08 Story and Art
Promotional Material for The Phantom Pleasure 01
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GEO-CITY ONE.
A never-ending loop of Paywalls, Linkways and Shortcuts. A dying world lit by advertisements of a better world that doesn’t exist…
Where almost all domains are password locked and abandoned, forcing users to live out their dark mode lives in the PUBLIC ACCESS ZONE…
Where heavily-armed MOBILE GANGS roam the corridors, collecting micro-transactions from weak users…
And vicious groups of GUILDS, CLANS, and TROLLS moderate the streets and run multi-level CHAT CLUBS; copying stealing, and selling custom content…
It is the year 9999. And the fallen subterranean civilization known as GEO-CITY ONE is nearing a long-awaited demise.
The city’s active population has fallen to 17%.
This is partially due to continuous COMMUNITY GUIDELINE VIOLATIONS, as well as deletion and genetic collection by MATERIALIZERS. Over-Saturation by plug-ins and instant death drops have also been a contributing factor. However, there is another, much stranger component to the population decrease…
Anomalous stats called Q CHARACTER TRAITS have been spreading throughout all Spawn Points, causing some users to be generated with unknown job classes, skills and abilities. If you’re lucky, this means you might gain a natural advantage over the amateur posted next to you. If you’re unlucky, Q Traits lead to FRAGMENTATION, an incurable debuff that corrupts the mind and body; eventually resulting in death…
In addition to all that, a powerful secret faction known as The GOGG REPUBLIC has been infiltrating every aspect of society, panicking users with something called a YEAR ZERO RESET. It’s some very bad bitshit. If it’s true, of course…
Six months ago, a mysterious ROGUE CLASS user known as ECHO no-clipped through the upper barrier, arriving in The Public Access Zone. Rumor has it she’s from a restricted area, a level that many users believe to be a myth. Don’t bother asking her, she keeps her background layer locked…
Whatever the case may be, I wouldn’t turn my back to her. After her sudden arrival, she quickly signed up with the METEO gang and made a name for herself in blood. She’s equipped with this unpredictable SYNTH SUIT that no one else has, plus CURSOR BLADES that you usually don’t see until they’re coming out of your chest…
Also, a few METEO regulars have seen her zoning out while staring at GOGG REPUBLIC promo screens, chatting to herself and other weird bitshit like that. Could be she’s got an unstable mental stat, maybe she’s fragged, or maybe it’s something we’ve never heard of. Ask me, I think it’s safer to avoid her altogether than to try and figure it out…
To be continued in THE PHANTOM PLEASURE
Episode 1.0: HEAVEY META