This was it, this was the accumulation of the last half-decade of Jason’s blood, sweat, and heartache. The deal had already been hashed out by the lawyers, but this was the actual signing of the actual contract that would actually give Jason and his two partners $100 million actual dollars each. When they started out their drive-thru pizza idea in their senior year of college they never expected it to get to this point. Jason put everything on the backburner, giving up relationships and job opportunities, to turn their single restaurant in his home town into a chain with hundreds of franchises up and down the east coast.

He was surprised when he got the offer, the amount of money didn’t surprise Jason; he already knew he was a millionaire without cash, they had taken out a lot of leverage to expand quickly and the three founders only gave themselves large enough salaries to survive. He was surprised by how tired he actually was, it was the first time he stopped and could see an end to all the years of work. His partners, Michael and Tracey, felt the same as him and unanimously agreed to the buyout.

Michael and Jason went all the way back to elementary school when a prepubescent Mikey protected the much smaller Jason on the playground. Mikey always had a way to get people to do what he wanted. Tracey was a girl Jason dated briefly in college, but they realized they were much better as friends and broke it off. She was a natural cook and was the brains behind their menu. After high school, Michael went to community college but flunked out. His parents had him on a trust fund so that was where Jason and Tracey went for their initial funding. And the rest is history. Michael managed the employees, Tracey managed the kitchen, and Jason managed the logistics.

For Michael and Tracey, the job got easier over time as they hired more managers and chefs. For Jason it only got worse, he was on the phone with suppliers and franchisers every waking moment since the beginning. He worked out every kink in the machine they created, from securing prices on mozzarella to opening lines of credit with banks. He’d been yelled at, cursed at, and threatened by everyone in the food industry. So when that thick packet, already carefully combed through by their lawyers, was placed in front of him Jason gladly picked up the pen and signed. It was time for him to start enjoying his life.

***

You ready for this man?” Michael asked.

Jason nodded as he pulled two glasses out of a cabinet. “Yeah, I could barely sleep last night.” I couple yards away in Jason’s living room technicians from the game company, Virgus, were running the final diagnostics on his stasis pod.

“I still wish you were going to Peru with me,” Michael said.

Jason filled the two glasses with ice. “The real world can wait a little bit. I want to disconnect from everything to start my retirement.” He opened his liquor cabinet and search for his bottle of bourbon.

“Whatever you say, man. Oh my god, Jason, you’ve got the money you can afford something a little better than that,” Michael said referring to the $20 bottle of whiskey. A relic from before being a multimillionaire, Jason thought.

“Shut up, don’t act like you can tell the difference,” Jadon responded as he filled each glass with a dram. He retrieved a bottle of vermouth from his fridge and added a half shot of the inky decoction. He finally topped off the beverages with a splash of maraschino juice, bitters, and cherries. “Drink up,” Jason handed Michael the drink. They clinked glasses and took a sip. Jason shivered.

“You’re okay to drink before going in there right?”

“Yeah, it's fine. It's not like surgery. The pod’s got some kind of life support system that hooks up to you to pump nutrients into you and flush out waste.”

Michael nodded his head sagely pondering the science behind the flowing of bodily fluids. Michael waved his hand at the machine that reminded him of the tanning bed his mom use to keep in their basement, “that thing crunches time in like half right.”

“For every one day out here, it’s three in there,” Jason corrected.

“Hmmm, guess you’ll be seeing me in three months then buddy,” Michael slapped Jason’s arm.

“We don’t even know how things work in there, we could be thrown thousands of miles apart and never find each other.”

“I’ll find you,” Michael said smugly. “Give me two days, I just have to ask around for the biggest workaholic any of those NPCs have ever seen and they’ll point me straight to you. I bet you’ll be on some warlords payroll as an accountant or CFO.”

“Alright,” Jason said shaking his head.

Michael’s voice fell to a soft hum, “how long do you plan on staying?”

“I don’t know. I bought the pod, so however long I want. What’s the difference, in there out here. We’ve got everything out here so I’d rather have fun getting it all back in there. Make things fun again. Part of me misses the early days, the three of us in our first shop.”

“Here’s to that,” Michael cheered and clinked his empty glass against Jason’s half-full glass. “Still I’m going to enjoy having it all for a bit. Peru, then a little Cabo, and maybe some Maldives, and then I’ll come and give you a visit. Good luck in there buddy I’ll see you in a bit.” They patted each other’s backs and Jason let Michael out the front door.

He returned to the living room and one of the technicians said the pod was ready to go. “Would you like to get synched now?” She asked.

Jason already set up everything with his secretary to take care of things for him while he was gone. He already called his parents that morning. He realized he didn’t have anyone else to call. No one else besides maybe Tracey that would miss him. Jason did know how to feel about that but decided he was going to start making friends in the game. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

The technician helped him into the pod and once he was in she closed the lid. The top was completely made of glass so he could see everything. The technician hit a few buttons on the pod and suddenly liquid started to fill the chamber until he was submerged. He was prewarned this would happen but his system still went into shock. He tried to breathe but the salty liquid filled his mouth and before he felt like he was drowning, Jason blacked out.