Redux Online Prologue (Titles In Progress) (Patreon)

Option 2

We saw it coming, but there was nothing we could do.

After centuries of pollution and climate change, the world started to shift.

Long ago, when plants began to grow on land, the oxygen content of the atmosphere saw a drastic uptick. The world had evolved, but with evolution comes change, and sometimes we aren’t ready for it. 

Eighty percent of all life on Earth died during that period, known as the Late Ordivician mass extinction.

Another shift was coming.

Our scientists saw the changes– plants dying en masse and evolving to take new traits that would allow them to better survive our altered world.

Many plants became toxic, having evolved to consume a much greater quantity of lead and carbon monoxide, using it to supplement their natural photosynthesis by producing lead monoxide. Less and less oxygen was produced by these plants, and the predictions were grim.

People immediately started work on preventative measures, growing and storing as many of the as of yet unchanged plants as possible. Algae farms were grown across the world, and “clean zones” were constructed as a way to keep us alive.

Our efforts meant little. Only a few would be able to survive this apocalypse– only the rich and powerful, those who could aid the most in obtaining the resources necessary for the creation of these zones, could obtain slots in the clean zones.

Eventually, our scientists came up with a brilliant solution: a genetically modified variation of the evolved toxic algae that could instead split carbon monoxide into its base elements, releasing the oxygen back into the atmosphere and keeping the carbon contained.

These plants, developed by Dr. Nole E. Skum, were efficient in the extreme, planned to be able to completely cleanse the world within a mere handful of decades. 

It was too late. We didn't have that long. 

It seemed that we were in luck, though.

A popular full-dive capsule company, TowardHardware LLC, had been working on their biggest project yet: Redux Online. Marketed as the world’s first full-DIVE MMORPG Soulslike, almost everyone and their dogs knew about it. In fact, many of those who could afford it had already ordered the custom pods, designed specifically for the game.

Rather than giving up on their game and saying their goodbyes, the leaders of TowardHardware doubled down. They’d created and scrapped plans for a more advanced version of the Redux Online capsules, one that uploaded a person’s consciousness directly into the game to prevent any chance of lag.

TowardHardware’s capsules offered a way out to those who couldn’t afford a place in a clean zone, or didn’t want to be confined to a confined, suffocating clean zone for the next fifty years of their lives.

There was just one problem: even with all that TowardHardware could do for the minds of their users, the body would die only days after entering the game.

Once you were in, there was no way out.