The next morning was filled with meetings with a legal representative that walked me through what felt like 150 waivers and NDA additions. He also explained the neural link upgrade and had me sign another 20 waivers. Turns out that while the tech was in its approval stage, it hadn’t gone through yet and was still considered experimental. They also told me that once it was upgraded, there was no longer an option to downgrade. He answered my questions as best as he could and told me to ask the rest to the medical staff when I had my upgrade appointment.

Short story: They had developed some form of nanite technology that was still in early stages. I would receive an injection of these buggers along with some serious narcotics that were supposed to knock me out for 6 hours. A program would be plugged into my current neural link and would help the nanites to make the required changes, growing new nerve tissue and connecting parts of my brain that were previously unconnected.

He explained that even though this was a closed beta there was no need for writing any bug or gaming reports. The link would take care of all this for me and I didn’t need to do anything other than play.

I also had a tour of the actual testing facility. It looked like a warehouse full of capsules on shelves. They were racked and while I watched I saw how one of them was pulled by a robot arm, put on the floor, a passed out tester was deposited into it, a team of medical and technical personnel made sure that everything was okay. He was greenlit and the robot arm racked his capsule again.

The process seemed impersonal but then again there would be 500k testers over the next few weeks and I could only imagine the space and energy required by the staff to see us all squared away. I was also shown the control room where everything would be monitored and checked even though I was not allowed to enter.

Then I had a light lunch, a full suite of medical checks, a psych assessment and finally my upgrade appointment.

The doctor providing the upgrade gave me more information on the told me that I would be able to access the neural link within the gameworld in an entirely new way. I was used to receiving information from it during game sessions. He told me that I would be able to actually plug technology within the game directly into the link interface. I had no idea for what I would need that but it sounded cool. He also told me that after the upgrade I will find myself directly in immersion. The company had opted to go that route because the nano gel would actually help the healing process and time was of the essence as the total test time was only scheduled for a month.

After all the formalities were taken care of, he shepherded me back into the elevator and after a short ride we emerged in what looked like the most futuristic medical center I had ever seen. I was guided to a single bed room where a very pretty nurse asked me to take my shirt off and sit on the bed. Okay, I admit, my mind went into the gutter for a moment but she was all professional and started attaching electrodes and sensor pads all over my chest and head.

As she attached the last sensor to my forehead Dr. Steiner walked back into the room. He placed a small case on the bedside table, opened it almost reverently and took a syringe out of it. He did the typical doctorly thing and flicked it a few times before telling me that I might feel a pinch. Okay, honestly, I am no fan of needles and I felt my body tensing as he came closer to my arm. I closed my eyes.

An honestly small prick later I opened my eyes again to the doctor’s smiling face. “Welcome to Black Space Mister Wilson.” he said ominously and before I could say anything else the darkness closed in and I passed out.