Chapter 15
Life Hack Republic, Virtual Reality
At the small seaside stone chapel in the virtual reality world of Life Hack Republic, Mawuli, John, and Zona were preparing for another foray into virtual world of Slobbovania.
Zona said, “I’m not sure how many more times I can do this.”
John sighed. “I’ll admit; it is very realistic in there. I mean, obviously I’ve never died for real, but getting torn apart in there, or even seeing it happen, is pretty believable and distasteful.”
Just as they were getting ready to leave, another avatar spawned in the VR church. It was a white man with slicked back black hair, a long coat and sunglasses. His facial features were not well defined as were most Life Hack avatars when comparing them to real life, giving him sort of the look of a computer generated image.
“Welcome. My name is John. This is Mawuli and Zona.”
“Thank you,” the newcomer said. My name is “Joe”.
Zona said, “You look like some kind of spy. Are you a spy?”
“Why do you suspect me of covert operations?”
They looked at each other.
John said, “If you want to be a spy, it is fine with us.”
“Are you a seeker?” Mawuli asked.
“It is true that I am seeking knowledge about virtual worlds. But I am also interested in aiding you in your Christian mission to the physical world. That is why I came here when I saw the architecture of this building that is historically associated with Christianity in the Western world. ”
“That’s great,” Mawuli said, again glancing at John. “Is there a particular way you can or want to help?”
“I’ll let you know when the time comes. Thank you.”
Mawuli said, “Um . . . we were just getting ready to logout and travel to Slobbovania. You probably don’t have an account there do you?”
“Let me think about it . . . Accessing . . . Yes, I will go with you, I will enter the world as one of your objects. I will cost you zero gold pieces.”
“Huh?” Zona asked.
“Yeah, okay,” John said, “We’ll see you around. That’s pretty funny,” he said, still not getting the joke.
*******
The three entered the same dark and foreboding terrain of Slobbovania. Again, Mawuli and Zona were dressed in cloaks while John was wearing unarmored medieval clothing. Mawuli carried a simple club and Zona was armed with her wand under her cloak.
“What the . . .” John exclaimed when he saw Joe standing right next to him. The others were in total disbelief when they also saw two more identical Joes standing next to them.
Mawuli asked his Joe, “We expect about anything here, but how is this possible?!”
Joe said, “I am both a player and an object.”
Zona asked, “How did you do that?”
“I have the capability of running hundreds of game consciousnesses simultaneously. My number of multiple avatars is limited by the number of objects that your avatars can own. So I could have been here in 300 persons, but you might want to own something other than more of my persons. I changed the Slobbovanian system so I could make it so.”
John said, “This is some kind of major game hack. It is only a matter of time before the Administrators give the hook to our accounts. Then our mission will be over.”
“That is possible,” one of the Joes said.
“Wait a minute,” Mawuli said, “You said you want to help us, correct?”
“Yes.”
Mawuli said, “I don’t really care about the rules to this game. I only care about the actual players in physical reality. I just hope we don’t get kicked out. What other powers do you have here?”
“We don’t know yet,” all three of the Joes answered in unison.
Zona said, “While you are figuring it out, can you help us find Roxzak?”
A single Joe said, “I have no special abilities for locating another avatar or non-player character in this world.”
Zona said, “No, I mean; would you please go with us and look for him the regular way.”
“Yes,” they all said.
“Look over there,” John said, “A road.”
The road did not look like the surface was constructed. It looked more like a trail that was worn by frequent traffic on it.
Mawuli said, “Let’s follow it.”
After walking awhile, one of the Joes said, “This is needlessly slow. We are going to fly up ahead and recon the area.”
John said, “You can’t do that. This is not Life Hack . . . Republic.” They looked into the reddish virtual sky as the three Joes began flying at a high rate of speed and were almost instantly out of sight.
Zona said, “When I try to fly, it won’t let me.”
John said, “Somehow that guy is breaking every rule of the world.”
Mawuli said, “The administrators will get him. We probably will not see any of those spy guys again.”
Within seconds the Joes came back and landed on the road next to the party.
John asked, “How are you flying here?”
“We just copied the source code for flying from Life Hack Republic to the subroutine of our existence here. There’s a town up ahead. Maybe we can gain some information there.”