Death Gate

By Blaire Harding

When Death Gate arrived on the scene seemingly out of the blue, people had no idea what they were getting themselves into playing the mysterious, impossible, sensory-hijacking VR technology.

In-game, Alex is shocked to find the game automatically assigned him to a female witch avatar that has a mind and wants and needs of her own. While fighting this witch’s nature Alex has to survive in the brutal, hostile game world filled with horrors of the unknown doing everything in their power to kill him.

Without a menu to exit or NPC who actually knows they are in a game, fiction and reality starts blurring. Slowly he loses himself and his memories to the witch whose body he occupies. Soon he has no idea what is real: For all he knows, he could be a figment of the witch's imagination.

It is a battle for his mind and sexuality as the witch gradually takes over his mind . . .

Over 160 pages of gender-swapped horror fantasy, with some very graphic scenes. This book is intended for mature audiences who enjoy MF, FF, MMF, bisexual, transgender and group encounters filled with lots of gender-bending fun and magic enhanced shenanigans with adventure, horror and fantasy elements!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blaire Harding
• Release date: Dec 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005962746

Book preview

Prologue

December 7, 2063:

666 days until the release of Death's Gate

And the gate will provide for all as we have provided for the gate.

What’s wrong with him - is he on drugs?

No, Andrew, Andrew? Can you sit back down over here.

And when the gate opens we shall be infinitely wiser. Andrew looked like he had aged several decades since starting the project only a few years ago. He was the sole programmer and engineer and refused help from any outsiders (which was what he called people who tried to help him).

Is he going to keep doing that?

It’s fine, we have Mercy.

Right, and you’re sure this thing’s safe.

We’ve tested it extensively.

And it’s safe?

100%. At the core is a massive array of quad-core quantum processors able to process thousands of living universes down to the atom - every millisecond.

And it can make sure everyone is safe, nobody's brains are going to fry?

That’s just it, it’s just waves, much like a dream.

I’m not sure I follow . . .

Neither do we, but try for yourself.

And it’s safe?

Yes, of course, you will be just fine . . . Just don’t piss yourself.

And the AI, it’s not—

When the darkness covers the land we shall bow to the feet of the elders, said Andrew.

What exactly is happening behind the scenes.

It's proprietary, but it works. That’s the only thing that matters. The crazy bastard pulled it off. He may have lost his marbles in the process, but it happens.

The game isn’t fucking with his mind? Causing some kind of PTSD?

It's been tested thoroughly and none of our testers have experienced symptoms outside the game.

Outside the game?

Inside the game, sometimes it's hard to differentiate reality from fantasy. Some of our previous testers had issues.

"What happened?’

It’s nothing, we fixed it in the system.

Fixed what?

The game is scary.

That's it?

The system has become quite efficient and the world is unreal - some people get quite shaken up.

You said nobody besides Andrew went crazy.

We never said the game did anything to Andrew.

And you assure us this isn’t a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Try for yourself, I’ve become quite adept. He put the headband looking contraption around his eyes. And it wrapped around his head with light but comfortable pressure.

The producer from corporate held the impossibly light device, it didn't look like any VR headset, and strange, pulsing, indescribable energy emanated from it and in his hands it just felt right and he was all but compelled to try it on.

CHAPTER ONE

Winter came early this year, and unfortunately for Iris, she was running late, jogging through the parking lot trying not to slip on the fresh unpacked snow. Luckily she didn't see any gamers around and there wasn't a line spilling out into the parking lot because she really needed this.

She needed to make something of herself as a streamer. Death's Gate wasn’t promoted very well (not at all, per Andrew's request) so a lot of streamers were going to get their golden ticket by just showing up. If I don’t get in on the first round . . . It wasn't her fault she was late, it started snowing while she was in class studying for a degree she didn't want. Not even a little.

But she couldn't even contemplate her existential dread without her parents popping up in her head like a thought bubble, arguing that she should be focusing on school and staying late to study, not wasting time on dread. She could never explain to them she was a gamer at heart. How could she? They would never understand, and who would? She wanted to play games at the pro-level and study to be a physical trainer, then pick up some private coaching jobs on the side.

Physical trainers around here made incredible money, but how fucking irresponsible was she, trying to put any eggs at all in a basket as frivolous as a dream - which were her Mother's words - but they burrowed deep. So she was taking business and communications courses at the local University, which was the one (of many) preconditions for staying home past graduation.

Irises' parents were high-level business executives who had money for things like ballet camp, gymnastics camp, and martial arts - you guessed it - camp. Camp was the same price as high-level nannies and allowed them to be gone all the time guilt-free. It wasn't always camp but she was definitely encouraged to perform at a high-level as a young child. With her parents it was always high-level this, top percentile that.

One of her oldest memories was of Mother canceling her sixth birthday party because her ballet instructor called and was worried about her technique before the big recital. So it was really kind of ironic that her parents would be upset when she didn't want to work in an office because competing, for her, was like breathing.

Of course, her business exec parents weren’t going to get it. They never would. Iris was a grandmaster level player at Strike-Zone: Live, the most popular VR shooter. Getting in early with this new tech could have really put her over the edge. It could have been her shot (despite the mystery surrounding it).

Not that it was all bad - she had all the time in the world to game while they were gone. Her homework was bullshit and she could bang it out pretty quickly then run it by an AI script to self-edit. Irises' thoughts were interrupted when she opened the door to the mall. It was nearly empty, but most places wouldn’t be snowing right now, so she had to hurry.

Excuse you! said a grumpy old man walking with his wife.

Before she could turn around and apologize he was already out the door. She could have sworn that looked like Hayden (her ex’s) Grandpa. But she didn’t get a good look at him and hurried towards the game store.

Enter-Reality was a smaller niche VR store that carried different sized controllers, HMDs, and tracking systems. There was a short line and it looked like an average day aside from a small popout reading Death's Gate. It was pixel styled art with a foreboding open door like an old ARPG. So it was definitely not a shooter, but it was fine, she was preparing for this and focused on weapons at her gym, despite the confusion of her sparring partners and private coaches.

The people in line actually looked pretty fit, you had to be in order to play VR shooters at a high level. Strategy players not as much - and MMO players were a mixed bag depending on the game and combat style. But she could tell everyone in line played shooters, because they were all wearing joggers and kept stretching their limbs and bouncing on their toes and looked like the scout from the popular old team-shooter from several decades ago.

Under other circumstances, she might have tried to be more social but she was already thinking about her plan of attack, what classes she might play, and if she will specialize in ranged over melee.

A bow wouldn't be that hard to pick up and her accuracy would put her in the top percentile, but how many people actually had weapons training? Most people have played shooters at one time or another, but few had actual martial arts and fighting experience.

Maybe a rogue? She was great at theory crafting after the FPS-Moba craze. And if she really thought about it, melee would probably be the most entertaining for viewers. Depending on the mobility, actually.

She had no idea what this headset would even be like. There was no demo, just a pile of black boxes with an off-gray label reading Death's Gate. No developer name, no nothing, which she supposed was the marketing for this game. She wondered if they made enough or if it was a delay tactic so they wouldn’t sell out immediately.

She hoped it was the real deal. Everyone looked like they were thinking the same thing, each lost in their own little worlds, likely theory-crafting. They were probably trying to jump on the streaming gravy train as well, so these were likely her competition and she would have to keep her strats to herself.

Iris walked over and picked up a box. It was lighter than she expected and the price was as advertised. There was no label, no dev names, no specs, no contents. It was all so mysterious - who were the devs anyway? They just showed up out of the blue on the forums announcing Death's Gate with the date and nothing else.

It was actually in the official hardware forums which required a short vetting process. After the mods said they were legit the forums blew up and it would be hard to fake something of this magnitude, but it could be possible.

The box was much lighter than she expected, did it use standard VR controllers? Hand tracking was garbage for shooters, so she was hoping it wasn’t that. It had to use third-party controllers. Unless they had the world's lightest haptic feedback interfaces.

At this point anything was possible. There could have been an entire nylon haptic feedback suit using nanotechnology . . . but she was just hyping herself up now. Just like the people who she was trashing on the forums. Hype was contagious - and she couldn't help but to catch the fever now. The box was just as mysterious as the advertising and she wasn’t expecting it to be this light, but then again, scam was still on the table. They’ve been scammed before, they will be again.

Normally Iris wasn’t the type for mindless hype, but looking around, everyone was feeling it. And the cashier was smiling like he knew something they didn’t. It was still all hush-hush. Is it good? Did you play it? Game-changing? Just wait for it?

Rarely did these new hardware developers deliver what they promised. But ol’ Brian from Enter-Reality wouldn’t steer them wrong, would he?

Of course not, probably. She looked around and saw the back storage area was open for a moment and tried to get a better look - there were stacks and stacks of the units and there was something strange, almost supernatural about the units like they emanated power from afar.

What class are you going to roll?

What? Iris turned around not expecting anyone to talk to her. It was a nerdy guy who didn’t exactly look like he was cut from the same cloth, genre-wise. He had to be an MMO player, but she could probably use his help.

What class are you going to roll?

I don’t know, what about you?

After the leaks, I am thinking about rolling sorceress as my base class.

Leaks?

He crossed his arms and nodded his head, You didn’t see the leaks? Typical.

Excuse me?

FPS games don’t require too much thinking, right?

What do you mean?

They aren’t like strategy or RPG games where your best asset is your mind.

Is that so . . . Who did this poindexter think he was? How do you know your leaks are even real?

I have my sources . . .

Iris flipped open her phone and nothing had shown up on the forums yet. Still the same countdown threads from the day before, which was odd, but then again they probably didn’t have the resources to release globally. She put her phone away and decided to humor him.

Alright, I’ll bite, Iris said, what do you know?

It’s a completely new technology that essentially hijacks your cerebral cortex.

Iris rolled her eyes, That’s stupid.

Is it?

What’s the game, I mean.

It’s like nothing you'll ever experience, it’s based off all the classic action-RPGs from the 00’s.

Iris cursed under her breath. She doesn’t know shit about that genre so she will be at a disadvantage when it comes to strategy. You mean those old point-and-click games my Grandpa plays?

Not point and click, action-RPGs.

Isn’t that the same thing.

And I thought we were all gamers here, yikes . . . Think little MOBA guy, but verses monsters instead of people.

Watch it . . . The poindexter had unmistakable confidence, she would give him that. He just needed to tone it down about 30% and probably take a shower. So how are action-RPGs different from normal RPGs.

You can’t be serious.

She raised an eyebrow.

Sorry. Traditional RPGs are about character building, while action-RPGs add a third dimension: real-time combat.

Real-time combat? she could do real-time combat. Maybe this won't be a bust.

Exactly instead of rolling dice, which is what ARPGs were based on, the old tabletops, he looked over at her, expecting her to flip him shit about being a nerd.

So a live version of the old RPGs, sounds kind of cool.

They are the BEST.

Ok, so what do I need to know.

He took a breath, First: it’s all about the grind.

Like getting better?

Yes, you kill mobs—

Mobs?

Groups of monsters, or single monsters, nobody knows for sure. Probably both.

What?

Monsters, you kill monsters to get better gear which allows you to kill bigger monsters.

Makes sense.

And the genre is typically loaded with content because of the overhead view requires less detail than a standard 3D view.

Which kills it for me.

Well, I wouldn’t expect a Neanderthal shooter player like yourself to understand, it was apparent he didn’t talk to people face to face very often and was realizing what he was doing while watching an actual person’s reaction in real-time. However, a young woman way out of his league was actually talking to him. Was he supposed to make fun of her to prove he doesn’t care or something? Isn’t that what the guys on chat are always doing? But aren’t they wrong almost all the time? Sorry! I mean, it allows for a lot more content and spells and items. Full-scale 3D is so much more expensive to create.

Is that what this game is?

"Nononono. I hear this is like real life."

So like a VRPG.

Kind of, but with more loot and action.

What are you rolling? Iris asked. Maybe he could be of some use, afterall.

I am a natural warrior, but I am thinking sorceress.

Sorceress? she looked at his actual Winnie the pooh build. He looked fluffy, but not very much like a sorceress.

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow, Just what exactly is that supposed to mean?

Nothing, sorceress? Why sorceress?

Ranged nuke damage, obviously.

Ranged nuke damage? Like in a MOBA?

Pretty much. I haven’t seen the spells yet, but I am hoping for elemental or something cool like death magick.

What other classes are there?

We haven’t seen too much of it, but there is a warrior like class, several ranged classes—

So you don’t really know anything yet?

He looked embarrassed and hurt and the line was up. Iris handed the cashier the box and her card. It was really a steal.

Do you want to group up?

He said it to the back of her head, so she had to turn around to look at him, Group up?

There will likely be an experience multiplier for groups.

She hadn’t considered that and it threw a spanner into her entire plan. Should she try to level up faster, or should she focus on a solo experience for the viewers? Would she need help for bosses? Was he going to slow her down? Are you going to slow me down?

Heck no, I’ve been training in the cardio simulators all week.

He still looked just as fluffy as the last time he observed him, and although she preferred women, he was actually kind of cute when he dropped the condescending bullshit.

Right, she said and smiled. I suppose.

Yes! he