Anika was having a stressful day. She had arrived late for work because she wanted to spend time with her son that morning. She made eggs, fresh coffee and even bought a small cake with a candle in it as a birthday treat. Everything would have been perfect, but he refused to get out of bed for a long time, so it ended up being a rushed breakfast.

It was now late afternoon. All she could think about was getting out of the office in time to buy her son a present. He seemed upset that there was nothing to unwrap at breakfast time, so she promised to pick something up from the Virtual Reality Gear store and meet him for dinner in Soho at 6 pm.

Her boss had then dragged her into a client meeting to present slides on their latest updates. The meeting dragged on past 5 pm and she could feel her stomach clenching with the stress of making it out in time. She had also not eaten any lunch in an effort to get as much done as possible and leave earlier than usual, so her stomach was starting to complain.

"Looks like you are in a hurry." Her colleague struck up a conversation just as she was packing her laptop away and clearing her desk.

"I've been trying to leave for ages. It's Ted's birthday, he's eighteen today, and I have to get him something before we go to dinner. He'll be out with his mates in the evening so I can't be late." She checked her watch for the twentieth time that afternoon. There was still time, but she had to leave now.

"Can you tell Sarah I will get those meeting notes for her tomorrow please? I'm off now."

Without waiting for a reply she grabbed her bag and headed into central London to find the VR store. As she was rushing down a busy shopping street, she pulled up an email from Ted she had received a few weeks ago. It had a list of things he wanted for his birthday, along with specs and instructions for getting the right stuff.

ZenVR Visor (blue) - I this needs to be medium, but just buy what they have and I can take it back if it doesn't fit. £7-8k unless they are doing an offer ZenVR Haptic suit (black) -

She only got to the second item when a message popped up. It was from Ted.

Hi Mum. I can't make it tonight and don't worry about getting that VR gear I asked for. I won't be back for a while. Got sponsored by Pure Warheads e-Sports to play Everscape. It's a pretty big deal. I get my own Perma pod and I'll be making some money. Don't worry about me. Ted

Anika stopped walking and read the message a few times over. She was being nudged and bumped by the other shoppers in the street, a few of them telling her to keep moving. She couldn't. She was frozen stiff as the reality of the message began to sink in.

At first she felt annoyed with him. They were going to spend quality time together that evening, it was so rare that they sat down and talked together over a nice meal. She had made such an effort to leave early and now it was all for nothing. Then it dawned on her that he would be gone for a while. How long would that be?

After standing in the crowds for a good ten minutes she made her way to a cafe. Her plan was to call him and talk some sense into him. He still had his studies to think about and she certainly hadn't given him permission to play computer games for a living.

With a coffee and a sandwich in front of her, she took a deep breath and prepared to call him. It was his birthday, so she didn't want to be too harsh, but there was no way she was going to let him join that e-Sports team.

The phone went straight to voicemail. He must have turned it off, knowing that she would call to argue with him. She tried a few more times before giving up. She didn't even bother leaving a message. Everything felt hopeless. Maybe it was all her fault. Had she let him play that stupid game too much? She had given him everything he wanted and spent a small fortune on the latest VR equipment because she felt bad about never being home. She should have been a better mum.

After finishing her sandwich she decided to do some research on these Perma pods as well as the Pure Warheads Ted had mentioned.

The Pure Warheads website was full of tournament news and rankings. There were live video streams showing fantasy characters doing battle in Everscape Online. It was a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (VRMMORPG). Ted had talked about it constantly on the rare occasions they sat down for dinner. Now she wished that she had paid more attention.

Could people really make money playing this sort of computer game? That was ridiculous.

A search for Perma pods and Everscape Online brought up loads of blog articles and product information. They were expensive machines designed to allow for total immersion in the game. The newer ones cost over £200k and the running costs were ridiculous as well. Players would lie horizontally on a bed of some sort, with thousands of sensors and other things attached to them. It looked more like hospital technology than anything else, like the combination of an MRI scanner and a coffin. On top of that, the Perma pods had to be staffed by medical professionals who would monitor and manage the health of the players.

She noticed a few articles from the tabloid newspapers about players who had spent months in these things. It was shocking. There were reports of players becoming so addicted to the game that they didn't leave the pods for months. How was that even possible? Didn't they need to eat and go to the bathroom? She supposed that was what the medical staff were for, and this was the reason that the running costs were so high.

The most horrific story had a picture of a young man in a hospital bed on the feature. He was ghostly pale, very skinny and his eyes had sunk into his skull. He looked like a zombie. The article described how he had received a sponsorship to play for an e-sports team after playing with the normal haptic gear for a few years. They had given him access to a Perma pod when they were still in beta and he had never even thought of leaving the game until system health warnings had made the game impossible to play. He wished he had got out sooner because he was now looking at months of physical and mental rehabilitation.

This was awful. This could be Ted if she didn't do something about it.

Having read enough about the horrors of these Perma pods, Anika decided to take the next day off work and find out where her son was going to be. She planned on going straight to the Everscape headquarters in London and demand that her son leave the game and come home with her.