Chapter 2 – Project ‘AL’

"We reached our destination, Mr. Ian.", said Claus

While I was lost in thought, we were already there. After Will helped me out to my chair, I could see the towering building in front of us.

'wow, to be honest, thank god that I got to visit this place. I guess my last free day ain't so bad after all.' I thought to myself soon after entering the building. everything inside was the highest tech you could ever dream of if you were a VR researcher, even the smallest thing inside would cost millions or even billions of dollars.

But what caught my attention was something else…..

The ultimate surgical tool of the century, as far as I know it was just a legend in the medical field, a precise virtually operated machine that almost had no error factor.

The VDoc! The only machine capable of curing my desperate state!

Yet, it was lying there before my eyes.

>>>>

Two hours soon passed.

"Sadly our tour ends here, it's time that we discuss the objective of this invite.", said Claus as we reached a small door

We went into a moderately large office, Claus soon sat on the main chair, as my chair was moved to face him.

"So Mr. Ian, If I told you that we would help with your treatment so that you can continue living with a healthy body which you could fully move like a normal person, what would you say?", said Claus with a shrewd smile.

I was pretty shocked at first, but I soon restored my calm. this was probably the objective of this tour, allowing me to seeing 'That' was to re-ignite my hope. However, although he mentioned it easily, it wasn't as simple as that. who would just go around curing desperate diseases if he had the ability to for free? I may be desperate, but I was still capable of rational thinking.

"Surely that won't be from your goodwill, that machine looked nice and all, but there must be a catch."

"As expected of you Mr. Ian, you catch up fast. First of all, let me tell you a small story....."

"A dominating company of VR tech, which started several games in this field. Achieving the highest popularity. However, the only problem that it faced was the lack of 'Reality' no matter what they tried. Virtually created worlds simply didn't have the same capabilities of the real world, it was just a fake. But that wasn't the end."

"That was the start of the first project to challenge that 'Impossibility'. project AL."

"Another Life, not only is it what all humans aspire to experience, but also our dream. To make a game where players could enjoy a complete other Life, one that is almost Similar to reality by all means."

"Surprisingly enough we were able to achieve That dream, we created the Ultimate VR game, a world with little to no difference compared to reality."

"But here lied the problem, connection with that virtual world was faced with difficulties, being constantly unstable. It was practically a 'Lost Realm', which the game was named after."

"So we had to do several rounds of beta-testing. But as we expected all the testers died in the game soon enough, which shockingly lead to their death in reality."

"After searching for the cause, we soon enough found that there nerves were viciously 'Fried' due to the disconnection from 'Lost realm'. obviously enough, because of the unstable linkage method we used. which was sadly enough, the only way we could access the game through."

"Surviving inside the game for as far as possible to finish our testing and develop a much more stable linkage to the game, is what we want from you."

"You must be kidding me, you want a cripple like me to do that?!"

"That's the point Mr. Ian, in 'The Lost Realm' even you can live with a normal body. Using your intelligence with a normal body, there is a very good chance that you will survive long enough. And who knows, maybe even reach the pinnacle!"

"So we would like to give you the chance. If you could survive actively for the whole testing period,  we would provide you a free surgery to help you move like normal people. Using our latest tech, we certainly can guarantee this! It's not like you got anything to lose do you?"

'That almost looks like an underground game, dying in reality as soon as you die in the game. but from my desperate point of view, trying that will at least give me the chance to live like a normal person inside the game instead of rotting in a hospital bed.'

"It seems like you did your homework on me..."  I said with a bitter smile, I was finally given the chance, looks like the saying 'Chance and risk go together' is still true to our day.

"Now, now, Mr. Ian. It's not like we are forcing you to do this, it's all your choice in the end. So, what do you think? what would your choice be?"

A wide grin appeared on Claus's face as he looked at me with anticipation, my heart beat faster than usual, as if to tell me to embrace this challenge instead of backing off.