Beta Test
Copyright© 2026 by AlexNikolas
Chapter 2
Laboratory Complex
Tom slowly raised his hand, and it hit a firm but slightly flexible surface.
The capsule, he remembered. I’m in the capsule. Why aren’t they letting me out?
He pushed the lid with both hands. Nothing happened. He pushed as hard as he could. The result was the same.
Panic swept over him, and he started pounding on the lid with his fists, shouting:
“Hey! Anyone! Help!”
The pounding of blood in his temples made his head feel like it was splitting apart. His throat was burning, and his stomach cramped.
They abandoned me! I’m going to die in this coffin!
Exhausted, he fell back. He was ready to burst into tears, but there were no tears. With trembling hands, he felt the walls around him.
There were some bumps and dents. Nothing that looked like a handle or a button.
“Help,” he whispered through his uncooperative lips. The horror of the situation was driving him crazy.
He had ruined his life for a stack of money. Was it really worth it? No wonder the offer had seemed so suspicious. Maybe they took people’s organs and sold them. Was that why the corporation’s complex was in such a remote place? Why did they need so much security and barbed wire? How was he supposed to escape now?
He imagined himself lying on an operating table while someone cut out his liver. A shudder ran through his whole body and made him act.
He pulled his legs up to his chest and pushed against the lid with all his strength. It moved slightly. Tom pushed as hard as he could. Something clicked, and the lid moved a little. Fresh air entered the capsule.
He shouted with joy, tearing his throat with the scream, and kicked the lid with all the strength he had left.
The lid gave way and moved up and back. A ceiling, barely visible in the darkness, appeared before his eyes.
He collapsed, completely exhausted, trying to catch his breath and fighting the nausea rising inside him. Through the pulsing pain in his temples, he felt a spark of hope.
I got out!
His thirst returned with new strength. Gathering what little strength he had left, he rolled over the edge of the capsule. He couldn’t hold on and fell to the floor, hitting his head and shoulder painfully.
Tom Rain’s Apartment
Tom stroked the gaming headset, admiring its shiny black surface. It looked like something straight out of a science fiction movie. He connected the adapter and looked at the instructions one more time.
“Game will start when you give the command: Start. Hint: Don’t wait. The sooner you start, the more you earn!”
Tom opened a bottle of Belgian beer, put it on the coffee table, and sank into a soft armchair. With unexpected excitement inside him, he put on the headset, and it came to life immediately.
A human figure appeared before his eyes. In the upper right corner was a circular mini-map. In the upper left were two bars, a red one for health and a green one, obviously for endurance. The character’s attributes were displayed on the right, skills on the left, and empty inventory slots at the bottom.
No beautiful intro. No fancy opening sequence. Just a game screen.
In the center, a message appeared and began to blink:
“Start Game? Yes. No.”
Tom felt for the beer, took a sip, and thought:
Yes. Start.
The screen went dark, and the inside of the capsule where he had spent three long days appeared. His body remembered that strange feeling of weightless stillness, and he shuddered.
The face inside the capsule opened its eyes and hoarsely whispered:
“Hey, anyone.”
Tom took another sip of beer and made himself comfortable. It was interesting to see how his copy would get out of the sarcophagus. Would he use his strength or find a release latch? Or maybe someone would come to help?
He had no idea how the events would develop, just as he still didn’t know what kind of setting the game had. Although it was already possible to guess that it was a post-apocalyptic world. The only question was what kind.
The clone struggled, pounded on the walls, and shouted.
Why is he panicking so much? This is the starting location. Nothing difficult will happen here.
Tom decided to check what his character was feeling and gave a mental command:
Full immersion.
A spasm of pain and terror shot through his body, and he jumped up, tore off the headset, and threw it aside.
The expensive device rolled across the couch. The beer fell to the floor and spread into a dark puddle at his feet.
Tom struggled to catch his breath and calm down. Then he bent down, grabbed the bottle, and finished what was left in a few gulps. The thirst went away.
Holy shit, that’s some immersion! My heart almost stopped. I’ll stick to the third-person camera.
He threw a towel onto the puddle, picked up the headset, barely pulled it over his head, and gave the command to change the camera mode.
The clone felt along the walls with his hands and ran his fingers over the latch.
A system message appeared:
“Character cannot use the latch. Requires the Simple Mechanisms ability from the Mechanics skill, at least Novice tier.”
Tom slapped his leg in frustration. He had made the wrong choice when selecting his skills after all. In a technological world, especially at the beginning, Mechanics was more valuable than Melee Weapons. But who could have known?
After several long minutes of struggling with the capsule, the character fell out onto the floor.
A blinking message appeared on the screen:
“Character is dehydrated. Health points reduced. Endurance points reduced. You must quench your thirst as soon as possible.”
A red drop began blinking next to the Health bar.
Tom took off the headset, went to the kitchen, and took a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.
Laboratory Complex
The cold floor was draining the warmth from his body and making him shiver. His thirst seemed even worse. His head was splitting with pain.
Tom raised his head and looked around.