Borderlands Online: Chapter 1 (Patreon)

You know... I... really should have seen this coming. 

It's a virtual reality helmet, made by a man named Akihiko Kayaba. I, as a man who died once and reincarnated should have clocked this and promptly said 'fuck that noise' and distanced myself as far away from this as I possibly could... 

But then... doubts started to appear after I heard what he was actually making. 

Curiosity got the better of me, I applied for the beta, and I got in. 

The world's very first virtual reality game... 

Not Sword Art Online. 

Hell, not even really having much to do with swords in the first place! 

No... 

I joined the beta for Borderlands Online. 

That's right. Vault monsters. Sirens. Corporate overlords. BORDERLANDS online. 

Now, I was a massive fan of borderlands in my last life, I loved the unique guns, the setting, the humor, the looter shooter aspect where you go out, find vaults hidden by ancient civilizations and kill whatever beasties they trapped inside! 

Kayaba was obsessed with swords! Kayaba hated magic, ranged weapons, and ALL the good parts of the fantasy setting and made a shitty game with like... two stats max! There's no way he'd make a sci-fi! It HAD to be a coincidence. 

I played the beta and... holy shit. 

It was borderlands... in VR form... 

No floors. No dungeons. A level system akin to those from the borderlands games... and FAR more than just ten thousand players planned for the game's release. 

Millions. 

Five million players joined on day one... 

I was one of them... 

Yet, as I log into the game, I open my status menu and go to log-out... 

Lo and behold... 

There was no logout button. 

Yeah. 

I've kind of come to terms with what happens next. 

There is a dull glow from every single billboard in the city. 

We are notably not on pandora. 

A man appears on the screen, face obscured, wisps of purple coil around him. 

"Welcome, dear players, to Borderlands Online!" He allows his words to poignantly hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "You may know me as the creator of this game, Akihiko Kayaba." 

"Now..." He begins in earnest. "Allow me to give you all a brief overview of the situation you now find yourselves in." 

"Some players may have noticed a feature missing from your menus. The logout button. Allow me to be clear. This is not a bug... I repeat. This is an intended feature of Borderlands Online." 

"You see, I was disgusted with the world outside... so I created a new one... I created dozens. Dozens of planets full of life. Full of personality. Full of HISTORY... and... I decided to do what I always wished. Create a world where I alone am in control." 

"As of this moment... the New-You's have been deactivated. There will be no more respawning after death... in addition, should your healthbar reach zero... and should you fail to recover before your 'death' timer reaches zero, you will permanently be removed from this game, a failsafe within the nervegear will then activate, the microwaves I have concealed within the headsets will activate at full power, destroying your brain." 

"You should not wait for help... as it will not come from outside. Should someone attempt to remove your nervegear, the failsafe will activate, destroying your brain... tragically, the families of five thousand poor souls did not listen to my warning... and thus they were removed from the game and the world outside as well." 

"But. All is not lost. There is one singular way to get out of this game..." 

"To those who have studied the lore of this game... or have looked at the back of the box, the word 'Eridian' may stand out to you. That. Is the name of an ancient alien species whom has long since died out. Who they are and what they did... is something I will allow you all to discover on your own. What IS important, however... is what they left... The Vaults! Ancient prisons containing numerous powerful monsters... and amazing treasures." 

"Your goal... my players, is to explore this galaxy I have created and find, open, and defeat these creatures imprisoned millennia ago. All one hundred of them!"  

"But. I'm aware that searching through the cosmos for one hundred little vaults could be QUITE daunting... do not worry. There are methods to gently guide you all to these locations. In fact, there is even a vault here on Eden Five. One that I would strongly suggest you complete before you wander off into the cosmos. I will say it is definitely the easiest vault to clear and may give you all some... direction..." 

"Oh! One final thing. Here's a small gift to you!" 

Suddenly a wave of pixels washes over my body, then the  guy behind me. 

It's like someone dropped a digitizing bomb that only affects players. 

I don't need a mirror to know that I've returned to what I look like in real life. 

"Goodbye for now! And I leave you all with these final words of encouragement... This may be a game, but it is no longer one that you... 'play'..." 

With that... 

Every screen darkens. 

"Hnnnnng." I groan, clutching my head. 

I close my eyes, I can almost feel a migraine slowly forming before I let out a long weary sigh. 

Alright. 

Let's take stock. 

Five million players scattered across numerous settlements on a terraformed moon surrounding a gas giant. 

The fifth moon. 

The planet is 'civilized'. With cops- as corrupt as they may be- infrastructure, schools, supermarkets, restaurants, and other good shit like that. 

Guns... are relatively hard to come by. 

You need to buy a license to carry one legally. 

As a result, all five million players are currently unarmed, each with a 'civilian' action skill and skill tree. 

THANKFULLY. Kayaba had the foresight of giving players a shield automatically upon character creation... though not a very good one. 

Budget Shield: {Shield} {Tediore} {Common} 
A low quality shield from the budget company. Tediore is made to be cheap, affordable, and most importantly disposable. Luckily they haven't yet managed to put bombs into their shields so you can use them as grenades. But. It'd be better to have a Tediore than no shield at all! 
Shield Capacity: 100/100 
Recharge Delay: 60 Seconds 
Recharge Rate: 1/second 
Durability: 50/50 
Level Requirement: 1 

It should at the very least keep people from getting stabbed in alleyways as easily. I'd imagine he'd be pissed if a fifth of his 'loyal subjects' die in the first month from a mugging gone wrong. 

Now. 

Where was I- Right. Taking stock. 

Five million level ones with bad action skills, the only equipment being an Echo-one, the DOS of futuristic personal computers-slash-inventory systems, five billion dollars between us- or one thousand each- and a lackluster shield. 

We've got to find a vault on Eden five and kill the monster inside. 

Now. I remember Eden Six from the third game, there was a vault there... and it's swampy, redneck, and also the home of the Jakobs Corporation. 

I'd imagine it's going to be a vault we don't discover until much later, however, as tangling with the Jakobs Corporation sounds like a 'high level' quest and they are quite keen on keeping their vault hidden, so they'll fight tooth and nail against anyone trying to open it. 

But... how exactly do we find the vault here on Eden Five? 

Eden Five... Eden Five... I could have sworn I heard that before. 

GAIGE! 

Gaige lived on Eden Five! 

Gaige is a Vault Hunter- or she will become one- Gaige whould be an NPC. Npcs create quests. 

Conclusion. Gaige is the key to finding the vault on this moon. 

So. How do I survive with this information? How do we kill the thing within the vault? 

"..." 

"Tsk." I let out a low hiss. 

It appears I'm going to have to get rid of this shitty action skill and skill tree. 

Vergil Sparda: Level 1 Exp: 0% 

Yes, I named myself Vergil Sparda, what of it? 

Class: Part-Time Delivery Driver. {Common} 

What Kayaba did was have us fill out a massive survey when we made our character. That, in turn added or removed potential starter classes from a massive list, at which point a starter class was randomly selected. Most- if not all of them- utterly useless in combat. 

Action Skill: Thirty Minutes Or Its Free! 
You REALLY know how to drive! While in a land-based unarmed vehicle (That is, a vehicle that is intended to drive on or close to the earth with no weaponry) you may temporarily boost the maximum speed and handling of your vehicle by 25% for 30 Seconds. Cooldown 300 Seconds. 

Yeah. Not the strongest. 

You see, unlike the borderlands games, 'classes' seem to be divided into rarities as well. 

In the beta, the best one I saw was an 'Uncommon' class called 'Gang leader'. 

It was pretty strong. Had a bunch of party-wide buffs from what I heard. The action skill was actually useful, supposedly improving the party's damage by ten percent for roughly ten seconds. 

The main thing is that in the beta we all started with a license to own guns. 

Something we don't have here in the real game which is a pain. 

Anyways, with classes having 'Rarities', there's sure to be a power difference between them, right? 

And you'd be correct. 

It's not necessarily health, nor shield, nor damage, although that can be the case for all of those things. 

No. It's something much more sinister. 

Skill Points. 

A common class only has access to the first level of a skill tree. 

While in borderlands each vault hunter gains a new tier of perks every five skill points they put into one of their skill trees. Us? We're stuck with merely the first step. You can't even call that a skill tree! It's a skill stump! 

Rough Rider: 0/5 
Sometimes people get a little annoyed when their food is late. Thankfully you have your trusty vehicle to protect you! (Your land-based unarmed vehicle gains +5% Hp Per Skill Rank) 

Make Way!: 0/3 
People always try their damnedest to avoid paying, locked doors, beartraps, an armored car. A REAL delivery driver has got to be prepared to bust through all of that! Thirty minutes or its free! (Your land-based unarmed vehicle gains +5% Ram Damage per Skill Rank) 

Smooth Handling: 0/5 
Sometimes you've got to weave through traffic when you're on a deadline. You really know how to handle yourself on the road, huh? (Increases the handling of your land-based unarmed vehicle by 5% per Skill Rank) 

So. We have five million players with skills roughly on par with this. Maybe fifty thousand or so with some sort of 'combat adjacent' class like 'Thug' which has some mild improvements to health and unarmed damage- about half of my boosts for vehicles- or 'Scout' who has some very mild movement speed buffs and the 'Sprint' Action Skill. 

Speaking of scouts... 

I walk over to a nearby bench, I can hear anguished cries of those trapped alongside me, I pull out my echo device. It's bulky and old looking, like a mix between a Gameboy and a mess of wires. 

I turn it on, briefly glancing to my empty inventory and something important... 

A friends list. 

One that's empty. 

"First things first." I whisper. 

Friend Request: User ID: "Argo" 
Friend Request Sent. 

Friend Request: User ID: "Kiriko" 
Friend Request Sent. 

That's step one of my 'get out of this alive' checklist. 

Next? I'm going to get rid of this damn action skill and replace it with something worthwhile. 

And by 'worthwhile', I mean something mildly okay. 

Now... 

I need to go to the nearest hardware store. 

[Split] 

I hear a small chime from my echo device as I look down. 

User ID: "Argo" has accepted your friend request. 

Argo has initiated a chat: 

Argo: "Hey Vergil..." 

Vergil Sparda: "Hey." 

Argo: "How are you holding up?" 

Vergil Sparda: "I'm still moving, I guess. Hey. Did you spawn in Tarreltown?" 

Argo: "Yeah?" 

Vergil Sparda: "Good. We can meet up. I have a plan." 

Argo: "A plan? Already?" 

Vergil Sparda: "Did you already spend your starting 1k?" 

Argo: "Some of it." 

Vergil Sparda: "Try and hang onto as much as you can, cash is going to be tight for the first couple of days. I've already blown through mine getting some supplies." 

Argo: "Supplies?" 

Vergil Sparda: "I plan to get rid of this bullshit 'Delivery Driver' class and get something that's ACTUALLY worth something." 

Argo: "?" 

Vergil Sparda: "Have you ever heard of Philip Andrew Luty?" 

Argo: "No?? Should I have?" 

Vergil Sparda: "Oh, I'll let this be a surprise, then. You know any place the cops won't show and I'll have privacy even if I use some power tools? I'm going to do something that's a little... frowned upon. But needs must." 

[Split] 

I stare blankly at a short girl with blonde hair. 

Well, I say short, she's about my height. 

She has chin-length blonde hair with two unruly tufts that raise up atop her head like little mouse ears. 

"You're... younger than I thought." She observes. 

"You're not exactly one to talk here, are you?" I huff humorlessly as I shift the bag off my shoulder. "Alright. This place looks pretty good." 

We are both stood in a small room. A door to each side, one to the left and one to the right. 

We are currently about ten feet underground, in a small side room within Tarreltown's sewers. It's definitely out of the way, quiet, but quite smelly. 

"So. What are you going to do?" 

"I... am going to make a gun." 

"Hn." She just hums. 

She still seems out of it. That's understandable. 

"Are you okay, Argo? I probably should have asked you that back when you asked me." 

"I'm... coming to terms... I'm never seeing my family again, am I?" 

"You will!" I protest.  

"That psycho bastard wants us to search DOZENS of planets to find a bunch of needle in the haystack prison vaults with APOCALYPSE BEASTS INSIDE! Do you have ANY idea how long it'll take to find the vault on THIS planet?! Let alone the ninty nine OTHERS?! Even with five million- and counting down by the second- players we could search for a YEAR and still be no closer!" She snaps. 

"And... And you don't care..." She frowns, eyes narrowing in disappointment, seemingly scanning over my face.

"I noticed I wasn't able to log out the second after I joined the server." I sigh. "I panicked like this earlier... but then I realized after Kayaba's announcement... that I can't afford to just mope around. I need to establish myself. I need to PREPARE." 

"Because, Argo... I have a pretty good idea where the Vault is." 

Her head snaps up. "What?!" 

"Well." I correct. "Less an idea of where it is, more an idea how we could find it. But. I need you, Argo. While I'm making guns that are DEFINITELY illegal for us to have out, I need you, our greatest scout, to look for something... or rather someone." 

"Someone?" She whispers. 

"In the beta, I was wandering around, I can't remember exactly which town- but even if I did Kayafucker might have changed it- BUT. I heard an interesting little snippet of conversation between two Npcs. A girl and an older man, who I am guessing was her father. It caught my attention because, well," 

I rotate my hand. "She was a very pretty girl, okay?" 

Argo's expression flattens slightly as I raise my hand. "Wait wait. Hear my reasoning before you think I'm a pervert. Alright. The reason why she caught my attention is that she had personality. Character. I looked at her and thought. 'hey. This isn't a normal NPC'. Because she frankly doesn't look it! Metal arm. fiery red hair pulled into pigtails. Denim jacket with a skull shirt, and black and white striped stockings. Her whole look screamed to me 'not your run of the mill background character'." 

"Now. I heard her complain about being bullied at school by some girl named like... Marcy, but I also heard her say under her breath. 'That bitch wouldn't mess with me when I become a vault hunter'." 

Argo's eyes sharpen slightly. 

"See!" I point at her. "That was my exact reaction when I remembered it!" 

"So. Right now I need you to protect me as I make some weapons and try to get a weaponsmith class, then I need you to go out and find this girl. She didn't have a quest marker when I saw her, but there might have been something to trigger it... or maybe I just wasn't high enough level, or the quest wasn't in the game yet, I don't know." 

"Alright. This girl have a name?" The blonde crosses her arms.  

"It started with a G... Gwen- Gin- Gaaaaaaiiii- Ah! It was Gaige I'm fairly sure." I snap my fingers. 

She just nods once. "One protection detail in exchange for the Class-A info." 

"Hey. I'm making you a gun too." I stare. "And giving you something to write about in a guide 'how to get a gun for relatively cheap'. 

"Fine. I owe you one. A big favor. Not a small one." The girl sighs. "Any idea what you want in exchange?" 

"I'll think about it." I reply. "Anyways, gun time... and you better be happy I'm giving you ammo as well, don't spend it all in one place, more than half of my money went to bribing the gun store owner to sell me bullets without checking if I had a license to carry or not then purchasing said bullets." 

"Why didn't you just buy a license to carry?" She asks slowly. "It shouldn't be that much?" 

"Ten thousand dollars... plus that bastard makes you take a test." 

"THAT FUCKER!" The girl snarls. 

[Split] 

"How... how the hell?" The girl whispers as I bring up a blocky looking submachinegun. 

"The Luty Submachine gun. A weapon created by Philip Luty as a statement. A statement which caused the UK government to harass him until the day he died." 

"This thing was made in real life?!" She gasps. 

I just nod once. "It's inaccurate as hell, the magazine falls out fairly often when you shoot it or even hold it wrong, and it jams often. But. It's a functioning automatic submachine gun." 

Looty SMG: {Weapon} {Unaffiliated} {Scrap?} 
What do you get when you take scrap, a pipe, a spring, an angle grinder and some bullets? A submachinegun apparently. Huh. 
Damage 15 
Accuracy: Abysmal 
Fire Rate: 8 Rounds/Second 
Magazine Size 18 
Ammunition: Tediore Brand! SMG Rounds on a Budget! 
Durability: 31/31 
Has a 5% chance to jam per shot 
Has a 2% chance to release magazine per shot 
Level Requirement: 1 

I brush my hand down the side and nod once. "It's worse than a Tediore disposable gun, probably close to around five times the price, but. It can be reloaded." 

I offer it to the girl, she lets out a small short as she looks over it, the edges are angular. It lacks a stock, the handle is blocky. It's built like an inbred snub-nosed stockless Tommy gun. "Scrap rarity? I didn't know there was a rarity below 'common'. But I guess this is all we have right now." 

She seems to reach out and tap something. "Oh hey, at least it's better than 'Junk' rarity!" 

She points it at the wall, aiming down the lack of sights. "What does it mean by 'Abysmal' accuracy, though?" 

Her finger hovers around the trigger, I can see red lines appear from the barrel and sporadically ghost over the wall, their overall area is larger than a beachball and the area she was aiming was barely more than five feet in front of her. 

"It means whatever you're shooting at better be within zero to ten feet and the size of a man at least or you're not hitting anything. It's mainly to scare the absolute shit out of people. That's my gift to you. Here's the mag and some bullets. Get familiar with loading it. I've only got the one magazine for it though, and I don't feel like making another right now." 

She takes the box of bullets and begins carefully loading them. "So. Did you get a new class?" 

"Uhhh." 

You have discovered a class!  

Trashy Gunsmith: {Common} 
In this world, there are people with guns and people without guns. Even the shittiest most inaccurate piece of shit gun can still be used to take a life. 

You have filled all of your Class slots! Would you like to replace a class?  
Please note: Some classes may be impossible to get back. 

[Yes.] [No.] 

I slowly reach out and tap 'yes'. 

"I did... 'Trashy Gunsmith. A common class, but probably better than pizza delivery boy. As for the action skill- oh you've got to be shitting me! Eighty thousand seconds for a cooldown?!" 

"That's only around twenty-two and a half hours... is it a bit over that?" She asks. 

"yeah, Eighty six thousand four hundred." 

"Twenty four hour skill cooldown exactly, then." She hums. "The skills any good?" 

Action Skill: Junkyard Gunsmithing: 
You're a complete novice at this, but you have big dreams. Dreams of making your enemies BLEED! Enter 'Build Mode' in which you may design a weapon of up to 'Common' Rarity depending on tools, the quality of materials, and how much time you take and how careful you are. Cooldown 86400 Seconds. 

Another Man's Trash: 0/5 
You may make use of worse materials for your gunsmithing without creating a worse end product. (Materials below a certain quality are treated as having a quality 10% Higher per rank in this skill) 

Rifled Barrel: 0/1 
You've figured out how to rifle your pipe barrels with a hunk of carved steel, a vice grip and a heavy object this will surely make your guns worth more! (Increases the accuracy of all of your created guns) 

Junk Bullet: 0/1 
You have a knack for scavenging. That extends to your bullets as well. Harvesting saltpeter from piss, charcoal from barbeque grills, and sulfur from fungacide. (You may now craft basic black-powder bullets, but they deal 33% less damage.) 

"Well... I can get a rifled barrel and gain the ability to craft bullets that deal thirty-three percent less damage. Plus the action skill... hn... let me try this."  

The world pulls away briefly, becoming a series of blue and white lines, my tools light up, then the numerous plates and pipes scattered across the floor. 

A basic design begins to slowly form as I wave my hands through the air. Something quick but quite dangerous. 

[Split] 

I look down at a small gun that rests on my palm four pipe barrels interconnected onto a metal handgun stock. There's a single trigger and hammer that fires all four barrels at once. 

Argo sits against the wall, her knees brought up to her chest, submachinegun in her lap. 

I flip the handgun around and offer it to her. "What do you think?" 

She looks it over briefly before handing it back. "Huh. Common? There's not even a chance to jam. Not bad. Once your skill is off cooldown make me one. I'll pay for labor and materials. Mainly so I don't owe you another favor." 

{Weapon} {Unaffiliated} {Common} 
A basic four-shot pistol crafted by an amateur weaponsmith. It's more a shotgun than a pistol. 
Damage 13*4 
Accuracy: Abysmal 
Fire Rate: 4 Rounds 
Magazine Size 4 
Ammunition: Tediore Brand! Pistol Bullets on a Budget! 
Durability: 44/44 
Level Requirement: 1 

"Yeah. That's fair." I note. "Anyways, if you see Kiriko out there anywhere, can you tell her to stop being so flighty and accept my damn friend request? I know for a fact it's just sitting in her inbox." 

"I'll see what I can do. We need to stick together. Now more than ever." She nods once. 

[Endsplit] 

Heyo, this is just an idea I had, it was rattling around my brain from another idea I had, mainly being 'What would I do if I was in Worm as a Video Game/Media tinker. this would have probably been one of my first actions. a re-write of borderlands or turning it into a VRMMORPG. either that or Devil May Cry.

This became a thing as I started realizing just how good an MMO would fit in the borderlands verse. New-You stations, vast landscapes and treasure, skills and levels, powerful bosses, and so much potential.

anyways I decided to just post this as I have quite a backlog and wanted to see what people thought of this weird cross between SAO/GGO/Borderlands