Rune glanced back and forth, trying to get his bearing in the middle of the dimly lit street. Well, calling it a street would be generous. It was more a metal corridor that gently sloped upwards before ending with yet another steel wall. The lights in the wall also seemed more like what you’d expect to find in some sort of scientific facility. Rune shrugged. He supposed it didn’t really matter. His setting seemed more in accordance with what he would’ve expected to find on a spaceship, but according to the map, it would have to be a massive spaceship to house the decent sized city displayed.

After another couple seconds of observation, Rune made a damning observation for the idea that he was on a spaceship: the ceiling was made of stone. No spaceship should reasonably have that feature. Maybe it was an underground facility of some kind? Rune shrugged and set the problem aside for later as he raised his wrist and asked Paine to pull up the map for him. Once he found other players he could get some real answers.

Setting off down the steel corridor, Rune followed the pathway shown by Paine that would lead him to the hotel. He figured that if any place was going to be similar to the cliche tavern in a medieval VRMMO it would be the hotel. At the very least, the receptionist there could likely point him in the correct direction. While he probably should’ve questioned the last one a little bit more, he’d been so eager to leave the diabolical facility he’d asked only the bare minimum of questions.

Now that Rune had a little time to think things over he was incredibly confused. What was happening? What was with all this pain? And hot damn, the realism was even better than he’d dreamed it could be.

When he’d entered the VC program, he’d expected something like Whirl of Warplanes. Highly realistic, yes, top-notch AI, yes, an open, interesting, explorable world, yes, but… not quite real. There were always tells. The occasional lag spike. The vaguely inhuman emotionless inflection that nearly every AI had. The crowding of players to a single, concentrated population center where they could socialize. And most importantly, a whole bunch of noobs spawning into the same area. With purported billions in the game, Rune would’ve expected himself to be only a single person in a very large crowd. Instead, he was the entire crowd.

As Rune thought more and more about the whole thing, the stranger and stranger it seemed. In fact, Rune was so wrapped up in his thoughts and following the map that he didn’t notice when the lights in the walls started changing from those of a scientific facility to some strange artsy parody of street lamps. He also didn’t notice the doors built into his doors or the occasional window set into the wall. What he did notice, however, was the person that walked by him, nearly bumping into him, only dodged by a nimble last-minute course adjustment by Rune.

The pungent stench of hard alcohol wafted into Rune’s nose, and he only just barely managed to choke back words of annoyance after deciding it wasn’t worth it. The man was dressed in baggy, faded green work suit, likely performing some sort of menial labor and headed home after a bar dive after a long day of work. Or who knew. Maybe in this futuristic society that was just the fashion. Best just not to mess with anyone till he’d figured out what was going on.

Broken out of his contemplative trance Rune realized that the drunk man signaled that Rune was probably headed in the correct direction. Where there was one person, there would be more, and if he kept heading in the same direction he would eventually reach the population center marked on his map.

A few more turns following the path highlighted on the map and Rune found himself entering a more populated section. More and more people passed him by in the hallways, and Rune sped up his pace slightly, eager to make it to his destination.

Then, as he started getting closer to the hotel, the roof started sloping up and away. Single story corridors morphed into the outlines of long, large double story houses, before finally as he was nearing the hotel the types of lights switched again to overhead mini-sun looking objects lodged in the ceiling a full three stories above.

Rune passed through a single back alley before he broke out into a simply jammed with people. Here, the roof stood a full three and a half stories above Rune’s head, with mini-sun like objects as the lights in the roof far above his head. Most buildings seemed to remain at two stories in height, but a couple here and there stretched higher.

Everything was like nothing Rune had ever seen before except maybe in the odd sci-fi flick he’d managed to catch as a kid. The buildings were mostly made out of gleaming silver metal, what Rune assumed was steel, with a whole variety of neon highlights giving them an unexpected vibrancy. The people were similarly garbed in all manner of outfits, ranging from skinsuits of all color similar to what Rune was wearing, to strange formal outfits like what he might have imagined would be the trend in a steampunk universe, to simple work suits Rune had seen a billion times back in the mega-slums.

He stood there for a couple seconds, taking in the crowd, the buildings—the life—as a grin slowly crept its way onto his face. This was what he’d been waiting for.

With a spring in his step, Rune pushed out into the crowd. Dodging around a cluster of people wearing oddly fashionable looking clothing similar to what the receptionist at the place he’d spawned in had been wearing, Rune only noticed at the last moment the massive man standing behind them. Rune managed to dodge the man’s arm as he walked by but then something smacked into him from behind, shoving him sideways and into one of the nice looking people.

A gruff voice, presumably that of the muscled man, rang through the air. “Hey, watch where you’re going, kid.”

After a quick apology to the man he’d bumped into, a frustrated Rune spun to confront the muscled man who’d told him off. Rune’s retort died in his throat as the man was walking off, though not because of his muscle or to avoid the confrontation, no, it was because the man had four arms. Rune jaw slackened and his eyes widened as he watched the man disappear into the crowd.

Had that been an alien? Burning with curiosity, Rune continued his way through the crowd, keeping his eyes peeled for any strange sights as he continued walking towards the location of the hotel. Aside from a couple cyborgs, robots, and another few four armed people, Rune didn’t spot anything that he’d consider to obviously be an alien.

Now that Rune had a little more to observe, he noticed that he was walking through some sort of market area where a whole variety of things were being sold. At one stand, long, freshly cooked skewers of some sort of meat stood straight up on the metal surface of the stand, wafting a delicious scent through the market. Rune swallowed down his saliva and continued on. The next shop was simply a glowing neon sign above a dark entrance to a store, reading “Ironclad”. Shrugging off his curiosity, Rune passed it by, promising to himself to return there later.

After another few minutes of walking past strange and exciting sights, Rune finally arrived at the place on the map where the hotel was supposed to be. Looking at the building, Rune found it very similar to many of the other shops and stores he’d seen so far. A flashing red and yellow neon sign boldly proclaimed the words, “Deep Ditch Dwelling” above a rounded door surrounded by flashing rainbow lights that reminded Rune of Christmas lights.

Rune walked up to the door with his hand outstretched, ready to open it, when it slid open of its own accord. Rune blinked in surprise as a wash of heat and noise poured out of the entryway before his eyes adjusted and he took in the sight in front of him.

The dimly lit, crowded entry room of the hotel far more resembled a canteen or maybe even a club as opposed to a hotel, with a number of people drinking at tables throughout the room. Lining one wall of the room was a bar where Rune could see a man taking a drink from the man behind the bar. Rune looked around, taking in the room and its occupants. Much like the people walking around outside, the occupants of the room appeared to be of all sizes and shapes, from all walks of life.

Despite the rundown vibe the place was trying to give off, however, Rune could tell definitively that it was anything but. The tables were all in good condition and were all matching, arranged to fit as many people as possible without seeming crowded. The room was full of grainy textures to make it look dirty and the light was being passed through some sort of filter to make it refract and look like the room was dusty.

After a couple seconds of nervously hovering in the entrance to the building, Rune finally decided that he might as well go in. Even if this wasn’t the hotel, they could probably point him in the right direction. Rune stepped into the building and the automatic doors slid shut behind him.

Walking through the room, Rune weaved around a couple tables then dodged by a couple walkers before he finally made it to the bar.

Rune stepped up to the bar before clearing his throat, his eyes fixated on the barkeep behind the bar who was currently tending to something on the back counter of the bar. The man turned to regard Rune, revealing a narrow face with horns coming out of the top of his head. The man flashed him a winsome smile, a squad of pointed teeth including his two canines barely visible in his mouth in the dim lighting of the bar. The man swept his hand along the counter, passing by several pitchers full of liquid.

“Care for a refreshment?” The man spoke loudly so as to be heard above the din of the room, an entreating look on his face.

Rune glanced back and forth before speaking. “I, uh, just spawned in.” One of the man’s eyebrows shot up in confusion at the word spawned, and Rune froze. Then the man’s eyes widened in comprehension, and a smile split his face again.

“Oh, you must be a newly arrived synth.” A friendly smile stretched across his face, and he gave Rune a quick, respectful head nod. “Then you’re probably not here looking for a drink. The hotel?” Rune nodded for the man before the man gave a confirmational nod and continued speaking, pointing his finger at a blue screen towards the back of the room. “Just go pass through there, the hotel is on the other side.

Glancing between the man and the and the blue screen, Rune paused a second before nodding at the man. “Thanks.”

The barkeep waved him on. “It was no trouble.” He turned and returned to whatever it was that he’d been doing at the back counter.

Rune walked off before the blue screen, weaving through tables and people before finally reaching it. Now that he was right next to it, he could tell that the screen wasn’t actually solid as he’d thought before, but slightly translucent. On the other side of the screen, there was a straight hallway that led to an open area with some strange looking furniture in it.

Rune reached out and tried to touch the screen, flinching back when he passed straight through it. A throaty laugh boomed out from behind Rune, and he spun, suddenly on his guard, coming face to face with a woman dressed in a similar suit to Rune, a wide smile stretched across her face. From what he could tell in the low light of the room, she was at least in some part Asian, reasonably pretty, with an angular face, wide eyes, and a small mouth.

“You’re a new arrival, right? A synth?” The woman spoke the words loudly to be heard above the noise in the room.

Rune frowned at the woman. “You’re the second person to have called me that. A synth. What the hell does that mean? I’m human, just like everyone else.”

The woman frowned back at him. “Aren’t they supposed to tell you people things like this? They used to.” She snorted and shook her head. “Of course not. The UIS can’t get a single goddamn thing right.” Rune frowned and crossed his arms. She still hadn’t answered his question. She caught his look and hurried to speak. “Maybe you were human once, kid, but not anymore. Your brain got taken out of your body for the VC project, but the whole interweb virtual reality system? That never got set up. Only roughly a sixth of the bunkers got rigged up with the VR gaming system before the company went under. They’d underestimated the price margin significantly, and the rest of the brains were put into cryo freezers and stored for future virtualization. That never came to pass.” The woman frowned, looking off at a wall with a distant look in her eyes before looking back to Rune. In the meanwhile, Rune was hanging onto her every word.

“The UFOH lasted about another forty years, and, well,” the woman shrugged, “after the UFOH collapsed nobody wanted to pick up the tab. The various splintered nations of the UFOH that had the brains kept them for research or sold them off to a whole variety of corporations.” The woman shrugged. “I guess your brain somehow ended up with the UIS. A couple decades back they started reintroducing subjects with particular genetic markers or physical attributes to society. I was actually just integrated a couple years back. Welcome to the crowd.” She smiled at him again and extended a hand for him to shake.

His mind racing, Rune reached out and took the hand, giving it a firm, if slightly clammy shake. Was this even possible? He had to voice his objections. “But I’ve got some sort of level screen, status screen thing, in my head. Like in a video game. I-I can distribute stat points and it’ll make me stronger. You know? That’s only possible in a video game.” Even as the words came out of his mouth, he realized that it sounded slightly insane. It wasn’t even like he could show her the status screen or his stat points, it was all just in his head. What if it was imaginary? What if he was simply going insane?

Luckily, the woman seemed to have no problem with this, letting out a quick laugh before giving him a patronizing smile. “It’s the future now, man. The year is 2606. And more importantly, you’re a synth, the latest marvel of bioengineering. It’s kind of like upgrading parts on a machine. You’re a third nanite, third robot, third organism. Upgrading your body with Shimmer is like switching out a robot’s arm for a better one. Super easy.”

Rune frowned. Something didn’t make sense. “So then, why did I only get fifteen points to start out with? Shouldn’t I just be able to keep upgrading or something?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “No, that wouldn’t make any sense. It’s like you’re building a spaceship from scratch. If you want to add more and better guns, you need to actually find the guns first to add them to your ship. It’s the same thing with nanoparticles. If you want more Shimmer, you gotta find it.”

Rune quirked an eyebrow, a cocky grin sliding onto his face. While he didn't quite understand her whole shpeal about how this wasn't a game, every gamer understood leveling up. “Where do I find it then?”

The woman gave him a sly smile. “I knew you’d ask that. New arrivals, always wondering how to ‘level up’.” Her face firmed, getting a little more serious. “Kid, one of the fastest lessons you’ll learn is to not do anything stupid trying to level up.” Rune frowned, and the woman smirked. “There’s three main ways to get more Shimmer. The first is to buy it from someone. The government, black market brokers, if you’re looking for it, you’ll find it. It’s hard to make but there’s huge demand and the years have spread it everywhere. A lot of people are looking to make a profit off it, which means a ton of sellers. The second way is to take it from ship systems. Several parts in spaceships need complex and constant microscopic adjustments to keep running and use modified Shimmer hooked up to a supercomputer to stay functioning. Run that Shimmer through a regulator, and bam,” the woman snapped her fingers, “A couple levels in the bag.” The woman then frowned, as if considering something. “The third way though… it’s the same as in a video game. You kill something with Shimmer, you get the Shimmer. You gotta run it through a regulator, but you get the exact same amount that they had. They had 100 levels? You get every single one.” The woman gave him a warning look. “But kid, you don’t wanna just run around killing things. That’s the fastest goddamn wa—”

While the woman had been talking to Rune, a grizzled, middle aged man had walked up behind her and thrown his arm over her shoulder. “Narissa, my gurl. Who’sis you taaawkin’ to huh?” The man reeked of alcohol, and he gave Rune a once over, his eyes lighting on his skinsuit for a couple seconds, before belching out a long burp. “Oh. I see’n then. You’sa new ‘rrival then.” He pointed at Rune, an intense look in his eyes. “You, you can’na listen to a single ‘oddamn thin’ she gon’ sayin’. She’s, she’s gonna tell you iss aaaaall real. No! Issa game. Game! Game. You remembr that.” The man waggled his finger, a stern look on his face. “Remembr.”

Narissa rolled her eyes. “Clarence,” she spoke, amusement evident in her voice, “Get off me.” Clarence pulled her arm off her, an offended look on his face as if she’d just dealt him the gravest insult he’d ever heard. She gave him a patronizing look. “You’re drunk. How about tomorrow you can talk to the kid more? Let me get him a room in the hotel, then maybe if he wants to talk we can do the whole philosophical debate thing with him after.”

Clarence frowned before mumbling, “Awright,” and stumbling off back into the room.

Narissa turned back to Rune with an apologetic expression on her face. “Sorry about that. C’mon, let's get you a room.” With those words, Narissa brushed by Rune to pass through the blue screen in the room beyond. After a half second of hesitation, Rune followed.

The hallway he stepped into led to a room that was much more in line with what he’d expect a hotel to appear as. Bright reddish-orange colored globes hovered in the air emitting a bright white light, giving the impression of fire except somehow clean. The furniture spread across the room was both ritzy and futuristic, neon highlighted with strange asymmetrical, curving white and gold designs. The place looked like nothing Rune had ever seen before.

At one far end of the room there was a desk and behind it a woman dressed in a similar style of clothing to the receptionist who had been the first person he’d met. She flashed the pair a winsome smile, looking pointedly at Narissa.

“Narissa! It’s been awhile since you last visited. I’ve missed you. Tell me, how is your team doing?” The words were warm and full of legitimate interest.

Narissa flashed a return smile before speaking. “We’re doing great! Clarence finally finished speccing in his force-barrier shield cores. Now that we finally have a bulwark that can block lance-rays, we’re able to run a lot more dangerous strikes.” All the terminology flew straight over Rune’s head. “How about you Maven, business good?”

Maven smiled back. “It always is. Travelers always refueling at the station while coming in and out of the system. You know the drill.” She shot a glance at Rune. “Is this one of your…?” She trailed off, obviously uncomfortable.

Narissa smiled reassuringly. “Oh, no, he’s just a new arrival. His name is…” She trailed off and glanced at Rune, obviously waiting for him to supply the answer.

He cleared his throat and did so. “It’s Rune. Rune Yahui.”

Narissa smiled and turned back to Maven. “Rune Yahui. Can you book him a room for a night?”

With those words, Maven’s charm returned, and she smiled warmly at Rune. “Of course I can.” She tapped at a screen in front of her a couple times. “Done. First night is on the house, courtesy of you being a new synth and all. If you want to stay longer, just come to talk to me and we can get your Galactic Credit Account attached to your room. For the lowest class of single, it’s just 150 GC a night.”

Worried, Rune thought to Paine. Hey, Paine, how many Galactic Credits do I have in my account right now?

Paine quickly responded. You currently have a total of 1327 GC with the inflation your money has undergone.

Rune did the math out in his head. Approximately eight days in the hotel. Not bad. Not altogether that bad. He should be able to figure something out by then. Probably. Rune nodded at Maven, a smile on his face. “I’ll consider it. Thanks for letting me know.”

Maven smiled back at Rune. “No problem.”

Narissa turned to Rune, a slightly anxious look on her face. “So hey, uh, I know you might be tired after having just been integrated, but I was wondering if you might be willing to talk to me and my gang, I could tell you a little bit about the world, you could listen to my proposal, you know, couldn’t hurt, right?”

Rune stared at her a half second, thinking. Now that she’d mentioned it, he realized that he did feel rather tired for some unexplained reason. But she’d been nice to him so far, and her friend, while drunk, had seemed more or less like a good dude. He should at least hear whatever it was she had to say, she might even be able to offer him a job. Considering he could barely afford to stay in the hotel, he could sure use one. Rune shrugged and nodded, acquiescing. “Alright, sure, are you guys just back in the bar?”

A happy smile spread across Narissa’s face. “Yeah! Follow me.” And with that, Narissa turned and walked back towards the bar, Rune right on her heels.