Prologue: Betrayal

"Ahhhh!!!!"

A loud, heart-wrenching scream escaped from Ryder's mouth, and his eyes shot open, bloodshot with tears.

"Where am I?"

He yelled again.

In front of him was an unfamiliar white ceiling, he tried to lift his body but found out he couldn't.

Clank! Clank!

"No!"

Panic shot through his head when he realized that his hands and feet were tied to the hard, stretcher-like bed.

He couldn't understand his situation or how he got here. His body hurt like hell. However, before he could think more about it...

Creak!

The doors of the room opened, and a familiar, plump face with a greasy, perverted smile appeared in front of him. Walking beside him was a fairly handsome youth in a neat, white lab coat.

"Oh, so you finally woke up, Mr. Ryder. I thought I would have to give you another electric shock."

"Spencer!!!!"

The moment he saw that face, he realized who it was.

"It's you!!"

Ryder understood, he understood everything at that moment.

"You did this to me, bastard!

Spencer responded with an ugly grin. "Hehe, now that you know, what are you going to do? Haven't you learned enough yet? Poor bastards like you with such intellect are meant to be used by people like me. Scum like you should always remain at the bottom of society."

"Fuck you, Spencer, set me free right now!"

"Fucker, mind how you speak to my boss," the guy in the lab coat screeched with an ugly look on his face.

Ryder shot him a deadly glare and returned his gaze to Spencer. "What's this all about, Spencer? I'm done working for you. I spent two years trapped in this fucking place, working my butt off creating the game you asked for. We agreed you'd let me go after creating the game."

Spencer smirked and placed his greasy fingers on his chin. "Did I agree to anything like that? No!"

"Damn you, Spencer, the contract, the fucking contract you made me sign after sending those bastards to kidnap me, don't you dare act like you forgot."

"Oh, you mean the contract that day? Actually, you never even bothered to read it to the last page. This was included in the contract. Haha, you are my slave now. I'll use your brain to make more internet-breaking VR games. You have no one to save you. The world has come to the conclusion that the creator of [Multiverse of Terror] is dead. Even if I kill you now, nobody would care."

Ryder gritted his teeth as rage washed through his body. He struggled with the metal restraints, but they were unyielding.

Two years ago, the internet was taken by storm when Ryder released his groundbreaking video game, "Multiverse of Terror."

However, his game was taken from him by Stetcom, a company owned by Spencer after a biased court judgment. Ryder was kidnapped immediately after that, and ever since, the world had been living under the belief that the creator of the video game was dead.

Ryder glared at Spencer. "You damn bastard, what did I ever do to you?"

Spencer lifted an eyebrow. "You really want to know? Here it is: you became a thorn in my flesh the day you released your game. My game was supposed to rule that year, yet you released your game without my permission and took all the glory I had planned for. I wanted to take down your game, but you see, I have bigger plans."

"Then you seized the game, you bribed that moron to make some biased judgment about the game. After that, you decided to kidnap me and give the world news that you hired me and I died two weeks after. I read all the details about it online." Ryder was furious and quickly interrupted Spencer.

"Hehe, you understand now, but it's too late. It won't even save you now."

"What evil plan are you plotting again, you damn bastard?" Ryder yelled at Spencer, a bit suspicious after hearing his last words.

Spencer grinned at Ryder and gave a signal to Jeremiah, the young man standing beside him.

Jeremiah nodded his head. "Yes, boss."

Ryder quickly glanced at Jeremiah, who was making his way to a table in the room. Jeremiah picked up a remote control and then turned back to Ryder with a grin.

"What are you planning to do to me?" Ryder asked with a lot of suspicion in his voice.

Spencer held his large belly and laughed evilly for a few seconds. "I'm going to suck every bit of knowledge from your brain with this machine Jeremiah developed. I'll create clones and give them your memory. I will use it to create a gaming empire and rule the world."

Ryder's eyes widened. He could not actually believe what he had just heard.

Spencer, the man he had worked so hard for over the past two years, was actually planning to do something so malicious to him, even after creating a game that would propel Spencer in the business world.

"Since you know you are nearing your end already, why not leave a last word behind? I'll make your last words iconic in the games I'll build in the future..

"Wait, I'll name this VR after your previous game.. Multiverse Online.. haha.. No need for the terror part."

Ryder's intense hatred for Spencer was evident as he gazed at him. Anger was etched on his face, his facial veins bulged, and his eyes turned red.

He fought with every ounce of strength within him to break free but ultimately surrendered in defeat.

"Fuck you, Spencer!"

"I will take that as your last words. Jeremiah, turn it on now!"

"Yes, boss."

Jeremiah grinned devilishly at helpless Ryder, secretly enjoying the helpless look on his face. Without wasting time, he pressed the red button.

Several robotic hands shot out from under the stretcher, each robotic hand holding a special needle.

The robotic hands pierced Ryder's skin with the cold, metallic needles, causing excruciating pain to shoot through his body. His muscles tensed as a numbing sensation started to creep through his body toward his brain.

But then, a sudden surge of electricity jolted through the needles and into his body.

"Ahhh!"

Ryder's mouth involuntarily let out a loud cry of pain. The electricity surging through his body was too much for a human like him to bear.

Nevertheless, Jeremiah soon noticed that something was wrong with the machine he had developed.

"What's happening? There was nothing like electricity mentioned in the function." Spencer shot a questioning glance at the panicking Jeremiah.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Make it stop before you kill him."

Jeremiah frantically pressed the green button on the remote control to turn the robotic hands off.

"It's not turning off!"

"Do something. We would lose everything if he dies, and if that happens, I would ensure that you and your family die with him."

Jeremiah ran toward the robotic hands after hearing the threats.

Nevertheless, before he got there, the robotic hands started shaking vigorously.

And soon, with a loud bang, it exploded, sending both Jeremiah and Spencer flying toward the wall in the room.

Ryder's body, even after the explosion, was still intact. Nevertheless, his mind and soul had already drifted away from this world!