The Eternal Sleep

Let's Race!

Luca scrunched his nose at the sheer number of players that gathered to see what could be the first and last biggest race of “The Eternal Sleep”. They cheered and yelled loudly, the words becoming an unintelligible mess by the time it reached his ears. Around them, the music was so loud that the ground seemed to vibrate, Luca could swear his bones were feeling the echoes despite just his mind being in the game.

It was early Sunday morning in the real world, much earlier than the time Luca generally preferred or even considered waking up on the weekend. He idly wondered if it was possible to fall asleep in a REM VR game. It would be a really good question to ask Armando or he could simply find out now if he closed his eyes long enough...

Olivia waved her arm in front of his face, snapping her fingers. He flinched and rubbed his eyes hurriedly, the fog in his mind finally clearing enough for him to register what she was saying. “You helping me with the engine or you gonna keep dazing?”

“Right, right… sorry.” He rubbed his eyes again, trying to yawn in hopes it would help, “Why is this race so early though, it’s like six in the morning, races like these should be around six in the evening.”

“Stop whining Lu, you’ll wake up when the pre-race warm up starts.” She rapidly began running through diagnostics and showing him what wires to hold and connect. Luca shook his head and followed along with great interest, he liked cars and he was amazed how much Olivia had learnt from maintaining an old one her parents loaned her to use as transport for school.

They were in the underground tunnels reserved for the racers, thoughtfully placed under the racetrack. This was where racers stored their vehicles and did any maintenance. It was shielded with a simple code to avoid sabotage of the vehicles and to allow privacy for maintenance. Directly above them were the stands that could carry thousands of players, allowing them a full view of the racers when they appeared.

The track was a phenomenal masterpiece, at least according to Olivia and Luca wasn’t about to argue with that. It ran through several cities, underground tunnels and highways, creating a very intricate weaving of possible pathways. Racers could choose to follow the plotted course, generally following the most difficult or time-consuming paths or fashion their own.

Usually, players are given a two days’ notice to which they scout the area to find their own path for the race. Unfortunately, with the recent events, however, none of the racers or their second in line, for example Luca, had any time to check it out, so they were all on the same level of knowledge.

Fortunately, luck was on the rag-tag team as Olivia and Luca had a mastermind and a couple of eyes spread though out the city to guide them. It didn’t violate the rules from the NPC in any way and it didn’t count as cheating to use all resources available to them.

Armando was with his maps and coders, plotting the fastest course to use at the beginning of the race, Rena was at the highest building, keeping an eye on anyone playing dirty, and Jay signed up to be a motorbike chaperon for the entire race, riding alongside the race to ensure there wasn’t any external interference and keeping a lookout for any driver trapped in a crash. Luca was Olivia’s right-hand man, translating all the incoming information and keeping an eye out for sabotages without distracting her.

Olivia grinned and closed the car’s hood, wiping her hand needlessly on a cloth. The oil and grease from working on machinery didn’t stick to your hands like it did in the real world, after a few moments it evaporated. She swiped her tools back into her inventory and clicked the ‘end’ button on the prep-time screen “Looks like the warm-ups are about to start.”

The loud bell that signaled the end of pre-maintenance time echoed in both their earpieces, “Time to go.” They sat in their respective places, Luca pulling up his screens and tapping in codes, Olivia doing her usual check on the deck. In front of them, the ceiling lowered, and a ramp appeared in a shimmer of silver and blue light, giving them direct access to the track.

Olivia revved the engines several times, testing the speed and driving them on to the track carefully, the cheers of the crowd deafening. Luca tried to block out the noise and focus on the new information Armando was sending him. The warm-up the race was unnecessary as vehicles in the game didn’t need to heat up their engines, they were just to show off and hype up the crowd.

Players would make a small circle around the stands to boast about their vehicles and allow the cheering throng to see who owned which car and place whatever bets they chose. Olivia enjoyed it as it gave her an idea what her competition was like and what moves she’d need to make to easily get rid of it.

Olivia pulled into her assigned position, revving her engine again as people called out the name she’d logged in on her competition sheet, “Havoc!”. They didn’t allow the crowd to distract them, however, eyes peeled on the road ahead. In front the twenty racers, an NPC woman dressed in a blue crop top and short pants held a flag in the air.

A car pulled up next to them roughly, tires screeching obnoxiously on the pitch. Luca scrambled to stabilize himself, the small screens at in front of his dash flickering as Olivia pulled to the side to avoid being hit. “What the heck?”

The driver stared at them harshly, teeth bared like a threatened wild animal, his growling audible even over the noise of the crowd, Olivia recognized him first, “Oh ho ho, what do we have here, how’s your whole no battery issue?”

“I’ll kill you.” He grunted, revving his engine hard, shoving them further to the side. Luca clicked away on one of his holo-screens, calling a red card for the NPCs. One could never be too careful how an angry individual could react when provoked, and Olivia would most certainly let lose her anger on the driver if he damaged her car or either one of them.

“Must say, she runs like a dream.” Olivia continued, ignoring him and tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.

“When you’re dead, I’ll have fun taking pretty boy’s head off his shoulder.” Luca could see the moment when playful boasting turned to glowering rage in Olivia’s eyes. He darted forward to grab her arm to stop her from doing anything reckless, pointing to the NPCs that were peering over the stands. She growled and stamped the exhaust, going a little further to put the man’s face out of view of Luca.

“We can’t do anything yet, not until the race starts.” Luca whispered, leaning back on his seat and watching a single red flag appear in the stats visible above the vehicle, “Besides, he’s already has a red flag, and we have a far more powerful engine.”

Olivia grinned maliciously; her temper satisfied for now. Luca logged into the system, doing final checks and checking in on the racing system, confirming that they were in position. “Luc here, can you guys hear me?”

“Yep, everything’s right on time.” Armando stated determinedly.

“Looking all clear here.” Rena checked in.

“Ready to go when you are.” Luca could hear Jay gunning his engine.

“Alright, time to win a race.”