Tartarus Online

In the year 2152, the world had undergone a lot of changes. Numerous countries turned to dust, while others expanded like never before. After the fourth world war in the year 2128, the world was on the verge of being ruined beyond repair. As such, it was necessary to force some changes in order to sustain life on earth.

One of the prominent changes happened in the gaming industry. Gaming had taken everything by storm. There was no industry, whether it was music or movie, that hadn been influenced by it.

But the gaming industry was changing faster than ever before with player bases shifting from loving and living within a virtual world to bringing virtuality to the real world. Virtual reality was being taken over by a want to have something come off of it in real life.

Hundreds if not thousands of gaming companies quickly moved to capitalise on this new idea in a barely touched market. This changed the perspective of people who thought only the pros can make money off of a game. But most of it all, it changed how the countries fought with each other.

Devils Assassin was one such game that was funded by the United Nations and was released in the year 2145, almost two decades after the fourth world war.

As a result, it also became a game that provided its players and governments related to them, with the opportunity to exchange their in-game assets for real assets, all with the help of a simple click.

Aryan was one of the first few people to play and master that game. Everything from gameplay mechanics to the hidden lore, he knew it all.

On top of that, most of his theories about the future of the game and its story were often correct, leaving his fans in awe as more and more of them began to follow him. It was only a matter of time before his online presence grew insurmountable.

But as it did, there were people around him that got jealous of his success. In front of him, they were the ever caring friends and family, but behind his back, they just wanted to get him out of the way so that they could claim his riches and achievements for themselves.

”Don worry about anything. You did the right thing. ” A voice echoed through the phone, ”With my brat of a brother out of the way, no one will stop us from having a family together. ”

”I know, Vihaan, but… I only wanted him to get jailed not to be sent to Tartarus! ” Meera said panicking uncontrollably, ”And the look of hate he had in his eyes… it sent chills down my spine. Im afraid hell- ”

”What would that frail-looking **er do? ” Vihaan mocked his younger brother, ”The only right thing he ever did in his entire life was to introduce us to each other. Ill tell you what, get dressed up, Ill take you out to your favourite restaurant for dinner. Itll take your mind off of unnecessary things. ”

”Alright… ” Meera mumbled before disconnecting the call.

All of it, from her allegation to the trial, was planned by Vihaan. She just had to do what Vihaan told her to and it was going to be fine. Since Vihaan was the golden child of the family, their parents supported him as well, but Meera had a feeling something a bit more sinister was going on behind the back.

Vihaan could have convinced his parents to do something like that, but there was no way he would have been able to convince Aryans friends with words. He must have paid them along with his lawyer. The only thing was… Vihaan did not have that kind of money to buy the entire courtroom.

Someone else had to have helped him with it. The more she thought about it, the more she realised how hasty she had been in abandoning someone she used to love at one point in her life.

”I did the right thing… right? ”

***

”Get your ass out of the truck! ” The officer yelled before kicking Aryan out of the jeep.

”Ouch! ” Aryan fell face-first to the ground.

The next moment, the officer pulled him off of the ground and took the blindfold off. The scorching heat of the sun immediately greeted Aryans pale face, it took a couple of seconds, but he adjusted to the sunlight and took a look around.

In front of him was an endless desert. It looked more like a place where the police forces would often schedule illegal encounters with criminals to get themselves promote. The cover-up story was more or less the same all the time.

The criminal either got a hold of a weapon or tried to escape during transportation, leaving the officers no choice but to fire and kill the criminal on the spot. Aryan had read too many articles about such a thing that he knew what was going to happen next and immediately turned his face towards the officer.

His thinking was simple, if a criminal was
unning away, the bullet would have to hit his back first and if it didn well, then the officer who took the short would be in trouble as he would likely get exposed during postmortem.

However, what happened next left him bamboozled, to say the least. Behind him was a metal gate surrounded by a gigantic wall. Dozens upon dozens of armed men could be seen at a distance. He wasn getting killed… just yet.

”Horseshit place… ”

Aryan heard a womans voice and turned in the direction from where the noise came from. To his surprise, a lady dressed in what could possibly be the smallest set of prison clothes was standing at some distance from him.

Her violet hair and curvaceous figure were enough to make the dead roll in their graves. That being said, Aryan realised they weren alone. There were at least a hundred of them standing next to each other. In his panic-stricken state, he had failed to notice them before.

”What is going on here? ” He mumbled absent-mindedly only to be hit by a taser, ”Argh! ”

Everyone around him received the same treatment. Most of them howled in pain while some of them looked as if they didn care about being electrocuted.

”Welcome to Tartarus! The place thatll be your home for… possibly the rest of our pitiful lives. ” A mans gigantic holographic figure appeared in front of them, ”But first, youll have to prove you
e actually worthy of not being killed at once. You see, we don have a place for weaklings in our midst. You can see it as separating the weed from the crops. ”

He continued, ”Heres the deal. Within your transport vehicles, you will find a VR Pod. All you have to do is get in it and play a game of survival. Those who cover their sorry asses for three rounds will get to live while those who don … will be killed right on the spot. Any questions? ”

Barely anyone had the time to compute what the masked man had just said before the hologram vanished and all of them were knocked out before being forced into the mentioned VR pods.