Dr. Light, an old man with a very bushy mustache and more white in his hair than grey, sipped at his coffee while witnessing the stars change. The simulation on the monitor in front of him monitored, altered, and predicted changes in the world of Ubel, the most popular VR RPG in the world. After two centuries, their cosmic window was closing, and in mere months, they would no longer be able to access the other world.
For the last 200 years, Ubel was king in the entertainment industry, a juggernaut with movies, webcomics, and endless fanfiction based upon the game. As far as the public knew, Screamo Studio had lost their minds and crashed a trillion-dollar cash cow. They developed new translation technology, allowing people all over the world to communicate despite language, culture, and national barriers.
Dr. Light remembered receiving a Nobel Peace Prize in his early 100s. What a time to be alive when adventurers in the other world numbered in the billions. Their work created millions of jobs, from streamers to porn stars. No one outside the highest seats in the company or the hidden puppeteers within governments knew the truth. They had started as a research company with a multimillion dollar grant, and few remembered the name of their former name.
While they had made discoveries and even necessary technological improvements, Ubel was another universe. From the outside, they were able to use their quantum computers to alter the history of the world, create new laws, and make a mess of things. Patches were coming undone, with some parts hardwired into the world's new order while many of their controls faded.
They had committed a crime to a people who never knew they existed. Dr. Light remembered the peaceful world only crawling out of the Stone Age, led by sages channeling the power of an element that did not exist on Earth. Perhaps it was envy that made them create the first monsters.
While the sages battled the monsters, they assessed the situation. They created dungeons to indefinitely harness the MN particle named after his daughter, Marie Nishimura. When he was a younger man in his 20s, he had been a skirt chaser, and his pretty one-night stand kept the child.
The scientist sipped his coffee as he watched control slip from his fingers once again. It had all been a test to see what they could do to such a world. MN particles were producible even in their own universe once they were found, broke them down, and studied their function. Ubel had been an interesting experiment.
Many programmers and developers scratched their heads at the new programming language they were forced to learn for their jobs. The first expansion, The Call of Cthulhu, had been difficult to finish before the first Halloween of the game's release. Many of the adventurers who crossed over were confused by the population who didn't act like NPCs. They seemed too grateful when the little murder hobos slaughtered entire goblin tribes, acted a little too human when slaughtered by the same murder hobos, or became pregnant from the rapes. The child filters had been a nightmare, but eventually, everything fell into place.
The MN particle was as mastered and understood as possible. Soon, it would be produced in the new world to allow an easier time taking control with the new system. No one wanted to colonize Ubel; there were too many threats without billions of adventurers culling the population of monsters. Whole sections of the planet were falling under the rule of raid monsters or destroyed entirely.
With the stars falling out of alignment, they would get a fresh start, and with their control, perhaps they could give communism a try. Who knows, with unlimited resources and no reason to economize, maybe it would work.
As Dr. Light watched, the player base for Ubel plummeted. Some believed the lie that it was server issues while they updated them. In actuality only those with a deep connection to the place could cross through any longer.
There would be no more controls or balancing to ensure players could defeat the monsters the minds of developers had unleashed. He admired them in his own way. They were a people who had lived under his rule for two centuries.
Chapter 1 is on my patreon for 1$ 6k of this new and messed up world. Follow the link I plan to finish the first book in 5 weeks.