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No one is sure how long it's been since the uplink went live. We all thought the virus would be the worst of it. Millions of our people had perished from the virus that was once thought to be no more than a common cold. Only this virus just kept mutating. The leaders of the world developed a vaccine that adapted to the mutations of the virus. Using nanotechnology, scientists had finally found a way to combat the virus. They successfully eradicated it almost 15 years after its first case, but the virus had done its damage. The decline of what was left of our peaceful society, after all the devastating losses, was rapid. There were riots and looting in almost every major section around the world. Violence among regular citizens peaked as hundreds of people were gunned down in the streets every day. Clashes between militarized police units, and citizens ensured those numbers would more than triple. In an effort to gain control the police had ignited a war. Apparently, this was the least of our problems. Scientists knew there was something up with the atmosphere long before the reports of the Atlantic ocean's temperature rising hit the airwaves. A rip in the atmosphere had been the culprit. The water directly beneath the rip had reached its boiling point. The world had been experiencing a blistering heat wave, triple digit heat almost everywhere. The temperatures had been rising for quite some time. Efforts to use different chemical releases in the lower atmosphere to combat the temperature had only made the problem worse. The polar ice caps were melting at an alarming rate, causing a series of catastrophic floods. Half of California was underwater while the whole eastern seaboard had vanished beneath the waves. All the while the temperature kept increasing. States in the southwest had been abandoned as the heat was no longer tolerable. More than a few minutes in what was once Phoenix was no different than holding your own personal nuclear reactor. The damage done to our atmosphere was irreparable and in our effort to save it, we only made it worse. Of course, the government had been tracking this all along, and while the vaccines did wipe out the virus they had a secondary purpose. No one knew this of course until the day the president got on TV and finally gave us the "The Good News". I heavily emphasize the quotation fingers used here. He along with the rest of the world's leaders explained what they had been up to, and what had been decided in order to preserve the human race. A last ditch effort to save us all! Those who previously refused the vaccine were given 30 days to vaccinate and receive the Nanites. After this deadline no one else would be allowed to take it as it would no longer be available. Our once lush blue planet started to take on the shape of a desolate waste. Void of life. Earth was quickly becoming a twin to its already famous red neighbor.

The president explained it as a small pocket dimension that was discovered during the colliding of atoms in a lab in Geneva Switzerland. This dimension was discovered to be programmable through certain computer languages. The nanites that had been developed to combat the virus were very adept at transporting code into this dimension. So well that the nanites were able to meld and bond with the organic items within the realm. This allowed the software developers to bend the physical world to their will. Thus the uplink was created. After a complete merger of the nanites to all living organisms on Zionia, a name which the developers had given it. They were left with a full map and layout of the entire floating mass. The nanites administered during the vaccinations attached themselves to the base of the brain. There they could transmit the consciousness of a person to the nanites inside of Zionia. Only the consciousness could make the journey as the physical body could not. So a body was created based on all the information now being transferred to Zionia. Everything a person had experienced, learned, or survived was compiled into data and converted into attribute points. These points were used to construct the body that would be the vessel for our conciseness. This would also decide our roles within Zionia as to keep things as close to normal as possible. The only variance in this was that those who possessed training or special skills in combat would be placed under the adventurer role. This was not explained in any great detail so many were left to wonder what it meant. This process of transferring the "soul" caused a massive backlash from the world's religions who were already preparing for the Armageddon from their respective theologies. Soon people were turning on each other. Religious fanatics used social media platforms to coordinate attacks on server warehouses that were built to store the data that would be our digitized souls. These servers were specifically designed to withstand temperatures up to 10,000 degrees Celsius. This was credited to an ore that was mined and brought back from Zionia. This ore had insane tolerances to heat and some magical properties that were even more bizarre. The developers accidentally created it as they were testing. Now they knew how much control they possessed over the wild landscape that would become our new home. These servers would also serve as our respawn point which means that if you were to meet your end while in Zionia you would pop up back at your original home unharmed, with all your memories intact even, those of how you died. Now that the servers are gone when you try to access the information it only says "Servers Disconnected" . Now if you die you still respawn, but everything that was you is lost and the body created for your digitized soul is wiped clean. All that is left is the baseline code written. They simply become a form of non-player character or NPC. The important thing to remember is that the developers built this realm like a video game. Since the attack and the loss of the servers there aren’t many of us rowdy types left. A few of us fight together while some have taken a more sinister path. The one thing that could not be altered by software developers was the subterranean dungeon. In that dungeon there was rumored to be secondary servers that were supposed to be the backup in case the heat shielding failed or something else disastrous happened. Some highly gifted mages uncovered the message hidden in some old scrolls that were dropped as loot, when a group of adventurers took down a gigantic fire breathing centaur. The message was clear though, “To recover lost data from backup recovery servers please place the “Heart-Shaped Locket of Chronos ``into the key slot. There are only about forty of us left that remember, and those numbers are slowly dropping. I can see the desperation in the faces of those who follow me, but I have no solace to offer. Only thing left to do is head back in. The deeper we go the better chance we have of finding a rare item. I draw my sword and fill it with death magic. I look at the faces of the three members of my party that have been by my side since the beginning. I know this may be the last time we are ourselves and the fear is creeping up on the back of my neck. I force it down and put on my stoic leader's face. Alright! I yell, the”Heart-Shaped Locket of Chronos” is our objective. Kill anything that moves and try not to die! Zionia is counting on us! The group of four, with weapons ready, quietly entered the darkness of the dungeon.