Stew you magnificent man! I wanted to shout but I couldn't. Not yet anyway. While in the helmet I could only talk through inner monologue. Or dialogue once I met other people within the digital world. But first I had to go through the endless options that came with reinventing oneself. Could you imagine having a forty-centimeter penis while in a flat state? Or having double G cup? Together at the same time? I could. I wish I couldn't. One look in the reflection of the digital mirror allowed my digital me to see if I fancied myself. Looking at the combo was enough to make me gag inside the digitize helmet in the real. No solids, just the reflex.

There was no immersion or anything. I could still hear myself breathe. I just couldn't move. Every bit of brain power now devoted towards moving digital me. Pain halved, pleasure untouched. All emotions still there as I was still aware of the 'outside'. So, the only immersion I gained was psychological. The forgetting of ones` surroundings, of time, a feeling like you are inside the game. It could happen. But only on a psychological level. Still enough to make you gag when you saw something nightmarish.

I toggled them back with one quick swipe, my manhood was fine as is. Eighteen centimeters of baby arm. Ok, so I might have toggled the man boobs back more than the crown jewels department. Belly toggled back, muscle tone toggled up. The perfect surfer dude body was winking back at me. It was unnerving. I toggled the belly up by a small margin, a beer belly and a vague sense of man boobs showing up yet again. Like when I was the sweet age of thirty. Perfect. I liked my imperfections too much to replace them with a cheap six-pack. I liked my curves. Just not the whale size I had become in the last two years.

I changed my hair back to its original black, streaks of grey on the sides of my head. It was short but had a little more hair on top combed to the side. The rest of my face I left as it was although I must admit that I might have fixed most of the lines. I could never grow a beard. By some mysterious and divine accident, I was now sporting a full black stubble. I looked fabulous.

Now it was time for the most important part. I turned around and looked at my butt. It had gotten thinner as I toggled the belly away. I had to grab both butt cheeks with my hands and pull a little but there it was. An unblemished asshole. Praise the lord. I didn't know if taking a shit in-game was a thing but if it was I was buying it. It tempted me to touch it, but I weirded myself out too much to continue with it. I released my butt cheeks and looked around. What now?

The room I had landed in after the first initiation was all white. The only two objects were the mirror and a closet. As I had finished with the mirror, I went to the closet.

I was never one for this whole minimal design but I guess it had its charms. Bit of a borrow. Handy. I placed my hand on top of the wooden doorknob. It looked like oak, it smelled like oak, but it wasn't ornamented enough for a full description. Kind of like any other popular furniture store design. I opened the closet door and a menu of clothing options went past my face. They had everything. For the basics, at least and all for free! If you wanted to have extra’s, then you had to buy them in the Digi stores. Weird. Who would spend money to buy some stupid piece of clothing? Not like you could get cold.

My eyes wandered through the options. I decided it was time to dress up. Of late I had to wear the same things over and over again. Due to not being able to fit into the rest. That problem was not relevant here though. I picked up a black suit, black shoes, a white buttoned shirt and a black tie. Looking sharp! Then I spotted the coat. It looked identical to the one I had worn for all those years now. It also cost fifty bucks. Mother fuckers. I bought it. My hypocrite meter going up further. But who needed values and principals if you were wearing a black suit and a blue raincoat?

I browsed a little longer and filled my second slot with a tracksuit. Couldn't build shit in a fancy black suit. Well, I could but I wasn't yet sure of the mechanics in that department and wanted to keep my options open. They provided underwear and socks so I closed the door of the uninteresting closet and looked around yet again. So, what now? I only had to wait two seconds when a door appeared in-between the mirror and the closet.

I took a step and halted, my hand hovering above the doorknob. No way back after this. Behind this door was everything I despised for decades. The object of my ridicule. Of my scorn. If I walked through this door the skeptics of the world would ban me from complaining about it forever. Who would even listen to my complaints nowadays? I pushed the door open.

What spread out in front of me was a Metropole the size I had never seen. I gasped out of pure reflex. It was huge. Huge didn't cover its grounds. It was gigantic. And I was standing high above it all, a glass tube like elevator in front of me, waiting to take me down. Why a digital world needed this, I had no clue. Maybe connection time, or buffering or something like those old youtube video's. But man, this place was insane. How could you find anything in here? What I needed was some kind of real-life Google. Teleport myself towards the location and be done with it. I took a step onto the glass platform that towered above the Metropole. I heard my footstep echo over its surface. Bloody realism. I looked down but in an instant was very sure I shouldn't have. I looked up again straight away and took another step, this one landing me into the glass like elevator. Cold sweat still on my back.

Another step and I turned around to see the buttons that should have been there. This looking like an elevator. There was something. But not like I had imagined it to be. What was blinking back at me was a small human-like being that looked at me expectant and unblinking. If I had to give it a name I would say fairy, without the wings, and in a blue genderless jumpsuit. As our silence persisted, I did nothing but staring at its bigger than usual eyes, and it stared back. Weird stuff.

I took a leap of faith here and showed I was no threat to the being "Greetings stranger, what am I supposed to do?" Not awkward at all! The thing looked back, then seemed to giggle. What the bloody fuck was going on?

It opened its little mouth and spoke in a female, very pleasant, voice "Welcome Old bastard. I am your personal AI, you can change my settings during your stay inside the digital world."

Damn you, Stew. First the important questions I thought before saying "All right. So how do I find the porn in this place?" the little female giggled again, I was unsure if it was the first thing up for change or something that was pleasant. It had been quite a while since someone laughed at my antiques, giggling about them might have been a few decades. Except for myself, but laughing at your own jokes didn't count.

The small female calling itself an AI, whatever the fuck that was, answered "That would be located in a red district. There are multiple places like these in the digital world. All of them are 18+ only. As your records show you are seventeen, I must apologize for this old bastard, I cannot take you there."

Stew… You have gone too far!