“Why me?” I ask, leaning against the hard back of the chair. There are twenty-four pods, maybe a few more I haven’t seen. How am I being punished but also lucky enough to be able to test out the next wave of gaming at the same time? There have to be people who would volunteer no questions asked for this type of experience.

“The simple answer,” says the beautiful brunette who still hasn’t told me her name, “is that we wanted a gamer in the mix. Someone to test the boundaries of our creation. We knew from the get-go that your case would be found guilty. Not that many gamers wind up in prison.”

“So, what, am I not actually being rehabilitated?” I mean I’m perfectly fine playing a game for a month with no consequences. What I really want to know, though, is why prisoners?

She leans forward and flashes me a dangerous smile.

“Oh, everything the judge said is true. You will most certainly experience what it feels like to be attacked, to be bullied, to be persecuted for simply being what you are. We have embedded a deep history in Isle of Mythos and Trolls are hated like no other. In time you will find out why. But that is not to say you won’t have any fun. There will be quests and crafting and all the adventure of a traditional RPG, but it will be more real than you have ever experienced. You will feel pain, but you will also smell, taste and experience everything as if you were actually there.”

“Pain?” I interrupt. How in the hell is it legal to put criminals in a simulation where they can be hurt? Isn’t that torture?

“Absolutely. That is one of the things that separates full immersion from traditional VR. If you get stabbed, you feel it. Luckily for you, Trolls have a thick hide and a higher tolerance for pain. Plus we set the pain settings at fifty percent to make things more bearable.”

“What if I don’t want to do it?” I challenge. Maybe being an outcast that everyone hates isn’t something I want to partake in.

“You go to prison,” she says matter-of-factly, as if that solves everything. “Now, unless you wish to go to prison, I suggest we get started.”

I don’t want to go to prison. She stares at me, waiting for a response. Her smile never falters and her vibrant white teeth mesmerize me. They are almost too white. Unnatural. What other choice do I have? I know people who would pay good money to be in this testing phase, pain included.

“What’s your name?”

“Valery Barrett. Anything else?”

I shake my head. All that’s left is to see what this is actually about.

“Now if you don’t mind, please follow me. The next several hours will be spent gathering your vitals and running tests to make sure your body can handle thirty days of immersion. You look like a healthy kid, so I don’t foresee any problems.” She leads me through a door at the other end of the room, down a hallway, and into a waiting room. It’s really no different than one I might see at a doctor’s office, minus the posters for erectile dysfunction and heart disease. The walls here are white and bare. Just like everything else in the lab.

Barrett. That’s the name of the owner of Mythos Games. I suddenly remember where I have seen her before. It was a ceremony after the last season of League of Mythos. She was sitting next to John Barrett at the head table. Is she his daughter? Niece?

Over the next several hours, Valery disappears and I have my vitals taken. They draw blood, take my temperature, stick me with an assortment of cold medical instruments in places I wouldn’t let my mother touch me. I run on a treadmill, sit quietly, look at ink splotches on a piece of paper. It all makes me feel more like a lab rat than a prisoner.

Part of me wonders if I would still be approved even if they found something that disqualified me? It’s like she said, though, professional gamers aren’t just lining up to go to prison. Maybe if they knew this was the punishment.

It definitely makes me wonder why only convicted criminals are in this stage of the testing. Maybe because they know we won’t be able to talk about it?

After my visit with the doctor, Valery shows up and takes me back to the lab.

“Are you excited to see what you’re going to be getting into?” she asks.

There’s a new pod added to the end of one line, except it’is black and the others are all white. It’s sleek and beautiful, looking more like a space rocket than a gaming machine. The glass surface reflects a distorted reflection of my face back at me. My greasy black hair and obnoxiously large nose seem comical. In my peripheral, Valery’s curves are only more emphasized in the glass. I still can’t comprehend why she is here. Maybe she has qualifications, but at that age, it seems unlikely. She presses a button on the side. An airvent unlocks and the lid to the pod slowly opens.

Inside, a translucent blue liquid fills the pod.

“What’s in the liquid?” I ask. There’s an almost radioactive glow to the substance.

“That is what makes all of this possible. There are millions of tiny nanites that report feedback from every inch of your body. This will be the most realistic gaming you will ever experience. Go ahead, touch it.” She motions to the liquid.

I’m hesitant, but I do it anyways. Reaching my hand into the pod, I expect the liquid to part around my fingers like water, but when I submerge my fingers, it’s like it molds to my skin, changing density. Then suddenly, it’s like I’m touching nothing at all. The temperature of the liquid has mirrored my own perfectly. I pull my hand and the nanites release from my body as soon as I pass water level.

“Pretty amazing, huh?” She gives me those seductive eyes. Dark brown and full of mystery. “The nanites are like a second layer of skin. They form to your body, mimicking the resistance you feel in the game, the can contract and expand in a fraction of a second. They will allow you to taste, to smell, to feel. Essentially, they will replicate the gameworld around your body. The difference between the game and reality will be indistinguishable.

“And what if I have to go to the bathroom?” It’s a silly question, but I don’t want to be swimming in my own filth for a month.

“There is a state of the art filtration system. As soon as the nanites detect a change in their habitat, they attack the invader and flush it out of the system. Sweat, dead skin cells,” she pauses, “other forms of waste. It’s all filtered out immediately. The environment in the nanite gel is a thousand times cleaner than most hospitals.

“So, what now?” I ask. She closes the lid to the pod and it locks into place.

“Now, we get you in the game.” One of the technicians brings her a package and she hands it to me. “I’ll need you to change into this,” she says, handing me the package.

I open the package and find a pair of silky white underwear inside. They remind me of the tighty-whities I wore as a child. I guess she senses my consternation at stripping down into my underwear, because she comments on them.

“Apparently, no one likes getting naked when they’re part of an experiment, so we had these made. They are constructed from a special material that doesn’t interfere with the nanites. There’s a bathroom over there where you can change. Leave your clothes on the sink and we will have them put away and waiting for you when your immersion is over.”

In the bathroom, I take off my gray suit jacket and lay it delicately on the counter. So much has happened today that I’ve hardly had a chance to process it. As I take off each article of clothing, it almost feels as if I am shedding my old skin. The skin of a gamer who lost his cool one too many times. For a moment, I just stare at myself in the mirror. In real life, I’m a skinny nobody, but online I’ve always been a giant among men. With quicker reflexes and a better understanding of game mechanics than most, I never had a problem excelling at whatever games I played. I take a deep breath. This will be no different. Prisoners or not, this is my element. I’ve always enjoyed playing the characters no one else touches. The ones labeled weak and ineffective and using them to wipe the floor with my opponents. It doesn’t matter what they throw at me, I’ll be just fine.

I put on the tighty-whities. My new skin. I have no idea what my new skin will become in the aftermath of my sentencing. It’s much too soon to tell, but I have a feeling the next thirty days will be the basis.

If I want to continue to play games at a professional level, then I have to be able to control my emotions, even when under stress. If what they say is true about Isle of Mythos, then this’ll be a very real test.

I leave my clothes on the marble counter and meet Valery back out in the lab. The chill of the room nips at me and goosebumps prickle along my body.

Truth be told, I’m nervous. Who wouldn’t be at least a little nervous knowing they are about to be trapped inside a game for thirty days with felons convicted of violent crimes? Yes, this whole purpose of the game is to let them play the hero in the hopes of rehabilitating them, but when I’m their sworn enemy…I don’t know what to expect.

“Ready?” asks Valery, her voice as seductive as ever.

It’s time to quit stalling and either nut up or shut up.

“Let’s do it.”

As the technicians prep the pod, I get into my normal pregame routine. I tune out the outside world and drift inside my head. I can see them working, but I’m not watching them, not really. Heavy metal blares inside my head. A montage of some of my greatest battles plays out before me. I sling fireballs as a wizard at an oncoming goblin mage. Our spells collide in a maelstrom of ethereal energy. As a stealthy rogue, I teleport behind an Elvin archer and slit her throat. One of my personal favorites was when I played as a damage based support and cast an ultimate healing spell on a vampire, exploding him into red mist.

A peacefulness washes over me as the chaos replays in my mind.

“Mr. Johnson,” says Valery. “Please step into the pod.”

Some of my confidence has returned and I wink at her as I slide into the nanite gel.

“Please, call me Chad.”

She laughs. I don’t know if it’s because of my sudden boldness or the absurdity of it, but it doesn’t phase me. The technician fits me with an oxygen mask and then submerges me into the blue liquid. It’s only cold for a split second before the nanites mimic my body temperature. The door to the pod closes with a hiss. I can see Valery leaning over the pod, her beautiful features clouded by a blue haze.

She waves at me and then suddenly everything goes black.

I don’t know how long I sit in the blackness, seconds or minutes, I’m not sure. My heart beats in my eardrums and the rattle of my own breathing are all that I know.

Gradually, the blackness fades. A tiny dot appears far away in my vision and begins to grow. It grows and grows until I realize it’s a planet. A planet with blue oceans and green continents. Not that different from Earth except that all the continents are wrong and misshapen. I zoom through the atmosphere and the green continents develop different hues. I see sandy deserts, snowcapped mountains, lush dense forests. My vision focuses on a particular continent floating all alone.

It’s longer than it is wide. A rocky mountain range separates the continent in two. The camera halts and the words ‘Isle of Mythos’ appear atop the continent in letters carved from stone.