‘It was a trap!’ Jasper yelled as a bar that had been hidden seamlessly in the floor popped up and knocked him into a seat concealed in the pod.
The last thing Jasper remembered was a pain in his side like a needle, him panicking and a headset being pulled down over his face, then for the second time that day Jasper was knocked unconscious.
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Jasper opened his eyes and saw darkness which confused Jasper. He was standing up as well which confused him even more.
‘What happened,’ he said into the infinite darkness.
Then he remembered about the pod and the facility and started to panic again.
‘Time to take note of my surroundings,’ he thought to himself. He looked around and saw… well nothing. He was standing on nothing and surrounded by a ton of nothing. When Jasper tried to touch the ground his hand just went straight through it.
After waiting for awhile Jasper started running into the void. When Jasper ran forward for twenty or so seconds he saw a light in the distance with a figure beside it.
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Jasper quicky considered his options, the figure could help him or the figure could be hostile.
Just to be safe Jasper ran in the other direction yet as soon as he turned heel the figure was there as well. ‘But that makes no sense, how is that possible,’ Jasper muttered under his breath so the figure couldn't hear him speak.
He looked in all directions but the figure was there. ‘Well time to greet the neighbour,’ he thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Helloooo,’ Jasper cried out to the figure as he got close. The figure was shrouded in a dark cloak. The light was seemingly coming from nowhere hovering just over the figures head. When the figure spoke he was very surprised to find that the figure was a woman. ‘I suppose that you are very confused by all this,’ she said. ‘My name is Helen Calpiso and I work at Virtual Tech Enterprise and am here on their behalf.’ ‘Am I dead and what on Earth is Virtual Tech Enterprise,’ Jasper replied. ‘No you are not dead Jasper,’ she said, ‘V.T.E is a top secret government project to help train soldiers in the army for recon missions and war, you are a test.’
‘Jasper... you are technically in a video game,’ Helen added.
‘Wait why pick me, how is that possible and why should I believe you?’  Jasper asked stubbornly.
Helen replied to Jasper, ‘We are attempting to see how an average person would do in the simulated world that we have constructed. Now I have an important meeting to attend so I must be off. Good bye and good luck.’
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With those final words she disappeared in a flash of light and some blue colored smoke.
A huge loading bar popped into existence floating in the sky.
The object was so large Jasper had to squint just to see the edge of it. It filled up surprisingly quickly for something so big, with the loaded part tinted light blue and the rest a golden brown. When it filled up to its maximum capacity Jasper was teleported away.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Four
The Shrine Of The Noobs   
            
   

The first thing that Jasper did when got on solid ground was to throw up in the nearest object that was next to him (which happened to be a copper fire pit).
Once his vertigo had settled down he looked around and his jaw dropped.
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He was standing in what appeared to be some sort of a temple but the thing that shocked Jasper was the fact that it was the ugliest building he had ever seen.
It was made of an assortment of building materials in no particular order, there was cracks in the walls, floor and ceiling and it was asymmetrical. As Jasper was exploring this monstrosity of a structure he nearly stepped in a hole that was hidden under a piece of rotten wood which would have resulted in him breaking his leg. Jasper stepped outside and examined the temple like structure. There was a sign on the large set of rusted doors that read

THE NOOB SHRINE

Jasper burst out laughing for the first time that day. It felt good to laugh. It  reassured Jasper.
Jasper turned his back to the shrine and saw the layout of the land.
There was a small redwood forest from the north to the south east and the rest of the area was taken up by outcrops of boulders and small hills. In the south on the horizon was a volcano that was probably miles away.
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After checking the shrine for resources and finding nothing Jasper started heading into the forest in search of food.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Helen had been having a great day.
She had taken a trip to the Ether to talk with the newest recruit Jasper Welsh.
He had taken it okay for a person who had just been kidnapped and forced into a digital planet. However she was not so sure how his parents Scott Welsh and Adannia Welsh would take it. She had been so lost in thought that she did not realize that the taxi had arrived until the driver asked for the fare.
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Helen thanked the taxi man as he sped off into the distance.
She turned around to survey the house. It was a nice, two story house made of brick and stone tiles. Some neatly trimmed bushes stood by the door. Helen walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. ‘I'm coming,’ a voice said inside the house in response to the light ringing noise. A man whom Helen could only assume to be Scott Welsh answered the door.
At first she thought that his stomach was very round until she saw that he was actually wearing a sumo suit. ‘What on Earth,’ she thought at the sight of it. ‘Who are you,’ Scott said in an accent that could relate to his name.
‘I am from Virtual Tech Enterprises,’ she replied while cautiously looking at the suit wondering if he knew sumo.‘Where did V.T.E take my son?,’ he said accusingly. ‘Wait you know what V.T.E is. How?, V.T.E is a top secret project,’ Helen said, her voice inquisitive and filled with wonder. ‘Me and Adannia used to work for them,’ he answered back.
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‘WHAT!’ she exclaimed loudly. Scott made a motion with his hand for her to follow him inside. She trailed behind him into the nice old style house and into the living room, where Adannia was sitting in a leather chair enjoying a cup of tea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘That is smoke over there, smoke means fire and fire means a town,’Jasper said to no one in particular.
He repeated it again but louder this time.
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Jasper ran into the woods as fast as he could and ran face first into a five headed dragon or as it was more commonly known as, a Hydra. Jasper walked backwards stunned with the Hydra equally as incapacitated (wondering who this teenager thought he was sprinting out of the woods and tackling him). Jasper was sure that he saw red numbers dancing in front of his eyes.
The Hydra finally decided that it was a little peckish and roared so loudly that birds a mile away flew to safety. Jaspers brain set in action and his fight or flight instincts kicked in.
Can you guess which one he did (hint: it was the latter). He ran as fast as he could and after few minutes slowed to a stop panting. The good news: He lost the Hydra. The bad news: He himself was lost in the endless groves of pine trees.
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As Jasper sat on a large stone near him he got startled by flashing green numbers popping into existence, first a two then a six and lastly a five and another two. Then before Jasper could say (input random word of choosing, humor me) a blue flashing light emerged from his wrist.
Jasper looked down to see the source of the deep blue light, it was a golden colored bracelet attached to his wrist.
It wasn't much to look at, just a small, golden chain wrapping around his arm and fastened together by a shining, round, blue and crystalline stone.
Jasper touched the stone and watched in awe as the stone spewed out a light blue liquid that quickly covered the chain and hardened.
As more liquid continued to spew out of the stone it covered the stone and cut off the flow of liquid. The top of the object turned clear and Jasper whispered to himself ‘it's a watch’.
The watch thing did not show the time but it had a green bar, a orange bar, a blue bar and a purple circle.
The orange bar and the blue bar were slightly depleted.
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    The blue light was still there but much smaller and was hovering over a green button. ‘It's a tutorial,’ Jasper sighed exasperated.
He had done video game tutorials a plethora of times before and they were always very slow.
He pressed the button and the screen went foggy then cleared to show a different screen that showed a block of text.
The writing was in English but way too small to read. Suddenly a voice rang out from the watch thing.
It said, ‘I am your virtual watch or Vwatch for short. I will guide you through the world of Dazareth and other realms besides.
Please touch the triangular button to continue’.
Jasper pushed the button. It showed a screen that had lots of legible writing on it. The text read:

Strength = 10 (upgrade 1 point)             
Health = 100 (upgrade 1 point)
Speed = 10 (upgrade 1 point)
Mana = 15 (upgrade 1 point)
Wisdom = 10 (upgrade 1 point)
Projectile skill  = 5 (upgrade 1 point)
Sword skill = 5 (upgrade 1 point)
Wizardry skill = 5 (upgrade 1 point)
                  Skill Points = 1
          Exp to next Skill Point: 10

Jasper pressed the upgrade button for speed and the table updated to show the change.

Strength = 10 (upgrade 1 point)             
Health = 100 (upgrade 1 point)
Speed = 11 (upgrade 2 points)
Mana = 15 (upgrade 1 point)
Wisdom = 10 (upgrade 1 point)
Projectile skill  = 5 (upgrade 1 point)
Sword skill = 5 (upgrade 1 point)
Wizardry skill = 5 (upgrade 1 point)
                  Skill Points = 0
          Exp to next Skill Point: 10

Jasper did a quick jog around and he noticed the difference in his speed. Jasper grinned thinking how nice it would be to be able to do this in real life.
Jasper started walking into the woods following the sun into the west and far away from the Hydra.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Helen watched as Scott left the room, leaving Helen with Adannia in the living space. ‘I suppose you have questions?’ Adannia said, being careful with her words. ‘Yes,’ Helen replied.
‘Well you are not going to get answers from me.
All you need to know is that seventeen years ago me and Scott worked in the testing headquarters of the V.T.E for a few years until V.T.E started abducting random workers and used them to test out their precious Link Pod.
One day it will be used all over the world they said.
It will cause miracles they said. Finally we quit the job and moved on.
But first we took something very dear to them.’ Adannia said with detest in her voice.
‘The original link pod,’ Helen whispered in horror. ‘Aye you are right about that one,’ Scott confirmed, Dragging something heavy behind him.
‘This is bad, very bad,’ Helen said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be continued