The roar of the crowd let Jason know that he had been successful in bringing their blood to a boil. They didn’t stop for a full minute after he got down from his perch.

“They’ll fight, my lord,” Tyler said over the din. “For their homes, for their families, and after those words, they’ll be proud to be fighting for you.”

“Thanks, Tyler. Now let’s get them loaded up on their horses or into the wagons as soon as is physically possible. We have an appointment to keep.”

---

The PR department at Razor, Inc. had spared no expense to get all of the major media outlets into the Razor, Inc. auditorium, and they hadn’t stopped there. Independent streamers on VR platforms and even antiquated 2D formats had come in droves for the media event. It was standing room only, and some of the Razor staff were crossing their fingers and hoping that no fire marshal turned up to check maximum occupancy numbers.

Backstage, Tanya Virk, the new CEO of Razor, Inc, stood with Edward Yates, the CEO of her parent company, and the man she ultimately reported to. “I just heard that Jason’s supposed to go into a battle in the next few minutes, real-world time,” she mentioned offhand. “Should be interesting to see how that turns out.”

“Really?” Edward asked. “Seems rather soon to me.”

“Well, with time dilation, a day here is almost two months in there, so he’s been inside for a couple of months now. Plenty of time for us to set the stage for some conflict.”

“I suppose that’s true, especially if you’re pushing things in that direction. What are his chances?”

Tanya looked embarrassed for the first time. “You know, I’m not really sure. The techs tell me he created some crude guns, so that’s a point in his favor if they actually work. But he has very few people trained as soldiers, and he’s going up against a professional army. He’d be hard-pressed to get away unscathed from that perspective. I guess it’s a question of whether technology or training are superior.”

“Sounds a little over-simplified to me,” Yates commented neutrally. “But I guess we’ll see. What are your plans if Jason is captured or killed? I’m sure you’ve realized by now that you have to keep the storyline moving forward and interesting if what we’re announcing today is going to work.”

“To be fair, I knew for sure that Jason would be fighting an hour ago,” Tanya defended herself. “But yes, I realize the need for retaining the audience’s attention. It just doesn’t have to be with him playing king. A man on the run in medieval times could be just as interesting to our audience. Or whatever the medieval equivalent to gladiator pits are, at least for a while. Perhaps some female guard helps him escape, and they run away together, and it becomes a love story.”

“I could see at least a couple of those working. Is he married in the real world?”

“Yeah, but I don’t see how he could know we’re going to be streaming. I was very careful not to talk about the idea with anyone before he went in, and we’re monitoring his monthly communication.”

“Devious. I like it,” Yates smiled coldly. “What about if he dies, instead?”

“I plan to respawn him in a new area of the world and force him to start from scratch. That should be a big enough incentive for him to fight hard after he experiences that for the first time if you take into account the likely painful death that he will feel.”

“Well, I am told that killing off your main character makes for good television.” Yates chuckled. “Let me know what happens in the fight.”

“Oh, you’ll see it in just a few minutes. Part of the reason my speech is the length that it is was to delay long enough for the battle to occur. The AI and technicians are standing by to edit it into the rest of the trailer we’ll be showing directly after.”

“I’m impressed, Tanya.”

“Thank you, sir,” she replied demurely before a stagehand tapped her on the shoulder.

The lights dimmed, and a spotlight followed Tanya as she glided across the stage to the podium.

The confident smile she wanted to make her signature look covered her face as she took a moment to bask in the attention as cameras clicked and the audience waited, listening. Her excitement and adrenaline subsumed any nerves she might have felt.

“For the last week, the world has not stopped talking about the man from Razor, Inc, who stepped into the unknown and became a digital consciousness.”

A man in the back ripped off his jacket to show a shirt that said “DIGITAL IS DEATH,” screaming, “You want to kill us all! You can’t digitize me! Digital is death!” Security converged and dragged him from the room before he could get any further.

“And there is the token Luddite at the event,” Tanya quipped, and the crowd politely laughed. “To address the elephant in the room, this happened due to a unique set of circumstances. It will never happen again without our control. The programming aspect has been changed. The other unique conditions have been addressed. This was a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

A reporter on the edge of his front-row seat yelled out, “So does that mean you’re going to offer people the chance to digitize themselves?”

Tanya held back a frown. I’m losing control of this. I’ve got to get it back on track. “Not at this time. But the topic of today’s event is a chance for you to see what life is like for Jason Hoffman as he is pitted against a medieval world and all the struggles that will entail.

“As you likely know, Jason experiences time at a different rate than the rest of us. So while it seems like he’s been doing this for only a few days, from his perspective, he’s been working on building his kingdom for months. And he started with a small town, and he’s already building an army. What’s he going to do with it? Not even I know.”

She looked out over the crowd. “Today, we’re announcing that you have the chance to see what life is like for Jason. This is unscripted, real life, and only edited to focus on the most exciting parts of his journey. We have multiple teams of people with custom software and AI support working in shifts around the clock to edit the VR and 2D experiences. Want to watch this as much as possible? You can do that 24/7. Want to get the highlights each day, edited to a standard 1-hour segment? That’s totally fine, or choose from options in between. All this for one low monthly fee.

“Did I mention there’s a two day free trial for anyone in the world, starting now?” she added. Without further comment, she walked off the stage, and the screen behind her displayed the signup URL and started playing the trailer her team had just finished.

Before the trailer finished playing, seven million people had signed up, with more adding their names to the list every second.

---

The forces from Jason’s village moved quickly to get into position. When they got near their intended destination, Tyler unloaded the men, and together, they drove the horses and wagons well off the road into the forest. Not wanting to risk giving any advance warning, they moved parallel to the road to flank the intended ambush site.

They rushed, not knowing exactly how long they had until the enemy arrived. The spot that Tyler and Jason had chosen was a section of the road with the valley’s main river flowing nearby. Between the deep, slow water and the road was thick shrubbery, and in that brush, a couple of men were digging hidden foxholes. Each had two of the grenades that had been designed by Otto and Jason with some serendipitous help from Samantha’s fuse discovery. Their orders were to wait until the battle started, light the fuses, and toss the grenades into the densest clump of enemies they could reach.

After that, they’d have to hope they weren't noticed since their only other weapon was a belt knife. The two had been chosen in part for their swimming ability, a rare skill amongst the townsfolk, and a last-ditch dip in the river might offer them some chance at escape if they were targeted.

On the other side of the road was a natural meadow. It stretched along the path for some distance and brought the treeline back from the road a couple of dozen paces for most of its length. On the edge of the meadow, the forest was fighting to reclaim the meadow from its thick grasses. Small screening saplings on the forest edge and the thick, shading overstory further back made it rather difficult to see into the dark woods. Tyler and Jason intended to exploit this feature and hid their men behind the brush, trees, and the undulating ground near the edge of the forest.

The men settled in to wait. Nervousness gave way to boredom. Hours later, the men’s hunger turned the event into the world’s largest picnic, with men sporadically whispering back and forth before being shushed. A few even managed to nap on a bed of leaves.

Jason’s nerves did not decrease as he sat on the hard ground. I hope this works, he thought. I hope they haven’t bypassed us in some way and are headed for the town even now. No, stop thinking of things like that. Focus on the plan. It’s going to work.

Finally, a man with a blue scarf tied around his upper arm rode into view. The men began to gather their weapons from the ground, then get into position as Tyler stepped out of the treeline.

The man noticed him and reigned in his horse. “An hour behind me is my best estimate,” the scout called out.

Tyler waved, and the man continued down the road, not wanting to leave any evidence of unusual activity.

The men sat back down again, but this time, the tension remained in the air, and they held their weapons close.