"What a nice throne," Aragorn said blandly. They had made there way inside and then a pair of guards had stepped up and asked who they were. Then they had let them into the throne room.

"It's very shiny," Dave agreed. The throne was a solid piece of gold inlaid with gems. In real life, it would have broken any nation to create it. It was the kind of thing he should have expected in a game. The king himself was a bit of a disappointment.

The king looked like he was in his seventies. A not particularly healthy seventy years. He wore luxurious red and purple silks and appeared almost crushed by a red and white fur mantle. Off to the side, a heavily armored man stood at attention. At his feet lay an odd-looking dog.

"They seem to have gone overboard on the glitter," Marieta said while looking around.

"Maybe he's the nouveau riche," Aragorn offered.

"More like the nouveau royal," Dave chimed in. The other nodded but were interrupted by the king's introduction.

"All hail the great king Minox, of our holy country of Meliferent!" The trumpets blared and the people in the court knelt.

The players looked at each other. "Do any of you feel this odd urge to kneel," finally asked Dave.

"The game system will prompt you if there is an action that your game character would be aware of, yet the player is not aware of. The player is welcome to ignore these prompts, however, it will negatively impact their NPC interaction unless they can supply an alternate roleplaying plotline," the gentle voice of the system chimed in their ear.

"Ah, right," Dave acknowledged and immediately went down on one knee. "All hail our mighty king, Minos!"

"Minox," hissed Marieta from beside him.

"All hail our mighty king, Minox!" Dave hurriedly corrected. The other two followed his greeting.

"Rise up my champions," the king's thready voice came to them. It was hard to hear over the low mutters of the crowd. "You are the first of a new generation of champions who have stepped forward to defend your home. Yet we have more to ask of you. Beside me is rebel General Salthuin. He will continue your briefing." At this, the king broke out into a wheezing cough.

Next to him stood a young man. The armor he wore was full plate mail with a high collar and shoulder plates. On his left arm he had a large tower shield. Oddly enough he held in his right hand a morning star, its spiked head swung casually over his shoulder. Rather than prepared to give them a consultation he looked more ready to go to war with them. Despite his stance and armor his expression was relaxed.

"Welcome to our final defense," he nodded in greeting. "You have already learned the basics of how to defend your land. You will learn more as you go through the portal and..."

"The portal to the Empire," Aragon asked in surprise. The dog stood up from its relaxed position at the man's feet and growled at him. In this stance, it was more obvious that the dog was a construct. It looked more like a cyborg dog with a metallic body textured to appear like a Doberman and clear dome on its head where a tiny brain could be seen through the translucent surface.

"Creepy dog," Dave said through the telepathic link. "But I think it's just like our pets but with offensive modules installed."

"Does the offensive module look like a brain," Aragorn asked rhetorically.

"I recognize that man," interrupted Marieta. "It’s the M&M president!"

"They put the president in the game?" Dave asked in surprise.

"Down Rex," said Salthuin mildly. The dog relaxed but only sat down on its hind legs. "Not the portal your thinking of. The Imperial army is not something you are ready to confront. Yet."

"You have to be arrogant as all get out to put yourself in the game as a main character," Aragorn said in admiration. "Even Stan Lee only had cameos."

"He looks familiar," Dave muttered to himself.

"He's the president of M&M," Marieta repeated. "It's not just a game company. They have movies and books. All best sellers and blockbusters. Disney has been trying to acquire them for ages but they're privately owned."

"There are more portals than merely the one we have to Imperial controlled territory," General Salthuin continued, oblivious to their chatter. "King Minos and I have successfully met and allied with the Rebellion. We were able to temporarily halt their spearhead with their forces."

"Do you think he really talked like that or did they make him sound cooler than he really is," Aragorn asked. "I mean I'm not too fond of my voice, if I had a choice I would definitely have it be a little deeper. System, I would like to suggest you allow us to modify non-combat characteristics."

"Feedback noted," chimed the system.

"Quiet guys," Dave hushed his team. "I'm trying to hear what he's saying. It's the only plot we've had since the game started." He coughed and then said aloud, "Excuse me General, but if you’re the Rebel General why can't you order more forces from the Rebellion."

"Ah, I see your confusion," the general said with a thin smile. "I am not a General from the Rebellion forces. I am a rebel General from the Empire."

The three looked at each other in confusion. "That’s a stupid plot twist," Aragorn said. "Now I don't even want to know the plot."

"No, I think it could work," Marieta said tentatively. "A noble general, seeing the horrible slaughter caused by the Empire has an awakening and turns on the forces of destruction."

"If he's a freaking general already then by the time he 'sees the light' he's probably killed entire planets," Aragorn paused in confusion. "Or dimensions. Or whatever the Empire's thing is."

"Guys, I'm trying to hear this," Dave complained. "I thought you wanted more plot?"

"I do," Marieta defended herself. "It’s a bit out there but the acting not too terrible. I think they can pull it off."

"The Rebellion is actually a confederation of kingdoms," General Salthuin stated. "All more advanced magically than we are, less technologically than the Empire."

"Then why are all our skills technology-based," Dave asked hesitantly.

"You call this psionic tech-based?" Aragorn complained. "I've seen better thought out talent trees from the new age store down the street."

"Aragorn," complained Dave.

"Okay, okay!"

"That is me," the General stated. "Consider it a last gift from the Empire as we parted ways. I was able to impart this to you."

"This makes no sense," Aragorn said. "Why are the Rebellion trainers teaching us psionics?"

"Why are the Rebellion trainers teaching us psionics?" Dave asked tentatively aloud.

"The people who have been training you are our kingdom's forces, not the Rebellion's. They only know the basics. It will be up to your generation to surpass them."

"That a clunky explanation," Aragorn muttered. The others glared at him.

"As I mentioned we are at an impasse," the general said grimly. "One that cannot be maintained indefinitely. The Rebellion forces cannot hold forever and they cannot reinforce us further... as things are."

"Why can't they?" Marieta asked.

"They are a confederation," he repeated. "Each kingdom has limited resources. The closest one is under attack by a neighboring kingdom. The fighting is also riling up some pests that are eating their people. So long as this stands they can't send us any more forces."

"So you want us to go through the other portal and support the kingdom," Dave elaborated.

"Quest hub!" Aragorn said triumphantly. "Another zone and a bunch of quests. This entire planet is the starting village. Let's go!"

"What about our guild hall?" Marieta asked. Aragorn's smile slowly turned into a grimace.

"Yes, the portal is in the mountains, not far from this city. Go there and free up the other kingdom's forces. Also, if you can learn their magic system you will advance all of our force's abilities."

"Cool, we can just go to the magician trainers and go to town," crowed Aragorn. "I will make this template the archmagi template no matter what the game system says!"

"Sounds like they have an alternate crafting system," Marieta said thoughtfully. "It seems silly to have two full crafting systems."

"WoW has over a half dozen," Dave said in spite of himself. "Two could be considered rather bare."

Shaking his head in annoyance he continued aloud, "Yes, we accept this quest. We will go out and aid our allies." At this proclamation the dog excitedly stood up and starting barking.

"Rex! Sit!" The general snapped. "Excellent! Here are your tokens for the gate. They will act as your keys, so don't lose them."

"Thank you," Dave said as they bowed and left. As they left the palace he turned towards his guildies. "Okay, I need to eat. You guys never had lunch are you sure you're not hungry?"

"I'll log too," Marieta reluctantly replied.

"Sure, may as well do it all together," was Aragorn's brusque response.

“Sir Nathaniel! Wait,” a feminine voice called out as the trio left the palace. Turning around Dave saw a familiar female NPC waving to him.

“Who is she?” Marieta asked. “Did you trigger another quest?”

“Some sneaky princess I rescued,” Dave silently answered through their link. At loud he said, “Princess, um... whatever you name was. Good to see you again. You have my mount?”

“I wanted to thank you,” she continued, ignoring Dave's question. “Please accept this reward for rescuing me.” Dave didn’t pay any attention to the small pouch.

“You have my mount?” he repeated. “The one you flew away with?”

“Wait,” Aragorn interjected. “Those wings actually work? Why the haven’t we been flying all over the place? Do you know how long you have to farm for a flying mount in other games?”

“Six months of stupid dailies,” Marieta said sourly through the link. “Each expansion. It's like your license to fly expired and you have to get it back with a late fee.”

“My brave knight,” the princess blinked her eyes and looked hopefully at Dave. “I have become terribly fond of that wondrous mount. Could you please allow me to keep it.”

“Tell her no!” Aragorn stridently shouted. “We’re going to magicville. Who knows where we’ll get more modules!”

“He has a mount,” Marieta said, giving the princess a dirty look. “See those insipid eyes and pouting mouth? She’s conning you. Don’t let your hormones tell you what to do.”

“Yeah, you can log out and look at porn later,” Aragorn urged. “This is serious!” Marieta switched her glare from the princess to her companion but said nothing.

“I am sorry princess,” Dave said half-heartedly. “We are about to embark on a dangerous quest for your father...”

“Oh, that's not my dad,” the Princess interjected. Dave and the others looked at her oddly. That was off the script. “That’s my grandfather. Still, I understand. I wouldn’t want to leave you defenseless.”

“I am glad you understand. So my pegasus...”

“You had a pegasus,” Marieta said with longing. “I used to have one of those. It cost me twenty-five dollars and didn’t work with the next expansion but it was so pretty. It must be awesome with total immersion!”

“How about I trade this,” the princess pulled out three tiny silvery blocks. Dave stretched out his Telemechanic senses to encompass the small tech modules.

“Oh my god,” Aragorn groaned. “It's the three magic beans storyline. I so want to kick the designers .”

“Oh darn,” Marieta said dejectedly. “So it's probably either really good or they’re going to flip the plot around and cheat you blind. I really wanted to see a real pegasus again.”

“Real?” Aragorn teased questioningly.

“This feels real,” Marieta insisted. “It's like being in a movie, except complete with touch.”

“Fine, I’ll take them,” Dave reluctantly said. Reaching over he took the pouch and the three modules.

“Thank you ever so much,” the royal girl said fluttering her eyes. Then she skipped away happily.

“Why do I feel like you just got ripped off,” Aragorn said as he looked after the retreating girl.

“Well,” Dave said as he looked into the bag. “The modules are psionic catalytic converters.”

The other two scrunched up their faces in concentration as they examined their Imperial tech tree database.

“Oh, that is nice,” nodded Marieta as she slowly got over the loss of a pegasus she never actually had. “If you put one in your armor piece it can increase your amplification value a lot. But you need a forge to upgrade it.”

“But if you put it in your pet,” Aragorn said with satisfaction. “You can focus psionic energy through them and have an attack pet.”

“Yeah, not quite the same as a generator module,” Dave said as he fed the module to the tiny dragon. “There you go, Toolkit.”

“Why not give it to your Gryphon,” Marieta asked.

“You have to be near or in contact to focus the energy through your pet. I’d have to constantly ride him to fire him. Not the template I want to play,” Dave said as he tossed the other two modules to his companions.

“Oh, I don’t have anything to trade you with,” Marieta said reluctantly, moving to give the module back.

“Eh, we’re guildies,” Dave said as he poured the pouch contents out on his palms. “You can give me something later that you have extra.”

Aragorn just nodded in thanks and fed his pet a module. A moment later Marieta did the same.

Dave looked at the items in his palm. I tiny pile of gold coins and a dozen gems.

“Hmm, you can store mana in these,” Dave said as he had his dragon eat the gold and gems for later retrieval.

“We don’t have anything that uses mana,” Aragorn said with a shake of his head. “Yep, she was a scammer.”

“She gave us the modules,” Marieta half-heartedly defended her.

“Only after Nat brought up how she stole his pegasus,” Aragorn said with a snort. “If he hadn’t said anything she would have just walked off and as far as anyone knows the mount was included in the exchange of useless coins.”

“True,” Dave said. Marieta nodded in agreement after a second’s thought. “Okay, I’m logging out for dinner. Do you mind giving me your contact information so we can coordinate in the mornings?”

The other two shrugged and sent him their e-mail addresses.

Taking off his helmet he grimaced as he noticed how hungry he was. Other than that, he felt great. That headset was the most comfortable VR headset ever!

Still, he stretched lazily as he walked out of the room. His dad was back from work. Sitting in his recliner he had his feet up and was shaking his head as he watched the new. Seeing Dave come in he switched to a comedy channel.

“Tired of watching all bad news, all the time,” asked Dave.

“I suppose I should be grateful that they constantly repeat the same news over and over,” his father said. “If they had enough bad news to not repeat themselves it just may be the end of the world.”

“Is mom out of her room?”

“She’s done for the day,” his father nodded. “She’s making dinner now.”

“She cooked last night, isn’t it your turn?”

“It’s actually your turn,” his father said with a grin. “But we’re tired of peanut and butter sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. You’re doing the dishes though.”

“Fair enough,” Dave nodded. He smiled triumphantly inside. He had planned on making chili tonight so take that! He meandered into the kitchen to watch his mother make dinner.

His mother was chopping vegetable for a salad when he entered. She glanced over as he came up and put too much force into the next cut. With a loud snap, the cutting board was sliced in half and the knife bent.

“Ah, darn,” his mother groaned. “Another one. That's the second this week.”

“I think the Pandemic gave you super strength,” Dave teased as his mother pushed the vegetable aside and collected the cutting board and knife for disposal.

“I think you play too many games,” she said with a smile.

“Dad, mom did it again,” Dave called out into the living room.

“Tell her it's coming out of her paycheck,” he joked back.

“What are we having tonight,” Dave asked.

“Gulash and a slightly smaller salad than I had planned,” his mother replied. He looked over to the knife drawer. Sure enough, it was empty.

“Um, how are you going to cut the meat?”

“It's already prepared,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll have your dad get another set on his way home tomorrow. I’d go myself but the company is really busy this week.”

“Well now that I have experienced the total immersion thing, I can see how being an assistant would work.”

“I was surprised,” his mother admitted. “There's no wizards or monsters in my simulation but it feels no different than being there. Especially with the holographic projection into the room at work.”

“Before you started doing that, I didn’t even know they were past the VR screen door,” Dave joked.

“I think it kind of caught everyone by surprise,” she admitted. “I blinked and the future was here. It seems I need a new skill package every weekend. It's a good thing my company invests so heavily in training. Some of the other secretaries and assistants had to change careers because of the competition from other countries.”

“At least you can train in a new career in a few weeks.”

“You think the news you hear now is bad? You should have heard the doomsayers back when we had almost thirty percent unemployment. We all thought they were right too.”

Dave sat down at the counter stool and watched her stir the stew. “I’ve been looking at careers available once I graduate.”

“Well, that's good but you do have another year,” his mother nodded in encouragement. “With how fast things change you’ll probably have to have a few weeks of skill modules no matter where you go.”

“I hear you could actually plan your career when you were growing up.”

“Well, a decade ago things were a lot slower than today, but the unemployment was higher. When they switched the school curriculum to all practical applications, all the parents flipped out,” she chuckled. “In our day you would just be learning pre-calc and not even have an idea what nanotubes were let alone make them in the school lab.”

“There still seem to be a lot of stupid people out there,” Dave said as he thought about the news.

“You can fix ignorant but there’s no curing stupid,” his mother said as she took the goulash to the table. “Tell your father that dinners ready.”

“Dad, dinners ready!” Dave shouted through the door.

“Dave! I could have done that,” scolded his mother.

“Well, why didn’t you?” teased Dave.

Dinner was lively, as usual. His father told a few anecdotes on the silly things his workmates did that day. Dave’s mom was silent about her work itself but commented about some political hot points she had run across at while at work.

“Can you believe they want to put trade sanctions up for countries competing with us for VR jobs?”

“Seems kinda too late,” his dad agreed with his mother. “Still it's your job at risk.”

“My company believes in employing locally,” she stated firmly. “Of course, our overseas offices believe the same. Thank goodness for language modules. Otherwise, I might be like those idiots out there. Still, the society's attitudes can take you by surprise.”

“Sexist?” his father put forth.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” she agreed. “I’d smack them a good one if the pain feedback wasn’t turned off. I had to report the vice president of our India office last week. Fortunately, talking to our HR office seems to have given him an attitude adjustment. He hasn’t said his... usual comments since.”

“Good thing they took care of it,” nodded Dave’s father.

“Right. Or you would have flown over there and given him a good talking to,” teased his wife.

“Yeah,” he said dejectedly. “Exactly that.”

After dinner wound down Dave washed up the dishes and headed back towards his room.