Adrian did not sleep much that night. How could anyone blame him? After all, it is not every day that someone who lived on the executioner's block for years learns that the ax isn't coming. Thinking about it, Adrian couldn't even sit still for a second. His life was going to change forever. So he spent that night browsing the internet or looking through his photo album. He even took the time to feast on what food reserves he had left. After all, leaving it seemed a waste.

Though dawn couldn't come soon enough for Adrian, the wait was something bound to happen. Adrian managed to endure though, and at six the next morning, he was already sitting in his hovering wheelchair right next to the entrance to his apartment. It felt like the silence stretched on forever, but eventually, he heard a loud beeping noise. The time had finally come...

The travel by hovercar didn't take long. The man who came to pick up Adrian was an android. You couldn't tell the difference in most cases, but if you paid attention, you would notice the stiffness androids added to an android's face. They might be able to act like humans, have expressions like a human, but that was about it. The drive was a silent one as such, chatting with an android? Adrian might be far gone, but he wasn't quite there yet.

By the time the car came to a stop, Adrian could feel butterflies fluttering in the pit of his malnourished stomach. Though he had feasted the night before, filling up that ditch would have taken more than a hard night's work. Especially considering his unusual eating habits.

As Adrian's wheelchair floated down the ramp from the car, he blinked carefully, adjusting to the bright light. It would probably be prudent of him to have worn sunglasses, considering he never went out. Yet there would not be many who could gaze up at the majestic mirror-like structure ahead of him without squinting. Adrian had seen similar structures before, but things changed quickly in this modern age. He had never seen anything quite like this before.

The building ahead of him was what some might consider a masterpiece, tall and imposing, with polished surfaces reflecting the bright morning rays of the sun like a sculpture made of ice. Adrian would be impressed if he actually could gaze at it without seeing stars dancing across his eyes. At the lower part of the building was a sign, with flowing lines of letters glowing in the bright light of specter lightning saying; Intra Hospes Eram, et Novi Orbis Terrarum Invenire. Enter stranger, and find a new world. Or so his iris scanner told him.

Beneath the massive facade of the structure, was a grand staircase. Wide enough to encompass at least a thousand people walking at the same time. Right now though, barely a few hundred were walking up and down on it. People leaving from a night's work, or people just starting their day.

Some among the crowd took quick passing looks at Adrian as his wheelchair hovered past, but almost completely ignored his presence. As if he was air. Not that it surprised Adrian too much, at least they didn't gloat at him. It was not until he came to the entrance that people started looking at him oddly. What on earth could a cripple be doing in a place like this?

The magnificent entrance of the building was nothing more than a plasma bubble, keeping the temperature in, while simultaneously letting fresh air in. As Adrian floated through the bubble he felt a cold refreshing feeling wash over him in an instant, then the feeling was gone. Ahead of him was a majestic hall, built in the style of ancient nations. Architecture from all ages was present here. Greek, Roman, and new architecture from the 80s before the second millennium.

Some might call it tasteless, but it oddly enough fit into the atmosphere of the modern age. After all, people did anything they wanted these days. Seeing people wearing horns or face masks was nothing unusual, heck, people even changed their skin color to shades of violet if it suited them.

Adrian's hoverchair came to a halt as he approached the magnificent reception area, where several workers bustled about. It wasn't hard to tell that most of the workers were androids of the greatest quality, their every movement was filled with grace, and completed numerous tasks in seconds. Behind the reception area was another plaque like the one outside, it read GAIAinc. Beneath it was several massive screens, featuring in-game footage from various games the company had produced over the years.

There was everything from MMORPGs, FPS games, and even VRMMO games. Sci-fi to high fantasy, it appeared you could find anything you wished for up there. The scenes from the games were featured in either first-person view or from a movie third-person perspective. Everything looked so real, that you might as well be looking outside a window. They also featured scenes turned into movies, with slow-motion enacting at every great sequence. Showing sparks flying as blades meet, the shock waves from canons detonating in galactic space warfare.

It was all Adrian could do to not fall of his seat in excitement. If he could move that was... Eventually, he regained his wits and controlled his chair to approach the reception area. He didn't notice at first, but the android waiting for him, was in the guise of an angel from a religion of old, with magnificent white feathered wings spread out behind her. She was a real beauty, unearthly even. With long blond curls falling to her waist. Her face was like that of the most beautiful flower in existence, perhaps surpassing that. Her bodily curves were easily flaunted by the thin piece of satin she was wearing. If he could gulp, Adrian would have done so already. His gaze was quickly drawn to the hidden mounds protruding beneath that magnificent dress. He could only fantasize about what the rest of her, hidden behind the desk looked like.

He quickly averted his eyes, nervous as he was when he saw her gaze fall upon him. Her eyes were like two bright torches shining with the color of amber. This brought him back to earth, however, as he recalled she was an android. He quickly sent a mental command to the console on his chair, and a voice similar to what his own would have been came out.

"Good morning, my name is Adrian, I have an appointment here with miss Miranda? She knows I am coming."

The android gave a quick nod and turned sideways towards a keyboard, even further enunciating her figure. It was all Adrian could do to keep his thoughts from going out through his console. My, my, he thought, Androids these days sure are something. I should have browsed more on the internet, to think they have made such progress in just ten years...

While Adrian was occupied by such thoughts, the android turned back to face him. She didn't speak, but gave another curt nod, and pointed a graceful hand towards an elegant elevator made of glass to the left of the reception area. Adrian did not think her attitude odd. Androids had personalities, after all, if a bit stiff. One like her, she would probably have a personality similar to an angel. Arrogant and above everything else in existence. Well, at least he thought that might be the case.

Adrian and the android escorting him made their way over to the elevator, and it opened on its own. As Adrian stepped into the elevator, the angel behind the desk pressed a button, and the elevator began moving. But it didn't ascend, as Adrian thought it would, no, it began descending. Eventually, all Adrian could see was darkness, only the faint blue light from something in the ceiling gave him some vision at all.

The trip felt like a journey into hell. Or at least Adrian supposed it could be thought of like that. It certainly went on for a long time, and when he was down there, he probably didn't have much of a chance of ever coming back. Not that it mattered really, he was heading for a new world after all.

Finally, after, what felt like an hour, the elevator stopped. As the doors opened, bright light met Adrian's eyes. They were in a chamber of massive proportions, walls of the hard cold alloy were everywhere around them, bright lights reflecting on their surfaces. A woman was standing a few paces away from the elevator. She was dressed in a white suit, her face rather strict, but warm at the same time. Her short black hair was tied up in a ponytail. She oozed of the sentence; "I worked hard all my life to get here, do not waste my time.” Or so Adrian thought.

This was Miranda whom he had corresponded with the night before. She was rather pretty and looked young, but Adrian wouldn't trust anyone to be what they seemed in this day and age. Age was just a number now, some people could be kept alive for what seemed eternity now. Just look at the current president of the union, he had been around since its founding, a hundred years ago, and he still looked like a middle-aged man.

"You must be Mr. Adrian? A pleasure to meet you, young man, I am Miranda. We have been so excited to finally meet you. The company has been watching you for a long time now. It's not every day we find the perfect candidate for our new games. Especially considering that the game in question this time is our greatest creation to date, Grand Age Online. You must be quite impatient by now, so let's get straight to business shall we?" She said all of this in one breath, before turning around in a flowing motion and walking further into the great complex.

Adrian sat there, slightly numb from this impressive display of breath, but quickly caught up with her swift strides. She had one thing down for sure, he was damned if he could wait for another instant to get started. As they advanced further into the great work of steel, she kept talking like a bubbling fountain without end.

She went over everything from his legal rights to what he would be leaving behind. Adrian didn't even get the chance to ask any questions, she answered them all for him. As it turned out, the newly developed technology at GAIAinc was one where they turned the human consciousness, something intangible and abstract, into something solid.

As she explained it, it was like coding an android. Taking code and turning it into a living being, capable of consciousness. It was like creating life. In one way, it was the ultimate peak of creation, turning something like a rock into a talking rock with thoughts and feelings. Just this time, it was the other way around. They wanted to take a human consciousness and turn it into an AI code. Exactly how this was done, she did not explain, but the gist of it was that he would become a string of code. Except he did not suffer under the suppressive codes AI did. He was free of anything like it, and would only be bound to the codes of the world he was entering. He would also, quite literally, be immortal. As his data would exist forever, saved on a backup drive, at the moment time he entered the digital world.

This meant that in theory, if he grew tired of living in one world, he could just reset himself back to the time of entrance. Keeping the memories he wanted from the first world, and start fresh in a new game world if he wanted to. Of course, this was a tedious and costly process, but Miranda assured him that since he would, in a sense, become an employee at the company forever, they would cover his every expense for the rest of his life.

Adrian sucked all of this in like a sponge. Thinking that this new life wouldn't be so bad after all. Eventually, after traversing endless corridors without end. They came to an office, with a bright plaque on the door. It read; Miranda — Assistant Director. Miranda swiped her hand before the door, and with a beep, it opened into a spacious office. With walls of holographic screens featuring a bright landscape of an ocean, and the floor being a beach of sand beneath them.

Miranda collected something from her desk and brought it over to Adrian. "This is the contract between us, its content exactly word for word, of what I told you on the way here. I take it you will be satisfied with the terms. This is a retinal seal, just look at it for a while, and blink thrice if you agree to the terms of the agreement."

Adrian looked thoughtfully at the ceiling for a few seconds, then determination filled his eyes as he turned his gaze onto the retinal scanner screen. He then blinked three times in rapid succession and drew a sharp breath as the screen turned green in affirmation of his choice.

"Superb! Then I suppose we should head to the lab at once. Before you know, you will have set foot in a brand-new world, my young friend." She smiled at him as she said that, she looked happy for him. Adrian didn't care if it was real or not, all that mattered was that he was getting a new start.

They kept going for quite a while, up and down staircases, through doors and corridors. Along the way, Adrian occasionally saw some scientists walk past, security or just ordinarily dressed people in suits. They gall ave a nod in greeting towards the director as they went past, sometimes even giving a quick smile at Adrian as if they knew who he was. Adrian supposed they did, after all, he was the test subject they were all waiting for.

Finally, they entered a great laboratory, with so much fancy and flashy tech that Adrian didn't exactly know where to look. There he was led to a bed like the one he used to spend his days in at home. Only this time it looked much more inviting. The finest cushions were waiting for him in there. All around the bed ran plenty of wires and tubes, clearly meant for the experiment at hand.

After a quick greeting and talk with the chief scientist there, Adrian was helped into the bed. Soon there was a myriad of doctors and tech staff running all around him, hooking him up to one tube and wire after another. It must have taken near an hour before they finished. With the last contraption being a metal band of sorts glued to his bald head. Finally, they all came over to look at him.

One after the other, they began wishing him well and good luck in the new world. Some even claimed to be envious of him. Eventually, the only one left was Miranda.

"So, this is goodbye for now young Adrian. Are you ready? This will be a completely new experience for all of us, but most of all you. You will soon leave this world behind forever, but you will have a grand world waiting for you where you are going. No longer constrained by the old prison your body has been for you in this life. We will contact you sooner or later if all goes to plan. But fear not, we are going to give you all the freedom you would ever want in the new world, but remember, this world will be as realistic as possible in some ways. Everything that you have thought of as a game in this life, will now be a reality for you. Pain, joy, agony, excitement even sex and death will seem real now. So prepare yourself as best you can. Good luck, and goodbye Adrian, I can only wish you all the best." And with that, she smiled at him, before turning around and walking away.

Adrian was all alone now. It was just him and the ceiling. He would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. After all, this would be real death, but on the other hand, he had been prepared to die for years now. At least now he had something to look forward to. He could hear the sound of voices and machines powering up. Then he sensed the wires and tubes fastened to him tighten. All were active now.

He started feeling drowsy.

"Final depth immersion sequence completed. Commencing transmission in 10 seconds."

Ah... So this it, huh? No more earth, no more endless imprisonment in this shell of a body...

"Nine"

I wonder if there are angles where I am going, and some hot fantasy babes too... I don't want to be a virgin in the next life.

"Eight"

What if my parents could see me now? Would they envy me? I wish I at least knew who they were...

"Seven"

I hope there aren't any real people where I am going. At least for a while... I think I want some time just to be left in peace...

"Six"

There better not be any other players at least! I don't think I can handle another backstabber...

"Five"

At least not one like the last one... Damn that bitch! No, I hope she shows up in the game someday. I'm going to PK her till she gives up and never plays again!

"Four"

Oh, I bet there is going to be a class system in this game too! Or at least I hope there is...

"Three"

Damn! They never told me anything about what to expect! Why didn't I ask before!? Holy crap, this could be a sci-fi game for all I know! Shit! I don't even play sci-fi games!

"Two"

FUCK! Hey, STOP! I WANT TO ASK WHAT TYPE OF GAME THIS IS!?? WHAT IF IT'S SOME SORT OF BL WORLD!?

"One"

OH SHIIIT! SCREW IT ALL! NEW WORLD HERE I COME!!

....

"... Transmission completed. Welcome to Grand Age Online."