Mergance
The year is 2176, the world is still thriving.
Global warming is no longer an issue, a large majority of greenhouse gasses have been pulled back. Plants now supply a large majority of the world's requirements. Animal raising is purely for recreation and not for food. Humans have dug miles into the earth, creating vast complexes beneath the ground and expanding our usable land space thirty-fold. Due to this subterranean expansion, thermal energy is now the main form of energy in the world, powering almost everything using Earth's natural heat and energy. The Earth is a place of peace, long since united under one banner and the majority is happy.
Virtualization is a recent, and very popular technology. The ability to turn matter into information is a leap in science many never thought possible. However, SkyReach, a large organization specializing in games and virtual reality, created the first virtualization prototype. The Blackbox was a large box about the size of a small closet and anything put into the box would be virtualized into the Blackbox's internal memory, where it could then send that information into games, movies, files, and more. Then, whenever needed, that virtualized matter can be returned to reality, where life could continue as normal. Before long, the Blackbox was rampant in the world. It was used for more than games. It was used for file and data management, where people could sort, delete, and work on files faster than from a computer. It was used for cinematic experiences, throwing yourself into a three-dimensional movie where you could even pull some strings and experience different perspectives. It was used for gaming, throwing yourself into virtual reality warzones and endless sandboxes and living any dream you could want. Before long, it was found that blackboxes could also be used for near instantaneous transportation across vast distances.
The Blackbox revolutionized the world. Many couldn't walk a meter without finding one nearby.
The fact that it was simply a prototype was glossed over by its popularity and rabid usage.
Many people feared the wild growth of the Blackbox. Some realized that the Blackbox was originally a incomplete plan, a prototype, and it wasn't unheard of for people to go missing after entering a Blackbox. Those more malicious could play with the device to send people to unintended locations, trap them in storage drives, split them into smaller fragments, and more. The Blackbox had many, many wonderful benefits, but it could also be used as a powerful tool for malice. Some people were right to fear the devices. However, they were far too popular for these occasional instances to bring their downfall.
It was only a matter of time before something would go horribly wrong.
Nobody knows exactly what happened, but there are many speculations and theories. What is known is that Earth is now an inhospitable wasteland and returning is no longer an option.
Some time in the year 2181, something broke. What broke, not many know, but it caused a devastating domino effect that caused nearly every Blackbox in the world to malfunction. These once-revered devices began outputting disastrous amounts of energy that virtualized anything it came in contact with, sucking large swaths of land into the devices and sending them to the SkyReach servers and mainframes miles below ground. Even worse was when a Blackbox attempted to virtualize another, causing a massive increase of the outputted energy as they conflicted with one another, resulting in a buildup of energy that caused the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, wiping massive state-sized areas off the planet, causing more nuclear chain reactions with any other Blackboxes in the affected area.
The Skyreach servers were a powerful data space, but they were nowhere large enough to hold Earth's entire population and the near 18% of Earth's mass that was sucked into them. However, being linked to many other large corporation databases, anything that couldn't fit into the Skyreach facilities were sent to other major mainframes such as Vision Industries (Visind), Apex, Sun Aviators (Sunave), and Modern Technologies (MTech).
Since many of these corporation mainframes run off of thermal energy, along with the androids that maintained them. They would remain in a stable state for centuries, possibly until Earth's sun reached its end. However, that would be even longer for those trapped in the databases as one second in reality was equivalent to several years in the databases.
You can visit each of these worlds, below. Currently, only the fantasy world of Skyreach is available:
