The lid of the gaming pod hissed open, before sliding to one side. A figure - Kade tumbled out, tripping on the edge of the capsule and sprawling onto the messy floor of his room.

For a moment he lay there, stunned, the adrenaline still racing through his system. Then, with a deep shuddering breath he pushed himself up.

He was fine. He breathed out slowly. He was okay.

That feeling had just experienced been indescribable and terrible, like your heart imploding from the force of a million volts, only somehow worse.

A little while later Kade exited the bathroom, freshly showered. After the shock had worn off he’d grabbed a change of fresh clothes from his wardrobe and stumbled to the bathroom.

He’d been in that capsule for two days and felt like he really needed a shower. The water, as he’d hoped, had helped wash away the shock of the experience that he had just been through. It hadn’t helped much in that regard, but he now felt cleaner and calmer, a lot calmer.

Striding across the floor of his small apartment he switched on his TV on the way over to the kitchen, shoving a frozen pizza into the microwave. He needed something to take his mind off of what had happened.

Watching the pizza go round and round was a great way. If his mother had seen what and how he was cooking she would have given him an ear full, had she still been around. She would always scold his father for bringing home a packet of hot chips and would instead praise the virtues of fresh vegetables. The memory brought a small smile to his face.

Grabbing a clean plate from the cupboard he loaded up the pizza and dumped himself down onto the sofa in front of the TV, just as an add break finished. It seemed to be some sort of gaming news station. Since the release of the first full dive VR nearly twenty years ago, such Esport stations had quickly gained popularity.

“BREAKING NEWS” the hostess announced “IN THE POPULAR VR GAME ‘BLADES OF GODS’ VICE GUILD LEADER QUICKDRAW OF THE THOUSAND BLADES HAS ANNOUNCED THE GUILD’S WISH TO RECHALLENGE THE DUNGEON OF KARTH…” Kade changed the channel.

The next channel showed a group of three commentators doing a move-by-move rundown of some guild’s latest raid.

“What do you think David?” asked one commentator.

His neighbour turned to him “Now, Samson, I think you’re right, that last heal could have been better served healing their thief than their tank, however I would like to take the moment to take the opportunity to say that their priestess Melissa is doing an amazing job at directing her team through all the chaos. Many other guilds would have fallen simply due to the sheer pressure and…” David winced mid-sentence as the thief was bashed across the room by an ogre’s fist.

The white-fox-eared thief girl was ignored by most of the team for a moment, before a belated heal arrived.

“Definitely some inner politics there boys.” said the final commentator. “However, Holy Empire has shown an excellent tra–“

Kade changed the channel again, but this time his fingers were trembling with anger. He never wanted to hear from them again, especially the guild leader Melissa. If there came a day where he could push her over a cliff he would, without hesitation.

As to the poor thief, she was probably just a contracted fill-in for the team, just like he’d been. His finger moved to the OFF button of the remote when something caught his interest.

At a press conference on screen stood one of the most famous men alive. Tiago Child, inventor of the worlds’ five sense full dive VR and developer of ‘New Earth’

“The promised moment you’ve all been waiting for.” he began, as he opened up his arms to the unseen crowds “Today I’ve called you all here to finally deliver the truth behind ‘New Earth’. What it is, how it works and how it will look like in the future.” He paused for a moment, looking into the camera.

“As you all know ‘New Earth’ is the very first true VR game, replicating all of the senses. In this sense it is already unique and one of a kind. What if I told you that ‘New Earth’ is an autonomous world of its own?”

The crowds of unseen reporters burst out into discussion, calling out questions and otherwise producing absolute chaos. Tiago raised a single hand and the audience fell silent once more.

“The game ‘New Earth’ is currently hosted on the world’s second largest single server, the ‘Abiogenesis server’ formerly belonging to the Joint International Coalition for Sciences. The server has been remodelled from its original purpose. Originally it was used to run simulations on the creation of the universe, from the big bang to the evolution of life on our planet. With the construction of the new world’s largest server, the ‘Einstein II’, our company was able to purchase and repurpose the server. Currently, the server is running a fully autonomous program from a world seed, without input from any outside influences. All scientists and researchers on our team are only able to observe and analyse data. The server itself is actually operated by a highly advanced AI.”

The forum burst out into discussion at the incredibility of Tiago’s statements. All the news reporters were yelling out their questions, in the hope to get an answer. On stage a man in a suit walked up to Tiago and whispered into his ear, before exiting. Again, Tiago silenced the crowds with his hand, only speaking when the noise level had been reduced to a murmur.

“Unfortunately” he said, folding his hands together with a charismatic smile “I have just been informed that our lovely time is rushing to the end. However, we still have enough time to answer two questions”.

As soon as he said that a man sprung to his feet. “Can the players expect an update, or a new expansion in the future?”

Tiago chuckled. “New Earth” he replied “is exactly what the name says. A whole new world, scaled similarly to our own. Exploring an entire world took us as a species several millenia and even now we still have unexplored mysteries. Please remember this new world has inhabitants and plant species, as well as history, lore and customs completely different to those we have on Earth. I believe the players will find that plenty enough.” He pointed to another person in the crowd.

A female voice called out “Mr. Child” she said “What stops this AI from deciding that it doesn’t want to just manage the game and begins invading Earth?”

Again, Tiago looked bemused.

“You don’t have to worry” he replied “While the AI is highly advanced, at the moment it is only capable of replicating human interaction, based of experiences that it has with the players. The world itself is run by the original program of the Abiogenesis server.

The AI is simply there to control the NPC's AI and make the game more immersive. While we understand the concern, especially after all the movies that we’ve made, we believe that our safeguards are enough of a safety measure. Not only do they keep the AI code contained, they also prevent any form of hacking from the outside. All game capsules are linked on an independent encrypted frequency and any and all information that does exit the game, passes through specialised security servers back at the company. So, for the lack of a better analogy, simply think of the entire thing as a massive VR D&D simulator, with the AI as game master.”

Finished with his speech he gave a short bow to the audience and walked off stage, leaving behind a veritable storm of voices.

Kade turned off the TV and stretched. Maybe it was time for round two.