Lucas stepped through the front door of his shared apartment. His foot caught something on the floor, and he tripped, stumbling forward.

“Ah, shit!” The object in question slid across the tiles. With a grumble, he pressed a hand to a nearby wall in the entryway to steady himself.

He gazed at the cause of his rude welcome home—a large black duffle bag. The sides bulged in the middle, with the ends sagging. Lucas locked the front door, then glared at the bag. His first thought had been of the new roommate being a nuisance, but no. He knew who this belonged to. With a sigh, he walked over, leaned down, and pulled off a small folded piece of paper that was taped to the top.

“Lucas, text me when you see this!” It read once opened, hastily scrawled in pen.

Of course, his best friend, Evan, who still possessed a key to the apartment after moving out, would leave something for him to trip on right at the front door. He pushed his frustration aside and pulled out his cell phone.

“I thought your landlord fixed your washer and dryer a few days ago. Did it break down again?” The text message was sent, and he followed up with another after a few seconds. “I’m not a laundry service, ya know.”

The note was crumpled and tossed into a small trash can, then his gaze shifted back to the duffle bag. Lucas couldn’t understand why Evan would leave a bag of laundry at his front door. Why not in the laundry room? Before he could think about it further, his cell phone let out a short jingle. Pulling it up, he was met with a wall of text.

“You know the Nest VR I pre-ordered? I got two by accident! Ava has no interest in it, so it’s yours! You have no excuse not to play Galondé with me now. You should have enough time to charge it and set it up before the servers go live. Last I heard, the launch of the game was set back a few hours to five o’clock. I’ll be home and ready by then. You better be online and waiting so we can party up right away!”

There was no way Evan had typed all that up in less than twenty seconds. It must have been a saved draft. Lucas moved to the duffle to look inside, but was alerted once more.

“What? No. The machines are fine.”

Lucas pocketed his phone and unzipped the bag. A Nest VR box looked up at him. This wasn’t a joke, and the box didn’t feel empty. The proof was right there, and a quick peek inside showed it wasn’t stuffed with rocks or other filler. It made sense. Evan had been picking up extra shifts and even doing some side gigs to save up for this new VR system. The guy could easily resell it at a price equal to or greater than the market price. Instead, he’d given it to a friend for free.

This headset was the new next generation of VR that promised realistic sights and sounds, all five senses actually, which he still doubted. His best friend had been talking about it for over a year when the system was announced, but Lucas hadn’t gotten excited about it. Not only because it was expensive, but it was only launching with one game.

Galondé Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in a fantasy world, promised grand adventures and stories like most MMOs. At least, that was what he’d gathered from the last few months since the launch title for the Nest had been revealed. Evan kept him up to date on anything related to the VR system and the game whenever they played together. The VR headset sounded really cool, but only launching with a single game? Even if he could have afforded one, he would have waited for a better selection of games. That wasn’t the case now, however.

“Better get this set up, I guess.” Lucas relented while grabbing the handles of the duffle bag and heading into his bedroom. A quick glance at his alarm clock showed it was nearly three-thirty, not leaving him with a lot of spare time. He opened the box and pulled out what looked to be a motorcycle helmet, a power cord, a few sheets of paper, and an instruction booklet.

A few minutes of browsing the instructions told him that all he needed right now was to plug in the black and gray headset to let it charge and run any necessary updates. The blue-tinted visor lit up once the device was plugged in, a charging symbol appeared with the percentage of the battery life in the top right corner. Lucas double checked the booklet, then reached to the right side of the helmet and pressed the power button. A new icon of an opened book with pages flowing into it appeared.

He sent a message to Evan, letting him know the headset was being set up, then he went about his usual after-work routine. Lucas tossed his work clothes into a hamper, made a mental note to do laundry on his day off tomorrow, and went into the bathroom. A brief shower later, he dried off and dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. It was getting closer to four o’clock now. He needed to make a quick meal to give himself time to eat and finish setting up the VR headset. The last thing he wanted was to get berated by Evan for keeping him waiting.

The guy’s level of hype had been at an all-time high lately. It peaked last night in their gaming session. Evan rarely went a few minutes without mentioning the VR headset or game in some capacity, and not just to him, but to anyone they played with or against as well. Lucas chuckled to himself while heading into the kitchen, now imagining his best friend as a spokesperson for the brand new product. A dream job for the guy if there ever was one. His mind kept wandering as he put together a sandwich. His plans to make fresh pasta and use it in a dish would have to wait for another day when he had more time.

It wasn’t long before Lucas sat at his desk. He munched away at salt and vinegar chips and took the occasional bite of his turkey with brie cheese, sun dried tomatoes and pesto between two pieces of toasted sourdough bread while looking for something to watch online. A gaming video on his current favorite strategy game, Planet General, would suffice. Every few minutes he would give a glance at the headset, checking the charge but, more importantly, the update icon as he ate. The charge was less important, as it was more for mobile usage if desired, or power outages. At least, that’s something he remembered Evan talking about.

By the time he noticed the update icon was gone, he had finished his meal.

“Damn.” Lucas muttered. It was nearly four-forty and time was running short. He paused the video, sat down on his bed where the headset was resting, and placed it on his head while minding the power cord coming out the left side.

“Hello, and welcome to your Nest VR headset!”

“Whoa!” Lucas jumped, hearing a perky woman’s voice from inside the headset.

“Please secure the safety strap to continue setting up!” An image of the VR headset on a nondescript person appeared on the visor, an arrow pointed to the chin straps hanging out the front.

“Okay.” Lucas fiddled with the straps, getting them buckled together and tightened so the helmet was nice and snug. It surprised him by how lightweight it felt, plus it seemed to be breathable, not getting hot like a motorcycle helmet would.

“Great! For these next few steps, you’ll need to unplug your headset as we’ll be moving about. Do you have a full-length mirror nearby? If so, it will make the following steps go by extra quick! If not, don’t worry! We’ve equipped the Nest with all the tools necessary to continue without one!” The voice stopped, and a question appeared on the visor.

“Do you have a full-length mirror?”

There wasn't a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ prompt to tap, not that it would be very intuitive to tap on the outside of the visor when the text was being displayed on the inside.

“Uh, yes?” Lucas glanced over at his mirror hanging on the back of his bedroom door. Thankfully, the graphics on the visor were transparent and weren’t too much of a hindrance.

“Very good! Please go stand in front of it so I can continue setting up. Don’t forget to unplug the power cord.” The voice of the headset confirmed his suspicions—It took verbal commands.

After unplugging the headset and setting the cord aside, Lucas got up and stood in front of his full body mirror. The headset instructed him to turn this and that way in front of the mirror and bend down to touch the floor before telling him to sit back down and re-plug the power cable.

“Physical profile created. What’s your name?”

“Lucas.” The young man replied as he plugged the cable in. It spelled his name across the visor.

“Is this spelling correct?” Lucas confirmed it was, and the headset continued. “I need to set up the voice profile for Lucas. When you’re ready, begin by saying the alphabet. Please speak clearly and in your usual tone of voice.”

The alphabet appeared on the visor as Lucas remained silent for several seconds. He lightly shook his head, then carefully read the alphabet out loud, each letter fading away from the visor after being spoken. With that finished, the headset told him to repeat the phrases that appeared on the screen. It wasn’t until he had read out several unique phrases and sentences that the headset announced his voice profile was complete. The last step was connecting to his Wi-Fi, which took less than a minute. All he needed to do was speak out loud the password after confirming the correct router was selected.

“Headset setup is now complete! When you’re ready to start the Nest VR headset, simply close your eyes and say ‘Dive start.’ Before doing that, I would highly recommend that you get in a comfortable position, such as sitting in a reclined chair or lying down on a bed. Make sure all your limbs have proper blood flow and—” The headset continued on and on about safety procedures.

Lucas tuned out what the headset was saying as he got comfortable in his bed, lying back with his arms at his sides. By the time he was ready, the safety warnings had finished. It gave one last warning to him. It stated that he accepted the terms and conditions, that were slowly scrolling across the visor, once he booted up the headset. He couldn’t help wondering that if the VR headset wasn’t completely on now, what exactly was going to happen when he ‘dove’ in?

Thinking back on it, there were no gameplay trailers for the launch game, only cinematic videos that Evan had sent him. Not only that, but no videos of anyone actually using the headset. The video reviews of the headset or the game had only been the reviewer's initial reaction and experience. Every single one stated how real the VR experience was, a type of experience they never had before with a game, and how NDAs prevented them from going into specifics. Controllers weren’t included, which led the internet to believe the brain was the controller; a technology that no one had perfected yet.

There was one way to find out. It was only a few minutes before five o’clock now, the time displayed on the top right corner of the visor.

“Time to see what all the fuss is about.” Lucas made sure he was comfortable, then closed his eyes as the headset had instructed. Why his eyes needed to be closed, he didn’t know. “Dive start.”

Immediately, he could hear the headset whir to life. It had been nearly silent before, but no more; it was truly on now.

“Beginning Initial Dive Calibration for user Lucas.” The voice returned. “Body profile—Loaded. Voice profile—Loaded. Connecting to the host.” There was a brief pause. “Sight—OK. Hearing—OK. Taste—OK. Touch—OK. Smell—OK. Securing connection to server.”

Lucas kept still and quiet as he listened in the darkness. The things he heard were certainly odd, but not completely out of the ordinary.

“Link established. Beginning Dive.”

The sounds of the helmet slowly faded away as a bright light blinded him. “Trey, are you shining a flashlight in my face?” Lucas sat up abruptly to face his new roommate. Instead of his room, he was in a white void. Lucas looked around and saw nothing, then carefully stood up amongst all the nothingness.

“Wait!” His hands went to his head. The Nest VR wasn’t there. Before he could ponder or panic, a scene formed.

Within seconds, the white void faded away, and in its place, a room appeared around him. It was a room of a log cabin. There was a simple bed in one corner, a nightstand, a dresser, a closed door, a full-length mirror and even a window looking out into a green pasture. Knick knacks and items laid about the room on shelves, a small table, and other surfaces. It looked like a proper room that someone was living in.

Lucas gawked at the room that had appeared before him from nothing. He moved over to the window and looked out, not recognizing anything outside. There was nothing but a few trees, an extensive field with the occasional flower and the gigantic mountains out in the distance. The reflection in the corner of his vision drew him over to the full body mirror. His confused face looked back at him. This was certainly him. He was even wearing the same clothes. Short black curly hair, relatively pale complexion from never going outside, and even the definition of his arms and legs from the occasional workout, it was all there.

“Wait—” He leaned in closer to get a better look at his face. Something was off. Was it his thick eyebrows? No. His eyes looked normal, as well as his nose and mouth.

“Huh?” Lucas’ gaze focused down on his beard. It was perfectly trimmed, groomed and the light stubble of his mustache wasn’t there even though he hadn’t shaved in a few days.

Ding.

Lucas turned around, a lightbulb installed in the ceiling above the door he hadn’t noticed before was lit up, emitting a green light.

“Okay then.” A brief glance around the room showed that nothing else had changed or been missed. He walked over and tried the door handle, but it didn’t budge. Text appeared on the door, or rather, hovered a few inches in front of it.

Connected to Galondé Online…

Create a character before proceeding.

A white, three-dimensional arrow appeared in his field of view. Following it with his eyes caused the arrow to move through the air, then point down at the mirror, slowly bobbing up and down.

“This is—weird.” Lucas glanced at the text on the door, then moved over to the mirror. It was different now, not only showing his reflection. There were different options and settings along the left and right sides. As a guy that played video games nearly every day, he quickly knew that these were character customization options.

“I’m—playing the game?” He had to spend a few moments processing the only logical answer. “Those reviews weren’t joking about it being so—real.” He reached forward and touched the mirror. There was a sensation, the feeling of touch. He could feel himself touching it, cool and smooth. A quick walk over to the bed revealed it, too, felt real as he ran his hand across the sheets and blanket. They felt just like how he would expect them to.

“This is pretty wild.” He stood back in front of the mirror. “So does that mean—” Lucas began tapping at the options on the mirror, using it like a touch screen to select a different hair color. Immediately, his reflection changed, his black curly hair now a bright red. Within a few minutes, he had completely changed his hairstyle, eye and skin color, and facial features. So much so that a completely different person was looking back at him, copying his every movement and expression.

“Yeah, now it’s weird again.” Lucas selected to change the appearance back to default, normal reflection looking back at him once more. He noticed that there weren’t options to change gender, or any to make him look younger or older. There were still other options he hadn’t messed with yet, such as height, body mass, and musculature, but the one that grabbed his attention was marked ‘race’. Tapping it made a drop-down list of fantasy races appear. Selecting the Elven race caused him to remain nearly the same, except for bigger and pointier ears and a slightly slimmer build.

Being an Elf wasn’t his kind of thing, leading him to try out the beastman races. There were the feline, canine and rabbit variants for this race. The only changes it made were to the ears, removing the human ears and replacing it with the animal variant to the top of the head. That, and the addition of a tail. Seeing the tail in his reflection made him look behind himself, but there was nothing there. These changes were only happening in the mirror’s reflection. This race wasn’t for him either.

The Kobold grabbed his interest, a small lizard man kind of race. His reflection was smaller now and looking at the height options revealed that this race couldn’t be taller than five feet. “Eh, maybe not.” Lucas moved on to the Orc race, his height getting boosted up a few inches. He had to look up to see the orc’s face now, but the reflection of himself as an Orc was also looking up, still mimicking his movements. A quick change of the height remedied this issue and also revealed the Orc race couldn’t be shorter than 5’11”.

“Must be a coincidence.” He reasoned, as his actual height was the same. Lucas shrugged it off, now able to see himself properly as a bulky green Orc with tusks. They were naturally more muscular, which tracked for the typical portrayal of Orcs.

“Draconian?” He read out as his attention shifted from his Orc reflection to the last race listed. That sounded interesting, and he might as well try all the races out.

“Whoa.” Lucas’s reflection had changed to that of a dragon, or rather, a humanoid version of a dragon, minus the wings. This one reminded him of the Kobold. Not only because they were both covered in scales, but the features of his human face had completely gone away save for his eyes, still as blue as ever. The Elf and beastman races kept his face nearly the same. Even the Orc mostly looked like him. This was different. It was like looking at a fantasy creature come to life. He had decided. This was the race he wanted to be.

The red scaled dragon that was his reflection, quickly went through many changes as Lucas went through all the different options. It took him several minutes to settle on the look he liked the most. His reflection had become a 6’2” dragon with a toned body, thicker and bigger purple scales covering the back of the hands, arms, shoulders, head, tail and back, and the front of his legs. The scales grew smaller and lighter to an off-white purple as they moved inwards to the underside of the muzzle, tail and arms, front of the chest and down the back of his legs. He had only opted for two small horns that spiraled out the top of the head, and decided having thin, pointed ears was a nicer look than no ears at all.

“Not bad at all.” Lucas said as he admired the Draconian reflection. “That should do.” He went down the options list and tapped the ‘save’ option, confirming he was done and ready to go. The Draconian remained in the reflection, his casual clothing looking odd on the mystical creature, as a new prompt appeared in the mirror over the reflection.

Please input a username. It must be at least four characters long and cannot contain personal information.

“Shit.” Lucas sighed, staring down at the on-screen keyboard below the username prompt. He was never good at picking usernames. The ones he wanted had always been taken, so he would have to add X’s and numbers, or replace letters with appropriate numbers.

“The game just launched, I can still snag a unique username!” He quickly began trying out different usernames.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, they were all taken. At least until he landed on one that wasn’t taken.

“Art of War it is then.” Lucas smiled as he promptly accepted the name, not wanting to risk someone else snatching it up. He’d have to remember to add Evan once he was inside, since his friend always used the same unique username in every game and Lucas was going to be rocking a different one. With that done, the bobbing arrow above him he had been ignoring stopped and flew over to bob up and down above the door.

The new movement above Lucas had caught his eye. “Finally!” He turned and made his way over to the door. The text hovering over the door had changed slightly.

Connected to Galondé Online…

Character ‘Art of War’ selected. Proceed to log in.

The door was no longer locked; it swung open easily. Through the doorway, he did not see the rest of the log cabin; the door opened up to a white void full of people. Lucas popped his head out and looked around. Doors were popping into existence for people to step out of them, then the doors promptly fizzled away. After a moment, Lucas copied what he was seeing the other people doing. He stepped out of the room and looked back as the door closed and fizzled away into nothing. More and more people appeared. It must have been hundreds, if not a few thousand, people.

“What is this, the lobby to wait in as everyone tries to load into the game?” A nearby male voice said. Lucas looked to his right to see a guy around his age standing a few feet away, a door fizzling away behind him.

“They could’ve given us something to do while we waited or something.”

Lucas noticed the tanned guy was similarly dressed as him, shorts and a T-shirt. “You think we’re in a waiting room?” He met the stranger’s eyes.

“I don’t know what else this would be. Some of the multiplayer games I’ve played in VR give you toys, objects and mini-games to play with when waiting to join a game. In VR you can’t look at your phone or watch TV while waiting, and you don’t want players getting bored and leaving.”

Lucas gave a nod of his head, looking around at the people still appearing in the void. Everyone was dressed casually, if not more casually, such as sleepwear and pajamas. The only semblance of the floor was the shadows of everyone being cast straight down.

“I guess so. I’ve never messed around with VR much.”

“Dude, seriously? VR is amazing!” The guy turned to face Lucas. “I mean, just look at this! The Nest is crazy realistic. I mean, I can hear you talking, which is just—So cool! I’m pretty sure we’re not even actually talking IRL right now. The headset collected voice samples so it could produce our voices with a program or whatever.” His eyes looked off in thought for a few seconds. “I don’t know the specifics. I’ve seen videos of people using software or something to make people say things they hadn’t said, with just a few recorded sentences. It’s wild.”

Lucas had a bewildered look. “I hadn’t even thought about that.”

“Yeah, dude! It seems a lot of the theories I read online were pretty right about all this. The headset must read our mind, that’s how we move and talk, and somehow it signals back to our mind so we can feel and hear what’s going on around us.” He shook his head. “This is just—So much better than I could have expected!”