1 The game launches

I suppose I should introduce myself. I am The Narrator a hidden part of the system that will be recording the journey of each of the Holders. This is the story of the man destined to hopefully be one of the Space Emperors. His name is.... Ice. Most Space Emperors start out rich and powerful. Ice is different. So lets take a peak at who he was before the system; before the many sins he would probably commit to become a Space Emperor.

He was average; had been since high school except in video games. In video games; he was whatever he wanted to be. When he heard that the first true VRMMO was going to be available to testers he bought a spot in the beta test and today was the day the game arrived. Included was the full game immersion pod worth 6 months of his paychecks that allowed him to fully integrate into the game.

He had the technicians set it up In his living room while he read the instruction manual for the pod. It contained a type of liquid that would provide haptic feedback to his body and a helmet that provided the visuals for the game. It was the newest invention for gaming and was remarkable. It even had its own server tower to keep up with the demand of the system.

The game itself was a space mmo and he was going to get in on it from day 1. Once it was setup he set the pod to warm up to a comfortable temperature before stripping naked and climbing into the pod. Then he put on the helmet and the breathing mask before sealing the hatch and turning the helmet on. Doing so turned the helmet completely black before he saw the words. The words that would change everything:

Welcome Empire Builder.

Suddenly his body was wracked with pain like his body was on fire. He tried to struggle but it was futile he reached upwards to hit the emergency stop but ... the hatch and the button were gone...