Solonik's Game

4) Another World

What looked like ghosts moving out of dark ether before him became diverse living forms. He saw user avatars milling around a vast pedestrianized thoroughfare with tall buildings stretching for as far as he could see on both sides of the wide street. The buildings took on colors and character as he watched. Many of the structures were gaudy and covered in neon signs, light and sound emanating through open doors and windows. The sounds of the place seemed to come from all around him, the chatter within the crowds rising and falling as figures passed him.

The avatars he saw had a diversity of shapes, sizes and fashions. Here walked a figure with the head of an elephant and the body of a diapered, barefoot baby, looking through windows and talking with an accomplice who looked like a 50s movie star. On the far side of the street, a cluster of assorted alien races recognizable from the back catalog of Hollywood sci-fi stood in a circle conversing and laughing amongst themselves.

He saw avatars in the shape of barbarians and dragons, ninjas and soldiers, angels and vamps; it was like the Las Vegas of a madman. Billy regarded his own reflection in the window of a virtual movie theater that advertised access to one million movies in theater settings from the Earth and beyond. He was disappointed to see that he appeared featureless and small. He turned his eyes toward a small glowing icon in the periphery of his vision. Turning his gaze to it caused it to explode into an overlay of options that sat above the scenes of the street. Using the movement of his eyes and hands, he was able to quickly customize many of the options about his appearance.

He turned again to the theater window and gazed upon the reflection of his alter ego. Very quickly he had become an imposing, heavily muscled figure with an assortment of tattoos, piercings and shaven head. He flexed his biceps, and grimaced, watching the reflection mirror him perfectly. The sense of self and presence was incredible. Every movement of his body was perfectly reproduced in the virtual world. Every head movement translated seamlessly to a shifting of his vision. His hand movements were perfectly reproduced and the gloves convincingly portrayed the feeling of objects within his hands. The rise and fall of his feet within his room translated to forward movement in his vision.

He began to walk on the spot within his bedroom and simultaneously began to stroll along the street of the virtual world, moving amongst the crowds and past the many buildings. Some of the avatars he saw walked alone, seeking out their virtual needs, but many walked socially in groups. He overheard pieces of their conversations as they passed him, many remarking enthusiastically on the wonder of the sights and the seamless realism with which they experienced them.

The world he found himself in appeared to offer something of everything to the VR enthusiast. He passed bowling alleys, pool halls, and tennis clubs and squash courts, all haphazardly juxtaposed in the street. He heard cheering from within a virtual baseball stadium and watched a ball sail over the top of the place and drop amongst the milling crowds further along the street before him.

There were banks where electronic currencies could be deposited or traded. There were travel experiences that offered virtual tours of exotic Africa or perhaps just an opportunity to sunbathe on the French Riviera. White knuckle and daredevil experiences were offered. A virtual theme park towered above the other buildings offering a selection of the world's most famous roller coasters in a single location. A virtual biplane landed on a raised landing strip above the street and its pilot began to shout offers of plane trips and sky-dives (parachute optional) through a megaphone.

Billy passed noisy bars inside which revelers conversed, threw darts or danced to techno music. It seemed that the further he moved along the street, the more raucous the activities became. He passed a wide side street in which a group of spectators cheered on two drag racers while a bookie took wagers in electronic currency. The window of a bar exploded outwards before Billy as a barstool crashed through it. The stool was shortly followed by two avatars who threw wild punches at one another and bobbed and weaved, laughing hysterically and shouting obscenities.

He passed a casino where an avatar leapt from the rooftop, splattered on the ground in an explosion of gore, and then regenerated afresh. The reincarnated avatar appeared dazed and confused, looked about him dreamily as if he may have expected to in fact be dead. He cursed loudly, kicked the air, put a finger to the right side of his head and disappeared, perhaps to reattempt suicide in reality.

In time the nature of the conversations Billy overheard began to undergo changes in theme. The avatars around him increasingly discussed subjects of sexuality, desire and sometimes violence. Billy was surprised by the candor of the chatter around him. People openly traded descriptions of fetishes and fantasies that seemed to him inappropriate, shocking, and sometimes sinister or illegal.

The nature of the establishments lining the street underwent change also. Now he passed windows where scantily clad persons of male, female or ambiguous gender danced to hypnotic electronic tunes. One great neon sign lit the front of a building in which photorealistic ladies stood in windows, nude figures beckoning would-be customers inside. A mechanical sounding voice trickled from the direction of a single speaker above the place's front door, jovial and sinister.

"Don't be shy, cum inside! Don't be wussy, let your glove be the pussy! The most realistic VR fuck you've ever experienced! Shoot your load and hit the road!"

Billy watched the ladies gyrate in the windows, beckoning him inside. He elected to keep moving, maybe circle back by the place later when his family was in bed and he was less likely to be discovered in his bedroom obliviously humping a glove that faked hot and wet.

He passed places where the avatars in the windows catered to more esoteric audiences. Two men in full body black rubber suits stood in one window. Masks concealed their features and they held their lips to close to one another's ears, whispering. The intimate words were transmitted into Billy's earpieces, breathy and unsettling. The men mutually grasped the exposed genitals of the other in gloved hands. Their forearms jerked furiously while their black bodies remained otherwise still, glistening like some perverse onyx statue. Billy recoiled from the unfamiliarity and frankness of the scene and dropped his head to hide it from vision. To his relief the sound of the men's whispers gradually dropped beyond his levels of perception as he jogged away from the window.

It was easy to forget that he was standing within his own home. Regardless of appearance, these were real people he was seeing and hearing; who were seeing and hearing him. In some respects the virtual world afforded these people the ability to be more real than reality, for here their inhibitions could be cast off and their honest desires uttered aloud. There seemed to be a safety to this place that could not exist in the world of flesh and bone. In this place users could pursue their needs without affecting their real world lives and without hurting their families or friends.

Eventually crowds, impressively lit buildings and bold advertisement gave way to shadowy structures, isolated figures and ambiguous function. Here the textures and smoothing of the visuals became less ornate and more hurried in their design. The howling groups were gone and the few visible avatars had become unsophisticated and plain. Frowning men in nondescript outfits wandered gloomy streets, occasionally disappearing inside the arcane establishments. Building signs were either absent or understated; a stark contrast to the neon back up the street.

Billy felt slight unease. Had he unknowingly passed some hidden threshold? He felt an impulse to turn and return along the path he had came, but reminded himself of where he really was; he was standing in his bedroom, wearing a piece of consumer technology, safe. For the first time since entering the virtual world, he recalled the sole request of the vendor who had provided his VRX-8. He had likely now entered the region of the world programmed by Solonik, and was expected to provide feedback.

As if on cue, a delicate electronic chime escaped one of the buildings. Billy stepped toward thebuilding and examined the exterior. A seemingly hand-painted sign was mounted subtly above a single, poorly lit doorway. In large black lettering, the sign read 'Solonik's Game'.

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Enjoyed Part 4? Please remember to vote. Leave comments and I will aim to answer them all! G.H.

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