VR is finally good enough it doesn’t suck, but even the most cutting edge computer games are still just VR goggles and vertigo-canceling earphones. There’s no way you could get trapped inside one… Right?
Finally. VR doesn’t suck. Good start! People are finally free to explore vast online worlds from the comfort of their homes without looking like complete dorks. Sure, it’s not quite the “full dive” experience that anime promised us, but by using state the art VR helmets that create a simulated world right in front of your eyes, it’s about as close to reality as you can get going to get without actually going outside.
But no matter how many polygons you render per frame, how many frames per second, fake is still fake: all you need to do to get back to boring old reality is pull the helmet up over your head. So what exactly does it mean when you run into somebody who seems to be trapped in the game?
Hayami Kana (stage name) is a model, voice actress, and hardcore MMO player. That is, until one day she vanishes off the face of the earth without a trace. Her sister, Kurahashi Manami (not a stage name), has run out of clues trying to find her in the real world, so in a last ditch effort to get her sister back, she turns to the online world.
Ex shut-in and full time loser Matsuoka Jun isn’t much to talk about in the real world, but online he’s famous enough there are whole strategy guides based around the exploits of his character. When a botched quest brings him face to face with what seems for all intents and purposes to be a real live girl stuck in the game, he’s ready to write it off as a bug, or a hack in bad taste… Only how does she know his real-life name?
The Ghost follows Jun and Manami, as they try to unravel the mystery of what happened to Manami’s sister, figure out what connection she has to Jun, and discover just how the hell she became trapped in a video game where logging out should be as easy as taking off your helmet.
Half set in a fantasy VRMMO and half set against the backdrop of a futuristic Tokyo, where technology makes sure nothing is as it seems, and nobody is who they claim to be.
The Ghost is a collected volume containing books 1 and 2 of The Furies, which was originally a web novel released between 2013-2015 on a few platforms. It never really took off but I still finished writing the the first and second books: “The Ghost”, and “Orlonia”. They were professionally editing, and available in Kindle or paperback.
If you’d like to read it for free, the published version is currently being re-serialized on this website, and will have a new chapter released weekly. If you’d like to read ahead, you can always buy the book by following the links below.
If you are a reviewer and you would like an ebook copy, please reach out to me on Twitter.
Books 1 & 2 Are Available On Amazon!
🇺🇸 amazon.com
🇯🇵 amazon.co.jp
🇦🇺 amazon.com.au
🇬🇧 amazon.co.uk