected by lasers. It appeared to be a battle arena. Attendees were instructed not to cross the laser barrier but that didn't stop the crowd from rushing to stand at its perimeter. They fought like children for a spot to view Charles, the programmer that hadn’t been seen in public for twenty years.
The man had aged quite a bit from the pictures that had been flooding the Internet. Charles stood now with a pasty white complexion before an eagerly awaiting crowd of thousands. His whitish gray facial hair ran rampant resembling the wolf man just before total transformation. He was an eccentric old hermit that looked like he hadn’t bathed in a week. He spoke suddenly, his voice sounding like a god, roaring down from all angles of the structure, "Greetings gamers of outdated and obsolete technologies, I present you the final gaming frontier. A gift that will change not only your gaming experience but also the world in which you live, and I assure you that it will exceed all expectations."
With a flick of his fingers, he manifested a glowing earth in the palm of his right hand. It was an augmented three-dimensional hologram that could only be seen with the VEG glasses on. Astonishment hung over the crowd as he increased its size. Just like the oscilloscope screen for pong, the earth had a grid covering its entirety. "The Virtual Earth Grid stands before you, or as I like to call it, VEG. I, along with many others, have been designing and programming our actual earth on a grid. Any player that registers, as you all have today, now has access to our earth as a completely immersive gaming environment.
Charles was wide eyed with excitement but was met with puzzled expressions. “Let me show you a little bit more of what I mean." He then pulled out his rod and clicked the large red button near his trigger finger. In an instant, beautiful armor covered his entire body. The rod turned into a giant flaming sword that he waved in a circular motion creating a spinning ring of fire. When you took your glasses off, it all disappeared, but with them on you could see the gleaming reds from his armor, the fire twirling around the steel of his sword, so realistic that you could barely distinguish what was reality and what was virtual.
"BEGIN," Charles roared. Instantaneously, six giant ogre beasts appeared out of thin air and surrounded him. Charles ran at the first one sliding on his knees underneath the ogres melee attack, a club blanketed with metal spikes. Charles sliced at its right Achilles tendon sending him crashing to the ground. The ogre grabbed his ankle and screamed. In a desperate folly, he hurled his monstrous club toward Charles’s head. Charles pushed another button on his rod that casted a colossal wall of ice in front of him. The ice shield cracked upon impact, misdirecting the club just inches overhead.
Placing the rod to his lips, Charles began chanting foreign sounding words over and over again as the other five ogres approached. A fire began to grow five yards out from him that stopped the ogres dead in their tracks. His chanting became louder and louder until the fire erupted. From its core, came an enormous red dragon, breathing down fiery death. It landed on the sixth crippled ogres head, crushing its skull with the weight of his massive body. Thick, green goo sprayed out in every direction staining Charles's armor. Charles slammed his sword into the ground and the earth split, cracking underneath its force. He put his arms out toward the heavens, turning slow in celebration of his victory. Then he pushed another button on his rod and everything disappeared.
"For the first time in the history of gaming you will be using your entire body to interact with the world around you. Our Earth is now your playground!" He snapped his fingers again and an image of a park appeared with kids playing VEG battling a troll looking creature. "Imagine battling a boss on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Imagine scuba diving in the Bahamas on a shipwreck, attacking a sea serpent that guards an elite item called The Gauntlets of Atlantis. Imagine sky diving over Middle America to farm flying creatures for an epic quest." An electric buzz began to fill the air. The crowd was in awe as images flashed before them of what was possible. "You will be awarded not only with levels and treasures but also by how agile and honed your skills become. I promise you that this game is the first step to us all becoming the healthiest country on the face of the planet. Gamers will be idolized inside and outside of the gaming community. You will possess talents that no one will understand, you will climb the tallest mountains, you will explore the deepest caves, and best of all you will face your deepest fears." With that everyone erupted in applause. It was the greatest game anyone had ever seen.
A cable came down from the ceiling. Charles grabbed it and began to float away, exiting the arena but when he reached the ceiling he spoke one last time. "I have given you all base armor and beginners weapons. Please prepare yourself for war. If you die you will not get to keep your VEG gear. If you survive then I bid you a good journey and happy hunting." Smiling, he vanished through a door in the roof of the structure.
The crowd was left in silence waiting with anticipation. It built to the point that it awakened fear in the heart. Then, without warning, the barrier of lasers disappeared from the central arena and the ground began to tremble. The lights went out and darkness swam in. Screams lurked from gloomy corners, sending the flock of humans into panic. Ones in the center called for visual descriptions of the horrors that crept in the pitch-black room. Their questions answered with limp lifeless bodies being lobbed from the darkness into the center of the arena. The bodies were virtual projections of the user being thrown. The game had an incredible amount of physics built into it. The avatar of the player flew away while the physical user stood stunned, frozen in place. It took a couple of seconds for the virtual body to warp back to the original location and then the user was given full mobility again. Having your body thrown was essentially a prolonged stun.
Aliens, dark and disfigured Picasso rejects, emerged from the shadows. They were three times the size of men and mucus colored, their skin partially transparent. When they quivered you could almost see through them. Their heads were scaled like dragons, with elongated noses and great big round eyes. The core of their body was unique in that each of them had enlarged potbellies. The potbellies being so big that it affected the way they walked. They hobbled toward the panicking crowd, coddling their bellies like a prized possession. Then one of the Aliens screamed, throwing his head back. His stomach exploded, sending four miniature flying aliens airborne. They were a fifth the size of their host with dragonfly wings and two sharp raptor-like claws on each hand. They didn’t bide their time before attacking. They leapt onto the chest of a warrior standing idly by and ripped open his belly, fighting over his entrails.
After the rabid creatures finished their intestinal meal, o
ne of them hopped inside his stomach, sealing it up with some sort of heat mending technique. During the fighting the users found that the VEG elbow pads and kneepads not only oriented where the user was for the augmented overlay of their armor but it also could paralyze their body parts with electric shock. When a monster hacked off your leg it would become paralyzed and useless. The man lay frozen on the ground while an augmented virtual circus was taking place on his body. Unable to move, he looked on in horror as his belly began to grow from the larva developing within. It was so realistic looking that a couple of the younger users began crying.
People started pushing buttons on their rods and all of the sudden there were warriors, mages, and rogues. Wands, bows, and swords were beginning to appear along with daggers and battle-axes. The aliens eyed the crowd, a little more wary than before, seeing the newly acquired armor and weapons. They barked orders at each other from across the room, like dogs advising on strategy for the hunt.
Then one man in the crowd, a little on the heavy side, let out a cry, "ATTACK," as he ran at the one closest to him. The alien parried but was too surprised from the strike to have sure footing. It was like a mouse attacking an elephant and the alien was caught in the shock of the moment. He took a clumsy step back, losing balance as he protected his wobbling potbelly. The man swung his axe hard into the alien’s left leg chopping it clear off. This sent it falling to the ground, its right arm extended outwards to brace for impact. But the warrior was there to strike it. He landed a blow that collapsed the joint causing the alien to slam into the ground.
The heavy set man was now wheezing a bit but was too entranced by the idea of finishing the alien off to care. He raised his axe and just before he could bring it down upon its throat a bombardment of arrows pierced the alien’s skull. The man turned, ripe with anger, to yell at the archers for stealing his glory. However before he could, four aliens leapt from the deceased’s belly, ripping the axe wielding warrior’s chest open while gnawing at his throat. One jumped inside the heavy-set man and began sewing. His belly was already enormous so you couldn’t see the effect of the hive inside of him until minutes later. The two dead users now sat with enlarged puss pod like bellies ready to explode. The human body was smaller than the Aliens, so the embryos stretched the skin out so thin that you could see the gestation occurring. Cells were splitting at the rate of rapid-growth bacteria, forming grotesque abominations that slithered around each other, trying to break free of their paper-thin womb. The skin couldn’t contain their movement and they burst out prematurely, screaming as they rode a wave of stomach fluids onto the ground. Although not airborne yet, as their wings hadn’t been given enough time to fully develop, they were still quick as rabbits leaping around on all fours. This was all a virtual show at this point. The physical person was removed from the arena once his character was announced dead. He sat as a spectator, watching with frustration as the aliens hatched from his augmented replica’s core. It was so realistic that it looked as if his twin was there in front of him.
A group of four users figured out a way to contain their monster. They had a frost mage, who focused all of her freezing spells on the belly when the Alien died. It contained the embryos long enough for a hunter to wrap the body in a metal mesh trap. Then a fire mage ignited the belly ensuring that everything burned within. They downed two but before the group fought another, an alien approached from their rear. It ripped off one of the hunter’s shoulder plates, throwing it into an archer’s chest. The alien swung high hitting the hunter across the face sending his body soaring across the room. The impact only caused minor damage, a healer already running to aid him. The other three took control, using ice to trap both of the alien’s feet while a couple players attacked it from behind sending its body lunging forward. Its arms tried to protect its stomach but before they could, warriors chopped them off. Without their bracing, the impact was fatal, not only to itself but also to the underdeveloped soft skinned alien babies within its belly. People worried that the goo might be acidic, running at first, but it only blinded their Jackers. Users delighted in the fact that they had to physically wipe the augmented mucus off their glasses with their hands before they could see again. VEG had considered everything in the programming. It was these subtle touches that made the whole environment so beautiful.
The crowd began understanding how to use their characters and within minutes all of the aliens were dead with only twenty user fatalities. The crowd was excited and breathing heavily but also patting each other on the back, thanking and congratulating one another. The victory was short lived.
The room went dark, and a voice boomed from the darkness. "STEP AWAY FROM THE CENTER OF THE ROOM. ZOGON THE DESTROYER ARRIVES." Red lights began to flash and a blinding beam shot down from the ceiling. When it disappeared, an enormous black-scaled half dragon half pit-bull looking boss stood in its place. He laughed loudly, "THIS IS ALL EARTH HAS TO OFFER?" He grabbed the first person he saw, picking him off the ground. He toyed with the user for a second before tossing their body against the far wall as if it weighed nothing. The character’s hit points dropped to zero, killing him instantly. Of course he didn't truly throw the character but Zogon picked up and threw the augmented reality version of his character, armor and all. It looked almost like he grabbed the man's soul and ripped it out, tossing it aside.
One person in the crowd took command in an instant fearing that he would have his newly acquired game taken away yelled "ARCHERS AND MAGES FOCUS FIRE ON HIS HEAD AND FIND WHATEVER WEAK SPOT YOU CAN!" He bellowed over the silenced crowd. "HEALERS PICK A WARRIOR AND STICK WITH HIM. WARRIORS FIND A LEG AND ATTACK IT. STAY CLEAR OF THE TAIL!" People were stunned at first but began to fall into a rhythm after a minute or two.
When Zogon’s life dropped to fifty percent something strange happened. A warrior from within the crowd turned and killed a player behind him. The crowd happened to have a couple of good frost mages and within an instant he was frozen from chest to toe, locked in a solid chamber of ice. “Zogon controlled my mind. There was nothing I could do,” he screamed.
A fire mage standing nearby released him, “We need all the tanks we can get.”
The warrior smiled, but before he could take another step three arrows tore through his jugular, “LIAR,” an archer screamed approaching with his bow drawn and aimed at his head. “Zogon just offered me the same deal. You hear a whisper; it’s soft at first but then grows louder offering you levels and epic treasures.”
After killing the greedy user, the players got back into their rhythm, dodging Zogon’s tail attacks and ignoring his enticing whispers. At 10 percent Zogon unveiled long golden glowing wings. The first couple of flaps blew bursts of wind so strong that it knocked all the surrounding warriors into the players behind them. Their virtual avatars knocked into the players behind them, stunning each warrior for a couple of seconds until their avatar returned.
Once at the ceiling Zogon swooped down targeting an archer and a healer picking them up like toys as he hurled them into the air. Their bodies flailed around like rag dolls but before they made impact a bubble froze them in midair. Two mages were now controlling them like puppets, lowering the archer and mage gracefully to the ground. This sent Zorgon into a fury, snarling and barking while he sat perched up on a support beam of the arena. The support beam was a good one hundred feet above the ground, too high for almost all of the range attacks. To everyone’s surprise he began to devour pieces of steel from the structure scraping at it with his razor sharp claws. It was replenishing his life faster than the hunters long-range shots could drain him.
Once back to fifteen percent life, he snarled, coughing up something fierce from his stomach. His body began to quiver, until a ball of steel came lunging from his throat down onto the users below covered in stomach acids. It killed ten users upon impact, two barely survived by jumping out of the way but the ball of steel rolled onto them c
rushing their legs. The two crippled users now dragged themselves to the nearest healer screaming for help. Zorgon continued to eat metal, vomiting it onto the users below. Hope began to dwindle until a fire mage screamed, “attack the I-beam.” Most users were still not used to the game so the idea seemed impossible, but once the fire mage had the structural steel glowing bright red, it began to give way. The I-Beam failed virtually, sending Zorgon flailing head first to the ground below. The impact caved in his head sending it into his chest, making it appear like it never existed.
The battle was over. Zorgon had killed off at least one hundred and fifty users. Some began to cry and others sat down with frustration. Everyone that died or lived was awarded with VEG gear and a full year of free membership as well as five levels of experience. Also one level 5 epic weapon of your choice was rewarded. The VEG users that survived were elevated to level six and were given a substantial amount of gold. This put even the users that died in a better mood. The crowd was now hugging. You could see the excitement in everyone’s eyes, for the first time gamers were interacting in person. The magnitude of VEG hadn’t set in but one thing was certain, it was a game changer.
The initial cost for a VEG starter kit was three hundred dollars but the game fee was only fifteen dollars per month. This fee, although some said was expensive, gave you credits towards travel providers like Southwest and Greyhound. VEG ignited the tourism market again. All it took for an abandoned town to thrive again was a single elite boss placed somewhere in its vicinity. People would travel anywhere from around the world if the spoils were rich enough. Monsters roamed the parks, rivers, mountains, and valleys of Earth. VEG allowed gamers to begin interacting in person again. Kids were now seen everywhere outside thrashing their rods at thin air. Clans of fifty to a hundred people would band together to take down bosses on mountaintops to get epic drops and then camp out under the stars to celebrate their victory.
As the game progressed, gamers that were formerly obese and short winded were now physically fit and agile. The prior stereotype of gamers had been erased and now health magazines advertised things like "VEG body workout," or "VEGER shares his secret to rock hard abs" and so on. Cinemas began to incorporate VEG technology, letting players battle the villain in super hero movies after the credits rolled. Before VEG, cinema ticket sales had been on the decline due to pirated movies and torrent downloads. It was much easier to see a movie in the comfort of your own home without having to fight the crowds, plus it was free. People could indulge in movies that they were ashamed to go see at the theatre without being judged. VEG brought theatre sales back to an all-time high, bringing a whole new interactive environment.
Charles Sanders spent a lot of time redesigning the movie experience in general. As a huge fan of choose your own adventure books at a young age, he encouraged most of the major production companies to do the same. You could watch the same movie multiple times and still not see every version of it. During the film, moviegoers could alter the overall outcome. VEG was incorporated into local food markets, home design, as well as professional sports. The world had become an augmented playground and gamers roamed its oceans of code like Indiana Jones hungry for adventure.
In 2020 VEG was in 90 percent of the American households and started to flood the overseas markets. VEG became a part of the average Americans everyday life. In 2022 the government stepped in, deeming the game a distraction. Statistics showed the number of high school dropouts and the neglect of the education system. Charles, knowing the reasoning was sound, installed level caps to ensure that children would strive to finish school. If you didn't graduate from elementary school you couldn't be higher than a level 10 in your character class. If you didn't graduate from middle school then you couldn't get past level 20 and so on. Education was free if people had the drive, and Charles believed that no child should be held back because of their lack of funding. A philanthropist at heart, he donated millions of computers with free lifetime Internet access to children less fortunate. Charles refocused his creativeness upon the school systems, improving the way that teachers taught. He incorporated VEG technology into every classroom. Teachers had access to special architectural software, which would allow them to take a field trip to the Louvre or the Taj Majal by simply creating it in a playground or park. Kids would be walking on the surface of Mars during their science class or digging through Egyptian tombs in World History. Teachers now taught life skills as VEG users were given more experience if they knew how to make fires from scratch as well as understanding how to procure healing remedies. VEG was leading us back to the dream of what humanity could become.