The Heroic Villain
Chapters (17)
The Heroic Villain
Written by: Charles Dean
Edited by: Joshua Swayne and Richard Haygood
Copyright © 2016-2019 by Charles Dean
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
Other Books by Charles Dean
Chapter 1
“And in today’s news, despite founding CEO Lucas’s abrupt retirement following the death of his wife and company co-founder, Yu Hua, Lu-Yu Enterprises is on track to grow for its third consecutive quarter,” the news anchor on the television announced.
Why do you do this to yourself? When has watching the news ever done anything more than leave you upset? Lucas grimaced and shook his head, deciding that it was best to listen to the voice of reason in the back of his mind. He pushed himself up from the chair he was seated in, turned off the television, and shuffled over to the dive capsule in the next room. The machine only took up about the same amount of floor space as a large loveseat, but it was by far the most dominant feature in the apartment, looming over him at seven feet tall. The capsule was reclined back at a 45-degree angle, and the door unsealed itself with a small hiss when he pressed a button on the front of the pod.
Out of habit, Lucas looked around at the mass of Internet, fluid, and diagnostic cables that sprouted from the back of the machine and crept across the floor before disappearing into the wall. The company had tested running the machine wirelessly and had even allowed users to provide their own Internet connections during the device’s beta eight years ago, but the mental trauma caused by rubber banding at even the slightest bit of lag in a virtual world was so severe that professional therapists had been hired to consult with the testers. Although virtual reality had become commonplace in everyday life, those few early adopters had been traumatized so greatly that they still refused to even come close to the machine.
Lucas crawled into the pod, turned it on, and was immediately greeted by several messages that were simultaneously displayed as text and read out loud.
A melodious female voice that made even the drabbest and dullest of notifications sound pleasant chimed, “You have four missed calls from Liu. Would you like to return her call before beginning immersion?”
“No,” Lucas answered curtly. No matter how agreeable the British-sounding voice made it seem, talking to Liu was absolutely not something that he wanted to do.
“You have thirty-seven emails from nineteen different sources. Would you like to review them before beginning immersion?”
“No.”