World Builder: World Builder, #1

By INDIGO HAWKINS

World Builder: Book 1

David wants to escape his small town where dirt and natural disasters are part of everyday life and fun and adventure are nowhere to be found… until he's introduced to the world of virtual reality.
As the real world grows gray and hopeless, David along with a group of friends and strangers find themselves deep in the heart of an alternative reality multi-world virtual simulation, where they are free to do as they please. That freedom comes with advantages because soon, the novices pursue fame and fortune on the competitive level.
No one's life is more changed than David's in this virtual world. He can experience things he's never experienced in the real world. When his town is flooded, he discovers an amazing thing about himself. Accompanied by a quirky girl with more secrets than she can handle, David finds himself on an unbelievable adventure, made even more remarkable by a revelation of his own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: INDIGO HAWKINS
• Release date: Jan 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393492085

Book preview

For Mir  

Build Your World

With Your Mind  

Not

Your Labor

World Builders

Book 1

Chapter 1

Albay Province, Bicol Region, Luzon, Philippines

David groaned as he stepped into the third puddle of filthy water that day. There seemed to have been an abundance of them strewn all across the village and David had managed to step into each and every one of them. There were few things as uncomfortable as wet socks.

The boy gripped his cane, annoyed with himself that he couldn’t avoid it, no matter how hard he tried. He was, after all, a blind man and there was no avoiding wet socks.

David listened to the people around him. There were discussions going on about all sorts of things, the most common being the upcoming Moscow Challenge events. They said it was going to be epic; something to behold. David didn’t let the punch to his stomach get to him, no matter how much he wanted to behold those events himself. Once he let his condition get him down, there was no turning back. He had fought long and hard to get to where he was, and there was no turning back for him. There was no way he was going to turn back now. His family had worked hard enough to keep him sane.

There were upsides that came with being blind, though. His sense of hearing, for example, was impeccable. He could hear the chirping of birds in the distance that the normal human being would have missed. He could hear every footstep, every breath that was a little too close to him. He could hear the coins tossed on the poker tables that littered the streets, and the sighs of defeat that followed.

The food was rich and tasty. Apparently, his loss of sight enhanced every other sense as a consolation prize. Food was great, sounds around David were amazing and the sensation of touch against his skin never ceased to give him goosebumps. The only downside was the smell. The smell of this place was rotten and contaminated. The toxins that weren’t in the water were on the streets, in the sewers, in the mold of the buildings. That was something that David tried very hard to avoid. It was a constant reminder of what state this world was in. It was a constant shadow looming over him, reminding him that there was little to nothing left. He knew how his family struggled to keep the crops alive on their family farm. They didn’t grow nearly enough to make a proper living, but they survived and that was more than could be said about most people in today’s day and age. Food was scarce and survival was a daily challenge. If the radiation didn’t get you, starvation would, and if all else failed, the natural disasters would take care of the rest. There have been more accidents in the past month than in the last five years. Things were getting bad. David couldn’t help but think of the puddles of water as a warning. It was out of the ordinary. David knew because he walked this path every day of his life. It’s never been this bad and it was making his stomach turn. It was strange; the things you noticed when you couldn’t be distracted by other things.

David shook the uneasy thought from his mind. Surely if there were warnings the government would have evacuated the town center. Surely there would have been more panicked people. There were people much smarter than him analyzing these things. They would have found something out of the ordinary if there was anything to find.

He gripped the head of his cane a little tighter than necessary, though, a voice in the back of his head telling him that he should trust his gut. He didn’t like the snake of uneasiness coiling in his stomach, making its way through his chest.

You’re a blind man, he chided himself through clenched teeth. Stop being paranoid. You don’t even know what the street looks like. What makes you think you can sense something that hasn’t even happened yet.

This seemed to settle the snake a bit. He knew that it was true. He didn’t know why he thought it would even make a difference if he knew. Were the people of the village going to believe him? His own sister, who was selling their produce in town, wouldn’t even have believed him. There was nothing he could do even if what he thought he knew was real. There was nothing anyone could do. If the town was going to be hit by some form of disaster and if it was close enough for David to feel, there was no getting away from it either. But there wasn’t anything coming. There would have been alarms. There would have been an army that made its way through the town to get the people to safety. But there was nothing. Nothing but chatter and excitement about the events that would soon come to pass.

David counted the steps from the sidewalk he had just stepped on and stopped in front of the cafe. This was his stop.

***

There was a certain sort of irony that came with a blind man playing online games against people who possessed all of their senses. Perhaps the fact that he didn’t have all of his made him such a worthy opponent.

David listened, his headset set to the maximum, honed into every sound around him in this virtual world. He could hear every crack of leaves, every breath from an exhausted avatar. David could tell anyone that the sounds were far too animated to be real. He had studied the sounds of the world for far too long to be fooled by virtual reality. Still, it helped him in these matches; when the opposition had exhausted their avatars and David could listen to their breathing, to take advantage of their low stamina. It was time for him to pounce. He only had a few seconds before the avatar’s stamina was regenerated and then there was no way of hearing him. Not when his opponent had a sneaking skill of 57. His footsteps were nearly silent in combat and David relied solely on sound.

David’s avatar spun around, the sound of an animated fist colliding with an animated face ringing through his headset. David pressed another button on the outdated keyboard, slamming his knee into the opponent’s gut. Only two more moves and the opponent was down, victory music singing his glory. David grinned. It was hard not to get cocky when you were this good at something.

David sometimes wished that he wasn’t good at video games at all. He dreamed of adventure, of playing outside and finding new and exciting things to occupy his time. But that was never in the cards for him. Instead, he was immobile, trapped between four walls where nothing could harm him. He was pretty certain that his unused limbs had gathered dust mites. It upset him for a long time, but not anymore. He was