It was another slow and boring night in the gas station, very few customers coming to the location so late at night. Andrew Dennis was the only person on staff at the moment, a fairly average and unimpressive man with pale skin who was currently sitting down on a stool watching a stream on his phone, brushing his dirty blonde hair away from his light blue eyes as he watched the interview between the CEO of Krowsford industries and a talk-show host. He found these kinds of things interesting, Andrew was always interested in gaming and had spent most of his wages on computer parts or various games in the past. He was internally cursing himself over this very fact as he watched the interview unfold, since that meant he had no savings to throw at the high subscription cost for Astrala Online.

“So, you’ve unveiled your new game to the world roughly two months ago Mr. Krow, but very little has been explained about how the system behind it actually works.” A middle-aged man in a cheap looking suit on his phone screen asked of the CEO, his legs crossed. “Would you be willing to get more into the technical side of how it will actually function, now that the NDA is about to be lifted?”

There was a brief pause before Marcus spoke up, a small nod. “The system is actually quite simple, compared to the systems we use in our cybernetic prosthetics. Those need to be connected to the users nervous system directly, this system however…” Another small pause while he seemed to think over his words. “The headset is designed to rest diodes against certain nerve clusters in your skull, all you have to do it put it on and go to sleep. Once the user enters the state we call REM sleep, the headset hijacks the users brain functions, and instead of dreams, their waking consciousness is transmitted into the game world.”

There was a stunned silence as the interviewer and the small audience took in his words, Andrew himself completely shocked by this, “Damn, you play this while you’re asleep? Well that makes things a lot easier.” He snorted to himself, wishing even more that he had saved up the money needed to actually play this game.

As if the talk-show host had read his mind, “So you’re saying that the players log in when they sleep, is that even safe? I mean if players are on the video game when they should be resting, wont that affect their day-to-day lives?” This just gets a laugh out of Krow, and he nods.

“Our investors were worried about the very same thing, which is why we’ve been running this closed beta test for so long, to ensure there were no negative effects on the users. As it turns out, it actually promotes a healthier sleep schedule, and users have reported feeling even more rested when they wake up. We aren’t sure why yet, but the game has even been proven to combat disorders like Insomnia, and the F.D.A. have already confirmed that the device is safe to use.”

Just as Andrew was reeling from this revelation, a notification silenced the interview and took up a portion of his screen, notifying him of an email coming through. Begrudgingly, he flicked away the stream and moved to his email app, he hated having a bunch of notifications, and wanted to check everything so he could dismiss them. What he saw made his eyes bulge out of his head: an email from Krowsford Industries! He flicked the email open numbly and sat in silent awe as he read through it.

Congratulations Mr. Dennis, you are one of the lucky few who have won the raffle for a free KF Headset and a free three month subscription to Astrala Online. You can expect your headset to arrive within the next two to three hours via drone. We wish you luck and happy questing in the wonderful world of Astrala! Should you have any questions, please refer to our FAQ link below. Instructions for the device can be found below as well.

Andrew took a moment to just sit there, unable to believe was he was seeing. “I-I won?…” He asked aloud, still in shock. He jumped from his stool and cheered, a giddy smile on his face, “I WO-”

“HELLO!?” A grouchy sounding voice cut him off from his revelry, a customer who had apparently been waiting at the window for some time now, staring at Andrew with murder in their eyes, “I need gas!” With a groan, Andrew moved to the window and served the customer, but even the grumpy old folks in this neighborhood couldn’t get him down, he had dragons to slay!

*****

Four hours later, Andrews shift was done and he walked to the mailbox beside his apartment building, opening it up and finding a package with the coat of arms of Krowsford industries on it. Andrew did not live in a very good neighborhood, and so he took the package and stuck it in the backpack he took with him everywhere. He wasn’t in the mood to get jumped over the expensive hardware. Package secure with the rest of his belongings, he quickly made his way over to his apartment and unlocked the door, stepping inside of the dark room as an unpleasant odor washed over him.

A deep frown screwed up his features when he flicked on the light-switch, as always his apartment was filthy. “I really need to get this cleaned up at some point…” A problem for future Andrew. He stepped around the various different fast food wrappers and haphazardly strewn clothes with memorized movements and set his new device down beside the bed, pulling out his pocket knife and very carefully cutting it open. When he pulled out the headset, he just blinked at it a few times. It looked like a prop from the movie CyberCop. A simple enough silver helmet like one would wear on a bike, but the front came down and rested against the users nose.

Wanting to get into the game, but knowing he should probably know how to use it first, he tore out the instruction manuals and some other weird looking device and set them all down, reading through the manuals at lightening speed. It turned out that the other device was some kind of scanner used to download what your body looked like so you could use it in the game. Apparently playing as a gender other than you were, or a different race wasn’t an option?

With a shrug, Andrew set up the scanner and stood there with his arms out, T-posing like an unrendered video game model. After a few moments it turned back off, and he connected it to the headset, and without any further delay laid down on his bed, not even changing out of his uniform before he slid the helmet on. “Here we go!”

Unfortunately for him, his excitement made it hard for him to fall asleep, and it was almost an hour later that he was finally able to get into the game world. Good start.