Labyrinth of Reflections
Encyclopedia
Labyrinth of Reflections is the first novel in the Labyrinth trilogy of cyberpunk
novels written by Russia
n science fiction
writer Sergey Lukyanenko
. The trilogy consists of Labyrinth of Reflections, False Mirrors
, and Transparent Stained-Glass Windows
. Between the second and third books, Sergey Lukyanenko authorized the release of a compilation of stories by other authors set in the same world as the trilogy.
The story is set in the near future, where a chance invention allows people to experience virtual reality
without the need for costly hardware — a seconds long movie drives a person into a sort of psychosis
, forcing one's subconsciousness to perceive a simple 3D game as real world. Soon after the invention, Microsoft
and IBM
build a virtual city on the Internet
called "Deeptown" (named so after the street name for VR — the Deep), which anyone is free to log on and enter. The painted world becomes a second home for millions people — but some of them 'sink', i.e. forget to return to the reality and eventually die of the dehydration
. Only a small group of people calling themselves divers are capable of leaving the Deep at will. Gods of the virtual world, they help those who sink.
Philosophy of Deeptown — freedom for everyone, in all its forms — is so attractive for the main hero Leonid, that he considers himself the citizen of the Deeptown the first place, and only then the citizen of his country. When a being from the other world joins Deeptown, Leonid's dreams of freedom encounter a pressure of official and unofficial powers of Deeptown.
The second book brings more questions: Leonid realizes that Divers are phagocytes of the world of Deep... and the Deep, the thing he is serving for, is no more an abstract idea of freedom, but whatever it is, it exhibits freedom of will and the sudden flashes of arising artificial intelligence, which in the end leads to the higher level of interactions between Leonid and the Deep.
The third book is a short story originally published online. It features two endings and is told from a point-of-view of a young female MVD operative. She is sent to a virtual prison to ensure that no inmate can escape into Deeptown. Instead, she stumbles upon a secret government project aimed at making divers out of prisoners. Leonid is only mentioned (briefly) twice in the story by other characters.
ducking the fiery balls and snarling monsters' mugs. Although he was aware that what he was experiencing could not possible be true, he was unable to break the illusion. Left with no choice but to play the game, he completed all levels. When he finished in morning, the illusion ended and he found himself back in the real world, badly covered with bruises.
Realizing that the program effectively fooled its users into thinking that whatever virtual environment they were viewing was as real as the world around them. Furthermore, the environment did not have to be particularly elaborate. Even if the graphics were crude, human subconscious would fill in details and sensations that would enhance the realism. However, they were drawbacks. Because the illusion was so convincing, people who used the Deep program were unable to leave it. Just as that guy needed to finish the game in order to break the illusion, the Deep users needed specially designed exit points that would provided subconscious triggers that facilitated the exit.
The leading computer companies quickly seized upon Dibenko's invention to create a cartoonish virtual city that came to be known as Deeptown. Because of the low-tech nature of its graphics, it became available to anyone who had a computer and a dial-up connection. Deeptown gained instant popularity, drawing people from all walks of life and all parts the world. It offered freedom from real-world constraints, which became a style of life and religion of many.
But a vast majority of people are unable to leave the Deeptown at will — their subconsciousness prevents them from it. They need free communication with their operational systems which was mostly forbidden, or in most cases proper exit terminals. Along with Deeptown, Deep timers were developed to limit the duration of user's stay, because in the worst-case scenario people became so consumed by Deep illusion that they competely lost awareness that Deeptown was not the real world, and were effectively trapped in the Deep until they died from dehydration. Once the time passed, the timer would deactivate the Deep program. However, it didn't solve the problem, as many users managed to switch off their timers.
Around this time, the first Divers emerged, people able to break illusion of the Deep program. This allowed them to help those who were trapped in Deeptown, since they could exit the Deeptown instantly and call for help. This ability also freed them from physical constraints other users were bound by, allowing to perform seemingly impossible feats, survive otherwise crippling injuries and change avatars within seconds. In addition to that, Divers were able to see flaws in Deeptown's programming codes (usually in the form of holes). Thanks to those abilities, Divers found employment as in-house rescuers, corporate saboteurs and security consultants, among others.
As their numbers grew, Divers began to organize. They created a Code of Divers, which established a set of principles that guided their behavior. Along with other things, it held up the right to privacy as a fundamental right of all Divers. Another important principle was the prohibition against using their abilities to harm their fellow Divers. If a Diver violated any aspect of the Code, he had to submit to a hearing conducted by the rest of the Diver community and abide by whatever penalty they would decide on. Further violations would incur progressively harsher penalties.
By the time the events of the book began, Divers were a strange, but accepted part of Deeptown society. Their powers were subject of speculation by the rest of Deeptown community, which is only furthered by Divers' penchant for secrecy.
The first novel is told from the first-person
perspective and is told by a diver living in a run-down apartment in St. Petersburg. Like most divers, he has to maintain his identity secret, as divers are a prized commodity. They are able to overcome obstacles that can stop even elite hackers. The diver first demonstrates his ability by walking across a string suspended above a chasm, something no normal human is capable of doing, by leaving the deep and walking across by looking at the monitor (it is much easier, as there is no wind or fear of falling). He is soon located by a strange Man Without a Face and offered a job: he must go into a popular virtual game called the "Labyrinth of Death" to complete a task two other divers started but never completed. In return, he will get Order of Permissiveness that grants its bearer right to do everything he wants within Deeptown.
The "Labyrinth of Death" is a massive multiplayer
game based on Doom, where the players must battle monsters, zombies, and each other through large levels of a post-alien-invasion
city to reach the end. As told by the director of the company that owns and runs the game, the diver must rescue a trapped player, who disabled his exit timer, before his real world body dies of dehydration
or starvation
. Adopting the nickname Gunslinger (from a Stephen King
eponymous novel
), the diver goes on a rampage through the "Labyrinth", using his diver ability to return to his own body and use standard keyboard and mouse controls to quickly dispatch enemies. Eventually, the other human players stop crossing his path, as rumors of his skill quickly spread throughout the game. After setting a record on the number of levels beat in a short time, the diver (Gunslinger) saves and leaves the "Labyrinth" only to encounter about a hundred angry players in the exit lobby. All of them are waiting for Gunslinger, but nobody recognizes him without his mask and gear. As he is leaving the lobby, the director of the company calls out and congratulates him on his record. The diver runs out, followed by the angry mob of players, and manages to duck into the nearest "building" - a virtual brothel. There, he looks through the catalog and, to his surprise, sees a near-perfect image of his operating system (rendered as a woman). He goes to the "room" where she is and asks her if he can call her Vicka (the same name he calls his computer). She agrees (after all, it's his fantasy), and they start talking about random things.
The diver feels tired and falls asleep in her bed. When they wake up, he asks if he can see her again, to which she initially replies by warning him not to fall in love with a virtual image, as the person wearing it can be completely different. Vika then gives up and tells him to ask for her the next time he comes. The diver returns to the "Labyrinth" and manages to reach the trapped player. Initially, Gunslinger is frustrated when the player refuses to reveal his name or address (real-life location) but is amazed when he finds out that the "Jinx" (as the director called the player) is a crack shot and should have been able to beat the level without a problem. However, as the pair is nearing the exit, they are ambushed by a large group of monsters, and the Jinx is killed. While Gunslinger is trying to figure out what is going on, the two divers employed by the company show up and tell him that something about Jinx makes him unable to continue. One of them even killed the player 13 times within a 5 minute limit, which should have automatically kicked Jinx out but did not. The two divers ask Gunslinger to give them 6 hours to try to get Jinx to the end of the level, after which Gunslinger can return and try again. He agrees and leaves to the exit lobby, where a dozen players are waiting for him. Instead of attacking him, they offer him a deal: Gunslinger stops killing other players, and the players do not attack him or the Jinx. If a player breaks the deal, then Gunslinger is allowed to kill him or her.
To seal the deal, they go to the BFG9000
- a bar near the "Labyrinth." After several virtual drinks, the diver goes back to the brothel and asks for Vicka. He finds her room, and she invites him to the brothel's restaurant. There the diver meets the Mage, a hacker employed by the brothel to provide their server with excellent security. Vicka gets upset when one of her regular clients (who keeps accusing the virtual prostitutes of being the scum of society) arrives and asks the diver to take her to his favorite place. He takes her to a bar/restaurant he frequents and asks for a private room. The room looks like a beautiful forest. After unsuccessfully attempting to make love to Vicka (her timer kicks her out), the diver goes back to the "Labyrinth". The company's divers tell him that they believe that Jinx is only pretending to be in trouble and that they plan to give up their attempts to get him out. The diver, however, has other ideas. After one more unsuccessful attempt, he leaves the game and travels to "Al Kabar" - the pharmaceutical company he robbed at the beginning of the novel. The company's spokesperson informs him that they are aware of Jinx and suspect that he is the next stage in human evolution
- a person able to enter the virtual world without the aid of a computer or a phone line. They also tell him that the owner of "Labyrinth" will reach a similar conclusion soon. That is when "Al Kabar" will move in to snatch Jinx to find out what makes him tick. Determined to save Jinx at all costs, the diver logs off and contacts his hacker friend Maniac. He asks him for a virus he could smuggle through "Labyrinth" security.
Maniac is hesitant but he upgrades the diver's Gunslinger character with his latest "Warlock 9000" virus, which is designed to look like a belt. As the diver is re-entering the "Labyrinth", the two companies make their moves to grab Jinx. The two "Labyrinth" divers attempt to stop him, but he uses the Warlock as a whip and attacks them (as seen on the book cover). The attack also opens a vortex-like hole in the program, allowing the diver and Jinx to slip out of the "Labyrinth" server. With the companies and Man with no Face in hot pursuit, he drags Jinx into the brothel and asks Vicka for protection. Just then, the Deeptown police commissioner makes a PA
-like announcement, accusing the diver who looks like Gunslinger of using an illegal virus to attack a company. Vicka, upon finding out that he is a diver, lashes out at him but quickly calms down and admits that she is one too. The brothel comes under a massive attack from "Labyrinth" and "Al Kabar" security forces, backed by Deeptown police and Man with no Face. The Mage's defenses manage to put up a fight but are crumbling. The diver, Jinx, and Vicka jump out the window of her room into a virtual landscape she created before the brothel server shuts down, leaving them stranded in the landscape. The diver then tells Vicka what he thinks Jinx really is - a non-corporeal entity from another world who can only interact with humans through Deeptown. Jinx neither confirms nor denies his true nature, only says that he has been travelling for many years through silence. Vicka is skeptical and insists that Jinx is simply a devious hacker playing a game with everybody.
They travel for several days through the landscape before finding out that the diver's use of the Warlock virus somehow linked Vicka's landscape with an RPG
server, where fantasy fans play in a Lord of the Rings
-like world. They find out that the game server plays out a war between King Legolas
's elves
and an alliance of orcs
and dwarves
. They leave Jinx (who is wounded from "Labyrinth") by a road and log off to rest and come back as fantasy characters. While the diver is eating, the Maniac shows up and cleans up his computer, erasing all trace of Warlock and the Gunslinger persona. He then helps the diver design a fantasy character for him - a human healer Elenium (by the name of the tranquiliser). The diver returns to the fantasy server and finds that Vicka is now a male elf archer. They go back to Jinx and try to get him back into Deeptown but are intercepted by Man with no Face and several armed goons. Another diver shows up and attacks the goons looking like a big wolf.
As the three are escaping to the streets of Deeptown, Man with no Face manages to attack the wolf with several powerful viruses. Vicka and Jinx manage to escape, but the diver gets attacked with a perpetual deep-program. Even his diver's mantra cannot help him escape the swirling images that keep his subconsciousness in VR. As he is "walking" through the dream-like world, Jinx appears and tells him that only the diver has the power to escape it. The diver then reverses his mantra and embraces the deep. As he "wakes up" in Deeptown, he realizes that the virtual world has changed for him. He can now see things as they are (shapes and colors) and can move through programs at will. On the way to his Deeptown house, he encounters Man with no Face, who is surprised that the diver escaped his trap. They sit down and talk about Jinx. Man with no Face is convinced that Jinx is a projection from the future. The diver knows that Man with no Face is really the hacker who created the original deep-program. Man with no Face believes that his creation of the program was no accident. He believes Deeptown was a creation from the future and wishes to know more about it. The diver realizes that his companion is stalling and jumps directly to his Deeptown house to find it surrounded by the two companies' security forces and the police. They open fire on him, but he sends out a virtual wave that erases all the shooters. He then threatens the commissioner, the spokespersons of the companies, and Man with no Face that he can make their lives very unpleasant unless they leave him and Jinx alone. He returns to his house and tells Jinx that he must leave this world. Jinx opens a virtual portal and leaves.
The diver takes Vicka and they fly through the Deeptown sky, kissing. At the same time, the diver uses his new abilities to remove all trace that he was ever online. He wipes his computer, his internet provider's logs, and everything else related to him. They then agree to meet in real life. Vicka asks him to wait at the train station with a flower. As the diver logs off, he remembers that he forgot to pay his phone bill - his phone has been disconnected for three hours. He was in Deeptown all on his own. When he finally arrives to the train station, he waits for Vicka. She approaches him from behind and, as he turns around, he is relieves to find out that she looks exactly the same as her virtual persona (as does he).
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
novels written by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer Sergey Lukyanenko
Sergey Lukyanenko
Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko is a science fiction and fantasy author, writing in Russian, and is arguably the most popular contemporary Russian sci-fi writer...
. The trilogy consists of Labyrinth of Reflections, False Mirrors
False Mirrors
False Mirrors is the second novel in the Labyrinth trilogy of cyberpunk novels written by Russian science fiction writer Sergey Lukyanenko. The novel takes place two years after Labyrinth of Reflections and describes the life of a former diver after the diver profession becomes obsolete...
, and Transparent Stained-Glass Windows
Transparent Stained-Glass Windows
Transparent Stained-Glass Windows is the third story in the Labyrinth trilogy of cyberpunk novels written by Russian science fiction writer Sergey Lukyanenko. Originally published online, the story features two endings, both of which are included when it was printed in the Atomic Dream anthology...
. Between the second and third books, Sergey Lukyanenko authorized the release of a compilation of stories by other authors set in the same world as the trilogy.
The story is set in the near future, where a chance invention allows people to experience virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
without the need for costly hardware — a seconds long movie drives a person into a sort of psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
, forcing one's subconsciousness to perceive a simple 3D game as real world. Soon after the invention, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
and IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
build a virtual city on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
called "Deeptown" (named so after the street name for VR — the Deep), which anyone is free to log on and enter. The painted world becomes a second home for millions people — but some of them 'sink', i.e. forget to return to the reality and eventually die of the dehydration
Dehydration
In physiology and medicine, dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism...
. Only a small group of people calling themselves divers are capable of leaving the Deep at will. Gods of the virtual world, they help those who sink.
Philosophy of Deeptown — freedom for everyone, in all its forms — is so attractive for the main hero Leonid, that he considers himself the citizen of the Deeptown the first place, and only then the citizen of his country. When a being from the other world joins Deeptown, Leonid's dreams of freedom encounter a pressure of official and unofficial powers of Deeptown.
The second book brings more questions: Leonid realizes that Divers are phagocytes of the world of Deep... and the Deep, the thing he is serving for, is no more an abstract idea of freedom, but whatever it is, it exhibits freedom of will and the sudden flashes of arising artificial intelligence, which in the end leads to the higher level of interactions between Leonid and the Deep.
The third book is a short story originally published online. It features two endings and is told from a point-of-view of a young female MVD operative. She is sent to a virtual prison to ensure that no inmate can escape into Deeptown. Instead, she stumbles upon a secret government project aimed at making divers out of prisoners. Leonid is only mentioned (briefly) twice in the story by other characters.
Background
In the late 90s, Dmitry Dibenko, a Russian programmer known for dabbling in mysticism and mind-altering substances, created with a program playing a short movie that would allow him to achieve a new level of awareness during meditations. He dubbed the program Deep, placed it on a webserver and forgot about it. The revolution happened when a simple Ukrainian chap, stayed in office after the work to play his beloved Doom. He watched Dibenko's program, shrugged and launched the game — and fell into it. It seemed to him that it was he running along the corridors,ducking the fiery balls and snarling monsters' mugs. Although he was aware that what he was experiencing could not possible be true, he was unable to break the illusion. Left with no choice but to play the game, he completed all levels. When he finished in morning, the illusion ended and he found himself back in the real world, badly covered with bruises.
Realizing that the program effectively fooled its users into thinking that whatever virtual environment they were viewing was as real as the world around them. Furthermore, the environment did not have to be particularly elaborate. Even if the graphics were crude, human subconscious would fill in details and sensations that would enhance the realism. However, they were drawbacks. Because the illusion was so convincing, people who used the Deep program were unable to leave it. Just as that guy needed to finish the game in order to break the illusion, the Deep users needed specially designed exit points that would provided subconscious triggers that facilitated the exit.
The leading computer companies quickly seized upon Dibenko's invention to create a cartoonish virtual city that came to be known as Deeptown. Because of the low-tech nature of its graphics, it became available to anyone who had a computer and a dial-up connection. Deeptown gained instant popularity, drawing people from all walks of life and all parts the world. It offered freedom from real-world constraints, which became a style of life and religion of many.
But a vast majority of people are unable to leave the Deeptown at will — their subconsciousness prevents them from it. They need free communication with their operational systems which was mostly forbidden, or in most cases proper exit terminals. Along with Deeptown, Deep timers were developed to limit the duration of user's stay, because in the worst-case scenario people became so consumed by Deep illusion that they competely lost awareness that Deeptown was not the real world, and were effectively trapped in the Deep until they died from dehydration. Once the time passed, the timer would deactivate the Deep program. However, it didn't solve the problem, as many users managed to switch off their timers.
Around this time, the first Divers emerged, people able to break illusion of the Deep program. This allowed them to help those who were trapped in Deeptown, since they could exit the Deeptown instantly and call for help. This ability also freed them from physical constraints other users were bound by, allowing to perform seemingly impossible feats, survive otherwise crippling injuries and change avatars within seconds. In addition to that, Divers were able to see flaws in Deeptown's programming codes (usually in the form of holes). Thanks to those abilities, Divers found employment as in-house rescuers, corporate saboteurs and security consultants, among others.
As their numbers grew, Divers began to organize. They created a Code of Divers, which established a set of principles that guided their behavior. Along with other things, it held up the right to privacy as a fundamental right of all Divers. Another important principle was the prohibition against using their abilities to harm their fellow Divers. If a Diver violated any aspect of the Code, he had to submit to a hearing conducted by the rest of the Diver community and abide by whatever penalty they would decide on. Further violations would incur progressively harsher penalties.
By the time the events of the book began, Divers were a strange, but accepted part of Deeptown society. Their powers were subject of speculation by the rest of Deeptown community, which is only furthered by Divers' penchant for secrecy.
The first novel is told from the first-person
First-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
perspective and is told by a diver living in a run-down apartment in St. Petersburg. Like most divers, he has to maintain his identity secret, as divers are a prized commodity. They are able to overcome obstacles that can stop even elite hackers. The diver first demonstrates his ability by walking across a string suspended above a chasm, something no normal human is capable of doing, by leaving the deep and walking across by looking at the monitor (it is much easier, as there is no wind or fear of falling). He is soon located by a strange Man Without a Face and offered a job: he must go into a popular virtual game called the "Labyrinth of Death" to complete a task two other divers started but never completed. In return, he will get Order of Permissiveness that grants its bearer right to do everything he wants within Deeptown.
The "Labyrinth of Death" is a massive multiplayer
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
game based on Doom, where the players must battle monsters, zombies, and each other through large levels of a post-alien-invasion
Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
city to reach the end. As told by the director of the company that owns and runs the game, the diver must rescue a trapped player, who disabled his exit timer, before his real world body dies of dehydration
Dehydration
In physiology and medicine, dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism...
or starvation
Starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...
. Adopting the nickname Gunslinger (from a Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
eponymous novel
The Gunslinger
The Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King, and is the first volume in the Dark Tower series, which King considers to be his magnum opus. It was first published in 1982. The story centers upon Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger who has been chasing after his adversary, "the man in...
), the diver goes on a rampage through the "Labyrinth", using his diver ability to return to his own body and use standard keyboard and mouse controls to quickly dispatch enemies. Eventually, the other human players stop crossing his path, as rumors of his skill quickly spread throughout the game. After setting a record on the number of levels beat in a short time, the diver (Gunslinger) saves and leaves the "Labyrinth" only to encounter about a hundred angry players in the exit lobby. All of them are waiting for Gunslinger, but nobody recognizes him without his mask and gear. As he is leaving the lobby, the director of the company calls out and congratulates him on his record. The diver runs out, followed by the angry mob of players, and manages to duck into the nearest "building" - a virtual brothel. There, he looks through the catalog and, to his surprise, sees a near-perfect image of his operating system (rendered as a woman). He goes to the "room" where she is and asks her if he can call her Vicka (the same name he calls his computer). She agrees (after all, it's his fantasy), and they start talking about random things.
The diver feels tired and falls asleep in her bed. When they wake up, he asks if he can see her again, to which she initially replies by warning him not to fall in love with a virtual image, as the person wearing it can be completely different. Vika then gives up and tells him to ask for her the next time he comes. The diver returns to the "Labyrinth" and manages to reach the trapped player. Initially, Gunslinger is frustrated when the player refuses to reveal his name or address (real-life location) but is amazed when he finds out that the "Jinx" (as the director called the player) is a crack shot and should have been able to beat the level without a problem. However, as the pair is nearing the exit, they are ambushed by a large group of monsters, and the Jinx is killed. While Gunslinger is trying to figure out what is going on, the two divers employed by the company show up and tell him that something about Jinx makes him unable to continue. One of them even killed the player 13 times within a 5 minute limit, which should have automatically kicked Jinx out but did not. The two divers ask Gunslinger to give them 6 hours to try to get Jinx to the end of the level, after which Gunslinger can return and try again. He agrees and leaves to the exit lobby, where a dozen players are waiting for him. Instead of attacking him, they offer him a deal: Gunslinger stops killing other players, and the players do not attack him or the Jinx. If a player breaks the deal, then Gunslinger is allowed to kill him or her.
To seal the deal, they go to the BFG9000
BFG9000
The BFG 9000 is a futuristic weapon found in the video game series Doom. The BFG 9000 is a huge, solid metal gun that fires balls of green plasma. The most powerful weapon in the games, it is capable of destroying nearly any player or enemy in the vicinity with a single hit...
- a bar near the "Labyrinth." After several virtual drinks, the diver goes back to the brothel and asks for Vicka. He finds her room, and she invites him to the brothel's restaurant. There the diver meets the Mage, a hacker employed by the brothel to provide their server with excellent security. Vicka gets upset when one of her regular clients (who keeps accusing the virtual prostitutes of being the scum of society) arrives and asks the diver to take her to his favorite place. He takes her to a bar/restaurant he frequents and asks for a private room. The room looks like a beautiful forest. After unsuccessfully attempting to make love to Vicka (her timer kicks her out), the diver goes back to the "Labyrinth". The company's divers tell him that they believe that Jinx is only pretending to be in trouble and that they plan to give up their attempts to get him out. The diver, however, has other ideas. After one more unsuccessful attempt, he leaves the game and travels to "Al Kabar" - the pharmaceutical company he robbed at the beginning of the novel. The company's spokesperson informs him that they are aware of Jinx and suspect that he is the next stage in human evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
- a person able to enter the virtual world without the aid of a computer or a phone line. They also tell him that the owner of "Labyrinth" will reach a similar conclusion soon. That is when "Al Kabar" will move in to snatch Jinx to find out what makes him tick. Determined to save Jinx at all costs, the diver logs off and contacts his hacker friend Maniac. He asks him for a virus he could smuggle through "Labyrinth" security.
Maniac is hesitant but he upgrades the diver's Gunslinger character with his latest "Warlock 9000" virus, which is designed to look like a belt. As the diver is re-entering the "Labyrinth", the two companies make their moves to grab Jinx. The two "Labyrinth" divers attempt to stop him, but he uses the Warlock as a whip and attacks them (as seen on the book cover). The attack also opens a vortex-like hole in the program, allowing the diver and Jinx to slip out of the "Labyrinth" server. With the companies and Man with no Face in hot pursuit, he drags Jinx into the brothel and asks Vicka for protection. Just then, the Deeptown police commissioner makes a PA
Public address
A public address system is an electronic amplification system with a mixer, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to reinforce a sound source, e.g., a person giving a speech, a DJ playing prerecorded music, and distributing the sound throughout a venue or building.Simple PA systems are often used in...
-like announcement, accusing the diver who looks like Gunslinger of using an illegal virus to attack a company. Vicka, upon finding out that he is a diver, lashes out at him but quickly calms down and admits that she is one too. The brothel comes under a massive attack from "Labyrinth" and "Al Kabar" security forces, backed by Deeptown police and Man with no Face. The Mage's defenses manage to put up a fight but are crumbling. The diver, Jinx, and Vicka jump out the window of her room into a virtual landscape she created before the brothel server shuts down, leaving them stranded in the landscape. The diver then tells Vicka what he thinks Jinx really is - a non-corporeal entity from another world who can only interact with humans through Deeptown. Jinx neither confirms nor denies his true nature, only says that he has been travelling for many years through silence. Vicka is skeptical and insists that Jinx is simply a devious hacker playing a game with everybody.
They travel for several days through the landscape before finding out that the diver's use of the Warlock virus somehow linked Vicka's landscape with an RPG
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
server, where fantasy fans play in a Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
-like world. They find out that the game server plays out a war between King Legolas
Legolas
Legolas is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, featured in The Lord of the Rings. He is an Elf of the Woodland Realm and one of nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring.- Literature :...
's elves
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
and an alliance of orcs
Orc (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman...
and dwarves
Dwarf (Middle-earth)
In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting the world of Arda, a fictional prehistoric Earth which includes the continent Middle-earth....
. They leave Jinx (who is wounded from "Labyrinth") by a road and log off to rest and come back as fantasy characters. While the diver is eating, the Maniac shows up and cleans up his computer, erasing all trace of Warlock and the Gunslinger persona. He then helps the diver design a fantasy character for him - a human healer Elenium (by the name of the tranquiliser). The diver returns to the fantasy server and finds that Vicka is now a male elf archer. They go back to Jinx and try to get him back into Deeptown but are intercepted by Man with no Face and several armed goons. Another diver shows up and attacks the goons looking like a big wolf.
As the three are escaping to the streets of Deeptown, Man with no Face manages to attack the wolf with several powerful viruses. Vicka and Jinx manage to escape, but the diver gets attacked with a perpetual deep-program. Even his diver's mantra cannot help him escape the swirling images that keep his subconsciousness in VR. As he is "walking" through the dream-like world, Jinx appears and tells him that only the diver has the power to escape it. The diver then reverses his mantra and embraces the deep. As he "wakes up" in Deeptown, he realizes that the virtual world has changed for him. He can now see things as they are (shapes and colors) and can move through programs at will. On the way to his Deeptown house, he encounters Man with no Face, who is surprised that the diver escaped his trap. They sit down and talk about Jinx. Man with no Face is convinced that Jinx is a projection from the future. The diver knows that Man with no Face is really the hacker who created the original deep-program. Man with no Face believes that his creation of the program was no accident. He believes Deeptown was a creation from the future and wishes to know more about it. The diver realizes that his companion is stalling and jumps directly to his Deeptown house to find it surrounded by the two companies' security forces and the police. They open fire on him, but he sends out a virtual wave that erases all the shooters. He then threatens the commissioner, the spokespersons of the companies, and Man with no Face that he can make their lives very unpleasant unless they leave him and Jinx alone. He returns to his house and tells Jinx that he must leave this world. Jinx opens a virtual portal and leaves.
The diver takes Vicka and they fly through the Deeptown sky, kissing. At the same time, the diver uses his new abilities to remove all trace that he was ever online. He wipes his computer, his internet provider's logs, and everything else related to him. They then agree to meet in real life. Vicka asks him to wait at the train station with a flower. As the diver logs off, he remembers that he forgot to pay his phone bill - his phone has been disconnected for three hours. He was in Deeptown all on his own. When he finally arrives to the train station, he waits for Vicka. She approaches him from behind and, as he turns around, he is relieves to find out that she looks exactly the same as her virtual persona (as does he).
Major Characters
- Leonid (Gunslinger, Elenium) - the main character, and an experienced Diver. After being fired from an unnamed videogame translating company when it went bankrupt, he spent most of his time in Deeptown, earning money using his skills. Before the advent of Deep, he was an avid player of the original Doom and Wolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
and a FidoNetFidoNetFidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. It was most popular in the early to mid 1990s, prior to the introduction of easy and affordable access to the Internet...
user. In spite, or perhaps because of his Diver abilities, he knows little about computers, which forces him to rely on Maniac for most computer-related stuff. Throughout the course of the novel, he went by aliases of Ivan the Prince, Gunslinger and Healer.
- Alexander/Maniac - a skillful hacker who originally worked for the same company as Leonid. He has since achieved certain notoriety both in the Deep and in the real world. Like Leonid, he was in his late 20s, yet he already went through two marriages. At the time of the novel, he was trying to work things out with his third wife. In many cases, Maniac went out of his way to help out Leonid at the expense of everything else. Like most hackers, Maniac hates Windows Home, preferring to use OS/2OS/2OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
or LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. Formerly known as "Shadow".
- Vicka (short for Victoria aka Madame) - a psychology graduate student who organized a brothel in the Deep as testing grounds for her thesis. While in the brothel, she used two avatars: the older, world-weary Madam and the younger prostitute named Vicka. The second avatar looks exactly like Leonid's Windows Home AI.
- Jinx - a Labyrinth of Death player who appeared on Level 33. Every time he tried to leave the level, he was killed through what seemed like bad luck (which earned him his nickname). He was quickly discovered to be more than he seemed. His nature, and the nature of his powers, served as an ongoing mystery for most of the novel.
- Man With No Face - a mysterious man who offered Leonid the job that ultimately propelled the main plot of the novel.
Minor Characters
- Computer Mage - another former co-worker of Leonid. While in real life, he was a sheltered intervert, in the Deep, he became an essentric extravert known for his flamboyant personality. He was a skilled hacker who was employed by Vicka as an in-house programmer for her brothel.
- Crazy Tosser/Dick - one of the in-house Divers in Labyrinth of Death game. A friendly, outgoing man who was respected among the Divers. In subsequent novels, he was revealed to be an Black CanadianBlack Canadian'Black Canadians is a designation used for people of Black African descent, who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The term specifically refers to Canadians with Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin...
man in his late 50s. Although he could speak Russian fairly well, he occasionally relied on the aid of the Deep-translator.
- Roma/Gray Wolf - a Diver who belonged to a shifter-diver subculture, which specialized in using their Diver ability to instantly change avatars to transform from humans into animals, like the shapeshifters of folklore. His preferred animal avatar was a wolf. He was Leonid's frequent partner who often served as back-up/getaway transportation. Late in the novel, Leonid discovered that he was 15 years old, which put a strain on their friendship. His alias is a reference to a recurring character in Russian folk tales.
External links
- Generation Wend- formerly the most extensive Deep trilogy fansite. Taken down by owner a few years back. Retrieved via Wayback Machine.