First Steps into the Night: A Vampire LitRPG short story

By Tao Wong

Step Carefully For The Night Is Dark
Kylie Porter needs a break. Novacore VR's Eternal Night is it - the VR vampire game that her editor wants her to write about. But she's not a gamer, so she's going to have to learn to fake it for her article. With a little help.
Johnathan Masters is that help. An old friend who is doing her a favour, he's a lot more confident and good looking in the game, even if they've both touched themselves up. But she's a professional and this is just a game.
None of it's really real? Is it?
First Steps into the Night is a Vampire LitRPG Short Story (approximately 10k long) written by Tao Wong, the author of the System Apocalypse, Hidden Wishes and A Thousand Li series. It is not a fade-to-black story, set in a VR vampire MMORPG.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jun 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781989994139

Tao Wong

Tao Wong is a Canadian author based in Toronto who is best known for his System Apocalypse post-apocalyptic LitRPG series and A Thousand Li, a Chinese xianxia fantasy series. He was shortlisted for the UK Kindle Storyteller award in 2021 for A Thousand Li: The Second Sect. When he's not writing and working, he's practicing martial arts, reading, and dreaming up new worlds.

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License Notes

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

First Steps into the Night

Copyright © 2020 Tao Wong. All rights reserved.

A Starlit Publishing Book

Published by Starlit Publishing

69 Teslin Rd

Whitehorse, YT

Y1A 3M5

Canada

www.starlitpublishing.com

ISBN: 9781989994139

First steps into the Night

An oval, metallic bright red helmet that looked like a bastard cross between science-fiction and a motorcycle helmet held the attention of the leggy brunette as it lay on her bed.  Kylie Porter bit her lip as she stared at the Novacore’s Virtual Reality helmet, forcing herself to draw and exhale a deep breath to calm her nerves.

This is your first assignment.  Brent, that rat bastard, won’t buy the piece if you don’t write it.  You can’t write it if you don’t go in.  Come on, Kylie.  All the studies say it’s fine. There’s no danger, the brunette whispered to herself in a surprisingly low, husky voice in an effort to psych herself up.  The truth was, for Kylie, it was not about the danger to her mind or body that the VR helmet exemplified but what came afterward.  You know Johnathan won’t wait long for you.  If he doesn’t show you around, you don’t have a chance at writing this.

As she chewed on her lower lip, Kylie looked out of the eleventh-floor window of her apartment.  The downtown skyline of Vancouver still glowed with reflected electric light, even years after the ‘night sky’ legislation had passed.  Beneath her, she could hear the low rumble of electric busses and grid-connected shared vehicles carrying the residents to the latest party.  A part of Kylie desperately wanted to be out there, in the press of humanity, rather than in here, staring at the helmet.  Then again, she barely had enough money to make it through the month.  Existing on the minimum basic income was tough—especially for a single woman without roommates.

Kylie sighed and turned away from the window and back to the helmet.  She finally forced herself to pick it up, and she slid it over her long, silky hair.  As she adjusted the straps, Kylie lay down on the bed before she touched the side of the helmet, engaging the program.

A brief moment of disorientation later and light blossomed around her eyes before it faded away, gray and red titles floating into her vision.  Welcome to Eternal Night.  Eternity Awaits All!

Kylie found herself in a cream-colored foyer with no