VRMMORPG - Chapter 4 (Patreon)

*Pshh*

An Artifact pod opened, and a red haired girl stepped out.

The metallic fluid that she had been submerged in slid off her body along with the magnetic fields, making her completely clean, dry, and spotless when she exited the pod.

Moving her body and cracking a few joints, she walked out of the room and toward another area of the complex.

For the past 7 months, Hugo had been holed up in the damn gym training all hours of the day. She had gone to watch one time, and the training he was doing was horribly brutal.

She knew just how tired those machines could get you. The ones in their gym were the highest class products out there and built in order to train superhumans. That meant any average person would be working at the lowest difficulty on those machines.

And that was Hugo, at first.

Now though…

Suri made her way to the gym, opening the door that led to an airlock.

Because the gym had its own air composition, it had to be isolated from the rest of the world. That required this airlock, which quickly filtered and changed out the air. Suri felt the cool and fresh air brush across her face before the door opened once more.

This time, she walked into the gym proper. Taking a deep breath though, she noticed how low the oxygen content was, making her heart beat faster and her breaths become more hurried as if she were on top of a mountain.

She looked at the man who was training in this environment.

He was running on a treadmill, looking like he was in a slow sprint. But his legs were red and he was breathing hard, signs of obviously painful exertion.

“Don’t disturb him.”

Suddenly, the Child AGI appeared in her vision. Suri glanced at her before looking back at Hugo.

“He’s about to complete a 3 hour marathon.”

“3 hours? My god…”

Her mouth gaped.

Not only was it a 3 hour marathon, but he was doing it with this low oxygen environment that resembles the altitude of a mountain. It was insane.

But there he was. She could see that he only had two miles to go, which were arguably the hardest.

He continued to run at that fast pace, and Suri watched him for the rest of the 13 minutes that he ran.

His face wasn’t filled with determination or anything of the sort. It was more like silent resignation. The kind that made one simply accept all the pain filling their body. Hugo was no doubt in pure anguish, but his blank, almost downtrodden face was simply looking forward and his body was continuing with relaxed movements.

Finally, when the treadmill came to a gradual stop, Hugo stood there while staring off into space.

“Drink.”

The Child spoke, and Hugo unconsciously reached out toward the vial on the treadmill, popping it open and drinking it.

It was only 5 minutes after that Hugo finally regained himself enough to talk.

“Suri.”

He looked at Suri who was sitting to the side. She smiled back.

“Hey Hugo. Good work.”

“Eh. I’m not actually done with my workout today.”

“Huh?”

Suri was stunned before she turned to the Child.

“What the hell are you doing to him?”

“Training. And he’s been very adaptive to my program. His muscles are already pushing past the stage of compression.”

“...Are you serious?”

Suri had wide eyes as she observed Hugo.

Muscular refinement and compression, one of the signs that one was stepping into the superhuman realm. Once Hugo hully compressed all his muscles and started rebuilding them for mass, he would officially become a superhuman, albeit a weak one.

She could even see the signs. Hugo’s muscles weren’t large, but she could see each of the muscle fibers across his body. One might think he was dangerously dehydrated and malnourished with such low body fat, but that’s simply what those with compressed muscles looked like. And it would only get more prominent as they built more mass.

This process was what allowed people to break past previous human limits.

The Child interrupted Suri’s thoughts.

“If he wanted to truly become a superhuman, he would need at least another 22 months of training as he’s going right now. But our goal isn’t to turn him into a superhuman. In fact, he’s developing down a different route. He won’t contain sheer strength, but will be built to distribute force in extreme ways. That’s what I’m training him for. And we’ve just about reached the point where I can now safely train him in martial arts.”

The little girl explained while motioning Hugo to start his next workout.

Suri watched him strap on several weights across his body before walking over to a platform. There, he began jumping as high as he could. And when he jumped, the platform he stood on would follow him up, catching him at his highest point and letting him stand. Every height he jumped was tracked on a screen.

But Suri was concerned about the Child’s previous words.

“Hang on, you’re telling me you haven’t even trained him in martial arts?”

“No. I’ve developed the perfect martial arts, but it's also the most extreme. There would be no point in training it before his body reached a certain level of strength and endurance.”

“What do you mean, no point? He could still learn basic movements. That would help him significantly.”

“No, it wouldn’t.”

The Child resolutely shook her head.

“The results from his training are more valuable and efficient at this point in time. The strength he’s been gaining, the speed, the endurance, everything affords him more effective combat strength than learning technique. Only now is that beginning to change. Soon enough, the time investment in learning technique will outstrip the time investment in training. When that threshold is met, I will begin his training. This way, his combat prowess constantly rises at its most efficient rate. Of course, this logic only holds true when considering my specific martial art.”

“...Just how extreme is this martial art of yours?”

“Very.”

The child was succinct in her response. Suri wasn’t sure what to say.

Still, she was mentally applauding Hugo for his efforts. It took a strong mind to be able to handle that torment.

And to think he was doing all this for a game…

Maybe he was just crazy.

Suri sighed before standing and showing herself out.

“Don’t kill him.”

“Not possible as he is now.”

Suri ignored the child while walking out.

………

……

Another few weeks passed, and one day, Hugo was given a pleasant surprise after preparing to work out.

“It is finally time to begin teaching you the martial art. Your body had now reached a stage where it can handle the extreme and explosive maneuvers I will be teaching you and take the beatings that you’ll need to. I will first start by explaining exactly what you’ll be learning.”

The Child lectured as Hugo drank his morning serum, one that now cost upwards of 14 thousand dollars due to its specialized and highly potent nature as opposed to the lighter ones he took when he first started training.

“Martial arts today divide superhumans into different levels, all according to how well the person can control their body and dish out attacks to their opponent. These levels are called the Steps to Heaven, and there are five steps in total.

“Focus - Refinement - Flow - Rage - Domain

“Ironically, the term Steps to Heaven were coined by the man who carried out the Bloody First Massacre, only, he got carried away by the Rage step, unable to continue into the Domain Step. It was the man who put him down, the Martial Saint, that overcame the same rage and made it through to the Domain Step”

“Interesting.”

Hugo nodded at the Child’s explanation. He found it curious that the Rage Step could compel somebody to carry out a massacre.

“Guess that’s why they call it the Rage Step.”

He shrugged, and the Child continued.

Basically, Hugo was starting from the bottom. His foundation now allowed him to begin training. By normal standards, he was well past the prime fitness stage required to begin training the Focus Step. But because the Child’s martial art wasn’t normal by any means, he had only just now reached it.

“The Focus Step is a stage where one focuses their entire body. Every muscle, ligament, and organ must be wholly realized before one can move on to the Refinement Step. You could say that this simply comes down to being able to contract every individual muscle in your body on demand. But it goes a bit deeper than that, at least mine does.”

The Child smiled.

“Basically, you’ll be learning to willfully control your entire body, inside and out. This will take a long time, but it will lay the foundation for explosive growth into the later Steps. Now first…”

The Child walked over and pointed to a machine. It was one with dozens of tiny electrodes and needles, like something right out of a horror movie.

The child happily pat the seat, beckoning Hugo over.

“We’ll need to build the neural connections first. Come, and let’s enjoy a bit of electroshock therapy. Give me two months of this, and I’ll have you pushing through the Focus step in no time.”

Hugo’s face wasn’t pretty as he gazed at the Child’s odd smile.

She was enjoying this too much.

………

……

It was a year since the launch of The Ascent.

Now, there were approximately 811 million players in the game, far more than what it used to be not long after it started.

By this point, The Ascent was becoming a second world for humanity, because as the game promoted before its launch, it was no different from reality.

Except in this reality, there were threats to face, and the stairway to power was right in front of everyone.

The supercontinent of the game was more than big enough to support such a large player base, and surprisingly, the NPC’s still outnumbered the players a significant amount.

While many players began to turn to the roles of NPC’s, it was still highly attractive for most. That was because payment in the game wasn’t much different from payment in real life.

The currency in The Ascent had become so popular and widely used that it could easily be exchanged for the real dollar.

In game virtual businesses were making just as much money as real businesses, if not more. Because of that, large corporations were investing tens and hundreds of millions, even billions into gamer guilds, establishing a virtual presence so they could make money.

In this way, gamer guilds expanded significantly, becoming the foundation for which real corporations were garnering a foothold in the game. There were even corporations that started their own gamer guilds, recruiting people like martial artists into their ranks and supporting them to become stronger in the game.

This created an extremely competitive environment within the game.

And it wasn’t something the normal person interfere with. That was because these guilds were competing over things like control over an entire city or the organized conquest of an evil tower. They were going to war with entire armies of players with gear and skills the normal person couldn’t compete with.

Still, the effects of their doings were felt throughout the game.

Suri was one such player who stood near the top of the game.

She had been playing since the release, and with her knowledge of the game that surpassed the normal person, she was able to make a great name for herself.

Of course, nobody knew that she was an executive of the Archive.

All executives of Archive kept their identities completely hidden, including Hugo. This was previously achieved by specialized AI and later taken upon by the AGI. With that, all records of who they really were had been long wiped from existence. For all anyone knew, they were regular people with better than average jobs.

So Suri was able to play her game in peace. Though, peace was relative. She was still in a guild and was frequently a part of their large scale expeditions.

In fact…

……

“Everybody assemble!”

Suri’s eyes opened when she heard the shout. She stood and stopped leaning on her companion, a large black avian that acted as her mount and battle buddy.

The bird that looked like a crow shook its feathers as it rose. There were several other mounts and monster companions around it, but it didn’t put any of them in its eyes.

Suri looked over, spotting her guild leader. The guild was called the Parthenon, and the guild leader’s Tag was Sauced Panda. He was a large man whose size betrayed his agility. But although he was slow, he was exceptionally strong with one of the highest strength stats in the game.

Sauced Panda gathered everyone around him. His eyes were lazy as he scanned the few dozen people who gathered.

His gaze settled on Suri. Her Tag was FireFox, and she was dressed in silver armor that glowed with veins of pulsing lava. Her weapon of choice was the sword, and as per her name, she wielded skills of fire.

Suri met his gaze. Despite his nonchalant look, the man was actually a human monster, a superhuman of the highest level.

He was a martial artist of the Domain Step.

“Alright, our mission is simple. We’re raiding a bunker operated by a bunch of nerds! If we kill everyone inside and destroy whatever teleporter spell they got churning down there, then we’ll be rewarded handsomely. And I like rewards! So we leave in 5.”

“Eh, so much for pep talks.”

“What kind of loot do you think we’ll find?”

Everyone began chattering after Sauced Panda finished. As for Suri, she trotted over to the big man.

After all, she was one of his closest advisors. Although she didn’t have a great position in the guild like the Vice Leader, being the aide of this man was close enough.

Before Suri could get there though, another woman appeared by his side. Suri narrowed her eyes.

That was the vice guild leader, technically who should be Sauced Panda’s right hand.

The vice leader wasn’t happy to see Suri either.

“FireFox.”

“Vice Leader.”

The two greeted each other plainly. They weren’t enemies but they definitely weren’t friends.

After that, the two remained quiet while the panda scrolled through a forum.

*Beep Beep!*

At that moment though, Suri got a message. She glanced at the words that appeared on her screen.

“Hugo… Ah!”

Her eyes went wide and her heartbeat quickened. She started doing little jumps in place out of growing excitement.

“No way, no way! Ah! Hey, Panda! I need to go!”

“Huh? Go?”

The big man tilted his head at Suri. He had never seen her get so riled up.

She nodded with a stifled smile.

“I really need to go. Right now. So I won’t be doing this mission with you all.”

“What?! You can’t just abandon the mission right before it starts!”

The vice leader quickly reprimanded Suri, but she was also baffled. Just what happened that she needed to drop everything and run? And right before an important mission, no less.

Sauced Panda was also confused, but he wasn’t as critical.

“I suppose we can get by without you. But you won’t get any loot.”

“That’s fine! Then I’m going!”

Waving, Suri jumped on her bird and shot out of the building before taking off into the sky. Everyone quickly lost sight of her, and all the others wondered where she went.

Sauced Panda watched her go before shrugging. The vice leader was scowling though.

“Just why do you keep her around? She’s nothing but trouble.”

“Yes, but her trouble makes us rich. It's fine.”

The panda waved off the vice leader before getting ready to leave.

………

……

It wasn’t just Suri.

Every other executive that was close to Hugo and was playing the game was alerted of something that made them jump. Dropping everything, all of them rushed to one particular city.

Their arrival alerted many people and guilds. After all, every single one of them were high profile players standing at the top of the virtual world. With statuses that no normal player could ever imagine, they were basically celebrities.

But all these people gathered in a single place, at the same time, for a single purpose.

It send a small wave through the guilds, making them wonder what the hell was going on.

………

As for Hugo…

He stood before the Artifact. This particular Artifact was experimental, containing the most bleeding edge brain interface technology in the world. It was hand made for him specifically, and it looked far different from the streamlined containers that composed all the other Artifacts.

The reason this Artifact was so amazing though was because it had a direct connection to the AGI itself, affording it unprecedented power. It was better in every way from normal Artifacts just because of this detail.

The Child spoke to Hugo who stood outside of the Artifact.

“Congragulations. You’re finally ready to enter The Ascent. You’ve been training for about a year. How do you feel?”

“Fine.”

Hugo just shrugged, though he was a bit excited.

Just recently, he entered the Focus Step. Some people could do this in a couple months, even without significant training. But his process had been far harder.

The last few months in particular were filled with odd torment.

Shaking his head, Hugo pushed away other thoughts and stepped into the Artifact.

“Time to get started.”

“The creator entering his own game. I wonder how you’ll do.”

The Child spoke as he was enclosed in the capsule.

Very quickly, Hugo’s vision went dark.

And he entered The Ascent.