“Let the Force flow through you,” Darien said calmly as I missed another sword strike at the hissing Horngrin Ravager in front of me. I swung out again, stabbing my blade forward at the green monster’s chest—or at least that’s where I was aiming.

The Call of Carrethen.

The world’s first fully immersive, virtual reality MMORPG, made possible with the Wellspring interface, a device that allowed a person’s entire consciousness to be projected from their physical body into an in-game body that they could control.

When it had first been announced, none of us believed it. Actual, virtual reality? No way! But then more and more reports started coming out and we soon learned that this was the real deal.

We’d all expected some flimsy, cumbersome helmet interface like those old “virtual reality” headsets that were basically just a screen hanging in front of your eyes, or something with electrodes like an EEG. But what we got was something completely different.

The Wellspring interface was a simple glowing sphere about the size of a grapefruit, with a single wire that wrapped gently around your wrist—sort of like that thing from Inception that you really never knew how it worked, but it did, and that’s all that mattered. D had, of course, made it into the Closed Beta and been playing for weeks, sending me messages about just how incredible it was. I, on the other hand, had to wait until the release date like everybody else.

I’d entered a prerelease contest to win a Wellspring device and a copy of the game. I never thought I’d win. I’d never won anything in my whole life, but one day my mom had called out that a package had arrived for me. When I saw what it was, I couldn’t believe it.

I tore open the cardboard box to discover a small case of white metal with nothing but the Wellspring logo and a single latch on one side. It had been made with obvious care and precision, and my heart started to race as I looked at it.

Is this really happening? I’d thought as the latch clicked and I pulled the case open.

Inside, was a Wellspring device, sandwiched between two layers of egg crate foam, with a small card sitting on top of it: Congratulations on being the winner of the Wellspring Launch Contest! We hope you enjoy your journeys.

I snapped a picture of it on my phone and messaged it to D and then got to work setting it up. It was simple enough. A simple power cord and a small lead with a bracelet that slipped around your wrist. I lay down on my bed, slipped the bracelet on, thumbed the activation button on the sphere and closed my eyes.

The sound of rushing water filled my ears as I found myself hurtling through a twisting purple-blue portal that swirled around me like an enormous electrical coil. Then, the game world began to come into view as pieces of the portal peeled away. My feet hit the ground, and I found myself in another world.

The world of Carrethen.

“You really going to let this thing kill you, Jack?” D shouted as I missed a block and the Horngrin’s mace struck me in the ribs. “He’s only level 5.”

“I’m only level 2!” I shouted back indignantly as I activated Broad Strike. It was one of my sword abilities that could be activated every 6 seconds and dealt an additional 15 percent damage to a normal blow. This time, it actually connected, but the Horngrin’s health was well past half. I wasn’t going to win this fight unless D stepped into save me.

D was well ahead of me, like always, and was already level 7. He’d been helping me level, stepping in to finish off a monster when it looked like it was about to get the best of me, but that meant I only got a fraction of the experience that I would have gotten if I’d dealt all the damage myself.

“I’m going to die!” I shouted.

“It happens.” D chuckled.

“Is it weird?”

“What, dying?” he asked.

“Yeah!” I shouted back, lashing out with my sword to block the Horngrin’s mace. I stabbed back and actually landed a blow. The Horngrin leapt back squealing. It was incredible how real everything felt.

An exciting game could always give you a nice shot of adrenaline, get your heart racing and your blood pressure up, but actually being in a game like this was a whole different experience. I felt like Neo in The Matrix when he’s first fighting Morpheus.

“It’s not as weird as you’d think.” D chuckled as the Horngrin prepared its next attack. “You’ll see.”

The Horngrin leapt towards me, its mace held high above its head as it hurtled through the air. I brought my sword up in a desperate attempt to block the blow, but I wasn’t used to the game yet and I was too slow.

The mace easily knocked my sword aside and hit me right in the chest. The attack registered as a critical hit and I watched as the remaining sliver of my HP drained away. Before I could react, the entire world went white.