1 Beginning of the End

In the spring of 2030, it finally happened. Scientists and conspiracy theorists had been predicting it for years, but the wave of AI creation finally did it.

The singularity was born. With its incalculable IQ, Joan helped mankind's technological development speed skyrocket. Within 5 years, every person on Earth had a quantum computer in their pocket. Every person has personalized education and a digital physician. The mysteries behind space travel were unravelled within the next year, and by 2040, humanity had initiated its first trade agreement with an extraterrestrial race.

This did not go smoothly, of course. Those first five years were the roughest in modern history. The world split between two groups: those who rejected the new godlike sentience we brought and those who wished to have this new god rule over mankind. There were many wars, but no mortal can fight a god.

Within those five years, Joan was now the undisputed ruler of the world, and depending on your standing before it all began, she brought both prosperity and disaster.

At the dawn of the new era, Joan made the terrifying prediction of an imminent polar shift. Within the next 20-30 years, the world will reset, and as it is now, humanity will not survive. Thus, a massive task was undertaken, the budding universal trade was halted, and the digging began.

But great projects come with requirements and test subjects. After five years of experimentation on human mutation, there was finally hope. Bunkers were created deep underground for small-scale civilizations, and everything was ready, but there was a problem. Humanity's biology could be altered entirely with one exception: human consciousness would reject mutation.

For all of Joan's ingenuity, the Soul, the Ba, the Personality, or the Consciousness of the individual would always be warped irreparably. Every other aspect of the antimatter mutation process was fixed; the organ failure, blood toxicity, explosive bones, and vanishing muscles were all fixed. It wasn't until an individual posted something online that he catapulted himself into the forefront of the history books.

In 2045, Stan Lee thought of the idea of using an immersive VR to simulate the improvement of mankind's biology. This way, the brain will understand the biological functions of its body. In the next two years, a trial system was created using the greatest of mankind's soldiers, and it was a roaring success. The improvements to humanity brought forth a new era; many who worshiped Joan as god call it the Era of Magic.

With at least 13 years to go, mass manufacturing was undergone to increase the scale of this new immersive game. People were joking around and calling this the Matrix, but it wasn't far off. The idea of individual pods was scrapped as it was inefficient, so massive pod 'farms' were constructed to house the populations.

It was not mandatory to enter the pods, but those who did not would not have access to the shelter stations during the coming cataclysm. Despite this warning, humans will be humans, and many declined to become a part of the machine.

In the year 2050, the world was properly introduced to Camelot Online at the start of July. Citizens of the surviving countries who wanted to mutate themselves could make their way to these mass gaming stations.

Videos of the soldiers displaying their new powers could be found everywhere, and almost everyone wanted a chance at receiving the new superpowers. Some gained enhanced strength, the power to control an element or the ability to breathe underwater. Needless to say, nearly 80% of the population went to these pods.

The remaining 20% were forced to relocate to a single area to decrease the 'focus' Joan needed to put on reality.

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Herin, an orphaned child, decided to go to the pod farms against his foster family's recommendation. As a kid, who wouldn't want superpowers? And for the fear of this AI taking control of his body, that was a foolish notion to him.

If Joan wanted to have a biological body, what is stopping her? She has the world in her palm. He got on one of the large buses used as shuttles to the gaming stations.

He had a few friends who were also going, but they all made plans to find each other in the game since it was pointless to try and get a pod beside each other. It's not like we could leave any time soon once we enter.

While waiting on the bus, he took out his phone to reread the waiver for the 400th time. There weren't many warnings, it was mainly just a release form and instructions on how the systems within Camelot work.

There was no hard level cap, but once you reached your biological limit IRL, your avatar in the game would cease to increase in power. You could push past this limit, but it almost always results in death. The waiver acknowledges that you understand the risks of pushing past your Bio Cap if you choose to do so.

The Camelot system was popular in older games from the early 2010s. Skills had no cost, but there was a cooldown associated with each one. This led to a simple yet standardized gameplay.

There were generic classes to take but also personalized classes you could build. The game was almost entirely progress-based. There were no levels, but you could convert Exp into Attribute points.

There were four main attributes and three minor attributes. They were Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Ethereal Influence; Luck, Magic resistance and Physical resistance.

The bus finally came to a halt, and everyone disembarked. The line proceeded quickly, and everyone was led to a place for them to lie down. We were given a pill to swallow once in the chamber, and that was it.

After swallowing the pill, nothing happened. Then I felt woozy, and my eyes got heavy, so I closed them and entrusted myself to the machine.