Sanctum Read online

  Macrocosm

  Book 1: Sanctum

  A Sci-fi Fantasy LitRPG

  An Organization Novel

  Matthew Powell

  Prologue

  Life on Earth was pretty good in the 23rd century. Technological advances had opened a world of possibilities, and this version of Earth was lucky enough to reach one of the brighter possible futures.

  Normally, humanity is wiped out long before reaching this point, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the nukes aren’t launched, sometimes they stop global warming, and sometimes they aren’t wiped out by some random celestial accident. To have not even one of these random catastrophes occur was exceptionally rare.

  It was unacceptable.

  A group of robed figures sat in an empty, featureless room. There was no discernable source of light, yet it was lit all the same. They sat around a long table, with a lone figure standing at its head.

  Their sizes varied wildly, some of the figures barely the size of a mouse sat on the table itself, while others were taller than a normal man while sitting.

  One of the smaller people was the first to speak. “Is the game prepared to launch? We need to do this quickly if we don’t want them discovering our presence here.”

  “It will be released in a few days,” another responded. “We have been ready for a few years now, but if we release it too quickly then it may draw suspicion.”

  “Just hurry and let them get started already,” one of the larger figures stood, annoyed at his compatriot’s slowness. “They have been advancing rapidly anyway, one more new invention won’t disturb anything.”

  “Perhaps not, but we need to keep our presence here a secret for as long as possible. If we make too many mistakes, we will be transferred, and the project will be reset. No one wants that.”

  The larger person sat back down, still annoyed but placated for the moment. The small one was right, this was too important to risk for something as simple as impatience.

  “Are we certain this is going to work?” Another stated, drawing more people into the conversation. “This Earth already has countless forms of entertainment, whatever we create has to be good enough to draw as many humans as possible towards it.”

  “It is,” yet another spoke. “We aren’t used to making games, this is true, but the science division I lead does nothing halfheartedly. The game will quaint by our standards, but revolutionary to this world nevertheless. The people will flock towards it.”

  “The engineering division has prepared itself as well. We have requisitioned one of the experimental power sources to keep everything running, and it has surpassed all our expectations. The game will run perfectly, and the people will be none the wiser.”

  “Hmm…” The figure at the head of the table made a sound, and all the others went quiet. For all the years this project had been running, their leader had only spoken twice before. If he was speaking again, it meant things were changing.

  “It has been a while…since I have had fun.” He spoke, his words slow. “When it is launched, I want you to bring me one of the headsets. I think I will join the humans in their little game.”

  “Sir,” one of the closest spoke. “We won’t stop you if that’s what you want, but have you ever played a game before?”

  “It has been a while, I admit, but my earlier outings had me playing from time to time. You do not need to worry, I will be fine.”

  The figure backed off, but he was still worried. All of them in the room were, and rightfully so. None of them doubted that their leader could play the game, likely better than any other could.

  They were worried their work might not be up to par. The consequences of disappointing their leader’s expectations were practically nonexistent, so long as the project fulfilled its purpose, but it was something they wanted to avoid all the same.

  Even in the worst-case scenario, they would just be transferred to other projects where their skills could be better used. While it might be a small punishment, it was devastating to morale. They were more worried about what he might do if someone in the game offended him.

  As if sensing their worries, the leader moved to reassure them. “Don’t worry so much. I know how heated people can get when playing games, especially when losing. I won’t hurt anyone, I promise.”

  While these words were meant to ease the anxiety of the cloaked figures, they had the opposite effect. All that his words did was switch their worry to what he might do if someone defeated him, as unlikely as that was.

  The leader couldn’t help but laugh at the worried faces he saw under his comrade’s hoods. They were always worried about him, even when he was the last person they needed to be concerned about.

  “Well, I’m going to go relax for a while. Someone send a headset to my quarters when the game goes live.”

  As the leader stood and left, the other cloaked figures kept muttering amongst themselves. He had rarely taken interest in their work, aside from making sure it would be completed on time. That small interaction was the most any of them had heard him speak since they had started the project.

  “If he is going to be playing, then everything must be absolutely perfect. Are we certain it will be able to release on time?”

  “Everything will be fine. All of the equipment has already been set up properly and the tests have shown no sign of failure. Project Macrocosm will be ready for its launch at midnight on the turn of the new year, and this world will never be the same.”

  Chapter 1

  Macrocosm was our first real experiment with manipulating large populations. After all, what need is there for war if we can just get everybody to play a game instead? - On the creation of Macrocosm, from the Chronicles of The Founder

  ◆◆◆

  Joshua awoke to the sound of his alarm blaring at him. He took a minute to rub the sleep out of his eyes and gather himself before he remembered why he had set an alarm in the first place. A quick glance at his holographic clock display helped him remember.

  It was ten minutes before midnight, December 31st, in the year 2279. Macrocosm was launching in ten minutes.

  Macrocosm was a game by a new corporation called O, and it was set to sweep the world. Early beta tests had shown better gameplay and more content than virtually every game released for over a century.

  There were several different worlds to explore, each featuring their own unique civilizations. Players could create characters from virtually any race they wanted, so long as it was present on their starting world. Want to play as a dragon? Start on a fantasy world. Want to fly space ships? Find a technologically advanced civilization and start there.

  Joshua had spent several weeks preparing for this day. He sold everything his other game accounts had and saved up enough to pay for the implant that would allow him to access Macrocosm.

  Joshua was a professional gamer, a surprisingly popular profession in the 23rd century. He didn’t play on the pro-scene, but rather made a living selling digital items and video game accounts. Rapid technological advancement towards the end of the 21st and 22nd centuries had put the average human out of work, forcing them to find new ways of making money. When this happened, there were hundreds of virtual economies just waiting for them in the form of online games.

  There were a bunch of legality issues, tax issues, and consumer agreement problems that sprung up in the first few years, but those had all been long taken care of. Today, every item in a game that could be traded, could also be sold for real world money. This created a large problem with rich people just buying the strongest equipment or high-level accounts, but the average player was willing to overlook now that gaming was a viable method of making money.

  It wasn’t a luxurious life, at least not for him, but Joshua made more than enough to
afford a decent apartment and all the games he could ever want. At least, he used to earn that much.

  All of it was gone now, sold to afford Macrocosm. Macrocosm, unlike most games that used some form of virtual reality headset or controller-based system, required a direct brain implant to play. Joshua was skeptical about this, obviously not wanting strangers to poke around in his head, but brain implants like this had become increasingly common in the last few decades.

  These implants allowed a person to access the internet via a holographic image that only they could see. No one had been able to reverse engineer the technology, and O was keeping its secrets well hidden, so the implant had been subject to a lot of skepticism at first. When the populace realized how incredibly useful they could be, O could barely keep up with demand. The only reason Joshua hadn’t already gotten one was the cost.

  Joshua sold everything, spending the weeks before Macrocosm’s release to offload every item and account he owned. He managed to earn nearly 50,000 credits, a small fortune by his standards. 25,000 went towards getting the implant, leaving him a little under 25,000 for food and rent. Rent was 5,000 a month, and he could skimp on food if he needed to, so he effectively had enough money for five months.

  Hopefully, this would be enough to last until he could start making a living off Macrocosm’s virtual economy. If it wasn’t, he would probably be forced to go into debt while trying to earn money elsewhere. It was risky, but Macrocosm held promise that no other game on the market had.

  Joshua quickly brought up his implants display, taking the form of blue boxes floating in the air. He was determined to spend the last few minutes before launch reading up on what little information had been leaked about the game. All that the beta testers had been allowed to show was small gameplay clips and confirmation that it ran smoothly, meaning that most of the available information came from the O-created Macrocosm wiki page.

  First off was the unbelievable variety of races and classes available. Every starting world had a setting which determined what races could be played. An advanced civilization may only allow you to start as humans, or as various aliens if they have made contact. A fantasy civilization could allow for orcs, elves, dragons, or pretty much anything.

  Most of the intelligent races had a class that determined what equipment and abilities they started with. A warrior may start with armor and a sword, a mage with a robe and staff, a soldier with advanced armor and guns, the possibilities were nearly endless. Available classes were restricted by both race and planet, so players couldn’t start as a dragon with a laser rifle on a medieval fantasy world.

  Joshua had already decided what race he wanted to play. It had taken some digging, given the hundreds of possible choices across tens of worlds listed on the wiki, but he had found the perfect choice. It sat in front of him, the page opened on the implant browser.

  Zombie

  Post-Apocalyptic world availability: Limited

  Fantasy world availability: All

  Science-Fiction world availability: Limited

  Extremely weak at the start, the Zombie has access to the lowest number of classes in Macrocosm. To make up for this deficiency, Zombies level up and evolve significantly faster than other races. Given their starting weakness, several evolutions are necessary to become competitive. Recommended for advanced and long-term players.

  It was perfect. He had enough money to last several months, meaning he didn’t need to worry about earning income for a while, and there was a race that rewarded long-term investment with little upfront reward. Plus, given its low starting power, not many players would choose it. He could wind up within a starting area with little to no competition.

  The biggest downside was the current lack of knowledge of the classes available. None of the beta testers had shown anything in the little gameplay they could show, favoring strong starting races in favor of learning as much as possible, and O had purposely left large parts of the wiki blank in favor of letting players discover and add to it over time. Zombies didn’t even have a single known class listed.

  The next decision would be the starting world. Joshua couldn’t pick anything specific yet, but zombies could spawn of apocalyptic and fantasy worlds. What starting setting he chose would almost certainly change what kind of class he could choose, even though so few would be available in the first place.

  Starting on a fantasy world would probably give him the choice of something like a magic zombie, or even a walking skeleton. This could be both fun and would let him evolve into other, more powerful magic creatures. It also had complete availability, meaning he could start on any Fantasy world. The biggest downside is that, early on, he could wind up hunted by other players thinking that he’s a monster. This was just speculation on Joshua’s part, but better to assume the worst.

  A Science-Fiction world would definitely turn him into some kind of tech-zombie, probably brought back to life via some sort of virus or techno-plague. The biggest problem was the same as the Fantasy world, he would undoubtedly be hunted by whatever advanced civilization lived there. It also had limited availability, meaning whatever world he started on would likely be used to dealing with space zombies.

  That left the Post-Apocalyptic setting. Choosing this made the most sense to Joshua, but it would present difficulties of its own. Whatever Post-Apocalyptic world had zombies in it would most likely be one that fell to a zombie apocalypse, meaning there might not be much more than other zombies and a few humans. On the upside, it meant there would likely be no other players to deal with.

  His choice already made, Joshua laid down to wait for midnight. Macrocosm was already pre-installed on his implant in preparation, so all he had to do was activate it when the time came. He was practically shaking with excitement. If Macrocosm provided even a fraction of what it promised, it would be one of the greatest games ever made.

  And Joshua was determined to be one of the best.

  The digital clock on his holographic display twitched forward, finally reaching midnight. As the new year turned, Joshua’s implant launched Macrocosm, turning his vision black. When his vision returned, Joshua was standing in the middle of a perfectly cubical blue room, with a single floating blue panel in front of him. Written on it were instructions.

  Welcome to Macrocosm!

  This is the character creation room. Here you will design the avatar that you will use for the foreseeable future. In the event of race changes and/or evolutions, you will be returned here to see the changes through. To begin, please tap the interface panel.

  Joshua reached forward to tap the panel. A list of options appeared on it, all of them dark except for one at the top.

  Choose Starting Planet

  Beneath that option was race, class, appearance, and name, in that order. He needed to choose a planet before anything else, so he dove right in and pressed the button. A massive list of planets sprung up, along with several filters to the side that would allow him to sort them out.

  Before Joshua could do anything, a small help screen appeared with some advice. Most of it was the same stuff he had read on the wiki page, but a small part stood out as new and useful.

  Please remember that a starting planet is just that, a place to start. All players will eventually have access to interplanetary travel be it through space ships, magic, portals or other means. Worlds will start off fairly standard but can rapidly begin to change due to previous events or interplanetary contact.

  It made sense in retrospect, they wouldn’t bind players to whatever world they started on. Starting on a Post-Apocalyptic world made even more sense to him now. After all, what other civilization would willingly explore a ruined world? It didn’t take Joshua long to find a world that looked like a decent starting point.

  Sanctum

  Post-Nuclear Apocalypse type world

  Race Restrictions: Human, Zombie

  A planet that’s civilization has just recently wiped itself out using nuclear weaponry. Small bands of humans fight agai
nst various mutated animals, plants, and their own newly risen dead. The radiation has begun to cause mutations amongst both the survivors and the animals, but the apocalypse is so recent that not much has changed yet.

  It was the best starting world for a zombie that Joshua could hope for. How he was going to get off-world when the time came worried him, since any of the civilizations space-faring capabilities would have long been destroyed, but he could deal with that problem when the time came. With his choice made, the screen switched to show the selectable races.

  It only showed humans and zombies of course, and Joshua had already made his choice. He pressed his finger against the option for zombie without a second thought. The screen accepted his choice and changed to show the available classes.

  Rotting Zombie

  -Risen from the dead through radiation caused by a nuclear war. Rotting zombies primarily focus on physical stats, moving faster and hitting harder than other zombie types. Possible first evolutions include Swift Zombie and Zombie Brute.

  Irradiated Zombie

  -Risen from the dead through radiation caused by a nuclear war. Irradiated zombies died extremely close to the initial nuclear blast sites, causing them to absorb significantly more radiation. They possess an irradiating aura that grows with level, passively damaging enemies that come too close. Given the proper evolutions, Irradiated zombies can gain the ability to regenerate through radiation and control its power. Possible first evolutions include Bloated Zombie and Radiation Walker.

  Plague Zombie

  -While most zombies rose because of the radiation, Plague Zombies rose due to an outbreak of an experimental disease. This disease would have caused an apocalypse of its own but was overshadowed by the nuclear war. Players who choose this option do not actually control the Zombie itself, but rather the disease inside. This allows players to infect and take control of other monsters, though other players will merely suffer a damage-over-time effect. Possible first evolutions include Plague Puppeteer and Body Swapper.