Venus Online (Volume 1): LitRPG Sci-Fi Harem Read online

  He typed in his address and hit "enter."

  He expected the screen to light up with a face laughing or another website to come up with lots of cool free games or that he'd won a brand-new car or something. Instead, a new page loaded that just read, "Thank you."

  "That's it?" Byron leaned back in his chair. "What a rip-off."

  He sighed and got up from his desk to go to his gaming setup. Since he lived in a studio apartment, that just meant walking a few feet to where he had a TV, an XBox, and a Playstation 4 propped up on stacks of crates. He switched on his PS4 and began playing his favorite MMO, Battlefield: Deep Space.

  He usually played fantasy RPGs, but had really gotten into Deep Space. Set in a fictional galaxy, he had spent hours aboard his own personal spaceship, defending the Planetary Alliance against the evil Ivadera Empire. His current goal was to level up his Warrior enough to be able to get a level-14 heavy bomber.

  Byron forgot all about the mysterious website as he fought computer-generated aliens for hours until the doorbell on his apartment rang, along with a knock on his front door.

  In the type of neighborhood he lived in, Byron's first instinct was to get up and reach for the baseball bat he kept by the door. "Who is it?"

  A man's voice called out on the other side. "Delivery for Byron Jones."

  Byron looked at the clock. It read eleven o'clock at night. No way this was a real delivery. He picked up the baseball bat and rested it on his shoulder while peering through the peephole.

  Two men stood in the hallway outside his apartment. They both wore white uniforms with ball caps that read, "Venus Online Delivery." A tall wooden box stood between them, surprising Byron. If this wasn't a real delivery, these guys sure went to a lot of trouble to look the part.

  Byron unlocked the three locks on the door and opened it an inch. "Yeah?"

  One of the men raised his eyebrows. "Byron Jones?"

  Byron nodded. "Yeah, that's me."

  The man held up a clipboard. "We got a delivery for you."

  "I didn't order anything."

  The man frowned at his clipboard. "It says he placed the order two hours ago. Did you go to the address for Venus Online?"

  Byron looked at his computer. It still read, "Thank you."

  "No way." Byron looked back at the men. "I just put in my address."

  The delivery man smiled. "We promise quick delivery."

  Byron opened the door. "I gotta see this."

  As the two delivery men pushed the crate and it rolled on wheels into the apartment, they left the scent of sawdust and cigarette smoke. It looked even bigger than he thought, longer than it was tall. It barely fit in his living room between the futon he slept in and the wooden planks he kept his TV and game system on.

  The first deliveryman pointed. "Is right here okay?"

  Byron held up his hands. "Okay, what is this? What's going on? Who are you guys and what's in that crate?"

  The two delivery men exchanged a look while the first one asked, "They didn't tell you what this was about?"

  "No, I never heard anything."

  "Who gave you the card?"

  Byron shrugged. "Some old guy I met in the subway."

  The second delivery man broke into a smile. "Did he use a crutch?"

  "Yeah."

  The second delivery man laughed. "That must have been Otis, Jones."

  The first deliveryman (apparently named Jones) held out a hand. "Hey, this is serious, Curtis. We're not supposed to deliver to non-approved personnel."

  "What, you wanna go back and tell 'em? You wanna tell him you refused delivery? To Otis?"

  Byron held up his baseball bat. "Look, I'm done with this. I wanna know what's going on or you can haul this crap back where it came from."

  The second deliveryman (named Curtis) sighed. "Okay, okay. Jones is right, though. We're supposed to be delivering to people who've already gone through orientation. This thing is invite-only. But since Otis gave it to you, we'll give it to you, but only if you want it. Either way, you can't tell anybody about it."

  Byron nodded. "Okay, fine. Sure."

  Jones pushed a button on the side of the crate.

  The crate's walls fell open, hitting the ground with four thuds. The top folded away, leaving a white egg-shaped pod sitting in the middle of the living room. Its surface was so smooth that it reflected the shocked look on Byron's face until lights blinked on its surface. When the lights stopped flashing, the pod cracked open along its length.

  The egg's shell split to fold down onto the floor, revealing what looked like a plush white armchair inside. Around where the headrest would go, a series of silvery wires curved over each other and inwards like a spider's web.

  Jones pointed. "This right here is a virtual reality simulator. You lay down in it, and it connects with a neural interface to project you into an online multiplayer game called Venus Online."

  Byron stared at the chair for a moment before it clicked. When it did, he burst out laughing.

  Jones frowned. "What's funny?"

  Byron reached up to brush his brown hair away from his face. "Man, I thought you guys were serious. What is this, a prank show on YouTube or something?" He looked at their hands and the chair for hidden cameras.

  Curtis shook his head. "Hey, we're serious as a heart attack, man. The wires here read your brainwaves and the pod projects a field that connects to your optic nerves, your eardrums, your skin, everything. It feels as real as we are standing here."

  Byron folded his arms. "Sure. Like we have anything close to that kind of technology. That kind of thing would change the world, and you're just gonna drop it in my living room?"

  Jones grinned. "That's right."

  "Okay, let's say I believe this is what you say it is. How much does it cost?"

  "There's no charge right now. Venus Online is in a trial period. You'll be a beta tester. While you're using it, the home servers give us information to see how you're doing."

  Byron studied the faces of the two men. "Are you guys serious?"

  The delivery men both shrugged.

  "Hey," Jones said, "this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Otis broke every rule in the book by giving you that card. Even the press release for Venus Online isn't scheduled for another five years. No one's supposed to know it exists outside the company. Even then, there's a one-year waiting period to be a beta tester if you were to go through normal channels. If you don't want it, we'll pack up and leave and you can read about it on the news."

  He reached for a button on the armchair.

  Byron reached out to stop him. "Hey, hey, I never said I didn't want it."

  He studied the armchair. He would have thought something this advanced would be bulkier and more complicated, but it looked almost boring. Part of him told himself to be skeptical, but the other side wanted it to be real. He loved video games. Who wouldn't want to actually be in one?

  "Okay," he said, "so how does this thing work?"

  Curtis grinned. "You just lie down."

  Byron looked down at his grubby T-shirt and shorts. In all the stories about virtual reality, the user had to put on a suit or gloves or cover himself in gel or something like that. It had something to do with force feedback. "Do I gotta strip naked or something?"

  Jones made a face. "Hell, no. Like I said, just lie down."

  Byron carefully climbed onto the armchair. It smelled of fresh plastic like a new car, and felt incredibly soft like some sort of memory foam that he sank deeper into. As he lay his head inside the web of wiring over the headrest, he watched Jones and Curtis. He half-expected them to start laughing and pull out cameras or pull out guns and reveal this was all a trick to steal his wallet.

  Instead, the two men pulled out some sort of equipment. Jones had a tablet and began typing on the screen. Curtis pulled out what looked like a barcode reader at the supermarket and swept Byron's body with red light.

  Jones called out, "I'm booting up."

  Curtis murmured
, "Five feet tall, two-hundred and ninety-three pounds."

  "Two-ninety," Byron called out.

  "Scanner don't lie, buddy. No heart conditions, glucose levels low, stable brain activity. Good candidate."

  Curtis nodded. "Otis knows how to pick 'em. Okay, system's online."

  He looked down at Byron and winked. "Go get 'em, buddy."

  He tapped a button.

  The living room seemed to explode into a shower of light. Instead of a loud boom, everything fell completely silent. Byron almost jumped off the armchair but he couldn't move. He wanted to scream as he felt a sinking feeling like falling off a cliff but could only watch as the light swirled around him.

  The light snapped back together with a pop. He felt like he'd landed on something like an elevator stopping short.

  It plunged him into darkness.

  A few seconds passed until a glowing box popped up over his head with text running through it.

  WELCOME TO VENUS ONLINE

  After a moment, more text appeared underneath it.

  CHOOSE YOUR CLASS

  MARINE | TECHMAGE | ROGUE

  Byron looked around. Everything else still looked black. "Is this the game?"

  Silence greeted him.

  He muttered. "Not very interesting so far."

  He looked back at the menu. "So can I get a description of the classes? Because I usually play the big guy. I guess that would be the marine."

  He reached out to tap it.

  CLASS SELECTED:

  MARINE - LEVEL 1

  STR: 10

  DEX: 5

  NRG: 1

  HEALTH: 100/100

  NEW OBJECTIVE: ORIENTATION

  The darkness began to fade, giving way to light until he could see again, but what he saw made him freeze for a moment. His living room vanished. Instead, he looked up at a sky full of stars. Yet he wasn't lying down. He sat in a chair, looking through a pane of glass at a dizzying field of twinkling lights, clustered together in galaxies. When he turned his head, he saw huge banks of controls surrounding the window. All sorts of switches and buttons and levels formed consoles around screens with different readings. It reminded him of a space shuttle or the cockpit of an airplane. Or a spaceship.

  "I'm on a spaceship," he whispered.

  He looked down at himself and almost jumped out of the chair.

  He was used to seeing his round gut in front of him. It had been replaced by a flat chest and stomach under a gray jumpsuit. He reached down to run his fingers over the chest. It felt as hard as rock. Even his arms bulged with muscle.

  "Holy shit," Byron whispered. "I'm in the game."

  "That's a big, fat Roger, baby."

  Byron whipped around in his chair.

  Someone stood behind him, what looked like a robot from its silvery body and glowing blue eyes. Yet the robot had a very feminine shape with amazing detail. Its delicate feet arched up in the back to form high heels, and led up to long and curvy legs. It narrow waist tapered up to breasts that defied gravity and tipped with small nubs like nipples. Her head had long lengths of silver wire that flowed around like hair, and a face with full lips that reminded him of Scarlett Johansson.

  In other words, she was the hottest robot he'd ever seen, and Byron had spent years Googling pictures of hot robots.

  The robot raised its hands over its head as it spoke in a high but husky voice. "Welcome to your ship, baby. Or should I call you 'Captain'?"

  The robot's eyes narrowed. "Or would you prefer I call you 'Master?'"

  Chapter 4

  BYRON LOOKED around the cabin. "Th-this is amazing. It looks so real."

  "It is real." The robot lowered her arms and placed her hands on the curves of her hips. "Well, it's close enough. What's the difference? You saw The Matrix, right?"

  Byron ran his hands over his chest and face. It felt completely real. He could feel every wrinkle of his clothes, and smelled a chemical scent like ozone. He could even hear a distant hum of engines in the background. "How is this possible? I mean, they're just getting virtual reality headsets going. Nobody ever said we were close to anything like this technology."

  The robot giggled in such a sexy way that it made his armpits prickle with sweat. "Byron, you're sitting in a fucking spaceship with a talking robot, and you're worrying about technical specs? Shit, you gotta lighten up."

  He shook his head. "Sorry, I just...nobody prepared me for this."

  The robot's eyes widened. "Oh, you fall asleep during the orientation? Naughty, naughty. No wonder you're freakin' out. Okay, lemme give you the grand fucking tour."

  She crooked a finger to beckon him and turned around to face away from him. Byron couldn't help glancing down at the curve of her ass as she walked out of the control room. It looked naked with rounded cheeks and a deep crack. As a buttman, he appreciated it.

  He slowly got out of the chair, took a moment to get over the idea of how real it felt, and followed her.

  The spaceship looked familiar, like the ships he'd seen on movies but more Star Wars than Star Trek. Outside the control room, they walked into a large gray entryway with an airlock and onwards to a corridor with curved walls.

  As they walked, the robot said, "Welcome to your bitchin' spaceship. You have to give it a name, but we can deal with that later. It's a class-five frigate, has three plasma guns, and four torpedo tubes. Oh, wait. I went too far. Let me start at the beginning."

  They passed out of the corridor into an even larger open space that looked like a recreational area. Couches and chairs gathered around a large screen on the wall while a counter nearby had a series of bottles mounted on the wall.

  The robot walked over to the counter and took down some of the bottles. "Welcome to Venus Online, a VRMMORPG. That's a tongue twister."

  She waved a finger in the air. "As you've probably guessed, it's set in space."

  She began pouring the contents of the bottles into two glasses. "If you've seen Star Wars, Star Trek, that kinda shit, you know the drill. I won't bore you with all the details because you'll find out soon enough and whatever you don't know, I'll tell you. I'm your sidekick, your guide, and your first mate. I'm whatever you want me to be."

  She paused to raise an eyebrow at him. "And I do mean whatever you want me to be."

  The way she said "whatever" made his cock tingle a little bit. He wasn't an expert on women, but he could pick up a sexual overtone from this robot. He told himself he had to be imagining things. Besides the fact that he couldn't imagine a gorgeous woman like her being interested in him, this was also a robot standing in front of him, not a human female.

  That made him think maybe he had misunderstood. "I just realized, are you another real player like me?"

  Her full lips curved into a pout. "Aw, you had to go there? No, Byron, I'm exactly what I look like. I'm a robot in the game as well as real-life, sort of like an assistant to help you out here. There are a lot of NPCs in Venus. If you ever meet another player, you'll see a red star glowing over their head like you have."

  That made him look up to see a small red light flickering over his head like a tiny sun. "Oh, okay."

  She went back to mixing the contents of the bottles, looking like an expert bartender. "Anyway, as you can see, the game is a perfect simulation. It links directly with your brain so you don't need all the fancy goggles and shit. You can see, hear, feel, smell everything, just like real life."

  He felt a surge of panic and touched his temples. Maybe his imagination kicked in, because he suddenly felt a throb. "Wait, it connects to my brain? Is it safe?"

  She stopped and pressed her fingers over her cheeks. "Well, you're a beta tester, right? I guess we'll find out."

  She burst into laughter a second later. "Shit, you should've seen your face. Nah, I'm just fuckin' with ya. Yeah, it's safe. Don't think of all this as a machine plugging into your brain. Think of it as a dream where they can control what happens in it. In the real world, you're asleep and will stay asleep until it's ove
r."

  Byron shook his head and began looking around the room. "Okay, this is all really cool but I think I'd like to get out and think about it for a little bit. How do I log out?"

  The robot picked up the two glasses and held one out to him. "Yeah, I thought you'd need this. Drink up."

  He took the glass. "What-what is it?"