...kind of like that, except real, soul-immersive virtual reality.
[Poor baby. It's about to get a hell of a lot harder.]
That was the Holy Grail War. In a way you're close; some of the participants certainly didn't realize it wasn't some hyped-up VR game until it was too late. But, the consequences were as costly as the prize: one, all powerful wish from the Holy Grail. The 'Grail' of my world was something called the Moon Cell, which also served as the battlefield: a highly advanced spiritron magical... supercomputer, I suppose. It's been recording the earth for something like four and a half billion years. At first, a thousand Masters--humans called 'Wzards' who were basically magical hackers--submitted their souls to the Moon Cell for the preliminary round. The 128 who survived gained the right to become Masters and summon Servants from Heroic Spirits recorded by the Grail.
From there, every week Masters gathered information on each other and eventually faced down their assigned opponent in a one-on-one fight. The winner moved on to the next round and the loser was erased. I... among other things, I am the last surviving Master of that War. Though technically, I was never supposed to be.
no subject
[Poor baby. It's about to get a hell of a lot harder.]
That was the Holy Grail War. In a way you're close; some of the participants certainly didn't realize it wasn't some hyped-up VR game until it was too late. But, the consequences were as costly as the prize: one, all powerful wish from the Holy Grail. The 'Grail' of my world was something called the Moon Cell, which also served as the battlefield: a highly advanced spiritron magical... supercomputer, I suppose. It's been recording the earth for something like four and a half billion years. At first, a thousand Masters--humans called 'Wzards' who were basically magical hackers--submitted their souls to the Moon Cell for the preliminary round. The 128 who survived gained the right to become Masters and summon Servants from Heroic Spirits recorded by the Grail.
From there, every week Masters gathered information on each other and eventually faced down their assigned opponent in a one-on-one fight. The winner moved on to the next round and the loser was erased. I... among other things, I am the last surviving Master of that War. Though technically, I was never supposed to be.