BYRON SAT at his computer, staring at the address bar in Chrome with his mouse in one hand, and the old man's card in the other. "This is crazy."

He knew better than to go to some strange website just because a card told him to. It could be a trick. At the same time, he didn't think the old man would do that to him. Maybe he was being too trusting but he didn't think someone would be saved from getting run over by a train and think, "Hey, I'd better give this guy a virus."

Byron typed in the address and hit "enter."

He expected to get a message saying that his computer had been hacked and to pay a million dollars in iTunes gift cards. Instead, a website did come up, but it was almost empty. The only thing on the page was a form and the words, "For Quick Delivery, Enter Your Address."

"Quick delivery?" Byron whispered to himself.

What did it mean by delivery? Was this website going to send him something?

He knew that entering his home address on some random website just because an old man told him to was stupid. This could be some sort of hacker website. Or maybe it would tell a gang of thugs to break into his apartment and steal all his stuff.

Byron glanced around the cramped apartment. The laptop he had propped up on a couple of milk crates was the most expensive thing he owned. No big loss. Besides, he was genuinely curious.

He typed in his address and hit "enter."

He expected the screen to light up with a face laughing or another website to come up with lots of cool free games or that he'd won a brand-new car or something. Instead, a new page loaded that just read, "Thank you."

"That's it?" Byron leaned back in his chair. "What a rip-off."

He sighed and got up from his desk to go to his gaming setup. Since he lived in a studio apartment, that just meant walking a few feet to where he had a TV, an XBox, and a Playstation 4 propped up on stacks of crates. He switched on his PS4 and began playing his favorite MMO, Battlefield: Deep Space.

He usually played fantasy RPGs, but had really gotten into Deep Space. Set in a fictional galaxy, he had spent hours aboard his own personal spaceship, defending the Planetary Alliance against the evil Ivadera Empire. His current goal was to level up his Warrior enough to be able to get a level-14 heavy bomber.

Byron forgot all about the mysterious website as he fought computer-generated aliens for hours until the doorbell on his apartment rang, along with a knock on his front door.

In the type of neighborhood he lived in, Byron's first instinct was to get up and reach for the baseball bat he kept by the door. "Who is it?"

A man's voice called out on the other side. "Delivery for Byron Jones."

Byron looked at the clock. It read eleven o'clock at night. No way this was a real delivery. He picked up the baseball bat and rested it on his shoulder while peering through the peephole.

Two men stood in the hallway outside his apartment. They both wore white uniforms with ball caps that read, "Venus Online Delivery." A tall wooden box stood between them, surprising Byron. If this wasn't a real delivery, these guys sure went to a lot of trouble to look the part.

Byron unlocked the three locks on the door and opened it an inch. "Yeah?"

One of the men raised his eyebrows. "Byron Jones?"

Byron nodded. "Yeah, that's me."

The man held up a clipboard. "We got a delivery for you."

"I didn't order anything."

The man frowned at his clipboard. "It says you placed the order two hours ago. Did you go to the address for Venus Online?"

Byron looked at his computer. It still read, "Thank you."

"No way." Byron looked back at the men. "I just put in my address."

The delivery man smiled. "We promise quick delivery."

Byron opened the door. "I gotta see this."

As the two delivery men pushed the crate and it rolled on wheels into the apartment, they left the scent of sawdust and cigarette smoke. It looked even bigger than he thought, longer than it was tall. It barely fit in his living room between the futon he slept in and the wooden planks he kept his TV and game system on.

The first deliveryman pointed. "Is right here okay?"

Byron held up his hands. "Okay, what is this? What's going on? Who are you guys and what's in that crate?"

The two delivery men exchanged a look while the first one asked, "They didn't tell you what this was about?"

"No, I never heard anything."

"Who gave you the card?"

Byron shrugged. "Some old guy I met in the subway."

The second delivery man broke into a smile. "Did he use a crutch?"

"Yeah."

The second delivery man laughed. "That must have been Otis, Smitty."

The first deliveryman (apparently named Smitty) held out a hand. "Hey, this is serious, Curtis. We're not supposed to deliver to non-approved personnel."

"What, you wanna go back and tell 'em? You wanna tell him you refused delivery? To Otis?"

Byron held up his baseball bat. "Look, I'm done with this. I wanna know what's going on or you can haul this crap back where it came from."

The second deliveryman (named Curtis) sighed. "Okay, okay. Jones is right, though. We're supposed to be delivering to people who've already gone through orientation. This thing is invite-only. But since Otis gave it to you, we'll give it to you, but only if you want it. Either way, you can't tell anybody about it."

Byron nodded. "Okay, fine. Sure."

Smitty pushed a button on the side of the crate.

The crate's walls fell open, hitting the ground with four thuds. The top folded away, leaving a white egg-shaped pod sitting in the middle of the living room. Its surface was so smooth that it reflected the shocked look on Byron's face until lights blinked on its surface. When the lights stopped flashing, the pod cracked open along its length.

The egg's shell split to fold down onto the floor, revealing what looked like a plush white armchair inside. Around where the headrest would go, a series of silvery wires curved over each other and inwards like a spider's web.

Smitty pointed. "This right here is a virtual reality simulator. You lay down in it, and it connects with a neural interface to project you into an online multiplayer game called Venus Online."

Byron stared at the chair for a moment before it clicked. When it did, he burst out laughing.

Smitty frowned. "What's funny?"

Byron reached up to brush his brown hair away from his face. "Man, I thought you guys were serious. What is this, a prank show on YouTube or something?" He looked at their hands and the chair for hidden cameras.

Curtis shook his head. "Hey, we're serious as a heart attack, man. The wires here read your brainwaves and the pod projects a field that connects to your optic nerves, your eardrums, your skin, everything. It feels as real as we are standing here."

Byron folded his arms. "Sure. Like we have anything close to that kind of technology. That kind of thing would change the world, and you're just gonna drop it in my living room?"

Smitty grinned. "That's right."

"Okay, let's say I believe this is what you say it is. How much does it cost?"

"There's no charge right now. Venus Online is in a trial period. You'll be a beta tester. While you're using it, the home servers give us information to see how you're doing."

Byron studied the faces of the two men. "Are you guys serious?"

The delivery men both shrugged.

"Hey," Smitty said, "this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Otis broke every rule in the book by giving you that card. Even the press release for Venus Online isn't scheduled for another five years. No one's supposed to know it exists outside the company. Even then, there's a one-year waiting period to be a beta tester if you were to go through normal channels. If you don't want it, we'll pack up and leave and you can read about it on the news."

He reached for a button on the armchair.

Byron reached out to stop him. "Hey, hey, I never said I didn't want it."

He studied the armchair. He would have thought something this advanced would be bulkier and more complicated, but it looked almost boring. Part of him told himself to be skeptical, but the other side wanted it to be real. He loved video games. Who wouldn't want to actually be in one?

"Okay," he said, "so how does this thing work?"

Curtis grinned. "You just lie down."

Byron looked down at his grubby T-shirt and shorts. In all the stories about virtual reality, the user had to put on a suit or gloves or cover himself in gel or something like that. It had something to do with force feedback. "Do I gotta strip naked or something?"

Smitty made a face. "Hell, no. Like I said, just lie down."

Byron carefully climbed onto the armchair. It smelled of fresh plastic like a new car, and felt incredibly soft like some sort of memory foam that he sank deeper into. As he lay his head inside the web of wiring over the headrest, he watched Smitty and Curtis. He half-expected them to start laughing and pull out cameras or pull out guns and reveal this was all a trick to steal his wallet.

Instead, the two men pulled out some sort of equipment. Smitty had a tablet and began typing on the screen. Curtis pulled out what looked like a barcode reader at the supermarket and swept Byron's body with red light.

Smitty called out, "I'm booting up."

Curtis murmured, "Five feet tall, two-hundred and ninety-three pounds."

"Two-ninety," Byron called out.

"Scanner don't lie, buddy. No heart conditions, glucose levels low, stable brain activity. Good candidate."

Curtis nodded. "Otis knows how to pick 'em. Okay, system's online."

He looked down at Byron and winked. "Go get 'em, buddy."

He tapped a button.

The living room seemed to explode into a shower of light. Instead of a loud boom, everything fell completely silent. Byron almost jumped off the armchair but he couldn't move. He wanted to scream as he felt a sinking feeling like falling off a cliff but could only watch as the light swirled around him.

The light snapped back together with a pop. He felt like he'd landed on something like an elevator stopping short.

It plunged him into darkness.

A few seconds passed until a glowing box popped up over his head with text running through it.

WELCOME TO VENUS ONLINE

After a moment, more text appeared underneath it.

CHOOSE YOUR CLASS

MARINE | TECHMAGE | ROGUE

Byron looked around. Everything else still looked black. "Is this the game?"

Silence greeted him.

He muttered. "Not very interesting so far."

He looked back at the menu. "So can I get a description of the classes? Because I usually play the big guy. I guess that would be the marine."

He reached out to tap it.

CLASS SELECTED:

MARINE - LEVEL 1

STR: 10

DEX: 5

NRG: 1

HEALTH: 100/100

NEW OBJECTIVE: ORIENTATION

The darkness began to fade, giving way to light until he could see again, but what he saw made him freeze for a moment. His living room vanished. Instead, he looked up at a sky full of stars. Yet he wasn't lying down. He sat in a chair, looking through a pane of glass at a dizzying field of twinkling lights, clustered together in galaxies. When he turned his head, he saw huge banks of controls surrounding the window. All sorts of switches and buttons and levels formed consoles around screens with different readings. It reminded him of a space shuttle or the cockpit of an airplane. Or a spaceship.

"I'm on a spaceship," he whispered.

He looked down at himself and almost jumped out of the chair.

He was used to seeing his round gut in front of him. It had been replaced by a flat chest and stomach under a gray jumpsuit. He reached down to run his fingers over the chest. It felt as hard as rock. Even his arms bulged with muscle.

"Holy shit," Byron whispered. "I'm in the game."

"That's a big, fat Roger, baby."

Byron whipped around in his chair.

Someone stood behind him, what looked like a robot from its silvery body and glowing blue eyes. Yet the robot had a very feminine shape with amazing detail. Its delicate feet arched up in the back to form high heels, and led up to long and curvy legs. It narrow waist tapered up to breasts that defied gravity and tipped with small nubs like nipples. Her head had long lengths of silver wire that flowed around like hair, and a face with full lips that reminded him of Scarlett Johansson.

In other words, she was the hottest robot he'd ever seen, and Byron had spent years Googling pictures of hot robots.

The robot raised its hands over its head as it spoke in a high but husky voice. "Welcome to your ship, baby. Or should I call you 'Captain'?"

The robot's eyes narrowed. "Or would you prefer I call you 'Master?'"