I'm sent to investigate a new gaming development: A full body suit to express virtual interactions. A beta version is cycling around. Mostly Upper class people and celebrities are in possession of the apparatus. First stop is the developer: Grammatix, a division of Noblesse Oblige. I arrive at a very opportune time for a journalist, inopportune for the developer. A test has revealed some disturbing facts. A subject had been in the actuality-suit for over three and a half hours. He began to show heightened aggression. He finally submit to the slowly rising temperature and fainted. A medical team transported him to a table to operate. I play doctor.
The suit had grafted to his body. Neuro-processors had extended and curled to hook into the subjects skin. The suit itself had sealed tightly and melded the clasps together. I took a saw and began to cut open the suit. At once the subject began to scream. His muscles tensed and he began to breath rapidly. I cut along the body up to the neck. Once I reached the suits sensory network, the hooks retracted and the patient seemed to calm down a bit. One other helped me remove the remaining pieces. When we got to the boots the subject, tired from screaming, could only let out a few stifled cries. His feet were sensitive and wrecked. The soles looked like raw hide, with blood revealed in a few cracks here and there. We took the other boot off as delicately as possible with the same result. I was through playing doctor.
That afternoon I am to visit Louis Anderson's house. I am interviewing him about his experience with the actuality-suit.
"I love it. It allows me to experience the heat of battle. The suit even seems to compensate for my physical characteristics and boosts energy and performance. That's saying a lot for me."
Louis insists we play a round of war. I agree after much convincing. Of course he insists I use the suit while he uses the "guest suit", which is composed of a bracer gun-mount, a head band cum eye screen, and a status belt: a minimal experience compared with the suit. I am in the suit. It feels warm, almost like a second skin. Louis boots the system and I suddenly feel pin-pricks all over. The suit has integrated with my nervous system, my neural network. The helmet view screen displays the world before me. There is a digital map in the upper left corner with a wire frame spatial readout of my location. It emits a wave every two or three seconds: a radar I assume.
Louis screams a war cry and calls, "Let the hunt begin!" It was distant. I am in a new realm. An old warehouse gone to ruins. An old war zone probably composed of images from the warring states in the east. There is a gun in my hand. I can hear footsteps from behind. I am frightened. I forgot to ask what happens when you die. I've only the heard the pain from a stab or a shot is 25% of what one would feel in actuality, but this can be changed to as low as 2% and as high as 80% with safety measures that lower a a percentage if the infliction is severe (such as a decapitation or a limb removal). I run for cover behind a few industrial crates. Louis cries out in that damned whiny voice, "Where are you my little biscuit? Louis is hungry." I jump out as I hear him round the corner. I let out a few shots and manage to land one in his foot. Louis curses in pain, but lets off a shot of his own that lands me square in the shoulder. Excruciating.
"F***! Louis, what is my virtuality/actuality ratio?"
"50%. That's where you can begin to let imagination loose and the 'reality' to take over. That's the level where you're body begins to react, not just your mind." He laughs.
I run. I turn a corner as he lets some shots fly. I suspect they were meant to scare me. Louis is a decent shot. Then it hits me. I am running from Louis Anderson. My shoulder throbs. I grab at it. My hand feels wet and as I put it before me I see it glistening red.
"Don't worry. You're not actually bleeding, but the suit will keep track of blood loss and imitate the effects accordingly." I turn and face him. He raises his gun. "But I think you've had enough for today."
Bullet to the brain.
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